I'd like you to turn in your
Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 4. This is the end of the Apostle's
life and for me it has been one of the most moving passages of
Scripture for so long. I want us to look at verse 8. He talks about his demise and
his departure which is at hand. He says in verse 7, I have fought
the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. The faith is the declaration
that the scriptures are making about the Lord Jesus Christ and
his salvation. But then he says in verse 8,
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 that love his appearing. Isn't that glorious? that love is appearing. Firstly,
of course, Paul undoes the notion which is prominent in so much
thinking these days that there are special crowns and there
are crowns with more jewels on them and there are saints who
are closer to the throne of God. than others. The number of times
we were told when we came back from India that we'll have extra
crowns, extra jewels in our crowns and we'll have a seat closer
to the throne. That is nothing other than blasphemous salvation
by woe. are all equally saved by the
grace of God, and all of God's children receive exactly the
same crown. All of God's children are in
exactly the same relationship with God. Salvation is a grace.
There are degrees of punishment in hell, but that's for another
day. But all of God's children, they love His appearing. They
receive the crown of righteousness. What's the crown of righteousness?
It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the crown. He gets all
of the glory. 2 Timothy chapter 4 has been
so poignant for me because here we have this remarkable apostle
to the Gentiles about to face his death by execution. And it's hard to reconcile someone
who has been such a remarkable force in the scriptures and such
a remarkable force in the early church having to say what he
says in verse 16 of this chapter. He says, at my first answer,
no one stood with me But all forsook me. I pray God that it
may not be laid to their charge. What a remarkable thing for him
at the very end of his life and you only have to read his letters
and they are just full of love for the children of God. They
are full of They are full of love and care. He sacrificed
so much in his own life personally that the gospel might be proclaimed.
But I love what he goes on to say in verse 17, everyone's forsaken
me. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood
with me and strengthened me. Brothers and sisters in Christ,
that's all you need in all of this world. The fellowship of
believers is precious in so many remarkable ways, and it's a treasure
to be treasured. But if the Lord stands with you,
he'll enable you to that seems to have in so many
ways abandoned you, he will cause you to stand and be strengthened
in the midst of a situation where you feel those that ought to
be standing alongside you and at this particular time in your
life comforting you most dearly and closely. Our God is great. Our God is
so good. And he leaves Timothy with the
charge, which is the charge for all the children of God in this
world. He says in the beginning of chapter
four, I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus
Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing
and his kingdom. You can read about that in Matthew
chapter 25. What is to be done in the midst of all of this?
You preach the word. You preach the Lord Jesus Christ.
Be instant, in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exalt
with all longsuffering and doctrine. for the time will come, and it's
here now, when they will not endure sound doctrine, they will
not endure sound teaching. Doctrine just means teaching,
it's not a difficult word. But after their own lusts, they
shall heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they
shall turn their ears turn away their ears from the truth and
shall be turned into fables. But watch thou in all things,
endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof
of thy ministry, for I am now ready to be offered, and the
time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight. We are told, aren't we, to contend,
contend for the truth of the gospel. the truth of the gospel is going
to be attacked on every particular side. I have fought the 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 only
to me, but unto all them also that love his appearing. I want us to look a little bit
at what it is to love his appearing, but part of what Loving his appearing
is to be turned by God away from the fables. And we don't have
to search very far to find the fables of this world. You just
have to go back and read Genesis chapter 3 and you'll find in
the fall of man that Satan used these fables, didn't he? And the great fables that were
introduced in the garden are the fables of free will. The
fable that God loves everyone. The fable that the Lord Jesus
Christ died for everyone. The fable that God the Holy Spirit
wants to save everyone. That God has this longing desire
for the salvation of all people. And to declare all of those things
as they are declared again and again and again in this world
is to declare that God Almighty failed, that God Almighty has
a purpose that can be frustrated, that God Almighty is absolutely
sovereign until God Almighty comes along and he meets the
extraordinary bows and submits and leaves defeated. Our God reigns is the great declaration
of the gospel. Our God is absolutely sovereign. Our God does as he will, is in
the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
And none can stay his hand and none can question what he's doing. Our God is absolutely sovereign.
God's children love His appearing and they love His appearing in
the Scriptures. And I just wanted to briefly
look at some of the appearings in the Scriptures. And we talk
about them often because to preach the Gospel is to preach the eternal
covenant of grace and mercy in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's to preach Christ who he
was before he came into this world, is to preach the great
transaction. He appeared in eternity. We must
begin where God begins. The Lord Jesus Christ appeared
in eternity. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He appeared
in covenant. The Lamb was the Lamb that, according
to Revelation 13.8, that was slain before the foundation of
the world. The Lamb having been slain from
the foundation of the world. The Lamb who has in his hands
a book with names written on it by God the Father and given
into his hands. It's the appearing of our Lord.
