As most of you know, we practice verse by verse preaching at this church, rather than trying to approach the scripture from a topical perspective. There are times when I think I would like to preach topically, and perhaps today is one of those days. But for the most part, I feel that the verse by verse, chapter by chapter approach is better for me, because it keeps me in line with God’s priorities, rather than my own, which may vacillate from week to week depending on the circumstances.

We have been studying the first letter to Timothy for the last few weeks, and so we are at this particular passage today by the providence of God. The purpose of writing this letter, as Paul states in vs 15 of this chapter, is “so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.”

Now I suppose I could say that this subject is one that we could well postpone, or skip over, or save for a Wednesday night Bible study and not do any great harm. But as we come to church today, as we worship the Lord, it is important that we do so according to God’s design for the church. It is His church, and as Jesus said, they that worship God must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

That being said, the Christian community today has been playing fast and loose with the template for the church for quite a number of years now. First of all, they have played with the authority and inerrancy of God’s word. While most churches feign obeisance to the Bible, in reality they don’t believe it is inerrant. They don’t believe it is absolute truth. They don’t believe it is authoritative.

And so they have thought that the ordinances of the church and the gospel of the church, and the leadership structure of the church are something that they can change according to what seems good to them, and relevant to the modern culture that we live in. So perhaps it is more pertinent than ever before to remind ourselves of God’s template for the church, and particularly God’s instructions in regards to church leadership. Because if we don’t get the pastor/teacher position right, then it’s doubtful that we will get our doctrine right either, and the church will continue it’s downward spiral into apostasy and irrelevancy that it has already succumbed to, to a large degree.

Now last week as we looked at chapter 2, Paul laid out the doctrinal reasons that women were not to take the place of authority in the church. He gave reasons from scripture, going all the way back to creation, in support of this instruction that women were not to teach, nor exercise authority over the men in the church. I said last week, and I will say it again for the benefit of those who weren’t here last week, that this is not a cultural issue, as some would try to dismiss it. But it is the prerogative of Christ, whose church it is. And the Lord could have just laid down the law and that would be it, but He supports it with two arguments that come from creation. So He is showing that this is His plan from the start. It’s not something that we can dismiss by saying that was the culture of Paul’s day. This predates that culture.

And by the way, let me add something to that discussion which I failed to say last week. Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. The Gentiles in Ephesus and the surrounding region were pagans by nature. Before they were saved they worshipped the popular pagan deities of that day. And a number of those deities were female, such as Artemis, Diana, and Aphrodite. Those religions had no problem with women as priestesses of their cults. In fact, women were often held in high esteem in those cults. And furthermore, those religions encouraged engaging in immoral acts in those temples. Now I say that, not to be scandalous, but to show that women were not a problem in the Gentile religions. So when Paul advocates that only men were to be in church leadership, he is not saying something that is in keeping with the culture, but was counter to the culture. And so that’s just one more reason that we cannot dismiss this as a culture issue.

But now in chapter 3, Paul is going to focus on the leadership of the church, and lay out the requirements for such positions. He starts with what he calls here an overseer. This is the translation of the Greek word episkopē. It could also be translated as bishop in other versions. In the book of Titus, we see that position rendered as elder, and then elder is used synonymously with overseer, or bishop. The same can be said with shepherd, or pastor, which are synonyms for overseer. For our purposes, I think we can best interpret it a pastor. Pastor is related to the word for shepherd. And so pastor, or elder, or overseer, all refer to the same position.

Notice he says in vs 1, “It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires [to do.]”. I think the KJV says it is a noble work that he desires. I like that translation better. Noble has in mind a sacrificial task. One that is performed for the benefit of others, rather than for one’s own benefit.

But some confusion has been brought about by this phrase; “aspires to the office of overseer.’ Some think that it encourages men to seek after such a position. And they think that is self serving and vain. Personally, I think that if a man is called by God to preach, or to be a pastor, then that calling will manifest itself in a desire to preach.

Paul said of his own call to preach in 1Cor. 9:16-17 “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me.” So I think the idea that Paul has there is if a man is called to preach, he will have a desire to preach. But the main point to what he is saying is that the office is not one to be denigrated or looked down upon. But though it is a position of service, it is nevertheless a noble office. It is service for a greater good, for a greater purpose.

I think most of the problems with church leadership today is that many of those who claim the office are not called by God to the office. I’m not sure why people would choose this position. I don’t see reaping any great rewards on this earth for spending your life as a pastor. Unless you are a mega church pastor, or a television evangelist, I don’t think there is any real money to be made. Though there are certainly some multimillionaire television evangelists out there. But they are so far out of the norm that it’s unfair to pastors to include them in the same genre.

So why someone would be attracted to the ministry I do not know. I know I wasn’t. I grew up as a preacher’s kid, and I was told constantly growing up that my dad had prayed for two preacher boys before my brother and I were born. And so after we were born, that meant that we were destined to be preachers when we grew up. Well, though we pretended to go along with that prophecy as children, by the time we were teenagers we both were doing everything we could to prove them liars. But the strangest thing happened when we reached our middle age. We have both since become preachers. But neither of us ever sought it, in fact, we resisted that call for many years.

The bottom line though I think is that we need to recognize that a pastor is called. And I don’t mean called by a pastor search committee. I don’t have a lot of faith in those contraptions. And you don’t find any basis for them in the scripture. Paul told Titus that he was to appoint elders in every city. Titus was to make sure that the men he chose fulfilled the requirements that Paul laid out, which by the way are almost exactly the same in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. But for those who are called, it is a noble work to which he is called, and he should have a desire to fulfill that office.

