WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:11.760 Turn with me once again to 1 Timothy chapter 2. 2 00:00:11.760 --> 00:00:17.860 We're going to continue looking at the same passage we've looked at for the last two weeks. 3 00:00:17.860 --> 00:00:24.300 I'm going to focus this morning on two verses, verses 5 and 6. 4 00:00:24.300 --> 00:00:35.880 But I'm going to read this section once again, verses 1 to 8, and then we'll consider verses 5 and 6. 5 00:00:35.880 --> 00:00:44.100 All of this goes together, so we need to think about the whole context of this passage. 6 00:00:44.100 --> 00:00:49.260 This is God's holy and inerrant word. 7 00:00:49.260 --> 00:01:06.380 "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. 8 00:01:06.380 --> 00:01:16.160 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. 9 00:01:16.160 --> 00:01:29.760 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. 10 00:01:29.760 --> 00:01:40.300 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. 11 00:01:40.300 --> 00:01:51.980 Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension." 12 00:01:51.980 --> 00:01:56.020 Father, we thank you that you have given us this sure word. 13 00:01:56.020 --> 00:02:02.100 We thank you, Father, that you have given us a Savior, Jesus Christ. 14 00:02:02.100 --> 00:02:13.500 And we ask, Lord, that as we think about this passage and the truth of your word this morning, that you would shine the light of your truth on our heart. 15 00:02:13.500 --> 00:02:19.820 Lord, that by the power of your Holy Spirit, we would both comprehend and apply this truth. 16 00:02:19.820 --> 00:02:31.920 Help us, Father, to appreciate the beauty of your word, the wonderful counsel that you have given to us. 17 00:02:31.920 --> 00:02:45.440 And Father, help us to realize not just the historical significance of these words to the church at Ephesus, but Father, that we would be able to see the relevance of the truth to our lives today. 18 00:02:45.440 --> 00:02:49.640 Guide us in these things, we pray in Christ's name. 19 00:02:49.640 --> 00:02:52.260 Amen. 20 00:02:52.260 --> 00:03:03.940 Well, we live in a rather difficult time, a time where we live with the chaos of our age and people in tribal groups. 21 00:03:03.940 --> 00:03:09.980 It seems like the movement toward tribalism, I don't know if you sense that very much. 22 00:03:09.980 --> 00:03:23.940 We live in a time when people don't know what truth is, the relativism of our age where no one seems to believe in anything sure or solid, but that truth is a matter of opinion. 23 00:03:23.940 --> 00:03:26.340 That's the age we live in. 24 00:03:26.340 --> 00:03:46.760 And it's interesting because I think when we look at this passage today, we're going to see that what was true then gives us wisdom and counsel for our life today. 25 00:03:46.760 --> 00:03:55.120 Because we live in a time when God, when you look at God's word, He hasn't left us to find our own way. 26 00:03:55.120 --> 00:03:59.300 He's provided a solid way for us. 27 00:03:59.300 --> 00:04:13.600 In a world that looks at your truth and my truth, the Apostle Paul points to the only truth, the one God and the one mediator the one ransom who is given for all. 28 00:04:13.600 --> 00:04:15.860 So we're going to look at this this morning and consider it. 29 00:04:15.860 --> 00:04:20.860 Let me explain my thinking as we approach the passage. 30 00:04:20.860 --> 00:04:24.620 Just a casual review here. 31 00:04:24.620 --> 00:04:48.520 In verse 1, we have the exhortation that Paul gives to Timothy for the church at Ephesus, that they pray, that as part of their worship service, they offer prayer to God, and prayer and thanksgiving be made on behalf of all mankind. 32 00:04:48.520 --> 00:05:02.220 Particularly for kings and for those in authorities, and for this expected result, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 33 00:05:02.220 --> 00:05:10.000 The idea of us living a tranquil life, a life together in unity. 34 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:27.360 And then it gives the reason we're 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." 