Paul poured out

Very briefly in 2nd Timothy chapter 4, 2nd Timothy chapter 4, and we'll read 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 me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

That's all that we read. We know that God will add his rich blessing to the public reading of the Word of God. A long time ago I read over 2nd Timothy chapter 4, and I decided in my mind that this was a very sad chapter.

And I attempted to make a little outline for the chapter, but I've never used that. Don't even know where it is now, can't remember it. Because I came to another conclusion after reading the chapter again, that this is not a sad chapter.

This is a chapter that rings with a victorious ring. These are the last words of a great man of God. So I thought to myself, it's not really a sad chapter.

So if you take a look at the chapter from verses 1 to 5, which we're going to touch, we have a solemn charge that the Apostle Paul is giving to a relatively young man named Timothy, younger than Paul. And it almost seems that the mantle of Paul, who is departing from this scene, is going to fall upon Timothy. And then in the verses that we have read, verses 6 to 8, we have the personal testimony of Paul, his closing words, his summary of his life.

This would be an accurate summary, because he's being directed by the Spirit of God as he gives these words relative to his life. And then from verse 9 on, we have some parting personal messages that Paul has to leave with various individuals. These are messages of encouragement, and they are also a message of warning.

So I think the chapter rings with something of importance. I want to notice what I have read, these last words of Paul, and I think we should remember that this man saved on the Damascus Road told his conversion at least twice in the book of Acts, though referring to it a number of times. So in Acts chapter 22, chapter 26, he gives his conversion.

Important to have a conversion story to tell. It almost seems that Paul loved to tell that. In the chapter that we have read from, and in these words that we have read, Paul is going to refer to his service for the one that he trusted on the Damascus Road.

I suppose that we could say that the background of these words are the words that he wrote in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20. He said, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.

And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Paul has served the Lord in a very vast area. We must find that very remarkable, that he has covered much of the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, traveled along the northern shore of the Mediterranean, not by the modern conveyances that we have.

He's traveled by foot, traveled on the back of a horse, traveled by ship in the Mediterranean Sea. This man has had a very limited life of service. I'm not going to tell you how many years, but not very many.

His years of service have been very limited, that is as far as the length of time that he served, but he served in a very vast area. We have to marvel at Paul when he tells us over and over of those that he prayed for, that he found time to spend, it must have been hours, in the presence of the Lord in prayer. And then along with that, the epistles that he found time to write.

I believe 14 of them, you might have a little different view of that, but Paul wrote epistles that we have in our Bible, and in all of his travels and his service, he has made every moment count. And so now the end is very near. He understands that, he knows that his life is going to conclude, that he's going to become a martyr.

And in these closing words of his life, and it's important to listen to the last words of a great man, he's going to look at his life in three different ways. He's going to take a look in verse 7, a look back at the past. So in verse 7 we have read his honoring estimate of his life.

Remember, these are the words that the Spirit of God directed him to write. As he says, I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course.

I have kept the faith. I'm sure that every one of us would like at the end of our life to be able to echo those words. They are here for us to learn from, to appreciate, to grasp, and to understand, a little of them at least.

Then he's going to take another look. He's going to look back or to the present story in verse 8. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. This is a look not at the present, I'm referring to verse 6. He's looking at his present circumstances, for I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.

He knows how that departure is going to take place. He knows what's going to happen. And if in some way it was an honor, he couldn't be executed by crucifixion because he was a Roman citizen and they could not be crucified.

And it was considered, as far as the Roman Empire was concerned, an honor to be executed by a member of the Praetorian Guard. He's going to be beheaded. He knows that.

He knows that the moment is very, very near. But then he's going to take a look at the future where I started to read in a moment ago in verse 8. 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 me only. Grasp those words.

Just think about them very carefully. For Paul says, and not to me only. It would seem that Paul is reminding us that what he is going to receive is possible for believers to receive.

