continue to look here in 2 Timothy,
2 Timothy chapter 4. And Paul,
of course, is closing out his last letter to Timothy as he
has declared that he is ready to be offered the time of his
departure at hand. He had been in uh... roman prison for quite some time
and uh... ordered by the lord this didn't
take him by surprise nor did it was it outside of the realm
of the lord's purpose for paul the lord told him that he was
going to bear witness in rome and such as it was the case and
i'm sure paul by his as a man if he could have in his flesh
designed something that would be pleasing to his flesh he wouldn't
have designed the situation to occur as it did but the Lord's
purpose is not ours always and his purpose is not always pleasing
to us at the moment in which it occurs by his grace as time
goes on he does usually give to his people a comfort in his
purpose, even though at the time it may seem quite troubling. And I would mention that we need
to be in prayer for Sister Emily and, of course, for Laura and
her family in this time of great sorrow. I begin reading here in verse
eight, and I'm gonna read to the end of the chapter. Henceforth there is laid up for
me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but
unto all them also that love his appearing. Do thy diligence
to come shortly unto me, for Demas hath forsaken me. having
loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica,
Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark and bring him with
thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry. And Tychicus
have I sent to Ephesus, the cloak that I left at Troas with Corpus,
when thou comest bring with thee, and the books, but especially
the parchments. 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. At my first answer, no
man stood with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that it
may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood
with me and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might
be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear, and
I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall
deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his
heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever, amen. Salute Prisca and Aquila, and
the house of Vanessephorus, Erastus abode at Corinth, but Trophimus
have I left at Miletum sick. Do thy diligence to come before
winter. Ubulus greeteth thee, and Putins,
and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren. The Lord Jesus
Christ be with thy spirit. Grace with you all. Amen. Now, Paul, of course, as we mentioned
last week, he speaks about this crown of righteousness, which
the Lord had laid up for him and would give him at that day,
which meaning in the final day, and not to me only, but to all
them that love his appearing. Now, the blessing of God is upon
all of the children of God to the same degree. Now I know there
are those that teach that there are going to be various degrees
in heaven based on what you've done and all of this and your
rewards and all that's going to be stacked up over in the
corner waiting for you to come and they're just going to load
you up if you've done good and if you didn't then you're going
to have just a paltry little thing over here. But there is
a crown of righteousness that's laid up for the children of God.
That is our reward. You know, there's no greater
reward for the children of God than to be found in the grace
and mercy of Almighty God. I mean, you can't exceed that.
There's nothing you could ever possibly receive that would be
greater than that. You know, I mean, men, of course,
most all religions have a carnal viewpoint of what heaven is.
You know, it's a place where you, if you like to fish, you
can fish for days on end and catch the biggest ones that's
ever been. And if you like to race cars,
you can go race cars till you just have, and always win. And you know, all the things
that men think about heaven to be just a place that suits them
now. But all of these things pass
away. They're not sustainable, nor
are they meant to be. sufficient for the day's evil
thereof. This world is a passing world.
