Are You Ready To Be Offered?

Second Timothy chapter four, and let’s read verses six until verse eight. And how about this? I’ll read verse six, you guys can read verse seven, and then we’ll read together verse eight. The Bible says in verse six, for I am now ready to be offered. Paul said this, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have followed everybody, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.

Together, 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. Let’s pray, dear Father, thank you for this church here. They have been such a blessing to us in many ways and by prayers and supplications for us and the various challenge we’ve had over the many years.

And, they have been a blessing to Christie’s mother, Juanita, and it is a privilege just to be part of the missions program here and to be here today. It’s a privilege to be with brother Adam Wood. Years ago, we were able to visit them in Cambodia and it was a blessing to see how you used them there and how you’re using them here right now in this church. And, Lord, I pray that you would use this simple message tonight to be an encouragement to every one of us here, but not only an encouragement to be a challenge for us.

That’s the key. Because our beliefs will affect the way we live. Our beliefs will affect the way we talk and treat other people. And it’s important that we understand these truths. So, thank you, Lord. Use me tonight in this way, in Jesus’ name, Amen. You may be seated. Several, I guess it was months ago, I started to have many questions in The Philippines about things that will happen in the future.

Of course, because of the war in Iran and what’s going on there, it’s kind of fresh on people’s minds. And so, began to think about some of these things and began to teach though, especially in a new ministry, what’s going to happen in the future. And, of course, in a church like this, you know many of these truths in this way. What’s the next event that we are waiting for as believers?

That’s right. We are waiting for the rapture. We do not know the day nor the hour. We do not know when it will happen. We cannot make any suggestions about any dates in that way as many have done in the past. And, of course, they have been found out to be wrong. But we don’t do that. But we know it will happen. Right? And we know that when the rapture will happen, there’ll be a trump of God, the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. The dead in Christ shall rise first, and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Amen. Right?

Comfort one another with these words. That’s an awesome truth, is it not? It’s an awesome truth when you think about what is going to happen in the future. No matter what happens right now, we have a living hope because our Savior is alive, right? That we, someday, He will come back in the clouds and He will gather together all those, you might say, right, that have trusted in Him.

What happens after the rapture? The tribulation here on earth. That is correct. We know that after the rapture occurs, there’ll be seven years of tribulation. And we could say the tribulation is the time in which the Jewish people will realize that Jesus truly is the Messiah, and they will accept him. The Bible says they will all... That does not mean that we should not witness to Jews at this time because if there is a Jew during... Alive during this time and he does not believe in Jesus, he will spend eternity in hell. But, however, during the tribulation time, if there are Jewish people there, their eyes will be revealed. They will realize that the antichrist is not the Messiah, and they will believe in Jesus. And there’s a lot of things that will happen during the tribulation time frame. That’s correct. But what will happen to the believers?

What’s the next event for believers? Okay. The All right. Well, let’s think about that just a little bit here. You know the passage in Revelation about the wedding. You know the passage there? That’s right. Why don’t we look over there real fast at it? We’re not doing a doctrine class here, but I’m trying to get us to a point. Let’s look at that real fast here. Alright. The Bible says in Revelation 19, actually, in verse nine, and he said unto me, write, blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the lamb, and these are the true sayings of God. Okay. We see that. Now, look at verse seven.

Let us be glad and rejoice give honor to him for the marriage of the lamb is coming, his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. The question for us is how did the church... How did the bride, the wife, make herself ready? How?

So, I have an idea here. How is she ready? The Seat. Wow. That’s right. The Bema Seat. The judgment seat of Christ. If you go back to what we read here in this passage, what did Paul say? He says, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous shall give me at that day. What is that day? The Bema Seat.

The judgment seat of Christ. Now, I’m sure you guys realize this, but I will mention it again. There is not a general judgment for everyone. That is a common thought in The Philippines, a very Catholic nation, that there’s a general judgment. Everyone dies. Everyone is just in the ground. You go at the general judgment. If your good works have outweighed your bad works, you’re good to go.

If your good works did not outweigh your bad works, you’re not good to go. You’re going to hell. That sort of thing. Or if you had... Do you have the menial works and you have the, you know, the heavy sins and the light sins. And there’s that whole process there. Everybody will go... Actually, most of the cults kinda have a similar idea. All people go to a general judgment.

And if you were part of this church, if you were good enough, if you did this enough, you will attain eternal life in heaven. But we know that is not true at all. Right? The judge... The white throne judgment that the Bible speaks about in the book of Revelation is reserved, if you wanna look at it that way, or is for those who are not saved. If you enter the white if you enter the white throne judgment, there is no hope for you. You will be cast into the lake of fire.

