We have just about taken all we could get out of the first chapter. There's a lot there, but tonight we're going to introduce chapter two, 1 Timothy chapter two. And what I'd like to do is read verses one through six. And some of these verses and these chapters are packed. There's a lot here that needs to be addressed and brought up. And so I've made notes. I think six or seven pages, this is all of it, and I'll only do a half of it tonight. If you're taking notes, our first point deals with the prayer of the saints. And you'll look at the prayer of the saints, and secondly, I'm going to fumble through my notes here, I've got a bunch of them, the purpose of God is the second point. I doubt if we get even to the second point, but if you're taking notes or writing, Point number one is the prayer of the saints. The second one is the purpose of God. And then all this will come out of these six verses. But let's get focused on a couple of verses here. Let me read verses one through six and then we'll pray and get into our lesson for tonight. Our title is Continue in Prayer and Witness. Continue in Prayer and Witness. In verse one of chapter two, 1 Timothy chapter two verse one, The Bible states, I exhort therefore that first, he says that first of all, that he said, first of all, supplication and prayers and intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings. and for all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all goodness and honesty. It says, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. In verse six, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. Heavenly Father, we bow before you and we do thank you for the day that you have made. We thank you for Father blessing us today, watching over us, protecting us, supplying for our needs and Father, I pray that we would have another blessing here tonight around your word. I pray that you would fill me with your Holy Spirit and allow him to do a work in our hearts and in our lives. Those that have come out, bless us, bless your word. And we thank you for being our God. We thank you for the blessings that we have enjoyed just today. We ask this in Jesus Christ's name, we pray. Amen. Here, Paul. Paul has shared the joy of God in his call to the ministry and he has warned Timothy about the spiritual battles he would face in looking at chapter one. But now Paul now helps Timothy understand the importance of prayer in the ministry and prayer. is also crucial for everything that we do today. You and I will do as Christians, you probably have had a moment of prayer today, maybe more than a moment, maybe a couple of them, maybe several of them, or just throughout the day you have prayed. As things come into your mind or maybe as situations that you've dealt with, you needed prayer, guidance, wisdom, from God. But prayer is very crucial for everything that we do, especially for seeing the law save. It's very important. That's why a church should be about prayer, should be taught, should be understood. It's very important. Many churches have programs They have singings and activities and nothing wrong with programs and singings and activities, but not every church, listen to me, not every church regularly produces spiritual fruit. Shallowness in Christian circles can come from trying to copy experiences rather than to experience the prayer. They will try to produce something that can only come through prayer. And you'll get in churches and around people, maybe even ministers or other people in other settings, Christians, and you'll wonder, what is not something just don't add up? And what it is is they've gotten more into the routine or habit of producing something, generating it out of the flesh or out of the energy that we have, our abilities, rather than getting it through prayer. And it's called like a manufactured, and this is what I'm speaking to. Let me say this, throughout the book of Acts, Acts, the Bible, is a good go-to. We're going to look at some places here to get started dealing with prayer. But through the book of Acts, we see a church that was saturated in prayer. And so we use, let's turn over there, Acts chapter 1. We won't turn to all of these, but I'll give them to you. I put them in my notes, and it's important that we see this. Acts chapter 1. If you look at verse 14, it makes this statement. This is where the believers are in the upper room. And Christ said, look, you need to go back to Jerusalem and wait till you be endued with power. I think we preached on that Sunday morning out of Luke 24. But here in verse 14, Acts chapter 1 verse 14, he says this, these all continued with one accord in prayer. and supplication with the women, and marry the mother of Jesus and with his brethren." And so we see in the chapter, chapter one, we see this in chapter two. If you want to slip into chapter two, look at verse 42. The Bible states this, and they continue steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, and breaking of bread, and in prayers. We see in chapter two, it's mentioned that the group collectively was about prayer as well. We see in chapter three, chapter three, you deal with verse one, you have Peter and John as they went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour, right? So it speaks of what the Bible is saying here. Chapter three, look at chapter four. Let's move on. Chapter four, verse, I believe, let's see, 24, verse 24, chapter four, Acts chapter four, verse 24. Scripture says, and when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, thou art God, which has made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is. praying to God. You can read the context there. They were in prayer. And we look at chapter 4. Let's go to chapter 6 for the sake of time. Look at verse 4. