♪ There's a name above all others ♪ Wonderful to hear ♪ Bringing hope and cheer ♪ It's the lovely name of Jesus ♪ Never more the same ♪ What a lovely name ♪ What a lovely name, this name of Jesus ♪ Reaching higher form ♪ Than the brightest storm ♪ Sweeter than the songs they sing in heaven ♪ Let the world proclaim ♪ What a lovely name Through his name there's wondrous power, power to redeem, making sinners clean. By his power we cleanse the leper, open blinded eyes, cause the dead to rise. ♪ Till returning clouds of glory ♪ ♪ Saints of every race ♪ ♪ Shall behold his face ♪ ♪ With him enter heaven's city ♪ ♪ Ever to acclaim ♪ ♪ What a lovely name ♪ What a lovely name, this name of Jesus. Reaching higher far than the brightest star. Sweeter than the songs they sing in heaven. Let the world proclaim what a lovely name. I wanted to take just a moment to kind of introduce myself. A lot of new faces here. Well, new to me. It's the same face you've had all your life. I was born and raised in northern Vermont on a dairy farm, and my wife was kind of raised all over. Dad was a chemical engineer, and so his company would transfer him from place to place. I think she lived in eight different places in her childhood, so it was... a totally different kind of upbringing. I grew up in the same house, never left, spent one night, one, count them, one, one night of my life out of my hometown of 1,200 people and about 1,600 cows. One night of my life out of my hometown before I left home at the age of almost 18, and that was in a hayloft at a cattle sale. And so had a very, very bubbled life, totally different than my wife. She submitted to the Lord's call on her life at the age of 15. I got saved when I was 17 as the result of the witness of an underclassman in our high school. And my Jewish roots on my mother's side, I'm Jewish, and my Jewish grandmother lived in California. And her high school graduation gift was a trip to California for me. And so I went out there and spent some time in California. While I was out there, I met a man named Shelton Smith, who is now editor of The Story of the Lord. He was pastoring a church out there. And I spent about nine months in that church. And it was during those months that the Lord directed me very clearly into the ministry. Pastor Smith never tried to get me into the ministry. encouraged me to pray about what God wanted me to do. And interestingly, the book that's on the back table, Your Creator's Design, is somewhat of a synopsis of the things that God was working on in my life when he led me into the ministry. And that was 1976. So come May, it'll be 48 years of preaching. We met at college, Tennessee Temple, back during the Lee Robertson days. Any Temple grads here? Anybody from Anybody? It's getting rarer and rarer to find them. And we met there, got married halfway through, finished our degree work. We have five children, all of them grown. They've all grown old. They haven't all grown up yet, but they have all grown old. 27 up to 40, 10 grandchildren. That's a lot of little feet running around when they come to see us, but we're enjoying this new ministry. I was in assistant work for about 15 years, including my college years. And then for about 28 years, I was in the senior pastor position. And about four and a half years ago, we went on the road. And we've been traveling, doing conferences, and retreats, and camps, and revivals, and pulpit fill, just a variety of things, missions, conferences, and just absolutely reaping from all those years of learning, all those other years of ministry, I can tell you God wastes nothing. Can I say that again? God wastes nothing. We waste things, but God doesn't waste anything. And it's just a wonderful thing to be able to serve the Lord. And our message tonight is entitled, The Greatest Claim Any Man Could Ever Make. The greatest claim any man could ever make. And in Acts chapter 20, if you'll look at that passage first, Acts chapter 20, we're gonna look at just three verses, verses 22 to 24. And these are words that Paul said at the end of his third missionary journey as he was heading back to Jerusalem. He met with the elders of the church at Ephesus in the city of Miletus, and among other things, he said to them, Acts 20, verse 22, and now behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. Now notice these words. but none of these things move me. Remember, this is the man who said, be ye therefore steadfast, what? Unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. He said, none of these things move me. And the idea is that the troubles that I face do not move me away from what God wants me to do. He said, I'm bound in the Spirit. I'm headed for Jerusalem. I don't know what's gonna happen there, Paul could look back in his past, he could see shipwrecks, he could see all sorts of floggings and whippings and scourgings, he could see stonings, he could see nights and days in the deep, he could see perils in the country and perils in the city, perils among the heathen, perils among the Jews, all manner of troubles, persecutions, you name it. He knew what was behind him. He said, I don't know what's ahead except There, verse 23, that everywhere I go, the Holy Spirit is telling me that I'm heading for more bonds and afflictions. Verse 24, but