Please turn with me in your Bibles to 2nd Timothy, chapter 4. 2nd Timothy, chapter 4. We will return to our exposition of Colossians next Sunday morning. Thought for a good first message of 2010, it'd be good to consider the death of the Apostle Paul. I know that may seem a bit odd, a bit awkward.
But I'm convinced in order to live to die like Paul, we need to live like Paul. And I want to read Second Timothy, chapter four, and then our focus this morning will be on verses six to eight. I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word.
Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
For I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.
Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day and not to me only, but also to all who have loved his appearing. Be diligent to come to me quickly, for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world and has departed for Thessalonica. Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me.
Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry. And Titicus I have sent to Ephesus. Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come and the books, especially the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm.
May the Lord repay him according to his words. You also must beware of him, for he is greatly resisted our words that my first offense. No one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them.
But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me so that the message might be preached fully through me and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also, I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion and the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Great Prisca and Aquila and the household of Vanessa for us. Erastus stayed in Corinth, but Trophimus I have left in my lead is sick. Do your utmost to come before winter. Ubulus greets you as well as Putin's Linus, Claudia and all the brethren.
The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Amen.
Opening Prayer
Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we come to consider the scriptures now, and we need the ministry of your Holy Spirit. God, we know that He is our guide, our instructor, our teacher. He is the one that reveals truth to us, and we pray that He would be at work in our hearts and in our minds now.
We thank you that through regeneration, we have the mind of Christ. We pray that you would instruct us and that you would cause these things to find their their application in our daily lives. We ask that you would forgive us now for all of our sins and cleanse us afresh in the blood of Jesus Christ, your son. God, we never would imagine to stand before you in our own garments, in our own righteousness.
We stand before you clothed in a righteousness, not our own. And we praise you for that. We thank you for Jesus Christ. We thank you for his perfect work.
We thank you for his death at Calvary and for his resurrection and his current session on high. God, truly, I pray that all of us would imitate the Apostle Paul in the passage before us. that all of us would die well, because by your grace we have lived well. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.
Introduction
And as I said, it might seem a bit odd to consider the death of a very eminent man in the Christian church at the very beginning of the new year. But I think what we have here is great instruction for us and hopefully things that we will take and apply in our daily lives. We often talk about or we refer to that time before a man's death as the 11th hour. And I'm convinced that in order to have this kind of testimony in the 11th hour, we must live like Paul in hours 1 to 10.
We must depend upon Christ. We must be about Christ. We must look to Christ constantly. Our confession must be Paul's in Galatians 2.20.
And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and who gave himself for me. Also, we need to remember Solomon's words in the book of Ecclesiastes. He says, better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. For that is the end of all men, and the living will take it to heart.
My hope and prayer is that we'll take to heart this message concerning Paul in his final hours, and that it will affect us in 2010.
Context of 2 Timothy
Now, before we actually focus on verses six to eight, I just want to remind you of the context. This is the last letter that Paul wrote. Very often when a man has come to the end of his life, he calls for his family, he calls for his loved ones, he calls for his friends, and they surround his bed. It is very important that you listen to those words, the words of a dying man.
I mean, this is the reflections of many years and many thoughts and many things. This is probably the most important time for you to give attention to this particular person. And that's precisely what we have in Second Timothy. It is the last letter, having been written around A.D. 64.
Paul is in a Roman prison, as he indicates in this epistle. It's the second Roman imprisonment. Remember, the book of Acts ends with a Roman imprisonment. That was the first one.
It ends in A.D. 62. Paul then went out and engaged in more gospel ministry, but he was rearrested, thrown back into the prison, and Paul did not hold out any hope whatsoever of being released, as we find in verses 6 to 8. It's very instructive for our purposes, the last charge that he lays upon Timothy. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 4 at verse 1.
These are the dying words of the Apostle Paul. I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word. That's what Paul wanted Timothy to do. Preach the word.
Be ready in season and out of season. The manner in which you are to preach this word is to convince, reprove, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. And then Paul gives two reasons why Timothy is to preach the word. And the first is found in verse three.
He says, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. Timothy, you need to be committed to sound doctrine, you need to be committed to preaching the word, because there is a time coming when people won't want it. You don't cater your message to fit their needs, rather you preach the truth. Men always stand in need of God's truth, whether they acknowledge it or not, whether they realize it or not.
