that deals with instructions for worship. And the focal point this morning is concerning that gathered worship, the instruction concerning prayer, corporate prayer. So let us read God's word beginning in verse one of 1 Timothy chapter two. Therefore, I exhort, first of all, the supplications, prayers, intercessions, and the giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. Verse three, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved, to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, verse five, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all to be testified in due time. for which Paul says, I was appointed as a preacher, an apostle. I'm speaking the truth in Christ and not lying, a teacher of the Gentiles or the nations in faith and in truth. Let us pray. Glorious God and Father, We ask that you would bless the proclamation of your word, my speaking and our hearing. We pray that you would cause us to have hearts that would hear and believe. Strengthen your people and save father sinners, we pray. We ask this blessing and help of your spirit. In your name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen. You may be seated. As we enter into chapter two, Paul hasn't completely deviated from the thoughts that we saw in chapter one. He continues to deal with congregational issues of the church, the church at Ephesus in particular. Chapter one, he has dealt with the issue of the false teachers, and now beginning in two, chapter two, he's providing, he's instructing us concerning the corporate gathering and worship of the church. this section that now starts in Chapter 2 concerning worship, it runs all the way to all the way to Chapter 3. In fact, he'll move from instructions concerning their gathering and their worship, and then he'll begin to move speaking about the requirements for leadership, elders and deacons in the church. And you can see how that relates to the false teachers, especially if they, as we have previously seen in Acts chapter 20, arose from the very eldership of the church itself, men like Alexander and Hymenaeus that we read in verse 20 of chapter one. But this section, primarily concerns corporate worship. And the entire section is summed up as we'll move through it when we get to chapter three, and it's verse 15 of chapter three. 1 Timothy 3 verse 15, but if I'm delayed, Paul says, I write, now listen to his words here, so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourselves in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth. Again, this is not unrelated to the previous chapter. They both concern the unity of the church, confronting false teachers, giving instructions regarding worship, realizing who is qualified for church leadership. We might say that Paul's goal here is not only setting things in order, correcting, but that ultimate goal is to promote unity and order in the church. And so again, we have here instruction for public worship. And in verses one through seven, the focus of that corporate worship is the public prayer of the gathered church. Public prayer of the gathered church. Now, as we walk through this passage, let's remind ourselves that God has given and preserved his church to know his will. He's preserved and given the scriptures to know his will. There's a real sense as we studied in our first hour, in the equipping hour, that we stand upon the word, the foundation that was laid, the apostolic word from the prophets and the apostles. And so we stand on that word and that word is over us. That word is over us. Christ reigns as the head of the church in and through his church by the scriptures, his word. And so as he has given us the scriptures, as he has preserved his scriptures for his church, it is that we may know his will. And this morning, we not only have a word from God concerning prayer, but specifically the corporate prayers of the assembled church. And let us be reminded that the, and let us understand that the acceptable way of worshiping God is established by God in the scriptures. You hear me? Let us understand that the acceptable way of worshiping God is establishing by God in the scriptures. And so this morning we have an authoritative word concerning our gathered worship. We don't need to make things up as we go along week after week. No, we need to go to God's sure word and find out how he wants to be worshiped. And our response is to receive his instructions and to obey him. Again, verses one through seven, concerns the public prayer or prayers of the church. And notice, as we move through it, you'll notice that there is an evangelistic emphasis or appeal in the prayer. Beginning in verse one. the word of Paul, to the young pastor Timothy, to the church at Ephesus, and to the church in this place, in this gathered assembly, we are reminded to pray for all men, to pray for all men. Again, notice verse one. Therefore, I exhort, first of all, that supplications, prayers, and intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. So now Paul moves from exhorting Timothy to confront the false teachers to now overseeing and making sure that the public prayers are properly conducted in the public worship of the church. In other words, we're beginning to see that our worship truly is regulated by the word of God. The church is the assembled people of God. We assembled together for various reasons, but the central aspect of our gathering together is for worship. It's for worship. And a fundamental element of gathered worship is prayer. John Bunyan would define prayer as this. Listen closely to that old tinker, that old tinker and his definition of prayer. He says this, Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God through Christ in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit for such things as God has promised or according to the word of God for the good of the church with submission and faith to the will of God." End quote. The most simplest senses, prayer is talking to God. Prayer is communicating to God. And in this case, the apostle tells us that we are to cry out to God. We are to pray for all men. Now, the first thing we should notice in verse one, that there's a universal, a wide scope. He keeps pushing again and again through this section. And there's a wide scope, a range of prayers. Notice this, a wide scope, a range of prayers that we are to pray. Supplications, he says, prayers, intercessions, giving