35 00:05:27.360 --> 00:05:39.380 It's the moral will of God that people recognize who Jesus Christ is and put their trust in Him. 36 00:05:39.380 --> 00:06:02.820 When I first started studying this passage, looking at the words, repetition, and trying to understand how the passage flows logically, the word that struck me in verse 5 is that very first word, "For." 37 00:06:02.820 --> 00:06:24.240 That's an important word because what it is saying is, we have seen what the result of praying for mankind is—leading a tranquil life in all godliness and dignity—and we're seeing the reason why, because it's the will of God. 38 00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:32.640 But when we come to verse 5, it gives us the ground for what Paul is saying. 39 00:06:32.640 --> 00:07:22.000 It's interesting, with that influence happening at Ephesus, that he focuses on this word: "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men." 40 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:25.940 Why are we to pray for all mankind? 41 00:07:25.940 --> 00:07:42.760 The thing that he focuses on is something that the Judaizers would absolutely agree with, in the sense that they were very familiar with this Old Testament verse, Deuteronomy 6:4, the great Shema of Israel. 42 00:07:42.760 --> 00:07:55.260 Today, if you go anywhere in the world, if you go to Cleveland or if you go to Israel, and you find an orthodox group of Jews, the Jewish call to worship is that verse. 43 00:07:55.260 --> 00:08:00.400 They recite it in Hebrew: Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad. 44 00:08:00.400 --> 00:08:12.460 They sing that out as their call to worship. 45 00:08:12.460 --> 00:08:24.100 It's their most important verse: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one." 46 00:08:24.100 --> 00:08:42.760 There is one God, and Yahweh is that God. 47 00:08:42.760 --> 00:08:45.360 He calls their attention back to that. 48 00:08:45.360 --> 00:08:54.220 If that's the ground of praying for all people, I thought, why is that the ground? 49 00:08:54.220 --> 00:08:59.420 What is he saying here? 50 00:08:59.420 --> 00:09:55.940 Let's think about the first century and how these Gentile converts to faith, getting the influence from these Judaizers, how they would think about this, and how a Jew at that time thought about their relationship with God. 51 00:09:55.940 --> 00:09:58.240 In the first century, it was an interesting time. 52 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:03.500 The Romans had conquered pretty much the known world. 53 00:10:03.500 --> 00:10:06.160 You almost had a one-world government. 54 00:10:06.160 --> 00:10:09.600 Not quite, but almost, and that's what they were striving for. 55 00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:12.580 They were powerful conquerors. 56 00:10:12.580 --> 00:10:26.480 For the first time in history, those geographical borders began to disappear, and people hardly paid attention to them, even though their culture, background, and beliefs were very different. 57 00:10:26.480 --> 00:10:32.980 Rome built a massive culture. 58 00:10:32.980 --> 00:10:38.720 They built roads everywhere; the Roman roads are famous. 59 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:53.220 With their military, they guaranteed peace, a military peace for all these peoples called Pax Romana the Peace of Rome. 60 00:10:53.220 --> 00:11:01.600 They took the Greek language, and that became the trade language for this entire empire. 61 00:11:01.600 --> 00:11:06.340 All these nations brought together under Roman rule. 62 00:11:06.340 --> 00:11:21.740 A Jew would speak Hebrew, a Roman would speak Latin, but most people learned Greek because Greek was the language of the marketplace where they came together. 63 00:11:21.740 --> 00:11:27.040 They were able to communicate with each other. 64 00:11:27.040 --> 00:11:30.280 The point was unity. 65 00:11:30.280 --> 00:11:38.700 We're going to get along so we can get along in the marketplace. 