2 Timothy 4 Preach the Word & Come Before Winter

Paul is writing to Timothy, who is in a difficult situation, imprisoned in the Mamertine prison. This is Paul's last letter and it is filled with instructions and encouragement for Timothy. He emphasizes the importance of preaching the word and being doctrinally sound. Paul reminds Timothy that there is a judgment coming and he will have to give an account for his preaching. Timothy is urged to remain steadfast and not be swayed by false teachings. The passage also highlights the importance of patience, self-control, and fulfilling one's ministry. Overall, Paul sets a high standard for Timothy and reminds him of the significance of his role as a preacher. Well, good morning. Good morning. Y'all doing okay? Good to see Jack and Barbara back and better. He was standing with a nick and he asked me how I was doing. I said, I'm doing okay. He said, it can't be good, do better. So better is always good. Isn't it? All right here. Well, we're almost through. And I'm hoping we'll get through today. Brother Jack's hoping we'll get through today because he's already primed to start Joshua next week. And I'd hate to push him back another week, but we've got a lot of ground. This is a great chapter we're coming through. Second Timothy is very personal. It's full of mentoring and instructions for Timothy. But Timothy really, Paul really focuses on his friendship with Timothy. And Timothy was a remarkable young man. Brother Jack reminded us that he's the only one the New Testament ever calls man of God. That's interesting, isn't it? We don't know now. Paul is in different circumstances than he was when he was in First Timothy. In First Timothy, he was in Rome, in prison. And he was under house arrest, which is kind of like when you have to wear a monitor around your ankle now. They don't want you to leave your house. They can track you. He was in house arrest. And he had the good fortune of being chained to guards. Can you imagine being a guard chained to the Apostle Paul? And that's why Philippians, when he comes down to the end, Paul says, All the saints in Caesar's household salute you. Well, how did Caesar's household get the gospel? Through those guards that were chained to the Apostle Paul. And many of them, I'm sure, got saved. And so he was under house arrest. But now it's different. He's in the Mamertine prison, which was built in the 7th century BC. And every prisoner in the Mamertine prison never survived. They were either there awaiting trial or awaiting execution. And it was a dark, known as a house of darkness. It was well known for its neglect and its darkness and its smell, its stench. It was, just nobody survived it. Paul had been there a while. He was beheaded around 67 or 68 AD. And so this is his last written letter. And as I said, it's a very emotional letter. Personal friendship and focusing on his friendship and partnership in ministry with Timothy. And it's filled with instruction and with encouragement and with words of affection for Timothy. As well as the future of the church. And he has bad news for the church as far as persecution is concerned. So there's some dark days coming for the church. So we start off, and I'll try to read a little bit of this. The first five verses get us started well. And it gives us a flavor of how he's ending up. Because in the first five verses, there are nine imperatives in the first five verses. Nine imperatives. These are not suggestions. Which is another illustration of the relationship that Paul had with Timothy. He knew he was mentoring him. He knew what was best for him. He had been where Timothy was about to be. And so these are not suggestions to Timothy. These are imperatives. These are commands. And I just entitled this portion of this as, Preach the Word at All Times. That's what he reminds us there. He says, I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus. It's got to be serious. He charged him in the name of God and the Lord Jesus. Who is going to judge the living and the dead because of his appearing in his kingdom. Now, you couldn't have a much stronger charge than that. He mentions God. He mentions Jesus. And he mentions the future kingdom to come. The millennial kingdom, yes. But the eternal kingdom, the heavenly kingdom also. So he pulled out all the support that he needed to tell Timothy, you need to pay attention to this. This is very, very important. And he said, Preach the Word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear. They have an itch to hear what they want to hear. And they will be turned away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths. But as for you, that's the way the false teachers are. That's the way things have been going with them. But as for you, exercise, this is all imperative now, all commands. But as for you, exercise self-control in everything, in your hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. Well, Paul is