And for those who are going to look
in on this at a later stage, I'd
just like to say that this is an
early morning gathering of a group of men
who are keen to deepen their understanding of
scripture and their experience of the Lord.
And we welcome everyone who wants to join
in and be part of this, even if
you live many miles away from here.
We're looking into 2 Timothy, and so we'll
turn there, shall we?
I do believe this is the 14th session
here in this epistle.
And we're in the final chapter, but we
won't finish off the chapter today.
We'll save some more for next time.
But let me read, and you can look
down with me into chapter 4, and I'm
reading from verse 6.
I think just two verses today.
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 cause.
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 is appearing.
Amen.
So really the theme that we're going to
consider for a little while this morning is
that of finishing, finishing well, finishing strong.
And you remember that when we were in
chapter 2, we looked at several verses there
where Paul was talking to Timothy and encouraging
him to be a good soldier of Jesus
Christ.
And then he speaks in the fifth verse
about if a man also strive for masteries,
yet he is not crowned except he strive
lawfully.
And then there was the third category here,
the husbandman, that laboreth must first be partaker
of the fruits.
But I'm looking at verse 5 there just
for a moment, where it seems quite evident
that having referred to the Christian life as
being a soldier, and in the third category,
the farmer, the hardworking farmer, in this central
category, verse 5, I think the idea here
is perhaps the Olympic runner, and his word
there in that situation is the man is
not going to finish well, he's not going
to be crowned except he strive lawfully.
And that verse comes to my mind as
we're looking at these verses here in the
fourth chapter, because we want to concern ourselves
with the whole concept of finishing and finishing
well.
But the only hope that we have of
finishing well, or at least I can say
that the primary issue is that we start
properly.
And I think that's where so many go
wrong.
And we've come to this point on a
number of occasions.
But the person who's running, they've got to
start the race lawfully.
In other words, they've got to wait until
the gun goes, or whatever the signal is
to start the race.
And with other factors we could think about,
they have to be in order, they've got
to be properly prepared, and they've got to
be in the proper place and position.
And they've got to wait until the signal,
it's got to be done legally.
If there's something that's amiss at that stage,
then they're not going to win the race.
They're not going to be in the race.
And the same is true, I believe, so
far as the Christian life is concerned.
I think we would be missing a very
vital factor if we ignore that fact, the
fact and the issue of beginning right, if
we have any hope of finishing right.
And the Christian life is not something that
we, as men and women, just make a
decision to become part of.
We think today is the day we're going
to join the church, we're going to become
a Christian now, and so on.
But we believe very strongly that the Bible
presents a way, a means, a provision whereby
we can become truly Christian men and women.
And that is first and foremost a work
of the Holy Spirit of God.
And to become a genuine Christian, the experience
will always commence with the Spirit of God
illuminating truth, the truth of the gospel, to
our hearts.
And then with that illumination, there must be
a response from our hearts, a response that
is genuine.
And so with those few comments as an
introduction, I believe very strongly to be a
genuine Christian, there needs to be this work
of the Spirit of God, the full and
wholehearted response and engagement with that which God
is opening up to us.
And as the result of that, there will
always be, and we expect there to be,
empirical evidence that what has taken place has
been absolutely genuine and real.
In other words, we're trying to draw a
contrast between a theoretical identification or, if you
like, response to a message that we call
the gospel.
But if it's a response to the work
of God and it's a response that's wholehearted,
there will be an awakening, there will be
evidence, there will be evidence that is beyond
question.
It's verifiable evidence that this man has become
truly a Christian.
And so much so that there's a sense
in which we would imagine ourselves saying, as
a blind man once said, a man who
was once blind, he said, I was blind,
but now I see.
And I don't think I can emphasize this
too strongly to us.
We need to get this for our own
personal benefits, for time and for eternity.
We need to get it in order to
be good ministers, faithful ministers of the truth,
that we're not talking about passing on theories
or concepts, which may indeed be biblical, but
we're talking about a dynamic work of the
Spirit of God that is giving to a
person an opportunity to make a response from
the deepest parts of their inward being.
They get hold of what God is offering,
and the net result is the Spirit of
God brings about a transformation in our inner
life that is real.
We don't drift into becoming a Christian.
It's something that is a miracle of God.
Someone was talking to me just the other
day, and the conversation was about miracles.
We want to see miracles.
