Book of 1 Timothy - Ch. 2, v. 2a

Two weeks ago was the last time I was with y 'all and if you recall, I don't want to rehash too much for the sake of time

But the last thing we discussed after looking at verse 1 of chapter 2

Was this little lesson that is so important for all of us to keep in mind as we read Scripture This is not set.

This is not a quote -unquote rule Unique to Bible scholars and Bible interpreters or pastors or Bible teachers

This is the the kind of thing that every believer Should remember as they read the Word of God and as they come across certain phrases sentences words

That may pique their interest it may get their attention Maybe more so than others and you think huh?

Well, how is this consistent with other things? I've read here there or anywhere else and So last week or a couple of weeks ago rather we finished by talking about this idea of Remembering that in every language, but certainly in the

Greek language as well and the Hebrew there's this idea of words having a range of use y 'all remember that and The context that the author is using the word within is what defines the word

It's so yes, every word has a definition and definitions are very important. I'm not certainly not

Mitigating the importance of that in any way But because of that range of use you have to take what you might call

Authorial intent in other words the intention of the author Into the into consideration.

Otherwise, sometimes you can come up with a really weird interpretation Based upon maybe a wooden definition of a word that the author would look at you with just kind of a weird

What are you doing there? That's not at all what I said unfortunately that happens to Scripture all the time and It's necessary to happen because Let me let me rephrase the word because the word is so consistent and so harmonious and in many cases so specific it requires false teachers to twist the scriptures or rest of the scriptures as the

Apostle Peter puts it and do things like go in and like really harp on maybe a specific wooden definition of a word in Order to convince people that's what it means so that it can then fit within their framework

Whether it be a cult or maybe maybe a more innocent false teaching It's kind of it sounds like an oxymoron, but y 'all know what

I mean? There are heretics. There are false teachers There are false prophets there are cults and then there are guys that sometimes just go through it and kind of throw out what feels

Like what it what it may feel right in the moment and it may not be correct But it's not because their intentions were malicious.

It was just you know, maybe they missed something initially So there's a there's a wide range of different things that can happen there

Because of all because of all that because all that is true for the diligent Bible student

Regardless of where they're at when they read Scripture They need to keep that in mind all words have a range of use and we determine what use the word is being used for Based upon the context that the

Apostle gives it in so with that being said That's all the refresher will do from last time.

Look at 1st Timothy chapter 2 And we'll read the first two verses together, but we're going to be honing in on verse 2 today

And maybe a little more we'll see he says I exhort therefore that first of all supplications prayers

Intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men Now that was the specific reason why we brought all of that into play last week

Or two weeks ago why we mentioned that at all because he uses the term all men there and we needed we need to figure out okay, does he mean all men exhaustively to the point of every specific individual on planet

Earth or is he talking about the other use of that term in the Greek which would be

The Sorts of a group or something like that and if we look at verse 2 we can see how the

Apostle Paul defines it He says for Kings and for all that are in authority That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life and all godliness and honesty

So here we have the Apostle Paul Defining what he has in mind with the use of all in verse 1 and in throughout this passage

Which will be important to remember later He wants the people of God praying for all men without Discrimination as it relates to social status.

He mentions Kings. He mentions all that are in authority well, we have to remember is

That it was well, we'll talk about this more in just a second But it's important to remember the kind of political environment that these first century

Christians found themselves in There are times in the United States where we might find it incredibly difficult to have the desire to pray for our leaders in Other times where we it may be all too easy

You know We just we feel like they could do no wrong and and you know Their people can get really hyped up about their politician depending on if it's if he's in their corner or not

Well in the ancient world first century Christians It was it was like it would have been

Alien to them to think about a politician that was in their corner They're living in the ancient

Roman Empire. They're living in the arguably the most pagan Empire that the world had ever seen

Certainly at the scale that it was at and so It would again Paul is talking to them about an issue that would have been difficult for them to grasp with which is praying for These pagan rulers that are ruling over them with an iron fist.

