Sunday Morning Worship Service November 15, 2020

Well, good morning.

See, on this Lord's Day, thank the Lord for the opportunity of gathering together today.

We don't take that for granted these days, do we? And I appreciate the opportunity of fellowshipping together with God's people, opening the

Word together, being fed together, encouraging one another through the singing of songs and hymns and spiritual songs as we're exhorted to do, and it can be a great blessing to us.

A few announcements that I just want to emphasize in your bulletin, if I may. One is that after the service this morning at the conclusion of the morning service, we have a quarterly business meeting for church members and those that would be potentially interested in membership.

So we'll have that right after the service today. We'll have a brief break and pass out financial reports and so forth and get to that meeting.

I promise not to keep you till 12 .30 or 1 o 'clock or so. We'll dispense with that as quickly as possible, get you on your way.

No evening service. We're not planning to have evening services at least until we get a reprieve from the

COVID crisis in our area.

But this evening, from 6 to 7 .30, we are planning a drop -in reception for Nathan and Carissa Hemmon.

It's a wedding reception a few months late. But drop in any time from 6 to 7 .30.

I imagine that the cake will be cut at about 6 .15 at the latest, and it's a good one.

So if you can make it for that, I encourage you to do that. Just stop in and congratulate them and enjoy a piece of wonderful carrot cake.

If you're not into carrot cake, there are a couple of other options that will be available as well. So that's tonight, 6 to 7 .30.

The midweek time together, the kids club and so forth, it's tentative. We're going week by week on this.

You've certainly heard the reports from the threats or whatever from the governor that wanting to lock down the state again, issue stay -at -home orders and all that kind of thing.

And so we're playing those things by ear. As of right now, that is on.

And then I just want to emphasize the two things in the bottom portion of your right side of your bulletin, the missionary

Christmas gift, planning on that for this month of November.

And there are some envelopes on the table that are used just strictly for that purpose. You can put your contribution in that envelope, drop it in the offering box, and we'll know what it's for.

Or you can give online. There is a category in online giving for Christmas missions, and that's for that Christmas gift that we'll use to divide up among the missionaries.

So I encourage you to give in that. We normally do that year long in Sunday school as a

Sunday school offering. Obviously, we've missed so much Sunday school this year that I think the missionaries would only get about 20 bucks a piece, and we want to be a little more generous than that.

And then lastly, last week I mentioned that this book was coming, The Christmas We Didn't Expect.

It's a devotional book for the Christmas season, and there are five copies of that on the bookshelf in the hallway by the missionary wall.

And if you're looking for a good, encouraging, devotional book to use during the

Christmas season, I think that would be a good one for you. I encourage you to pick up a copy of that. Well, we've come together today to worship the

Lord on this Lord's Day, and Psalm 103 verses 21 and 22.

Psalm 103 is a psalm that calls us together to give thanks to the

Lord, but it ends this way. Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers who do his will.

Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion. Bless the

Lord, O my soul. And let's do that in song together as Jim comes and leads us in our opening hymn.

Jim. Thank you, Pastor. It's number nine in your blue books, your supplements.

Number nine, called to worship. Let's all stand together and sing all three verses together. Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you, God, for the opportunity that we have to assemble, and we thank you,

God, for this body, this church that you've raised up. We pray that today, this hour, that we might exalt you.

We might glorify your name in all things, in song, in praise, and especially in the word of God that you would bless this time.

We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Psalm reading this morning is in the back of your bulletin,

Psalm 102, and verses 13 through 22. The cover of your bulletin says,

O Lord God, rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen, over all the nations, and that idea of God's rule and reign over all the nations, but particularly in the proclamation of the gospel to all nations is the emphasis, the focus of our service this morning.

This psalm ties into that. Psalm 102, verses 13 and following.

Follow along there on your bulletin if you would. It says, Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion, for the time to favor her, yea, the set time is come.

For thy servant's sake take pleasure in her stones and favor the dust thereof. So the heathen shall fear the name of the

Lord and all the kings of the earth, thy glory. When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.

He will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer. This shall be written for the generation to come, and the people which shall be created shall praise the

Lord. For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary, from heaven did the Lord behold the earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to loose those that are appointed to death, to declare the name of the

Lord in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem, when the people are gathered together and the kingdoms to serve the

Lord. Lord add his blessing to reading of this, his word today.