66 00:11:38.700 --> 00:11:54.660 You had these communities coming together in all these cities, these city-states, places like Ephesus or Antioch or Athens. 67 00:11:54.660 --> 00:11:58.060 You had a conglomerate of different kinds of people coming in. 68 00:11:58.060 --> 00:12:19.700 You had Greeks, Arabs, Roman soldiers, and all sorts of different cultures coming together in one city, using the same roads, going to the same marketplace, communicating together in the Greek language. 69 00:12:19.700 --> 00:12:24.180 And yet, they were socially fragmented. 70 00:12:24.180 --> 00:12:29.960 They were isolated from one another. 71 00:12:29.960 --> 00:12:34.800 They lived in the city together, but in their little ghetto groups. 72 00:12:34.800 --> 00:12:41.700 Or they lived in the same household together, some as masters and some as slaves. 73 00:12:41.700 --> 00:12:50.480 The masters may have liked their slaves and got along as friends in some way, but there was a radical difference. 74 00:12:50.480 --> 00:12:57.760 They didn't socialize together. 75 00:12:57.760 --> 00:13:07.740 They guaranteed this peace by making sure that every religion is accepted. 76 00:13:07.740 --> 00:13:10.920 Every religion is good. 77 00:13:10.920 --> 00:13:18.120 You can't criticize anybody else's religion because all religions are good. 78 00:13:18.120 --> 00:13:29.860 The Roman government guaranteed a kind of freedom of religion. 79 00:13:29.860 --> 00:14:10.120 Edward Gibbon, who spent his life studying the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, observed this about the society: The common people saw all religions as equally true. 80 00:14:10.120 --> 00:14:14.780 The philosophers thought them all equally false. 81 00:14:14.780 --> 00:14:23.520 The magistrates saw them as equally useful. 82 00:14:23.520 --> 00:14:27.380 That sounds rather familiar to me. 83 00:14:27.380 --> 00:14:35.240 Politicians cater to religion in order to win voters, and they favor this one or that one. 84 00:14:35.240 --> 00:14:37.700 Well, that was what was going on in the first century. 85 00:14:37.700 --> 00:14:46.760 You go to a place like Athens, and the government supported all different kinds of religions. 86 00:14:46.760 --> 00:14:58.020 It was said that in Athens, there were more statues and icons for gods across the city than there were people in the city. 87 00:14:58.020 --> 00:15:12.940 If you remember the story in Acts when Paul goes there, they didn't just have icons for all the gods you could think of; they decided to put one up for the unknown god. 88 00:15:12.940 --> 00:15:15.100 They put one up for him too. 89 00:15:15.100 --> 00:15:19.000 It was this idea of pluralism. 90 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:34.040 The idea that we need to respect and value as true every religion because they're just worshipping a different god in different ways. 91 00:15:34.040 --> 00:15:46.150 We all worship our gods in different ways, so we have to acknowledge their truth, and we worship our god as our truth. 92 00:15:46.150 --> 00:15:58.340 In Ephesus, with the Judaizers and the Jews, they believed in one God, but they believed that the one God was for the Jews. 93 00:15:58.340 --> 00:16:03.140 Other people could worship their gods, but the God was for the Jews. 94 00:16:03.140 --> 00:16:05.680 They lived to themselves, an isolated group. 95 00:16:05.680 --> 00:16:18.280 Rome wasn't concerned about Jewish monotheism because they stayed to themselves. 96 00:16:18.280 --> 00:16:34.260 But Rome didn't approve when people broke out of that and said that their religion was the true religion, when they said that their God was the only God. 97 00:16:34.260 --> 00:16:38.660 Paul is saying exactly that in verse 5. 98 00:16:38.660 --> 00:16:41.760 You think that there's all these gods? 99 00:16:41.760 --> 00:16:51.760 Maybe people are pursuing God in their own way, and we're going to leave them that way. 100 00:16:51.760 --> 00:16:58.220 I want to explain something, because there's generational differences. 