First Timothy 2 for Who will have all men to be saved and to come Unto the knowledge of the truth
Now he's referring to God here clearly For he had just told
Timothy to pray to God for all men, for
even kings and rulers and those who are in authority, but all
men. Pray for everybody that you know enough to even pray
for. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior, who will have all
men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. Let's deal with the first part
of this verse. First, who will have all men
to be saved? The gospel call is to all men. I'm not to preach to some creatures,
but to every creature in all the world. Anybody that'll listen. The command of the gospel is
to look to Christ and live. It's believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved. It's not a suggestion. People
look at this verse wrong. He will have all men to be saved.
In other words, there's consequences for not. God will have it. He commands it, look unto me
and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth for
I am God. Think about that for a minute.
It's not look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the
earth because you're lost. It's not look unto me and be
ye saved all the ends of the earth because you sure do need
me. No, it's because he's God. He commends it. It's high treason
against heaven not to look to God and be saved. God commanding you to be saved
doesn't mean he wants to save you and you won't let him. It
does not mean that. Think about this. God's command
to Pharaoh was what? Do you remember what God's command
was to Pharaoh? Let my people go. You let them go. And then God
spoke to Moses and said, he's not gonna let you go. He's not gonna let you go. Why
not? Well, he's just stubborn, he's
proud. No, I'm gonna harden his heart. I'm gonna harden his heart. How does God know that Pharaoh
is not gonna let his people go? Well, he knows the future. He
does know the future, but that's not how he knows it. He knows
it because he caused it. He said, I am gonna harden his
heart that he will not let you go. And you know what God's whole
commentary on that whole matter is? God made a declaration about
that whole matter of Pharaoh hardening his heart, God hardening
his heart, and him refusing to let the people go, and God sending
all the plagues, and then when the final plague came, the Passover,
the death of the firstborn in every household in Egypt. God
said, now he's gonna let you go. But think about it, even
that was temporary. He let him go and then he chased
him to the Red Sea trying to kill him. So he never did just
say you can go. He said that, but he didn't mean
it. So really in his heart, he never
did let him go. But what was God's command? Let
him go. let my people go. And then God made sure he didn't.
You see what I'm saying? There's God's declared will,
thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt
not bear false witness and all of his commandment, not just
the 10, but everything he says is the commandment of God. So
does it thwart God's purpose and destroy the sovereignty of
God when somebody doesn't obey? Of course God will have all men
to be saved. He commands you to come and to
bow to his son and believe on him. But God's entire commentary on
that whole matter was this, so then it is not of him that willeth. It is not of him that runneth
or straveth, but of God that showeth mercy. For the scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee. He dumped him in the Red Sea
to show his power, that you don't defy the God of heaven and earth
and get away with it. And that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth Therefore, hath he mercy on whom he will
have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth. He has mercy on
sinners, so that his name will be declared throughout all the
earth, and he hardens sinners, so that his name will be declared
throughout all the earth. And it is. Not many care right
now, but they will. They will. Now in that story,
what was it that God would have Pharaoh do? Let his people go. But the truth of the matter is, God
was gonna deliver his people in spite of Pharaoh. What's God's will for sinners?
Believe on my son, bow to my son, trust my son, hear him. This is my beloved son, hear
ye him. Does that sound like a suggestion
to you? Then you haven't heard it right. But you know what God's
purpose all along is? He's gonna save you in spite
of you. It's not gonna have anything
to do with you. You've denied and broken and
rejected everything God ever said and believe on my son is
not any different. He's gonna cause you to bow. He's gonna cause you just like
he did Pharaoh. He utterly destroyed him. And
what did he say about salvation? You've got to die. You've got
to die. Self has got to go. So what God would have Pharaoh
do is let his people go. So why did God destroy Pharaoh? Because he wouldn't let them
go. Why does God put sinners in hell?
Because they will not come to Christ, that they might have life. Now, when they refuse to come
to Christ, are they thwarting the will of God? Is he trying
to get them to do something and then they won't let him do it? They're stopping him. Scripture
says, none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou?
Of course they're not. It was all according to God's
purpose all along. Now what's your response to that?