Jim? Number 93 in your hymnals, 93,

Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken. We'll sing all three verses together. As we pray together today, we want to pray for our missionary of the week, the

Bacaryx. I don't know if you've been tuned in to world events other than what's going on in our nation with election and so on, but the

Philippines and Manila proper, where the Bacaryx are serving, was hit this past week by a typhoon and it was a pretty devastating one.

Massive flooding in that area. The Bacaryx themselves, where they live, they weren't affected by any flooding particularly, but I saw a

Facebook post from Doug, I think it was yesterday, where he had been out on his motorcycle trying, you know, at a place helping people who had been victims of flooding and so forth, and riding in his motorcycle on his way back home, ended up having a little wipeout and messed up his bike and his knee, and so the whole area there has been affected greatly, and pray for the

Bacaryx as they have opportunity to minister to folks in that crisis situation and for Doug also in healing after that accident.

I also want to pray for Chuck and Ruby Kempf, the missionaries we support. Chuck's a missionary evangelist and was supposed to be here beginning today and through Wednesday night, but of course we canceled that with COVID, and it struck me,

I got a text from him this morning, and he just said, sorry we couldn't be with you, praying for you, hope you have a good Lord's Day, and it reminded me how men and servants of the

Lord like Chuck really require and rely upon this, you know, their itinerant ministry, being able to get to meetings and have those meetings, that's their means of income, and so by not having meetings, then, you know, their source of income is pretty limited.

Chuck does get support from local churches like ours, but that in no way supplies what is needed, so God, he said, has been graciously providing for them through this time, but nevertheless those needs are great.

I want to pray for some people who are struggling with illness. Abby and Ben Heink have been struggling with COVID for the last week or so, and they got it pretty bad.

They're improving, but pray for them, and then Nathan Castillo, many of you would know

Nathan, Nathan posted a thing on Facebook that late last night or early this morning, the family member just passed away from COVID, so I want to pray for his family and the death of that loved one, and then there are others, of course, in the church family who just have some ongoing struggles.

We've been praying for them recently for quite some time. I want to continue to pray for them, and then, of course, we want to pray for our nation in this crisis of integrity, crisis of the vote, the outcome of the election, and so forth.

We want to pray for truth to prevail. We want to pray for justice, and we want to pray for equity.

We want fairness. We want accuracy in all of that. We want to pray that the

Lord would bring to light the truth and shine a light on darkness that it could be exposed and dispelled.

Also, the strife in our nation over all of this politically. Some of you probably saw this huge rally in Washington, and then some expressions of violence related to that by those who opposed the marchers, and so forth, and all of this causes us great consternation and unrest as a nation.

In regard to this, I was reading this morning in a devotional book I read every day, Charles Spurgeon writing on this, and I just want to share a few excerpts of this particular devotional because it really was an encouragement to me and a reminder of even our theme for this morning of God's global concern.

He writes this. He says, So the heathen may rage, and the people imagine a vain thing, but the counsel of the

Lord standeth fast forever. Men are free to will and to act, but omnipotent wisdom rules over them despite their free agency.

It goes on later to say, men are as free as if there were no predestination, and predestination is accomplished as surely as if there were no free agents in the universe.

We are full of wonder at this, but this is true. So he writes in application of that,

The rebellions and willfulness of mankind do not thwart the eternal purposes of the

Most High. The royal vessel pursues its way whether men delight in its glorious progress or rail against it.

The Lord reigneth. Let the earth rejoice. Let's bow together in prayer.

And so our Father, we are grateful today that you do reign. And even though when we look at the news of the world and even of our own nation, we look at the unrest, we look at the strife, we look at the uncertainty that actions or even a national election has any integrity to it.

And all of this is concerning to us. And it makes us wonder, what is the future of even our land?

And Lord, we have to admit, we don't know. We know what we would like to see. And we do pray for the truth to come out.

We pray for justice to prevail in the land. We pray for equity and fairness, even in the outcome of a national election.

This is the desire of our heart. This is what we long for. And we do know that you are a

God of truth and of equity and of justice. And that ultimately, all of those things will prevail.

In the meantime, in the short term, we don't know how and what you intend to do in the use of the behaviors, the actions of evil men, those who rail against you, those whose attitudes and actions are in rebellion against your revealed will, against your word.

We don't know how you will use those things in our land, but we do know that you will.

We do know that you have your sovereign purpose for this land of ours. And we trust in that.

We trust in you. And we rest in what you have in store for us. So Lord, we pray.

