WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.100 --> 00:00:16.140 One of the things that I really enjoy as a pastor about expositional preaching, where you preach through books of the Bible, is that you don't have to spend a great deal of time thinking about the next text you're going to preach. 2 00:00:16.140 --> 00:00:26.520 Which is really wonderful, because if you're like me, you can spend a great deal of time trying to decide what you're going to preach. 3 00:00:26.520 --> 00:00:31.880 But when you're in a rich passage like the one we are today, I have the same problem. 4 00:00:31.880 --> 00:00:44.280 There are so many ways to look at this, so many doctrinal truths, so many applications, it's hard for me to know what to focus on in a given sermon. 5 00:00:44.280 --> 00:00:51.080 So we're going to take one of those this morning, maybe a couple of those, and explore it together this morning. 6 00:00:51.080 --> 00:00:58.500 But first, let's do the most important thing, and that is read this passage. 7 00:00:58.500 --> 00:01:04.440 This is God's holy and inerrant word. 8 00:01:04.440 --> 00:01:24.660 "First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 9 00:01:24.660 --> 00:01:34.240 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 10 00:01:34.240 --> 00:01:47.660 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. 11 00:01:47.660 --> 00:01:58.600 For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. 12 00:01:58.600 --> 00:02:07.880 Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension." 13 00:02:07.880 --> 00:02:12.000 Let me ask God to bless His holy word to us. 14 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:17.760 Father, without Your help, we can't comprehend Your word. 15 00:02:17.760 --> 00:02:26.840 Without the blessing of Your Holy Spirit to read this word to our hearts, we won't make the right applications. 16 00:02:26.840 --> 00:02:30.320 We ask, Father, for Your protective grace today. 17 00:02:30.320 --> 00:02:33.620 Keep us in Your truth this morning. 18 00:02:33.620 --> 00:02:35.800 Guide us and teach us. 19 00:02:35.800 --> 00:02:43.720 Father, teach us individually as believers who worship and seek to bring You glory. 20 00:02:43.720 --> 00:02:47.800 Teach us corporately as a church who wishes to please You. 21 00:02:47.800 --> 00:02:50.720 Help us in these ways today, we pray. 22 00:02:50.720 --> 00:02:56.520 In the name of our Savior, I pray, Father, that the name of our Savior be glorified. 23 00:02:56.520 --> 00:02:58.760 Amen. 24 00:02:58.760 --> 00:03:13.320 Well, last week, we pointed out that this section in chapter two begins practice in the church. 25 00:03:13.320 --> 00:03:20.540 Here we're talking about corporate worship, the church coming together to worship. 26 00:03:20.540 --> 00:03:30.980 And the corrections that Paul is giving to that church at Ephesus and then making application from that to us. 27 00:03:30.980 --> 00:03:43.160 The circumstance was heretics had entered the church and had become leaders in the church and were steering the church. 28 00:03:43.160 --> 00:03:52.560 If you look at that very last verse of chapter one, he points out a couple of people who had suffered shipwreck of the faith. 29 00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:59.820 And others like them were seeking to make shipwreck of the entire work of God in Ephesus. 30 00:03:59.820 --> 00:04:07.540 And so this is a correction to the practice that was taking place there. 31 00:04:07.540 --> 00:04:18.000 And while I'm here at the very beginning, let me point out something that you might not have realized about the church at Ephesus and early churches. 32 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:23.900 They didn't meet in large buildings where everybody gathered very often. 33 00:04:23.900 --> 00:04:25.860 That wasn't typical. 34 00:04:25.860 --> 00:04:30.020 What happened in the early church was that they gathered together in homes. 