Hope for the Worst of Us

1 Timothy chapter 1 verses 15 and 16. That's

1 Timothy 1:15

in the New Testament. That's going to be toward

the back of your Bible. If you find one book

that starts with a T, you're close. All the T

books are right there together. 1 Timothy chapter

1 Timothy 1:15

1 verses 15 and 16. And if you want to, you can

flip over to Romans chapter 7 and put you a finger

Romans 7 · chapter mention

in Romans chapter 7. Some of you say, oh my,

Romans 7 · chapter mention

two passages. We're going to be here twice as

long. I might surprise you. We might be out quicker

than you think. 1 Timothy chapter 1, and you

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

can stick a finger in Romans chapter 7. Both

Romans 7 · chapter mention

of these books are written by the Apostle Paul.

We'll read 1 Timothy chapter 1, 15 and 16, then

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

we'll pray and get started. This saying is trustworthy

and deserving of full acceptance. Christ Jesus

came into the world to save sinners, and I am

the worst of them. But I received mercy for this

reason, so that in me, the worst of them, Christ

Jesus might demonstrate his extraordinary patience

as an example to those who would believe in him

for eternal life. Let's pray. God, we thank you

for this beautiful word today and the hope that

comes with it. God, I pray that... You'd meet

us where we are today, God. You know our hearts.

You know the sins that we fall into. You know

the evils that we commit, dear Lord. And those

things are not good. And you're not okay with

those things, and we should not be okay with

those things, dear Lord. But even in the midst

of those things in our life, dear Lord, the nastiness,

we thank you that you love us and that you're

patient with us. God, not that we would continue

in those ways, but that we would repent of those

sins. So God, I pray today that as we look at

these words of the Apostle Paul, that we would

know that there is hope for us today. I pray

that you would hide me behind the cross, that

I would preach and teach in a way that brings

glory and honor to you, God, that people don't...

See me, but that they see you, dear Lord. There's

no good word I can say that will do anything

if it does not come from you. So may your word

be glorified today. And I ask these things in

Jesus' name. Amen. This is one of my favorite

passages of Scripture. Now, we hold the Apostle

Paul in pretty high regard. You know, he's a

pretty big guy in the New Testament. He wrote

a large portion of the New Testament and did

great works for the kingdom of God. He would

go on his missionary journeys and he would go

to all these different places. And he was a man

who was about the work of God and suffered great

persecution and imprisonment and just really

suffered in great ways to do the work of Jesus

Christ. But Paul was not always... so zealous

for God, at least not in the right way. He was

a pretty zealous man for God, or so he thought

he was, but really all Paul was was a religious

man. He was not a righteous man. Now we want

to make sure that we understand that there is

a difference between being religious and being

righteous. Religion is going to church. Religion

is maybe reciting some prayer. Religion is maybe

being involved in some ministry, and religion

maybe is just putting some money in the offering

plate. And the righteous do those things as well.

The righteous person does gather with other believers.

The righteous person does read their Bible. The

righteous person does pray. The righteous person

does give to the causes of the Lord to serve

the kingdom of God. The righteous person does

those things. But the difference is the righteous

person seeks first the kingdom of God and does

those things for God and desires to live for

God and to serve God and to follow Jesus Christ.

And there are many religious people that really

haven't grasped the word of God and they are

happy in their religion. And they feel secure

in their religion. They say, okay, well I come

to church occasionally and I do put some money

in the plate and I do pray sometimes and that

ought to be good enough. But religion is not

good enough. Because our problem is not just

that God wants us to come to church a little

bit and that's enough. Our real problem is our

sin. And so our religion cannot atone for our

sin. Now, there are a lot of religious people

who have walked the face of this earth. And they

have done a lot of religious things. And on the

outside, they really look the part. They really

look like that they are people who are serving

God. But the problem is, and we need to get this,

the problem is that God doesn't look at what's

on the outside. He looks at what's on the inside.

