Last words of the Apostle Paul

Second Timothy chapter 4. My brother Perkins has been telling us about the last words of the Lord Jesus. At least before we went to the cross I want to speak to you about last words of the Apostle Paul. Second Timothy chapter 4 writing to his son in the faith, 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 the 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 is appearing. Now as you look at the context of this passage I just want to call your attention to what we have in verse 6 and 7. Paul is looking at the end of his life. His service is over.

He knows he's soon going to be with the Lord Jesus. I want you to notice this that he looks upon his life in five different ways. One might ask themselves a question when it comes to the end of our life.

We're looking back on it and anticipating the moment where we're with the Lord Jesus for eternity. How are we going to see that life? What is it going to amount to? What will there be in it? And what kind of character will it represent? Paul says, I'm now ready to be offered. When I look at that first expression Paul is really saying I am already being poured out.

And you remember that Paul looked upon his life as the life of a priest. That's what he's saying here. It's the life and the activity of a priest.

And from the very beginning he has recognized the fact that I am a priest and I have to have something to offer. Paul says I've come to the end of the life. I've been continually being poured out, I've been pouring out, I've been sacrificing for the sake of Christ.

And I've come now to the point where just the last drop is about ready to fall. I'm already being offered. I would take it that when Paul began his life he began it as a priest and he offered himself his entire life.

He offered his body, soul, and spirit for the service of the Lord Jesus. He devoted himself to that risen man that appeared to him on the Damascus Road. And in voluntary submission to him he recognized the claims of Christ upon him.

And he has continued in that pathway the entire days until this point of time. When I look at the Apostle Paul, I've said this and I thought of it many times, I'd like to find out more about his life. I look forward to the moment possibly when in heaven to be able to ask him about different experiences.

I'm sure he'd have a lot to say, but I'll tell you something that bothers me, that troubles me what he might ask me about my life and what I've done for him, what for the Lord Jesus. When I look at a man that totally devoted his life for the moment God arrested him in his pathway of self-will religiously, I see a man that without any interruption offered himself upon the altar for the service of the Lord Jesus. I see a man that exemplifies the highest expression of Christian living that could ever be manifested in any one of us.

I don't read that Paul ever took a vacation. I can't see Paul laying on the beach. Sorry, I've done it myself.

I can't see Paul going to the movies. I hope you don't do that. I can't see Paul wasting a day of his life in which he wasn't seeking to learn something about the Lord Jesus and responsiveness seeking to live for him and to serve him.

Why I see a man that from the very beginning as a priest he had offered himself. That's the very best thing you and I can give. We offer to God the praise, the fruit of our lips.

Confessing his name, Hebrews 13 tells us and that is a tremendous sacrifice. It's a sacrifice of our good works, the life that we live that honors the Lord Jesus with those things he says he's well pleased. But all of it comes down to what we've been hearing out of love for him just giving everything to the Lord Jesus.

You know, in reality if the Lord has us he'll have everything that we have. If he has acknowledged his absolute Lord in our life that he's Lord of my time, he's Lord of my possessions, he's Lord of my abilities, and he's Lord of everything I'm occupied with, my ambitions. And Paul could say my life has been a continual activity of pouring out.

You remember in Philippians chapter 2 where he speaks about that example of the Lord Jesus in relation to how the believers in Philippi should function and relate to each other in humility. He comes on down the chapter he says, Yea, and if I be poured out upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all. What an attitude of humility characterized him because, you know, you know as well as I that if we look to the Apostle Paul and his service as compared with that of the Philippian believers, we'd say, Paul, your service has been vastly greater than anything they've ever done.

But Paul says no. Their service has been the greater sacrifice. That's been the large animal that has been offered upon the altar.

All I've done is a little drink offering that's offered at the end, just to add to it. And you know, dear brethren and sisters, that's what he's worthy to receive. And Paul says I've been poured.

In chapter 15 of Romans, you remember, he says not only have I been offering myself, but he says I've been offering up the Gentiles. As a result of his service, he's brought them to God and he's brought them to Christ. He's preached them the gospel.

Now he says I'm offering up to God like the Levites of the Old Testament, that they might be effective in serving God as well. And so his ministry was a priestly ministry. I wonder how you and I see our lives.

Can we say that we're functioning as priests? And that wondrous activity of recognizing the greatness of our God and giving him genuine worship and praise that comes right from the heart and flows out of the life. That's what Paul says. I am already in the process of being poured out, soon to be all over.

Notice what he says, secondly, he says the time of my departure, my unloosing is at hand. I know that term can be taken a number of ways. I want to relate it to a ship and tied to the dock.

