Total Devotion to the Word

Let me invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to 2 Timothy chapter 42 Timothy chapter 4. We looked at all of chapter 3 a couple of weeks ago, and today I wanna pick up where we left off and, and move into 2 Timothy, chapter 4. We're not doing a series through 2 Timothy. This is a part of our total devotion.

Series and if you want to give a title to this particular message, it would be Total Devotion to the Word. Total devotion to the word. this past week, as most of, marked the 500 year anniversary of the launch of the Protestant Reformation. Mike spoke a little bit about that last Sunday.

At the center of this seismic event in history was a man, Martin Luther, who was willing To call the church to a truer devotion. to God and to His word. And if there ever was a time period in history when false doctrines and sinful practices were steeped in the culture and enshrined by centuries of teaching and practice, it was Martin Luther's Day. If there ever was a day when the pressure was enormous to just go with the flow and not rock the boat, that would have been Martin Luther's Day.

If there ever was an era to feel faint-hearted and to begin to doubt the ability of God's word to prevail, it would have been in Martin Luther's day. But one day, making a really long story short, as Martin Luther was reading the scriptures, a verse leaped from the page and pierced Martin Luther's heart and shined a light in his heart that was brighter than the light of 1000 suns. The verse was Romans 1:17, which is speaking of the gospel, and the apostle Paul says, for in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written.

But the righteous man shall live by faith.

In that moment, Martin Luther realized that the righteousness that he had been laboring his whole life to attain to was available to him simply by faith. And so with the eye of faith, he looked to Jesus and believed and obtained the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ in an instant. Not by works. But by faith.

Martin Luther was saved by Christ through the instrumentality of the scriptures, and his life was forever changed. In his day, the official translation of the Bible was the Latin Vulgate. Which could be read at that time only by an elite and specially trained few. Martin Luther was not content with this.

He wanted everyone to have a direct encounter with the scriptures the way that he had. And he resolved to make the scriptures available to the German people, so he translated the New Testament. In German And after that, he completed the Old Testament. Took many months and years to do this with a team of people who assisted him in this task.

Most church historians would tell you that Luther's translation of the Bible was actually his greatest achievement and perhaps his most important. Without that translation of the Bible being produced and made available to the masses, the Protestant Reformation as we know of it today, Might not have ever happened. Later in his life when the Reformation was in full swing, Some men came to Martin Luther and they had questions for him. They basically said to him, could you explain the Reformation to us?

How did you, Martin Luther, pull it off? How did you shake Rome and turn all of Europe upside down? How did you do this, Martin Luther? That was essentially their question.

Listen to Luther's answer. He says, I simply taught, preached, and wrote God's word. Otherwise, I did nothing. And while I slept, the words so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince and never an emperor has inflicted such losses upon it.

I did nothing. The word did it all. We need this reminder. In this day and age in which we live, of the power of God's word.

If it could prevail in Martin Luther's day, the way that it did, shaking society to its foundations, what could the Word of God do in your life, in my life, And through us as we proclaim it to others today. Think about the day in which Timothy lived. He lived and ministered in the city of Ephesus, a key city in the Roman Empire, a city that was wholly given over to the worship of a pagan deity. Rome was the greatest power of the day, and most people living in this day figured that the empire of Rome would last forever.

Anyone comparing Christianity and the Roman Empire at this point in history during Timothy's lifetime would have said that Rome was definitely the more powerful of the two by far. Rome had the allegiance of millions, and Christianity was just a fledgling 34 year old movement. That had comparatively few followers. Rome had unimaginable and growing resources to fuel its might, but the Christian church was populated often by the poor and the slaves and others who lived on the margins of society.

Rome had every institution on its side. Christianity had none. Rome had armies and buildings and emperors and beautiful impressive temples that inspired awe, and Christianity had none of these things. Just crucified and risen Lord, and a growing body of inspired scriptures that pointed to Jesus on every page.