none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself. In fact, Paul is the same man who later wrote in Philippians that he was in a straight betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which he said is far better. Nevertheless, he said, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. So he said, none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy. and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God." He said, I want to finish my course. Now, if you'll find 2 Timothy chapter 4, written 10 years later, right before Paul's death, 2 Timothy 4.7, we'll actually start in verse 6, for I'm now ready to be offered in the time of my departure Remember when he said he would want to depart and to be with Christ? He said, well, that time has come. The time of my departure is at hand. And then he said this, I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. The thing that he said he wanted to do when he met with the elders, the pastors of the churches of Ephesus, all those different local assemblies around the massive city of Ephesus, he met with all those pastors, and the thing that he said he wanted to do, he wanted to finish his course with joy. He's at the very end of his life, 2 Timothy is the last epistle that Paul wrote. Tradition holds that very shortly after these words were penned, Paul was beheaded by Nero. He said, I have, I made it. I met my goal. I finished my course. The greatest claim that any man could ever make is to say I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. The greatest claim that any woman could make is I have fought a good fight. I have kept the faith. I have finished my course. The greatest claim that these six young people that were just up here, by the way, beautiful music, thank you. The greatest claim that any of them could make is not I started well, but that I finished well. There are many, many people who start well. Samson started well, started very well. The Bible says the Spirit of God came upon him and began to move him at times in the camp between Zorah and Eshter. But when we study the adult life of Samson, he desecrated the Nazarite vow, he desecrated the honor of his parents, he absolutely forsook the morals that should govern every person's life, and he died in a suicide. A shameful adulthood. He didn't finish well. He started well and finished poorly. It's far better to start well and finish well, amen? And it's possible to do that. and it isn't about the difficulties, and it isn't about, well, life is hard, and I've been rejected, and I've been hurt, and I was in church, and people there said things, they did things, and you know what? If you live in this world, you're gonna be hurt. It's part of it. But church people shouldn't do that. No, they shouldn't. But they do. You're gonna hold that against God? It's not God's fault when his children disobey him. Amen? It's not God's fault when his children disobey him. And so if you let somebody else's disobedience prompt your disobedience, can you tell me what's the difference? Paul said, I want to finish my course with joy. I don't wanna come to the end of my life and look back and say, well, God called me to do something. I quit halfway. It got too hard. I didn't want to anymore. I got hurt. I got angry. I got bitter. He said, I want to finish my course with joy. In modern political caricatures, nobody tops the picture of Bernie Sanders with his mittens on. You imagine living with that man? I grew up in Vermont. Bernie Sanders was the mayor of Burlington at that time. He couldn't comb his hair then either. I think his excuse is the wind is always blowing in Vermont, so what's the use? But anyway. No, we want to finish our course. The greatest claim that any of the young people of this audience could make, the greatest claim that any human being could ever make is, you know, God showed me what he wanted me to do, and I did it. I fought a good fight. I finished my course. I kept the faith. I didn't walk away from it. I didn't get married and then walk away from it. I didn't have children and then abandon them. I didn't start a ministry and then walk out of it. God called me. He called me to do something. I fought a good fight. I finished my course. I kept the faith. Father, would you open our hearts tonight to this precious epitaph on the tombstone of the Apostle Paul? Would you remind us that there is always enough grace to do everything that God wants us to do as well as he wants us to do it for as long as he wants us to do it. Would you remind us tonight that there is a fight to be fought, a race to be run, a faith to be kept, and a crown to be won. Would you fill me with the Holy Spirit so that these words tonight are a great encouragement, so that these words tonight are are a catalyst toward fulfilling the call of God in the life of every hearer in this audience tonight. Amen. When Paul said he had fought a good fight, he was certainly talking about a good fight against the devouring of the wicked one, the devil himself. There's no question that Paul faced opposition from the devil. In fact, he tells us in 2 Corinthians 12 that a messenger of Satan had been sent to buffet him, and he had besought the Lord three times about that matter, and the Lord said, my grace is sufficient for thee. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 2, he said, lest Satan should get advantage of us. Well, when we use the word us, we're including ourselves. And so Paul was speaking there on the subject of forgiving somebody who has wronged you or wronged the church. And he said, if you don't forgive, Satan can get an advantage of you. Paul was aware that he was not immunized by taking a dose of the gospel from any interference with the devil. And fighting the good fight means we have to fight the devil. Paul wrote again to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 11.3, I fear, he said, lest by any means does the serpent beguile Eve through his subtlety. So your minds, your minds, he's writing to believers, your minds should be corrupted. from the simplicity that is in Christ. Paul was very aware of the battle of the mind. Paul was very aware that in the mind of every believer there is a battle going on from the first conscious waking moment in the morning to the last conscious waking moment at night. And sometimes that battle goes on in the night with dreams that are unsettling and burdensome. and the devil has access that we have to remember, and fighting a good fight involves a fight against the devil. In the book of Ephesians, Paul wrote to the believers. I said he wrote to the believers. Did I mention he was writing to the believers? And he said, neither give place to the devil. He didn't write that to unsaved people. He said that to you and me who have trusted in Christ. And he said, part of my fight is I fought the devil. And fighting the devil involves not giving a place to him. The word place there is the Greek word tapas, from which we get topography, which is a study of the lay of the land. He said, don't give the devil a little corner of your farm. Because if you give him a toehold, he'll go after a foothold. And if he gets a foothold, he'll go after a stronghold. And if he gets a stronghold, he'll go after a stranglehold. Part of fighting a good fight is being alert to your enemy, and knowing who he is, and studying to show yourself approved unto God. And that's the reason, again, in the book of Ephesians, Paul says, I'm going to give you the list of the armor. Why? So that you may stand, what, against the wiles of the devil. Take unto you the whole armor of God. Don't take just one piece, take the whole armor, take it all, get it on, put it on every morning. What is the armor of God? Well, there's being girt about with truth, the loins girt about with truth, having on the breastplate of righteousness, your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all, taking the shield of faith, that's that little handheld shield wherewith you can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto. with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. Why would he give us that armor? Why would the armor be given to the church if the moment we're saved we're automatically inoculated and the devil can't touch us anymore? What the devil can't do is he cannot condemn a redeemed soul. For there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. The Bible says, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, is passed from death unto life. He that believeth is not condemned, John wrote in John chapter three. And so there is an inoculation, as it were, against condemnation in the flames of hell. But the devil has access, and that's the reason that Peter said, be sober and be vigilant. Because your adversary, the devil, is a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. And no, he can't devour your testimony in the sense of your actual salvation, but he can devour your testimony in the sense of what people see and know about your life. He can devour your potential. He can devour opportunities. He can devour, listen to me, young people, He can devour your purity, and you will regret it for every day of the rest of your life. There is nothing more important to give to your husband or wife on your honeymoon than your virginity as a gift to him or to her only. Don't let the devil steal that from you. You see, the devil is active. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he said, we would have come unto you, even I, Paul, once and again, but Satan hindered us. You see what Paul is saying, I've fought a good fight, and when he said that, he meant that he'd been fighting the devil. Sad to say that in some conversations that I have, I hear the voice of fighting Jesus. I hear people who are excusing the inexcusable. You're gonna fight a good fight, you're gonna have to fight the devil all the way, all the way. Not only did he fight the devil, he fought the flesh, the depravity of his own wayward heart. Paul said, I would not have known lust except the Lord said, thou shalt not covet. And Paul said, oh listen, oh wretched man that I am, and sometimes I just need to get alone with God. There are days, there are moments when I need to just stop everything and just say, oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And we need to be honest and open and vulnerable and transparent in the prayer closet. We don't need to hang out our dirty laundry in a Wednesday night prayer meeting. That's very unwise. We need to take our dirty laundry into the prayer closet and be honest with Jesus Christ. And part of fighting a good fight is fighting this flesh. He