First Timothy for the life..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. So if you have your Bibles with you, let's open them up. We're in the second chapter of Timothy, first Timothy, chapter two, and we'll be reading the whole chapter this evening.

Although our efforts will be concentrating only or our study would be concentrated only on two verses, verses three and four. But we'll read the whole chapter for context as we normally do. So that's first Timothy and we're going to read from verses one through the end of the chapter. 15 verses, but again our concentration will be only on verses 3 and 4 this evening. First of all, then I urge the supplication, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving made to all people.

For kings and 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, 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 Jesus Christ, 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. I desire then that in every place the men should pray. lifting holy hands with their anger or quarrelling, likewise also the women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but what is proper for women who profess godliness with good works. Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man.

Rather, she is to remain silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control. Amen.

So we find ourselves in the second chapter of this wonderful epistle, a series that we've started probably about four or five weeks ago. And we've said before, and we continue to say this, that although this epistle was written to a first century church in a place called Ephesus, by the grace of God, it's providentially, it holds immeasurable value and very clear practical instructions, not only to the first century church, but also to all local churches throughout all generations. In this letter, the apostle identifies the real church concerns. He imparts uncompromising biblical truths. And finally, he issues practical instructions for the believers to heed and follow.

Instructions, beloved, that we would do well as a church to obey today. You see, for Paul, it's not about merely passing on information or knowledge. As important as knowledge is and knowledge of the truth is, Paul knows unless one is able to act upon that knowledge, unless that knowledge goes further and beyond the mind and into the soul and turns into action, It's no more than an intellectual exercise. And we all know that that's not what true religion is. The purpose of our Bible studies and the purpose of any time we open up God's word ought to be to bring about a greater appreciation and love for our triune God.

It's ought to be to strengthen our faith in Him and ultimately making us more and more like the beloved Jesus Christ our Saviour. In other words, if our study of God's Word does not change us, it is of no benefit to us. So far, in chapter 1, we've been made aware that the Gospel was under attack in Ephesus. The attack was in the form of men teaching false doctrine. Not from the outside of the church, but from within.

And this is a serious situation. So much so, that within 30 seconds of reading into this letter, you'll read Paul's first direct command to Timothy. And that command is to guard the gospel. guard the gospel. Timothy, he says, you must forbid any teaching or preaching that pulls the people away from the true gospel.

The church in Ephesus had so many evil influences that Paul could have easily addressed first. The paganism of the city produced rank idolatry and sexual immorality. In fact, Ephesus was well known for its shrine prostitution in the temple of the goddess of fertility, Artemis, or Diana as she's known to the Romans, and you read more about her in Acts chapter 19. And there were other serious cultural influences that Paul could have easily addressed at first, but he doesn't. The first warning Paul issues to Timothy and to the struggling church is, beware of false teachers and beware of false doctrine.

Timothy commands these men, Paul says to Timothy, command these men to stop. Charge them to stop teaching this poison. Timothy, you must guard the gospel at all cost. This is of supreme importance. The theme of the first chapter is that, the gospel, and it needs to be guarded.

But he ends with an apostolic charge directed straight at Timothy, not only to guard the gospel, but also to guard himself, to fight the good fight and to hold to the faith. Now, chapter two has its focus on the worship practices of the local church, and it's divided into two sections. The second half, as we read this evening, addresses the behaviour and the conduct of the members of the local body, emphasising in particular the role and responsibilities of men and women in public worship. We'll address these passages, God willing, in the coming weeks. But the first half of this chapter addresses what should be the Church's global concern.

That is to say that just because Jesus has ordained His church to be consistent of thousands of local communities of believing Christians, it doesn't mean that their concern ought to remain local. Now it's true that most of the church's activities revolve around the place and the setting of its geographical location. That's logical because if our sovereign God has been pleased to establish a church in a particular location, for us, that's Pacific Pines, Gold Coast, then it would only make logical sense that the majority of the time and effort would be spent in that immediate location by the members of the church. That's logical. But beloved, we must never neglect the fact that the Church of Jesus Christ is an international church.