Yet in the centuries that followed, Christianity will spread throughout the Roman Empire, through every region, through every social class of the empire, all the way to the highest positions of government. And this was all much to the chagrin of the last pagan emperor of Rome, whose name was Flavius Claudius Julianus, who lay on his deathbed in AD 363 with the certain knowledge as he was dying that Christianity would prevail over Rome. He hated Christianity. He had done his best while emperor to destroy Christianity and to take back Rome to its pagan roots, but he saw the writing on the wall, and he knew that after his death, Christianity would prevail.

And historians will tell you that among his dying words were these words, you have won, Galilean. Speaking of Jesus, the Galilean, without firing a shot, Christianity overpowered the religion of Rome. And won the day. The question is, how did Jesus win?

How did this Galilean win? In this day. Part of how he won was through faithful Christians who were devoted to him, who live lives of loving sacrifice, serving one another and reaching out to people in their communities. But he also won.

Through faithful preachers of the Word who preach the scriptures, who preach Christ, who preach the word. According to the battle plan that Paul lays out in 2 Timothy chapter 4, verses 1 through 8. This is like a battle plan in which Timothy and all men of God, all pastors are called upon by God to preach the word all the way to the finish without compromise. 2 Timothy 4 is the last chapter of the last epistle that the apostle Paul will write.

It's truly his last will and testament, the final words from his pen before he will be beheaded according to church tradition by the Roman Emperor for preaching Christ. But before Paul dies, he passes on to Timothy a rallying cry that features, I think what we can call this morning 5 steps, 5 measures that he employs to persuade Timothy to not give up and to continue relentlessly preaching God's word with total devotion. And this morning, I want us to look at these 5 steps that Paul takes and I want us personally to be inspired by them.

Even though Paul is talking to Timothy as a pastor in these verses.

And what he says applies to us as pastors in particular, the basic ethic of what Paul is calling Timothy into should actually be in the DNA of every believer's life. And so I think there'll be much here for all of us. This is how we'll frame this, this morning as we look at these verses, 5 steps that Paul takes. To persuade Timothy to continue preaching God's word with total devotion.

The first step he takes is he charges Timothy. To herald the word with full faithfulness. Listen to this solemn charge that Paul gives to Timothy in chapter 4, verse 1. He says, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word.

Notice how Paul prefaces this charge with such solemn language. First of all, he says, I solemnly charge you. This is not a suggestion. It's not even a command only.

It's a solemn command given in front of a most sobering audience. Observe what he says. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God, speaking of God the Father and of Christ Jesus. Paul is telling Timothy that God the Father and Jesus Christ are present in this moment, as Paul is giving this charge to Timothy.

Paul also points to the future and he speaks of Jesus as the one who is to judge the living. And the dead. Guys, there's coming a day when every single person is going to stand before Jesus Christ and be judged by him. Every person in every time period in history of every religion is going to stand before Jesus and be judged by him.

Everybody that has ever lived, including all of us in this room, will live somewhere forever. And the one person who will be making the judgment about where we spend eternity is Jesus. Everybody will stand before him and confess Him as Lord in a future day, and he will judge the living and the dead. And Paul is bringing this fact up as he is giving to Timothy this most solemn charge.

Paul also wants Timothy to know two realities that serve as the basis of his charge. He says, I solemnly charge you by his appearing and his kingdom. And the word that is translated appearing here is the same word that he uses back in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 10. It's the word we get our English word epiphany from.

He uses this word in 2 Timothy 1:10 to speak of Christ's first appearance, and here he's using it in a way that includes reference to Christ's second appearance or his second coming as well. In Christ's first appearance, he came announcing that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. At his second coming, Christ will actually judge and make war against all who oppose him, and he will establish his kingdom on earth and reign for 1000 years, ushering or before ushering all of creation into the eternal state.

So when you hear Paul in these verses, Referring to Christ appearing in his kingdom.

Think of his two-fold appearance in his 1st and 2nd coming. Think of his first appearance and all that he taught, and all that he did to accomplish our salvation. Think of his death, and think of the resurrection of Jesus. Think also of his second appearing and all that he will do in establishing his kingdom and judging the wicked and the righteous.