I want to say something else about this word overseer. As I said, in Titus 1 Paul instructs Titus to appoint elders in every city. In Acts 14:23 we read that Paul and Barnabas did the same on their missionary journey. Acts14:23 “When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”

Now some have derived from these texts that the scriptures teach the necessity for a plurality of elders. So in a church, there must be at least more than one elder or pastor. And so we have today a very popular church doctrine that says there must be multiple elders, and yet usually only one person is the pastor. I think that is a misunderstanding of the text. It’s widely understood that the churches in those days were house churches. There was no mega churches, because there were no houses that could even hold a hundred people at one time. We have Bible study at my house, and I can tell you that it’s almost impossible to get more than 25 people in there. I don’t have a big house, but I’m sure it’s bigger than most of the houses of the common people in those days.

So the common sense understanding is that Paul is talking about multiple house churches in a city or region. If you used the template of a Jewish synagogue, then 10 men were required for creating a new synagogue. And so these were small, neighborhood type of assemblies in people’s homes. And so that begs the question, how many shepherds are needed to take care of two dozen sheep? This idea of having multiple elders just to satisfy someones fear of monopolistic leadership in a church, is not founded in scripture.

I like a quote I read recently from Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great, late 19th century English preacher. Every pastor loves to quote Spurgeon, but I have yet to hear any quote this saying concerning one man ministry. He said, “Every now and then we hear some simpleton or other talking about a one man ministry, when it has been a one man ministry from the commencement of the world to present day, and whenever you try to have any other form of ministry, except that of each individual saint discharging his own ministry, and doing it thoroughly and heartily and independently and bravely in the sight of God, you very soon run upon quicksands.” So it would seem Spurgeon did not support a multiplicity of elders.

But nevertheless, people are rightly concerned about the qualifications of a pastor, and to offset such concerns, Paul lays out some stringent requirements for that office. And the primary requirement is that they are to be men whose character is above reproach. I think that as you read vs 2, you should imagine that there is a colon there after the word reproach, and then everything that follows describes how being above reproach looks.

So we read starting in vs 2, “An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. 4 [He must be] one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity 5 (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?), 6 [and] not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. 7 And he must have a good reputation with those outside [the church,] so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.”

So we see that according to this list, the pastor must have a favorable testimony from two groups of people, those inside the church, and those outside. Now reproach can mean criticism, and if we were to apply that literally, then no pastor would pass the first qualification. In fact, I would suggest that criticism is part of the due process of being a pastor. But the idea of being above reproach is not speaking of criticism, which we get aplenty, but of having some moral or character failing which attracts criticism. Paul received much criticism in his ministry, but it was ill founded and he was able to appeal to those who knew his character as being above reproach.

Now there are 14 or so areas in which a pastor is to be above reproach as stated in the first 7 verses. I am not going to spend a lot of time explaining each one, or we would be here all day. I think most are pretty explanatory. But notice that the word perfect is missing from this list. Thank God for that. We need to remember that pastors are not perfect, though they should be striving for perfection.

The first qualification is one that is contentious today: “the husband of one wife.” That’s impossible to do if you are a woman pastor. But then again, it’s easy to dismiss this as another example of Paul’s male chauvinism. But aside from the discussion of male and female roles which we had last week, it means that the pastor is to be a one woman man. His wife is to be held in honor. He is not a womanizer. I think you can make the argument that he is not to have remarried in the case of divorce. The exception to that would be if his previous wife died. Paul said in 1Cor. 7:39 “A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.” And I think it’s obvious that the same would be true of a man whose wife had died, as long as he marries a Christian.

Another misunderstanding that has arisen from this is that a pastor must be married. He must have one wife. I think that is a wrong interpretation of this text. Paul himself was not married and he served as a pastor. We have no record that Timothy was married. Jesus wasn’t married. And He is the head Shepherd of the church. So I don’t think that means that a pastor must be married. However, I will say that being married is a safeguard against temptation. And so a single pastor must take extra precautions to make sure he is above reproach.

The pastor is to be temperate. We live in a temperate climate. That means mild. Not too hot and not too cold. So we understand what Paul is saying; the pastor is not to be a hot head. It doesn’t mean he’s supposed to be so meek and mild that he can’t blow his nose. But not a hot head. Level headed.

Prudent is related to that. It means wise, but not so much like wise in the typical way we think of it, like having a high IQ, but judicious, able to make good, sound decisions. Having common sense.

The next characteristic is respectable, which means of good repute, honest, trustworthy. After that we read, hospitable. Many years ago I used to be a part of the hospitality business. That was a term used by the hotel and restaurant business. So to be hospitable is someone who is welcoming, who is congenial, helpful in regards to the needs of others.

The last one in vs 2, is one that we probably usually think of first; able to teach. That qualification is not usually applied to those churches who believe in a multiplicity of elders. Most elders in those churches are not qualified to teach, and not able to teach, at least beyond a rudimentary level. But having the ability or gift to teach is essential for a pastor/teacher. And I believe it is a gift, though a gift that can be improved upon and practiced to become better at it. But irregardless, notice that it’s not at the top of the list, but somewhere in the middle. It’s important, but it’s not the most important thing.

In vs 3 we find the next group of qualifications. Vs 3 “not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money.” Not addicted to wine is also the same qualification that is listed in Titus for overseers. I would go so far as to say that wine or alcohol should be off limits for a pastor. And I say that as someone who used to drink every day. For me it wasn’t wine, it was Coors Lite. But the Holy Spirit says not addicted to wine. That gives you enough freedom to hang yourself. Because I can tell you that if the pastor is a wine drinker, or likes his beer, he is going to have a real disadvantage when it comes to being above reproach in his conduct. Solomon said in Prov. 20:1 “Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, And whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise.”