101 00:16:58.220 --> 00:17:06.120 When I was young and you were taught pluralism, it's radically different than the pluralism today. 102 00:17:06.120 --> 00:17:19.920 When I was young, you were taught that you need to respect other religions in the sense that people had a right to believe what they wanted. 103 00:17:19.920 --> 00:17:28.880 It was a matter of respect, but you didn't have to say that you thought they were true. 104 00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:29.980 That's changed today. 105 00:17:29.980 --> 00:17:40.860 Today, people see truth as relative, pretty much the way they did then. 106 00:17:40.860 --> 00:17:51.900 They pursue their truth, and we pursue our truth. 107 00:17:51.900 --> 00:17:54.720 The atheistic philosophers don't believe any of it's true. 108 00:17:54.720 --> 00:18:16.660 The people commonly believe that all these religions are true, they're just different ways to come to God. 109 00:18:16.660 --> 00:18:23.000 Today, you see the motivation. 110 00:18:23.000 --> 00:18:25.440 You see why Rome wanted that. 111 00:18:25.440 --> 00:18:41.740 John Stott pointed out that the survival of the human race seems to depend on our learning to live together in harmony, and whatever divides us, including our religions, is regarded with disfavor, causing a conflict. 112 00:18:41.740 --> 00:18:47.660 That's the way Rome thought about it, that's the way people think about it today. 113 00:18:47.660 --> 00:18:55.260 There was a philosopher and theologian a generation ago named John Hick. 114 00:18:55.260 --> 00:19:02.180 His "Mountain Path" analogy was adopted. 115 00:19:02.180 --> 00:19:12.420 I've had multiple conversations about this with people over the years, where they see all the religions as paths to God. 116 00:19:12.420 --> 00:19:25.660 He says we're all climbing toward a mountain, and there's all different roads and paths up that mountain. 117 00:19:25.660 --> 00:19:40.360 At the top of the mountain is God or heaven, and we're just on different paths, but we all end up at the same place. 118 00:19:40.360 --> 00:19:46.760 It's not an analogy that is rational. 119 00:19:46.760 --> 00:19:54.340 You can't look at that and think that that can possibly actually be true. 120 00:19:54.340 --> 00:19:57.620 Because who is that God that's on the mountain? 121 00:19:57.620 --> 00:20:02.540 A Buddhist would say that there's really no God on the mountain, they just have The Way there. 122 00:20:02.540 --> 00:20:07.920 A Hindu says there's thousands of gods on the mountain. 123 00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:14.000 Christians say that there's one God, who exists in three persons, that's on the mountain. 124 00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:17.600 Can those things be true? 125 00:20:17.600 --> 00:20:20.680 It's not possible that they all be true. 126 00:20:20.680 --> 00:20:32.640 If one says that there's no one on the mountain, and another says that there is a God there, those aren't paths converging on the same truth. 127 00:20:32.640 --> 00:20:42.220 Those are paths running in exactly opposite directions. 128 00:20:42.220 --> 00:20:46.920 We're dealing with something that is irrational. 129 00:20:46.920 --> 00:20:51.280 They don't try to explain the logic of it, they just want people to get along. 130 00:20:51.280 --> 00:21:00.540 I think at the heart of it is an atheistic thought. 131 00:21:00.540 --> 00:21:23.640 Paul reminds them why we need to pray for all peoples to come to Christ: because there is one God He says there's one God for everyone. 132 00:21:23.640 --> 00:21:30.320 There's only one God in existence, and all people have to come to that God. 133 00:21:30.320 --> 00:21:41.040 That creates a problem because there is one holy God, and all men worldwide are accountable to that one God. 134 00:21:41.040 --> 00:21:44.500 And all men have a problem. 135 00:21:44.500 --> 00:21:51.200 We're born in sin, we're sinners from infancy. 136 00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:54.660 We've failed to bring glory to that God. 137 00:21:54.660 --> 00:22:01.780 We are at war with God, there's a hostility between man and God. 138 00:22:01.780 --> 00:22:06.740 What happens if there's a hostility between two parties? 