It's a global church because Jesus is the Savior of the world. We have brothers and sisters all over the globe and we have soon to be brothers and sisters all over the globe. They may be in darkness now, but the Lord of our salvation will redeem every single one of his people and bring them into the saving grace that was prepared for them in Christ before the foundation of the world. So the Great Commission ought to be emphasized and ought to be a major part of the local church's worship. How do we do this?

Well, with the first words of Paul in this chapter, as our brother explained for us last week, the church needs to pray. The church needs to pray. It needs to give thanksgiving to God. It needs to supplicate. It needs to intercede.

for our district, for our state, for our nation, and for the whole world, for all people with no distinction, and especially for those in positions of authority, Paul says. Now, when Paul writes all people, he doesn't mean that we pray for every single individual by name. Why, that would be impossible. But rather, I believe Paul is saying that we ought to pray for all types of people. This is why he'll emphasize kings and all who are in positions of authority.

It's categories in Paul's mind that he's thinking about. And as the church of Jesus Christ, we are aware that those who are not in Christ are yet enemies of the cross. So our concern is to pray for their salvation, so that the souls that once reviled and blasphemed our Savior would come to bend the knee to Him in worship. Our heart's attitude in prayer is for Christ to be exalted through the salvation of all types of people without distinction, even those, hear this, even those who have power over us. even if they are evil dictators, as was the case when this letter was originally written.

Yes, you need to pray for the authorities no matter how evil you think they are. As our brother explained for us last week, even evil authorities have been placed in that position by the will of our God. Now our prayers must be intentional. For those ministers who have authority over us, we pray intentional prayers for our government, our ministers, and those who have authority. Firstly, we pray for their salvation, but we also have to have a bigger picture in mind.

And I think Paul hints at this picture in verse two, when he speaks of the peaceful and quiet life that we all desire, And at a surface level, he hints there at a surface level, but I think he looks a little bit deep and I think the explanation is given in verses three and four. You see, sometimes we read this passage and we think that the ultimate ends is for us to live a quiet and peaceful life. But if you know Paul's theology, you would know that that's not the case. It's not a cushy and relaxed and stress-free life that I believe Paul is alluding to. And it's certainly the ends that he's alluding to is not a selfish, comfortable ends for the individual Christian.

I believe he's going beyond this and he's intending to teach something far less selfish and far more profound than our own personal creature comforts. You see, I believe if we continue to read verses three and four, we'll be in a better position to understand how our prayers for the authorities should be formed and what it is exactly that we should be praying for. And you know what? The churches of all generations should be praying for their authorities because it matters. And as we'll come to see, it matters greatly.

So let's put our eyes back in the text and let's read. We'll read back from verses one through four. It reads, first of all, first of all, then I urge the supplication, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for all people, for kings and 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, Here it is, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth. Two things become clear in these verses.

Firstly, it's pleasing to God, our savior, for his people to pray in this way, verse three, And secondly, our prayers should be intentional petitions for the salvation of others, because this is the desire of our God. So why is God pleased with our prayers of intercession? Firstly, our communion with our Heavenly Father is pleasing to Him. When the church approaches God in Christ and in spirit and in truth, it is honoring of our loving Father. And he delights.

in this. It shows our complete dependency upon Him for all things and our deep desire to commune with Him. Beloved, don't ever forget Jesus' death was to reconcile sinners to God. And this is our greatest privilege, to know Him as Father and to fellowship with Him in prayer. Prayer should be the most natural thing for a Christian to exercise.

And it should be a main practice of the church. But our prayers as a church should also be intentional according to the scripture. Because prayer is ultimately an act of worship. And the ends of worship is what? It's the glory of God.

As His people, there should be nothing we desire more than the glory of our triune God. So that means, if we petition God for the salvation of sinners, and our prayers are graciously answered, and He brings those sinners, like we were, into the saving knowledge of truth, the result is God being glorified. Just like Paul in chapter 1, who was a blasphemer. of God and a persecutor of the church by receiving mercy and grace, he tells us, he's now able to worship God in truth and in righteousness. What do we have here?