But there is laid up for us, as a father lays up an inheritance
for his children, so the Lord has laid up an inheritance for
his people. A crown of righteousness which
fadeth not away, and all those that love his appearance. Now,
as I said last week, there's two ways in which we might consider
that. Those that love His appearing as He came into the world. He
came into the world to save sinners. That's a glorious thing. Our
love is appearing. I'm glad He came. That's a wondrous
and great consideration that He appeared among men. I mean,
the Lord, you know, The Lord is under no obligation whatsoever
at any time to do anything. I know men think sometimes they
can put God in a bind, and you got all these faith preachers
that are on the radio and whatnot, and they say you can paint God
up into a corner and He just don't have any other choice but
to do something for you. And if you believe that, then
you don't know who God is. Because our God's in the heavens,
David said. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Not what you pleased, but what he pleased. And so he's
under no obligation, he was under no obligation to send his son
into the world to die for sinners. It was not necessary for Christ
to die for sinners if he didn't choose to do so. But he chose
to do so. He didn't have to make us aware
of what he did. Christ could have come and done
those things and they would have been just as absolutely sure
and certain if you never knew about it. But that's not what he did. He
sent his son into the world to die for sinners, to be buried,
to rise again. And he ordained that his name
be proclaimed in the earth and that some would hear it. He said,
my sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. Who are they? I don't know. I
can't identify them. You can't either. But they are
those that follow the Lamb, and they are those that love His
appearing, both His appearing when He came the first time,
and they look for His appearing when He shall come again. In
flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God. Now,
some think, well, that's pretty harsh. Well, it's what the Lord
determined. And so it is that those who are
in Christ are blessed people. And there's nothing a man can
do to earn that position. It's the grace of God, the mercy
of God, that he would cause some men to hear his voice and to
love his appearance. And henceforth there is laid
up a crown of righteousness to all those that love his appearing,
even as Paul would confess that he did. And so he is imploring
Timothy to come to him. Now I don't know, we don't know
historically, there may be some who make conjecture one way or
the other, if Timothy was ever able to make it to Rome before
Paul was executed. We don't know that, but it was
Paul's desire that he wanted to see Timothy again. He wanted Timothy to come and
be with him. And so it is that, you know,
the brethren, the bond of brethren in Christ
is a strong thing. And it can't be replaced by anything
else. We can love our families, and
surely we should. But the love of family does not
exceed the love of the brethren one for the other. Because the
love of the brethren one for the other is a pure love. You
know, we often, it's often true that in families, families fall
out with one another. One does, and the reason that
is is because we know one another so well. You know, we can get
along with other people sometimes easier than we can with our family
because we don't know the other people as well as we do our family. And so it is that family love,
as strong as it is, as strong as it should be, it can diminish.
And I've known of families that hated one another. So family
love, I mean, it takes a secondary place. Blessed be the tie that
binds our hearts in Christian love. And may we ever recognize
that. May the Lord impress that upon
our hearts. And Paul loved Timothy. He loved all of the brethren
that he ministered to. And he agonized over them. He prayed for them. He was concerned
for their well-being. You know, Paul didn't go preach
among men because he wanted to. earn some money, because there
wasn't any money involved. He didn't spend his time, he
didn't want accolades from those to whom he preached, but he was
concerned for their soul. And such it is, those that are
called to declare the unsearchable riches of Christ are not concerned
with all of the things that men are concerned with. You know,
it is a burden that can't be described when the Lord lays
upon a man's heart, a desire to declare the truth
of God unequivocally, with no apology, but a desire to exalt
the name of the Savior, and a desire to have men hear that word and
believe it. You know, we don't go preaching
to try to condemn men or anything else. We preach desiring that
men might hear the Word of God, that they might heed it, that
they might listen to it. And so it is that Paul was a
man thus sent. It pained his heart, no doubt,
when he had to write these words for Demas, hath forsaken me. Now evidently Demas was with
Paul there in Rome, but when the heat got hot and the persecution
or the prosecution of Paul began, Demas left him, having loved
this present world. I don't think that Paul was condemning
Demas. I think that he recognized that
Demas was not a strong man. The Lord recognized that in his
disciples, did he not? When they couldn't pray for him,
he said, well, you couldn't watch with me for an hour. He didn't
condemn them, did he? He said, the spirit is willing,
but the flesh is weak. We must always remember that.
If you think that you can stand in the day of testing on your
own power, you were sadly mistaken. Peter thought that, did he not?