Then the next qualification is probably deliberately added after to addicted to wine; not pugnacious. That means a brawler, the same thing that Solomon said about strong drink. Pugnacious means looking for a fight. Some men don’t need alcohol to look for a fight. But either way, only a fool looks for a fight. I made that mistake a few times when I was younger, and I finally met someone who was willing to give me one, and it almost cost me my life. God doesn’t need us to fight with physical means. We are to fight with spiritual means. Eph 6:12 says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual [forces] of wickedness in the heavenly [places.]”

And not being pugnacious is followed by peaceable. Rather than being someone who is looking for a fight, he is to be the one who is peaceable. He is a peacemaker. Jesus said in Matt. 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” We should be men who tell others how to make peace with God and with their fellow man.

The last one of vs 3, is free from the love of money. Paul said in 1Tim. 6:10 “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” Notice that it does not say that it is wrong for the pastor to have money, or even to appreciate money. In fact, he goes on to say later in this passage that he is to govern his household well. That indicates he uses his money wisely. But it is a love for money and a longing for money that causes ruin. And I will admit that is a hard adage to accept. Because everyone has a natural tendency to want money. The more you have the more you want, and the less you have the more you want. But a desire for money that supersedes what you know is right and proper, a desire that says whatever it takes I will do it, that attitude is what causes a person to wander away from the faith, and causes grief in their life. We all have to be on guard against that desire. Jesus said “you cannot serve God and money.”

In vs 4 and 5 we see that principle of managing his household that I spoke of earlier. “He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?),” I think as we consider the entire context of both verses, this is not simply speaking of the pastor’s role in raising his children, but is speaking of the complete task of managing his house. As the father of the house, he is a loyal and loving husband to his wife, a father who disciplines his children with dignity, not overbearing, but firm and with love for his family, and as a provider and a manager of his household affairs.

The church is not a little like a family, and though the pastor’s primary job is preaching and teaching, yet he is also a manager of the house of God. And so the way he manages his home is a good indication of how he will manage the church. Not even the pastor can make someone come to faith in Christ, even if they are his own children. When they come of age, they will be responsible for their faith or lack of it. But he should be able to keep his children under control and in submission to his rule. The key there is not ruling with an iron fist that provokes a child to rebel.

As a general rule to all fathers, Paul says in Eph. 6:4 “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” To do both well is to be able to balance love and discipline in the same way that is illustrated by God the Father towards us. And the pastor is to be a good example of that balance.

The last of the “insider” qualifications is found in vs 6, “[and] not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.” Understand that a new convert does not indicate the physical age of the pastor. However, it does indicate his spiritual age. Paul says to Timothy later in chapter 5 vs 22 “Do not lay hands upon anyone [too] hastily and thereby share [responsibility for] the sins of others; keep yourself free from sin.” The idea is that a new convert must have a time of testing, of proving, which brings about maturity and a deeper faith.

A position of leadership can sometimes work against a person by their pride. And we know that pride goes before a fall. James said in James 3:1 “Let not many [of you] become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.” With that greater responsibility comes a great need for spiritual maturity. And perhaps spiritual maturity is tied to some degree to physical maturity. Age is not a prerequisite, but perhaps it is a help.

Finally, we come to the last qualification, which is regarding those outside the church. He says in vs 7, “And he must have a good reputation with those outside [the church,] so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.” Perhaps this is one of the most difficult qualifications of the pastor. Those outside of the church are the world, and the world is at enmity with God. So to be above reproach and to have a good reputation with the world is difficult at best. Jesus said if they hated me, they will hate you.

So I think the answer must be that we are above reproach “in the sight of God.” I know I have to conduct myself in such a way as to please God, and in so doing, I know that I am doing right in regards to man. I have to love my neighbor, though my neighbor may not love me, nor be deserving of my favor. I have to love my enemies, though they seek my hurt. I cannot treat my neighbor in such a way as to make a contradiction of my faith.

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, [Mat 5:43-48 “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on [the] evil and [the] good, and sends rain on [the] righteous and [the] unrighteous. “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? “If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing [than others?] Do not even the Gentiles do the same? “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Well, I started off by saying that the requirements that Paul laid out for the pastor did not include being perfect. And now I end up with the requirement of Jesus that we are to be perfect. But I can’t help but point out that admonition of Christ is not to pastors, but to all who are the children of God. The pastor, however, is to be an example to the church. We are to treat others like we would like to be treated. And pastors even more so are beholden to that rule. On that note, I would say in closing, pray for your pastors. It’s easy to criticize. They are on a stage and say a lot of words, and it’s possible to pick apart any pastor and find fault with him. But pray for him, and realize that he is called to this task that is greater than his ability. And I would add, if you are visiting today, and you recognize that your pastor of your home church is in flagrant disregard of these qualifications, then I would suggest you leave that church and find another which is in line with these qualifications. Don’t try to change the pastor, rather change your church. Let God take care of the pastor. He will receive a stricter judgment from the Lord.

Paul gives the purpose of this letter in chapter 3 vs 15, “I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.” And so to that purpose, Paul has written so far about the establishment of the church, specifically, that the apostles were given to be the foundation of the church and to establish the church. Then he wrote about the ministry of the church, and we said there were many different types of ministers, or servants of the church. Not all have the same title, nor the same responsibilities, but all of us have a ministry, all of us are to serve the Lord.