said, I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest it by any means, when I preach to others, I myself should be a castaway. And the word castaway there is often presented as if God would finally just say, fine, I'm done with you, you'll never serve me again and throw you out. That is not what that means. The context has nothing to do with God casting you away. The context of 1 Corinthians chapter 9 is that you would be cast away in the minds of the people to whom you are ministering because you've ruined your testimony. That's what happened a lot. Nobody would listen to him when God announced judgment on the city because he had ruined his testimony. He fought a good fight against the devouring of the wicked devil. He fought a good fight against the depravity of his wayward heart. And Paul was aware, and every one of us is aware, and the more aware we are of how deceitful and desperately wicked the human heart is, the more we are aware of man at his best state is altogether vanity. The more that we are aware of our own weakness, the more we can come to God in actual dependence and brokenness and beg for his grace and beg for his help, and he hears that prayer. The Bible says he will give attention to that prayer. Psalm 102.17, I'll read that to you here. Psalm 102.17, if you wanna look it up, maybe you wanna underline this verse in your Bible. It's a very good verse. Psalm 102 verse 17. He will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer. He will regard the prayer of the destitute. and not despise their prayer. Paul was fighting a good fight when he fought against the devouring of the wicked devil. He was fighting a good fight when he fought against the depravity of his own wayward heart. He was fighting a good fight against the deceit of worldly philosophies. The entire book of Colossians, especially the first two chapters, is a rebuke of the philosophy so prevalent in ancient Greek culture. It was a rebuke of the philosophies that were common in the Roman Empire. And every time a nation or a culture goes pagan, it develops all manner of evil philosophies. That's why Paul said, beware lest any man spoil you, S-P-O-I-L, meaning take away your valuables. And how does he do it? Through philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of the world, after the traditions of men and the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Paul fought a good fight. He fought a good fight against the worldly philosophies that would just twist doctrine ever so slightly to make it sound as if God said something he never said, and to make it sound like God did not say the things that he did say. And if you want to read about the rebuke and the fight against philosophy, you'll notice the second epistles of Paul and the second epistle of Peter are all full of a rebuke against false doctrine. 2 Thessalonians, 2 Timothy, and 2 Peter are all a rebuke of false doctrine. 2 Corinthians has a major section rebuking false doctrine and false teachers. Paul fought a good fight, but he didn't stop there. He finished his corpse. George W. Truitt, who lived for 1867 and 1944, was for 47 years the pastor of the great First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. He said, to know the will of God is the greatest knowledge, to find the will of God is the greatest discovery, and to do the will of God is the greatest achievement. It's important that we understand that we were not just accidentally dropped out of a dandelion into the 21st century. It's important that we understand that we're not here by accident. And with all of the philosophical nonsense and tomfoolery that is being foisted upon us from Hollywood and all these liberals that are telling us to follow the science, except when the science doesn't follow them. And this state is familiar with that. It's important that we understand we didn't just happen. We're not an accident. The Bible tells us regarding King David, he served his own generation by the will of God. And the reason he served his own generation by the will of God is that he had no other generation in which he could serve the will of God. You won't get another generation. We are not reincarnationists here. You're not coming back as a monarch butterfly. There is a great getting up morning, thank the Lord. There is a resurrection, and the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout and the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. And Paul said, I show you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump. And what's gonna happen, that change, he said, this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. That's gonna happen in the twinkling of an eye. calculated roughly 1 15th of a second. You imagine that? We that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened, but that day will be the end of that burdening and the end of that groaning. We're waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but we ourselves, even we that have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan within ourselves, waiting. But I'll tell you what, Jesus is coming. He's coming. And if there's anything we ought to be alert to, if there's anything to which our minds should be tuned, if there is any motivating factor that any one of us should have before us at all times, it is the