Alright, let's look back there
in 2 Timothy chapter 4. 2 Timothy chapter 4. And this morning
I want to speak on the subject of the last words of Paul. The last words of the Apostle
Paul. In the last two messages I've
been dealing with that very subject and other. passages of scripture,
some of God's choice saints. I did the last words of King
David in 2 Samuel chapter 23. And then the last words of a
man named Simeon in Luke chapter 2. And today the last words of
Paul. And I believe these are significant.
I believe these are special because they represent examples of dying
grace. People talk about dying grace.
Do I have it? When will I get it? All of that
sort of thing. I think there's a lot of misconceptions
about it. A lot of misunderstandings about it. But these examples
of dying grace I believe are comforting to the people of God.
Because not only do they represent or are examples of their thoughts
and what pervades their minds and their hearts when they're
dying, but throughout their lives as believers. The question for us to consider
as we look at each one I think is very significant. For example,
in David's dying words in 2 Samuel chapter 23 and verse 5, he's
speaking of the coming of Christ as his hope. the coming of the
Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, as his salvation. And he made
this statement. He said, this is all my salvation
and all my desire. Now the question for me to consider
and for you to consider as we look at that is this. Is this
all my salvation and all my desire? This Christ who is, David saw,
the one to come. who would take his place and
die for his sins and establish righteousness for David. He said,
this is all my salvation and all my desire. Now, do you have
any other hope of salvation but Christ and Him crucified and
risen again? Any other hope of forgiveness
but by His blood alone? Any hope of standing before God
accepted, but the righteousness of Christ imputed and received
by faith, are you looking anywhere else? And I often think about
this because it was so common in my growing up in religion. When people would go out to what
they call witness and they'd ask somebody, are you saved?
And just about every time, Not always, but just about every
time if somebody said yes, they would want to prove it by something
that they did back when they were 12, 13, 14 years old at
a revival meeting or a youth meeting or something. Walk in
an aisle, get him. You see, that's not my hope or
my salvation. David, listen. You think about
King David, what he could have said. Well, you know, I know
I'm saved. I killed Goliath. Back when I
was a young man, oh, I know it was of the Lord. When I was saved,
I didn't kill Saul. I had plenty of opportunity.
I wrote Psalms. More than a third of the Psalms.
But he didn't mention any of that. He said, although my house
be not so with God, the Lord hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things insure. This is all my salvation. He's talking about Christ. It's
all conditioned on Christ. My hope now and forever is Christ
and him crucified and risen again. And that's it. But hey, he's
all I need. If we have him, we have everything.
Blessed with all spiritual blessings. And then Simeon. You remember
Simeon? He was the man whom the Lord
said, you wouldn't die until you saw the Christ child in the
flesh. And when Joseph and Mary brought
him to the temple, Simeon was there. Simeon, that sinner saved
by the grace of God, and then he took up the Christ child in
his arms and he said, Lord, let thy servant now depart. I'm ready
to go, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Now the question
for me and for you there is have we seen God's salvation? And
I went over those things with you in the scripture. What is
God's salvation? All of God's salvation, the salvation
that he provides freely for his people, is wrapped up in the
person and work of Christ. Now we come to the last words
of the Apostle Paul. These are the equivalent, you
might say, of his deathbed words. He had more to say, but this
kind of summarizes his deathbed confession. And he starts off
here in chapter 4 talking to Timothy, the young minister,
and being very blunt and very plain with Timothy. He said,
it's not easy. It's not going to be easy. He
says, I charge you, verse 1, before God, the Lord Jesus Christ
who shall judge the quick and the dead, the quick there, that
refers to God's people quickened by the Spirit. chosen of God,
redeemed by Christ, and regenerated by the Spirit. And the dead,
that refers to those who die in themselves without Christ. Spiritually dead. And he's going
to judge the quick and the dead. Now the quick there, the judgment
is not a judgment like most people think it is. We've already been
judged for our sins in Christ on the cross. And he says at
His appearing. He talks about His appearing.
That's His second coming. and his kingdom. That's the establishment
of the kingdom of glory. His kingdom's already established.