35 00:04:30.020 --> 00:04:34.200 And they didn't always gather together as one whole. 36 00:04:34.200 --> 00:04:40.460 The church at Ephesus was made up of many small groups that worshiped. 37 00:04:40.460 --> 00:04:42.840 You can see evidence of that if you look. 38 00:04:42.840 --> 00:04:50.880 This letter is to Timothy and is to be read to the church at Ephesus. 39 00:04:50.880 --> 00:04:53.680 That's the first and primary application. 40 00:04:53.680 --> 00:05:01.560 But if you look down at verse 8, it says, "I want men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissen sion." 41 00:05:01.560 --> 00:05:04.700 Do you notice that phrase "in every place"? 42 00:05:04.700 --> 00:05:18.700 The idea is that the church as a whole in Ephesus are to be worshiping God in this way in every part of the church, wherever they come together. 43 00:05:18.700 --> 00:05:25.160 So the heretics were leading part of this church astray. 44 00:05:25.160 --> 00:05:34.600 Likely other parts of the church were held pretty solid. 45 00:05:34.600 --> 00:05:48.260 Paul left Timothy behind in Ephesus to straighten out this whole matter, to correct the teaching of the fals e teachers, and to help them be able to have godly practice. 46 00:05:48.260 --> 00:05:55.260 The whole purpose of 1 Timothy is found in chapter one i n dealing with these heretics that had come into the church. 47 00:05:55.260 --> 00:06:04.180 Part of the problem with these people is that they were looking inwardly. 48 00:06:04.180 --> 00:06:14.440 There was a lot of practice here that is obviously taken from Old Testament practice that they were trying to bring into the church. 49 00:06:14.440 --> 00:06:18.800 The early church was plagued with people who were called Judaizers. 50 00:06:18.800 --> 00:06:39.380 There were people who tried to take Old Testament practice and say that it is necessary for our salvation or our sanctification to keep Old Testament practices like holy days. 51 00:06:39.380 --> 00:06:54.060 This group in particular was focusing on Jewish myths and practices and delighted in taking obscure passages and making controversies out of them. 52 00:06:54.060 --> 00:06:57.000 They looked wise by bringing these things. 53 00:06:57.000 --> 00:06:58.540 It was self-exalting. 54 00:06:58.540 --> 00:07:03.960 And so you had that type of people at work in the church at Ephesus. 55 00:07:03.960 --> 00:07:05.980 Paul is correcting it. 56 00:07:05.980 --> 00:07:11.160 In chapter two, as we looked at last week, he begins with corporate worship. 57 00:07:11.160 --> 00:07:15.080 And the first thing in corporate worship is praying. 58 00:07:15.080 --> 00:07:18.787 He puts a priority on prayer. 59 00:07:18.787 --> 00:07:28.260 There are all sorts of things that we should do when we come together in the faith, and God tells us what those things are. 60 00:07:28.260 --> 00:07:41.600 For the Apostle Paul, his instruction to the church at Ephesus and to us is that we begin with prayer. 61 00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:45.660 We place a priority on corporate prayer. 62 00:07:45.660 --> 00:07:55.380 One of the things I mentioned last week, we spent some time talking about prayer individually. 63 00:07:55.380 --> 00:08:12.080 But prayer is particularly powerful when we come together, where two or three are gathered together, the Lord Jesus makes His presence with us. 64 00:08:12.080 --> 00:08:25.180 When we come together as the body of Christ, a corporate body, and we are praying in unity to God, unified, there's power in that. 65 00:08:25.180 --> 00:08:31.160 The church at Ephesus was not unified. 66 00:08:31.160 --> 00:08:39.960 Paul is instructing them in prayer so that they can develop this type of unity. 67 00:08:39.960 --> 00:08:51.860 Notice back again in verse 8, he wants them to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension. 