1 Timothy 2.7, whereunto I am
ordained a preacher and an apostle. I speak the truth in Christ and
lie not. A teacher of the Gentiles in
faith and verity. Paul had just written about how
that Christ gave himself a ransom for all manner of men, for all
men. and all who believe on him, all
that the father gave him. And here he's saying, that's
what I preach. That's what I preach. Wherein to, I'm ordained a preacher
to that, to preach that gospel, that Christ is the ransom for
sin for all who believe on him. a preacher to preach Christ the
ransom. Also, Paul had been writing about
in the previous verses, how that God will have all manner of men
to be saved. He will have all men to be saved.
It's his will, he commands that. He commands all men everywhere
to repent and to believe on his son. And Paul is saying here
to that end, I'm ordained a preacher. Where unto? That's what I preach. We preach the command of the
gospel. It's not an offer. If somebody
sends you an invitation and says, I'm gonna kill you if you don't
show up, that's not much of an invitation. That's sort of an
ultimatum. And that's the gospel now. There
are consequences to not coming to Christ. It's not, you know,
if you feel like it, come to Christ, why don't you try Jesus?
That's not the gospel. And so he'd been writing about
that. He said, I'm commanded to command you to believe on
Christ, bow to him, come to him. This is my beloved
son, hear him. That wasn't a suggestion. And so you see that where unto
in that also, where unto I'm ordained a minister, that God
will have all men everywhere to believe on his son. And that's how God will save.
I'm ordained a preacher to that end, to the salvation of sinners,
because that's how God saves them. By the preaching of the gospel
of Christ and salvation accomplished by Christ. Salvation is not trying
to get men to do something for God. The gospel of salvation
is telling what God did for sinners. Paul wrote also, I'm ordained
an apostle. It's interesting that he says
preacher before apostle. You would think that Paul would
be proud of that, you know, to be an apostle. He could perform
miracles. He was able to heal people and
had the power, you know, of laying on of hands and things like that
as an apostle. And there weren't very many of
those. But he said, I'm a preacher that's
an apostle, called to be an apostle. Often he introduced himself this
way, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. That's the highest honor
there is. Lord willing, I believe we'll
see that in tonight's lesson. So you see the where unto, there's
various aspects to that. but also ordained an apostle
as one born out of due time. See, one of the qualifications
of an apostle is he had to get his gospel directly from Christ
himself. He had to be taught directly
by Christ. Well, Christ had already died
and ascended and sat on the right hand of the glory and the majesty
on high. before Paul was called an apostle.
But he said, as one born out of due time, the Lord appeared
unto me and taught me the gospel. And sure enough, he appeared
to Saul of Tarsus and ordained him an apostle to the Gentiles. Think about the power and authority
of Christ in that for a second. Sinners are saved the preaching
of Christ Why because it pleased God to
do it that way It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe it's just his good pleasure
that it happens like this So how will sinners hear preaching
without a preacher Got to have somebody got to preach the gospel
The Lord could appear to us the way he did to Saul if he wanted
to, but he didn't want to do it like that. It's by the foolishness
of those he calls preaching the gospel. So what does he do? You
got to have a preacher to hear preaching. So God confronts likely
his worst enemy on earth at that time and says, I've chosen you. You talk about authority now
and power. He chose him, he ordains his
worst enemy to preach that gospel, whereby he chose to save sinners.
And listen, then as Paul is preaching, turn with me to Acts chapter
13. As this enemy is now preaching the gospel of
the one that he lived to destroy and hate. That was his purpose,
was to go around persecuting the Lord Jesus by persecuting
his people. So God picks him, he chooses
to save people that way, and he chooses a preacher that nobody
would ever think would be a preacher. And then as he's preaching in
Acts 13, 44, it says, and the next Sabbath day came almost
the whole city together to hear the word of God. But when the
Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy and spake
against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting
and blaspheming." How would you like to preach with somebody
standing there? It's happened before. With somebody contradicting
you and opposing you. I like preaching to y'all. Y'all are easy to preach to.
Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold. Sounds like they weren't
real happy with these idiots. They waxed bold and said, it
was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken
to you. But seeing you put it from you
and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn
to the Gentiles. You know, the Lord told his disciples,
he sent them out two by two. And he said, if people won't
listen to you, go somewhere else. Shake the dust of that town off
of your feet and go preach to somebody that'll listen. And
that's what he did. That's what Paul did. We turn
to the Gentiles, for so hath the Lord commended us, saying,
I have set thee. So you see his authority and
sovereignty in that? I set you. He determined the
way sinners are saved, and he determined who was gonna preach
for him, his worst enemy, the light of the Gentiles, that thou
shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And when
the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word
of the Lord. And as many as were ordained
to eternal life, believe." There he is again, God calling the
shots. He ordained the means whereby
sinners are saved. He ordains the man who preaches
his gospel. And he has ordained from the
beginning those who will believe unto eternal life. That's the
one we preach, the sovereign Christ of Scripture. He saves
who he wants to, the way he wants to, when he wants to. And as for the Now, the only
way to describe that is to say what Jonah says, salvation is
of the Lord. So that's what we say by his
grace. And as for that parenthetical statement there in verse seven, he said, I preach the truth in
Christ. I'm not lying to you. I'm telling
you the truth. He said that same thing in Romans
9, 1. Listen to Romans 9, 1. I say
the truth in Christ. I lie not. My conscience also
bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great heaviness
and continual sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself
were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according
to the flesh. So this was a way that Paul had
to confirm what he was saying. He did it with this oath. I tell
you the truth in Christ. I lie not. Now we know that Paul's
apostleship was questioned by some. It's recorded in scripture
that it was. And you can imagine, we see how
that one man in particular, when the Lord said that he'd called
Paul and he wanted him to go see him, he didn't want to have
anything to do with him. He still knew him as Saul of
Tarsus. He said, we know he's been wreaking
havoc in the church. So you can imagine, knowing who
Paul was before, that a lot of believers probably questioned
this. How can he be an apostle? And so that may be part of what
prompted him to use this oath. I'll tell you the truth in Christ. I lie not. I'm ordained an apostle. But
what this caused me to realize here by God's grace that this oath is appropriate for
every preacher of the gospel when they're preaching. Now, outside the pulpit, nobody
can make that claim, really. I say the truth in Christ. It'd
be foolish to go around saying that when you're just in an everyday
conversation, but a true preacher of the gospel will not only not
lie to you while he's preaching, but a true preacher will prove
it by the word of God. You're gonna know he's not lying. And that's what Paul did. You
won't have to take my word for it that I'm telling you the truth
this morning. If you do, then I haven't preached. But I've told you this before,
and we've thought about this before together, how amazing
that is. Because you know what an idiot
I am 99% of the time, and say stupid things. To preach for 20 years and never
say an untruth from the pulpit, that's God's grace. I haven't
ever lied to you. That's the grace of God right
there. That is amazing, amazing grace. And then Paul wrote this, a teacher
of the Gentiles in faith and verity, in faith and truth. I think sometimes about how the
Gentiles fit into God's purposes. And it's so interesting and so
comforting and such a joy. You realize it didn't have to
be that way. God didn't have to include us. God chose the Jews, the nation of Israel, but not
all of them. He didn't choose them all to
salvation. He chose that nation as a picture of the elect, the
spiritual elect of God in Christ. But he chose them among all the
nations of the earth, not because they were great in number, because
there was anything special about them, but because he loved them,
he said, because he loved them. And having chosen them as a picture
of his elect, he committed unto them, as Paul wrote in Romans
three, I believe it was, he committed unto them the oracles of God,
the sayings of God. to them were committed the word
of God and all of the law. The law pointed to Christ from
the start. It shut sinners up to Christ
when God gave it. And all the types and the pictures
that pointed to Christ, the lambs that were slain, the altar where
that sacrifice was made, the golden candlestick, the showbread,
all of it, everything was a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. It
set him forth and exalted him and he went with them in the
Old Testament. Christ went with them and did
signs and wonders among them at the Red Sea and with the pillars
of cloud and fire by day and night and the manna that came
down from heaven, the rock that gushed out water so they could
live. That rock was Christ. They had every outward advantage
that you could imagine. And there were a few Gentiles
mentioned in the Old Testament as being saved, but not very
many. Not very many. What if it had always been that
way? What if God only just saved a Gentile here and there, but not really had the gospel
preached to the Gentiles. Ephesians 2.11 says, wherefore
remember, remember that you being in time past Gentiles in the
flesh who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision. In the flesh made by hands that
at that time you were without Christ. What if it always was
that way? You were without Christ, being
aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from
the covenants of promise, having no hope. You didn't have any
hope. Until God has the gospel preached
to us, what hope do we have? And without God in the world,
that was us. There didn't have to be a verse
13 in that passage. They could have just stopped
right there. This is the kind of God that God is now. Think
about this. This is the God we're talking
about now that included us. But listen in Jude verse five. I will therefore put you in remembrance,
though you once knew this, how that the Lord having saved the
people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that
believed not. And the angels, which kept not
their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath
reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment
of the great day. So the unbelievers, the Gentiles,
he destroyed them. And the angels who fell, he destroyed
them. But bless God. Let's look at
that passage in Ephesians 2. Turn to Ephesians 2.11, and I
wanna read on to verse 13 this time. Ephesians 2.11. We're talking about God sent
Paul a preacher to the Gentiles. Ephesians 2.11, wherefore remember
that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh who were called
uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in
the flesh made by hands, that at that time you were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers
from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God
in the world, but now in Christ Jesus. You who were at one time far
off or made nigh by the blood of Christ, but now. Aliens, strangers from the covenant,
no hope without God, And then God sent a preacher to the Gentiles. And in Christ Jesus, by faith and truth, faith and
verity, God gives faith to his preachers
and then gives it to those that hear them. That's what he said,
in faith and truth. He preached in faith and truth.
