Public Prayer: Its Importance and Scope (Part 2 of 2)

Since the Bible teaches not everyone will be saved, how can we determine for whom we should pray and with whom we should share the gospel? Alistair Begg provides the answer today on Truth for Life. He's teaching from 1 Timothy. We're focusing on the opening verses of chapter 2. So the exhortation has a priority. Pray for these people.

The priority has a purpose so that you might be able to live in peace and in the experience of peace so that piety may flourish. And who are the personnel that are to lead this charge? Allow your eye to go forward to verse 8. Men are given the responsibility of leading the prayers. Now, this would be no surprise to the folks who had come from the synagogue.

They understood it perfectly. But some of them and others would have wondered whether Paul's emancipation—that is, his spiritual emancipation of women—might have implied some kind of change in their position in public worship. Now, I'm referring to Galatians 3.28. That is, neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Okay, so the people say, Well, in light of that, does that mean that anybody can do anything in the church?

No, says Paul, I'm glad you asked. Because in the same way that equality of standing in grace before God does not invert the role relationships within the family and remove the husband's position of leadership or remove the woman's position in submission, in the same way within the church. So the men, he says, are to take the lead. The presence of women is assumed.

He's going to address it in verse 9 and following. But in terms of the expression of public worship, probably the key illustration—and this will not be light by all—is that of Hannah, who in 1 Samuel 1.13, it says of her, she spoke in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Now, throughout the summer I've been gone from here, I've gone to all different churches.

With frequency I've sat down in the church. The first person on the feet is a lady. Nice lady. She's now the leader. She's telling what's going on. Next person up does the prayers is a lady. The offering is a lady.

The preacher is a lady. Nice ladies. Shouldn't be there.

Shouldn't be there. Who says? God's Word says. Now, if we want simply to capitulate to the spirit of the age, then anything goes. But he says, I want these men to have hands that are representative of purity, because who can ascend the hill of the Lord and who can stand in his holy place?

But only he who has clean hands and a pure heart. So the hands are expressive of the heart that is pure. And we don't make this as a standard approach in prayer. As a result of discovering this, then all of a sudden everybody that stands up is supposed to hold their hands up and do this.

No. This is only one of the postures of prayer. It legitimizes the fact that if you want to stand and pray like this, that's fine. But you don't have to, because you also find in the Bible people lying on their faces praying, people sitting down and praying, people standing with their hands like this.

And there are all kinds of ways that you can do it. The issue is not the posture externally. The issue is the heart. And he says, I want that these men will be the men who lift up holy hands in prayer, and unlike the errorists who are causing all this confusion and controversy, that they would do so without anger and without disputing. So there's this word of exhortation. The priority is prayer, especially for those whom we might like to leave off the list. The purpose is the establishment of peace so that piety may flourish. And that piety is expressed in godliness, which is a reverence for God that comes from a knowledge of God, and holiness, which is a moral expression of that internal relationship with God. The personnel that are involved in leading this are the men of verse 8.

Now, let me come to my last word, and that is second and last. That is the word explanation. What is the explanation that Paul gives? Well, you'll find it in verse 3. Why have I given you this exhortation, he says? Well, first of all, because of God's pleasure. Verse 3, this is good and pleases God our Savior.

Interestingly, this should be the standard criterion by which we gauge all of our public worship. The real question is, is this good and does it please God our Savior? Now, does this please me or please him or please the next person? But is this good and pleases God our Savior? He said, let me tell you, this is good and pleases God our Savior. Because, he says, there is point in praying on behalf of all men to one whose nature it is to save. That's what he's saying there in verse 3. Rather than falling into the trap of thinking that it's just our own little group, Paul says, I want you to understand that this God our Savior wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. And he comes back to this in verse 6 when he talks about what Jesus has done. Now, loved ones, I just need to say quickly in passing that the great temptation here is to use these verses for a big excursus on the merits and demerits of your particular systematic theology, particularly any predilections that you have towards Calvinism and Reformed theology.