This is what is most essential for them. So Paul's charge to Timothy to preach the Word has as its first reason, because men don't want the Word. The second reason is verse 6. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering.
Paul is going to die. Therefore, he wants Timothy and men like Timothy to be faithful in gospel ministry. Paul knows the emphasis of the Lord Jesus. Paul knows the emphasis of the entirety of God's word.
The Lord has spoken. Men need to hear that word. So Timothy, you preach it because men don't want it and because I'm about to die. So he is charging his young ministerial companion to be faithful in gospel ministry.
And that brings us to consider verses six to eight under three observations. First, his present situation. Secondly, his past perseverance. And thirdly, his future. orientation.
So, as Paul is sitting in this jail cell, penning this letter to Timothy, he thinks about the present, he thinks about the past, and he thinks about his future. Again, good things for the people of God to consider as we walk with the Lord.
Paul's Present Situation
Notice, first of all, his present situation. He uses two pictures, two word pictures, to highlight the imminence of his death. He says, first, for I am already being poured, poured out as a drink offering to go back to it for a moment to Philippians to Philippians chapter two in verse seventeen. He uses the similar language here.
Philippians two seventeen, which letter was written incidentally in that first Roman imprisonment from sixty to sixty two. He wrote what we call the prison epistles. Philippians, Colossians, Ephesians and Philemon. And here in 217, he says, Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.
But as you go down to verse 24, you see, but I trust in the Lord that I myself shall also come shortly. He didn't expect to die in this first imprisonment. He didn't see his time as at hand. He didn't see it as imminent like he does here in Second Timothy, chapter four.
What was once a possibility is now a certainty. You need to know something about the man who ruled at the time that the apostle was in prison. His name was Nero, and he was a very wicked and ungodly ruler. He would take Christians and he would light them on fire, and he would plant them in his garden so that they would be burning torches.
He would engage in all manner of sexual debauchery. He reveled in ungodliness. So Paul's hope of escaping prison or being let out favorably was gone. Nero reigned for several years, but in the first part of his reign, he was hedged in by some decent advisors.
So he wasn't as bad as he was in the mid 60s. In fact, the the martyrologist, the one who wrote Fox's Book of Martyrs, says that the first of the 10 persecutions of Christians was stirred up by Nero about AD 64. His rage against Christians was so fierce that Eusebius records. A man might then see cities full of men's bodies, the old lying together with the young, and the dead bodies of women cast out naked, without reverence of that sex in the open streets.
Many Christians in those days thought that Nero was the Antichrist because of his cruelty and abominations. So Paul did not have a confidence that he was going to get out soon. In fact, it is just the opposite. He says, I am already being poured out as a drink offering.
And he is using Old Testament ceremonial language and is alluding to the pouring out of his blood in martyrdom. So that's the setting. That's the context. That's the stage upon which he is addressing Timothy.
He doesn't think he's going to die right then, because he says for Timothy to come and visit him. Notice that he wants his cloak. It would be cold in a prison cell. It wouldn't be like the status-supplied prisons of today, where there's pipe-thin heat and three square meals a day.
No, it was a cold, dank prison cell, where if you didn't have friends bringing you food, you starved to death. If you didn't have a good cloak, you would freeze to death. So he is not an ascetic. He's not saying, well, I'm just going to, you know, march out of here.
No, bring my cloak. If I'm going to carry on in the flesh for some time, I want to be warm. He's not a foolish man. Notice what else he wants and bring the books, especially the parchments.
I love that an old proven man of God still wants to study an old proven man of God still wants his books, especially the parchments. And then it's very interesting, as we read through here, Paul is not inactively waiting to die. Paul is moving the troops from this prison cell. Bring Mark to me, because he's useful for ministry.
I sent Tychicus over to Ephesus. He is moving the troops in strategy to further the cause of Jesus Christ. So while he knows his death is imminent, he doesn't think it's overnight. But that's the context.
The Metaphor of Departure
Notice the second term that he uses. The time of my departure is at hand. MacArthur says the Greek word essentially refers to the loosening of something such as the mooring ropes of a ship or the ropes of a tent. Dawson eventually acquired the secondary meaning of departure.
