This is a trustworthy saying, worthy of full acceptance.This saying is faithful and worthy of all acceptance.This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation.
10 sermons cite this verse
… same thing in verse 14. And in the same way—and I'll just get ahead of this one as well—the question of, this is a trustworthy saying. Is he referring to the following verse, or is he referring to the previous verse? Once again, if you're going to expound this passage, don't get diverted by that. And since I don't want to, I'm calling myself to account before I even get there. All right. So, the good servant of Jesus Christ is doing what? First of all, he's putting these things before the church family. Secondly, he himself is being trained or nourished in the good doctrine. Trained and nourished in the good doctrine. Remember when he writes to Timothy in the second letter, he says, Timothy, continue in the things that you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing those from whom you learned them and how from infancy you were aware of the fact that they're able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. And here he is now as the servant of God in the community of God's people, and we mustn't miss this. Timothy, the pastor, is being personally nourished in and with the word that he proclaims. In other words, his ability in public is tied to his private engagement. What we are before our congregation is nothing other than the reality of what we are in the privacy of our study, in the privacy of our bedroom, in our cars as we drive through the community. Private engagement giving rise to …
And you, poor fallen woman, wherever you may be, though nobody gives you a good word and though all pass by you in the streets for very shame, there is one who binds up even harlots' broken hearts and has mercy upon them! Therefore be not driven utterly to despair. Above all, do not lay violent hands upon yourself, for I am sent as a messenger from God to declare to you that Christ heals the broken in heart and binds up their wounds! O sons of misery, you need not be any longer in misery! Your sins are the roots of your sorrows, so if you do but go to Jesus to have your sins forgiven, your sorrows will quickly vanish! There will still be burdens for you to bear, but if you are forgiven they will sit lightly upon your shoulders and then turn to wings which will help you to mount to your God! Even though you have made a covenant with death, and a league with Hell, the Lord says, "Your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with Hell shall not stand." Though you are in Giant Despair's deepest dungeon, Jesus will cut the bars of iron in sunder and set the prisoners at liberty! Only believe in Him, the Son of Man, your Brother and yet the Son of the Highest. Fall at His feet, for they were pierced for you! Look up to His almighty hands, for they were once nailed to the Cross for you! Bring your poor broken heart to the heart that was once pierced by the soldier's spear and find sweetest rest in Jesus! I know what despair means. I knew something of its bitterness in my early days, when I was under conviction of sin, but since the day when I saw the star of Bethlehem amidst the black darkness and tempest of my soul, and especially since I looked to the Christ of Calvary, all has been well with me! So I say to you poor waifs and strays upon the dark and stormy sea of life, look up, for there shines "the bright and morning Star." "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," even the very chief of them! Look to Him, poor storm-tossed mariner, and He will guide you safely to the Port of Peace. God bless you, for Jesus' sake! Amen.
Yet listen to me, Backslider, this terrible sentence has not yet been pronounced on you. The voice of God still cries to you, "Draw near unto Me." Where are you flying, my Brother? Are you seeking to escape from God's righteous judgments? That is impossible, for His thunderbolts will soon overtake you and seal your eternal doom! Run not away from Him, but draw near to Him! Cast down your weapons of rebellion and fall prostrate before Him, seeking the forgiveness which He is willing and waiting to bestow upon you. Let me take you by the hand and try to encourage you to come near to the Lord this very moment. Do you ask, "How can I come near to Him?" Come just as you came to Him at the first! Perhaps you reply, "But I never really came to Him aright." Then come to Him aright right now! I came to Him as a sinner and He gave me a hearty welcome—and He will receive you just as graciously if you only come to Him with wholehearted repentance for your sin and true faith in Jesus Christ as your only Savior! But here is one who did run well, yet she has been hindered. Backsliding woman, remember that your God is married to you and that He bids you return to Him! Backsliding man, you have turned aside from your God, yet He still loves you and cries out to you, "Return, return, return!" The Lord still says, as He did in Jeremiah's day, "Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings." Oh, that you would reply even as they did—"Behold, we come unto You, for You are the Lord our God"! I am sure that you are not happy in your present condition. On the contrary, you are as sad and miserable as you can possibly be. This very House of Prayer reminds you of your former privileges and joys, of the days when you delighted in God and felt that you were, indeed, on your way to Heaven. You cannot be content to live in the far country among the swine that are not fit companions for you! Leave the husks to the pigs—they can never satisfy your hunger! Come back to your Father, poor prodigal! Though your clothes are in rags, though you are steeped in filth, though you have sinned most grievously, come back to your Father and He will receive you with open arms and open heart! I will not act towards you as the elder brother did to the prodigal, but I will welcome you as a Brother if you are, indeed, a Brother. But if you are not a Brother, you are a sinner—and "this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," even the very chief! So, "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." Put your soul's affairs into His hands! ask Him to be your Advocate to plead your cause before the King! He never yet lost a case that was entrusted to Him—and He will not lose yours! …
