2 Timothy chapter 4. I want to begin reading here
in verse 6. Look at this passage with me
for just a few minutes. Verse 6 of 2 Timothy chapter
4. For I am now ready to be offered. The time of my departure is at
hand. I have fought a good fight, I
have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there
is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me
only, but unto all them also that love is appearing." Now,
I look upon verses 6 through 8 as a continuation of this charge. that the Apostle Paul laid upon
young Timothy this morning to preach the Word. Preach the Word. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all longsuffering and doctrine and so on. And he encourages
him here in verses 6, 7, and 8 by using himself as an example. And what I think the Apostle
Paul is saying here He said to Timothy, as it were, Timothy,
look at me. I want you to consider me as
your example. I was one day where you are now.
I was young, I was healthy, energetic. Now, look where I'm at. And yet,
look what awaits me. And I want you to use me as an
example. When you reach the place that
I'm at now, I want you to be able to say what I'm telling
you. That I've fought a good fight.
I have finished my course. I've kept the faith. And therefore,
it's laid up for me. In other words, he's using himself
as an example to encourage Timothy to look ahead. Follow my faith,
look where I am at, and use me as an example. Now, I want to
consider verses 6 through 8 briefly, simply as they correlate one
with another. Then I want to look at them separately. Verses 6, 7, and 8, as they correlate
one with another, and I think it is very obvious here to see
how this is, I am now ready to be offered because I fought a
good fight. The time of my departure is at
hand. I finished my course. I have
kept the faith. And in the light of that, henceforth
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness." I think we
see here how these correlate one with another, how they connect
and flow one with another. Now, let me say this about this.
The apostle here is no bragging man. He's not a bragger. He used
to be. He used to be a self-righteous
man. But now he's just speaking objectively. He's a man that
always faced the facts. Whether he's speaking about himself
or whether he's speaking about somebody else, he faced the facts. And he was a man who could honestly
say, I am what I am by the grace of God. I labored more abundantly
than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God that was within
me. And the Apostle Paul is not saying
here in these verses that he did anything in and of his own
strength. He is saying here, I did it.
He is saying here that I have fought, I have finished, I have
kept. But if you compare this to other
scriptures, you will find that he is saying that I did all of
this by the grace of God which works in me. But he comes here
and he faces the facts of all this, that he has done this. So in these verses he can truthfully
say, I am ready to die. I am ready to leave this world,
for I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I
have kept the faith. And therefore, because of this,
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. Now that's
just fact, isn't it? As you look at the way these
correlate one with another, he's saying that I'm ready. The time
is here to depart. And I'm ready because I've thought. I've finished my course. And
because I've thought and finished my course, there's laid up for
me a crown of righteousness. Now, those who seek the will
of God, listen to this. And those who seek to honor God
and obey Him, I mean honestly do that, and they sincerely do
that, believe in the testimony that God gave of His Son, they
will have no just cause to be apprehentious about death. And they will have to doubt their
entrance into glory at last. This apostle had honored the
Lord Jesus Christ in this world. He had believed Him. He had served
Him faithfully. And to now be apprehensive about
death and His entrance into heaven at last would be to dishonor
the Lord Jesus Christ and His word and promises. Listen to what the Master said
in John 12, 26. If any man serve me, Let him follow me, and where
I am, there shall my servant be also. If any man serve me,
him will my Father honor." And that's what the Apostle Paul
is saying. I have sought to honor God. I believe the record that
He gave of His Son. I've promoted His glory. I've
finished the course that He put me on. And he said, this is a
fact. This is a promise that there's
laid up for me a crown of righteousness. It's just simply to believe the
Word and promises of our Lord. And when you and I, brothers
and sisters, come down to die, do we think it will be a help
or a hurt to our conscience that we've lived in the faith that
God is true? That we have sought in every
aspect of our lives to honor Him above all, that in spite
of our felt weaknesses and apparent failures, we have prayed and
we've sought His face and we've sought grace to do His will. We have sought to walk. We have
strived to walk in the light which He's given us to walk in.
