Well, please take your Bibles again with me this morning and open them to Ephesians in Chapter 6. Ephesians Chapter 6. I trust you're able to secure a copy of the notes for the sermon in this series we're going through today. Ephesians Chapter 6. If you're ever visiting my house, I will probably take you down at some point to the, I don't know, I don't call it a man cave, but it's my office downstairs. It's a little corner that Lori says I can do anything within those 8 by 10 feet space. I can put anything there. And then she's still in charge of the pictures that go up in that space. So I have my desk. I spread out on my desk. My father-in-law, my late father-in-law, made this table, built this table I use as a desk. And I spend a lot of time down there. I just do. Not just for work, for church, but for other projects. And I'd like to read down there. It's quiet and dark. But there's something, as I'm sitting at my desk in my basement, and perhaps you'll see it someday if you're there. As I sit at my desk, there's something to my right that just frightens me. When I look over at it, even as recently as this morning, I'm not far from either tears or beads of sweat on my forehead. I don't enjoy looking over there and seeing what is right next to my desk. It's an elliptical machine. I say, why do you have it there? Because I need it. I want to live longer. But I kind of got into elliptical machines when I lived in Virginia Beach. We lived within walking distance of a really nice YMCA. That's what it is. And I would go over there three, four, five times a week in the morning at 6 and do the elliptical machine for about 25 minutes. And it was never pleasant. It was always painful. And there were little TV screens, and I would also listen to podcasts. So I'd have stuff in my ears to listen to. I'd have images in front of me. Of course, you watch people, too. And it was still painful. But every morning, I would try to get up and go do the elliptical, and then come home and read. It was just kind of a mindless routine I got into for the better part of my 40s, the middle and late 40s. And so when we moved here, I bought one. Why is that, because you missed the pain and the monotony? No, it's because I saw what happened in Virginia Beach with that elliptical machine. See, even though I would no longer give it much thought, I was just going through the motions and I was hoping to get healthy and have a strong heart, it wasn't until I traveled by myself in my late 40s to Beijing, China, I was inserted into a church network, an underground church network, to teach for about 10 days in, they called it a seminary, I would call it a Bible institute, to teach biblical counseling. I was one in a series of different professors they were bringing in. I flew into Beijing, I had no idea what I was gonna do once I got my suitcase. That's how mysterious it was. I would walk out and look for my name on a sign. And sure enough there were two or three students, male and female students from this school that swept me away in a car and off I went to a hotel and into the shadows for about ten weeks. They wouldn't even let me roam around during lunchtime. I had to stay in the buildings. So I was on that trip and And the first weekend came up, and the students are like, well, what do you want to do, professor? And I said, well, I don't know. I don't know China. And we were just not too far. We were in the, if you know China, I was in like the fourth circle around Beijing. Talk about circles going up from Beijing. They said, do you want to go see the Olympic Village? I'm like, oh yeah, that's right. We did that over here. And I said, yeah, I'd like to go see that. So they set up an outing, these young students, and they put me in the back seat of the car and took me to the Olympic Village. And I got to read plaques of our US athletes who had competed and medaled there, and that was cool. And they said, do you want to see the Great Wall of China, at least a section of it? I'm like, sure, let's do that next. And they were running me pretty wild. It's pretty ragged. The Olympic Village is a lot of walking. But when they got me to the Great Wall of China, at least that segment that they wanted to show me, I was surprised how many stairs there were. Big stairs, not like your basement stairs, like stairs where you're bringing your knees up to your waist level to step up to the next one. And then you have to walk forever and then go up more stairs. And this wall was truly magnificent. And it was just a section of the wall, obviously. But we walked several miles. Going up these stairs, going up hills and down slopes and all that. And you know what I found out? Closing in on 50 at that time, I was keeping up with these young punks. And they were trying to slow down for me. I'm like, no, we're good. Keep going. As a matter of fact, I got in front of some of them. I wasn't racing them. I was like, what's wrong? You guys getting tired? And even with the inclines and the steps, they were saying, you're doing pretty well. Well, of course I took that and thumped my chest and said something about America. No, I didn't. But you know what I was thinking about? I was thinking about that crazy elliptical machine back in Virginia Beach. And those mindless 25 minutes every morning that I would go through different difficulty levels and listen to podcasts, watch the screen to be distracted, and then go home and read. Just something I had to get through. It wasn't until I was on the Great Wall of China pulling in front of a group of young students on the walk that I was like, you know what, that elliptical machine, that was doing a lot more than I realized. Because