We have another human being on the earth that bends his knee to the triune God in worship and in praise and in honor. This is our heart's desire and this is God's heart's desire. You see, in order for our prayers to be pleasing to God, they ought to be according to His will, hear this, and consistent with His heart. According to His will and consistent with His heart. And so when we pray for the salvation of others, Paul is telling us we pray according to God's own heart.

Beloved, verse 4 tells us that God wholeheartedly longs to save people. He loves bringing wretched, lost rebels from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His Son. This is the heart of God and He desires to save people. Isn't that the point of John 3, 16 and 17? Open your Bibles, John 3, 16, 17.

You probably know it off by heart, but let's just go there for a moment. John 3, 16 and verse 17. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be what? saved through Him.

Beloved, what is so incredible about these two verses is this, that the most precious person to the Father is His eternal Son, and yet motivated by love, He sends His only Son, the object of His love, into this world to accomplish what His heart longs for, to redeem and reconcile to Himself. By grace, through faith, sinners just like us. This is the very reason Jesus left his heavenly abode and became a man forever. Turn your eyes back to the text. And if you go a few verses back in chapter one of first Timothy in verse 15, Paul writes, this saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world, why?

To save sinners of whom I am the foremost. This is why Jesus came, beloved, so that people like us would come to the knowledge of truth and have the incredible privilege of truly knowing God. It's hard to fathom why God would long to pour His grace and mercy on a people who deserve nothing but wrath and judgment. We'll never understand this incredible love, but we can enjoy Him. forever.

Now with that brief overview of verses 4, 3 and 4, and being aware that our prayers for salvation of sinners are pleasing to God because those prayers are according to God's own heart who loves to save, we can now discern why it is, I believe, that Paul has instructed the church in Ephesus to pray especially for those who have authority over them. See, it's the bigger picture that Paul has in mind. As I said before, praying for our leaders' well-being and praying for their protection are good things to pray for, don't get me wrong, but that's not what Paul is alluding to in this passage. And the resulting peace and quiet life that's spoken of in verse two is appealing. It's appealing to all of us, but it's not a selfish individual ends that Paul has in mind either.

Rather, I believe the church's prayer for the authorities have a purpose, and that purpose is for our Lord to direct those authorities away from making decisions, hear this, which leads to bad outcomes for the sake of the gospel. the sake of the gospel, bad outcomes such as war, civil disturbances, or persecution of the church. All of which can hinder the church from fulfilling the Great Commission. Now the Great Commission will always be fulfilled, but these things can become obstacles. The very mandate that results in verse 4, that verse 4 tells us to be the desire of God's own heart, can be hindered.

You see, a lack of disturbances such as these, like persecution and wars and other things, would enable the church to get busy and spread the good news. without having to look over her shoulder in fear and anxiety. So when the saints pray and God is pleased to answer with times of peace and quiet, the gospel is preached openly whereby God is able to accomplish the very thing which he desires to achieve, the salvation of sinners. It's the blessed time when the church has an open door to engage her community, her city, her state, with the truth of the gospel. If there's no oppression from our authorities, the church is able to reach people beyond their city, beyond their state, and they'll be able to do this without fear of penalty or persecution, without fear of imprisonment or even death.

If God be gracious and answer this prayer of peace and protection, it'll be a tremendous time of blessing where the church is able to proclaim with boldness the good news to all men. Beloved, this is why we should pray for our authorities. The glory of God must always remain in view. Both Paul and Timothy Both Paul and Timothy know what it's like to be persecuted in every city for the sake of the gospel. But they also know what it's like to have a time of peace.