And God knows that, doesn't He? God knows whether we're speaking
honestly when we say that or not. And I think it's a comfort
to us to know that God knows these things. I had rather face
death and dying this way than with a reminder on my conscience
of my willful and deliberate neglect of God's will. And He
knows that too, doesn't He? I tell you, I'd rather die. I'd
rather die having sought His face. and strive through His
grace to do His will and to finish the course that He put me on,
I would rather die like that than to die knowing that I have
willfully and deliberately neglected what I knew was His will for
my life to do. There is no doubt that God chastens
His people. The Scripture says, For whom
the Lord loves, He chastens. And he scourges every son whom
he received. And there is no doubt that no
chastening for the present is joyous, but grievous. Therefore,
for my part, I want to face death and dying with a clear conscience
towards God. I do not want to face death and
dying with the grief of God my Father's rod upon my back. See how these verses correlate. One is the cause of the other. I'm ready. I'm ready to die because
I have sought God's will. By His grace, I did His bidding. I've been faithful to His gospel.
And now I have the confidence. I'm ready to face the Lord. I don't know but what death and
dying is going to have enough sorrow in and of itself that
I imagine it might without me adding to my own and bringing
my own to my deathbed with my willful neglect and sinful neglect,
I guess I should say, of God's will and command. I believe,
therefore, that these verses directly correlate one with another. When the apostle says, I'm now
ready because I've fought a good fight. I've finished my course.
I've kept the faith. And then that directly correlates
with the next verse where he said, therefore, I am ready. There is laid up for me a crown
of righteousness. Now, this probably won't suit
hyper-Calvinist. It probably won't suit those
who have their little systems of grace in their heads. It probably won't suit them. They try to put all the Scriptures
in their little systems. It won't suit them. But I tell
you, it will suit a conscience. And that's what we're after,
Ann, to suit a conscience. And you and I know in our conscience
that Some things correlate with each other. My obeying the Lord,
my knowing His will and seeking Him for grace to do it, and my
assurance before Him. These things correlate one with
another. I tell you, if you're here this
afternoon and you know what I'm getting at, you know this is
good for your conscience. And you know what I'm talking
about. When you come down to your deathbed, you want to save
what this man here said. I don't want to look back upon
a life where I knew I shouldn't have been doing some things,
and I overrode my conscience. I knew I should have been doing
some things because I knew from the Word of God I shouldn't,
and yet I was very neglectful in doing it. Old John Bunyan
used to say, the Lord can save a man, save him from his sins,
and save him forever. and put him on a dark death bed.
There is one thing about it. This life ends our sufferings. This life ends the heaviness
of our hearts and our conscience. If the conscience is afflicted,
it will be in this life. It won't be yonder. Somebody
says, you better do this and you better do that. You're going
to stand and weep and your heart is going to be full of sorrow
before the Lord. I've searched the Bible and I can't find that.
I can't find that. Once you leave this world and
you go into His presence, bud, there will be no tears there.
There will be no hearts filled with sorrow. But it's here. I
am now ready. I'm ready because I have thought
a good thought. So that's the way they correlate
one with another. But now, let's quickly look at
these verses as best I can individually. Here in verse 6, he hints at
a violent death. I am now ready to be offered. The little Greek book that I
have says I'm being poured out. It's like a sacrifice. I'm offered. I'm ready to be sacrificed. So
he seems to express here a violent death. And Fox's Book of Martyrs
tells us that he did indeed die from decapitation. I don't know
if that's so, if he had his head cut off or not. But it seems
that he indicates here that he's ready to die a violent death. In the light of that, how can
any man know that he's going to die a violent death say, I'm
ready. I'm ready. I mean, if they took
me downtown on a pretty sunny day, And I had about a thousand
of the Lord's saints there with me. And they tell me, Bruce,
for the cause and glory of Jesus Christ, we're going to shoot
you in the head. And I said, man, go ahead and do it. Look
at the support I've got around here. Just go ahead and help
yourself. Don't delay my entrance into
His kingdom any longer. But I tell you to take a man
down in the dungeon somewhere and be yourself. With no support
around. We want your head. We're going
to cut your head off. I tell you, then to say, I'm
ready. I'm ready in public. I'm ready
in private. I'm ready. How could a man say
this and be honest and say it? I want to give you four quick
reasons, I think, scriptural reasons, how the Apostle made
this statement. Look in Acts chapter 20 and look in verse 22. Acts chapter
20 and verse 22. This is when the apostle was
still a free man. And look here what he says in
Acts 20 and verse 22. And now, behold, I go bound in
the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall
befall me there, except that the Holy Ghost witnesses in every
city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me. But look at this. But
none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear
unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and
the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify
of the gospel of the grace of God." One of the reasons he could
say, I'm ready even to be offered up to a violent death is because
he said, my life is not dear unto me. Now, he's not saying
he doesn't value his soul and its salvation. Man, he knew that
was a gift of God. He valued the salvation of his
soul. He sought it, as Brother Larry
told us this morning. But what he's saying here in
these verses is this. He is saying here that my self-serving
and my pleasing the flesh and worldly comforts and temporal
advantages, these things aren't dear to me. And anything that
hinders me from preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,
I don't count it dear to me. But I despise it as something
that only hinders me from fulfilling my course. Here was a man that
put more value upon his course, upon his preaching the gospel
than he did upon his comfort and well-being itself. And when
a man values that above everything else, and at the expense of everything
else, when it comes down to laying his course down and finishing
it, you know what he can say? I'm ready. I'm ready. They're going to cut your head
off. I'm ready. They're going to feed you to
the walled lions. I'm ready. I'm ready. Why? Why? There's one thing that I
value more than anything else, and that's this gospel that I
must preach, that I'm blessed to preach, and by God's grace,
I am preaching it. That's why he could say, I'm
ready. Look here in chapter 21 of Acts. Look here in verse 10. Acts 21, verse 10. And as they
tarried there many days, there came down from Judea a certain
prophet named Agabus. This is where Paul was going
up to Jerusalem again. And when he was coming to us,
he took Paul's girdle and bound his own hands and feet and said,
Thus saith the Holy Ghost, so shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind
the man that owns this girdle, and shall deliver him unto the
hands of the Gentiles. And when we heard these things,
both we and they of that place begged him not to go up to Jerusalem. And then Paul answered, What
mean you to weep and to break my heart? For I am ready," that's
it, ain't it? I'm ready to be offered. I am
ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for
the name of the Lord Jesus." I tell you, he saw something
in Jesus Christ. God had made known to him something
of the redeeming beauty and glory of the Son of God. He said, what
is my life? My life is nothing. and to have
an opportunity to lay it down for the glory of His name, I'm
ready! I'm ready! They put old John Gunion in jail.
He had to leave his little blind daughter, Mary. He said he's
like taking hot pinchers and pulling the flesh from his body. Put him in there. And they told
him, they said, Gunion, if you don't quit preaching Christ,
we're going to burn you at the stake. And Bunyan said, God had
opened my heart and I saw in Jesus Christ such worth and such
merits. He said, I came to the conclusion
that if I had a thousand souls, I would lay them all down for
the glory and the cause of Jesus Christ, my Lord. I tell you,
when God opens our hearts to know Jesus Christ, Don't we feel
the same way? Nothing else matters but His
glory. Oh, Moses said it like this.
It was said like this of Moses. He esteemed the reproach of Christ. Greater riches than the treasures
in Egypt. They must have told him, Moses,
you're going to sit on the throne. Don't give that up. Give it up,
he said. Give it up. I've got riches you
don't know about. The riches of the glory of the
Son of God. And I count suffering for Him
more honor than sitting upon any throne man can make. I'm ready. Oh, I'm ready. Paul said, if they want to kill
me for the glory of Christ's name, I'm ready. I'm ready. Look in 2 Corinthians chapter
5. Terence reminded me a few days
ago of a statement I made. I don't remember making it, but
I think it may have come from this passage of Scripture here.
How could Paul say, I'm ready to be offered, ready to be sacrificed? Boy, I tell you, he was looking
at things from the proper perspective. He was. Look in 2 Corinthians
chapter 5 and look in verse 16. For which cause we think not,
but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed
day by day. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory." Aren't you amazed when he said, or light
affliction? When you consider this man was
stoned and left for dead, and he called that a light affliction? Or when they whipped him five
times and gave him thirty-nine stripes each time? Or when they
took his liberty away from him and kept him in prison for years? He said these are light afflictions
and they're just for a moment? This man carried the marks in
his body of those stripes that they beat him. He carried that
to his death. It seemed like it was more than
a moment, doesn't it? But Paul is saying this. You look at this
from the proper perspective. What are these beatings? These persecutions, these afflictions
compared to the eternal glory that awaits. What are these traps
in my body? They're just temporal compared
to the exceeding weight. They're just light. You know
our whole problem sometimes. Our whole problem sometimes.
We don't look at things as they really are. We look at things as they really
are not. This is what you reminded me
the other day that I said. What you see is just a mist. It's like a dream. Someday we'll
wake and these things won't even exist. The temporal things, the
things that we see, brothers and sisters, they don't really
exist. But the things that we don't see with the natural eye,
but we see with the eye of faith, those things are the real things.