That’s what the Bible teaches. There is no hope. Right? Everything will stand before God. The Bible says, and you will be judged according to your works. Your name is not found in the book of life. You will be cast into the lake of fire. The white throne judgment is not the judgment we are talking about here. The judgment seat of Christ, which we see in the book of Romans and in the book of Corinthians, is for believers.

But it is not a judgment that is gonna judge our sins. Our sins were judged at the cross. Right? John three eighteen, we see a man who believes in Jesus will not be condemned. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. That’s an awesome truth. In other words, at the judgment seat of Christ, Jesus is not gonna dig up our old past sins and say, do you remember back in 1985 when you were in high school or in college and you did this and and all this? No.

That’s not what it’s all about. Isn’t that a blessing? I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t like to think about what I did in the past. And I’m glad that it’s under the blood. I’m glad it’s behind him. I’m glad that he will not dig it up again. But the judgment seat of Christ is a time of revealing. It’s a time of, you could say, even commendation.

It’s a time of recognition. You could say that as well. It’s a time in which, yes, what we did for Christ will be revealed. What we did for Christ with the right motive will be revealed. And there are various crowns that a believer could receive. And the believer will then cast those feet at the feet... Cast those crowns at the feet of Jesus. And then we see when Jesus comes back in glory, he has crowns on his head, crowns, plural.

That’s what’s gonna happen. Right? Now, we know this. Now, the question for us from these passages, what are some of the possible questions that will happen at the judgment seat of Christ? Because we don’t know the format, do we? The Bema seat, when you talk about the Bema seat, there’s actually... Online, you can see a picture of an old Bema seat. But the Bema seat was like a racing situation, a stadium.

And the judges would stand here. The judges did not judge them how they ran, really. They did not critique their running style or whatever they were doing. They weren’t there to critique and give them suggestions, you know, on how they could do better. The Bema seat was there to determine the winners. Right? The winners. That’s it. That’s what happened. And so we’re gonna see this. That’s what’s gonna happen in the judgment seat of Christ. But what are some of the questions that may be asked?

And I want to look at just a few things. I was thinking about this one day as we read here about the apostle Pablo, apostle Paul, sorry. And the apostle Paul says, he’s talking to Timothy, it’s close to the time in which he’s gonna die. He says, my departure is at hand. In verse seven, he says, I fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith.

Therefore, there henceforth, there’s a crown of righteousness that is waiting for me, and not only for me, but for those that love the appearing of Jesus, Or those who are ready and waiting for the rapture. They’re prepared for the rapture. They’re ready. They’re waiting on the coming of Christ. Right? In the clouds, they’re ready for that time. And then notice the three things, though. That’s what I want you to look at just briefly this evening.

Possible questions. Again, I don’t know. I’m not telling you right now this is what is gonna happen at the judgment seat of Christ. That’s not what I’m saying. We don’t know exactly how that’s gonna play out, but these are possible questions that could be asked of us. Because this is what Paul said under inspiration of the Holy Spirit when he talked about the crown of righteousness. And notice his first thing that he said.

I have fought a good fight. Okay? All right. That’s good. What fight is Paul talking about? Right? There’s a lot of battles going on today. What kind of fight is Paul talking about? Well, in first Timothy’s verse six and twelve, we see Paul tells Timothy to fight the good fight of faith. That’s right. In Ephesians six twelve, we see that we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Our battle is not against people.

Our battle is a spiritual battle against Satan and, yes, against the lust of the flesh, the lust of the of life, the lust of the eyes. That’s what it’s against. A believer will be constantly tempted to sin against God. We understand that. A believer will be constantly tempted to be like everyone else. And that is the battle that we are talking about, that Paul is talking about here. The battle for faith. We are not in a battle against other people. We’re not in a battle against other religions. We’re not in a battle against other fellow Baptist. We’re not in a battle against these things. That’s not the good fight of faith that we are talking about here. The good fight of faith is we could say, you might say, it’s a battle with ourselves.

We are in a battle in ourselves. We’re in a battle with an enemy that we cannot see, but we feel his influence in our lives and in the culture around us. But it’s also a battle against ourselves. Our sinful flesh is the reason that we turn from God and trust in ourselves. In verse... Paul said in Ephesians chapter six that there’s armor that we need to have. Right? We know that. We have the the the breastplate of righteousness.

