Some have made a shipwreck of
their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed
over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. First
of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving
be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions,
that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified
in every way. This is good and it is pleasing
in the sight of our God, our Savior, who desires all people
to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there
is one God and there is one mediator between God and man, the man
Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is
the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed
a preacher and an apostle. I am telling the truth and I
am not lying, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and in truth. There's a lot there, but I wanted
it in our hearts and our ears. And I will say this, as I say
every week, there's several disciplines that without which we will not
have joy. And one of those is that if we
are not in the word of God, we will be carried along by every
thought, emotion, problem, concern, and you name it. If we're not
listening to the scripture, if we're not seeing it in its pages,
we are not listening for what God is teaching. And then the
second thing is to be in fellowship with his people. If we are not
in the assembly, we are forsaking the promises of God. For the
means of grace through the local assembly of the saints is where
we are instructed to do the work of the ministry. It is where
we are equipped to overcome the world. It is where we are reminded
of the promises of God on which we stand. And the list goes on
and on. And to forsake it, to forsake
it, is to not receive the fullness of what God has promised. Now
see, when I say those things, a lot of people who are academically
gospel-minded, they don't like it. Because they automatically
think, well now you're telling me some things I have to do as
a Christian. Isn't that what Paul is writing
to Timothy? Things that Timothy must do as a pastor? Isn't that
what Paul writes to the Romans, things that they must know and
then also that they must be doing as believers in Rome? The whole
of the New Testament, all the letters are teaching us what
we must be doing as well as what we must know and how we must
learn. And so for anyone to make the
claim that there's nothing to do in the context of the New
Testament hasn't read it. And I would surmise that even
they would possibly not understand the Bible at all. Not understand
the totality of scripture. And the charge of legalist could
come in the same breath. Maybe on the other side of the
coin, the charge of antinomian comes. That means people would
say we don't have to. You're saying there is nothing to obey.
There is nothing to do. Beloved, Timothy has received
this letter as an instruction from Paul in order that he might
instruct the church how they ought to live an orderly life.
You see. The only time that that's inappropriate
is when the preacher And more importantly, the shepherd, the
pastor, begins to press the church in such a way as to apply guilt
upon their lives and worse, fear upon their eternal life if they're
not meeting the conditions of these well and ordered commands. That would be inappropriate.
Paul assumes something with every letter that he writes. And he
assumes divinely that every person receiving that letter is a child
of God, regenerated, born of the Spirit, receiving the gospel
like a child. And yes, even children can believe
the gospel before they are taught all the theology therein. God,
in His Word, teaches the full counsel of himself, which includes
not only the truth about who he is, but also, as Brother Mike
taught yesterday at our men's meeting, the truth of what he's
done and how we are a participant in his work. And then he teaches
us how we ought to walk, what we ought to think. I mean, think
of the commands of Paul, and all through these letters to
Timothy. Timothy, as an elder of the church, many will depart
from the faith. Many will go on and do their
own thing. They won't listen to the fact that Matthew 18,
our Lord and Savior, has taught us how we handle conflict, division,
sin. They won't listen to the fact
that I've told them not to do this, that, or the other, and
if they do, they are not to be considered brothers until they
straighten out. See, this is not an issue of
who's reprobate or who's apostate or who's born again and who's
not. The only testimony that we judge that by is the testimony
of grace. Is my righteousness Christ imputed
to me? Is Christ's death justice for
my sins? Am I trusting in Christ's work? It's what faith points to, right?
You've heard me say many times people have faith in their faith.
I say, well, my believing has saved me. No, Christ has saved
you. You believe Christ has saved
you. It sounds very, you know, I don't
know, insignificant, but I would say that it's very significant.
Because even as born-again believers, even as children of God, even
as those who are saved by the power of God, by grace, through
faith, we can easily fall prey to starting to what? Listen to
the instructions. And then we'll start walking
a little bit in our own way of going, you know what? I don't
curse and smoke and drink or date women who do. You know,
that old joke. I don't do this and I don't do
that and I'm not like them and I'm not like them. And that is
the example that Jesus gave of a condemned person, a person
who's not justified, a person who is not crying out and by
faith holding fast to the mercies of God, who became our propitiation,
so on and so forth. So I say all that as a way of
reminder, beloved, because we're about to get into some instruction.
The instruction is ours to receive and ours to apply and ours to
be accountable to. And if we reject that, we can't
play together. We can't live together. We cannot
disobey Christ and say we love Him. We cannot subject our enemies
or our brothers and sisters to our own judgment and say we love
Christ. And I've said this probably at least once a month since 2007. Because that's the
furthest back that I remember me saying this publicly. People love to hear preaching. but they do not want to be pastored. And when that makes someone angry,
so be it. Beloved, we love one another.
