And like I said, we'll finish
this book tonight, and Lord willing, I will go on to the book of Acts. You know, I want to start there
again in verse 6, where Paul, he has been a prisoner of wrong
for over two years. And they took him to Jerusalem,
and he appealed to Caesar. They tried to try him, tried
to kill him. The Jews did, and so he appealed to Caesar, and
so he went to Rome. And he's been up there now for
a long time, and he knows he don't have very long to live.
And this is the way he deals with it, for I'm now ready to
be offered. I'm ready to be offered. I'm
ready to be poured out for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. And
the time of my departure's at hand. Like I said last week,
departure means that you're going from one place to another place.
I'm departing here and I'm going there. And we know when he departs
where he's going. He said, henceforth there's laid
up for me a crown of righteousness. I've got a crown of righteousness
waiting on me. And so he said that, you know,
and he said, and he said, and this is, this is, and he said,
I fought a good fight. He told Timothy, fight the good
fight of faith. Fight the good fight of faith.
And you know, we don't, our weapons are not carnal. The weapons of
our warfare are not of our flesh. When we fight, it's a fight of
faith. We have to fight first and foremost,
I think, our own flesh. And then we have to fight the
world. We have to fight getting taken up with too many things
in our own mind. We have to fight the devil. We
have to fight understanding the scriptures. We have to fight
the world and all that's in the world. And so there's a fight,
but it's a fight of faith. We walk by faith, we fight by
faith. You know, and there's no way in the world, and that's
why I said fight the good fight of faith. What you believe, fight
that fight. And that's the same thing Jude
said, contend earnestly for the faith. You gotta work, contend
for the faith, that it was earnestly contend for it, the faith that
was delivered unto you. So the faith he's talking about,
not his personal faith, but the faith that we believe. People
say all the time, what faith are you? Oh, I'm Presbyterian,
I'm a Lutheran, and I'm a Baptist, and I'm this, and I'm that, and
I'm this other thing. But beloved, I'm telling you,
when they say, what faith are you? We say, free grace. Christ
is all and in all. What else you gonna say? Oh,
well, I said, well, we go to a grace church. Well, what kind
of church is a grace church? That gives you a good opportunity.
But when we talk about fighting the fight of faith, we're talking
about the belief that we have, the doctrine that we hold, the
blessed truths that we possess. We have to fight everything that's
against Him, against God, against Christ, and against ourselves.
We gotta fight it. And that's why Paul said, I fought
a good fight. He said, I didn't cheat in my
fighting. I didn't fight with the flesh. I never war with the
flesh. I didn't fight unjustly. I didn't fight wrong. He said, I fought a good fight.
What fight I was in, it was a good one. And I ended up in that fight,
come out good. I come out a winner. And we'll
see why that's later. And then look what he goes on
to say. I finished my course. I finished my course. You know,
he also said over in Philippians, he said, I pressed toward the
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And you know, Christ is the beginning.
He's the starting mark and he's the finish line. And he said,
Paul says, I finished my course. God gave me a ministry, He made
Christ my starting place, and His righteousness my starting
place, and that's where I'm going to end up at. Right where I started,
I'm going to end up same place. I finished my course. And He
said this, and I kept the faith. What Christ taught me, and what
Christ gave to me, and what Christ taught me, and the faith that
He gave me, I kept it. I kept it. That word kept means
the same thing as guarded. I guarded it. I guarded the faith. And he says, henceforth there
is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
and listen to this, the righteous judge, shall give me in that
day. He said, I'm gonna stand before
God the judge, the righteous judge of the earth. And when
I stand before him, he's got something he's gonna give me.
He doesn't give me everything, but he's got one other thing
he's gonna give me. He's gonna give me a crown of
righteousness. Gonna give me a crown of righteousness. And
not to me only, not just me, but unto all of them also that
love his appearing. I guess everybody in here tonight
would love his appearing, huh? Wouldn't you love for him to
come get us all at one time? Woo, that would be something.
That'd be something. But then look what he says now.