It was established on the cross. And he told Timothy, preach the
word. This is what you're to be about. Be instant, in season
and out of season. Be ready at all times. That's
what that means, to preach the word. Reprove and rebuke and
exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. That's how you
do it. That's how you correct people. That's how you correct
yourself. That's how you deal with people alongside with a
lot of patience. And then doctrine. Preachers
put down doctrine. God's Word doesn't. Preachers
say, we don't need doctrine. God says, it's your life. This
is the doctrine of Christ. He says, verse 3, for the time
will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. People
won't put up with the right doctrine. They don't want to hear it. The
doctrines of God. They want to deny it. They want
to think what they want to think, do what they want to do. And
he says what they'll do. Now listen to this. This is important.
He says, they won't endure sound doctrine, the doctrine of Christ,
the doctrines of the book, no matter what it says now, they
just don't want to endure. But after their own lust, their
own unlawful desire, shall they heap to themselves teachers having
itching ears. Now what do you do with an itching
ear? You scratch it. right? In other words, they want
to hear not what the book says, not what God's Word says. They
want to hear what some preacher will tell them that will scratch
that itch. That's what the analogy is. Tell me what I want to hear.
Speak like that fellow out in Texas. When they interviewed
him, they asked him, they said, why don't you ever preach against sin?
He said, well, why would I want to deal with something so negative? That's not what people want to
hear, he says. No, I know that. No, they do not want to hear
that. They have itching ears and they'll find a preacher who'll
scratch that itch. And then he says in verse four,
he says, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth
and shall be turned unto fables. Now fables there is not like
Aesop's fables, animals and stuff like that. That's just, that's
just, uh, uh, Things that people concoct in their mind about salvation
and eternity and about God and about themselves. That's the
fables. But he says, but Timothy, verse five, watch. You watch.
You stay awake and alert. Be on guard. Watch thou in all
things. Endure afflictions. Be patient. Do the work of an evangelist.
What's the work of an evangelist? Show up twice a year at a revival
meeting? No, he's preached the gospel every day. That's the
work of an evangelist. Make full proof of thy ministry.
That means fulfill what God has called you to do. Do what God's
called you to do, not what men tell you to do. Now here's his
deathbed words. He says, for I am now ready to
be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I fought
a good fight. I finished my course. I've kept
the faith. That's important there, that
we understand what he said. The faith. Henceforth, or from
here on, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which
the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me, all right, give
me at that day, and listen to this, and not to me only, but
unto all them also that love his appearing. Now the question
for me and you in this one, And Paul's expression of his deathbed
hope is this, do I love his appearing? Do we love his appearing? That's
the issue. Well, let's look at it. First
of all, he talks about the present. And that's simply how you break
this down. The present, and then he talks about the past, and
then he talks about the future. So he begins with the present.
Here's Paul. You know where he is when he
wrote this letter? He was in prison at Rome. Timothy was in Ephesus,
the church at Ephesus. Paul had left him there to minister
to the people of Ephesus, the believers there. And Paul's in
prison, and he wrote this epistle to Timothy. And Paul knew that
he was about to go to his death. Paul was beheaded, chopped his
head off. And he knew that that was the
way that they were going to deal with him. Paul was a Roman citizen,
so they couldn't crucify him. That's what the Roman government
normally did to Jewish insurrectionists or rebels. But they couldn't
do that to Paul because he was a Roman citizen. They chopped
his head off and he knew he was about to be taken to that ordeal
and die. And so he writes this word to
Timothy. He says, I'm ready to be offered. Here's the present. Ready to
be offered. Ready to be, I'm ready to die.
That's what he means. In the time of my departure,
my death, is at hand. I'm ready to be offered. In fact,
really what he's saying is I'm already in the process of being
offered. Now, many of you have heard messages
on this passage and you've heard this and it's so. Now what Paul
is literally saying here is this. He's saying I am ready to be
poured out like a drink offering. And if you don't see that, you're
gonna miss the significance of what Paul's saying here. There's
a real significance here concerning a deathbed confession. This is
what he's literally saying. Write it down if you don't have
it in your Bible or if it's not in your concordance. I'm ready
to be poured out like a drink offering. I'm ready to die. And he calls his death being
poured out like a drink offering. Paul had said in Philippians,
you know, he wrote that letter from prison in Rome, the Philippian
letter, and he said, for me to live is Christ, to die is gain.