normally I would have been gassed out and way behind. The elliptical actually changed things for me when I didn't realize it. You know, transition from that concept of an elliptical machine to prayer. And we can say the same thing about prayer. You see, prayer changes things. I have a quote in your notes there from R.C. Sproul. And he wrote, prayer does change things, all kinds of things. But the most important thing it changes is us. He's right. The transforming power of prayer on both the personal level and the corporate level, the church level. You know, it's this transforming power of prayer that takes us this morning to the city of Ephesus. And we find ourselves in the city of Ephesus with a local church that was actually planted by the Apostle Paul. You can read on how that was planted in Acts chapter 19. So significant was the location of the church at Ephesus and so important were the logistics of Ephesus and the importance of it in that region that Paul not only planted a church there, but he established a formal training center for two years of rich theological training. Some have surmised that this two-year training center might have continued beyond Paul's tenure there. Men that he trained could have continued that formal training center, which you read about in Acts chapter 19, verses 9 through 10. And many believe that it's out of this training center that Paul established there in Ephesus that men were equipped and deployed to be church leaders and elders in the new church plants all around that Mediterranean region. Some even hold to the possibility, and I'm pretty persuaded of this idea as well, some hold that this letter that's in front of you, we call it Ephesians, this epistle to the church at Ephesus is the curriculum from that training school that Paul preserved in writing for the church in his absence, perhaps. What I find is interesting, though, is at the end of this epistle, in Ephesians chapter six, after covering so much rich theology and so much rich practical living, everything from home to work to church, you got everything in Ephesians. But Paul ends on a note that's pretty, pretty important. Not just the spiritual warfare section in general, which is where your mind's going and rightfully so. But it's within that discussion of spiritual warfare and spiritual armor. You see, you know these words. Look at Ephesians 6. And when I read verses 18 through 20, I want you to see what the most important part of the warfare is. He saves it for last. You have the helmet, the shield, the sword, the belt, the shoes. You have all that. But he saves the most important thing for the end. He says in verse 18, with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the spirit and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. Pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in proclaiming it, I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. He punctuates not just the discussion of spiritual warfare with the topic of prayer, he's punctuating all six chapters. In this letter to the Ephesus church, he's calling them to intense prayer. Did it work? Is it something that took root in the church at Ephesus there? No doubt he would have taught on this as well. not only in the church, but in the training center, and now he's written it, were they a praying church? It's probably safe to conclude that they were, at some point, quite a praying church. They were a church that was stable because of corporate and individual praying. But as time passed, the decades roll through pretty quickly if you haven't noticed, What had been a stabilizing force, a powerful practice in that local church of prayer, had begun to dwindle. Dwindle to an alarming, power-reducing, discernment-strangling low point. Because here, as Paul writes Timothy, whom he left at Ephesus, Paul is saying, Timothy, you've got to start that machinery back up. You've got to start this machinery of corporate prayer back up. And so that occasions the charge that Paul gives in 1 Timothy chapter 1. Turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter 1. In verse 3, he says, my true child in the faith. Verse 3, I urged you upon my departure from Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus. And at the end of chapter 3, he's going to say, I'm writing these things so you'll know how to conduct yourself in a household of God. In other words, I'm setting up your priorities, Timothy, for the leadership And that church at Ephesus, it's gotten off track, even with having a stellar theological education system and study center. In spite of being planted by an apostle, it's sliding. And things need to be put back into order, starting with the leadership on down to everyone. Well, Paul, where do you want me to start? And Paul's answer is in chapter 2, verse 1. First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men. Paul's commission to Timothy there at Ephesus makes prayer the launchpad for everything else in the church. It's the first priority. And as we saw last week as we studied verse 1 of chapter 2, we're not just going through different categories of prayer. This isn't just a Greek word study to press through and to point at and say, uh-huh, I see that. This is not merely to leave an academic footprint or impression. Paul's goal through Timothy to that church and through that church to Calvary Baptist Church of Ypsilanti is this. He wants us to know that praying the right way guarantees growing the right way. That's the big idea. Praying the right way guarantees growing the right way. That's on the private level, the personal level. as well as the corporate level. As a matter of fact, you could put it this way, it's true