139 00:22:06.740 --> 00:22:10.000 How do they ever get together? 140 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:42.580 Job said in Job 9:33, struggling with his suffering and appealing to God who seemed beyond his reach: "There is no umpire between us, who may lay his hand upon us both." 141 00:22:42.580 --> 00:22:43.900 There needs to be a mediator. 142 00:22:43.900 --> 00:22:51.220 There needs to be an arbitrator, an umpire between me and God. 143 00:22:51.220 --> 00:23:01.460 There needs to be someone to come in between to help us to be able to unify us, to bring us together. 144 00:23:01.460 --> 00:23:05.800 So we have a unique Savior who was given. 145 00:23:05.800 --> 00:23:13.120 There's one God, and one mediator between God and men. 146 00:23:13.120 --> 00:23:19.520 The man, he says, Christ Jesus. 147 00:23:19.520 --> 00:23:27.640 There's an infinite gap between sinful humanity and the perfect holy God. 148 00:23:27.640 --> 00:23:40.040 To meet that need, we have a Savior who mediates. 149 00:23:40.040 --> 00:23:47.040 He's the only one who can do it because He alone is the God-Man. 150 00:23:47.040 --> 00:24:03.480 When Paul emphasizes that He is the man Christ Jesus, it means that because He's completely a man, He has solidarity, a connection with all mankind. 151 00:24:03.480 --> 00:24:16.580 He becomes the representative man for all humanity, for all who put their trust in Him. 152 00:24:16.580 --> 00:24:25.740 We're born in this world under Adam as our federal head. 153 00:24:25.740 --> 00:24:37.400 If we put our trust in Jesus Christ, Christ Himself, as the second Adam as Paul writes in Romans, becomes our federal head. 154 00:24:37.400 --> 00:24:39.920 He's the mediator. 155 00:24:39.920 --> 00:24:47.360 In the Reformation, they talked about Solus Christus Christ alone. 156 00:24:47.360 --> 00:24:54.720 There's no other way for us to come to God except Christ alone. 157 00:24:54.720 --> 00:25:07.760 If you look at other religions of the world, they have moral teachers, they have patterns of life that you follow, but they don't have a mediator. 158 00:25:07.760 --> 00:25:10.800 They don't have one who comes in between. 159 00:25:10.800 --> 00:25:13.060 They don't have a Savior. 160 00:25:13.060 --> 00:25:22.820 The only way for us to come to God is to come through the one Savior who God has given to us, and that's the Lord Jesus. 161 00:25:22.820 --> 00:25:27.673 The one who is both God and man. 162 00:25:27.673 --> 00:25:34.320 That is exclusively Christ. 163 00:25:34.320 --> 00:25:38.500 Christ alone. 164 00:25:38.500 --> 00:25:43.700 There's one God, one mediator between God and men. 165 00:25:43.700 --> 00:29:49.340 There's no other Savior but Jesus. 166 00:29:49.340 --> 00:29:53.940 The way is narrow, Jesus said. 167 00:29:53.940 --> 00:29:58.580 It's narrow because it only comes through Him. 168 00:29:58.580 --> 00:30:09.480 "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." 169 00:30:09.480 --> 00:30:14.500 He's the only access to the Father. 170 00:30:14.500 --> 00:30:17.040 He is the truth. 171 00:30:17.040 --> 00:30:20.860 He's the one who reveals everything that is true about God. 172 00:30:20.860 --> 00:30:31.380 The only way we can really understand truth about God is through Jesus Christ Himself; He is the perfect revelation of the Father. 173 00:30:31.380 --> 00:30:47.730 He is the life, the very life of God that awakens us to God. 174 00:30:47.730 --> 00:31:18.120 The Apostle Peter told the high priest and the rulers of Israel in Acts 4:12: "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." 175 00:31:18.120 --> 00:31:23.840 Worldwide, there's only one way for people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 176 00:31:23.840 --> 00:31:26.540 That's exclusive. 177 00:31:26.540 --> 00:31:32.580 If you come to faith in Jesus Christ, you are the church of Jesus Christ. 178 00:31:32.580 --> 00:31:44.500 We are the called-out body of Christ, called out of darkness into His light, just like these people in Ephesus. 