The Prayer Life of God's People

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. If you would like to learn more about us, please visit us at our website at graceedmonton .ca.

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Please enjoy the following sermon. For a conference, and during some of our free time, before that conference got started, we paid a visit to the

Museum of the Bible. Maybe some of you have heard of that before. If you're familiar with it at all, it's a fascinating place.

If you're a Bible nerd, I'll say, or maybe if you want to use the technical term, if you're interested in the preservation and the transmission of God's Word through the centuries.

You know, Sam and I were visiting that museum. The place that we probably spent the most, the majority of our time, was in one room on one floor that provided a whole variety of translations of the

Bible that came after the printing press. There we looked at, I'm sure

Sam appreciated, things from Germany. We saw the Luther Bible and looked at that in its various forms.

We saw, for those who are, I guess, Reformed types, the Geneva Bible, which is a pretty special book.

But the glass case that we spent a good amount of time looking at, perhaps the one that was most memorable to me, was standing over this illuminated glass case with a copy of what is called the

Matthew Bible. And if you don't know anything about the Matthew Bible, it really is a fascinating specimen that this book that was in this case had been preserved in pristine condition for about 500 years.

And as we hovered there, I said aloud to Sam, I said, I can't believe it. It is fascinating to see

God's willingness to answer the loftiest, even the loftiest, prayers of his people.

Now, what does this Bible have to do with that? Well, the Matthew Bible was published in the year 1537.

And what makes that Bible significant is a year earlier, the famous Bible translator,

William Tyndale, it wasn't even a year earlier, in fact, it was October 6th of 1536, about 10 months earlier,

William Tyndale was led out into the streets, having been sentenced to death. They wrapped a chain around his neck, they strangled him, and once he was dead, they burned his body on the stake.

And as William Tyndale was there, about to be put to death by King Henry VIII, he was given the opportunity to speak any final words that he would like to share.

It makes me wonder what we would do, what we would say, if we were on that stand, having one opportunity to say our piece before we were put to death.

I think some of us would want to plead our case one last time, that here was a man who was going to his grave for no other crime than translating the

Bible into the English language. But William Tyndale did not plead his case.

He did not curse the people who were holding him captive and about to kill him. Instead, he offered up one final prayer, and he offered a prayer for the very man who had sentenced him to death,

King Henry VIII, and he prayed, he cried aloud to his God, and he said,

Lord, open the King of England's eyes. And with that, the chain was wrapped around his neck, and he was ushered into the presence of his

Savior. And what is fascinating then about this is that it was within a year that William Tyndale's answer was given to that prayer.

It was in October that he was put to death, it was in October that he prayed that prayer, and by the time

August of 1537 came around, that very same king, King Henry VIII commissioned, and authorized the first English Bible being the

Matthew Bible. And this is what's cool about it, if you're a Bible nerd like me, is that if you go to the last page of the

Old Testament in the Matthew Bible, in that 1537 version of it, the last page of the

Old Testament, at the end of the text there are two letters that appear there. They're the letters

WT. The publishers were sympathetic to William Tyndale, and so seeing this as an answer to his prayer, seeing that this

Bible had been purchased by his blood, as it were, they put his initials there, and they did something even better.

Without the king's knowledge, they included all of his translation work in the Matthew Bible, so that the king, as he authorized the

Matthew Bibles, perhaps without knowing it, authorized a Bible that was 80 % William Tyndale.

Now, why do I share that story? It's because it illustrates an important point related to our text today.

Over the centuries, God's people have often had to endure the reign of some of the most cruel, corrupt, tyrannical rulers in all of human history.

God's people have, like we read in the book of Hebrews, have had to live as foreigners in this world.

The world was not worthy of them. They lived as strangers and exiles in a world that often despised and rejected them.

And yet, throughout the ages, Christians have often responded to these people, to these wicked, tyrannical rulers and kings and oppressors, not by waging war against them, but by praying for them and seeking their eternal good.

And what's more, just like we see in the life of William Tyndale, God has often been pleased to answer those prayers in ways that they may have never even seemed to be possible.

That he answered those prayers, that he opened blind eyes, he opened the eyes of kings to behold the truths of the gospel, that he has, through the prayers of his people, enabled the advancement of the gospel from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

And today, our text is going to invite us to do the same thing, to be a people of prayer, to be a people who pray for all people and for kings and for people in high places.

And I want to ask you, even now, how many of us are willing to commit to praying all kinds of faith -filled, world -changing prayers for all people?

How many of us are prepared to live in such a way that our lives commend the gospel to all people, even to our enemies?