And that's the problem with the Apostle Paul

and maybe some of us here today or some who are

watching online. The problem is sometimes we

just fall into the cycle of religion. And we

think that that's going to be enough. And we

have some knowledge of God, but we really don't

know God fully. We know the Word of God, but

we really don't understand or comprehend the

Word of God. And we get so caught up in our religion

that we go through all of the, check all the

right boxes without ever really knowing and trusting

and living for God. Now the apostle Paul, he

was a pretty zealous man for God. There wouldn't

have been people that would have known more about

the word of God, the law of God, than Paul. He

would have knew the scripture, what we call the

Old Testament. Paul would have knew that very

well. He would have been able to say the best

prayers probably, and he would have been the

one who would have been meeting in the synagogue,

and Paul would have been right there. Because

in his mind, he was a godly man. But he really

wasn't. He really wasn't a godly man at all.

He was a religious man, but he had missed the

truth of God's word. Now, Paul is not alone.

We're not just picking on Paul here. There were

a lot of people. in the New Testament. And these

are the ones that we see that are approaching

Jesus pretty regularly. So Jesus will go out

and he'll do some great work. He'll perform some

miracle. He'll feed thousands of people with

a couple of fish and a few loaves of bread. And

he'll raise people from the dead. And he'll cause

the blind to see and the deaf to hear. And Jesus

would do all these things. And there were some

that would say, whoa, this guy, there's something

about this guy. But then there would be others

who would come and challenge him. Pharisees,

Sadducees, Scribes, experts in the law. These

are the terms that we see that describe these

people. And these people, Pharisees, Sadducees,

all these types of people, they were very religious.

They really would have known the word of God.

But they weren't really living the word of God.

They didn't understand. The real significance

of putting God first and loving one another.

Their satisfaction and their security came in

the fact that they were holier than thou. So

they didn't associate with the sinners and the

tax collectors and all the really evil people

because they were holier than thou. And that's

why Jesus is so phenomenal. Because he comes

onto the scene and instantly in the Sermon on

the Mount he begins to teach. And he begins to

say, you have heard it said. And he'll quote

some Old Testament passage. And what he'll do

is, is he'll say, but here's what it really means.

You have heard it said, do this or don't do that

or whatever, whatever. But here's the heart,

the real heart of the passage. Here's what God

really wants you to do. He really wants you to

love him and he really wants you to love your

neighbor. These are the things that really matter.

And there were a lot of religious people who

really knew the scripture but didn't understand

the heart of what God really wanted. And so they

were religious but their heart was in the wrong

place. And so these people constantly attack

Jesus. All the time they're attacking Jesus.

And ultimately they nail him to the cross. And

Paul was part of this group of people. We look

at Paul and we celebrate Paul but... We have

to realize that Paul had a past. And it was not

a good past. I mean, by all accounts, the people

who looked at Paul would have said, hey, Paul

is a godly man. But his heart wasn't right. And

so Paul, you know, Christianity is beginning

to take off. Jesus Christ had come. He had preached

that the kingdom of God had come near. He had

taught the people, he had led the people in the

right way, and some followed him, and he had

poured into his apostles, and they were going

to continue on the work after Jesus left, and

Jesus was crucified, and he was resurrected,

and he came back to his apostles, and he said,

look, all authority has been given to me. I'm

the one who is in control, and therefore you

need to go out, and you need to point people

toward me, and he sends his apostles out to do

the work, and do the work they did. And we know

that because here in 2025, look at all these

people who are gathered to hear the word of God

and to rejoice in Jesus Christ. Not just in this

church, but churches all around this county and

all around this state and all around the world.

And so the gospel was spread and the apostles

and the early Christians were successful in what

they were doing. And the kingdom of God continued

to grow. And it will continue to grow. It will

not stop. I can guarantee you, I can say that

with 100 % certainty today, that so long as there

are people on planet Earth or Mars or wherever

people may end up inhabiting, as long as there

are people, the kingdom of God will continue

to grow. The gospel will not stop. It will not

stop. No matter how many enemies there are of

the gospel of Jesus Christ, it will not stop.

