Transcript

Ravi Zacharias tells about Charlie Peace, a criminal in England, who on the day he was being taken to his execution, listened to a minister reading from the Word.

And when he realized he was reading about heaven and hell, he looked at the preacher and said these words:

“Sir, if I believed what you and your church says, even if England were covered with broken glass from coast to coast, I would walk over it on hands and knees and think it worthwhile living just to save one soul from an eternal hell like that.”

An everlasting hell is real. It exists. But God is not willing that any should perish. He desires that all be saved from it by trusting His Son and His provision on their behalf.

And Christ has sent us, His Church, His ambassadors into this world to make the good news of His grace and salvation known.

We do this being motivated by Christ’s love and burdened by the great need of the unbelieving, that they would be saved from their sins and from eternity in hell.

And we learn in 1 Timothy 2:1-4 that under grace, prayer is vitally important in sharing the gospel.

1 Timothy 2:1: “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men.”

As we continue to consider the question of how to pray under grace, we see here how Paul urges the Church, the Body of Christ, to pray, to pray in all its various forms, and to pray for all people. Paul’s heart and desire for Timothy and for the whole Church, was that prayer must be a priority.

Paul exhorts Timothy that “first of all,” he needed to pray. Before everything else he has to say to Timothy, he desired to press home the need to pray. Prayer is first in the order of importance and priorities when it comes to evangelism.

Paul instructed Timothy and the Church to pray with “supplications.” This means to pray specific prayers to God for known personal needs, making defined, intelligent requests for others.

Paul desired that Timothy’s life and ministry also include “prayers” which speaks of simply talking to God, conversing and communicating with Almighty God within your personal relationship with Him.

Paul teaches Timothy to pray with “intercessions.” The term has the idea of drawing near to God, coming to Him in boldness and confidence and petitioning Him on behalf of others.

Paul also desired that Timothy pray with “giving of thanks,” thanking God for specific things, noting His working, seeing what He has done and given and thanking Him for it. Praying with thanksgiving is common to the Word and should be common to our prayers.

A man once went into a restaurant, plopped down at a table and said gruffly to his waitress, “Do you serve crabs here?” The waitress said, “Oh yes, we serve anybody.”

And so we as we pray with all these various kinds and forms of prayer, we serve anybody, we pray for all, we pray for everybody and all people.

Paul gives these exhortations for prayer, based on what he has previously spoken about and what he is about to speak of. Paul had just spoke of “the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my [or Paul’s] trust” (1 Tim. 1:11).

Paul then gave his testimony of salvation, and of the faithful saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and that Christ had saved him, the chief of sinners.

In chapter 1, verse 16, Paul writes how his salvation is the pattern in this dispensation of grace for all others, that all are saved by the mercy, grace, and longsuffering of God, and that we just “believe on [Christ] to life everlasting.”

In light of the gospel and the salvation of sinners, Paul says, “I exhort THEREFORE, that, first of all,” we pray, we pray for all men, i.e., we pray for all people’s salvation. And we do so because as 1 Timothy 2:4 says, God desires “all men to be saved.”

So when we pray for the salvation of souls, we pray with “supplications,” or with specific requests for groups of people, for lands, countries, and continents, for counties, states, provinces, communities. cities, villages, and towns.

And as we pray for lost souls, we pray specifically for individuals and for specific people BY NAME. We pray for our family, for our neighbors, for our friends, for our co-workers by name. We supplicate or ask for God’s supply for them; we make defined, intelligent requests and pray for their need of Christ and His salvation.

We pray that the Holy Spirit would convict them of their sins, of their need for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for the right words when we talk to them. We pray for others to share the gospel with them as well.

We pray for God to work in their lives through the things they’ve heard and the things they go through so that they stop and think about eternity and where they will spend it.

We pray to God to clear the obstacles. We pray that God’s Word might pierce their minds and soften their hearts, and that they would see that their ideas and beliefs about life, death, and eternity are false, and that they would see the truth and believe it.

That’s what it comes down to, very basically, that we pray for them to believe, just believe and be saved, believing that Christ died for their sins and rose again. We pray that the light of the glorious gospel might shine unto them and that they might just trust it.

We do this also with “prayers,” within our “praying without ceasing” as 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says. As we talk and communicate with the Lord throughout our day, and as we come in contact with different people during each day, we pray for the people we see, the people we meet, the people we talk to, and simply pray for them to believe.

We do this even as we’re talking to people. We can do 2 things at once. We pray that they would be saved. Often this will lead us to share and plant the seed of the gospel.

It also makes you consider your testimony for Christ before them. It changes how you talk to people and treat people when you realize their infinite value to God, that God loves them, that Christ shed His blood and died for them, and that God wants them to be saved.

We pray and talk with the Lord knowing that He cares deeply for ALL people, that He is longsuffering with the lost, and wants them to be reconciled to Him.

