Praying for All Men

We desire, Lord, that the power and grace of God would be at work in Choice Hills Baptist Church. Lord, please, please do it. Lord, please work through our service this morning, tonight, Lord, and this week, Lord, as we try to serve you, help us, Lord, to be equipped with the things we need. Lord, especially that we might be men and women of prayer like we read here in the scripture.

And so, Lord, guide us. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen. Now if you go back up to verse number 18 of chapter one, which we covered before, the Bible says this, this charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee that thou by them might as war a good warfare. And so this book is a series of charges. This book is a series of admonitions, of exhortations, and he’s and and so Paul is writing this to Timothy. He says, these things I’m telling you and I’m telling you this so that you can war good warfare going back to Veterans Day.

What we’re reading here in chapter two is the first of these charges and here’s what here’s what Paul is telling Timothy to do in verse one. He says, I exhort therefore. So, he’s saying, listen, these are your orders, right? You wanna be a good, you wanna war, a good warfare, you need to follow the orders you’re given. The charge of one eighteen, that is the the orders that we’re gonna see in this book and this is the first. The order is this, I exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. So, Paul’s charge, the orders he gives Timothy is this, Timothy, you’re the pastor of the church at Ephesus.

So, you have spiritual leadership, you have responsibility to convey and explain and guide the people of god in that church to do the will of god and so this is your charge. Your charge is to exhort them. Your charge is to remind them and encourage them to pray, to pray. That’s what we see here. Tim, Paul is charging Timothy to exhort the church to pray. Now, here’s the thing with prayer. I’ll just I I just wanna shoot straight with you. It seems that when we talk about prayer, we often talk far too generally, far too ambiguously.

We talk about prayer and we just say, you know, in other words, if you if you listen to the the culture and you you listen to what people say when they talk about prayer, people don’t often wanna talk about praying to god, they all often just say, well, they just say pray in general, right? They’ll say, well, I I’ve I’ve been praying or something like that but the lord wants us to be a lot more specific in the way we pray. Not only specific in in our just our generalized prayer life but also in how we pray for for one another, how we pray for other people. The lord doesn’t want us to just to just kind of to just kind of boil down our prayer life into Lord, bless them. Lord, bless them. Lord, bless them. The Lord gets a lot more specific here.

He wants us, the Lord wants us to be not only a people of prayer, but he wants us, indeed he’s laying upon us the ministry of prayer. He’s laying upon us, the church of God, the ministry of prayer. He’s not just saying, just kind of pray, but he’s saying, this is a ministry that you have because in in verse number one, the lord is telling us to pray for all men.

He’s telling us to pray for all men. The church of god is the intercessor between god and this world. Not all men that we read in verse number one are not in the church. This is everyone without exception and the lord has called us to be to be people who pray for all men. And that makes us the intercessor between god and them. We are to stand between them and the lord in the matter of prayer and cry out to god for them.

This exhortation we see here, we can see the objects of it in verse number one. It says, you have supplications, prayers, intercessions, giving of thanks, just various aspects of this of our prayer life, and it says, be made for all men. All means all, and that’s all all means. This exhortation we see in verse number one to pray for all men means that our prayers should not be limited only to people in our family.

Our prayers should not be limited only to people in our church. Our prayers must not be limited to people that we know only. They should not be limited to people that we like. Amen. Should not be limited to people with whom we agree. Or who might have voted like we might have voted.

Our prayer life should not be limited to praying for people who are just believers. Our prayer life should not be limited to people who are adults. The lord, you he he cast a wide net here. I wanna challenge you. Listen, I wanna challenge you. My goal this morning is for all of us in this room to see that we need to bump up our prayer life for other people. Amen. This is a this is a tall order that the lord is telling us.

There is not a person in here. There is not a person in here that is fully fulfilling verse number one. In praying for all men. Praying for all men. You know, if you’re having a hard time maintaining a consistent personal prayer life, maybe maybe the first thing you should do is learn to pray for everybody That you meet. You know, some people like, well, I don’t really know how to pray. I really know what to pray for. I don’t really know who to pray for and the lord, you know, and and those are all questions that that have answers and we should, you know, we should deal with those things and we should provide answers but if you don’t know anybody else to pray for, pick anybody. Amen. Amen. Literally, anyone.