68 00:08:51.860 --> 00:09:01.660 Because of the influence of these people, they weren't praying for the right things, and they didn't have a unified mind. 69 00:09:01.660 --> 00:09:07.820 "First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men." 70 00:09:07.820 --> 00:09:12.080 I'm going to look at that, we looked at all of that last week. 71 00:09:12.080 --> 00:09:21.560 I'm going to skip over it so we can get down a little bit, but I'm going to return to it in just a few moments. 72 00:09:21.560 --> 00:09:24.340 Why does he say pray for all men? 73 00:09:24.340 --> 00:09:29.700 I think it is because they were not praying for all mankind. 74 00:09:29.700 --> 00:09:32.780 They were not praying for the salvation of people. 75 00:09:32.780 --> 00:09:38.260 They were focused on their own local group. 76 00:09:38.260 --> 00:09:46.720 Coming out of this Jewish thought, they're thinking that in order for a person to be saved, he must become a Jew. 77 00:09:46.720 --> 00:09:52.680 And so they're not praying for the rulers and the leaders. 78 00:09:52.680 --> 00:10:09.280 Notice that they are to pray particularly for those in authority, with the result that they may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 79 00:10:09.280 --> 00:10:22.500 Then the next phrase is the reason that they are to do this: "This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." 80 00:10:22.500 --> 00:10:30.180 So here we come to our first thought this morning. 81 00:10:30.180 --> 00:10:35.180 How should we understand the will of God? 82 00:10:35.180 --> 00:10:45.340 What is it this passage teaches us about the nature of God's will? 83 00:10:45.340 --> 00:11:13.080 We're going to look at the will of God, the will of man, the will of Christ, and then consider what that means for worship. 84 00:11:13.080 --> 00:11:15.160 Why do we pray for all mankind? 85 00:11:15.160 --> 00:11:24.220 Why do we not exclude anyone in our prayers for salvation? 86 00:11:24.220 --> 00:11:38.040 You're not to exclude anyone because they are poor, or because they live on the street, and forget about wealthy people. 87 00:11:38.040 --> 00:11:42.160 It doesn't matter the category, we're to lift them up to the Lord. 88 00:11:42.160 --> 00:11:48.820 Everyone has that great need of salvation in Jesus Christ. 89 00:11:48.820 --> 00:11:50.260 Why are we to do that? 90 00:11:50.260 --> 00:11:53.740 Because God is pleased with that. 91 00:11:53.740 --> 00:12:03.000 He's pleased when we pray for people to come to faith in Christ. 92 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:12.040 "Good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." 93 00:12:12.040 --> 00:12:14.320 That's the desire of God. 94 00:12:14.320 --> 00:12:28.120 That's the will of God. 95 00:12:28.120 --> 00:12:47.610 When we talk about the will of God theologically, there are two ways that word is used. 96 00:12:47.610 --> 00:13:47.280 The Greek word here is thelei the root word is thelo It means a desire, a resolve, or to take pleasure in. 97 00:13:47.280 --> 00:13:51.360 Let's talk first of all about God's sovereign will. 98 00:13:51.360 --> 00:14:02.680 Sometimes it's called His decretive will. 99 00:14:02.680 --> 00:14:08.080 One thing we need to recognize is that it transcends anything that we know. 100 00:14:08.080 --> 00:14:10.420 His thoughts are not our thoughts. 101 00:14:10.420 --> 00:14:17.940 His ways are not our ways. 102 00:14:17.940 --> 00:14:23.640 The Scripture makes it clear that the sovereign will of God is an absolute. 103 00:14:23.640 --> 00:14:32.680 I began in worship with David's prayer, which talks about God's sovereignty over this world. 104 00:14:32.680 --> 00:15:08.320 There are countless scriptures in the Bible that describe the sovereign will of God, the will that brought creation into existence, unfolds history, and guarantees the future. 105 00:15:08.320 --> 00:15:25.293 Let me give you a few examples: "Many are the plans of a man's heart, but the counsel of the Lord will stand." 