One of the worst things that
we can do in studying and reading the Bible is to bring with us
preconceived notions and look at the Bible with those preconceived
notions, especially if we've been taught wrong. If our preconceived
notions aren't consistent with biblical truth, then what are
they? They're a lie. They're wrong. And of course,
that's the way it is with the natural man, all of us. Most
of us grew up somewhat religiously, being taught certain things.
I was, you were. But when the Holy Spirit brought
me under the preaching of the gospel and opened my eyes to
the word, I found out that just about everything I knew, there
was a few things. I always believed God was the
creator. That didn't change. I would have
said back then he was sovereign, but I didn't really believe that
until the Holy Spirit showed me. But what happened is when
the Holy Spirit opened my eyes under the preaching of the gospel
and showed me the reality of the scriptures, everything changed. All my preconceived notions,
basically, most of them I'll say, I'll say 90% maybe, I had
to lay them aside. And there's a scripture over
in the book of Jeremiah, I think it's Jeremiah 13, where it talks
about how can the leopard change his spot, can the Ethiopian change
his skin, and how can you who are accustomed who are evil,
accustomed to do evil, do good. And what that literally means,
how can you who are taught to do evil do which is good? In order to do good, according
to the Bible, we have to be taught. And we have to be taught by God
the Spirit through the Word. What good works are and all of
that. What fruit unto God is. But until then, our preconceived
notions We bring them to the scriptures. And one of the worst,
and I know y'all probably grew up believing the same thing I
did, is that God loves everybody without exception, that Christ
died for everybody without exception, but didn't really save anybody,
and the issue of salvation is up to you by your free will choice,
to make it right. Now that's what I believed in
my lost religion. And so when I would come to scriptures
like this, 1 Timothy chapter two, it says here, look at verse
one. Paul writes to Timothy, he said,
I exhort therefore that first of all supplications, prayers,
intercessions, and giving you thanks be made for all men. Now first of all, before you
go any further, what's Paul's subject here? What's his subject
now? Supplications. You know what
a supplication is? That's a petition for material
and spiritual needs. God, please give me this, please
give me that. And it may be a good thing you're
asking for now. Like for example, Lord give me
spiritual growth. That's not a bad thing, is it?
Now, if I say, Lord, give me a million dollars, that's not
necessarily a bad thing, but I don't think I'm gonna get it.
And it can be a bad thing if it consumes me and takes me away
from worship and causes me to doubt God, all of that. Supplication,
then prayers. You know what prayer is. That's
an act of devotion, an act of faith. Prayer is an act of worship. It's a sinner saved by grace
communicating with his or her father through Christ. We'll
talk about that. Intercessions has to do with
praying on behalf of another. When one of us is sick, when
we're going through grief, Lord, we pray for them. That's what
intercession is. pray for a brother so-and-so
or sister so-and-so who's going through a hard time, maybe had
an accident or what we call an accident, maybe sick, we pray
for you. You know, the Bible talks about
how the prayer of a righteous man, you know, and it may not
be that we get the desired result that we want, But it's gonna,
whatever happens, we know as the children of God, it's gonna
be for His glory and our good. And even the good of those we
pray for if they know Christ. So we pray for the salvation
of our lost loved ones, don't you? I pray for them. Our lost friends, family and
members. Lord, I pray for their salvation.
I don't know if it's God's intent to save them, But I pray for
them because I love them. And then he talks about the giving
of thanks, which ought to be an element in all prayer, in
all life. We're to have an attitude of
thanksgiving. Thank you, Lord. That ought to
pervade our lives. In obedience, in worship, we're
here to thank God. Thank God for you. Thank God
for the preachers of the gospel who stay true to the scriptures. So here's what I want you to
know to start off with. Paul is talking about prayer
here and how we, as the people of God, ought to pray and who
we are to pray for. And that's why I called the message
Good and Acceptable Prayer. That's what he's describing.