He's taking his tent down. He's letting the boat go. He is ready to depart now and to be with his Lord who saved him so many years ago.
Paul's Past Perseverance
Notice, secondly, his past perseverance. He refers to this in verse seven. This is kind of where I want to focus our attention. I have fought the good fight.
I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Isn't that what you want to be able to say in that eleventh hour? Isn't that the testimony that you would like written on your tombstone?
Isn't that how you want your friends and your loved ones and your family members to remember you? Not, well, I don't know if he was converted or not. I don't know if he fell into heaven or not. I'm not sure if he crawled in.
No, you want people, because of your desire to be with the Lord and to set a good example, to be able to say this. He fought the good fight. He finished the race and he kept the faith. Paul's not engaged in boastful triumphalism here.
The whole idea is more of struggling and persevering and fighting and being diligent. He doesn't speak as one is patting himself on the back saying, OK, I've made it. Though he doesn't acknowledge the grace of God in this particular verse, you are foolish to think he doesn't acknowledge the grace of God. Throughout his ministry, he celebrates the grace of God.
Throughout his ministry, he extols the glories of Christ. Throughout his ministry, he gives all praise and honor to God Most High. So he's not engaged in boastful, triumphalistic terms. He is speaking in terms of perseverance.
He is confident by God's grace. He is confident that he is at the end of his life. And he is confident that the Lord has indeed preserved him. Notice, he says, I have fought the good fight again.
We don't think of our Christian life like this, do we? We really don't. We want to sail without any problems right into heaven. We don't want anybody to mess with us.
We don't want there to be any trials. We don't want there to be any tribulations. We don't want there to be any difficulties. At the first whiff of such things, our immediate response is to blame God and to call him to account for any difficulties that we're facing.
Well, that's simply not biblical. That's simply not accurate. It's funny that in the first letter that Paul writes to Timothy, 1 Timothy 1.18 and 1 Timothy 6.12, you know what his message is to Timothy? Wage the good warfare and fight.
That's what a gospel minister is called to. Not a life of ease and comfort, not a life of golf games, not a life of just whatever it is that pleases him, but wage the good warfare and fight the good fight. Why is that? Because that's God's means, that's God's way.
It's not just external enemies, at times it'll be internal enemies. It's not just internal enemies, it's external enemies. The idea is that a man of God must be fighting, not just ministers, but each and every one of you. You cannot give up.
You cannot give in. You cannot look for the easy route. You've got to fight manfully onward. There's no quarter in the Christian life.
There's no time to play games in the Christian life. We need to be like this brother. He could say, I have fought the good fight, because he had. Because he did.
Because he didn't shrink back. He didn't play games. He didn't waste time. He wasn't about Paul.
He was about Christ and others. That's the Christian life, brethren. God has saved you and I, not first and foremost, just so we can go to heaven. He has saved us to go to heaven and we ought to bless Him and praise Him.
But He has saved us so that in this lower world we'll fight for Him. Notice that Paul calls it the good fight. It's not called upon. You're not called upon just to slug it out in this horrific, amoral fight.
No, it's a good fight. It's Christ's fight. You're carrying the banner of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. You're marching into a battle with Christ on your side.
Paul uses this language elsewhere. He uses in First Corinthians chapter nine when he exhorts Christians on how they are to live the Christian life. And we truly need this sort of an exhortation and are far too often on militant Christianity. First Corinthians nine twenty four.
Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize run in such a way that you may obtain it? You don't run the race just to get a participation medal. You don't run in a race just so you can please those who watch. You run in a race to win.
Don't you? We used to when I was a kid. We used to keep score in our sports games. We used to want to be victorious.
We used to be exhorted to work hard and to discipline ourselves so that we might gain victory. Now, I know there's a big play today. As long as you show up and you breathe, you should get a medal and an award. That's not the emphasis of the text.
Paul appeals to something people know. You don't throw your hat into the fight to lose. You don't throw your body into a race to lose. No.
Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now, they do it to obtain a perishable crown. But we run for an imperishable crown.
This does not negate grace. faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not saying you can earn your salvation. He's not saying you can buy your own merits, buy your own racing, buy your own victory, secure your place in heaven. No, that's not what he's saying.