You see, about 10 years before Paul writes this letter, in Corinth, the divine hand of God held back powers, the powers that be, and the governing bodies to offer protection to Paul so that the gospel would be proclaimed with peace and freedom without anxiety and without fear. Open your Bibles once again to Acts chapter 18 and we'll be reading from verses 5 through 11. Acts chapter 18 verses 5 through 11. For some context, This occurs during Paul's second missionary journey, while Silas and the recipient of this book, Timothy, were accompanying Paul. Paul and Silas had been recently seized and attacked by an angry mob.

They were dragged through the streets of Philippi, only to be stripped down and flogged by rods by the officials of the city, and then they were imprisoned. beaten, bruised, bleeding in an ugly prison. After being miraculously released, they left for Thessalonica when they were threatened with violence once again, and then they needed to flee that city and found themselves in Berea. These are all cities in Macedonia. In Berea, an angry Jewish mob agitated and stirred up the crowds to the point where Paul was immediately sent to Athens by the brothers who feared for his life.

In Athens, again, he was mocked by many for preaching the resurrection of Jesus Christ, after which he travels to Corinth, fatigued and exhausted, persecuted in every city. And this brings us to our passage. So Acts chapter 18, five through 11. When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that Christ was Jesus. And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, your blood be on your own heads.

I am innocent. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. 7. And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshipper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue.

8. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household and many of the Corinthians, hearing Paul, believed and were baptized. Paul has been persecuted in every city. Beaten, flogged, seized, imprisoned in every city. And listen to these wonderful words of the Lord.

Verse 9, And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent. For I am with you and no one will attack you to harm you. For I have many in this city who are my people. and he stayed a year and six months teaching the Word of God among them. For a year and a half, this apostle was able to share the good news of the gospel to the whole city of Corinth because God held back the persecutors of the church.

The Lord gave him peace to proclaim the word of God with boldness, without fear, especially from the authorities such as those in Philippi who are all too happy to flog him with rods and throw him in prison. Beloved, this is why as a church we ought to pray for our authorities. Not that we can enjoy peace selfishly for ourselves, although we thank God for that peace, but for the church to be able to freely and boldly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ without fear. I love what Paul says at the end of his letter to the Ephesians. He asks that they pray for him.

But before he says, pray for me, he says, pray for the saints. And then he gives one prayer request. You want to hear what he says? Listen to what the apostle says. He's in prison, by the way.

He says, pray for me. Why? That words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in change. Hear this, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. Imprisoned.

He's been abused, he's been flogged, he's been tortured, he's been stoned. And when he requests prayer from the Philippian saints, what does he pray for? He prays that he would be able to open his mouth and boldly preach the gospel. Beloved, prayer is an act of worship. And it is a tremendous time of communion with God, which is pleasing to us and to God.

But the purpose of our prayers ought to always be to see our great God glorified through His church. And this is done through our worship of Him and through our evangelistic endeavours, which by God's grace result in salvation of souls. who bow their knee to our sovereign King. So our prayer should be to that tune and the peace that we desire ought to facilitate a smoother transmission of the gospel. Now, of course, that's not to say that in places where God doesn't answer the prayer for peace, that the gospel is not preached.

In some cases, the opposite is true. When persecution hits fever pitch, the gospel spreads like wildfire, like it did in when the persecution hit Jerusalem after the stoning of Stephen, you remember that? Where the Christians went in all the regions throughout Judea and beyond and they all went taking the wonderful gospel and preached that gospel to the regions around them. And we see times in the Reformation where we see a lot of persecution and lack of peace for the Christian church, yet the gospel It spreads abroad. God blesses His people and brings meaning to salvations.

That is a possibility, of course. But how much more should our gospel endeavours be fervent and strong when we're not being persecuted? when we're not looking over our shoulder in fear of being imprisoned or even our lives to be taken away like our brothers and sisters in other places of the world. At least that should be the case. Beloved, I'm most ashamed of myself when I read or hear about our brothers and sisters who are persecuted or who are part of the persecuted church risking their own lives to spread the gospel with more zeal and more enthusiasm than myself here in the ease and the comfort of my own place here in Australia.