And Paul is essentially As he's talking to Timothy, placing his hand on all of that. And he's saying, Timothy, I give you this charge on the basis of all of this. If you do what I say, you do so in service to Jesus Christ and his appearance and his kingdom. If you violate what I'm about to tell you to do, you will be committing a crime of treason against Jesus and his kingdom.

You will be guilty of collusion. With the kingdom of darkness that opposes Christ appearing in his kingdom. Paul says all of this before he even gets to the charge. I don't know about you, but if someone was about to give me a command and they preface their command with this language, I would sit up and give very careful attention to what it is that I'm being told to do.

It's clearly a command that should never be set aside ever. And here's the solemn charge. Verse 2, he says, preach the word. Which we can translate herald the word.

The word that is translated preach is a word that was used to speak of what the messengers of Caesar would do in the Roman Empire. Whenever Caesar would have a message that he wanted to be delivered to the people throughout his empire, he would give that message to his heralds. And these heralds would then fan out to the various places throughout the Roman Empire and when they would arrive at their designated locations, they would then lift up their voice and deliver the message exactly as it was given to them.

They could not leave anything out, they could not add anything to the message, they could not alter the message in any way.

It was also not their job to be clever and cute. And how they delivered the message, it was simply their job to deliver the message as it was given to them. And when they spoke, they spoke with the full authority of Caesar behind them. And it's the same idea here in 2 Timothy 4:2.

Jesus Christ is one greater than Caesar. He is the Lord of heaven and earth, and he has given his message. To his heralds, and Timothy is being called upon to herald the word. To be faithful, to deliver the message of the word with the full authority of King Jesus behind every word that he says.

What is the message that Paul tells Timothy to deliver? He says preach or herald the word. When Paul says the word, here he's speaking of the gospel message in particular, as it is found in the scriptures. On one level, Paul is saying, preach the word of God, preach the scriptures that he's been talking about in chapter 3 that we studied.

A couple weeks ago, but he's also here saying preach the singular and ultimate message of the scriptures, which is the gospel. Everything that the scripture says in its 66 books adds up to a single message. And the message is that God has moved to accomplish salvation for sinful man through the person and through the work of Jesus Christ. Jesus died, he was buried, he was raised, and he was then ascended and now sits on the throne of heaven to save anyone and everyone who calls upon him by faith until he comes again to judge.

The world and establish his kingdom on Earth. That's the message. That's the word. That Timothy is to preach.

So basically, Paul is saying, Timothy, preach the scriptures, and as you do so, preach the singular message of scripture, which is Jesus. And the truth about him. Announcing to the world that salvation is available through him. Paul doesn't tell Timothy here to dress up the word and somehow try to make it more powerful and compelling to people.

No, the word is already powerful. It is the power of God, Paul says in Romans 1. Paul doesn't even call upon Timothy to defend the word, although that's not a bad thing on some levels. But the word of God, guys, is not some fragile thing that needs you to defend it.

or Timothy to defend it, or me to defend it. I love what Charles Spurgeon once said. He said something to this effect, you don't defend the word. It doesn't need your protection.

You defend the word the same way you would defend a lion. You simply let it out of its cage. It can defend itself. And so Paul says to Timothy, just herald the word, let it go.

Let it out of its cage and do what only it can do. Guys, please realize that as a church, like we are the pillar and the support of the truth. We have been given a proclamation. As a church body, and it's the word, it's what we're talking about here.

It's what we're called to proclaim God's powerful, God's saving, God's compelling and life-changing word. That is our proclamation. We have not been called to proclaim anything else. Other than this proclamation.

Now, on what occasions is it appropriate for Timothy to herald the word? Look at what Paul says in verse 2. He says, be ready, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season. The command to be ready conveys the idea of urgency and preparedness.

It's the posture of a runner who's in the set position just before the gun sounds. It's the posture of an archer in battle who's placed the arrow in his bow, and the arrow is pulled back and aimed. And the archer is just simply waiting for the command to release the arrow and let it fly through the air toward its target. In the same way, Paul is telling Timothy, be ready, be set.

