“Be Faithful to the End”

Transcript

GR 1399
03/15/2009
“Be Faithful to the End”
II Timothy 4:5-6
Gil Rugh


I want to start out by reminding us of some basic truth and take you back to the Old Testament as a basis for continuing our study in II Timothy. God has given us His word so that His people might know about Him and His will and purposes for them. Understand God's Word is given primarily for His people. Now of course it is through His Word that we come to the knowledge of salvation and come to believe in Him and become a child of God. But the focal point of God's Word is for His people and as His people have received His Word then they give it out to others. In the Old Testament the nation Israel were the people that God had chosen for Himself. That nation of all the nations of the earth was chosen to belong to God, they would be the recipients of His word. And they were the people that were to demonstrate that they belonged to the living God by being holy even as their God is holy.

Come back to Deuteronomy 29. God established a covenantal relationship with the nation Israel and there were a series of covenants. And these marked Israel off as His special people. He has revealed Himself go them. Verse 29, the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law. God was in the process of unfolding to them the Mosaic Law, He had given them His word, it had been reviewed in the book of Deuteronomy. And we're told, the secret things belong to God. He doesn't require us or expect us to know the things He has not revealed to us. But the things He has revealed to us that now form His Word have been given to us so that we might observe it, obey it and do it.

You come down into chapter 30 verse 11, for this command which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. It is not in heaven that you should say, who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it that we may observe it. Nor is it beyond the sea that you should say, who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it that we may observe it. In other words the word that God has revealed is in their presence. They have it. You don't have to go to heaven and try to find out what God wants. You don't have to cross the sea to try to search out what God wants from me, desires of me, commands of me. You have it. Verse 14, the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart that you may observe it. In other words God has spoken, you have His word. That contains everything He wants you to know, everything you must know to satisfy the demands of His righteousness, to become His child and to live in obedience to Him. It's just that simple.

In fact the Apostle Paul when he wrote his letter to the Romans quotes from this exact passage that we just read to remind the Romans in the church at Rome that truth still holds. God has revealed more truth and in the New Testament the truth through Paul and other apostles and writers, but we don't have to go searching, we don't have to go on a mission to try to find out what is God like, what would God want us to do, how can I be pleasing to God. He says, you have My word, that's it. If it's not in My word it's not something I intend for you to know. The secret things I have kept to myself, I haven't revealed everything to you. We'd be overwhelmed with infinite revelation from an infinite God, but He has revealed everything to us that He requires us to know and live in light of.

The problem with Israel was not that they did not have a clear message from God. The problem with Israel was they didn't like what God said. And since they didn't like what God said they didn't want to have to hear it and be required to obey it. So they followed a pattern of having prophets and teachers who would tell them what they wanted to hear and that way they could soothe their conscience by pretending that they were pleasing God in some way.

Turn to Jeremiah 5. Now we are almost 1000 years later, 900 years later from when Moses wrote what we just read in Deuteronomy to what we are reading from the prophet Jeremiah. And you see what has been Israel's history. Jeremiah 5:30, an appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely, the priests rule on their own authority and my people love it so. What a terrible condition. Here is Israel, the nation that God has chosen for Himself, the nation that God chose to give His word to. But the prophets prophesy a different message. They don't give them the word of God. You'd think the people would be offended, they wouldn't tolerate it. But you know what? They love to have it so. We're not talking about the Egyptians or Assyrians or Babylonians or other pagan peoples. We're talking about the nation Israel. The prophets prophesy falsely. My people love to have it so.

Turn to Jeremiah 14:10, thus says the Lord to this people, even so they have loved to wander. Now this is in the context of them saying at the end of verse 9, you are in our midst, oh Lord, and we are called by your name. Do not forsake us. You see they were going about claiming that they know the Lord. You dwell with us, Lord. And yet God says to His people, they have loved to wander. They have not kept their feet in check. Therefore the Lord does not accept them, He will not remember their iniquity and He will call their sins to account. And then He tells Jeremiah, do not pray for the welfare of this people. The day of opportunity is past, now is the day of judgment. And you remember that Jeremiah is prophesying in the context of the Babylonian captivity that will bring devastating destruction and an end of the southern kingdom in Israel.