Has it ever crossed your mind, how can God hold me responsible
for disobeying him then if he purposed it all along? How can
he hold me responsible? Well, you wouldn't be the first
to ask that. It's right in the same text where we read in Romans
9, verse 19. Thou wilt say then unto me, why
doth he yet find fault? How could he blame me? Who hath
resisted his will? I was just doing his will when
I disobeyed him. That's true. You were doing his
will. That's not why you did it. You did it because you were doing
your will. For who hath resisted his will?
And you know what, Paul's answer to that, you know, we could try to explain
that. There's some good things you could say about that, that
God's not complicit in the sin of man, that we're sinful on
our own. He doesn't force us to sin. That's
what we do by nature. We could talk about that. Paul
doesn't do that. I'm not sure scripturally that
we should. Because here's what the scripture,
here's what Paul said in the word of God. Nay, but O man,
who do you think you are? Who are you that replies against
God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Why did you
make me sin? God didn't make you sin. You
did that because you wanted to. But you don't deserve an explanation.
You need to shut up and bow to God. Hath not the potter power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and
another unto dishonor? Well, the answer to that rhetorical
question is yes, he does have that power. He has that authority. So God will not only have all
men to be saved, he commands it, but he's not gonna save everybody. No, he's told us that. Most of
the people in this world are gonna hear the gospel. If they
hear the gospel, the true gospel of the sovereign Christ, they're
gonna be offended and just incensed. I'm telling you, I've stood in
a room with people that just got red in the face. I thought
it was gonna get physical. Their natural hatred for God
is gonna rise up, and they're gonna reject God and his Christ,
and God's not gonna be surprised one bit by that. God says he's gonna laugh at
them when their fear comes. Is that too hard, is that? He has reserved from eternity
a place for them in the blackness of darkness forever. Are you
okay with that, God? I know some folks that aren't.
I haven't talked to him in a long time, but I know some folks that
are not okay. Are you not okay with that God? There's really just one God,
you see. And he does as he pleases, with whom he pleases, when he
pleases, the way he pleases. Are you not okay with that? Come
to him anyway. Come to him anyway. Don't forsake
your own mercy. His command is believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Believe on him. Now, I don't know if God loves
you or not. I don't know if you're one of
his elect. I don't know if he's gonna save you, but I know this,
by his grace, if you come to him for mercy, you will have
it. You'll have it, he's plenteous
in mercy, and he delights to show mercy to sinners. He shows mercy to sinners. And I also know this, if God
has mercy on you, if God saves you, I know how he's gonna do
that. You do too, if you've read the scripture, you know how God
saves sinners. It's in the last part of the verse, and to come
to a knowledge of the truth. I know we looked at this some
last time, but I wanted to spend some more time on this verse.
Come to a knowledge of the truth. This is why we preach. This is why we preach the gospel. We preach because God told us
to. He said, go into all the world and preach. But do you
know why God wrote the Bible? You know that, don't you? The
whole Bible. He used 40 some odd men. There's
some dispute about how many men wrote the Bible. It mentions
different people in the Psalms that may have written those Psalms,
or it may just be that they penned them for David. Who knows for
sure? We know that God wrote it, though.