This should not be the case. It's an incredible privilege and blessing to have this peace. But according to church history, it's also an exception to the norm. A time of prolonged peace with lack of persecution is not normal for the church. Paul warns the believers in 2 Timothy, all who desire to live a God life in Christ Jesus will what?

Will be persecuted. So my question to all of us is this, and this is including myself. What are we doing during this time of peace and religious freedom? The prayers of the church for our authorities not to oppress God's people and maintain peace have been answered. So what are we doing in this time of peace?

It may not last. Are we redeeming the time because the days coming may be evil? Beloved, if the Lord decides it best for the Church to allow the Church to enter into hardship and oppression by the government or the powers that be, will you and I look back in embarrassment at the wasted years that could have been used to honour and glorify our King? May the Lord open our eyes. May the Lord fan into flame a desire within every single one of us for His name and may it burn so strongly that He overwhelms us to act just like Jesus' zeal compelled Him to act for the sake of His Father's house.

May it be likewise for us, that we will be compelled to act upon our love for the one who loved us first, and to long for nothing more than to see our God worshipped and honoured by all people. Now you may be thinking, we've gone through the two verses that we've been intending to study this evening, but Bernie, you haven't addressed the big question that's on our minds. Is Paul actually saying in verse four that God really genuinely desires all people, that is every single person, to be saved? And if so, why aren't they? Well, I've left this question to last, and yes, I will address it in the few minutes that we have left.

But now it's important to note that many of our dear brothers and sisters in Christ have different views on this verse. So if you have the verse in front of you, it's verse four, and it reads this way. Verse 3 and 4, this is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Although this topic has sparked much debate over the years, and sometimes it's been a cause of very many harsh words between the people on both sides, we must never engage in that sort of behaviour.

If we dig deeper into the Word of God, it should be because of our deep desire to know truth, not to win an argument. The overarching doctrine at the centre of this verse pertains to the very complex subject of the freedom of God and the sovereignty of God in salvation and man's responsibility. In basic terms, I can ask this question, does God have the freedom to choose some to save and not others? These are very big subjects, and so I'll only be whetting your appetite this evening, but by God's grace, I trust that the Lord will bless us with an understanding, even in the few minutes that we have together. From the onset, I'll stake my belief that it is unlikely, it is unlikely that the apostle has every single individual in mind when he writes these words.

This would not be consistent with the whole of the Bible's teaching on the matter of salvation. And in a few moments, we'll have a look at some key passages that speak to this truth. But even if we remain in this chapter, the context should make it clear for us, and we should be able to determine that it's not every single individual that God desires to be saved. Verses 1 or verse 1 uses the exact same Greek word, referring to all people we ought to pray for, and our brother took us through that last week. Now logically, Paul can't be intending for every Christian to pray for every single person in the world by name.

I don't think that's what he intends. That's an impossibility. And a prayer that is simply so general as to pray for everyone in the world is devoid of the heart of what it is to pray. Rather, our prayers and supplications should be and ought to be, I believe, for all social classes without distinction, for all classes of people without distinction. Why?

Because God shows no partiality. God shows no favouritism. The Ephesians were to pray for the Jew and the Gentile alike. For the Christian and the non-Christian, they were to show no partiality in nationality, colour, social position or prominence. Paul even goes on to mention kings and all in high positions as specific examples of this in verse two.

The same must be said about all, the all, the word, the use of the word all in verse four to mean all classes of people, all types of people. You see, Paul uses similar language in chapter four. There he writes, for to this end, We toil and we strive because we have all, because we have our hope set on the living God who is the savior of all people. You hear that? The living God who is the savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

And again in Titus chapter two, he writes, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. Does this mean all people? have been or will be saved. Not unless you're a universalist, you don't believe these things. We don't believe that every single human being will be saved.

The Bible teaches otherwise. And if that were true, Christ would not have spent so much time speaking about hell, or giving the Great Commission would have been in vain. There are many verses that tell us that not all are saved. And there is a hell reserved for those who reject the Savior. See, Matthew 22 proves the point in two, or to both points, in two consecutive verses.

