Finishing Strong in a Race Against Wicked Runners (2 Timothy 4:6-8)

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You're listening to the expository preaching ministry of Kootenai Community Church, located in Kootenai, Idaho.

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We pray that Christ is exalted and your spirit is blessed by the teaching of God's word.

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For more information about Kootenai Church, please visit us online at kootenaichurch .org.

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When we began this brief study in 2 Timothy several weeks ago, we spent some time reviewing the history of what led up to Paul's situation from which he wrote this very last letter to Timothy and his last letter to the church, of course.

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And one of the reasons we wanted to remember the history and think about it a little bit and set this up is because this is

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God's word, of course, so we need to pay attention to everything it says, but also this is how

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Paul begins this letter, by remembering after some very personal statements to Timothy.

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He talks about how he is remembering things in Timothy's life and in his own personal ministry.

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In verse 3 of chapter 1, he says, I remember you constantly in my prayers.

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And then in verse 4, he says, I remember your tears. Very personal. Very compassionate.

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And then in verse 5 of chapter 1, he says, I am reminded of your sincere faith.

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And that reminiscence then moves Paul in that first opening statement to remind

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Timothy to do something that is absolutely foundational to everything else Paul will tell him in this letter.

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And it's foundational to our lives as well. There are 32 command force verbs in this letter, and we mentioned a couple weeks ago that that kind of makes a very convenient outline if you just track through these command force verbs, these imperative verbs.

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It helps us to see what Paul wants Timothy to do. And as he gets to verse 6 in chapter 1, he gives the first of the commands.

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And it is foundational to everything else he's going to tell him. And it's also foundational for our lives and ministries as well.

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He says in verse 6, for this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

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For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self control.

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Timothy is going to have to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit, the encouragement of the Holy Spirit in his life to accomplish everything else

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Paul tells him throughout the rest of this letter. And he says it's the power of the Spirit that's going to enable you to do that.

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And two of the things he mentions there, he just says love and self control. Very important.

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The power to manifest all the fruit of the Spirit mentioned elsewhere by Paul in Galatians. And this is

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I think what Paul is doing here. By mentioning love and self control, that list of the fruits of the

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Spirit in Galatians chapter 5, he just simply picks the first one and the last one in that list.

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The list says that he is to walk by the Spirit and he will not carry out the desires of the flesh.

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That list is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.

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So when he writes them in this last letter, and he mentions to stir up the Spirit, rekindle the

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Holy Spirit, and so that he will have the power to manifest love and self control, he simply employs what's called, it's a figure of speech called a merism, where he takes the first and last of the list.

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And he's not talking about just those two things. By doing that, he's including everything in that list.

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Very similar to how our Lord defines himself as the Alpha and the

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Omega. Now he just simply takes the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, the Alpha and the Omega.

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But he's not saying I'm just those two. I'm those two and everything in between. And I think this is what

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Paul's intent is here. Power to manifest all of the fruit of the Spirit and to carry out everything else

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Paul is going to tell him to do in the rest of this letter. And that one, self control, is extremely important.

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Mastery or dominion over self. Self command. Self control, which is the opposite of self indulgence.

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In other words, the grace by which the flesh is controlled. The virtue of one who masters his desires and passions, especially his sensual appetites.

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It is a calling to soundness of mind and to moderation in his life and ministry.

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Timothy is a young man. He's a younger man than Paul. And Paul has left Timothy back in the city of Ephesus.

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A major city in that day. It's a major city in Gentile country.

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And it's a pagan city. It's just a hot bed of pagan corruption and sin and all manner of idolatry.

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It's a city that was dominated by the massive temple of Artemis up on a hillside. And it's also a seaport.

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So there were ships coming and going. Sailors and all those people disembarking. The first thing they could see when they sailed into the harbor of Ephesus was that massive idolatrous temple of Artemis.

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It sounds like Artemis might have been kind of a very attractive svelte goddess, right? But that was a place where they worshipped cult prostitution as part of their religion.

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And so it was just shot through with all manner of sin and corruption and perversion.

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And Paul knows that he's not going back to Ephesus. He's not going to be there. Timothy's going to be on his own there in this city.

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He's going to have to rely on the powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit in his life to accomplish all that Paul has for him to do in his ministry.

