First Timothy lesson 9

We are looking at 1 Timothy 2, 1 through 3, and we have covered the first six questions, I believe. We're on question 7. Let me check here. Yeah, question 7. So I'll just read 1 through 3, and then we'll jump into question number 7. I think we should be able to wrap up this lesson today.

1 Timothy First of all, then I urge that in treaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. So we talked about the first of all, several weeks ago, prayers not to be treated as an emergency measure, but as a number one priority. We broke down what entreaties and prayers and petitions And Thanksgiving had to do with our prayer life and saw the different aspects of how prayer really works.

So we started to establish that. We said that those four words form a circle. I like this observation. They begin by asking something from God and end by offering something to God. I thought that was really interesting. Ends in Thanksgiving. petitions and Thanksgiving.

And we asked, can we pray too narrowly? He said, no, no one is to be excluded from the prayers that we offer to the Lord, all men. And we got into verse two, for all kings, and we talked about, are we to pray for our country or the people who are ruling our country? And the answer was yes, right? We said that, we use the term load-bearing capability, right? We take on that load. and we pray on behalf of them. And then we got into six.

It was kind of a quick review towards the end of the last class for question number six, which was, what is the most effective way believers participate in politics? And we said, and I loved this statement, our vote is important, but our prayers are more important because they can bypass the ballot box and enter the throne room of God, right? So this brings us to question seven.

What effect would prayer have on believers personally? We're gonna look at the word, starting in verse two, that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. So using that portion of the verse, let's answer the question, what effect would prayer have on believers personally? What's the deal with quiet life?

Does that mean you, what does that mean? Peaceful? What would be the opposite of this? Chaos. Chaotic life? Allowed? Obnoxious? Unrest? Uneasy? Unrest? Angst? Yeah, I think that what comes to mind here is that we live in a very tumultuous environment right now.

It always happens right around election season and that kind of thing. When I think about leading a quiet life, I think about not only the agitations that come from reading the news and seeing the other opposition of what you believe, and seeing that promoted, and seeing it promoted through lies, seeing it promoted through deception, and how that can just create such an uneasy feeling in your heart. Do you agree? Do you experience that yourself? You get into conversations with neighbors or even family members that have differing viewpoints about. So my point I think is just that I'm confronted with this verse in light of just the temperature of things today and how easy it is to get carried away with agitation and chaos. It's chaotic out there. Who do you believe? What's right? What's truthful? Accusing and excusing. Accusing and excusing?

Yeah, I get sick of it. Yeah, you do get sick of it. Yeah, I think that what's interesting is that this word quiet means to keep aloof from political agitation in the context of praying for leadership. To keep aloof from political agitation. We're talking about quiet. quiet life, keeping aloof.

So how do you, how does that perspective work with the kinds of things that are happening today? And they always happen. They were happening in Timothy's life as well, right? I mean, he lived in a very political structure in the Roman kingdom, and you know, Christianity was looked upon as a cult, right? We're going to talk a little bit about that, but You know, keeping aloof from political agitations and freedom from persecutions, how do we stay aloof, yet, how do we stay involved? Maybe a word, be embroiled. Embroiled? Be embroiled.

You focus on the Lord more than the politics. Yeah. But you still, you know, as I said last week, I think Lord's put us in a position where we can vote as opposed to Timothy's time when you had no votes. So we have the opportunities put us in a position where we can participate. but to remain elusive it's again putting the perspective in that if your guy didn't win it's it's okay because the board doesn't want to put him in the position of only 13 and so but it's it's remaining Because it can be so all-encompassing, I think that he said that you can grow old. I mean, you're just... Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I was thinking about the word authority, right? We're talking about authorities here, human authorities, but for the believer, who is your authority? It's the Lord and His Word, right? And so, you know, you mentioned above, I mean, maybe we could think about it even as like, Fundamentally, we have an authority at a worldview level that is the base of everything that we think about with regards to politics, family, etc, etc. All the divine institutions are to be seen through the authority of God's Word. And government is a divine institution. However, we have a foundational authority in God that doesn't end with the politician who's running the country or running the world so to speak, we are fundamentally grounded in a worldview where God is at the center of that and all of His characteristics, His sovereignty, His righteousness, His justice, His love. These are the things that government tries to implement on behalf of God, right?