Have you ever prayed for the person who checks out your groceries? Have you ever prayed for the person who opens the envelope where you’re you’re paying your bill if you still pay it with check?

Have you ever prayed for, listen, have you ever prayed for the the the spam caller who’s calling you and is and is trying to get you to to sign up with the latest, you know, extended coverage on your car’s warranty?

You know, listen, all of these people are included in this verse and if we’re having trouble with our prayer life, I’m telling you, this works. If we just start praying for everybody that our eyes behold, everyone that we hear of, everyone we see, you you think this is sound kinda crazy, but this is what the verse says. What you’ll find is you’ll be praying more. You’ll be praying more frequently. You’ll be communicating with God more and more as an intercessor for other people.

Instead of having... And we ought to have a prayer list. I have one. Instead of having just a list of people that we pray for, you guys are on my prayer list. I try to pray for you often. That’s that’s one of my goals as a pastor is that’s one of my jobs is to pray for you, and to try to pray specifically for you, not just for your needs but but just more generally but that’s not my only job nor is it only your job.

This is, as I said, this is a tall order. When we don’t know what else to pray for, when we don’t know how to pray, literally pick anybody and start praying and interceding on their behalf. If you don’t know how to pray, verse one is the answer. It’s really this simple, right?

Now, what’s interesting is that verse number one, exactly what we should pray for, we know we we we should pray for all men, but exactly how we should pray for them, what specific thing we should request of God for them is not exactly spelled out in these verses. It says, we go on in verse number two, for kings and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. So, we we know that we’re we’re praying, especially in verse two for kings and those in civil authority, we’re praying for them, and that we hope that the effect is that we, you know, kinda stay out of trouble and they give... They leave us alone and we have peace. Right? That’s not our request, but that’s the desire, right? That’s one reason we pray for them is because we want that. Verse three, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our savior.

Verse four, who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. So whether we’re praying for this all men category or whether we’re praying for the kings and for all that are in authority in verse number two, the explicit request is not laid out because of course, we ought to pray according to the needs. You pray for you pray for your your family differently than you might pray for someone not in your family. You pray for someone who is already a believer differently for than someone who is not a believer. You pray differently for someone who is ill from someone who is sick. So we ought to pray and pray specifically and pray custom to what the needs are but back of all that, if you don’t know what the need is, if you don’t know what that person, how you can pray for them.

You can always pray for their salvation and that’s what is hinted at in verse four. It’s not expressly stated but it’s hinted at. Here, the lord says, in effect, I’m telling you, pray for all men because god wants all men to be saved. You see that in verse number four? That’s the back of that.

So let me let me submit this to you. We all are failing to pray for people to be saved. We are all falling short at this goal. Think about the number of people you see. Have you ever stopped at a red light and looked over? Just, you know, you know how it knows who we are. You look over, see what they’re doing. Have you ever looked over and saw a person and thought, Lord, would you bring the gospel to them?

Would you save them? These little kids, little Adelaide, Matti, Thomas, Liberty’s baby, whatever he or she will be called, Are you praying for those? You say, well, don’t really... Give them a safe delivery, give them a safe caring of the baby, that’s great, but verse four says God wants his children to be saved. We should pray to that end. God, save these children. Amen. Willa and Nila and Lenora and Ziki and Elise and little Emma Emma Ann who won the won the flannel contest yesterday.

We should pray for these. This is a biblical truth and I just challenge you, are you doing that? Are you seriously praying for all men? Because I guarantee every single person we meet is a candidate for prayer, every single person we meet, the Lord tells us to pray for them. Whether we know them or not, whether they look like they’re religious or not, whether they are tatted up and pierced up and maybe they’re hooked on drugs or or not, whatever. Maybe they’re professional, whatever.