He says, not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. And so while Paul refers to what he is going to receive, he enlarges that, that it's possible for all those who love his appearing, it's possible for them to receive. I'm just going to touch this very briefly.

There's going to be time when I'm finished. And so I want to think for a moment of the present. I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.

If you were to draw near to Paul just for a moment in that prison cell, and to say to Paul or to speak to Paul about being a prisoner of the Roman Empire, we know what Paul's answer would be, because he tells us. We say, no, no, that's not correct, because he refers in chapter 1 and verse 8 as his prisoner. And again when you come to Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 1, he refers to himself as the prisoner of Jesus Christ.

He's in the cell. He's facing execution, not the Roman Empire. That's not before him.

He's in that prison cell. He's facing the end of his life. He is a prisoner of Jesus Christ.

That means that Paul recognizes, he understands that this is the will of God for him. This is where God has brought him. This is the purpose of God for the life of this man and for the closing part of his life.

And so he says that he is a prisoner of Jesus Christ. The first imprisonment in Rome, evidently there were two of them, the conditions were relatively easy. He had his own hired house.

His friends could come and visit him. He was free to preach the gospel or to speak to others about their soul, that first imprisonment. And whatever time elapsed between that first imprisonment and the present one, whatever distance or wherever he traveled, whatever his service was now, he's been apprehended for a second time.

But this imprisonment is far different. This imprisonment is in a cold cell. This is an imprisonment where he's guarded by the Praetorian guard.

Things are not easy for Paul in this imprisonment, and the end of his life is before him. If we were to use what I might refer to as natural reasoning here, we might look at the Apostle Paul and the life of service and what he has accomplished and what he has done, which we have already referred to, and we might say this is not right. Why is it that God would close this man's life, end it in this particular way? Some of the early believers might reason something like this, we need Paul.

They might have thought the same about Stephen. They might have thought the same about James. But whatever God's purposes would be, this is for Paul, this is the purpose that God has for him.

And so he's facing death. Then he makes this statement, I am now ready to be offered. What did he mean by that? Did he mean that after all of the preaching and all that we have indicated that he has accomplished, that he has come to the point now where he's prepared, he's ready for this moment of his death? Didn't mean that.

That moment on the Damascus Road, the moment that this man trusted Christ, he was ready. He was prepared for eternity. And if his life had have ended right at that moment, he would have been in heaven.

He's not referring to anything that he has done relative to salvation, but he says, I am now ready to be offered. But this is a very interesting statement. For this expression, I am now ready to be offered.

If you have a Newbery Bible, which is very useful at times, Mr. Newbery would give the thought, I am already being poured out. The thought is as a drink offering. And that commenced at the moment that he was saved.

Here is a man whose life was being poured out for Christ right at the moment of conversion. That commenced. So there's a very practical exhortation here for all of us.

Are we pouring our life out for Christ? That's the example that Paul is setting. What he wrote to the Romans were true of his life. When he wrote, yield yourselves to God.

This is a man's life who commenced to live for Christ, and that commencement of his life for Christ was right on that Damascus Road. I think at times when we look at young believers, and I'm addressing myself particularly to younger believers, for a moment, if I may do that, your life for Christ commenced the moment that you were saved. Right at that moment, Christ should be first.

We have a saying which I think is detrimental to the life of younger people. And the saying is that you can't put an old head on young shoulders. I know what that means.

I know that when a person is saved, there's much that they have to learn. But right at that moment, their life should be devoted to the man who died for them on the cross. Sometimes as you look at your own life, speaking of oneself personally, we do would that if it was possible to live life over again, there would have been more perhaps for Christ, more of the early years of youth, where there is the vigor and there is the danger of squandering those early years when life could be lived for Christ.

I was in Ireland on one occasion. They told me about a man whose name I will not mention, but you would know him very well, at least you would recognize his name. Saved very young in life, and the expression in the little town where he lived was, when they walked by the house where he lived with his parents, an upstairs bedroom, that the light in that bedroom was on to the early hours of the morning.

