1st Timothy 2 1 I exhort therefore
that first of all supplications prayers intercessions and giving
of thanks Be made for all men The word therefore refers to
chapter 1 where the doctrine of our Savior was emphasized
He says first of all here, but even before the first of all
I There was the exhortation to sound scriptural doctrine, the
doctrine of Christ. He charged Timothy and told him
to charge those in Ephesus, everyone, that they preach not any other
doctrine. And that word other, we learned
a lot from that, didn't we? He didn't go into all the doctrines
that you're not supposed to teach, didn't need to, if it's other.
If it's not Christ, it's false. If it's not Christ, don't talk
about it. Don't talk to anybody that's
talking about it. So this therefore refers to that
which is before the first of all. Now that being established, that
the doctrine is preeminent. If there's no gospel, then there's
no church. But now Timothy, he's saying,
Timothy, there you are serving in that church. Get the doctrine. As the first priority, first
and foremost, preach Christ. Insist that no one preach anything
other than Christ. then that being established,
first of all, prayer. Not, well, I guess all we can
do is pray, as though it were some last resort. First of all,
prayer. Now, the Lord has impressed for the
last few years upon me the need for this. And I suppose a great
part of the way he did that was my own inadequacy, my own failure
to do it. And just showing me that. First
of all, prayer. It goes against our nature, doesn't
it? Just like everything to do with the gospel goes against
our nature. We think, well, we just gotta
do, do, do, do, do. No, it's time sometimes, first
of all, even, to shut up. and quit to be still and acknowledge
that God is God. That God is God. Who is this
King of glory, Brother Ken Red? That's what we come here today
to find out. Well, don't you know who he is,
Chris? Well, yes and no. Did Paul know who he was when
he said, oh God, that I may know thee? that I may know Thee and
the power of Your resurrection. The occupation of our lives is
to find out who is this King of glory. We talked about humility this
morning. Do you know the primary thing if you're going to overcome
your haughty spirit that you were born with and you're going
to be the person described in our text? And we're not gonna
be ever to the point of pleasing God in that respect or any other. Christ is our righteousness,
but don't you wanna honor him with an humble spirit? You know
how that happens? You know what the primary thing
is? Get on your knees before him now and then. Maybe more
than now and then. I know you can pray without getting
on your knees, but you can pray on your knees too. And a lot
of times in the scripture, they did things in such a way that
the outward expressed what was going on in here. Paul said,
I bow my knees to the Father for you. So there's nothing wrong
with that either, is there? Sometimes we need, you know what
it forces us to do? To quit everything else. and
come to the throne of grace to find help. We need his help. So first of all, prayer. Preaching
the truth, of course, is foundational. But the gospel is not like any
other message or any other teaching. Of course, even in gaining natural
knowledge, of any kind, if you want to learn, if you want to
be an astronaut, God's got to give you the wisdom, right? We
know that. But we kind of tend to take things like that for
granted. Well, he was just born smart. Well, yeah, because God
did that. But we don't think of it that
way. a certain level of cognizance that people generally have that
we take for granted and then others excel in that and we take
that for granted too. Anybody can learn anything and
I believe this very, very much so. Anybody can learn anything
given enough time and dedication and practice. I say practice
because if you're going to learn something, you've got to do it.
You've got to do it wrong about a million times and then you
learn to do it. So taking the time, giving it the dedication
that it deserves, if it does deserve it, and then practicing
it. I believe anybody can learn how
to do anything. I really do. Within our nature
to be able to do. But the gospel's not that way. When it comes to the gospel,
you literally will never have a clue what I'm talking about.
Unless God works a miracle of grace in your heart and gives
you life and faith in Christ Jesus. And I say life and faith
in Christ Jesus because that's what I'm talking about. That's
all I want to talk about is Him. Now you may say and believe that
you understood perfectly everything I said. I've had people say,
boy, I believe everything you said, and then make it very evident
that they don't. And you can believe that, and
you can say that and not have a clue, not have any idea who
God is. We need God to know God. We need God to save us. We need
God to send the gospel to us. We need God to reveal Christ
to us in the preaching of the gospel. We need God. And so what does that tell you?
