Alright, well, if you have your Bible, and I hope you do, you can open it up to 2 Timothy. And we're continuing, making our way through the book. A book about Paul handing the torch off to Timothy. The torch of gospel ministry. We're at chapter 4, coming into the end of the book. And in chapter 4, it's another one of those. It's not the first one in the book. Another charge to Timothy. He tells him, this is your charge. This is what you're called to do. Timothy, it's what you have to do. Preach the word. It's what Timothy's told to do. And over and over, there's dangers associated with this. There's dangers associated with preaching the Word, with making public what you believe, but they're worth paying. Sometimes you find people who'll say, when they hear about someone religious, I really like someone so he never talks about any of the religious stuff. And that's the kind of religion that people are comfortable with. One that they can ignore and pretend doesn't exist. I was telling Timothy, don't do that. Jesus Christ and His work is not something to be hid under a basket. It's something to be talked about, proclaimed, believed, and lived out. In verse 3, he tells Timothy why it's so important. A time is coming when people are not going into our sound teaching, not going to listen to what the truth is, and they're going to gather for themselves people who will tell them what they want to hear. It's probably easier to do this today than it has been at any time in human history, finding anyone who will tell you what you want to hear. The end of it. They turn away from listening to the truth and they wander off into myths. I don't want to hear the truth. What's a myth? Are myths true? No. I don't want to hear the truth. I would rather believe the lie. It's not unlike in Romans 1. They hear the truth, they reject the truth, and so God hands them over to believe a lie because because they prefer the lie. Sometimes you'll think of, maybe you think of a prosperity gospel preacher and they're preaching this message and you think, oh, these poor people who are being swindled and drawn into this false gospel. And I'm sure some of them are. But one of the reasons why the largest church in the United States, at least, preaches, is a prosperity gospel church, is because that is what people want to hear. And if you were to give them an option between the truth or prosperity, they would choose prosperity and reject the truth. That's exactly what it says here in 2 Timothy. They hear the truth. They don't like the truth. What, die to self? I don't want to die to self. I want to live it up. I want to live my best life now. It's the title of a book. Best life now. Every day of Friday. What are they? Unleash your inner champion. All kinds of things. People want that. And because they want it, those places are filled up Sunday after Sunday. And it's not so much that poor people are being duped, but that people hear the truth, they don't want the truth, and God hands them over to exactly what they want. A myth that ends in nothing. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. Verse 6, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. If you were to ask Paul, Paul, what do you think of your life? If you were to describe your life, what would it look like? How would you describe it? Right here is a description Paul gives us of his own life. He says, imagine a drink offering, a cup, and then you pour it out. slowly, but you pour it out and you continue to pour it out and pour it out and pour it out. And now, and now it's almost empty. It's almost done. But it's not just being poured out on the ground. It's being poured out as a libation or a drink offering to God. That's a powerful way to think of someone's life, isn't it? You know, when you go back, he says there's a drink offering. When you go back to the sacrificial system, and we've looked at that a number of times in the book of Numbers, but one of the things you see, especially the last two weeks, I skipped over it some, but it's there, every sacrifice was accompanied by a grain offering and a drink offering. Every sacrifice, a grain offering and a drink offering. They were not the sacrifice, but they were the correct, the appropriate accompaniments. Now, in Colossians, Paul says something very strange. He says, I am filling up in my affliction what is lacking in Christ. You hear that and you think, that sounds like Paul is saying the work of Jesus is insufficient, therefore I, Paul, have to come along and make up for the deficiency in some way. You can read that and you might come away thinking that's what it says. I'm filling up in my affliction what is lacking in Christ. Something like that is what it says. But that's not what it means. He's completing the sacrifice of Christ. And not completing as in it's lacking, it's insufficient, and something needs to come and finish it. He completes it in the same way the drink offering completes the sacrifice of the bull or the