He's saying those who have been saved by grace, those who have looked to the Lord Jesus Christ, those who are walking in him, this is the way they'll run. They won't play games. They won't take prisoners. He says the pagan, the heathen.
He could have been writing at a time similar to our own. We're waiting for the arrival of the Winter Olympics here in 2010. Paul lived and moved and breathed and had his being in a time when athletic competitions were very popular. As a tent maker, perhaps, he sold some of his wares at such events so that he could make some money to promote the gospel.
He would go to those places because they'd need tents. He's appealing to something that people know of. He says, those guys, they change their diets. They change their sleeping habits.
They get up early. They go to bed early. They don't go out all night. They regiment.
They dictate, or they discipline their lives. And he says, and you know what? They do it for a perishable crown. You know what they get?
They get a little wreath of leaves on their head, and maybe front row tickets to the theater. What's the implication? They're willing to radically alter their lives so that they can wear a temporary wreath around their heads and sit in the front row at the theater? And you have been saved by grace?
Jesus has lived and died and risen again for you? You have been bought with a blood price and you don't want to do anything? You want to just wander through the Christian life? You want to just meander through?
No, he says, therefore I run thus, verse 26, not with uncertainty, thus I fight, not as one who beats the air. He's not a shadow boxer. He's going after the big guy. He's going after the main man.
He's not just going to play games here. He is decisive. He is going for it all. I discipline my body and I bring it into subjection.
Last, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. Paul fought in the Christian life. He said, secondly, that he has finished the race. And isn't that beautiful?
It should be our goal, finish the race. Christians don't just start well and well. Christians don't just start well, they persevere so that they can end well. I have finished the race.
Language again that he has used on several occasions in his gospel ministry, turn to Acts 20 for a very penetrating example of this Acts chapter 20 is addressed to the Ephesian elders. Acts 20, beginning in verse 21. He specifies his doctrine, there's many things we could observe with reference to Acts 20, but he alludes to his doctrine in verse 21, testifying to Jews and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. What did Paul preach?
This. What was Paul's emphasis? This, the gospel. What do men desperately need?
The gospel. What do men need most of all is to look to Christ. Because when you try to live in your own strength, when you try to merit your righteousness with God, when you try to avail favor with God in your own in your own attempts, you will always fail miserably. So Paul's constant theme in preaching was believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
If we'd stick a knife in him, he'd bleed gospel blood. As Spurgeon said about Bunyan, if you poked him, he bled Bibline, he bled Bible. You poke Paul, he's going to bleed gospel for you. That's what moved him.
That's what drove him. That was the constant emphasis in his life. Notice in verse twenty two and see now I go down in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city saying that change and tribulations await me. Not great.
The Holy Spirit was his tour guide. The Holy Spirit was announcing what he would face in various places. Imagine your tour guide, you're going to book a vacation. Well, you're going to go here and see this, and you're going to go there and see that.
And you're going to go here and you're going to find this great restaurant. And you're getting all fired up and you're getting all puffed up with how good it's going to be. Well, the Holy Spirit told Paul, you know what's waiting for you in each of these cities? Chains and tribulations.
You know what's going to face you, Paul, when you go into these certain places? You're going to be bound. You'll be taken away. You're going to go through public embarrassment.
You're gonna be humiliated. The great and mighty Apostle Paul is gonna have to be let out of a city by a basket. Why? So that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of Paul.
What he says here? I gotta tell you, man, this is my hero, this man. Oh wow, how many Baptist pastors say Paul is their hero, right? That's like taking one of these young kids that plays hockey somewhere and, who's your hero?
Oh, whoever's good on the Canucks right now. It's a no-brainer, right? That kid can someday identify with that Canuck. I don't feel like I'll ever identify with my hero here.
I just don't understand. I mean, I understand it's grace. It's a great, great apprehension of who Christ is and what the glory of the gospel is. Notice what he says in verse 24.
None of these things move me, nor do I count my life dear to myself so that I may finish my race with joy. See, he's not just talking about slugging it out. He's talking about slugging it out with a smile on his face. He's talking about doing this with joy in his heart.
Why? Because Christ is that good. Christ is that glorious. Christ is that wonderful and that blessed.
