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I was thinking tonight of.
Of the last words we might say of the Apostle Paul.
Last words are quite interesting. I know the man that I work for had a book entitled The Last Word and it was a very interesting to read the last words of different men. Of course some of these men were unsaved, others were saved, some were going on with the Lord and some were but.
The Apostle Paul, the last known writing that we have from him is the 4th chapter of Second Timothy.
And we might just read part of that.
I charge thee, therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in Kingdom.
Preach the word the instant, in season out of season. Reprove your rebuke. Exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own loss shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fable.
But watch thou in all things endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist.
Make full proof of thy ministry, 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 as 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 that love his appearance.
Perhaps that's far enough for now.
I suppose we can enter into the Apostle Paul's feelings here Little.
Because.
He'd had words, so to speak, that he was going to leave this world.
Said that only two men were told that they were going to die, and the Apostle Paul was one of them. Peter was the other. Peter was told that he would.
Die like his master.
But the Apostle Paul no doubt feels the condition of things.
And we might say how much like the very day in which we live.
There's no chapter, perhaps, that fits our day any better than this one.
And we might say that the apostle Paul wrote 100 chapters.
And this is number 100. I thought that was quite, quite a coincidence when I discovered that this chapter was number 100.
And we were talking to Naive at the supper table of the importance of love and how that love should bind us together. And so much the more as we see the day approaching. There's a day coming, a reckoning day. And I think the day spoken up in Scripture usually has reference to the reckoning day. I remember the statement of Brother Willis.
Some time ago when somebody came to.
A certain missionary years ago and.
Told this missionary that he had it on his heart to serve the Lord, but that he also was offered a very good position in which he would make enough money to promote the the cause of the gospel too.
But.
This was the statement that the missionary gave him. It was look at your life from behind her part.
Well, I thought that was quite, quite a, quite a way to put it. How good, if we would, so to speak, look at our life in view of the end of the journey. I mean, just for a moment be at the end of the journey, ready to be ushered into the presence of God and then look back over our life. Well, what kind of a life do we wish we might say at that time?
We have, well, he said. View the things that way just now.
Look back over your life and see what you'd like your life to be like just before you step into the presence of the Lord Jesus.
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Well, that's something to think about, isn't it?
We're so busy these days of preparing for things here and we forget the real things of value.
And they often have to take the back seat.
Well, here the apostle Paul doesn't exactly enjoin them on the basis of love. Here it seems to me, a man that is somewhat a little on the, should I say, on the desperate side. Maybe that isn't the right word, but it's as much as said, we'll put it this way anyway, if love doesn't move you.
Well, I'm going to bring before you something else. And so he brings before them the coming judgment.
He says the Lord Jesus here I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead and his appearing I think it should read and his appearing in Kingdom.
Now the Lord Jesus Christ is going to judge the quick and the dead. There's a judgment ahead for this world.
I was thinking of that when I was in Chicago a few weeks ago and you would do the, the expression on people's faces. There was a, there was a, a different expression than I've ever seen before or since then. But I have thought that this world is guilty of the death of Christ. And though it's nearly 2000 years ago.
This world is held guilty.
Of the blood of the Lord Jesus. And over a moment it will be when they will be called up, and to answer as to what they have done with our blessed Lord. So he brings before them the judgment of the living and the dead. Now we know those two judgments are not at the same time the judgment of the living.
Is in the 25th of Matthew and that follows the Great tribulation.
There we find the nations broth before the Lord Jesus, and they are judged, and then they are cast alive into the lake of fire, and those never appear before the great white throne. That's the judgment of the living, but the judgment of the dead are those that have died unsaved.
They will not be raised until after the great tribute, after the millennials, after 1000 years millennial, then the dead, the unsaved dead will come forth and stand before the great white throne and to be judged. Well, Apostle Paul much has said, if you're if love doesn't move your heart, give a little glimpse of the seriousness of the judgment to come.
Those that die out of Christ.
Our love forever and I was just thinking of a little incident that I read not long ago or I heard.
And I'll just tell it it's in connection with a, with a man that had.