106 00:15:25.293 --> 00:15:43.900 (Proverbs 19:21) "The Lord of hosts has sworn saying, 'Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have planned so it will stand.'" 107 00:15:43.900 --> 00:16:09.920 (Isaiah 14:24) "Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, 'My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.'" 108 00:16:09.920 --> 00:16:24.812 (Isaiah 46:9-10) "There is no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel that can stand or avail against God." 109 00:16:24.812 --> 00:16:32.600 (Proverbs 21:30) We live in an age of supercomputers and artificial intelligence. 110 00:16:32.600 --> 00:16:55.200 Some people are beginning to say that in just a few years, these things will be many times all the knowledge, wisdom, and comprehension of humans on the planet together. 111 00:16:55.200 --> 00:16:56.400 Is that going to be? 112 00:16:56.400 --> 00:16:57.100 I don't know. 113 00:16:57.100 --> 00:17:06.340 God could let that happen or He might disrupt the whole thing like He did the Tower of Babel. 114 00:17:06.340 --> 00:17:18.640 But I do know this: if they build that thing and it's a million times smarter than all the intelligence on Earth, it is nothing compared to God. 115 00:17:18.640 --> 00:17:34.680 God is infinitely wiser, greater, and more powerful. 116 00:17:34.680 --> 00:17:57.660 We put our trust in the God who makes all things sure. 117 00:17:57.660 --> 00:18:24.440 There is also another definition for this word "will". 118 00:18:24.440 --> 00:19:17.140 If you go back to the classical Greek period, there was a sharp distinction between the word thelo and another word reserved for a fixed resolve. 119 00:19:17.140 --> 00:19:31.900 When we're talking about the sovereign will of God, we're talking about His resolve—what He has decided previously that will unfold throughout history. 120 00:19:31.900 --> 00:19:36.880 It won't change because God is immutable. 121 00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:55.680 When we're talking about the other word, a desire or a wish to have, that's what we have actually in this verse. 122 00:19:55.680 --> 00:20:08.620 God's desire is for all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. 123 00:20:08.620 --> 00:20:32.700 He has a will that expresses His desire. 124 00:20:32.700 --> 00:20:48.060 An example of this is when God says in the Old Testament, "You shall have no other gods before me." 125 00:20:48.060 --> 00:20:55.300 That's His desire, His commandment to us. 126 00:20:55.300 --> 00:20:58.980 Do people have other gods before Him? 127 00:20:58.980 --> 00:21:00.740 Yes, they do. 128 00:21:00.740 --> 00:21:16.820 It's God's will that we don't use His name in vain, or covet, or lie. 129 00:21:16.820 --> 00:21:19.180 But people do lie. 130 00:21:19.180 --> 00:22:07.020 If this was God's fixed sovereign will, no one would lie. 131 00:22:07.020 --> 00:22:32.665 If this verse, "who desires all men to be saved," was God's sovereign will, everyone would be saved. 132 00:22:32.665 --> 00:22:43.225 Universalists go to this verse and interpret it that way. 133 00:22:43.225 --> 00:23:04.240 But the Lord Jesus Himself talked about the broad way and the narrow way, and the eternal nature of hell. 134 00:23:04.240 --> 00:23:20.600 So this verse is expressing something that is characteristic of God's heart. 135 00:23:20.600 --> 00:23:28.620 He loves people. 136 00:23:28.620 --> 00:23:36.820 He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. 137 00:23:36.820 --> 00:23:40.040 Does He send people to hell? 138 00:23:40.040 --> 00:23:45.320 You bet He does. 139 00:23:45.320 --> 00:23:53.220 How can these two things both be true? 140 00:23:53.220 --> 00:24:04.460 Think of a good and kind judge. 141 00:24:04.460 --> 00:24:07.940 People come before him who have committed crimes. 142 00:24:07.940 --> 00:24:35.740 It's not his heart to see them put away in prison, but to preserve justice, those who are guilty, he condemns. 