Come To The Knowledge of The Truth

9-21-25

Hoonah-Hadley

1 Timothy 2:1-7

Call to Worship Psalm 113

Daily Verse 1 Timothy 2:4

Come To The Knowledge of The Truth

“Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” When we read a thing or see a thing, we make some observations, there are things that stand out to us, things that are obvious. This applies to people, pickup trucks, motorcycles and among other things, God’s word. After reading over this portion of chapter 2 in 1 Timothy several times there are many opportunities here to study, meditate and preach on and as some will do, spend several weeks teaching a series on. These verses provide some fertile ground to return to over and over again.  God reveals things to us from mountain tops, valleys, from thunder and lightning, rainbows and sunrises, stars, moon, creatures, deserts, trees, seas, fruit, seeds, rocks, rivers and a whole lot more. Sometimes He’s loud, sometimes He’s quiet, sometimes it’s big things, sometimes it’s a mustard seed, sometimes He shows it to us once and sometimes He repeats a thing to make sure we see it, to make sure we get it. In these 7 verses one of our observations is Gods use of “truth” 3 times. If we asked each of you what stands out to you in these verses we’d likely get several different responses, and if we read over it again, those observations may change. Each time we come to God’s word He reveals something new to us but His message never changes, it comes to us in Spirit and truth. John 16:13 “However, when He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth.” In these verses God puts “Truth” on a big old billboard for all the world to see. He’s bidding us to come and dine, an all you can eat buffet.

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Vs’s. 1,2 “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercession, and giving of thanks be made to all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.” Supplication is to make a humble and earnest request. To beg for as in prayer. Prayer is an act of communion with God, as a confession, praise or thanksgiving. Intercession is meditation in a dispute. Thanks is an acknowledgment of a favor, gift or benefit. God’s word “exhorts” us to all of this, that is, God urges us by strong argument, advice or appeal. Philippians 4:6 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God…” 1 Thess. 5:16 “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” God is teaching us by repetition, reminding us of things we need reminded of, namely because they don’t come naturally to us. In fact in Philippians 4:8-9 He tells us what to think about because quite frankly much of our thinking is stinking. As a reminder, God’s word is contrary to our nature, many of its lessons don’t make sense. Right here in our lesson God is appealing to us to humble ourselves, to make an earnest request, essentially beg, pray and give thanks for “all men, kings and who are in authority.”  I know, it’s asking a lot, actually, in the flesh, in the world, it’s not happening. It’s easy here to wander off into complaining, we want to pick and choose, but God says, “all men”, all is all. Why? God is purposeful in His teaching, deliberate, intentional and it has our peace at the center of it every time.  “That we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.” At the heart of the gospel message is our transformation from self to Christlikeness. Without Him we can do nothing, with Him all things are possible.

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Paul begins this epistle to Timothy with his standard greeting, then urges Timothy to teach no other doctrine, then he thanks Christ for putting him into the ministry, then the famous, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” and finally charges Timothy to “wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience.” In other words, this is who I am, “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God…” and this is what he came to teach Timothy, “that by them you may wage the good warfare.” Now in chapter 2 he teaches how to go about that. “First of all…” That’s why we are here, that we may wage the good warfare and it begins with supplication, prayers, intercessions and giving thanks for all humanity. Matt. 5:44 “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute you.” Romans 12:14 “Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse.” Hello? Anybody? Just a friendly reminder coming from the Creator of heaven and earth. There are battles, physical and spiritual, individually and corporately. 1Tim. 6:12 “Fight the good fight of faith…to which you were called.” Eph. 6:11 “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Paul teaches here and in other places, it is a “good” fight, a fight of faith and it is a battle, a spiritual battle against “the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness…” How do we wage this war, fight this good fight? Prayer, supplication, thanksgiving, intercession. Why? “That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.” Vs. 3 “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior…” God’s thoughts toward us are of peace, Jeremiah 29:11. His plan is to give us a “future and a hope.” Hold fast to what is good, abstain from every form of evil. In everything, give thanks. 

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Vs. 4 “Who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of truth.” Talk about opening a can of worms! First of all, this is God. Secondly, He “desires”. The Greek word for desires is epithymia which means to long for. There is much to do about the first portion of this verse, lots of rambling, figuring, arguing. We’ll have none of that. Understand in its simplicity, it is what God hopes for, longs for, desires. 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is…not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” Ezekiel 33:11 “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die…? The truth of the matter, there is a Book of Life, there are names in it and names that are not in it. There is a wide gate that leads to destruction, its way is easy, many enter it and it leads to destruction. We could say in vs. 4, our daily verse, our memory verse, that these two biblical institutions go hand in hand. That if you are saved, you come to the knowledge of the truth. And if you come to the knowledge of the truth you will be saved. Either way, whether it’s God’s word, or our spin on it, the door is left open to enter or not to enter. Praise God you chose to enter the gate with thanksgiving this morning. Make this your daily goal, with each breath, each step, each word, to enter His gates with thanksgiving, enter His courts with praise. Our focus this morning is on the latter portion of this verse, because we believe if you “come to the knowledge of the truth”, salvation will overwhelm you, consume you, have it’s blessed way with you. What is the truth? John 1:1,14,17 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…full of grace and truth….but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” God desires that we come to know His Son. What’s your desire? Amen