Paul loved Timothy with a love that we cannot understand. Paul
has told Timothy that there were some teachers of which he only
named two, and those were the two that Paul had already excommunicated. You understand that the naming
only happens after the discipline has been executed. And what was Paul's desire? That
these two men would apologize and cease this foolishness and
come back in and mercifully be received, forgiven. as they were
before they started it. There's no more conditions in
forgiveness except that we forgive. So Paul is saying that because
of these two men and what they've done, they've caused a chain
reaction in the church and a lot of people now are at odds with
the teaching. You know how it is? Well, I'm
not so sure I believe that interpretation. Paul never had to have interpretation
of his letters. They speak for themselves. I
command you to do this. This ought not be so. This is
what grace is. Faith does this. It's just simple. I mean, do we have to sit out,
for those of you who know what Betty Crocker is, do we have
to sit out with a Betty Crocker cookbook and look and wonder
what it means to stir? Did she really mean stir or did
she mean think about it in our heads? Or call somebody and stir
them up about Betty's book. No. Spoon in. Here we go. We don't have to overanalyze
everything as if we've got some kind of Gnostic spark or psychic
connection with this divine power somewhere that's given us knowledge
that nobody else has. That's not how it works. The
academics of the world can understand and even apply and do and mimic
the realities of the instructions to the church, but they cannot
mimic resting faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we know that when they continue
to hold fast to what they think they know and what they think
they do that satisfies God. The only thing that satisfies
God the Father in righteousness is the death of His Son, Jesus
Christ. That's it. And in the weeks to come, we're
gonna start, we're gonna talk about some of these theological things
at length. But as we look here, we need
to be reminded that what Paul is saying now, starting in verse
18, he's reminded Timothy of this great gospel. He's reminded
Timothy of the power of Christ. He's reminded Timothy that he,
as an apostle, was not something he sought after, but God appointed
him. And then he's telling Timothy,
as you go over to 2 Timothy and you start looking, you see there
were prophecies made about Timothy. Well, what does that mean? I
mean, the apostles said some things about what Timothy would
be doing. The apostles affirm the calling of Timothy from the
Lord Jesus Christ. And I can promise you, he wasn't
excited about everything he heard. And he wasn't really going, hey,
I'm going to be a pastor, it's going to be cool. It's not cool
to be a pastor. It's horrible. But it's the greatest thing I've
ever accomplished in ministry. Because it's not something that
we've done. It's something that Christ has done. And Christ sustains
his true ministers. Christ sustains his true church.
Christ sustains his people. And he's going to sustain, and
he did sustain Timothy. So Paul, as a loving spiritual
father, tells Timothy, in accordance with these prophecies, remember
what we said about you when we laid hands on you. Remember what
we told you about this good deposit. Remember your teaching. Remember
the gifts that you've been given by God. I believe in leadership. I believe in development. I believe
in honing skills. I believe we can always get better at doing
anything that we do. We can get better at learning to read, right?
We can get better at learning to take notes. We can get better
at learning to think. We can ward off a lot of distractions
in life by being disciplined to certain things, having a routine
in the morning, having a routine in the evening, just physically.
I'm not talking about spiritual things. And we can get better.
So yes, there is a way in which we can learn to do certain things.
But beloved, when God gifts you with something, it doesn't matter
how professional you are with it. And as a matter of fact,
Paul writes to the Corinthians and he says he doesn't care how
professional people think that he is or is not. And according
to the testimony of Paul and others throughout the writing
of the New Testament, we learn that Paul was a very poor orator.
He was a terrible public speaker. He even says of his own teaching
ability, That He came sometimes with stuttering and words that
were implausible and things of that nature and in tears and
unable to speak and stand. That's how we know that the teaching
of God's Word in conjunction with the overseeing of the joy
of His people as a body is not about professionalism. The worship
of God is not about bells, whistles, robes and ornate ornaments. It's about intimacy. And intimacy, whether it's and
it always has passion, whether it's, you know, good or bad,
whether it's anger or affection, whether it's zeal or apathy. It's intimacy. Sometimes that
looks neat and sometimes it's a mess and sometimes it's very
effective and very encouraging and sometimes it's harmful and
it stings. But there's one true thing in
the midst of all of that. The people of God who are listening
to His Word and who are obeying their Savior and who love Him
are going to hold fast. According to the Scripture. This
is not my opinion. This is not my illustration. This is not
my logic. This is just clear, absolute,
un-irrefutable truth that the apostles say I know, I just made
up a word. It's okay. Write it in my dictionary,
I've got one. Irrefutable, yeah. I should have just said that.