How many of us treasure the gospel so greatly that this testimony concerning our

Christ shapes our worship and our values and our worldview and our whole lives?

Today, this text urges us to pray and to live this kind of life.

This is what Paul is calling us to. This is what God, through Paul, is calling us to.

So I had you turn to 1 Timothy chapter 2. We're going to divide the text into four parts.

The first part is a little bit longer, like normal, and then it balances out after that.

And we're going to look at the church's prayer, the church's lifestyle.

We're going to look at the church's gospel. And as we arrive at verse 1, the first instruction that we find is this.

It's related to the church's prayers. And we read this in verse 1 and the first part of verse 2.

This is God's word for us today. Paul says, First of all then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions.

As Paul begins this section of his letter, he frames this exhortation with these words,

First of all, meaning he's really getting into the meat and potatoes, the substance of his instruction.

And if you can remember back to our previous sermons in 1 Timothy, you'll recall that as Paul was writing to Timothy, he was giving counsel to him as he ministered to that church in Ephesus.

Paul had left Timothy in Ephesus, he went on to Macedonia, and leaving Timothy there, he wanted him to deal with a number of issues that were really wreaking havoc in the

Ephesian church. And we've looked at those in previous weeks. How the church had become infatuated with, or at least distracted by,

Jewish myths. Perhaps it was Gnostic speculation that was creeping in.

There was a skewed teaching on the law that sought a law -based righteousness, perhaps, rather than a gospel -based righteousness.

Hence why Paul brings everyone under condemnation, as it were, under the law. As Paul now directs his attention at practical instructions for the church, he deals with the first activity of the church, namely the worship of the church.

I want you to see this with me just for a second, a big snapshot. We know 1 Timothy chapter 2 is usually famous, maybe for the wrong reasons, because feminists seem to hate the second half of 1

Timothy chapter 0. But really what it has to deal with is how the church prays, how the church lives, what the thrust of the church's life is to be, how the church conducts itself in worship, including how women are involved in the worship of the church.

And now as Paul directs this, our attention to this, I want to ask you this question.

Have you ever considered that God cares a great deal not only about your private prayer life, but about your corporate prayer life in the church?

Does that make sense? How you pray when the church is all together. Here it seems that God, in fact, is very interested in how the church prays when we are all together.

And what is especially noteworthy is that Timothy is told that the church is to pray all kinds of prayers as part of a varied prayer life.

And here Paul gives us a list of four different types of prayers that the church is to pray. He lists here supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings.

And what it seems Paul is doing is that he's trying to break the church out of something that we're all prone to do, which is to fall into a flat, cold, one -dimensional prayer life.

How many of you can say a truth that that often happens, that we ebb into a 1D prayer life?

And so this is a very serious problem. And the Apostle Paul sees it as so serious that it's worthy of his time and attention.

And God sees that it's serious because it's worthy of him preserving this word in his abiding word.

And so here Paul makes a plea. He says in verse 1, I urge you. And he urges them to a vital prayer life that is not one -dimensional, but four -dimensional, meaning that it consists of all kinds of praying that is vital and varied and lively in nature.

And I think it's important that we do a little bit of a word study. We look at each of these words, each of these types of prayer that Paul is commending.

Paul commends us firstly to supplications, as he calls it. What is a supplication?

This is, if we were to translate it or pull out the Bible dictionary, it is a request.

But it's more than a request. It's a request under urgent circumstances. And so it's often translated not just as a request, but as a plea.

It is to beg. It is to come to God with a sense of real need. Not manufactured need, but real, real need.

And this is the very kind of praying that Paul mentions when he speaks about his prayer for the people of Israel.

You might remember Romans chapter 9 and Romans chapter 10, as Paul speaks about his great concern for his kinsmen, as he calls them, according to the flesh.

And he says to his readers, he says, I could wish myself a curse and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, for the sake of my kinsmen, according to the flesh.

And then in the very next chapter, moments later, Romans 10 and verse 1, he says,

Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer, i .e. my supplication to God for them, is that they may be saved.

Paul is telling us that when we make our requests to God, as the church comes together, even in our corporate prayers, we're not to be cold.

We're not to be casual. But there is to be a sense of urgency and fervency in the church's praying.

When the church comes together, whether it is the pastoral prayer that our brother Sam prayed just a few moments ago, or it's the prayers that you will pray organically with each other after the service, or on Thursday evenings as we come together as a church for our corporate prayer meeting.

If visitors were to enter the church and to find us praying, what they should find us doing is not simply reading a laundry list aloud, but we should be a people who are pleading our great needs to a greater

God. People coming to their sovereign

Father and saying, oh God, I am helpless here, but you are able. And I want to ask you, does that characterize your prayer life publicly, privately, corporately, or are you growing stale and cold and casual?