Do a work in our land. Be merciful to us as a people. We pray as your grace has been shed so abundantly upon this land in ages past, that you would shed your grace on us once again.

Pour out your blessings, we pray. We long for those showers of blessing that begin with a people that turn back to the

God they have forsaken. Do a great work in our land, we pray. Use even this current strife and distress and crisis of health and crisis of integrity to turn people to the

Savior. Father, we pray for those laboring in other lands who are endeavoring to turn others to the

Savior, to hold forth the gospel of Christ. We pray for Doug and Ruth Bacharach and their work in ministry.

We pray as they labor among people who are suffering and reeling from a devastating typhoon, that you would give them wisdom and skill in sharing the gospel, even as they minister to everyday very physical needs.

We pray that you would heal Doug of this little injury he's received from his accident.

We pray, Father, for the government of the Philippines, as there is in that land efforts by those who would want to curtail any impact of the gospel.

We pray that you would use the leaders of that land and the powers that be and so work in their hearts that the gospel would be able to have free course.

We pray for the Kemps and ask that you would provide for them this time when Chuck cannot get to meetings because of COVID limitations.

Continue to encourage Ruby, strengthen her body and give her grace and her afflictions.

We do pray, Father, for those who are suffering physically today in our own church family, some recuperating, recovering, going through physical therapy, others anticipating doctor's appointments even this week.

We pray that you would give skill and wisdom to those physicians, give healing grace to those who are suffering.

Pray particularly for the Hanks and pray that you would give them a complete recovery from COVID, that there wouldn't be any lingering effects from that.

We pray, Father, for Nathan Castillo and his family in the loss of this loved one.

We pray that you would give comfort to their hearts. We pray that in this time of loss and sorrow, that hearts would be turned to you.

Work even in that situation today, we pray. Meet those needs. Now, Father, we pray, bless the remainder of our service today as we continue to sing our songs of praise to you and turn our attention to your word.

And this we ask in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. Before a pastor comes with a morning message, turn to 536, 536 in your hymnals and sing together verses one, three, and four.

Verses one, three, and four. Let's stand together, please. Oh, Zion, haste. Oh, Zion, haste.

My strengths are thine rebelling to tell to all the world that God is light, that he who made all nations is not willing.

One soul should perish, lost in shades of night.

Oh, ablish glad tiding, tidings of peace, tidings of Jesus' redemption and release.

Proclaim to every people, tongue, and nation that God in whom they live and move his love.

Tell how he stooped to save his lost creation when died on earth that men might live above.

Publish glad tidings, tidings of peace, tidings of Jesus' redemption and release.

Give of your sons to bear the message glorious.

Give of your wealth to speed them on their way.

Pour out your soul for them in prayer victorious and all you spend the same will repay.

Publish glad tidings, tidings of peace, tidings of Jesus' redemption and release.

Please be seated. We read of that redemption and release in our text for 1

Timothy chapter 2. I encourage you to follow along in your copy of scripture as I read verses 1 -8 of 1

Timothy chapter 2. Paul is writing to his young protege,

Timothy, a pastor who is responsible for ministry in the local church. He begins in chapter 2 with some instructions for what's to take place in the public worship services of the church, what's to take place in public services.

He says, I exhort in verse 1, 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. I will, therefore, that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.

A brief prayer. Our Father, we are exhorted in this passage to pray, so teach us how we pray today in Jesus' name.

Amen. Back in January of this year, there was a

Senate confirmation hearing for one of the federal judges that President Trump appointed.

His name was Brian Buescher. And in that hearing, Kamala Harris, who's now, you know, of course,

Joe Biden's vice presidential running mate, Kamala Harris argued that this judge, appointee, was not fit for this position as a federal judge because, she said, he's a member of a religious organization that opposes abortion and also opposes same -sex marriage.

In her view, those are radical views, radical positions, and nobody who would be a federal judge sitting on a bench should be allowed to hold such views.

That disqualifies him from serving in such public office. In fact, the idea is, the attitude is, that anybody who holds such quote -unquote radical views is not fit for public office at all.

Now, given the possibility that Senator Harris could be the President of the

United States within a year or so, that attitude does not bode well for Christians who hold such quote -unquote radical positions.

So what are we to do about it? What are we to make of that? What are we to do? Again, I mentioned earlier this hundreds of thousands of people that showed up in Washington over the weekend to show support for the

President. It was a great MAGA rally, they called it. Is that what we're called to do?