We'll talk about this more in just a second But before I do What I want one thing that I want to pull out of here

Another way that we can determine Consistently that the way the Apostle Paul is using this term all men in the way that we're saying it does which is with relation to people groups not necessarily about individuals is because when you take that particular reading which is a

Contextual reading it all of the sudden brings perfect consistency between what

Paul's exhortation is here in verse 2 and The inspired curses that we have of David in the

Old Testament There were prayers to God But in the form of a curse over certain specific enemies of God so In the in the

Psalms and I mentioned this two weeks ago You have a category of Psalms that we refer to now as in precatory

Psalms that David would pray At times and they were they were curses upon the enemies of God But here we have

Paul's exhortation to pray for quote -unquote all men well How how can you reconcile that how can you harmonize the two was

David if you see us Lewis was an amazing man but one thing that he Fumbled on was more of a face plant was his interpretation of the

Psalms A very very odd commentary on the Psalms CS Lewis had and he believed and bless his heart.

I love him But he believed that David was in sin when he pinned the imprecatory

Psalms The the ones where he was bringing judgment and curses down upon the enemies of God now, obviously, that's just ludicrous

But you know sometimes any man can get a little too philosophical sometimes and that was one case of it

They he was not in sin. They were inspired He was in the Spirit as he as he wrote those

Psalms as the book of Acts tells us It was the Spirit speaking through David and it included those

Psalms as well And so if it's true that we have the certain Instances where a prayer of curse is being made upon the enemies of God How can we harmonize that with Paul over here telling us to pray what he says are

Supplications and prayers and intercessions. These are positive Connotations here. We pray these giving thanks for all men.

Well, if you mean all men on an individual basis then you would have perhaps an issue of Trying to figure out how it was possible for David to pray these curses upon some men in the

Spirit and now Paul Quote -unquote undoing that but he's not undoing it because what Paul is talking about are people groups not individuals

Because David was in here's a way you can remember what David was doing was he was cursing

Individuals and Paul here is talking about groups. So you have category you have two different categories here

David cursing individuals specific enemies of God Paul talking about people groups now

I just want to show you guys this for a second and I and I want it to stick in your mind turn to Psalm rather Psalm 35.

I want y 'all to remember this because when Talking with some people in the future, you know, this particular passage at some point may come up with regard to like I mentioned two weeks ago this debate between Universal atonement versus limited atonement or particular redemption

You know all of these types of things again for 400 plus years. You've had the debate the

Calvinistic and Arminian debate and oftentimes sadly this particular passage of 1st

Timothy 2 is brought into the equation and The reason it said to me is because when it is brought into that specific debate you lose what

Paul is really talking about because you're so hung up on a couple of words that he chose to use and Again, making the decision that oh, well, this is obviously talking about universal atonement on one hand or the

Calvinist over here We'll say no look at the context this sort of thing over here Forget the debate for a second

But if you remember this when that debate comes up, it will help you Bring it back to what's really happening here.

And if you can remember the distinction between Individuals and people groups you can bring up this harmonization issue

By saying well was David in violation of Paul's exhortation in Set in in chapter 2 verses 1 and 2 in an example like this and look at Psalm 35

I'm just gonna read a few verses just to give you a taste of it the whole psalm Falls into this category again of an imprecatory psalm a psalm of curse psalm of judgment

Plead my cause O Lord with them that strive with me fight against them that fight against me

Take hold of shield and buckler and stand up for mine help Draw out also the spear and stop the way against them that persecute me saying to my soul.