He was a relatively young man who was studying his Bible, seeking to make use of the time that he had. And when you hear him minister the Word of God, you know that it was profitable for him in those younger years to study his Bible, to get into the Word of God. You start when you're saved, even if you're 12 years old as that man was, or perhaps even younger.

You have time that God has given to you, and if you're going in the future years of your life, if the Lord be not come, if you're going to make your life useful and count for God, it's gonna start when you're young. It's the time to start. I think sometimes, brethren, and I'm speaking to my older brethren now, we sell younger people short a little.

It is interesting that when Paul was writing the second epistle to the Thessalonians, he was writing to those who were saved for a very short time, and he gave them deep, tremendous truths. When the mind is young and sharp, that's when the Word of God can be poured into that mind. Not simple truths, but great truths, like Paul did for the Thessalonians.

So make use of your time while you're young. That's what this man did, so he said, I am now ready to be offered. His life was being poured out from the very moment of conversion as a drink offering, and now there are just a few drops left.

Life has been spent for Christ. Now the few drops left to be poured out was his martyrdom. He said, I'm now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.

I will never preach the area that Paul preached in. I will not cover the area that Paul covered. But the point here is this, that God has a sphere of service for every believer, and it should be our exercise to discover what that sphere of service is.

And so here's Timothy, Timothy's mother and grandmother. Their service was to raise a young man in the fear of God, to pour into the mind and into the soul of a young Timothy the Word of God. That was their service, that was their sphere.

And I may be speaking to some here, you won't be preaching the gospel, but you do have a realm of service in the home, raising children, teaching them the Word of God, pouring that into their soul, and that is equivalent to what Paul is saying here. And so to every believer there is a sphere that God has given to us to serve Him and to put everything we can into that service. And so while it is likely, because Paul refers to Timothy as his son, and when Paul makes that reference, Timothy was his son in the faith, and so Paul came and presented the gospel however that took place to Timothy, and under the preaching of Paul or the words of Paul, we would gather that Timothy was saved.

But that groundwork was laid by his mother and by his grandmother. And so to every mother here, your sphere of service is to raise children in the fear of God, to present the Word of God to them, to pour the Word of God into their mind and into their soul, prayerfully, that there will come a moment like came in Timothy's life. Maybe an evangelist, maybe a gospel preacher will come and will have the privilege of preaching and that child will be saved, but you have done the work.

The groundwork has been prepared, and I don't believe I could emphasize that to too great an extent in the world that we are living in. So that might be your sphere of service, no doubt that is. And so for each of us, we have an area of service, and so at the end of life that we could say as Paul, I'm now ready.

Life is going to come to a close, and Paul says here, the time of my departure is at hand, and so he has no regrets. Some of us might look at our life and we might sense that there are times that we have missed, opportunities that we didn't avail ourselves of, maybe hours that were wasted on things that were of no account. We may look back at our life and we may not be satisfied in our soul to say as Paul says, I fought a good fight.

What a tremendous thing. I have taken the funeral of one or two individuals, and I was thankful that I could say with a clear conscience that that brother or that sister had fought a good fight. They had lived a consistent life, undeviating.

They lived a life of Christ. And so while Paul says this, he's leaving this for every believer to look at their life and say, I have fought a good fight. And yet at the same time, some of us might wish that we had done more.

So that again comes back to start when you're young. Make use of your life while you're young. I fought a good fight.

I have finished my course. I have watched as a teacher on a sports day at school. I have watched teenagers running a race.

I've looked at their faces, studied their faces. I've seen the determination reflected in their face with that we had that determination. Running a race, Paul says, I've finished my course.

He says, I've kept the faith. God help us to keep the faith. The faith is all of the teaching of the New Testament.