He used 40 some odd men to write 66 books. And here's why. John 20 and verse 30, and many
other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples,
which are not written in this book. Now it's fun to think about
that. What else did the Lord do, you
know? What else did he say? Well, It might be interesting
to think about that. But we don't want to speculate
too long about that. We don't want to speculate at
all, of course. But just even thinking about
that, he went everywhere doing good, it says, everywhere. But
these are written that you might believe, that you might come
to the knowledge of the truth. There's the knowledge and there's
the truth. that you might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing
you might have life through his name. So that's how, that's how God
saves. You come to the knowledge of
the truth. And I'm pretty sure John is saying
that's why the book of John was written. I'm pretty sure that's
why Genesis was written too. that you might believe that Jesus
is the Christ. And revelation and everything
in between. And the truth is a person. To
come to the knowledge of the truth is to come to the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's to come to know Him as your
Lord and your God. That's what Thomas said, my Lord
and my God. That's coming to the knowledge
of the truth. Didn't Thomas know who he was
before? To some degree, in some sense,
I'm sure he did. But boy, he came to the knowledge
of the truth that day. You know why he did? Because
the Lord said, be not faithless, but believing. He has to command
it, doesn't he? He's got to cause it. No man
can come except the Father which has sent me, draw him. my Lord and my God. It's to know
the Lord Jesus as your sovereign. It's to come to know Him as your
only righteousness before God. Christ is my righteousness, or
I don't have any. And we're gonna have to come
to the knowledge of that, of Him as our righteousness. He stands before God for me. He did everything He did for
me, as me, my representative in this world, up to and including
the death of the cross. It's to come to know Him as your
only sacrifice unto God. God requires sacrifice for sin. That's taught from the very,
very beginning. Genesis chapter four. Even before
that, when the Lord made coats of skins for Adam and Eve. God requires sacrifice for sin. And to come to the knowledge
of the truth is to come to the knowledge that Christ is that
sacrifice. He is the only successful. We use that word because there
are those who say he's a sacrifice, but it's up to you whether he
Actually accomplished anything or not That's not the scripture. He's the successful sacrifice
Everybody he shed his blood to save are saved every one of them Is to come to know him as the
satisfactory Sacrifice in other words God had to be satisfied
for seeing for God to do something for you He had to do something
for himself It's important to see it that way, to come to the
knowledge of that truth. That God had to be satisfied
first. If there's no way to save you
that satisfies God's justice and holiness and righteousness,
then you're gone wrong. Me too. But there is a way, and
that way is Christ. It's to come to the knowledge
of that. You come to know him as your substitute. He suffered
the penalty for our sin. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all, and by his stripes we're healed. He gave himself a ransom, and
it's to know that he gave himself a ransom for your soul. I've
said this so many times, does God love everybody is not really
the question. It's really not. You can answer
that question. It's important to understand
that, and you will know that. If the Lord saves you, you'll
know who God is, because that's who he is. Him loving everybody
and then a bunch of them going to hell is not who God is. His
love is not like that. So it's important, it's vital
to know who God is, but you can know the answer to that question,
does God love everybody, and still not believe on Christ. Still be lost, still not know
the Savior. The question is, does God love
you? How in the world could he? That's what you have to find
out. Will the God who has mercy on whom he will, will he have
mercy on me? That's what that leper in Matthew
chapter eight came to find out. He knew that mercy was the Lord's
to give. He said, if you can, if you will,
there's no doubt that you can. But he wanted to know, Lord,
will you have mercy on me? That's the question. That's the
question. And you remember the Lord's response?
This is salvation. I will. We go around saying,
I will, I will, I will, thinking we have a free will. We've never
willed anything. We've never accomplished anything
when it comes to the matter of salvation. We say, I will, and
then we don't, just like Simon Peter. I will, I'll stand by
you, I will not forsake you. You're gonna do exactly what
you said you weren't gonna do, and you're not gonna do what
you said you were gonna do. But here's salvation when the
Savior says, I will. Salvation is not a function of
the will of man. It's not of him that willeth,
we just read that. Salvation is a matter of God's
will. And that's how you come to the
Lord Jesus Christ. You come to the knowledge of
the truth that salvation is up to Him. Lord, if you will, you
can. I love the truth of electing
grace. And there's no but to that. I
just do, I do. And every believer does. I truly
love. the truth of God's electing grace.
If God had not reserved unto himself a remnant according to
the election of grace, there would be no sinner saved. The
electing love of God is the source of every blessing from God. An election is simply this distinguishing
love of God. That's what election is, it's
God loving one and not another. That the purpose of God according
to election might stand, God didn't say I choose Jacob, he
said I love Jacob. That's election. Jacob have I
loved, and Esau have I hated. We love the God who loved us
first. I love that truth. God's electing
love. But listen to me now, you don't
come to Christ on the grounds that you're one of the elect.