Is that what we should do? There's not anything wrong with doing so, but that's not what the church is called to do.

What the church is called to do is given to us here in this text. The church is called to pray.

And to pray, offering this prayer that Paul gives to us, or the components of this prayer, it's a prayer for all times and all places.

So it doesn't matter what nation a Christian finds himself in, and what time in history that he finds himself in, this passage is for us.

We are called upon to pray. We are called to pray. And we're called to pray in a very public way and as a public priority.

This comes out right away in the first verse. He says, I exhort therefore that first of all, of chief importance, primarily, he says,

I exhort therefore as a priority that the church prays.

And I would point out that this chief priority, this priority of public praying is again for everybody.

This isn't something that Paul was just exhorting Timothy to do in his church in Ephesus.

We know that because of what he says in verse eight. He says, I will therefore that men pray everywhere, everywhere.

So wherever the church is, his exhortation in this public setting is for men to pray in this particular way.

Now, just to clarify in chapter three, verse 15, Paul is wrapping up this section of instruction on what to do in the public worship of the local church, preaching and teaching and so forth.

And he says in verse 15, but if I tarry long, that you may know how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living

God, the pillar and the ground of truth. All right. So what Paul is presenting here in chapter two in our text for this morning is instruction for the public church, the worship, the gathering together of God's people.

What are we to do in times like this when politics, government is in such a state as it is, when the official positions of the government are not in line with what we would hold dear, whether or not they are, what are we to do?

We are to pray, pray as a public priority. Now, verse eight also tells us that that praying as a public priority needs to be conducted particularly because notice what he says.

He says, I will that men pray everywhere. Now in our day, this sounds very sexist, but this is the exhortation that men pray.

Now, let me clarify. Let me point out that in the New Testament, in the Greek language, there are two different words that are translated men, and we see both of them in today's text.

One of them shows up in verse one at the end of the verse where he says that this prayer be made for all men.

The Greek word is the word anthropos. You recognize that word because it shows up in words in the

English language like anthropology. Anthropology is the study of humanity, the study of mankind, the study of different cultures of people.

That's one word, and it's a general term that stands for humanity or for people as a whole.

The other word is found here in verse eight where he says, I will that men pray.

The Greek word is anir, and it's the Greek term for the male gender.

So Paul is giving some pretty particular instructions here that the will of God is in the public worship services of the local church, that in public praying that men are to lead the in these public prayers.

This is the will of the Lord. This is the word of the Lord. So he says this praying needs to be particular.

It needs to be conducted particularly by men, but it needs to be expressed, that praying, in utter dependence and total humility.

Here's how that's expressed, lifting up those holy hands.

This is a very physical figurative way of saying,

I have nothing to give you. I have nothing to offer you. It's an expression of humility, but it's also an expression of utter dependence, where on the one hand you're saying,

I have nothing to give you but my prayer. I need you. I need you to give to us.

We need you to give to us. We need you to provide. We are dependent upon you.

So this praying is conducted particularly by men as they express utter dependence and humility before the

Lord, but it is also, notice, void of animosity. Let these men pray with uplifted hands, without wrath, without wrath.

It's not easy to do, is it? When you have people like Kamala Harris and many others in our day who are expressing attitudes toward views that we hold, and we hold with conviction, and they express attitudes toward those views that are very hostile.

And the impression is from folks like that, the impression is if we didn't have people like you in our country, we'd be a whole lot better off.

I mean, why don't you guys just go start another country somewhere? All of you leave, and then we'll be better off.

We'll have a utopian society without you. I mean, you get that impression, don't you? You don't get the attitude.

You don't feel like they really appreciate you and appreciate your point of view, not in the least bit.

So when you have that kind of attitude expressed in a very public way and a very hostile tone, it's hard not to pray.

It's hard to pray without wrath, isn't it? I recall in the

Obama administration, seeing a video of a pastor in the Southwest publicly.

I mean, it's a video. It went viral. I mean, I don't know if it went viral, but it went on the internet, and anybody who wanted to could see it, where he was praying in a very angry and hostile way for the death of the

President of the United States, and somebody would take him out. Does that fulfill the exhortation of 1

Timothy 2, verse 8, where we are to pray without wrath? And we're also to pray as we pray particularly filled with faith.

Without wrath, he says, and doubting. Without doubting. Here's how we can doubt when we're praying, especially really related to governmental leaders and those we may not particularly appreciate, at least whose viewpoints we don't appreciate.