Justice. We want justice, right? We want real justice. We don't want just social justice. And so we get into all these conversations around justice and who controls this and who manages that. But for the believer, we serve a greater authority. and that governs the way that we view everything else. And that can lead to peace. But if it was up to the U.S. government, in our case, to provide peace to us, how's that gonna work for ya?

Even if our guy is the right guy, it's still not what the Lord is talking about, or that Paul's talking about here in 1 Timothy 2.2. It's interesting, the connection here. Let's read about the word peaceable.

And this is not just an outward peace, this is an inward peace of tranquility. So here he's saying that you're praying for the leadership of your country and all those who are in authority so that you may live or lead a tranquil. Tranquil has to do with internal. So your inner tranquility, your inner peace is based on your prayer for those people, based on this verse. One of the things my notes talked about is the word quiet. It denotes arising from the absence of outward disturbances. And then the word peaceable is inward.

So when we're praying, we're actually praying for both. We recognize from God's word that we're not of this world, we're in it, but for different purposes, and we're not of this world. And so therefore, what happens on the planet doesn't affect us necessarily unless God is using it and wants us involved in, but primarily, What we're to pray for is that they'll leave us alone. Yeah. And that we can go on with our life with the Lord without, you know, somebody... They'll interfere with this. Yeah.

Yet at the same time, already mentioned Romans 9.14, but also in a verse we studied a week ago that... Moses tells Pharaoh through or God tells Pharaoh through Moses, I raised you up and made you Pharaoh for two reasons. One, I want to show my power and two, I'm going to spread my name through you what I'm going to do with you.

And you have to keep that in mind in terms of a sovereign God who does what he wants with his creation. And so when we think that somehow were maybe better than that country over there that doesn't have free elections. Well, it's God who orchestrates all of this. No matter who wins our election, God puts them there. And he's doing it to demonstrate his power. And we'll talk about that later. And he's also a God that is patient. We're not. but he has an end game in mind.

And so I think this verse really tells us that we really pray that they'll not do things that would cause us to be in angst, leave us alone. Because as believers, we're not gonna violate the law, we're not gonna do all these things that society has trouble with, we're not part of that. Well because of the word's godliness and dignity. So we pray for those in authority knowing what Mike just mentioned to us. that God is displaying His power in His sovereign choice regardless if we approve of it from a human perspective.

He is at work. He's not lost interest in where we are and in history. It's just the opposite. He has an immense amount of interest in exactly where we are in history. And not just interest, He has the sovereign control over it. But he continues to love, even in the midst of all of that. And grace doesn't cease to exist, even in the midst of what seems to be a very chaotic period.

You know, J.D., just thinking both in that time and in Timothy's time and in our time, going back to the Romans 13, where he's the one who puts in the authorities. anniversary for rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. And I was thinking about, you know, how persecution of Christians through, you know, governments in Timothy's time and, you know, obviously, you know, the Roman Empire was going after the Christians and martyring several of them. Even now, persecution of Christians seems to be the highest, more people being persecuted and those who are believers, I think. So I find that kind of interesting, how they're meant for this, but are they doing it, number one? And how do you respond to that if they're not through persecution?

You're still supposed to, by the first parts, we're supposed to be in subjection. It's kind of a, he put him there, but he's persecuting us. That's his plan. Yeah, and that's where, I mean, that's where Paul and Timothy and the other disciples found themselves, right? The scriptures were written out of such environments, right? They were communicated through suffering and through persecution.

But yet we have a responsibility here so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. Let's talk about the word dignity. What does dignity mean? How do you think about yourself representing dignity in the midst of this environment? Dignity is a word that we've forgotten.

We don't use it very often. No. We don't ever say, well, so-and-so is See, I'll read from some of your notes here. It says, Vincent says that honesty, according to the modern accepted meaning, is an unfortunate rendering. In earlier English, it meant becoming deportment, decency, decorum. Those are also words that we don't use.

Maybe decency. I think I can relate to decency a little bit more. It is so used in Shakespeare, and Shakespeare says, he is of noble strain, of approved valor, and confirmed honesty. So we've got words like noble, approved, valor, confirmed honesty. How about respectful? Respectful? I think that that would work as well. That's a tough one, if you use that word. How do I remain respectful? in an environment where it's chaotic. We've lost that to a great degree in our society's respect. Yeah.