Now as we begin chapter 2, Paul makes the point that one ministry that all of the church are given, the service that we are all tasked with, is the ministry of prayer. And we should notice that this exhortation to pray is given as an addendum to his charge to Timothy at the end of chapter one, vs 18, to fight the good fight. We see that prayer is one of the ways that we are to engage in spiritual battle.

In the famous section in Ephesians 6 on spiritual warfare and the spiritual armor that we are to wear, Paul lists all the pieces of armor, which are defensive, and then he says take up an offensive weapon, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And then he adds another weapon in vs18 “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, and [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.”

Now Paul doesn’t use a metaphor of a weapon to describe prayer, but nonetheless it’s clear that it is the second of only two weapons at our disposal. And both are empowered by the Spirit. That’s very interesting the way Paul says that; pray at all times in the Spirit. We need to think about how one prays in the Spirit. I can tell you what it is not; it is not some reference to praying in tongues. But rather it is a reference to spiritual communication in conjunction with the Holy Spirit. In agreement with the Holy Spirit. And the way you do that is by praying in conjunction and agreement with the Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. That’s how we pray in the Spirit.

Now there is much more that could be said about that, but I want to follow the text, and hopefully in so doing Paul will address all the essential elements of prayer in the process. So to start with, what Paul indicates in vs 1 is the priority of prayer. Notice he says, “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men.” What he is saying is that this is a priority, of first importance. Prayer is not the last resort, prayer is our first resort. It’s the priority of the church. It’s first in ministry.

When the apostles were forming the first church in Jerusalem, they realized they needed to add the office of deacons to aid in the service of the church. But they said for their part, they wanted to devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word. They recognized that prayer was of utmost importance and deserved first place in their ministry. Consider even Jesus Himself who many times spent the night in prayer to His Father. Jesus was a man of prayer, though from our perspective, He was one who needed it the least. But He obviously considered it an essential part of His ministry. He needed consistent communion with His Father.

And that prompts the question – what is prayer? We are called to pray, to pray at all times, to pray without ceasing, but do we understand what prayer really is? Prayer is simply communication with God. It is spiritual communication, spiritual conversation. Now I say spiritual conversation because you are talking to a Spirit, and the Spirit does not respond verbally to you. So that is what makes it spiritual conversation. The Lord hears us whether we speak loudly or softly. The Bible says the Father knows what we are going to ask before we even say it. Whatever part of the world you happen to be in, it doesn’t matter, the Lord hears you. That’s spiritual conversation. If you are a Christian, the Holy Spirit indwells you, and He hears you and prays with you, and for you, according to the will of God.

Rom 8:26-27 says, “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for [us] with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to [the will of] God.” So that is another aspect of praying in the Spirit – the Spirit intercedes for us. But bottom line, prayer is spiritual conversation with God.

Now Paul breaks down our spiritual conversation into four categories. This is not a formula. We all would love to find a formula for prayer that assures us that we will get what we want when we pray. But this is not a formula. A lot of people want to say that in order to pray correctly you have to incorporate all four categories in your prayer. I don’t see that expressed in this verse. But rather Paul is just breaking down prayer into different types of conversation.

So I don’t think we need to make a mountain out of a mole hill here, but nevertheless, let’s consider the four types of conversation we might have. The first type is in the NASB translated entreaties. Other versions says supplications, or petitions. In the Greek it is deēsis, which means needs, or entreating, asking. Most of us are pretty good at that type of prayer. But I don’t want to diminish that type of prayer as juvenile and say we need to get beyond such things. I think Jesus taught us to ask for what we need, what we want, with the confidence that our Heavenly Father wants to give us good things. So as a child of God, entreaties are appropriate prayer, to ask for needs, to come to the Father and lay out petitions.

I also want to say that our manner of conversation does not need to be stilted and so formal that it is not natural. I don’t think that God relates to our prayers better when we say thee and thou rather than you. We don’t need to speak in stilted, formal language in order to pray effectively. Imagine if your child or grandchild came in to your living room and said, “O blessed Father, who sitteth upon the couch, please grant the requests I make to thee.” If your son or daughter said that, you would think he was setting you up for something big. He wants to take your vintage sports car out on a date or something. God doesn’t need us to speak in Elizabethan English in order to be sympathetic to our prayers.

Jesus said in Mat 6:5-8 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees [what is done] in secret will reward you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”

All right then, entreaties, supplications or petitions. That’s one type. The second type is prayer. That’s a little redundant, isn’t it Paul? Well, I confess I don’t know exactly why Paul uses this here, except perhaps that it is a more general, broader entreaty or supplication than the previous type. All of these words are meant to describe prayer. So there is a sense in which they are all expanding on the previous type. Entreaties may be specific needs, prayers may be general needs.

I find it interesting that the first time the word pray is used in the Bible, it is in Genesis 20, and it is used by God. He says to Abimelech, who had taken Abraham’s wife thinking she was his sister, and God said to Abimelech in a dream, “Now therefore, restore the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.” So in that case, prayer was for someone else’s good. Abraham was praying for someone else’s needs, not his own.

But that reference in Genesis also speaks to the next type of prayer Paul lists, which is intercessions or petitions. And intercessions is perhaps the best translation, which has the idea of speaking to God about someone else’s need. Pleading on behalf of others. That’s what Abraham did for Abimalech. Praying that he would not die. And what’s really interesting in that example is that Abimalech is a king, and Paul says in vs 2 that we are to pray for kings. It’s interesting that the first recorded example of prayer is a prayer of intercession for a non believing king.

