Okay, let's look at Paul's last words to Timothy. You know, we often talk about what we call dying grace. And I think some people have a misunderstanding of that. A lady, there's a story that goes around about a lady who asked a famous preacher, She went up to him and she was one of his listeners, and she told him she said she was afraid because she did not have dying grace. And the preacher asked her, he said, well, are you dying? And she said, no. He said, well, you don't need it. I think that's a little bit of a misunderstanding. First of all, if somebody asks me if I'm dying, I'm going to say yes. Now, I don't have any terminal illnesses yet, or I may not know it.

You know how that goes. But the process of dying, you know, when God told Adam, spoke to Adam in the garden, you remember he told him, he said, in the day that you eat thereof, you break the law. dying you shall die. That's what that literally means. You shall surely die dying thou shalt die. Well Adam didn't die physically that day but the process of physical death started with Adam.

Now he lived to be 900 and some years old, later on. But he was still in the process of dying. We all are, you know. Some are closer to it than others. Only God knows the day and the time. It's appointed unto men once to die. Who appointed it? God did. After that, the judgment.

Now, Adam died spiritually that very day. He lost his spiritual capacity to fellowship with God. And that's why he and Eve ran and hide, sewed their fig leaf aprons together, and that's why we're all born dead in trespasses and sin. In a sense, by nature, before we're born again by the Spirit, we're walking dead people. You see that stupid show on TV with the walking dead? That's us, by nature. And that's why we must be born again. But I believe dying grace is what we have by faith in Christ. Now that doesn't mean, dying grace doesn't mean that we have a death wish.

Just like the guy said, I want to die and go to heaven, but I don't want to leave today. Especially in our youth. I think about Tim and Rachel, y'all, young marriage and you're getting ready to have a child and you got a promising life ahead of you. You don't want to die tomorrow or today. I do believe that God does bring some of his saints to a point in their lives physically where they would just as soon die and go to be with the Lord when you get so sick. You know, I know our son Aaron, you know, I remember one of the times I was talking to him, he just looked at me, he said, I just want it to be over.

And I understand that. I haven't experienced that yet. I'm getting close. The other day I had a pain up my back, I thought, my goodness, I'm on my way to heaven. But dying grace is what God gives us by faith in Christ. And so I may say, well, I don't want to die right now, but I'm ready to go right now. I am. I believe that sincerely. I don't have any doubt about that. I believe if I drop dead in this chair right now, that I'll wake up in the arms of my Savior, and you all just carry this old body out and do whatever you want with it. Throw it in the Flint River if you want.

But the thing about it is, it's body of death. That's what it is. We act like it's not me after I die. I always tell people at a funeral, I say, so-and-so's not here. That's the body he or she has. But dying grace is what God gives us by grace. And I know I have a good hope.

Well, Paul knew that and he mentioned that. Now, Paul had been through so much in his life. I believe Paul was converted, you remember his experience on the Damascus Road and then he went to Ananias. I think, and I wouldn't stake my life on this, but I think Paul was about 40 years old when that happened.

So he was well up in age as far as that day and time was concerned, even then. But from then on, boy, his life, I mean, he had a glorious life in the Lord, in the grace of God. But boy, he sure fought and struggled. People were wanting to kill him. He was persecuted, whipped, imprisoned, ridiculed, all of those things. It was just something.

He come to this point, listen to what he says, look at verse nine. Now he's telling Timothy here to start off with, he says, do thy diligence to come shortly unto me. Timothy was in Ephesus ministering the gospel, encouraging, teaching the people, and Paul wanted Timothy to come to him to Rome. And he says in verse 10, now here's one of the heartbreaking things, for Demas hath forsaken me.

Demas was a companion of Paul who preached with Paul, traveled with Paul. I've got in your lesson, Paul mentioned him in Colossians chapter four in Philemon verse 24, this man named Demas. And we don't know all the details and the ins and outs of what happened about Demas forsaking Paul or leaving Paul. Some people believe that Demas was a true believer who just got caught up in the things of the world for a while and was later brought back to repentance but we have no record in the Bible of that. Others think that Demas apostatized.

Now you know the difference between a believer who gets caught up in things for a while and apostasy. Apostasy means that a person who claimed to believe the truth, who leaves it to the point of calling Christ accursed and reveals that they were never saved to begin with. That's apostasy. Paul spoke of his day and age being a time of apostasy. what he's talking about there. We could say our day is a time of apostasy.

And it's not Arminianism versus Calvinism. A person who is an Arminian, you know what that is, that's a person who believes in the free will of man. that by his free will or her free will, they make the difference between saved and lost by their choice, their free will choice. And they never believed the truth. That's not the truth, that's not the gospel. So they hadn't apostatized, they never had given any evidence of being believers.

