HOW I KNOW GOD WANTS EVERYONE TO BE SAVED
by Dr. Tom Malone
I TIMOTHY 2:8
"Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto
the knowledge of the truth" - 1 Tim.2:4
I have met a few people in my Christian experience
who felt that they were excluded form the atonement and
from the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I never shall forget a sad experience I had with a
man who came to this church many years ago. One night
while riding with him in the car, I was talking to him
about how he could know he was saved - how he could
have assurance in his heart. He had said that at times
he thought he was saved, but then again he did not know
whether he was saved or not. In the darkness of the
car, he said to me, "I am afraid, Brother Tom, that I
am predestinated to be lost and that God did not intend
for me to be saved in the first place."
I am absolutely positive that is not true, and I
can take the Bible and prove that the will of God is
that every man or woman be saved. "Who will have all
men to be saved, and to come unto knowledge of the
truth" does not mean that everyone will be saved. The
doctrine of Universalism, which is a false teaching,
teaches to the effect that sometimes God is gong to
change His mind and He is not going to let anyone be
lost; He is not going to let anyone suffer; He not
going to let anyone go to Hell; and finally He is going
to save everyone. Not one verse in all the Holy Bible
intimates such teaching. The Scripture says, "Who will
have all men to be saved, and to come unto the
knowledge of the truth."
There are two different verbs in the New Testament
for will. One expresses determination; the other,
desire. If the verb in this verse were the verb for
determination - if God were determined that there would
be no one in Hell - there would be no one in Hell. But
this is not what the verb means. It is the word for
desire. This verse teaches that God desires that
everyone be saved, that no one be lost, that all come
to the knowledge of the truth.
I find in the Scriptures five reasons why I know
God wants and desires and longs for everyone to be
saved.
I. WE ARE TO PRAY FOR EVERYONE
In I Timothy 2:1 we read, "I exhort therefore,
that, first of all, supplications, prayers,
intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all
men."
God said we should pray for everyone. If there
were no hope for a person to be saved, would God exhort
us to pray for that person? No. Since there is a
possibility for everyone to be saved, the Bible says
that we are to pray for all men. I don't care how deep
in sine the are, how hardhearted they are, how
indifferent they are.
I heard just the today of someone who is lost and
needs the Lord, but who told one of our workers today,
"Shut up! Go on your way! I don't want to hear about
it!" That does not mean that we should not pray for
him. The Bible teaches that we are to pray for all men
everywhere. That fact leads me to believe that it is
possible for any and all to be saved because God has
told us to pray for them.
Many people have been saved because someone
prayed. Many people are in Hell today because no one
cared enough to pray for their salvation. I never shall
forget reading the accurate account of the mother of
Tom Carter. Tom was a prisoner who was sent to prison
for many years. While in prison, his mother, who had
prayed for him all of his life, got a very special
burden to pray that God would save him. She set aside
other things and began praying for her lost boy in
prison. She prayed that God would not let him die until
he was genuinely saved.
In the midst of these four or five days of
praying, fasting, waiting on God and travailing for the
soul of her son, she received a telegram from the state
prison. It read like this:
Dear Mrs. Carter:
We regret to inform you that your son Tom Carter
died.
She took the telegram, went back to her knees
again, laid it on the floor and bathed it with her
tears. She told God, "God, I don't believe it! I don't
believe it! I have prayed in faith believing. I have
held my boy up to You, begging You to save him. I have
had the confidence in my soul that my prayers were
being answered. I don't believe this telegram!"
It is said that Mrs. Carter wadded up that
telegram, threw it in the wastebasket and told God, "I
still claim Your promises. I believe my boy will be
saved.
In only a matter of hours a second telegram came
from the state prison. it said:
Dear Mrs. Carter:
We are happy to inform you that we have made an
error. There are two men in this prison by the name
of Tom Carter. It was not your son who died: it was
another man with the same name.
That telegram was followed in a few hours by a
letter from her son Tom saying:
Mother, while here in this prison in recent days,
I have felt the need of Christ in my life and I have
been saved.
Friends, there is no way of knowing how many of us
sitting in the house of God, singing songs of Zion and
rejoicing in our hope in Christ, were saved because
someone prayed. God in His Word says, "I exhort
therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers,
intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all
men.
I know that God wants everyone saved because He
wants everyone prayed for.
"Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto
the knowledge of the truth.''