Wandered around a place where they had a large ball. I don't know if they kept food in there or what, but he was around close to the door and he saw in the care people that they caretaker going to the door.
And he thought, well, I'll slip in there while the man is working in there and trying. I'll get off before he gets out. But it didn't turn out that way. He got into this wall and the caretaker left and closed the door. He didn't know he was in there. And here he was in what you might call outer darkness.
He couldn't see a thing.
And so he wandered around in there, and he wondered what would happen to him.
And finally he got kind of hungry and he had an apple or something in his pocket and he divided this up. He thought he did part of it now. He thought it was about dinnertime and he'd eat part of it and then save the rest because he he didn't know when he'd get out.
And so he continued walking around in there as might as well as he could, but finally he got kind of sleeping. He thought, well, it's about my time to go to bed. So he he sat down and he went to sleep.
And after while he woke up, I usually wake up about 7:00 in the morning. So we thought, well, it's about that.
And so it went on to till he thought the practically the next day was gone. Well, finally the door opened and.
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Via the they had they had missed the man and the door opened and they went in and there he was. So he brought him out into daylight and the man said, well how long was I in here?
And the caretaker looked at his wife, He said, Well, about 45 minutes.
Well, think of the.
Of the judgment of God, and to be consigned into the lake of fire, where the door will never open.
Where time, well, we can't fathom it, but I think that perhaps this might stir our hearts a little, not only for the world, the unsaved that we see, but the Saints children. We say, well, a parent ought to be concerned about his children. Well, that's true, but what a privilege it is for those of us that are grown to be concerned about the Saints children.
That they might be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and that they might be shepherded and cared for lest they would come into such a place. Well, in view of the judgment to come, how it ought to exercise our hearts to to be diligent here. And so he brings out the thought in verse 2.
Preach the Word. Preach the Word. My, how important it is. Preach the word. There's all kinds of preaching today, but it says preach the word. Well, there's power in the word, isn't there? My, what a difference.
There there are all kinds of gimmicks and so forth in connection with the gospel, and men are maybe persuaded to accept it in a in just a.
Literal way and there's never a work in the heart, but if we come with the word of God.
There's power in the word and.
A man isn't deceived, you know, so many times.
Men are deceived. Today we have a group in wall that is very busy with what they call a businessman's breakfast. And some of these men that I no doubt are saved, but they'll sit in with a business worldly businessman and they'll talk over temple things and finally they'll bring in some pointed things about the gospel and.
Kind of railroad the man in make him make some kind of a confession well.
It isn't real and it's actually worse than before. A man that has made a profession and turns aside, he's harder to reach than ever. So we have the privilege of preaching the word. The apostle Paul could say I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ because I know what it'll do. But to use anything else well.
We find that he says here preach the word and then it says be instant in season and out of season.
Well.
Isn't that a real tool of the enemy? Again and again to say, well it just isn't the place. It just isn't in the season you may get an opportunity and really feel perhaps.
Convicted as to saying something but.
There's an enemy that whispers in our ears that says, well, it just isn't the time. This isn't the place, and but when it comes to divine things, let's be awfully careful. Maybe that's true, that there there is wisdom necessary, but still, how many times we would allow the enemy to say to us, well, this just isn't in seed?
But so the apostle Paul here says, in view of the judgment, to come preach the Word.
The instant in season and out of season and then he stands further here.
Reprove, rebuke, exhort. And I rather like the new translation there because it isn't altogether along this line. I think it says convict.
And perhaps reprove and encourage.
Well, that's a nice combination, isn't it? There is such a thing necessary as conviction, and the word does convict and the word does reprove and the word does encourage. And how we need to be on the line of those. Perhaps sometimes we're more on the line of reproving, reproving, reproving. But you know, you can't live on reproof. Reproof is a wonderful thing or where it's needed, but but it isn't the type of a thing.
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Live on and grow on. We need encouragement and we need to encourage one another. But he says here with all long-suffering and doctrine.
Well, these are just plain words to you and me. You know, we're living in a day where there's no manifest gift to speak of, and Timothy reminds me of that. Timothy. Paul could speak of Timothy as my own son in the faith.
