Spiritual Confidence Before God

A week ago yesterday, Friday the 21st, which was the first Friday back, I had a funeral. A funeral over in Gaston, Alabama. A long-term member of the church who died the morning of the last great day.

In the four and a half years that I have been in Rome, in Gaston, of course Chattanooga, these three congregations, 25 members have died. 25. Two in Rome, 11 in Gaston, and 12 in Chattanooga. And that's probably not really unusual. When I came here from the four congregations of Missouri and Kentucky that I had for 12 and a half years, over that 12 and a half years, I had 40-something funerals. Again, not really that unusual in one sense because in our day and age, we reached back to the 60s and the 70s and the 80s for so many people who were called into the church and who were young and have grown old. Many have finished their race already, and many are approaching the finish of their race. Whether that's at their death or the return of Jesus Christ, what I cover today has meaning for everyone who is then Christ. In the spring of 1967, Mrs. Loma Armstrong was dying. She had an intestinal blockage, possibly cancer, but near the end, a number of people were gathered around her bed, including leading ministers. She looked up at them and she said, I'll be alright. Don't worry about me. You go on and finish the work. And she spoke with peace of mind. She spoke with confidence. And over the years, I have seen this peace and confidence reflected in others many, many times. I would ask us, how valuable is this peace of mind? How valuable is it to have this spiritual confidence before God? How valuable is that? Without it, you can't truly look forward to the return of Jesus Christ, can you? Let's read in 2 Timothy 4.8. Paul writes this to Timothy. He says, Notice Titus 2.13. Titus 2.13. I would add this, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Looking forward, looking for the glorious appearing. Paul said, but unto all them also that love His appearing.

Titus talks about Paul 2.2 here, looking for the glorious appearing. You can neither love nor look forward to the coming of Jesus Christ unless you have spiritual confidence before God. Because, see, without that, there's a fearfulness. There's a fearfulness. Hebrews 10.31 says this, It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, into His wrath or His correction.

Again, spiritual confidence before God makes all the difference. It makes all the difference in our living, the way we live, how good each day is, what we live with, how we live each day.

The atmosphere, the mental, emotional mood, and atmosphere of the mind, even. Spiritual confidence before God makes all the difference in our living, and guess what? In our dying. Being able to live in confidence is a wonderful thing. You know, to get up each morning and to juggle back your day in the way that helps to generate spiritual confidence before God, and to be able to live that day in spiritual confidence before God is a wonderful thing.

And so is dying in confidence, isn't it? See, 2 Corinthians 5.10 makes this statement. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 10. I'll turn back there and read it. I've got a line here to quote, but I'll turn back and read the whole verse. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 10.

For it must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Now, I understand that judgment is a process also, and that judgment is on the house of God, which we are, which means that judgment is a process going on with us daily. Understand that. But there also comes an end of the road where final rendering is rendered. Yes. And Paul says, well, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he has done, whether it be good or whether it be bad.

That time is going to occur where we appear now. Exactly how God will go about doing that in the grand finale, so to speak, with each of us. I don't know, but this I do know. To be able to live with confidence toward that time, what a blessing! To live with confidence versus fear. What I'm talking about today, and you can title the message this way, is spiritual confidence before God. Spiritual confidence before God. It's a wonderful thing. It's such a blessing. But how do you attain it? How do you maintain it? If you obtain it, then how do you maintain it?

How do you get it and keep it? Where does it come from? What produces it? What I have seen over the years is that too many of God's people, obviously not everybody, but maybe not even the majority. Maybe not even half. But still, that said, too many of God's people live with a lack of spiritual confidence.

And they don't have to. They don't have to. One of the greatest needs, one of the greatest blessings, is to be able to live with peace of mind. You ever notice how, when you have peace of mind, how much better everything is? Everything is better. To be able to live with peace of mind with a settled spirit. So much of our mental, emotional, and even physical health is dependent upon that. Peace of mind, a settled spirit, emotional health, depends on a clear conscience and confidence toward God, before God.

Such lets us come boldly to the throne of grace, as we're told to be able to do in Hebrews 4, 16. And when we live with proper confidence before God, we can go boldly to the throne of grace. It is a wonderful thing to live our days in confidence before God. And when those days eventually come to a close, and they certainly will, to close them in confidence. That's when, when. When, when, during your living, and you're winning at your dying.

