This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Lewis
Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland
County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
Your boss, the owner of your company, Pray for them.
How much time do we spend criticizing?
I don't like what's going on in the country.
Then we need to pray more. I don't like the conditions at
work. Then we need to pray.
God is able to change any and everything, any and everything.
Talk more to God about them than you do to them, or even about
God. Pray now that is a powerful
exhortation. If you spend any time online,
you know it is a sea of opinions.
Facebook is littered with posts about disgruntled employees
ranting about how awful their bosses are.
My hope and prayer is that wasn't just describing you.
Pastor Lewis will encourage you to stop being a person who is
always complaining and start being the person who prays.
What can I actually do to change the things that are wrong in my
life that are outside of my direct control?
Pastor Lewis says pray now. Here's Pastor Lewis in the Book
of First Timothy, chapter 2, with today's edition of Living
Waters of Grace. We are in the 2nd chapter of the
book of First Timothy, and I would remind you that in the 1st
chapter, Timothy had come. Paul Heck written Timothy a
letter basically giving him instruction and direction.
Paul left Timothy in Ephesus to plant a church and after that
church was planted, he left Timothy there to give them
instruction, to give them commandments as to how that
church should function. We should also remember that as
we go through this, that Ephesus is a Pagan city, much like
Chicago or much like New York. It's a Pagan city.
So we have to remember that it was important for him to give
instruction on how to function in a Christian Church.
They were no longer going to be going to the Temple of Diana,
whatever, going to be doing sacrifices to idols and having
church their way. They were no longer going to be
doing that. They were now going to be in the
Church of God, which is the Church of the living God, the
pillar and and ground of truth. Amen.
So it was important for them to be able to get instruction.
And the first verse starts with therefore.
So because it starts with therefore, let's go back and
look at what He is therefore about and we live.
We would look at verse starting at verse 18 of the 1st chapter
of Timothy. It says this I charge, this
charge I commit to you. This charge I commit to you, son
Timothy. Timothy, this is what I want you
to do, according to the prophecies previously made
concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare,
having faith in a good conscience, which some, having
rejected concerning the faith, have suffered shipwreck.
So we understand that he's telling Timothy that it's
important. He already told him earlier that
teach that you ought to teach no other doctrine and you ought to
pass that word on to the elders there.
Teach no other doctrine other than the doctrine that I gave
you, Timothy, other than the doctrine that the other apostles
gave, the doctrine of Jesus Christ that's grounded and
rooted in the Word of God, that doctrine, the true doctrine, the
gospel of Jesus Christ. Teach no other doctrine other
than that. So he goes on here and said that
those who have swayed from that and that have gotten away from
that doctrine, they have suffered shipwreck.
They've suffered shipwreck of whom?
Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan, that they
may learn not to blasphemy. Therefore, Timothy, I exhort
you, or I urge you, I am strongly directing you, Timothy,
first of all, that supplication, prayers, intercessions, and
giving of thanks be made for all men.
So he is saying, Timothy, this first of all, doesn't mean that
on the list of things that I have to tell you to do, this is
number 1. And then this other thing will
be #2 that's not what he's saying.
He's talking about priority. First of all, the most important
thing, the most significant thing that you do with this
church is that they are to pray. So this section, this first
section is going to be geared toward the significance of
prayer. So as he's talking about prayer,
he said that there's four different ways to initiate or to
and count engage in prayer. And the first one, he said
supplications. And the supplications just
basically it emphasizes the urgent need.
It's a personal or urgent need, request for my urgent needs.
That's the supplication. We give supplications to the
Lord. And then he said prayers was
just an overall umbrella, which basically talks about worship.
Prayer is a is an act of worship.
Prayer is an act of worship. It's speaking to God with
reverence in our hearts and not just expression of wants and
needs, but it is an act of worship.
It's also an act of submission. It's an act of humility as we
come before the Lord in prayer. Those who are proud will not
pray. It's those who are humble who
will pray. So he says all prayers are
supplications, prayers and intercessions.
These intercessions have to deal with the expression of petition.
To put a a petition before a superior, That's what they call
intercessions. And that intercession can be on
behalf of myself or yourself or be on behalf of someone else.