lamb or the goat. It was brought to the offering. to the altar. The bull was slaughtered for the sins of the people. It was burned up on the altar, and that was the offering. That's what took away the sins of the people. That's what gave the pleasing aroma to the Lord. It was the offering of the animal, but there was an appropriate accompaniment to go along with that. A grain offering and a drink offering. An appropriate accompaniment. to the sacrifice on the altar. Some of the older writers would write of this. If it was this much for a lamb, and this much for a goat, and this much for a bull, and it becomes more and more the greater the animal. And they said, then what kind of offering, what amount would be sufficient to accompany the sacrifice of the Lamb of God? I think Paul understands. It's his life. Our lives as living sacrifices, our lives as drink offerings are the appropriate accompaniment of that sacrifice of Christ. It's appropriate filling up the afflictions of Christ. Paul says in Colossians, that's what he says, filling up the afflictions. We fill up, complete the sacrifice, not by adding to it, but by coming alongside it. Paul knows this of himself. He says, this is my life. Jesus Christ died for me, and I have been poured out for Him. And the time of my departure has come." This is the man who knows he is about to die. Paul knows it. He has no delusions about it. The time has come. But he talks about it not as the time of his death, but the time of his departure. I took Amy to the airport. I didn't take her there, actually. She took the shuttle from the hotel to the airport. But I've dropped her off at the airport before. And when you pull into the airport, whatever airport it is, you have to look for the right terminal. And each terminal has two levels. There's an arrival level and a departure level. And when you go into the departure level, and I drop Amy off, and she gets out and she goes, and I don't see her for however long she's gone to visit her family. But it's not going to be forever that she's gone. Departure means I've left here and I've gone somewhere else, right? If I depart from this building, I'm probably going to my vehicle. I'm no longer here, but I am somewhere. We don't die and become dirt, and that's it, like the world around us says. When you die, it's over. It's not over. We depart from here, and we go somewhere. And so Paul, speaking of his death, doesn't speak of it as a final thing. But he says, it's a time of my departure. Or maybe you're going away on holiday and you're looking forward to going to the place. It's not a burden to park your car and get on the plane and fly away somewhere nice for a few weeks or however long it is. Paul's not, he's not afraid here. And though it is difficult, I don't think he's too concerned. The time of my departure has come. Look at verse 7. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. fought the good fight, finished the race, kept the faith. So many men that we know and look up to in the last five years, they were so close to the finish line, weren't they? So close. And yet, it's like a marathon runner who's about to win the race, and he's got a great time, and then he stumbles at the last second, and he falls down, and everybody goes by him. Probably some names come to mind. Some people, they look like they've fought the good fight, and it turns out they didn't. Like Ravi Zacharias. Paul says, Not me. He fought the good fight. And listen, as you get older, and anyone here who's older can testify to this, it doesn't get easier. It gets harder. It gets more difficult as the race goes on. Your body turns against you. Things that used to bring you joy don't bring you joy anymore. It gets harder as time goes on, not easier. Forget who it was. They said it's not how you start, it's how you finish. And for Christians, we want to finish well. We don't want to start well and end halfway through. We want to finish well. And that's what Paul is saying of himself, but he's not just saying it for himself. He's saying it so that Timothy will see it and see the glory of it and press on through it. I fought the good fight, finished the race, kept the faith. He writes earlier, I've run in such a way, not beating the air, but to win the race, I preach, don't want to be disqualified. Maybe some of you, one of your greatest fears, maybe, and I don't, I don't doubt it was a fear for Paul. Paul probably many times prayed, Lord, help me to finish the race well. Because he's seeing all kinds of people that he thought were going to make it, not make it. You've got eight or nine just in 2 Timothy. And they look like they're doing well, and they fall away. He says, I don't want to be earlier, I don't want to be disqualified. When you can see the finish line, when you can touch the finish line, and you know it's a couple of months ahead and I'm locked up, I can't get into trouble even if I wanted to, I've got nowhere to go, I'm gonna finish strong. And