moment that Jesus comes. It is the fact that we are living, I believe, on the very edge of the cusp of the tip of the last days of the last days. I do not set dates, but I believe God's plan is for 7,000 years. In 2 Peter 3, Paul lays it out. He speaks of the creation week, and then he says a day with the Lord is as 1,000 years and 1,000 years as one day. In other words, he's comparing the seven days of creation to the 7,000s of years that man will live on this planet. Old Testament history comprises approximately 4,000 years. New Testament history comprises approximately 2,000 years. And I know we have mix-ups with the Roman calendar and the Julian calendar and the Gregorian calendar, and we don't know exactly where the overlaps are, but I guarantee if you add 4,000 plus 2,000, and got to use the old math now, what do you get? And that leaves 1,000, and that's the millennium. And just like the seventh day of the week was a day of rest and worship, the seventh millennium is gonna be a millennium of rest and worship. I don't think it leaves us a whole lot of time. I've never felt more like it could be today than I feel today. It could be today. Paul said he finished his course, he found the course, he found the will of God. If you wanna keep your finger here in 2 Timothy chapter four, back up if you will to the book of Acts chapter 26. The book of Acts records the testimony of Paul's conversion three different times. And Acts 26 gives the most thorough explanation of it. In other words, the whole conversation between Paul and the Lord wasn't just, who art thou, Lord, and what wilt thou have me to do? There was more to that conversation, and that is included in Acts chapter 26. Look, if you will, at verse 15, Acts chapter 26, verse 15. And I said, who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest, but rise. and stand upon thy feet. For I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness, both of these things which thou hast seen and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee, delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Paul here discovered the will of God. Right there on the Damascus road, blinded, perhaps still lying in the dust, he found out what God wanted him to do with his life. Who are you, Lord? I am Jesus, whom you persecuted. But I want you to get up, and I have a job for you to do, Paul. He didn't even call him Paul yet. I have a job for you. And Paul discovered right then, right there. Now, I don't think everybody who gets saved immediately knows the will of God. I got saved the 25th of October, 1974, as a senior in high school. I did not know until April 4th, 1976. But it was on that Sunday night, the 4th of April, 1976, that I went forward And I told my pastor, God wants me in the ministry. And a month and a day later, on the 5th of May, I preached my first sermon and fell in love with what God had called me to do. And I get to do what I love, and I love what I do. It'll soon be 48 years, and I'm just enjoying the journey. Paul found out, you may not have known the very day you were saved, but you'll find out if you want to know the will of God, God is not trying to hide it from you. If you wanna live your own life, if you wanna say, you know, I'm saved, but this is my life, and I get to live it, I get to do what I wanna do, and I'm gonna fulfill my dreams, and I wanna be this, and I wanna be that, you're living a life that probably will end up as nothing more than wood, hay, and stubble. One of the greatest prayers that ought to be on the lips of every young person in this room, every young couple, every middle-aged person, Lord, what do you want me to do with my life? What do you want me to do with my life? What do you want me to do with the rest of my life? When Vance Havner was 80 years old, he wrote a devotional entitled, Lord of What's Left. He lived another six years before God called him home after 70, almost 75 years of preaching. started preaching when he was 11 years old. Actually, first sermon that he ever preached, he was nine. He didn't really count that one. You know what I'm saying? I'm saying that God has a plan for you. Not only did Paul find it, but he followed it. He didn't run from it. He didn't seek to resist it. He didn't say, fine, Lord, if you're gonna blind me, you think I wanna serve you? No, he didn't run from the will of God. He didn't shirk it. He wasn't afraid of it. He was not somehow so wrapped up in his own importance that he said, but that's not what I wanna do. I don't wanna do that. I have something else. I have my dreams. I had dreams. I wanted to go into research biology. I wanted to find the cures for disease, especially cancer. That's what I wanted to do with my life until God knocked on my door and said, I have something else for you to do. He said it'd be quite one thing for you to find the cure for physical, temporal diseases. I want you to proclaim the message that is the cure for eternal diseases. There's no greater privilege in all the world. I'm not saying every young man and every young woman in this audience is called into the ministry, but I guarantee some of you are. God wants some of you young ladies to just dedicate your life to say, I'm gonna stand beside a man of God. He may be a missionary, he may be evangelist, he may be a pastor. I'm gonna