And again, my position in life called to be a pastor. It's put me in a position to have to deal with death on a regular basis. It's part of what I do to serve. And it's an honor. It's a responsibility and it's honor to conduct those ceremonies. It's not something that I wish for more of, but to conduct them over the bodies of those I know who have been able to live in confidence before God. And die in confidence. That's a wonderful thing. One of the great blessings is to come to that time with a deep confidence, with a deep assurance that grants a peace and calmness and quietness of spirit.

Mrs. Armstrong had that. I've seen so many others have that. The Apostle Paul had that. Any one of us can have that. Now, let there be no misunderstanding. It is both, number one, possible to live in good conscience and confidence before God all our days and, number two, to come to the end of those days in that same confidence. And if we want, and if we pray, and if we ask God to allow us to stay around a little longer in the land of the living, that it's for our children's sake.

It's for our grandkids' sake. It's for our family members and loved ones' sake that we want to be with them. And it's for, okay, if I've got life, I can grow more. I can learn more. I can be there for my family and my loved ones. Let it be for those reasons. And I have seen it for those reasons many a time, where somebody would have said, I'm ready to go. I'm at peace. I'm not worried. But if God could choose to bless me with an extension of life, where I could have another year or two or three for my child's sake or my children's sake or my grandchildren's sake, I would really appreciate that.

That'd be a great blessing. And I've seen God many a time extend life like that. That's okay. That's okay. There's peace of mind. There's quietness of spirit.

That's okay to want it for that, but not because, look, I'm scared to death of dying because I don't know what my future's going to be. I'm afraid I'm going to wake up in the wrong place. You know, that kind of thing. And frankly, it's really sad and tragic to see somebody in that position. And I've also seen that a couple of times. I've seen it more out in the world than I've seen it in the church, obviously, where somebody is scared to death of dying because they're afraid they may wake up in the wrong place, as they put it. So, in regards to spiritual confidence before God, let's look at some basic factors. And then, what is actually quite a simple bottom line. And let's start here in Acts 23.1. Acts 23 and verse 1. In Acts 23 and verse 1, Paul, the Apostle Paul, makes a very confident statement. Look at his words. And Paul, honestly, beholding the counsel, said, Man and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.

Now, wait a minute. Paul, how can you say that? Can that be real in all good conscience before God? How could Paul say this? Why could he say this? What gave him the right or the assurance to say this? Especially when he was more aware than anybody else of what he had done, of what was in his past, of what was in his background. How could he truthfully say this, make this statement with his background? In other words, with what lay along his path back there? In his wake? How could this be a truthful statement? Well, first of all, this statement was made with Paul, very aware of what he had been and done. If you notice 1 Timothy 1.13, 1 Timothy 1 and verse 13, he was very aware. He did not kid himself. In writing to Timothy here, and I'll focus on this first part for the moment, who was before, what was he? Before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious. I blasphemed, I persecuted, I injured. Look at Galatians 1.13. Galatians 1 and verse 13. He wrote this to the Galatians. Chapter 1 verse 13, he said, For you have heard of my conduct in time past, in the Jews' religion, in Judaism. How that... notice the words, again, I'm reading from the King James, beyond measure. In other words, totally unbalanced in every sense of the word, but better put, extreme. Beyond measure, extreme. Zealotry. See, zeal is good, but zealotry, a zealot is not. Zealots break things. Zeal energizes things. Zealots break things. Beyond measure, I persecuted the church of God and wasted it. Beyond measure, there was no holding back. Notice Acts 9 and verse 1 when he was still known as Saul. Saul the Pharisee. Acts 9 and verse 1. It says this of him. He says, beyond measure, no holding back, extreme. And Saul, yet breathing out, like it's just his breath is on fire, even. Breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest. Do you remember what Christ said? You'll recognize it when I read it in John 16 too. But on the very night that Christ would be taken, and in warning them, he said in John 16 verse 2, he said, they shall put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time comes that whosoever kills you will think that he does God's service. He will think that he is doing God's service. Well, guess what? The classic example of one who fits that category is Saul, who became the Apostle Paul. Paul, as the Pharisees saw, was in the category that Christ defined and warned of in John 16 too. There was no greater case of it. There was no greater example of it. We'll think that he does God's service. Paul thought that. He would simply write to the Philippians, and it's interesting how in the various places where he mentioned his blasphemous activity, injurious activity, as the Pharisees saw, he didn't try to hide it.

