Well, let us turn again to God's
words and to the portion we were considering last Lord's Day,
the first epistle of Paul to Timothy in chapter 2. And I'll read again the opening
verses here in this chapter, 1 Timothy 2. Verse 1, I exhort, therefore,
that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving
of thanks be made for all men, for kings, and for all that are
in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in
all godliness and honesty. 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. And last time we
concentrated on those opening two verses that we've just read. And I spoke somewhat of prayer
for the state, prayer for the powers that be, prayers for governments. We're not to despise dominion. We're not to speak evil of dignities,
says James. We are to pray. We're to pray
for them and it's interesting how that there's some emphasis
laid upon the importance of prayer in the opening words of the chapter
I exhort therefore he says that first of all here is something
that must have the priority, the importance, the preeminence
of our prayers and our prayers for those that bear the rule
over us and we remarked on how these are pastoral epistles,
these two letters to Timothy and then the letter to Titus,
these young men who were obviously assistants to the Apostle Paul
himself and he speaks to them of the responsibilities of their
own ministry and remember What that ministry was, back in Acts
chapter 6, where we have those disputes amongst the widows concerning
the distribution of the funds, the charity that they were in
need of. There was some disagreement between
the Jews and the Gentiles over that matter, and the apostles,
who at the time were the sole functionaries in the church,
see the need to institute another office and it's that of the deacon.
Those seven who are chosen to sort this matter out, this distribution
of the funds, the serving of tables. And the apostles say
we will give ourselves continually to prayer and the ministry of
the words. They see that as their primary
duty, to pray, and to preach the word. As I say, these young
men, Timothy and Titus, are assisting the Apostle Paul in that aspect
of his work. Here in the second letter, in
chapter 4 and verse 5, Paul says to Timothy, make full proof of
thy ministry. He was to give himself then to
prayer. and to the Ministry of the Works
and remember to Titus we see that a specific instruction was
given There in Titus 1.5 for this cause left I thee in Crete
that they should have set in order the things that are wanting
and ordained elders in every city as I appointed them. They were to attend then to the
proper ordering of the churches and the work of the Christian
ministry. And as with Titus there in Crete
so also with Timothy who is left at Ephesus here in chapter 1
verse 3, as I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when I
went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they
teach no other doctrine. Here is the duty then that Timothy
is to address. It's that of the of the ministry,
the ministry of the words and the principal parts of of worship
and he's dealing with that really I said in the opening chapter
of this first epistle and he reminds young Timothy of his
own ministry in verse 12 I thank God rather I thank Christ Jesus
our Lord who has enabled me for that he counted me faithful putting
me into the ministry who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor
and injurious but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly
in unbelief and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant
with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus Paul then is a pattern but he
goes on to say doesn't he that he is a pattern to them which
he hereafter believe on Christ to life everlasting. But he speaks very much of the
ministry of the words in the opening chapter. And later, he
reminds Timothy again as to what that will entail. In chapter
4 and verse 13, till I come, he says, give attendance to reading,
to exhortation, to doctrine. The word doctrine is more literally
teaching. Till I come give attendance to
reading, to exhortation, to teaching. And those are all public ministries. It's the public reading of the
words that is to give attendance to. It's to the exhortation of
the brethren. It's to the teaching of the doctrines
of the Word of God. This is his duty then to minister
the Word as one who is an assistant to the apostle himself. But not only the ministry of
the Word, those apostles said that they would give themselves
to prayer and the ministry of the Word. And so he speaks here
in the second chapter quite specifically of this other part of their work,
the work of these young men Timothy and Titus some refer to them
as evangelists proclaimers of the evangel and the other part
is prayer and so that's what we have here in the second chapter
and as I say last time we saw how he speaks at the beginning
in the first two verses of the need to be praying for those
in authority even in a situation where there was a totalitarian
status they were ministering in parts of what was the great
Roman Empire and all that that entails where there was gross
idolatry why Caesar was worshipped as a god and yet they had to
pray they had to pray for those who were bearing the rule over
them well having dealt with the first two verses I want to turn
tonight to verses three and four and to take up the subject really
of prayer in relation to God's sovereignty. That's what we see
here. Prayer and divine sovereignty. He says, "...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."