To herald the word in season and out of season. In a way, Paul is saying to Timothy, Timothy, there's actually only 2 occasions when you should herald the word. And here are the two occasions when it's in season and when it's out of season. That's it.

Just those two occasions, which means what? All the time. And you all know there have been times and places in church history when it has been legal and even fashionable to preach the word. When the word of God happens to conform to the prevailing wisdom of a particular culture that maybe bears the imprint of a lot of divine grace and already having been influenced by God's word, but there have also been times in history in various locations, even on the planet today, where it is illegal to herald the word.

And when certain portions of God's word are wildly unpopular and deemed offensive. And Paul tells Timothy, none of that matters. Herald the word, be ready to preach it in season and out of season. Herald the word when you have an audience that will love you for what you say, and herald the word when you stand before people who will despise you for what you say.

Paul is saying this while he sits in prison waiting to be executed for having done himself the very thing that he's calling upon Timothy to do. How should Timothy preach the word? Look at what Paul says. He gives three verbs in verse 2 to explain what is entailed in preaching the word.

He says, reprove, rebuke, exhort. We've already learned in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 that the scripture is profitable for reproof, for reproving, which means to show someone what is wrong with them. To rebuke, essentially means to express disapproval, to express God's disapproval of that wrong with the goal of helping the wrongdoer experience conviction, yes, even shame and remorse for what they are doing. And part of the vibe here is that Timothy as a pastor needs to be willing to reprove and rebuke people.

But Paul is primarily saying to Timothy, Timothy, preach the word and do so in a way that allows the word to do its powerful work of reproving and rebuking. Be willing to deliver all of the word, even the parts of God's word that reprove people and rebuke them in their sin. Preaching the word of God is a full contact sport. Everyone should always, even this morning as we're going through the Bible here, a passage here, everyone should feel at various points reproved and rebuked and exhorted and encouraged.

That's good. If you feel that in the normal course of things, that range of Experience as you're hearing the word or even reading the Bible, that's a sign of life. Fortunately, Paul tells Timothy to do more than just reprove and rebuke. He tells Timothy that he must exhort.

This is, this is the Greek word that means to come alongside of people and encourage them. A pastor's preaching should not only reprove and rebuke, but it should encourage the people of God. One of my favorite kinds of feedback to receive after a sermon is when someone says to me, that sermon was convicting and encouraging. Just so, that's how to make my day, all right?

So, If someone comes up to me and they're really just crushed and they say, man, that sermon was so convicting, I appreciate that and love that, but I sometimes will ask, was there anything in it that encouraged you? Cause I wanna know. I, I want to encourage as well. God's word encourages.

And if someone comes up to me and they're just flying high and saying, man, that sermon was so encouraging, I sometimes wanna know from them is, was there anything that convicted you? If a message from the word is both convicting at some points and encouraging at others, I think that's close to the balance of what Paul is calling upon Timothy to achieve in his ministry of preaching the word. Notice also that Paul tells Timothy to do more than merely preach and reprove and rebuke and exhort.

He tells Timothy to do these things with great patience and instruction.

You see the soft edge of that? Paul wants Timothy to be very patient with God's people, just as God is loving and God is a patient God with His people, Timothy should be willing to patiently instruct and doctrine, teaching from God's word, even if it means having to repeat himself and say the same thing over and over again. Timothy should be OK with that repetition. Martin Luther, as a pastor to his congregation, preached on the doctrine of justification often because he noticed that the members of his congregation so frequently let this doctrine slip from their grasp and some of them were slow to even understand and comprehend it.

And on one occasion, he said to his congregation, these words, he says, I have preached justification by faith so often, and I feel sometimes that you are so slow to receive it that I could almost take the Bible and bang it about your heads. Sounds maybe a tad harsh. And perhaps Luther's congregation pushed him to the edge of his patience, but to Luther's credit, he was willing to preach this important doctrine again and again and again to help those who were slow of heart to understand because he wanted them to understand.

He ministered with great patience, not just patience, but great patience.

To all of you teachers, Teach your students with patience. Parents, teach your children with great patience. Be willing to teach the truth and then give the truth time to work. Don't expect instant results.