143 00:24:35.740 --> 00:24:40.820 If you were a judge, would you ever want to condemn someone to death? 144 00:24:40.820 --> 00:24:45.540 I don't think any of us would. 145 00:24:45.540 --> 00:24:50.220 And yet, that's what justice sometimes requires. 146 00:24:50.220 --> 00:25:08.260 God is absolutely per fectly just and righteous. 147 00:25:08.260 --> 00:25:22.360 When a lost person is found, God is delighted. 148 00:25:22.360 --> 00:25:37.530 All of heaven rejoices. 149 00:25:37.530 --> 00:25:53.600 Now, the will of man. 150 00:25:53.600 --> 00:26:10.270 In the Ephesian example, certain men were running the church into speculation and meaningless talk. 151 00:26:10.270 --> 00:26:22.440 They had narrowed inward, considering themselves an elite group, praying only for themselves. 152 00:26:22.440 --> 00:26:51.160 They were not looking outside. 153 00:26:51.160 --> 00:27:45.180 What people were doing when they came together was worshiping God in a way that pleased themselves. 154 00:27:45.180 --> 00:28:23.060 Every evil that comes about in this world, and every problem that comes about in worship, comes about because people do what they want instead of what God wants. 155 00:28:23.060 --> 00:29:08.220 Today, if you look broadly at the church, it's an anything-goes kind of world. 156 00:29:08.220 --> 00:29:59.360 Hiring professional rock groups, light shows, building sermon series around movie clips—why do they do these things? 157 00:29:59.360 --> 00:30:18.280 They marshal good reasons. 158 00:30:18.280 --> 00:30:28.320 They want to bring in people who are lost. 159 00:30:28.320 --> 00:30:56.820 They survey their group because they don't want disunity. 160 00:30:56.820 --> 00:31:11.640 And yet, there's no reason good enough to insert things into worship that God didn't ask for. 161 00:31:11.640 --> 00:31:57.140 Everything in worship should bend to the will of God. 162 00:31:57.140 --> 00:32:29.600 The Puritans called the practice of bringing things in that we want or like will worship They pointed out from Old Testament examples—like Nadab and Abihu bringing strange fire, Korah's arrogance, or King Uzziah offering incense—that it wasn't a healthy practice. 163 00:32:29.600 --> 00:33:00.840 God struck them down or punished them because they did things He didn't ask for. 164 00:33:00.840 --> 00:33:03.933 Then we have the example of Christ. 165 00:33:03.933 --> 00:33:28.140 "There is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time." 166 00:33:28.140 --> 00:33:33.960 Jesus bent His will to the Father's will. 167 00:33:33.960 --> 00:33:41.080 Notice the emphasis on the man Christ Jesus. 168 00:33:41.080 --> 00:33:51.640 If He were not a man, He couldn't stand in our place. 169 00:33:51.640 --> 00:34:00.760 He is fully God and completely a human being, made the perfect mediator. 170 00:34:00.760 --> 00:34:37.860 In Matthew 26:39, in the Garden of Gethsemane, He says: "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." 171 00:34:37.860 --> 00:35:05.580 It was impossible for Him to want to have the sins and filth of this world laid on Him, to endure the wrath of God. 172 00:35:05.580 --> 00:35:12.100 But He says: "Nevertheless, not my will but Thy will be done." 173 00:35:12.100 --> 00:35:40.160 He says in Hebrews 10:9: "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God." 174 00:35:40.160 --> 00:35:41.600 What is the will of God? 175 00:35:41.600 --> 00:36:40.820 That He offer Himself as a substitute in the place of sinners. 176 00:36:40.820 --> 00:37:15.580 He did that to please the Father and to bring about the salvation of man. 177 00:37:15.580 --> 00:38:06.660 Before I close, I want to give an example of God's sovereign will in salvation from John 6:37-40: "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. 178 00:38:06.660 --> 00:38:13.560 For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of Him who sent me. 179 00:38:13.560 --> 00:38:54.720 This is the will of Him who sent me, that of all that He has given me I lose nothing but raise it up on the last day. 180 00:38:54.720 --> 00:39:06.100 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day." 181 00:39:06.100 --> 00:39:07.560 That's certain. 