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. Here he's dealing with the elders, which the apostles were elders here in this setting as they were trying to figure out how to take care of the daily ministration. And so we see that in chapter 6 you have prayer. Let's go to chapter 7. Here's an individual, Stephen. Young Stephen, not only was he a deacon, but he was a preacher and he was like a an evangelist type, he's out preaching on the street here. Acts chapter seven, Stephen, let's see, I believe I want verse 59 there in the latter part of that chapter. And he's delivered his message and they did not like it. Verse 51, he states this and it really, really hits the button, you please, with this loss. Religious crowd, he said, ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. You do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did, so do ye. And man, they didn't like that. Verse 54, when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart. And when you hear preaching that touches your heart, it's going to make and cause you to make a decision, either a good one or a bad one. Here you see they have actually chosen the bad one, and it says, and they gnash on him with their teeth. But he being full of the Holy Ghost looked up steadfastly into heaven. You drop down to verse 59, and they stoned Stephen, and this is what he was doing, calling on God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Here's a man in prayer, and his life is being taken, his physical life, not his spiritual life. A lot of times we got a lot of stuff wrapped up in this physical world, The more of our life is over there, and it should be, but we see and we notice this pattern, and you can go on through the book of Acts and look at this church and these individuals, and prayer was a large part of the ministry. There's a quote by E.M. Bounds, and I do recommend The Power of Prayer, and E.M. Bounds is the writer of that book. It's an older book, but he says this. He says, no prayer, no power. Little prayer, little power, much prayer, much power. And a lot of times we wonder why we have little power when it comes to praying, and it's because we have little prayer, little prayer. So we see number one, and as Paul, back here in Timothy now in chapter two, verse one, We see number one, the prayer of the saints in verses one and two, and it's the first thing that should go on. I exhort, therefore, that first of all, he's going to prioritize what needs to be first of all. That's why it's important to start your day in prayer. It's very important. So he says, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. I believe this is the category of what type of praying should go on. And it's important. Let me say this, because of Timothy's call to ministry and the charge to continue at the church in Ephesus, and this is where Paul The Apostle Paul had told him to stay in Ephesus. Paul first exhorts him concerning prayer. This is what he's bringing up. The word exhort. You say, what is that? He uses that. I exhort therefore. Exhort means to encourage, to beseech, maybe to come alongside of. That's what exhort means, to exhort. You say, well, I thought it was to talk down or to preach down. No, exhort means to to encourage, to beseech, to come alongside. Now, in writing, first of all, Paul prioritizes the admonition he wanted Timothy to get. He puts prayer at the top priority in the local church. This is important. You say, why does the church, why is there so many, why does prayer go on? I think we don't do this, we have done it in the past. Remember, Pastor Tom would do this, Sometimes the deacons would do this, or men of the church, but praying before a service. A lot of times it's important to try to get it the first thing when you get here. And it's not uncommon for churches to exercise that. Not only just the men, but the women as well. Prayer's very important. And so here, Paul is laying this out. He said, where would you go in Scripture to show that praying in church is important? Right here is one of the places where Paul says, I exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men." And so we see here that it's first of all, So he puts prayer at the top priority in a local church. I run across this illustration and I put it in my notes. I got a lot of stuff in here, but I want to give it to you. I thought it was kind of humorous, but