Paul was one of those enemies of the gospel of

Jesus Christ. And we see in the scripture that

Paul was helping to gather up Christians so that

they could be persecuted. Now, we're not told

that Paul ever persecuted any by his own hand.

He may or may not have. But regardless of whether

Paul actually took someone's life, He's guilty

of it because he turned to men knowing what was

going to take place. And so Paul is what he thinks

he's doing the Lord's work. Because he's a super

religious guy. And then all of a sudden Paul's

life is changed. Because he encounters Jesus.

And that's the difference between being religious

and being righteous. It takes an encounter with

Jesus. There are a lot of people that go to church

their whole life and they're very religious.

They can quote some scripture. And then one day,

the Holy Spirit begins to convict them and work

on their heart. And the Word of God, they begin

to read it. And God begins to really work on

them. And they realize that Jesus Christ is the

Son of God. And they encounter Jesus and it changes

their life. And they're not just a religious

person on a pew. They are a righteous person.

And they are made righteous through Jesus Christ,

through his sacrifice, through his blood, through

his crucifixion, and through his resurrection.

And that's exactly what happened to Paul. We

don't come to Jesus Christ without an encounter

with Jesus Christ. So one day Paul, thinking

he's doing the Lord's work, he's going down the

road and Jesus Christ comes and he appears to

him and he says, why are you persecuting me?

Holy smokes. Paul goes blind, but instantly his

eyes are open. Spiritual eyes, that is. Instantly

he realizes. The very gospel he was trying to

squash, he realizes it's the truth. He realizes

that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That he

is the Messiah. And all of the energy and effort

Paul had been pouring out was to try to quiet

this movement. And now all of a sudden he encounters

Jesus Christ. And as bad as his past was, Jesus

Christ says, I'm going to use you, Paul. His

life is changed through Jesus Christ. And then

we see in 1 Timothy chapter 1. Verse 15. He says,

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

this saying is trustworthy and deserving of full

acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world

to save sinners and I am the worst of them. Some

of your translations may say, and I am the chief

of these. I am the chief among sinners. Of all

the sinners in the world, I am the leader of

them. I am such a great sinner and I have sinned

in such great ways against God that I am the

chief among all sinners. I am the worst of the

worst of the worst. But good news, he says. Good

news. Jesus Christ came into the world to save

sinners. Now we see that all throughout the scriptures.

And that's good news for you and I today. And

do you know why? Because we're all sinners. Every

one of us is sin. And some of us in some ways

that are just so horrendous. You don't even want

to think about it. It's things that are so bad

that you are so ashamed of and maybe even living

in right now that you wish that you were not

and things that you know are horrible and sinful

and against the word of God and the commands

of God and the desires of God and we get into

this state of despair because our sin just crushes

us. It just eats us up. And we come on Sundays

and maybe we sit on a pew and we say, Man, I

know God is good. I know Jesus Christ is good.

But I am so bad. I am so horrible. I am such

a sinner. And I don't know what to do. Paul was

in the same boat as you. He was the worst of

them. He was the chief among sinners. And maybe

some of us today would say, yeah, I'll give Paul

a run for his money. Maybe I'll knock him out

of that seat of chief. And maybe we would. But

praise the Lord, Paul says, Jesus Christ came

to save sinners. What a beautiful truth. What

a beautiful truth. That's why we are here today.

Because if Jesus Christ had not have come to

save sinners, we'd all be walking around in despair,

hopeless. But praise the Lord, Jesus Christ came

to save sinners. And you may say to yourself,

I'm too far gone. Well, hold up. Maybe you're

not. Maybe you say to yourself, well, yeah, God

could use Paul, but he couldn't use me. Well,

I want to encourage you to read the Word of God.

Because when we begin to read the word of God,

we begin to see that God uses some pretty questionable

people. Anybody in here ever heard of Moses?