He says that I may finish my race with joy and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. So as we read that next 20, then we move on to Second Timothy chapter four. We know that several years had taken place, several years had passed by, perhaps 20, 25 years. And we see that God is faithful.
We see that God sustained him. And that's the emphasis I want to bring to you this morning. Paul doesn't make this statement because Paul is great. He makes this statement because Jesus is great.
The same Jesus of Paul is our Jesus. The same power of God is available to us. So that we on our dying death or on our dying death can say, by the grace of God, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race.
Keeping the Faith
And then thirdly, he says, I have kept the faith. Brethren, by this, I don't think he means his subjective hold on Christ, though I think that's implied. A man doesn't get to his eleventh hour without believing the gospel, without believing on the Lord Jesus. But when he says, I have kept the faith, he means the Christian doctrine of truth, the Christian system of truth.
I have kept the faith. I have kept the emphasis upon a living, dying, rising savior. I have kept the emphasis upon a triune God. I have kept the emphasis upon blood atonement.
I have kept the emphasis upon substitution and on wrath bearing. I have kept the emphasis where it belongs. And don't think for a moment, brethren, that there weren't temptations to Paul to abandon the faith. It's not just our time when there's all kinds of competing theories of truth out there.
It's not just our time that we're beset with varied philosophies. You don't think Paul faced that? He faced the Epicureans and the Stoics in Acts 17. What does he do?
He goes up to Mars Hill and he brings it. He preaches the truth. People mocked him. Sometimes we're afraid to speak up for Jesus because people might mock us.
They mocked Paul. They mocked Jesus. They mocked Peter. They mocked Calvin.
They mocked Luther. They mocked Spurgeon. We often think of Spurgeon, this prince of creatures, like he never had a difficulty in his life. The man was beset with difficulty. physical ailments and many, many detractors.
People making fun of him. People lambasting him in the public newspapers. Brethren, it has never been the thing to do to testify for Jesus. It's never been the end thing.
In fact, I have a nice, beautiful picture on my wall with a clip from Spurgeon. He says Paul did not preach or Paul rather did not shrink back. He uses older English word called Blanche. But the idea is he didn't shrink back.
Paul did not shrink back before the sharp and practical reply of the conquerors of the world. He trembled not before Nero in his palace, whether the Greek or Jew, Roman or barbarian, bond or free. He was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, but gloried in the cross through the or the testimony that the one all sufficient atonement was provided on the cross. stirs the enmity of man and provokes opposition. Yet Paul was so far from attempting to mitigate that opposition that he determined to know nothing, save Jesus Christ and crucified.
He was being opposed throughout the Roman Empire. If ever there was a temptation, well, I won't press this. You know, these Epicureans and these Stoics, they're not really favorable to the doctrine of God's creation. They're not really down with sovereignty.
I mean, they're scratching their beard saying, how in the world could this Paul preach that someone rose from the dead? What's Paul preach? That the Areopagus. God the creator, God the sovereign, God the redeemer, through the power of the resurrected Christ.
He didn't shrink back. When they mocked him, he didn't cry. He didn't go hide himself. He didn't lick his wounds.
He didn't have to go sit on a beach. He realized the opposition to the gospel is due to man's sin. And our emphasis must be continually to preach the gospel. Spurgeon goes on to say, his motto was, we preach Christ crucified.
He had the cross for his philosophy, the cross for his tradition, the cross for his gospel, the cross for his glory and nothing else. That's how come Paul could say, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.
When men are seeking to destroy supernaturalism in the Christian message, the answer is not the response of liberalism. OK, we don't believe there was a resurrection. We don't believe in a virgin birth. We don't believe in those things which are difficult for you to understand.
The answer must always be Christ. The power, the wisdom of God. Brethren, there is a lot of attacks on our gospel today. There are a lot of attacks within the church.
I sometimes think early 20th century liberals look conservative to some of the professing conservatives of our day. We have men who have failed. We have men who have not lived like Paul. We have men who have not been able to say things like this.
Let us not be like that. Let us take our place with Paul. Let us pound our pulpits, let us recite our creeds, let us stand fast in that doctrine that the Lord God has given to us, and let us not shrink back from it. Because that's, brethren, how we ought to want to die.