continuing to make sure that Timothy remains doctrinally sound to preach the gospel. Now there are just several asides from that. If you want to preach the gospel, you have to be doctrinally sound. And so preaching is not giving your view of the news of the day or what's happening in Washington or in Austin or this, that, or that. It's what does the Word of God say? Because the Word of God, though written over a period of 1,500 years by 41 authors in various places, most of whom didn't know each other, even though it's thousands of years old, everything we ever need to know today is there. It's in there. That's why I always like expository preaching. I just figured if I'm preaching expository to you, then you have to argue God and not me. That's a great deal of comfort to a preacher. Some preachers are worried about what they say and what their people will hear. Well, I just figured if I preach the Word of God, people will be fine and I'll be happy and we'll all move forward together. So he says you've got to be sound. If you preach the Word, you've got to be sound doctrinally. And so you have to be ready in season and out of season. Now that means that whether you like it or not, whether the people like it or not, whether the people receive it well or reject it, whatever it is, it's always in season to preach the gospel. And so there's never a time when it's not right to preach the gospel. So here's a command, wherever you are, whatever the circumstances are, whether you like it or don't like it, whether you have the errors here to reject it, wherever you are at any time, you need to preach the gospel. And that's a very, very important thing. And in the introductory word, he says because there's a judgment coming. There is a judgment coming. The coming judgment of God, the coming millennial kingdom and heavenly kingdom. He bases his charge to preach the gospel on the sovereign presence of God in Christ Jesus and in his role as the final judge. And Paul is reminding Timothy, you've got a tough job ahead, so pay attention. Stay true to the Word, be doctrinally sound. And he's going to go on through this passage to tell him don't get angry. Don't get upset. If people don't respond well, you need to staple your guns. You need to be cool in every situation. Just take it easy. Don't let anybody rattle your cage. You've just got a job. Your job is to preach the gospel. It's not your job whether people respond or not. It's your job to preach it. So he's setting a high bar for him. The judgment is important. In 2 Corinthians 5-10, Paul told the church at Corinth that they would face the judgment seat of Christ. But here, that's not only true, but he's saying to Timothy, you're going to face the judgment seat of Christ. Now, I've said this before, but I'll say it again. The New Testament says that not many of you should desire to be teachers because they're going to be held to a stricter standard. Every pastor who stands in the pulpit is going to have to give an account of how he did that. And the interesting thing here is that Paul not only tells him he needs to preach the Word, the other commands in these first five verses flow from the command to preach the Word. That's the foundation. And as you preach the Word, these other issues will come from it. So the preacher is going to give an account to God for how he did. When I stand before the Lord, he's going to grill me real close on how I served you for 16 years. You may have thought it was good or bad or indifferent, but God knows everything. He knows the truth. And there will be a judgment. There will be no mistake. There won't be any misjudgment. There won't be any trial to come back as a result of the verdict. The verdict will be accurate. All of us are going to have to face the judgment seat of Christ. If we would live our lives as believers, understanding the love of God and the grace of God for which we are thankful. I did this morning what I tell you I do every morning. I thank God this morning I can still reach my toes. That's not easy. It's getting harder every day. But I can still do it. And I thank God for that. But there's going to come a time when every facet of our lives is going to be exposed to the penetrating gaze of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he's saying, look, you need to preach the word, but you need to remember judgment's coming. Kingdom's coming. Do good. The thing a pastor has to do or a teacher. I pray every Sunday when I'm teaching or preaching, God, don't let me mess this up. This is not my message to you today. This is God's message and we need to rightly understand it and then rightly apply it to our lives. This is not information. This is not a good suggestion. These are the commands of Paul to every believer, but especially to Timothy, whom he is writing. He wants Timothy to pastor the church in Ephesus in the same kind of intensity of preaching and applying the word of God. And so Timothy