a thanks. All of these, there's four listed here, are to be made for all men. I think that his overall point here is that all kinds of prayers for all kinds of men. He's just giving us a burst. Supplications, prayers, intercessions, the giving of thanks. That is, the supplications, the making of requests. And there's this word prayer, which is having to do with this general word. It's the general word for prayer, to crying out to God. There is the petition or supplication. I mean, the intercessions where it's like a petition that's brought to a superior with request. And then last of all, he speaks of this Thanksgiving. Again, I think his point is to describe prayer in a very broad way. His point is that we are to pray for all men. And we are to pray all kinds of prayers for all men and on their behalf. So we pray that God would be merciful and deliver someone from danger or sickness. We will pray for gospel advancement. We will pray to cry out to God and to praise his name. that we are to pray all kinds of prayers, as we see here. He says, for all men. And so there's a wide scope, a range of prayers. And then he moves to that we are to understand that there's a wide scope of men that we are to pray for. Again, notice verse one and two. And giving of thanks be made for all men. And in verse two, for kings and all who are in authority. So there's a wide breadth of men. Now this scope of men, we should understand that Paul is emphasizing here that there are to be prayers made on behalf of those that are outside of the household of God. Again, there's a note of a universal scope, all men. And there's this evangelistic message that's weaved all through here. God uses means. God uses means to accomplish His purposes. And one of those means is the prayers of His people. And there also appears to be an emphasis here of what we would call God's common and good grace in this universal scope of the gospel and how it's to reach the nations and how it's to reach all men and reach into the world. When we consider God's common grace to all men, Listen to the words of our Lord Jesus. In Matthew chapter five, verse 43. Matthew chapter five, beginning in verse 43, Jesus said, you have heard that it is said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. that you may be the sons of your father in heaven. For he makes his son rise, son, S-U-N, the son rise on the evil and on the good. He sends rain on the just and the unjust. Verse 46, he says, for if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even tax collectors do so? Therefore, you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect. So we are to pray for those, as he said in verse 44, pray for those who are outside of the covenant community of his church, his chosen people. Pray for those, he says in verse 44, who even spitefully use you and persecute you. And so we have something about that here. We are to pray for all men. And he gives us an example. Look at verse two, for kings and all who are in authority. Now, from what we will see here, and then this thought will move, we'll see next week into the latter, the second half of these verses. We should understand that when he says all men, he's not saying all men without exception. That'd be kind of hard to do. What is there now? Four and a half billion people on the planet? Five billion people? Seven billion. Oh, I've lost count. That would be difficult to do, wouldn't it? To pray for all men without exception. I don't think that's what he's saying here. I think he's saying pray for all men without distinction. Pray for all men without distinction. Every rank. Jew, Gentile, men of royalty, men of common rank and low rank, men, women, young, old, pray for all men. So I think what we have here, we're gonna see, especially next week when this relates to redemption, that we should understand this, that this is all men without distinction, not all men without exception. You see what I'm saying? Now, there's gonna be some overlap because we're also gonna talk about the offer of the gospel in here. But here, here in this verse, he calls upon the church in particular to pray for kings and all who are in authority. Now, you may say, okay, What's so hard with that? What's hard? Praying for the magistrate. What's hard? Praying for civil leaders, for those in authority, for kings. Why would that be so difficult? Well, this would be difficult for the early church because the ruler was a Roman emperor named Nero. And he was one of those, as Jesus said, who would persecute the church. And he tells us to pray for it. He was no friend of Christianity. He was a fierce persecutor of the church. And so now we're being reminded to pray for kings and those in authority, even when they are against the faith and against the people of God. We're to pray for them. And he doesn't have in purgatory prayers in mind either, as we're gonna see. As hard and as often as we may be tempted to do that. Remember the context here in the man who's writing this letter. It's Paul, who himself was a fierce persecutor of the church until his conversion. You wonder, was Paul the product of the prayers of the saints on their knees? As he ravaged and attacked the churches, they just ramped up prayer for Paul. Now, let me say this, this section, If you have a copy of Calvin's commentaries, this chapter and this section in particular, it is so rich. As I read through it, it's one of those things, as I read through it, the thought ran to my mind, maybe I should just read this, and then we sit down. But let me give you a quote, a section, and you get the flavor of what he was expounding upon here. Calvin says, concerning this, he says, for kings, he expressly mentions kings and other magistrates, says Calvin, because more than all others, they might be hated by Christians. He goes on to say, all the magistrates who existed at that time were so many sworn enemies of Christ. And therefore this thought might occur to them that they ought not to pray for those who devoted all their power and all their wealth to fight against the kingdom of Christ. the extension of which is above all things desirable. The apostle meets this difficulty and expressly enjoys, and joins Christians to pray for them also." And then Calvin makes this statement. And indeed, the depravity of men is not a reason why God's ordinance should not be loved. Do not cease to pray