179 00:31:44.500 --> 00:31:55.260 They come to Jesus Christ who is the light of the world, and then they take the truth of Christ, the gospel, and as Jesus said to His disciples, "You are the light of the world." 180 00:31:55.260 --> 00:32:00.120 They become the candles that light up this world. 181 00:32:00.120 --> 00:32:03.100 The world loves the darkness rather than light. 182 00:32:03.100 --> 00:32:04.800 They don't like it. 183 00:32:04.800 --> 00:32:10.680 There's hostility to this message, and so there's persecution. 184 00:32:10.680 --> 00:32:16.160 If you're going to be a candle, you've got to endure the burning. 185 00:32:16.160 --> 00:32:22.980 If you're going to bring light to this world, there is a cost to that. 186 00:32:22.980 --> 00:32:32.180 The world doesn't like this message, until by the grace of God, they embrace the truth of the message. 187 00:32:32.180 --> 00:32:35.420 Then that's radically different. 188 00:32:35.420 --> 00:32:59.560 You have Onesimus, the runaway slave, being brought back to Philemon, the slave owner, not to return as a slave, but to return as his brother in the Lord, because they both have come to faith in Jesus Christ. 189 00:32:59.560 --> 00:33:32.105 Chuck Colson gave examples of men who were radical Black Panthers and men who were the White Knights, a militant branch of the Ku Klux Klan. 190 00:33:32.105 --> 00:33:57.160 Both radical groups, militant to win their rights. 191 00:33:57.160 --> 00:34:13.567 Coming together, arrested because of their horrible crimes, brought into prison, meeting Christ, and coming together in friendship as brothers in Christ. 192 00:34:13.567 --> 00:34:21.480 That is sociologically impossible, but it happens in Jesus Christ. 193 00:34:21.480 --> 00:34:33.540 When they experience the love of God for them, their hearts are awakened to the love of God for brothers and sisters in Christ. 194 00:34:33.540 --> 00:34:36.000 It's a different thing. 195 00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:41.080 You are brought out of this group, and you're brought into the church of Jesus Christ. 196 00:34:41.080 --> 00:34:45.400 You become brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. 197 00:34:45.400 --> 00:34:53.860 It's a powerful thing, the transforming grace of Christ, and what we receive in Him. 198 00:34:53.860 --> 00:34:57.020 Jesus is the one who did this. 199 00:34:57.020 --> 00:35:03.260 He's the ransom. 200 00:35:03.260 --> 00:35:18.800 He's the one who went to the cross and paid the debt for our sin, so that people can put their trust in Him. 201 00:35:18.800 --> 00:35:21.920 You're not excluded because of your background. 202 00:35:21.920 --> 00:35:31.280 You're not excluded because you're of a different race, or you're not wealthy, or you're too wealthy. 203 00:35:31.280 --> 00:35:35.540 There's no exclusion for anyone, for any reason. 204 00:35:35.540 --> 00:35:38.480 All can come to Jesus Christ. 205 00:35:38.480 --> 00:35:45.040 All can meet at the foot of the cross, and every one of us is equal at the foot of the cross. 206 00:35:45.040 --> 00:35:47.980 Jesus paid the ransom price. 207 00:35:47.980 --> 00:35:53.040 He's the one mediator, and He is the one who gave Himself as the ransom for all. 208 00:35:53.040 --> 00:35:59.780 It's a purchase price that He paid that is infinite in its value. 209 00:35:59.780 --> 00:36:09.500 The blood of Jesus Christ is infinite in its value, and it's applied to all those who put their trust in Jesus Christ. 210 00:36:09.500 --> 00:36:11.580 So it's offered to everyone. 211 00:36:11.580 --> 00:36:20.700 Everyone is responsible to come, and the blood of Christ has been applied to all those who believe in Him. 212 00:36:20.700 --> 00:36:28.420 That's what we celebrate when we celebrate the Lord's table. 213 00:36:28.420 --> 00:36:39.740 We need to think about the Lord's table and the description that that is of the ransom price that God has made available to us in Jesus Christ, His sacrifice. 