Inter sessions. It it it's coming before the
Lord with a, a confidence. It's a fellowship before the
Lord. It's inter sessions.
I can ask of these things because I know you are God and
you're able to do it. You're able to do it.
So I intercede on behalf of myself where I intercede on
behalf of someone else. You know, he says, when you come
to God, you should believe that he is God.
So when we make intercession, we're coming with a confidence
that the one that we're praying to is able to do it.
So he said come with with supplications and inner and
intercessions. And then he says also he says
also Thanksgiving. Now Thanksgiving should be a
part of every prayer. But I want to also admonish or I
want to encourage you that there are times that we can pray when
it's just for Thanksgiving. Sometimes we can go before the
Lord and say, Lord, I don't want to ask you for nothing today.
I just want to thank you for everything that you've already
done. I don't want to ask you for
anything. I just want to thank you for
what you have done. We need to always have our
Thanksgiving and included with our prayers, but sometimes we
can just go before God and just have a prayer session of just
Thanksgiving. Lord, thank you, thank you,
thank you, thank you, thank you. Lord, thank you.
I would dare you to try to run out of things to thanking for.
You can't do it. You can't do it, Lord.
Thank you for waking me up this morning.
Thank you for the roof that's over my head.
Thank you for the shoes that's on my feet.
Thank you, Lord, for the food that's on my table.
Thank you for your protection, Lord.
Thank you for your wisdom. Thank you for your knowledge.
Thank you for helping me to get around the snares of the enemy.
Thank you for saving me. Thank you for redeeming me.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. I dare to try to run out of ways
or things to thank him for. You can't do it.
So Thanksgiving should always be a part of our prayers.
Who do we pray for? He says here in the bottom of a
verse 1, he says pray for all men, all men.
That's male and female. That's not just men in general.
It's male and female. But pray for everybody.
Those we know, Pray for those we don't know.
Pray for those who like us, Pray for those who don't like us.
Jesus was on a cross and he said, Lord forgive them for they
know not what they do and they're trying to kill him.
Stephen did the exact same thing.
They were stoning him. He was near death and he said
forgive them for they know not what they do.
Pray for all men. But then he gets specific here
in verse 2 and he says for kings and for all who are in
authority, pray for kings and all that are in authority, that
we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness
and reverence. So he says here, pray for kings
and all who are in authority. I was recently convicted.
After I started studying this, I was convicted and I was
convicted because I was not obeying this.
I was not praying for my president.
I was not praying for this Congress.
I wasn't praying for people that I consider had an ungodly
platform. I wasn't praying for them.
But as I started studying this, it came to my heart that how in
the world could we ever expect, How can we ever think, how can
we ever, how can we ever think that these people are going to
change on their own except that the Lord comes in and changes
their heart? How much can it happen?
And the way that that happened is through prayer.
Us praying, us interceding on their behalf, us putting
supplications before them, us coming with hearts of
Thanksgiving and prayers to them, Praying for even the
people that we think are ungodly presidents or ungodly leaders.
He says pray for all leaders and everyone that's in authority.
He's not just talking about church leaders, but please pray
for us. Please pray for us.
Pray for church leaders. Pray for leaders that are head
of other ministries. Pray for those who are in
Congress. Pray for your manager at work,
your boss, the owner of your company.
Pray for them. How much time do we spend
criticizing? I don't like what's going on in
the country. Then we need to pray more.
I don't like the conditions at work.
Then we need to pray. God is able to change any and
everything, any and everything. Talk more to God about them than
you do to them, or even about God.
Pray. And he's telling us here that we
should pray for our pastors and pray for church leaders, for
parents, for teachers. Pray for the secular people,
Pray for believers and pray for unbelievers, people who are
close to you. Pray for people who are far away
from you. He says pray for all men.
And when we do that, then we can lead a quiet and peaceable life.
Quiet meaning that we, we, we have a, a calm life, a life
that's not causing division or, or disruption.
It's a life that allows us to not care about getting in
someone else's issues or someone else's concerns or someone
else's business. It's, it's, it's a, it's a quiet
and peaceable life. And then he says peaceable,
meaning a life without contentions, a life without
being quarrelsome. It's a peaceable life.