And we pray knowing that God the Father is the father in the parable of the prodigal son that Christ told. He is the father who waited and watched and longed for his wandering lost child to come home.

He is the Father, who when the prodigal “was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him” (Luke 15:20).

Likewise, God waits, and longs for wandering, lost sinners to respond to the gospel and trust His provision of salvation. And, as the prodigal son was welcomed home by his father, so God the Father welcomes anyone into His heaven with open arms when they believe the gospel. And we worship and praise Him knowing this in our “prayers.”

As we pray for the salvation of lost souls, we also pray with “intercessions.” We draw near to Him within our personal relationship, having boldness and confidence to come to Him in prayer because of Christ’s shed blood. But in drawing near to God, we then think with His mind, and we look at people with His heart of love.

Ed Wood has said that “Intercession is love on its knees.” And so, out of love, we speak personally with God, praying on behalf of others, asking that the lost might hear “the word of truth,” the gospel of salvation and might believe it (Eph. 1:13).

We pray that the lost might know Him as we know Him, that they would trust Christ as we have trusted Christ, that they too would enter into that beautiful, abiding, eternal relationship with God that we have and enjoy, in which we have peace with Him, are righteous in Christ, forever forgiven and completely His.

And as we draw near, we pray for boldness to share the gospel, that we might not let opportunities pass us by because of fear. We pray for God to strengthen us through the Holy Spirit. We pray that God might increase our love for others.

We ask Him to use us and our lives and our efforts and our voice to tell others His gospel of grace, which saves sinners from eternity in hell.

And in all of this as we pray, we “give thanks” to God. We give thanks on behalf of all people. We thank Him for His deep love for all. We thank Him that He desires all to be saved. We thank Him that He has made that possible through His Son.

As verses 5-6 of this chapter read: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave Himself a ransom for all.”

God has been good to us and we should be thankful that He has been good to all people as well. In His grace and love, His provision of salvation is available to all, and every man, woman and child can be saved if they simply trust Christ alone.

So we pray specifically and we pray thankfully, thanking Him that He is gracious, that He is merciful, that He is longsuffering with sinners. We thank Him for this current dispensation of grace in which He gives all the opportunity to be saved so simply by His grace through faith alone in Christ.

And we thank Him for the eternal life and the home in heaven given to anyone who trusts Christ as their Savior.

The following is Chuck Sackett’s personal testimony: I grew up outside the church, but when I learned about the God and Country award in the Boy Scouts, I wanted it. If that meant going to church, then that’s what I determined to do.

Each week I walked from my house to the little church building in the next block. I walked past the Rinards’ home every time, and later, I worked for the Rinards, doing yard work. I attended that little church on the next block just long enough to get the award, and then I quit.

Twelve years later, after I became a believer and a preacher, I learned that Mr. and Mrs. Rinard were in a nursing home nearby. Out of friendship for the family, my wife and I decided to pay them a visit.

After a delightful visit, Gail and I turned to leave. I don’t remember which one of them spoke, but I’ll never forget what they said: “Do you remember when you used to walk to that little church? We’ve not missed one day since, praying that God would do something in your life.”

For 12 years, this elderly couple prayed for me, every day—prayed that God would one day do something in my life. I had no other Christian influence at that time, but eventually I became a believer and a preacher. I was prayed into heaven [and the ministry]. There is simply no other explanation.

As we pray under grace, Paul exhorts the Church by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to pray for unbelievers, to pray for their salvation, to pray for all because all have the opportunity to be saved, and we should pray for those who even seem beyond hope, because we know that God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think.

1 Timothy 2:2-3: “For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour.”

As we pray for all people, Paul says we should also pray specifically “for kings, and for all that are in authority.” We are taught to pray for political rulers and governmental leaders.

Two little old ladies were walking around an overcrowded country churchyard and came upon a tombstone that was inscribed, “Here lies John Smith, a politician and an honest man.” One of the ladies said, “That’s awful that they put two people in one grave.”

Many political leaders are hostile to God and His Word, and for believers it’s easy for them to become the targets of animosity and bitterness and frustration.

But as we pray under grace, even if we can’t respect the person or what they stand for, the instruction of God’s Word is that we are to respect the office, and out of grace, we are to pray for them.

Paul instructed Titus and the church at Crete in Titus 3:1,2: “Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates…”

God loves all people, including all governmental leaders. And no matter how just or unjust, moral or immoral, honest or dishonest, we are to be prayerful for these men and women, praying for their salvation and for godly change in our country as a result.

Paul says we pray for our leaders so we might live a “quiet and peaceable life.” “Quiet” speaks of not being troubled or disturbed from without, while “peaceable” speaks of not being troubled or disturbed from within, having inner tranquility.

The church under grace is to pray for “kings,” i.e., for the ruler with the highest authority, and also for “all” those in the various echelons of governmental authority.

We pray for them that they might trust Christ as Savior, and so the gospel would be unhindered and able to be spread freely with “all men.”

