1 Timothy 2:3-6 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all
men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.  For there is
one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who
gave himself as a ransom for all men-the testimony given in its proper
time.

You hear a lot of people say it, but often it is quite wrong.  You hear
many claim it, but 90% of they time they are lying.  There are even those
who wish it or hope it, but I'm convinced  that the majority of these
people don't really grasp what they are saying.  I'm talking about "the
will of God."
You've heard those people who say, perhaps during an accident or during
some tragedy, "It was the will of God."  What a foolish way to talk.  No
human being on this planet can claim to know the mind of God so clearly
that they can claim that they know this thing that happened was exactly
what God wanted.  Worse yet I have heard people claim that acts of evil
and sin were because of God's will.  Yet the Bible makes it clear that
God is not and cannot be the source of evil or sin.
You've perhaps heard that preacher who claims "It is God's will that you
be healed."  What do they base such a claim on?  Does God's Word proclaim
anywhere that God wants all diseases and illnesses healed or that he
wants so and so's sickness healed?  It doesn't.  Even when Jesus was in
this world he didn't make such a claim.  For that matter there are
several examples in Scripture where an illness or problem is left to that
person, that that person might exercise his faith all the more.  So how
can said preacher claim to know God's will?
In truth, when it comes to God's will we need to be very careful about
what we say.  We, as sinful humans can't know the perfect mind of God,
can't know all the little details of what God thinks or intends.  And so
it is then that we as Christians very carefully maintain this truth: We
can only proclaim something God's will if God reveals that will in His
Holy written Word, the Bible.
We can proclaim the flood God's will.  He said it was.  We can proclaim
the fall of the Assyrian capital of Nineveh the will of God because God
not only said so but he revealed that fall some 50 years before it even
happened.  It was God's will that Jesus die on the cross.  He said so.
But be careful, it was not God's will that Judas betray Jesus.  It was
not God's will that the Jewish religious leaders reject Jesus.  We
proclaim something God's will only when God reveals that will in his Holy
Word.
Why do I speak of such a thing today?  Because of our text.  You do
realize that in today's text we have a revelation of God's will.  It is
an important revelation that we clearly need to think about.  Our theme
will be: THE WILL OF GOD.  1st. Godliness and holiness.  2nd. The
Salvation of man.  3rd. Preaching the gospel.
As we begin this contemplation of God's will revealed in the text before
us we already face a rather interesting challenge.  That challenge is
found in verse 3 when it says, "This is good and pleases God our Savior."
 The question to be asked?  "What is the "this is good" referring to and
why does it please our Savior?
In the Greek language the answer to this question is very easy.  The
"this" has to refer back to previous sentence and what it stated.  That
would be verses 1 and 2 which said, I urge, then, first of all, that
requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone-for
kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet
lives in all godliness and holiness."
The Apostle Paul calls "requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving
made for everyone" good.  More than good he calls it something pleasing
to our Savior.  He is urging us to go to God and pray for a "godly
family, good workers, good government, honest leaders, good citizens,
good weather, peace and order, health, a good name, loyal friends and
good neighbors."  (If those words sound familiar to all of you please
reference the explanation of the Fourth Petition of the Lord's Prayer.)
Those are good and noble things to seek and by doing so we are especially
asking that God's hand be a power and force in our life.
Why?  Don't forget the why of this.  Our verse said, "that we may live
peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness."  God wants our
lives peaceful and quiet.  God wants our lives filled with godliness and
holiness.  God wants our lives filled with those things that are good and
right in his sight, those things that are spiritual treasures for our
eternal life.
Just look closer at the end words "godliness and holiness."  The word for
godliness is described thus: "It refers to true reverence toward God
which comes from knowledge.  It is the right attitude to God and the
holiness, the majesty, and the love of God."  The word translated
"holiness" means more fully, "moral earnestness, affecting outward
demeanor as well as interior intention."  These words tell us that we are
to have a deep and abiding love for God and that this love for God show
itself in our lives and attitudes, especially in our prayer life as the
children of God.    These things we can claim as the will of God, we can
claim as good and pleasing to our Savior.