Look at verse 14, then the Lord said to me, the prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility and the deception of their own mind. We say, well the people aren't responsible, the prophets are deceiving them. But remember verse 10, they have loved to wander. What we read in chapter 5, the prophets prophesy falsely and My people love to have it so.

Turn over to Jeremiah 23. God warns them in verse 16, do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you, they are leading you into futility. They speak a vision of their own imagination, not from the mouth of the Lord. They keep saying to those who despise Me, the Lord has said you will have peace. False prophets always want to play down the issue of sin, play down the issue of our guilt and accountability. And people love to hear messages that don't include sin, that don't make me “feel guilty.” They want to hear you say you have peace. As for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, they say calamity will not come upon you. We're all right, you're okay, you belong to this church, you've been baptized. Same kind of message.

Come down to verse 25, I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy falsely in My name saying, I had a dream, I had a dream. How long? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsely? Even these prophets of the deception of their own hearts who intend to make My people, note this, who intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they relate to one another. Verse 28, the prophet who has had a dream may relate a dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw have in common with grain? Is not My word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer which shatters a rock? Then these striking words, verse 30, therefore behold I am against the prophets, declares the Lord. Verse 31, behold I am against the prophets, declares the Lord. Verse 32, behold I am against those who have prophesied their false dreams. And on we go. The end of verse 36, as you have perverted the words of the living God, the Lord of Hosts, our God. I mean, what an awesome thing.

How do we know? How could the people know? How could the prophets know? Remember, God has spoken. What did Isaiah the prophet say? If they do not speak according to this word it's because they have no light, no dawn, they are darkness. This is the standard you see, this is the truth.

Turn over to Jeremiah 25:3. Jeremiah is speaking. From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Ammon, king of Judah, even to this day these twenty-three years the word of the Lord has come to me. And I have spoken to you again and again but you have not listened. There is a reason we call Jeremiah the weeping prophet. Twenty-three years he preached the word of God in Israel and they didn't listen. The people of God, My people, the nation I chose for Myself. They didn't listen. And the Lord has sent to you all His servants the prophets again and again, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. You see they feed one another. As people drift away from the Lord they don't want to hear what God says any longer. And at the same time false prophets come who will tell them what they like to hear. So they feed one another. Both are accountable. The people will not be able to blame the false prophets for deceiving them because they love to hear the message of the false prophets. The false prophets will have no excuse for proclaiming a message that did not come from the Lord.

One more passage and we'll have to leave this. Jeremiah 32:33, they have turned their back to Me and not their face. Though I taught them, teaching again and again, they would not listen and received instruction. Isn't that striking how God sees it when people won't listen to His word? You know when you're talking to your children, they are young and they seem to turn away. And you say to them, look at me when I'm talking to you. God says to Israel, you just turn around and put your back to Me. It is a total affront to the living God. It's like they are making clear, I'm not interested in what you have to say. They're not just turning away, they're turning their back to Him. That's how God looks at it when someone will not listen to His word. He said I tried again and again to teach them again and again, they would not listen, they would not receive instruction.

We say, well that's Israel in the Old Testament. We all agree they were a disobedient people. But come over to I Timothy in the New Testament. We're studying II Timothy. Paul wrote two letters to Timothy. Timothy is at the church at Ephesus as Paul's representative, carrying on a ministry there. He is the Lord's representative, but he has been sent there by the apostle Paul, or left there by the Apostle Paul. The problem in the church at Ephesus is very similar to the problem that there was in Israel. False teachers had infiltrated the church at Ephesus and the people in the church at Ephesus were listening to it. They didn't particularly want to hear the truth of God, but they liked hearing what the false teachers had to say. Look at I Timothy 1:3, as I urged you upon my departure from Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus. Why? So that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, doctrines that are contrary, teaching that is contrary to what God has given. Nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. The teachers shouldn't teach it and the people shouldn't listen to it. And this is at the church at Ephesus where Paul had ministered, spent three years of his life, had written them the letter to the Ephesians. The false teachers had infiltrated and people were paying attention.

He reminded them in I Timothy 3:15, I write so you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. You see he is writing to the church, how the people of God are to respond to the truth of God that has been revealed and given to them, and to know that the church is to be the pillar and support of the truth, just as God had given His word to Israel in the Old Testament. And now in our time, our age God has given His truth and entrusted it to us, the church. And it is to be the pillar and support of the truth.