I am thy salvation Let them be confounded and put to shame That seek after my soul

Let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devised my hurt Let them be as chaff before the wind and let the angel of the

Lord chase them Let their way be dark and slippery and let the angel of the Lord persecute them

For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit which without cause they have digged for my soul

Let destruction come upon them at unawares and let his net that he have hid

Catch himself into that very destruction let him fall and i'll just i'll end there but you kind of get the picture

That is one of a great number of examples we could look at throughout the psalms And so it begs the question was david under inspiration of the holy spirit in violation of paul's exhortation at the beginning of first timothy chapter 2

And the answer is no. Why is that? It doesn't violate the law of non -contradiction because you have two categories

In view one is individuals specific enemies of god The other are people groups that paul is talking about we pray for all men without discrimination

With regard to social status that includes your politicians that includes those that are in the poorer class

Some out of all of these groups. We don't pray based upon social status and remember Why is it important for him to even bring that up?

We can understand it even in our modern context, but it was especially potent for christians at the particular time

All of this was happening because it was very tough to desire to pray for the emperor

It was essentially persecuting you now not all emperors persecuted in the same way but there were still

Uh, it was still tough regardless of the level. So that's the first thing that we have to establish here

In ensuring that we pull out the proper sense the proper Intent that paul had out of this text rather than shoving anything anything else into it.

Um, oh, yeah, go ahead kate i'm curious if all of that makes sense um

When to pray in precatory prayers versus the individual Yeah, well

I'll give you an example of that here in just a moment with regard to an emperor specifically But here

I i'll get you robert i'm not gonna Ignore you because I want your thoughts, but let me just throw this out there really quick One thing that can help people remember

Uh when you are righteously angry toward a particular individual in praying

A curse or judgment or something like that toward them which by the way, we very much still have situations to in the moment

Where we can righteously do that we could we could pop off a number of names

Where it would be good and righteous for the people of god to pray judgment Pray for the judgment of god to come upon their head

Right now, so this is this is a universal principle throughout time. It wasn't unique to david. The answer katie is to remember this

When a christian is praying in the will of god and by that I mean it the way the apostle john meant it in first john

When we pray within the will of god and when we have a righteous desire To right the offenses against god and not ourselves

Then all of a sudden that prayer of judgment can do one of two things It will it can and will crush that person in one of two ways

It will either by god's grace crush them by the gospel because if you think about it for a second when a person is living in rebellion when they're living in sin and the

The regeneration of the spirit comes upon them in the way that it came upon murderous paul

It is a crushing experience Think about paul's conversion. It was not it wasn't just butterflies.

It was it was it was absolutely epic and so It will crush them in one of two ways either it will transform that transform them to such a degree that it leaves them shook

For maybe a good number of days good number of weeks months However, it may be it'll crush them by the gospel

Of saving grace or it will crush them by that judgment And so we don't know which of the two are coming, but we can pray

Lord, let it come Let them be crushed in one way or other because they are violating your word.

They are persecuting your people They are killing the unborn. They are persecuting the innocence over here

They are doing all of these violent crimes over here We can't let that happen because you are a god of justice

And we are a people of justice and we want your justice to prevail and it will not always on our timetable

But it will and so I don't know if that answers your question or not katie But let me put it this way when you see an individual

That is engaging in such egregious crime and sin That it is good and righteous for a christian to be disgusted by it to be repudiated by and to pray for god's judgment on that wicked behavior quick and swiftly and that particular prayer

Can come in a number of levels a number of forms and you know We have david just displayed for all of us to learn from And if you are ever worried or ever wonder

How do I know if i'm praying the right way? I I hear I have these feelings. I have this pent -up emotion

I have this anger this righteous anger and this disgust toward the wickedness that I see that I know is happening

But i'm worried and i'm concerned that I may cross a line When it comes to my prayers, you know something that we can do that We're allowed to do that the apostles themselves tell us we can do uh in in different ways

Is we can pray the scriptures? So if you're ever concerned And you just feel like you don't even know what to say in a moment

But you need to i'm just going to use a modern term. We need to vent to the lord We need to let all of this pent up anger and emotion

And disgust toward the wickedness around us. We need to throw all that upon the lord open up an imprecatory psalm

