First Timothy chapter two. A
few months ago, we started going through the book of First Timothy. And I have been sidetracked lately.
I've been consumed with the book of Romans, which is a good place
to be consumed. We've been other locations, but
of the books that we are going through verse by verse, mainly
we've been in Romans. I felt led though to come back
to 1 Timothy for this Bible study because there is something here
that is absolutely critical for us to know and understand. Absolutely
critical. In just a moment I'm going to
give you the title of this Bible study. It's a question. And it's a critical question
that we must know and understand the answer to. Let's read 1 Timothy
2, verses 1 to 7. It says, 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. 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, 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." Now did any of those statements stand
out to you? In verse 4, he said, who will have all men to be saved. and to come unto the knowledge
of the truth. In verse six, he said, who gave
himself a ransom for all. A ransom is the price paid. He
paid the price. Who gave himself a ransom for
all. Now here's the title of this
Bible study. Does God want everybody to be saved? This is a extremely important
question. Does God want everybody to be
saved? I'm sure at some point you've
heard somebody say, well, now, you know, that's how people started
as though they know, as though they know what the scripture
says. They'll say, well, now, you know, God wants everybody
to be saved. Does he? IF HE IS GOD, IF HE IS GOD, IF
HE IS ACTUALLY THE ALMIGHTY GOD THAT THIS WORD DECLARES HIM TO
BE, AND IF HE WANTS EVERYBODY TO BE SAVED, DON'T YOU THINK
EVERYBODY WOULD BE SAVED? I MEAN IF HE'S GOD, IF HE IS
THE ALL-POWERFUL ONE, and nothing can overpower him nothing can
overpower his will nothing can overpower his work if everything
and everyone must bow to the way that he says it's going to
be and if he says my desire is for everybody to be saved don't
you think everybody would be saved Concerning this issue, we face
a dilemma, all right? There's a dilemma here. If there
is a place of destruction, I heard a man point blank tell me one
time, there is no hell. Well, God says there is. If there is a place of torment,
like God says there is, and there is. There is a place and there
are people in it. Our Lord has referred to it as
outer darkness. He's referred to it as the lake
of fire, and some are in it. So if not all souls are going
to be saved, then it means one of two things. It either means
God is not really God, or God has not purposed for all
men to be saved. One of those two things. If there
are lost people, then it either means God is not really God,
or God has not purposed for all men to be saved. And I tell you
this, God really is God. He really is. We can rule that
one out. That'll help us with this dilemma. We know this. God
really is God. Look back up at chapter 1, 1
Timothy 1, verse 17. It says, Now unto the King eternal,
immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory
forever and ever. Amen. He said in Isaiah 45, I
am God, there is none else. He said in Isaiah 43, I will
work and who shall let it? Who will stop me? Who am I gonna
have to get permission from? He said in Isaiah 46, my counsel
shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. I'll do all of it.
David said in Psalm 115, Our God is in the heavens, and He
hath done whatsoever He hath placed. So clearly there's no
dilemma at all. If every soul is not saved, then
it means God has not purposed to save every soul. We see that in so many places
in the scripture. Here's a few of them that are
just well known. Esau. God said, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. I have purposed to save Jacob. I have not purposed to save Esau. Pharaoh, the Pharaoh of Egypt.
God said, for this same purpose, have I raised you up that I might
show my power in you. I raised you up to tear you down. The same thing can be said about
Judas, his own follower. The Lord called him the son of
perdition. You know what perdition means?
It means utter destruction. It means ruin. It means loss. That's what it means. The Lord
said he was lost on purpose according to the commandment of God, by
the decree of the scripture, according to the scripture. And
if you look at chapter 1 again, verse 18, 1 Timothy 1, verse
18, it says, this charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according
to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by
them mightest war a good warfare, holding faith in a good conscience,
which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck. of
whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander, these two men, Hymenaeus and
Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn
not to blaspheme. That's an on purpose announcement.