I believe that a genuine new birth is
a miracle of God, because it's not just
a change of mind or an identification with
information, as I'm saying, but it is a
work of God that changes us.
It's verifiable.
It's real.
Amen.
That being the case, that being in place,
then I think we can afford to move
on and say that we understand that just
as there is a beginning, there is an
ending.
There is a finishing line, and there's a
whole life to be lived in between, of
course, and that's where we are today.
But I would suggest to you that for
every man and woman, I'll keep saying, that
has a genuine new birth work of the
Spirit of God that so transforms them, there
will, from that point, be found in their
hearts a desire that perhaps rises beyond a
desire that becomes a passion, that at some
point, somewhere down the road of this journey,
we will finish strong, that we'll finish well.
And that is illustrated powerfully for us and
graphically, I think, here, as we look into
this epistle, and we look at the Apostle
Paul, because we're looking at a man who
had that kind of work of the Spirit
of God in the early lives, in his
early life.
Sorry, I was distracted by someone just then.
As you know, on the Damascus Road, and
we have the evidence of the transformation in
his life.
We have the evidence of a life being
lived to the glory of God, a minister,
an apostle of the gospel.
And here, we're seeing him at that late
stage in his experience.
And would it be too much for me
to suggest, as we read these words in
this epistle, that we're looking at a man
of God who has a very fixed, upward
gaze.
If you picture him as a runner, and
he's running, and he's close to the finishing
line.
And in his life, he's looking up.
He's got a fixed gaze as he's still
pursuing this journey.
His face is glowing.
He's not tired.
He's not dribbling toward an end.
But there's energy.
There's purpose.
There's focus.
And if you like, his lungs are filled
still with holy breath as he's running toward
this finishing line.
He's sprinting toward the finishing line.
And he's finishing strong.
And the fascinating thing about this for the
apostle is that we take a different kind
of look at him.
And we say, well, here's a man who
has every reason to be filled with anxiety,
existential anxiety.
He's not merely looking at the certainty of
physical death, but he's looking at the method
whereby he is going to die, of which
he is fully aware.
And it's a brutal death.
It's violent.
And yet, notwithstanding this fact, there's a calmness
about him that is unmistakable.
And he's composed.
He's not falling apart here.
He's not panicking.
And as we read this epistle, he's in
complete control of himself.
He's not changed into a different person.
He's still the man that we found in
the earlier epistles as a younger minister of
the gospel, fervent in his spirit and focused
in his preaching.
But nothing's changed in spite of his circumstances.
And not only is he calm and composed,
but there's a confidence about him.
We saw that, I think, in a very
real way in the eighth verse.
Henceforth, there is laid up for me a
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give me in that day.
He is confident beyond any doubt at all
that he is going to move from this
scene of time into the presence of the
Lord.
And we could say, well, here lies the
secret for him, certainly, and the secret of
his calm spirit at this point in time.
I want to just mention, too, that there's
no suggestion here of him believing in what
some people call soul sleep.
But this is the man who has said
already on an earlier occasion, to be absent
from the body is to be present with
the Lord.
He's not just merely going to go into
this soul sleep stage until some future thing
happens.
Certainly, he taught and believed in the resurrection
of the body.
But at the same time, he believed that
at the moment of leaving this world, even
though he's going to leave it physically in
a very violent way, there was this confidence
that he himself would immediately pass into the
presence of the Lord.
To be absent from the body is to
be present with Christ.
And so there's no slackening in his pace.
He has sought to live for the glory
of God.
And we're watching a man who is intent
upon dying to the glory of God.
As I've said, his focus was not lost
in any way at all or diminished.
His focus is on the gospel.
And the words of the truth of the
gospel, as we've been seeing in the earlier
sessions.
And his concern is for other people.
He's not preoccupied with himself, you know, self
-pity and so on.
But he's a man who is still on
fire for God.
It was Charles Wesley, who was not at
the same stage in his journey, but who
said, it is worth living for this to
administer bliss and salvation in Jesus' name.
And Wesley also said, anticipating that one day
he would arrive at this stage, he said,
happy if with my latest breath, I may
but gasp his name, preach him to all
and cry in death, behold, behold, the Lamb.
And in referring to Wesley, who of course
lived many, many years after the Apostle Paul,
but we can see the same spirit, the
same heart in that man there.
And what a wonderful thing that is, certainly.
I suppose the question that we could ask
ourselves at this point, you know, as he
speaks about being ready to move on from
this scene of time.