Some other words reverenced? venerable, exhibiting a dignity which arises from moral elevation, and thus invites reverence. So, as Courtney was talking about, the rising above that, that's what this word has to do. It has to do with moral dignity, even in the midst of persecution. That's interesting that you can use the word Jesus as a good example, because when he was before Pilate, He showed respect to Pilate, he didn't belittle him, but he also gave him the facts.

Right. So let's talk about that. Can you give your family members that are in disagreement about things like this, can you give them facts without still being dignified? You can. One of the problems you have in the society today is that society, if they disagree with you, their agenda is to try to destroy you, not to engage in a reasonable conversation. So a lot of times I think you just shut your mouth. I mean, what are you going to say? Yeah. And a lot of times they have an ear and they'll listen. Sometimes they will. If they have a need, sometimes they won't. God has been gracious for 7,000 years, and how many people responded to him? Correct. Anybody else think that God might be his?

Yeah. The definition of zodiac is for that word, it's the ability not only to perform one's duties as a citizen, but also to adhere to the highest principles and ideals of earth and heaven, And that's drawing respect and approval. I love that. Yeah. And in this context, we're tempted with the governmental event. I think I'm stepping on the antenna underneath the carpet or something. It's like I sit still, and it stays quiet for a second, and then. My favorite motion. OK, good. So this is an interesting contrast.

Our prayers may have an external effect expressed by the words tranquil and quiet, as well as an internal effect seen in the words godliness and dignity. So that's what Mike was kind of talking about there. So the trigger here is prayer. And it leads to two outward things and two inward things. And both of them benefit God's plan for government and for you. So it's not only at a national scale, so to speak, it's also at a personal scale. Okay, question number eight.

We're gonna read verse three again. So the results of praying for those who are in authority, he says, this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. So he's putting a qualification on it. Is prayer good for a believer? Question number eight. Besides the answer yes, is prayer good for a believer and why? Based on what we're reading here.

I think if he's saying it, it refocuses us. Okay, refocus. You know, instead of all the political whatever and all that, it focuses us back on I think that's the first thing it does, for sure. It refocuses us, it gets our perspective on God's perspective for what He's up to.

It also creates a dependence. If you pray, you're depending upon the Lord. You're not depending upon yourself. If you're sitting there reeling over and reading articles and trying to get your mind around this issue and how to combat it, it's fine. It's important to have an understanding of what you believe, even at a policies level, so to speak. But dependence on the Lord is found in prayer. And you're also refocusing not only your own mind as to where I'm depending upon, you're also refocusing how you view those leaders. Because God has a perspective on them too. And prayer is all about getting in tune with God's perspective. And you have to do that, we have to do that through the dependence upon Him in prayer.

In the notes we talk about, Mike mentioned here, prayer is good for the believer because it serves as a constant reminder of whom we depend upon. And I think that this verse, this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior. This is personal. He's our Savior.

Yeah, I think that you made a good point, I think, with the refocusing part, but it also uses peace, and then if our guy doesn't win, We have peace because we know who put him in authority. Just where he came through, you know, peaceable and tranquil and all that, I think is, you know, by prayer we get peace. If our guy didn't win, we have peace knowing that it's God's will and that's you know, what He wants and who He wants. And the world doesn't understand that. How can you be at peace? Your God didn't win. Right. I like the fact that there being a personal communication between you and your Savior, your God of the universe, and they recognize who He is. And by recognizing that He is, supreme, all-powerful, but he's gracious, and he's got desires like he wishes none should perish.

That's where we're going. That's the ticket here. Before we go to that, I wanted to just mention that the pronoun that begins here at the beginning of verse 3, this, what is this pointing back to? This is good. What is good? Listen to this. When we pray.

This is the obligation to pray. You know, think about the word obligation. I might say privilege. It is an obligation. We're commanded to do it. It's definitely made a commandment. I urge, he's urged, he's putting a level of priority on this that's the highest. I urge you that you do these things.

And then he goes on to say, because this is good for you. Yeah, this is good for you. So his obligations feel like, oh, yes, I'll pray for him. That may be kind of how you might think of the word obligation. But privilege, it leads to peace and tranquility for you. Godliness and dignity for you. One is outward, one is inward.