privately and corporately, or you could say privately then corporately. Praying the way that Paul prescribes in our verses this morning will bring about four consequences. This is part two of our series, Categories and Consequences. Last week we just stayed in verse one and saw the four primary ways of praying, those categories. But praying that way brings about consequences, good consequences. What are these consequences of praying the way he's prescribed for churches and individuals to pray in verse one? There's four of these consequences. Number one, you'll find that you'll have a primary focus on access to God. No more will prayer be a sleepy spiritual discipline. You will be awakened and have a primary focus on access to God when you're praying to him. You need help for your mind not to wander during your times of prayer. Pray the way he's prescribing here. Your goal when you pray, either in a small group or at a table like the men did here, 50 some men yesterday, or praying over a coffee and fellowship like some of you ladies did this week, or praying in the fellowship hall on a Wednesday night, a corporate prayer service that's called by our church leadership. Praying is not an issue in those settings of performance, of word choice. It's just, to be quite frank, it's not always fun. It's work. It's not a legalism. It's not how fluent you can be. It's not what you'll put on your Facebook status after the service. It's not showing up so that you can be seen and noticed for showing up. It's for you to commune with God. is for you to walk shoulder to shoulder with your brother and sister in Christ. And not always those that you might be drawn to on a personal level, but they're part of the same body as you, so you show up when they're showing up, and you're praying together. And what are you doing? Well, we saw in verse 1, we're offering together entreaties, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings. And we looked at those. That was our study last week when we talk about entreaties, where this is the idea of approaching a superior about needs that we have. If he doesn't meet these needs as our superior, these needs won't be met. That's a concept of entreaty. And entreaties communicate dependence. We saw the word prayers. This is the umbrella term of approaching deity. And this umbrella term of prayers has the key idea of devotion. We saw this word petitions. And this is a word that was often used to describe a face-to-face interview. We're in each other's space, focused on each other. It's petitions. I'm up close in order to talk with you. Petitions carries this main idea of confidence, that I'm talking to you. I'm being heard. And we saw the word thanksgivings in verse one. This is simply focusing on God the giver. This is pointing out and saying, God, I want you to note that I see this, I see that, I see what you've done here, I see what you've done in their hearts, I see what you've provided, and you already know all this, God, I just want you to know that I know it. And the key idea with thanksgivings is worship. I mean, it's just you and God. And if you pray like this, it will sure help your wandering mind, your default avoidance, and we'll find you coming into those moments, sometimes battle-weary, sometimes fighting other voices calling out to you in your time, and you'll find yourself, this is pretty awesome. You'll say that in your heart. Because my primary focus in these times of prayer is access to God. And he's here. It's not just an issue of getting certain phrases in. It's you and God. But you gotta ask the question, if it's you and God, who are you talking about in those moments? in those entreaties and prayers and petitions and thanksgivings, what are they about as you commune with God? And that leads to the second consequence of praying like Paul's prescribing. And the second consequence is this, we'll call it an intentional attention, an intentional attention on difficult targets. Look at chapter two, verse two. At the end of verse 1 it says, be made on behalf of all men, verse 2, for kings and all who are in authority. Stop. That didn't take up a lot of space, the end of verse 1, the beginning of verse 2, but the space that's taken up at the end of verse 1 and the beginning of verse 2 sure argues for a prayer journal. For you to brainstorm who that is in your life. and don't use pencil, use ink, and make it a permanent mark in your moleskin, in your prayer journal, on your prayer cards, in your prayer app, that I'm going to pray for kings and all who are in authority. Why is that significant? Well, it's going to cause you to write down and keep right in front of you during your moments and seasons of prayer these leaders. But notice it says before you start with kings and all in authority, all men. I mean immediately your list is going to be populating quickly. You're going to have on your prayer list for every day not only those that from a human perspective wield mighty power and influence, But if you're going to do all men, you're also going to have to do lesser folks, humanly speaking, the common folks, your family, but your friends, perhaps the church directory, your coworkers, your neighbors, missionaries. You can't possibly pray for all men. I mean, there's not enough journals in the world to contain the names of everyone. Well, I'm sure there is, but get the point. But you're going to have a list That's going to be pretty specific. Going back to Virginia Beach, in my mind, there was a businessman there at Colonial Baptist Church, one of our deacons. His name was Gary. And Gary was born and grew up here in the metro Detroit area. So when I went to that church in 2005, we