He's conscious that his life is coming to
an end in this world.
And he speaks in the seventh verse, I've
fought a good fight, I've finished my course,
I've kept the faith.
What specifically is it that he feels that
he has finished?
It's not merely the end of his life.
He's certainly well aware of that, his life
in this world that is.
But he speaks about this course, I've finished
my course.
You may remember that in a different set
of circumstances altogether, many years earlier, recorded in
Acts chapter 20, Paul says, he's just been,
he's with a group of the brethren.
And there's a man who is recognized as
a prophet, his name was Agabus.
And he's made a prophecy pertaining to Paul
and to his future, which on a human
level could be thought to be quite frightening.
But Paul's response to that was this, he
said, I count not my life dear unto
myself so that I might finish my course.
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.
An earlier statement in the same passage, same
context, he says, what are you trying to
do to make me weep and to break
my heart?
He says, do you not know that I'm
ready?
And I don't count my life dear to
myself.
These are profound statements, profound statements that challenge
our hearts, as we are not in identical
circumstances in which he finds himself in 2
Timothy.
Here we are in the midst of our
life somewhere on our journey here, we're alive,
we're professing to be Christian men.
But may the Lord challenge us deeply as
we look at this Christian man, who is
such a tremendous and powerful example for us.
And to be able to say, I don't
count my life dear to myself, is a
very profound statement.
And he goes on, as we've seen, to
say, so that, in order that.
In other words, he saw that if he
was preoccupied with himself, there would be no
hope at all that he would be able
to complete the course, the course of ministry
that God had delegated and entrusted to him.
And not only did he want to be
intent upon finishing what God had brought him
into, but he said, I want to finish
it with joy.
I want to finish it well.
I want to finish it completely.
And he speaks about his life and the
course of ministry and opportunity that God was
entrusting to him and the ministry.
Paul understood that this was an unspeakable privilege
that God had entrusted this to him.
And he cherished that fact.
Indeed, this wasn't something that he'd come up
with.
It wasn't some plan that he'd come up
with.
It wasn't just a human desire.
I want to be a preacher or something.
But he knew that God had directly chosen
him, specifically chosen him, intercepted him along the
way of his life, and initiated him into
this great ministry.
And when we read Paul saying, I want
to complete this course, I don't imagine him
just standing there as he was, Acts chapter
20, and I want to finish it well.
But he understood that if he was going
to finish it well, he had to live
his life properly.
And he wasn't imagining himself sort of parked
in a lay-by or in some kind
of waiting room for that event, for that
final experience.
He understood that this was something that had
to be lived out in every moment of
his life.
It had to be true that he was
completing his divinely entrusted assignments daily.
You know what I mean?
It's one thing to say, well, I know
that at some point I'm going to finish
this race and I want to finish well.
But what we're learning, I think, from the
apostle is that while he had that clearly
fixed in his heart and mind that not
only did he start well, he wanted to
finish well, but he was seeing to it
that along the journey of his life, he
was listening to the direction of God and
that he was fulfilling properly and completely whatever
it was that God was assigning to him
at that point.
So we've got Acts chapter 20, we hear
Paul saying, listen, I'm ready to die and
I want to complete this ministry and I
want to finish well that I may complete
the course.
And here in chapter 4 of 2nd Timothy,
we're hearing the same man say, I've finished
it.
And I think we can sense that at
that moment, rather than fear gripping his heart,
he's filled with joy.
It's been a wonderful, wonderful journey.
I think if in reading this section of
scripture and trying to imagine what it must
have been like for anyone who was still
with him, clearly there were people, as we
shall see, who were with him at this
particular moment in his journey.
I would think there would be different questions
that we would want to ask him.
And you say, Paul, that you've finished the
course that God has given you.
Do you feel you've done it perfectly?
And I think Paul would say, oh, no,
no.
Which takes me back to Philippians chapter 3.
He said, not that we're already perfect.
What about this, Paul?
You know, as you look back on this
glowing record, were there ever disappointments that you
experienced?
I think he might smile and say, yeah,
he might do.
And he would say, of course, of course.
He might draw our attention to some things
that are recorded in this very epistle where
he would say, all those that are of
Asia, that they've left me.
One kind of a disappointment is that.
That's where he spent so much of his
life traveling and preaching.
And is he just using hyperbole here when
he says this?