So yeah, I think that the term this, that pronoun is an obligation for all men to pray. So question number nine, what is the idea of excel to go here? in the sight of God. What is acceptable for God to be spoken to about a friend from us? What's acceptable to Him? And what's not acceptable? Acceptable in the sight of God is His view, His truth. I've said this many, many years. I think it was Cornelius Van Til who said it originally, I'm not sure.

But we are to thank God's thoughts after Him. The prayer is the same way. We pray God's thoughts after Him. Yes, they may be personal to our circumstances, but they are centered on His truth. That's what's acceptable to Him. It doesn't mean that we don't make requests. We have the opportunity to make entreaties and prayers on behalf of others, in this case on behalf of our government. are leaders, but what's acceptable to him are his thoughts. Do you agree with that? Sometimes it's just a matter of, Lord, get him one way or another. Well, the get him is the part, right? And he does. That's what he's after. Yeah, so I wrote a second question here.

You know, praying for all men approves itself to the natural conscience and it is also in accordance with the revealed will of God. So in accordance with his revealed will. So if this is pleasing, how does it affect your motivation to pray this way? You want God to be pleased with you? Right. He's praying this way. He's pleased with that. I mean, I'm oversimplifying the idea, but there is an acceptability that God has in his sight to you for prayers prayed based on his rebuilt will.

I think of Moses praying to God, saying, I want to know your ways. And I think that's part of what it's all about. I want to know God's ways. And He's willing to show me His ways. He shows me who He is. And He shows me that what He's done through the cross and all of that, that's where I'm going to be like Him in His ways. He was willing to show Moses the backside of his glory only because Moses wanted to know his ways. So that was acceptable to him. He revealed himself to him. Yeah, he did. And so I think prayer is the same way. I mean, if the motivation for prayer is to know God's ways, then he'll show them to you.

I have a little bit different, I think it's fine, but cutting off the requirement that has to be in accordance with God's will. If you go back to the Romans, the Holy Spirit will intercede for us, for anything we bring. And I think this acceptability is just to pray. It's not, I mean, it's to pray for it. You know, I urge you to, you know, I urge you that in treaties, prayers, petitions, Thanksgiving, that's what's acceptable. That's what he's referring back to. And I, and I, it's great anyway, but to pray, it's the communication.

And if I, if I'm trying to understand God's will, I may not, you know, you know, I want this guy to win. That's what I think is God's will. And I'm going to pray that way. the other candidate wins. Was I praying wrong? No. So that's what I mean. I think this is a good point. There's revealed and then there's unrevealed.

So if God has revealed himself around a certain fact, then we pray according to that. God has revealed himself in the election. Then we pray according to his will that we know, and then we make petition on behalf of our desires as believers based on what we do know, right? So we still are praying in a way that is grounded in dependence upon him, yet he has revealed his will in this matter, so we don't know how to pray, so we pray based on the worldview that we have. And that's following on, this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, not that we're going to get a hit, who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of truth. That's really what you want, regardless. That's the ultimate, whether airs, walls, trump, bats, whatever.

But I think it's good and acceptable is to come before him. And like I said, I get nervous when we put so many guardrails on. It's a fair statement. Yeah, and I think that in our previous class we really did a good job of explaining how God desires us to come before Him.

All things revealed are unrevealed. But we get sharper in our prayers as we become more aware of who He is and what He has said. Right. That's the spiritual maturity. But again, the thing that we have is that whatever we pray, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. And we don't expect that it has to be our answer. It's going to be the will of God.

And then it falls back on the tranquil and quiet. that we receive whatever answer he has, whether candidate A or B or whatever the authority. We still are tranquil and peaceful because he's the one to put them in and we're praying for. So again, I think it all fits together. I think you're right. Question 10 says, does God desire all men to be saved? And you just mentioned that. But his ultimate goal is that the Democrats, the Republicans, his desire for them is salvation. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved.

All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men will be saved. All men our prayers are to echo what he desires.

Now we know that, that's been revealed, we don't have to be curious about that one. We know that he wants all the regrets he'll find in us to be saved. I think that's why that Romans 8, 22, 23, somewhere in there is so important that the spirit searches the deep things of God. He's not searching me, he's searching God to reveal to me what God has propose or what he's going to do, not me individually, although that's important, but in general.