I know a ship is not built to be tied to the dock. Sorry, if you like the Queen Mary tied up down in San Diego or wherever it is, that's not the intent of a ship. Its intent is to sail upon the high seas.

You say what's the ship in a dock for? The ship has been at the dock in order to replenish it, to provision it for the journey, to fill it with all the things that are necessary that it might arrive at its destiny without needing anything along the way. Now Paul says I've been tied to the dock long enough. Life, filling it with the things of Christ, filling it with the things that will exemplify the character of Christ in my life.

I've been filling it continually with my appreciation of Him and with all that pertains to the supply that He has given me, the rich spiritual blessings that I've come in to enjoy as a result of His grace to me. Now he says the ship's full. Time to set sail.

I'd like to ask you as well as myself, brethren, how well are we doing when it comes to filling the ship? How well we'll be able to say that we've come to the point that we've reached the ultimate so far as our capacity is concerned in our present knowledge of the Lord Jesus, our ability to appreciate Him and to enter in the greatness of Christ and understand something of the eternal purposes for us. I wonder just how we're doing in replenishing the ship. You know one day it's all going to have to set sail.

Paul says I'm just anxious to leave. I'm just longing to go because I know there's no further reason for to be tied here. I'm going to set sail.

You know one day that's going to happen for you and me. We might set sail into eternity with a half-empty ship, one that has failed to avail themselves of all the time, ability, and all the blessings that God wants to fill us with. I have to set sail to go to meet the Savior.

I realize we could have done a lot more. Paul says I'm ready to set sail, ready to raise the anchor. I'm going to set sail into eternity.

And he takes up another simile here and he says I have fought the good fight. And you can recognize that as the activity of the wrestler, the one that's been involved in combat. And he's recognized that my life from the very beginning has been assailed by enemies and those who would seek to hinder me.

I've been prevented from going forward in my life. And he recognized the fact that I could not relax one moment. I've never been involved in wrestling.

Never had a brother that was my age that I could wrestle with. My brother's 10 years older than I am. He was like my uncle.

But you know some would know what it is to wrestle. By the way, I never was involved in a fight either. I almost got involved in a fight with a kid at school and my mother broke it up.

So I've never been in a fight in all my life. So don't think I'm a fighting person. I don't like to do that.

But here's a man that's been involved in this close combat. He's involved in wrestling. Jacob wrestled all night as he struggled against this unknowing.

He didn't know who he was struggling against. I could just see Jacob and he continues to put every ounce of energy into trying to overcome this one that he doesn't know. Why is he fighting with me? And you know, dear brother, when a mercenary is wrestling with another, I watched a little bit of it, they are putting every ounce of energy into seeking and the attempt to throw their opponent.

Every part of it. They dare not relax. They dare not allow the other person to get an advantage.

No, they have to use every possible means and every last bit of strength they have that they might overcome this foe. Paul says that's the way my life has been. I'm not going to let these enemies overcome me.

By the grace of God and the power of God, I'm going to overcome everything that would hinder me from going on in my Christian life. He's been fighting all of his life for the power of the devil. He's been seeking to overcome the effect of the flesh.

He's been combating that influence of the world. He's done it very successfully. Paul could say that our wrestling, we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers and might, rulers of this dark age.

So Paul recognized that his enemies, that he's wrestling against our spiritual foes. And no less than Paul, you and I have a, we have a fight to combat. We have enemies that want to hinder you.

We have those who would like to impede your progress spiritually and seek to get an advantage over you. And dear young believer in this meeting, recognize your foes. Your foes are not your brethren in the assembly.

Your foes are not other believers. Your foes are not literally people. Your foes are spiritual unseen powers that want to do everything possible to rob you of a life that could be lived and devoted for God.

Paul says, I've fought a good fight. You can only say it's been the good fight if you've overcome, if you've succeeded, if you can look back on victories, if you can look back on achievements in the life. And that's God's desire for each one of us to come to the end of our days and say, yes, there were enemies.

Yes, there were those who would seek to gain an advantage over me. There were those that sought to put snares and traps and roadblocks in my way. He says, I've fought the good fight.

No more. It's all over with. You know, I can see a man that's been wrestling that way all of his life.

What a relief to be able to say the fight's over. Maybe we've been relaxing too much in life. We won't know the same sense of relief when our journey is done, like the Apostle Paul experienced.

He knew it was a great sense of being able just to relax. Don't relax in your Christian pathway. Don't forget that the enemy never relaxes, and he's going to do everything possible to ruin your life.

You know, Paul says, I've combated the good combat. I've fought the good fight. Then he says, I've finished my course.

That's a runner. I take it it's not the 100-yard dash. I was pretty good in the 100-yard dash.