But down in chapter 4 verse 1, but the Spirit explicitly says that in the latter time some will fall away from the faith. You see we're talking about those who have been part of the church as we observe it. But you know what? They depart from the faith, the truth that God has revealed, the truth that must be believed. Paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. How can this be? People who have sat in the church, who have listened to the message of Paul, of Timothy, have read the letters that Paul wrote. And they turn away from the truth and listen to teaching that has its source and origin in demons. Because once you turn away from the truth of God, any other religious teaching finds its source in the demonic world, the devil. There are only two sources of spiritual truth, if I can use truth that broadly—spiritual information, the truth that comes from God and the lies that come from the devil.

Come over to II Timothy 4, which is where we are in our study. Paul is giving a solemn charge to Timothy. He says in verse 1, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus. These are the witnesses to this charge and remember, Timothy, Christ Jesus is the One who will judge you. And he gives him a series of commands, verse 2. Five commands in this verse, starting with the one that governs everything—preach the Word. Be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. Why? For the time will come when they will not endure, they will not put up with sound teaching. Who is he talking about? Pagans who never darken the door of a church? No, people in the church who had professed to believe in Christ but they've lost interest in the Word of God. They don't put up with sound, healthy teaching. They want something more pleasing to them. So they pile up teachers for themselves in accordance with their own desires. I'm not particularly interested in what God has to say, I find a lot of it uninteresting, I find a lot of it boring. And besides the rest of it I've been through so many times, I don't need to hear it again. So they are looking for teachers who will teach what they like to hear, what they enjoy. The prophets prophesied falsely, my people love to have it so. That's the constant battle that goes on.

What do they do in verse 4? They turn away their ears from the truth and turn aside to myths. When you turn from the truth of God everything else is a lie, everything else is a myth. You have abandoned truth. But you, and so Paul now brings it back to Timothy and his responsibility. This is the seriousness that Timothy faces. Jeremiah was the weeping prophet. He was not unique. Jesus asked the people of his day, which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? One of the identifying characteristics of a genuine prophet is the people of Israel didn't want to listen to him. In fact you know the presence of a prophet in Israel, a genuine prophet, is one of the indications of spiritual deterioration in the nation. God is sending His spokesman to confront His people about sin. It's not going to be an easy road for Timothy.

What Paul is going to do in the rest of this section that goes from verses 5-8, which we haven't looked at yet, is to challenge Timothy further about the importance of his responsibility in being faithful to the end of his life. And it becomes all the more important because Paul is about to depart from this life. He won't be here to encourage Timothy, to be a support for Timothy, to model for Timothy faithfulness in difficulty. So now it will rest on Timothy and others like him to stand faithful and true even in the context of people who claim to belong to God turning away from the truth and not being willing to obey it.

So with that context of verses 3 and 4 of chapter 4, when the time will come when they won't put up with sound teaching. They'll want teachers who tell them what they like to hear. They'll turn away their ears from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, that strong contrast. Timothy, you are not to be like that, you are not to be like those false teachers, you are not to be like those who listen to those false teachers. You stand in contrast to them, Timothy. He used this same contrast, you'll remember back in chapter 3 verse 10. He described their false teachers, their teaching and their lifestyle. And then in verse 10 he said, now you. And it's the same expression in Greek, but you, sude, but you. Then down in verse 13, evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. Verse 14, you however. Same exact expression, but you. But you in contrast to them, Timothy.

Now we come down to chapter 4 and describe what's going to happen in the latter days. Verse 5, but you, you are not to be like them, Timothy. In their teaching you are not to be like them and the way they listen to false teachers and thus end up with corrupted life and lifestyle. But you. He's going to give him four commands. Now this is all in the context of the solemn charge that was begun in chapter 4 verse 1, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus. He gave him five commands in verse 2, now he's going to give him four more commands in verse 5. And these nine commands form the substance of the charge given to Timothy that he must carry out. The rest of what is contained in these eight verses, verses 1-8, reinforce the seriousness and importance of the charge. But these nine commands tell Timothy what he must do.