What is it that he is speaking of when he says it is good and
acceptable in the sight of God? Well, it's what he's been speaking
of previously, prayer. There must be supplications,
prayers, intercessions, giving of thanks, and we did remark
there in the opening verse, he speaks of different types of
prayers. And he says this is good, this
is acceptable. in the sight of God our Savior
and he speaks of God's will. God will have all men to be saved
and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. And he's echoing
in a sense I suppose the words of the Lord Jesus because Christ
himself says in the gospel men ought always to pray and not
to faint. Remember out there in In Luke
18 it says He spake a parable unto them to this end. That was
the purpose of the parable. And He speaks of the widow and
the impotent judge, the woman who will not be denied. The judge is an unmerciful man.
Men ought always to pry how she persevered in her request to
the judge. That was the point of the parable.
Men are to pray, but we're here thinking tonight of the relationship
between the prayers of God's people and the sovereignty of
God. We believe that God is a sovereign
God. He's the creator. He's the sustainer. He's the one who rules and reigns.
How do our prayers relate to God's sovereignty? Well, I want
to divide what I'm going to say into two parts. First of all,
to say something with regards to the purpose of God in relation
to our prayers, and then, in the second place, our prayers
are to be concerned with the prosperity of the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, the purpose of
God. Here, at the beginning of verse
4, he says, who will. He's speaking of God, our Savior,
who will. He is speaking very much of God's
will. And he's speaking also in verse
three of that that is good and acceptable in the sight of God. Well, what is this good and acceptable
will of God that is being spoken of? What is it that's being spoken
of here? What is God's will, that good
will, that acceptable will? Is it that God really desires
to save everybody? Now, of course, that's what the
Arminian would immediately say. And he might point us to this
text and say, look, it is as plain as the nose on your face
that God wills to have all men to be saved. and we're to pray
that God will save all men. But is that really the truth?
Is it the truth of this particular verse or these two verses? No, what we have to do of course
is to examine the Word of God and when we come to the Word
of God we're not to take any part of God's Word out of its
context. As I said before, the old writers
would speak of the analogy of faith. And what they meant, really,
was that when we come to God's Word, we are always to remember
the whole of it, and we're to interpret each particular part
of it in the light of the totality of what God is saying. And we
certainly learn this concerning God's will in Scripture, that
God's will is one. There is only one will in God,
and that will is invariable, it's unalterable, it's unchanging. I am the Lord, he says, I change
not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. There are many scriptures that
indicate to us the sovereignty of that will of God. that never changes from eternity
to eternity. We are told in 1st Samuel 15
29 the strength of Israel will not lie nor repent for he is
not a man that he should repent. What does that mean? Well God
never changes his mind. The basic idea of repentance
in the New Testament, the word that's used It's one of those
compounds and it literally means a change of mind, a fundamental
change. Such a change as a man's life
is turned about, turned upside down and inside out, but it's
just simply a change of mind. But God never repents, God never
changes his mind. God is not a man that he should
lie nor the son of man that he should repent as he said it,
shall he not do it? hath he spoken it, shall he not
make it good? We read in Numbers 23 19. And
then of course, remember how when the prophet Isaiah speaks,
he has to deal with idolatries that were coming in amongst God's
ancient people. He exposes the following. of
idolatry, they were wanting to be like the nations round about
them and we have that in such a chapter as Isaiah 46 the opening part there speaks
of the futility of idol worship and then God says this in verse 9 remember the former
things of old for I am God and there is none else. I am God's,
and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and
from ancient times of things that are not yet done, saying,
My counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. And he goes on later, yea, I
have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it,
I will also do it. What are the idols beside a God
who is all-powerful? A God who is sovereign, who always
does according to his own will. And we know how one of the great
Emperors of the ancient worlds, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, were
so humbled before the God of Israel. There in Daniel 4 verse
35, after God had humbled him and taken away his rationality,
and he behaved like a brute beast, and then, when he is restored,
he is brought to acknowledge the true God, all the inhabitants
of the earth are accounted as nothing, he says. He doeth according
to his will among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants
of the earth. And none can stay his hand, or say to him, What
doest thou? If God therefore has willed to
save all men, all men shall and must be saved. It's as simple
as that. If that's what God has willed, that is what's going
to happen. For this is good and acceptable
in the sight of our God, who will have all men to be saved,
and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. There's no resisting
His will. Why we read those words, didn't
we, in Romans 9.19? Who hath resisted His will is
the question. And no one, no one can resist
that will of God. But remember what we also read
there, Verse 18, Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have
mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Again, at verse 21, we have that
analogy, Hath not the pot of power over the clay of the same
lump to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour?