Here he says, I'm ready to be poured out like a drink offering. He uses the language, this language,
to describe his readiness to die, and it also describes his
service in the ministry of Christ. He said that over in Philippians
also, in Philippians chapter two. Let me just read this to
you. In Philippians chapter two, he's
talking about the same thing to the church at Philippi. And
he says in verse 17 of Philippians two, he says, yea, and if I be
offered. upon the sacrifice and service
of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all." That word offer
there is the same thing, being poured forth or poured out. I'm
ready to be poured out like a drink offering. Now, what's the significance
of that? Well, we won't turn there because we don't have time
this morning, but you can mark down Exodus chapter 29. You can also mark down Numbers
chapter 15 and Numbers chapter 28. And in those passages, Exodus
29, Numbers 15, Numbers 28, there is described the daily offerings
that the Jews were to go through in their service to God under
the Old Covenant. And basically there were three
offerings in succession. Now here's how they went. First
of all, there was a lamb or a bullock given for a burnt offering. That's
number one. That was the first one. And then
secondly, with that offering, coming next would be what they
called a meal offering. That was an offering of flour,
ground flour, mixed with oil. That was second. That was the
meal offering. You had the burnt offering, the
meal offering, and then thirdly, after that, you had a drink offering,
or what they called a libation offering sometimes, of wine.
poured over the burnt offering. That was the three offerings.
Now what does that mean? Well, what does the burnt offering,
the offering of the lamb or the bullock mean? That means atonement. That means reconciliation. That's
a picture of Christ, the Lamb of God, offered upon Calvary's
tree for the sins of his people. That's the ground of salvation
right there. That burnt offering, that's the
judgment of God coming down upon the Son of God incarnate for
our sins charged, imputed, accounted to Him. That's what it means
when it says He was made sin. That's the burnt offering. Christ,
the sin offering, the sin bearer, went to the cross, dying for
the sins of His people. He paid the sin debt in full.
He put away our sins. He established the only righteousness
whereupon God could be just and justify the ungodly. That's that
burnt offering. That's the first one. That's
the ground of salvation. Christ has the preeminence in
all things. Next comes the meal offering. That's the bread or the meal,
the flour mixed with oil. And it made sort of a paste and
it was put down upon the altar. And what that represents is the
results of the burnt offering, the fruit of the burnt offering.
Christ, the bread of life, being the bread of life to his people,
mixed with oil, which was symbolic of the power of the Holy Spirit,
to bring us to eat of that bread. You see, we feed upon Christ
as a result of the burnt offering. comes the meal offering. We feed
upon Christ because we've been made alive, quickened by the
Spirit. We've been made hungry. Blessed
are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they'll
be filled. We've been made hungry not for religion. If you're hungry
for religion, you haven't been made alive. We've been made hungry
for Christ. He's who I feed on. He's the
bread of life. I feed upon His Word, you see. Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Christ
is that manna, you see, and it's by the power of the Holy Spirit,
that meal mixed with oil, that we feed upon Christ, and he's
our nourishment spiritually and eternally. And then the third
offering was the drink offering. That was the offering of wine
that was poured upon that sacrifice. And that wine represents the
joy that a sinner saved by the grace of God has in Christ. And you know, when they poured
that wine upon that burnt offering, you know what happened? The smoke
went up. And that was called a sweet-smelling savor unto the
Lord. And what that represents is the
believer's gratitude and joy and thankfulness for the salvation
that has been freely given and provided by the Lamb. through the bread. And that's
exactly what Paul's saying here. I'm ready to be poured out like
that drink offering. In other words, what Paul is
telling us here is that his ministry, his service, his sufferings,
his obedience was not to atone for his sins. It was not to establish
a righteousness of his own. It was not to be saved or to
try to save himself or to keep himself safe. It was a matter
of joy and gratitude and love for God. That's what he's saying.
This was the service of a willing, loving bond slave. Paul wasn't
doing this to earn or gain blessings from God. He was doing it because
God had already blessed him in Christ. He wasn't doing it trying
to earn his reward in heaven. He was doing it because God had
already laid up a reward for him, incorruptible in Christ. He was doing it because he said,
the love of Christ constraineth me. It wasn't legalism. Paul
wasn't a legalist trying to earn his way into God's favor. Paul
wasn't a mercenary. He speaks in the language here
of fighting. He's a soldier in the army of God. But he was not
a mercenary trying to earn his keep. He did it because he loved
the Lord. He was motivated by grace and
gratitude. That's exactly what he means when he says, I'm ready
to be poured out like a drink offering. I'm not trying to establish
my own righteousness before God. I've already got one, Christ,
who is the Lord, my righteousness. He did it all. He's all my forgiveness. I'm not trying to atone for my
sins. I've already got an atonement
on Calvary's cross. Christ atoned for all my sins.