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And of the 32 commands Paul issues in the rest of the letter, fanning into flames the Holy Spirit, rekindling the

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Spirit's ministry in his life is absolutely critical to carrying everything else out.

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And what was true in Paul's day is true right down through the centuries and right true for us here and now as well.

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You and I are absolutely helpless to accomplish anything God wants us to do apart from our total dependence on the encouraging and empowering work of the

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Spirit in our lives. Not to mention if a person is not even regenerate. The Spirit of God is not even there.

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We looked at that passage in Romans chapter 8 where Paul basically says without the

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Spirit of God you can't even begin to understand anything, the most basic spiritual principles.

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And the main tool that the Spirit uses in the life of the believer is the sword of the Spirit, the

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Word of God. So when he gets down to verse 14 of chapter 1, Paul says and again, by the

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Holy Spirit who dwells within us guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

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And this is just an echo of what Paul had said previously in his first letter to Timothy in 1

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Timothy chapter 6. He ends that letter with a plea for Timothy and you can just hear the passion in his words.

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Oh, Timothy guard the deposit entrusted to you. And he's talking about the deposit of the

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Gospel, the Word of God that Paul has placed into his trust. We saw in our study of chapter 2 that Paul continues to be concerned for two basic issues in Timothy's life.

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Timothy's personal life in other words, his sanctification, his walk with God personally, his spiritual maturity, and also the

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Word of God. The purity of Timothy's life and the purity of the Word.

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And again, in the first letter Paul had focused on these two critical areas. In 1 Timothy 4 .16

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he says, keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching.

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Those two areas, very critical. They're thematic with the Apostle Paul in all of his writings and also throughout the rest of the

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New Testament. John 17 .17 Our Lord said in His high priestly prayer in the upper room the night before He was crucified

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He's praying on behalf of His disciples and He says Father, sanctify them in the truth.

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Your Word is truth. And there you see the connection the link between the

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Word of God and our personal sanctification. We are sanctified, we are brought to spiritual maturity by and through the

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Word of God. And the issues of both sanctification and Scripture together are energized and empowered by the ministry of the

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Holy Spirit. And again, Timothy must rely on that strengthening power to accomplish all that Paul would have him to do.

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And especially as we saw in chapter 2 verse 2, passing on the Word to others. And we use that metaphor of Paul in the running of the race and passing the baton on to others.

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The baton of the Word of God. Paul is concerned for the propagation of the Gospel. But he also knows that Timothy has to pay close attention to his own sanctification if he's going to be an effective communicator of that Word.

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And then as he moves into chapter 2, Paul continues to stress these two issues and their interdependence.

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Look at verse 22 of chapter 2. Once again, we have an imperative.

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Flee, he says. Flee youthful passions. There's a statement concerning his own spiritual development, his own sanctification.

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Flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace along with those who call on the

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Lord from a pure heart. And then in verse 23, have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies.

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You know that they breed quarrels. There's a statement concerning his ability to handle the

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Word of God. Don't get all tangled up in stupid controversies. Don't get on YouTube and consult

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YouTube theologians. Oh, wait a minute, that's an anachronism. Anyway, have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies.

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So those two areas of his life are there. They're both very important and they work together. And then when we get to chapter 3, again, using the imperative verbs as the outline, there's only three of them in chapter 3.

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First one is found in verse 1. Understand. And then down in verse 5, avoid.

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And then way down in verse 14, continue. So, he needs to understand, he needs to avoid, and he needs to continue.

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Between understand and avoid, Paul mentions 19 kinds of people there, okay? He says, understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty for people, now stop right there, people and now look down at verse 5, avoid such people.

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Difficult times, according to Paul, that are going to come have nothing to do with cosmic global changes of temperatures or sea levels or things like that.

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The focal point of problems and issues in this world back then, now, and in the future is going to be who?

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What? People. It's people. That's very important to see. And he has a 19 word or phrase description of these people that are going to be there, were there and are there and are here now.

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In fact, since he calls them people, maybe we could just sort of personify them, okay? To get a little better handle on here.

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There's going to be a lot of people going along in this race that is the race of life.

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Some of them are lovers, by the way. Oh no, not like that. Notice in verse 2, people will be lovers of self, lovers of money.

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Down in verse 4, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. So these are the lovers that are going along in this thing.

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And then, in verse 2 again, look at Mr. Proud, Miss Arrogant, Mr. Abusive, and even some younger people, some that are disobedient to their parents.