stand beside a man of God and I'm gonna wait until a man of God comes into my life. I'm not gonna wait for the first cute boy with a sports car and run off and ruin my life. If you try to run your life, you will ruin your life. And this difference in spelling between run and ruin is I. And if I run my life, I ruin it. When God leads your life, he makes it worth something. And it has been said by someone wiser than I that it would be better to fail in the will of God than to succeed outside of it. Many a successful man has the pat on the back of the world, and he has the grin of the devil, but he does not have the smile of God. And I'm not saying that it should frighten us, but I think it should alarm us that it's very possible to miss the will of God and waste your life. Paul said, no, I fought a good fight, I finished my course. And once he found it, he followed it. We're here in Acts chapter 26. If you're still there, look at verse 19. And Paul says, whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but showed first unto them of Damascus. and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance. For these causes the Jews caught me in the temple, and went about to kill me, having therefore obtained excuse me, having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come, that Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead and should show light unto the people. and to the Gentiles. Paul not only found the will of God, he followed it. He said, I wasn't disobedient to the heavenly vision. I didn't turn away from that. I didn't walk away. I didn't say, no, I don't want to serve God. People that serve God, they have all kinds of trouble. Well, guess what? People that don't serve God have all kinds of trouble. If you're looking to escape trouble, you're in the wrong world. The place where we escape trouble is heaven, and it's up to God when we go there. And how? It's not in our hands to determine that. He found the course, he found the will of God, he followed the course, he followed the will of God, and he finished it. He came to the day when he said, I have finished my course. I've started the churches God wanted me to start. I've preached the sermons God wanted me to preach. I've led the people to Christ that God wanted me to lead to Christ. I've discipled the people God wanted me to disciple. I've invested my life in people. Look around you. When Jesus comes, this piano's gonna sit right here. Beautiful instrument. By the way, it was very well played tonight. Where is the young man? He's right back here. Thank you for that, excellent. As soon as you started playing, my wife said, he plays just like our son Benjamin. You do. Beautiful. When Jesus comes, all these chairs are gonna be left here. The lights, the walls, the ceiling, the floor, the baptistry, the chairs. What in this room is eternal? The souls of men. What greater investment is there to make than to make an investment in people? Because people are eternal. People are gonna be around after the elements melt with fervent heat. and the works that are in this world are burned up. These climate savers, they are terribly deceived. It didn't all start with a big bang, but it is going to end with one. The heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the Bible tells us in 2 Peter. He said, I fought the good fight, I finished my course, and then he said this, I've kept the faith. He kept the scriptures, which are the doctrines of the faith. Paul was very careful in outlining, book after book after book, the doctrine of salvation. Paul was very careful, book after book after book, outlining the doctrine of man, outlining the doctrine of the church, outlining the doctrines that deal with all of the spiritual aspects of the Christian life, including the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Paul guarded those doctrines. He was the one to whom was given a mystery. By the way, this is not eschatology 101 here. And for you that aren't at college level, eschatology is the study of future events. But do you realize that a lot of these people that are trying to push the church halfway through the tribulation period, before we get raptured, are using verses from the Old Testament prophets and from the sermons of Jesus Christ. But the second coming, as we call it, the rapture, this special appearing of Jesus Christ for his church, was revealed to Paul who wasn't even saved yet when Jesus was giving the Olivet Discourse. And he tells us it was a mystery. He said, I show you a mystery. In other words, it had never been revealed up to that time. And so the things Jesus was talking about when the apostle said to him, look at all these stones, and what's the sign of your coming, and what's the sign of the end of the world? He was talking to the Jews, and he was referring to the tribulation period of the Jewish nation. He had nothing to do with the rapture. In Matthew 24, 25, that passage, there's nothing to do with the rapture in the closing chapters of Mark and Luke. It wasn't revealed until Paul. That's the reason that when the apostles are outside Bethany and they're waiting for Jesus to ascend to heaven, they said, oh, by the way, they didn't ask him, so tell us a little more about the church. No, they said, will y'all at this time, restore the kingdom to Israel. They