God's word, we're told in scripture is like a seed that is planted in hearts, and that seeds don't sprout. And become fully mature overnight. So, plant the seeds and teach and be patient and be willing if need be to say the same thing again and again and again. And think about yourself.

How many times has God had to say to you something before you have heard? How many of us in this room would say, man, my testimony is this, when I hear God say something to me one time, that's all I ever need to hear. And it's total obedience. For the rest of the way.

None of us could say that we need great patience from God, and we should exude that patience toward those that we teach and preach to. It's at this point that Paul gives what's gonna sound like an odd reason as to why Timothy should preach the word like this. Given what he says at the end of chapter 3, we, we might have expected Paul to say, Timothy preach the word because the word is profitable and the word is powerful. To make a person wise and because the word is inspired by God, but Paul doesn't go there, partly because he's already gone there.

That's not what he talks about in verse 3, to tell Timothy why he should be preaching the word continuously all the way to the finish of his ministry. And this leads us to the 2nd step that Paul takes. To motivate Timothy to remain totally devoted to the ministry of the word all the way to the finish. And that is he warns Timothy that some people will turn away from his preaching.

He warns Timothy that some people will turn away from his ministry. Look at what he says in verse 3. He says, for the time will come. When they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths or falsehoods.

Please note, I don't want you to miss this. Please note that Paul says what he says in verses 3 and 4, to explain why Timothy should preach the word. Timothy should preach the word because eventually some of his hearers will not be able to tolerate it. That's the reason he should preach the word.

They will hear him preach and they will turn away from Timothy's teaching, and they will go find somebody else. And Paul is saying, Timothy, preach the word, and here's one of the reasons you should preach the word, because your preaching will provoke this response in some of your listeners. causing them to turn away. Some people today, pastors of churches and church leaders adapt their messages so as to turn away as few people as possible.

Paul specifically wants Timothy to preach the word precisely because it is unbearable to some. Who will turn away from it. And thus reveal where their hearts really are. In recent years, as I grow more and more elderly, I've My personality is changing in a In a way that's not too thrilling to my wife.

I've grown in, in recent years to love telling puns. And corny jokes, and I'll tell them over and over again whenever our family is together. And I, and I, I, I've grown to love telling puns and corny jokes because there are people in my life, I'm married to one of them, who can hardly tolerate them. And I love to see their reaction and test the limits of their tolerance.

Paul here is telling Timothy to preach the word with the full knowledge that Paul says in verse 3, the time will come when listeners will not endure or tolerate is the word here. They will not tolerate the sound doctrine that is coming from your lips. In other words, the last days will be characterized by a growing intolerance. And the thing people will be most intolerant of is the truth.

And for that very reason, Timothy is to give them a double dose of the truth. Notice what these intolerant people will do, verse 3, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own lust, speaking of their life dominating cravings. The one thing that is sacred in these people's lives is their lusts. that they want to fulfill, so they accumulate for themselves teachers whose teaching approves of their cravings.

And they turn away their ears from the truth and they turn aside the myths. In other words, they turn aside the falsehoods because living inside that world of falsehood. Their lust can flourish and never be challenged, and such people will stockpile an ever growing list of teachers who say what they want to hear, and such people will vindicate their wrong beliefs by pointing to all of these teachers. So here's the upshot of what Paul is saying.

Paul wants Timothy to preach the word in order to reveal those who can't tolerate it. To bring them out of the closet, as it were. In Paul's mind, the presence of people who hate the truth is no reason to withhold the truth and water the truth of God's word down. In fact, the presence of such people doubles the urgency of the moment to preach the truth of God's word.

Think about the flip side of Paul's counsel to Timothy here. If a modern day church puts their finger in the wind and sees the direction that the winds are blowing in the culture and And they then adapt their message and they water down the truth of God's word in order to not offend people. And so there's really not a lot of truth, the word is not really going forth from their lips as they minister to their audiences, then you end up With a congregation. That has truth haters in it and you don't even know who the truth haters are.