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There are those who are ungrateful, unholy. A lot of people going along here. You can just sort of see the crowd gathering here.

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There are those in verse 4, Mr. and Mrs. Treacherous and Reckless. And how about this guy here?

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He's swollen with conceit. You ever notice in the Bible whenever it talks about somebody who has, they're full of pride or conceit or even the

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Greek word is hubris, you know, that type of person. It always speaks of them as being swollen or puffed up.

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You know, it's almost like it's a medical condition or something. But that guy is here running along too. You don't want to fall down in front of him.

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He's not able to step on you. Mr. Swollen with Conceit. And then, down in verse 5, this is a group of people you've got to watch out for.

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Oh, from the outside, they have the appearance of godliness. They look from the outside like they are really godly people.

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But what does he say? Denying its power. They look from the outside like they're godly.

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Go through all kinds of external religious ritual. Maybe even stand up and teach or preach the

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Bible in certain environments. But they are denying the power of God. Part of the power of God is the

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Holy Spirit. And also, you remember what Paul said to the Romans, that the power of God is the gospel.

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The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. So even though from the outside they look godly, they have the appearance, they deny its power.

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Paul says, avoid such people. He ends this chapter by once again focusing

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Timothy on the Scriptures, the Word of God, the truth. And even though there will be a devolution of human morality.

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And this is one of the things that you'll see all through Scripture. The world will tell you that humanity is evolving, it's emerging, it's growing upward and getting better and better.

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But when you read the Bible, it's the exact opposite. It's not evolving morally, it's devolving. And this is what

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Paul says. And look at verse 12, down in chapter 3. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

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While evil people, verse 13, and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

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But Paul wants Timothy to not go after them. Don't be deceived, avoid those people.

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And he says in verse 14, as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it.

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And here Paul zeros in on the nature and the purpose of the Word of God.

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And he has three ways he mentions the Word of God. He talks about the nature of Scripture, the nature of the

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Word of God, but then he also talks about the value that it has. In verse 15, from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, he said, the sacred writings.

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And what's their value? Able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

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And then in verse 16, he uses a different word. All Scripture is breathed out by God.

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Pasa grafe theopneustos is the Greek phrase. Theopneustos, God breathed, the compound word.

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The Bible is the very breath of God breathed out. And what's the profit that it has?

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For teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. That the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

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And then Paul moves into chapter 4. I know there's a great big black 4 there in your

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Bibles, but if you could just pretend like that's not there and see this. Remember, this is a letter that Paul wrote. That wasn't there originally.

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I'm really thankful for the chapter breaks and the versification that we have in our modern Bibles. But this was a letter that Paul wrote.

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So you can just move right through into this incredible charge that Paul gives

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Timothy in verse 1. He says, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom, and here's an imperative, preach the word.

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Absolute mandate in this charge. And for Timothy, and for us here and now, and for the church all through history, is to preach the word.

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And so Paul begins a list here. Just in these first five verses, there are nine commands.

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He really clusters them together here. And it's very, very important to see what he's doing. Preach the word.

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And he says, be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and teaching.

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In that single verse, verse 2, there are five command force verbs.

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Preach the word, be ready, reprove, rebuke, and exhort. And why,

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Paul, why should I do that? He says in verse 3, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.

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There's going to come a time and we're obviously living in it right now, when people don't want to hear the word of God taught.

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They don't care about the truth from the Scriptures being taught and applied to their lives. So what do they do?

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They go find teachers that tell them what they want to hear. That's more comfortable. That's more pleasing to them.

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They're not going to hear anybody confront them in their sin, and that's the big issue. And this has been going on all through history, and it's going on now, and it's increasingly more and more common to find people who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, but they accumulate to themselves teachers after their own lusts.

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How convenient. Just like at the foot of Mount Sinai. The law had been delivered by Moses, and when

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Moses went back up on the hill, the people of Israel decided, we don't want that God, not that one up there up on the hill who's making the earthquakes and he's kind of scary.

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We want another God. So what did they do? They found a ministerial calf maker named Aaron. And guess what

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Aaron said? See if you recognize this. What did he say when they said, we want another God? He said, give me your gold.

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Give me your gold. They gave him the gold, and he gave them a false God. And it's still going on today.

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Itching ears, accumulating for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. And what else do they do?

