Word of the Lord this morning is 2 Timothy chapter 4, verses 6-8 and then verses 16-18. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. At my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not be late to their charge. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. And that is the word of God. The Apostle Paul lived life with one singular passion, to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it's right there in verse 17 of today's text. What a life the Apostle Paul lived. He proclaimed and believed that one was saved by faith alone in God's gospel alone. And in his lifetime, he worked harder than any other apostle for the sake of the gospel. And when it came for his lifetime to end, he left earth in a blaze of glory, martyred through beheading by the wicked Roman Emperor Nero. He was, as verse 6 stated, offered like an offering unto God. when the time for his departure came. Now the truth is whether we live like Paul or whether we end our days frolicking in grass playing endless rounds of mindless golf, the truth does not change that the end will come for every single one of us. The word departure used by Paul in verse 6 is a reference to death. And death comes for us all. It is a matter of when and not a matter of if. Are you ready to die and meet God? Paul was confident in verse 6. I am ready. What a bold, manly, Christ-honoring resolve. When so many mortals are afraid of death, how did Paul get to that point? Less than a month ago, I celebrated my 45th birthday. The day after, I was told, Sir, you have to take the AFT. By the grace of God, I passed. The birthday, however, was a reminder to me that the end of life is now likely nearer than the beginning. As my dear children so lovingly reminded me, 45 does not round to 40, Dad. It rounds now to 50. And they are right. Thought provoking as it may be, forced me to ask myself as if I was stewarding my time here on Earth rightly for God. Would I, at the end of my life, be able to say, like the Apostle Paul, am I ready to be offered, that the time for my departure is at hand, that I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, that henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness? What magnificent words! What glorious words! What's scary? Words. To be able to meaningfully say, I am ready to die and meet God, is an immensely scary thing. I think most of humanity would agree rather with Woody Allen, who said, I'm not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens. No one wants to die. Even the most vociferous atheist is secretly, innately afraid of meeting what he knows is the judge of all creation. And while some of you here this morning may have many more years on me, irrespective of your current age, the Bible tells us to be wise, and that from time to time we ought to pause and quietly think about one's life's work and about the end of life. Why? Because we tend to waste life when we don't think about the end of life. We tend to waste life when we don't reflect upon our mortality. Life's most precious resource is not your pension. It's not real estate and it's not gold or silver. Life's most precious resource is time. You could reallocate money, you could reallocate real estate, you will never ever be able to reallocate lost time. So take time to reflect. Take stock of the scarcity of life's most precious resource. Such reflection is necessary to run one's life course well, so that we could stand one day before God with confidence, as we prepare to meet him. It was the philosopher Blaise Pascal who spoke of the need for quiet reflection. When he once said, all of man's misfortune comes from one thing, which is not knowing how to sit quietly in a room. Often many of us are uncomfortable with that. And so we busy ourselves with distractions. And sometimes when I visit the psych ward over at Womack, the TV is always running in the group therapy room. I want you to listen to me closely. Being busy with activities does not always result in a life that is pleasing to God. A distracted mind is often a life that is wasted. We all remember Martha who busied herself while Mary calmly sat by Jesus' feet listening to his teachings. Our busyness often serves as a distraction so that we don't have to think about life's ultimate questions. Where are we from? What is the purpose of life? Is there a life after death? Where am I headed? Questions of origin, purpose, and destiny. We don't want to think about these things. For a Christian to quietly pause, think, pray, and order one's life with intentionality, prayer, and God's blessing results in an unwasted life. This morning's text has two key sections of scripture. The first are verses 6-8. The second, 16-18. Let's examine the first, verses six through eight. In these verses, Paul reflects on life and declares himself ready to die for Jesus. At this point, he was roughly about 60 years old, and though he could have medically continued to live for perhaps years or decades longer, he however knew it was time to die. He would be indeed martyred. by Nero. The key for Paul's confidence at death is found in verse 7. Look at verse 7. That's the key. Paul knew he was ready to die because he knew two things. Number one, he knew that he had maintained faith in the gospel. And I'll get to that in a moment. That's the most critical piece right there. That's what enables you to be ready to die. Faith in the gospel. And second, he had finished his work. Now what was his work? His singular job was to preach the gospel. What is this gospel? It is the message which, if believed upon, brings you the gift of eternal life. It starts with point number one, that there is a God who eternally exists. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Three persons, one God. Not three gods, three persons, one God. And this God eternally existed, was uncreated, and he spoke and created all that we see. Every molecule and atom in this universe was created by the word of our triune God. He also made man, Adam and Eve. And Christianity gives us the answer as to why every human being is worthy of dignity and respect. Secular humanism cannot give you that answer, for if we are just evolved animals underneath the category of the great ape, then we know for a fact there are cultures all over the world who kill and eat monkeys. We have slaughterhouses for animals each and every single work day. But humans are worthy of dignity, of respect, because we are not animals. We are made in the image of God. We have souls, animals do not. Only Christianity can give you that answer. And because we are made in the image of God, because we have souls, we have infinite worth. But we rebelled against God, and as a result of that rebellion, we pass on to each one of our descendants sin, a sinful nature. Theologians call this original sin. And God, because he is good, God, because he is infinitely just, must punish sinners to hell. When we die, there is no purgatory. There's only heaven or hell. And sins against an infinitely holy God deserve infinite punishment in hell. And we are all sinners deserving of hell. Every single one of us. But the good news, the great news is this, for God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son, Jesus, who was fully God and fully man. He lived a sinless life and then he died on the cross and paid for the sins of those who would believe in him. Resurrecting on the third day, it is not a myth, so that if lastly you repent, meaning you turn from your life of sin, and believe in Jesus as your Lord, your God, and your Savior, then you shall have eternal life. Amen? The moment you believe in Jesus, you are born again. It is at that moment of faith you become a Christian. And it is at that moment of faith you gain eternal life. Do you believe in the gospel this morning? It is that message that Paul spent his life preaching. Whether it was in Athens, at the Oropagus, or all over the Western world, Paul gave his life for this gospel. Man being an eternal being, he knew that there was nothing more important than granting the message that brings eternal life to his fellow human creatures. Now, unlike most human beings, for the Apostle Paul, the end of life was not contingent upon a terminal medical diagnosis. Instead, the end of life for the Apostle was contingent upon the termination of his God-given mission. Let's read verse 7. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. Paul, the soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ, had finished his mission. He had finished his fight and now he was ready to meet the Lord Jesus. What about you? Are you ready? Are you fighting the good fight against Satan, against sin, against personal lust, laziness, rage, bitterness, addictions of all different sorts, unbelief? Are you winning in the power and might of the Holy Ghost? Are you running your course? Are you living in righteousness? Are you evangelizing, meaning are you sharing the gospel message that I just declared a few moments ago from this pulpit to others? Is God using you to lead others to Christ? Are you discipling those who are younger than you in the faith so that they could grow? Are you doing all of these things so that you too will one day receive a crown of righteousness from the Lord Jesus Christ? For you will stand before Him. And I want you to notice what verse 8 states. It does not state a crown of gold or silver. Instead it says that you will receive a crown of righteousness. Now for the worldly person that doesn't excite him as much as a crown of gold and silver would. But the believer knows what this is all about. Because through the blood of Jesus Christ you receive by faith the righteousness of God. Not your own righteousness because you will never be able to stand before God with your own works. Scripture says that they are as filthy rags before a holy God. But the moment you believe in Jesus, you are clothed in His righteousness, a foreign righteousness, not yours, God's righteousness. And there is nothing in this world more valuable than that. You receive this as you not only believe in Jesus, but you love Jesus. And that's verse 8. You're not just looking forward to Christ's return, You love his reappearing. It's not just fire insurance for you, believing in the gospel. For you, you love Jesus. You don't see him as a ticket to heaven. You see him as someone you worship, you love, you adore, and like for Paul, you're willing to die for. And then the second section of this morning's text are verses 16 through 18. It is Paul