Do I really want to pray for that person? Do I really want

God's blessing on that administration and his cabinet and all the rest of that?

Do I really want that? I'm told to pray for him, but do I really want that? You see the doubting?

You see the lack of faith? You see how challenging it actually is to pray in the way that Paul is telling us to pray?

And yet this is what we are to do. It is a public priority that we pray and pray in this way.

But verse 1 also tells us that we are to pray in this public prayer with broad application.

With broad application. And you notice that Paul employs four terms that all have to do with our praying.

He says, I will that you pray with, I exhort that you pray with supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks.

Each of those terms can stand by itself for praying, but when they're all put together, they communicate a different emphasis.

Each word has a little different emphasis. Supplication would be specific prayers or specific requests for specific needs.

Needs of the hour. For example, we prayed this morning that there would be a fair and accurate vote count.

Now that's not something we will pray six months from now. Why are we praying for that today?

We're praying for that today. That is a supplication that we're offering today because of the very real crisis in which our nation finds itself.

Supplication. And then prayers. Prayers. Those would be more general things that we would, we can and should pray for at all times.

We pray for, for example, our governmental leaders on a national or a state or even a local level.

We pray for them to have wisdom in the making of the decisions that they have to make.

That's something we can and should pray for regularly. We pray for growth in grace.

Now there is, you understand, a common grace, right? Why is it that, you know, we live out here in farm country.

There are farmers that are godly Christian farmers and they're right next door to farmers that would never darken the door of the church and don't want to particularly have anything to do with religion.

And yet when it comes time to harvest, the Christian farmer can have just as bountiful a harvest as the non -Christian farmer.

How can a non -Christian farmer have such a bountiful harvest? He's not even acknowledging God as the source of his harvest.

How can he? Because of common grace. Well, when we're offering prayers for all and for those in authority, one of the things we pray for is common grace.

That they experience grace from God. Blessings that they don't deserve.

We can pray for, as a matter of course, good intelligence on the part of our governmental leaders.

They need good intel. They need good intelligence. We can pray for the administration of justice.

Those are general things that we can pray for at any time and every time, frankly.

Supplications, prayers, intercessions. Intercession is what we do in behalf of somebody else.

Now the point that Paul is making here, I think, is that it's easy to offer supplications and prayers for ourselves, isn't it?

And we do that. And it's right that we do that. For ourselves, personally, and our immediate family, our immediate concerns.

That's our stuff. But intercession is we're praying for their stuff. We're praying for their needs.

See? Praying for somebody else. And then giving of thanks. Giving of thanks.

That, of course, is expressing gratitude to God. Expressing gratitude to God for His common grace.

Aren't you grateful for that common grace? Aren't you grateful that even though our nation has, over the last 50, 60 years or more, turned further and further away from the principles of Scripture and that which is pleasing to God, aren't you grateful that God, in His grace to the nation as a whole,

He hasn't just said, okay, I'm done with you right now. Yes, we are to be thankful for common grace.

We can be thankful to God just for the institution of government. We've seen a little bit this year of what happens when there is no government, right?

Cities like Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, and others where the local governmental authorities just took their hands off and let the anarchists have their way.

How would we like it if that was the way of the land?

If there was no government? Community? State? Or national?

Aren't you grateful for the fact that we even have a government? And it is imperfect as it is?

Yes. We give thanks. We can express thanks to God for His providence and His sovereignty as He rules over the nations of the world.

We mentioned that earlier, that quote from Charles Spurgeon. So we are to pray with broad application, with supplications and prayers and intercessions and giving of thanks.

But then the last part of verse one and into verse two, we are also to pray with unrestricted inclusivity.

Unrestricted inclusivity. Look at what Paul says. And here's why I say I use that phrase unrestricted inclusivity.

He says, I exhort that you offer these prayers for all men, for all men.

That is for all mankind, for all humanity, for all peoples, for all peoples.

He's not telling us that we have to pray for every individual. We couldn't do that, right?

I mean, there's 15 ,000 people in the city of Sterling. We couldn't even manage that.

So obviously, he's not talking about pray, you know, we're to pray for every individual on the face of the planet.

But what he is talking about is that in our praying, we don't exclude anyone because of some particular notion on our part.

For example, several years ago, when I was an assistant pastor in the 80s at a church in Indiana.

And there was a man in the church who, okay, so I was in my 20s at the time.

And this man and his wife were in their early 70s. And he was in World War II, as I recall.