You have no way of distinguishing between the truth haters and the truth lovers. Only by preaching truth. And then observing the responses to the truth, can who the truth haters and who the truth lovers are? Now this is not an easy calling that Paul is laying upon Timothy.

It requires courage from Timothy. It requires courage from your pastors and elders here at Cornerstone. It will require courage from you. And being associated with this church and the leaders here.

And this leads us to the 3rd step that Paul takes to persuade Timothy to be totally devoted. To the ministry of the word all the way to the finish line and let's word it this way, he calls upon him to fulfill his gospel ministry regardless of hardships. He calls upon him to fulfill his gospel ministry regardless of hardships. Look at what Paul tells Timothy to do in verse 5.

Yes, the truth haters are going to hate and they're gonna turn aside the falsehoods, but verse 5, you, Timothy, be sober in all things. He's saying, don't get drunk, Timothy, with the spirit of this age. Don't be carried away by your craving for people's approval. Don't get carried away with despair.

When people disapprove and cannot tolerate what you are preaching. Paul tells Timothy to endure hardship. This instruction doesn't just mean to experience hardship in the normal matter course of life like all of us do. This means to remain under particular hardships of persecution, even when an escape is available.

If you compromised. We should continue preaching the word and continue to endure whatever hardships may come about from that rather than making compromises that might serve to make our path easier and remove or reduce the hardships. Paul also tells Timothy to do the work of an evangelist. Implied in this command is the fact that being an evangelist is work.

Paul is telling Timothy to be willing to do this work. Every pastor should read Paul's command to Timothy to do the work of, of an evangelist and realize that this is a call to speak to the lost and evangelize the lost and to call them to faith in Christ. Presenting to them what Jesus has done through his death and resurrection to make salvation available to them. This is the same call essentially that goes out to all Christians to go into all the world and preach the gospel, evangelize every person in Mark 16.

This is a calling upon all Christians. All Christians should be interacting with the lost and heralding the good news to them and calling them to faith in Christ. But every preacher who reads this command from Paul. should also read it and realize that Paul is calling Timothy to the work of evangelizing Christians also.

Unfortunately, nowadays, people tend to think that evangelism is something you do to non-believers. And then once they're saved, they don't really need to be evangelized anymore. That actually does not bear up under scrutiny when you look at scripture to the Christians, get this, guys, to the Christians in the church at Rome, Paul says to them in Romans 1:15, I am eager to evangelize you, he says to his Christian readers in the church at Rome. He can't go to Rome right now and evangelize them, so he sits down and he's writing the book of Romans and what is Romans, but the fullest explanation of gospel that we find in the New Testament, and it's all being delivered to the Christians in the Church of Rome.

He's evangelizing them. To the Corinthians who have already been saved by the gospel, Paul says, I make known to you, Christians, the gospel. He then preaches the gospel to these Christians and then begins to reason from those gospel. Truths to the theological issue that they were defective in.

When Paul writes to the Ephesian Christians, he spends all of chapters 12, and 3 doing nothing but evangelizing his readers with gospel. In the book of Romans, Romans chapters 1 through 11, is Paul just giving gospel to his Christian readers, and here in 2 Timothy 4, Paul is calling Timothy to do the work of an evangelist. which involves evangelizing the lost, and it also involves evangelizing the people of God, and helping the people of God to better understand the gospel, and then helping them to know how to bring the gospel to bear on every arena of their life.

There are many problems that are plaguing the modern church today.

One of those problems is, in my opinion, that the Church of Jesus Christ is filled with so many under evangelized Christians. Christians whom Jerry Bridges says are saved by the gospel. But they know so little of the glorious riches that belong to them in Christ. And part of the reason they're ignorant of those riches is because leaders stopped evangelizing them with the good news of the riches of the gospel after they got saved.

But this won't happen to Timothy's congregation if he gives heed to Paul's command here, and it won't happen here at Cornerstone if we are faithful to keep preaching the gospel to you. Until you go home to glory. Summing up at the end of verse 5, Paul tells Timothy to fulfill your ministry. Basically, he's telling Timothy to make sure that he does everything that Paul has just told him to do, to do it with total devotion.