God calls us to an urgent kind of praying, but he doesn't leave us there.

He also mentions prayers. So we have supplications and prayers. Probably most of us would be inclined just to move past this.

We know what prayers are. This is the most common word that is used in our New Testaments for prayer.

It simply means to speak to God or to ask of God. But it's worth asking when we pray corporately or privately, do we actually come to speak to God?

Do we come to speak to him in personal communion? Or are our prayers marked by simply us speaking aloud and going through the motions of prayer?

I recently heard a brother ask a question. It's a peculiar question, but it is a good one.

And that is this. Do you pray prayerless prayers? Meaning, do you think your prayer is in your mind?

We know sometimes this happens. Someone texts us or someone asks for a prayer and we say, oh,

I'll pray for you. Don't worry, I'll remember to pray for you. We promise to pray, but we never pray.

Or we offer to pray and we sort of pray, but we never actually speak to God. We only think the request in our minds.

Or in the corporate meeting of our church, we pray not to be heard by God, but to be heard by the men and women around us.

Brothers and sisters, when we pray corporately, are we praying? How often do you think about it as you pray that when we are coming to God, we're not coming to a mere man, but we are coming to the thrice holy

God who has made us. He is the God of Isaiah's vision in the temple in Isaiah 6.

He is the God who created the world with a word. He is the

God who brought a flood upon the world because of the evil of man. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And when we pray, we must pray to this God. And the orientation of our hearts might reflect, must reflect, that we are praying to this

God. So we're called to supplication and to prayers.

Next Paul says intercessions. Many of us know what this means. It is to ask something on the behalf of another.

And when we come together as a church, sorry this is a point full of questions because it really does require self -examination.

When we come together as a church, how often are we found praying for others?

I know even for myself. Some of you know I hurt my foot. It is a minor injury.

It is really piddly and small. I am surprised at how much concerns for a little cut on my foot have distracted my prayer life.

And this really is symptomatic of I think the hearts of every man and woman. That we become very preoccupied with ourselves so that we no longer pray for others.

But here we are urged to be generous in our prayers. To think of this, you only have so many hours in the day.

You only have so many years in your life. We have a short life here.

Our life is a vapor. And only when life will soon be past and only what's done for Christ will last. This means as well that at least in this life, on this side of eternity, we only have so much air time with God.

I'm going to encourage you, Paul urges us to be generous with that air time.

To go to God. And not simply to seek your own good, but to seek the good of others to the maximal amount.

To give your time and to give your energy to praying for people. I will tell you, if someone offers to come and mow my lawn for an hour or offers to pray for me for an hour,

I will mow my own lawn. To have someone to pray for me for an hour, to have someone to pray for you, brothers and sisters, one of the greatest gifts we can give people is to pray for them.

But are we greedy? Are we stingy with our gift giving? As often as we are found praying together in this church, we should be found praying not only for us and for our church, but for others and for other churches.

And I was thinking about this just recently. This hits home if you're in pastoral ministry, for sure.

Because there's a certain sense in which this is the church I shepherd. I want this church to thrive.

I want the Lord to do great things for this church. But am I willing to pray that God would start a great revival?

And use a church mightily that is not this church, but the faithful church down the hall to pray for them, that God would use them for His glory?

I came across an interesting story from Robert Murray McShane. I think that really illustrates the heart of what

I'm seeking to get at here. One day he was away from his church on a month -long mission trip.

And for those of you who have been in pastoral ministry, to leave your church behind, there's always a sense in which what's happening there.

You heard me say a few weeks ago, if we were in Washington and someone said, Shane, they're teaching different doctrines.

We're on the plane. We're here the next day. We're here ASAP. Well, here, Robert Murray McShane doesn't have a phone.

But one day he is away and he learns that while he has been away, another man has come to fill his pulpit.

And as this man preached God's word, God used that sermon to bring about a revival in his church in his absence.

And what did Robert Murray McShane do? Well, someone wrote about him in his biography. They said, he heard with joy of the

Lord's work in his absence. And he later wrote, I have no desire for the salvation of my people by whatever instrument

God may choose to work. Are we so generous in our praying for others?

And then lastly, here, Paul says thanksgivings. This, of course, is an expression of gratitude offered to God.

And what is interesting is that it's used almost exclusively, if you like to look in concordances and see where words are used by who and how, this word is used almost exclusively of the

Apostle Paul. And it's not a surprise to me in fact, that the

Apostle Paul, when he uses this word of thanksgivings, of thankfulness, he speaks about the thankfulness that outsiders are to find when they come among believers.

