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.
The world makes things controversial, but it's the word
of God. It's the word of God.
And before we even go there, I just want to go to second
Timothy real quick. Chapter 3, Second Timothy
chapter 3, we're going to just look at verse.
Just going to read for verse 16. All Scripture, not some, not
parts of it. All Scripture is given by
inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine and for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
We just talked about that. How much is all?
Well, all means all. When God says that all of His
word is good for us, He means what He says.
All of it is good for us. And yes, that does include those
long lists of genealogies with names that no one can pronounce.
Today, Pastor Lewis shares with us that God's Word is good for
even the most controversial of subjects.
He points out that what the world calls controversial is
actually clear as day in the Word of God.
That is, if we accept it just as it is written now.
Here's Pastor Lewis in the Book of First Timothy, chapter 2,
with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
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.
All men 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 is the means 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 what?
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. A 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 sin.
Bless your name Lord in the Old Testament.
Now there were other go betweens, you know the Old
Testament, the priest in the high priest.
They were the mediators between God and man because the you
know, the children of Israel didn't want to speak to God
anymore. They were fearful.
Moses was a type of mediator or go between between God and man
are the 1st covenant, but it's only Jesus Christ and that all
all all those mediators pointed to the mediator Jesus Christ,
the true mediator, the one and only mediator.
And then we go over here to verse 7.
It says for which I was appointed A preacher.
I was appointed A preacher and an apostle.
I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying.
A teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
You know what's amazing is that Paul's now saying that I'm
qualified. I was anointed.
I was called to this ministry. And the ministry that he was
called to was what was described in the verse before.
The verse before where it says he gave himself a ransom for all
to be testified in due time. The message that we give, the
true gospel message, is the fact that Jesus Christ gave his life
for our life so that we would have salvation.
It's a simple gospel message. Jesus Christ died according to
the Scriptures, and he was buried, and on the third day he
rose again according to the Scriptures.
It's a very simple gospel, but there's power in the gospel
message. There's power, and Paul says
that I was a preacher of that message.
What does he mean a preacher? A preacher is one who heralds.
He had the authority to herald that message publicly and
proclaim the gospel message to all men.
He said I was a preacher of that, and then he said I was an
apostle. That means he was 1 cent.
He was given a special mission from God himself.
He was called and and then he says that I am speaking the
truth in Christ and not lying A teacher of the Gentiles.
Is there a difference between being a teacher and a preacher?
Absolutely a teacher, a preacher heralds the message.
He cries out the message he he he tells what the truth of the
he tells the truth. That was the message that the
message that he was sent to deliver.
Most evangelists are your preacher.
They just give the message. This is the truth.
This is the true message. But the teachers, they actually
teach us. They instruct us in the way of
righteousness. They break down the message,
they expound the message. That's a teacher.
Teach us in the way of righteousness.
Teach us in a way of holiness. Teach us in a way that's
pleasing to God. Teach the doctrine that was
given to us from the apostles. That's a teacher explains the
right way. So yes, Paul was a preacher and
he was a preacher of the Gentiles according to Acts 9 and
15 said that he was sent to the Gentiles, but he was also sent
to kings and he was also sent to the Jews as well.
So this message he was sent to for everybody and, and it was A
and it was a teach the Gentiles in faith, which again was
justification, just as if you had not sinned.
We are all justified. We're justified righteous by
God. We're decreed, we're called
righteous by God, not that we are righteous in what we do, but
we're decried. We are declared righteous by God
the Father. And that's the faith.
And then in truth, that's the sanctification he teaches.
Also, He makes disciples of men and women.
He makes disciples, and that's what we should be doing.
You see, after you are saved, then it is necessary for us to
grow and the way we grow, and that's called the process of
sanctification. We're learning the way of
righteousness. We're learning the way of
holiness. We're learning to walk more in
the spirit and less in the flesh.
We're learning that and that's how as a church body we tend to
grow closer to the Lord. And now that he's talked about
that and all this is coming through prayer.
Keep that in mind. He's all dealing, He's still
dealing with the issue of prayer there.
You know, we should pray for, for the word to get out to
everybody, We should pray. I heard one teacher say that you
know it in the church now, there's more announcements and
things of that nature than there is prayer.
And we really need to focus on prayer.
I'm glad that we have so many avenues here in this church that
offer prayer. So many, so many.
And you can all plug yourselves into it.
We invite you to plug yourselves into those avenues of prayer
because every one of those groups, whether it's a Thursday
night Zoom group or whether it's the Thursday night group that
meets here to pray about certain things, the the all of the Bible
studies that should include prayer.
I'm sure it does. When those things happen, that
is all in worship to God. It's all in worship to God.
So we pray because he died for all and his death was sufficient
for all, but it's only efficient for those who believe, for those
who believe. And then he goes to verse 8.
And as we move to verse 8, we come to see now that we're now
moving into an issue which is seen as being controversial, but
it's not really controversial. If it is rightly divided, it's
not really controversial. The world makes things
controversial, but it's the word of God.
It's the word of God. And before we even go there, I
just want to go to second Timothy real quick.
Chapter 3, Second Timothy chapter 3, we're going to just
look at verse. Just going to read for verse 16.
All Scripture, not some, not parts of it.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is
profitable for doctrine and for reproof, for correction, for
instruction and righteousness. We just talked about that, that
the man of God or the woman of God may be complete, thoroughly
equipped for every good work. So what we're about to go in
here into here, this is not Paul's opinion.
This is not just Paul's opinion. All scripture is inspired by
God. It's in the Canon of Scripture.
This is coming from God. So he, she, he says here in
verse 8, I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting
up holy hands without wrath and doubting.