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Verse 4, will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into mists.

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That first verb there, this is very important. First verb is active in its voice. Active in its passive voice.

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They actively turn away from the Word of God. That second one there, it really doesn't come through in the English too well.

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The ESV says, wander off into mists. That's in the passive voice. You could translate that, they will be led into mists.

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When people reject the Word of God, actively turn away from the Word of God, they don't want to hear it, don't want to have anything to do with it, then they go find false teachers.

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They will be, not might be, for sure and for certain, they will be led away into mists at some point in the future.

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But, Paul says in verse 5, as for you, as for you,

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Timothy, you don't be like that, as for you. And here are four more commands.

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Be sober minded. Endure suffering. Do the work of an evangelist.

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Fulfill your ministry. And it's almost as if when Paul says to Timothy with that comprehensive statement of fulfill your ministry, he comes to an abrupt stop.

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It's like okay, now you know. Now you have your marching orders. And that brings us to verse 6.

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What we're going to see this morning, as he closes this letter, Paul's thoughts turn to his own life, his own situation, his own ministry.

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And what we're going to see this morning from these three verses is Paul makes a comment about his present situation, and then his past, a statement in verse 7, and verse 8, he looks into the future.

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Very, very simple outline. Paul's present, verse 6, Paul's past, verse 7, and Paul's future, verse 8.

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What does Paul say here in this very first part of this, in verse 6?

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He makes a statement about his present situation. And he says, and Paul is very fond of this little preposition, for.

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It's called causal gar in Greek. It's the cause. So you could say because,

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I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come.

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Paul's present status. He understands his life is over. He's under a death sentence. He arrived in Rome during a time of great persecution against Christians.

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And this time he's recognized as the ringleader, so to speak, of the

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Christian sect, as they call it. And he was arrested and tried and condemned to death. The Romans were very effective in putting down insurrections.

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We know this from our Lord's own trial, right? And if there was an insurrection, what they would do? They would find all the people that were following along, they would just be summarily executed.

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But that leader, they always had special treatment for him. Very public, very well known to take them out and to send a message to everybody else.

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This is what will happen to you if you defy Roman authority and try to start an insurrection.

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But Paul was a Roman citizen, so he was not going to be crucified. His method of capital punishment was going to be beheading.

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And Paul understands that's his situation right here. His status is that, and he says in chapter 2, verses 8 and 9 of this same letter, he said,

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Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which

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I am suffering, bound with chains, but the Word of God is not bound.

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Paul understood his present situation, but he's not in despair. He's not moaning or complaining or anything else over this.

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His imprisonment, in fact, is validation that his message that Jesus Christ is the true

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King simply confirms that he had the right message and was doing the right thing and was in the will of God at all times.

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And even though he's in chains, here's how Paul saw the Word of God. He says, I'm in chains, but the Word of God is not chained.

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His life is over, but the Word of God still lives. And as the writer of Hebrews said, it's active, and it's sharper than any two -edged sword.

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It accomplishes what God has for it to accomplish. Paul would have been very familiar with Isaiah's words in chapter 40, verses 6 through 8.

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It says, The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of Yahweh blows upon it.

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Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the

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Word of our God stands forever. Paul knew this. Paul understood this.

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His earthly life is ending, but the Word of God never ends. It continues on.

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And then he talks about his sacrifice. Paul's sacrifice, and he knows what's going to happen.

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He's going to die. In chapter 4, verse 6, I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

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Paul doesn't rant and rave about the godless civil authorities that have him in this situation. No mention of Nero here.

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Seems a little strange. You think he might have some commentary about the civil authorities? He doesn't. He understands his situation, and there's no bitterness.

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Paul didn't come to Rome to try to change the politics of Rome. He came to Rome to preach the gospel, and that's why he's in prison under the death sentence.

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He's willingly giving his life as an offering to his Savior, and he likens it to the final offering of the

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Jewish sacrificial system. In Exodus chapter 29, Leviticus chapter 23, and in Numbers chapter 15 and chapter 28, the sacrificial system of the

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Jews pictures a three -part sacrifice. The first part is the offering of the burnt animal offered up to God.

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The second part of that is the grain offering. And the third and final part of the sacrificial system is the pouring out of the wine, the drink offering at the altar.

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And so Paul likens his own death to pouring out of that final sacrificial offering.