it's true. There's some truth to it. It says here, this illustration goes like this, quote, beware of terrorist groups in the church. Reports are that there are five terrorist cell groups that have been operating in the church. They have been identified as been sleeping, been gossiping, been arguing, been fighting, been complaining, been messing, and their leader, Lucifer, been working. it's his name, trained these groups to destroy the body of Christ. We have noticed that the been praying cell group has different characteristics than any others. They have been watching, they've been waiting, they've been fasting and been longing for their master Jesus Christ to return. No church is exempt. However, you can spot them if you've been looking and been going. And I like that illustration, it's very true. Let's get into our point, our sub-point here, how we pray. And this is brought up in all the instructions ever given on prayer, God never once discourages you and I or any child of God from praying. You will not find that in scripture. And so how we pray, well, We have no steps to climb when we approach God. Now religion does not teach that. Religion will teach you that there might be steps, there might be things that you need to do or not do to reach God. We have no steps to climb when we approach God in prayer. There are several prayer terms used in the Bible. Supplication is one of them. Supplication, if you look there, he says supplications right in verse one, and it means to request because of need or lack. There's a prayer of supplication. There is a need that needs to be filled or to be addressed, and so that's a prayer of supplication. There is a need of maybe a person that's sick, or maybe having health issues, or fighting cancer, or maybe a surgery, and there's a prayer of supplication. Maybe there's a physical need in the sense of, maybe there's a monetary need, or a financial need, or maybe emotional need, but there's a need that needs to be met, and it's a prayer of supplication. And so on that, It's a term to request because of need or a lack of. Then he says prayers, and so we see prayers, and prayers means to address God, simply put, being limited to praying to God. And now you'll find in scriptures, and I use Jonah a lot, I like that prophet, there's a lot there in him, but he prays, the men on the boat pray, and they were They weren't people who believed God. I think ultimately they were in that situation, if you read it in Jonah. But they were praying to their gods, plural. And you'll find a lot of people are fine with prayer in the world. As a matter of fact, it's a good thing if you pray or have a moment of silence. And then when you narrow it down to we pray to the creator God, you're gonna get some eyebrows raised. But when you say you're praying in the name of Jesus Christ, you're gonna get flack. You're going to get a target is automatically put on you when you use that term, Jesus Christ. You say, man, that's kind of, you know, though, the world we live in here in America, all the freedoms we have and the great nation and how it was founded, and it's teetering on the brink. And I believe sin has brought us to the point of teetering. Amen. I think that's where America's at. And so here, what happens when you pray or proclaim the name of Jesus Christ, you're going to have trouble. This is the same thing that was going on with Apostle Paul and the other apostles as they went out and preached. When they used the name Jesus Christ or in the name of Jesus, they didn't like that, especially the religion, the religionist crowd. They didn't like it. But how we pray, well, we have supplication, we have prayers. And then he says intercessions. Intercessions means to petition on behalf of another. That doesn't mean that you are able to make something happen other than praying to God in God's will and interceding on that behalf. We do that a lot when we have somebody that's sick or needs God's healing hand. All right, and so it's important that that is done. I think James kind of expounds upon that in James chapter five. And so all through that prayer is important, but there are different types of prayer. And here, intercession is basically to petition on behalf of another. We'll pray for the lost. We'll pray for those who aren't walking close to God. You say, I don't think that's any of our business. According to scripture, it is. It's a prayer of intercession on behalf of somebody else that God would have his will and his way and to draw that person back. It indeed is. Don't let religion tell you that it's not, or self, or Satan. But we're indeed to pray for one another. And that means just to pray for good. It might be interceding on somebody's half to draw them back to God. That's what that is. All right, giving of thanks, he says. So watch this now. I'm all in verse one. and giving of thanks be made for all men." Giving of thanks means the attitude. It's the attitude that we should have in prayer and the action of prayer. One thing that I've learned in prayer and praying with other men, other