We love His appearing in eternity. I know my little tiny brain can't
grasp it, but when I'm given opportunity to think about it,
I love thinking about that extraordinary transaction before the foundation
of the world, when the Lord Jesus Christ became the surety, when
the Lord Jesus Christ entered into that glorious covenant union,
and He speaks in such extraordinary terms that he will be with his
people and he will be in him and they will be in him as a
husband and a bride, as a head and a body, as a sheep with their
shepherds, as a vine and the branches, as my people he calls
them. He says they're mine elect. We love his appearing in eternity
and we love his appearing in the rest of the world. In the
beginning There was a beginning before
the beginning. There was a fall before the fall of Adam and Eve
and the fall of Satan. But in the beginning was the
Word. In the beginning, God. In the beginning. And that beginning
appeared in creation with this extraordinary power. He just
commands and He says his first words are Light
Be and Light Was. He speaks a word and billions
and billions of stars come into existence. And he has a name
for every single one of them. And every single one of them,
as with every other electron or any other tiny little particle
you imagine, everything in this universe moves exactly as he
has determined. He appears in that creation as
the great creator. He appears as powerful in that
creation. He appears in that creation,
in that garden. He walked in the garden in the
cool of the day. Adam and Eve had communion with
God Almighty. Extraordinary communion with
God Almighty in the garden. What a wonderful appearing, and
isn't it glorious that He appeared to them after the fall? It was
He who came to them. They had no desire to be in the
presence of God. They were hiding as far away
from God as they can get in the darkest part of the garden, and
in that darkest part of the garden they were stitching together
a covering for their shame with fig leaves. And who appeared? They didn't come to God, He comes
to them and calls them into His presence. And in that glorious
thing He revealed who they were, but most of all He revealed who
He is in that appearing in the garden. That He appeared in promise,
there will be a seed of the woman who will crush the head of the
serpent. And then, gloriously in the garden,
he appeared as the one who by killing that lamb, it was the
first death in this world. There was a spiritual death of
Adam and Eve, obviously, but it was the first physical death.
What it must have been for them to have seen death for the first
time at the hands of God Almighty as he slew that sacrifice that
provided a covering for them. He appeared in promise and He
appeared in picture and for the rest of the Old Testament He
appears in promise and He appears in the Scriptures. These Scriptures
are a book about the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified and
salvation of all of His people in Him. We keep repeating Exodus 33,
Show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace
in thy sight. All the scriptures are speaking
of him. They're speaking of him and they're speaking of his people
in relationship with him and all of his people in the scriptures
are people who are crying out for mercy. All of the pictures
and all of his people He appeared in all of those scriptures. The scriptures, he says, they
speak of me. And he opens those scriptures
in Luke 24 to those disciples walking on the road to Emmaus.
And I love what it says, their hearts burned within them. Their hearts burned within them
as he opened up the scriptures. And he spoke of himself out of
the scriptures. We love his appearing. We love His appearing in His
incarnation. The Word was made flesh and we
beheld His glory. We love His appearing in all
of His acts of saving grace for His people. Not one single mercy
beggar was ever sent away from the Saviour. Everyone who came
seeking His mercy went away. having been satisfied and they're
all pictures, they're glorious pictures of His salvation. We
love His appearing on the cross. He was manifested in human flesh
that He might have a bride in human flesh, that we could live
with Him in perfect fellowship forever, that we might behold
His glory the glory of the one and only begotten of the Father. We love his appearing as he reveals
himself to his people. We love his appearing when he
gathers himself under the sound of his gospel and he promises
to reveal himself in the scriptures. He promises to speak to his people.