Or did he really mean all those of
Asia they've left me?
And soon, and perhaps in another session, we'll
think about some of these men who are
named.
Demas, you know, a man who traveled with
him and shared ministry with him.
He said, Demas has left me, having loved
this present world.
And so on.
Disappointments, I think his life was strewn with
disappointments.
Could you have done it better?
Could you have lived?
Could you have fulfilled your assignment better?
And I think he'd say, absolutely.
Absolutely, yes, of course.
But this I know, he would say, with
every fiber in my being, with every desire
and passion I have, I am oppressed toward
the mark for the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Maybe this is a word for us in
a particular way.
Do we feel that everything's been perfect this
far since the day we first trusted Christ?
Have there been failures?
Have there been disappointments?
Maybe they're current in our experience.
We had hoped, I'm gathering those words from
a couple of disciples on the Emmaus Road,
you may remember, we had hoped, well, I
had hoped, we all would probably say that
we'd hope that such and such would have
happened or such and such had not happened.
We would have hoped that certain things would
have worked out differently.
Well, that's life.
And that was true in the life of
this apostle.
But it didn't in any way discourage him
at that deepest level of his inward being
where he remained focused on him.
I think one of my other questions might
have been, do you have any regrets?
That fits into that category as well, doesn't
it?
Yeah, we have regrets.
Do you wish you'd done things differently?
Do you wish you had obeyed more fully?
Perhaps I'm asking myself that question rather than
the apostle Paul.
But we would be answering in the affirmative
time and time again.
But it's a great thing in terms of
the word regret in the broadest sense that
we're asking Paul and saying, do you have
any regrets that you ever started this journey?
And yes, he would be very strongly responding
to that.
He was a man with no regrets at
all.
We don't get it wrong.
Sense a trace of regret in him at
all.
It was Warren Wearsby who said this.
He said, it is heartening to be able
to look back and have no regrets.
Paul was not always popular, nor was he
usually comfortable, but he remained faithful.
And that's what really counted.
As Paul is writing or dictating this letter,
there's no question he's reflecting a little bit
here at this point in time.
He is looking back over his shoulder when
he makes these statements that I've read to
you at the beginning.
He knew that in spite of things not
always turning out the way he perhaps would
have expected them to, he knew this, that
to the very best of his ability, he'd
sought to be faithful to the fight.
And you know, actually, the Greek word here
that's translated fight, it's the Greek word agon,
which, I mean, it's very suggestive, even that
far, the agony.
That's where that word is coming from.
And another translation, translator, suggests that we should
read that statement.
I have struggled the good struggle.
I've fought the good fight.
I've struggled the good struggle.
In other words, there were many, many aspects
of this journey that involved conflict.
And of course, this is true for you
and for me.
I mean, there's the world which is antagonistic
toward us.
We're seeing that in ever brighter colors in
these days, aren't we?
As we listen to the news and we
watch what's happening politically and so on that
we who still currently live in a relatively
accommodating context so far as living out the
Christian life in our culture here.
That's not true for our brethren in other
parts of the world.
And I think we'd be like ostriches with
our heads in the sand if we fail
to recognize that these opportunities and privileges are
closing down very, very rapidly.
But the world, the world is, remains an
enemy to the things of God.
The Apostle John says, to love the world
is to be an enemy of God.
But the world, what is the world?
It's, well, in a sense, it's everything that's
out there.
It's people.
This can be enlarged upon tremendously, but it's
people, it's places, and it's things that are
around us continually.
It's the world.
And the world is not favorable to us
at all.
It's in conflict, and we're in conflict with
it.
And Paul knew that he was.
And then, of course, the scriptures teach us,
and we may know from our own experience,
one way or another, that there is a
real devil.
There are real evil powers.
There is a dark kingdom.
The unseen world is continuing to be in
complete opposition to Christ and to the things
of Christ, thereby to the gospel and to
the people of God, to those who are
truly his.
We're told, clearly by this same apostle, that
were to die to the world, and the
world is to be dead to us, right
into the Galatians.
The same apostle tells us, when it comes
to the devil and these powers of darkness,
we're to resist the devil.
But there's conflict that's taking place.
And then there's another category that the Bible
speaks about, and the apostle certainly speaks about
this, and that is the flesh.
And you will have seen, and I've said
this many times over the years, but with
the word flesh in our English language, we're
just playing with the word.