See how y'all messed me up? His word, that if we deny the
instruction of the apostles, we deny the instruction of Christ
himself. It is not, it is not up for discussion. If we love him, we will do as
he's told us to do. When things are good, easy. When
things are not good, testing. Testing. So Timothy, these prophecies
made about you, by them you may wage the good warfare." What
does that mean? Did he say, Timothy, all the giftedness you have,
and all the strength you have, and all the power that you have,
and all the great tools that you have. Remember I talked about
last week at the close of our service about the tools. The
tools that Timothy has are the Spirit of God. or the teachings
of Paul, the intimacy that he had with Paul, the instruction
of Paul to him, the training that he developed. But here Paul
is saying there's a third thing, and I don't know if I got into
it last week because of time, but the prophecies, that which we
know that God says you will do according to his purposes. And
I read Isaiah 48 this morning, right? And Paul, excuse me, the
prophet, God speaking to the prophet, what does he say there? The former things I declared
of old, they went out from my mouth and I announced them and
then suddenly I did them and they came to pass. Why are we
where we are today? Why is life the way it is? Because
God has declared it and it has come to pass. That's why conspiracies are the
devil's playpen. Assumption is his bread. Judgment is the icing on his
cake. And then God says, because I
know that you are obstinate and your neck is an iron sinew. I mean, the things that hold
our joints in place, they need to be flexible. Iron doesn't
bend easily. And you have the forehead of
brass. I wish I had known that when I first got married. I wish
I had known that text because instead of calling my children
hardhead, I'd call them brass heads. That's what it is, it's
hard-headedness. I declared them to you from old,
says the Lord, because they came to pass, I announced them to
you so that you would not say, oh, look what we've accomplished,
look what my idols, look what my work has done, look what my
carved image and my metal images have brought forth. Now see,
we don't worship things like that in this day, do we? But the graven images and the
carved images are our study, our zeal, our manipulation, how we're going
to maneuver life, we're going to maneuver people, we're going
to maneuver circumstances, we're going to maneuver facts. Look what
we've accomplished. The world we live in, even in
non-free nations, it's a world of politics. It's a world of
idols made in the minds of men and women. God speaks. And he's speaking today. The
scripture is what God is saying and what God has said. God's
word is not dying and sitting on a shelf. God's word is ever
living and breathing, sharper than any two-edged sword. It
does what it was sent to do. And today it is supposed to be
sent to encourage us, beloved, to hold fast in the good warfare,
to know that what God has prophesied about Timothy, God has prophesied
about you. What is that? His will will be
done. And you will make it. He will make it. To the end of
what he desires in every circumstance. That's why Paul can so passionately
and almost crazily say, therefore, do all things without grumbling
and complaining. Endure all things without complaining. Every time we complain. We sin
against God. Whether it's in our minds, our
spirit, our countenance. But that sin does not reject
His grace. Because Jesus uttered no complaints
in His mouth. So He tells Timothy, wage the
good warfare by holding faith in a good conscience. Because
some have not held the faith and do not have a good conscience,
they're scared and fearful. or knowledgeable and arrogant,
boastful, know-it-alls, not willing to submit to the teaching of
the Scripture. Even if a cat meows it out, we have to submit
to what the cat says. Not because the cat is the authority,
but because the Word of God is. It doesn't matter if the devil
himself speaks truly the Word of God. The truth has authority
over us. Because Christ is the truth.
Well, what about the twist in the script? I'm not talking about
that. I'm giving an example, folks. We know in the wilderness how the
devil twists the Word. Because people have rejected
this, because they do not listen, because they do not hold a good
conscience of peace, because they are not willing to submit
to the teachings of the apostles, they have rejected and made a
shipwreck of their faith. Does this mean that they're lost?
No, not at all. Paul's not saying that Hymenaeus
and Alexander are unconverted. He's not saying that. Nowhere does he say that. Nowhere
in the Bible do we see any false teachers or problems in the church
where anybody is declared unconverted. They're declared wrong, called
to correction, and celebrated and rejoiced, just like the one
sinner coming to faith, celebrated and rejoiced when the brother
is gained. Why? Because we love them. And we know that when they
are living in obstinate sin and rejection of the teaching of
the apostles, that they are living in fear and darkness and bitterness,
frustration, anger, self-interest, pity, gossip. all the different
things that come along with these types of circumstances and that
there's nothing that can change that except that they stand and
remember that they're forgiven in the blood and the body of
Jesus Christ by His mercy and love for them and that everybody
else that they're upset with are in the same bag. So Paul has disciplined them
out of the church so that they may learn not to blaspheme. And then Paul gives Timothy tools,
practical application of what needs to be done. Here is this
instruction. First of all, Right? First of all. First thing I need
you to do, Timothy. First thing I need you to do,
James. First thing I need you to do, John. First thing I need
you to do, whoever he wrote to. First thing I need you to do
is pray. I need you to pray. I need you
to pray. All right? How do I pray? What
do I pray? For whom do I pray? He says,
first of all, then I urge. Now see, some people like to
read the Bible this way. This is what we should do. We have
to have supplications, we have to have prayers, we have to have
intercessions, and we have to have thanksgivings. So we gotta
figure out how to do these things. Now, I'm not poking fun at people
who do that, but that's not how you read the Bible. That's how we end up with more
pages in our systematic theologies than we should have. Nine pages
on supplications. Listen to it. First of all, then
I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings
be made for all people. All right, and I'm gonna have
to address the elephant in the room in a couple of weeks, but I'm gonna go ahead
and start pumping the prime of the pump now when it comes to
this text because this is a good pretext where people take not
only that out of context and create four or five different
ways and types of prayers and things, but then they all of
a sudden start putting the emphasis on all people. Then we get to verse 4 and then
we have this minutia and this cow plop of debate and argument
about, oh, God does want to save all humanity and every single
one without exception. And we know that's not true. Jesus refused
to pray in John 17 for anyone but his sheep. Now see, some
people don't like the way that's phrased. Jesus says, I am not
praying for these. By definition, that's a refusal.