even though Paul's in prison, There is a great relief to him here. It's expressed in verse 7. He tells Timothy, fight the good fight. I've fought the good fight. I'm at the end now. How many of you have ever been in a prolonged battle? Maybe not a physical altercation, but some kind of struggle and you wrestled through it and it took years. Maybe it was legal proceedings, whatever it might be. Maybe it was a relationship and it just never seemed to, it was a fight and a struggle. And then one day you reach the resolution. Is that a day for weeping? It's a day for joy. So Paul looks at his life. He's fought the good fight and now the fight is finally over. I finished the race. He ran and he made it. I have kept the faith. Verse 8, henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness. So here it is again. Timothy, do this. Preach this. It's costly, right? Paul says, because I have done this, I am being poured out, but it's worth it. Now, henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day. Paul is not looking at his departure, his death, as most of us might be tempted to look at our own if we were in his shoes. He looks at it as the end of the race. He looks at it as a liberation. He looks at it as the day of his crowning. in ancient times, if you ran in the Olympics. Again, Paul has talked about this earlier. He says they run for a crown that perishes. Corinthians. In the Olympics, you would run, you would get a laurel wreath, an olive branch put on your head. You were the victor. And then in a couple of days, the laurel wreath would do what all trees cut off or flowers plucked up do. They die. It lasts for a short while, and it's gone. Paul's running for a crown that doesn't fade away, and now he's going to get it. laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day." What is the crown of righteousness? Could be a few things. Paul's not always exactly sure what some of the phrases in the Bible mean. The crown of righteousness could be an actual crown, like the ones they throw before the king upon his throne. It could be a crown of righteousness, realizing the righteousness he has in Christ, finally and fully, although I don't think it's that because he already has that by faith. A crown of righteousness. Paul, in Romans 7, laments the inward struggle with sin. You read Romans 7. It's visceral. You can feel that he is fully aware of the evil that is at work in him. Who will save me from this body of death? Well, I do not want to do that. He says, I'm not going to have that struggle anymore. I will be righteous as Christ is righteous. Not just positionally, but I'll never sin again. Can you imagine? Is that something to look forward to? A day will come when you will never sin again. You just have to die to get there. That's how Paul talks about it. I'm going to be crowned with righteousness from Christ. I will never sin again. The righteous judge will award to me. He's a righteous judge. There are some places in Scripture where the Gospel is implied. is one of them. How can the righteous judge award the chief of sinners? Because as Paul says earlier, I know in whom I have believed. He's trusting in the righteousness of Christ, a righteousness not His own, That's why he can approach this day with confidence. You know, you read Pilgrim's Progress, and at the end of it, they cross the River Jordan. How many of you have read Pilgrim's Progress? You can raise your hand. Okay, that's a good number. If you haven't, whatever you're reading, stop reading it and read Pilgrim's Progress. At the end of it, at least the first part, at the end of it, they're crossing the river, Jordan to the celestial city, but it's a picture of the river Death. And for Christian's friend, hopeful, it's not very deep. And he walks through and he wades through and it maybe goes up to his knees, around his ankles. It's not very deep. When you get to the second part in Pilgrim's Progress, there are two men cross through, Evangelist, or not Evangelist, but who is it? I guess Valiant for Truth is his name. And he crosses and departs, and he crosses on dry ground as if there's no water there at all. Christian goes through, and he almost drowns. The water's splashing over his mouth, and he doesn't think he's going to make it. And what is being illustrated there is how believers die. Some of them, yes, it's difficult. It's hard. It weighs on them. But they know where they're going. Some of them, it's like the seas part and they walk right through, like Paul here. But sometimes Christians really do struggle. And Bunyan at that point is speaking from experience in the ministry, visiting people who were dying. They're terrified that they may not make it. How do we prepare better to wade through and not almost be drowned? believing in the promises of the Lord. And a little bit of faith, a mustard seed's worth of faith, that will get you through. You might not think you'll make it, but the good news is for Christian and hopeful and Mr. Valiant