Prayer. First of all, prayer. It doesn't matter how long Preacher
takes to prepare and how knowledgeable he is in the scriptures if God
doesn't come where we are and Bless us and reveal the gospel
to us It will not just be unprofitable It will be destructive. It will
be a disaster if God doesn't come And we can't make him come
but I tell you what we can do we can ask him to I can't make him say those that
I love, and I'm glad I can't. I don't know anything. We don't want to make God do
anything. We don't want God to change his mind, do we, when
we pray? You really want his mind to bend to yours? That's
a long way down. We can ask. And you know, coincidentally,
he said, if you ask, you'll receive. Incidentally, he said, you don't
have because you don't ask me. For all men, prayers for all
men. Now that's not everybody in the
world. We don't go get a phone book and start thumbing through
it and say, I pray for, you know, Lord bless this one of this one.
It's not talking about that You know it almost never is when
it says all men in the scriptures it almost never is Talking about everybody that
ever lived or everybody in the world praying for peace on earth
For God to save everybody in the world. It's just sentimental
foolishness and Never pray for that which you already know is
contrary to the will of God. Why would you pray like that? It just means here that nobody,
no individual is excluded from this. There's nobody that God
can't save for one thing. If he saved me and he saved you,
we ought to know. His hand is not shortened that
it cannot save. When a sinner dies and goes to
hell, it's the sinner's fault. It doesn't mean that God tried
and they wouldn't let him. That's not what it means when
somebody goes to hell. He said, I'll have mercy on him,
I'll have mercy. Look at some, let me just read
you a few other places in scripture where the phrase all men and
things like that are used. There's a lot of other places.
This is just a few places where the phrase all men is used. Mark 13, 13, you shall be hated
of all men for my name's sake. I'm glad that that's not true
the way most people take the phrase all men in scripture.
I'm glad there's a few of you that don't hate me. There's still
a few left that don't hate me. It may not be that way for long.
I don't know. Doesn't refer to everybody in
the world Acts 22 15 for thou shalt be his witness unto all
men of what thou hast seen and heard that's impossible But it's
everybody anywhere. There's nobody excluded everybody
that'll listen Second Corinthians 3 2 you are
our epistle written in our hearts known and read of all men We
don't have to read a lot of that. You understand that. It's not
about that. It's not everybody that ever lived or everybody
in the world. It's in the context of what's
being said. Pray for everybody you know and
care enough about to pray for them. If you're praying for them,
you care something about them, don't you? Supplications are mentioned here.
You know what the first definition of the word, I was surprised
by this. I looked up the Greek word for supplications from our
verse here. You know what the first word
is? Need. Isn't that instructive? We need
Him. Pray for what you need. And when
I say that, you know, we need our, He said pray. for your daily
bread. Lord, give us this day our daily
bread. There are physical things that
we need, in a sense, if we're gonna live. But also, we need
his mercy. We need his grace, always. We need his wisdom. Pray for
what you need. We do know now the difference
between what we want and what we need, don't we? Sometimes
it's a gray area, If you're like me, sometimes it's a gray area.
I want it so bad I need it, you know. Well, nothing wrong with expressing
your wants to God. If it's for his glory, if you
want something and it's for his glory, ask him. But need, the second word, Second word in the Greek definition.
It's interesting. It's need period and then second
word is indigence This word supplication has to
do with indigence Well that does that tell everybody everything
they need to know do you know what indigence is I didn't know
what it was That's like I'll ask my wife sometimes where something
is and she'll say it's in my purse Okay Where's your purse? Indigents, I don't know if you
know what that means or not. You know what it means though?
Seriously impoverished. Something you need bad. Something
you need bad. People talk about let's have
a quick word of prayer. That's not prayer. That's not
supplication. Quick, casual word of prayer
is not gonna cut it. We need God. And then prayers,
the word prayers there has to do with devotion or worship.
Prayer is worship. It's not just me asking for what
I want or what I need even. It's worshiping God. Our father,
which art in heaven, he told us to pray like. Pray this way. Hallowed be thy name, holy and
reverend. Prayer is a time of worship. Prayer says you trust the Lord,
doesn't it? You trust him. I trust him not
to give me what I ask for if it's bad for me. Prayer says you need him. Prayer
says you submit to him. I'm not gonna try to go out by
the strength of the flesh and get what I need. I'm gonna ask
God for it. Prayer says you believe Him if
you're really praying. I believe Him. Why are you praying? Well, I believe Him. The Lord Jesus said if I ask
anything, In his father's name, he'll give it to me. I believe him. And that's not
just saying at the end of your prayer, in Jesus' name. There's
nothing wrong with saying that. That's a good thing to say. But
it's not just that. It's worship. It's worship. Let's look at Acts 4 together.