He says, do thy diligence to come shortly unto me. Now he's
talking to Timothy. He said, make every effort that
you can to come to me and come to me very soon. See, Paul knew
that his time was at hand. He knew that he didn't have very
long to live. He didn't know when his time
was coming, but he knew it was right at hand. He knew that he
was facing death. And he said, Timothy, you come
up here and you may be diligent to come up here and see me, and
shortly, come shortly, as quick as you possibly can, come to
see me. And why did he want Paul, and of course we'll go down through
and see why, but he wanted him to come up there because Paul
loved Timothy and he had many, many things to teach him yet.
And he said, if I'm with him face to face and we're together,
then I'll be able, I'm an experienced warrior, I'm an experienced apostle,
I'm an experienced preacher, I've experienced great trials,
and he said, I'll be able to take this man, this young man,
and he said, I'll teach him and it'll be profitable for him It'll
be profitable for the people he preaches to. It'll be profitable
for the churches he goes to. It'll be profitable. And what
he said, come up here, I've got things I want to teach you. You
need to be instructed in. And he wanted to teach young
Timothy for the glory of God and for the good of his blessed
church, the Lord Jesus Christ Church. And see, Timothy was
the pastor at this time at Ephesus. He was the pastor at Ephesus.
So he had to leave with his pastor, where he was the head over, the
church there in Ephesus, and had to leave his place of labor
to go up to Paul. And if Paul said, diligently,
come to me shortly, you reckon Timothy said that, said, well,
I'll get up there when I can. Don't know. I believe Timothy
started getting ready, and he probably left that day or early
the next morning. He going from Ephesus to Rome.
Long way, long way. And I tell you, he had a short
time and he needed to teach Timothy some things. And I know this,
and I believe this with all my heart, and I was so thankful
for men that was older and wiser than me years and years ago.
Those that are servants of Christ, those gospel preachers who labor
in the gospel, they need to go to older preachers, wiser preachers,
more experienced preachers. And time spent in learning is
the best time that you'll ever have. I remember, you know, I
hadn't been here very long and over at that old building and
I didn't know, I didn't feel like I knew anything at all. I called Henry and I said, Henry,
I'm gonna quit here and I'm gonna come up there and I'm gonna sit
under your ministry and I'm gonna learn the gospel. I wanna learn
the gospel, I wanna be under your ministry. Henry said, oh,
that'd be great. I'd love to have you, but that's
not where you're supposed to be. You stay right where you
are. Stay right where you are. You call me, come see me anytime,
or I'll come see you. I called Scott when Henry told
me to stay. I called Scott and said, Scott,
I'm going to come up there and sit under your ministry and learn.
God said, oh, Donny, I'd love to have you. Oh, I really would.
But you stay right where you are. He said, I'll be there for
you when you need me. And that's what, you know, when
you get around older people, men that have been used greatly
for God, it's one of the most blessed things in the world to
sit and learn. Learn of men that has great experience
and have been tried and they have wisdom in the word of God.
And so that's what he is talking about. Come diligently to me.
And then look what the next word says. And he said, oh, here's
a reason why I want you to come. For Demas hath forsaken me. Demas hath forsaken me. Listen
to this. Having loved this present world. Oh my. I want you to turn over
in Colossians chapter 2, and I think it's verse 14. No, let
me see. Let me, let me, I'll tell you
right quick. Colossians 4.14. Colossians 4.14. Demas was a
close companion with Paul, and some of the commentators seem
to think that he was an assistant. Helped Paul in a lot of ways.
And here you find him mentioned in Colossians 4.14, as also is
Luke, the beloved physician. Luke, the beloved physician,
and Demas greets you. Now he says here, he's in good
standing. He says, Demas, Demas greets
you. Now I want you to turn over to
Philemon, and Philemon is right before the book of Acts. One
little old chapter in the book of Acts, right before the book
of Hebrews. Excuse me, I said the book of
Hebrews, right before Hebrews. Right after the book of Titus,
Philemon. And look what it says down in
verse 24. Philemon, verse 24. Marcus, Aristarchus,
Demas, Lucas, my fellow labors. They salute you, the grace of
our Lord. So there was a time that Demas
traveled with Paul, was close to Paul. Very, very close to
Paul. And now look what he says about
him. Back over here in 2 Timothy 4. He talked about him in two places.