Right? We have the helmet of salvation. We have the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. And we have these this armor to help us fight the good fight of faith. And we must be aware of this battle. And we must be aware of the armor that we be... That we have. And we must know how to use our sword in a way that we are fighting the good fight of faith against the influences, against the philosophies that are in the world today that are trying to control us. Right? There is humanistic philosophies that are coming out right and left right now.

And you see that with Marxism coming out and and the desire of the The US and people in The US to go that direction. And I’m thinking constantly in The Philippines, You don’t want a socialist government. We live there. The health system is atrocious. You don’t want it. You don’t want to go in the grocery store and never find what you want. You don’t want prices. They all... Pay $10 a gallon right now.

$10 a... Imagine that. So nobody goes anywhere. That’s socialism. You understand you don’t want that, but these are the philosophies that coming in. And therefore, we need to fight the good fight of faith by knowing how to use the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. By knowing how how Satan attacks. By knowing his methods. By knowing everything that he does so that we can see this and we’re aware of it. And we say, I’m not gonna allow this to happen in my life. I’m not gonna allow this to enter into my church. I’m not gonna allow this to enter into my family.

I’m gonna fight the good fight of faith. Do you understand that? And it’s a good fight. Did you notice that? A good fight of faith. You know why it’s a good fight? It’s been won. The battle’s over. We know the reason. We know what’s gonna happen. The battle is been won by Jesus. A believer is on the winning side. However, every day we have personal battles that we must face.

Right? Personal battles. And that’s what we’re talking about. And when we do so, when we use our armor, we understand our enemy, we will be victorious over the temptations in life, and we will be able, like Paul said, hey, Timothy, I fought. I have fought a good fight of faith. Imagine if you were at the judgment seat of Christ, and they say, brother McClain. Right? Brother McClain, have you fought the good fight of faith?

Right? Is that possible question? What would your answer be? You understand that? What would your answer? Have you fought the good fight of faith? That’s a good question. What’s the next question he says? I have fought a good fight of faith. I have finished my course, Paul said. What is Paul referring to? The course that he was on. Well, of course, this is a racing kind of idea, the course.

But Paul is talking about the will of God for his life. We see in Acts chapter nine, Paul believed in Jesus as his savior. In nine and verse 15, the Lord said that Paul was going to bear his name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. He will suffer many things for my name. That’s what God told Paul. In Acts 26, God’s will for Paul is that he would open the eyes of the Gentiles and turn them from darkness to light. And Paul was obedient to God’s calling, God’s will for his life. And if you look at what happened, how the gospel spread over Europe and Asia at that time, it spread everywhere.

The gospel went. Why was that the case? Because bible says, Paul said, I have finished my course. You understand that? I have finished my course. This is such a key thing. We need to know God’s will for our lives. You see, what God wanted him to do is what he did even though he knew that he would suffer. And Paul did suffer greatly in his life. We know about his sufferings. Right? We know about all of those things. But Paul did not do the things that he did based on whether he felt there would be success.

He would have a comfortable life. He would enjoy what he was doing. He did those things because that was the course that God had laid out for him. And another thing about the course that God had laid out for him didn’t mean he had all of the big picture all at one time, did he? We know many times he went here. We know about the Macedonian call. God said, don’t go here. Don’t go here. Don’t go here. Go here.

Well, how did Paul know about that change in direction in his course? Because the bible says, acknowledge me and I will direct your paths. You see, Paul had learned how to pray without ceasing, how to talk with God on a constant basis no matter what he’s doing to seek God’s will in the small decisions of life. And as he obeyed God’s known will in God’s word, which is clear, right? As he obeyed God’s known will, as he acknowledged God, God revealed to him the next steps in his life.

And that’s why he could say with confidence, I have finished my course. Right? I fought the good fight. I have finished my course. What about us? You know, you’re standing at the judgment seat of Christ.

Did you obey my will? You know, if you said a question like that, it’s kind of involved, isn’t it not? Because it’s not just a simple thing. We’re talking about his word. Right? There’s a lot of things in his word. It is God’s will that the fruit... We are filled with the spirit. And the fruit of the spirit is coming out of our life in all of our action. It is God’s will that we have a growing relationship with Christ, second Peter chapter one.

It is God’s will that we understand there is a commission that God has given to us. We are ambassadors for him. We have a ministry of reconciliation. It’s God’s will for us to be a witness. Right? We understand this. We can’t say it’s not. It is God’s will for us as that’s why this church has a missions program to go into all the world and preach the gospel, and ye shall be witnesses unto me. Right? In both, both at the same time. We understand these things. There’s a lot of things in God’s word that is very clear that we should be doing. And I will submit to you this evening, if you’re not actively following the known will of God, it’s gonna be very difficult for you to know the specific will of God.