And he brought it forth. And then he says, the time of
my departure is at hand. That word departure is a word
that means you're not leaving something you love. It's a word
that they used for unyoking an animal from the shafts of the
cart and plow. In other words, it's arrest from
labor. That's when you'd unyoke the animal, when it's time to
rest. Not when it's time, Paul said, the time of my rest has
come. The Bible says in Revelation 14, 13, blessed are the dead
which die in the Lord, from henceforth, yea, sayeth the Spirit, that
they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them.
They rest from their labors, the labors of this life, the
troubles, the sorrows of this world, and their works do follow
them. In other words, their works don't
go before them. Their works follow them. Their
works are evidences of the grace of God. It's a word that has
to do with loosening bonds or change. It's freedom. This is
the ultimate liberation, Paul's saying. He's in prison here. But you know, the gospel wasn't
bound. He said that. But he said, when I die, it's
the ultimate liberation. I'll be free forever and ever
and ever in Christ. It's a word that they use to
talk about pulling up the ropes of a tent and moving on. In other
words, Paul's saying my death means the journey's end. I won't
have to wander anymore in this wilderness of this world. I'll
be home with Christ. That's what departure means.
This is a word of joy. And here's the second thing.
Now he talked about the present. I'm ready to be offered. I'm
ready to be poured out like a drink offering. Now he turns to the
past. Look at verse 7. First of all,
he says, I have fought a good fight. Fought a good fight. You know, that's what the Christian
life is, a fight. I read over there in Psalm 144,
you remember, he said, the psalmist here, praying. And he says, blessed
be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war. and my fingers to fight. God
taught me to war. Taught me to fight. It's a little
different than the way a lot of people represent so-called
Christianity today. But here's what Paul's talking
about. He's talking about the ministry that the Lord put him
in. At war with the flesh, at war with the devil, at war with
the world. But what is a good fight? You
know, there are bad fights. There are people fighting all
the time. There are bad fights, evil fights, selfish fights,
vengeful fights, hateful fights. That's us by nature, isn't it?
That's the way we fight. I want to get back at somebody.
That's our fight. That's the way we do it. But
what is a good fight? Well, it's a fight that's fought
in a good way. It's a fight that's fought in
an honorable, a noble way, a worthy way. Let me give you these things.
First of all, it's a fight that is fought in the grace and power
of Christ. It's not fought with your own
power. It's not fought with your own weapons. It's fought in the
power of God, preaching the gospel, that's what he's talking about,
empowered by the Spirit. He said in 2 Corinthians chapter
10, though we war in the flesh, we're not warring after the flesh.
In other words, I'm in this world, I'm in this human body and I've
got to operate in it, but my fight is not a fleshly one, it's
a spiritual fight. My weapons are not knives and
guns and things like that or fists. My weapon is the truth,
the sword of the Lord, the truth. We preach the gospel. Our battleground
is not some arena somewhere or some field somewhere. Our battleground
is, he said, the mind. That's where your battle is right
now, the mind. That's where my battle is. And the power of victory is not
in my powers of persuasion, but in the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth. The Holy Spirit empowers it to
the victory. In Ephesians chapter 6 and verse
10, he talked about the armor of God, put on the whole armor
of God. Every piece of that armor is a spiritual armor given us
in Christ. A good fight is one fought in
the faith of Christ. In other words, following Him,
not ourselves, not our own strategies, our own desires, but following
what the Word of God says. A good fight is a fight fought
with a good motive. What is the only good motive?
Love for Christ and His people. That's it. In other words, as
I said before, it's not a mercenary thing. You know, some preacher
made a statement one time. He said, well, the only reason
I preach is because I want to gain more rewards in heaven.