They were delivered unto the adversary that they might learn
not to blaspheme. So clearly we can see that God
is not purposed for all men to be saved. All right, well then
why in chapter two, verse four, did he say, who will have all
men to be saved. Why did he say that? All right,
let's look at that in the context of what he's saying here. Chapter
2, verse 1 says, I exhort, therefore, that first
of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of
thanks be made for all men. Why would we do that? Why would we do that? Why would
we make supplications? Supplications means begging in
a humble way. Prayer means specifically to
God. Intercession means on behalf
of someone else. It's the nature of the flesh
to beg on behalf of our own selves. But verse one says, I exhort
therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions,
and giving of thanks be made for all men. Now again, think
about this. Why would we do that? Why would
we do that? If we know that God is absolutely
sovereign, absolutely sovereign in who he has purposed to save. Really think about this. This
is needful information for a congregation of believers. We believe that,
don't we? We preach that. God is sovereign. God chose who he would save from
the foundation of the world. All right, we pray. We pray privately. We pray publicly. We're praying
for people. We're praying for our children.
Lord, please save them. Begging in a humble way to God
on behalf of another. Please save them. Please save
them. Please have mercy on them. Why
would we do that if not all men are going to be saved? IF ONLY GOD'S ELECT ARE GOING
TO BE SAVED, IF THAT WAS ORDERED AND SET FROM THE FOUNDATION OF
THE WORLD AND GOD DOES NOT CHANGE AND HE'S NOT INFLUENCED AND IT
CAN'T BE ALTERED, WHY WOULD WE DO THAT? HERE'S A GOOD ILLUSTRATION
OF WHY. SOMEBODY ASKED CHARLES SPURGEON
ONE TIME, IF YOU BELIEVE ONLY GOD'S ELECT WILL BE SAVED, Then
why don't you just preach to God's elect? Yeah, he said, I
would if they had a big E in their forehead. But they don't. They don't. So we preach to and
we pray for all men and women. Who knows those children in there
may be some of the ones chosen from the foundation of the world
to be saved. chosen to believe Christ. He's
chosen to use this means of witnessing the gospel. So we preach it to
everybody we can. We pray for everybody we can.
Lord, bring them to hear the gospel. Bring them to hear the
truth. God is going to save a people
out of, those are two important words, out of every tribe. Think about that. Every tribe. You see all these, you know,
pictures of tribes on TV and every tribe, every nation, every
kindred, every tongue on this earth. That's what Revelation
5 says. Psalm 100 says, His mercy is everlasting and His truth
endureth to all generations. That's one of the most comforting
and encouraging verses of scripture that I know of as a preacher.
His mercy is going to all generations. He's going to save out of every
nationality of people. HE'S GOING TO SAVE FROM EVERY
GENERATION OF PEOPLE. HE IS GOING TO SAVE FROM EVERY
CLASS OF PEOPLE. KINGS TO PAUPERS AND WAY MORE
PAUPERS THAN KINGS. HE SAID NOT MANY NOBLE. BUT HERE'S
THE THING WE GOT TO REMEMBER. SOME NOBLE. DAVID WAS A KING. SOLOMON WAS A KING. THINK ABOUT IT. One of the great leaders of this
earth. Oh, how glorious would that be?
A man who had God's Word as his rule and the good of his people
as his heart? Here's the point. God is going
to save all types of people. All manner of people from all
over this world. Look with me if you would at
Acts chapter 11. This ought to really encourage
us to get the gospel to them. Here in Acts, in this portion of Acts, the
Lord came to Peter in a vision. And this is what the Lord said
to him. He said, I want you to go preach the gospel to the Gentiles. He had this vision of a sheet
that was let down with all these manner of beasts in it. And what
he was telling him is, I want you to go preach the gospel to
the Gentiles. If you're not from Israel, if
you're not a Jew, Everybody else on the earth is a Gentile. And
he said, I want you to go preach to the Gentiles. And this was
a little bit confusing to Peter because he thought the promises
of God were only to his people. All right. All the other Jews thought the
same thing. We thought the promises of God were only to his people.