The lord wants us to pray for them. The lord wants us to pray for them specifically and if we know no other thing to pray for, the most important thing we can pray for is for their salvation. For there is no greater need than their need for Christ. Amen. You can do no greater service to someone than to pray for them to be saved. Praise god. They may hate you for it. Don’t matter. Don’t have to know. Don’t tell em.

And you know what? You you ought to if especially if you’re a believer, you ought to encourage a person. You you’re if you’re praying for them, you ought say, listen, I’m praying for you about this or about that. But you know what? You can pray and not say that you’re praying for them.

So there, verse number one says, we should pray for all men. There is never a person we ever meet or become aware of that we should not pray for, and specifically for their salvation. Are you doing that? Am I doing that?

And I wanna tell you something, brothers and sisters, gonna flip the script. Instead of pointing outward, I’m gonna say this, I need you to pray for me. Amen. I need you to pray for me. I need to be one of these all men in verse one in your life. And you need me, you need to be one of the all men in my life.

Do you pray for everybody in this church at some point or another? Well, I don’t know their names. I promise you, if you ask me, I will send you a list of names.

Do you for each other? Do you pray for people, all of the members of your family? Do you pray for everyone that you know in your neighborhood? Do you pray for everyone on your job? Do you pray for their soul?

When we think about the condition of men in verse number one, when you think about the how the bible describes mankind, it describes man as as without hope and without God in the world. That’s a description of man. Man is described as having the wrath of god abiding on them. Man is described as being alienated from god. So, you have god is over here and man is over here and there is no connection between them. There’s no relationship between them. There’s no there’s no peace between man and between god. What do I mean by man? I mean, all men in verse number one. That’s what I’m talking about. There’s no peace between them. So, the question is this, if the lord tells us, hey, I want you to pray because I want them to be saved. You know what that makes us? It makes us ones who stand in the gap, interceding for people who have no relation to god. We are in that place of intercession.

If Christians, true children of god are not praying for all men, they have no intercessor. There is no one like Moses that was crying out on the behalf of Israel when Israel sinned begging god to have mercy and be long suffering. There’s no one doing that. Most people don’t know that they need mercy. Most people don’t know how close they are to the wrath of God. They don’t know that the wrath of God abides on them at this moment. So they don’t know to say, God, please, please don’t give me what I’ve earned.

They don’t know but we can stand in that gap. That is biblical. That is what our lord did. Did he not? He stood between sinners and god’s wrath. Lord, please have mercy on them.

Are you doing that? Everyone of us needs to improve our prayer life. Amen. And I’m not just talking about praying generally or praying more. Every one of us needs to improve who and how often we pray for others. Let me challenge you to do that, to on purpose set your heart and mind to think about praying for everybody around you. Everybody. I mean, every person that you see.

Cause that’s what the verse says. Look at verse two. The Bible says for kings. So what we read in verse number one is extended out to include civil leaders. Now, know in our church, we’ve been saying this a long time, whether it be the president, vice president, supreme court justices, representatives, senators, local, national, whatever, we know the Bible tells us to pray for those who are in authority.

That is our duty. That is our job as Christians. But I want to tell you something, and here’s a warning. If you get too involved in in... Let me let me say this the right way. It’s not if you get too involved in politics, but if you get your heart distracted because of politics, you’ll find yourself hating people that are in authority and not wanting to pray for their soul. And you’re a Christian, you’re a believer, a child of God, you are their intercessor, and the Lord takes the principle of verse one and extends it out to those who are in authority.

The Nero’s of the world, the Donald Trump’s that are in this world, the Annie Andrews that are in this world. Did you know in the New Testament, the lord gives two explicit commands to Christians in regard to civil leaders. He doesn’t tell us who to vote for. There are certainly biblical principles that guide that, for sure, but if you’re looking for explicit commands where the Lord unambiguously tells us what to do regarding our civil leaders, there are two.

Number one, Romans chapter 13, Submit to them. Number two, verse two. Pray for them. Those are the two. Everything else might be kind of deduced from the overall tenor of scripture and teachings and principles of scripture, but there are two explicit commands. Submit to them and pray for them. You see in verse two, it says, for kings and for all who are that are in authority, notice that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. You see, the effect of our prayer for our civil leaders is that Christians are perceived by those leaders as not a threat to them.