people, that they are very thankful for what God has given them. And they might be in the thick of things. They might be in a situation, a storm, or a trial, or going through troubles or tribulations, but they're thankful for God. You think, how can somebody be so thankful to God? Well, indeed he can, and we should have, and that's the attitude that he brings up here in verse one. I wanna give you this illustration. Not that I do not give true illustrations, but some of them I'm sure, you know, I'm not in for story telling unless it's an illustration or something like that, but this one is true. A new Bible college was in desperate need of $10,000 to continue running. And during a prayer meeting, preacher Harry Einside prayed, Lord, you own the cattle on a thousand hills. And he said this, please sell some of those cattle to help us meet this need. And not long after the prayer meeting, the school received a check for $10,000 from a man who knew nothing of the financial need or the prayer. He simply said the money came from the sale of some of his cattle. And I'm thinking, wow, yeah, I could go on and on. That one I read and I put it in my notes. That's the God that we serve. Don't ever think, it might be, I don't own cattle, but it might be something that I have, God said sell that and give to them. God works that way, you mind God. That's why your pastor said, well, you gotta do this, you gotta do this, or you should be doing that. Get out of the way. Just tell him to mind the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will know right what to say. He'll know what they should be doing or not doing. The Holy Spirit's way better at communicating with your heart than the preacher or the pastor. Pastors should preach and teach, all right? But let the Holy Spirit, I'm just saying, hey, mind the Holy Spirit in your life. Now, if you don't mind the Holy Spirit, if I don't mind the Holy Spirit, God begins to work in our lives and deal with our lives. And it might be one for another, it might be another way for another, whatever to reach your heart to get you to receive or to react to the Holy Spirit. All right, so mind the Holy Spirit's very important. All right, for all men. Now he says how we pray, but who we pray for. He says here for all men, look at verse one in the latter part, he says that this giving of thanks and this intercession, or these intercessions and prayers and supplications, He says, be made for all men. There is no wrong person to pray for, and no one beyond the reach of prayer. I tell you who I pray for the most, those that are close to my heart, are those who I have the most struggle with. That's who I pray for. He said, where did you learn that? The pastor sitting right back there. He said, look, if you're gonna talk about somebody, If you're gonna have conflict, pray for them. Put prayer down on them. I'm sure he probably learned that from another preacher or pastor, but you need to pray for them. You say, who do you pray for the most? Well, those that are on my heart, but those I have the most conflict with, I pray for. Not in a mean way. It's a good way. God bless them, take care of them, watch over them, and just be with them. They're your people, and if they're not, I pray that they would be. But that's very important. You know, that's helped me. That helps with my attitude towards that individual or towards that situation. And so pray for him. Put more prayer onto that person. It's kind of like a wayward child or a child that's not wanting to be a good child. You need to spend more time with him. Pray for him, but spend time with him. And you say, well, man, that might not work for every situation. I understand that. I understand that. We don't live in a perfect world, but prayer is essential and there is no wrong person to pray for. That's my point. No one beyond the reach of prayer. We see for all men, but for rulers, this speaks of authority. This would speak of President Biden. This would speak of his cabinet and speak of those that are in authority that we might not agree with. And there's a lot of them up there. Matter of fact, the majority of them, I wouldn't personally agree with in their agenda and what they believe or what they do, but I'm to pray for them. Not only am I to pray for him, I'm to respect him to the best of my ability, especially between the bounds of Scripture and what God has laid down. All right. The Roman emperor during Paul's time was Nero. And a few short years after right where we're at here in 1 Timothy, Nero would begin Nero would begin murdering Christians. He was by no means a godly ruler, but Paul still commanded the Christians to pray for him. I don't believe it. It's what the Bible is saying. Nobody's shorthanded or above or below prayer. Prayer can reach and do great wonders. That is one of your most powerful tools as the child of God is prayer. J. Sidlow Baxter said this, quote, men may spawn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers." Unquote. And that is true. You think, man, they've got me. There's no way to turn. I don't know