That's not how you come to him. Come to him as the vile, wretched,
black-hearted monster that you are for mercy. That's how you
go. And listen, let me say this,
and these are hard things for me to say, and I pray for wisdom
from God to say this right, but coming to a knowledge of the
truth doesn't happen by much study. Although I recommend that. I recommend that you study. Read
everything you can get your hands on, but especially the word of
God. But read every good book that's according to the word
of God that you can get your hands on. And study to show thyself
approved, but particularly and especially, just study the word
of God. I highly recommend that because
a knowledge of the truth though, it doesn't happen by your much
studying because the knowledge of the truth is not a knowledge
of facts. It's not a knowledge of true things. Here's how Paul described those
who don't know the Lord, the godless, in 2 Timothy 3.7. Listen to this. Ever learning
and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. That's
the same language exactly that's in our verse. Ever learning but
not able to come to the knowledge. of the truth. It doesn't happen
that way. It may involve that, it may include
that, and I recommend that. But listen, our Lord said to
the religious Jews in John 5, 39, search the scriptures. You
remember in our studies how often he said, haven't you read the
scriptures? And boy, that was, what a thing
to say to them. That's what they prided themselves
on. That's what made them Pharisees is they knew the scriptures inside
out. And boy, you talk about getting
to them. Haven't you ever read? And he said, search the scriptures
for in them you think you have eternal life. They trusted in
their knowledge of the scriptures and they knew them. And they are they which testify
of me. and you will not come to me that
you might have life. They claimed to know the scriptures. They could quote probably the
whole Bible by memory, if that's even possible. They knew the
scriptures. But all of the scriptures concerned
Christ and they didn't know Christ. So how can you know the scriptures? And every word of scripture says,
in its context, come to Christ, flee to Christ, believe on Christ,
bow to Christ. And he said, you will not. You
will not. You will not come to me that
you might have life. They trusted their knowledge.
The knowledge of the scriptures is a wonderful thing. But knowledge
without love for Christ, Paul said, puffs up, it puffeth up. It'll just make you have the
attitude, I know more than you. That's a deadly thing. But love, love of the truth buildeth
up. Etta 5. Listen, we don't preach
and teach so that you'll one day know enough to be saved.
That's not the point of preaching. We preach Christ that you might
know Him. That you might know Him. And
that comes by His grace, not by an abundance of knowledge.
It doesn't come by an accumulation of knowledge. Listen to 2 Timothy
2.23. But foolish and unlearned questions
avoid. I know some folks that they live
to bring up foolish and unlearned questions and argue about them. Our Lord says, avoid them knowing
that they do gender strifes. Is that what a church is? People
that just kind of like argue enough to figure out, you know,
what they believe or something? No, there's peace and unity. He talks about us striving to
keep the unity of the spirit, endeavoring. We have one Lord,
one faith, one birth, one hope of our calling. There's not to
be strife and dispute in the church of Christ. The servant of the Lord must
not strive, but be gentle unto all, apt to teach, patient, in
meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves. Instruct those that are their
own worst enemy. Why? Well, so one day eventually
they'll figure all this out, no? Teach them, instruct them. If
God per adventure will give them repentance, because we know that's
how he'll do it. by the preaching of the gospel.
Instruct them, teach them, rebuke if necessary, but instruct, preach
the gospel, declare the truth because God just might. That's what that word peradventure
means. God just might. He does do that. He doesn't do
it for everybody, but he does do that. He does give repentance. And then this is wrapped back
to our text again, to the acknowledging of the truth, to coming to the
knowledge of the truth. The scripture don't say a lot
of things. It says one thing a lot of times, in different
ways. To grow in grace is not to grow
in the knowledge of many doctrines, of many theological philosophies,
of many speculations that are not even revealed in scripture.