So obviously there is some overlap in these types of prayer. As I said, I don’t think it is so much meant to be separate categories as it is to be an expansive description of prayer. The last type of prayer Paul gives is thanksgivings. Now in the original Greek I am told that there were no punctuation marks. The NASB has a comma after thanksgiving, followed by the phrase, “be made on behalf of all men.” And I think that is correct, in that “be made for all men” applies to all the categories or types of prayer. Some translations have no comma there, so that thanksgiving for all men is the meaning. I don’t think Paul is saying we should give thanks for all men. That doesn’t make sense. While Paul may say pray for kings and those in authority, he does not say give thanks for Nero who was killing Christians on a massive scale. That just doesn’t make sense. Where you place a comma makes a big difference. It’s like the texted the a group text at Thanksgiving that said, “let’s eat Grandma” and forgot to put a comma between eat and Grandma. Grandma got a little concerned. So we can’t be dogmatic about the comma, but I think it makes more sense that the phrase “be made on behalf of all men” applies to all categories, and not just thanksgiving.

Thanksgivings are to be made to God for what God has done. Thanksgivings are an important aspect of our prayer. They are not some part of a secret formula by which you can get God to do what you want. Some people seem to teach this narcissistic view of God that just wants to hear us praise Him and thank Him all the time. He doesn’t care too much about anything else as long as we praise Him. I don’t think that is a true characterization of God at all. But we should be cognizant of all that God has done for us, and continues to do for us on a daily basis and we should express our thanks to Him. In other words, our conversation with God should not be just one sided, as in what we want God to do for us. If we have a mature relationship with Him, then it should be evident in our conversation with Him.

Now as I said, I believe Paul says we should pray on behalf of all men. That is our service to God and to one another. We are given the ministry of prayer for all men. We pray for all men, all people, all that we come into contact with. We are to pray for our church, pray for our families, pray for our neighbors, and even pray for our enemies. We pray according to the will of God, according to the word of God, in conjunction with the Spirit of God, in agreement with the Spirit of God. God wants to work with us, and our service of prayer is the means by which He does that. We are to pray for all men, for what they need, for God to work in their hearts and to save them.

Then more specifically, Paul says pray for kings and for those in authority. And perhaps that is the extension of praying for your enemies. Look at Vs 2, “for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.” Now as I said earlier, I don’t think Paul was saying that he should give thanks for Nero. Nero was a blood thirsty, insane tyrant. He was an enemy of the church. He had a young man about 14 years old castrated and he married him in a public ceremony. He tarred and burned Christians upon stakes to light up his garden. He set fire to Jerusalem and then blamed it on the Christians so as to justify persecuting the church. I don’t think Paul was saying we should give thanks for a demonic tyrant.

But I do think he is saying pray for tyrants, pray for those in authority whether they be good or evil, that they would leave us alone so that we might live a tranquil and quite life of dignity that we may live godly without persecution and have the freedom to proclaim the gospel. That is an appropriate type of prayer for those particular type of people. There was no recourse in Paul’s day to go to the polls and vote and hopefully get a new emperor in four years. You were saddled with a king for life in most cases. So the only recourse you had was to pray for them, that God would somehow prevail over the inherent evil that these tyrants brought to bear upon the church.

Romans 13 tells us that we are not to overthrow the government. We are to submit to the government as long as they are not forcing us to do something contrary to the command of God. So the only other recourse for us as Christians is to pray for the governing authorities. God is able to change the king’s mind as in the case of Abimelech.. God is able to make it possible for even an evil king to find other things to occupy his mind and leave the church alone.

So we should pray for all men, even our enemies, and the enemies of God, because Paul says in vs 3, “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” So we pray because that is the means by which we partner with God, we collaborate with God to bring about salvation for all men. Now of course, he is not indicating that all men will be saved. Peter said, God is not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. But the Bible tells us that not all will be saved. The scripture makes that very clear. Jesus made that very clear saying the way is narrow that leads to life, and few there be that find it. Not everyone finds it. But we are to pray for all to find it.

Now that’s an interesting dilemma isn’t it? That God’s will is that no one perishes, yet they perish. That reveals to me that God’s will is not intractable. But God has a perfect will, and a passive will. And man has a part to play in the execution of God’s will. Jesus when he taught the disciples to pray said, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Our prayers facilitate the will of God on earth. But if God’s will was completely foreordained and intractable, then why are we told to pray for His will to be done?

Now the scriptures say that salvation is of the Lord, but we are tasked with participating in bringing salvation to men. I don’t pretend to know how all of this works. But I know that God works through prayer. God desires our prayer. And God wants all men to be saved. And so God sends us to proclaim the gospel to all men, everywhere. And He wants us to pray for all men to that end. So at the very least, we know that our ministry which we are given to perform is to pray for the salvation of all men. That is the service we are to give to men and to God.

I can tell you this. From what I have read in biographies of great preachers, and stories about great revivals, the success of both were preceded by a period of extensive prayer. Prayer is the essential sharpening of the axe before the first swing is ever laid against the tree. Abraham Lincoln was supposed to have said, “if you have 8 hours to cut wood, spend 7 of them sharpening your axe.” I think that can be applied to prayer in regards to evangelism as well. That is why we do the Jericho March before we enter every summer season on the beach. That season of prayer is necessary if we are to have a successful season on the beach.

The next part of prayer that Paul addresses here is the principle of through whom we pray. We are very much accustomed to end our prayers by saying “in Jesus name we pray, Amen.” We do that without thinking, for the most part. But what does it mean to pray in Jesus name? Why does that matter? Well for one, Jesus told us to pray in His name. In John 14:13-14 Jesus said, “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do [it.]”

And Paul addresses that same principle here in vs 5 “For there is one God, [and] one mediator also between God and men, [the] man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony [given] at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.”