What did he mean when he said my own son in the faith? Well, Timothy was that one that that person that carried on that which Paul taught.
Well, what kind of a man was Timothy? He wasn't a he wasn't an apostle Paul. He wasn't a Philippian jailer, but Timothy was rather, we might say, a timid, timid sort of a man and he wasn't altogether in good health according to the word that said, take a little wine for my stomach steak. Well, that's the kind of people you and I are. We're we're more or less those times that have been brought up in the truth and the Lord.
Pleased to to to build up a gathered Saints by Timothy in that way. So this is just a word to you and me and the day in which we live. We have no idea of the giving up in Christendom today. Well, the past 10 years have been tremendous for giving up.
There's some men, dear men too, and Walla Walla men you do business with and all, and you meet them on the street.
And I used to could meet them and have a word with them about divine things and about the coming of the Lord. But now you meet them and they've lost that. Well, in a circumstance they perhaps don't really know what's happened, but they've gotten out of communion with the Lord through things that they have allowed in their homes. Well, this type of thing is going on all around. And as we see that coming in, it seems to me like we as the Lord's people ought to.
Ought to be drawn together.
All that the Lord might have a testimony here and that we might not be swallowed up.
With a tendency all around us. Now this isn't finding fault with us around, but it's the truth and we too are falling into the spirit of it. But by the grace of God, if we could take Pauls last word serious, serious enough that they would grip our hearts and that you and I would say, let's go on afresh again to seek to save the day. If you allow me to use that expression.
So he says here for the time will come.
When they will not endure sound doctrine, and that's where we are. But after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears?
And known as this solemn verse four. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Is there anything more solemn than the government of God?
If we were in that verse and.
And 2nd Thessalonians 2 That says God shall send them strong delusions as they believe a lie. What's a serious thing to turn our ears away from the truth?
Far more serious than we ever realized. How many have done it, turned their ears away from the truth, and they come, came under the government of God, who returned unto fables. All how this world is rushing madly now, The religious world rushing madly after fables. We know what's happening. One world, one church. Are we going to fall into the spirit of it, or are we going to draw nearer to the Lord than we ever were?
That when the Lord Jesus shouts from the glory will be there to open the door, as it says on the 12Th of Luke on the threshold, just the moment we hear his voice and the bridegroom returns from the wedding and be there to grab the doorknob.
Well, we get another verse here.
The We get the positive side here again, and the personal side.
And this is so important, it seems to me. But watch thou in all things again. The other translation would say there be sober, be sober.
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As we had on on Thanksgiving Day, the fifth of Second Thessalonians.
When you think of what's coming on this world and the darkness of the day, of darkness in which we live, it calls for soberness and soberness.
It's the.
It clears the way, so to speak, to get into the presence of God.
You know even the prayer that the Lord teaches when they ask teachers to pray and the Lord says he begins like this. Our Father, which is in heaven, hallowed be thy name, hallowed be thy name. Well in those five expressions in that prayer, which is called the Lord's Prayer. While we get a real formula for prayer, if we if you allow me to use that expression, but it begins anyway with.
Be thy name. Now remember our brother Dustin Gill once saying that?
How we should, and so to speak, rush into the presence of the Lord and just.
Well, he said you wouldn't think of doing it to a dignitary, you wouldn't think of doing it to the queen. It would approach her with, with reverence. Well, he mentioned how important that is to approach the Lord Jesus with, with, with reverence and with, with a sort of an introduction. I don't mean a lot of words, but just.
I think there's a word in Ecclesiastes that I'll read at this just to show the thought, but.
Well, be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before the God.
Utter anything before God.
Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. Well, I'd call for a certain amount of reverence as we approach the Lord. And so here he speaks of sobriety.
And then he also says endure affliction. Well, that's what's connected with it, and that's what we sidetrack so often. We're not willing to endure what goes along with the gospel, what goes along with the truth. It's affliction.
We say to ourselves, well, if I'm walking in the truth, well, I think everything would go smoothly. I think my brother would all throw their arms around me and appreciate me.