Well, why don't he just get up and tell his people, I'm a mercenary,
folks. I'm doing it for the money. That's the same to me as doing
it for filthy lucre. I'm telling you. No, we're not
mercenaries. We're not hirelings. And we're
not legalists. We do it for the love of Christ
and his people. And then a good fight is a fight
for a good cause. What's the only good cause to
fight for? The glory of God in Christ. that
he might be glorified. John the Baptist, he fought all
his life for one purpose, that he might decrease and Christ
must increase. That's why he fought. I want
the name of Christ to live on. I had a fellow ask me one time,
he's talking about writing books and everything. He said, well,
I wonder where my name's going to be when I die. And I told
him, I said, it's going to be on a tombstone if you got the money. And I guess they put something
flat down or something if you don't have the money. I don't
know. But what's the big deal where my name's going to be? His name is my salvation. That's right. He is the Lord
my righteousness. The only thing that matters is
His name. His name identifies and distinguishes
Him. His name is His power. There's
no salvation for any of us without his name. Believe on the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. So what difference
does it matter where my name's gonna be? I wanna be found in
him, not having my own righteousness which is of the law. A good fight,
listen to this, a good fight is a fight that is fought knowing
that the victory is assured. I love to watch a Kentucky ball
game on tape when I know they've won. I just enjoy it. Don't you? Now, some of you Ohio folks in
West Virginia, you don't. You can't enter into that. But
you know the outcome. Well, my friend, this is the
way this fight is. We know the outcome. Christ has
won the victory. He told his disciples before
he ascended unto the Father, He said, you're gonna have trouble
in the world. Oh, it's gonna be trouble. But he said, but
be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. That's a
good fight, isn't it? We know the victory is certain.
Never have been uncertain. This thing's not like a ball
game, we're keeping score and see who's gonna have the biggest
score. No, no, the victory is assured. Christ, you know when
he was on that cross, he made this statement, he said, it's
finished. You know what I believe about that statement? I believe
it's finished. I believe it's fulfilled. Listen,
he put away all my sins. I'm still a sinner, I still have
trouble. I have to war in myself, with myself, but I'll tell you
what, it's still finished. Christ put my sins away. Who
shall lay anything to my charge? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn me? It's Christ that my hope is built
on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. So why should
I trust even the sweetest frame? I'm going to lean on His name.
You see, that's the issue. We know the victories. Listen,
I have to have a perfect righteousness to enter into glory. You know
what? I've already got it. I already
have it. Don't look at me to see it. I
had a fellow tell me, he's talking about his love, how his love
was perfect. Don't look at my love to see
that perfection. You won't find it. My love wavers. I can tell you without blushing
that I love Christ and I love you, but not like I ought to. I have to struggle there in many
ways. But if you want to see the perfect
love, look to Christ, who is love. The perfect righteousness
looked to Christ, who is my righteousness. You see what I'm saying? Now
Paul said here in verse 7, talking about his past, he said, I finished
my course. Christ finished the work. It's
finished. The victory is assured. But the
course is the race that the runner runs in this world. until the
task is completed. That's what he's talking about.
He's not looking, it's not that Christ started, he shot the starting
pistol, now you've got to finish it or it's not going to work.
No. It's not that he did everything he did, now the rest is up to
you. No, no. The course, first of all, the course here, who
set the course? Paul didn't. God did. There were
times in Paul's life that he wanted to go over here and preach
the gospel and God, the Holy Spirit said, no, you go over
here. God's setting this course. God's working all things after
the counsel of his own will, my friend. You don't have to
worry about that. Now, there are many times we
don't know what tomorrow holds. Well, all times we don't know
what tomorrow holds. But I know this, God's in control.
And he set the course. He set the course for Paul. You
know, Paul's in prison here. You know what he called himself
in Philippians? He said, I'm a prisoner of Christ. Now Christ didn't come down here
and clamp the chains on Paul and put him in jail, but that's
where Christ set the course for Paul to be and he left it in
the hands of wicked men to do it and overruled their sin and
got the gospel out in spite of it. Now you think about that
one. As old Brother Shepherd said, try to wrap your mind around
that. You can't do it, but thank God it's so. Thank God, because
if it weren't, Paul could have never said, I finished my course.