Psalm 35 psalm 59 psalm 69 and just read it, but don't just read it pray it

Repeat the words as a prayer as you this is me Saying these words to the lord and I want this to happen to this particular individual or this group of people over here

That are absolutely ravaging the innocence and things like that, so I don't know if that helps kate's but Again at any point where we need a little bit of clarity on how we can do this

Uh, we can just go to the scripture and pray the scripture as our own words to god And he will hear it and uh, and there you go

Was that helpful? Yeah, robert. Sorry. Go ahead Sure, yeah, so So there can 33 verses it's it's intense it's sad it's like They could be doing right

They're intentionally choosing wrong They've known my covenants that they're doing it in the pastorships in the churches in their families.

They're doing it First 16 don't pray for these people Yeah, and there is there is a new testament equivalent as well somewhere

I can't think of it off the top of my head where that same principle is applied But think about it this way one of the reasons why we don't only have imprecatory psalms is because david

Would would would pray it and then He would be done with it He would move on and then and we there we have all these other

Categories of beautiful psalms of praise and all of the in thankfulness and gratitude and all these types of things as well and so Yes, there comes a point where the wickedness is so great on uh in in specific cases where Uh number one perhaps the prayers of lord bless them has ended way back in the rearview mirror perhaps you have prayed for the lord to bring judgment upon them and then

You leave it to the lord at that point and you put your your crosshairs so to speak on all of the things that are related to you in your life if we

There is so much evil in the world That if we keep our focus on that which is outside of our sphere of influence too much all of a sudden we might

Accidentally begin to abdicate our duty to keep our focus in the home front You know what i'm saying?

so there are times where to dwell upon the evil around us so much even in the form of Just going to god with it over and over and over again

That it could begin to affect our attitude toward those we're supposed to steward right here at home Which might be a perfectly delightful place in this point in time

And so there is a balance for sure and the way you find that balance in your personal life as you go to the scriptures you look at all of the examples where Christians throughout time dealt with these issues

And it's at that point really truly Between you and the lord your relationship with him

And and taking your burdens to him and those types of things. Yes, ma 'am Do you think that The savior's dying prayer would have been for the whole world, but it wasn't he said forgive the father for what for they know

Not what they do. He's praying for the particular people group That were crucifying him sure and your your point is

Like there are there's a time and a place for these types of prayers. There are times where the specificity comes into play

In times where it is it is a more broad principle so like for example in obedience to this opening couple of verses of first timothy 2

Like pop pop is so good at doing as well as brother ron and and by their by following them

I feel like we we as a group do well at praying for our leaders praying for our country that is broad

And that's okay and that's and that is a good thing In fact, we'll see here in verse three when we get to it.

It is pleasing in the sight of god It is a morally good thing to do But that again doesn't negate the times where there are specific specific individuals that um,

That are worthy of of praying for god's judgment to come upon so that yeah, it's just a very interesting dynamic that we have

Throughout scripture there and oh, did you ever thought jim? All I was going to say is This really helped me very soon when

I was just when you get so Just the wicked things that you know are happening right in your mind things are happening to children and all

Read psalm 37 because right after 35, there's 37 in the first few verses

It just tasted it helped me so much you can just You can take it but you don't have to dwell on it so much that it affects your whole that's exactly right

God Well what you know

I forgot when it was a number of weeks ago we talked about the You know, where's the line between oh it was jared was here and We were talking about getting to the point where you you mark and avoid

But before you mark and avoid there are some things you can do to possibly restore Fellowship and so there's you know, there's that same kind of dynamic there as well

Now that is more like personal relationship type of thing where in this context We're talking about prayer for people that don't even know we exist

But we still have a duty to pray for them that sort of thing. And so yeah, jim Don't fret of the evildoers

What it is what that is is that is faith on full display If we have faith

That vengeance is the lord's and that he will meet out perfect judgment perfect righteousness perfect justice

Then we can pray what we need to pray in the moment and move on Without it totally bringing us down Exactly He's saying look you're falling for my trap

Here it is i'm going to make it a little worse I'm going to throw this out there that out there and we're going to make you feel like the world is over And that there's nothing to have faith in anymore.