I don't have any ability to speak to your hearts, I can't see in
them. All I can say is this is the Saviour, this is God Almighty,
this is how he saves sinners, this is how he deals with sinners
like you and me. I don't stand here as someone
like other people that sort of is above them and say, look what
I've done and look what I've achieved. We love his appearing. And we
love his appearing in heaven. I'd like to close by going to
these verses in Hebrews. There are a couple of passages
in Hebrews that speak of his appearing. And this is what is
going on right now, brothers and sisters, as we're gathered
here, gathered by him, he is there appearing for us. In Hebrews
9, 24. He speaks of what the patterns
were, all of those Old Testament pictures and all of what happened
in the service of God in the temple. He said the patterns
of things in the heavens should be purified with these, but heavenly
things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For, or
because Christ is not entered into holy places made with hands, which are figures, which are
types of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the
presence of God for us." If the Lord Jesus Christ appears in
the presence of God for you, you are saved and you are there
with Him. Not yet that he should offer
himself often as the high priest entered into the holy place,
every year with blood of others. He says, verse 28, So Christ
was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that
look For him, he shall appear the second time without sin. All of the sin that was laid
on him by his father is gone. It is no more. God's children
in the sight of God have no sin. Let's turn to Hebrews chapter
11 and then this great chapter of the faith that speaks in verse
14. It says, for they that say such
things declare plainly, which is that same word, to appear,
declare plainly that they seek a country. All this world is
focused now on Israel, aren't they? And all this world has
its attention fixed on a people who call themselves the children
of God and it justifies all sorts of things and causes all sorts
of things to happen in this world. Abraham was given all of that
land and he lived with two things in all of that land which was
his by gift from God. He lived there in a tent. And
he lived there with an altar. And the reason was that he knew
that the land was nothing but a picture of being in the presence
and being in the company of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was looking
for a city. He was looking for a city which
had foundations, real foundations, not foundations on this earth.
But listen to what he goes on to say. He declares plainly that
is to appear, the word to appear. Truly, if they'd been mindful
of that country from whence they came out, they might have had
opportunity to ever return. But now they desire a better
country that is a heavenly country. What do the children of God seek?
Not a bit of dirt anywhere on this earth, but a heavenly country. Listen to what he goes on to
say. A heavenly country. Wherefore God is not ashamed
to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. A city. What's the city? You can read
about it at the end of Revelation, can't you? It's that glorious
city which pictures all the church of God that came down out of
heaven, prepared as a bride for her husband. He has prepared for them a city
for, by faith, Abraham when he was tried, offered up Isaac that
he and he that had received the promises offered up his only
begotten son, of whom it is said that in Isaac shall thy seed
be, accounting that God was able. If God has been manifest, that's
what you would be accounting all the time. God is able. God
is able. In all the circumstances of my
life, God is able. I love what Moses is declared
to have seen. Moses in verse 27, he forsook
Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as
seeing him who is invisible. We see God through the eyes of
faith, believing his word. We see him manifest in heaven. Do you love his appearing? I
love his appearing in eternity. I love his appearing in the garden
when I fell in Adam and I was hiding away from him. I love
his appearing when he's done what he did to Adam in the lives
of all of his people, when he comes to us in the darkness.
He comes to us in our attempts to cover up our own shame by
our own activity. He comes and he draws us to him
and he clothes us in the very robes of his righteousness. We
love him. We love him in his gospel. We love him in his word. We love
him in heaven right now. And we love Him. We love Him
because He first loved us. If He has appeared, brothers
and sisters, you'll love Him. You'll love Him. You'll love
His word. You'll love His sacrifice. You'll
love His shed of blood. You'll love that you'll be robed
in the very righteousness of God. Cole will get these elements,
and as we have these elements of the Lord's Supper, we are
declaring his death until he comes again. We are here to declare
our God is a successful, reigning, sovereign Saviour. And when He
comes back, He's coming back with a particular purpose, isn't
He? Salvation is us being gathered to Him. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also
in me, that's the solution to heart troubles, is faith. In
my Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to the cross and to heaven and throughout this
world to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again, and this is salvation,
isn't it, and receive you unto myself. that where I am, you
may be also. If you love his appearing, you
rejoice in his going, and you rejoice in his coming, and you
rejoice just in who he is, just who he is as he declares himself
to be in the scriptures. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we pray that you would cause us to be mercy beggars, you would
cause us to come and to bow and to be those, Heavenly Father,
who love much because we've been forgiven much. We praise you,
Heavenly Father, for your work of grace in eternity. We praise
you for your work, the coming of your dear and precious Son
into this world, and we praise you most of all, Heavenly Father,
for your coming to your people and drawing them to yourself.
and revealing Yourself to them, revealing Yourself in them, revealing
Yourself in all of Your glory. But most of all, Our Father,
we thank You for the revelation of who You are in the life and
the death and the resurrection of Your dear and precious Son.
You alone can cause us to love. You alone can cause us to have
His blood as precious, Heavenly Father. We pray your mercy upon
us. May we eat and may we drink with
an awareness of who it is that we're remembering.