Pretty popular guy. You know what Moses did one

day? He murdered a man. Killed a man. Anybody

in here ever heard of Noah? Probably so if you've

ever been to Sunday school as a kid. If you hadn't

heard of Noah, he was a righteous guy. And his

family was righteous. They were the only righteous

people on the whole planet. The rest of the planet

was evil. And all they thought about evil was

all the time. You say, wait a minute, is that

now? Nope, that was back in Noah's day. And God

said, I'm going to save righteous Noah and his

family. I'm going to flood the whole planet.

And everybody else is going to die but Noah.

And so God does this miraculous work. He saves

righteous Noah and his family. The waters go

down. Noah gets off the boat. And you know what

the scripture says he does? He gets drunk. You

ever heard of Peter, Apostle Peter? Pretty famous

guy. Really close to Jesus. You always see him

with Jesus in a lot of these stories. He's one

of the closest ones. You know what Peter did?

He denied Jesus three times. He denied Jesus.

I don't know the man. I've never been with the

man. I'm not associated with him. He completely

denied Jesus Christ. If you're reading the Old

Testament, you may recall reading about a guy

named Samson. He's a pretty hot -headed guy.

Just worried about his own desires, doing what

he wanted to do, the way he wanted to do it.

Act now, think later. That was his motto. Should

have been. Hot -headed guy. Even in the middle

of his hot -headedness, though, God still was

able to use him. Maybe some of you have heard

the story of Jonah. Jonah was a guy. He was a

preacher. God said, I want you to go to Nineveh.

Things ain't good there. You need to go preach

to these people. I'm fitting to destroy them.

Jonah, a godly man. Know what he did? He ran

the other way. He completely ran from God. He

completely ran away from what God was calling

him to do. Maybe you've heard of King David.

Pretty popular guy. King David. The man after

God's own heart, the scripture says. This must

be a pretty good guy. You know what he did? He

slept with another man's wife and then killed

the man to cover it up. Now you may be saying

to yourself, why didn't God pick better people

than this? I can tell you why. Because there

ain't no better people than this. Because we're

sinners. And maybe some of these things are our

story. Maybe they're not. Read the Bible. There's

a lot of other people God used. And almost all

of them have some major flaw or have some major

sin that they commit. Even people who are godly

people or people when we turn to Hebrews chapter

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

11 and we celebrate these people. And some people

say, well, read the Bible. And these people ain't

nothing. What kind of God is this? And these

people are horrible people. Well, praise the

Lord for that. Praise the Lord that Jesus Christ

came into the world to save sinners because that's

what the world is full of. That's all that's

in the world is sinners. And even these people

that we see in Scripture, even though they had

all this sin in their life and they did some

horrible things, their sins... are forgiven through

Jesus Christ. Even though their past is checkered,

even though their past is full of things that

they probably regretted, there's still hope for

them in Jesus Christ. And praise the Lord that

even though Paul, as bad as his past was, God

still wanted to use him. God still wanted to

save his soul. And you know the same... It may

very well be true for you today. If you hadn't

put your faith in Jesus Christ, I don't know

what your sin is. I don't know what you struggle

with. But I know this, that Jesus Christ wants

to forgive you of your sins. He wants you to

trust in Him and follow Him. He wants you to

repent and stop living in those ways. Now look,

these people are full of flaws just like us.

No, I'm not saying that, oh, we'll just keep

on on our sin. These people were godly people

and they sinned and I sinned too, so I'm just

going to keep sinning. No, our sin's not good.

It's not a good thing when we do these things,

but it's a good thing that we serve a good God

who forgives bad people. And we praise the Lord

for that. So your sins can be forgiven today.

