Finishing Well
By
Matthew Black, pastor
Dedicated to Gary Johnson (March
1, 1940 – December 24, 2008)
Text: 2 Timothy 4:6-8
Date: Sunday, December 28, 2008, 11am
Tabernacle Baptist Church
7020 Barrington Road
Hanover Park, Illinois 60133
Website: www.GodCentered.info
Introduction: The
title of this morning’s message is “Finishing Well”. This message is dedicated to Bro. Gary
Johnson, who was born March 1, 1940, and entered into glory on Christmas Eve
2008. Our text is 2 Timothy 4:6-8. Open your
Bibles there if you would. 2 Timothy 4
is the last chapter Paul ever penned. It
is his personal epitaph.
I’ve read some amazing epitaphs on
tomb stones. Our children’s great, great
Grandma Caroline wrote her own epitaph before she died. If you go Sweet Home Cemetery just down the
street from the church she attended in Sweet Home, Oregon, you can see it for
yourself on Grandma Caroline’s grave. It
reads as follows:
Roy and Caroline Stutzman
Eternity! How long will you be?
No end shall the soul ever see.
Rolling on forever and aye,
O to be ready: we can and we may!
Gary Johnson was a brother in
Christ to all of us. He was a husband, a
dad, and a grandfather. He didn’t get
the opportunity to write his own epitaph, but if he could have, I believe it
would be identical to the one the Apostle Paul wrote down before he died.
It is found in our text in 2 Timothy 4:6-8. Let us stand as we read God’s Word, just
three verses. Paul writes these last
words in this last chapter before dying.
He says this: “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of
my departure is at hand. 7 I have fought
a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day:
and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing”.
[Prayer for Guidance]
Paul clearly finished well. But sometimes we put him on a pedestal since
he was an apostle and all. Let me
clearly say that all who truly know Christ have the promise and should have the
confidence that they too will finish well.
In this church we believe strongly in the doctrine of the preservation
of the saints. What does that mean? It means that God will progressively sanctify
every one of His children. He’s put a
down-payment down on your perfection by sealing you with the Holy Spirit. The Bible says from cover to cover that you
if you are chosen by God for salvation, you are also chosen by Him to be “conformed
to the image of His Son” (Romans
8:29).
I.
We
need to be Ready to die.
If
you were to die today, would you be ready to meet God? As we are all very aware, death comes very
suddenly. It was 2:25 a.m. on Christmas
Eve. We were singing one of Gary’s
favorite songs, “How Great Thou”, and Gary slowly raised one hand, and then the
other. At that moment, his heart rate
went to zero, and he departed from this life.
Twenty-four hours earlier, he had had a massive heart attack that threw
him into a coma. Death came
unexpectedly, but Gary was ready. Are
you ready?
A. You will die. It is a certainty. 1
Corinthians 15:22, “in Adam all die.”
1.
There
is a day, time, and a manner appointed
for our death. At that moment we will
meet God. It is a day that is fixed
before you are born: “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this
the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Paul did not know what exact day he would
cross into eternity, but he knew it was soon, and he was ready. He had a confidence that all God’s people
ought to have. He said: “I am now ready
to be offered” (2 Timothy 4:6). We have an appointment that we cannot
miss.
2.
We
should all be ready because only God knows the day or hour of our death. The timing of death is perfect because it is
appointed by God. God ordains the hour
in which we leave this body. Nothing and
no one can take us before the appointed time.
As the poet said:
Plagues and death around me fly,
Till He pleases I cannot die.
Not a single arrow can hit
Till the God of love sees fit.[1]
Death
is uncertain from our perspective. CH
Spurgeon said:
“There are a thousand gates to Death. From this spot in which I stand, there is a
straight path to the grave; and where you sit there is an entrance into
eternity. Oh, let us bethink, then, how
uncertain life is.”[2]
Yet
with all of life’s uncertainties, there is nothing uncertain about death from
God’s perspective. God has ordained
every detail of each of our death—the time, the place, whether we should suffer
or not. You may not have picked out your
grave plot, but the Lord already sees the headstone where you will buried.
So we ought to be ready because death is a certainty for
all of us, appointed by God.
B. Secondly, though others are never
ready for your death, you ought to
always be ready. Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:6, “For
I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand”. Paul’s death would be a shock to the early
church. No one was ready for him to go! Paul was deeply loved. Every Gentile believer could trace their
spiritual lineage back to Paul. Who
could replace him? I don’t believe there
could ever be a good time for Paul to depart.