what to do. That's right where God wants you to say, now it's time to start praying. And it's like, oh, man. It's time to start praying. All right. So who we pray for why we pray. OK. We looked at how who and why. So that's pretty simple. It is why we pray for quiet. quiet, tranquility, to have peace, for peace, free from disturbance. Warren Wiersbe, he said this, quote, prayer helps maintain the peace of society. As Christians pray for leaders in, God overrules and protects his church from wicked men, unquote. You wanna know how to have peace in this world, this country? Pray, pray for those who are against what is right. Pray for them. You might be praying more for them than those that are doing right. We say pray for the people that are doing right and staying by the stuff. And there are some good ones that are in political positions. There are some good people. But you need to be praying for the ones that aren't. So for godliness, reverence, piety towards God. That's another reason to be quiet. for peace and for godliness. Then he says, honestly. Honestly means honor, purity, decorum, proper conduct. Look at verse two. For kings, for all that are in authority, he goes on. This two is kind of linked with one, of course. Verse one, and give of thanks be made for all men, for kings and for all that are in authority, that they may lead a quiet, there's the words, that's where I'm pulling from, and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. All right, and so I have some quotes here I'm giving to you tonight. R.A. Torrey, the chief purpose of prayer is that God may be glorified in the answer. That's why we pray and should be about prayer. The passage calls God and he says our Savior. That's what goes on here. If you look at verse 3, this is important Bible student, I want to move on to verse 3. And so he says, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior. You say, well, what's so important about that? Well, you'll run across those that do not believe that God was the one who died on the cross. Jesus Christ is God. Not only is the Son of God, He is God, incarnated in the flesh. He actually has a human side and he has a spiritual side. That's why a lot of times you might be one, you might trip over that, well, he's praying to the Father and he's on earth. But if they're one, how does that happen? Well, he has a human side, Jesus Christ, when he was on earth. He had to have blood. He had to be able to die. He suffered as we did, he was tempted as we are, the Bible says, yet without sin, he had to meet the perfect sacrifice. Not only was his perfect blood, his perfect life, but he had to be part human to identify with who he was going to be a sacrifice for, a propitiation for, an appeasement from God. So you have his earthly side praying to the Father. You say, but he's God. That's right, he is. And we just step our mind or our thinking up just a little bit or down, wherever it needs to go, to understand there was two sides to Christ. The human side, that was the side that got hungry. That was the side that got sleepy. That was the side that said, not my will, but thy will be done. That was the side that said, nevertheless, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. That's his human side. Don't tell me that he didn't go through what you and I go through every day. He did. Indeed, he did. But this verse here is declaring that it was God, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of, say it with me, God our Savior. And so this is important to those that believe that Jesus Christ indeed was God. All right. He wasn't just the Son of God. He was God. So we see this title Savior is used specifically in reference to God. Countering the cult of Caesar in Roman culture. I believe this is why Paul put it in. There was no such thing as a Jehovah's Witness, no such thing as a Mormon, no such thing as anybody else that denies that Jesus Christ is God. There's a lot of them out there. Those are the main ones that won't, they don't have no problem. They're not hiding in a closet thanking that or believing that. They'll openly tell you this. All right, so the Muslim background, they do not believe that Jesus Christ is God. He was a good prophet. And so here, I believe Paul though is dealing with what was going on in the time historically, and that was Caesar because everybody declared Caesar, Caesar called himself Sotur, I think that's, it's the Greek word for Savior, that was his title, and that he was the Savior. So what happens is somebody comes on the scene know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. That's why they're saying these men are going about preaching in this name. And there's only one King Caesar. Caesar was their savior, not Jesus Christ. And so we see that this is what's laid out here and why he makes the reference to God in verse three, that he is our savior. So very important. All right, number two. Number two, we're gonna look at the purpose of God. What is the purpose? Verses three and four. And we see that for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. Verse