It's very true. And so david david dealt with this battle. Did you ever thought dad? I didn't say

I like robert's paraphrase better than solomon Yeah It's just a modern translation that's uh, i'm gonna say

Okay, we do have to we do there are things that change with the dispensational changes

So we're on this side of the cross jesus Absolutely, jesus.

Maybe it was under the law. Jesus is under grace. So what do you say before a prayer? Those who you know, forgive your debtors

Forgive those who trespass against you because you've been forgiven Sort of trespasses you've done so Sure What you know, he doesn't know god he doesn't know these things and It's best to try to forgive him if you can rather than to strike him down or ask god to kill him.

Well Ask that on certain people that I I uh And you know when you have a personal relationship with the lord

You can be honest with him That the holy spirit will come back and correct you if you're praying incorrectly that's the great thing about it

He'll say no, you know Right, you don't get to pray for me to kill that person

You don't know my plans for that person, but i'll take care of it. So don't worry about it, you know, the holy spirit can

Definitely put that in your thoughts and mind and heart so that you pray correctly your first impulse might be to say warden, you know

You need to take care of that person. Well, that's that's an okay prayer because he's going to take care of that person

So yes, let me let so here's where I feel like it often the key lies and not to oversimplify anything

But you know, you kind of have to speak generally and then on an individual basis.

We apply all these principles We have to remember the difference between our enemies and god's enemies and There are times when you turning the other cheek

Is necessary because you don't necessarily have the right to bring down a righteous indignation on your personal enemy

Because you don't know who they are and you don't know what the lord is doing for them But that's different than an enemy of god.

For example, just to use an eminently practical application of this idea of imprecation of imprecation and of You know praying against the enemies of god

You just have the death of the ayatollah khamenei Hallelujah So what was it was it unjust for christians for the last four decades?

to pray for god's judgment to come upon his head as he as he conducts, uh persecution and in some cases physical, uh slaughter of faithful and Christian people

The answer is no you can do that that Dispensation see this is what I meant earlier with regard to this being a universal principle is it transcends?

The dispensations so day what david did is something that we can do now and here's one example of it in psalm 5

Verse 5 he says the foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all workers of iniquity

That's a universal principle. That's not unique to the law That is david bringing out something that is true about god himself and so when we find ourselves in similar situations where we have again an egregious enemy of god and in a second i'll talk about one of specific roman emperor where the christians had

Very much the desire and I would say right to pray Uh judgment upon this particular emperor and it came upon him in a very gruesome fashion

Um, that was good for them to do but they also had other civil magistrates above them That wasn't the emperor and maybe for them they should have been praying

In this more normative way that paul has in view at the beginning of chapter 2 here timothy.

Yes, sir Well, you're you're right. There are universal Principles that apply through all the church but uh

The difference between david and jesus is oh, there's an obvious difference.

Yes Oh, absolutely if he were to pray for god to kill someone it would be perfectly of course if he prayed for god to give these for example

We know that one of the men the soldiers that drove the nails maybe or at least felt around the nails

Got saved later drew did the spear in his side person. He was praying for him.

He said forgive them Absolutely what they're doing Whereas we might have said just kill them all lord.

I mean if we were watching. Yeah Jonathan out there watching we might have prayed Well, okay, so remember what

I said earlier when you pray lord bring justice upon a person It can come in one of two ways.

It can either be the crushing gospel or the crushing judgment For the case of that one centurion

It was saving grace that crushed him and then he had to live for the rest of his life knowing he took part in the crucifixion of his messiah but for the other centurions the ones that were haughty the ones that were

Casting lots for his garments and things like that. It may very well be the judgment So you're right dad the uh, notwithstanding the son of man himself who had perfect knowledge of the individuals he was talking about We absolutely have to ensure

It's that's dave talking we have to ensure that um, we're praying consistent with scripture so That's good stuff let me in our last about five minutes here.