He's like a runner in a race here. And it's the race of grace. And how do you run the race of
grace? Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 2, looking unto Jesus as
the author and what? Finisher of my course. I finished
my course. The course he set for me. The
course that was assured for victory. And then he says, I've kept the
faith. I notice, remember that I told you to keep that in mind
when I read through it. The faith. What is the faith?
That's the gospel. That's the doctrine of Christ.
That's the body of truth. And what Paul's saying here is
I've kept watch on it. I've guarded it closely as a
treasure. This is my life. These are the
truths that identify my Savior. These are the truths that distinguish
Him from all counterfeits. I love the doctrine of Christ. The doctrine of his deity. Who
is he? My savior is God in human flesh. How about yours? There's some
people who claim to be Christian who won't say that. Listen, I
believe it was Brother Ronnie Lewis, he told me he was talking
to a fellow down at work and they were talking about this,
the deity of Christ and the fellow was kind of hedging on it and
Ronnie asked him, he said, well don't you believe that he's God?
And the fellow said, well, he's the son of God. meaning some
lesser. Oh no, he's every bit God. He's
the very God of very God. 100% God, 100% man, the union
of the two natures. I can't explain that to you.
I know it so. That's who my Savior is. He's
God in human flesh. He's the Word made flesh dwelling
among us. He's Emmanuel, God with us. And what did he do on that cross?
He saved his people from their sins. He put away the sins of
his sheep. The good shepherd gave his life
for the sheep and he'll have every one of them. I love that. I love that. You say, well, am
I one of his sheep? Well, have you ever been lost? I preached on this for TV the
other day. Have you ever been lost? You know what it means
to be lost? It means you don't know the way.
Do you know the way? Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. He is the way. His blood is the way to forgiveness. No other way. His righteousness
imputed is the way to justification before God. His spirit is the
way to life. No other way. No other way. You know what? If you're saved,
it means you know the way. He said, my sheep hear my voice.
Have you heard his voice in the preaching of the gospel of God's
glory and salvation by Christ, the glory of his grace? And do
you follow him? He said, they follow me. Paul
said, I've kept the faith. Now look at verse eight. Here's
the future. Here's the third thing. Paul
speaks of the future. He's spoken of the past, of the present.
He's spoken of the past. Now he speaks of the future.
And here's what he talks about about the future. He speaks of
the gift of righteousness and eternal life in glory. Look here
in verse 8, he says, henceforth or from here on there is laid
up for me. Now something's laid up for him.
What does that mean? That means something is kept
in reserve for him, something that was given long ago. Look
over at 2 Timothy chapter 1, turn the page over there. That's what he means. It's laid
up. It has been laid up. I want you to notice this now.
Paul is not saying, I'm right now laying this up for myself.
Paul, this is what they call the passive voice. Now what that
means is Paul himself is not the one performing the action.
Something is being performed for Paul. or has been performed
for Paul. In other words, this is not something
you do, this is something that is done for you. That's what
the passive voice means. So, something is like somebody
has laid up something for me. And it's in reserve. That's what
he's saying. And listen to this in 2 Timothy
chapter 1, look at verse 8. He says, Be not thou therefore
ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner.
And remember, Paul was in prison when he wrote this. But be thou
partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power
of God, who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began." This thing was laid up for him before the world began.
Now he says it's now made manifest by the appearing of our Lord,
our Savior Jesus Christ. That's his appearing the first
time to put away sin. Who hath abolished death and
hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Now go back to 2nd Timothy 4. It's laid up for him. Now who
laid it up? God did. In Christ. It's kept in store. It's kept in reserve. Peter, in 1st Peter chapter 1
verses 3 through 5, you know what he called it? He said it's
an inheritance and it's incorruptible. Now you know how you get an inheritance?
It's nothing you work for. If you work for it, it's not
an inheritance. If it's an inheritance, somebody
else before you worked for it and they bequeath it unto you
upon their death. And that's what happened. God
the Father chose us in Christ and bequeathed all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ upon his death. The
death of the testator, Hebrews chapter 9 says. And so we have
this inheritance by virtue of the grace of God in the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's incorruptible. And you
know what? You want to know why it's incorruptible?