quickly found each other. Oh, another metro Detroit guy. And he was like, go blue all the time, go Lions. We'd cry about the Pistons all the time. And we just could relate to each other. We could see each other. But after I moved here, after I moved here in 2016, Gary continues to reach out to me probably three or four times a year. And it's not just about go blue or the Lions. He says something like this usually in his email or his text message. I just want you to know that today is such and such a day and it's my day to be praying for you again. And I just want you to know that. And not only that, I have a few questions for the next time I'm praying for you on a given day. And I want to know, how are things going at church? What's encouraging you at Calvary Baptist Church? What's discouraging you at Calvary Baptist Church? How is your family? How is your health? How is your walk with the Lord? I'm getting text messages like this from Gary. What am I hearing from Gary? I'm hearing he's got a list going that he's interacting with. I don't know how frequently my name rolls around if it's every third Thursday of a month. I don't know what it is. I don't know his system. But I do know it's rolling around. And what an encouragement that is to me. And do I answer all his questions? You better believe it. Because when my time comes up next in his rotation of whatever he's doing in his journal, I want him praying for these things. And then he checks on me. That's what we're talking about here. You're going to pray like Paul, then that means you're going to give intentional attention on difficult targets, not just praying for people you like, But even for Nero or leaders, national leaders, local leaders, state leaders, world leaders, he said all of them, the easy ones and the difficult ones, the seen and the unseen, the near and the far, all. corrals that, that word all. Now, you need to remember something about Paul here. And in the context of 1 Timothy, Paul is taking on false teachers. And every unit of thought that we've considered so far, and there's been four, five, excuse me, well four, all of chapter one, there are four units of thought there, every paragraph was taking on false teachers directly or indirectly. It's no different. Here in verse 2, at the end of verse 1 and verse 2. Because these false teachers that are very active at Ephesus, as Paul is writing to Timothy, these false teachers are messing around with myths and with genealogies and mixing into that a misuse of the Jewish Old Testament law. And as we continue to go through this epistle together, you're going to see this coming up a lot. The Jewish flavor of this false teaching. And we surmise that in this Jewish element of the false teaching, they were teaching the fact that God gives priority to saving those who follow their Jewish teachings. And as you can understand, and as you think back to Ephesians 2 and 3, That doesn't bode well with Gentiles or for Gentiles. What Paul is doing here when he's saying you got to pray for all men and the king, because that king was Nero, a Gentile. And he's not the only Gentile. We have to pray for all the rulers. And that would have been odious to these false teachers at Ephesus. These Gentiles know way, and they're the ones persecuting us as a church, they would say. And if they would just leave us alone, we wouldn't react so much. And Paul's saying, no, you're getting it all wrong. You need to face them and be praying for them. All types, Jew or Gentile. Now you obviously can't mean, Paul, every single person on the globe at that point, because Ephesus doesn't have access to that kind of information, but get his point. Commentator Guthrie says this, the wider the subjects for prayer, the larger becomes the vision of the soul that prays. He's right. You'll have an intentional attention on different targets, difficult targets that you're praying for. Now you're gonna need to designate time for this kind of praying. Some of this praying can happen privately, corporately, but it will take time. Samuel Chadwick once wrote, hurry is the death of prayer. Praying for gospel fruit in unlikely hearts produces alarming change in you. And that brings us to the third consequence of praying like Paul is prescribing. What's the third consequence? We'll call it this, progressive transformation into Christlikeness. As you pray the way that Paul's prescribing, you get on that elliptical. Don't look now, but you may be growing every time you're praying. Look at verse two again. For kings and all who are in authority, watch this, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. I see two types of transformation here. Christ-like transformation. I see an internal transformation, and those are the two words godliness and dignity. This word godliness is a particular Greek word that's going to show up very often in all three pastoral epistles. Most often it's going to be translated in your English copy of scripture with the word godliness. It has the idea of a piety that's appropriate to your identity or appropriate for those who are owned by God himself. And this word dignity is speaks of a seriousness that describes someone who knows God, speaks to God, verses 1 and 2, and is godly and growing in that. As a matter of fact, we're going to see when we get to 1 Timothy chapter 4 that we are to discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness. There's a growth, there's a transformation that's happening that Paul is tying together with faithful praying like this. There's a growth in godliness, a growth in seriousness about you. And we also see here two more words. These are external manifestations. If godliness and