He voiced it around. He wrote about it. Philippians 3.6, mentioning his zeal. Philippians 3 verse 6 is a phrase there. It just says, concerning zeal, persecuting the church. Paul was very willing to oversee, to carry out, to okay, to officially witness the administration of death. Under the Old Covenant, they had the administration of death, and he was very willing to carry that out. See, in Acts 7, where Stephen is before the council, and they condemn him to death, it says in Acts 7 beginning in verse 58, breaking into the thought, it says, and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.

He was overseeing it. He was kind of like officiating it. They made the decision, the council did, and he officiated it. Verse 59, and they stoned Stephen. And what does this say in chapter 8 verse 1, immediately following, and Saul was consenting to his death. He was officiating it. So, in light of all this, with all of this in mind, how and why could Paul make the statement he did in Acts 23.1, because it is a very confident statement of conscience. Part of the answer lies in 1 Timothy 1.13, where we were in the rest of the verse.

1 Timothy 1 verse 13, in the rest of the verse. But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. Ignorantly in unbelief. Paul was blind at the time. He was blind at the time. He was in darkness. He did not see. See, he was behind the veil that covers all nations that Isaiah speaks of in Isaiah 25.7. He was behind the veil that covers all nations. And it's interesting that when Paul wrote Romans 10 verse 2, and I won't turn there, but just quoting it, when Paul wrote Romans 10 verse 2, and he said of his countrymen, and specifically his fellow Pharisees that he had been one of, he says, "'For I bear them record, that they have a zeal of God, they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.'" And that was so true.

They had a zeal of God, but it wasn't according to knowledge. And they were breaking things. He was also bearing a testimony against himself in a previous time because he had been a Pharisee of Pharisees. And he knew that, and he missed that in other places. His intentions had been good, but his path had been paved with damage and destruction. Damage and destruction to the church of God. And there is a saying, and we've all heard it, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Well, Paul fell prey to that, but not deliberately, not knowingly. And what did he do as soon as he realized he was wrong? When he realized he was wrong, what did he immediately do as soon as he was struck down and literally saw the light? I mean, there was a blinding light that may have also, as a result of that blinding light that he saw, may have damaged his eyes for the rest of his life. But the most important thing was the light was turned on in his mind. God just flipped the switch.

And when God did what did Saul, who would become Paul, what did he immediately do? There was no hesitation. He repented. He changed. When the one who spoke to him let him know, you're fighting against me, Jesus Christ. The one that you think is a chief heretic, deceiver, false messiah, all of that, I am real, I'm alive.

You know all the background, you know the dots, you've got the dots on your page. I am alive, I am him, I'm the son of God, I came from God, I'm back with God now. What you're doing is a hard thing to be doing. Why aren't you doing it? We have the briefest of what transpired. We have what transpired that is sufficient for us to know. But immediately, no hesitation, no balking, none of that.

He repented. He changed. He reversed himself immediately. Paul faced himself. He was totally honest with himself and what he had done. And we see him just like throwing a switch. He flipped from the bad to the good, so to speak. Because as soon as his mind was open to see what he was doing, he rejected it. But he couldn't go back and wipe that off of his memory banks. It's there. And that haunted him the rest of his life. All you've got to do is read some of the stuff he said. But he was honest with himself. He faced himself. He was totally honest with himself and what he had done.

And think about it. What Paul had done could have eaten him alive. It could have eaten him alive. And a lot of people, it would eat them alive. But he turned. He turned to the covering blood and sacrifice that he had been persecuting. He turned to the covering blood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And it would be Paul, who years later would write these words to his brothers and sisters in Judea.

In Hebrews 9 verse 14, he would write this to them. Hebrews 9 and verse 14, How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge, purge what? Purge your conscience from dead works. You want to talk about, once he realized what he had done, what it put on him, the dead works that he had had, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Did Paul ever know about dead works on the conscience once the light had been turned on?

But again, he immediately took the right actions. He also would write here in Hebrews 10 verse 22. Notice what he says, Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, a spiritual confidence before God, in full assurance of faith, in spiritual confidence before God, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, full assurance, confidence. So, whether we've done dead works through ignorance or weakness, the first basic step is what?

Repentance. Repentance is the first basic step toward having spiritual confidence before God. It's not the only step, but it's the first step. Repentance is the first basic step toward having spiritual confidence before God. That's what Paul did. When he was struck down, he immediately had a change of mind. He immediately exercised his free moral agency to responsibly respond. That's what he did. Paul faced himself. He was honest with himself. He fought himself.