is to publicly portray him in the gospel. Mass meetings of one-on-one witness. And these four imperatives that follow that command are telling us how you ought to do it. Here's how you ought to do it. First, he's to proclaim the gospel. Second, he's to be ready in season, out of season. That means Timothy's to preach at all times. Third, he was to rebuke error wherever he found it and not be nasty and ugly about it. He's to rebuke in grace, as he talks about patience here in a minute. And if you rebuke without grace, then you've left the main problem untouched. So we're to rebuke, but it's to always be mixed with grace. And then fourth, he's to correct. And fifth, he's to encourage and teach with great patience. Timothy was not to display anger at the failure of believers to respond to him. He was to give consistent encouragement in the face of discouraging hostility that he would be facing. He was to, with sound teaching, sound doctrine, he would be able to teach. Paul is writing the entire message of 2 Timothy with the false teachers in mind. And the false teachers are just the opposite of what he's telling Timothy to be. Timothy, you're not to respond in a way that is inappropriate. The heresy of the false teachers is never very far from Paul's mind and heart when he writes this. So he keeps coming back to it. He says in verses 3 and 4 that there's going to be resistance to the preaching. Now, Paul describes why the proclamation of the God is so necessary. Now, by the way, it's interesting. What he says in verses 3 and 4 that was written way back 2,000 years ago describes our society today. I mean, if you examine carefully the Dallas Morning News or Star Telegram today, you could find the description of this kind of culture that we're living in. Though written in ancient times, it's very relevant to the day. The time has come in our day when people will not accept the truth as it's preached. They want messages that comfort themselves rather than convict themselves. They want messages that they like and feel at ease with. But they're simply curious about the truth but have no desire for the truth. Now, it's interesting that in chapter 3, Paul applies this message to the false teachers, but now he's applying it to Timothy. He's speaking to Timothy and to professing believers. Even professing believers can fall under the dominance of false teachers. How many times have you... I hope you've never had this experience, but I've watched with great sadness over the years people who were solid in the faith and suddenly went astray following someone who was not scriptural, not biblical, but they were convincing, and so they went away. That's a sad thing, but even believers can be deceived. Remember that I told you Manly Beasley used to say that the most serious heresy is the one that sounds the most like the truth. It's just little here and a little there. Paul was really concerned about this. Because if you have this spiritual compromise, there are at least two things that are going to happen. One, believers would be turned away from hearing the truth of the gospel and turned aside to myths. That's what he says here. Now, myth refers to any heresy, anything that's not solid truth, not sound doctrine. And by the way, the word turn aside in the Greek language, the original language, is a medical term which means to tear a joint out of place. Tear a joint out of place. That's painful just to think about it. I notice that in athletics it's not unusual for someone to throw their shoulder out of place. They have to get in there and painfully put it back in place. That's the word that's being used. The word myth describes what develops when you turn away from the truth. So he's telling Timothy, this is the way it's going to be. Now, verse 5, but as for you. That's a pretty specific, pointed statement that he's making. But as for you. In contrast to the people who had itching ears, Timothy was to respond obediently to the Lord. He said, but as for you, exercise self-control, self-control in everything, and in your hardship, do the work of advances, fulfill your ministry. Now, someone said this, I wish I had thought of it. Once someone has scratched an itch rather than satisfy a thirst, that one will leave the truth without even being aware of it. Scratching an itch is where most people are, it seems, in the world today. Rather than quenching a thirst or satisfying a thirst. Many today have fallen into that position. So he's just warning Timothy, he's saying, look, heresy is persistent. It doesn't get better if you leave it alone. You have to deal with it. By the way, that's true of any problem. I had preachers call me and say, man, I need some help. I said, what's the problem? We've got such and such come up and this and that's happening. What should I do? I said, be sweet, confront it. It's not going to get better if you leave it alone. If you've got a serious problem, then it's not going to be