dignity are internal descriptors, The next two words, tranquil and quiet, are external manifestations growing out of godliness and seriousness. Many would call these synonyms, and I agree with that. These two words are trying to communicate, if I can say it that way, a state of settledness. Just, no matter what's going on, no matter what winds are blowing in your life, no matter what, A leader or ruler may be saying against the creation and against the creator, no matter what pain I'm going through, as I pray, there's a settledness so that while I might wince with a hit, I stand my ground graciously. Godliness and dignity on the inside produce a settledness on the outside. A lot of people like to come to Pure Michigan and do the lighthouse tour, where you start down there on the southwest Michigan corner and work your way up the coast on Lake Michigan and up around the top of the mitten down around Huron. and down on the east side of the east coast of Michigan with Erie and St. Clair, and just look at the lighthouses. Some of you have done this. Some of you, like me, want to finish the job. I haven't seen them all. I haven't done that route. But I have been a couple times to a few lighthouses on Lake Michigan, and one was late in a fall once, and it was in Frankfort, Michigan. And there's a lighthouse in Frankfurt, Michigan. And the weather was bad that day that my wife and I walked out to the lighthouse. And I was shocked. I mean, we were just in the fall, but the waves were crashing. They were huge. And you were going to get wet on this tour. And I was just thinking, as big as these waves are, what is it like if there's no ice and it's February? I mean, it's just crashing, crashing, and crashing into these lighthouses. What do the lighthouses do? They just keep shining. In some really cold winters, we have pictures of our lighthouses, some of our lighthouses covered with literally feet of ice. But there they stand. There they stand. They're settled. And the storms can't move them. They're dependable, they're quiet. That's what I see happening in the lives of those who pray the way that Paul prescribes. Paul says it's going to, you're gonna see growth on the inside of godliness and seriousness as a disciple. And it's just gonna settle you on the outside where the storms are. Paul will write to the believers at Philippi in Philippians 2.12, work out your salvation. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it's God that works in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Every sincere prayer, hear this, every sincere prayer like Paul's prescribing is a moment of progressive sanctification, not just at the individual level, but corporately as a church when we pray together like this. You know, I think of Christ like this. Did Christ pray for his enemies? Did Christ pray for those that were in authority that were wrong? Yes. As a matter of fact, just think of the Passion Week. Our Lord on Tuesday of the Passion Week is evangelizing Pharisees in the public square there at the temple. He's saying, render to God the things that are God's. That was an invitation for the Pharisees to repent. Jesus is evangelizing the Pharisees on Tuesday. From the cross on Friday, he's praying for the Pharisees. Father, forgive them. They don't know what they do. And on Sunday, if you will, as he begins to mobilize his disciples after his resurrection, he's deploying, he's commissioning his disciples to pursue, yes, the Pharisees. That's the heart of Christ. And as we pray, we grow in that direction. By the way, according to what Paul will write in Titus chapter three, in the pastoral epistles, first few verses, we as Christians are supposed to be a force for good where we have been planted in our communities and our care and concern and prayer for our leaders. So careful, if you pray like this, you go through the reps, this is part of your rhythm now. you're going to be carried away with the fact that I'm talking to God. And then you're going to look as you go through life and say, this is changing me, praying like this. That's powerful. But that's then going to turn your attention that you want to see the same power that's changing you, listen, rescue others, especially the ones you've been praying for. And that brings us to the fourth consequence. And fourth consequence, we'll call it a gospel burden for the lost. A gospel burden for the lost. You see, the very one that you are praying to in the manner that verse one prescribes, that heavenly father, listen, is very active As we read in the psalm earlier in the service, he is active towards all the nations, all the peoples. In what way? And this is where it gets really cool. Because when you see the four ways that he's active, it adds even more oomph. Put that in your notes. I don't know how to spell that. Into your praying. You're like, oh my goodness. I'm praying the right way. I'm praying as I've been prescribed. But God's doing this in the nations right now as I'm praying, and I'm praying in concert with that? Yeah. In what four ways is He active? Well, first of all, He sees. He sees. Look at verse 3. This is good. What? Praying like this. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior. You see, when you're praying this way, God sees that. In those small moments of pockets of believers praying that way at Calvary, or even by yourself with your coffee in the morning, or the evening, or the lunch, He sees this, not just that you're praying, but how you're praying, and He judges it good and acceptable. Why? Well, as we keep reading, you see at the end of that verse, this is God our Savior who sees it, and it's good and acceptable. You are praying in concert with the heart of a saving God. This implies that there are types of praying that are not good and acceptable. Prayers that are missing are not acceptable. Prayerlessness is unacceptable. Vitriol in prayer is unacceptable. Selfishness in prayer is unacceptable. But this is good and acceptable. He sees that. And Paul is under the inspiration of the Spirit, highlighting the fact that a saving God sees that and says, yes, yes, that's how we pray. That's how you pray. Because it's in concert with my heart as a saving God. So first of all, what's he doing that's active? He sees. God sees. But secondly, he desires. He desires. Look at verse 3 and then we'll read into verse 4. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. Tell me about God our Savior. Verse 4. Who desires all men. Now you have to read that the same way you read all men at the end of verse 1. It's not every human person that's alive at that moment. We'll come back to that because you're not able to pray for all those people too. Be consistent with all men here and we'll see how Paul uses it yet future. He desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. What does this mean? What's he doing? He sees but he also desires. Now I need to give you a little bit of a theological distinction here. with this particular word that's used here, translated desire, in my copy, my English copy of the scripture here, the Nazbi. This is talking about the heart, the heartbeat, the magnanimous largeness to the heart of God to display mercy. This isn't talking about his will of decree, This isn't talking about God wants it to happen so it definitely is going to happen. If you're not careful to make those theological distinctions between the will of desire and the will of decree, then you will end up a universalist where everyone will get saved. And you'll have to use the wording from this verse and a few others. Is that what he's saying? Well, no, we know not everyone's going to be saved because just in this epistle of 1 Timothy, between now and the end, we're going to read about people that aren't saved, that don't get saved. It says, he desires, hear that as the very heart of God. Think of Psalm 86.5 when you think of this phrase. He desires all men to be saved. Psalm 86.5 says this, you, Lord, are good, and listen to the next phrase, and ready to forgive. Keep reading in that verse. You are abundant in loving kindness to all who call upon you. God stands ready to forgive. It's God that put the plan of salvation into effect. It's God who sent his son. What more does he have to do to communicate that he's a saving God? He even has that name at the end of verse three, God, our Savior. Nehemiah chapter nine, verse 17, in that prayer of repentance, that great prayer of repentance, you read these words, you are a God of forgiveness, gracious, and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness. He's our Savior. You see, we are talking here about, we're coming up to the topic of election, though the word is not here in this text. But we have to talk about it when we're talking about the fact that God has a heart that's big enough to save everyone, but not everyone will be saved, only those who are, as Paul wrote to the same church in Ephesians chapter one, the ones who are going to be chosen. Remember these words? Ephesians 1, 4 through 5. This church would remember these words in Ephesus. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before him. In love, Paul continues, he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself according to what? Their worthiness, no, according to the kind intention of his will. This is not a new doctrine, which is why Paul can speak in abbreviated terms to Timothy, who will read this to the church, where he's already written Ephesians chapter one. See, God sees. And God desires, he has a heart for the nations. And he has a gospel message to the nations where there's a third activity of God. He sees, he desires, and he reconciles. He reconciles. This is in verses five and six. For there's one God and one mediator also between God and men, who is that? The man, Christ Jesus. who gave himself as a ransom, and here are those two words again, for all, the testimony given at the proper time. You say, what's that phrase, the testimony given at the proper time? It's what we're celebrating this time of year. That when God finally did send his son at the perfect time that he had determined to accomplish this great mission of earth, to represent God perfectly, to live a righteous, perfect life, and then to die a substitutionary death where he absorbed the wrath due Jim Newcomer for Jim Newcomer's sin. That's the testimony given at the proper time. And over at Paul saying, it's happened, he's come, he's completed his work of redemption. The testimony is you must believe this. That's not the part of the verse that we struggle with, is it? It's the first part. Who gave himself as a ransom for all. Because now it's back to sounding like, well, that means all will be saved. Everyone will be saved. And we just need to tap the brakes again and continue a consistent use of all, all the way back to the prayer journal in verses two and three. It's meant to describe, it's meant to point out all men, is the word we've seen. Anthropos, it's humanity, mankind. There's one God, he's offended because of his righteousness in our sin. There's one mediator, and that's Jesus, who stands between God and the third party, that's mankind. That's the message. He reconciles. So what do we do with the ransom, the atonement? And the best wording that satisfies me up to this point in my pilgrimage is wording you've heard before from pastors in this