And you can stay up for three nights in a row arguing back and forward about these issues, and I'll tell you how to avoid it. And that is, remember that you need a big T and a small f. You need a big T and a small f. F stands for framework. T stands for text. All of us have some kind of framework with which we come to the Bible. We have to have some kind of system of theology. We understand it in a Trinitarian fashion. Therefore, we know that there is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. That helps us to read our Bibles.

We understand that Jesus was predicted in the Old Testament and was discovered in the Gospels, and that helps us to understand our Bibles. But when we move beyond that to systems of theology, which are the extrapolations of the best of men, and we then seek to make our big F squeeze this T into submission, we put ourselves in real danger. That's why, any time you come to something like this, you've got to say to yourself, Big T, we F. Big T, we F. In other words, I've got to bring my framework underneath the text rather than press my F down on the text. I can take you up the stairs, line up all my commentaries. We'll put it all on the left-hand side, the people will all say it one way, the people will all say it the other way, and they can come in here, they can argue till we die.

Bangin', bangin', bangin', bangin'. I'll tell you what the answer is. Get the Scriptures out and let the Scriptures speak. And take the Scriptures for what they say when they say it. What is the context? The context is, there are a group of people who are exclusivists, who are trying to argue that God is concerned only for a certain rarified group of people who toe the line in a certain way.

Paul says, I'm gonna have none of that. He says, I want you to understand that the issue of the gospel is for all kinds of people. And I use the word kind, I insert it, because I think that is the accurate way to understand this. That this expression here is of the magnanimity of God towards some of the most unlikely people. Rather than bowing to the errorists who thought that God wished the destruction of sinners and the salvation of the righteous, or that salvation was the province of a small number of spiritual elite, Paul says, Let me underscore the universal scope of God's appeal.

Because there is tremendous universal appeal in this, is there not? Now, what do you bear in mind? You bear this in mind, that Paul was not contradicting himself in Ephesians 1, nor was he contradicting himself in Romans chapter 8—or 9, 10, and 11, for that matter. There is no contradiction. Any and all confusion emerges from the dullness of our minds and from the fact that God has allowed us to see through a glass darkly. So instead of coming to the text and trying to squeeze it into subjection to my F, or accommodate it over here, I'm going to allow the Bible to say what the Bible says.

Then there's freedom. Says Donald Guthrie, my late professor of New Testament theology, even if it is difficult to reconcile this statement with Paul's teaching elsewhere on the sovereignty of God, no one would deny that these words fairly represent the magnanimity of the divine benevolence. That God would of all men to be saved is shown as we shall see by his provision of a ransom that is sufficient for all men. Look at verse 6. He gave himself as a ransom for all men. So, says Wilson, the church must never hug the gospel to itself but must always seek to fulfill its commission to preach the good news to every creature. To every creature. Ezekiel 33, 11. God desires not the death and destruction of any, but the welfare and salvation of all. He desires that. Has he decreed that?

Clearly not. Because if he had decreed the salvation of all, all would be saved. But not all are saved. Therefore, there is a distinction between what he desires and what he decrees. How can that possibly be?

I do not know. But I know that it is. And therefore, I put my hand over my mouth instead of trying to squeeze the Word of God into my framework. And I rise on the highest pinnacle of the earth, and I proclaim the gospel to everyone who has ears to hear. And I know that God will redeem those whom he has purposed to save. And I know that the magnanimity of his love extends to the whole world.

And I do not yet understand how those two things—the secretive and the decorative will of God—coalesce. But that's his problem. And it's not a problem for him. It's not my concern. I listened to some of you guys out there, hyper-reformed boys. You're concerned if you preach the gospel to the wrong person, the wrong person might get saved. So you don't want to let, well, I'm going to preach it to… Well, wait a minute.

I don't think you should have been getting saved. I'm not sure you're in the group. What do you mean in the group? If you breathe, you're in the group. If you have ears to hear, you're in the group. And if you choose not to respond, it's your own fault, not God's.