For Demas hath forsaken me. And this is one of the most You
know, this is one of the scariest things. He said, having loved
this present world. Now, whether he completely apostatized
or else went away for a while and came back, I don't know.
But when it says having loved this present world, that's an
awful, awful condemnation. Because God tells us very, very
quickly, you can't serve God and mammon. You can't love God
and you can't love the world at the same time. He that's a
friend of the world is an enemy of God. And he also said, love
not the world and not the things of the world. For all that's
in the world, first of all, is the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the
pride of life. And these things are not of God.
So having that said about him, having that said about him, it
don't go good. So I tell you what, here's a
man that traveled with an apostle. It's like Judas. Judas traveled
with the Lord Jesus Christ and preached for three years. And
nobody had a clue that he was a son of perdition. Nobody knew. But Christ knew and God knew.
But sooner or later, if there's something in the heart that God,
if Christ is not desperately needed in your heart, and you
have to have Christ, sooner or later, if He's not everything,
something else will get you. I believe that. I believe that. And He said, Demas hath forsaken
me. Right here when I need Him, when
I'm in jail, when I'm a prisoner, when I need some comfort, when
I need some assurance, when I need friends, He said, Demas, forsaken
me. And then look what he says, and
is departed unto Thessalonica. Now, the Grecians and Galatians,
Titus to Dalmatia, they're there because he sent them there. Paul said, Cretans, you go over
to Galatia. Titus, you go over to Dalmatia. These are young men. He sent
them out to labor in these particular places. And oh, now look what
he says. Oh my. And he says down here
in verse 11, only Luke is with me. I'm only
one person here with me right now. Only one person is here
with me. And every time you hear Luke
mentioned by somebody else other than himself, he calls him Luke
the beloved physician. Luke is with me. Luke is the
one who wrote the book of Luke. He said, oh most Theophilus,
I'm gonna tell you the things which I heard from the beginning
and saw from the beginning, the things that I had perfect understanding
of. And he is also the one who wrote
the book of Acts. So this man was used of God and
he was a doctor, he was a physician. And he said, the beloved physician,
he said, Luke's with me, only Luke's with me. Oh my. And you find him, he was a constant
companion of Paul in his travels and sufferings. You find that
also in Colossians. And then look what he says, and
take Mark and bring him with thee. Bring Mark with you. You remember, maybe you remember
this and we'll deal with it when we get in the book of Acts. But
Mark was with Paul in Barnabas. Well, let's just look at it.
Look at it with me over here in Acts 15. Let's look at it
together, Acts 15. Mark was the nephew of the Apostle
John, the beloved disciple. He was a nephew of his, and Barnabas
and him traveled together. And Paul and Barnabas was really,
really close and done a lot of preaching together. But it says
here in verse 36 of Acts 15, listen, And some days after Paul said
unto Barnabas, let us go again and visit our brethren in every
city, where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see
how they do. And Barnas determined to take with him John, whose
surname was Mark. But Paul thought not good to
take him with them, who departed from them from Phamphylia, and
went not with them to the work. In other words, he started with
them, and he said, this is too hard for me. He said, I'm going
to go home. I'm going to take my marbles
and go back to the house. And that's what he done. That's what
Paul said. He said, it's not good for me to take you with
me. And he went not with him to the work. Paul said, we're
going to go everywhere we've preached, and we're going to
go back and see how everybody's doing. And listen to this now, and the
contention was so sharp between them that they departed asunder,
one from another. And so Barnabas took Mark and
sailed on to Cyprus. Paul chose Silas and departed,
being recommended of the brethren unto the grace of God. And now
what a change, what a change. Barnabas and Paul separated over
this, have Mark go with them. Now look what he says over here,
back in verse 11. Only Luke is with me, take Mark
and bring him with you. Now listen to this, for he is
profitable unto me for the ministry. Over there he said, he's not
going with me no more, I'm not taking him nowhere. You can't
depend on him. Now over here it says, you bring
him. You bring him with you this time, because you know what?
He'll be profitable to me. He'll do things for me. He loves
me, and he'll respect me, and he'll minister to me, and he'll
be an encouragement to me. And that's what he's saying.
I bring Mark with you. I bring him with you now. And
I tell you what, he said, I want his company, I want his assistance.