Not having shrunk back. Not from having been a coward. Not from being a wimp. Not from just falling prey to every wind of doctrine.
The battle is too big, the stakes are too high. It's your soul, it's your body, it's your life, it's your resurrected body. You need to stand fast in these things. Make Paul your hero.
I don't care how good these Canucks are. You should look at Paul. And there's biblical warrant for this. Paul said, imitate me as I imitate Christ.
For Philippians chapter three, verse 17, he says, we are actively to scope out examples in the Christian faith. It's not all about examples, it's not all about moralism, it's not all that, but there is certainly an element of that. We should follow Paul. We shouldn't be like those guys who just want to give up.
No, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Paul's Future Orientation
Now notice thirdly and finally, his future orientation. He doesn't do these things because he's an ascetic. He doesn't do these things because there's some reward in doing them. He does these things because his Jesus is waiting to receive him.
Isn't that what he says here? Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness. This is the last finally of the Apostle Paul. You ever hear about the boy who was in the church with his father, and the preacher said, finally, and the boy says to his father, what does finally mean?
And the father says, nothing, son. The idea being that when a preacher says finally, he keeps going. All right, everybody's with me. Hey, great.
This is Paul's last finally. And where is it focused. Rather, he says in Philippians one. That he is willing to go.
He is willing. He says, I'm hard-pressed between the two. I stay with the Philippians and I know there'll be fruit from my ministry and you'll be blessed and you'll grow. Or to depart and be with Christ, he says, which is far much more better.
Greek was a bit elastic. He could just throw in a bunch of prepositions and make it that much more. But I'll remain on in the vine. This, finally, isn't that way.
He says, finally. The bride eyes not her garment, but her dear bridegroom's face. I will not gaze at glory, but on my king of grace. Not at the crown he gifteth, but on his pierced hand.
The lamb is all the glory of Emmanuel's land. That's Paul's finally. I have fought, I have kept, I have finished, or I have finished and I have kept. And there is a crown of righteousness waiting for me.
The Crown of Righteousness Explained
This is not justification righteousness. It's not as if Paul is somehow adding to the work of Jesus. And when he meets Jesus, Jesus will then reward him with his final justification. No, I don't take that at all.
Paul is as righteous in the garments of Jesus as he's sitting in this Roman prison cell as he is today in terms of his position before God. What I think he is alluding to, this crown of righteousness, means heaven itself. It means that place where there's no more sin, where there's no more unrighteousness, where there's no more ungodliness. And notice the great gifter is Christ himself.
Finally, he says, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness in keeping with the imagery of the games. Having finished the race, I am not going to receive laurel wreath laid upon my head and front row tickets to the theater, but I'm going to receive the crown of righteousness given me by the Lord of righteousness so that I may enter into His presence and dwell with Him forever and ever and ever and ever. That's the apostles emphasis here. Philippians 3, 13 to 14, he says, Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do for getting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.
I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. That is being realized in the life of the apostle Paul. He has come to the end. He realizes that Jesus is going to be standing there waiting to receive him, waiting to usher him in to his presence, to bestow on him all of those goodness, all the goodness and the kindness of his kingdom.
You see, Paul doesn't do what he does in verse seven in just some stoic way. It's good to fight. It's good to keep. It's good to finish.
We just do that for the goodness of itself. No, he doesn't like Jesus. Remember Hebrews 12, what does it say concerning Jesus and his ministry on the cross? I think we often forget this is Christians.
You know, God holds out to you something very wonderful. And you should think about that. Oh, no, I can't be reward driven. Why not?
Jesus was. Paul was. Hebrews 12. Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
This is the point, brethren. Do not take this sermon home. Do not get into your prayer closet and say, I need to fight. I need to finish.
I need to keep because that's what I'm supposed to do. You are supposed to do it, but it's for joy. It's for happiness. It's for eternal blessedness.
It's for righteousness. It's for all the blessings that Christ has secured for you at Calvary to give to you. That's not bad. It's not wicked.
When Jesus starts with the Sermon on the Mount, what does he say to his people? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
We're not Roman Catholics just having problems and difficulties and somehow there's joy in that. No, the joy comes at the end when Christ hands us that crown of righteousness. Christ, our Lord, blesses us.