looking back at his life and realizing that at the very beginning, when he started his work, no one stood with him. Ladies and gentlemen, loneliness is a very real crisis. It has health impact. But at the end of life, all of us will cross the river of death alone. Children will one day leave. Spouses will one day die. We too will one day die. Paul looks back at his life and he realizes that at the beginning, no one stood with him. In fact, he writes, everyone forsook me. But he was able to overcome that by being strong in God. By turning his mind to his faith in his Lord Jesus Christ, He not only preached to the vast region of the Gentile world, and I know that Satan was looking at him, whispering into his mind, look at you, you pathetic loner. No one's with you. Give up this silly fight. But Paul did it. He looked to Christ, who he himself alone died on that cross. All his disciples forsook him, and he gained strength. And through the power of God, he preached the gospel to the vast regions of the Gentile world, not going east, but going west. And he also, and this is the key to your mental health as well, he forgave all who forsook him. Paul is the reason why the Western world is different from the rest. We know that the cross symbolizes Christianity and Paul is the reason why the cross is seen on the vast number of Western nation flags. Countries such as Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Greece, Sweden, the United Kingdom, in fact the UK has three crosses. And irrespective of how secular they've become today, these nations have roots in the gospel that Paul preached as he spread the word throughout the West. And it is a reminder that the power of a praying man is greater than all the human support in the world. It is a reminder that God plus nothing equals everything. It was God who delivered Paul out of every evil work so that, as verse 18 declares, Paul's life, burning bright through preaching, would be unto the glory of God forever and ever throughout the annals of human history. Do you want to live that way? I urge you by the power of God to live that way. Paul was just another man like you and I. but not many live for the glory of God. If you're a student of history, you look out into the world, history manifests that so many live for their own glory. King Louis the 14th was one such person. He lived for his own glory. Now, as a Catholic, Louis is known for, in 1685, deciding that the Protestant minority in France was too weak to resist. He revoked the Edict of Nantes, which in 1598 gave Protestants the freedom to worship. And King Louis banned Protestant worship in France so that about one third of France's Protestants fled abroad to escape this persecution. and others formed underground movements holding religious services in forests and remote mountain areas because they still sought to worship the living God by believing in Christ alone through faith, not with sacraments and works as the Catholics falsely teach, but by faith alone in the gospel. And so many were persecuted. This worship today would be illegal in King Louis' day. King Louis XIV wanted to see a Catholic France achieve glorious new heights, so he launched many wars. He called himself Louis the Great and was also known as the Sun King. He wanted to be the source of light. Exercising absolutism, Louis reigned 72 years, longer than any other European monarch. He had an extravagant court, and he planned his own funeral to be just as spectacular. Because you see, here's the problem with mortality. We as mortals want to live significantly, but we know that we will end. And so doing the only thing he thought he could do, he wanted to make his funeral spectacular. And so being the source of light, or so he claimed himself to be, he thought of how to create the mood for his funeral. And prior to his death, the king commanded his court chaplain, John Baptiste Massillon, that upon passing, he would die, and then they would lie him at state in a coffin made of gold in that famous cathedral called Notre Dame in Paris. And in order to be held in awe by all in attendance, he gave orders for the entire cathedral to be pitch dark, lit dimly only by a single candle positioned above his golden coffin. Louis would have the candlelight symbolize his singular greatness. So on the day of the funeral, all sat in darkness. as a single flickering candlelight shed light upon the king's dead golden casket. And as Massalon rose to speak, he did the unexpected. First he went over and he extinguished the candle, representing King Louis' greatness. And then in the utter darkness of Notre Dame, he proclaimed these words, only God is great. I close with this. Most centered their lives on themselves. Paul centered his on Christ. Initially, no one stood with him. But God stood with him and through God's strength, Paul preached the gospel to the entire Western world and thus changed the face of eternity. God delivered him from powerful rulers and kept him from every evil work. And at the very end of life, Paul was able to reflect back and powerfully proclaim, verse 18, God preserved me unto his heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Will you, with your flickering life, live life for the glory of God alone? Amen? Let us pray.