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[0:00] This morning to bring before your mind a word found in the second epistle of Paul to Timothy.

[0:19] The fourth chapter and verses six and seven.

[0:31] For I am now ready to be offered.

[0:47] And the time of my departure is at hand.

[1:03] I have fought a good find. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith.

[1:18] And the following verse reads, Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but to all them who love his appearing.

[1:48] Now, just a word or two about the way in which this text came to me.

[2:05] About twelve days ago, I suppose it was, this laid very much upon my mind. I said to my grandson last Sunday, I have so strongly on my mind a word that I never have been able to this moment to venture to speak from.

[2:36] Well, he said it would be right for you to speak from it at the first opportunity. Paul was in a position in which he was held by Nero, the despotic, cruel, monstrous, Roman dictator and governor.

[3:21] One of the cruelest that ever occupied a high place in the Roman Empire. He was renowned for his terrible deeds of persecution and torture.

[3:52] And Paul, when he was called by grace the road to Damascus, the road to Damascus, was to some degree uncertain as to the meaning of things on that occasion, whether he could really lay any claim and have any hope of everlasting life.

[4:28] But now, all question and doubt is entirely removed from him.

[4:39] he says, he says, I am ready to be offered.

[4:54] And the time of my departure is at hand. It couldn't be very long, days, more than weeks before he'd be hailed before the court of Nero and prescribed as only Nero could in those times a cruel death which he was to crown his life with glory.

[5:29] even though it be at the hands of men. And I would like you to observe how perfectly balanced this part of God's word is.

[5:52] Because as he declares this and it was full time for him to lay claim to these three great things, at the same time he was much mindful and careful over the young man that was so recently called to the work of the ministry whom he could see very clearly needed great help guidance and above all the Lord's blessed teaching.

[6:41] And therefore you will observe this that he begins this chapter by several very clear blessed instructions and warnings to this young minister of the gospel Timothy who had been called by his own ministry to come to believe and to embrace the way and the will of God.

[7:18] we shall look firstly briefly of course at those wise instructions that he gave to Timothy at this time in full view of his own departure.

[7:44] he was deeply concerned interested that this young man should have preparation for a life that lay before him that when he came to the end of that life he might be able to say I have fought a good fight.

[8:14] now I felt this word therefore not very often do I get a text some few days before having to preach more often it is at that very last moment before entering into a pulpit it that I can feel persuaded in my mind that this is the word for the people of God.

[8:55] I hope it will be a word for you dear young people who are here this morning.

[9:09] I wish and pray with all my heart that it may be very effective to you. You see man cannot really preach from a text like this or proclaim it unless he can see the end unless he can await the promise change that Lord has given to every one of his people that when this world is finished he may enter into that glory everlasting and meet with the dear Redeemer forever and ever.

[10:04] Many people may boast about this I've heard young ministers even take it and you could tell by the way they took it and what they brought forth by it there was no real belief in the truth of it.

[10:33] Now let that be your prayer my dear young people that when you may come to the end of your days it may be right and blessed blessedly true that you have fought a good fight.

[11:02] Now we'll look at Paul's exhortations to Timothy. He said I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.

[11:38] Now this is the first counsel that Paul gives to Timothy a newly entered servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[11:56] He says preach the word preach the word not in order to entertain the hearers not by any way whatsoever to draw attention to oneself but preach the word be instant in season and out of season rebuke reprove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and doctrine that's an important addition isn't it not simply by long suffering sympathy the people may be wrong in many things but we can't show sympathy for such but be instant in reproof rebuke and in every way possible instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and doctrine that must be the chief main foundation which

[13:54] Paul would ever have in his mind and convey to the minds of his tutors that it must be always with sound doctrine then he gives this warning the time will come and there's no uncertainty about this and you know full well there's no uncertainty today in the churches about this the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine and why cannot they endure sound doctrine because they know nothing about the sound doctrine and furthermore they have no desire to know it and to love it and consequently as Paul so rightly truly speaks under the inspiration of God the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine and he goes on further to say after but after their own lusts love what a powerful word this is how unusual this is that

[15:45] Paul should attribute to those who pretend to know doctrine and to love sound doctrine that in all that they do they do it out of the lusts of their own heart the aims of which are self and everything that does not give glory to the Lord now again he goes on they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall turn unto fables now isn't that a clear description of the day in which we live turning away from the truth they willingly do this but they turn to fables look at the tendency there has been among young people in the schools and colleges to totally disregard and reject the creation of God as recorded in the word of God and they turn to such fables as evolution anything which can seemingly leave

[17:36] God out altogether and where he has no place no honor no right they can reject it out of hand because they have in their hearts the lust of loving fables more than they love God love love love more than other ones but watch thou in all things Timothy this is one of the most important things an old minister could lay down for the young newly called servant Servant of Christ.