And even then, okay, early 80s, even then, he had such an animosity that he wouldn't pray for Japs and Krauts.

Hmm. Is that the attitude that the

Christian should have? No. Paul says, don't exclude anyone as you pray for all men.

So you do pray for German people. You do pray for Japanese people, even though you fought in a war against those people and they wanted to destroy us.

Yeah, we still pray for them. Or, and then of course, there was the post -Civil

War era where too many, too many people in our country wouldn't pray for the freed blacks, wouldn't pray for them.

They had such animosity toward them, they wouldn't. Let's bring it into the 21st century.

In our day, are there people, groups, types of people, groups of people that you won't pray for because of their, oh, their sexual confusion, perhaps, or for their immoral lifestyle, perhaps, maybe because of their political persuasion or the way they look?

You know, are you, do you restrict your praying by looking at people and with such disgust that you would not pray for such people as that?

If that is your spirit, if that is your attitude, you're violating what Paul and God is telling us.

We're to pray for all kinds of people and we're to exclude no one in our praying.

And then we're to pray for all authorities. The first part of verse two, Paul says, we're to pray for kings and for all that are in authority.

Remember when Paul wrote this, Paul wrote this during the era of the Roman Emperor Nero.

Now, if you know anything at all about the history of the Roman Empire, you know that Nero was no friend of Christianity.

In fact, he blamed Christians for the burning of Rome when he apparently had it set fire himself because he hated

Christians. And yet Paul says, you know, pray for him, pray for Nero, pray for the

Roman Senate, pray for your president, pray for your congressman, pray for your representative, pray for your senator, pray for your governor, pray for your state officials, pray for kings and for all that are in authority over us.

In the early part of the second century, the Bishop of Rome at the time, now don't think Roman Catholic Church, okay?

Think of the overseer of the churches, the local churches in Rome. A man by the name of Clement, he wrote this about praying for those in authority over us.

And here's a model prayer that he offered. He said, grant to them, Lord, health, peace, harmony, and stability, that they may blamelessly administer the government which you have given them.

You see how even Clement understood that imperfect empirical

Roman government that set Caesar up as a god. He recognized that that government was given to the emperor of the time by God.

He says, Lord, direct their plans according to what is good and pleasing in your sight, so that by devoutly administering in peace and gentleness the authority which you have given them, they may experience your mercy.

Now, that's a pretty remarkable prayer given his time and place when persecution of Christians was so common in the

Roman Empire. More recently, John Stott, he made this comment on the duty of the state and the church in relation to it.

He says, it is the duty of the state to keep the peace, to protect its citizens from whatever would disturb it, to preserve law and order, and to punish evil and promote good, so that within such a stable society, the church may be free to worship

God, obey his laws, and spread his gospel. Conversely, it is the duty of the church to pray for the state, so that its leaders may administer justice and pursue peace, and to add to its intercession thanksgiving, especially for the blessings of good government as a gift of God's common grace.

We are to pray for all men, all kinds of people, and for all who are in authority over us.

To this end, to this desired effect, at the end of verse two, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty.

The desired effect of this kind of praying is tranquility, serenity, and piety.

Tranquility. Freedom from outside disturbance like riots and anarchy.

Tranquility and serenity. This is peace within, where we are free from inner anxiety and turmoil, like has so easily been roiled during 2020, right?

Between all of the events of this year. We want tranquility, serenity, and piety.

Piety in all godliness and honesty. And what he's praying for here is that we pray in such a way for this end, so that we don't get caught up in all of the division, and the anger, and the conflict, and the mayhem.

And again, if you're alert, and if you have connections on social media sites like Facebook, and Twitter, and so forth, you've probably come across friends or acquaintances that are believers, who have gotten caught up in the anger, and the wrath, and the conflict, and the mayhem, in the tone of their rhetoric, the things that they've said, and so forth.

And what we want to pray is we want to pray for all kinds of people, and for all who are in authority over us, so that this desired effect might come to pass.

That we experience tranquility, and serenity, and piety.

Now, let me point this out. The point of this desired effect is not for our comfort.

It's not that we might have quiet, comfortable, peaceful lives, because that's so much more pleasurable than the alternative.

The reason that we want this is for a gospel advance, for the advance the expansion of the gospel proclamation.