But this isn't the case. The Lord doesn't permit it to be the case. What would happen if we would be so?
Meet such approval as well. It reminds me of and Mark where you get the mothers bringing the their children to the to the Lord, and the Lord takes them up in his arms and blesses them.
And the disciples say, well, don't bother the Lord, take your children away. Well, the Lord, so to speak, he grew closer to the children and he loved them.
Well, sometimes they supposing he had taken Peter in his arms and loved them, while Peter would have looked around at the other level and said, well, I guess the Lord loves me just a little more than he does the rest of you. Well, this is the kind of a heart we have this we're playing to. And so we met well might remember that through disapproval. We might say not exactly that either, but.
Through reproach or affliction is the way we grow.
As this struck away a statement that her brother made over the weekend in San Diego. You know the Lord Jesus.
Speaks of him as a root out of dry ground. Well, he said, you know, young men grow up through their brothers, through their older brother, and there's a lot of truth to that. Sometimes it's pretty dry ground. But if you stand the test, you're going to have a good foundation. So the theory says endure all things.
Endure infliction during the work of an evangelist.
I've been, I've been struck by that expression and do the work of an evangelist.
You know.
We sometimes say, well, there's none of us really evangelists, there's none of us really gospel preachers, but we're supposed to do the work of an evangelist. Well, this is a good thought and it is true. We ought to all do the the work of an evangelist. I don't mean publicly, but day by day. I'm sure the Lord allows someone to cross our path where we might do the work of evangelists.
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But I thought something further on the work the the emphasis is on the work.
And I don't really think that Timothy needed to be exhorted to be an evangelist because.
I believe Timothy was one of those tender hearted brothers that perhaps loved to preach the gospel he may have.
Shield away a little bit from the ministry and from reproof and exhortation and so forth, but I believe that Timothy enjoyed giving the gospel.
But he speaks here of the work of an evangelist.
Now with that, let's turn to the 10th of Luke and see if we can maybe get a little glimpse of what's meant by the work of an evangelist.
It's a it's really a serious thing in a way.
To to give the gospel to souls and maybe a soul be saved, or maybe more than one will be saved. And then you pass on to the next one and to the next and you just think of these little babies that are born and there's no care given them. Isn't that a serious thing?
Well, think of the work of the Maritimes, for instance. There they give off the gospel and then they follow up those sheep, those little lambs, and seek to shepherd them. Well, that to me is the work of an evangelist. That is the work that's involved. We have a brother-in-law that loves to preach the gospel on the street, and he's a good gospel preacher. But if there's a soul that's exercised or or gets saved, why you'll find that brother out seeking him afterwards.
To seek to carry him along, to shepherd him and so forth. Well, here we get a picture of that.
Notice we have a lawyer in this picture.
In the.
In verse 25 of the 10th of Luke. And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life, and so forth.
I often think you know that, that we maybe make better lawyers than neighbors. A lawyer can tell you just what's wrong. But how about the remedy? What's the good of telling a poor stumbling brother or sister what's wrong if you haven't got the remedy?
Well, this is often the case with us, and it's just a cold thing and we can be lawyers again and again. But Brother Penfield used to use a very awkward statement, but I'll just pass it on. He said it's no use raising the devil if he can't stay, and if no use diagnosing a brother or a sister's case if you can't help them, or diagnosing a case in the assembly if you can't help them. But here was a man. He was a neighbor.
Now this what? What does the neighbor do?
1St we find the condition of the poor one that had fallen here in.
Verse 30 and Jesus answering said a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
And fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him.
Departed, leaving him half dead.
Well, here's one that we can picture as a Saint of God. He's left the place of blessing. He's gone down. How many have gone down, down, down the Roman St. Who's to blame? Maybe, maybe, maybe where to blame? Maybe the assembly is to blame that a man has fallen. But here's one that's fallen. But it's serious to anyone that might be going that journey.
Be sure one thing is going to fall among seeds.
And these thieves are not going to do anything for him.
The Luke has a way of presenting to us the extreme case in connection with the prodigal son. He He presents the extreme case, a man that had gone as far as you could go.