Peter was a bull of the woods type guy. He was a strong man. He was not somebody to be trifled
with. And if you had looked at the
disciples and you had been thinking which one of the disciples would
have remained faithful to the Lord through all things, you'd
have said Peter would have been that man. He was that sort of
a guy. But Peter thought so too. And
the Lord had to show him that such was not the case. Our strength's
not in ourselves. You know, we don't stand before
the Lord because we're strong men. We stand before the Lord
because He's made us to be what we are, and He gives us grace
that we might stand, because in a moment, in the right moment
of testing, will each one turn aside if he doesn't give us grace
to do so. Demas hath forsaken me. He couldn't
stand the heat. I don't think necessarily when
it says having loved this present world, it means that he went
off and was captured by the lusts of the flesh. I don't think that's
what it means. I think that it just means he
had the fears of men in this world and he wasn't able to stand. And the Lord would show that.
and is departed unto Thessalonica. I believe that he went back to
the church there in Thessalonica. Crescens to Galatia, Titus to
Dalmatia. Now he doesn't say that they
forsook him, but he does say that all men have departed from
him. Now he does go on to say, only
Luke is with me. And he said, bring Mark and bring
him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry. Now you
remember whenever Paul and, was it Paul and Silas,
they had a disagreement over Mark. And because Mark was a
young man and Silas didn't think he was worthy to go with them
on their journey. So Paul and Silas split up because
of the fact that over Mark, and Paul took Mark with him. But
see, the Lord had laid Mark on his heart. And he believed that
the Lord would do a work in him. And he said, take Mark and bring
him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry. And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus. He had reason to send Tychicus,
perhaps with a message, specifically for the church at Ephesus, which
he had written to earlier. And so he sent Tychicus there,
and he tells him to bring him the cloak that he left at Troas
with Corpus. Now isn't it amazing? You know,
in our world of plenty, It's hard for us to imagine that
a cloak, a particular coat would be on his mind to bring to him. But they didn't have many physical
possessions. They had to have a cloak and
keep in mind that when you were put in prison back in those days,
you were put in prison just like you were. And if you didn't have
somebody to come and take care of you, and if you didn't have
a coat, tough luck. You know, you just didn't have
a coat. And if it was cold, you were cold. And so they didn't
give you a blanket. You know, there was no mercy
in those prisons. They were designed to keep you
there. And if you died while you was
there, so be it. And if you didn't have somebody
to take care of you and to bring you food and to minister to you,
then you, I remember, brother, Pram Pradhan when he was with
us. And of course he spent several
years in jail in Nepal for preaching the gospel. And he said that
whenever you were in prison in Nepal, he said that the only
thing they gave you when you were in there was a cup of uncooked
rice every day. If you didn't have a way to cook
it. If you didn't have a pot, you
know, or something to cook it in, I mean, you had to eat uncooked
rice or you didn't eat. You said whatever somebody was
willing to bring. So it was very important that
you had people that had concern for you to bring you the stuff
to the prison that you stood in need of. That's what the Lord
said when he said, I was in prison and you visited me. He didn't
mean that you just came to see how I was, but he came to minister
to you, to bring you what you needed, because otherwise you
would perish. And so he asks, he wants his
coat, that he left at Troas with corpus, and bring with thee the
books and especially the parchments. Now, I'm not sure exactly what
those were, probably the scriptures, I would imagine. How important
it is. Now, Paul was not without the
word of God, was he? Because the Lord had given him
the word of God. The Lord had written it in his
heart. but yet he desired those parchments and books of whatever
sort they were. Then he mentions 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. Now I want you to notice a contrast
between two things. Now he speaks about Alexander
the coppersmith And he speaks of him in a judgmental sense,
because he says the Lord reward him according to his words. He
said he needs to receive exactly what he dished out. Now keep
in mind what Alexander did, he opposed the gospel. Paul didn't
have a personal animosity towards Alexander, but he had a personal
animosity towards what Alexander did in trying to subvert the
hearers. See, Paul said that anybody that
did not preach the gospel that he preached was an enemy of the
cross of Christ. Now, I know that today there's
such a varied and wide plethora of people going out
here into the world preaching all sorts of stuff. I mean you
couldn't sit down and write down the different numbers of people
and messages and things that people go around preaching claiming
to be the gospel. And brethren, the truth is many
of them are enemies of the cross of Christ. If they're not preaching
Christ and Him crucified, then they are enemies of the cross.