Because it's not from us, of us, and we can't get our hands
on it yet. We have the possession of many of these things by the
power of God. But it's not of us. It's of the
grace of God. By grace are you saved. Through
faith. That not of yourselves, if it
was of yourself it'd be corruptible. That not of yourselves, but it's
the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. And that's what Paul's saying here. There is, he says
in verse eight, there is laid up for me. Now what's laid up
for him? Look here, a crown of righteousness. Now that word
crown there refers to the victor's crown, like in the Olympic Games.
There's two words for crown in the Bible. One is the crown of
a king. The other one is the crown, like
the laurel leaves that they put around a victor's head who finished
a race in the Olympics or something like that. The crown of the king
is called the diadem. We have hymns that has that word
in it, the diadem. This is another word. This is
the crown of victory. And it's a crown of righteousness. And what's he saying here? This
crown of righteousness is laid up for me in reserve. And it's
not that when he dies he'll finally be made righteous. And it's not
that he'll gain and earn the reward of righteousness. But
this crown is the reward of his righteousness in Christ. That's
what he's talking about. This is what he said in Philippians
chapter 3 when he said, I want to be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ. This is the issue of the righteous
judge. Look back at verse 8. He says,
the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge,
shall give me at that day. This is a crown of grace. This
is a crown that's given. This is not a crown of earning.
Paul's not talking about what he's earning. Listen, think about
it. There are people who go through
this life and they think, well, I'm saved by grace, but I'm earning
my reward so that I won't have to live in a little hut. I'll
live in a big mansion. Some silliness like that. Now,
if you compare yourself to the apostle Paul, how would you compare
in your service to the Lord? Well, we wouldn't even be on
scale, would we? I wouldn't. None of us would. So if anybody
could have earned anything from God, it would have been Paul.
But no, he's not talking about it on his deathbed confession.
You see, people who talk about that on their deathbed confession
say, well, I've earned my reward or I've gained. No, Paul's not
talking about that. He's talking about grace, God's
grace in Christ. I have a crown of righteousness.
It's not a crown of my own making. Oh yes, I finished the race.
But that's by the grace of God too. He said in 2 Timothy chapter
1 there in verse 12, he said, I know whom I have believed and
I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. This is a crown of righteousness
given by the righteous judge. Now how can the righteous judge,
who judges according to truth, give a sinner a crown of righteousness? Not but one way. And that's by
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's by standing before God,
not in our own works, not in our own accomplishments, but
in Christ, who's the author and finisher of our faith. But notice
something else here. He says, and not to me only. Paul's not the only one who's
going to receive this crown as if he earned it and others didn't.
Not to me only, he says. Well, who else is going to get
this? Look at it. But unto all them also that love
is appearing. Now, who's he talking about in
there? He's talking about sinners saved by the grace. Every sinner
saved by the grace of God. Chosen of God, redeemed by the
blood of Christ, and quickened by the Spirit. Because they all
love his appearing. Think about it. Do I love His
appearing? His appearing at the cross. Paul
wrote, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, by whom the world
is crucified unto me and I unto Him. I'll tell you what, I don't
want to preach anything else but Christ and Him crucified.
He died for my sins. He put away my sins. He entered
into the holy places That holy place of God, not the holy places
made with hands, which are figures of the truth, but in the heaven
itself, now to appear in the presence of God. He's my advocate.
He's my mediator. I'm a sinner and I have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. I love his appearance. I love what he did on the cross.
It's my hope. The death of death and the death of Christ. I love
his appearing at the second coming. I don't know when it's going
to be. And I'll be honest with you, I'm not concerned with figuring
out the exact day. There's a fella in California,
he's had it on every day of the calendar, I think, and finally
he gave up and said, now I don't know. There is no way of knowing
that. But I know this, he is coming.
And the world's going to be taken by surprise. He'll come as a
thief in the night to the world, but not to his people. We don't
know when, what day, but we know he is. And we live in expectation
of that. And then his appearing at the
judgment. We'll love that. Now think about that. How's he
going to appear at the judgment? He's going to appear at the judgment
as the judge of the quick and the dead, he says here. But it
also, for his people, he's going to appear at the judgment as
the Lord our righteousness. For God hath appointed a day
in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man
whom he hath ordained, in that he hath given assurance unto
all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. That man whom
he hath ordained, that God-man whom he hath ordained, is my
Savior. He's my Lord. He's my forgiveness. He's my righteousness. He's my
glory. And that's why we can love His
appearing. Do I love His appearing? All right.