The One to whom we pray is God the Father, but we pray through the Mediator, the man Christ Jesus. The scriptures teach that Jesus is both fully God and fully Man. In theological terms it is called the hypostatic union. But in layman’s terms it means that He is God in the flesh. And He was our Mediator in salvation by becoming our substitute, taking the wrath of God upon Himself that we might be given life and sonship in the family of God. But now, having risen from the dead and ascended to the Father’s right hand, He lives forever to make intercession for us. Rom 8:34 says “Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”

Now He intercedes for us according to the Father’s will. He intercedes for us by application of His blood for our sins so that we might be counted as righteous as sons of God. But He also intercedes for us as we pray in His name. God seeing His righteousness applied to our account hears our prayers as being sanctified by Jesus Christ.

Heb 10:19-23 says, “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since [we have] a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled [clean] from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” We come into the holy place to speak to God by the blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses us from all sin.

So what Paul says here to Timothy is that there is One Mediator between God and man, and only One Mediator is needed. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, through the sanctifying power of His sacrifice, so that we may have full acceptance at the throne of God. There is no need for any other mediator. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you attempt to go through another mediator, you are in effect blaspheming Christ. If you attempt to go to God through Mary, then you are taking the honor and glory that belong only to Christ and giving it to a person, and a person who is dead at that. If you pray to a so called saint, you are praying to a person, and taking away from what is Christ’s alone. Christ, who alone was holy and righteous, died and shed His blood so that He might be our Mediator, and we dare not take away that which He shed His blood to procure. You do not need to go to God through a priest, or Mary, or a saint, but you can only go through Jesus Christ. In Him alone we have the right to enter into the throne of God.

Paul began this passage about the ministry of prayer by urging prayers to be made for every man. And he bookends this section with a similar statement in vs 8, “Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.” And I think he is being in this case, deliberately redundant. He is emphasizing the importance and need for prayer by saying it twice.

Now some think that this reference to “every place” is a reference to the church. And so Paul is saying we should pray in the church. To that, I would agree without argument, that we should pray in the church. Jesus said “My house is to be a house of prayer.” Prayer, we have already said, is to be a priority in the church, and especially in corporate assemblies. Corporate prayer is powerful prayer. Remember how the church prayed for Peter to be delivered from prison and God sent an angel to release him.

But I think what Paul is saying is not limited to the church assembly. He wants men to pray in every place. You go back to Eph 6:18 and read that again, “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.” You can’t pray at all times and not pray in all places. Just be in a constant state of prayer. If we are walking in the Spirit, and living by the Spirit, then we must have constant spiritual communication irregardless of where we are or what we are doing. That doesn’t mean we have to fall on our knees at the bank and at the grocery store and at work, but it does mean we are in constant communication with God at all times, in all places, in all circumstances.

And as a reference back to the idea of praying for our enemies, or our persecutors, we pray without wrath and dissension. We don’t take our own revenge. We leave room for God to avenge us. James 1:20 says “the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.”

Our goal in prayer is to see others saved. If we give way to our anger we are not going to achieve that. We want to work with God, not against God. So let’s pray, lifting up holy hands. That is not speaking of a posture of prayer. Some people seem to think that holding up your hands has something intrinsically holy about it. Most of the time in the Bible when you see someone come in the presence of God they are flat on their face. They aren’t holding up their hands and dancing around. Holy hands is a reference to consecrated hands. Hands refers to the work of our hands, to our deeds. As we are holy in our deeds, consecrated to live righteous, godly lives for Christ, then we can win the lost to Christ by our example and not give cause for the gospel to be slandered.

Our prayer life is affected by our sin or the lack of sin. David said if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. So we make sure that we have repented of any sin, that we are living godly lives, and we pray in every place at all times, joining with God in accomplishing His will on earth. That is our service of prayer, our ministry of prayer which we render unto God and men.

God’s will is that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance. He desires all men to be saved. I trust that if you have not accepted His free gift of salvation, then today would be the day that you surrender to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and receive new life in Him.

We are all probably very familiar with the word ministry. It’s often used as a synonym for the church. It’s derived from the root word minister, which often is used as a title or job description for a pastor. But ministry is really just another word for service. Depending upon the translation you use, you will see either ministry or service used in vs twelve.

Vs12 “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, or ministry.” I think I prefer the translation as service. Because ministry is a word that has connotations of something pious, perhaps a little lofty, sort of out of the realm of mundane day to day things, and indicating something religious and spiritual. And of course, ministry should be religious and spiritual, but that can sometimes lead us to think of it as detached from the realm of day to day life.

But when you say service, that has an altogether different connotation. That is something that borders on the mundane, the practical, even, God forbid, duty. We sometimes speak of our men and women in uniform that they are in the service. And we know what we mean by that, don’t we? It means they are in one of the armed services of our country. They are in the service of our country. They are under the authority of the Commander in Chief.

But that word service can have an even lowlier connotation. It is very much associated with the word servant. To be a servant is to be someone who is in service to someone else. He is at their command. Sometimes in old houses, you would see a sign around the back indicating “service entrance.” That could mean the servants entrance, or it could mean those that serviced the house for whatever mechanical needs there might be.

So in the original language, the word translated ministry does not indicate some high, pious position, but it simply refers to working for and serving someone. And to that extent, we are all called to serve Christ. In this new life, we have been given a ministry, we have been called to be servants to the kingdom of God. Not all have the same position in service, but all are called to serve, even as soldiers in spiritual warfare. Not all soldiers are given the same rank, the same responsibility, yet they all serve the same King.

Paul said he was grateful for this ministry which he had been given. I would say that gratefulness was his primary motivation in ministry. And that was because God had saved him from a person dedicated to destroying the church, and by God’s grace and mercy had made him someone who would establish the church.