better if you ignore it. The ostrich doesn't get safe just because he sticks his head in the sand. It's a serious thing. So, Timothy is always going to need to be aware of developing heresy. That's present tense, by the way. Now, remember that in the Greek language, tense doesn't mean time of action. Past, present, future. That's English. And that's a time of action. Greek's not that way. Greek speaks of a kind of action. Either it's in the past or it's in the present. If it's in the past, what happened in the past? It's in the heiress tense, the past perfect tense, like ours in the Greek language. That language, it means that something happened and still it has happened. It still is in force. It still is working. It's still doing what it did when it happened. But present tense just means continual action. So, anytime you see present tense, you see something that you're living with. We'll see it just a little bit later, verses 6 through 8, when Paul says, I am already being poured out like a drink offering in the Old Testament. That's present tense. So, what Paul's literally saying is, I'm already dying. He was almost a living corpse. He knew his death was near. So, he's continually in the awareness of his dead, and he's going to introduce that to us in just a few moments. And so, Paul is always to be aware of developing heresy, and it's present tense. As I said, he's to keep his cool in all situations, and that's good advice for all of us. By the way, I've never regretted something I didn't say. But I sure have opened my mouth and put my foot in it many times over the years. I could tell you some stories that you wouldn't believe. I was president of a convention back in the 80s and made a statement. I'll not get into that, it's unimportant, about something. I didn't realize that I was talking to a reporter that I knew. And he later called me and said, this is what I'm going to release. And he read it to me, and I said, well, that's what I said. What I didn't realize was, what I said would never be interpreted in the right context. And you remove a statement from the right context, and you're in a heap of trouble. I mean, the world unloaded on me back at that time. You're trying to hijack the convention. You're trying to blackmail the convention. I mean, all kinds of trouble. That was not what I said. We need to be careful of what we say, because someday we'll have to eat the words that we spoke. And we will always be sweet to our taste when that time comes. But spreading the gospel was to be the primary focus for Paul. He's going to endure hardship. He's going to do it without losing heart. He's told to do the work of an evangelist. Remember, spreading the gospel was his primary emphasis. He's accomplished everything that God called him to do. Fulfill your ministry. Do what you were called to do. Then Paul kind of takes a turn in verse 6. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time for my departure is close. I've fought the good fight. I've finished the course. I've kept the faith. There is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day. Not only to me, but to all those who have loved his appearing. Now then, he introduces the reality that he is a dying man. Unlike some, I would ask you to add to your prayer list. Two of our closest friends over the last 70 years have been George and Linda Harris. He pastored out in Phoenix. He pastored Castle Hills Baptist Church in San Antonio after Jack Taylor left for 30 years. His wife, Linda, is right now in her last few days fighting cancer. I call him every day just to see how the night was, how is the day. So we can understand someone who knows they're dying. But Paul, he's not dying of a disease. He's going to have his head chopped off. And he's doing it because that's going to happen because he has faithfully preached the gospel. And he knows his time is coming. He's not scared by it. He's not nervous about it. He's accepted it and willing to proceed. And frankly, he's teaching us how to approach our own deaths. My brother Charlie used to have a little saying when something would happen. He said, well, it is what it is. Well, I'm going to die. It is what it is. I don't mean getting upset about it, being out of shape about it. I'd miss Carol Ann and all of you if I died, but it's okay. Because Paul said, for me to live is Christ, to die is gain. I mean, this life has been good in Christ. You know, I've had a lot of funerals in the last several years. How would you face the death of a loved one without Christ? How could you do that? I don't know. But with Christ, we have the Comforter. He will be the husband to the widow. He'll be the father to the orphan. He'll take us through this. We don't know what it's going to be like. But Jesus died and came back to tell us, hey, everything's okay. When the time comes, and I do want to, if I get too close and don't say it, I want to quote you a contemporary psalm that is Paul's