God the Father hasn't asked Him to, but I am not going to eat
these. That's not a refusal of a command,
it's just I'm not doing it. Did Jesus need to tell the Father
what He was really doing? No, He said that, that it might
be written down by the Spirit for our sake. Jesus prayed for
the salvation of His elect people, for whom He was about to lay
down His life. And then we can come to another
way in which we can understand it in a sense we need to contemplate
the reality of what is the mind of God in all things? Is the
gospel not a command? Is every command of God not the
responsibility of every human being? It depends on what side
of the street you're on and from what angle, but we're not going
to reject sovereign and free grace. We're not going to reject
the gospel of Christ by how we handle the text. We're going
to deal with it in the context in which Paul is speaking. Who is Paul writing to? One man. And sometimes when we see the
pastoral letters, this will be a pastoral letter, pastoral in its context,
it's written to pastors, to a pastor, we forget that it's a person
there. And we also forget, just like in John chapter three, when
Nicodemus as a Pharisee and as the primary teacher of Israel
and all these things, we forget that there is this, and we see
it in the text of scripture, When it comes to Israel, when
it comes to certain people, it's very easy for us to just myopically
embrace everything written to us. And when someone says, do
this, then it's just for us to do this. Or if the context of
a particular instruction is given, we might just think, so if I
say we are going to do this, all of us are going to do this.
We are all going to do this. I'm speaking to you as a church
and then to those who aren't in attendance today who are part
of this church family. And if it's something that we
do constantly at the Lord's table every week, then I'm talking
to those people who don't even know who we are and we don't
know who they are that will be part of the family sometime in
the near future. But I'm not talking to the guy
driving the Jeep outside. Everybody looks. No, he just drove by. Or the
police officer that just drove by. Or that dumpster fire. No, I'm just joking. I'm not saying we all and everybody
within an eye shot So there's a context. What is the context?
Paul is talking to Timothy and he's saying, here's how we handle
this. Here's the first thing that you
do after you command them to stop talking. So what does Paul
say to do when there's people that are talking nonsense, changing
things, talking to other people about these things? He says,
all right, be quiet, be quiet, be submissive to the instruction
of Christ and listen and be taught. And when that happens, guess
what? That person is in right standing with the body and with
the Lord. So command them to stop. And
then what you need to do to fix everything that's going on in
your church is you need to pray. So if Paul wrote a letter like that,
then what would James Tippins as the elder of Grace Truth Church
say in his head? Okay, I got to pray for us. I've
got to pray, I've got to get up at 2.17 like I did this morning
and just pray and pray and pray and pray and just when your mind's
on fire. I hate those days, I hate those
nights. You just cannot stop the images
and the thoughts and the words. So I'm just going to pray for
us, I'm going to pray for us. No, and Paul says listen. We're
not separated from the community in which we live. We're not separated
from the state or the country. We're not separated from our
neighbors. We're not a cult. We don't go buy land in the middle
of nowhere and build a commune. That's what cults do. Now, if
you wanna go do that for yourself, that's fine, but you gotta come
to the assembly. It's not biblical. Well, what
about Israel? That's a picture of election.
It's not a command to the New Testament church. Nowhere can
you find that. Nowhere, even to Jews today.
You don't divorce yourself. From the instruction of scripture,
and we don't divorce ourselves from the public, from being influential,
from being caring, from being loving and from being evangelists.
You see. The cults do a good job with
that. So Paul is saying, I urge supplications, prayers, intercessions,
thanksgivings be made. So this is something that is
supposed to be done, right? For all people. Well, let's take
them one at a time so we'll understand these words. A supplication is
an earnest plea. Please, please, please, please,
please, can I have an ice cream? Children are the best at supplication.
Please, if you love me, is it too much to ask? Can I have a
candy bar, please? No, please, no, please. You know. Yeah, supplication. Father, please
hear me on behalf of these people. Hear me, please. Hear my prayer,
oh Lord. Prayers, just generally. Praying
for needs, praying to the Lord. These are all ways in which we
speak to the Lord. Intercessions where we pray in
the place of someone or for someone else. Not just for the church. Not
just for our spouse and children. Not just for the members. But
for all people. Pray for everybody. Now I remember
Being in middle school, and I remember my prayers, and I remember sometimes
going to bed at night and starting to pray. And then after a while,
this is why I stay up a lot sometimes, because my mind has been disciplined
to continue to pray. But you pray for everything. And then you say, oh, I didn't
pray for the crazy guy down there talking on the stop sign. I didn't
pray for his cat. And then you just go, you know, that's what
children do. I've got to pray for everybody. I've got to pray for
the President, I've got to pray for the Vice President, I've
got to pray for the Secretary of State, I've got to pray for the..." You know, and you
go through the whole cabinet, and you're going through all the
judges, and you're praying for everything. Next thing you know,
you've got, oh, there's judges in Claxton. I've got to pray for all of them.