Let's look at the four in verse 5. But you be sober in all things. Eight of the nine commands are given in the aorist tense, a sharp, firm command. This is the one command of the nine that is given in the present tense. It is a general command that would include what is about to be said in the rest of the verse here. To be sober originally was used and is used currently as well, the background for it is don't get drunk, don't get intoxicated, don't be a boozer. That's the idea, the original idea. But it came to be used metaphorically to describe being alert, being aware, being in control. When somebody is drunk they are out of it, they are not aware of what is going on, they are in a fog, so to speak, somewhat out of touch with reality. We use it today in both ways. If you are at the city mission you might tell them it's important they stay sober. But we also use it in the sense of being alert, being aware, being in control of your faculties. He's telling Timothy to be alert, be aware, keep a clear head, Timothy. I mean, you understand the tide is going the other way, believers are always going upstream. And even in the church you see this kind of defection. He's told Timothy the day will come when they won't put up with sound teaching. It's already going on at Ephesus, we're having this kind of battle.

You know what happens? We have to be careful our thinking doesn't get muddled. We look around and say, people really aren't interested in hearing that today. I mean, we live in a different day, our culture is different, we have a different generation we're ministering to. And look at the churches that are growing. What are they doing? And besides the argument always comes, does it do any good to preach the Word of God if nobody comes to hear it? I mean, don't we have to make adjustments so we can be effective? And pretty soon we begin to get muddled in our thinking and we don't think clearly anymore. By clearly I mean biblically. We don't see everything clearly through the glass of scripture, if you will. It's like when I take my glasses off, all of a sudden the print is just black smudges on the page. That's what happens if we are not sober, we're not clear in our thinking. Be sober in all things, keep your head on straight, Timothy. Don't be confused by the false teachers and their popularity. Don't be confused and unsettled by the fact people are leaving the church at Ephesus. So you think I have to do something different, pretty soon there won't be anybody left. Be sober. What do you do? Keep your head on straight. What keeps my head on straight? I keep it focused through the Word. Everything comes back to the Word. This is what we are about. The church is the pillar and support of the truth, but people aren't going to church today to hear the truth. I guess they won't want to come to our church, then, will they. But even believers are leaving and flocking to these places.

I am often in contact with men in small and what can be discouraging ministries, faithfully teaching the Word. Why aren't people coming? And somebody starts a church down the road and it goes boom. Someone passed on to me a card from a church starting in a suburb of Omaha. And they start out, the church won't be about guilt because God is not about guilt. And we won't be about being judgmental and critical. Well, so they're not going to talk about sin and guilt, not going to talk about judgment. But we're going to be a church for you to grow in your faith. Don't get confused. What is the poor struggling church going to do down the road that is teaching the Word if this church all of a sudden is booming and they find people leaving their church to go there? Now all of a sudden if we're not careful, if we're not sober mentally, thinking clearly that we are about the word of God and God uses His word for His purposes, my concern is to be about the word, our church is the pillar and support of the truth. We don't want to lose our focus otherwise we begin to get unsettled, we lose perspective, we're like a drunk. We don't think clearly any longer.

Be sober in all things, Timothy. This will mean you endure hardship. That's the second command. Endure hardship. This has been a major emphasis of the letter, hardship, being willing to suffer, being willing to pay the price, to be faithful. It's Paul's last letter, you'd think it might be a little more upbeat. It's upbeat, but in a negative sort of way. Look back at chapter 1. This word hardship was used back here. It's that same basic word, compound form of it. It has the idea of suffering evil. You know not just going through the normal trials and hardships of life, but this is suffering evil, people treating you evilly, wickedly because of your identification with Christ and the Word of God. Verse 8, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me his prisoner. Join with me in suffering for the gospel, in enduring hardship for the gospel, suffering evil things for the gospel. Down in chapter 2 verse 3, suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Down in verse 8, remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel, for which I suffer hardship, even to imprisonment as a criminal. Paul wasn't a criminal, he was a faithful, honorable representative of the living God. He is in prison as a criminal, soon to be executed. And a vile person. What was his offense? He presented the truth of God. A reminder, Timothy, there is no easy way to be faithful. It's a hard road.