And that goes to show you that people can have contentions.
They can have contentions, but the grace of God can overcome
them. And God's grace overcome Mark and his youthfulness. And God's grace overcome Paul
and his attitude that he had toward John Mark. He said, bring
him with me. He's profitable to me. He's profitable
for me. And then look what else he says
now. And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus. Now why did he say this here?
Well, because Timothy was the pastor there. And so Timothy's
going up to Rome to be with Paul. They need a preacher down there.
He said, Tychus, you go down there and take Timothy's place. You go down there and preach
while Timothy's up here with me. You go down there and you
be the church. You take care of the church down there in the
place of Timothy when you come up here. And you know, so he's
giving Timothy this, telling him what's going on. He's telling
him to come to me, telling him, you know, bring Mark with you.
And then look what he says now. He said, I want you to do this
for me also, Timothy, before you come. He says now in verse
13, the cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus will now come,
bring, and the books, but especially the parchments. Now what is he
talking about? He had evidently a cloak is just
what we think of as a coat. A coat, a big wraparound thing. And it was a coat. And winter
was coming on. You'll see that in a minute here.
We're talking about winter. And he said, I left it at Troas
with Carpus. You know, I was, I was, I expected
I'd go back and get it. But he says, you go by and you
pick up my cloak and you bring it with you. Winter's coming
on, I'm going to be here, and I'm going to be cold, and I need
something to warm me with. Don't forget my coat now. Don't
forget my coat. They're not like us. I can get
in my closet and get sweatshirts, I can get coats, I can get heavy
coats, I can get jackets, I can get fleece, I can get overcoats. But these fellas didn't have
closets like we did. And they didn't have a bunch
of coats like we do. According to the weather, when
it got warm, they could get by. But when it got cold, they had
only one thing to keep warm. Only one thing. Not like us.
So that's the difference. See, that coat was very, very
important to him. And I tell you what. And he needed
it. He needed it to stay warm. And
then look what he says. He said, and the books, oh, I
got some books. Don't forget my books. Now, I don't know what these
books were, but they were probably scrolls of the Bible. But anyway,
Paul, he says, study to show thyself a workman, needeth not
to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. And I tell
you, he wanted these books And Paul was a diligent reader. You
could even find him quoting philosophers and Greek philosophers and things
and deal with people on a very, very, because he was a diligent
reader and he was especially a student of the Old Testament.
You know why? When he first started preaching,
after the Lord met him on the Damascus Road, he went into Damascus.
He took him to Damascus, and that's when God gave him his
sight. And the scripture said, he straightway preached, Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God. We're straightway doing that.
Now, how could he do that after he hated him so much? Three days
previous to that, he had wars in his pocket to arrest people
and put them in prison. Three days later, he's in Damascus,
God gave him his sight back, and he went from hating Christ
to preaching Christ in a matter of three days. Now how could
he preach Christ? Because he was a student of the
Old Testament. And when God opened his eyes
and revealed Christ to him in his heart on that Damascus road,
he immediately knew who he was and he could go to the Old Testament
scriptures and say, this is Christ right here. This is who he's
talking about. He started preaching it. And they hated him so much
for that, they had to sneak him out of town, get him up on the
wall, put him in a basket and let him down. They wanted to
stop him right now. But oh my, that's why he was
a student of the Old Testament. And I've said this so many times,
you can find the gospel in the first four verses of the Bible. First four verses. You can find
the gospel in the fall and restoration of Adam. You can find the gospel
in the creation. And if you can't find the gospel
back there, then you couldn't find it in the New Testament
either. Because that's what he said Moses wrote of me. Abraham
rejoiced to see my day and was glad. And who do you think it
was that sat down and rested under the tree when Abraham said,
oh, sit down here and let's fix you. There was three of them.
Who do you think that was that Abraham said? Sit down here while
I fix you something. And they sat down and rested
under the tree. And you know where we rest? Same place Abraham
did. in the Lord Jesus Christ under
that cross, under that blessed cross. And I tell you, that's
what happens, you know. And he noticed near his end,
he wanted his books, and he wanted to have them to read. And he
said, especially the parchments. Now what the parchments was,
I have no idea. But they were special, special
to him. And he said, whatever you do.