I don't know their names. Let me go ask my dad. I mean, you know,
you just, and it's just, you've got to pray for everybody. Oh,
I forgot to pray for a great Aunt Sally, and great Aunt Lucy,
and great-great-aunt's dog. And then you just, next thing
you know, the sun's coming up. That's crazy, right? But that's how
we take it sometimes. Gotta pray for everybody. Or
we do the beauty pageant prayers and pray for everyone in the
entire world, Lord. All humans, each and every one
specifically I pray for right now. You know? The Lord hasn't
told us to do that. And He's not telling us to do
that there. So when the apostle gives the pastor instruction
to be praying, supplicate, pray, intercede, and be thankful, what
is thanksgiving? Thank you, God. Thank you, God.
Praise you, God. To Him, the King of ages, immortal,
invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
This is a praise of thanksgiving. This is gratitude. So we don't
just ask for and pray for and intercede for and plead with
and talk to God, we thank Him. And I don't dare quote people
from history, but there's a sentiment which a famous Baptist pastor
would say that God can do more in five seconds or five minutes
or a few minutes, I don't know the exact quote, of prayer than
we can in our entire lifetime. And beloved, we don't pray enough. And see, our culture has taught
us, have some prayer meetings. 70 people, 70 hours. I mean,
perfect, right? And everybody gets to talk to
God openly about everything on their heart and mind in front
of everybody else. And you know what happens? Or
let's have prayer requests. Yeah, pray for my mom and a couple
of friends and some unspokens. Thank you. Well, what's going
on? None ye, none ye bidneth. That's what's going on. When
do we need to know the business if it's a practical need that
we can meet? Well, they're starving to death. Oh, well, I got food,
you know. Well, you know, Lord bless them. That's always a gossip. I've
never heard an old lady say that, where something bad didn't come
out of the mouth concerning the person they were about to pray
for. And then the damage is done, and then they show up to the
auxiliary meeting, or to the prayer meeting, or to the Sunday
school class the next week, and they'll go, oh, there's Betty.
Hey. How you doing? Lord bless her. You know what she's going through.
You need to pray. She slapped her neighbor with a chicken.
And they got to a fistfight right out in front of the house. I
mean, you hear it. You hear it constantly. And this
is coming out of the top of my head, and y'all are interested
in the story, right? Like, can you please tell us the rest so
we can pray? It's the way it is. God ever disqualifies me, I'll
go into comedy. All people, pray for them. What does that mean? Not just
the church. not just your household, but all kinds of people that
are around you. Unbelievers, first, pray. What's the context
here? Pray for guys like Hamanias and
Alexander. God, get them, destroy them,
save them. That's not praying. That's not
what we're supposed to pray. Father, thank you for these men. Thanksgiving. I thank you for
their false teaching and the knuckle-headedness that they've
had and their brass-headedness, for their iron sinews. I thank
you for this stubbornness, for in it you will show your power
great. Please, bring them back to us. Bring them to repentance that
we may rejoice together and take your table together and worship
together and serve together. For these are our brothers, for
whom Christ said, it is finished. Take them into your arms, Father,
and bring them back to the gospel in a way that they've never seen
before. Empower, et cetera, et cetera,
et cetera, et cetera, you know, whatever, however you speak. I talk like that sometimes when
I'm giving instruction, I'm taking out trash. bags and the thing and
roll it, roll it, roll it. You know, Dad quit yelling at
me. I'm just excited about the trash. Get it out of here. Intercessions, praying for them,
pleading with God that these people who had been turned over
to Satan would learn not to blaspheme. These people who have turned
over to Satan would learn not to gossip. These people who we've
turned over to Satan would learn not to commit adultery. These
people who we've turned over to Satan would learn not to steal. These people who we've turned
over to Satan would learn not to abandon God's promises. And to destroy God's people. And so he gives an explanation.
What does he mean? All people? Well, Let's plug
in an extremely long grammar lesson by just saying for all
kinds of people, not just these people, not just the church.
I want you to pray for kings. I mean, when's the last time
you sat down and said, Father, I just want to thank you for
Joe Biden. I want to thank you for Donald
Trump. I want to thank you for Barack Obama. When he won the first time, I
posted on Facebook, thank you, Father, for the president that
you've given us. And I lost 200 friends online
that day by being obedient to scripture.
Now, I don't do that stuff anymore because I realized this is really
not beneficial. I can pray without posting. But I thought the church
would, you know, they can join in with me, the saints. Pray for the kings. Pray for all who are in high
positions. Why? Because they lead us. They govern
us. They rule us. They oversee us. They do what God has ordained
them to do. And what are we supposed to be
praying? That we, the people of God, may lead a peaceful life,
a quiet life, a godly life, and a dignified life. Keeping it
real is undignified and ungodly. Saying what you need to say because
it's something that needs to be said is undignified and ungodly. Social media use, most always
ungodly. But this sermon is not about
cleaning up our lives, is it? It's about understanding the
order of the Christian faith in living life together as a
people. Pray that we may lead a peaceful
and quiet and godly and dignified in every way. This is good and
this is pleasing in the sight of God, our Savior. Stop right there. So here, Paul. Saying, young
Timothy, as an elder, I need you to learn to teach the church.