Application: In the same way, none of us here can believe that Gary Johnson is no
longer with us. It is surreal. It doesn’t seem possible, but it is
undeniable. The next time we see Gary he
will be sinlessly perfect. All his tears
will have been wiped away! Yet, there is
a surreal finality to death on this side of heaven that I’m not sure if we are
ever ready for.
Gary
was ready for his death, but we were not
ready for him to depart. From our
perspective, there were a thousand unfinished things in Gary’s life. What are we going to do without him?
We
know that God will give us sufficient grace.
God’s way is perfect. He makes no
mistakes. God needs no one to counsel
Him. His counsel stands forever. Yet there is a very real sense in which none
of us was ready for Gary to go. It was
just way too soon. That is normal for
all of us to feel. I believe it was the
same for those who loved the Apostle Paul.
He
cannot tell what is going to happen when he dies. He cannot guarantee the future, but faces
death with confidence. He says in verse 7, “I have fought a good
fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” He has done what the Lord asked him to
do. He was faithful.
Application: We are not called to
guarantee the future—that’s God’s job.
We cannot obey for anyone else.
But we can be faithful in what the Lord gives us.
Those
who are left behind from a departed loved one must take comfort in the
sovereignty of God. If you are a
believer, then you know that the worst of things work for your good—they are
hard—they are devastating, but they are forming you into the image of Jesus
Christ. Romans 8:28-29, “we know that all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his
purpose. 29 For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son”. God means for the loss of Gary to conform us
into Christ’s image. He means for us to
proclaim from our heart—though we may not understand, that God makes no
mistakes. The timing of Gary’s death is
designed by God to find our Lord’s grace sufficient.
C. Thirdly, we ought to live in light
of seeing Jesus. We ought to be living
in such a way that we are always ready to be in God’s presence. Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:6, “For I am now ready
to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand”. Paul says: “I am ready to be offered”. The idea here is to be poured out like a
drink offering. Paul had poured out his
life as a drink offering to God. He had
counted all his earthly achievements and accomplishments as refuse—as
dung! He was living for seeing Jesus!!
II. How Can we be Ready to Die? Paul
gives us three things he did for Christ constantly: he struggled, served, and
studied for Christ. Paul tells us what
his mentality was through his whole life.
Paul now gives us his epitaph.
This is his motto for how he lived.
Paul uses three analogies in verse
7. Paul saw life as: a fight, a race, and a stewardship. He says, if you want to be ready to die, then
be ready for the fight, be ready to run the race to the end, and don’t throw
away your stewardship of the Gospel-invest it wisely—keep the faith!
A. Through our lives we must be faithful
in our struggle for
Christlikeness. We must fight the good
fight. Paul uses the analogy of the
fight. He says, “I have fought a good
fight” (verse 7). It’s the most noble, most heroic fight there
is. It’s the “good” fight.
1.
We
need to struggle for holiness. We need to fight the good fight. We need to struggle to “Put off the old
man and put on the new” (Ephesians 4:22-24). We need to “work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling. 13 For it is
God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure”
(Philippians 2:12-13). We need to
daily lay ourselves on the alter as a ‘living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1).
God
is conforming us to the image of Jesus Christ.
He has put His Spirit in you. He
says, “I’ll take out the heart of stone and put in a tender heart of
flesh. I’ll put my Spirit in you and
cause you to walk in my statutes” (Ezekiel 36:27). You
might be reading this thinking, “Is there any hope for me?” Can God really sanctify me?” The answer is an absolute yes! All those He calls He justifies, and He
conforms them to the image of Christ.
Listen to Christ’s promises:
“Now unto him that is able to keep you from
falling, and to present you
faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise
God our Saviour, be glory and
majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen” (Jude 24-25).
“Faithful
is he that calleth you, who
also will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
“Being confident of this very thing, that he
which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).
“God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2
Thessalonians 2:13).
“Ye are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them”
(Ephesians 2:10).
He tells us: “I will never leave thee, nor
forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5).
Paul would
not compromise in holiness. He fought
for it!
Paul
says in 1 Corinthians 9:26, “I
therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the
air: 27 But I keep under my body, and
bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached
to others, I myself should be a castaway.”
2.
We
need to struggle for unity in
the church. Paul was willing to confront
hard situations. Jesus taught us in Matthew 5:23-24, “Therefore if thou
bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought
against thee; 24 Leave there thy gift
before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then
come and offer thy gift.”
Like
Paul we need to be willing to confront people so that he could “keep the
unity of the spirit in the bond of peace”.
Unity is not everyone ignoring problems.
Unity is opening up the sewers and getting everything out from
underneath the rug. It is being honest
about your sins and agreeing that we need to live holy lives. It means confronting problems in the Body of
Christ.