four, who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. So we see the purpose of God. All right, God gives us two purposes here that we see here as he commands us to pray, number one, And then underneath that, there's going to be two things. We're going to address the salvation of all. The salvation of all. And then secondly, the knowledge of truth. These are the prayers. We should pray for these two things. And so we see God, he said, well, that's the only two things. No. There's thanksgiving, there's supplication, there's intercession. We just went through this, but the primary watch, he wants salvation for all. We should pray for those people that need to be saved to get saved. Secondly, the knowledge of truth, that they receive the knowledge of truth. You say, wait a minute, you mean they can't receive the knowledge? If they don't want to, you have the Holy Spirit that'll work with them and you pray that they receive the knowledge of truth. There are people who confess and come to Christ, but they don't surrender their life to where their life is allowed to be changed. They don't want God to change nothing. And so they're deal-making with God. And so here, he's praying to the knowledge of truth. Let's start with the salvation, the salvation of all. God wants us to pray for all men because he wills that all men should be saved. He has made salvation available to everyone and wants the gospel proclaimed to all men. Now this is made clear here where we're at. He says in verse four, who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of truth. I want to show some more scripture on this point, and I'm going to go to 2 Peter. I'm going to skirt over there here real quick. 2 Peter, and I'm going to go to chapter 9 and verse 3. Some of us know this verse. I'm sorry, chapter three, verse nine. I'm sorry about that. 2 Peter chapter three, verse nine. Thank you, Brother Jeff. And it says here in verse nine, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So we see here the Bible, that's a clear verse, We have, I'll tell you what, we were in 1st Timothy, I think there's another one. 1st Timothy, and I'm going to move you back to about where we were at. 1st Timothy chapter 4, and look at verse 10 with me. 1st Timothy chapter 4 in verse 10, and he says this. For therefore, we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe. And so these verses are powerful. There's one in Ezekiel in the Old Testament, Ezekiel chapter 18, verse 23, I'll give you a piece of it. And it says, have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? God's speaking, and he puts it in a form of a question, saith the Lord God, and not that he should return from his ways and live. God is, his will isn't, what did the Bible say? That he didn't come to condemn the world, but to save the world. And so this is God's will, this is what he wants. He wants people to be saved. So salvation for the lost is very important to God. Titus chapter two verse one states, for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. And so God is not, not slack concerning his promise that salvation indeed is to all men, or the phrase, whosoever, whosoever will. God didn't send Jesus to condemn the world, but to save the world. And we see this in, I think it's John chapter three, John chapter three and verse 17. I'm moving a little quicker now. John chapter three and verse 17, for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And so this is part of God's plan in his will and he goes about it through men. When I say men, it's all inclusive, through men and women and those that will share the gospel. The blood of Christ is powerful enough to save all men and will never lose its saving power. That's very important, doesn't ever lose its saving power. If it could lose its power, now the doctrine of eternal life and everlasting life comes into play. What is sustaining your salvation, dear Christian fellow brother or sister, is the power of the blood that is shed on your account. And if that comes into play, that means if it's not able to sustain its power, that blood, his blood, Jesus Christ's blood, than you have in play eternal life and everlasting life. It's not able to have everlasting life or eternal life. There's a point, there's a point. You say, oh, wow. I'll always refer to that. That's another reason why I believe in eternal security or everlasting life. And so it's because of the power of the blood, the knowledge of truth. We said the salvation of all. Secondly, the knowledge of truth. Another goal of prayer is that others would know the truth. You might have a friend, an individual, you might have a family member. It could be a number of situations that you're in or have or know of, and there's somebody who is not able, maybe not willing, willfully not willing, to come to the knowledge of truth. Some of the greatest struggles inside a church is ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of truth. They want to learn, they have that, I love it, but it's not in their life, it's not coming out of their life. And