Now, there is an antithesis. Christ himself before Jerusalem. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou who stonest the prophets!

How often would I have gathered you, as a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not come! And that sits right beside I thank you, Father, that there are none of those whom you have chosen that are not gathered in. Just allow the Bible to say what the Bible says. God has a goodwill to the salvation of all men. But when men and women perish, it's their own fault. Incidentally—and I've got to wrap this up—in being saved, men and women come to a knowledge of the truth.

Will you notice that? They come to a knowledge of the truth. He wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth, not a knowledge of truth, some kind of truth. Can a person be truly brought to faith in Jesus Christ and then be led to a knowledge of the truth, and on the one hand believe that the sacrifice of the Mass continues to sacrifice literally Christ, and another person says, Oh no, that cannot possibly be! Where is the truth? And if God in saving brings to a knowledge of the truth, then we anticipate that people will be brought to the same place. Now, that's why God's pleasure is made clear and his provision is made plain. In verse 6, he gave himself as a ransom for all men.

Who did? The one God. You mean there is only one God?

Yes, there is. And there is only one mediator between man and God. Not an angel, not an avatar, not a special lady. There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. For it is only man who is able to represent man to God. It is only God who can bring God to man.

The only person who could ever bridge the gap between a holy God and sinful man is none other than the Lord Jesus himself. And the way in which this has been accomplished is by the paying of a price, the giving of a ransom, the offering of a substitution. And God has done this in its proper time. You can think about that in relation to Romans 5, 12, 1 Corinthians 15, 21, and so on.

God at the right time has provided this. And Jesus himself said, The Son of Man didn't come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. So, since the work of Christ is sufficient for all, the appeal of the gospel is universal. Since the work of Christ is sufficient for all, the appeal of the gospel is universal. This is the cliché that I've always learned, that the mediatorial work of Christ is sufficient for all and efficient for the elect.

It is sufficient for all and efficient for the elect. Says my good friend MacArthur, Because Christ's expiation of sin is indivisible, inexhaustible, and sufficient to cover the guilt of all the sins that will ever be committed, God can clearly offer it to all. Yet only the elect will respond and be saved according to his eternal purpose.

But since we don't know who the elect are, that is none of our business. And the offer of the gospel, the universal appeal of the gospel, is just that. Come unto me and be saved, all ye ends of the earth!

And don't you let anybody limit the appeal of the gospel by some big F that they keep producing from the flyleaf of their Bible? Finally, God's pleasure, God's provision, and God's preacher. Says Paul, This is the amazing thing.

It's the same amazement that you find in verse 11 of chapter 1, and for this purpose I was appointed a herald, an apostle. He says, I'm telling the truth, I'm not lying, and I would become a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles. To the Gentiles. Here's the final proof, that the church must pray for all men. Paul references his own appointment to the evangelizing of the Gentiles.

And here in the Ephesian church were these exclusivists, and their appeal to the gospel was largely ignoring the Gentiles. Paul says, We can't do that. He says, I urge that prayers be offered for everyone.

Why? Because there's only one God, and everyone needs to know the one God. And since the one God has only revealed himself savingly and finally in the one Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, then all men everywhere need to know about Jesus. It's as simple as that. If all roads lead to heaven like they do to Timbuktu, then shut the door and let's get on with life.

Let's go somewhere for lunch for the rest of our lives. There is no concern. But if what the Bible says is true, then who will pray for Iran? Who will go to Iraq?

Who will bear the burden of the Muslims in North Africa? Who will get up from their seat here and say, You know what? I don't care if nobody ever knows me again in all of my life. I'm going to give myself to see unbelieving people way beyond the pale of my understanding come to faith in Jesus Christ.

And even if I labor for all of my life and just see one person come to faith, maybe that person will be the catalyst in their neighborhood or in their town or city for a generation yet to come. That's what stirred Hudson Taylor. That's what charged Gladys Aylward. That's what took Carrie out there. Why is there such a diminishing concern for the needs of the world?