I want to look at some scripture. 413 x 413 x 413 through 28 Now when they saw the boldness
of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and
ignorant men they marveled and they took knowledge of them that
they had been with Jesus and And beholding the man which was
healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.
But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council,
they conferred among themselves, saying, what shall we do to these
men? For that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them
is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot
deny it. But that it spread no further
among the people, let us straightly threaten them. that they speak
henceforth to no man in this name. They knew a miracle had
been done and they knew why. They knew they're preaching in
this name and that's how it was done. And they called them and
commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of
Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said unto them, whether it
be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than
unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things
which we've seen and heard. So when they had further threatened
them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish
them because of the people. For all men glorified God for
that which was done. For the man was above 40 years
old on whom this miracle of healing was showed. And being let go,
they went to their own company, reported all that the chief priests
and elders had said unto them, And when they heard that, they
lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord,
you're God. Isn't that beautiful? You might
think that after being threatened by those who had the power to
kill them, if they saw fit, they were only afraid of the people
at this time. But they got away with it in
a lot of cases. They were able to do it. And
these men knew that. You'd think the first thing they
would say is, Lord, protect us. Protect us from these enemies.
Don't let them hurt us. Don't let them stop us. Don't
let them hurt us. No, that's not what they did. They glorified
God. They worshiped. Lord, you're
God. You made heaven and earth and
the sea and all that in them is. Who by the mouth of thy servant
David has said, why do the heathen rage and the people imagine vain
things? Instead of saying, Lord, protect
us, they glorified God and told God what God said. That's how we pray. We're just
telling God what He already knows. But we're saying it from a heart,
at least, that's on its knees before Him, asking Him. But we do it in such a way that's
worship unto him. And then the word intercession
in our text. And this is different, isn't
it? Prayer is not always about you. Intercession has to do with praying
for somebody else. It's not what I need, it's what
they need. It's not what I like, it's what they like. It's not
what's important to me. It's not about me, it's about
them. Oh, isn't that beautiful? Intercession.
Oh, what a wonderful, wonderful way to pray. That woman, she
said, Lord, have mercy on me, my daughter. It's grievously
faxed. My daughter. Don't always be
so caught up in your needs and your wants, and forget to intercede
for those that you care about. Philippians 2, one, if there
be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of
love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies
fulfill you, my joy, that you be like-minded, having the same
love. of being of one accord, of one
mind. Let nothing be done through strife
or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other
better than themselves. Look not every man on his own
things, but every man on the things of others." And the rest of that chapter, gives you not an illustration
of that, but the illustration of that. Let this mind be in
you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, yet made himself of no reputation. And then Paul said, in giving
of thanks, don't forget to thank God. I've been ashamed many times
to find myself going on and on asking God for things without
once ever saying thank you for what he's already given me. At
any given moment, he's given me, bestowed upon me, multiplied
millions of blessings, all my life. All my life, he's bestowed
upon me more blessings than I can ever count, about one bazillionth
of which I even am aware of. Give thanks. May God cause us
to give thanks unto him. Verse two, for kings and for
all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable
life in all godliness and honesty. I'm thankful for this verse.
Pray for kings and for all that are in authority, that we may
lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness. In honesty,
I've heard a lot of people say that a believer should just be
indifferent about what happens in our country, about politics
and things like that. Just, you know, I'll make a statement
about political policies or people or... And the response often
is, I don't care about any of that, God's on the throne. That
sounds real spiritual, doesn't it? Wait a minute, though. The fact
that God is on the throne means that you don't care what happens?