The Crown Shared with All Believers
And then notice, Paul does not exclude Timothy. Even in this, Paul's not a selfish man. Look what he says. Verse eight.
Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day and not to me only, but also to all who have loved as a period. He's sitting in his prison cell, and he's thinking about the extent of the gospel. He's thinking about the application of the gospel. He's thinking about Timothy, who's reading this.
He's thinking about the audience to whom Timothy reads this. He's thinking about gospel missions. He's thinking about all those in every part of the world, from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation that will hear the gospel, that will believe on Jesus, that will love His appearing. Paul is saying that they will be blessed.
Immeasurably, Calvin said that all the rest of the believers might fight courageously along with him. He invites them to a participation in the crown for his unshaken steadfastness could not have served for an example to us if the same hope of obtaining the crown had not been held out to us. Now the idea I derive from this is as much a hero Paul was for the Christian faith, as eminent the saint of Christ Paul the apostle was, as accomplished, as much a preacher, as much a man, as much a prayer, as much an evangelist, as much a martyr, we in Christ receive the same. We in Christ receive the same.
You may never make a mark on the world like Paul. I've heard it said, and I don't think it's any exaggeration whatsoever, Western civilization owes its very life to the Apostle Paul and to John Calvin. We may not make that impact. No one may ever see the labor you do in your home.
No one may ever see you in small victories fighting the good fight. Finishing the race, keeping the faith. You may die and there might be a handful of people at your at your funeral or not at all. If you are looking to Jesus Christ in faith, you receive the crown of righteousness that Paul receives as well.
It's the gospel, the great leveler of all mankind. We are called to watchfulness and hope in light of the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are to love the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Application: The Example of Paul
Before we draw out just a final thought or two concerning the example of Paul, I want to read a portion out of Paul, Missionary Theologian by Dr. Robert Raymond. He highlights some thoughts about the martyrdom of the apostle. Very good book.
I do recommend it. A survey of his missionary labors and theology. He says, Paul's martyrdom was accomplished by decapitation. Kids, that's a big word for getting your head chopped off.
That's what happened to Paul. That's what happened to Paul. You say, what kind of a religion is that, man? You serve and you labor and you fight and you finish and you get your head chopped off.
Yes. Welcome to the cross. Paul's martyrdom was accomplished by decapitation. Like his savior, he was executed outside the city walls at Tre Fontaine near the third milestone on the Ostian Way.
There the executioner's sword ended his long course of sufferings and released his heroic spirit from his tired and feeble body and into the heavenly presence of the Savior whom he had served so faithfully and for so long a time. Some friends took his scarred and decapitated corpse and head and buried them. Raymond says, having traced Paul's life and travels for several chapters now, I hope that the reader feels with me that the church lost that day its greatest apostolic advocate for the uniqueness of the Christian faith with its liberating law free gospel. What he means by that?
Law-free gospel. Raymond is reformed. He believes the law has a place in the life of the Christian, but not in terms of justification. Paul was the champion of a law-free gospel.
You are not saved by your merits. You're not saved by your works. You're not saved by your doing. You're saved by Christ alone through faith alone.
By grace alone. That's what Raymond means by law-free gospel. He says that the church or the church lost that day its greatest apostolic advocate for the uniqueness of the Christian faith with its liberating law free gospel and that we lost a genuine personal friend that day on the Austrian way. I suspect that we feel a real sense of sadness that it had to end this way.
But we could have almost predicted Paul's end, given the conditions of the empire and the growing hatred of Christians generally in Rome and of Paul personally. Nor must we second-guess divine providence, which is always good and wise. Paul, of course, would remind us that that day was his coronation day, for that day he entered into a state which was better by far than his present one, one that was only positive gain, where he was made perfect in holiness and where he responded for the very first time to his Savior's sinless love for him with a sinless love of his own. Before the end of the 2nd century, a monument was erected where he was said to have been buried, about a mile nearer the city on the same route.
About A.D. 324, Emperor Constantine built a small basilica there, which was replaced by a larger one near the end of the 4th century. That one burned in 1823, but was rebuilt and consecrated by Pope Pius IX in 1854 as the Basilica of St. Paul without the walls. During the excavations necessary for the erection of the present basilica, two slabs were discovered bearing together the inscription to Paul, Apostle and Martyr.