Now he says here that that prayer, and let me say this, anytime
I preach on prayer, I always wanna repeat that prayer has
two main keys. I'll say three. Good and acceptable prayer is
given from a sinner saved by grace who knows the Heavenly
Father through Christ. The heathen, their prayers, As
some people joke when they say it doesn't even go past the ceiling
and all of that. Somebody asks, you know, there's
an argument about, well, does God hear their prayers? Well,
God hears everything. God knows everything. But good
and acceptable prayer must come from his children. Sinners saved
by grace. And why is that? Because good
and acceptable prayer, the second key, is praying through Christ. The one and only mediator between
God and men. This is that verse where he says,
verse five, there's one God and one mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus. If I pray to God through Buddha,
it's not a good and acceptable prayer. Now does God hear it? Yes. But it's a stench in his
nostrils. That's the metaphor the Old Testament
uses. You know, in the tabernacle where
they had the basin that had the coals in it
where the smoke went up. That was a picture of the prayers
of God's people going up before God and then coming down as a
sweet-smelling savor. That's the prayers of God's children.
But the prayers of the heathen are a stench in his nostrils.
Even Israel when they did not know the true and living God
and they came to the temple to pray, lifting up their hands. What'd God say to them? He said,
I'm sick of what you're doing. I don't accept it. Because they
didn't do it with the right knowledge and in the right attitude. They
turned that into a self-righteous ritual. But true prayer is accepted
because it's done from a sinner saved by grace, a child of God.
It's through the merits of Christ. He's the one mediator. between
God and me. And then the third key is this,
in this word, thy will be done. Now that's it. Now there's nothing wrong with
me telling God, and I'm not, listen, when we say we tell God
something, we're not informing him of anything. We're not telling
him anything he doesn't know. In fact, the Bible says he knows
what we need before we even ask it. But he does command us to
pray our petitions, Because it's an act of worship. And it's an
act of showing our dependence upon God. And that's glorifying
Him. When you express from your heart,
not just your lips, your complete dependence upon God, that honors
Him. Lord, I'm in your hands. And
here's what I want, as long as what I want isn't evil. You know? And it's according to His will.
His revealed will. Thy will be done. I know what
I want, but Thy will be done. And that's the keys to prayer.
Good and acceptable prayer. Well, Paul says here in verse
two, or verse one, that this prayer ought to be made for all
men. All men? Yes. We're not only
to pray for ourselves, but we're to pray for others. I've got
in your lesson, selfish prayer is not the spirit of love and
grace. Now, prayer, praying for people, is an expression of love. And the thing about it is, when
we express that love, it's different. for our brothers and sisters
in Christ than it is for unbelievers. Now, we certainly should pray
for each other. No doubt about it. And brethren in the faith. And we're to love our brothers
and sisters in Christ. But we're also to pray for unbelievers. And what's the main prayer for
that? Lord, save them. Like you saved me, save them. And that includes even our enemies. Look over at Matthew chapter
five with me. I can get there. Matthew chapter five, you know
this is the Sermon on the Mount. I'm in the book of Mark. I should
have marked this, but I didn't. Yeah, Matthew chapter five. Right after he says in verse
11, yeah. Well, look at verse 10. Matthew
chapter 5. He said, blessed are they which
are persecuted for righteousness sake. That's the gospel wherein
the righteousness of God is revealed, the imputed righteousness of
Christ. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. When we are persecuted
over preaching the gospel, we're blessed. And then he says in
verse 11, blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute
you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for
my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad,
for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you. So even our enemies, when they
persecute us over the gospel, we're blessed. And then if you'll look over
in Matthew I think it's chapter six. He says, well, I've lost it. Is it Matthew chapter six that
I'm looking for? Anyway, I'll get to it later. What he does, he tells us to
pray. What good is it if you just pray for your friends? Even
the heathen do that. Pray for your enemies. And we'll
see it in just a moment. I've got a list in your lesson.
I'm just getting ahead of myself. But anyway, here's the point.
The Bible tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves, okay? And our neighbor includes our
worst enemies. So we're to pray for them. And
of course, we pray, number one, for their salvation because we
know that our worst enemies, when it comes to the gospel,
if God saves them, they'll be friends. They'll be fine. There'll be a bond. But now we're
not to love and pray for the unbelievers like we do our spiritual
family because in our spiritual family, we have a spiritual bond.
