"God Would That All Men Be Saved"

I Timothy 2:1-6

1. I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;

2. For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

3. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;

4. Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

5. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

6. Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

I

t is important for us to remember that in that this is truly God’s aim, no one is to be excluded for any reason! If we would but remember that our salvation is based upon the key principle of following the word of God, winning souls would not be a problem! What God says about any situation at any given time is what we must know if we are ever to hear “Well done, my good and faithful servant.

We can and have said that we know that all will not be saved, but this piece of information has nothing to do with us. This means that we do all that is required of us by God, with the assurance that our obedience will be rewarded. This does not provide us with an excuse for not trusting the Lord.

It is true that many ministries and organizations have “a little bit” of truth. Because too many are content with a little and not willing to take on more responsibility, a doctrine is developed and based upon that “little bit.” A little bit of truth will produce a little bit of salvation—which is no salvation at all.

In these days, much has been made of the “born again experience”—and rightly so. Though the focus is correct, the means to the experience usually is not. You see, it takes more than the recitation of “The Sinner’s Prayer” for New Birth. Unfortunately, most apostolics are not aware of all that salvation does require.

If one would be born again, he must be “born” in a different manner from his first birth. It would make no sense to experience something that would cause no change in one.

We are told to pray for those in government service. Now, scripture does give this admonition, but not for the reason that most think. As with most things, our tendency is to look at this sort of thing for our own benefit. We desire to pray for them that they would work more in our behalf; not give us such a hard time. The truth is that just saying words is not enough. Praying for anyone is an acknowledgment that that individual needs help of some sort.

The recognition that is important is the recognition that takes place in you. That recognition that you receive is to work its work in you, as opposed to making someone else do something. If nothing else, it is to have the effect of getting our attention off ourselves.

We must understand that one’s prayers make nothing happen. Once the petition is made, it is the responsibility of the
pray-er to accept that the petition has been heard and answered. This is what brings about a manifestation.

If our prayers are offered to attempt to change our circumstances, we are praying amiss. The One Who teaches us to pray never prayed to change His circumstances or situation. He prayed that He might always be under subjection to the Spirit.

In verse two of our scripture text, we are admonished to pray for “…kings, and for all that are in authority.” Our “peace” is to come in the fact that once we acknowledge the condition for which we are praying, we are then to be willing to submit our attitude to God.

What is good and acceptable in the sight of God? For us to be in sanctified possession of our bodies. This does not include protecting our flesh. It has never been and will never be our job to make life better. This is exclusively the job of Jesus. After all, who Else would be able to?

We can never neglect our witness because of holding an opinion of whether one does or does not want to be saved. After all, “God would that all men be saved.”