Good evening, everyone. It's a privilege to be here this evening. I appreciate you coming out to hear the Word of the Lord. Let's turn to 2 Timothy chapter 4 together. We're going to read Paul's triumphant words at the end of his life, and we are going to look at Paul's race well run, his fight well fought, and then we're going to look at our own life that we are living, our race that we are running, and we are going to endeavor by God's grace to emulate Paul's example that when we come to our time of departure, when our ship gets ready to loosen anchor, When we get to our end, we might say with the Apostle Paul that we also have run a good race, fought a good fight, and finished the course, kept the faith that God has entrusted to us. Let's read these verses together. 2 Timothy 4 verse 6. For I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to be only but unto all them also that love his appearing. Let's pray. Gracious God, thank you for these words. Thank you, Lord, for moving holy men of God to write your word. Thank you, Lord, that Christ Jesus has purchased salvation, that the Holy Spirit has empowered, that we also, at our deathbed, at our last, Lord, we might also join with the Apostle Paul with a life well-lived, a race well-run, a course kept, a faith held onto. We pray for your grace upon us tonight, dear God. For Christ's sake and in his name. Amen. So we have before us the Apostle Paul's race. Now he is finished. He finished it. Ace is not here tonight. I'm going to mention him. He likes to watch those YouTube videos. Satisfying videos. Just different jobs well done. Carpets cleaned or whatever. Just a satisfying job from start to finish. Just getting it done. Verses we just read before. That was a satisfying statement for the Apostle Paul. all the dangerous toils and snares that he had gone through, and to look back and to see that the goodness and mercy of God had followed him all the days of his life, and he was on the verge of dwelling in the house of the Lord forever. Forever. What glory, what a twinkle was in his eye, what anticipation, what jubilance was in his soul as he pens these verses and passes them on to his successor as a model that he could follow and pursue. You remember the Apostle Paul. prior to his conversion was running a different kind of race, a race headlong to destruction with all his might and main. He was more zealous than anyone else in his nation in the pursuit of the other direction. A race toward damnation. A race for self-righteousness. A race for self-aggrandizement and self-promotion. A race to do the devil's work. He was going 180 degrees the other direction. But when it pleased God to reveal his son in Paul, turned him around and put him on the race toward heaven. The path to the celestial city. The road to glory. God apprehended him. God arrested him. God stopped him in his tracks and put him in the race to eternal life. We read the Apostle Paul's words Not too long before he pens these final words out of Philippians chapter 3, that he's still in the race. Remember he said, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto that which is before, I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God which is in Christ Jesus. He's still running. Late in life, he's still running, but here, at this point, the prize is in his hand. The goal has been reached. The finish line has been crossed. And he writes these words. as it were, to tantalize all the people of God throughout all time, this is what you need to go after. This is what you need to go all in for. This is what you need to leave everything for to hold this prize. Oh, the world has a prize to offer. It has pleasures of sin for a season. It has a reward to give. We went to the Dude Perfect show last week and the guy that performed the best in all their feats that they accomplished was handed this gold medal. Come to find out it was just painted piece of something. Just a gold paint on a piece of something. He went through all that trouble just to achieve that. And that's about what you get when you serve this world. When you live for this world, you get heartache, woe, grief, eternal loss. Eternally cheated. Eternally shorted. Not so with the Apostle Paul. Eternal glory. He's now finished the race. He's kept the faith. He's fought the good fight. It was a good fight because God had ordained this fight. It was God's idea to put His people in the fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil. It's God's idea. It's a good fight because it was God's plan, His purpose. It's a good fight because he's the captain of our army. He's our captain, just like he was the captain of Joshua leading into Israel. He is the captain of the Lord's host. He is our captain. It's a good fight because we have the best captain, the best commander, the best leader, the best general that could possibly summon is the Lord Jesus Christ, the wisest, strongest, mighty, It's a good fight because He provides all the supplies. The Word of God tells us, Who goeth to warfare any