Down in chapter 3 verse 12 we're reminded that all who live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. That becomes an identifying mark of a believer because we're going upstream. Upstream against the world and upstream against those in the church who have no real intense desire and interest in the Word of God. Timothy has to do battle within the church at Ephesus against false teachers. Remember what Peter wrote in his second letter, there will be false teachers among you, just as there were false prophets in the Old Testament among the Jews. Don't think it will be any different. There will be false teachers among you. And there will be people who love their teaching. That's what Timothy will have to battle, and the hardship and the rejection, the persecution, the opposition that will come from without and from within.

Third command back in II Timothy 4. Do the work of an evangelist. Another sharp command. The word evangelist, this noun is not used often, it's only used two other times in the New Testament. Acts 21:8 it's used of Philip the evangelist, and in Ephesians 4:11 it's used among the gifts given to the church for the ministry of the Word. But the word that is basic to this word is a word used often in the Bible, we get the word gospel translation from this basic word. Good news, the good news, the message. It's the message of Christ. Back in chapter 2 verse 8 we read, remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, descendant of David according to my gospel. And the message of Christ is the gospel. But the gospel is also used in the broader context, the ministry of the word of God is the good news of God in its entirety. All scripture is God-breathed. That makes it good news. It's the message from God, we learn more of Him, more of His work. Now obviously at the heart of all that is the work of redemption for fallen humanity in a sin-cursed creation. But the ministry of God's truth involves the proclamation of what is good news, the message of God.

Timothy has been involved in this. Back up to Philippians 2:19. He is writing about Timothy. I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly. Verse 22, you know of his proven worth, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel. I mean, already he has had a ministry in the gospel. He is to do the work of an evangelist, to continue the work of the gospel, being one who gives out the gospel, a gospelizer. He is joined with Paul in the furtherance of the gospel.

Come over to I Thessalonians 3. Paul is always sending Timothy somewhere. He wanted to send him to Philippi, he sent him to Thessalonica. We're read on other occasions he's sending him to Corinth. He was a trusted servant of the Lord and helper with Paul. Verse 2, we sent Timothy our brother and God's fellow worker in the gospel of Christ to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith. So it's not just the gospel that brings the original salvation, but it is the ministry of the good news, the gospel of God that will strengthen them in their faith and build them up to ministry of God's truth.

What is Timothy to do? Come back to II Timothy 4. One final command, fulfill your ministry. That wraps it up, that summarizes it. Complete your ministry. A word that was used outside the Bible of paying a debt fully, fulfilling an obligation. So maybe when you pay off your car or something you get something stamped with Paid in Full, something to that effect. That would be the idea here. The obligation has been fully carried out. Remember he's been given a solemn charge in the presence of God, be sure you fully carry out, you see it to completion, you don't stop short. The idea, I've paid two-thirds of my payment and I quit. The idea, Timothy has been a faithful servant in the gospel up until now, but Timothy you can't quit, you can't stop. Fulfill your ministry. You have to carry out all the requirements of your ministry. Summarized in these nine commands. And you'll have to be faithful to the end, Timothy.

In Colossians 4:17. This is always Paul's concern for those that he ministered with, that they would continue to be faithful. Not stop early, not stop short. Say to Archippus, take heed to the ministry. That word ministry is a form of the word we have in English, deacon. Your service, your realm of serving. Take heed to the ministry, the service which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it. Same basic word here as we have, fulfill your ministry in the command to Timothy. Here to Archippus, take heed to the ministry. That's our word, the realm of your serving. That you may fulfill it. There's our verb, the command we have in Timothy. You have a realm of serving, a responsibility before God. Be sure you fulfill it, you see it to completion, to the very end. Paul had more to say about this in his own testimony as he wraps up this section.

Come back to II Timothy. With that as the commands Paul is ready now to speak of himself. His commands to Timothy and instructions as completed there as far as specifics on his ministry, there will be others later, he wants Timothy to come see him and so on. But now what he is going to do is wrap it up by giving his own personal testimony, sometimes called Paul's last will and testament, these verses 6-8. We're just going to look at one of these verses right now. But Paul is going to reinforce it by giving himself as an example to Timothy, as a concluding reinforcement of the importance of what he has just instructed him.