Many of us haven't gone that far, but we're all more or less prodigal. The prodigal is one that does his own will more or less in our life, especially maybe at one time or another. We have done our own will here. He he supposes the extreme case here. Here's a man that's robbed of his possession. He's robbed of his coat. You know, we have the other day of what the coat speaks of. It's it's the conduct. It's.
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That which is on the outside, He took everything away from the man, but he's life, He couldn't take that. This is a wonderful truth and praise the Lord if we've got a hold of it, that if, if we have been born again, if we have been saved, that our life is still in us, as we could say of Eureka. His life is still in him and praise the Lord for that. But we don't want to think of that lightly in any way.
But here are the thieves that took all they could take and my what a condition the man was in.
Out on a farm, sometimes we find a calf or something that we would call half dead, whether life isn't worth very much.
And here was one that was half dead and there he lay health. Now he needed someone to come along and help him. And that's what a lot of these dear ones need that have fallen, that have drifted away. They need someone to come to help them. And so this neighbour, he comes. Now we were preaching the gospel. We could bring in the Lord Jesus there in a wonderful way, but.
A pictured a man that had life. His life was still in him. But here comes one.
Well, there we have the Levite and the priest. There you have those, that element of judgment that could tell him just while when you look at there what kind of condition you are in, why you're helpless and you can't, there's no hope for you. Well, that's what the priest and the Levite would say. But here comes along a neighbor doesn't say anything about him being hopeless or in in.
In bad shape, but he comes equipped with what the man needed.
He comes with the oil.
He comes with a wine. The oil is that which sustains. He comes with a wine. That's the return of joy, we might say. And then he doesn't stop there. He has the beast. He puts him on his own beast.
All the Robert Saints, you know, your Sunday school teacher often gets discouraged because she doesn't or he doesn't see any particular results and.
He he never gets a thank you.
It ought not be that way, but many times we have seen it where maybe our brother is teaching a group of boys and he's just putting himself into it and they don't seem to be getting anywhere. And even maybe the parents of the children are finding false saying, well, he just isn't doing it the way he ought to do it. Well, this shouldn't be. At least parents ought to sort of.
To help those teachers and be with them, be one with them, in them.
But here we're trying to what it takes. You've just got to be willing to do that.
Who was it that I could say being spent? Think of what the Apostle Paul said. I'll just read that verse in 2nd Corinthians 12.
He says, And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. Now this is hardly infallible, is it, that it should be sold? But this is what the apostle Paul had to say. And so this man, this neighbor, he not only toured in the oil and the wine, but he put him on his own beach.
Well.
There he walked, the neighbor walked, and the man rode. And I've often been struck by this, this very portion. We never hear the man say anything. We don't hear him say thank you for your kindness. Well, this is often the case. Parents maybe are seeking to bring up their children for the Lord.
And they don't seem to appreciate it at all. They're brought into a place of blessing.
Put themselves out that they might learn to know the Lord and go on with the Lord. And yes, they don't seem to ever get a thank you or appreciation, but it will come. It will come sometime. Maybe it'll come after the children are grown and have their own family. And if it doesn't come, then why? You'll meet it in the glory. There's a reckoning day coming.
All that says, do the work of evangelist.
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Was willing to walk and he put the other man on his own beast and where did he take him? He took him to the end. Now the end in Scripture is a picture of the assembly, all the Saints. It's really important if one is is saved to you that you get on your knees before the Lord. That man might be taken to the end.
And where he has cared for.
That's the only place really that he's cared for.
As it says here.
And when he brought him to an inn and took care of him.
Serve him on his own beef and brought him to an inn and took care of him.
Well, what blessing there is connected with?
We're following up one that says.
What may I ask you how much better they would say to care for the little ones? The children that we have were more interested, so to speak, to care for those children that we have and that a whole lot of others be born. And so the world says, join the Church of your choice. But oh, what a terrible thing that is to say. How many dear believers?
Just are saved and then they follow this advice.
To join the Church of your choice and they don't get any care. They don't get any shepherding, they don't get any food. What kind of a baby is that? That doesn't get any care any, any law, any food.