Look what he said in verse 18. While we look not at the things
which are seen. Can you see the Apostle Paul
standing there with his head over a bucket? And a fellow is
over his head with a big sword drawn, ready to one slice take
his head from his shoulder. And Paul said, I'm not looking
at that sword. I don't even see that. That's
temporary. We look not at the things which
are seen, but at the things which are not seen. What's the difference?
The things which are seen are temporary. They're temporary. Your persecutions, your afflictions,
your trials, they're all present. They're not going to last. Don't
that help you tomorrow? But those things which are not
seen, those are eternal. And boy, when you look at that
from that perspective, don't you think Paul would say, man,
I'm ready. I'm ready. Paul, this is going
to hurt. It's temporary. It ain't going
to hurt long. Even if he gets a bad lick and
gives me a bad wound and I have to suffer for a year, that's
just temporary. Don't worry about it. I ain't
got a bank account anymore. Don't worry about it. That's
temporary. That's temporary. May not have a check coming in
much longer. Don't worry about it. That's temporary. These things
are temporary, aren't they? We look not at the things which
are seen, but at the things which are not seen. That'll help you
be faithful. That'll help you to suffer. That'll
help you to be long-suffering. It helped Timothy with this charge.
Timothy, I'm ready. I'm ready. Here's the fourth
thing back in my text. Back in 2 Timothy chapter 4. Here's the fourth thing. First
of all, that He didn't put any value. His life wasn't dear.
He was willing to die for the glory of Christ. And this affliction
in his death was short-lived. It's temporary. He's looking
at his eternal blessing. And fourthly, it's found here
in the last portion of verse 6. This tells us something about
the reason that he could say, I'm ready. Look what he said.
The time of my departure. is at hand. Don't you love the way he mentions
his death? He counted it a departure from
a bad country to a good country. I've had this happen to me. I
have been up here in Indiana and was scheduled to go to Orlando,
Florida in February as I am in a few days from now. And I mean,
I left this country up here, and it was cold. It was awful. My bones were chilled. And just
every once in a while, I'd get my ticket out, and I'd look to
see when my departure time. Just a few days now, February
the 14th, I'll be on the white beaches, if I so desire, looking
at the blue water, soaking up the warm sunshine. What time
was that departure? What did Paul say about that?
Oh, this is what he said. I have a desire to depart. Paul, where are you going? To
be with Christ. Oh, that's your departure. You're
going to be with the one who loved you. You're going to be
with the one who bore your sins. and purged your iniquities. You
are going to meet the One and be with Him on eternal vacation
who loved you so that He washed you and clothed the shame of
your nakedness and promised that you would be with Him when you
left this world. You are going to depart and to
be with Him. Oh, no wonder He said it is time. It is time. And I think, brothers
and sisters, I could humbly say, and you could humbly say, when
is my time to depart? I'm ready to depart and to be
with Christ, which is far better. I was reading my little Greek
book one day, verse 6. The last portion of verse 6 reads
like this, the time of my release is come. And I thought, no wonder
he's ready to die then. Not just a release from the Roman
prison. Not just a release from these
physical bonds, but release from this prison that he called the
prison where the law and sin rules. This old corrupt nature
that kept him down. That he had to pack around. That
was a source of great grief and many tears. I've been in this
prism of this fallen nature, but now it's come time to be
released. And for the first time, he was
going to enjoy a freedom that he never experienced before. Who would mind getting out of
jail? Man, I'm ready to get out of jail. Enter that glorious
liberty of the children of God. I'm ready. I'm ready. Well, he goes on in verse 7 then.
Let's look at this right quickly. I have fought a good fight. I
have fought a good fight. Now, don't get it in our heads
that Paul fought a perfect fight. Because he didn't. We can find
some slips. And I'm sure he could sit down
and tell you, yeah, I've made some pretty bad slips. I tell
you how we know that, because he suffered the chastening hand
of the Lord. He said, I'm chastened often.
Yeah, he made some slips. He's not saying that I'm perfect,
that I've reached perfection. I've reached such maturity that
I've never failed in this battle. But he said, I've fought. That's
it, ain't it? I've not got out of the battle.
I've fought. Our battles may not be as bloody
as this great man was, but I tell you, our battles are just as
critical as his was. We've been fighting sinful self.