Simply to Your Cross I cling"— or else a man must be lost! For it is no use his trusting partly in works, and partly to the Savior. You must feel, "I am quite stripped of everything." I love to find those who have not got anything good at all about them. Some like to find something good in men before they preach to them, but I like to find men who think there is nothing good in them—and then to preach God's Sovereign Mercy to them. You who have any good of your own, throw it away! You who have nothing, come to Christ! I advise you who think you are good, not to say you are so when you are before God. If you were in a hospital and needed to be attended to, what would you do? Would you write over your bed, or tell your doctor you were not so bad, after all? You would be rather inclined to appear worse than you really were! See if you can describe yourself worse than you really are. You may say, "That is wicked advice." No, it is not, because I am quite sure you cannot do it. Go and write bad characters against yourselves tonight. I speak to you who know this is true—not to you who are deceiving yourselves with your own righteousness. You who now feel your need of a Savior, exaggerate that feeling before God, if it is possible. He who felt himself the most guilty of all sinners said, "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." …
"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." 1 Timothy 1:15. [Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon, upon the same text, are as follows—Sermon #184, Volume 4—THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL; #1345, Volume 23—FOR WHOM IS THE GOSPEL MEANT?; #1416, Volume 24—THE FAITHFUL SAYING; #1837, Volume 31—A GREAT GOSPEL FOR GREAT SINNERS and #2300, Volume 39—THE WHOLE GOSPEL IN A SINGLE VERSE] YOU will observe that Paul wrote this verse immediately after he had given a little outline of his own personal history. He had, he said, been "a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious." And then he added this priceless Gospel verse, as if he inferred it from God's Grace to him, as well as received it by Inspiration, "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." It was an experimental text, then, one which the Apostle fetched out of the deeps of his own soul, as divers bring pearls from the ocean bed. He dipped his pen into his own heart when he wrote these words. No preaching or teaching can equal that which is experimental. If we would impress the Gospel upon others, we must have first received it ourselves. Vainly do you attempt to guide a child in the pathway which you have never trodden, or to speak to adults of benefits of Divine Grace which you have never enjoyed. Happy is that preacher who can truly say he speaks what he does know and testifies what he has seen. …
"None but Jesus Can do helpless sinners good!" We bid you not to trust in forms and ceremonies, but to look alone to Jesus Christ and Him Crucified, so that it cannot be for lack of plainness that the Gospel is not understood! And again, it cannot be because of any obscurity in the Gospel, itself. I will venture to say that there is no proposition in the world more simple than the one which the Gospel sets before us. The formula, "Twice two are four," is so simple that a child's mind can understand it. And the degree of intellect which can comprehend is sufficient—so far a intellect is concerned—to comprehend Paul's declaration, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Or John's, "He that believes on the Son has everlasting life." To trust Jesus Christ, as far as it is an intellectual act, is a matter that does not require the slightest education—there is no need to sit down and calculate. Here is Jesus Christ standing in the sinner's place. God punished the sinner's guilt upon Christ instead of upon the sinner—all that the sinner is bidden to do is to trust Christ to save him—and, as soon as he does that, he is saved! What could be simpler than that? I grant you that as the Gospel is sometimes preached, there is obscurity in it, but there is no obscurity in the Gospel, itself! Well then, if it so, and it is, why is it that the Gospel is hidden from some people? And the answer is that "the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who believe not." Let us see how this is. …
Grace. His choice of men was never guided by anything good that He saw in them! As says the Apostle Paul, "For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calls." The decree still stands, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion upon whom I will have compassion." The Lord of Grace asks in His Sovereignty, "Shall I not do as I will with My own?" God views all men as guilty and, finding them guilty, He yet chooses unto Himself a people in whom His Grace shall be resplendent! Therefore do not conclude that He will pass you by because you are poor and needy. Moreover, the redemption of Christ obviously views us as fallen and guilty. Did He lay down His life to redeem those who were not captives? Did He pour out His blood to cleanse those who were already clean? If we had not needed a great salvation, would the Darling of Heaven have stooped to the death of the Cross that we might be saved? They who think that sinners cannot be saved, or that men can be saved by any other means than by true faith in Jesus, make a superfluity of the death of Christ—and this is a blasphemy atrocious to the last degree! "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly." "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save"— the righteous?—oh no, but, "to save sinners, even the chief." Stagger not at the Grace of God to your own hurt but say, "Though I am spiritually poor and needy, yet the Lord thinks upon me." …