But Demas was a man who preached the same truth that Paul preached. He was a companion of Paul. Now you know he would not have been a companion of Paul unless he had at least given mental agreement or oral agreement to the doctrine of Christ, how God saves sinners by His grace through the blood and the righteousness of Christ.

But here it says that he departed having loved this present world, look at it, he says For Demas have forsaken me, having loved this present world, and departed unto Thessalonica, Crescens, to Galatia, and Titus unto Dalmatia." Now Crescens and Titus, most commentators believe that they left Paul but for a good reason, to minister the gospel.

He didn't say they forsook him, But some people think that he did. So these are, listen, now these are issues, these are not gospel issues, unless somebody would say something like, well, Demas lost his salvation. Now as you say that, that's a gospel issue now. You've gone into, you've waded into water that you don't need to wade into. Because this is one thing I know, whatever happened to Demas and Crescens and this fella, verse 9 or verse 10, Dalmatia, or Titus rather. We know Titus, you know, there's the book of Titus.

That's why I believe that these men were saved, but now Demas could have apostatized. And when Paul says, he forsook me, that kind of causes me to lean that way. He's forsaken. He didn't say that Christians and Titus forsook him. He said that they went into these other places. So understand now. So Paul had the heartbreak of seeing those who profess to be brothers in Christ leave him. And that is a heartbreak. We've had it happen. I can't say that I've had anybody Well, I don't know. I mean, I don't even really want to get into that because it is heartbreaking.

You know, when you see people who you thought were brothers and sisters in Christ and then they just leave the gospel and go back to a false gospel, now that's pretty much apostasy unless they can be called back. See, an apostate cannot be called back. That's why John said we don't even pray for them. because if they apostatized to the point of calling Christ a curse, and that's what a lot of times people do without even realizing it. They think, well, they leave us, they go to the false Christ of this world, and they call the Christ we preach a curse. So, understand that. So, all right, look at verse 11. He says, only Luke is with me. You know who Luke is, the Greek physician, the believer. Luke was a believer, a preacher and he said, only Luke is with me.

And he says, take Mark, that's John Mark, you remember, that's the one that Paul and Barnabas had an argument over and split company. Paul did not believe that Mark was ready for the field to minister, to preach, and Barnabas thought he was, and they had to part company over it. But later on, here he says, take Mark and bring him with thee.

So Paul now recognized that Mark was ready. Now what all happened on that, we don't know. The Bible doesn't tell. For he is profitable to me for the ministry. So Paul had a change of mind about Mark. I heard a guy one time preaching on that episode in the book of Acts where they parted and he went on and on about how Paul was wrong. Paul was wrong. Well I don't know if he was wrong. Barnabas may have been wrong, but whatever happened, it changed and they got back together in the ministry. And that's the ministry of truth, the ministry of the gospel, that's what we're about. See, it's not about people, it's not about feelings, it's about Christ.

And that's what Paul's making here. Verse 13, he says, the cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, these are men that Paul had ministered with, and the books, but especially the parchments, bring them." That's what he's saying. So he wanted his coat and he wanted his books and his parchments. And he had probably some of the Old Testament books, the prophets, maybe the first five books of the Old Testament, he had those, had copies of them. So he wanted those because he used them in his ministry.

And look at verse 14. Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord reward him according to his works. Now let's talk about that a minute. Now this Alexander the coppersmith, he may have been the same person mentioned in Acts 19. I put in your lesson, some believe he's the same one that Paul mentioned in 1 Timothy 1.20. But others disagree because this one here is called the coppersmith, so he was a guy who worked in copper. But it doesn't matter that we pinpoint him and dog him out here.

We know that he did Paul much harm. Either way, he was an enemy of Christ. That's the key here. He was an enemy of the truth and certainly an enemy of Paul. And here, Paul pronounces something on him that You don't ever want pronounced upon you. The Lord reward him according to his works. Do you know if the Lord ever rewards a sinner according to his works, you know what that means, don't you? That means that sinner is damned. He'll perish. If God deals with us on the basis of our works, There's no hope for us.

And that's why I tell people, get into the Bible and understand the judgment. What the judgment is all about. Because you know how people naturally think. You know, you're gonna get up there and God's gonna weigh your good works with your bad works and whichever tips the scales, that's gonna determine whether you, where you go to heaven or go to hell. That is so evil. so misleading, so soul damning. The only thing that's gonna matter when we come to judgment is how we stand with Christ. Are we washed in His blood? I'm gonna talk about that in the main message today. The fountain open. What can wash away my sins?

Not my works. My works can't outweigh my sins. Good works, there are no good works apart from God's grace in Christ. It's all evil deeds. That's why people hate the gospel that we preach so much. They're so proud of their good works. And we say it's all evil. Am I washed in the blood of Christ from all my sins? Am I clothed in his righteousness imputed?