A little short, wiry fellow in school, he could run. But he didn't have legs like I did. So I always got the advantage over him, and I always beat him out just a little bit, just a little bit.

But that was only a 100-yard dash. That's not life. Brothers and sisters, that's not life.

Your life is a marathon. Your life goes more than 26 miles. Your life begins the moment you trust in Christ, and it goes to the very end.

And you know when you're in any race like that, there are some things you've got to remember. First of all, you have to start. And I hope you've started the race.

You've started the race in relation to seeking to attain the goal. Paul can look upon his life as a race in Philippians chapter 3. He says, I've not attained the goal yet, but I'm pressing forward. I'm moving onward.

I'm anticipating it. And I trust each one here has started the race, recognizing the fact that I'm on a course. You know, there's an old saying that I always remember.

I think it applies to this point. He says, that saying says, you might be on the right track, but you'll get run over if you just stand there. In other words, you be on the race course, that's not to be standing around and wasting your time and not knowing which way to go.

It's the time to be putting every effort into it, because there's a goal. There's something to attain. Paul says, I have been running the race.

And I can see him from the very beginning when he began that race. He came to realize that like any race, there are rules that have to be obeyed. There's someone that won a marathon not too long ago, a few years back, and then lost the title because they took a shortcut.

You can't take shortcuts. You can't disobey the rules. You can't disobey what our brother's been telling us, obedience to the word of God that would guide your life along the course of life so that it might come ultimately to the point where you'll receive the prize.

Paul says in relation to his combat, in relation to the running, he says they all run, but only one received the prize. But let me tell you, brethren, if you run with longing desire, with exercise of heart, I can assure you when you come to the end of the course, you'll receive the prize. God wants to give a prize to every one of His people.

He wants to reward you for a life well lived and a race well run and a work done for Him. So Paul says, I've come to the end of the race. I'm finally able to stop.

He looks back and he says, I've run the race. What a wonderful thing to be able to say. And may God help us to be able to say the same thing.

But listen to what he says last. He says, I've kept the faith. He's like a soldier that's been entrusted with something very precious, something valuable, something very important.

Now and then we read about someone that's lost a briefcase that's tremendously important, important secrets that are connected with it, security documents. What a tremendous concern there is because of that. But Paul says something was entrusted to be to guard and to keep for the moment the Lord commissioned me and His servants.

He says, I've kept the faith. I've taken the context of this epistle. He is referring to the entire body of truth that have been put into his hands.

I was as well as the trust in relation to his ministry as an apostle of Christ. No, he says, I've guarded that. I've kept it.

There were many that were seeking to rob me of it. There are many who would like to take away from you a little truth here, a little principle there, some doctrine to water it down and change it. No, may you and I be like the apostle Paul, come to the end of life.

And you can be able to say, I've not let one of these truths slip. I've not been careless. I've not been lax.

I've not been sleeping on the job. I've been alert and watchful. I've not let one thing go that the Lord has entrusted in my hands.

You know, there are those men to whom the precious vessels of the temple were entrusted when Ezra moved across the sands of the desert with that company to return to Jerusalem. When they left Babylon, before they left that area, those vessels were weighed into their hands. I came to Jerusalem and three days later, they were weighed again.

What was that for? To make sure they hadn't lost anything along the way. Listen, dear brethren, all around us, there are those who are letting truth slip. All around us, there are those that are considering doctrine to be very unimportant.

All around us in this world, there are those that say the word of God is not, is not applicable anymore. Listen, this word will stand for eternally. How the truths of it are the things that will preserve you and me, but we're also responsible to preserve by life and by practice and by our profession the truths that he's entrusted to us.

So Paul says, I have, I'm now already being offered. The time of my elucidation is at hand. I fought the good fight.

I have finished my course. I've kept the faith. What does he say? Henceforth, there's laid up for me, the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give me in that day and not to be only, but onto all them also the love is appearing.

Dear brethren and sisters, may we go away from this conference with a genuine deep love and longing for the appearing of the Lord Jesus. Sometimes we think that later on in my life, when I get older, when I have other things sorted out, then I'll begin to live for Christ. Many a person's life has come to an end and they never did a thing.

Tomorrow never happens today. And God wants you and me to go away from a conference. He wants us to live every day of our life and the anticipation at any moment, he will come.

I want to be faithful to him. I want to be able to say like the apostle Paul, that all these responsibilities and avenues of my life, they've been fulfilled. And I can look forward to that moment, that blessed moment to see him.

I have my life opened out in his presence. He says, it's going to be turned inside out manifested before him and all the blaze of his glory. And then to receive that well done.

And may it be that you'll receive that and I as well.