We've been fighting this world and its ignorance and its superstition
and its self-salvation, its freewillism. We've been fighting the devil
and the gates of hell. And I tell you, we found it to
be a serious battle and a dangerous battle. Some of us have got some
scars to prove it, haven't we? A battle. And we're fighting
with this battle. And by God's grace, we're going
to do just what the Apostle said he did. I have finished my course. We never quit. By God's grace,
we're never going to let go our grip of this old sword. We're
never going to go AWOL. We're going to fight until we
finish the battle. We've seen some people get in
the battle. We thought they were in the battle and looked like
they were going to make generals. And after a while, you turn around
and they're gone. They went AWOL or something. We can't do that,
Kevin. I tell you, the battle's tough. And we never get out of it. I
fought a good fight. I finished." And you know something?
The war is won. Our captain, he doesn't want
the war. Just a matter of time, the enemy
is going to surrender. He's going to put his foot on
their necks. And we're going to say then,
yeah, the battle is won. We'll fight. And he says here,
I have kept the faith. This word, I think, means doctrine.
It could mean grace of faith also, but I look at it as the
doctrine of faith because he's speaking here of preaching and
holding the truth. I've kept the truth. I've kept
the truth. The Lord brought us to the knowledge
of the truth and the faith of the truth and the love of the
truth. And I tell you, we're never going
to give it up, are we? You just think about it just for a minute
and be objective, be honest about it. Could you deny the sovereignty
of God? Could you let that go? Could you let the deity of the
Son of God go? Could you let the truth of His
miracles that He did when He was here, could you just give
that up? Could you deny His electing grace? Could you deny upon the cross
He actually bore the sins and obtained eternal redemption for
His people that He never failed? Could you let the fact and the
truth goal that you have a successful Redeemer who has accomplished
the redemption of His people, could you let that go and accept
the lie that He failed? I tell you, when somebody you
love fails, boy, that hurts, don't it? Oh, the Denver lost their ballgame
last night. A lot of people didn't sleep very good, and I can understand
that. That's my favorite team. And they failed. I feel for them. Man, they're hurting. Larry,
you watched the game last night, and I bet you didn't sleep much.
I bet you woke up during the night with that heavy heart.
Oh, man, they lost. Yeah, they should have beat them.
Good team. Wouldn't it break your heart
to think that Jesus Christ failed? How'd you like to lay down with
that on your heart? He tried. Oh man, did he ever try, but
he failed. No, no, it'll never happen. It'll never happen. Paul said
here, I have kept the faith. Oh, that's the glory of a sovereign,
crowned God. All He is in the Trinity of His
sacred person, and all He's done in the days of His flesh, and
all He's doing now. We've kept this truth. He's made
it known to us. And by His grace, we're not going
to let a thing go. We'll never compromise it. We
shall never. I have kept the truth. And He
finishes it with this, Therefore, henceforth, is laid up for me
a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the Judge of all, shall
give me at that day, and not to me only, but also all of them
that love his appearing." To be honest with you, I don't know
very much about this. I just know that when the Scripture
talks about crowns, Peter talks about the crown of glory, Paul
talks about an incorruptible crown. James talked about a crown
of life, and here Paul talks about a crown of righteousness. And when you see a crown in the
Scriptures, it denotes many things. It denotes rule. The king wears the crown. It
denotes honor. You honor the one that wears
the crown. It denotes power. So when you think about a crown,
what do you think about? Reigning. You think about honor,
dignity, power. And then when you think about
glory and incorruptible-ness and righteousness, you think
about, man, what kind of crown is that? So the way I look upon
this, Paul said, there awaits me a crown. There awaits me a
reign in life. Holiness. Purity. Dignity. Honor. Glory awaits
me. It's laid up for there in heaven.
Not a physical crown. Who in the world would want to
go wearing a physical crown on their head? To wait your neck
down and get tired of wearing that. But when you think of glory
and holiness and ruling and reigning and sinlessness forever and ever
and ever, oh, that's a crown I want to wear. Be so righteous and so holy,
you'll never sin again. You'll never think about sinning
again. You'll never be plagued with a sense of sin. You'll never
be tempted. You'll be delivered from its
very presence. You'll never know anything else about sin. Oh,
a crown of righteousness. And I tell you, it's not just
for the apostles. It's not for some elite saint. Paul said it's
for all of them who love his appearing. He's coming again. He's been here already. And if
you know what He did when He came the first time, and you
love that appearing, then you'll learn to love the second appearing. Because all He's going to do
in His second appearing is come to finish the work of redemption
that He started back there upon the cross. Oh, He started back
there and He atoned for sin. He purged sin away. And when
He comes again, He's going to deliver us from the very presence
and being of sin. and make our body lack unto His
glorious body. I'm ready. I'm ready. Let's pray.