We're in one family. It's like give you a very practical
way of thinking about that. And this really is selfish, shouldn't
be, but it's the truth. You pray for your children a
whole lot more than you pray for mine. Because you've got
a physical family bond there. And there's nothing wrong with
praying for your children now, don't get me wrong, pray for
them. But you ought to pray for all of them. But like you have
a spiritual bond with the family of God and we love and we side
with our spiritual family against the world. But we're also to
pray for those who are against us. And what Paul's point is
here, if you look at verse two of 1 Timothy chapter two now.
Pray for kings. That's people in authority. And
for all that are in authority, pray for them, that we may lead
a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. That's
what he's talking about. What he's showing us is there
that we're to pray for all sorts, all classes of men and women.
All kinds. And he works within the hearts
of kings, even unbelieving kings, to do his will in providence.
And this command, he says that we may lead a quiet and peaceable
life in all godliness and honesty. It's the same kind of thing that
was expressed in Hebrews 12, 14, where it says, follow peace
with all men. Now that's even unbelievers. But it goes on to say, and holiness,
without which no man shall see the Lord. So we're to strive
for peace with all men, even our government. but we're not
to compromise the gospel. That's the holiness there. It's
what separates us from the world. We're not to compromise what
separates us by the grace of God in order to maintain peace. Christ didn't do that. John the
Baptist didn't do that. The disciples didn't do that.
See, they didn't compromise the gospel. and that which separates
us as believers, sinners saved by grace, who preach righteousness,
you see? And so we're to pray for all
men, all sorts of men, all kinds of men. This is in view of the
Jewish idea, the false idea that if one's going to be a child
of God, he has to become a Jew. That's not true. He doesn't have
to become a Jew. Now there's a spiritual Jew and
there's a physical Jew. Now what I'm saying, he doesn't
have to become a physical Jew. It doesn't matter if you're a
Jew or a Gentile, male or female, black or white, rich or poor,
a king or a pauper. See? Now we're to pray for all
of them, all sorts, all kinds. and especially those in authority.
And of course, I've got some scriptures listed there, how
God works in the heart of kings, even unbelievers to do his will
in providence. And we're to follow them as long
as they're not against the word
of God. And I put in your lesson here, God's people are not to
be rebels against the state. or insurrectionists, the only
time we're to rebel against the state is when it is against the
word of God in its laws and activity. Then we have to obey God rather
than men. You understand that? And you
can read about that in Romans chapter 13. That's a big passage
that tells us that we're to be law-abiding citizens as long
as those laws don't deny the law of God, the word of God.
For example, if Congress, for example, were to pass a law that
classified our preaching the word, our gospel, as hate speech
and outlaw it, are we to bow to that? Absolutely not. That's
a bad law. That's an ungodly law. But laws
against society, murder, thieves, and all that, we're to obey them.
We're to be obedient members of society that way. and we're
to follow peace as long as it doesn't cause us to deny holiness,
that which separates us from the world, our gospel, our witnessing,
and our motives and all of that. We'll look back at 1 Timothy
2. He says in verse three, for this is good and acceptable in
the sight of God our Savior. So in other words, praying for
all sorts of men is good and acceptable because it's God's
command to his children, It's for His glory and on the ground
of our acceptance before God in Christ our Savior. And then
here comes the kicker. This is one that a lot of people,
they bring their preconceived notions and interpret it wrongly. This is not the apostle's intent
here as they interpret it. He says in verse four, who will
have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of
the truth. I've got in your lesson here
that there's a lot of controversy around this because of, like
I said, preconceived notions that God loves everybody. People
interpret it as saying, well, God is trying to save you. He
wants to save you, but you won't let him. Won't you let him? Well, that's not what the Bible
teaches. And I've got a section in the book I wrote on scriptural
interpretation on the words all, every, and the world. Those words
have to be interpreted in their context. So when it's talking about God
will have all men to be saved, what's he talking about? He's
talking about all kinds of people, all sorts. Kings, as I said,
paupers, rich, poor, black, white, male, female, Jew, Gentile. What he's saying is that all
the differences that exist between us, which naturally make us proud,
mean absolutely nothing in salvation or who we are to pray for. God
saves sinners. based on the merits of Christ
and it has nothing to do with who you are or what you do. You see what I'm saying? Now,
God saving us makes a difference between who we are and what we
do. In other words, when God saves
me by His grace, I'm now a child of God. That's who I am. I'm
a sinner saved by grace. I'm forgiven of all my sins.