pulpit, I know. And it's this wording, the atonement, the ransom, was sufficient for all, but efficient only for the elect. Now, you might struggle at that kind of wording, but I want you to chew on it. I had someone in a business meeting once, not here, previous church, stand up and had a burr in his saddle this particular night. And he said, did Jesus pay the penalty of the sins for every person? And my answer, based on this text and a few others, I said, listen, should every person in this room repent, I can promise you this, there's sufficient sacrifice. There's sufficient ransom. If every person in this state were to repent, there would be plenty of ransom to go around, atonement. If every person breathing air on the globe right now would repent, there would be sufficient covering. You know, the Puritans taught this as well. And I have one of their quotes here for you somewhere. Oh, yeah, I have one of their prayers for you. There, at Calvary, grace removes my burdens and heaps them on the sun, made a transgressor a curse and sin for me. There the sword of thy justice smote the man, thy fellow, and there, listen to this, the infinite attributes were magnified, infinite atonement was made, there infinite punishment was due and infinite punishment endured. I can sure appreciate what John Piper says, he writes it this way, the atonement applies to the elect in a unique, particular way, although, listen to this, this is Piper, the death of Christ is sufficient to propitiate the sins of the whole world. The death of Christ effectually accomplished the salvation for all God's people. Should every person repent, there's sufficient This need not be an issue of debate. Even Cornelius Van Til, a rusty, crusty Calvinist, said this. He says, we believe the unrestricted universal offer of the gospel. Of course we do. You see, you and I don't know who God is going to save. We just don't know. What we have been told to do is to A, celebrate that we're saved when we don't deserve it, when left to ourselves, we wouldn't have repented or believed, and then to take that message to the nations in our lifetime. Because God will take the message of the gospel and its different points collide, impact those in whose hearts he's been working, and they'll believe. This is very important that you notice a phrase at the end of verse four. He desires all men to be saved. Well, what does that mean? Look at the verse. To come to the knowledge of the truth. They have to believe the facts. Not just academically, but embrace them. How can a person believe? God has to give them faith. It's a gift of God. Philippians 129, it's been granted unto you not only to believe, but to suffer. What do we take from this? A debate? No. We just simply understand that it says he gave himself a ransom for all here in 1 Timothy 2, 6. I also hear Jesus himself say in Matthew 20, 28, the Son of Man didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. And we just say, OK, I can't understand all of this, but I can celebrate it. He's even going to write these words to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 10. It's for this. I'm sorry. Not verse 10. 1 Timothy chapter 4, yeah, verse 10. For this we labor and strive, godliness, because we have fixed our hope on the living God who is the Savior of all men. And then we have this phrase. But especially for believers. We'll unpack that and the whole topic of common grace when we get to chapter 4, verse 10. But suffice it to grasp right now that he sees, he desires, and he reconciles. He sent his son. that must be believed upon. The invitation to the nations and to every human being, listen, is a legitimate offer. Just as legitimate as when Jesus offered the kingdom to the Jews. He wasn't trying to trick them. It was a legitimate offer. How do I reconcile that with the fact that God has to work in hearts to open them to believe? I can't. But I accept it. I live with that tension. I like what John MacArthur says, the scope of God's evangelistic efforts is broader than election. Matthew 22, 14, many are called but few are chosen. But I do know this, if you come to these verses and all you want to do is debate, you missed it, and I missed it, we missed it. But if we come to these verses and we have our knees calloused from praying, our brow wrinkled from concern for our lost loved ones and the nation's leaders and the world leaders and everyone in between, tears in our face, we understand what these verses are saying. Some of you know the name F.B. Meyer. a great Christian leader and preacher from another generation. He, along with another man named A.B. Simpson, who was the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance churches, they would often travel together and speak in conferences. And Arkent Hughes tells the story about F.B. Meyer one morning Awaking very early in the morning at one of these conferences where he was sharing his roommates with a B Simpson And they were gonna speak the next day and Meyer woke up so early in the morning He was sure he was the only one in the room awake And he turned to the side and looked over across the room at a B Simpson, and he was already awake He was kneeling at his bed, and he was physically weeping and shaking as he clutched a globe Praying so earnestly for this God who sees and desires and reconciles to save the nations. Well, God is doing one more thing. He sees, desires, he reconciles, and fourthly, he appoints, he appoints. And you see that in verse 7, for this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I'm telling you the truth. I'm not lying. As a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. Honestly, I've always struggled with the