[18:33] Watch, he says. Be on the guard. Don't let things come creeping in and you say, oh, I never saw it.

[18:46] Watch. Thou in all things endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist.

[19:02] You see, he's looking forward now in the life and service of this young man, Timothy, the servant of the Lord, and he is saying to him, do the work of an evangelist.

[19:19] You've got a great field in front of you in life. Do the work that it recalls and requires from a faithful servant of Christ.

[19:36] And, he says also, make full proof proof of thy ministry.

[19:51] Full proof of thy ministry. You know, the ministry should never be a light thing at any time or in any manner whatsoever.

[20:06] It should be most serious thing on earth that man can take up and be employed in. The true evangelist is to spread the gospel, get into personal contact with men who are in deep need or in otherwise, in other conditions, but do the work.

[20:36] There were so many people I noticed today, they call themselves evangelists. Well, it's a very strange idea, notion about what evangelism is.

[20:53] But they're quite satisfied with the description. And they're very pleased with the title, I'm an evangelist.

[21:08] But do you ever find a real convert? Do you ever find one that has been brought out of nature's darkness into the marvelous light of the gospel?

[21:20] that is no evangelism at all. Now let us come to these three great and wonderful claims Paul makes here.

[21:44] As I've already pointed out, he is fully entitled to make the claims that he does. And the first is this.

[21:55] I have fought a good fight. I have fought a good fight.

[22:07] He hasn't given up, he hasn't been overthrown, he hasn't come to a time when he says, well there's no use going on. everything is against me, all things are contrary to me.

[22:24] Men and devils are all arranged against me. I might just as well give up, become quiet, silent, individual.

[22:37] Now, I have fought a good fight. And my word, what a fight it has been. too much for me this morning to lead you into some of the battles that Paul engaged upon in the name of his dear master.

[23:02] He fought with good weapons, not carnal weapons. weapons. The weapons of our warfare, he says, are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.

[23:25] And again, he says, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, for it was not against individuals that he was fighting.

[23:35] we wrestle not against such, but we wrestle against principalities and powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against all kinds of evil that is contrary to the gospel.

[24:03] I have fought that kind of fight and I have done it with many a bruise, many an affliction, many oppositions.

[24:23] I have done it, he says, ever having in my heart the great object and purpose at the end.

[24:37] I must go on then fighting. When a person has got an incentive, they can do almost anything to achieve it.

[24:48] if you young men, young people here, have got an incentive in life, there's nothing really to stop you going on and on in that part, in that object until you've really seen the fulfillment of it.

[25:16] Well, now, here we have the greatest fight of all, the fight of Jesus Christ for his cause and for his church and his peace.

[25:33] I don't like making the comparisons, but you must remember this and admit this as I do. There's so many, they come and they attend the means of grace.

[25:50] They are quite ready to acknowledge that they are among those warriors that belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, but there's no fight in them.

[26:05] they're more ready to give up than they are to go on. But here's a great man, called by God, fitted by God, given a pathway of service by him, and he says, I have fought a good fight.

[26:36] One looks back and no doubt Paul would have done so, also, equally so perhaps, that many times in our battles we have not carried the banner high enough, we haven't fully engaged ourselves with the great purpose, but he could say this, I have.

[27:15] This was past experience, it was history, that history would soon come to an end, few more days, and Nero would have his way and his will, and this great man of God, this dear minister of the gospel, would be consigned to death, which would be calculated in the thoughts of Nero as being the worst that he could conceive of, or contrive, to show what the world thinks about those who, though isolated in many respects, are such who do battle in the great warfare of heaven.

[28:10] I have fought a good fight. Isn't it a great pleasure we think of our own nation, if I can bring things down a bit to this level, but when we think, we look around the shires and the villages of this land, and we see these monuments with names inscribed at the bottom of them, mostly, men who have fought for their king and country, who laid down their lives for the sake of our liberty, and we have to say this, these men fought a good fight.