And the result, It's faith and truth. Nobody's saved without
faith. And the truth will still, this
morning, set you free. Christ is the truth. And then
let's look at verse eight for a little while. I will, therefore,
that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and
without doubting. That's an interesting verse,
isn't it? A lot of these words are key in this verse now. We'll
kind of look at most of them. All who know God, wherever you
are, pray. He's not saying that everybody
that a godless heathen that worships Baal or whoever they worshiped
in the New Testament should pray. What you need to do is hear the
gospel and ask God to save you. You can pray that, Lord, save
me. But this whole chapter, so far,
as you've seen and I've seen, has been about prayer. It's been
about prayer from the start. It's just that you can't talk
about prayer without talking about Christ. The chapter, like
every chapter in the scripture, concerns Christ. It just deals
with prayer as it relates to Christ, knowing Him, salvation. Him being the ransom, all that
we've seen here. So what's the point of prayer
here in this? What did he say pray about? The
point of it is salvation by Christ. Pray because God will have all
men to be saved. It has to do with salvation.
Paul said in Romans 10, one, brother, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is, they might be saved. You know, salvation is always
the point of prayer, really, isn't it? Somebody you love gets
sick and you wanna pray, Lord, you know, I pray that you'd heal
them, but if they don't know Christ, that's not all you're
gonna pray, is it? You're not gonna say, Lord, you
know, make them better, and then that's it, amen. You're gonna
say, Lord, maybe use this to save them. Maybe this is the
means you'll use to save their souls. That's what we've got to see.
I don't wanna see anybody I love go to hell, whether they go to
hell sick or go to hell well. Of whatever ails them at the
time. Now, we see and know how religion
interprets this next part of verse eight, lifting up holy
hands. We see what they get out of that,
what religion gets out of that. They get out of that, out of
this verse somehow, that when you come to a worship service,
you're supposed to raise your hands in the air and wave them
around or do this or whatever they're doing with their hands. That's what they get out of it.
whenever they're singing or just congregated at all and they start
feeling spiritual enough. They don't do it right away.
They have to get spiritual enough. And they want everybody to know
how spiritual they feel. So they display that by waving
their hands around. That's a long way from this verse. It's a long way from the truth.
Paul's talking about prayer here. He's talking only about prayer.
You see that in this whole chapter so far. He's talking about prayer. Those who raise their hands in
religion, they're exactly like the Pharisees. They're just modern
day Pharisees. Listen to what it said about
them. Matthew 23, five, but all their works they do for to be
seen of men. They make broad their phylacteries
and enlarge the borders of their garments. They wanna wear things
to let people know that they're religious. They wanna do things
to let people know that they're religious, that they're spiritual.