Well, praise the Lord that there is an end in this city.
And it's been encouraging to be here and to see the interest, especially of the young men, the interest in divine things.
Oh how the Lord values it. And an interest in one another that we might go on.
So it says here.
Take care of him.
And whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will retain thee.
Well, I think we might learn from that. Whatsoever thou spend us more is that it may take more grace to do this than we had an kiss away anticipated. But there's more grace. Whatever thou spendest more, while it's there, it'll be taken care of.
So we are enjoined to do the work of an evangelist.
And this can be done, you know, like I say, by encouraging one another.
How easy, again, it is to be a lawyer, isn't it? Am I to take the word of God and just to read the right act to a man or to an assembly? Well, that isn't the answer. Is there anyone willing to get down with a man in and to pour in the oil and the wine? And you know you can't pour in anything you don't have yourself.
You can never bring anymore to the assembly than you have in your personal life. Never. You can never bring any more to the assembly than you have in your home. That's the beginning place really. In your home, you read the word of God. In your home you pray and pray at home, you pray together with your children when you can bring that to the assembly. But the other thing if we're neglecting.
Our our home life.
Election of divine thing. We can come to meeting, but we're not going to, we're not going to add anything.
On the other hand.
You know, if we are like the cells of Luke. Luke is called the beloved physician.
Now a man left a beloved physician surely is a beloved brother, isn't it? I'm sure that that Luke was a beloved brother, but the Spirit of God calls him the beloved physician.
That is, the Luke was exactly the same in his occupation as he was in the Assembly.
Oh, can can you be referred to as the beloved grocery man or the beloved farmer, or whatever it might be? Well, isn't it wonderful to be in our natural lives just what we should be in the assembly?
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Well, this man was brought to the inn and the neighbor was able to. The neighbor was the one that undertook for him. And again I say let's practice to be neighbors rather than lawyers.
Now it says here make full proof of thy ministry or as much as Sir Timothy, God has given you a ministry. Now carry it out. He had to say to Archie, puff in in the book of Philippians to take heed to the ministry archipelago. Take heed to the ministry which God have given you. Let you fulfill us. Well, I believe God has given every one of us a ministry. I don't that means service.
It doesn't mean public speaking or, or teaching, but God has given everyone of us something. It's sometimes said when we're born in this world, we were born with a certain color. If that talent were developed, that would characterize it well. When we're born again, God has given us a certain talent in divine things. Well, it's it's, it isn't exactly.
What we should say? I wonder what my talent is.
Point but like brother Armand said once whatsoever thy hand find us to do, do it with light light. It didn't matter so much of what what it is that I have, but I believe if whatsoever our hands find us to do, do it with our might, that's something close by. It isn't over across the water someplace or the neighbor's house, but right here and so.
It's like it says in Mark that he he gave to every man his work.
Now, this is really something to exercise each one of us because it brings harmony if I'm doing the work that God has given me, but how often maybe I'm getting into another person's field or a work that God has given me. So it's really wonderful and the grace of God for each of us to find our own level, so to speak, our own place, and that brings in harmony.
So he serves out to Timothy here, and then he asks, for I am now ready to be offered.
Well, the apostle Paul could speak of being ready to be offered. He was ready. It's a wonderful thing to be ready. If there's one here that's still unsaved, you're not ready.
Scripture says be ready also for on such an hour as you think not the Son of man cometh. But this verse is Speaking of a believer being ready. I was visiting a lady in the hospital quite a long while ago and.
And we had a conversation and you could tell that she was the Lord.
But he said I'm not ready to die.
Well, I said, you appear to be saved. Yes, he said, I am saved, but I'm not ready to die. And I said, well, why aren't you ready to die? Well, she said, I've been going on in a in a path that isn't pleasing to the Lord.
Well, in that sense he wasn't ready, and in that sense you and I are not ready. No, we're not. How wonderful to meet the Lord, to be looking for Him here, to be seeking by His grace to walk with Him. And then when you meet Him, it's a meeting of joy rather than we might say, as this lady told me, that she was not ready.