Let me that was all fantastic What's funny about it is that was merely an illustration to show how we can deduce or I would say induce paul's meaning of the term all

Because it harmonizes perfectly with all other examples of prayer that we have throughout scripture including the imprecatory prayers, like I said a second ago, and so There that's one example of that now another thing that you have to put yourself

That you have to do is to put yourself in the shoes of christians That are reading this letter for the first time and i've already alluded to this

A few times, but we can flesh this out just a little bit more Why is it that paul is bringing this to the spotlight on behalf of These believers and of course all believers throughout time from that point forward

Why is he saying you need to you need to pray intercessions and prayer supplications for all men?

And then he specifies for kings and all that are in authority. Why does he do that? Well the types of magistrates

That would have been holding the literally the iron fist over them as citizens in the first century

Would have been very easy to hate And this kind of goes back to dad's principle a second ago is we don't need to be so quick To hate what one of the the one of the points of paul's exhortation here is to act as a buffer

To control our emotions so that it just like I said a minute ago Why is it that not all of david's psalms were prayers of imprecation?

well, it's because you The spirit brings that balance where you are praying thanksgiving and gratitude over here

You're praying for the blessings of a person over here it's it's very diverse and so paul is bringing this exhortation to bear upon the christians so that they aren't just just Indiscriminately hating every civil magistrate whether it was just or unjust

So that's one of the reasons why he is doing that and they were easy to hate Simply for the sake of hating those that were in power because they were all pagan.

They were all against christianity They all put caesar above christ. It would have been very easy to get emotional

About these particular civil leaders at this time. These are leaders Who would not have been carrying out justice in the way that christians knew god would want them to carry it out

In some cases including the persecution of god's people themselves like the polar opposite Of the just wielding of the sword that government is supposed to be doing

And so paul by using this very broad term pray like this for all men

What he's doing is he is putting this very natural Proclivity of those that were under the rule of a pagan king or a pagan emperor

To pray for them and for all of our leaders anyway Because it's what is right in the eyes of god

And not only that Not only is it morally right in the eyes of god, but it even yields blessings for god's people

And we don't want to lose sight of that either You know, it's not that it's just so that we can have blessings

But that is very much still a part of it and a very real part of it Too and so no doubt, you know there would arise and this is important So listen to this for a second you have paul's general exhortation

The normative thing that christians should do for their leaders to pray for them pray intercessory prayers pray supplications

That is the normative thing for us to do And and you should do that even living in pagan rome

But no doubt there would still at times arise individual leaders Who would have justly received those same types of imprecatory prayers by christians in their time like nero?

Like galerius who was the the devil incarnate, uh at the very end of the the kind of String of emperors leading right up into constantine when of course everything changed and in the case of galerius, by the way

Jen, just to give you an example, uh that we were talking about earlier the prayers of imprecation toward him certainly worked

They certainly worked because what happened to him is he died an absolutely Horrifyingly slow death that began with an ulcer in his private parts as it is recorded in the old

Old records of the emperors and things like that that began to eat away at him from the inside out kind of like gangren

It just began to slowly spread and christian Literature that we have from that time describes it as a maggot ridden death

So even before he was dead, he literally had maggots that were eating his rotten flesh as he was

Trying his best to just fall over dead and have it over with I'm surprised that he didn't commit suicide.

That's what happened to nero by the way as he he killed himself uh But galerius he just it slowly ate away from him starting in his private parts all the way out until his entire body rotted away

And so there's an example of the judgment of god falling upon him in In what what's unique about galerius?

