But this morning, this is the conclusion of the Book of Second Timothy. And of course this letter perhaps may be his last letter, that is Paul's letter, before he dies. is sending this letter off with a full set of instructions to Timothy, warning him about false teachers, giving an incredible teaching on the doctrine of the word of God. And yet we come to the end where your Bibles probably say something like this, personal instructions and final greetings. What can we possibly learn from personal instructions and final greetings? Well, let's find out. Let's begin with verse nine of the last chapter of 2 Timothy. Do your best to come to me soon, for Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia, Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all, the parchments. Alexander, the coppersmith, did me great harm. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. At my first defense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them. But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Greet Prissa and Aquila in the household of Onesiphorus. Erastus remained at Corinth, and I left Trophimus, who was ill, at Miletus. Do your best to come before winter. Ubulus sends greetings to you, as do Putins and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers. The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you. As we consider these words, let us bow briefly in prayer. Lord, this is your word, every portion of it. is able to make us wise to salvation in Christ Jesus. Every portion of it is profitable for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Father, we pray that this might take place this morning, that you would convict us, train us, and remind us of your precious promises. I pray that any words spoken here or thoughts thought here or things done here that are not consistent with your word and will, may they pass away never to be heard from again, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. I remember many, many years ago now, it seems like the longer I live, the longer ago it actually is that these things happened, and that's true, isn't it? We would have marathon monopoly games in our house or risk games. And these two games, because of their length, my sisters and my mother didn't really like to play them. So it was the man's game in the house. My father and my brother and I, when my brother was home, would play these games. Sometimes we would begin it on a Sunday afternoon or another day of the week. And as we went we of course would try to make it so that everybody had a chance. And so we'd trade in such a way that it might last even longer. And of course what would often happen is we would get to the point where we had other things we had to do. So we had to stop the game. And yet we didn't want to not finish the game because like guys that want to win the game somebody had to come out a winner. Very competitive in our house. And so what would happen was the game would sit there. Perhaps it started on the kitchen table. And then as the time went by, we'd have to move the game to a different part of the table so we could eat dinner. And then we would understand we might bump into it. Maybe we would move it onto the floor so that we could do something else on the table. And then, of course, maybe the dog would run through the game and we'd have to reset the pieces and try to figure out where everything would go. But of course, the game had to be finished, right? Now that's silly. Of course, it wasn't that important that we finish the game. But it is important that something else is finished. For Paul, the thing that was most important is that the preaching of the gospel would be completed. And so there were all kinds of obstacles to this completion. He's already mentioned false teachers. He's already mentioned the condition of the world around them, the difficulties of maintaining an effective and faithful witness, both in your life and in your teaching. And here he reminds them of the dangers even within your own circles and amongst your own team members. But he is telling Timothy, keep going. In other words, he says, first of all, the show must go on. And of course here, I don't mean the show as in it's just show or it's false or it's a fictional thing. I'm saying this is Paul's life and ministry. The gospel must go on. Secondly, the Lord will repay his enemies. And that's an important part of this passage. And finally, the Lord is with his people. But first of all, a reminder that things must go on. Notice these personal instructions. He's telling this to Timothy. In fact, here we understand that there's something here that he must tell or train Timothy in his last days. And so, as he's passing the torch to Timothy, he indicates here that it must be done in person. Remember, he's sitting in prison. We think it's one of the worst prisons in the Roman Empire at this time. In the city of Rome, we think it's a deep, dark, dank dungeon where they get little light. There's little heat, things like that. We'll see some of those characteristics in this text. But he says, do your best to come to me soon. Now, assuming that Timothy is actually in Ephesus, this means probably a four to six month journey in these days at this time of year. And so here he says, come to me soon. He's going to say later on, he says, do your best to come to me before winter. That's verse 21. So he's telling Timothy he wants him to come. And he's commanded him to come