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And he always knew this might be how his life ended. He knew this all the way along through his whole ministry. When he wrote the

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Philippian Christians, even though he understood that's going to be a temporary imprisonment, he says, even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith,

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I rejoice and share my joy with you all. Commentator William Hendrickson, I think, captures this very well.

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He says, since this wine was gradually poured out, was an offering, and was the final act of the entire sacrificial ceremony, it pictured most adequately the gradual ebbing away of Paul's life, the fact that he was presenting this life to God as an offering, and the idea that while he viewed his entire career of faith as a living sacrifice, he looked upon the present stage of this career as being the final act of sacrifice.

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Remember, years before, Paul had already done what he exhorted the Roman Christians to do.

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After writing 11 chapters of doctrinal treatise to them, he comes to that practical application in chapter 12, and he says, therefore,

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I exhort you brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice, living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

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So when you predetermine that your life is not your own, and that you willingly offer up your life to God as a sacrifice, you can come to the end of that life, as Paul did, in full faith and confidence, that your

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Savior will receive that sacrifice and receive you into your eternal future, safe and sound.

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One commentator said it this way, Paul had already given everything to Jesus, the only thing left to give was his life, and that he gladly gave.

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That brings us to Paul's schedule at the end of verse 6. He says, the time of my departure has come.

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From the outside, maybe to his friends, maybe even to Timothy, maybe even to the jailers that had condemned him and were in charge of his execution.

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Maybe it looked like Paul's life had been interrupted. As people say, maybe he died before his time.

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Paul knows that's not true. Paul knows that God is in absolute control of every moment of his life.

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The sovereign God of the universe, the Creator God of the universe, is in charge of Paul's schedule.

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Not Nero, and not Nero's soldiers. The time of his departure is in God's hands.

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This word departure, it's very interesting. It's used in several ways in ancient writings. One of the ways it's used is of a ship that is weighing anchor in a harbor, setting sails, and then sailing out of a harbor.

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It's used to picture also an army encamped near a battlefield and engaging in multiple battles in that battle, in that war.

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But then hearing from their commander, the war is over, the battles are done, it's time to break camp and depart for home.

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It's also used of a person who's carrying a heavy load in life, a big burden. And as they travel through life, they're under this tremendous load.

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But then at some point in time, to hear these words, friend, it's time to lay down your burden and to come home.

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For Paul, as he contemplated his present situation, and at the time of his departure had arrived, death was not the end, but death was simply the beginning.

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Like setting sail on a voyage to a new harbor, or breaking camp to go home after a long campaign, or to lay down a burden after a long arduous journey.

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And knowing that his departure was at hand, Paul's thoughts now turned to think about the life he had lived since he came to know

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Christ. Which brings us to Roman numeral 2 in verse 7. Paul's past, it was a righteous life.

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Now depending on how you calculate it, Paul had probably been a believer in Jesus Christ for at least 30 years, maybe 35 years or so.

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And yet in verse 7, he can sum up three decades of service to Jesus Christ in a very short concise statement.

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And by the way, all of these are in the perfect tense. Perfect tense, completed past action. Nothing to be completed, and yet creating a state or a condition that continues on.

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And all three of these are in the perfect tense. Very short, very concise. I have fought the good fight.

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I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. That's how Paul summarized his own life and ministry.

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You know how much is talked about in the book of Acts of Paul's ministry, all of his journeys, all of his travels. Isn't it amazing that at the end of his life, he can just simply write

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Timothy and say, you know, this is what I have done. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course.

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I have kept the faith. Not much of a biography if somebody was interviewing a mega pastor today, right, for all his life's accomplishments and all the thousands and thousands of people he had in his church for an article in Christianity today or something, right?

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It'd go on and on and on and on and on, but not the apostle Paul. It's an amazing thing. Paul always saw himself as in the process, never having arrived.

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Have you noticed that? He says this to the Philippian Christians. This tells you what

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Paul's priorities are and how he saw his own life. His priority, he says, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

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Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also

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I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not consider myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing

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I do, and here's some of the best biblical counseling you could ever give anybody. Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,

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I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. This is

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Paul, never having considered himself as having arrived at anything, but simply always looking ahead, always looking at the goal, always keeping his eyes on Jesus Christ and pressing ahead all the time.

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And what Paul does here is he considers his own life, he simply resorts to imagery that he's used before.