This peace is proclaimed to all men. It is proclaimed without exception." Whosoever believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved." None are excluded hence but those who do themselves exclude. Such an ambassador bringing such a message must surely be a welcome messenger from his God. Let us ask now, What is:— II. THE COMMISSION OF PEACE which God has entrusted us to proclaim? The words are concise, the sense is transparent." To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespass unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. "Let us open the commission. It lies in a nutshell." Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, but had rather that he should turn unto me and live." "Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as wool, though they be red like crimson they shall be whiter than snow. Our commission begins with the announcement that God is love, that he is full of pity and compassion, that he is desirous to receive his creature back, that he willeth to forgive, and that he electeth, if it be consistent with the high attribute of his justice, to accept even the most rebellious, and to put them amongst his children. Our commission goes on to disclose the manner, as well as the motive, of mercy. Inasmuch as God is love, he, in order to remove all difficulties in the way of pardoning rebels, has been pleased to give his only begotten Son that he might stand in the room, place, and stead of those whom God has chosen; their sins he engaged to take; to carry their sorrows, and to make an atonement on their behalf. Thus the justice of God should be satisfied, and his love flow over to the human race. We declare, therefore, that God has given Christ, and he has made it a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that he came into the world to save sinners, even the very chief. Christ, the Son of God, has become man. Cheerfully and willingly he took upon himself our nature; veiled the form of Deity in a humble garb of clay; was born of the Virgin Mary, lived a life of holiness, and died a death of sacrifice. Through this marvellous death of the Man, the God, Christ Jesus, God is at peace with his people. The peace is made already, for he is our peace. God is at peace with every man for whom Jesus died. Jesus Christ stood in the room, place, and steed of his chosen people. Christ was punished for their sins. Justice cannot punish twice for one offense. Christ, the substitute, being punished, the sinner cannot be amenable for his own offences. Those for whom Jesus died go free. The proclamation is that God is willing to be reconciled, that he is reconciled. It is an announcement, not that you may have peace merely, but that peace is made with God by Jesus Christ for you—full peace, without condition, not half-made, but wholly made; the penalty being completely paid to the last doit, and the sacrifice completely slaughtered till the last drop of blood had expiated the last offence. …
"Who gave himself for us."—Titus 2:14. WE have once more, you see, the old subject. We still have to tell the story of the love of God towards man in the person of his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. When you come to your table you find a variety there. Sometimes there is one dish upon it, and sometimes another; but you are never at all surprised to find the bread there every time, and, perhaps, we might add that there would be a deficiency if there were not salt there every time too. So there are certain truths which cannot be repeated too often, and especially is this true of this master-truth, that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." Why, this is the bread of life; "God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life." This is the salt upon the table, and must never be forgotten, This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, "that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, even the chief." Now we shall take the text, and use it thus: first of all we shall ask it some questions; then we shall surround it with a setting of facts; and when we have done that, we will endeavour to press out of it its very soul as we draw certain inferences from it. First then:— I. WE WILL PUT THE TEXT INTO THE WITNESS-BOX, AND ASK IT A FEW QUESTIONS. …
But, dear Friends, you may suppose that as sincere repentance always leads to great searching of heart, it cannot be blessed—yet it really is so. Repentance, as we have already said, is a sweet Grace. You remember that the prodigal shed his tears, his best tears, in his father's bosom, when he put his face, as it were, close to his father's heart, and sobbed out, "Father, I have sinned!" Oh, what a place for repentance is the bosom of God, with His love shed abroad in the heart, making you contrite and moving you to say, "How could I have sinned against so good a God? How could I be an enemy to One who is so full of Grace? How could I run away and spend my substance with harlots, when here was my Father's deep care for my welfare? How could I choose their base love, when a love so pure, so true, so constant, was waiting for me?" Oh, it is a holy sorrow that has a clear life ensuing and I tell you that, however deep your repentance may be, it shall not stand in the way of your being blessed, but shall even prove to be one contributory stream to the blessedness of your experience! Does the memory of your sins haunt you, and do you feel that you shall always hang your head as one whom pardon could not purge? Not thus did the Apostle Paul reflect on his many sins. Though he bewailed the wickedness of his heart, and was ashamed of the evil he had done, yet his humility after he was converted took the form of gratitude, cheering his very soul with the most lively impulse! While confessing that he was the very chief of sinners, at the same time and in the same breath he said, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Conscious of his own infirmities, he could exclaim, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Yet, confident of his full redemption, he could add, "I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Moreover, hurling defiance at all his accusers, he asks, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" No bolder or more triumphant champion of Divine Grace than that Apostle who was before a blasphemer, a persecutor and injurious—but now rejoices to bear record, "I obtained mercy that, in me, Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering as a pattern to them who should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting." What? Though your past offenses are ever so rank, and your present shame should sting you with ever so much poignant sorrow, yet with thrills of bliss you shall prove the full blessedness of the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! …