In 1 Corinthians 14, not speaking in tongues, but giving thanks in a discernible language so that when people walk through the door, they go, wow, this people is a thankful people.

In 2 Corinthians 9, he speaks about the correct collection for Jerusalem and what was one of the main purposes that he was after, that this might overflow in thanksgiving to God, not just so that Jerusalem would be well supplied, but that God would get the glory through thanksgiving.

In Ephesians 5, it's interesting, do you struggle with filthiness, with filthy talk, or foolish talk?

He says that we are to forsake filthiness and foolish talk and in exchange, give thanks.

That's a good thing to do, to put off foolish talk and to put on thanksgiving talk.

What is the antidote to anxiety, Paul says in Philippians chapter 4?

It is prayer and thanksgiving that puts away a fretful mind. As he speaks to the

Colossians, he says, be watchful in prayer with thanksgiving. Or as he speaks to the

Thessalonians, we were in a Bible study yesterday, speaking about the favorable conduct of the

Thessalonians, their faith. And what does Paul say when he gives thanks for them? And how often do we see

Paul do that? I thank God for you in all of my remembrance for you. If we are to work and live and do school and whatever else among unbelievers, you should be,

I'm going to say, Paul says, Paul urges you, you should be the most thankful person that anyone ever meets in the course of their day.

If you're a Christian, with any apprehension of the gospel, you should be one of the most joyful, grateful, and appreciative people anyone has ever met, on planet earth even.

And this should overflow not only in your day -to -day conversation, but in your moment -by -moment prayer life, offered up to God privately and corporately with the church.

When we pray, are we a thankful church? When we sing, when we sit under the preached word, are we a thankful church?

Are we thankful in all circumstances? This is what Paul calls us to. This is what

Paul pleads us to do, what he urges us to do. So, Paul shows us our prayer, our prayers, but he also shows our prayer focus.

And this is the second point I want to show you. In verse 1b, he says this, we're to make prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings.

He says, be made for all people. Verse 2, for kings and all who are in high positions.

Now, what's interesting is, if you look at the scholarship on Ephesians 2, it's almost unanimous.

Sometimes what we need to do when we're doing biblical ex -Jesus is we look at the text, we look at what the author is saying, and then by what the author is saying, because it is an occasional letter,

Paul is writing this to answer an occasion, but we're able to understand something of the circumstances that led up to this.

And the scholarship is almost unanimous. What was happening here is that there was a form of religious elitism, or what one scholar calls religious exclusivism, that was taking root in the

Ephesian church. Maybe it was because of the myths that they were hearing, it was certainly part of the nature of Gnosticism and the

Proto -Gnostic ideas that were starting to form around this time, but the church was becoming too exclusive in its orientation, and it's possible that they may have stopped praying for people outside of the church.

So they say, okay, we're going to pray for our concerns in these four walls.

And that's the world. We will not concern ourselves with the world. But what

Paul does here is he urges not only all kinds of prayer, but he urges all kinds of prayer for all kinds of people.

And we see three people groups that he's urging Timothy and the church to pray for.

For kings, he says, or sorry, for all people, and then for kings, and then all those who are in high positions.

And there's something here, there's a word that we need to cue into if we're to understand the rest of this chapter, or at least the rest of our text for today.

And it's the word all. I want you to look in your Bible with me. If you have the ESV, the third word in chapter 2 is all.

First of all. And I want you to see at the end of chapter, sorry, the end of verse 1, chapter 2 verse 1, he says, the thanksgivings are to be made for all people.

And then in verse 2, for all those who are in high positions. And then in verse 4, that God desires all people to be saved.

And then in verse 6, who gave himself as a ransom for all. And what

Paul means to say in this passage is that the church's prayer life must encompass more than what we find in these four walls.

We should be found constantly praying and seeking the good of every image bear in the world.

That we are to concern ourselves not just with this, but with all. How often do we pray prayers of heartfelt supplication?

Not just for our lost loved ones. But just close your eyes with me for a minute.

There's four walls in this room. There's fresh air on the other side of these walls. There are cars on 50th street.

There are houses beyond that. And houses beyond that, there is a river and apartment buildings and houses and freeways.

How often do we supplicate with fervency for the lost millions in our province, for the lost million plus in this city?

I remember having a conversation with a sister who she was saying she would drive down the city and she would park at her stop at a red light.

And sometimes she would see people in the cars around her and simply leave. Because she knew statistically these people are all lost.

And they are one heartbeat from hell. And it's impossible that even in our church, maybe we're not at the

Ephesian level yet, but are we becoming too inward focused and too exclusive in our praying?