That means it's a calm, not only calm within us, but also calm
around us. We pray for that.
You see, we are told actually in
the book of Matthew that we should be peacemakers.
And in order to be peacemakers, to be peace, we got to live
peaceable. If we're going to be
peacemakers, we first of all got to be peaceable.
And we pray to become peaceable. And then in verse 4, verse
three, first of all says, for this is good and acceptable in
the sight of God our Savior. And I think I remember telling
you the last time, the reason why he's emphasizing God our
Savior is because we must remember that Nero was actually
the the, the emperor at this particular time.
And he was requiring, he was requesting for people to call
him Savior. That's why they needed to pray.
And he said, who desires all men
to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth?
All men to be saved. That means justification.
Now keep in mind, he's saying he desires all men to be so He
desires all men to be saved. That doesn't mean that he has
willed or decreed or determined all men to be saved.
He is. He said he wants all men to be
saved or he will have all men to be saved.
Some you may have that translation instead of he that,
you know, desires all men to be saved.
But the point here is that being emphasized is that God wants, he
would like for everybody to be saved.
But we also understand that everybody is not going to be
saved. There are some people who are
not going to accept the truth of the gospel.
There's some people who are going to refuse to believe, but
he would like for all people to be saved.
Very clear here. He said it's not his desire that
any should perish, but that all coming to repentance.
He doesn't want people to go to hell.
But will people go to hell? Yes.
Will people not be saved? Yes.
But it's not because he doesn't want all people to be saved.
So this isn't a decree because some people might think, well,
if he desires or if he wills for all people to be saved, then how
come everybody's not saved? He doesn't decree that he wants
that to happen. Now also please keep in mind,
because no, like, like Paul is saying here, you know, teach no
other doctrine. So we got to be true to the
doctrine that's being taught. There are people out there that
take this verse and start preaching a universal salvation.
See, there it is right there that proves it.
God wants everybody to be saved. So everybody eventually is going
to be saved. Everybody.
Ain't nobody going to hell. Everybody's going to be saved.
No, not so not so. It's clear that there are going
to be people who will not be saved.
Even Jesus himself said whoever believes shall not perish.
Whoever believes or whoever will be saved with those who believe,
all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Everybody's not going to do that.
So when he says all men, you know, be saved, this is not
saying that all men, as in all men without exception, will be
saved. That's not what he's saying.
He's saying that he, he desires that all men without distinction
be saved. This is all men without
distinction. That means he doesn't care if
you're a Jew, if you're a Gentile, if you're a woman, if
you're a man, if you're black or if you're white, if you're a
Pagan, A Gentile Jew. He doesn't care about that.
Oh, man can be said, the gospel goes out to everybody.
It goes out to everybody. So it's not a distinction by
what a person is. Doesn't matter if it's man or
woman, everyone, the gospel is there for them to be able to
believe and receive. That's all men.
And then he says and come to the knowledge of the truth after you
get saved, then we need to be sanctified, right?
We need to move on and grow in, in God.
We need to grow in God sanctification.
That means we, we're, we're working toward being set apart
for God, for the use of God. It's our growth.
It refers to the Christian growth after being saved to
become a disciple of Jesus Christ and not to be LED astray
by the false doctrines of false teachers, the doctrine of false
teachers. We can't be LED astray by that
if we are growing in Christ. Second Peter 318.
It tells us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. So why are we doing that?
Why are we doing that and how and how and what is the means to
be saved? Well, he says that in the next
line. Look at verse 5 for this.
For there is one God and one mediator between God and man,
the man Christ Jesus. So what is the means for all men
to be saved? Or what does it mean for men to
be saved? First of all, because of one
God. We have one God.
We don't have many gods. There's one God, one true God,
one true and living God. A lot of people like to say God,
and then he, they talk about all these things that God is not.
If it's not the God of this, the God of the Bible, then he's not
a true God. It's an idol.
This is the one and true God, the living God.
And he gave us his word so that we know who he is.
He wants to be found of us when he says seek me and and you'll
find me because he wants to be founded.