What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power
known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his
glory, and the vessels of mercy which he had aforeprepared unto
glory." Why God has willed vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy,
that's what we see there. How do we square all of that
with what we have here in the text that we're considering tonight? Furthermore, with regards to
those vessels of wrath that the Apostle speaks of there in Romans
9, what does Jude say? That little epistle of Jude.
He speaks of those vessels who were before the vault ordained
to this condemnation. God, in other words, has never
willed the salvation of those vessels of wrath. God's will
is one. There are not two wills in God,
there's one will. But there's also a double predestination
in God, in that one will. There are some who are elect,
they are chosen to salvation. There are others who are reprobate,
therefore ordained to condemnation. There's a double predestination
in that sense. But there's always that unity
in the Godhead. God He's three persons. God is Father, God is Son, and
God is Holy Spirit. But He is one God. Hear O Israel,
the Lord our God is one Lord. And Job. Job 23, 13. He is in one mind, and who can
turn him? And what his soul desireth, even
that he doeth. That's what Job is brought to
acknowledge. God always does according to His will. And God's will is a single will and He will
accomplish it in relation to that double predestination. And
when we see the Lord Jesus Christ there in the Garden of Gethsemane
in prayer to His Father, and remember how He prays, not my
will but Thine be done, Does it not show us the reality of
that human nature of the Lord Jesus, how as the God-man he
is subject to that will of God. That is what he has come to accomplish. And so clearly, we're not to
come away from this text tonight thinking that God really has
willed the salvation of all. Because if that is the case,
all must be saved, or God is not sovereign. That's the dilemma
that the Arminian has. He might want to say that God
has a will to save everyone, but that will is frustrated.
How is it frustrated? Because men refuse to be saved. What then are we to make? What
are we to make of these words? Well, I think there are two ways
in which we can interpret the words, 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. We can interpret
it if we, and some do interpret it like this, they say it refers
to the general benevolence of God. Some would call that common
grace. But I I refuse to use that term
because surely grace to be grace is always special and sovereign
but surely we see that there is a general benevolence in God
and here we have this expression in verse 3 God our Savior and then in verse 5 we read of one
God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And can it be argued that in
verse 3, God our Saviour is not referring to the mediator, that
is the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Saviour of sinners, but
the reference in verse 3 is to God, God who is the creator of
all things, God who is the sustainer of all things. the God who maketh
his sun to rise on the evil and the good, who sends his rain
on the just and on the unjust, of whom it can be said of all
men that in him they live and move and have their being. Is
this statement that we have in these two verses, and it's According
to the punctuation in an unauthorized version these two verses are
forming a single sentence. Is this sentence simply speaking
of that general benevolence in God? He is the savior of all
men in that he is benevolent unto all. He's kind. He causes
the sun to rise and to shine on both good and bad. He sends his rain. Men are preserved. Are we to interpret it that way?
Well, personally I say we're not justified in that really.
It's a spiritual salvation surely that is being spoken of in our
text. This good and acceptable thing
in the sight of God our Savior must surely be the accomplishment
of His will. In the great work of redemption
and salvation And so when we read that God's will is that
all men are to be saved, is it not safer to understand the word
all, as I remarked last week, all sorts, all types, all classes
of men? Not every individual who has
ever been born, ever lived on the face of the earth, but all
sorts of men. Because he says, doesn't he,
that in the verses we were looking at last week, supplications, prayers, intercessions,
giving of thanks are to be made for all men. And then he speaks
of a specific sort of person that we should pray for, kings,
those in authority. there are those who are in authority,
there are those who are subject he's speaking of a particular
sort but we're not to understand the word all at the beginning
of this chapter in terms of every individual but we're to think
in those terms that God wills to save all sorts of men and
even amongst those who are in authority he saves some Doesn't
Paul tell us that in 1 Corinthians 1.26, not many mighty he says,
not many noble are caught. But he doesn't say not any, not
any mighty, not any. No, but he says not many, but
there are some you see. Maybe God will save some of those
in authority that we pray for. It's all sorts of men that God
saves and surely the knowledge that is being spoken of here,
God will have all sorts of men to be saved and what will this
salvation entail? They'll come to the knowledge
of the truth. Oh, what is the knowledge of the truth? It's
the truth of the gospel, it's the truth of Jesus Christ who
is the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the way, the truth
and the life. And it's the knowledge of him,
it's that experimental knowledge. He says in his own prayer in
John 17, this is life eternal. that they might know the only
true God and Jesus Christ whom they were sent. Oh, what a knowledge
is this! It means life eternal to know
in that experimental way, in the soul's experience to be trusting
in the Lord Jesus Christ, to be growing in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And so when we
come to a passage such as this, we must always take account of
the general teaching of scripture, the analogy of faith, and we
must look at the context, we must look at the verses that
surround the text that we're looking at, and not just tear
it out of its context. And what is it that is being
spoken of here? Is it not prayer for the prosperity
of the gospel? 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. Remember why we
are to pray for the civil ruler previously spoken of here in
verse 2. There's a reason why we are to
pray for kings and those in authority and in eminent places. It's that. Literally, it's in order that.