II. CHRIST GAVE HIMSELF A RANSOM FOR ALL
We read in I Timothy 2:6: "Who gave himself a
ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
The Bible plainly teaches that Jesus died for all,
died for every one of us--for the lost heathen, for the
uncivilized, for those in the past, for those who live
now, and for all those who will be born until the end
of time. He "gave himself a ransom for all." When
Christ died on the cross of Calvary, He died with you
and me in mind.
A wonderful verse in connection with this thought
is verse 5: ''For there is one God, and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." There is
one God who manifests Himself in three different ways:
Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Multitudes do not believe
this verse and in a moment, you will know whom I am
talking about. "For there is one God, and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." Just one
Mediator, not two, not three not several--one God, one
Mediator. Who is that Mediator? It is not the Virgin
Mary; it is not a Protestant preacher; it is not a
Catholic priest. "...one God...one mediator..., can
mean only one glorious Person, Jesus Christ.
Mrs. Malone and I have visited the four largest
and most historic churches in the Roman Catholic world:
Saint Peter's Cathedral in the Vatican in Rome, St.
John's Lateran Church, the most historic Catholic
church on the face of the earth; Saint Mary's Basilica;
and Saint Paul's Outside the Wall. While in Saint
Mary's Basilica, I saw some things that I shall never
forget. One was a large sculpture in beautiful stone.
There is no telling how many thousands of dollars that
piece of sculpture is worth. It was of a woman sitting,
representing the Virgin Mary. Underneath her feet was
an entanglement of men. One was an old haggard-looking
man with long hair down to his back. That was John
Huss. One with bulging eyes looked like an imbecile.
Around both of these men snakes were wrapped. The
woman's feet were upon Martin Luther, the Father of the
Protestant Reformation.
While looking at that sculpture, I noticed some
little booths, like telephone booths. I saw a Catholic
nun, a young woman, in one of those booths. There was a
perforated piece of board and then the enclosed booth
on the other side. Through that perforation you could
speak. In that booth was a Catholic priest, hidden from
view of all who stood in that great church.
I saw that young Catholic woman come, kneel and
cross herself. She had no sooner knelt, garbed in all
her black attire, than she began to whisper and confess
her sins to a man in that booth. I saw the big tears
roll down her cheeks. Then I watched her arise, and
with tears still on her cheeks and with the same sad
look on her face, and with not one ray of hope or one
glitter of peace or one bit of joy in her soul, I saw
her walk out, stooped and weeping.
I said to myself that day, and I have said it
thousands of times since, Thank God for one to whom we
can go who never sins!
Not a man, but a God-man, the spotless perfect
Lamb of God who bore my sins, the one and only
Mediator.
Any man or woman who says there is more than one
Mediator goes contrary to the Book of God. There is one
God and one Mediator--no other. That Mediator is Christ
Jesus.
You might say, "Oh, but I have heard all my life
that you could confess your sins to So-and-So.'' "My
little children, these things write I unto you, that ye
sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous'' (I John 2:1).
Don't think I am just "taking off" on the Catholic
church. I have the truth at heart. I have as much right
to preach what I believe, as they do to advocate what
they believe. We see thousands of cars on the road that
have a little Catholic image in them. People carry
those images because they believe they have some
efficacy, some atonement, for protection. Saint
So-and-So is to protect you; Saint So-and-So is to help
you when you are in sorrow; Saint So-and-So is to help
you when you run out of money; Saint So-and-So is to
help you when all of your friends have turned their
backs on you; Saint So-and-So is to help you when you
get sick; Saint So-and-So is to help you when you get
old.
Gathered into one glorious, living Redeemer, we
have all of those in "one God and one mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus.'' One Mediator. He
gave Himself a ransom for everyone. No one can take
this Bible and find anything that would indicate Jesus
did not die for your sins. He wants everyone to be
saved because He died for everyone.
III. THE TEACHING OF THE SCRIPTURE
In II Peter 3:9 we read, "The Lord is not slack
concerning his promise, as some men count slackness,
but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
Titus 2.11, 12 says, "For the grace of God that
bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching
us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we
should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this
present world....
So the Bible teaches that God is not willing that
any should perish. There is a sense in which God has
put everything He can between a lost soul and Hell--the
Bible, a bloody cross, the church of Jesus Christ,
gospel preaching, the prayers and tears of honest
Christians. God is not willing that anyone be lost. He
has put every barrier, every stop sign, every blockade,
between you and Hell that He could possibly put. That
He wants everyone to be saved is the teaching of the
Scripture.
The Bible plainly teaches that the grace of God
that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. He is
not willing that any should perish. His glorious
salvation is not confined to any one class of people.
He loves the rich, the poor·. the learned, the
unlearned, the up-and-out, the down-and-out. God loves
all sinners, every sinner, everywhere.