If they're preaching Christ and something you can do to help
Christ, they're enemies of the cross of Christ. I mean, they're
not preaching what the truth is. Now, I didn't say, you know,
you need to take up arms against them or try to, you know, get
them put in jail or something like that, but I said, no, that
the gospel is concerned with one subject. And that is Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. If Christ is not exalted as the
sum total of the salvation of His people, then that's a message
which is another gospel. And Paul used those very words
over and over again. And so, when he says this, the
Lord awarded him according to his works, he wasn't playing
games. This wasn't something, you know,
that, this troubled him deeply within his heart. because he
loved the gospel, he loved the truth, and those that would speak
against it. He had to be against. And brethren,
that's really the way that we must be. I mean, we cannot be
friends with the world. We can't be friends with those
that would deny the one that bought them. We can't be it, it's just not
what we're to be. He said, of whom be thou aware
also, for he hath greatly withstood our words. He didn't just say
a little bit against Paul, but he stood against Paul. He was
one who went against him, I believe, at Rome and witnessed against
him. But it was Alexander's purpose
to overturn the gospel, and Paul could have nothing to do with
that. And then he says this, and I want you to contrast that
with what he says here. At my first answer, no man stood
with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not
be laid to their charge. Now see, notice what he said
about Alexander because he opposed the gospel. But then when he
comes over here to the brethren, who didn't stand with him at
his first answer, what he means is when he went to court. And
he stood there all alone before Caesar in this court, and nobody
was with him. Now think about going to court
and nobody stands up to say anything good for you, and you got all
these people speaking ill of you. Pretty lonely place. And that's what the situation
was. He says at my first answer, no man stood with me. The Lord gave him a little bit
of a taste of what he underwent, did he not? Because no man stood
with the Lord. I mean, no man pitied him. None of I did pity him. Nobody
cared. Even those that said they did,
they did not. And he says, I pray God that
it may not be laid to their charge. He said, Lord, forgive them.
The flesh is weak and such is the case. Notwithstanding, he
said, nevertheless, the Lord stood with me. Says it didn't
make any difference that none of them stood with me. He said,
this was the glorious thing. He said, the Lord stood with
me. And he stood there in that court, and he testified of the
gospel of Jesus Christ in their ears. And the Lord stood with
him, that by me the preaching might be fully known. See, when
Paul went to the court, he didn't try to defend himself. He wanted
to exalt Christ. He was a witness for Christ.
That's what he was bringing forth. He wasn't trying to tell them
why they shouldn't execute him or accuse him of sedition. He
was just telling them about Christ. That all the Gentiles might hear.
See, he was sent to Rome to declare the gospel to the Gentiles. And
thus he did. And I was delivered out of the
mouth of the lion. He said, You know, they could
have taken him just right away and slew him, but he stayed in
Rome for a good period of time and was able, during that time,
to minister to the people that were there, even though he was
under house arrest of sorts. I think that he was, even as
he was accompanied by a Roman soldier on the way to when he
was being carried to prison, and he had freedom because the
man trusted him. And so it was that he did have
the opportunity to preach for a period of time. I don't know
the exact period of time that that was. Then I was delivered out of the
mouth of the lion. He means I was not, and of course,
who is the lion? Satan goes about as a roaring
lion. He said the powers of darkness
were not able to suppress the preaching of the gospel. He said
I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall
deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his
heavenly kingdom to whom be glory forever and ever. He had no fear. Why not? Because the Lord stood
with him. And he was able to stand because
the Lord was with him. The Lord directed him there.
Just like when the Lord sent Jonah to Nineveh. Jonah didn't
want to preach at Nineveh. Even after he'd been regurgitated
by the fish. He still didn't want to
preach at Nineveh, but he went on anyway because the Lord sent
him to do it. And he preached to them. Because
remember whenever the Lord, whenever he was standing there before
the Lord and he was complaining that the vine had died or had
withered and the worms ate it and he didn't have any covering
and he was just woe is me. Lord, you've brought me off over
here and you've left me out here. He forgot all about the fact
the Lord preserved his life when he should have just let him drown
in the sea. But he prepared a fish that he
might not drown. But what did he say? I mean,
after he had preached to Nineveh, to repent. Now, you would normally
think that if a man was called to preach for men to repent,
he'd be glad when men repented. But he wasn't. He wasn't happy,
was he? He said, Lord, you sent me down
here, and I knew it. He says, I knew that you was
gonna give them people repentance. He didn't want them to repent.