psalm. Just think about that. I don't have time. I think we're all right on that. But let me, I want to read you just verse 7. It says, I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I've kept the faith. And now there's raised up for me the crown of Christ. It says, let me just read you what the New American Standard commentary says, which I happen to have great confidence in because it was published while I was president of Lathway. And it's a pretty good one. Let me just read what it says. Paul found three metaphors to reflect the struggles of his ministry, not merely the difficulties of his life. His use of three Greek perfect tenses suggests that something was completed with consequences that still remain. The fight and the race were over, but the victory abides. Paul had kept the faith and it remains unshaken. He had finished the race is not referring to having done his best in the context, but he was saying he had been running the noblest, grandest race of them all, the ministry of the gospel. Paul was not boasting of his accomplishments, but was reflecting on his life course with a statement of confidence. He was describing what the grace of God had produced in him. What a way to view the end of your life. Now, Paul is awaiting his reward. Verse 6, he accepted the call to ministry, to be saved. In the call to ministry, he was assigned to proclaim the gospel and he was not disobedient to that heavenly call. And the victory he anticipates at his death will be that he receives the crown of righteousness. This was the crown given to a victorious athlete. 1 Corinthians 9, 24, 27. This is not a reward for personal achievement, but it points to God's recognition of the faithful believer. In other words, sometimes we feel like nobody notices things we do and nobody cares. We often find reasons to have pity parties for us. My dad used to go to little boys and have a little tea party this afternoon. Just three guests were present. Myself, I, myself, and me. I drank up the coffee while I ate up the cake and left the rest for me. My dad used to say, you've heard me say, he said, many people have ingrown eyeballs. We just can't get over ourselves. And the older we get, the more we do that. Now, that's understandable. I've got more things to be concerned about when I get older. I didn't used to need a walker when I got around my house, but I do now. One day when I come in here, I'll have to be on a walker. Things change. But the reward is that God doesn't miss a thing. You may think nobody noticed. You did something and nobody said thank you. Well, that's inappropriate, of course, but God noticed. And He's going to examine you real good. And you will receive a crown of righteousness if you've been faithful in what God asks you to do. The faithful people are not all the ones that get the headlines. They're not always the ones that are the best known, who have the biggest Sunday school class or the biggest church. Billy Graham said it many times. He said, I think when I get to heaven, there will be some deacon or pastor out in a little country church that has a much bigger mansion than I'll ever have. God's just keeping the right records. And if nobody notices, just always know that God notices. And that really is why this is important to us. The crown of righteousness. It's just a crown that God gives to acknowledge a person who has lived a life of obedience to God and has fulfilled the calling of His life. And nobody may notice down here. That's why, by the way, did you ever wonder why we don't get our rewards when we die? Because your rewards are not through when you die. I had a lady wrote to me this last year to tell me that she said, you don't know me, but she named the date and the place and said, your dad led me to the Lord and baptized me. Dad has been gone 50 years. His rewards are still coming in. That's true of all of us. We will be given the crown of righteousness. Now, quick to move on here. This was a dark and lonely time for Paul. Verses 9-15 describe the loneliness. There's a difference between being alone and being lonely. You can be alone, you have to be by yourself. You can be lonely in a crowd. And Paul is very lonely at this time. He said, make every effort to come to me soon because Demas has forsaken me, deserted me, since he loved this present world, gone to Thessalonica. That's where the Vanity Fair would have been. That would be the big town, go to Hollywood, go to New York. He just left me because he loved the world. And since he loved the present world, he's gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Bring Mark with you for he is useful to me in the ministry. I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak I left in Troas with Carpus as well as the scrolls and especially the parchments. Except for Luke, he's alone. Now, Jackie and I would agree on this. I don't know anything we disagree on, but I do know we've talked about this. We believe that