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that,
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom.
5:8). Jesus ministered to all classes of people while
here on earth. His love and saving grace reached to the
very lowest rung of the ladder of human society.
IV. HE HAS NEVER REFUSED ANYONE
I have never met anyone who came to Jesus and was
refused. Have you? There are verses that teach that God
has never refused anyone. 1 have often said that I can
hardly preach without referring to John 6:37, "All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me: and him that
cometh to me 1 will in no wise east out." The Lord
never refuses anyone.
John Wesley was one of the greatest preachers who
has ever lived. He was a man and a human being, but he
was a miracle himself. John Wesley crossed the
Atlantic Ocean thirteen times when it was a miracle if
anyone got across without disaster. He rode across
this country on horseback and muleback, establishing
Methodist churches and sowing the seed of the Gospel.
John Wesley had an unusual voice. He never used a
microphone. He would preach to as many as forty
thousand people in an open field without a P.A.
system. It is said that his voice would carry a mile.
He would lift up his voice and it would fairly ring
across the heads of thousands of people. He stood at
his mother's grave and preached to many thousands.
One day when he had preached to a large open-air
crowd, Lady Huntington and other royalty went up to him
and said "Mr. Wesley, we would like to entertain you
for tea." So he went to tea. But just before he went
into the home of this royalty of England, someone
handed Wesley a little dirty piece of paper, which he
stuck into his long Prince Albert coat.
While being entertained at tea, one of the royalty
said, "Mr. Wesley, we think you went a little too far
today in your preaching. " "Why do you say that?" this
great Methodist preacher asked.
"Because you made the statement that God would
never refuse anyone. You went so far as to say that
Jesus would take people whom the Devil was even tired
of. You said the Lord would take the Devil's
castaways."
"Yes, I believe that," he answered. As she was
talking, John Wesley reached into his pocket, got the
note and read it.
We are just two old, sinful women, two soiled
doves of the London underworld who heard you preach
today. We have lived in sin all of our lives. We
heard you say that Jesus would take even the Devil's
castaways. Hearing that and believing it, we have
trusted Him and have been saved.
Mr. Wesley folded the note and looked through the
glass of the large and beautiful doors. Out there he
saw two old women with their rags gathered about them,
standing shuddering in the cold. After reading the note
to Lady Huntington and the other royalty, he said,
"There are two people out there who have been away from
God all of their lives, who have lived in the very
gutters of this city. The Lord saved them today.
"AIl that the Father giverh to me shall come unto
me; and he that cometh to me I will in no wise cast
out.
My friends, there is no record of Jesus Christ
ever refusing anyone. Thieves came to Him, and He took
them in. When people flung a woman at His feet and said
that she deserved to be stoned, He took her in. When a
cursing, swearing fisherman crossed His path, He took
him in. This Bible teaches that Jesus has never refused
anyone. "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come
unto the knowledge of the truth.''
V. BECAUSE OF THE GIFT OF HIS SON
Romans 8:32 says, "He that spared not his own Son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with
him also freely give us all things?'' God gave His Son
for you. That is why I know He wants you to be saved.
''He...spared not his own Son.'' Can you possibly
believe that God would give His only begotten Son to
suffer and die on the cross of Calvary, then not want
you to be saved?
"For God so loved the World, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have everlasting life.''--John 3:16.
Someone has told this beautiful and wonderful story:
Long ago, before the days of railways, people
could travel only on horseback or by rumbling
stagecoach. The arrival of the coach in town or village
was a great event. As Harry, a bright but careless boy,
came out of school, he waited to see the visitors get
out of the stagecoach. Among them was a queer-looking
man who swayed from side to side as he walked. Harry
laughed aloud and imitated the funny walk of the
stranger to the rest of his chums. When he reached
home, his father said, "Come into this room and see a
dear old friend of mine. "
Harry was glad to go, but oh, how ashamed he felt!
There sat the stranger who had arrived on the
stagecoach and at whom he had laughed. But the
gentleman smiled and was very kind.
Then Harry's father told his son that when he
(Harry) was quite little. he (the father) had fallen
into the canal. A stranger plunged in to save him, but
it left him crippled for life.
Harry flushed when he thought of his own bad
behavior toward a man who had saved his father's life.
The Lord Jesus has more than risked His life to
save you from sin. He gave Himself. Oh, such a cruel
death He died upon the cross! He "gave himself a ransom
for all."
You may not love Him now because you know Him not,
but to know the Lord Jesus is to love Him.
"God is not willing that any should perish, but that
all should come to repentance."