time at His own charges? The answer is no one. If you are in the Lord's army, He foot's the bill. He provides all the supplies. that we need. Everything that pertains to life and godliness he provides for the people in his army, the people in his body, the people in his church. He richly provides those things that we stand in need of. It's a good fight because we're fighting against everything that is against God. We're fighting against everything that God hates. We're fighting against everything that God despises. Sin, the flesh, the devil, things temporal. We're fighting against things that God hates. It's a good fight because the victory that we achieve is eternal. The victory that Christ has achieved for us, the victory that we enter into, the victory we lay hold on is an eternal victory. I can only imagine the disappointment of our men that put all that time and effort and blood, sweat, and tears and put their life on the line in Afghanistan Only a few years later, all the success that seemed to be achieved is not there anymore. Can you imagine losing a limb, losing your loved one, and then the apparent temporary success that was achieved is gone? Can you imagine if we heard tonight that Russia had conceded and that they had pulled out of Ukraine, they had signed a ceasefire? Well, we would be glad for that, but how temporary might that be? But not so with the people of God's victory. It's an eternal victory. It's a war that's won and over and done forever and ever. The rest of God's people shall be glorious because it shall be eternal, uninterrupted glory forever. Peter tells us that the inheritance that God's people have is undefiled, incorruptible, and fadeth not away, and it's reserved in heaven for us. It's worth running for, isn't it? Worth fighting for. Worth keeping the faith for. So, the Apostle Paul has come through many dangerous toils and snares. He has gone through so much hardship. Hardships on his body, hardships on his mind, hardships on his every part of him emotionally, physically. He's affected by these trials, tests, without, within. I'm going to read about a few of them to you. You know the list. This is a partial list of what the Apostle Paul went through. It says, in labors more abundant and stripes above measure, in prison more frequent and deaths oft, of the Jews five times received I forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods. Once was I stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day have I been in the deep. in journeyings often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness, besides those that come without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care. of all the churches. You might say to the Apostle Paul at this point in your life, the Apostle Paul, would you go back and do it all again if you could have that eternal weight of glory that fadeth not away? He said, I'd do it again. If God would be glorified, if Christ would be glorified, if I could make His name great in the earth, if I could hold His banner high, I would do it again that my Savior might receive honor thereby. So the Apostle Paul has gone through all this and now he stands in thankful victory looking back over the miles that he has covered, the city of destruction he has escaped, the hill difficulty he has climbed, the valley of humiliation and the shadow of death that he has traversed. Vanity Fair that he went through undistracted, underrailed, unamused with the trinkets that they had to offer as the pilgrim who went there. He put his fingers in his ears and said, we buy the truth. We buy the truth. That was his pursuit, was Christ and his truth, his will. He sees the enemies spread out in the valley before him. Apollyon defeated. Old Adam subdued. Madam Wanton denied. He sees his self-righteousness defeated, his pride routed by the thorn in the flesh. A life well lived. A race well run. Victory at hand. Satisfying. Glory to God that such grace upon grace is available to all of us. Of Christ's fullness have all we received and grace for grace. There's grace enough and to spare for you and I to run the same race that Paul ran. It won't be the exact same race, but it'll be the race that God wants you to live. The race that God wants you to run and finish. Paul says, I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. So the Apostle Paul passed off his baton to Timothy, and Timothy passed off the baton to the next generation of faithful men, and the next generation passed it on to the next generation. The remnant has not been non-existent ere since Paul said these words. Whether the church had swollen to big numbers or shrunk to small numbers, the remnant of God has been there in every generation. We don't know all their names. We don't know where all they lived. But God has not left himself without a witness in every generation. He has had his people. There was Polycarp and Athanasius, Wycliffe and John Huss, Luther and Calvin and Whitfield and Spurgeon, Lloyd-Jones and on down to us today. And we're on the track this