First, you pray, and then teach the church to pray. And don't
just pray for yourselves. Pray for all types of people.
Pray for the people in your immediate context. Pay for the people,
all people. Saved people, lost people, ugly
people, good-looking people, rich people, poor people. Look
at James. Isn't it interesting that what was happening with
James with the Jewish Christians is that they had gone back to
the day in Judaism where you gave favoritism to the one who
was most pious or most wealthy or most prosperous? Why? Because
it was an indication that they were most blessed. And James says, give the seat
of honor to the lowest, nasty, unbathed critter that comes through
the door. Put the governor at the back
of the room for the love of Pete. He's got it made. This man hadn't
sat down all week on a chair. Let him sit at the front. Don't
show favoritism. So you've got to be patient with
all, Timothy. He's going to talk about that.
Endure all evil with all patience with all people. A pastor that
does that and does this is disqualified. A pastor that posts any name
of any one of his brothers and sisters on the internet is disqualified. A pastor that gets into a spitting
contest on his front porch is disqualified and such is the
same via text message or phone call or anything else. If you
know what that means, that's just hillbilly for an argument,
a heated argument. And verse 3 is not talking about
the gospel. Paul didn't say, I want you to
pray for all types of people, for the people in control, for
the people in kings and people in oppositions, that we may lead
a peaceful life with them. We need to be peaceable with
them. We need to do everything we can do to stay on task as
a people who are called by the glory of God. for the sake of
his name, to do everything we can to stay out of the light
of people who rule and don't do anything that would cause
them to pay attention to you in any negative sense. Do what
you're called to do quietly and with dignity. Yeah, for those of you who use
Reddit, I mean, you see the subreddits of the Karens and the Jads, the
people of Walmart, that keeps it real. And all the other snaps
up and in your face things. And we go, yes, that feels good
to me. Why? Because we want to be vindicated. We want vengeance. We want to
be in control. America is the only country in
the world where every single citizen is a God and a king simultaneously
unto themselves. According to the constitution.
And we take it to heart. Marat's though. What right do
we have in the economy of grace except to be instruments of mercy? Grace upon grace upon grace to
stay out of the. Does that mean we don't say we
don't go to a board meeting? We don't go. Yes, but we need
to be hospitable. We need to be dignified. We can
present argument without anger. We can present illustrations
without ad hominem. It's wicked. It's just as wicked
as the wickedness of the world. And beloved, when we do these
things, our prayers are hindered. So this is a passionate plea
for Timothy to hold fast to know that not only if we aren't living
according to the gospel, God's not going to hear our prayers
according to the gospel. Why? Because we're not going
to pray effectively. God always hears a prayer that's in His
will, right? We talked about it yesterday in our men's group.
Sometimes we pray for that which is not the will of God because
we're not walking in the Spirit. We're not walking in light. We're
not walking according to the will of God. Of course I'm not
going to pray for what God desires me to pray for if I'm walking
selfishly, if I'm all uptight, anxious, angry, frustrated, wanting
revenge, wanting to tear something apart, wanting to overthrow the
government. You're not going to do it. I mean, we've got soldiers in
the room. Billy Bob and James Tippins ain't going to overthrow
nothing. Pew, pew. It's just not going to happen.
And it's not the place of the believer to worry about this
stuff. God has ordained it all. This isn't a Romans 13 sermon. This is what he's saying. This
is good. What is good? Living a dignified life. Is a
dignified life required for salvation? Absolutely not. If it was, we're
doomed. But yet it was in the context of God's righteousness.
So whose life, dignified, do we get credit for? Jesus Christ. Well, are we praying correctly? Are we supplicating, praying,
interceding, and thanking God as we should? Absolutely not.
Even when we do it all day, every day, it's not going to be pure.
It's not going to be right. It's not going to be sufficient. Well,
my Lord, how in the world am I going to stand in front of
you righteous if this is a requirement here? Who in the world has ever
done this correctly? Jesus, I pray that you would
pass this cup for me, but not my will, but yours be done. Father,
forgive them. They know not what they do. And if we need to spend 60 weeks
to figure out what that means, we need to just back up and go,
wow, what did he say? Jesus prayed for his accusers. Well, what he really meant, God
hasn't revealed what he really meant. And for us to go there
is to make ourselves God, saying that we know what God really
meant. How about we just take what God has said at face value
and go with it? God is not subject to our logic.
God is not subject to our rules, nor our fairness, nor our laws.