Paul was the only one who was with him in that dungeon. He was able to come and be with him in his last days before he was executed. So this is an accurate statement. Why did nobody else come? Who knows? We can only imagine. We can think of a lot of good reasons. Maybe they were too far for some to come. Maybe they were afraid. Who knows? But for whatever reason, when Paul comes to that last moment, Luke is standing there with him. It's interesting. He wanted his cloak. Does God care about whether you're comfortable? I think so. I've told you Carol Ann prays for parking places and she always gets a good one. Is God really interested in parking places? Well, I guess so. It doesn't work for me because I never think to ask Him until I can't find one. Then I park out on the back 40 and think about it when I'm walking in from a far distance. He just needed his cloak. He was cold. And he wanted to make the best of these last days. If he's cold, it inhibits his ability to do things he might want to do. And I also want the scrolls and especially the parchments. Now, what were the scrolls and the parchments? Well, truthfully, I'm guessing, I'm thinking the scrolls are the Scriptures and the parchments are papers that he can write on. He wanted to write another letter. He said bring the scrolls and the parchments. The fact that Paul mentions Eubulus and Putins and Linus and Claudia in verse 21 doesn't contradict the statement that only Luke is with him because these were friends, but they were not partners in ministry. Paul could do things these friends would never be able to do, including take care of him physically as a doctor. But they would be good friends, but not partners in ministry or able to deal with Paul's physical needs as Dr. Luke did. Doubtless, Luke was a good partner in ministry and attended to the health needs. We don't know. Paul may have had an inability to see well. Some say he had back problems. But whatever, he was in good hands with Dr. Luke. So the fact that Luke was with him while in prison was important to him and soon he's going to send greetings from others who were close to him, whether they were regulars in seeing him or not. But Luke was the only one who stayed by his side in prison. Now, here's a rabbit. Everyone needs a Luke. Someone you'd call if you didn't want anybody else to know and who wouldn't betray your trust. Someone who really cares about you, about what you need. When I came to Ulis, we went through some really difficult times in Dallas. And the truth was that Dr. Crystal and I had a great relationship. Thank God for the days. I met him every day at 4 o'clock. I'll be grateful until I die but I was able to spend an hour or so with him five days a week just helping him with whatever he needed. I got all of his mail. He didn't write any letters that I didn't send for him. He didn't read any mail that I didn't give him. It was a good time, but it was a hard time. And it deteriorated. And I really needed to leave. I didn't have any place to go. So I called a friend. His name was Luther Dyer. He had been a pastor when I was in San Antonio. He was in Kansas City. Long story. But his church in Kansas City had a mission. Their pastor had just left and he wanted to call me and see if I'd come to Kansas City. When we got through talking on the phone, he started praying for me. My hair stood up on the back of my neck. I had never heard anybody pray over the telephone. By the way, which is a great thing to do. I tell every young pastor, look, when you can't be with your members when they have sadness, call them. You may have a deacon whose mother passed away in New Jersey and you're in Colorado. Well, pick up the phone and call them. It's as good as a visit. It shocked me. But we became best friends. He'd gone to Florida and around, but he was just the best friend I had. I called him. I just called him to say pray for me. You know what happened? The next day, he showed up in Dallas. I didn't ask him to come. But he knew I needed somebody. So he came to Dallas. Everybody needs a Luke. Every one of you at some time in your life are going to see something that requires somebody but you. And you need a Luke that you can always count on. That's what he's talking about here. Luke was not only a true friend of Paul, but he was one Paul trusted completely and was with him to the very end. And then there is a beautiful phrase in verse 11 that we can't miss. Only Luke is with me. Bring Mark with you for he is useful to me in the ministry. Now, wait a minute. Who is Mark? This is John Mark. Acts 12.12 When he went with Paul and Barnabas on a relief mission to Tyre and Sidon after Herod's death. And verse 25 of Acts 12 says he also went on the first missionary journey with them. Mark was mentioned in Colossians 4.10. He's called John Mark in Acts 12.12. And his mother, you didn't know this, his mother hosted the prayer meeting in Acts 12 the night Peter was miraculously freed