Are we praying for all people? Now this is only our city, our country.

What about the billions of people, not only beyond this city, but all around this terrestrial ball that we call

Earth? I was doing reading just on the unreached state of India this week.

Do you know, this is fascinating and horrifying, that there are over 400 ,000 villages in India where there is not one

Christian. One missions group estimates that it is hundreds of millions of people, not who have rejected

Christ, but who have never heard of Christ. Are we praying for these people?

Now Paul tells us, all people. He narrows in and he says, for kings. What's interesting is that Paul is requesting here,

Paul's king at this time, the emperor, was the emperor Nero. And this emperor was the very one that was going to take his life in a few short years.

Nevertheless, Paul is here requesting prayers for Nero, the emperor. How often do we feel, or we give ourselves permission that because we serve under a bad prime minister, or a so -so premier, or whatever it is, that we feel that we have permission to complain about our leaders rather than to pray for our leaders.

Some of you have heard me say this, for every time you find yourself complaining about a politician, pray two or three times for that same politician.

Here Paul is urging prayers for kings, for those who are who are leading us. And this must come at a theological level from our understanding of this, that God ordains civil government.

And he ordains civil government to be his servants and to promote good conduct and even, it says in Romans 13, to carry out

God's wrath on the wrongdoer. So when there's an election, what should the

Christians be doing? They should be praying for the election. And when the parties have been elected, what should we find

Christians doing? They should be praying for those who are in high positions, those who are kings, prime ministers, mayors, premiers, whatever they may be.

At times we will have occasion, and when we have this occasion, we should take it. We will have occasion to give thanks for the leaders that are over our governments.

How rare is that? And so when we have a leader, who even maybe is a so -so leader, but demonstrates some just qualities, we should praise

God for those qualities. And when we have a wicked and evil leader in government, that sets themselves as an enemy of the cross of Christ, how much more should we pray for them?

They need the Lord's help more than ever, and though they are enemies, we will pray for them. We will bless those who persecute us and oppress us.

We should pray for those who are in high positions. There used to be a time, some of you know, when

I worked in law enforcement, and I would work downtown, and there was, I would be walking from my parking spot, and there was the fire headquarters and police headquarters and then the law courts in front of me, and I saw it every day as I walked.

I would see each of those buildings, and I would pray for those groups of people. I can't tell you the last time

I prayed for the police in our city, or soldiers, or those who keep us safe from threats, domestic and foreign, but we should be a people who pray for these, that the police who receive almost no support at all, and yet at great risk to themselves, go out day and night to keep the city safe.

Are they sinners? Yes. Do they do sinful things? Yes. Are we commanded to pray for them? Yes. And can't you see what

Paul was after? That Paul wants Timothy, and all of us to know, that our prayers should not be narrow or limited to a narrow slice of concerns in the church, but we should be praying big, world -encompassing, gospel -informed prayers for all people.

And like William Tyndale, praying big prayers, we should expect that God will answer these prayers, because He is in control, because He is sovereign, because He is all good, and because He desires the very things, if we are praying according to His will, that we are praying for.

John Stott tells the story about visiting a little church when he was traveling, and while he was visiting this church, the sole pastor of that church was away on vacation, and so another gentleman came up to the front during the pastoral prayer time, and John Stott was sitting there in his seat waiting for the pastoral prayer time to begin, and as the man began to pray, he prayed for three things.

He prayed that the pastor would have a nice holiday, and he prayed for two ladies, that God would heal them.

And John Stott said that the prayer itself, this pastoral prayer, lasted all of 30 seconds.

And this is what he wrote. Interestingly enough, this isn't a commentary. He says,

I came away saddened, sensing that this church worshipped a little village god of their own devising.

There was no recognition of the needs of the world, and no attempt to embrace the world in prayer.

And then he mused aloud, he said, I sometimes wonder whether the comparatively slow progress toward peace and justice and the evangelization of the world is due more than anything else to the prayerlessness of the people of God.

Does this church have for a god, a small village deity, that we take these little, these minute, local matters only?

It's not wrong to pray about small things, but it is wrong when we pray only for these small things.

Are we praying to a little village deity, a little household idol? Or are we praying to the creator and the sustainer of the cosmos?

Of the world? Of the one who has made and sustains everything?

Are we praying to the one who single -handedly directs the hearts of kings and guides the affairs of the nations?

We must. This is a summons, as I said, to big, world -encompassing, world -changing prayers.

To pray, O Lord, open the king's eyes. O God, end abortion in all of its forms.

O God, do not allow us to kill our seniors and our mentally ill and our infirm.