Paul doesn't want Timothy to settle for the fact that he's done some of what he's called to do. He wants Timothy to do all that he's called to do. Paul doesn't want Timothy to simply preach some of the word, but to preach all of the counsel of God. And he wants Timothy to do this with all of his might, filling up each day, each opportunity to the full.

He wants Timothy to reach the end of his life and be able to look back and say, what, by God's grace I left it all out on the field of battle. Every ounce of energy that I could have given, I gave, every arrow that was in my quiver, I shot. Everything God has called me to do, I have done and I did it with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my might. And I did it through all of my days all the way down to my final breath.

This leads us to the next step that Paul takes as he seeks to encourage Timothy to keep preaching the word with total devotion, all the way to the finish line. And that is he points to his own example. He speaks with satisfaction about the fulfillment of his own ministry that God had laid upon him. Look at what he says in verse 6.

He says, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. Paul viewed every day he lived as a continuous pouring out of his life as a drink offering to God.

But he viewed the day of his looming death as the day in which the last drop of his life would be poured out. And he knows that day is approaching, he says, the time of my departure. is at hand, but here he is in the shadow of death, near the end of his ministry. And he makes 3 statements that all of us would love to be able to make at the end of our life.

He says, I have fought the good fight. Literally, I have agonized the good agony. Many people today want a cause to fight for, but they don't choose a good cause. They fight, but the fights that they fight are not good fights.

They're fighting for the wrong thing. Paul reaches the end of his life and he's like, what, I have fought. I fought a good fight. It was the right fight, fighting for Christ and for the spread of his gospel and the establishing of churches throughout the Roman Empire.

He then says, I have finished the course. Paul knows that the course he's run is only one leg of a very long race, and he's now handing off the baton to Timothy saying the race continues, Timothy. It hasn't been won yet, but I have finished my leg of this race and now it's up to you. To finish the course that is set before you.

Paul also says, I've kept the faith. When he says the faith here, he's not talking about his own personal subjective faith, he's talking about the faith. The objective body of truth, the deposit of gospel truth that he had been given by God to preach to others. It's basically a synonym for the gospel word, and Paul is saying, I have not fumbled the gospel away and let it go from my grasp.

I still believe in the same Jesus that I believed in 30 years ago and I'm still preaching the same gospel message that Christ gave me to declare decades ago. Keep in mind here, Paul is not bragging. He's actually trying to encourage Timothy. He wants Timothy to know that it is possible to finish well.

It's possible to fight the good fight all the way to the end, to finish the course and to keep the faith all the way to the end, even in a wicked culture. He's wanting Timothy right now to be thinking about the day that he, Timothy, is going to reach the end of his life. And the end of his ministry, and he wants Timothy to be thinking, what, what would I like to be able to say when I am lying on my deathbed. And I can ask you the same question.

How would you wish that you had lived your life? When you are about to breathe your last. What fights will you wish that you had fought? Would you want to be able to say what Paul says here?

what, I'm about to breathe my last, but by the grace of God, I fought the good fight. I finished my course, and I've kept the faith. If you want to be able to say that, then live your life by God's grace now. Day by day Live the way you're going to wish that you had lived.

On the day you breathe your last, and on the day that you stand before Jesus at the judgment. How would you wish you had lived your life? And what you had invested yourself in. The cool thing here is that Paul is not just looking back on his life and ministry with satisfaction.

He, he's also a man looking ahead with hope, which brings us to the final step that he takes to encourage Timothy to keep preaching the word with total devotion. All the way to the finish line, and that is he assures him of the victory crown that awaits all who love Christ appearing. Paul says in verse 8, in the future, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge will award to me on that day. And the day he's talking about is the judgment day, which is tied to the return or the appearing of Christ.

On that day, Paul expects Jesus to give to him a crown of righteousness that represents victory and triumph. Most people would look at Paul right now and Demas has left him. Only Luke is with him. He's in prison, about to die.

What a defeat. What a waste. Paul is like, no, I'm, I'm on the winning team here. And I know there's a victory crown that is laid up for me.