from prison. He's the important young man in Paul's life. But on that first missionary journey, he went home. He left them in Pamphylia. Now, if you've got maps in the back of your Bible, when you go home, get a map of the ancient world that has the Holy Land. And you'll see when you start Antioch, Antioch was where the missionary journey started. As you go north, it's not too far until you come to Pamphylia. So John Mark was with them until they got to Pamphylia. And we don't know why he left. But Paul was upset about it. In fact, when he decided, he told Barnabas, we need to go on another missionary journey after the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. And Barnabas said, that's a great idea. Let's take John Mark and go. And Paul said, no way, Jose. I'm not going with him again. He bailed out on us. He bailed out on us. He left us. So that's why Paul and Barnabas split up in Acts 15. And Barnabas took another partner. And Paul left without Barnabas. He took... I'm blank, Jack. Who is it? What? What they said. My hearing's not real good. So they split up. He was not going to go on a trip with Mark again. But now, now all that's changed. Now there's been a reconciliation. Now Paul and Mark have had more interaction together. And Mark has proved to be a faithful partner in ministry. And the man that caused him to split his partnership with Barnabas, Now my question is, bring him with you when you come. Do you think God wants us to be reconciled with those that we're on the house with? Do you think it pleases God if we just get to fussing and fighting and ridiculing and being ugly to people we used to really like? God doesn't appreciate any of that. And John Mark, I mean, Demas, we don't know about Demas, but John Mark came back. He proved his worth. And it's important that he wanted to see John Mark, said he's useful to me. Paul, what a transformation. Reconciliation's always a good idea. And by the way, if every church that had a split took the time and sacrificed the pain involved and were reconciled, not brought back together, but reconciled to each other, the church would be blessed beyond measure. Many churches are never going to be blessed because they carry bitterness over something that happened and split the congregation and people got involved and we don't like him and we're angry because of the way they did this and that. None of that is pleasing to God. And that's a great illustration. Bring Mark. Oh, and it's almost an aside. He said, by the way, bring Mark with you. Simple statement, but don't forget, don't dare dismiss it as insignificant because it's very, very important that God wanted to bring reconciliation and Paul now wants John Mark back with him again. In verse 14, he says, Alexander the coppersmith did great harm to me. Now the Lord will repay him according to his works. So he's stating that he had a man that opposed him strongly and that was not the reason he wanted to make this statement. Here's why he said that. He warned Timothy not to become victim of Alexander the coppersmith. Watch him out. Be careful with him. Don't trust him. Now we don't know anything about Alexander the coppersmith, just that he was an enemy of the gospel. He did much evil to Paul. He greatly opposed Paul and Paul simply turns him over to the Lord and says the Lord will take care of him. But he warned Timothy not to become a victim of the enemy. Okay, we're getting on. All right. Now, when we come to verse 16, Paul is facing a trial and what he says is very significant. At my first defense, no one stood by me, but everyone deserted me, may it not be counted against them, but the Lord stood with me and strengthened me so that I might fully preach the word and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil work and will bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen. Incredible few verses there. It does not seem to be referring to an official trial, but likely to a preliminary hearing leading up to a trial because that's when the hearings would normally allow supporters to be accused to speak in his behalf. In Paul's case, nobody came. He doesn't give any reason, but Luke in Acts 28-22, which was around A.D. 60, which would be a little before this letter, reported that people everywhere are speaking evil against this sect. The circumstance there is you remember that the fire that destroyed Rome was in July of A.D. 64. Nero probably burned the city down himself, but he blamed the Jews and the Christians. They were his scapegoats, and so things went from bad to worse in the Roman Empire with the believers because they were now accused of destroying the city of Rome itself. Paul just says, nobody stood with me. Maybe they were afraid. I could understand that. When our dearest friends turn against us, God's still going to be faithful. Even when we're unfaithful, God will be faithful. Hebrews 13, 5 and 6 says that, For he himself has said, I will never leave