And love the uppermost rooms at feasts and the chief seats
in the synagogues. They feel like they deserve special
treatment because they're spiritual. and greetings in the markets
and to be called of men, rabbi, rabbi. But be ye not called rabbi. Don't let anybody do that. If
somebody tries to call me reverend or something like that, like
they do now, I'm not going to be called that. That's what he
said, be not called that. For one is your master. They
say, master, master, that's rabbi. You just have one master. It
ain't me. It ain't anybody else. It's Christ. Even Christ. And you are all
brethren. That's what it says. I should
have had you turn to that. He said, don't be called master
because you just have one master and you're brethren. You're just
brothers. I'm just your brother. We're
learning, we're seeing what God said together. We're worshiping
him together. That's brethren. Turn with me
to Matthew chapter six. We're gonna talk a little bit
first about what lifting holy hands is not, clearly from scripture. And then we'll talk about what
it is. Because we're told to do it. I wanna know what that
means, don't you? He said, do that. So I want to
know what it is. Matthew 6, one, take heed that
you do not your alms before men to be seen of them. Otherwise
you have no reward of your father, which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine
alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee. I wonder if that's
where the expression came from, you're tooting your own horn. That sounds about right, doesn't
it? I bet that is where that came from. As the hypocrites
do in the synagogues and in the streets, that you may have glory
of men. Verily I say unto you, that's
all they have is glory from me. But when thy doest, alms, let
not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. That's, you
know, a figure of speech saying, do it in secret. That thine alms may be in secret,
and thy father which seeth in secret. Nobody else sees, but
God does. God does. If that's not all that
matters, then something's wrong. which seeth in secret himself
shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shalt
not be as the hypocrites are. Remember what Paul's talking
about here. Pray lifting up holy hands. Don't be as the hypocrites are,
for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the
corners of the streets that they may be seen of men. Verily I
say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest,
enter into thy closet. Now what we call a closet now,
you probably don't pray in your closet where your clothes are
hanging up. That's not what this is talking about. Pray in your room away privately. And when you have shut your door, Don't even pray in your room
with the door open, because somebody might come in there and see you
doing it. Make certain that it's private. It's you and God, no
distraction, no glory from anybody. Pray to thy father, which is
in secret, and thy father, which seeth in secret, shall reward
thee openly. Now, does that God that said
that, does it sound like he would have us put on a public display
of spirituality by raising our hands in the air in his worship? In his worship. If somebody did
that, we'd be looking at them. This is his worship. No wonder
our Lord said so often to the Pharisees, have you not read? I wanna ask that of people that
are raising their hands like that and calling attention, have
you not read the way the Lord Jesus Christ said that he's to
be worshiped? Have you not read about that?
I'd love to ask religion that question about a lot of things.
The only problem with that is I'm just as stupid as they are.
It's not up to me to ask them that question. I'm just a stupid
man that God has shined some light on. But the main problem
with those who raise their hands is in the worship. I guarantee
you, you go somewhere, you find a church where people are raising
their hands in the worship, and you will not hear the gospel
there. You will not hear the gospel there. Because people
that hear the gospel don't want to act religious. They don't
want to be seen of men. The two go together. The outward
display is a sign of not knowing who it is you're dealing with. The Lord Jesus Christ lifted
up his eyes into heaven when he prayed. We don't do that. Everybody that met God, they
fell on their face. The reason that they don't know
who they're dealing with is because nobody's telling in that place. They're not hearing it. We can
learn a lot about our texts from the first place in scripture
that lifting up hands is mentioned. Let's talk about what it is to
lift up your hands to God. Genesis 14, turn over there with
me. Genesis 14 21 And again, we've seen this recently
in another In another lesson, I think it was from Revelation
But Genesis 14 21 It's the Battle of the Kings Abraham was in Confederation
with the king of Sodom in this battle of the kings. And the
king of Sodom, Genesis 14, 21, said unto Abraham, give me the
persons, the prisoners of war. He's going to make slaves out
of them likely. But you take all the goods, you earned it.
You take all the spoils. Boy, you showed yourself valiant
in this battle. You take everything, because
you earned it. And Abram said to the king of
Sodom, I've lift up my hand under the Lord. Whatever I get out of this is
going to come from God or anything else. The most high God, by the way,
he owns everything. The possessor of heaven and earth. That's who you lift up. That's
what you're doing when you pray. You're lifting up your empty
hand to the God who possesses heaven and earth. And he said,
I'm not gonna take a thread even to a shoelatch it from you. I
will not take anything that's yours, lest you should say, I've
made Abraham rich. And he would say that probably,
wouldn't he? Oh boy, that's our text. It's
not a literal lifting up of your hands. It's coming to God in
prayer with an open raised hand, knowing that we have nothing
that we haven't received from God. And if we're gonna receive
anything else, it's gonna come from Him. Like a little baby
bird. They raise up their head and
open their mouth just as wide as they can, don't they? To get
something from mama. What has mama brought me? I need
it, I'm hungry. That's how we are. We open our
hand to God who openeth his hand and satisfies the desire of every
living thing. Look with me at Psalm 63, four. Let's look at some other scripture
about this. That's the first place it's mentioned
in the word of God, best I can tell that anybody ever lifted
up their hand to God. Look at Psalm 63, four. David said, thus will I bless
thee while I live. I will lift up my hands in thy
name. It's synonymous with prayer,
isn't it? I'm gonna pray in your name,
and this is why. My soul shall be satisfied. You
give me what I need. You're the only one that can
satisfy my desire. So I'm gonna lift up my hands
in your name, and my mouth shall praise thee. You'll satisfy me
with marrow and fatness, and I'm gonna tell everybody that's
what happened. My mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips,
with joy in my heart coming out of my lips. I'm gonna tell everybody,
look what God did for me. He satisfied every need I had.