That’s why the theme of our camp last summer was I being in the way the Lord led me. Talking about Abraham’s servant that went to find a wife for Isaac. He knew where to go. Right? He knew where to go. Abraham told him, don’t go here, don’t go there, go here. He knew what family to look for, he didn’t know which lady. So he got there and he said, Lord, I’m here.

Now what? Right? And we can read that story, but then when Rebecca came out, what did he say? I, being in the way, the Lord led me. You see, you you finished... Have you finished your course? Well, we haven’t finished our course. We’re still on the course. I could ask you, are you running the race still? Right? You say, well, I’m older now. That doesn’t mean your race is over.

I’m telling you what, we need more prayer partners than ever. We need people that are willing to pray for our president, our our officials. Have a big election coming up this coming November. Right? We need people that are willing. It is God’s will that we pray for our leaders. It’s God’s will that we have a good testimony here in Greenville no matter where we live. It is God’s will in that way.

Right? Are we finishing our course? Are we active there? And then notice what he says last, I have kept the faith. This simply means here, keeping the faith that Paul knew whom he had believed in, and why, and he was able to defend that faith in front of others. In the book of Jude, we read that believers are supposed to earnestly contend for the faith. And the reason why we are to earnestly contend for the faith is that there are many ungodly people. And ungodly is used multiple times in the book of Jude.

And and ungodly and their desire is to turn people away from Jesus and the and the word of God. Therefore, we must know our beliefs. We must know what the bible teaches about various thing. We must know whom we have believed and we must be fully persuaded that he is able to keep that which we have committed unto him. We must be like Abraham when he said he was fully persuaded that what God had promised, he would fulfill.

Fully persuaded. You understand this? Fully persuaded. The reason why there’s so many believers today that are drifting into some weird doctrines because of teachings online and preachers online is they’re not fully persuaded. Right? You understand that? They’re not fully persuaded in what God’s word teaches. It’s almost like they are looking for a a special thing. Know? Oh, the next latest teaching that’s coming out. If you do this, this will solve all the problems in your life. You do this, this is the next thing and we need... You know? No. It’s not that way. There’s nothing new under the sun, my friends. It’s all in the book.

It’s all in the book. You need to know this book. Keep the faith. Know about it. Be sure about it. That way, when somebody asks you no matter who it is, you don’t need to argue with people. Our battle’s not against them. But you are not gonna be deceived. Right? You’re not gonna be deceived by what other people says because you have kept the faith. Wow. See, these are possibly questions for us.

My father, you know, he’s 85 now. I think he’s 85, maybe 84. 84. My mom just had her birthday. I think about that sometimes. You know, he’s ready to be offered. They both have said that. We’re ready. I fought a good fight. I finished my course. He’s finished it. He he can’t do the course that God gave him before. He’s kept the faith. I appreciate my father in that, you know, what they... How they started the ministry years ago, it never changed.

The music they use to reach children never changed, brother Adam. You didn’t have to use the junk trash of the world that’s out there to reach the youth. It’s the same music. Right? We don’t need that. You need to know why we use the music that we use today. Keeping that faith. Need to be fully persuaded that this is why. Why shouldn’t we use that Hillsong music? Why shouldn’t we use that other stuff? You know, that’s coming, I don’t know all the the song. Hillsongs is very popular in the Asian culture coming from Australia.

And so, that Bethel music, I think that’s the other one. Why don’t we use that? Do you know why? You see? You need to be fully persuaded that way. That’s why I appreciate talking with older people that have been fully persuaded and lived their life consistently. Their standards stay the same. Our God doesn’t change. Right? He changes not. If he doesn’t change, why do we constantly change with the latest blog online?

That’s kinda scary. No, Paul said, hear what? He said, I fought a good fight. I finished my course. I have kept the faith. I’m sure if he stands before the judgment seat of Christ, he knew that there was a crown of righteousness waiting for him. Imagine that. He knew it. God revealed to him that he would receive it. I watched many times in The Philippines. I watched college students spend much time in order to prepare for a board exam. Right? To become a lawyer. We understand that. To become a doctor or a nurse. Much time.

I watch people spend tons of time in The Philippines getting their documents in order so that they can receive money from the government. It’s a socialist thing, you know, giveaways. And they spend... You have to have this document, and this document, and this document. You go here and get this signature, go here, and they they spend tons of time just doing all these things, just to receive this.