Is that it? It doesn't sound that spiritual
when you think about it. It sounds kind of idiotic. It sounds blind. It sounds like
you're just trying to sound spiritual. I don't want to be a politician.
or be involved in that or anything that would hinder the worship
of God. But do you think King David was
involved in politics a little bit? Paul was involved in politics just because he had to be. But
I mean, sometimes you have to be, don't you? He prayed for
King Agrippa even though that wicked king took his freedom
away for a while. Paul says in our text, politics
has a lot to do with how we live in this world. So that we may live peaceably and godly in this world,
pray for kings. By God's design in Providence,
we better be involved in politics to some extent. I know some people
that won't vote because God is on the throne. What is that? Try not working because God is
on the throne. Try not having a job because
God's on the throne. Try disregarding every risk in
the world because God is on the throne. That's not God's will. It's not God's way. It all redounds to God's glory,
ultimately, Isn't that what it is? I wanna live in all godliness
and honesty, don't you? That's the way I want to live,
and so I want God to put people in office, and that's how people
get in office. God puts them there. My primary
prayer is that God would put people in office that are gonna not make it impossible for you
to live godly and in honesty. I told you a long time ago that
I may have to wear a black hat one of these days. I may be the
guy in the western wearing the black hat because a lot of what
we just do is illegal now. I can't even build what I want
to in my own yard without breaking the law. It's my yard. That's just an example of a thousand
things like that. But we pray for God's wisdom
for them. We pray for God's blessing upon them, that we may
live, that we may live. Verse three, for this is good
and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior. Now, I'm gonna
use that word again I used in Bible class, meritorious. Nothing
we do is meritorious. In other words, gains the favor
of God or is acceptable to God in and of itself. We fall short.
We fall short of the glory of God in everything we do, say,
and think. All we are and all we do, if
we're his, is acceptable in Christ. Christ is our righteousness and
our acceptance with God. He himself is. Not our knowledge
of him, not our faith in him. Christ is our righteousness and
acceptance with God. Our prayers are acceptable because
Christ prays for us. He intercedes for us. Our good
works are acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. First Peter 2.4,
to whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men,
but chosen of God and precious, you also as living stones are
built up in spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices. We're told to offer the praise
of our lips, a sacrifice unto God. We offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Otherwise, it's not acceptable
to God. It's just not. Our deepest, most
heartfelt devotion is evil, apart from Jesus Christ. Even my prayers
are full of sin. But in Christ Jesus, not. We
have no sin in Christ. Verse four, who will have all
men to be saved. and to come unto the knowledge
of the truth. God's revealed will to sinners is this, if any
man thirsts, come and take the water of life freely. Freely. That's to every man that's thirsty. Everybody that's thirsty. Now
we know he has to give you a thirst. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after the righteousness of Christ. They'll be filled
They're gonna have something to eat Because God gave them
that thirst and he fulfills it But if you're not thirsty you
were that excuse You're without excuse We've already seen that
all men are And the scriptures almost never means everybody
without exception. There are a couple of cases in
which it does, but usually not. And this is one of the ones that
doesn't. It just doesn't mean that. It's
all manner of men. His general call goes out to
all men everywhere. And even that's not everybody
that ever lived. There are people that will live
and die on this earth that never hear the gospel one time, ever. So that's not all men in the
sense that people love to interpret that. We're not to interpret
the word of God, we're to read it and understand what God said
by his grace. But he said all men here doesn't
mean everybody that ever lived. But of course, in God's general
call, he'll have all men to be saved. He says, come unto me
and be ye saved. You think he means that? He commands it. He said, look
unto me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth, everybody
everywhere, for I'm God. Not as a fire escape from hell. Because I'm God, that's why you
do it. He commands that. So of course he'll have that
to happen in that sense. I'm God and there's none else.
Religion assumes that if God commands something, then we must
be capable of doing it. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Name one thing that God ever commanded that you're
able to do. He never tells us to do anything
that we can do. To religion, that sounds ridiculous,
but it's just the truth. That's why we read the Bible
and don't go by what men say. Not one thing. We've broken all of his law,
and he didn't expect anything else than that. The command to
come to Christ is no different. Your unbelief doesn't make void
the promises of God. But it's your fault if you don't
believe on God. Listen to this passage in connection
to our text. Think about our text here, that
he would have all men to be saved. Can we preach that? Well, Matthew
23, 37, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets
and stonest them which are sin unto thee, how often would I
have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings, and you would not. The problem is not God's
will, the problem is your will. If you go to hell, the problem
is your will. Religion thinks the solution
is your will. Your will is not the solution,
it's the problem. God commands sinners to bow and
to believe on his son, but because of our sin, we are incapable
of doing that. That's why our Lord said you're
incapable of doing that. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him. That word draw means
to take from where you are and bring you to Christ. To take
from one place and bring to another. God's got to do that for you,
to you, in you. and bless his name, he does draw
all of his elect, all of his chosen, all of his loved ones
that he's loved from eternity. He draws them to his son, to
his son by grace through faith in Christ. He won't draw you
to the front of the church or to an altar, a man-made altar.