B. Through our lives we must be faithful
in your service and loyalty
to Christ! Paul says, “I have
finished my course”. Paul
could look through his whole race of life, and he could say, “I have finished
my course”. I have thoroughly excercised
the gifts God gave me. I have served
Christ in the capacity he called me to.
If you want to serve Christ to the end means then you must be committed
to Him each day. A faithful life is a
faithful collection of days. The way you
finish your course is you serve God faithfully right where you are. You are not looking for greener
pastures. Those who are committed to
serve make the place God has them better.
C. Through our lives we must be
faithful in our study for
Christ! Paul says, “I have kept the
faith” (verse 7). Jude tells us that
we should “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the
saints” (Jude 3). It’s not just that we are Biblically
intelligent heathens. The purpose of
study is to be conformed to the image of Christ. We are not to be hearers only but “doers
of the Word”. The blessed man is meditates in the Word “day and night”
and the results are bearing much fruit: “he shall be like a tree planted by
the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also
shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” (Psalm 1).
·
Live
a life of struggle for
Christlikeness.
·
Live
a life of loyal service to
Christ. Don’t make excuses. Come to all the services—not to impress God
or the pastor, but to encourage the brethren—to show your love for them! Do you care?
Do you have a gift to exercise?
Why do you come to services? We
ought to worship God together.
·
Live
a life of study in the
Word!
III. Finally, how do you know if you are ready to die? Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:8, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day:
and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing”. There is a confidence in the Gospel. Paul is talking about an assurance of
heaven. If you have an assurance of
heaven, then you are ready to die.
Illustration: Judy had a wonderful
opportunity to give the Gospel to everyone she saw in the hospital. People would ask about Gary, and she would
say that he knew where he was going if he were to die. She would say that she had that same
assurance too. While we were at the
hospital Judy witnessed to nurses doctors, two chaplains… And just shortly
before Gary died, the grief counselor called us in to talk with us about end of
life options with Gary. It was
amazing. She was supposed to be
counseling Judy, and by the end of the conversation, Judy was counseling the
grief counselor. This dear woman opened
up to Judy about how many people she had lost in her life, and how she was
struggling with bitterness. Judy was
able to tell her about an absolutely sovereign God, and the possibility of
having a strong assurance of heaven.
No
one is really ready to die until they have a strong assurance that they are a
child of God. What does that assurance
look like? Well let’s listen to the
words of Paul. Paul says in verse 8, “Henceforth there is laid
up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall
give me at that day”.
A. You are confident in your justification. Can you say, “Henceforth there is laid up
for me a crown of righteousness”?
Your sins are washed away if you have believed in Christ. He is your substitute. All your sins are laid upon Him and His crown
of righteousness is put on you. You are
crowned and robed in His righteousness. 1
Peter 3:18 For Christ also hath once
suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.
2
Corinthians 5:21, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no
sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
B. You are confidence in the righteous
Judge, Jesus Christ. Paul says, “Henceforth there is laid up
for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge”.
Christ is the righteous judge. Now
listen to this. This is glorious. If you know Christ, he has already judged
himself at Calvary. Your sins were laid
upon Him. John 5:22, “For the Father
judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son”. If you only see judgment in your conscience,
it may be that you have not yet passed from death unto life.
C. You long for the sight of Jesus. It’s what you live for! Paul often speaks of “that day” or “the
last day” or the “great day of God”. There are two perspectives on Christ’s
coming—the perspective of unbelievers, and the perspective of God’s
people. For the lost, the only thing
they have to look forward to is wrath.
Christ will come “in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know
not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 1:8). Are you longing for Christ’s coming.
Conclusion: You might say to
me, I want my epitaph to be “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my
course, I have kept the faith”, but I’ve already messed up my life. Is there any hope for me? Yes!
God is a God of grace and mercy. Psalm
103:3 says, he “forgiveth all thine iniquities”. Remember verses 11-14, “For as the heaven is
high above the earth, so great is his
mercy toward them that fear him. 12 As far as the east is from
the west, so far hath he removed
our transgressions from us. 13 Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the LORD pitieth
them that fear him. 14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth
that we are dust”.
You can finish
well. If you are a believer, you are
promised a life of holiness and good works that come from the Holy Spirit
dwelling inside you. Are you ready to
die? I want to quote to you once again
the epitaph on great, great Grandma Caroline’s tombstone.
Eternity! How long will you be?
No end shall the soul ever see.
Rolling on forever and aye,
O to be ready: we can and we may!
Are you ready? You can be!