I'm on the right side of history. Paul calls this a crown of righteousness or we could say a crown that is righteousness. On the day of our conversion, we receive the imputed righteousness of Jesus, that's called justification. In our Christian life, we grow in practical righteousness, though we fall short every day this sight of glory, that's called sanctification.

But there is a day coming when we enter glory that Jesus will give us a completed righteousness, leaving us without one shred of any part of us that has unrighteousness in it. And that's a part of what's entailed in our glorification. Paul looks forward with longing to that moment, and he knows that that experience, that reception, Of the completed righteousness of Jesus will serve as the ultimate crown of victory in Christ, where there is no more indwelling sin, no more failure.

It's a complete Righteousness, through and through Paul's being.

Notice that Paul isn't looking forward to getting to heaven and having Jesus reward him for his own righteousness. Boy, when I get to heaven, Jesus is gonna just be so impressed that I fought the good fight and finished my course, kept the faith and did a great job. He's gonna really respond to me and give me reward for my righteousness. No, Paul is looking forward to heaven because there, it is there that Jesus will be giving him completed righteousness.

And that's what Paul wants to emphasize in the way he words this to Timothy. He says in verse 8, this is the crown of righteousness that Jesus will also give to all who have loved his appearing. He doesn't say Christ will give this crown to everyone who's done as well as I have done. No, Christ will give this crown to everyone.

Who's loved his appearing. All who have loved Jesus, who loved everything that is first appearing was all about. They love his second coming. They're not just believing in the doctrine of the second coming.

They love the doctrine. They love the thought that he's coming, and what delights them most about the coming of Jesus is that he will appear and be seen in all of His glory by them. As they behold him and by all the world. And it's this love of his future appearing that motivates them to preach Christ now, to live for him now, to be devoted to him now, so that more and more people, even in this age can see him with the eye of faith.

And guys, it was because of men like Paul and Timothy and many others who follow like this simple blueprint in these verses that Christianity grew and it flourished and it spread throughout the Roman Empire. And even ended up prevailing over Rome. And that will happen to us. I'm not promising it will prevail over American culture.

but in the end, truth prevails and Christ returns, and he returns in triumph. And when that moment comes and he's establishing his reign upon the earth, We will know in sight of that victory. that we were on the right side of history, and we all along were heralding a message that did in the end, totally prevail. Let's bow our heads together.

If you're here today and you have Never responded to the call of Jesus upon your life. I'm I'm here to tell you that he is King and he will be returning to Earth one day and he will in a future day be the judge of the living and the dead, but here's the good news, right now, he's offering himself as your savior. And if you would come to him and believe in the atonement that he has provided for you at the cross and dying for your sins, this Lord who died for your sins, And if you'll come to him in your bankruptcy and believe in him and call upon him as your Lord and Savior, he would be delighted to save you now.

And I would plead with you to respond to that call and Let Jesus draw you to Himself.

Surrender Your life to him. Believe in Him as your Lord and as your Savior. Call upon his name. Lord, we, we pray for us as a church that you would help us to be faithful.

I pray that you would just pour out upon us a A spirit of deeper devotion to you. That we as a people would be done with lesser things and even lesser proclamations that we're not even called to deliver and that we would We would be all in. That we would fight the good fight. And be done with anything contrary to you and your cause or be done with even seemingly innocent things that keep us away from the fight, the good fight that We should be involved in.

Give to all of us, Lord, here at Cornerstone, the leaders of the church, the elders, ministry leaders, every member of this congregation, give us, Lord, a fighting spirit. A spirit that is militant first and foremost against our own sins, making us radically repentant. radically courageous and facing up to our own sins as we let the scripture discipline us and reprove us and correct us. But then as a chastened people who are growing in your grace that we would turn toward the world and, and herald this news about Jesus.

We do not do well to keep this to ourselves. Make us all heralds. of Jesus and fully devoted to this book. And what it teaches us of him.

Help us to do ministry in your way. And thus experience a blessing that can only come from you. We thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to give up our offerings to you, receive what we give in this offering and do much with all that is given. For the glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, and all God's people said, Amen.