That's the force of the word that we have there. In order
that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness
and honesty. Why has God ordained government? We looked at this last week.
I referred you to the words that I'm sure you're familiar with
in Romans 13 where he speaks of the higher powers being God's
ordinance. And he says there in Romans 13
3, Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.
Will thou then not be afraid of the power, that is, the authority?
Do that which is good, and thou shalt have the praise of the
same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. This
is government. But if thou do that which is
evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain. For he
is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that
doeth evil. where there is good government,
there's good law, and where there's good law, well, there are those
offences which are capital offences. He bears not the sword in vain.
He's there to execute wrath upon those who do evil things. We
live in a society, of course, a life which is in many ways
turned upside down in our own day. Nonetheless, we still recognize
that the powers that be are God's ordinance, are ordered of God.
And we're to pray for them, and we're to pray for them to this
end, that we might have a modicum of law and order, and that we
might have our liberties. We're not to take our civil liberties,
or any of our liberties for granted. We're to look to God, and to
pray to God, and to recognize God's hands. He is the one who
is sovereign, and has appointed even governments, and so we're
to pray. to pray that our liberties might not be taken away. These civil and religious liberties
that we probably do take for granted cost our spiritual forebears
a great deal. It was not always so. And so we're praying that the
gospel might have openings, that there might be a prospering of
the gospel even in our own land. Prayer itself, of course, is
also God's ordinance. Not just the powers that be,
that's an ordinance of God, but prayer. You see, God is sovereign,
he has appointed the end. The Lord is fulfilling his eternal
purposes. He knows the end from the beginning.
and He has appointed the way in which He will accomplish that
blessed end. And what is the way? It's prayer. It's prayer. We have to pray
because God is pleased to use our prayers to accomplish His
own glorious ends. I will yet for this be inquired
of by the house of Israel, He says, to do it for them there
at the end of Ezekiel 36 in the context is speaking of deliverance
from the Babylonian captivity. We have following 37th chapter
the vision of the valley of dry bones and the bones all coming
together they're covered in sinews and flesh but they're still dead
and he has to prophesy to the four winds to blow upon these
And they all become a great army. It's God who's going to restore
these people. He's going to take them out of captivity. But He'll
have Israel to pray. But there's a spiritual application.
The spiritual Israel. God's Zion, the true church,
has to pray. I will yet for this be inquired
of by the house of Eli. That's us, the church. He will
increase us. How will He increase us? With
men. But we have to pray. And what is prayer? Well, those
are amazing words in Isaiah 45, 11. He says, Ask me of things
to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands,
command ye me. What a description of prayer.
Concerning the work of my hands, command ye me, God says to his
people. That's the invitation to prayer.
Prayer was appointed to convey the blessings God desires to
give. Long as they live should Christians
pray, for only whilst they pray they live, says Joseph Hart. All the importance of prayer,
for this is good and acceptable in the sight of our God, who
will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge
of the truth. Remember what the Psalmist says,
of course so many of the Psalms are in the form of prayers to
God. Psalm 102 verse 13, Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon
Zion, for the time to favor her, yea, the set time is come. Or
can we not pray that it might be the set time to favor Zion? What is the set time? What is
the set time? Again, and I close with this,
in Isaiah 60 and verse 2, For behold, the darkness shall cover
the earth, and gross darkness the people. But the Lord shall
arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. What
dark days! But is that not God's accepted
time? The Lord help us in to pray to
Him as that one who is absolute in His sovereignty and yet will
have us poor sinful creatures saved by His grace to come and
concerning the work of His hands to command Him. May the Lord
bless His Word. Let us, as we come to close,
sorry we're not going to close are we? We're going to have prayer.
As we conclude the ministry of the Word we turn to the hymn
882 and the tune Theodora, 423. Prayer was appointed to convey
the blessings God designs to give. Long as they live should
Christians pray, for only while they pray they live. 882.