And that's the only thing that's gonna matter. How many times have you heard me quote Acts 17, 31? You all can probably quote it too, can't you? All right, somebody stand up, no. God has commanded all men everywhere to repent because he has appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained in that he has given assurance unto all men and that he has raised him from the dead. That's the only way. That's the whole, you know when Paul in second Corinthians five in verse I think it's nine and 10 talks about the judgment.

And he says, knowing the terror of the Lord, we do persuade men. Well, what is that terror? Oh, you better get right today, you better do right, you better do good works or God's gonna get you. No. The terror of the Lord is to be found standing before him in his judgment seat without Christ, without the blood. without his righteousness imputed. That's the terror.

Oh, I tell you, you look at a person, you may have loved ones, who going through this life, deceived by Satan, trying to be the best people they can be, hoping at some time to appear before God and be exonerated. And you know better. We know better. We know the terror of the Lord. I think about those false preachers in Matthew chapter seven, Lord, Lord, haven't we preached in your name? Haven't we done many wonderful works, cast out demons?

And the horror and the terror when they hear him say, depart from me, you that work iniquity, I never knew you. which means he never knew them in saving, love, and grace, and mercy. And so, when we think about this man, Alexander the coppersmith, who did Paul much evil, and it was over the gospel now, the Lord record him according to his works. Oh, what horror that is. he says in verse 15 of whom be thou where also for he hath greatly withstood our words that word words there I think I'm not I'm not 100 sure that I should have looked it up but it means our preaching he withstood our preach so we know that the problem that Alexander the copper smith had with Paul was not his personality It's what he preached. And you know what Paul preached? He preached Christ crucified, risen from the dead. He preached the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel. And Alexander the coppersmith hated it and hated Paul. Greatly withstood our preaching.

Look at verse 16, he says, 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. What that's talking about, I believe, is when Paul, when he first came to Rome and stood before the courts, whatever courts he was, whether it was Caesar's court or He was alone. Nobody stood up for him. None of his compadres came to plead his cause or be a witness for him.

Now, we don't know why. You know, it may have been they couldn't get there. It may have been they were fear of men. We have that. That's part of our makeup in the flesh. But that is weakness of the flesh. And so even in, you know, you think about how the Bible, in the Old Testament and the New, always, always shows the weaknesses of the strongest, staunchest saints. They're still weak men. Peter. Peter's so bold. Lord, I'll stand with you, I'll never forsake you. What'd he do? And that's us by nature, but I put in here, we see the amazing grace and love of God demonstrated in Paul as he did not hold this against them.

Now, so there's a difference now between the ones he's talking about here in verse 16 and like Demas and Alexander the coppersmith who stood against his preaching. These brethren that he's talking about here who didn't come to his defense, They just showed weak, fleshly cowardice, which we're all subject to, but for the grace of God. And he said, don't lay it to their charge. I believe he's talking about brethren here who just didn't have the spiritual fortitude to stand up. But later on, many of them did. You know, Peter, he denied Christ three times, but he didn't deny him later on, did he?

God gave him You might say dying grace, you know, gave him the fortitude, gave him the spiritual guts to stand up. I wonder if my life is threatened, how will I fare? I know this, apart from the grace and the power and the goodness of God, I'll run like a chicken to save my life. but I hope that God will intervene and strengthen me.

That's all we can hope for because it is of God. One thing I wanted to add here, this is not recorded to elevate Paul or to lift him up as if he's some sort of super Christian, but to show the greatness of God's grace and power in his life. Look at verse 17.

He says, notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, see that's important. Paul's simply saying that the only reason that I stood firm was 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 lie.

Good reference to Daniel, isn't it? Well, that's how Daniel stood in the lion's den. That's how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood in the fiery furnace by the grace and the power and the strength of God. And that's who gets the glory here. Again, not to show that these guys, they're super Christians. They're real saints. Oh, well, let me tell you, that thief on the cross, before he gave up his last breath, you know what he was? He was a real saint. Because that's what God has. That's what he makes in Christ. He was forgiven of all of his sins. and he was perfectly justified, righteous in the sight of God through the righteousness of Christ.

And then he begins just to close the letter out. He says, the Lord, verse 18, the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom. Now that's dying grace. Paul said, I'm ready to go now. To whom be glory forever and ever, amen.

And that closes it out, and then he just mentions certain people. Verse 19, salute Prisca and Aquila, that's Priscilla and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus. Erastus abode at Corinth, but Thymus have I left in Miletum sick. Do thy diligence to come before winter, Eubulus greeteth thee, Putins and Linus, Claudia and all the brethren. The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you. Amen. Aren't you impressed that I could pronounce those names? I may have pronounced them all wrong. Y'all don't know, do you? Okay, that's it.