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Very common for Paul. He says, I fought the good fight. This is an echo of what he had told Timothy in his first letter.

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In chapter 1 verse 18 of that first letter he told Timothy, and just putting it in its very literal form, war the good warfare.

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War the good warfare. And it's the good warfare. Paul understood that the spiritual life is spiritual warfare.

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It's a battle. And a warfare fought with spiritual weapons, not carnal ones. We talked about that the last time.

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In this same letter in chapter 2 verse 4, Paul says, no soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

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Again, by total dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit in his life and in our lives, we are to fight the spiritual war with spiritual weapons, with a single -minded focus on pleasing our commander, the

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Lord Jesus Christ. This is what Paul meant when he said, I have fought the good fight.

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And he then uses another very familiar metaphor to speak of his past when he says, I have finished the race. We saw this last time.

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We talked about this as well. We talked about it as a relay race when he exhorts

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Timothy to take the things that he has heard from Paul and to entrust them to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

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Paul wanted Timothy to take the gospel, the Word of God, and teach it to men who could teach men to teach men to teach men.

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In other words, pass the baton of the Word of God on, he says. But I think we can also look at this race as a cross -country race because that metaphor works as well.

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Cross -country race is run over very rugged terrain. Every course on the cross -country race is different, is it not?

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You can't see what's around the next corner or over the next hill. And as a runner, you have to run the whole course.

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You don't get to pass anything off. And you have to run it by the rules. From the moment we come to faith in Christ to the second we cross that finish line and fall into the arms of our

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Savior, we are on a rugged cross -country journey. And Paul also, many times as you know, calls it a walk, using a different metaphor.

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It's a walk, he says. As you walk in life, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.

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So when you look at it as a walk, you can use that metaphor as well. We walk in this life.

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We walk through the world. And I like to say, you know, it doesn't matter if you get there first. It's not a sprint.

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It doesn't matter if you get there first. What counts is that you get there by the rules that God has set down and that you cross the finish line.

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The writer to Hebrews also uses this metaphor chapter 12 verse 1. He said, And the sin which so easily entangles us, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus.

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Just like Paul, you've got to keep your eyes on Christ at the finish line. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.

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And then he talks about His race that Jesus ran, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

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And while Paul ran the race in this life, the Word of God was always front and center for him. So he ends this little section by saying,

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I have kept the faith. This is a reference to the objective content of our faith.

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We all obviously have the faith, the trust that we have in God. But Paul here is talking about the faith, the objective faith of the

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Word of God, including the Gospel. This little phrase is used 32 times in the New Testament. 26 of those times are used by the

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Apostle Paul. And half of those are found in the three pastoral letters. So think about that.

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13 times, and that would be just to two people, Timothy and Titus, 13 times

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Paul uses this exhortation about the faith, the content of our faith and how it needs to be preserved and guarded and passed on and so on.

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If you look at the New Testament survey of it, back in Romans, Paul talks about the word of faith we preach.

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Chapter 12, verse 6, according to the proportion of the faith. To the Corinthian Christians, he exhorted them to stand firm in the faith.

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And also to the Corinthians, test yourselves to see if you are in the faith.

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And he talks all the way through his letters, Galatians, preaching the faith. Ephesians, there's only one faith.

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The unity of the faith. And then to the Philippians, striving side by side for the faith of the

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Gospel and so on. And as he gets into the pastoral letters, he's real concerned. He calls

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Timothy my true child in the faith. Holding faith, he talks about in 1

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Timothy 1. And then there are those who have made shipwreck of the faith. And also negative, some will depart from the faith.

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He talks in 1 Timothy 4 about being trained in the words of the faith and so on and so on.

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And even when you look at Jude, Jude's little letter, Jude wrote that letter in order to exhort and encourage

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Christians to contend for the faith. So all the way through, this is thematic with the

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Apostle Paul and also in the rest of the New Testament. And so here Paul says as he ends his life,

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I have kept the faith. A reference to the objective content of our faith.

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The Gospel, the Word of God. And he can reach the end of his life and say with full confidence,

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I have kept the faith after exhorting Timothy and everybody else to do the same thing. So some might read this and think that fighting the good fight, running and finishing the race and keeping the faith is kind of a difficult task, kind of tough to do, kind of hard to do.

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It's not hard. It's not tough. It's absolutely impossible. Absolutely impossible.