Note what he says in verse 6 and how it opens up. For I. When he drew the contrast with Timothy, verse 5, but you, in contrast to those false teachers and those who pay attention to them. You, Timothy, are different. Here is what you must do. Why Timothy, the added importance of it. Verse 6, because the emphasis is on I. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering. The time of my departure is at hand. You must carry on the ministry, Timothy, because I am about to die. I won't be here to encourage you. I won't be here to lead the way. I won't be here to be a model and a pattern for you. I am already being poured out as a drink offering. That word already denotes that the process is under way, the events are in motion that will culminate in Paul's final sacrifice—his martyrdom, his execution. I am being poured out as a drink offering. That's a translation of one word. To be poured out as a drink offering.

You have to come back to Numbers 15. The drink offering was the wine added to the main sacrifice. Verses 1-10, we'll just pick out a couple of verses here. When you are bringing your offering, various offerings from the herd of the flock and so on, the end of verse 3. Verse 4, the one who presents his offering shall present to the Lord a grain offering, so you bring the grain offering. Then with it you add, verse 5, the wine for the drink offering, with the burnt offering or for the sacrifice for each lamb. Or for a ram you prepare certain amount of grain offering and then with the drink offering, verse 7, one-third of a hin of wine. Or if it's a bull, verse 8, then grain offering that goes with it, then the final is verse 10, one-half a hin of wine. So you see the wine is what is added to the sacrifice at the final stage.

When Paul says I am already in the process, the sacrifice is about to be completed. So I'm being poured out as a drink offering, it's about over for me. Paul is fond of the analogy of our lives as sacrifices, living sacrifices. Romans 12, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. Paul had done so. He talked about his ministry as a sacrifice. Romans 15:16 he talks about the Gentiles that he had been privileged to lead to Christ and faith in Christ. They are a sacrifice to God, they are not mine, they are not a testimony to me. They are something that is pleasing to God. That ongoing picture of a sacrifice.

Come back to Philippians 2. Paul used a similar picture. He is in an earlier Roman imprisonment as he writes the letter to the Philippians. He will be released from that imprisonment and subsequently rearrested at a later time. That's where we have him in II Timothy. But in Philippians 2:17, but even if I am being poured out as a drink offering. There is the same picture. He thought he was going to be released from this imprisonment, but even if that doesn't happen and the sacrifice of my life now is at its final stage, upon the sacrifice and service of your faith. He even puts it here, I would just be a minor addition to you as the main sacrifice. Poured out upon the sacrifice and service of your faith. It's like you are the main part of the sacrifice, I'd just be like the wine added at the end. And if I am the final portion of the sacrifice, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. It's all right. Even I don't get released and I'm martyred, that's fine. It just completes the sacrifice. And I praise the Lord for that.

You know there is no moaning here. We look back and we see Paul's life and we see the Word of God. But you think of Timothy and others in Paul's day. The man in charge of Rome at this time, the emperor, is Nero, a vile, godless man. A man so disgusting that within about two years of Paul's martyrdom his own people are going to turn against him and he'll be driven to suicide to escape the fate that they would have inflicted upon him. Just a disgusting man. We think, why would Paul's life be “cut short” at the hands of such a vulgar, vile man. Why wouldn't God intervene? I mean, think about it, think about what Paul's life could have been if he could have had another twenty years, the letters he could have written, the young men he could have trained and equipped. You don't get any of this in Paul's letter. Oh, if I could only have a little more time, if only this. No. It's like a sacrifice and if the sacrifice is coming to a conclusion, what a glorious event. This is offered to God. Nero is not cutting Paul's life short, Paul doesn't even mention it. God is bringing to a conclusion a life that has been a life of sacrifice. What a glorious even this is. You know, keeping the proper perspective on these things keeps things from becoming morose. You know people's life is not cut short, a believer's life, let's focus on that, is not cut short by cancer, disease, by an automobile accident. No, God is bringing to conclusion a life that is to be a sacrifice for Him. And death is just the final event in a life lived for Him, a life given to Him as a sacrifice, a ministry and service for Him in whatever way, an area as a sacrifice to Him. And now it concludes. Oh but he was so young. Yes, but his life concluded as a sacrifice to the Lord. Their work was done. I mean, that's where Paul is. Timothy, you have to understand you have to pick up. Paul's concerned about the ongoing faithfulness of the ministry of the Word of God, but he is not depressed about his impending death. He is totally occupied with impressing upon Timothy and others the importance of being faithful to the end.