evening. We're in the ring this evening. I didn't come here this evening just to give you a little rehash of the life of the Apostle Paul. You know it better than I can tell. But I want to look at these few verses this evening that you and I might take the challenge Take on the aspiration to be inspired that if God gave the Apostle Paul ample grace, when the odds were so stacked against him to pin these words of victory at the end of his life, Then there's nothing in hell or in this world that can keep you and I from saying the same thing at the end of our lives. And by God's grace, we are going to aspire to end well. By the strength that Christ gives, by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the Word of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, we are going to be more than conquerors through him that loved us. Let's aspire to that. Let's dig in our heels to fight like Paul fought, to run like he ran, that we might have a glorious ending. A good ending. It makes me extremely sad. It hurts me deeply when you see headlines pop up that another well-known Christian has been discovered in some hideous sin. Makes me sad. I could call some names this evening, but you don't need to. Might make you sad, because you already know about it. I don't want to remind you. Makes me sad that someone who has held the banner of Jesus would drag it through the mud. It makes me mad. If you want to live like the devil, drop the act and go ahead and live for the devil. Don't drag the name of Christ into the mire of this world. If David cringed at the thought of what jubilation would be in the cities of the Philistines over the death of Saul, should not you and I be greatly grieved that those who bear the name of Christ, those who carry the name of Christ, should bring such a reproach on the name of Christianity? I'd like to say a few words to impress you with the danger involved in this race. You already have experienced it if you've been in the race very long, but it's a dangerous race. We've got enemies on the outside, we've got enemies on the inside. It's a dangerous race. 1 Peter 5, a familiar verse about our enemies, the roaring lion, the devil. walketh about seeking whom he may devour, seeking whom he may gulp down, seeking whose testimony he can defame, seeking whose credit he can take away, seeking whose testimony he can silence the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. all through the Psalms, there's several of them, talk about the traps, the djinns that the enemy lays in our path to trip us up, to ensnare us, to hurt us, to kill us, to destroy us. The devil is out to entrap us. While preparing for this message, I thought about the minefields that the Viet Cong would lay in Vietnam. Soldiers would walk through the woods not knowing that they were about to step on something that was going to blow them to bits. Minefields. That's kind of like what this world is spiritually. It's dangerous. Enemies without, enemies within. I don't know how much you know it, but you have a powder keg of sin within your own heart, and this world has the match to blow you to bits. We should not take lightly the words in Hebrews, to take heed, brethren. you might say, well, I'm eternally secure. I've been saved back when, and I'm good to go till God takes me to heaven. Well, absolutely. Eternal security is a glorious doctrine, but that doesn't make us rest easy and relax and be nonchalant and to not be watchful and prayerful about our own sinful hearts that can creep up on us and blindside us and cause us to do things we never thought we would end up in. May God help us be watchful, prayerful, humble before him. My uncle likes little funny sayings and he said, don't stumble, stay humble. Don't stumble, stay humble before God. Darlene Dibler rose and her Husband were missionaries, I think, in New Guinea or the Philippines at the time of World War II. They were taken captive when the Japanese invaded the islands. They were put in a concentration camp. They were accused of being spies. One day, airplanes came over, dropping bombs, blowing up the camp. chaos. Darlene Dobler says, Lord, if we ever make it out of here alive, it'll be a miracle. And that's the way I feel sometimes. The enemies seem to have the upper hand. The enemies seem to have us outnumbered. But thank God we have the truth that greater is He that is within us than he that's within the world. We have that truth. But if we're walking by sight, it looks like we're surrounded and we are toast. But that's not the case. We walk by faith, not by sight. I say all that just to impress on you that we are in a dangerous world. This vile world is no friend to grace to help us on to God. It's not. It's against us. The devil is against us. Our flesh is against us. Now, let's ask the Apostle Paul, how did you finished the race so well? How did you complete your fight of faith so well? How did you finish your course? How did you keep the faith? How did you do it, Paul? Well, he tells us. The Apostle Paul tells us to