Let's stop there, he said. I desire, therefore, that the
men pray everywhere. Now he's talking about not just
mankind, meaning everybody. He's talking about men as in
male gender, that they pray. And Paul is saying here that men
should lead prayer in public services.
Men should lead prayer. I know growing up I didn't see a
lot of men leading prayer in public services.
It was most leading women. I just see a lot of men leading
it. But Paul says here that men
should lead prayer. We know women will pray, but
Paul's saying we want to see more men praying.
Men pray leading. And now this is not a
prohibition to say that women shouldn't pray in public.
That's not what this is saying, and we want to get to that over
in verse 9. But here he is making a point to
say that men should be praying and should be leading and
praying in public services, lifting up holy hands without
wrath and doubting. So Paul's mentioned in three,
three things that are essential. And we know with men praying in
public, three things. First of all, he says lifting up
holy hands and lifting up holy hands is actually cultural.
It's Jewish culture that the men at that particular time when
they prayed, they would pray extending their hands to heaven.
Now that gesture of extending the hands of heaven, when you
look at it, it really has a lot of different meaning or
connotations to it. First of all, it's the
connotation of surrender. It's surrender when a man lifts
his hands, when a police officer tells a suspect to come out with
your hands up, that means you are surrendering, that that
person is surrendering to the authority of that police
officer. He's surrendering.
He is putting himself into custody, willingly putting
himself into custody of that police officer.
And that's exactly what we're doing when we lift our hands to
the Lord. Back in the Old Testament, this
was a sign of surrender to God. God, I surrender, I place myself
under your authority. So the prayers that go up are
prayers to the Lord submitting to his authority.
And there's several scriptures that talk about the lifting of
the hands. Turn with me really quick to
Psalm 63 and look at verse four. He says thus I will bless you
while I live. I will lift up my hands in your
name and then go to Psalm 134 and Psalm 134 reads this way.
Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord.
And we know we read the story back in First Kings chapter 8
and 22 that when Solomon prayed and he dedicated to temple.
He lifted up his hands to heaven and he prayed when David prayed
several times it's mentioned that he lifted up his hands to
the Lord when he prayed. So that is a, it's a cultural
position, but I just want to mention that we need to
understand the lifting of the hands.
It's an outward expression of where our hearts should be.
It's not that important what we do with our hands.
Now, God is more interested in the position of your heart when
we pray. And then he goes in and he goes
into that. So he says without wrath and
without wrath means that it's, you know, you first of all,
you're you. The hands that you're lifting up
have to be holy hands. So it's got to be pure hands,
right? Hands that we, we're not talking
about, you know, practicing sin and then coming up and lifting
your hands to pray. You know, that doesn't mean that
if you have sin that you can't pray, you repent.
And the repentance cleanses us. We confess, and that cleanses us
before God and we can lift up our hands and pray.
It's about lifting up cleansed hands.
That means the heart is cleansed from whatever sin is morally or
spiritually cleansed. But it's without wrath.
And without wrath simply means without anger.
It's without resentment. We should be praying without
resentment. I shouldn't be up here praying
and knowing I got something against that brother sitting
back there or something against a sister sitting over there.
Can't pray like that. I got to go make it right with
them first. I got to go make it right with
them and then I can pray. I don't want my prayers hindered
by having all these ungodly things in my heart towards
someone else, have an ought in my heart against a brother.
I can't pray that way, Davis said.
If I regard iniquity in my heart, he won't hear me.
God won't hear me. So we have to have pure hearts
and clean hands when we pray. And he said, and doubting,
doubting actually means that we must pray in faith.
We shouldn't be praying doubting.
James said that when you pray, you know you, you, you should be
praying without doubting. You ask without doubting.
He said he who doubts is like a wave of the sea tossed to and
fro by the wind. It it's an unstable person who
doubts. When we pray, we pray believing.
We pray believing, so we pray without doubt.
So then we go on to verse 9. And this is where things get
kind of interesting because he says here in like manner also,
and don't miss that line, in like manner also, in like manner
also, women adorn themselves in modest apparel with propriety
and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly
clothing. So what is he saying here?
This is actually evidence to some degree that women can pray
in public. It's fine for women to pray in
public because he said in like manner.
Also. In other words, in the same way,
when women pray, their praying should be with adorning
themselves in modest apparel. Men should pray with their
hearts, not having wickedness or anger or art in their hearts.
He emphasized that for men, not that anybody should, but that's
what he emphasized for men And but for women, he said when you
pray, if you want to, you know, when you pray, have modest
apparel. Thank you for tuning in to
Living Waters of Grace with Pastor Lewis Harrell.
We're currently in the books of First and Second Timothy.
Some of the things included in these New Testament letters from
Paul are that the young and newly established Pastor Timothy
was being encouraged to hold fast to what was true.
He was challenged to confront and address the false teachers
that were rising up. He was also reminded to accept
his calling to the ministry with gratefulness and to address the
happenings going on in the Ephesian church.
Paul was imparting his experience and knowledge to the
next generation. Timothy was receptive to
learning and gleaning what he could from Paul's wisdom.
This is how it should be in ministry across multiple
generations. Those who have lived a little
more life should be open to sharing their successes and also
things they've learned along the way.
That we're not a wind. The younger generations coming
up can learn and appreciate much from those ahead of them, and
perhaps avoid some of the same pitfalls that their mentors work
through mentoring. It's a beautiful relationship
when the hearts are in the right place to learn and grow.
We trust that you're in a community where this is
happening. Older ones providing advice and
wisdom, and each side learning and growing from one another.
This certainly was the case for Paul and Timothy as they were
comrades for the sake of the gospel.
For more information on where this teaching came from, go to
calvarychapelonline.com. There you can also learn about
our service times to join us in person.
This has been living waters of grace.