I am already being poured out, the time of my departure has come. Come back to II Timothy 4. The time of my departure has come, you see we're saying the same thing with different metaphors, different pictures. I am being poured out as a drink offering, means we're nearing the end. The time of my departure has come. We're come to the conclusion. Perfect tense here, the process is coming to its final stage. Not saying we're at the end, Paul may have weeks to go, he may have months to go. He is expecting, as we get to the end of the letter, that Timothy will have time to come and visit him. He needs to hurry. But the point is I can see the end from here. It's like somebody who goes to see the doctor and they're told you have 4-5 months to live. Well life takes on a different perspective because they can see the end, so to speak. It's in sight. That's how Paul is writing. The time of my departure has come, it is imminent. Next week, next month, three or four months, six months. The process is underway, it's just a matter of when the process is brought to completion here now. The time of my departure, that's how Paul views his death. It's the completion of a sacrifice, it is a time of departure. He is not looking at it as an end, it's the conclusion to his earthly ministry, but it's a moving on. Now is retirement time. Now he can take it easy. Now the suffering will be over. Now he can kick back and relax, if I can use that kind of terminology. Timothy, you can't, you're not done, you haven't fulfilled your ministry yet. I have. Paul is keeping on the ministry even though the end is in sight, but he realizes it is time to begin to pass off things here. And that's what he is doing. The time of my departure.

Now back to Philippians 1:21, he says, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh this will mean fruitful labor for me and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ. For that is very much better. Yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. You know Paul saw everything in light of the impact of the ministry. At this stage he is confident that it is God's will for him to continue his ministry a little longer, he'll be released for this imprisonment. But you know what? It's hard for me to pick. Would you rather leave today and go to be with Christ? We think, I want to see my grandkids grow up and graduate, I've worked all my life, I want to have time to retire and do the things we didn't get a chance to do. All of a sudden we're saying we're living like the world. You understand, we're going to heaven. Death for us is not the end. The unbeliever ought to retire early, they ought to retire at 30. They are on their way to hell. You have to enjoy everything you can now. I think it was a beer commercial that used to say, grab the gusto. Well, eat, drink and be merry for tonight we die. If this is all there is, you better get everything. But you understand for a believer, we are serving the Lord and about His work right up to the very end. Then we move on to our reward, then we move on to the freedom from pressure, from responsibility, from difficulty, from trial, from suffering. I have the desire to depart and be with Christ.

Come back to II Corinthians 5, the last passage we'll look at. Verse 6, Paul didn't mind talking about death. At the end of chapter 4 verses 16 and following are a reminder that this present time of suffering and trial, bodily deterioration is temporary. We're moving to glory. Verse 6 of chapter 5, therefore being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body, we're absent from the Lord. He really loved the Lord, He is the passion and love of your life. We understand while you are living here in this physical body you can't enjoy the beauty of His presence. While we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith and not by sight. That's how we know it, we believe what God said. We are of good courage, I say, and rather prefer to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. You know we sometimes say it, when we get into difficulty or hardship comes we say, if only the Lord would come today. But you know in the good times we almost forget about it. And for Paul the reminder is constantly there. That's what death is, that's how we as believers live. Be faithful to the end.

Paul wrote to the Philippians, according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness Christ will even now as always be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. The goal is the same, right? Lord, be honored with this life, with this body. I want to be faithful to the end, I want to be obedient, I want to fulfill the area of serving you've given to me, right up to the last moment. And then I'll depart and step into the glory of your presence. The goal is to be pleasing to you as he says in II Corinthians 5:9, whether in this life or the life to come. That's how we live as believers, total contrast with the unbelieving world around us.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your truth. Thank you for these closing words of the Apostle Paul in challenge to Timothy and by your grace through your Spirit the challenge given to us. Lord, we don't follow the crowd, we're not testing to see what is popular today. We've been entrusted with the treasure of your truth, we are the church, the family of the living God, the church of the living God. We are the pillar and support of the truth. Lord, we desire to be faithful to you in all areas of our service. Keep us clear headed, may we be willing to endure the evil and hardship that might be inflicted upon us. Lord, may our concern be to fulfill our ministry, knowing that the time will come when we will complete our service for you, we will have the joy of stepping into your presence. To depart and be with Christ which is far better. We praise you in Christ's name, amen.