He is a law unto himself because he is the righteous one. This is good. What? Living a
godly, dignified, peaceful, quiet life. Christians should not be
known for what they hate. Gospel preachers and gospel evangelists
should not have the moniker of all the false stuff going on
in the world. That's not a gospel preacher and it surely isn't
a shepherd of God's people. And a good brother and a sister
in the faith is not one who can dig deep and tell you everything
that's wrong and all the different divisions of all the different
theological philosophies that are known to man. And you can
tell they're not walking in the Spirit because they get irate
when you try to talk to them. And they scream and they yell
and they accuse and they point. And beloved, history is full
of it. Look at the pastors and the bishops of antiquity. Look
at all the letters and the writings and the things back in two. And
there's really no difference between them and what we are
now, but everybody has a way to write now. Everybody couldn't
even write back in those days. And it's just argument after
argument after argument after argument. And if you really want
to get offended, just go read Luther. He'll offend your conscience. Because if I spoke like Luther
on Facebook and they came in this pulpit, y'all would have
a problem with me. I mean, that man even called
somebody a devil's fart one time in public. Now, when I was a
boy, the word fart and the word crap were dirty words. You had
to be almost 14 for you to say those, much less a pastor. This is good. Beloved, do we
want to do what is good and pleasing in the sight of our Lord, our
Savior? You see how this is emphatic
that Paul is saying, listen, if we just pray and we pray first
and foremost that we can get along with the world around us.
Now there's going to come a time when the world around us is not
going to tolerate peace. There's going to come a time
when the world around us is not going to tolerate godly lives. That's not happening right now.
There's nowhere in the history of America right now where any
institution or any government authority is intolerable to godly
lives and peace and quiet. The factions that we see are
self-made. I'm standing up against this, I'm standing up against
that. Well, let's find that. Well, Ephesians, Ephesians, pastor,
do not partake in the works of iniquity, but expose them. Who's
he talking to? The church. So you see me walking like a
devil saying, James, look at yourself. I love you, brother. Stop. You're right. This is wicked. I'm so sorry,
man. Pray for me. Yes. Don't make judgment. We
don't have that authority. So there's a context for all
of it. And it doesn't reject the other teachings. So when
we find something that seems to be in the opposite vein of
something else, we don't get to wiggle the word into working
it out how we want it to sound. We have to just take it at face
value. So if Paul is saying we must live a godly life so that
we might live a godly and quiet life with other people around
us, and we must also be praying for them, We're not just praying
for our mutual intimacy in the body, but we're praying for some
type of intimacy and calmness and peace in the world. And it is why the cults sometimes
have a better standing in the culture than the church. But yet have no gospel, so there's
no power there. Because sometimes the cults can
serve and stay quiet. But what do you call them? Compromisers,
weaks, sissies. I'm not a sissy. Jesus was not
a sissy. And he is the pinnacle and the
ultimate man. He's the ultimate masculine. We like his table kicking. And
we like his dog and whitewashed tomb name, Colin. The people
he was talking to do not exist in the world today. So we can't
emulate that at all. As a matter of fact, he tells
us not to. We need to listen to the word. And beloved, just
think about it for a second. Letting go of all stressful animosity
and frustration that boils in us from every corner of everything
that we have in existence. Letting that go is peace in and
of itself. Because here's the thing, what
we think is so important today, when crisis hits our household
like it has hit mine the last year, and more specifically the
last two months, That stuff doesn't matter at
all. And if it were important, I couldn't put it aside, could
I? If the house was flooding, and we were all about to drown,
and then someone catches on fire, we got two problems that can't
be ignored. You see? I don't know where this
comes from, y'all. I'm sorry. Sleeplessness. But when the drippy water hose
on the backside of the farm has been dripping since 1961. And
that's all we think about. And then the house catches fire.
We don't care. And the world and everything
in it and every person that bothers us and everything that ever comes
against us, it's like an old faucet dripping from 1961 on
the back of the farm that we never see. Let it drip. God holds the tap
anyway. So let's read this again and
let me read, let me put some words in there. And over the
next few weeks, we're going to have about three parts to this little section
here, three, maybe four, to expand upon it as necessary, I believe. An orderly life starts with prayer. And prayer is for all kinds of
people, not just church people. And not just peers, but people
that are higher than us and people that are lower than us. in stature
or economics or public opinion. What was Jesus' public reputation? A poor one. Those who were and who made things
happen, they talked ill of Jesus all the time because he ministered
to sinners, to dirty people, to lowly people. And sometimes we fear what people
think of us, even in the context of our circles or our theology,
more than we do what's called of us in our godly daily lives. So pray for all types of people.
First of all, then, I urge that supplication, prayers, intercessions,
and thanksgiving be made for all kinds of people. for kings who are in high positions. Kings and for all who are in
high positions. These types of people too. You see? Not just
us, them. That we may lead a peaceful and
quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good that
we pray for them. This is good that we live this
way. This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God, our Savior.
You see the contrast here? We don't just pray for ourselves,
we pray for all kinds of people. We don't want to pray for just
people that like us, we pray for people in high places, rich people and
powerful people too. We have a Savior, God, our Savior,
the church. We have a tendency, especially
in sovereign grace communities, to really be myopic, to really
be exclusive and judgmental. That's not okay. We shouldn't
be seeking out to find the devil in everybody. Because we will. But we should be seeking to serve
everyone. God, our Savior, and not just
ours alone, remember how John put it, but the propitiation
for the world. Now we know the context in which
John speaks in 1 John. He's not saying every particular
person without exception. He's not saying every human being
ever. Because if Jesus Christ satisfied the wrath of God for
every human being ever, then every human being ever are elect
and every human being ever will have faith in Jesus Christ. And
we know just by the laws of experience that that's not the case. Context
rules. Context beats grammar, beloved.