We're not saying that this is going to
be true in other languages by any means.
But in our English language, if you drop
the H from the word flesh and then
read the word back, it's the word S
-E-L-F.
It's self.
And, you know, I believe that self is
the greatest enemy that we face.
Greater yes than the world.
Greater yes than the devil.
Paul said, I've struggled the good struggle.
I've fought the good fight.
He faced this.
And, you know, I think this is, for
us, we're a group of men here.
One of the most widespread problems, I think,
among the men who would profess to be
Christians, male believers, is that very frequently it
would appear that they never really, or they
infrequently make it into true godly manhood.
Let me put it this way.
Godly men, they abandon childish things.
And I think we could pause and we
could have some dialogue and what could we
understand childish things to be in the lives
of grown men.
We won't go there this morning.
I think the statement speaks for itself.
But godly men, they abandon childish things.
When I was a child, you remember what
Paul had to say about that.
We thought as a child, and we lived
like children, we behaved like children.
But when I became a man, I put
away childish things.
Is that true in your life?
We're talking about failure to progress into godly
maturity as men, godly manhood.
But in so many cases, our manhood is
emasculated by our inability or refusal to actually
abandon the childish things that are inhibiting the
development of true masculinity, spiritual masculinity, which in
my mind is another word for Christlikeness for
us.
Godly men resist worldly lusts, worldly desires.
They resist them.
Godly men are hard on themselves in matters
of obedience and in matters of personal discipline.
They're hard on themselves.
And I believe Paul was such a man.
He, whenever childish things were in his experience,
they were gone.
Worldly lusts, he had no time for them.
He was so engaged in the things of
Christ and his gaze was singular, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
And there's no question, he was a man
who was hard on himself.
And he was not pampering himself.
As is so common for men who call
themselves Christians today.
He was disciplined and fully and completely obedient
to that which God was speaking into his
heart.
He said, I've been faithful to the fight.
He also goes on to say here that
he had been faithful to the faith.
And by that, I understand him to be
referring to the whole body of truth which
we have here in our scriptures and what
God was revealing to him at that particular
time.
And he was being faithful and he was
able to look back without regret.
He said, I've been faithful to that body
of truth, to that which God has revealed
to me and made known to me.
And he clearly was not a man who
merely embraced that truth.
When he speaks about being faithful to it,
it was more than just protecting the words.
He did that.
We've made much of that in earlier sessions.
And he was concerned that it'd be protected
as he talks to Timothy and so forth.
But the fact is, to him, the truth
was not merely information to hear, to grasp,
to understand.
But it was a means to actually experiencing
what the truth was enunciating, what it was
all about and so on.
So it was not merely to obey it,
but it was to embrace it, but it
was to obey it.
And I believe what I'm reading here when
he says that he'd been faithful to the
faith is that he'd lived without hypocrisy.
That is, he'd not compromised his message by
the way he lived his life.
In so many ways, we can make great
claims.
This is a danger for preachers.
And we're all called to be preachers, as
Dave reminded us earlier.
Certainly, it's one thing to understand the theory
and to seek to pass that theory on
to other people.
But in many, many cases, the power of
that ministry is lost because of compromise in
our lives.
In other words, where there's hypocrisy because we're
not living out in our lives what we're
claiming to believe, he held it firmly and
he lived it fully.
You are to hold it firmly and live
it fully.
I think also Paul understood something else about
being faithful to the faith.
And that was the way to truly hold
on to the truth is to give it
away.
He was so anxious for Timothy to have
the grasp of it and to hold on
to it and to protect it and guard
it and so forth as we've seen.
But at the same time, he says, preach
it, preach it.
And it's wonderfully true that there's something that
is so affirming that takes place in our
lives when we are in the process of
giving it out.
When we're in the process of giving it
away.
And I think that would be something that
we all can relate to very readily in
those moments.
Hopefully, it's not an irregular, infrequent experience.
But in the moment when we're sharing the
truth of God with someone, we're being affirmed
ourselves.
The truth is being strengthened in our own
hearts.
This man was, well, he was faithful to
the cause.
He stayed on course.
He was faithful to the fight.
He was faithful to the faith.
And yes, he was faithful to the finish,
to the end.
And this is really the ultimate test, isn't
it?
We need the right kind of beginning.
We need to live right day by day.
But the real proof, the seal of it
all, I'm seeing it in the apostle, is
the way he's finishing.