follow him as he has followed Christ. He invites us to do that. So, if we follow Paul as Paul follows Christ, we're going to end up where Paul ended up That's a good, encouraging statement that we have a sure, marked-out pathway. We're not on our own to find the way. We follow Paul as he followed Christ. In Philippians 4 and 9, he says, "...those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do, and the peace of God shall be with you." So, he invites us to follow his example. How can you run, Paul? How can you fight? How can you keep the faith? How can you? In one sense, the Apostle Paul would tell us, you can't. Brothers, sisters, you can't. Isn't that what Jesus said? John 15, without me, ye can do how much? Not very much. It's a small number. Nothing. Without Jesus Christ, you can do nothing. So how can you do it, Paul? Galatians 2.20, the familiar verse, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ that liveth in me, and the life that I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So the only way we can run this race victoriously finish this race triumphantly, end our lives well, is that we would surrender ourselves to and yield ourselves to the person of Jesus Christ to indwell us by his spirit and live the life that he only can live through our mortal bodies. There's only one true victor all throughout the Bible, Joseph included, Daniel included. There's only one true hero throughout the Bible, and that is Jesus Christ, who was above reproach, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, tempted in all points like you and I are, yet without sin. And it is His grace that empowered all the saints throughout the scripture to live a triumphant life. And it is Him that gets all the glory for the feats that they accomplished. And so, in one sense, we can't do it. But that which is impossible for men is well within the range of possibility with Christ, with God. I'd like to mention just a few things that Paul would tell us how we can finish our race well. You can read all his epistles if you really want to know. He gives us a lot of information. how to live our lives and finish our lives well. Because if we are going to say what Paul said, that he has fought, that he has finished, that he has kept, we want to be about the father's business of doing that now. Because how we live our lives will to a great degree determine what we can say when we come to die. One thing I would like to quote from the Apostle Paul, 2 Corinthians chapter 4 says that he had renounced all hidden things of dishonesty. He had renounced. He had repudiated. He had separated himself from all hidden things of shame, all things that are shameful, all things that would be embarrassing. He had renounced it. And that's what you and I must do if we are going to live well, if we are going to die well. We can't allow any hypocrisy, dishonesty, double life within our soul. We must renounce it. We must kill it when we see it. We must not allow it. As in the book Holy War by John Bunyan, They allowed the Diabolonians to exist and not to kill them. Just like you and I tolerate a certain amount of flesh to thrive in our souls. We can't do that. When we see unrighteous, ungodly things creeping up in our souls, we must kill them by God's grace. Deny them. Another thing that we must do if we are to finish well that Paul makes a lot of is maintaining a good conscience. It is something that the Apostle Paul had the front of his priority list was to maintain a conscience void of offense toward God and toward his fellow men. He wanted to have his conscience clean. sprinkled by the blood of Christ, cleansed by the blood of Christ. He wanted to have nothing between his soul and the Savior, nothing preventing the least of his favor. And so, you and I need to maintain a good conscience, not let any hidden sin defile it. Maintain a good conscience. And the last thing I'll mention that the Apostle Paul did, which is encompasses every day of our lives. The Apostle Paul tells us in Corinthians 15, I die, how often? Daily. That's what Jesus said, Luke 9, wasn't it? If any man would come after me, let him take up his cross, how often? Daily. And follow me. That lust that creeps up in your soul, kill it. That covetousness that you see creeping up on you, getting a hold of you more and more, taking more and more of your attention away from Christ, we must put it to death. That doubt of the promises of God, that doubt of the sufficiency of the wisdom of God, that doubt We must put it to death. Crucify the flesh with the affection and lusts. That bitterness toward your fellow men, that bitterness, that resentment, that intolerance, that impatience that is getting a hold of you, you must not allow it a day longer. You must put it to death. Paul says, Jesus says, to die to the sin that would so certainly trip you up and entangle you and hinder you in the race that He has called you to live. He tells you to kill the sin that would derail you in your walk. That sin of unthankfulness, that hot temper, that