They are. But the problem for them was
they did not truly understand who God's people were, who his
true people were. Romans 2 says he's not a Jew
which is one outwardly. Just because a man is born into
the nation of Israel, that doesn't mean he's a child of God. Just
because a man is born into a church, that doesn't mean he's a child
of God. He's not a Jew which is one outwardly,
but he's a Jew which is one inwardly. Circumcision is of the heart,
it's of the spirit, but the Jews didn't know that yet. So when
they found out that Peter went and preached to the Gentiles,
they said, why did you do that? Why would we do that? Just like
we said, why would we do that? Peter told them the story how
God came to him. He appeared to him in a vision
and said, go preach to the Gentiles. And when Peter did that, when
he preached to them, God's Holy Spirit brought life to these
Gentiles and faith to these Gentiles. And it caused them to believe
on Christ. When God's Spirit comes, when
a person receives the Holy Spirit, when the Spirit comes down on
a person, this is what happens. They believe Christ. That's what
happens. That's how you know. they believe
Christ. Well, verse 15, Acts 11, verse
15, Peter is telling them, as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost
fell on them as on us at the beginning. Then remembered I
the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized
with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.
For as much then as God gave them the like gift as he did
unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, what was I
that I could withstand God? When they heard these things,
they held their peace and glorified God, saying, then hath God also
to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. At that moment, they
realized God's salvation is not limited to the nation of Israel
only. He has had mercy on and He's
going to save people from all over this world. Life has gone
all over the world. It doesn't matter whether those
people are Jew, Gentile, male, female, Scythian, barbarian, bond-free. God will have mercy on whom he
will have mercy. All manner of men. Alright, so
go back to our text. This is why Paul said we need
to be praying for everybody. We need to be preaching this
message to everybody. Verse 1, he said, I exhort, therefore,
first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving
of thanks be made for all men. All men. He's going to have mercy
on all kinds of men, whether they're too sinful or too self-righteous, whether they seem to be too ignorant,
or too wise in their own eyes, God in His mercy and in His kindness,
He will have all men, all kinds of men to be saved. And then
he said in 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, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of
God, our Savior. We pray for the salvation of
all men, whoever God might be willing to save, and we pray
for God's control and restraint over all men, that he might lead
those that are in authority over us, their decisions, to be for
the good of God's people. And God will control and God
will restrain all of those men, especially those that have the
rule, the earthly government over us. Proverbs 21 says, the
king's heart, meaning the earthly king's heart, is in the hands
of the Lord. As the rivers of water, he turneth
it whithersoever he will. The lot may be cast into their
lap, but the whole disposing is of the Lord. And Paul said,
we pray for him. We pray to the Lord for him continually.
Verse three, 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. He will have all men to be saved,
all manner of men all over this world. Scripture says he's able
to save to the uttermost. And this is how you'll know who
it is. All right, this question, we've already answered it, but
does God want everybody to be saved? Here's the answer. No,
God has purposed for a particular people to be saved. How will
we know who they are? He will bring them to a knowledge
of the truth. Verse four again, who will have
all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. Every soul that
he saves will come to a knowledge of the truth. That's an evidence
of who he saves. He has not purposed to save all
men, but he's purposed to save some. Scripture says many, many. And the souls that he has purposed
to save, they're evidenced in this way. Every single one of
them will come to know the truth. Now, our clock stopped. Okay, so I don't know how long
I've been going. I'm always checking that clock. I like that clock.
It could be time. I don't know. So I'll try to
be quick, but go with me to John 6. John 6 verse 44, it says, No man can come to me
except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will
raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that
hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me." Every
man that hath heard and learned of the Father comes to me. They
shall all be taught of God. All of my saved people are going
to be taught. Now what are they going to be
taught? Number one, that no man can come to Christ except the
Father which sent Christ draws that man to Christ. They're going
to learn something of God's holiness. that no man in sin can approach
unto. They're going to learn something
of their sinfulness and why they cannot approach. They're going
to learn something of the salvation that's in Christ, only in Christ. Man tries to satisfy the law. It's what tears people up. If you've ever experienced just
being torn up over sin and salvation and all those things, this is
what's happening. Man tries to satisfy the law and satisfy the
law and satisfy the law. But once God reveals the truth
to him, he sees that Christ has already satisfied it for me. Man tries to offer sacrifice
to God after sacrifice to God, trying to earn forgiveness, forgiveness,
I'm begging, I'm pleading, I'm offering whatever I can offer.