I'm blessed. And God doesn't impute my sin
to me. He imputes righteousness to me. That's what Paul means
in Romans chapter seven when he's talking about sin. He said,
it's not I, but sin that dwelleth in me. What he's saying there
is that you cannot identify the reality of who Paul is by his
sin. If that's all you see, you don't
see Paul. And I can't identify the reality of you just by looking
at your sin, and vice versa. If that's all you see, you don't
see me. I am a child of God who stands before God, washed in
the blood of Christ, and clothed in his righteousness, and you
can't see that by looking at me. All you can see is the effects
of sin on this old body. And if you see me sinning, as
they say, you'll see that. If that doesn't identify me,
blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. You
can't see that with your eyes. So those differences
make, listen, when it comes to salvation by God's grace, throw
them all out the window. I'm a sinner. That's all I need
to know. I'm a sinner, I don't deserve,
and I haven't earned the least of God's blessings. And so that's
the way it is. So does God want to save everybody
without exception? Well, no. And you don't have
to go very far in scripture to find that out. And we always
refer to Romans 9 because that's a scripture where it's spelled
out. There's other scriptures that
teach that. God has a chosen people. And this expression,
all men, ultimately, is defined by its context, and
the context shows us that he's talking about all kinds of men,
all classes, not all without exception, but all without distinction. If God intends to save everybody,
if he wants to save everybody, everybody's gonna be saved. So
all of this, so ultimately this text has to do with God's elect,
that God's not willing that any of them should perish, but that
all should come to repentance. But you pray for all, pray for
the president, pray for the Senate, pray for kings and people in
authority, that they don't go against the word of God and make
problems for us. Pray for their salvation. So,
and here's the point, he says, He says, who will have all men
to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. Well, we know that
in order for a person to come to the knowledge of the truth,
God has to reveal it. And we know that all to whom
he reveals it will come to Christ. Read John 6, 37 through 45 and
other passages. And he says in verse five, for
there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus. There it is. who gave himself
a ransom for all. Did Christ die for everybody
without exception? Well, he said himself he died
for his sheep. He made a propitiation, and if he's your propitiation,
you're gonna be saved. And he says to be testified in
due time. That's what Paul's talking about. He gave himself a ransom for
all of his sheep, all of God's elect, all that God chose and
gave to him before the foundation of the world. And among that
group, there's all kinds of people, all different kinds, all sorts,
all types, all classes. There's a rich man named Abraham. There's a poor man named Lazarus,
all of that. male, female, black, white, whatever. There's no geographical, economical,
racial, sexual difference that drew God to you or to me. It was all, I'll have mercy on
whom I will and I'll be gracious to whom I will. And Christ bought
him, that's what the ransom means. He gave himself a ransom. He
bought him and he's gonna have what he bought. He didn't buy
you only to let you drop into hell. He bought you to save you. And he shall save his people
from their sins. And then verse six, verse seven,
where unto I'm ordained a preacher and an apostle, I speak the truth
in Christ, I lie not, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and
verity, faith and truth. What's he telling them there?
He says, look, those Gentiles, They don't have to become Jews
in order to be saved by God. God makes them spiritual Jews.
That's what he does. So understand this, that's what
he's talking about, this good and acceptable prayer. I never
did get back to that verse in chapter seven, but I've got it
listed in here. You look it up. That's where
he's talking about, don't just pray for your friends, pray for
your enemies. That's a child of God. Okay,
we'll quit there.