for kings, even those that are an enemy of the kingdom because of your hatred towards them and their depravity and fallenness. No, we are to love the ordinance of prayer and to pray for them. Let us remember this as we pray for those who rule over us. Those governing authorities to Paul in Romans 13, he says, they have been appointed by God You remember, in American politics, there is an ebb and flow where you will have leaders and administrations that are a little more friendly than others toward the people of God, and the ways of God, and the laws of God. Neither one of them are the kingdom. Remember that. Some of them are more friendly, And do not be deceived, many of them that are friendly towards us, it is for political reasons. Do you remember when Barack Obama was in office? Do you remember, Church, we used to pray on a regular basis for the salvation of his children? Do you remember that? We prayed for his children, that God would save them. Wouldn't that be something in their household, there in the White House? if there was the conversion of his children, spring up in their midst. Let us pray for our president, for the members of Congress, for the Supreme Court, that God would graciously work in their hearts. And notice what he says next in verse two. There's a twofold purpose or goal for this concerning these prayers. Look at verse two. He says, pray for kings and all who are in authority, which would also include governors, mayors, all sorts of judges. But he says the twofold goal or purpose of this is that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. Two things here. First, that as God's people, we might, through prayers, assist in maintaining orderly and a peaceful environment in this nation. We pray that God would bless those who rule over us. He would give them wisdom. He would guide their steps. He would turn their hearts to do good and that which is right and godly. And that works toward maintaining a land in which we live of peaceableness, orderliness, a peaceful environment. So it's for the good, one, for all the people that inhabit this land. Some of you catch my prayers when I pray, God, be with us as we live among the inhabitants of this land. I do make a distinction. We are people of two kingdoms, but there is one kingdom that we have ultimate allegiance to. So we do pray. We are to pray for the good of the people here as Jesus commanded. But like and also like the Hebrew people in the Babylonian exile, we are to live as sojourners, exiles, pilgrims upon the earth. When the Hebrew people were carried away in exile and they were there in Babylon, listen to the language. In fact, it runs through that chapter there, Jeremiah 29, but just listen to verse seven. In Jeremiah 29, verse seven, God says to them, and seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive. And then he says this, and pray to the Lord for it, for in its peace, you will have peace. So we pray it, we pray for God's blessing over those that God has established, Romans 13, to rule over us, the civil magistrate. We pray for it, for the maintaining of orderliness and a peaceful environment of this nation. But secondly, secondly, we pray for the cause of the churches and the kingdom labors not just for peaceful life, but for the working toward the best conditions for expanding God's kingdom. Again, we should recognize that we should be recognized as good citizens, seeking the good of those who rule over us and the people of this nation. Our rulers should not be looking at us that at any moment, and whether it's Christians in China, North Korea, Iran, Malaysia, the United States, they should not be looking at us with fear. They should see us as good citizens. living peaceably among the people here and praying to that end. We should be seen as model citizens. And with that being said, the aroma of the gospel should be upon us, that they would see that in those around us. There's a sense in which we pray for the continual peace and blessing of God upon this land, the withstraining of the magistrate and forces against us, because we desire the best working, the best conditions for kingdom work. There's no other place on the planet where resources from academic training, preparation, seminaries, the financial resources, all of those things that God has used for the last couple of hundred years for the gospel to reach the nations. Now he doesn't need the United States. He doesn't need our money. And he can immediately withdraw that. And he may very well be doing that right now. But he's done that in the past. And we should pray that he would continue to use the churches and to use us to that end. And not only that twofold purpose or goal concerning our prayers, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence for the good of the people of this land and for gospel expansion. But then beginning in verse three, in verse three, he will now move out from this broad scope of prayer for all men, this scope, this wide range of prayers for all men. Now he begins to speak that this is for that purpose of gospel expansion. There's the prayer for all men and this wide scope of the gospel reaching the nations. This is where we begin to see God's evangelistic purposes in the prayers of his church and people. Now there's much here in verses three through seven, more than we have time to cover this morning, but I just want to briefly touch upon them, and then we will delve into them more in depth next week. But notice this clear evangelistic purpose in the prayers of God's people here. And let us remember this when we gather and when we pray, not only in here, but also for our prayer meetings. Verse three, That prayer for kings and those in authority, that prayer for all men, he says in verse three, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our savior. Verse four, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there's one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle, and I'm speaking the truth in Christ and not lying, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth." Now, a few years ago, actually it was Jim and I both, we were attending a general assembly of the churches. It was the general assembly in Georgia. Remember that? It was that island off the coast of Georgia. And in that general assembly of the churches gathered together, One of the days there was time for, the churches would put forward