See, he was like the Palestinians and the Jews. They don't want
anything good to happen to the Jews. They want to kill them.
That's the only thing they want. That's what will make them happy.
It's like, you know, some people say that the only good snake
is a dead snake. That's the way they consider
the Jews. They don't have any desire. They're
taught from the time they're that tall till they're grown
up to hate the Jews. And that's what their whole purpose
in life is. I mean, and, you know, it's a
sad situation. I mean, you know, you can have
compassion for these people who are blinded with this hate. But it's nonetheless true. And
like a dog with rabies, I don't know what you can do. You can
go try to pet the dog if you want to. But probably the best
thing to do is shoot the dog. Now, take that any way you want
to, but that's kind of how it is. He goes on and speaks of these
other people, which he often speaks of various ones at the
end of his letters. And of course, we remember Prisca
or Priscilla and Aquila and the house of Vanessa Forrest. I mean,
the Lord used these people in Paul's life and he didn't forget
them, but he remembered the kindness that they had shown to him. and
the work that they had done. Erastus abode at Corinth, but
Trophimus was by left at Miletum sick. Now, I will throw something
in here. Now there is a false teaching
that goes under the name of Christianity that says that if you have enough
faith, God doesn't want you to be sick, and if you get sick,
you can be well just by having enough faith that God's gonna
heal you. Now, it says here that Paul left
Trophimus at Miletus sick. Now, did Paul not have enough
faith? Was Trophimus lacking? I mean,
what was the issue there? The issue was that he was sick
because he was a man. And the Lord has ordained sickness
to come upon men just as much as he has health. I mean, your health or your sickness
is all from the hand of the Lord. And you know, the Lord gives
you wisdom in dealing with your body and stuff to do things. But keep in mind that the ultimate outcome of all these things is
in the hands of the Lord. It doesn't make any difference
what you do. You take every vitamin that they ever made. And you
know, The Lord is the one that has to say about these things. Do thy diligence to come before
winter. Why? Because he needed a coat.
He was thinking about, man, it's gonna be cold in here without
my coat. And so he wanted that coat. The
Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you. That
is our desire for our brethren, is it not? That the grace of
God might go with us. Because we know that we, in ourselves,
are weak and sinful creatures. And it's only by the grace of
God that we'll be sustained, that we'll keep on keeping on. That's one that I say a lot of
times, you know, that that's the reason the Lord put us together.
as a church, and a lot of times people think, well I'm not a
very important part of the church, but everybody, every part of
the body is useful to the body. And even just the fact that somebody
shows up is a benefit to the brethren. Because you see, there's
every one of us, because of weakness, from time to time, get the feeling
like when we, you know, eh, I'm just, you know, I'm about ready
to quit. But you know, when we come together
and we look around and we see others and we get encouraged,
we're gonna say, well, there's old Al, I mean, he hadn't quit.
And, you know, why should I? And so we're encouraged by one
another as the Spirit of God works in us to encourage one
another even by our very presence if we don't say anything. See,
when Job's buddies gathered up with him, they sat there for
a whole week and didn't say a word. Not necessary to say a bunch
of stuff. I mean, when somebody dies or we have some sickness
or whatever, It's not always the things that we say that are
important. It's the fact that we're there,
that they know they can depend on us. And such is the case,
I believe, with Paul and these brethren who he considered to
be faithful brethren. And he loved them. And I believe
they knew they could depend on Paul. And so it is that the Lord
puts us together as brethren, that we might encourage one another,
and that we might pray for one another, bearing one another's
burdens. How are we gonna do that other than pray for one
another? I mean, I can't know what your burden is, but I can
pray for you, and the Lord knows what your burden is. And may
He give us grace to do so, and may He give us a heart and mind
to desire that His grace might be visited upon each one of us.