so they never come to the knowledge of truth. So we want to pray that as this information goes in, God uses it, that's why it's so important that you listen to the, not me, the Holy Spirit. in your life and in your heart. And so we want to be sensitive. I think I was on this a couple weeks. We want to be sensitive to that calling or drawing. So this is the knowledge of truth. Another goal of prayer is that others would know the truth. It is not so much intellectual comprehension as I'm speaking. That's not the goal necessarily. The end is discernment in an appropriation by faith. It is active acceptance of the truth. Say it like that. It's an active acceptance of truth, not a head ascent or what you might have in your intellect. There's another quote I want to give you, W.A. Criswell. He says, the truth under the inspiration and power of the Holy Spirit leads the man away from his reformations, away from his good works, away from his pride, and boasting of the worth of his life and the deeds that he has done, and it leads him, a humble supplicant, to the atoning Christ. If you think for a moment that the salvation that you receive in Christ leads you back into bondage, into doing good works or having a great life, and that's how that's obtained, that's not the right salvation. So we see that definitely praying for somebody for the knowledge of the truth is very important. You will find that in First Timothy chapter two as what he says that he says in verse four back to our text now he says, who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of truth. So it's important. I ask this, you'll hear me say this over and over again and I use it a lot. It's simple and it makes good sense. Are you teachable? That is one of the hardest things for somebody to answer. It's very rare that you have somebody say, yes, I'm teachable. They'll hem haul around. They'll give you a sideways answer. They'll give you a backwards answer. And this tells me, in any case, you were answering one way or another. If you don't say nothing, you answered it. If you give me a sideways, you answered it. Straightforward, say yes, no, I want to learn, I'm here, I want to learn, but have that heart, that answers it as well. So you answer it by default, but are you teachable? Are you available and are you faithful? And so the teachable is the hardest one. Thirdly, and I need to close here, the provision of Christ. This is found in verses five and six, for there is one God. Now this gets, this is going to get, This can, we're going to get into some things, not tonight, but it's going to spill into some things. Verse five, read them with me. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Finding words in the English language to make it clearer than that, you're not going to find. to say that, well, there can be a priest, there can be a preacher, there can be something that can mediate between you and God. There isn't. You can have a brother or sister intercede and pray for you in God's will, in God's power, relying solely on God, and God likes to hear that. He says, it's a sweet-smelling savor, those prayers. But you don't have an individual that can interact on behalf of another. The only one is Jesus Christ. He is our mediator. He is the only mediator between God and man. If you want to mediate through somebody else, another spirit, another God, you can find one. It's called a medium. And religion now won't tell you that, but religion will tell you. There's different people set up, holy people that you can go to, and they can mediate on your behalf. You can pray to saints. You can give to saints. There's a lot of stuff you can do in religion. It's endless. But here, as he breaks this down, verse 5, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men. the man Christ Jesus. Now he's going to add verse six, watch what he says, who gave himself, that's Christ Jesus, a ransom for all to be testified in due time. And so we see he is a mediator and under the provision of Christ, you see number one, he's God in the flesh. Number two, he's the mediator. And number three, he's the savior. So God in the flesh, there is one God who exists in three persons. We call this the Trinity, it's what it's called, or the triune or Godhead. I like the term Godhead. And the reason why is because you'll find that word in the Bible. I have nothing against Trinity and I will use it. But if you're talking intellectually with somebody on that topic, they're going to bust your chops using the word Trinity. It's not found in scriptures. And so it's just a little tidbit they get you and they try to take what you're feeding it, the definition. The working definition to Trinity is in the Bible. And again, I don't have a problem with it. Generally, I don't have a problem with Christians who believe in the Trinity, one God in three persons. But here, this is what this is speaking of God in the flesh. A lot of times people say, Like I said, he's praying to the Father, but he's over here. And if he's the same, then how does that happen? Just broaden that thinking up just