No man can come to me except the father drawing. So where
is the father gonna draw it? To me, to Christ. The fact that
God commands sinners to be saved doesn't mean he's gonna save
all of them. He saves whom he will, but here's
a great blessing also. Think about this. The gospel
is for everybody. It's for everybody. There's hope
for all sinners. Come and take the water of life
freely. Oh, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money. Well, my good outweighs my bad,
then don't come. Because you've got something
going for you. You can't come like that. He that hath no money, come and
buy. How am I gonna buy without any money? That's the gospel. That's the gospel. Buy and eat,
yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which
satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat ye that which is good. and let your soul delight itself
in fatness, incline your ear and come unto me. Here and your
soul shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with
you, even the sure mercies of David. I make that promise, I read you
that promise. I repeat that promise on God's
authority without hesitation to every sinner there is. There's
nobody I wouldn't say that to. That's what our text is talking
about. The gospel is Christ is God. The gospel is Christ is God. Come to him. The gospel is Christ is sovereign.
Come to him. The gospel is Christ saves whom
he will. to him The gospel is God has elected
a people from the foundation of the world in Christ And all
of them will be saved and nobody else come to him The gospel is Christ's precious
Sin-cleansing blood redeemed everyone for whom he shed it
come to him The gospel is Christ's perfect
atonement is limited to those who the father chose in eternity
come to him Here's what we need to know about
God's will and salvation in closing turn with me to John 6 37 We're talking about God's will
in salvation. He will That all men should come
unto him John 6 37 all that the father giveth me shall come to
me Now you know what that's saying
In our Lord's high priestly prayer in John 17. He thanked the father
Those that you've gave me I've given them your word keep them
Make them one with us. And he said flat out, I don't
pray for this world, I pray for those that you've given me. Christ's
intercession on Calvary was for those that the Father gave him.
That began in the garden, in that high priestly prayer. Here's
who I'm going to save, not the world. Everybody knows that. But those which you've given
me, All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. He's told the Pharisees, my sheep
hear my voice. Let my sheep have the chance
to hear my voice or the opportunity. or I want them to hear my voice,
they hear me and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal
life. You're not my sheep. You don't
believe on me because you're not my sheep, but my sheep hear
me. That's what he's saying here. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And, not but, they're not conflicting ideas
that you have to somehow reconcile. and him that cometh to me. Have
you ever known him to cast somebody away? I will in no wise cast out. That's a glorious promise. I came down from heaven not to
do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this
is the Father's will, which hath sent me, that of all which he
hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. And that's what he said in that
prayer in John 17. I've lost none of them. I haven't
lost any of them. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, Look, look and
live. That happens by the preaching
of the gospel. We see who he is, if we're given
eyes of faith by God, we see who he is in the preaching of
the gospel. We see what we are, we see our
need of him, and we come to him by God's grace. That everyone which seeth the
Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life. And I'll
raise him up at the last day. I don't know if you're one of
God's elect or not. I've got no way to know that.
But I know if you come to Christ, you'll live. I know that. Is that good enough? I know that. And I know how God
will save you if he does. I know how he'll do it, it's
right there in our text. And come to a knowledge of the
truth. That's salvation. That's salvation. Eternal life
is to know thee, he said in that same prayer. To know thee is
eternal life. And Jesus Christ, whom thou hast
sent, Come to a knowledge of the truth.
The truth is God's holy. And you're not. The truth is
you're a sinner and you're helpless. You're guilty before God with
nothing to plead. The truth is God saves sinners
by grace through faith in Christ Jesus. Who gave himself a ransom for
many elect Those that the father gave
him father gave him many How great that is he didn't have
to give him anybody he gave him a whole bunch His elect his chosen his loved
ones the truth is you need Christ and the truth is all you need
is Christ May God bring us to a knowledge of the
truth.