Lift up your hands to God. We pray, Lord, give us our daily
bread. We have physical needs too, but
listen, look at what David said there, my soul shall be satisfied. Oh, it takes more than what this
world is able to give to satisfy your soul. You have to lift up
your hands to God. Lamentations 2.19, let me read
you this one. Arise, cry out in the night. In the beginning of the watches,
pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord.
What do you think he's talking about there? Cry unto God in the night, pray,
ask him. Pour out your heart like water
before the face of the Lord. Lift up your hands toward him
for the life of thy young children that faint for hunger in the
top of every street. You see what this lifting up
of hands is? You can't do that by waving your
arms around. And our hands have got to be
holy if we're gonna receive anything from God. You can't come before
God as a sinful wretch and get anything from God. That's why
we come in the name of Christ for his sake. We come in Christ. That's what holy hands are. We
come in his name of God. Are we in Christ who has made
unto us righteousness? Otherwise, God doesn't have anything
for you. All of his blessings are in Christ. Now in the end of verse eight,
Paul touches on perhaps the two things that will hinder your
prayer the most. Still talking about prayer. Most commonly, perhaps, a problem
with our praying are these two things. Now listen to Mark, I probably
should have you turn to this too, Mark 11. Turn to Mark 11,
24 and we'll see The two things now, without wrath and without doubting. What's he talking about wrath?
Mark 11, 24. Therefore, I say unto you what
things soever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive
them and you shall have them. There's the doubt right there,
but listen to this part. And when you stand praying, forgive,
forgive. If you have all against any,
that your father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you
your trespasses. You know, he taught us to pray,
Lord, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass
against us. Don't come to me, God says. Do
not come to me asking for forgiveness unless you forgive it. Am I reading that wrong? But if you do not forgive, neither
will your Father, which is in heaven, forgive your trespasses. That's not saying it depends
on what you do. That's just simply saying if
you know anything about the forgiveness of God, you're gonna be forgiving. The scriptures are very clear
about this kind of thing. Listen to Matthew 5.23, therefore
if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember us that
thy brother hath ought against thee. Notice in the other passage
it said if you have ought against them, forgive them. Here it says, if your brother
has anything against you, leave your gift before the altar and
go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother. First. And then come and offer
thy gift. What this simply means is this.
You tell me if this is right or not. This just means come
to God as the wretched sinner that you are. Don't come on your
high horse. Don't come having a problem with
people because you're somehow better than them. Don't come
like that. Come to God with no reason to
ever look down on anybody else for anything, ever. Or don't
come. When you believe now the other
part doubt when you believe that you receive That's what we read there Believe that you receive When you come and pray and ask
God believe that you receive You're trusting him aren't you
that's just trusting him You're trusting him to give you everything
that is good for you. It doesn't mean if you ask for
a million dollars, you're gonna get a million dollars physically. God may just, if you come to
him that way, he may just reveal to you how rich you already are.
And a million dollars wouldn't mean anything to you. Here's what you're believing.
Psalm 84.9. when you, no doubt, when you
don't doubt. This is it right here, Psalm
84, nine. Behold, O God, our shield, and
look upon the face of thine anointed, for a day in thy courts is better
than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and
shield, the Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold
from them that walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the
man that trusteth in thee. That's what prayer is too, isn't
it? It's trusting him. It's trusting him. This word
doubting also So this one final thing we'll be through. The word
doubting also has to do with questioning or disputing. How
often we do that with God? Questioning or disputing. In
other words, pray like this. Pray with a resignation to God's
will in everything. A resignation to His will. Otherwise,
you're doubting Him. You're disputing with God, even
if you don't know that's what you're doing. It's not so much
a question in this sense of doubting that God will give you what you
ask for, but doubting God himself. Questioning or disputing his
will. We can pray with this attitude
even if we're not conscious of it. We can pray with the attitude
that if God, you know, things aren't right, this is what'll
make them right, and pray kind of with that attitude. If I can't
change God's mind, you know, then it ain't right. Our Lord
prayed, nevertheless, not in my will, but thy will be done. Don't pray thinking that God's
got to do what we ask, that we, you know, we need to, you know,
The way God is doing things is not gonna cut it. Here's how
it needs to be. That's doubting, that's questioning. Praying in order to change God's
mind is doubting God. Why would you wanna do that?
Pray with the attitude that whatever God does is right. Do you know why you ought to
pray with the attitude that whatever God does is right. Because whatever God does is
right. May he give us that spirit when
we come before him, pleading for our children, pleading for
those that we love, pleading for his grace for those who are
sick or hurting in some other way. Lord, teach us to pray. Amen.