And God can still use you today. He still used

Jonah. Jonah ran the other way. And then God

got a hold of him. Sometimes God gets a hold

of us through some pretty tough times. But God

got a hold of him, and guess what? He still used

Jonah. Jonah went and he preached the message,

and all those people were saved. God still used

these people. Even though the things they did

weren't good, they weren't right, God didn't

celebrate that they did wrong. God celebrated

that faith that they had and that little righteousness

that they had. God doesn't rejoice when we sin

today, but he will rejoice if we would seek him,

if we would repent, if we would come to him today

through Jesus Christ. Paul is a living example

of what God can do. He can forgive us of the

worst of sins, and he can still use us in a mighty

way for the kingdom of God. He says in verse

16, But I receive mercy for this reason, so that

in me the worst of them, Christ Jesus might demonstrate

his extraordinary patience as an example to those

who believe in him for eternal life. Paul says,

look, I was saved for this reason, so that my

life would be an example. So that those who come

2 ,000 years after me will read this scripture

and know that I was a wretched and horrible sinner.

But God was patient with me. And through Jesus

Christ, my sins were forgiven. And by the power

of God, God used me to do great things for his

kingdom. And Paul says, I am an example for those

who come after me. That if God would save me,

Paul, the worst of them, that there is hope for

you too. And praise the Lord. There is hope for

us today. Paul says, I'm living proof that God

is with the worst of the worst. So where is our

hope today? It's in Jesus Christ and Christ alone.

And we have to trust him. Because we are sinners

and we do struggle. We struggle with the same

things that we see some of these that I mentioned

just now. And there's so many others that struggle

with so many sins in so many ways in Scripture.

And how will we overcome them? It will be through

Jesus Christ. And life will not always be easy.

I'm not telling you today that if you trust in

Jesus Christ, your life is always going to be

easy and you'll never sin again and you'll never

be tempted to sin again. We'll constantly face

those temptations. Our flesh will always wage

war against our spirit. But when we're grounded

in Jesus Christ and we trust in Jesus Christ

and we know that our sins are forgiven and we

know the will of God and we seek to do the will

of God, even if we fail, the Holy Spirit will

draw us back to the Lord. So maybe some of us

today are in our struggle with sin. Maybe some

of you today have lost so many battles to sin

and maybe you've come to church some, but you've

never really trusted in Jesus Christ. Maybe some

of you today, you are trusting in the Lord, but

you know you've sinned in some ways. You need

to repent. You need to turn from those ways.

What the Holy Spirit speaks to you today, you

need to listen. I want to read one final verse

here in Romans chapter 7. verses 18 through 25.

Romans 7 · chapter mention

If you want to flip, you can. If not, you can

listen carefully. Romans chapter 7, verses 18

Romans 7:18–25

through 25. Now Paul, we just read, we just talked

about, he's a man who's saved by grace. But even

though he was a man who's saved by grace, listen

to these words that he writes in Romans chapter

Romans 7 · chapter mention

7. Listen to his struggle and see if you... if

you can relate to this possibly. Verse 18. For

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is,

in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good

is with me, but there is no ability to do it.

For I do not do the good that I want to do, but

I practice the evil that I do not want to do.

Now if I do what I do not want, I'm no longer

the one doing it, but it is the sin that lives

in me. So I discover this principle. When I want

to do what is good, evil is with me. For in my

inner self, I joyfully agree with God's law.

But I see a different law in the parts of my

body. waging war against the law of my mind and

taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts

of my body. Now, can we relate to that? Maybe

you can, maybe you can't. But that's kind of

our struggle, is that we know that... We want

to do good so many times. We want to do good.

We desire to do good. We know what the Word of

God says is good and what God's commands are.

But then we have to struggle because there's

a part of our flesh that just draws us back to

that sinful thing, that vice that we have, that

sin that so easily ensnares us. And it's just

a constant battle that we are just in, probably

for every one of us, daily. That we want to do

good, and even though we want to do good, we

do bad. Even though we want to keep our mouth

shut, we open it. Even though we want to love

people, we end up harboring hatred toward them.