182 00:39:07.560 --> 00:39:41.280 That's the sovereign will of God in salvation. 183 00:39:41.280 --> 00:39:48.520 We need to bend our will to the will of God, especially in worship. 184 00:39:48.520 --> 00:40:07.940 What about evangelism? 185 00:40:07.940 --> 00:40:26.380 No one comes to faith apart from the word of God and the application of that word by the Holy Spirit to their heart. 186 00:40:26.380 --> 00:40:31.200 Prayer for people to come to faith is vital. 187 00:40:31.200 --> 00:40:48.020 It's far more important than attracting them by a show. 188 00:40:48.020 --> 00:40:59.840 Revivals come because of the outpouring of the Spirit of God. 189 00:40:59.840 --> 00:41:14.700 What about unity? 190 00:41:14.700 --> 00:42:18.100 A.W. Tozer said, "Have you thought about the fact that if you have 100 pianos and all of the pianos are tuned to the same tuning fork, then all the pianos are tuned together. 191 00:42:18.100 --> 00:42:32.520 They all agree." 192 00:42:32.520 --> 00:42:58.400 He says, "So 100 worshipers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become unity conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for a closer fellowship." 193 00:42:58.400 --> 00:43:01.100 What's the answer? 194 00:43:01.100 --> 00:43:15.600 When we look to Jesus Christ, when we bend our heart to the will of the Father willingly out of love, then we're tuning our hearts to each other as well. 195 00:43:15.600 --> 00:43:25.640 We find unity in true worship and right teaching. 196 00:43:25.640 --> 00:43:29.040 Let me pray for us. 197 00:43:29.040 --> 00:43:41.420 Father, I'm so thankful for the ministry of Your word and Your abundant grace and mercy, because we go astray in so many ways. 198 00:43:41.420 --> 00:43:48.920 We thank You, Father, for the work of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, because our hearts do drift. 199 00:43:48.920 --> 00:43:56.360 We thank You, Father, that being true of mankind, Jesus, our great Savior, took our place. 200 00:43:56.360 --> 00:44:09.060 We all like sheep have gone astray, we've turned everyone to his own way, but You, Father, laid the iniquity of us all on Him, and He paid that price. 201 00:44:09.060 --> 00:44:13.020 And we're made right with You. 202 00:44:13.020 --> 00:44:14.960 Father, we want to please You. 203 00:44:14.960 --> 00:44:17.620 You've given us so much. 204 00:44:17.620 --> 00:44:27.180 Help us to have a heart to please You, not to seek our own way and our own purposes, but to bend our will to Your will. 205 00:44:27.180 --> 00:44:36.240 To seek what You have to teach us in Your word, and to follow it by the help of the Holy Spirit. 206 00:44:36.240 --> 00:44:39.020 Keep us in this, we pray. 207 00:44:39.020 --> 00:44:55.000 Father, we lift up countless people that we know all around us, loved ones, neighbors, and people that we brush shoulders with. 208 00:44:55.000 --> 00:45:04.620 People from every walk of life who have something in common: a desperate need for You. 209 00:45:04.620 --> 00:45:07.620 We ask, Lord, that You use us. 210 00:45:07.620 --> 00:45:12.620 Help us to pray for them, lift them up before You. 211 00:45:12.620 --> 00:45:26.100 Give us the words to say to communicate the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 212 00:45:26.100 --> 00:45:32.040 Help us, Lord, to be faithful in these things, and bless this church. 213 00:45:32.040 --> 00:45:48.820 May the name of Christ be magnified, especially by seeing sinners brought into being true worshipers by the grace that comes to them through Jesus Christ. 214 00:45:48.820 --> 00:45:53.340 Thank You, Father, for Your love for us, Your mercies in Christ. 215 00:45:53.340 --> 00:45:56.880 Bless us we pray, in Christ's name. 216 00:45:56.880 --> 00:45:58.880 Amen.