The following short sermon was preached today by Alistair Begg; he titled it, The Crown Of Righteousness. I got the above title from a statement he made during the sermon – those words should appeal to people who may believe they are too bad for heaven; that is, they could be helped greatly by hearing what Begg had to say.
Sermon highlights precede the 21 minute sermon; bracketed statements, underscoring and emboldening are mine:
- 2Tim 4:8 (ESV2011) Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
- The work of God is not perfected in us until we are raised from the dead [glorified]
- There are three tenses inherent in the concept of salvation: past: we are saved from sin’s penalty; present, we are being saved from sin’s power; and finally, we will be saved from sin’s presence
- In the meantime, those who are born again, who are ‘in Christ’ are still sinners, they are still sinful
- The Evil One likes to accuse us when we sin, implying that we are too sinful to be Christians
- We can tell him, we have been saved from the penalty of sin and one day we will be saved from the presence of sin; meanwhile, we must wrestle with the power of sin
- It is not a question of victory; it is a matter of being in the battle
- The armor the apostle Paul speaks about in Ephesians 6 is only for our front side [for our pilgrimage towards the celestial city as in The Pilgrim’s Progress]
- There is a popular statement in our society, “life is tough, and then you die;” according to the Bible, there is a lot left unconsidered in those words. The Bible states in Hebrews 9:27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
- The idea of a final judgment by God is very distasteful to the intellectuals of this western culture; believers are subtly pressured to not mention it in any conversation about the Bible, Christ or God, but Paul urges Timothy [above] to make sure he speaks about the perils of God’s judgment
- Paul has given an example in Acts 17, when he conversed about the gospel with the philosophers in Athens, he stated: 17:30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
- On the Day of Judgment, Christ will render a final, unalterable verdict against sinners, you and me
- Begg used an illustration of the ‘silk road trial’
- [I looked it up, it is from 2011, you can read about it at the following link: https://freeross.org/case-timeline/ there may be a better link, I chose the first one that came up]
- Begg used an illustration of the person found guilty in the above case awaiting to hear his sentence, having already been found guilty… Begg emphasized that, even though that man received life in prison with no possibility of parole, that is nothing compared to the eternal punishment that awaits guilty sinners who are not found ‘in Christ’
- For that reason, Paul vehemently urged Timothy to preach about judgment day, sin, and the whole counsel of God
- Furthermore, Paul urged Timothy to tell all people of the good news. What is that?
- That the judge, Jesus, has come down from the bench, taken off His robe and put Himself in the place of the sinner, bearing his punishment, paying his sin debt – a debt that the guilty sinner could not otherwise pay
- THAT IS THE STORY OF THE GOSPEL; THE GOOD NEWS
- The sinner who realized his predicament [that he is a helpless sinner who cannot stop sinning or make himself acceptable to God] is amazed to learn that God loves sinners and that Christ has paid their sin debt on the Cross
- If you think you’re good enough to squeak into heaven, then you will not get there
- If you know you’re bad, then you’ve a chance of making it via trusting in Christ’s atoning work
- Paul speaks of having been shown these things by Christ in several scriptures, including the following: Philippians 3:4 …If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; …as to righteousness under the law,3 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
- Begg talked about the thief on the cross to further illustrate the above
- Most religious people are either proud or despairing. The proud think they have done well and will get into heaven; the despairing think there is no way they will make it [both err because they are relying on their own work]
- The Bible makes it clear that Christians cannot make it to heaven in their own righteousness; they will be required to rely upon Christ’s righteousness
- Begg gave another illustration and closed with a very brief story that related the above to our time in history
Featured Image: Photo by Patricia McCarty from Pexels