Now here’s what you understand about civil leaders. Do you know the one thing that civil leaders fear more than everything else? And this has always been true. They fear losing power. Right. They fear losing power. And when you look especially at the time of Paul, that was a that was a big deal. Remember, even in the time of Christ when he went when the when when Christ was delivered up to Pilate, remember what the crowd said? They said, they said, whoever is a king speaketh against Caesar. You know what they’re trying to do? They’re trying to get Jesus in trouble by saying, Jesus is rising up against Caesar.

You know, that’s a flash point. Someone who’s in power, especially at this time, but I I think it’s also true now because power, power corrupts. But that perception, that perception that their power might be in jeopardy can cause people to, can cause leaders to react in a way that’s not friendly to Christians. So the Lord tells us the answer, he says is, pray for them. Pray for them.

The effect of our prayer for our civil leaders, and I say that in contrast to resistance to them, because the Lord already tells us to submit, and I’m going to say more about that in just a minute. The effect is that Christians are perceived by them as not a threat. Look at, if you would, quickly at Ezra chapter six. Look at Ezra chapter six.

Ezra chapter six. Now, if you look back in verse number one, Ezra six verse one, then Darius, the king, made a decree and search was made in the house of the rolls where the treasures were laid up in Babylon and and it goes through, he finds the rolls. Verse seven, let the work of the this of this house of god alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews build this house of god in his place. Moreover, I make a decree. Now, this is the King Darius writing regarding the building of the temple in Jerusalem.

And in verse eight, he makes a decree regarding these Jewish people who are building the temple that they might be provided for. Now, notice what they say in verse number 10. That they may offer sacrifices of sweet savors unto the god of heaven and what does it say? Pray for the life of the king and of his sons. Amen. You know what Ezra was doing? Ezra was what we assume, Ezra was praying for the king, King Darius. He’s a pagan king. He does not love god. He does not know god but as a result of the faith of Ezra, right? He’s a stranger in a strange land but due to god’s favor to Ezra to rebuild the temple, the king is asking Ezra to pray for him and for his sons.

Do you think that the king Darius sees Ezra as a threat? He doesn’t. You know why? Because he sees Ezra rather as someone who is trying to bless him. Right. That’s what praying does. When you pray for your leaders, you’re blessing them. They may not view it as a blessing at the moment but when you say, when you send a letter to your congressman or to your senator, or a civil leader, or when you see him in person, because you sometimes see him in person, you ought to say, listen, I’m praying for you.

And they see that in a beneficial way, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Jeremiah 29 verse seven says this, and seek the peace of the city, whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it. For in the peace thereof shall you have peace. Christians, listen, you have to be careful of political matters.

They cannot get your heart. You are a Christian first. You are a Christian first. And you must always be a Christian first. Amen. And that means whether you like em, like the people in the office or not, you pray for em. You pray for their soul. You pray for God to direct their hearts because the Bible says he can, and you pray for you know, pray for their family.

Pray for them to come to Christ. You see, through prayer, the Lord enables us to be perceived by them as harmless. Now, that doesn’t mean that we yield biblical truth. Let me just summarize it like this, just for time’s sake.

Every civil leader, every civil leader ought to know that Christians, number one, pray for them, and number two, will not budge on matters of scripture. Every civil leader ought to know that. You know what? If that’s true, most of the time, that will give us quietness and peace. Not all the time, but the effect, the natural effect of that is quiet, quietness, and peace. Notice, both are required.

We don’t yield on biblical matters. We don’t we don’t give that ground. We don’t agree with them to get favor. No, we pray for them and then and then they understand that on these matters, there is no debate. There’s no compromise. But we still pray for them. We don’t hate them. We don’t wish them ill, we pray for them, we pray for their souls. First Thessalonians four verse eleven and twelve, and that you study to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you, that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without and that ye may have lack of nothing.

Look if you would at Acts 26, Acts chapter 26. Acts chapter 26. Acts 26 is Paul’s appearance before King Agrippa. Verse one says, then Agrippa said unto Paul, thou art permitted to speak for thyself, then Paul stretched forth his hand and answered for himself and he said, verse two, I think myself happy, king Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews. So, he goes into a long speech.