And dating to the fourth century AD, Paul would probably have proved that simple epitaph if he would have been permitted to add, but to Christ alone be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Yeah, we did lose a hero that day. But his gospel lives on, his Christ lives on, and all who look to that Christ will receive the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to us on that day.
Application
So we must end asking the question, do you love his appearing? Because that's who he says, but also to all who have loved his appearing, his first appearing, the virgin birth. His first appearing as a babe in a manger. His first appearing as a young man.
His first appearing in doing perfectly the will of his father for 33 years. His first appearing when he died at Calvary on the cross. Do you love that appearing? Do you think about that appearing?
Do you think about the gospel? Is it Christ that you're looking to? Or is it your own works? Is it your own satisfaction for sin?
Is it your own law keeping? Your own merit? Your own, I'm not as bad as other men? Your own public confession and admission that, thank you God, I'm not like unjust men.
I'm not like extortionists. I'm not like adulterers. I'm not like this man who's a tax collector. Is that what you're banking your eternal soul on?
Are you looking to Christ in his first appearing? Do you look forward to the second coming of our Lord Jesus? Brethren, we need to think like this. We need to think about the fact that our Lord Jesus is coming again for his bride.
He's coming again to judge the living and the dead. He's coming again to vindicate his own. He's coming again to judge and punish ungodliness and unrighteousness. Do you look forward to that?
Does that make you happy? Does your heart beat in anticipation? The idea is what we call eschatology. We often associate eschatology or the study of last things with all these sort of events that in the long run we may not figure out here and now.
We need to know that Jesus is coming again and that eschatology promotes in us hopefulness. Hopefulness. No matter how bad it may get here, Jesus is coming. We may be sitting in a prison cell like Paul the Apostle with a madman at the helm.
I'm sorry, brethren. I wouldn't want to be sitting in a prison cell in the mid 60s in the Roman Empire if my life, humanly speaking, depended on Nero. Thank you very much, but I have other plans for my future. And yet, look at him.
He's not freaked. He's not panicking. In fact, there is a steady composure in the remainder of the letter. Get him to this, go here, go there, bring this, bring that, bring this, bring that.
Why? Because he's got some time. What's he going to do? He's going to traffic in gospel.
He's going to seek the advancement of Christ's kingdom. He's going to do for the Lord Jesus, who has done so much for him. Eschatology promotes hopefulness. Eschatology as well promotes holiness.
First John three. Everyone who has this hope in him, the fact that he is coming again, purifies himself even as he is pure. That's precisely the effect that it had on the Apostle Paul. Whether he's in a prison cell, whether he's on the road, whatever it is he's doing, he's got an eye on the men he's preaching to, he's got an eye heavenward, and he knows that his Lord Jesus is for him constantly.
Brethren, in order to die like Paul, we have to live like Paul. There must be a clear understanding of Christ's gospel. There must be a constant emphasis upon Christ's gospel. There must be a constant dependence upon Christ.
Go home today. Think about Galatians 2.20. Look it up in your Bible. Memorize it.
Think this is the battle cry of the Apostle Paul. The life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and who gave himself for me. That is a gospel saturated declaration, and it is because of that gospel saturated declaration that the reality of Philippians 121 was demonstrated in Paul. For to me to live is Christ, to die is gain.
For you to die and gain, you've got to live in Christ. Well, let's take these thoughts and ask the Lord to make us more like this champion of the Christian faith. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for your word, and we thank you for the men that you raised up. And they weren't perfect men. Paul had his issues. Paul said, the good that I wish to do, I don't do, and the evil I don't want to do, I find myself doing.
And yet he knew his boast and his hope was in Jesus Christ alone. God, this gives us great encouragement. And I pray for all of us here that we would look unto the Lord, that we would fight the good fight, that we would finish the race and that we would keep the faith. that we would not succumb to pressure, whether it be external or whether it be in our own hearts, God. Help us to press onward by your grace and for your glory.
I pray for those who do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, that you would direct them to the cross, that you would cause them to look and live, to believe the truth that Christ came into this world, sinners to save. And I pray that you would just bless your people with a resolution to live in 2010 in a manner that is consistent with your word. And we ask in Jesus name. Amen.