Now, you say, well, I thought the Lord used persecution to grow His church. Well, it is true that through the centuries that the

Lord has used persecution, and that the result of that has been the growth of the church. For example,

Tertullian, one of those ancient church fathers, he made the comment that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

And we know what's happened in communist China. When the communists took over, they kicked out, or killed all the missionaries, and got rid of all that gospel influence, they thought.

And yet, the church in China has grown exponentially. But here's what we've also discovered with these kinds of growth in the church.

There is expansion of people who receive the gospel.

But the truth of the matter is that the gospel spreads most rapidly and most accurately, and that's an important point, when it does so most freely.

We have missionaries, for example, that spend a great deal of time trying to find ways to minister to leaders of house churches in communist

China. Why? Because they're so deficient in theology, and the understanding of even many rudimentary biblical ideas.

Why? Because they've never been taught, because of the oppression. So we pray in this way, with unrestricted inclusivity for a gospel advance.

And that leads us to the rest of this text, verses three through seven. In our praying like this, we're praying with a gospel focus.

And there are three reasons for this that Paul gives. Why do we want to pray with a gospel focus?

Number one, because God has a heart for all people. This is what he says in verses three and four.

He says, this is good. This kind of praying is good and acceptable in the sight of God our

Savior, who will have all men, and there's that word anthropos again, all kinds of people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

The heart of God is seen in what pleases him. When we pray in this way for all kinds of people, for rulers and those in authority over us, for the sake of a gospel advance, when we pray in this way, we're praying in a way that pleases

God. Hendrickson, one of the commentators,

William Hendrickson, he said this, he said, to God's eye, such corporate prayer is excellent or admirable.

To his heart, it is acceptable or most welcome. So God's heart is seen in what pleases him, but his heart is also expressed in his purposes.

And verse four, Paul expresses what is the purpose of God's heart. He will have all men, all kinds of people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

So this praying that he's exhorting us to participate in here, in this text, this praying dovetails with the purposes that God has for this planet.

The purpose to reach all kinds of people in all kinds of people groups and to save some out of all those peoples.

Salvation is not limited to any one group or type of people, nor does it exclude anyone that's in such a group.

God's purpose is that we come to the, that people come to the, be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.

And what Paul is talking about here by the knowledge of the truth is not mere intellectual assent, as one commentator put it, or agreement to a body of ideas, but to a joyful appropriation of the truth for oneself.

Matthew Mead, who wrote a very helpful little book entitled, what is the title of that?

The Almost Christian Discovered. He defines saving knowledge, which was what

Paul's talking about, as this, an assent of the mind to a body of truth, the assent of the mind, plus the consent of the will.

Both the assent of the mind and the consent of the will. God's purpose is that people from all kinds of people groups from all over the planet come to be saved, come to the knowledge of the truth.

Let me pause here and ask, here in this community, in this place, in this time, have you come to that knowledge of the truth?

Not merely an assent to a body of facts, but to the consent of the will, where you have come in brokenness and in repentance before the holy

God whom you have offended and you call upon him to save you on the merits of Jesus Christ, which is what

Paul leads into next. So one of the reasons that we're called to pray with a gospel focus is that God has a heart for all people.

The second reason is that God has established one salvation plan for all people.

And this comes out in verses five and six. It goes on to say, for there is one

God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all.

There's only one plan of salvation and it's the plan of salvation for all kinds of people all over the planet.

There's only one God for all people. In our day, it's not popular to say that.

Our day has the idea, our culture has the idea that, you know, there's the

God of the Christian and there's the gods of the Hindus and there's the gods of Shinto and there's the

God of this and the God of that group and so on. And each group has its God and each one is expressing their own way to get to their

God. And it's really when all is said and done, you know, they're all going to get to the same place anyway. No, there is one

God. There's one God for the American, who is the same

God for the European, who's the same God for the Asian, for the same

God for the Australian and everywhere else on the planet. There is one God for all people.

And there is only one mediator between that one God and all people. And that mediator is the

God -man, Christ Jesus. And there's only one way that people from whatever group they're in and this one

God can be reconciled. And that is through the mediate, the mediatorial work of the

God -man, Jesus Christ. Christ's inclusive sacrifice.

The sacrifice that is in behalf of all kinds of people is what

I mean by that. And how do we know that Christ's sacrifice is intended for people of all kinds of groups?

Because of the scene that we have in Revelation chapter five. Revelation five, you have this glorious scene where this is sung, to the

Lamb, the Lord Jesus, thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals for thou,

Lord Jesus, the Lamb, thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood, listen, out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and has made unto us our

God, kings and priests, out of every kindred, tongue, people and nation.