Paul goes into a long speech. Now, remember the the background of what’s happening in this verse. In this verse, Paul is in is in trouble because he is being as a result of the Jews, they have now kind of forced him into a place where he has had to appeal to Caesar which means that he’s going to be sent to Caesar Caesar for judgement to decide his case, right? He’s he’s appealed to the higher court.

Well, he has to go up the chain of command. Those of you veterans day, you know what that means. He’s gotta go up the chain of command and in that one rung of that chain or one link in that chain is King Agrippa and so he’s standing before King Agrippa explaining his case but what I want you to see is what Paul’s emphasis is. That’s all I want you to see.

Starting in verse number 44, if you have... 14 rather, if you have a red letter bible where the words of Christ are in red, that’s probably in red, is it not? Yes. You know why? Because Paul’s talking about Jesus.

And you go all the way down to verse number 26, he says this, verse 25, he said, but he said, I am not mad most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness. For the king, King Agrippa, knoweth of these things before whom also I speak freely. For I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him, for this thing was not done in a corner. He’s referring to the death of Christ and his resurrection.

Verse 27, King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And Paul said, I would to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am, except these bonds. What was Paul’s goal?

Paul’s goal is not political. I mean, he’s not even concerned really with his own situation, although that’s secondary. He’s using this opportunity to give the gospel to someone that he probably would have no opportunity to have contact with. He’s concerned about Agrippa’s soul. You see this? And how, look at verse 32, you remember, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. What is the effect? So we pray for our civil leaders because we we... The Lord wants them to be saved. We pray for them to be saved.

The effect is that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty. They don’t view us threatening, they view us as people who want to bless them. Okay, that’s the hope, right? Notice how when Paul emphasizes that fact, notice in verse number 32, then said Agrippa unto Festus, this man might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed unto Caesar. So if it had been Agrippa’s choice, would he have let Paul go?

Yeah. Does he view Paul as a threat? No. Has he received the gospel? No. See, Paul’s emphasis is on the man’s spiritual condition and he knows it. But he he views Paul as basically harmless. Now Paul’s looking at it totally from the Lord’s perspective. What I want you to see is how it was responded to.

How it was responded to. In what few actions we have with civil government with as found in scripture, that is when our Lord interacted with civil government, here’s what he said. It’s not very many times, and I say this because I want I want to correct something. In modern liberal Christianity, whatever that is, Jesus is kind of being reinvented, kind of reimagined as a revolutionary. As a socialist or a communist, that that’s actually people are actually saying this.

Jesus is a socialist. He’s a revolutionary socialist that sought to overthrow the Romans. That is not what Jesus did. Full stop. That is not his goal. His goal was the same as Paul when he said before Agreppa. His goal is the same as first Timothy two chapter two verse one and two. In fact, whenever the lord had interaction with the civil government, he wasn’t trying to overthrow it.

In fact, he instructed men to pay their taxes in in Matthew 22. He says, give unto Caesar that which is Caesar and give unto god that which is god’s. God first but if they demand taxes, you give it. That’s what it says. That’s repeated in Romans chapter 13. In John 19, Jesus acknowledged the civil power given to Pilate over him. He says, thou couldest have no power at all against me except it were given thee from above.

You know what that is? That’s an acknowledgment of that civil power. He told, our Lord told his followers, his disciples in Matthew 23, he says, the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. All therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do, but do not you after their works, for they say and do not. So, this reimagining of Jesus Christ is some sort of some sort of hammer and sickle, red flag revolutionary is not biblical.

Amen. The lord’s concern and indeed his whole mission was that those very people, the pilots, the Herods of this world would be saved. That is his will. This idea that Jesus stood up against systems of oppression and sought to overthrow those systems is is that what it is is actually trying to use Jesus for modern political ends. That’s really what it’s about. And Jesus had plenty of opportunity to overthrow the government.