But he's not hiding from us. He's not planning hide and go
seek from us. He wants to be found of us.
He wants us to know him so that we're not LED astray.
So he says, so he says here, first of all, there is one God
and one mediator. Now, there may be some people
out there that might even agree with us and say, yeah, there's
one God. But when you say there's only
one way to God, when you say there's only one mediator
between man and God, there's only one way that you can get to
that God, that's when you have problems.
People hate us for that. People call us names for that.
People ridicule or they slander us because of that.
They call us intolerant because of that.
Narrow minded. We're narrow minded by thinking
it's only one way. How fair is that?
It's true, there's one way, and that way is Jesus Christ the
man. And he said the man because the
reason why he said the matter is because he's truly God and he's
truly man. He's fully God and he's fully
man. But we but he's the mediator
between God and man, the man Jesus Christ, because it was the
you humanity of Jesus Christ that died for us on the cross.
It was in his humanity that he died.
And in his humanity he was yet without sin.
That's why he was the accepted sacrifice.
He was a man without sin. And he's the only mediator
between God and man. There is no other.
I don't care what argument they
try to make to try to make it seem like there's other ways to
the Father, there is none. Jesus Christ himself said it was
only one way. He said and John 14, six, I am
the way, the truth and the life. And John 10/7, he says I am the
door. And then in Hebrews 9 and 15, he
said the Bible says he's the only mediator of the new
covenant, the only mediator of the new covenant, the man Jesus
Christ. And how is it that this mediator
works? What is the work of this
mediator? Look at what he says here in
verse. In verse 6 he says Who gave
himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time he gave
himself a ransom of all. That word is actually in the
Greek called anti lutron, anti lutron.
The word anti actually refers to the substitutionary.
It's the substitute. And of course, Lutron refers to
the fact that it is the ransom or the price of freeing a slave
anti Lutron and, and, and, and that's how he is the work.
That's the work of the mediator. The fact that he gave himself,
he died for our sins. He paid the cost of what we
could not pay. So He was the full cost to
substitute for us for sin. Galatians 313 say that it tells
us that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.
The law held us captive in its in its condemnation.
And no one but Jesus Christ could have paid the price to
free us from that bondage. No one but Him.
Thank God for that. Huh?
That He sent his Son to die for us?
That was costly. That was costly.
And we talked about on Wednesday night that, you know, that this
was not just, it was not a pretty crucifixion, it was a it
was a true sacrifice. A true sacrifice, just like all
the animals in the Old Testament was a sacrifice.
And how bloody those sacrifices were.
That's how bloody the cross of Jesus Christ was.
It's not the cute little pictures that we see where He
has a little blood on his around his head or a little bit of
blood on his hands. Little bit.
No, it's not that. We're talking about a brutal,
brutal sacrifice. He took on the sins of the whole
world. He paid the sins of the entire
world, of everybody. You want a reason to be
thankful? There's another one.
Think about Him on the cross and then think about the fact that
it was meant for you. Because we were guilty.
He wasn't even guilty. We were guilty of the same.
Bless your name. This has been another
encouraging edition of Living Waters of Grace.
Pastor Lewis Harrell has shared some good reminders for us to
learn and walk in today as he's teaching through the books of
First and Second Timothy. There are useful practices and
advice that the Apostle Paul offers to Timothy in these books
from a fellow pastor. Paul imparts some wisdom to
Timothy about solid leadership and what some of the criteria
should be for leadership. There are specific passages
directed toward men and women, respectively.
And All in all, there's much to gain in coming to an awareness
of God's heart for each person and God's purposes for each one.
We're happy that you've taken the time today to listen and
invite you to come here the next edition.
In the meantime, when you have some time to spare today, go
check out our website, calvarychapelonline.com.
There you'll find additional messages as well as a variety of
resources and information about how to meet with us in person.
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TuneIn to our live stream. The Living Waters of Grace is a
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Before we go today, we ask that you share this program with
others and invite them to listen on Grace FM at 91.7.
That's all we have for today, but we're so glad that you've
been with us. There's more to dig into here in
First and Second Timothy, so let's gear up for some more
great teachings from Pastor Lewis next time here on Living
Waters of Grades.