Because sometimes dummies make up words that contradict itself.
Like me. So this is good and it is pleasing
the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all kinds of people
to be saved. All types of people to be saved.
All ranks of people, all races of people. All, this is really
weird to say these days, all genders of people. See, that shouldn't be triggered.
So what? Men and women, rich and poor,
boys and girls, all types of sinners, drunks,
murderers, thieves, blasphemers, gossips, disobedient to parents.
Haughtiness, people who roll their eyes, people who, their
tongues. All types of sinners. I'm just,
those are a list that Paul's given. Haughtiness. You know,
sassiness. God's gonna save His elect out
of all of them. God desires His elect to be saved
and is going to bring them to faith and to truth. And there
are elect in every nation and every tongue and every tribe
and every iteration of every wickedness and every sin and
everything that you could ever imagine. Every single, there's
not one cult that doesn't have an elect person in it. There's not one theological iteration
that God's not going to pull somebody out. So believe it or
not, beloved, all Southern Baptists aren't reprobate, all Methodists
aren't reprobate, all Calvinists aren't reprobate, all Armenians
aren't reprobate, but God has elect, and I know, don't swallow
your tongues, God has elect in all people. And so if God is in the business
of reconciling His elect people from all places and points and
parts of life, then he's in the business of reconciling those
who surely he has already born again to himself and to his people.
Because you realize that that's what reconciliation does, right?
The gospel brings us to God. And then the gospel instruction
brings us to one another. The only way we love Christ is
to serve one another. The only way we worship Christ
is to give our life to others. And we don't get to pick and
choose. Well, I'm going to serve that one, I'm going to love that
one, I'm going to pray for that one, I'm going to be nice to that one, but not that one.
Why? Let's look at them. No, we don't
get to do that. We don't get to be patient with
only who we want to be patient with. People want you to be patient
with them, but they don't want you to be patient with others. Beloved, we got
a problem, and it's called our sin nature. And it's been put
to death because Christ has died and we are alive in him. But
this old ragged body. Oh, who's going to save me from
this body of death, Paul says. He says it is God and Christ. And then Paul begins to explain
in verse five, and I'm going to preach all this today. For
there is one God. And there is one mediator between
God and man. See this reconciliation. There's
one mediator between God and Hymenaeus and Alexander. There's
one mediator between all these people who have gone astray in
this false teaching. There's one mediator from everybody who's
abandoning the body of Christ. There's one mediator between
God and man. The man Jesus Christ. And he
gave himself as a ransom for all. For every person without
exception? No, we know that that's not what
it's saying. For his people, amongst all peoples. Jesus did not die for Jews alone. He died for his elect Jews. He
died for his elect Americans. He died for his elect purple,
green, yellow, brown, white, orange people. Remember that
song we used to sing, red and yellow, black and white? I don't
even know if that's legit anymore, is it? Probably not. And this is the testimony given
at the proper time. What Paul is saying is, is that what he
just said and what I just extrapolated is the testimony of Christ. at
the proper time was preached, given. God gave it and sent it
for this, for this gospel. I was appointed a preacher and
an overseeing messenger of the people of God. And I'm telling
you the truth, I'm not lying. A teacher of the Gentiles in
faith and truth. So here is Timothy raised in
a Jewish home, a Gentile himself. So now the picture comes to full
focus, doesn't it? God is going to save His people
for whom Christ died out of the world, out of all peoples. And
if He has done that and satisfied the wrath of God for His people,
then we are to be satisfied with reconciliation amongst ourselves.
So let's pray. Let's pray and let's thank God
for what He's done in Christ Jesus, who was our ransom. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, that you have
called us to pray. And the very next thing that
Paul writes to Timothy is, I desire that in every place the men would
pray. The people would pray. The brothers
and the sisters would pray, the children would pray. So, Father,
we're together praying this morning. Father, we pray for ourselves,
each of us individually. We pray the things that we deal
with, the sin that entangles us, the thoughts and the feelings
and the emotions and the behaviors that come from those things.
Lord, we're always at odds. We're always at war, but we are
not at war even with ourselves or with one another or with the
world. We are at war with the principalities
and the powers of darkness that you and your sovereignty have
decreed and are fulfilling your ultimate purpose through. And
one day we will be free of it all. But until that day, Lord,
help us to wage the good warfare. Help us to see and to understand
the word more and more each day. Lord, help us to reach out to
our brothers and sisters who have not been with us in a while. Lord, help us to reconcile, as
long as it's up to us, those who have gone astray. They do
not reciprocate. Father, it is not on us. But
Lord, most of all, help us to stand firm in the gospel, knowing
that your son Jesus alone has satisfied your justice and that
you have declared us righteous because of him and that you have
credited us his righteousness. And not only have you decreed
it and shown it and done it, you have brought it to pass.
And Father, that which you have promised now, we await that day
of glory. It will come to pass. So help
us to be at peace until that day. And help us to look into
the gospel, into the cross, into the death and the resurrection
of Jesus Christ as our sufficient assurance and hope as we traverse
this great life. In Jesus' name, amen.