There, Jesus writes, or Jesus says, in that place, there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth, speaking about hell, which is reserved for those who are not saved. And in the very next verse, he says, for many are called, but what? But few are chosen. Many are called, but few are chosen. Speaking of God's election of some, but not all.

Now I know, beloved, I know this can be a very uncomfortable subject and some of us may feel uncomfortable even now. But many Christians, even in their discomfort, try to cover up for God somehow, as if to say that when people are sent to hell, they're sent to hell because they reject Jesus, and that's all I want to know about it. And I agree with that notion for the most part. The wages of sin is death, Romans 6. So if Christ, who is the only savior, who bore the penalty of sin in his body for those who believe, is rejected, then there is no hope for those who reject him.

I agree that person is indeed responsible for his or her own condemnation and will be judged accordingly. But beloved, we must never forget that before we were saved, we too were rejecters of Christ. We too were dead in our trespasses and sins, Ephesians 2, and spiritually dead people don't respond to the gospel. It's a divine work of God to quicken, to bring to life a person who was once dead, now made spiritually alive. So although it's fair and biblical to say that people go to hell because of their own sins, it's also biblical to say that apart from the divine grace of God on those lives, on people's lives, left alone, they too would continue to reject the Savior.

See, the difference is not in us, but in God who elects those who have been chosen before the foundation of the world in Christ. You see, no Christian wants to take credit for their own salvation. Salvation is a work of God. And we don't want to, as Christians, even proponents of the fact, of those who say, yes, God's intention is to save every single individual, even they would say, no, no, no, we don't want to take credit. We don't want to claim to be smarter or wiser than the next person, as if to say that we were brighter than the other person.

We both heard the gospel. I accepted, he didn't, because I was wiser. No, they don't want to say that at all. I understand that. We always want to give all the glory and all the credit to God and to God alone, but the thought of an all-power, all-powerful God who rejects or elects some unto salvation, but not others, bothers many Christians.

And I'm not saying I fully understand it, but I'm saying that we must be consistent with Scripture. You see, if a Christian is uncomfortable with that concept or the concept of election, then I have to remind them respectfully of the great flood. God chose to save a family of eight and allow what is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of people to perish. Could God not have saved them all? Of course he could, he's God, he's all-powerful.

Did God choose to save them all? No, He didn't. We don't want to charter into dangerous territory because it's foolish for me humans to presume that we fully understand the nature of God's will. We don't want to do that. So apart from the attributes revealed in the Bible, it remains a mystery to us, or attributes of God revealed in the Bible.

God's being remains a mystery to us. But beloved, our minds and our hearts must be informed by Scripture, and we must be informed, they must be informed by Scripture alone. And that means that we keep things in context, and whatever conclusion we accept, must be consistent with the rest of God's word. But the question we're asking isn't if some people were saved and others are condemned, because most Christians would agree to that statement. But rather the question we're asking of verse four is this, does God desire every individual to be saved?

Now, if we conclude that God does have a genuine desire and a longing to save all people, that's every single person, there's massive consequences that we need to face. You see, to stay consistent with the Bible, we need to acknowledge the words of our Savior. The gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter it are many. Matthew 7. Not everyone will be saved.

And with that in mind, listen to Psalm 135. It says, whatever the Lord pleases, he does in heaven and on earth. Whatever the Lord pleases, whatever the Lord desires, whatever the Lord wills, he does on heaven and on earth. Whatever the Lord pleases, he does. And he goes on to say, Job reminds us in Job 42, I know, he says, I know you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

No purpose of yours, your will, your desires cannot be thwarted, they cannot be frustrated, Job tells us. So the sovereign God who always gets what he desires and nothing can thwart or frustrate his will, yet many will not be saved and perish in eternal damnation. How do you reconcile those two? Well, there's only two options. Unless we start resorting to saying that God has different wills and other things that you may read about other theologians speaking of, and I don't want to go there.