Don't forget my cloak, don't forget my books, and especially,
especially bring me them parchments. Here's an old man getting ready
to die, and he's asking for so little. He wants a coat, wants
a few books, and he wants a parchment. Just three things. Wouldn't you like to just have,
wouldn't you like to just want three things? We're not made that way, are
we? No, we're not. But oh my. But those are the
things that just, those things like that just make it so plain
for how desperate we need Christ and how simple life could be
in Him. And then look what he goes on
to say in verse 14. He said, Alexander, the coppersmith,
did me much evil. The Lord reward him according
to his works. Of whom be thou aware also, for
he hath greatly withstood our words, or greatly withstood our
preaching. Now there was an Alexander in
the book of Acts. He may be the same one out of
Acts 19. But I do know that Paul mentioned him in 1 Timothy 1,
verse 20. Look at that with me. In 1 Timothy
1, verse 20, where he mentioned him over here, talking about
people making shipwreck of the faith. He said in verse 19, 1 Timothy
1, you hold faith in a good conscience. Which some have put away concerning
faith, have made shipwrecked. Listen to this, who is Hymenaeus
and Alexander, whom I've delivered unto Satan. And listen to this,
that they may learn not to blaspheme. Not to blaspheme. So Alexander,
he said, Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. Mistreated
him very bad. He must have really, really despised
Paul for some reason. He said, He did me much evil,
much evil. He was a craftsman, a coppersmith. And I tell you what, He did me
great wrong and the Lord will deal with Him, as they tell what
He said, the Lord will reward Him according to His works. Let
God deal with Him as He is. Whatever He thinks His works
is, let God deal with Him on that basis. He said, Oh my, And
Alexander was down at Ephesus, and look what Paul told Timothy. He warned him. He said, you beware
of him also. You beware. You know, he got
some big words and all that, but he said, he greatly withstood
our preaching. He said, he fought us over our
preaching. That's how evil he was, and he
called him over there a blasphemer. And I tell you what, he was such
a malicious blasphemer. Timothy, God, Paul warned Timothy,
shun him, shun him. Don't go around him. Stay away
from him. Beware of him. Don't let him
have anything to do with you or the church or nobody else
there. And then look at this. This hurts me to have to think
about this. Now at Paul's first trial, he
said, at my first answer, when he got to Rome, at my first trial,
my first answer, no man, not one person stood with me. But
all forsook me. All forsook me. I pray God that
it may not be laid to the charge. That's exactly what Stephen said
when they stoned him to death. And what he said, when I stood
up before Caesar, in my first trial, first time I stood up
for myself, there was nobody there to be a good witness for
me, to commend me, to talk about me, to be a witness for me, and
talk about my ministry and how I've done nothing wrong. Not
one person stood up and said, I believe Paul is being persecuted
falsely. This is an apostle of Jesus Christ. Not nobody, nobody from Judea,
nobody from Asia, nobody from Memphis, nobody from Colossia,
nobody from Philippians, nobody from Thessalonica, not one person,
no man stood with me. That'd be a bad place to be,
wouldn't it? That'd be an awful place to be.
And he loved these friends. And it was like our Lord Jesus
Christ, when they apprehended him, they all said, Lord, we're
gonna stand by you, we're gonna stand by you. But after they
got him, the scripture says, every one forsook him and fled. Every single one of them. And
that's the same way they did Paul. Every one of them forsook
him and fled. And all but, you know, he loved
him. You know what, he loved him and he didn't hold it against
him. And he said, oh God, Lay not this to their charge. Don't
charge them with this. Don't charge them with this.