And then once God reveals the truth to that sinner, he sees
Christ has already offered the sacrifice for me. It's already
been made. The payment has already been
paid. There's nothing to do. It's all done, all of it. Look
at John 8. John 8 verse 32, it says, and
you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Free from trying to secure a
salvation that Christ has already secured. All of God's saved people, all
the souls he purposed to save, they will be brought to a knowledge
of the truth who is a person. Who is a person? Our Lord said
in John 14, I'm the truth. I'm the truth. When a sinner
has the truth revealed to him, This is what happens. Christ. Everything in his mind, everything
out of his mouth is Christ. What about this? Christ. Christ. That's the truth. That's knowing
the truth. Christ. I don't know, but Christ.
That's the truth. So God has purposed in his heart
to save a people from all over this world. by bringing them
to a knowledge of Christ, who He is, what He's done for. Now
go back to our text. We'll close this up. Verse four says,
who will have all men to be saved and to come unto a knowledge
of the truth. For there is one God and one
mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus, who gave
himself a ransom for all. all that the Father gave to him.
That's what Christ said. In John 17, he said, I pray not
for the world, meaning not every man and woman in the world. but
for them which thou hast given me." That's who I'm praying for.
That's who I'm going to say. Here are just a few well-known
scriptures that men like to quote, trying to argue that Christ died
to make salvation possible for everybody, that He wanted everybody
to be saved if you'll just take it. These are scriptures that
people quote. John 3.16, don't turn to any
of these. John 3.16, it says, for God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him,
whosoever believeth, shall not perish, but have everlasting
life. In the verses before that, he
told Nicodemus, marvel not that I'm saying to you, you must be
born again. The Spirit must come to you and
bring life to you. And when the Spirit comes, what
happens? People believe Christ. Faith comes. That Spirit brings
faith. And He said, the Spirit blows
where it listeth. He gives it to whoever He wills
to give it to. Ephesians 2 says, faith is not
of ourselves. That's the gift of God. Right
after that, in John 3, 18, He said, He that believeth not is
condemned already. This is all in God's hands, already
condemned. God gives salvation to whoever
He wills to give it to. We can't take any verse of Scripture
out of the context of everything God has said in His Word. Revelation
22, 17, that's another one. Whosoever will, let him come
and take the water of life freely. Whosoever will. Whosoever will,
let him come and take the water of life freely. We all just read
just a second ago, no man can come except the Father which
has sent me draw him. I'll raise him up at the last
day. Who is going to come and take
the water of life freely? Whoever the Father draws. You'll
hear this one a lot as you talk to people. People say, well,
what about the verse of scripture that says he's not willing that
any should perish? but that all should come to repentance.
It's not what the verse says. It says, He is longsuffering
to usward, His chosen, His elect, the ones the Father gave to Him.
He's longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish,
any of the usward, but that all of the usward should come to
repentance. And they will. This new mind,
they will. So verse 7, Paul said, Whereunto
I am ordained a preacher and apostle. All of these things
that I'm telling you, I was ordained to be a preacher and apostle.
And he said, I'm speaking the truth in Christ. I'm not lying
to you. I was ordained to be a teacher of the Gentiles. This
is not just to the Jews only, but also to the Gentiles in faith
and in truth. Verity means truth. God has not
purposed to save all men without exception, but God's salvation
has come to all men. Thank God. All manner of men,
whoever he gives faith to. And he said, it's a number no
man can number. And for that, we're gonna rejoice,
we're gonna be thankful, and we're gonna preach to, by His
grace, we're gonna preach to and pray for everybody. Everybody. And may God be willing
and gracious to make us among the ones who believe it. All
of us. Okay, you're dismissed.