All of these things. It's just a battle every

day. Even for the Christian. Even for the one

who knows God. Even for the Apostle Paul who

had encountered Jesus Christ whose life had been

changed. He says, I still have to struggle because

I want to do good so bad and I fail. And maybe

that's some of us today. You come into this building

today. and you've been struggling last week and

struggling last month or struggling for a lifetime,

and there's something in you, and you say, I

want to do good, and I'm tired of failing. Well,

there's hope for us, but only in Jesus Christ.

Listen to what he says in verse 24. What a wretched

man I am. Who will rescue me from this dying

body? Perhaps that's been your heart. Perhaps

that's been your prayer. God, I am worthless.

God, I am wretched. God, I'm tired to give an

end to the flesh and the sin. God, I'm tired

of living this way. I'm tired of struggling.

I'm tired of failing. God, who will help me?

Who will rescue me? There's so many people in

this world, and maybe some of you here or some

watching online, there's so many people in this

world who are saying today, who's going to rescue

me? Where will my hope come from? Where is my

help in this world? What a wretched man am I?

Who will help me? Listen to what Paul says in

verse 25. I thank God through Jesus Christ our

Lord. He says, I thank God through Jesus Christ

our Lord. And why does he say that? Because Paul

knows, as we see in 1 Timothy 1, verse 15, that

1 Timothy 1:15

Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.

That even though we struggle with our sin and

sometimes we fail in our sin and we are wretched

men and wretched women today, Paul knows that

Jesus Christ came to save sinners. Do you know

that truth today? That he came to save the worst

of the worst. He came to save those who were

just religious. He came to save those who were

horrible and doing horrible things. He came to

save any who were apart from him. He has been

patient with you. And maybe today the Lord wants

you to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

And maybe you realize it for the first time.

Maybe you realize you were no better than the

Apostle Paul. That you've come to church a lot,

you do all the religious things, but you've never

encountered Jesus Christ. And maybe today, through

the word of God, you have encountered Jesus Christ.

Maybe today in your struggle with sin, you have

failed so many times, and you wonder where your

help comes from. Your help comes from the Lord,

the maker of heavens and earth. Your help and

your hope come through Jesus Christ. Are you

following Jesus today, or are you trusting in

Jesus today? If not, I would hope that you would

repent of your sins this morning, that you would

ask the Lord to forgive you, that you would seek

to serve Him and follow Him, that you would know

that you are not worthless. God loves you, that

God cares for you, and no matter how horrible

your sin may be, it is not too big for the blood

of Jesus Christ to cover. Let's pray. God, we

come to you today. We thank you for your word.

God, I pray that maybe there are some in here

that don't know Jesus. Maybe they know a little

bit about your word. Maybe they come to church

some and they realize today, God, that they've

never really trusted in Jesus Christ. God, I

pray today that they would just humble their

self before you, that they would repent. God,

maybe there are some and they're not even very

churchy. They just know, God, that there's something

that's missing though today. I pray, God, that

if the Holy Spirit is convicting anybody today,

God, that as we sang in a moment, dear Lord,

that you just help them to come forward, God,

that even now, God, that they would just repent

of their sinfulness. That's what your word calls

us to, God. There's no fancy prayers we have

to say. We just have to ask you to forgive us.

We just have to repent, dear Lord. Stop living

for us and start living for you. We just have

to trust that Jesus Christ is your son who gave

his life on the cross so that our sins could

be forgiven. God, maybe there are some here today

that have never trusted in you. They've never

asked for forgiveness. They've never trusted

in Jesus Christ. I pray that today that they

would. God, maybe there are some here today and

they're just struggling with their sin. Maybe

they're yours. Maybe they're not, God. They're

just struggling wherever they are. I pray, God,

that you'd give them hope today, that you'd give

them strength to not give in to the sin, but

know that there is hope to overcome it through

Jesus Christ. So, God, I just pray for anybody

today that's struggling, whatever their struggle

is, that you just meet them where they are, that

they would leave with hope from this building

today. And I ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.