Did he not? He is after all the son of God, the almighty wrapped in flesh. He could have done that and he didn’t. He was concerned that their souls might be saved. He completed His mission within that civil power and instructed His disciples to submit to it. Now let me say this before we move on to the last thing.

Submitting to civil government, like we read here, does not mean we yield to oppression and wrong use of civil power. Even the apostles, when they interacted with the civil government in scripture, we saw see it in the book of Acts, they challenged injustice on the basis of law.

They challenge, you you think about John the Baptist. John the Baptist got, you know why John the Baptist got his head cut off? One reason. It wasn’t because he was trying to overthrow Herod, it was because he was saying, despite the fact of Herod’s position, you are not allowed to take your brother’s wife. Yeah, that’s what Christians should be known for. Preaching repentance and standing for biblical truth.

When civil rulers were themselves wicked and practicing wickedness, it is the voice of Christians that ought to say, I don’t care if I vote if you or not. It’s not okay. You are gonna give an account to God. Amen. And when civil rulers sought to exercise their power unlawfully like in Acts chapter 22, when Paul is going to be beaten before they found out that he had Roman citizenship, you remember that? They tied him up and was ready, they were ready to start flailing, and Paul said, notice his tone, is it lawful to whip a Roman uncondemned?

You know what they did? They dropped it and ran away. You know what he did? He used legal means for protection. You know what that is though? That is an acknowledgment of that civil power. Not only that, when he appealed to Caesar, he’s doing the same thing. And he actually says it very expressly, listen, I’m not here to accuse anybody. I’m trying to stop unlawful practice against me.

And when all of that failed, when all of that failed, these servants of God, including our Lord, did not seek to overthrow civil power, but they yielded to injustice committed, to the injustice and committed that injustice to God for ultimate retribution, even when it did not go their way. Like in Acts chapter five, then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men.

And then they suffered for it. This has been the pattern of God’s people from the earliest time of the church. Now, let’s go to first Timothy to finish up here, chapter two.

So the Lord tells us to pray for all men. He extends that umbrella to specifically call out kings and all who are in authority. And then He says in verse three, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.

We talk about the will of God, what does God want me to do? We are mistaken if we think God’s in the business of telling us specifically what He wants us to do on an individual basis if we are neglecting to do the things that are clearly spelled out in Scripture that He wants us to do. He tells us right here, this is what I want you to do. Why wait for something else if we’re not doing verse three?

You see. So, that’s the way the will of God works, especially young people. I don’t know what the will of God is. You know, it’s a big thing in like youth camps and things like, what is the will of God? How do I know God’s leading me to? Listen, the Lord takes care of all that on an individual level, but to get to that point, we have to be doing what is written in Scripture that we know is the will of God.

And he says, praying for all men is that. Verse four, who will have all men to be saved And to come into the knowledge of the truth. God does indeed want every man, woman, boy, and girl to be saved. Whether that person ultimately is saved or not.

That went went really quiet. The Lord wants every man, woman, and boy, and girl to be saved whether or not that person ever ends up being saved in the end. That’s right. Can I get an amen? God wants them to be saved. That is that is a that is a fact of scripture. And really that’s the basis for verse six, who gave himself, Christ gave himself a ransom for all. Why? Because God wants every man, all to be saved. That’s why Christ came into the world and tasted death for every man.

First Timothy, look at chapter four real quick, chapter four verse number 10, look what it says. For therefore, we both labor and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God who is the savior of all men, especially of those that believe.

Christ gave Himself for every man, every woman, every boy, every girl as a ransom. He gave Himself as the offering, he paid the penalty, that’s what a ransom is. It’s a penalty that is paid to free, a sum of money paid to obtain pardon.

So let’s just just think about verse number four with me. If God wants every man to be every person to be saved, then that means that even the most wicked, God wants to save them. If god wants every person to be saved, then those who we might despise, he wants to save them too. We might not want them to be saved but he does.

And the most despised, it seems in our world, the most despised people on earth are religious hypocrites, and I can’t disagree. But you know what? God wants to save religious hypocrites too.

If God desires all men to be saved, so should we. No matter what they have done to us, no matter how wicked they are, no matter how offended we are at them, And this is the reason why the Lord said in Mark chapter 16, to go and preach the gospel to every creature.