And sometimes, I mean, I think about Ananias, the angel of the Lord goes to Ananias and says, go talk to Paul. Ananias says, no way, that guy's going to kill me. And then he tells Moses, go talk to Pharaoh. Well, Moses has got to be thinking, It's like God coming to you and saying, I want you to go talk to Joe Biden. Well, he wouldn't say that because he couldn't talk back.

But the point is, the point is that God demonstrates, I'm running everything and here's what I want you to do. And even though it sounds preposterous in the beginning, like intimacy with Christ sounds preposterous at the beginning, but that's what he wants. And when you start to find that out, you can start going down that road and you find that God is very receptive about. you finding out by his ways. And all these other pieces of that puzzle fit in there and it all has to do with his sovereignty and how he does things and doesn't violate his righteousness in doing it.

Amazing. I touch on verse 11, I mean question 11. We're getting close to time here. I think, question, why does Paul use the term our savior God? After we have to get a little historical on what's going on with Timothy here. So you've got the cult of Caesar who took care of the temple affairs of men, right? He took care of the worldly affairs. That was his role. And he held mankind together. So that's what's going on in the back of Paul and Timothy's mind, is that there is an authority. Caesar is the king. He takes care of the temporal affairs of men. He handles the taxes and handles the security of the nation and so forth. But then Paul is contrasting that cult of Caesar, so to speak, with the cult of Christ.

I don't like the term cult of Christ, but the idea is that The Lord, he's talking about the spiritual affairs of men, namely that they be saved and that they come to the knowledge of truth. We'll talk about that in verse four next week, but he's comparing this desire to pray for all men for salvation, not based on what the government can do for you, but how God spiritually handles the affairs of men. And so all of this is based on the perspective of God, how God sees this. So, I think it was Miles who said, a lot of Christians go to God, but very few come from God.

That's interesting. So, God stops after him. Right. That's J.B. Stoney. J.B. Stoney. So Paul recognizes here the fact that human government is a divinely appointed institution, and yet draws the line between that and such a thing as the worship of Caesar. We're concerned about the spiritual. I'm going to touch on verse 11. I mean, question 11. We're getting close to time here, but I think that the question why does Paul use the term our Savior God?

After we have to get a little historical on what's going on with Timothy here, so You've got the cult of Caesar who? Took care of the temporal affairs of men right he took care of the worldly affairs. That was his role and He held mankind together but So that's what's going on in the back of Paul and Timothy's mind, is that there is an authority. Caesar is the king. He takes care of the temporal affairs of men. He handles the taxes and handles the security of the nation and so forth.

But then Paul is contrasting that cult of Caesar, so to speak, with the cult of Christ. And I don't like the term cult of Christ, but the idea is that The Lord, he's talking about the spiritual affairs of men, namely that they be saved and that they come to the knowledge of truth. We're gonna talk about that in verse four next week, but he's comparing this desire to pray for all men for salvation, not based on what the government can do for you, but how God spiritually handles the affairs of men. And so all of this is based on the perspective of God, how God sees this. So, I think it was Miles that said, a lot of Christians go to God, but very few come from God. That's interesting, so thinking God's thoughts after him. Right. J.B. Stoney. J.B. Stoney.

So Paul recognizes here the fact that human government is a divinely appointed institution, and yet draws the line between that and such a thing as the worship of Caesar by using the expression, our savior God. So we pray for them, but ultimately we're concerned about the spiritual affairs of men, and our own spiritual affairs, ultimately. Yes, the temple affairs matter, but these verses have to do with offering prayers, petitions and treaties on behalf of all men so that that may be saved and come to the knowledge of truth.

So let's pray. Father, how we thank you for these verses here, as we read in 1 Timothy, and we recognize the urgency of prayer and the importance of prayer for all men, for the purposes that you might lead them to salvation, that they might walk, or not walk, but trust you in who you say you are as the Savior. And so Lord, we do lift up all Republicans and Democrats and other political figures across the world Lord, we know that your ultimate desire and will is that they, your desire is that they come to know you, that they come to salvation, and that they come to a knowledge of your truth. And so we pray for that. Regardless of the chaos that we see, Lord, we would just ask that you would encourage our hearts to remain dependent upon you in prayer so that we might find you granting us that peace and tranquility that comes from focusing on a sovereign God And we thank you that in the midst of all of this, you are gracious to us, and your love extends over all of it. And so we thank you for this morning, and we just pray for a great day, spending time in your word in the next hour. It's your name we pray, amen.