And Paul truly turned to God through the knowledge God gave to him. Now, we're told in Paul's writings that the things written in the Old Testament are for our learning, that there are things contained there as examples for our learning. Okay. What about things in the New Testament? What about the example of Paul himself in the New Testament? Was there a, quote, bigger center in terms of damages done? What did Paul have to say about himself? Well, 1 Timothy 1, 15.

1 Timothy 1 and verse 15.

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, or that is, of being accepted, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.

Now, notice this last phrase statement, of whom I am chief.

No, Paul, you're not chief. I'm chief. I'm the chief center.

I think you'd get an argument out of Paul.

And in the kingdom when we said, if we were to say, anybody, I think, if anybody were to say, Paul, back there when you wrote Timothy, and you said that you were the chief center that God saved, I wanted to debate that with you. I think I'm more of a chief center than you were.

I think you would lose the debate.

Just on the basis of the facts of the damages done, you'd lose the debate.

See, Paul viewed himself as the chief center saved. That's how he saw himself, the chief center.

I didn't hang that title on him. You didn't either. He did. He hung that title on himself. But notice what else he said about himself in 1 Corinthians 15. And again, these things are sprinkled. This is sprinkled through his writings. Notice what else he said about himself in 1 Corinthians 15, what we call the resurrection chapter. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 9. Verse 9. He told them, now, keep in mind, this letter is to the church in thin city Greece.

There was no city more sinful than Corinth. It was full of sinners. The church itself, that was primarily Gentile, were those who had come out of that society.

Sin was so common. He writes to them, he says, for I am the least of the apostles.

I am the least of the apostles. Then I'm not made or not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. Paul said it was not proper or fitting to even be called an apostle because he had damaged the church. He took it even further. He told the Ephesians in Ephesians 3.8 and Ephesians 3 and verse 8. He said, unto me, who am less than the least of all saints. And again, notice the labels that he's hanging on himself based on what he had been involved in, that he had been delivered from, who am less than the least of all saints. Is this grace given? That I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Who's the least of all saints? Now, I guess God only knows that, right? All we could do is speculate. But do you think you qualify for that position? Is there anybody in here that thinks that they're the least of all saints? Do you qualify for that position? Somewhere in the congregation of God, maybe there is what God would consider the least of the saints. If so, then Paul considered himself lesser than that person. Again, this is how he saw himself. What am I striving at?

Or driving at? Just this. With all those labels, with all of those tags, with all of that openness that he expressed, he lived with confidence before God. And you can too. I can too. Which of us had greater dead works on our record than Paul?

Now, I'm not asking for anybody to come talk to me to convince me that you have more dead works on your record than the Apostle Paul. Because first of all, I know that there's nobody that could show me greater dead works on their record than Paul had. So, rhetorically, which of us had greater dead works on our record than Paul? One of the great encouragements is that Paul's true repentance was accepted, and his slate was wiped clean. Lillie wiped clean. It was wiped clean. And so, is ours, or can be. Now, why do I emphasize it this way? Because, again, our past comes back to haunt us any chance it gets. Satan knows which buttons are read, which ones to push.

He knows which triggers to pull. He knows which strings to tug on. Satan knows. He knew Paul's record. He knows my record. He knows your record. He knows our record. Our past can come back to haunt us any chance it gets. Now, Paul had to deal with his past the entirety of his life, but he handled it properly, and he maintained confidence before God. The past will come back to haunt us any chance it gets, and especially pushed by that great promoter of depression and discouragement and all. Satan, the devil, the God of this world. And when that happens, it eats into our confidence before God. Even John addressed this issue. And think about this. When John addressed this in 1 John 3, 20. In 1 John 3, 20, again, I so many times will reference back to the fact that he's 90-something years old. It's in the 90s AD. It's 60-something years after the church was founded on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. And you see some of these same issues as having to be readdressed because they don't just go away. And if you get them counter-flushed out and ironed out and ironed away in one generation of the church, they show up in the next generation of the church. But he addressed this issue in 1 John 3, 20. He said, For if our heart condemn us, God, and I might substitute in there if our memories, if our memory, because it's a wonderful thing to have memory, it's a wonderful thing to be able to go down memory lane and visit precious and wonderful and encouraging and inspiring memories, but also sprinkle along the way are memories of things that you don't want to stop at and visit. You don't want to dwell on. You don't want to have become dominant in your thinking as you go down memory lane. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows all things. And again, things can remind us of our dead works. And some of the damages that Paul did to the church lasted his lifetime. There were reminders he had to deal with. You know, he could go to a congregation over there somewhere, and there might be the uncle of someone whom he had overseen the death of, or an uncle of somebody, or a father of somebody that had a son writing in prison because Paul had been instrumental in doing the devil's work to see that that person got put in prison. I mean, there were reminders. There were reminders.