Well, you know, uh Is a dionysian, uh that was I think preceded him dionysian and galerius were the two emperors right before constantine

There was a two -year span where the persecution of christians was so bad That if it weren't for the fact that christianity is true and that there is a god

And that he actually preserved a remnant it should have from the human viewpoint by all means been totally wiped out

We're talking about slaughter by the tens of thousands and that's where we have the many of the pictures of the coliseum and the brutality of additional crucifixions and torture that Makes your stomach turn and all these types of things that was under the authority of Diocletian first but galerius was particularly bad and he was the one that was that Literally was eaten away from the inside out

So there is your imprecatory prayer Coming to effect in that particular, uh instance there, but in general even though you would have

Individual instances of such a wicked again satan incarnate type individual.

They thought these men were the antichrist, by the way That's how bad they were and they were in a sense. They were a antichrist um the

Notwithstanding certain individual instances like that There were other civil magistrates where this particular exhortation would absolutely come into play because in your certain region in your

Division if you will your district rather you could very well have a local civil magistrate that Could actually be a blessing to the christians in that area that would happen back then that happens today in america

Certain districts that you live in you will find your christian freedom to be more emphasized and have a better kind of a better environmental uh dynamic going on than if you lived in oregon or somewhere like that where maybe it would be like you know, well, it's just Uh, you're not going to be able to publicly display your christianity is the true religion like you can somewhere else in other states and so That is that's where you can find this dynamic happening

So in general paul wants the prayers of the saints to be lifted up on behalf of these leaders

So that they might why we'll have to end here because we're out of time Why is it that paul wants them to do this?

Yes, it's good in the eyes of god We'll see that in verse three, but there's another reason It's for their own benefit

There's remember paul's instructions here. They are the instructions of christ This isn't just paul throwing out, uh, his ideas of how things might you know

This is a nice way of thinking and a nice moral ethic here and there it's not arbitrary It's all specific.

It's all it all comes back to the general well -being of god's people And so look at the end of verse two

We pray like this for kings And for all that are in authority That we may what lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty

In all godliness and honesty and we'll have to pick it up there next time Um, there's a lot of really really good stuff in this final phrase here

That we can take from this and have a better understanding of why we need to be obedient to this passage

Because it's for our own good It's for it's for the benefit of god's people all throughout a nation and so we we have to be careful about getting too haughty too fast and and neglecting prayer even for the leaders that are

Uh advocating for a completely different worldview from our own because you never know There's power in our prayer.

I'll put it that way There's power in our prayer and you never know when god will soften a heart and things start to change

And I feel like we've seen that in the last 18 months. Yes, sir Uh, let me read One of our online students go ahead brian

He said when praying for justice Of the enemies of god remember we too were once enemies of god in time

When praying for justice, don't be a doughnut and expect the judgment punishment leading to hell

Sometimes it is justice placed upon christ leading to salvation Very good brian.

Let me go back to our last study Um In titus chapter 3 and I think this sums up what brian just said very well

Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers. That's the civil magistrates That's what we're talking about right now to obey magistrates to be ready to every good work to speak evil of no man

To be no brawlers. In other words, we're not we're not literally just bouncing around taking physical fights with people just because our

Our righteous indignation is is forcing us to we're not brawlers, but we're gentle we're showing all meekness unto all men

And here's brian's point for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish

Disobedient deceived serving diverse lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hateful and hating one another but After that the kindness and love of our god of god our savior toward man appeared not by works of righteousness

Which we have done But according to his mercy he has saved us. So Absolutely brian to your point.