So how are we put into the service of Christ? The answer is, the same way as Paul was entered into service. Now what follows in vs 12-15, is a sort of resume by Paul. And as is typical of most resumes, the job title you are presently in is listed first, and the order that follows goes backwards in your career. So most resumes usually read from the greatest to the least. You list that at present you are working as a graphic designer for some big design firm, and then the job you had before that, and so forth until way down at the bottom of the page, the first job you had, which was a French fry cook at McDonald’s.

Paul’s resume sort of follows that pattern. But I would like to look at it in reverse. Let’s start with vs15, because this is where we all start as well. This is one area that we all have in common. Paul says in vs 15, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost [of all.]”.

This is all of our condition prior to salvation. There is none righteous, no not one. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All of us were enemies of God. All of our righteousness was as filthy rags before God. None of us were any better than any one else, or more deserving of heaven than anyone else. Paul said he was the chief of sinners. I said last week, that was until I came along. But the fact is, there really isn’t any difference between you and me or Paul, for that matter when it comes to the matter of sin. We all were enemies of God under the condemnation of death.

Paul said he was a former blasphemer and persecutor and violent aggressor of the church. In Acts 26:9 Paul said of himself and these activities against Christ and against His church, “So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.”

So Paul was indeed the chief of sinners, in that he not only persecuted the church, but he tried to get them to blaspheme Christ and deny Christ. But as great as his sin was, God’s grace was greater. He says, “Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus.” That phrase ‘more than abundant” is the idea of super abundant. As Romans 5:20 says, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”

But what I like about Paul’s confession here is that he says he was “formally a blasphemer and so forth.” When Paul was converted on the road to Damascus, he was changed, converted. What he was formerly, he was no longer practicing. What he was ignorant of, he now knew. What was done in unbelief, now he by faith believed the truth. The point is salvation is conversion. It’s like the line in Amazing Grace, “I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now I see.” A change in belief results in a change of behavior.

When I was a kid growing up in church, we used to have an evangelist named Billy Kelly who would come do a series of nightly meetings every couple of years or so. Billy Kelly probably weighed 400 pounds, and was a freckled face red haired giant of a man from the hills of West Virginia. And as a preacher’s kid I had to sit through many a long night of preaching as I was growing up, but when Billy Kelly came to our church he was one preacher I looked forward to hearing. He played the piano as well, and he was known for singing one song in particular, which is called “Thanks to Calvary.” He always sang it after giving his personal testimony of being the town drunk and how some men dragged him to a revival meeting one night after sobering him up with coffee and he was saved after listening to the message. He used to sing that song with tears rolling down his face, which told the story of his little boy hiding behind the door when he would come home drunk, but now that he was saved, he said, “Son, have no fear, you’ve got a brand new daddy now. Thanks to Calvary I’m not the man I used to be. Thanks to Calvary things are different than before.” After he got done singing that song, he had the whole church in tears.

But the truth is that when God saves you, he changes you. And in Paul’s case, he who was the foremost persecutor of the church, was made the foremost establisher of the church, as a testimony to the super abundant grace of God. And so Paul explains in vs 16, “Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.”

What we can learn from Paul’s salvation, is that no matter how great your sin, God’s mercy is greater. There is no degree of sin that you can sink to that God cannot save you from. There is no depravity that God cannot redeem you from. As much as you have descended into depravity, God is able to raise you up to greater heights than you can imagine. He is able to make the lost, found. The blind to see. The lame to walk. The dead to live. There is no sin that is beyond His ability to save you from.

But there is just one caveat to His mercy and grace. And that is, you must recognize and repent of your sin. When Paul was confronted with the truth, when he saw his sin, he repented of it and was forgiven of it. He didn’t try to excuse it, or to cover it up, or to say that it wasn’t really sin. No, he said my sin is worse than anyone else’s. I am the worst of sinners! And that is the key. There is no sin which is confessed and repented of, that cannot be forgiven. Christ came to save sinners. That is a trustworthy statement. You can bet your life on that statement. But you better recognize you are a sinner if you want Christ to save you. Because He came to save sinners, not the self righteous.

That realization brings Paul to express a confession of faith in Christ and praise Him for His mercy towards sinners. He says in vs 17, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, [be] honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” Paul said in Romans 10:9, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

That confession is what Paul states in vs 17, “the King” is Jesus Christ the King, the Lord, our Sovereign. To confess Jesus as Lord is to confess Him as your King, as the One to whom we owe our lives, to whom we honor and serve and obey. We lay down our lives in service to our Lord and King. And this King is eternal, immortal, He was raised from the dead and now stands at the Father’s right hand. To Him deserves all honor, all glory, as we give our lives in service to Him forever.

That comprehension on Paul’s part was the impetus for his ministry, his service. And God would use him and enable him and strengthen him and equip him to do what he called him to do. So that all the praise and glory go to God, and not Paul. But Paul’s gratitude for what God had done for him, was the motivation for his service to the church.

Now there were other ministers in the church. Paul’s office as a minister was an apostle. These were other offices or positions. As I said, in the service not everyone has the same office or position or area of duty. The next one mentioned in Paul’s letter is Timothy. Timothy is a minister, a servant of the gospel. I suppose we might call him the pastor of the church in Ephesus. I think he was perhaps more like a regional pastor, but we can’t be dogmatic about such things. But my understanding is that there were more than one church in Ephesus. They were house churches, each with their pastors/teachers. And Timothy was acting as an agent of the apostle Paul, as overseeing the churches in Ephesus. I can’t say that for sure, but that’s what I pick up from reading between the lines.