were still thinking Old Testament. And he said, it is not for you to know the times of the seasons. You know why it wasn't for them? Because it was for Paul. Paul was the one to whom that was revealed 20 plus years later. All the truth about the church, read Ephesians three, it was all given to Paul. The truths of the church, the truths of the rapture, the truths of many of these things were given to the Apostle Paul, and that's the reason he referred to the abundance of the revelations. He said, I kept the faith. I kept the scriptures. I didn't turn my back from them. He said, I kept the skills or the deeds of the faith. You know what? He read his Bible. He prayed. He went to church. He witnessed. He testified. He tithed. He lived the Christian life. He did what he was supposed to do, and he didn't do what he wasn't supposed to do. And keeping the faith has more than just doctrine, it's deeds as well, because if you wanna study a book on faith, you're gonna come to the book of Hebrews, and if you wanna study a chapter on faith, you're gonna find yourself camping in chapter 11, and it's all about what they did because of what they believed. It was their belief that motivated their behavior. And by the way, you can boast, of a wonderful doctrinal statement, but your behavior tells what you really believe. And wicked behavior comes out of wicked beliefs. I've kept the faith, he kept the standards, the distinctions of the faith, the things that set us apart. from the world, the things that visually set us apart from the world. You think of the number of people who are gonna hear your testimony versus the number of people who will see you in your lifetime. The number of people who will see you in your lifetime could be as much as 100 to 1,000 times more than the number of people who will ever hear you give your testimony. What do they see? It's interesting that when Barnabas arrived in Antioch in Acts chapter 11, the Bible tells us that Barnabas saw the grace of God. The last time I checked, grace is an abstract noun. And I'll prove it to you. Is it round or square? Is grace purple or yellow? How do you see it? You see it in changed lives. You don't see it in lives that are being lived out just like the world. You don't see it in lives that got saved and boy, they did well for six weeks and then went right back like Peter's sow going back to her wallowing in the mire. And Peter's dog who went back to his vomit. That's why I don't like dogs to lick my face. All said, I fought a good fight. I finished my course. I kept the faith. Henceforth, he said, there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love is appearing. Bob Jones Sr. is a name well-respected and with well-earned respect. His tomb is in Greenville, South Carolina, and his tombstone reads, just this way, a fight well fought, a race well won, a faith well kept, a crown well won. 16 words that sum up the life of Bob Jones Sr. His wife lived to be 100 years of age. Her epitaph is, a century of mortality, a millennium of victory, an eternity of glory. 12 words. You know what I'm thinking about more and more? I'm thinking about seeing the glorified Christ. And I want it to be 1 John 2, 28, that we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. I'm thinking more about that, not just because I'm 66, but I'm looking around, and I honestly don't see how much more time we can have. I want to challenge you tonight to think about the epitaph. Not necessarily what will be written on your tombstone if you were to go through the valley of the shadow of death, but what would be written by God? To sum up your life, what would it be? Because it doesn't really matter what I would write on your tombstone. It doesn't matter. What matters is what God might write on your tombstone. What matters is what Job said, my record is on high and my witness is in heaven. Job 16, 19 or 19, 16. Not sure which one of those it is. And I wonder tonight if In the midst of an audience like this, God is touching the heart of some young ladies to say, I don't know what God has for me, but I will dedicate myself to him. I'll volunteer to stand beside a man of God. I wonder if the Lord might be touching some young men in this room and saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? And you might say, like Isaiah of old, here am I, Lord, send me. I wonder if there might be a couple here or even a family where dad and mom have been praying about, we just can tell there's something up. God wants something from us, we just don't know what it is. Tonight might be the night that you would say, I'm going to at least present myself to the Lord for his service. But regardless of whether you serve the Lord as a career or whether you serve the Lord as a volunteer within a local church body, you still have a good fight to fight, you still have a course to finish, and you still have a faith to keep. Our instrumentalists are going to come, and there's a song in your songbook that I believe fits this message. It's number 126. The song is entitled, I Wish I Had Given Him More. Can you imagine if Jesus walked into this room right now and said, time's up, church. We're going home. I guarantee for a moment all of us would wish we'd given him more. I would wish that. So as the piano quietly plays, let's stand to our feet tonight.