And he might have run into a brother or sister in his travels who bore the scars of scourgings or whippings that had been overseen by Paul. Now he's a brother in Christ, but he bears the scars that are there because of Paul as Paul being instrumentally used not of God, but of God's adversary. Now, there were reminders he had to deal with. And when we are reminded, we have to remind ourselves that we've been forgiven, that those dead works are no longer on the record. And once again, we have the result of confidence. Verse 21, verse 21, Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And when we come back to the realization of the reality of our current situation, it generates confidence before God.

And this brings up another basic factor in regards to spiritual confidence toward God. And this is very important. And that is this. God's mercy. God's mercy. Or better put, our trust in that mercy. Our trust in that mercy. I remember in the waning months of my father's life, he was a first group. He made a statement one day when I was there with him. He made a statement. He said something like, none of us are going to be in God's kingdom without God's mercy.

Mercy plays such a tremendously heavy role in it. Trust in that mercy. Belief in that mercy.

Comfort in that mercy. Again, I go back to Paul. Paul, and I'll say Saul. Saul being converted to Paul, or that is, you know, as a converted individual, they begin to call him Paul at some point. Paul became God's primary example of mercy. God used him as the leading example of God's mercy. The mercy of deliverance. The mercy of deliverance from darkness into light. Because literally he was taken from spiritual darkness into brilliant spiritual light. The mercy of forgiveness. His slate wiped clean, moved from death to life. The mercy of help. The power of the Holy Spirit with him. Notice, and again, all you have to do is search through his writings and do the linking of the scriptures together on this issue. Notice again, 1 Timothy 1 in verse 16.

1 Timothy 1 in verse 16. He writes, How be it, for this cause I obtained mercy. Now, I do not know at which point in time that God the Father decided and said to Christ, Son, Saul who is persecuting the church. We're going to change things.

We're going to open his mind to see. We're going to give him a chance to repent.

And because of what he's done and what we're going to transfer him to as far as opportunity to repent and change, and I believe he will when his zeal is properly directed, and we're going to use him. We're going to take him away from being an instrument of destruction for our church, and we're going to use him to help build our church. And we're going to use him as our prime example of our mercy towards every sinner that repents.

How be it, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first, primary, prime, in me first, Jesus Christ might show forth all long suffering for a pattern, or that is an example or a model, notice, to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

Mr. Beame, I don't know if God can forgive me of what I've done, so you think your sins are worse than Paul's. What did he do? He repented.

What are you willing to do? Well, I'm willing to repent. Well, then repent. And God will forgive you of it. Paul's our example. God uses Paul as the prime example of his mercy. He uses Paul to illustrate the magnitude of his mercy. God uses Paul to say this, to make this statement. God makes this statement, look, if I am willing to show mercy to him who tried to destroy my church, then you should be confident that I'm willing to show mercy to you. Where there is true repentance and where there is trust in the mercy of God, there is spiritual confidence before God. And if you're not living with spiritual confidence, figure out where the breakdown is, because there's a breakdown. Because where there is true repentance and trust in the mercy of God, there is spiritual confidence before God. It doesn't mean you won't have trials, doesn't mean you won't have tests. It doesn't mean that every day will be gloriously, brilliantly wonderful and you won't have issues you have to deal with. No! Because there's growth and development and overcoming and all that. But you will go through each day with spiritual confidence before God. Because where there is true repentance and trust in the mercy of God, there is an MO. There's a modus operandi that's established. And it's simple and it's simply stated and it's basic and it's bottom line as a way of functioning. And as a way of functioning, it's very powerful in feeding and maintaining spiritual confidence toward God. And what I'm alluding to and what I'm talking about, this automatic effector spin-off, is this. What will come out of that? What will come out of true repentance and trust in the mercy of God is this. Sin, fear, effort, and a right attitude. That's what it will generate. Sin, fear, effort, and a right attitude.