you or abandon you. Therefore, we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? Everybody else may let you down and probably will at some point in your life, but God will never let you down. He is going to be true to himself. He always stands with his saints, with his believers, with his ministers. The devil is described in 1 Peter 5, 8 as a roaring lion. The best way to handle the roaring lion is to feed him the Word of God. He can't digest it. It gives him indigestion. He just can't handle it. What did Jesus do when the devil tempted him? According to Scripture. It would be a good thing for all of us to do. We just ought to do that. The Lord always stands with his saints, whatever may come into our lives, and even when we cannot see him, he still is with us. Nothing can come into our lives without his permission. Invisible to the human eye and mysteriously, he anoints us, he empowers us with sufficient grace for disappointments, trials, temptations, and heartaches. Whatever you are going through, God has promised to be there with you. Whatever you encounter on life's journey home, he is with you every step of the way. Here is where he sits. He is alone in Nero's dungeon, but the same Jesus that he met on the Damascus Road, whom he trusted and whom he served faithfully, was with him in that dungeon. God took care of him, and God will take care of us. Faithful believers who have served the Lord with passion and purity, live with his presence and sustain him every step of the journey home. I've gotten where when I write notes, that I will always say to keep on your journey, because God is with us every step of the way. He really is. He is with us every step of the way. He says in verse 18, The Lord will rescue me from every evil and will bring me safely to the heavenly kingdom. He declares with Job, Though the Lord slay me, I will still trust him. That is what Job said. That is essentially what Paul was saying. Every detail of his life was committed to Christ and the proclamation of the gospel. And now, guess what? After all this, all of the problems, all of the difficulties, all of the persecution, all of the false teachers and the heretics and all of these things, Paul breaks into singing. He started singing a song. He burst into a doxology. And it was just amazing. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen. He's about to be executed, but he's still singing praises to the Lord. Now, he closes with a blessing and focus on grace. He sends his greetings to long-trusted friends and asks Paul to come see him. He had already asked him to come soon, and then he adds to that here and he says, Come before winter. Come before winter. Lots of reasons for that. The travel in the wintertime around the horn of Italy and into this area was very difficult. He was saying, I know she's coming quickly, but come before winter. Now, I believe that there's been a song written in our lifetimes. That's Paul's song. Now, I know, I recognize that we're all grumpy old men and women. We want what we want. Do you ever realize how old age is so much like what we want, exactly when we want it, and exactly how we want it? Well, it doesn't have to be that way, by the way. I'm phoning you a little bit because I hope you're not that way. But Mark Redmond is an English composer who's 51 years old. He has written more than 500 songs, and he's just 51. And one has become a worldwide favorite. It's sung literally around the world. It's called Ten Thousand Reasons. It describes well what the Apostle Paul was experiencing at this crucial time just before his death. Let me just read the lyrics to you. I hope I can because I've had a hard time reading it without getting emotional. The sun comes up. It's a new day dawning. It's time to sing your song again. Whatever may pass, whatever lies before me, let me be singing when the evening comes. You're rich in love. You're slow to anger. Your name is great, and your heart is kind. For all your goodness, I'll keep on singing Ten Thousand Reasons from my heart to find. And on that day when my strength is failing, the end draws near and my time has come, still my soul will sing your praise unending ten thousand years and then forevermore, forevermore. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Worship his holy name. Sing like never before, O my soul. I worship your holy name. I hope that's your last song you sing before you die. Paul's officials are over. His race has been run. His fight has been completed. He kept the faith of Christ to the end. And when the evening of his life came, when his head was severed from his body, he was still singing the Lord's praise. May we so live and so die singing the praises of God when the evening comes. Father, thank you for your love and grace. Knowing ourselves as we do, knowing the grace that you give so freely to us, we thank you. And forever, even as we die, we will sing your praises unending. In Jesus' name, amen.