214 00:36:39.740 --> 00:36:46.800 He was the one human being who could live a perfect life before God in our place. 215 00:36:46.800 --> 00:37:01.220 And He's the one infinite God who could take the whole wrath of God and pay that debt of sin that we owe. 216 00:37:01.220 --> 00:37:03.080 There's only one of Him. 217 00:37:03.080 --> 00:37:07.760 No religion in the world has a Savior like that. 218 00:37:07.760 --> 00:37:18.380 If there is a gospel, if people in any church are preaching that we all are finding our way to God, then that's no gospel at all. 219 00:37:18.380 --> 00:37:28.200 There's no gospel apart from the work of Jesus Christ on the cross for us, and His saving grace for us. 220 00:37:28.200 --> 00:37:47.720 When we come together as a church, Paul says it's important that we remember to pray for mankind, for all people to come to faith in Christ, because it's God's desire for people to come to faith in Christ. 221 00:37:47.720 --> 00:37:53.100 Every one of us knows people who need the Lord. 222 00:37:53.100 --> 00:38:09.700 We don't talk to them always because we're afraid we might offend them, or they might get in a discussion, that they might be alienated from us, and exclude us as some member of their family, and not want to associate with us anymore. 223 00:38:09.700 --> 00:38:15.360 If you're a candle of the light, you have to endure the burning. 224 00:38:15.360 --> 00:38:29.040 If you're going to bring light to this world, there is a cost to that. 225 00:38:29.040 --> 00:38:32.148 The world doesn't like this message until by the grace of God they embrace the truth of the message, and then that's radically different. 226 00:38:32.148 --> 00:40:24.180 You have Onesimus the slave who ran away, a runaway slave being brought back to Philemon the slave owner, not to return him as his slave, but to return him as his brother in the Lord, because they both have come to faith in Jesus Christ. 227 00:40:24.180 --> 00:40:26.980 Let's pray. 228 00:40:26.980 --> 00:40:34.540 Father, we thank you for your abundant grace in Christ Jesus. 229 00:40:34.540 --> 00:40:38.520 We have provision made for us, a Savior. 230 00:40:38.520 --> 00:40:54.690 And Lord, what a precious, incredible gift that we can come to know you, to come to the Father through the mediation of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. 231 00:40:54.690 --> 00:41:09.020 What an amazing, wonderful gift that our sins have been taken away, that there's now no hindrance between us and you. 232 00:41:09.020 --> 00:41:34.360 Because our sins have been forgiven, washed, and purified from all the sinful deeds that they have performed in their past. 233 00:41:34.360 --> 00:41:36.040 That gone. 234 00:41:36.040 --> 00:41:39.900 And we're pure before you. 235 00:41:39.900 --> 00:41:43.240 Not something that we could ever do for ourselves. 236 00:41:43.240 --> 00:41:46.620 We could never wash our hands clean. 237 00:41:46.620 --> 00:41:49.860 But Christ can wash them clean. 238 00:41:49.860 --> 00:41:55.200 And because of that, Father, we have access to you, and we can come before you. 239 00:41:55.200 --> 00:42:00.840 We thank you, Father, that you have made provision for us through Jesus our Savior. 240 00:42:00.840 --> 00:42:03.700 At infinite cost. 241 00:42:03.700 --> 00:42:06.640 At a cost that's unimaginable. 242 00:42:06.640 --> 00:42:12.760 His body broken for us, His blood poured out for us. 243 00:42:12.760 --> 00:42:23.840 Him on the cross in those dark hours experiencing all your wrath, the wrath of hell that we deserve. 244 00:42:23.840 --> 00:42:37.460 And Father, we thank you that He emerged from that victorious, because He was sinless, because He was the perfect Son of God, because He is God in the flesh. 245 00:42:37.460 --> 00:43:54.920 We thank you that through that He's conquered death for us, and we have a future that is glorious together with Him. 246 00:43:54.920 --> 00:43:57.960 Bless us, Lord Jesus today. 247 00:43:57.960 --> 00:44:00.720 Bless the elements as we share them. 248 00:44:00.720 --> 00:44:04.220 We ask Father this grace in Jesus' name. 249 00:44:04.220 --> 00:44:06.220 Amen.