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Apart from the encouraging and enabling and empowering work of the Holy Spirit. Things done in the flesh will always fail.

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God doesn't use the flesh. He doesn't take people and remodel the flesh and improve the flesh and help the flesh out to do things.

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God kills the flesh when a person comes to Christ. And then He gives us new life in Christ.

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We are a new creature in Christ. And we are to walk by the Spirit. God doesn't help our flesh or improve it.

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He kills the flesh. Flesh always fails, but the Spirit never fails.

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Someone said that words of reflection like this become words of direction. And Paul having reflected briefly on his 30 plus years of Christian ministry now looks into eternity.

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Verse 6, and this is very interesting I think. In the Greek text, verse 6 on his present state there's only 11 words in the

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Greek text. In verse 7 on his past, past 30 plus years, there's only 10 words in the

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Greek text. But when Paul looks into the future in verse 8 and looks and anticipates what

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God has for him there, there are 31 words. Clearly this is the focal point of Paul.

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And Paul says about his future, he's looking forward to a righteous reward.

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Verse 8, in the future Paul says, some translations say, henceforth, in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the

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Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day. And not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing.

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What does Paul see when the Spirit of God shows him his future after a 30 plus year of ministry?

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Paul sees a righteous crown given to him by a righteous judge on a righteous day in the company of other righteous people.

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So a righteous crown. This is the victor's crown. It's called Stephanos in the Greek. This is where you get the name

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Stephen from. It's not the diadem, which is the crown reserved for the king, but the crown rewarded to those who have run a race.

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The victor's crown. And it's going to be rewarded by a righteous judge. And it takes a righteous king to give a righteous crown of righteousness.

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And the one who judges us as righteous is the righteous judge, the righteous king,

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King Jesus. On that day, he says. Oh, what a righteous day that's going to be.

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Paul has run the race with a pretty motley group of competitors. We saw them in chapter 3. But guess who crosses the finish line with him?

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Not the lovers of self, not the lovers of money, not the people who don't love God. But what does he say?

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To those who love his appearing. Those are the ones that are going to be there with Paul on that day.

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And by the way, another perfect tense. Those who have loved completed action. Nothing left to add to it, but creating a continuous state or condition.

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Those are the righteous crowd that is going to be with the apostle Paul. Those who have loved his appearing.

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So all who have loved his appearing can and should look forward to receiving the same crown of righteousness when they cross that finish line.

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It's commonly throughout the New Testament, several places where the crowns are mentioned.

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First Thessalonians 2 .19, it's called a crown of exaltation. James 1 .12 and also

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Revelation 2 .10 speak about the crown of life rewarded to believers. In 1

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Peter 5 .4, faithful elders will receive a crown of glory.

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And Paul to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 9 .25 said, now everyone who competes in the games and back to the athletic imagery, who competes in the games exercises self -control in all things.

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They then do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible crown.

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Imperishable crown. In all of these passages the grammar indicates that the crown is actually what the descriptive term is.

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It's very interesting. In other words, to receive the crown of exaltation is to receive exaltation from Jesus Christ.

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To receive the crown of life is to receive eternal life from Him. To receive the incorruptible crown is to receive incorruptibility or immortality from Christ on that day.

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And in this case to receive the crown of righteousness from the righteous judge is to receive righteousness from Him.

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Now some might say, well wait a minute, weren't we declared righteous at salvation? Yes we were, but that was at salvation.

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When we cross that finish line and on that day in heaven, we are going to receive the righteousness which is the permanent and perfect state of righteousness given by God to every single believer in Jesus Christ.

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The crown which is perfect eternal righteousness. So, finishing strong means to run the race and fight all the spiritual battles and the strength and power of the

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Holy Spirit who indwells us and to make sure we pass on and guard the faith along the way.

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Then like Paul and all who love his appearing to look forward to the crown of righteousness from our righteous king.

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Oh, by the way, there's one more thing. On that day when we receive all these rewards and all whatever these crowns are, according to Revelation chapter 5 we'll lay them at the feet of Jesus because then

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He will get all the glory. Amen. Thank you for listening to the latest podcast from Kootenai Church.

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If you'd like to learn more about Kootenai Church or to donate to our church ministry you can do so online by visiting kootenaichurch .org

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We hope you enjoyed this podcast and pray you'll join us again next time.