[29:07] Well, now, secondly, he says, I have finished my course.

[29:22] I finished my course. The work has been done, the battles have been won, the long endurance of evil and opposition, those battles are now over, and I have finished my course.

[29:52] Finished it. Yes, to finish a course is the best part of the course.

[30:09] not to start on it and then never complete, but to finish. Dear young people, go out in personal prayer to the Lord to ask him to give you enabling grace to finish your course when the time comes.

[30:47] We cannot boast, at least I cannot boast, anything great, but the Lord has been great to me.

[31:00] I mean, in this matter this morning, I felt persuaded after I had the fall on Wednesday, which seemed to really finish things there and then, I felt now, I've got a text.

[31:19] That text will be for someone in this congregation, someone who will desire the Lord to help them and to keep them in the way until they shall finish, finish the course.

[31:44] Oh, you start, don't you, sometimes, some of you young ones, we all have done it, start on a course and you think, oh, what an endless sort of job this is, I've got three years at college, I've got all this to learn, which seems like a foreign language domain, however, can I get through all this?

[32:19] And the time comes, comes very quickly sometimes, as we look back and you finished your course.

[32:32] Well, that's in human affairs, but what about the things of God. Yes, I have finished my course.

[32:48] And then the third thing, which is, of course, the best of all, I have kept the faith kept the faith, held to it, loved it, prayed for more and more of it, in order that I might keep it.

[33:25] And in keeping it, I want to see this and prove this, that I have been kept by the power of God.

[33:37] I remember a minister who is now gone many years, but I used to meet him occasionally, and I said, now, how are you?

[33:49] Kept. That was his reply. Kept. And that seemed to sum the whole thing up in one single word.

[34:02] He didn't need any explanation, or interpretation. How are you? Both in body and soul, I am kept.

[34:21] Now, Paul says, I have kept the faith. One of the great treasures of the believer is faith in God and in Christ Jesus.

[34:40] And it's so precious because it's the gift of God. It's also precious because it works mighty wonders for those who possess it.

[34:57] And it's also precious because one knows that if that faith lasts, although it may at times be damped down and almost brought to an end, if it lasts, outrides, overrides, all things, then that soul knows this, they've got the greatest treasure in this world.

[35:32] A treasure that never fails, never comes short. Paul, what a faithful man thou wast in thy day.

[35:55] How thou didst keep that course of uprightness, of truth, of the love for the Lord and the love for his people, right down to the very last moments of his life, so that he says now, I have kept the faith.

[36:24] Dear friends, one feels very much and deeply affected by this, because on Wednesday I never thought I should come here again, really.

[36:43] And I said to the doctor on Friday, I suppose it must have been, I said, I suppose doctor, you wouldn't allow me to go to the chapel on Sunday, I have to stay here, I suppose.

[37:04] Oh no, he says, I want you to be still at work as far as you possibly can, to be moving in the line of things you have so long gone into and served the Lord.

[37:33] That was the doctor. Great Methodist, but still they were words of great encouragement. So I was convinced therefore that I must bring this message, bring it to you, as the final word that comes from a man of God who loves the Lord and loves the gospel that he was taught to preach.

[38:14] I have kept the faith. If anything can be said of you and me, of this kind and character, we shall have the number of the best things ever said about us that can possibly be uttered or recorded.

[38:41] Kings I have kept faith. I don't think any of you suggest or ever have found suggestions arise in your mind that I have not faithfully discharged my conscience in regard to the truth of God, the faith of God's name.

[39:07] I think though it has been a weak, poor, unworthy manner in which this has been accomplished I look back today and I feel how much weakness and impoverishment has come to light from time to time in my ministry until I've been real ashamed but I feel this, I have kept the faith Lord at his mercy Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen

[40:08] Amen Amen Amen Stand up my soul Shake off thy fear And gird the gospel on March to the gates of Enos, Joy Where thy great Captain Saviour's gone 107 through 426 March to the gates of El ab Chicken B Elemento Thank you.

[41:30] Amen. Amen.

[42:30] Amen. Amen.

[43:30] Oh Lord, our prayer is to Thee that Thou will keep us in the faith and make our latter end better than our beginning.

[43:49] Amen. And may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with us now and evermore.

[44:04]  Amen.