Someone said, you die the way you've lived.
That's certainly true here.
As we look at this particular man, it's
the enduring.
He that endures to the end shall be
saved, we read.
It's living this life without hypocrisy, without compromise,
and living it fully day by day, fulfilling
all of our daily challenges and assignments, fully
to the glory of God, not getting mixed
up with the world, not giving any place
to the devil, not pampering ourselves, but living
fully for Christ day by day, and finishing
well at the end.
I hope you don't think that this is
some kind of bragging, but this comes to
my mind.
I won't tell you what the circumstances were,
but many, many years ago, I received an
award for bravery and tenacity in the course
of duty.
It's the word tenacity that comes to my
mind.
It means quite literally, to grip firmly and
with determination.
Gripping firmly with determination and not to let
go at all.
Tenacity is to get hold and keep hold.
For me in my situation, that was an
event that I'm referring back to these many
years later.
So evidently, I was being complimented for tenacity
in that situation.
But the challenge facing each and every one
of us, and this I think is a
secret to what we're really looking at here,
is that we may be men of tenacity
who live tenaciously in this respect here.
It's one thing to say, well, in such
and such a situation, I did well there,
but how are you doing today?
How is it on a daily basis as
you think about the way that you are
expending your life, the way that you're living
your life?
Are we men and women of tenacity?
Tenacity not only gets hold of something tightly,
but it continues to hold onto it, whatever,
whatever happens, whatever's happening around us.
And there is the great challenge for us.
And I believe that for a man and
woman of God to finish strong, they are
those who supremely, I think, have lived in
this context of commitment to Christ and with
this commitment to live out or to allow
the life of Christ to be lived out
through us continually in every situation, there needs
to be something of tenacity about us.
I submit to you, this is a feature
of true godliness in a man claiming to
be a man of God.
The thing about this tenacity that I'm thinking
about now is it's kind of, it's double
-sided.
It is, first of all, it's a divine
tenacity.
I'll explain what I mean in just a
moment.
And it's my tenacity.
And there needs to be a coming together
of the two.
Let me just read to you, I'm looking
back to Philippians chapter 3 where I've referred
to already, but let me read it to
you.
He says, oh dear, how do you break
into this section here?
This is that section where he's saying that
he's counting all things loss for Christ.
His commitment is to be found in him
not having his own righteousness, but that which
is through faith in Christ and so on.
That's verse 9.
That I may know him and the power
of his resurrection and the fellowship of his
sufferings being made conformable unto his death.
If by any means I might attain unto
the resurrection of the dead, not as though
I had already attained, either were already perfect,
but I follow after.
If that I may apprehend that for which
also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended,
but this one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind and reaching forth to
those things which are before, I press toward
the mark for the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus.
I'm sorry to have read that so quickly,
but time is racing ahead for me here.
But do you see that in verse 12,
he said, that I may apprehend that for
which I am apprehended.
And the word here, the whole idea that
Paul has got here is that God has
tenaciously got hold of him and his life
and is not about to let go.
He's apprehended.
He's arrested him.
He's got hold of him.
He's not going to let him go.
And he's not going to let you go
either.
But Paul talked about the other side of
this, the double-sided feature of tenacity in
this context is this, that Paul got hold
of Christ.
It reminds me, on Sunday evening, we're talking
about Jacob and that moment where he's been
intercepted by the God-man, you remember.
And the God-man was getting hold of
him, but soon as this section unfolds, we
find that Jacob has got hold of him.
There's this both sides, and that's to take
place in each and every one of our
lives.
If we're going to live right, without compromise,
and if we're going to die well, finish
well at the end of this journey.
And just going back to this text, as
a matter of fact, there's a man, I
don't know if you have any books by
him, but I recommend Kenneth West, spelled W
-U-E-S-T.
He was a Greek scholar and very helpful
with Greek words.
And he gives us a translation of the
New Testament based on his understanding of the
words.
But he takes this phrase, that I may
lay hold, that I may apprehend.
And this is what he said.
He said, Paul has used strong language.
The word apprehend is from the same Greek
word translated attained, but with a preposition prefixed,
which means in its local force, down.
He wants to catch hold of it and
pull it down.
Like a football player, who not only wants
to catch his man, but he wants to
pull him down and make him his own.
It's American football, obviously, not the real kind.
But do you get that?
That I may apprehend, get hold, and bring
him down fully.