theological issues, discussions that needed to be made. And one of those discussions that came to the floor was, is it appropriate for the churches and their corporate worship to recite the Lord's prayer? Do you remember that Jim? And the answer that was agreed upon by the assembly was a unanimous yes. Yes, that's a good thing for multiple reasons. But during the discussion, one of the materials recommended was the book by the old Princeton theologian Samuel Miller. It was our brother Earl. who stood up and recommended that book, and I purchased that book, and it was printed by Sprinkle Publishing. I bought it from Lloyd, our dear brother, who's now gone home to be with the Lord, but from Harrisonburg. Samuel Miller, thoughts on public prayer concerning our present passage. This is what Miller said concerning this passage, quote, He said a good public prayer ought to always include a strongly marked reference to the spread of the gospel and earnest petitions for the success of the means employed by the church for that purpose. as it forms a large part of the duty of the church to spread the knowledge of the way of salvation to all around her and to send it to the utmost of her power to all within her reach who are destitute of it. So she ought to never to assemble without recognizing this obligation and fervently praying for grace and the strength to fulfill it." End quote. Now, Luther was known for saying that the church should never gather together without the word being preached. And now Samuel Miller is reminding us that not only should the word be preached, but we should be praying every time we gather evangelistically for those that are apart from Christ and within our reach. So let us remember that. That's a good thing, and we need to be reminded of it. Now, Prayer is not only a vital element of worship, but it's one of the vital components of church life. And we see this in the early church, and this should be true of all true and faithful churches. Should it not, that we are a people, not only of the book, but we are also a people of prayer, because the book teaches us we are to be a people of prayer. And then the life of the early church in Acts chapter two, verse 41, it says, then those who gladly received his word were baptized. And that day about 3000 souls were added to them, verse 42. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine, fellowship, the breaking of bread. And then it says, and in prayers, it actually has the definite article. It says in the prayers, in their prayers. Many commentators believe that that statement means that there were clear, set, not necessarily like reciting a prayer, but prayers like the prayers to be praying evangelistically for people. prayers for your sins to be forgiven and so forth, that there were certain prayers that were common to the life of the early church and that should be common to us. Paul gives us an example of prayers that are to be requested for the missionary labors. We try to every month put in a different missionary in our bulletin for the prayer guide, that we would pray for them during our prayer meeting, that we would pray for those men that we support on those foreign fields. The Apostle Paul writing to the Colossians in chapter four, verse two says this, continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. Verse three, meanwhile, praying also for us that God would open to us a door for the word to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am also in chains, end quote. So, I'm gonna stop right here because we're gonna move into this next section where it has to do with the gospel and the scope of the gospel in reaching men. But let us be mindful here in these opening verses, verses one through three. that we are to be a people of prayer, evangelistic prayer, a prayer for praying for those who rule over us, as the text says, that we might lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. So the way of application, one, let us as a congregation be a people marked with an enthusiasm for prayer. With that being said, attend our regular prayer meeting on Sunday afternoons. Where's Sean Cheatham? There he is, waving his hand. Deacon Sean's gonna lead us in that prayer meeting this afternoon. Be there, give prayer requests. You can hand them to him beforehand or he will ask them in the room as we prepare to pray. Let us pray evangelistically. Let us pray for the missionaries. Let us pray for our lost children. Let us pray for lost spouses. Let us pray for friends and family and coworkers that are without Christ. Secondly, the prayer that we are to pray is modeled according and given to us in scripture. As we like to say, let us be a people who read the word, who preach the word, who sing the word, who see the word in word and sacrament and the Lord's supper and baptism, but also let us be a people that pray the word, that pray the word. Martin Lloyd-Jones says, quote, there is nothing that tells the truth about us as a Christian people so much as our prayer life. Everything we do in the Christian life is easier than prayer, end quote. We have been given a charge an imperative, a command to obey here this morning as God's people. Let us be faithful to it in our prayer life, corporately, and do not neglect your private prayer. But that's not all Paul will tell us here. He'll remind us not only to pray, but we are to pray for those evangelistic ends. We are to pray as a people who understand that the gospel is to go forth and reach the nations. Notice Paul's language. He's an apostle to go to the Gentiles, to the nations. There's a great commission emphasis in his wording here. This is the God who desires all men, all kinds of men to be saved, kings and rulers. And yet on top of this or underneath this is that indiscriminate preaching to all men, to all that are here this morning. that not only would we hear the gospel, but that we would believe the gospel, we would come to the knowledge of the truth. And so if you're here this morning and you do not know the truth, you have no knowledge of the truth, you have not come to Christ savingly, we have a word here that Christ gave himself as a ransom for sinners, sinners like you and like me. And if you will turn to Christ by faith, turning from your sins and repentance, and turn to Christ by faith, there is forgiveness, the washing of sin, and eternal life in His name. Let us pray.