continuity of this passage when I get to verse 7. I think I can track up to verse 6 and I get to verse 7. I'm like, well, that was kind of abrupt. But it's not. It's beautiful. Remember, verse 7 is Paul. continuing to pursue, to hound, to tackle the false teachers who were saying, it's only Jews and those that make themselves Jews that are savable according to our system. And Paul's like, did you hear what I just said? There's a reconciling God. And in verse 70 says, and I have been chosen by him personally to be a teacher of the Gentiles. And I'm not lying. That's a right hook to the jaw of the false teachers. Paul was sent to the Gentiles, but I wonder who you're sent to. How would you fill in the blank? Paul was sent with the gospel to the Gentiles, but you were sent with the gospel to what? A group of mothers at the library that don't know Christ? Members of your pickleball league Your cul-de-sac, your campus, yeah. You've been sent to create relationships that you pray about, that their hearts would be open to a God whose offer is legitimate of salvation, that he would open their eyes to believe. Yeah. All this, all this comes out of praying. the way Paul prescribes. Your gospel burden for the lost can be so much more than just evangelical platitudes and captions and screensavers. The God you are praying to, like verse one, with the specifics of verse two, and also during the transformation personally of verse two, And praying with the convictions of verses three through seven, you know what kind of praying, that kind of praying will do? It will shake the nations in your generation with a gospel thunder. That's what it'll do. Mark Dever is right. Our continuing to pray for someone is a testimony of our faith, not in them, not in ourselves, but in God. Or Andrew Murray put it this way, the man who mobilizes the Christian church to pray will make the greatest contribution to world evangelization in history. Paul's teaching us how to kneel, yeah. As he's teaching us how to kneel, he's also teaching us how to run. So, just understand this. Praying the way Paul prescribes brings about four consequences. Praying the right way guarantees growing the right way. You'll be standing and kneeling in awe of your access to God. You'll pray in unlikely directions. Your supplication will produce sanctification, and you're gonna find a real theological endurance and anticipation in your prayer life. And there's also a bonus. If that weren't enough, you understand this, written to a church like Ephesus or ours, singing and praying like this, if you will, from the same sheet music, privately and together, what does that mean? That all of us are facing the same direction. We have the same burdens. And there's gonna be church unity possible at Calvary Baptist Church like you've never seen in the 85 years. So just watch it. Daily discipline on the elliptical of prayer is accomplishing much more than I think you realize. A church praying like this privately and corporately will not have a problem coming up to the topics remaining in the epistle. We'll be able to handle talking about politics, doctrines of grace, attire, headship, polity, elders, deacons, benevolence, discipline. It's prayer. It's corporate prayer. It's evangelistic prayer that will set the stage. And men, it's going to start with you. It's going to start with you. That's our next message when we come back to this series. We need to close this. You say, did the prayers get fixed at Ephesus after this? I'd like to give you a good report. We do hear about Ephesus again by a former pastor of Ephesus a couple decades in the future, the Apostle John. And John records the words of Jesus then about the church at Ephesus. And it says in Revelation chapter 2, don't turn there, I'll read it to you. To the angel of the church at Ephesus write, the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands says this, I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, so far so good, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false. You're like, they got the false teachers. Jesus is commending them. And then he says in verse three, and you have perseverance, and you've endured for my name's sake, and you haven't grown weary. And we're like, they got it. They did OK with the false teaching thing. Yeah, they did. And they're still around, and they're persevering. But Jesus isn't finished. He says this, but I have this against you. You've left your first love. You left your first love. You stopped talking. You've stopped communing with your first love, with me, Jesus says. He says, remember and repent and return. Learn from the Church at Ephesus, Calvary Baptist Church of Ipsy. orthodoxy, right doctrine, without praying corporately and individually the right way is still deadly. It's still deadly. May God save us and grace us with a fresh resolve as a church family to commune with him in prayer. Lord Jesus, thank you for this opportunity to study this word again and to hear the commission to pray as a local church. It's heavy. It involves every one of us. Help us to be faithful. And for those who have heard these words and read these words this morning who have yet to accept your free offer of eternal life, they have yet to believe that you are a mediator who stands between them and a God of wrath who's been offended in his holiness. But the same God of wrath is a God of love and he has sent his son to be the mediator who died and rose again, absorbing the wrath of those who will be saved. I pray, Lord, that you will give faith and repentance to those who have yet to accept this very legitimate offer of eternal life. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.