It says, who will have all men to be saved and to come into the knowledge of the truth. This verse speaks of God’s perspective in salvation. You know, usually we think of salvation as we say, am I saved?

But this says God wants men to be saved from His perspective, from His perspective. Just like Galatians four:nine says this, but now, after that ye have known God, which is man’s perspective, or rather are known of God, which is God’s perspective, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to in bondage? So I’m gonna reverse the question. I’m not gonna ask you, are you saved? Because that that that’s your perspective.

I’m not going to ask you, do you know god? That’s your perspective. I want to ask you this, does god know you? Because he wants to know you. We’ll have all men to be saved. Not are you saved but is god saved you? If I were to ask god if you’re saved, what was that? What what what would his answer be?

If I were to ask the lord if he knows you, what would his answer be? Not do you know him? Not are you saved but what would his answer be? Because ultimately, we might, listen, we might tell ourselves, yeah, I’m saved, I’m good, you know, whatever. We can tell ourselves whatever. But the opinion that matters is the one of the Lord. Does God know us?

Verse five, For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. This is where I want to finish. A mediator, one who goes between, mediates, who speaks to both parties.

We need a mediator between ourselves and God. No man can approach the highest, no man can approach the Almighty alone. There is no path, there is no access. Verse five tells us that there is but one way to approach that God, and that way is Jesus Christ. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the father but by me. You see, without Jesus Christ between us, we would be obliterated.

We would be incinerated by the wrath of god on us justly. For what? For our own transgressions, for our works. If there’s no mediator and we dare to approach the living god with no mediator, we would be absolutely obliterated before god’s holiness. We need a mediator. Now, Jesus Christ, verse five says, Jesus Christ is that mediator but but no, Jesus did not come into this world to make to somehow cause our efforts to on our own to get to god to succeed. He didn’t, in other words, he didn’t say, alright, you go 50% and I’ll carry you the rest of the way. No, our efforts are failure.

He is the mediator. He is the savior. I want to tell you something, in Christianity, most people in Christianity think of what Christ did on the cross as helpful.

They believe it was helpful. Needed to supplement what I have already provided. Get me the rest of the way. That is false. He is it. He is everything. Without Christ, if we tried one step toward God, we would be annihilated.

So Christ on that cross was the mediator. He was, verse six says, the ransom for all. He stood between a sinful man without hope and a holy God who cannot let sinners go free.

Christ did not help save us. He is the savior of all men. Verse five says this, for there is one god and one mediator. How many mediators? One mediator between what? God and between men. There’s one. So, you have three parties. You have god, you have man, in the middle, you have Jesus Christ. Beware of anybody that tells you that there’s any other mediators that get squished in between these three parties.

Especially between god but I’m sorry, between man and Jesus Christ. You know, people do that. They, even though the Bible says there’s one mediator between god and man, the man Christ Jesus, one, two, three. Religion has tried to insert another mediator right here between man and Christ. They call him the vicar of Christ, the pope. The pope is no mediator. The Pope is a sinner. I don’t care if he likes the White Sox or not. The Pope is a sinner that needs a mediator as much as anyone else.

Without Christ, the Pope goes to hell and goes to the lake of fire. Mary, the one who was a virgin when Jesus was born, is no mediator between God and men in any way, fashion or form. She doesn’t help us get to Christ, she doesn’t help us get to God. Mary herself acknowledged that fact, did she not? When she referred to God as her savior. That baby that she would bear was her savior too. Because the Bible says he gave himself a ransom for all and that includes Mary.

She was a sinner that needed that same Savior as we do, how can she be a mediator? She is no mediator. Jesus is the mediator. And if we bring our case to the lord Jesus, which is not a case of merit, we have none. If we bring our our case to Jesus in faith, right?

And we bring our nothing to Jesus Christ, the god who is full of mercy. We’ll take our case and say, you’ve given me nothing but your faith. Now, I will take it to my father and you will be accepted as if you were me.

Is your faith resting in the mediator? Let’s pray.