O God, give us just laws that promote peace and prosperity and the life of the church and the advancement of the gospel to all nations.

O God, send missionaries to those 400 ,000 Indian villages.

O God, send me. I was speaking with a brother, a guy who is not here today, about how few people there are going onto the mission field.

Maybe there are so few going onto the mission field because we no longer pray for the world. We no longer concern ourselves with the big things beyond this city, beyond this province, beyond our borders.

We must pray. And Paul tells us why we are to pray.

My third point is this. We pray for all people, for all kinds of prayers, for all people, that God would enable us to live a right life.

The church's lifestyle. And we read this in verse 2b. He says, we pray for all people, for kings, for all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

This is good. And it is pleasing in the sight of God, our Savior.

The language that Paul uses here, when he says in verse 2, that we may lead a life, a quiet life, a peaceful life, that word there,

I don't feel that it hits with the same potency that it does in the original language.

What Paul is talking about is this, that we might spend our lives doing this.

That our whole lives would be taken up in this activity, by this quality.

That as Christians we should pray all prayers for all people, that we would live, spend our lives living a peaceful life.

Our brother Bernie, I think, asked a question about this yesterday. About what it means to live a quiet life, a peaceful life.

Let me tell you. It is a life marked by tranquility.

When Paul talks about a peaceful life, it's a life that is free from the hassles that governments usually impose upon their people.

I want to give you permission to desire something and to pray to this end. Because this is what is meant by a peaceful life.

It is a good and godly desire, not for you to be alone, but for the magistrates and the governments and the authorities to leave you alone.

Does that make sense? Not to be alone, but to be left alone. And what

I mean by that, I see some funny glances at me, is this.

To be able to live a God -fearing and devoted life. To marry according to the precepts of Scripture.

To have children and to raise them biblically. To read your

Bible. To print Bibles. To translate Bibles. To share Bibles.

To preach the Gospel on the streets. To hold to strong convictions and to speak those convictions in the public square.

To worship God the way that He commands us to worship Him. And for the government to leave us alone and let us do that.

We're to pray to that end. That is what Paul is talking about. To be free from persecution and government interference that we might lead peaceful lives in the service of our

God. That is a good desire. That we should pray and we should pray to that end.

Also, it is to live a quiet life. What is a quiet life?

It is a life free from drama or turmoil. It is the opposite of what so many people are seeking today.

It is the opposite of celebrity. It is a happy existence without fanfare.

It's working hard and keeping your head down. Not seeking to be noticed by others.

Paul uses the same terminology in 1 Thessalonians 4 .10 when he says, But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more and to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and to work with your hands as we instructed you.

It is to work hard and it is to live in peace. He calls us to a godly life.

We're to pray to this end. One scholar commenting on the language of this says,

It is behavior reflecting correct religious beliefs and attitudes. Meaning it is sound doctrine and sound living.

It is to live the way that God would have us to live. God wants you to pray so that you would live a pious, consecrated life unto him.

That he would have, we've talked about this many times, He will never have your perfect obedience in this life, but might he have your full obedience?

Might he have your all? We are to pray to this end. And he desires, he calls us to live a dignified life.

This might be, amongst Christians, the least emphasized attribute or quality.

And yet one of the most remarkable in the world. To be a man or woman of dignity.

It is to be respectable. It is to live your life, not always in levity, but with an air of seriousness.

That this life is something. What you say, what you do, the way you conduct yourself is a serious matter.

A dignified man or woman. And you will know them when you meet them because there is a certain amount of gravitas that comes with them.

In my experience it tends to be that wise, faithful, godly, older man.

Who when I'm with I go, I might be living hypocritically.

Because I know that this man's standard for conduct is higher than mine.

But I desire to live more like him than like me. Does that make sense? Scripture often describes dignified people as those who have learned how to control their emotions.

Who have learned how to control their tongues. Who have knowledge and insight of a god and self and the world and the wisdom to apply that knowledge.

To wield it wisely. What I find most remarkable about this list is that it is rather unremarkable.

That God would have us to pray for all people in authority.

So that we would lead peaceful, tranquil, quiet, godly and dignified lives.

It is unremarkable except this. That it is altogether remarkable.

Rather it is spectacular to conduct ourselves in this way in this world.

People in all kinds of churches will tell us that the way that we win the world is by being as much like the world as possible.

Paul is saying the exact opposite. The way we win the world is by praying for the world and then living the least like the world that we possibly can.

So that they see our peaceful and quiet and godly and dignified lives.

And this life, this conduct, it commends the gospel. It commends the truthfulness of God.