There are really two options. Either the Lord doesn't genuinely desire for all, that is every single human being, to be saved. or he does desire genuinely for all people to be saved but does not have the power to do it there are no there's no option three there's only one of those two options you have to you have to accept. And the danger of interpreting Paul's words to mean that God does desire every single person to be saved is this. It nullifies God's freedom in his elective purposes.

In other words, this position would have to deny Ephesians 1 that speaks of some being chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. So this position would have to beg this question. If God does desire genuinely and long genuinely for every individual to be saved, then why then does he not choose all of them before the creation of the world? Don't answer that question. It's a hypothetical question.

And if one resorts to believing God does somehow desire every person to be saved, then the natural question that comes next is, why aren't they saved? Whatever response someone comes back with, whatever answer they answer with, is the very thing, human or otherwise, that stands in the way of God, the sovereign God of the universe, getting what He desires. That very thing is responsible for thwarting or frustrating God's will. And now we're treading on very dangerous territory because whether one knows it or not, proponents of this view will be stripping God of His power and stripping Him of His sovereignty, both of which are strongly attested in the Word of God. Beloved, that's a terrible price to pay to hold a position.

There's no escaping that the Bible teaches that Jesus died on the cross as a substitutionary death, that is, a death on behalf of others. This means he was a substitute. His life was substituted, or he substituted his own life to make real payments for real sinners to secure real release from the bondage of death to life. It was not a potential sacrifice, but an effectual sacrifice. Jesus died for his people.

He says in John 10, I am the good shepherd. I know, I know, I know my own and my own know me just as the father knows me and I know the father. And here it is, I lay down my life for who? For my sheep. I laid down my life for my sheep."

John 10. Our Saviour died for every one of his sheep and they were in his mind when he hung on that cross. I see some aching heads, so we won't go any further this evening. But beloved, I say it again, that there are mysteries in the Godhead that we'll never be able to understand in our finite minds. But we must hold to what is written.

and to follow our conclusions in order to identify what the consequences are. Because sometimes holding a position, and when we look at the consequences of holding that position, we need to back off and say, no, I cannot hold that position. Because those consequences deny or bring dishonor to our God. So if your conclusions or the doctrines that you hold offend or deny any of the attributes of God, you must rethink your position and you need to back off. It's much better to hold to a paradox or to have unresolved tension in your mind whilst prayerfully seeking the Lord for answers than to make a conclusion that dishonours God and dishonours the very one that we seek more than anything else to bring glory to.

So does God desire every single person to be saved? According to my understanding of scripture, I don't believe so. But I can say this, He does have a genuine, wholehearted desire to save all types of people. Absolutely. Absolutely.

So in closing, in closing, May the Lord give us the desire to be a people of prayer, praying for our authorities, as we said earlier, praying for peaceful times, and praying for a fervor, for a heart that is on fire for the Lord to share the good news of the gospel in those times of peace that the Lord has given us, where we're not looking over our shoulder in fear. May it be, may it be that we become a people who have that goal in mind. And there is something else that we need to be praying for. We need to be praying that the Lord would give us answers to the questions that we may have as we study His Word. There may be tension in our minds.

There may be a lack of understanding, things that are unresolved, but we ought to be able to come to the Lord and say, Lord, I don't understand these things. Continue to study His Word. continue to supplicate in prayer and ask that the Lord illuminate your heart and your mind by His Holy Spirit so that He does give you understanding. But beloved, even though I said earlier on, even though I said earlier on that I don't believe that it was the intention of God to, or the desire of God to save every single human being, I can say this with the authority of God's Word is that one thing we can be absolutely sure of is this, God does delight and desire in the salvation of sinners. His heart desires to bring his people back home.

Knowing that alone, beloved, should compel those who love him who seek nothing more than to please Him, to share Jesus Christ to all the people we come across. Because we know, in doing so, God accomplishes the very thing that He desires. To Him be all the glory. Amen.