I know some that are always pursuing that type of thing. Many heresies
to avoid. A lot of people just want to
find out what not to preach. They spend all their time telling
you what not to believe. Many stances to take on this
issue or that issue. Somebody was arguing with me,
trying to argue with me one time. I used to love it. I used to
really enjoy that. I was pretty good at it. But I just don't, by God's grace,
I don't do that anymore. But they were saying that you
have to take a stance on this. You have to take a stance. I
said, no, I don't. Who in the world do you think
you are? I don't have to take a stance on some nonsense that
you came up with that you think is the truth. We stand in Christ,
we stand on the rock. This is my position on every
issue right here. That's just true now. By God's grace, that's how it
is. 2 Peter 3.18, but grow in grace
and in the knowledge of a person. Grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To him be glory both
now and forever, amen. Now does the context of our scripture
this morning that we just looked at, does it bear out what we've
been saying now that the truth is a person? You can only know
the truth by knowing him. Look at the next verse, verse
five. For there is one God and one mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all
to be testified in due time. Oh, for there is one God. God, men, and a mediator. The whole gospel is contained
in that. The presence of a mediator here tells us that there's a
problem. If there's no problem, there's no need for a mediator. One who intervenes between two
in order to restore peace or friendship. That's simply what
a mediator is. Our sins have separated between
us and our God. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. That's the problem. We're totally depraved and God
is totally holy. Without a mediator, God has got
to destroy us. He's got to destroy us forever.
But who in the world, who can mediate between a holy God and
a sinful wretch? There is no other case of mediation
like this. The holy God that must punish
sin and one who is nothing but sin. Who can satisfy God? What God
needs in this matter is glory, obedience, vindication. Who can satisfy that requirement
on God's part and also meet the need of men? What do we need
in this matter? We need to be saved. We're goners. We're as sure for hell as if
we were already there, apart from Christ. And there's only one that can
mediate between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus, the God-man. The end result of this mediatorial
arrangement here, though, is not just that we're saved. If
Christ mediates for us, we are saved, we will be saved. Because
he pleads on the basis of his own precious blood, and that's
enough. But it's not just about us being
saved, although I'm real thankful for that part. I'm glad about
that. That's our need in this, that's
what we need. But God's got to be honored too.
And again, if there's no way to save us and honor God, how
can God be just and justify? If there's no way to do that,
then guess who wins? God's not gonna compromise his
holiness. We're gonna be lost forever.
That's what's gonna happen. But that cannot be because God
has purposed and declared that he will save all of his people
from their sins, and he can't lie. So we see the dilemma, the
problem. The very integrity and veracity
of God depend on us being saved. His people must be saved because
God spoke it and God must be honored and glorified and vindicated
because he's God. Without a mediator, there can
be no reconciliation with God. We've sinned against God and
the soul that sinneth, it must die. That's why the Lord said
in John 14, six, no man cometh unto the father. No man cometh,
I'm glad he didn't stop there. But he did say that, didn't he?
No man cometh unto the Father. I'm thankful that he didn't stop
there, but he said, but by me. On what basis does the mediator
mediate for us? A mediator doesn't just come
in and say, why can't we all just get along, have a nice day,
and go away. That's not gonna cut it. There
has to be satisfaction. There has to be a basis for reconciliation. That's verse six, who gave himself
a ransom for all to be testified in due time. The ransom, the
price of redemption, reconciliation and peace with God was himself
who gave himself a ransom. for as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot. He gave himself. And then let's
put the emphasis on another word. He gave himself. He didn't offer himself, except
unto God. He didn't offer himself to you.
He's never done that, never will. He gave himself an offering unto
God, but he gave himself for us. No man took his life from
him. No man took his life from him.
He laid it down and he said of himself. Hebrews 12, two, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame
and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. It says he gave himself for all.
Now listen to this verse in Mark 10, 45. For even the Son of Man came
not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life
a ransom for many. So who did Christ give himself
a ransom for? Well, according to scripture,
he gave himself a ransom for all and for many. Both must be
true, both are the word of God. The answer is in that verse,
isn't it, where he said, all that the father giveth me shall
come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. There's the all and the many
right there. Everybody that comes. Well, who is it that comes? Those
that the father gave you. All who will, whosoever will,
let him come. Take the water of life freely.
And all that the Father gave to the Son in the eternal covenant
of grace. And according to our text, or
what we read there in Mark 10, 45, there's a whole bunch of
them. There's a whole bunch of them. And so, The message of the gospel
is come to the Lord come to the Lord Jesus Christ And be you
saved and it is not a suggestion It's a gracious gracious command
from God let's bow I