And that's what Paul is talking about.
This is a godly man living with this
godly spiritual tenacity.
And he recognizes God's got hold of him.
And in response, he grabs hold and grasps
hold to him.
As Paul reflected on this journey, I believe
he saw it as a worthy race.
It was worth it all.
Was it worth it, Paul?
Was it worth it?
And he adds this and supports this by
saying, in the passage that we've been reading,
verse 6, I am now ready to be
offered.
And the time of my departure is at
hand.
When he says that I'm ready to be
offered, once again, the text from which this
is translated refers here to a drink offering.
Do you remember of old Jacob on an
earlier occasion and the one I've just referred
to?
Do you remember him pouring out his drink
onto a rock?
Do you remember?
It was the rock he'd been sleeping on.
And he called it Bethel.
Do you remember?
It was his way at that time of
making an offering.
It was a liquid offering to God.
That's what he was doing.
And then as we move on through the
passage of Scripture which describes the various offerings
that God legislated for the people of God
of old, there were times these drink offerings.
The idea was that it was indeed a
liquid offering.
It was a wine.
It was something to sweeten the offering, as
it were, that they were making to God.
I'm told that it wasn't unusual in Rome
I suppose higher levels of society that at
the end of a meal there was always
a glass of wine that they poured out.
And in a sense, it was to their
gods.
And it was also an indication that the
feast was completed, the meal was completed.
And I think these ideas are all gathered
together in the heart of the apostle.
Was it worth it, Paul?
Was it worth it?
He said, right now, the next thing that's
going to happen to me is going to
be like as though my blood is a
liquid offering to God poured on the sacrifice
of my life that I've sought to live
sacrificially to God.
I want my life's blood now to sweeten
the offering of my life to God.
And he said, I'm ready for it.
I'm ready for it.
And also, at the same time, he said,
that's not the end because I'm anticipating that
I'm going to be ushered into the presence
of Christ himself and I'm going to receive
a crown.
The word used is Stephanos.
For the word crown, it wasn't a diadem.
It's a victor's crown.
The Stephanos was a victor's crown.
So he's looking back.
I've fought a good fight.
I've finished the course.
I've made full proof of the ministry.
I'm ready now to be poured out like
a drink offering.
And I believe, by the grace of God,
that it's all been done in such a
way that God would be pleased with my
life in that important day.
How contrasting to King Saul, who at the
end of his life said, I have played
the fool and erred exceedingly.
I played the fool.
What a contrast.
We quit too soon and too easily.
Someone wrote this.
A finisher is not one who has no
wounds and scars, but one who is faithful
to the finish.
And I'm going to close.
Let me ask you, are you satisfied with
how things are today?
Are you heading in the right direction?
Are you living right?
Or are you succumbing to compromise creep?
And it does creep.
One little compromise leads to another.
One indiscipline leads to another.
We need to see what's happening.
We need to allow God to speak to
us.
Perhaps he's highlighted something or some area to
your life.
While we've been looking at this this morning,
the question is, what are you going to
do with it?
What are you going to do?
Are you just going to hear and let
it pass?
I suggest to you that if God has
highlighted something, if God has spoken, that you
find an early opportunity to get alone with
God, face up to the issues, whatever they
may be.
Let God minister to you and wash you
and impart his spirit freshly into your heart
to strengthen you in your tenacious expression of
the Christian life.
And just one final thing.
Tell somebody.
Tell somebody what's happened.
Tell somebody what's happening in your life.
There's just something about doing that that, as
I said earlier, it affirms you in your
response to God.
And in your commitment to live to his
praise and to his glory.
Amen.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for the incredible privilege
of ever being exposed to the truth of
the gospel and to the sweetness and richness
of your holy life.
We thank you also, Lord, for your faithfulness
to us, for continuing for many of us
over the years to be faithful to us,
to minister to us.
And at times, Lord, to take us to
task and challenge us deeply, Lord, and remind
us of areas where we have been compromising
or we've allowed compromise to have an effect
upon our lives.
And we thank you for your grace, for
your forgiveness, for your cleansing.
For your encouragement.
Lord, we pray for one another this morning
that you will continue to enable us to
be focused men of God, tenaciously holding onto
you, holding onto your truth, and yet paradoxically
being very open about sharing that truth and
giving it away to others, Lord.
May we live to the praise of your
glory.
And may it start freshly for each one
of us today.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.