When the Apostle Paul was ready.
You know, it was a great concern of Paul that he might finish his course with joy, and I believe that you.
Dear young brothers and young sisters, that's a good.
Expression to get ahold of and a good desire and a good end to work to, to finish your course with joy. And if you're going to live for yourself here, you're not going to finish it with joy. My wife works in a rest home a good deal. That is the work that brings the gospel to them. And she finds many there that are very, very unhappy.
Christians too, with a very unhappy.
But if you inquire into their lives a little, you find that they live for themselves while they were here, and now they're more or less dying by themselves.
But I believe that the expression has been said that we die a good deal the way we live.
And so I think this would really, it should exercise our hearts that we might finish our course with joy. And the apostle Paul did that, he could say.
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The time of my departures at hand, I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Now this is wonderful. What are what are recommendations? Both of Paul wasn't boasting when he said this. This was the truth. This characterized the Apostle Paul.
I remember a brother that took my father's funeral. Read those verses. There was never anything outstanding about my father, but this was true of him, that he had finished his course, but he had kept the faith and that he had, that he had fought a good fight. I never knew my father ever to step aside from the path of faith.
Well.
Will there even be anything outstanding about any of us?
But my husband to read this verse once in a while and say, well is this going to be true of me?
Do we seek grace from the Lord Jesus of this light between? Do we see grace from Him that our hearts might be knit together in love?
Are we going to allow everything to crumble and each one go his own way? What kind of a family is there? Well, we don't like it on our own families. Do they do it? Neither does the Lord want it in His family.
And so He speaks here of a crown. Henceforth there is made-up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge. I like that expression there. The Lord, the righteous God, He has the last word on everything. He is the one that puts the right value and the right slant on your pathway in mind. It's not going to be any mistake about it. I might be misjudging you. You might be misjudging me, but.
And when the righteous judge.
When he meets off the crown, the crown, you know, speaks of reward. It's going to be.
Just exactly the way it's supposed to be. You're going to have just what you have common.
The Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me in that day, and now that day. Spoken of here is the judgment seat of Christ.
One way in the glory is going to be the judgment seat of Christ, and our pathway here will be reviewed.
And the righteous judge will meet out to everyone just what is there. There'll be no mistake about it. But the apostle Paul makes another statement here that again should exercise our hearts, and that is, and not to me only, but unto all other believers.
The Lord doesn't say that, but unto all them that love his appearing.
At the coming of the Lord the rapture, 1 servant will not differ from another, will all be caught up be with the Lord, but at his appearing we will see the results of the judgment seat of Christ. And so when he appears, then there's going to be a difference. One servant will differ from another.
That we get it in Matthew 25. There's a difference of reward. So that too should exercise our hearts in view of that day. Now, do you and I love his appearing? Are we looking forward to the day of manifestation? Are we looking forward to the day when our life will be manifest? Well, if we're going on badly, we're not looking forward to that day. There's no joy connected with.
His appearing.
We have met Christians that have made that statement that there is no joy. They have no joy in connection with the resurrection.
Or they rather think of themselves as just a spirit, maybe in heaven. But I guess if you search out the reason, it's because they're not going on with the Lord. They're not happy. They've got something in their lives that they're not happy to meet the Lord. But here the expression is unto all them that love his appearance doesn't mean now that love the rapture.
But those that love His appearance love the day of manifestation, love the day when the Lord Jesus will have His rightful place. Well, how many of us perhaps are allowing things in our lives?
That are really hindering us from this joy. But now when we view again the judgment to come, if we want to view it from that way and think of the Apostle Paul's last words, last written words.
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Holly enjoys us to do the work of an evangelist. Or are we ready? Are we willing to stoop down and pick up our fallen brother to pour in oil and wine, not to push him down further? Pour in oil and wine.
And put him on our own beat and take him to the end and say take care of him.
Well, this is our privilege, and so again, let's remember what a joy it will be if we finish our course with joy. And then there's the crown of righteousness, which the righteous judge will give us in that day. And if possible, Paul could say, not to me only, but unto all those that love his appearing.