a little bit, and you'll see that he has that human side. And we're seeing he is God in the flesh as well. You say, do you have a verse? I do. Glad you asked. Turn to 1 John. This is probably one of the strongest verses dealing with this topic, this doctrine, 1 John 5. Look with me in verse 7. This verse you will need to know if you're going to witness or be around people or be at Christ, share the gospel. This will be an area where you need 1 John 5.7. It says this, for there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. And so, the argument will go that it doesn't say that. That's not what it's saying, that's not what it's alluding to. That's called allegorical thinking, thought for thought instead of word for word. Literal's what it says. They'll say, that's not what it says in the Greek. Well, that's exactly what it says in the Greek. They'll say 1 John 5, 7 was not in the original Bible. So it was added. It was there. We don't have the originals. Nobody, nobody has, we don't, not even in the museums, there was no originals. And then they'll back up and say, well, I don't mean original, I mean, original language. Well, here's the thing. We've come all the way up to English, we have a Bible, and now all of a sudden we're falling apart on God because we can't believe that we don't have his word. Why not just simply step out a little bit further and believe what it says? That's where I'm at. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, capitalized, the Word, capitalized, these are person, personification, and the Holy Ghost, capitalized, and these three Very clear, R1. Then he goes on, but we're dealing with in the flesh. Let's go to Colossians chapter 2, develop it. Now if we're working with somebody that's not recognizing this, and you will, don't let that shock you. That's how contention goes about, pride. Pride will keep somebody from admitting or seeing or saying, yeah, okay, that's what it's saying. Colossians. And so don't let that shock you. You might not get to Colossians. Colossians chapter 2 verse 9, and that's okay. You got to know when it's like an automatic wash machine. When it runs out of water, you shut off. You know, don't keep arguing the point. You're not going to get anywhere. You're digging the hole bigger, deeper, whatever. Back off. He says here in verse 9, for in him, and if you back up, Christ is who he's speaking of. You can deal with that through the whole chapter, but in verse 9, for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the, say it with me, Godhead bodily. You see, what is the Godhead? That's the three persons as one. He says here, and ye are complete in him which is the head of all principalities and powers. And so Colossians 2.9 is another good verse to use with this. And what he states, the doctrine of the Godhead or the Trinity is an essential doctrine and it is one that unbiblical religions deny. If you're involved or have been involved with a religion that denies that Jesus Christ is God, you do not need to be interacting with that religion. All right. That should be a big red flag. Okay. He says, so is God in the flesh? I'm out of time. I'm going to go. He is the mediator and I want to get into that and then he's the savior. So let's end there for tonight. we're looking at the provision of Christ, what Christ provisions. And Christ indeed, I speak this on a different level, like through the ministry, God provisions the ministry. He's called the church into focus, he's called the apostles, he's called the preachers and pastors and teachers and Christians. And we've looked at the commission, we're preaching on that. But when God provisions something, he sets it up and he provides what is essentially needed for what he's telling you to do. And so this is what is going on here in Timothy. We see the provision of Christ. He's God in the flesh. He's stating this. He's the mediator between God and man. That's Christ Jesus. And he's indeed the savior of the world. And he doesn't share that with anybody else. And religions will state that, yes, it's shared with other people. It's shared with other saints. It's shared with other gods, whatever religion you're looking at. And so you want to be mindful of that. and to understand that those were false religions. Let's all stand tonight. I'm excited about 1 Timothy. There's a lot there. Ladies, I keep wanting to bring up chapter two a little bit later on. He's going to address the women in the church, and we'll have fun with that. I'm kind of building that up when we get there. But we'll put that off. Yeah, my wife, I told my wife, man, I'm really looking forward to that. She goes, well, I'm not going to be there that night. So she's still here. But if God's spoken to your heart, mind God, as we learn his word, as the Holy Spirit has his will and his way, that's what's needed. That's what's needed in our lives, every one of our lives. We need the Holy Spirit to work, and he needs freedom to work. Don't restrict him. Listen to him, mind him. what he puts on your heart. Brother Jeff, let's sing a song, a verse.