But nevertheless, we do know that Timothy was in service to the church at Ephesus, and he had a position like a senior pastor over the church or churches there. So Paul says to him in vs 18 “This command I entrust to you, Timothy, [my] son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.”

So what is this command, or this charge to Timothy that Paul refers to? It is the charge given in vs 3-11 of this chapter, the command to stay on at Ephesus, and to instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths or endless genealogies that give rise to speculation rather than faith, to instruct them not to teach a twisted version of the law, about which they make confident assertions, but which they don’t know what they are talking about. So in short, Timothy’s ministry to the church is to teach the teachers, to correct them, to rebuke them.

Paul gives a similar command or charge to Timothy at a later date in 2 Timothy 4:1-5 “I solemnly charge [you] in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season [and] out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but [wanting] to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

Now one more thing to note about this command to ministry that Paul gives to Timothy, is he says it’s in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you. What exactly Paul is talking about we’re not sure, but he speaks of it again in chapter 4 vs 14 “Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery.” He goes on to say, persevere in your teaching, pay attention to it, take pains with it, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.” So we can surmise that preaching and teaching is the spiritual gift that was given to Timothy by the Lord, and was confirmed by the laying on of hands by the elders, presumably the elders of the church in Jerusalem, which is a reference to the apostles. He was commissioned as an evangelist, a preacher of the gospel, by the Lord and confirmed by the apostles. So that was Timothy’s ministry.

But there is one more category of ministry that is alluded to in vs 19, and then the perpetrators named in vs 20. Let’s pick it up again in vs 19, “keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme.”

These are ministers that have suffered shipwreck in regards to their faith. That’s a pretty scary thing to say about teachers in the church. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a shipwreck, or been involved in one. From the little I know about boats, things can go wrong pretty quickly on a boat and yet at the same time seem like they are happening in slow motion. One problem is that the boat is in motion due to the wind or current or even from the motor, and there are no brakes on a boat. So once something is in motion it keeps on going even though it is destroying itself. If you want to have some fun, search for ships hitting the dock on YouTube and you will see what I’m talking about. They can’t stop, and they just destroy more and more until they sink or are absolutely ruined.

Paul had been on a few shipwrecks in his life, real ones. There is a really frightening description of one in particular in Acts where they end up having to grab a plank of wood and try to swim ashore in the middle of a fierce storm while the ship is stuck on a shoal being torn apart by the waves. So Paul knew what a shipwreck looked like and the damage that can happen from losing your bearings.

These men, Hymaneus and Alexander, have suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. That means that they had abandoned or abused the truth in favor of another gospel, a more speculative gospel, a more dramatic gospel that was not founded on the truth. And the thing that Paul is very concerned about was they were teaching that false doctrine to the church and leading others astray.

Isn’t that what he said about these men in 2Tim. 4:3-4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but [wanting] to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”

There was another element to their false teaching which was it had become blasphemy. Blasphemy is speaking evil of Christ. I would think that somehow their doctrine had deviated from the truth to the point that they attributed some sin to Jesus. There are people today that teach that Jesus had a wife, usually saying it’s Mary Magdalene. That’s the sort of speculation that these teachers seemed to be guilty of, contriving myths and speculation from some vague reference in scripture. The point of such blasphemy though would be to excuse their own sin.

And so Paul says he is handing these men over to Satan so they will be taught not to blaspheme. I think a lot of people don’t like to consider the reality of what Paul is saying there. But he speaks of the same sort of thing in 1 Cor. 5, about a man who was committing immorality with his father’s wife, and was blatantly unrepentant about it. And so Paul says there in vs “5 [I have decided] to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

What that means is for the person that continues in sin, there may be a time when God releases you from His protective care as a child of God, to suffer the consequences of sin. And the devil is free to destroy your flesh through that sin. Because that is what the devil does. He is the destroyer. He goes about as a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. The sin that so easily besets us will eventually destroy us.

Paul indicates these men are saved, but they have returned to their sin like a pig that has been washed returns to the mire. And the key is that they are unrepentant. They claim that God doesn’t care about this little peccadillo. What I’m doing isn’t really bad. God made me this way( there is where the blasphemy comes in) or God made this and so it really can’t be wrong. And so God allows Satan to destroy the flesh, though the spirit is saved in the day of judgment. That’s why in the verses that talk about the sanctify of taking the Lord’s Supper, Paul says many of you are sick and a number sleep. Sleep there refers to the death of the believer.

Listen, if you became a servant of the King through conversion, then you have been set free from the captivity of sin and cleansed from sin. But when you return to it, you trample underfoot the blood of Jesus Christ, you regard it as worthless. And God will discipline those who are His. If you’re not His, then you are already condemned to death, and under the captivity of Satan who will destroy you. But if you are a child of God, and you choose to go back into sin, and are unrepentant of it, then you are given over to the control of Satan by your own free will, and God gives Satan permission to sift you like wheat, with the goal of destroying you. God’s purpose in allowing that is not to destroy you, though if you persist that may happen. But God’s purpose is to restore you, to use suffering in the flesh to bring you to repentance.

We that are saved have been given a ministry, we are servants of the King. Our life is not our own, we are bought with a price. Therefore, we cannot return to our prior captivity without suffering the consequences of that dominion of darkness. But as Paul has pointed out so clearly in this passage, God is merciful and gracious and desires to restore us and make us the polar opposite of what we were by nature, if we will just repent and surrender to the Lord, confessing Him as Lord of our lives.

Let us make this Psalm of David our prayer this morning as we examine our heart before God. David wrote in Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if [there be any] wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”