We pray for them, so that in the practice and promoting of our faith to all people, we will be able to do so without restriction or limitation, within stable political conditions, not being troubled from without or from within by these leaders.

We pray we might able to continue preaching, teaching and telling others the good news and to assemble for public worship of God, something that’s dependent on our rights under law, law which is upheld and enforced by “all that are in authority.”

And in our lives and the practice of our responsibilities toward God and the duty we owe to people in our ministries and evangelism, Paul desired we live our lives “in all godliness and honesty. The Church needs to be a consistent witness and testimony for Christ. Our behavior makes the sharing of our faith real and believable.

Part of evangelism is living a life of godliness and honesty. Leading a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty, transformed by God’s grace, presents the unbeliever with a contrast to what they see all around them at all times and what they experience.

Most people’s lives are filled with chaos and distress, not experiencing the quietness and peace of God that we have in Christ. A faithful believer whose life is led by God’s peace and whose faith is put into practice in all godliness and honesty is a powerful witness and a bright light for the gospel in this dark world.

This exhortation to pray for all people, including leaders in government, praying for their salvation, this is good and acceptable, it’s right and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, verse 3 says.

Ands we live with our focus on pleasing the Lord and not man, doing what is good and acceptable in God’s sight is what is most important. This should be our foremost aim in life. And praying for the unbelieving to be saved and leading a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty, is good and acceptable in His sight.

You see God’s heart in being called “God our Savior.” Out of love and grace, God desires all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. He wants to save people from their sins, and He wants to save people from error and false beliefs.

As we pray for people’s souls, we are praying consistent with knowing God our Savior and His heart. And we are praying for something of real meaning and eternal importance.

1 Timothy 2:4-6 reads, “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave Himself a ransom for all.”

The word “will” in verse 4 does not refer to God’s determinate purpose, but rather to His will of desire. “God our Savior” desires all to be saved (Titus 2:11).

God desires that all be saved from eternal death and separation from Him and from the horrors of the lake of fire that awaits those who do not trust Christ and die in their sins.

Out of His heart for people to be saved, Titus 2:11 also says, “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.”

God the Father our Savior planned and purposed our redemption and in His love for the world, He gave His only begotten Son to die for our sins at the Cross.

Christ Jesus our Savior in His love and grace willingly came to the world to save sinners, 1 Timothy 1:15 says. And He, the one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, “gave Himself a ransom for all,” 1 Timothy 2:5-6 says.

There is one God and only one way to God, only one way of salvation, through the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, the perfect Mediator between God and man, He who is fully God and fully man. Christ reconciles and brings God and man together, when any man, woman, or child trusts Christ as their Savior.

He has made all this possible because of His sacrifice on our behalf, because He “gave Himself a ransom for all” and willingly paid man’s sin debt at the Cross.

He bore our sin and faced God’s just wrath and fury against sin in our place at the Cross, and paid sin’s penalty for us.

“Ransom” speaks of “a price paid to free a slave.” And so Christ gave Himself and paid the ransom to free us from the slavery of sin. All those who trust His payment for our sins are ransomed, redeemed, set free from sin and saved from God’s wrath in the lake of fire.

Through many hardships and bitter experiences, an Olympic high-diver had come to the point in his life that he denied the existence of God.

From his youth, he had been exposed to the Cross and the gospel, but had rejected it time and again. While training for the Olympics, the high-diver went to his Olympic training facility after hours one summer evening.

The facility was closed and it was dark inside, but the place was lit by a sky light and the full moon which was out that night.

The high diver climbed to the top of the high dive and went to make his first jump with his back to the pool, and he stretched out his arms as he prepared to jump.

When he did, he saw that the moonlight had cast a shadow on the wall in front of him, and with his arms outstretched it made the figure of a cross.

The high diver, who had come to the end of himself in recent days, fell to his knees and accepted Christ as his personal Savior and entered into eternal life right there on that high dive.

As he sat there in tears, a maintenance man yelled up to him “Stay where you are and don’t jump! The pool below you is empty and has been drained in order to be cleaned!”

If you have not trusted Christ as your personal Savior, you are in danger. You are in danger every day of your life because we never know when our lives might end. What you are in danger of is the eternal judgment of the lake of fire.

But God in His love has provided the way for you to be delivered from this. And it is God’s desire for you to be saved from eternity in hell. But you must make that personal decision to trust what God has done for you.

Just trusting that Christ died for your sins and rose again, you are saved. You are saved the moment you believe this good news that Christ as your Substitute paid the price for your sins at the Cross and that He rose again.

Out of God’s love for all people, He has provided eternal salvation for all as a free gift, but only those who receive it by faith are saved.

It’s been rightly put, “The redeeming death of the Savior is sufficient for all, deficient for none, but efficient only for those who believe.” Have you believed?

Our prayer for you is that you would believe and trust Christ as your Savior, and know the joy of the forgiveness of all your sins, and having peace with God and an eternal home in heaven.