It commends the truthfulness of Scripture. And God tells us in verse 3 that this is good and pleasing in the sight of God our

Savior. There is someone in this room probably right now who is praying the prayer of God.

Give me your will for my life. What is it that you want me to do with my life?

And some of you might be waiting for some kind of special revelation. It's going to come like a lightning bolt out of the sky.

I'm telling you, this is what God wants you and I to do with our lives. Is to pray.

Is to pray for all people. And then in a rather unassuming fashion, to go and live our lives with our families.

And to work hard with our hands. And to make much of God in everything that we do.

To be godly and to grow in godliness. That people, as they would come through the doors.

I mention this all the time because I think it really puts home. That when they come through the doors, they would find people who love

God. Who worship God. Who are thankful to God. People who are dignified. And altogether different from the world.

And that, brothers and sisters, is what God will use to commend the gospel and win the world.

To be altogether unlike it. So, we pray.

We pray for all people. We lead godly lives. Because the church's prayers.

And because the church's life, ultimately, will point to the church's gospel.

This is my last point. And we read it in verses 4 through 7. It's good and pleasing the sight of God our

Savior. Why? Verse 4. Who desires all people to be saved.

And to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God. And there is one mediator between God and men.

The man, Christ Jesus. Who gave himself as a ransom for all. Which is the testimony given at the proper time.

For this I was appointed a preacher. And an apostle. I am telling the truth. I am not lying.

A teacher of the Gentiles. In faith and truth. So, here we see more of Paul's alls.

And in verse 4, God desires all people to be saved. And come to the knowledge of the truth.

Now, if you're of the Reformed persuasion, like I am. You might look at that passage and go,

Well, isn't that a bit of a theological conundrum? What kind of exegetical challenge is this?

That God desires all people to be saved. I'm pretty sure he chooses some to be saved. What do we do with this?

Well, we're going to look at this. There are at least three big views of this. We'll hammer them out.

And I think we'll eliminate them. And we'll get to the right view. Some have used this passage. Not to teach the idea of a universal atonement from Christ.

But a universalism. That because God desires all people to be saved.

God gets what he wants. He will save all people. Everything's good. Love wins.

Is that what Paul is teaching here? Well, if we look closely. I think that this is a terrible passage to make a case for universalism.

And why is that? Because here, Paul is calling them to action. He's calling them to pray.

He's calling them to live. He is calling them to testify of what Christ has done. He says, this is what he does.

This is his purpose. In verse 7, I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I am telling the truth.

But most compellingly, he limits it entirely when he says, in verse 5, there is one

God and there is one mediator between God and man. The man Christ Jesus. He's not saying all roads lead to Rome.

No, no, no. There is one road that leads to Rome. There is one road that leads to God.

It is the man, the mediator, Christ Jesus. And so the context blows universalism out of the water.

But what about a universal atonement? Or this idea, as some would argue or contend, that what

God is doing here is this. That God desires all people, meaning every individual, to be saved.

He desires every individual to be saved, and yet he is powerless to bring that about.

Or, he is such a respecter of free will, that he will not tamper with man's will, and therefore he will watch on the sidelines, hoping, perhaps even praying with us, that they will choose him.

Sorry, I don't want to overstate it. I don't want to straw man this. I want to steel man it. How do we know that this is not the case?

Let me ask you, when we are called to pray all kinds of prayers for all people, are we to pray for all people individually, specifically?

Find those 400 ,000 villages and pray for each one by name. Is that what that word all means there?

Or to look at the word desire itself. There are a few different words that we see translated as desire or will.

The reason why the translators chose this word desire is because it does not convey

God's will of decree, as in a universal perspective that God is going to decree, he desires, and therefore he will decree all people to be saved.

But rather, it is his will of desire, you might say. It is his desire that all people would be saved, and yet it is not all people specifically, but it is all classes of people everywhere.

And verse 7 makes that clear, I think, because here again, Paul is saying that he is a preacher and apostle, a teacher of the

Gentiles in faith and truth. Meaning that it is not just the Jews that God would have to save, but it is the

Jews and the Gentiles. And it's not just the Jews and the Gentiles that he would save, but it is the kings, and it is the rulers, and it's the people in high authority, and what he is really getting at is this, that it is all of the nations, it is all of the tongues and languages, it is all of the ethnicities, it is all classes of people everywhere that he desires to be saved.

John Calvin commenting on this, he says this, that no nation of the earth and no rank of society is excluded from salvation, since God's will is to offer the gospel to all without exception.

So what we're dealing with here is, as it relates to the evangelistic concerns of God, the gospel goes freely, it is the free offer of the gospel to all people everywhere, and yet not all will come to him.