Because we're preoccupied with the needs of America. We're so ticked off that little house on the prairie isn't on the prairie anymore. That it's not all goodnight, John boy, and everything. That the thing is raveling at the fringes. That we said we better get together and get this all put back.

Where are we supposed to put it all back? See, you know where the problem is in my heart? I'm a Jonah. You can call me Jonah.

Remember Jonah? God says, Go to Nineveh. He says, That fancy Tarshish? Goes to Tarshish, gets thrown out of the boat, lands up in the belly of the fish. In the belly of the fish there's one of the best prayers you've ever heard from a man in your life.

Hardly surprising. Which could be summarized in a phrase, O God, get me out. God gets him out and says, Okay, let's start back on plan A, which is Nineveh. He goes to Nineveh, that's what God says, and the people in Nineveh repent in sackcloth and ashes, and they turn to the living God. And he goes over in a corner, and he's ticked off.

Why is he ticked off? Because the people, the foreigners, the people that he didn't like, that he didn't care about, got converted. He wanted a God who was compassionate enough to save him, but not a God who was compassionate enough to save people that he didn't have on his list. O God, save the world, but don't save the lady three houses up on the left-hand side, because she absolutely ticks me off. O God, save everybody, but don't save my boss.

God, I know you—we do it all the time. Save people, Lord, but not—do you have anyone on your list? The history of the church is dreadful on this stuff. Whether it's the southern states in the time of slavery, whether it's South Africa pre-apartheid, whatever it is, the dreadful temptation to miss the point that God desires that the gospel would be universal in its appeal so that the medicine would be offered to all. If you're listening to Truth for Life, that is Alistair Begg underscoring why God wants us to share the good news with everyone.

Alistair will be back to close today's program in just a minute. A message like the one you've heard today touches at the very heart of our mission here at Truth for Life. If you've listened to this program for any length of time, you've heard me mention that our mission is to teach the Bible with clarity and relevance.

That involves preaching the gospel of Christ to everyone so that unbelievers will be converted, believers will be established in their faith, and local churches will be strengthened. In addition to providing this daily Bible teaching, we like to recommend great books on a wide variety of topics, and today we want to mention to you a book called How Christianity Transformed the World. This is perhaps more of a history book than a theology book, but there's a good deal of theology packed into it. The book takes you on a trip through history, going all the way back to the first century, to explore the influence Christian men and women have had on society. In the book you'll read about individuals who helped frame the way our world functions today, you'll be able to dive more deeply into the contributions made by men and women in the realms of equal rights, the justice system, and healthcare.

This is really an interesting book to read. Request your copy of How Christianity Transformed the World today when you give a donation to support the teaching ministry of Truth for Life. Visit us on the mobile app or on our website at truthforlife.org slash donate, or if it's easier, give us a call at 888-588-7884. And if you'd like to mail your donation to us along with your request for the book, write to Truth for Life, P.O.

Box 398000, Cleveland, Ohio 44139. Again, the title of the book is How Christianity Transformed the World. Now, here is Alistair to close with prayer. Oh God, our Father, we're convicted by the book.

I know I am. Sometimes I'm more concerned just to get everything right so that it's tidy and livable and okay for my kids and grandchildren. I think about Peter being martyred upside down, Paul with his head chopped off, the apostles beaten from pillar to post, homosexual Roman emperors, prostitutes coming out of the church and roaming the streets at night, the temple of Diana, hell on earth. And I'm struck that Paul just continued to do what he urged Timothy to do, to proclaim the news that Jesus Christ is the only Savior for sin. Lord, I pray that you would keep us here at the point of simplicity and profundity as it relates to the issues of the gospel. Save us from pride, from wrongful exclusivism. Help us to put people back on our list that we've taken off. Stir our hearts for the needs of our world, we pray. And may grace and mercy and peace from Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the triune God, be the abiding portion of all who believe today and forevermore. Amen.

I'm Bob Lapine. When it comes to current fashion trends, things can change in a blink of an eye. Tomorrow we'll find out how God's guidelines for beauty don't change, how they're timeless. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.