We were once disobedient We were once on the same path as all of these individuals were and so that is why

I believe we can look at certain um Certain civil leaders across the political landscape right now that aren't necessarily conducting themselves in the egregious crimes against humanity like You know someone like the ayatollah khamenei would have been or other

Uh, you know islamic figures, uh, or people like emperor Galerius and things like that not all of them on Are are dealing in that that kind of evil where maybe our prayers of justice and imprecation are reserved for Rather they may be a little bit more

Toward the middle but just left of center where you know, maybe they just have an incredibly naive uh political, uh, let me put it this way a very naive and Subjectivist look on how things should work and how things should be so we're going to we're going to legislate

Based on the subjective morality of the culture today Rather than bringing god's objective word to bear

So like that is someone that obviously is in the wrong and we could get really frustrated really fast with people that legislate like that Because they're the ones that sign things into law like obergefell

And things of that sort and we can get really up in arms against people like that There's man we don't have the time but there's actually a fascinating story

I could use on this exact Uh in this exact context There is a lady named rosario butterfield

Who was one of the champion champion? I can't say championing. There you go lgbtq all of that kind of stuff advocates about 10 to 11 years ago and and all everything leading up to the legislation that brought us a bergefell

She was one of the ones that pinned a lot of the legislation that was brought to the table of the actual legislators

Because you know, there's there's people that aren't legislators that help write the bills, right? We do that as christians sometimes like on abortion bills pastors can help politicians out knowing how to How to how to figure all this out?

Well, you have your lgbt2 lgbt advocates doing the same thing with with gay legislation and they and this particular woman who was a lesbian in a

Monogamous relationship with a woman for the last 10 years leading up to this point Bring in very sophisticated phd ivy league credentials all this stuff helping write all this legislation long story short because of the dear and gentle and meek

Kind of instruction like paul was just talking about in titus of an older pastor That would go to her house and would sit with her and talk with her about god's

About how she is under the condemnation of god's law and how she will not be able to inherit the kingdom of god

Living the way that she is but doing so in meekness A lot transpired, but she eventually came to a saving knowledge of the lord

Jesus christ became a member of that man's church ended up marrying a pastor Within months of being saved which if you do the math on that, she had just been a lesbian right before that And she marries a pastor

And can you imagine just the sanctification process in the faith? That it took for both of them to go through that and she is one of the greatest um, what what

What's a good way to put it? She is one of the greatest Voices voices.

Yeah, that'd probably be a good one The greatest voices against the lgbt movement and more specifically than that helping christians

That deal with those kind of temptations out of it and she writes she writes amazingly about it

Why do I bring all that up? because 11 years ago we would have been thinking

Get her Because she is helping write the legislation that eventually gave us a bergefell which by the way she has to live with now and she's she has to go to the lord all the time and And and to have him help her through the guilt that she feels in doing all of that But this is why we have to be careful to brian's point.

There is a that there is a chasm between people like that That we need to remember we were ones like that to brian's point, which

I agree with wholesale There's a chasm between people like that and emperor galerius And we have to remember that and we have to pray accordingly

And we have to have faith that the vengeance is the lord's in the end. Yes, sir just Really brings out very strongly to me that our righteous anger is always righteous in our eyes.

Sure If it's if we are if we're it's always righteous in our eyes And I think that's why god

Jesus was talking about, you know, he walked the extra mile to take the focus off of And and said how am

I supposed to respond not not how how am I supposed to defend myself but how

God responded and showed grace, right if righteous if the righteousness in our eyes

Is the basis of our prayers outside of god's will it's just pride And that's why john exhorts us in the first epistle of john chapter 5 verse 19 to pray according to god's will

And when you do that, he hears you and he answers your petitions But when you fall into the pride and the haughtiness of i'm better than these people because I am saved

Well, then it's no longer grace. Then all of a sudden you're talking as if you earned something

And that was brian's point and of course again That is how we need that is how you can approach people like rosario butterfield prior to conversion meekly and gently

So that maybe you actually act as a witness to bring someone like that to faith rather than bringing down The fire and brimstone that someone like galerius deserves or nero or the ayatollah khamenei

Dear heavenly father. Thank you so much for this wonderful day. Thank you for being with us thank you for allowing us to open up pages of scripture and for uh

Just the edification that it brings and the very practical application that we can find in every single one of these words written thousands of years ago

We thank you so much for the magnificence Behind all of it. We ask that you bless the rest of our time together and the rest of our services