John Stott writes on this, he says, election is never introduced in order to contradict the universal offer of the gospel, or to provide us with an excuse for upping out of world evangelization.

If some are excluded, it is because they exclude themselves by rejecting the offer of the gospel.

And this is the argument that some people will bring against the doctrines of grace, and those who hold to a

Calvinistic understanding of salvation. You're saying that that person's going to hell because God did not choose them?

Is that really just? To which we say, absolutely not. That person goes to hell not because God did not choose them, but because they rejected

God. Here we see the mingling of divine sovereignty and human responsibility.

And both are true. So God desires all people everywhere to be saved, from every class of people.

And I want you to see something. We've been seeing all of this, all, all, all, all, all of these people.

And there's a huge contrast coming in verse five. All people everywhere.

Why are we praying for all people? Because there is one God. And there is one mediator between God and men, the man,

Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

Here you've got these Ephesians, and they're fiddling with Jewish laws and Jewish myths.

Here Paul brings the truth of the great Shema, Deuteronomy 6 .4, this confession of faith that for the devout

Jews would be repeated several times a day. Here, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one.

He said, do you want to know why you pray for all people? Do you want to know why you pray all kinds of prayers? Do you want to know why you live a godly life to commend the gospel?

It is because all of these people only have one way to be right with him, because there is but one

God and one savior between God and man, Christ Jesus only.

There is one name given under heaven by which man must be saved. Jesus said,

I am the way, the truth, and the life. The reason why we pray, the reason why we live this way is because our

Sikh neighbor is not going to be with God if he continues to be Sikh. Our atheist friend is not going to be with God if he remains an atheist.

Our Catholic friend, who believes that his ale marries and his sacraments will save him, will not go to be with God.

Because we don't come to God through a mediatrix in Mary, we come to God through the one mediator,

Christ Jesus. And we have visitors here today, and I want you to know this, that if you believe in anything other than Jesus Christ, you will not be right with God.

You must come to Christ, or come to God alone through Christ. And you must come on his terms, that is to repent and to believe on him.

This is why early

Christians were sometimes seen as anti -social ignoramuses. Because every other religion could get along, except for maybe

Judaism, they had a pass. But every other religion could get along. I didn't think that was funny.

But here the Christians are saying this, if you do not believe in Christ, you will never be saved.

Would to God that every person in this room would believe in Christ. For if you do not believe in Christ, you will not be saved.

You will never be right with God. You might pray the rosary. You might do your

New Age spiritualism. You might have your salt rocks. You will never be right with God.

Only through Christ. And every person outside of these four walls, who is without Christ, they are without hope, and without God.

And that is why we pray. And that is why we live. Because all must enter by the narrow gate.

For the gate is wide, and the way is easy, that leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many.

For the gate is narrow, and the way is hard, that leads to life. And those who find it are few.

Christ came to be our mediator. And is to stand between two parties in conflict.

That we once lived as enemies of the cross. Enemies of God. And we are not in this church, nor are we right with God, because we cleaned ourselves up.

Because we chose Him. And we were made right with Him, because we have a mediator. Who gave

Himself as a ransom. Another guy who described for all again, for all classes of people.

He gave Himself. The perfect, the only begotten

Son of God. Came to this world. He did everything right.

There was not one way in which He erred. You know you and I have never experienced that.

What we have never known. It will not be until glory, that we will know what it means to be in the presence of God.

And to say, God I've done it all right. We have never done it right.

Christ did it all right. He came to His own. His own did not receive

Him. But they loved the darkness, rather than the light. They crucified our

Christ. We crucified our Christ. And as that Christ went to the cross,

He died for us. He took the penalty that we deserve. He took it in full.

So that we would be right with God forever. We have a mediator. This should fuel our worship forever.

That we have a mediator between God and man. His name is Jesus. He has done it all right.

He has accomplished our salvation. And that forever. That we might have peace with God.

We have peace with God because we have a mediator. Now let us not sleep in the light.

A man, a Scottish Presbyterian. A man named John Duncan. He was a brilliant professor.

He was a linguist. On his deathbed, he was in the hospital. He died in 1870.

And as he was in the hospital, someone was telling him that there was a man in that hospital with him.

Who was also dying. And they didn't know what his language was. He didn't speak English. They didn't know what he was.

And John Duncan said, Bring me to that man. I will learn his language. I will tell him about Christ.

Brothers and sisters, may God give us this desire to pray like it matters because it does.

And to live like it matters because it does. And to take the message of our only mediator between God and man,

Christ Jesus, to every single person we meet. That they might hear about our

Christ. Let's pray together. Thank you for listening to another sermon from Grace Fellowship Church.

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