Don't do that. Please don't do that. Don't charge
them with what they've done here. Don't do that. But listen to
the next one now. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood
with me. No man stood with me. But the
Lord stood with me. The Lord stood with me. They
didn't, but the Lord stood right there. Stood right there with
me. The Lord stood with me. Oh, the Lord stood right there
with me. He said, I'll never leave you
and I'll never forsake you. And the Lord stood with me. I
believe Paul actually felt the presence of Christ when he was
there. And then look what he says, and strengthened me. He stood with me and strengthened
me. Paul never talked about how courageous
he was. He never talked about how faithful
he was. But he always gave thanks to
the Lord. The Lord stood by me. The Lord
strengthened me. Everything I've got, the Lord
gave to me. And he said, oh, he was reduced to the most awfulest
places. But you know why I don't give
up and why I didn't lose heart? Because the grace and power of
the Lord Jesus Christ was with him and stood with him, and this
was enough for him. And I know this, he was God's
chosen, chosen vessel. He was God's instrument to preach
the gospel to the Gentiles, even in Caesar's palace. And the power
of God saved him. He said, I was delivered. I was
delivered out of the mouth of the lion. He said, God saved
me right out of the jaws of death. Saved me from the hand of Satan.
His delivery was a miracle of grace. I want you to see this
in Acts chapter 9. Look with me in Acts chapter
9. I want you to see something that they told Paul, that Christ
told Paul right off the bat. Right off the bat. For what he
told him about suffering and what would happen to him. Now this is when Ananias is going
to go and lay his hands on Paul. And Ananias said, Lord, I've
heard by many of this man how much evil he's done to thy servants,
saints in Jerusalem. And he hath authority from the
chief priest to bind all that call on thy name. But the Lord
said unto him, go thy way. He has a chosen vessel unto be,
to bear thy name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of
Israel. And listen to this, for I will show him how great things
he must suffer for my name's sake. And so everything that
went on in his life, he said, it was for Christ's sake. It
was for Christ's sake. Alright, let's look in verse
18. And he said, Not only did the Lord stand by me, and the
Lord strengthened me, and the Lord made my gospel known to
the Gentiles, delivered out of the mouth of the lion, out of
the very jaws of death, and listen to this. And he tells us here
that he has the same hope for the future that he had just then.
And the Lord not only delivered me, but shall deliver me. He's
going to save me from ever evil work. And listen to this, and
then he's going to preserve me. What's he going to preserve me
for? To my heavenly kingdom. Oh, you're going to go and live
here, but I'm going to preserve you, Paul. You know what? So
you can come be with me. Come be with me. And then he
says to Christ, talking about Christ in his heavenly kingdom,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Oh my, he said, Christ
upheld me, his power upheld me, and the same power and grace
that strengthened me is the power and grace that's gonna save me
and preserve me for his heavenly kingdom. For his heavenly kingdom. Now let me just give you this
and be done. Priscilla and Aquila, we remember
them from the book of Acts, and the house of Onesiphorus, He
said, oh, they salute him for me. When you get back down there,
salute him. Erastus abode at Corinth, but
Trophimus I've left at Melodium. He's sick, he's sick. Do you
dare, I says, now listen to this, to come before winter. That's
why he said, come before winter. Travels bad in the winter. Eubulus
greeteth thee, and Putus, Linus, Claudius, and all the brethren.
And he names all these people. And then look what he says, the
Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. May God in his grace,
the Lord Jesus Christ himself be with your spirit. Be in your
spirit, be with your spirit. May he be the one to counsel
you, advise you, to comfort you under every trial. May he supply
you with all grace, keep you from every enemy, and fit you
for ever service. God's favor and blessings be
upon you. Amen and amen. Our Father, thank you for your
word. Things just seem so, we skim
over and look at and don't think about them and what is taking
place and how they're dealt with and how they're faced. And Lord,
these things are written for our learning, written for admonition,
written to teach us and instruct us, comfort us, enable us, oh
God, to emulate to some degree these dear men. Lord, we've never
suffered. We don't know what suffering
is like these men did. But Lord, if you ever call us
to it, we know you'll give us grace. For we've never had a
trial. We've never shed a tear. We've
never had a sigh that you weren't with us, that you didn't hear
us, that you didn't strengthen us, and you didn't comfort us,
and you didn't keep us. And so, Lord, we thank you for
that. God bless these dear children of God as they go their way tonight.
Open the hearts of those that don't know you. Save them by
your grace. Please be merciful to my family
and the family of those here that don't know Christ. Lord,
strengthen us, encourage us, and bring glory to Yourself through
all of us here at Lantana Grace, for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Let's sing 327. Stand and sing
327 out of the hymn book. 327.