for Truth, They went through, their going through was easier or harder, but the reason they made it through wasn't because of the ease of passage, but because of Christ who paid for their passage through. And Christ was going to get them through whether their faith was great or small. Nevertheless, there is something to be said for a stronger faith. All throughout the New Testament, O you of little faith, increase our faith. We are, as believers, not to be content with a little faith. We want to grow in faith, have a maximum faith. And faith is what? The assurance of things hoped for and the certainty of things unseen. And to the degree that you are certain of the accomplishment of Christ on the cross, to that degree, your faith will increase, especially in the face of suffering and death. That's why Paul is strong here. Not because he's pulled himself up by his own bootstraps. I'm ready to face it, come what may. That attitude is born out of, I know in whom I have believed. I am going to face the righteous judge, but I'm not afraid, because that righteous judge gave me his robes in exchange for mine. I'm not afraid. because I believe what Christ has said. There's laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day." What day? What is that day? When He departs. When He departs. Could be referring to the day of judgment, the once for all day of judgment. Regardless, Paul is going somewhere he really wants to be. And not only him, and not only to me, but to all who have loved his appearing. To all who have loved his appearing. Jesus Christ is going to come back. He's talked about that earlier in verse 4, who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom. That's what he charged Timothy by. When Jesus Christ comes back, It's going to be the most glorious day there has ever been. It's going to be the most dreadful day there has ever been. And what matters is what side of the fence you're on. If you are with Christ, if you love His appearing, you're looking forward to it, you're praying like the saints in Revelation, come Lord Jesus, come. That's something to look forward to. it'll be a great day. But if you're not, if you are not, it'll be worse than the worst day you could ever imagine. In Revelation, it talks about, I believe it's the seven trumpets. in one of the sections of 7. And one of them, the last one, it's all judgments. In this section of 7, it's all judgments on the wicked. And the last judgment, it says, "...and the kingdoms of the earth are given to Him." To Jesus. Become the kingdom of Christ or the Son of Man or something like that. You read that and you think, well, that's wonderful. How is that a judgment? When 2016, Donald Trump was elected the first time, and I'm not saying anything about politics, I just want you to see the example. When he was elected, there was an anchor on, I think it was CNBC, said, tomorrow we wake up in hell. That's what she said, something along those lines. Tomorrow we wake up in hell. And people were losing their minds because their man didn't get elected. I guess their woman was Hillary Clinton. Now, if people can respond with rioting, such an impassioned response because their man is not in charge? The one they wanted is not in the position of authority? And they gnash their teeth? If they can do that for a man, then what will happen when the Lord returns and all the nations of the world are finally and fully given to Him? And He becomes their King. with no future election and no changing of the guard, if you are opposed to Christ and everything He stands for, because people are. I would talk to people who are skeptical about the Lord, and to get under that skepticism, I would ask them the question, if I could prove to you that Jesus Christ that God exists and Jesus Christ is the Son, the Gospel is true, if I can prove that to you without a shadow of a doubt, to your satisfaction, and they would always interrupt me at that point and say, well yes, of course, I would believe it. I believe in God. I said, I wasn't going to ask if you'd believe Him. I was going to ask if you would worship Him. And they hesitated because they knew Believing in God, believing He exists is one thing. Worshipping Him is something else. The reason they wouldn't believe was there was a moral revulsion. Just like John chapter 3 says, men love the darkness rather than light. They hate the light because their deeds are evil. When Christ appears, all the kingdoms of the earth fully and finally given to Him. And if you oppose everything that He stands for, it's going to be an awful day. But if you're for Him, or He is for you, if you are in Christ, if you love His appearing, Henceforth laid up for you is a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award you on that day." It turns something dreadful, even for Christians, death. When you look at it the way that Scripture talks about it, the way that Paul preaches about it here to Timothy, it has lost its sting and then some.