But living for Jesus, and giving account of our service to him at the judgment seat of Christ doesn’t seem to be that important. And, that’s the question for us. Are you ready? Right? Are you ready? If the judgment seat at the rapture were to occur today, and you’re caught up, amen? And then you... The judgment seat of Christ begins. Imagine if they called the Apostle Paul. I don’t know if they’re doing it alphabetically, you know, we don’t know. Is it alphabetical?

Is it for the people way before, you know, at the very beginning? Is that the way they’re gonna do it? Or is it... We don’t know. But could you imagine some of these great people of the past that we’ve known about, even in God’s word that were faithful. I fought a good fight. I finished the course. I kept the faith. Wow. What would be our answer? As I close, I’ll quickly say it in this way as well. One of God’s will for us according to the book of Timothy is that he is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

It is God’s will. God does not choose those who are going to be saved and choose those who are gonna go to hell. That is not a true belief in that way. It is a whosoever will that we’re talking about. God draws people to him. God draws people to him. And through other preaching, through the preaching the word because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And God draws people to him through your testimony, through testimony of believers. Different ways that God draws people to him. My best friend in Connecticut, my soul winning partner, he was brought to Christ because somebody dropped a gospel track on the ground.

He was a member of the Masonic law. Picked up the gospel track, took it home, started reading it, trusted in Christ, and was faithful until his death last year. Wow. You understand that a gospel track, a simple paper on the ground... You see what I’m saying? It’s not God’s will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. That’s why Jesus came. You understand that we are sinners.

We are dead in our sins and trespasses. In the eyes of God, we’re dead. We’re dead in sins. Right? We understand that. Ephesians is very clear. The wage of our sin is death, and that death is a spiritual death. Physically, spiritually, it’s separation. If you die in your sins, you will be eternally separated from God, and the place that you will go is an eternal hell. It’s what the Bible teaches.

The judgment seat... I’m not the judgment seat of Christ. The white throne teaches that if you stand before God, then you will be cast into the lake of fire. That’s the wage of our sin. That’s very serious. It’s not a game here. But, God commended his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. In his death on the cross, his shed blood washed away our sins. My sins are covered by the blood. Right?

He he made the way. Right? That’s what it is. And then when he rose again, third day, that proved to us he is the Messiah. He is the Savior. He is God come in the flesh. That’s what it means. He can, he is able. There is no sin that he cannot forgive. That’s an awesome truth right there. And, all he has said is for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

He said this in John three sixteen, you know this verse, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. We know according to Acts, it’s repentance towards God because a person who has true repentance, in other words, they have... What is the passage there? In they... In in Corinthians, it talks about true sorrow.

A true godly sorrow for their sins that is against the holy God. That is the person that is willing to look to the savior and realize that Jesus is the savior. It’s repentance towards God, faith in Jesus, and when a person has that in their heart, oh yeah, they will be willing to call upon the name of the Lord. There’s no question at all. In Jesus’ promise, they will be saved.

That’s what it’s all about. As I close quickly today, I don’t know. I mean, I know most of you here, I’ve seen most of you. Probably most of us do have a testimony of salvation, and amen. It is Sunday night, right? Amen. That’s awesome. But I must give the gospel message. Something my father told me years ago. He said, if you get the opportunity to preach, give the gospel message.

You never know. But for the believers here today, that’s my question for you. We know that the rapture will occur. The Bible says it. We know that there is the judgment seat of Christ, the Bema Seat. We know it. Are you ready? Possible questions. Have you fought the good fight? Are you running the course that He has given to you? Are you following His known will? Do you know His will?

There’s many people today that believers, they kind of float around, they’re not sure. Hey, do his known will. God will reveal his specific will for your life. How are you keeping the faith? Do you know it? Do you know whom you believed and why? We’re not here to argue with people. But there’s no, if you know your faith... So many times, I’ve been asked in The Philippines, aren’t you a little concerned that the the Iglesianic priests are well taught?

They’re well taught in jumping around the Bible. That’s what they do. They go around all the Bible. They’re well taught. They really are. And they’re well taught in debate. But, that doesn’t matter when you know the truth. When you know the truth, Jesus. Right? You deal with the basics, and a lot of times, that’s all it is. Do you know it? That’s what Paul said. Time of my departure’s hand. I fought a good fight. I finished my course. I kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.

What an awesome thing to know that. Let’s pray.