See, true repentance and trust in God's mercy will still appear faster than anywhere in the sincerity of your efforts in a right attitude. And lack of true repentance and or trust in God's mercy will still appear faster than anywhere else where half-hearted efforts are made, not sincere efforts, attitudes not right. But where there's true repentance and trust in God's mercy, sincere effort in and from and through a right attitude, it'll show up. And this is an area where I can't fool myself. I can't fool God. I can't even fool myself. I know if I'm making sincere effort in a right attitude. I know if I've got a right attitude. I know if I'm making sincere effort. I know if I'm not. I can't fool myself. I sure can't fool God. We know if we have a right attitude. We know if we are sincerely trying. And so does God. And sincere effort in a right attitude does bear fruit. God can bless such effort. I didn't pay Ryan anything to say that in his message about mentioning me and give God something to bless. He did that on his own. I'm not sending him $20 or $50. Getting around, of course. But it's so true. You give God something to bless. And sincere effort in a right attitude does bear fruit. God can bless that effort.

And through that, God blesses us and He develops us. Sincere effort in a right attitude is the underpinning of our confidence before God. Now, we've all experienced lapses, haven't we?

We've all experienced lapses in our efforts and our attitude. And when we have, what do we also experience correlating to that? Corresponding to that, we experience lapses of our confidence before God. And more fear and angst begins to come in. But when we have regained sincere effort in a right attitude, we have regained confidence before God. Now, we may not have focused on this this way, the way I'm presenting it today, but you and I have all proven it to ourselves through practice, through our own personal practice of life. We have our own personal experience with this issue, our own personal proof. Again, sincere effort in a right attitude is the fruit or the result of true repentance and trust in the mercy of God. And exercising that result feeds, feeds, turns around, so to speak, and feeds, recycles and feeding, he repents and trusts in mercy. Paul was confident.

His road to the kingdom from the time he was converted was a road in terms of the troubles you and I won't have to walk, not to the same magnitude. You look at what he went through, what God allowed him to have to go through. You talk about the beatings and the scourges and drownings except for God and all the trouble. Thankfully, we don't have that level of trouble all along the way, do we? Now, he went to, you know, wearing back the way the world would say it.

Paul was confident. He came to the end of his days confident.

2 Timothy 4, verse 6, he said, For I am now ready to be offered. I am now ready to lay my head on the chopping block, and to wait for that sword, that gladius, to come down across my neck and sever my head from my body. I'm ready to depart the land of the living. I'm ready to pass away. I'm ready to die.

And the time of my departure of that happening is at hand. It's very close, Timothy.

What gave him that confidence? And again, I would just introduce the thought, was he trusting in his perfection and all the perfection he had attained? Was that the answer? What he had become perfect? Well, sometime just once again read Romans 7. We're not going to go back there. But just sometime read Romans 7 again, verses 14 through 24. That shows that was not the case. His life was a struggle. Fighting against society and Satan and self and all, it was a struggle. And he himself would write to the Corinthians that no flesh is going to glory in the presence of God. No, Scripture is like that's 1 Corinthians 1, verse 29. But Scriptures like that show that he didn't trust in his perfection. And Scriptures like what he wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 9, verse 26 and 27. I mean, it removes any lingering doubt that he, quote, trusted in the fact, well, I'm perfect, you know, I've got it all together. I don't have to fight anymore or change or grow or do any of that. Because he wrote them in 1 Corinthians 9, verses 26 and 27. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beats the air.

But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection. Thus that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. He speaks of running and fighting and keeping on, doesn't he? Guess what? This is sincere effort in a right attitude. That's what it was. Censored effort in a right attitude that was maintained throughout his life. So back to 2 Timothy 4, this time, verse 7. I have fought a good fight. That's fighting.

I have finished my course. I've run my race.

I've kept the faith. I have kept on. I've kept on. I've kept on keeping on. Paul's confidence toward God ran supreme because he knew he had lived with sincere effort in a right attitude. And now because of that, he could approach the end of his days in full confidence. 2 Timothy 4, 8, which we read at the beginning. 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 to all them also that love is appearing. What a blessing.

What a blessing to live our life with total confidence before God. And when the time comes to die in that peaceful confidence and the comfort of knowing that that confidence is possible for each and every member of the body of Christ.