intolerance of your brothers and sisters must be crucified. It must go to the cross. It must be prayed until you can leave it there and go on with a light heart of forgiveness and a clear conscience with your fellow men. We must not allow any sin to have a foothold, a stranglehold in our lives. That impatience. We must be in the business of killing sin. You know the rest of that saying, what it will do if you don't. That python, if you don't manage it, if you don't keep it under control, it will strangle your soul. I'm almost done. I'd like to answer a few objections to running this race, to fighting this fight. You might object, well, I've waited too long to start. I've wasted so much of my life now. There's no way, absolutely no way I can have what Paul had. You don't have to have what Paul had. But I tell you on the authority of the Word of God that it's not later for you than it was for the thief on the cross. He started really late in the race and he won the prize because Jesus said he could come. He obtained the glory. He won the race. He obtained glory because Christ invited him and he came in. And so can you and I. There's no excuse. You haven't started too late. You can come as well because of the riches and glory in Christ Jesus our Lord. Another objection, you might say, well, I'm not gifted enough. I don't have the talent. I don't have the ability. I can't pull this off. I can't write books like Pastor Jeff. I can't pastor a church like Pastor Jeff. I can't preach like Tommy Walls. I can't teach like Jimmy Federley. I can't do any of these things. You don't have to. You can run the race that God has put before you. You can live the life that God has called and enabled and taught you to live. You don't have to look at the next man and compare yourself to them and say, I can't do what they can do, so I'm not going to do anything. You don't have to do what the next brother does. You just have to live the life that God has given you. Peter looks back and sees John and asks Jesus what's he gonna do? What's John gonna do? Jesus said, don't worry about him. You just run the race I've set before you, Peter. You just fight the fight that I've given you. We don't have to look at the next man and compare ourselves among ourselves. Another objection you might feel absolutely at a spiritual zero. You might be a Christian, but you are absolutely washed out, beaten down, beaten up. You are absolutely without strength at this present moment. I got encouragement for you because the great shepherd of the sheep has promised, He has committed Himself, that He has such love for His sheep, that He will lay down His life for the sheep, and not only that, He will carry them in His arms, Isaiah 40 tells us. If He laid down His life for us, don't you think He'll carry us as well? Won't He see to it that we don't stop in our heavenly journey? Toward the end of Isaiah 40, it has a great remedy, solution, antidote for spiritual weariness. If you're here this evening and you're tired spiritually, here is the strength you need. Isaiah 40 tells us that it has our medicine to help us, to enable us, to empower us, to get up and get going in our heavenly race to fight the good fight of faith. It says, Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding. So we have an unfainting, unweary God who is all-wise. Okay? He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. So we have a God in heaven. We have a Christ in heaven. We have the Holy Spirit among us. And through him we shall do valiantly. For he it is that treadeth down our enemies. It's not us going at it alone. It is Christ in us who is the hope of glory. It is Christ in us that is the hope to obtain glory. I am persuaded, just as our Lord Jesus Christ said on the cross prior to his expiration, it is finished. That one of these days, When all God's people get home, the Holy Spirit is going to be able to say, It is finished. It's done. He's brought all the lost sheep home. All the prodigal sons home. All the runners have made it. All the fighters have won. The Holy Spirit has done his work in his church and he's here this evening to empower, enable you to be more than conqueror through Christ who loved you and gave himself for you. So the Apostle Paul says, I have run a good race, fought a good fight, kept the faith. Henceforth there is a crown laid up for me. and not for me only, but for all those who love His appearing. Let's go in for the crown, brothers, sisters. Let's go in for the prize. Let's leave what we need to leave behind and reach forth to that which is before, that we might say with Paul, It's all been good, well, and done through Christ. Let's pray. Gracious God, thank you for these words. Thank you that you offer and have given and purchased for us such great salvation. Thank you, Lord, that more there be with us than there be in the world. We look to you to bless our souls with courage, determination, vigor, life, power from on high, to run, to fight, until you call us home. For Christ's sake and in his name, amen.