Jesus Christ's sacrifice is in behalf of all peoples.

And it is a sacrifice that he offered voluntarily. He gave himself, our text says, verse six,

Jesus said in John 10, 18, no man's going to take my life from me. I'm laying it down of myself voluntarily.

It's a sacrifice that he offered as a payment for our freedom. Even as we sung earlier in one of our hymns, a payment for our freedom, he gave himself as a ransom, a ransom for all kinds of people, a ransom, paying the price so that we might be freed from our sin's debt and sin's curse.

And he offered himself, Christ, the one mediator between God and man, the only means of reconciliation.

He offered himself as a substitute in your place and in mine.

He did this for, or in behalf of, all peoples.

So he did this, he offered himself as a sacrifice in behalf of you who are here this morning,

English -speaking or Spanish -speaking, of whatever background you have as an

American in this place. He also offered himself as a sacrifice for those

Filipinos that the Bacarics are working with and for the

Brazilians that the Brails are working with, and for the

Malaysian, the Malays, that the Otts are working with, and the folks from Singapore that they had worked with.

And on and on we can go around the world. Jesus offered himself voluntarily as one sacrifice, as a substitute in the place of people from all kindreds and tribes and nations and languages.

It's one inclusive sacrifice. One commentator said of this sacrifice that Jesus, the

God -man, paid the price that only man could owe and only

God could pay. Jesus did this. It is the one salvation plan established by God for all people.

And then the third reason that we pray with this gospel focus is that God commissioned a global gospel enterprise for all people.

A global gospel enterprise for all people. This comes out in verses six and seven. Jesus gave himself as a ransom for all to be testified in due time.

And when was that time? Jesus himself told us. After the resurrection and before the ascension, he told his disciples, this is the season.

Now is the time for proclamation. He said, go and make disciples of all nations.

He said, preach the gospel. To all nations. He said, be witnesses to me.

This, all of these different ways of expressing the same idea. Proclaim this message of the gospel.

Proclaim it. Now is the time to proclaim it. And it is to be proclaimed everywhere to everyone.

That is the scope of this proclamation. Even Paul brings this out in his own personal testimony.

Paul is a Jew and he says in verse seven, I, a Jew, am ordained to a preacher and an apostle, a teacher of the

Gentiles in truth or in faith and truth and verity. So Paul's own testimony is that this is the time to take this gospel message everywhere to everyone, to all peoples.

And on what authority, on what basis does he say that? Jesus. This is what he said

Jesus did at the end of Matthew, right? 28, verse 19. You know these verses. As you are going,

Jesus said, be making disciples of all nations, ethnicities.

Mark 16, 15. He said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

In Luke 24, verses 46 and seven, Jesus said, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance and the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.

And in Acts 1 .8, just before the ascension, Jesus said, you will be my witnesses to the end of the earth, to the end of the earth.

It is God's plan that we pray with a gospel focus because he intends the gospel to reach all kinds of people.

And it doesn't matter the form of government, regardless of the form of government or the character of those who are serving in the government, the church is to pray.

We are to pray as a public priority with broad application and unrestricted inclusivity with a gospel focus.

And so our father and our God, we do pray today that as you have, you have given the church this responsibility to pray in this way, that we would be faithful so to pray.

Then father, we also recognize that perhaps even here in this place, this morning, there would be one who needs to receive this gospel, whose heart, even right now, you are convicting of sin and of righteousness and of judgment to come, of the truth that Jesus died on a cross to pay sin's penalty.

And that one is seeing for the first time, perhaps even this morning, that he hung on that cross and he shed his blood to pay the ransom for his soul.

Oh, may that one call upon you today, call upon you to be saved. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Would you take your hymnal and turn to number 537, 537.

We want to sing the first and the last stanzas of this hymn, Jesus Saves.

Let's stand together as we sing, shall we? 537. First and then the last.

We have heard the joyful sound. Jesus saves, bear the news to every land.

Climb the steeps and cross the waves. Onward tis our

Lord's command. Jesus saves, Jesus saves.

Give the winds a mighty voice. Jesus saves,

Jesus saves. Let the nations now rejoice. Shout salvation, fallen free.

When deepest caves, this our song of victory. Jesus saves,

Jesus saves. And now may you grow in grace and in the knowledge of our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever.

Amen. So if you are planning to stay for our business meeting, you may be seated.