What else is revealed in our text as the will of God?  Consider the
phrase "who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the
truth."  I don't think that there can be anything clearer than those
words.  It is God's desire, God's will that every single human being be
saved.  But please note something very important.  Being saved is clearly
and purposely connected to "coming to a knowledge of the truth."  In
other words being saved and having the truth of God are not two distinct
things but rather are one and the same thing.
Of course, there will be those people who will want to argue about what
God's truth is.  Yet please note that God doesn't allow for that debate.
Our text clearly tells us what the truth that brings salvation is.  Our
text says, "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men."
Our salvation depends on Jesus.  Our salvation is found in the fact that
Jesus lived the perfect life and then in a tremendous act of love, Jesus
offered himself as the very payment for our sins.  He died for all sins.
He was raised to life so that all mankind might know that he is God's
Son, he is our redeemer, and that he promises and gives eternal life and
salvation.  That's what our faith is about...it's about what Jesus has
done.
By the way, I hope you find the comfort that I do in the fact that Jesus
is called our "mediator."  What a perfect mediator he is.  A mediator is
someone who is settling a dispute between two parties.  Jesus as God
knows perfectly and completely what God needs and wants in the issue.
Just as important, Jesus as true man also knows our needs and wants too.
The Father demands perfection!  We are given that perfection by Jesus!
The Father hates and condemns any and all sin, Jesus took that hatred
upon himself and paid the price in full.  1 Peter 1 reminds us, "For you
know it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you
were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down from your
forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without
blemish or defect."  Don't you see, here is the perfect mediator, the God
/ man Jesus who paid our ransom, yes, who paid the price of our salvation
just because of his love.
This helps us to grasp that the knowledge of the truth is the message of
Jesus and his love.  It is the message of how He won the victory and
gives it to us.  It is the message of how our sins are paid for and
covered because He paid the ransom price for us.  Clearly God's will is
that all men hear and believe this message of Jesus as the one and only
Mediator of salvation.
There is yet one more thing we can speak of concerning God's will.  That
thing is found in the words, "the testimony given in its proper time."
Let me help you grasp the importance of this phrase.
In Galatians we hear, "when the time had fully come, God sent his son.."
In 2 Tim 1:8-10 we hear, "So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord,
or ashamed of me his prisoner.  But join with me in suffering for the
gospel by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy
life-not because of anything that we have done but because of his own
purpose and grace.  This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the
beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of
our Savior, Jesus Christ."
Consider yet more.  At the beginning of John Jesus says, "my time has not
yet come."  In John 17 as Jesus is praying on the night of Maundy
Thursday he says, "Father, the time has come."  The Apostle Paul in 2
Cor. 6:1-2 says, "As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive
God's grace in vain.  For he says, 'In the time of my favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you.'  I tell you, now is the time
of God's favor, now is the day fo salvation."
In each one of those passages the focus and message is about Jesus and
his being our Savior from sin.  It is the message of Jesus, yes, the
gospel of the good news of our victory in Jesus that is the testimony
given.  So it becomes clear that God wants us to share the message of
Jesus.  Not a message of what we must do but rather the message of what
Jesus has done.
What is all the more interesting is to consider the whole of 1 Tim.  1st.
Timothy is written to Pastor Timothy, a young man appointed as the
spiritual leader of the Ephesian church.  Paul writes this letter under
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to emphasize the importance of the
ministry of the gospel.  This letter warns against false teachers and at
the same time encourages in keeping the truth and message of Jesus as the
very foundation of what that ministry is all about.  It can easily be
said that it is the will of God to preach the message of Jesus to the
world.  That's the reference to the testimony given in its proper time.
God from the beginning increasingly revealed his plan of salvation and
then completed that plan in Jesus.  We are to share that plan with the
world, or as we hear in this book, "devote yourself to the public reading
of Scripture, to preaching and teaching."  It is Jesus we are to
proclaim.
There you have it, a revelation of God's will.  Not the entire will of
God but certainly what God has shown is good and pleasing to him.  May we
think upon God's will as he has revealed it and my that will be our will.
 Amen.