Not to add to it, not to take away from it, but to keep the faith. That would be a tremendous commendation in a difficult day when some may not be devoted to keeping the faith, but that that might be before us, that there is the truth of God to maintain, the truth of God to keep, the truth of God to keep. So Paul says, I've fought a good fight.

I've finished my course. I've kept the faith. Now just before I sit down, notice the look that Paul has at the future in verse 8. Henceforth, those words henceforth mean what remains.

And you might say to Paul, wait a minute, Paul, because what remains for you is the sword of the soldier of the Praetorium Guard. Paul's not occupied with that. That's not before him.

Paul's occupied with something far vaster and far greater. He's looking beyond that. Now he's looking to the future.

It is that future that has laid upon his heart all of his life. And now he's getting very near to that point. That's where he says, henceforth, there is laid up for me.

It's what is reserved for Paul. It's the life that heaven has had eyes upon. It's the life that heaven has observed and heaven has seen, that Paul has lived before the eyes of God that we were occupied with a little in the Bible reading.

And now, Paul, there is, says there, laid up for me a crown. The word for crown is the Stephanos crown, the victor's crown, a crown of righteousness. Paul has stood before an unrighteous judge, Nero.

There has been nothing righteous in Nero's court and nothing righteous in Pilate's court. But now Paul looks on to the future, says there is a righteous judge. There's a judge who will make no errors, no mistakes.

And the estimate, the evaluation of the righteous judge of the life of Paul and the life of every one of us will be unerring. Exactly correct. There's laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give that day.

I would take it that that day is the day at the bima, at the judgment seat of Christ, that every one of us are going to make an appearance ahead. Do you not love these words? And not to me only. Only one life.

Till soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last. We are being told here that there is the possibility, Paul says, not to me only, but to all them that love his appearing.

Now I can suggest what the appearing is here. For the word for appearing is the word epiphania. If you were to turn to 2nd Timothy chapter 1 in verse 10, that word is used concerning the birth of Christ, his appearing, in that passage.

If you were to turn to 1st Timothy chapter 6 in verse 14, the word is used for the rapture in that passage. You would have to look up six passages because the word epiphania appears six times with significance in your Bible. I would take it personally here that his appearing is the appearing of the Lord on this earth.

That love his appearing. Because Paul is occupied with an unrighteous judge, with a righteous judge. And the one who is going to appear, it's going to come out of heaven.

We didn't touch that this morning, but heaven is going to open. And the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is going to come out of heaven on a white horse. I take it, a literal white horse.

Can't have a literal rider, for the rider is the Lord Jesus Christ on some kind of symbolic, or it's a real horse. In contrast to the animal that he rode into Jerusalem when he was here upon this earth, and made his way through the Kidron Valley and up to the golden gate of Jerusalem. He's going to take that same journey again.

But that journey is going to be on that white horse. That horse is going to take him and the armies of heaven that follow him, and he is the only one that is armed. Speaks about the sword of his mouth.

That's the power of his word. And that's going to bring him to the Mount of Olives. Zechariah tells us that his feet will touch the Mount of Olives.

And the Mount of Olives will cleave. And whatever is left of the Kidron Valley, he's going to take that journey that he took previously so many years before that. And he's going to go through the Kidron Valley and up to the gate of Jerusalem.

The word of his mouth will deliver his city. That will be the capital of his reign. And you will remember that Gabriel said to Mary that the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David.

And so I would take from that that there will be a throne in Jerusalem. And the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is going to mount that throne. It's going to be given to him.

The Lord God is going to give him that throne. Love his appearing because we're going to reign with him. We're going to share that reign that will be over this earth.

And so he says unto all them that love his appearing. And so Paul reminds us that that crown of righteousness will be given to all those who love his appearing. And if I could just put it this way, if you want an impetus to live a life for Christ, that's what Paul is giving to us in these words.

The life of a man that was poured out right at the very beginning. And for the years of service he continued to pour out his life. And now there's just a few drops left.

And those few drops are his martyrdom. And he's going home to Heaven.