quickly. Now, of course, to come quickly means he's coming before Paul's sentence of death comes. Because he knows that his death is imminent. Remember, he's already said, I'm being already poured out as a drink offering. In other words, he's already suffering probably for the last time. He had already said, the time of my departure has come or is near. And so he says to Timothy, come quickly. He also tells him to bring a couple things. First of all, his cloak. Now, of course, it's interesting. Why didn't Paul have his cloak with him? We don't know. We don't know exactly what was going on. We don't know why it was at Carpus at Troas. We don't know why it was with him. We have no idea all those circumstances except perhaps this might have been where he left it when he was rearrested. Remember he's in jail and he's cold. This cloak was warm. It had a hood. According to the etymology of this word it is a warm cloak and so he wants that for comfort in his last days. And he also says, bring the scrolls or the books, especially the parchments. In other words, there's something about the books that's important either for his studies or his reflections, or perhaps that he's going to pass on or teach to Timothy. He's passing the torch to Timothy in person. But even as he does this, we also get these words. He's distributing the troops across the known world of those days. And so there's this list of persons or men that have been with him. He first of all mentions the sad case of Demas the deserter. We're going to come back to him in a moment. He said that he went to Thessalonica. But notice these others. He's dispersing them all through the territory, particularly of Asia Minor, but all over the place. He mentions Crescens, we don't know anything about this man other than this place, and scripture's not mentioned anywhere else. He goes off to Galatia, maybe to those same people to whom Paul wrote the book of Galatians. He sends off Titus to Dalmatia. This, of course, was evidently one of Paul's plans to reach that particular area. Titus, of course, is another son in the faith, another protege like Timothy. He had previously been in Crete and was to appoint elders in every town in that place. And here he is, Titus was sent off to minister there. Then you'll notice also he mentions Mark. Now I know on your outline I forgot to put Mark, but Mark is an important figure in church history. In fact, Mark is known all over the New Testament from the Gospels to the Book of Acts, even into the other letters. And we find out that this first indication of Mark as a young man was the guy we think who ran away at the time of Jesus' arrest and left his robe behind. We think he's also the man whose house Peter went to after he was released to prison where people were praying. It was a house of prayer where his parents were. Mark was also taken with Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary trip. But Mark left them and deserted and went back. And so we think at that point in the book of Acts, this is the last time we'll hear about Mark, otherwise known as John or John Mark. And here we think that might be the end. But by this point, we see kind of a redemption of Mark, because look what it says about him. Get Mark and bring him with you for he is very useful to me for ministry. This is a reminder that even though sometimes who are shirkers of their duty, who may fail because of weakness or for some other reason. In fact, there was such a difficult experience that Paul had in losing Mark on the mission field that when Barnabas wanted to take him on the next trip, this broke up the dream team of Paul and Barnabas. They fought over John Mark coming back and Barnabas had taken Mark off. And here Paul said no, instead took Silas. But here he says, These words, so wonderful, Mark, is highly useful or highly profitable to me for service, for ministry. And we are reminded that God can use even those who have failed before to advance the sake of the gospel. And we know that also Peter in his letter also describes him as my son in the faith. So here is Mark, the guy who initially looked to have so much promise, had all the background, had met Jesus, knew Paul, knew Peter, knew all those things, had everything going for him. But when it became difficult on the missionary journey, he went home. And yet by this point, he is useful. That's Mark. We also notice that Tychicus was sent to Ephesus to replace Timothy, verse 12. I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus. The indication here is when Timothy comes, Tychicus will take his place and minister for him. Tychicus is actually mentioned in Acts 20, Ephesians 6, Colossians 4, and Titus 3. In fact, you might not remember that name, but he's well-mentioned throughout the New Testament. And then there's, in verse 20, Erastus. Notice what it says here, Erastus remained at Corinth. Erastus is mentioned in Acts 19 and Romans 16, another team member in this particular time period in Paul's life. And then finally, there's this man, Trophimus. Sick Trophimus, he's weak or sick at this point. Evidently he wasn't able to get better and so Paul had left him behind in Miletus. Trophimus was the man who was mistaken to have for those that had assumed that when Paul went to Jerusalem, that he had taken this Gentile from Ephesus, Trophimus, with him into the temple. And of course he didn't, back in Acts 21. And so these all, Crescens, Titus, Mark, Tychicus, Erastus, Trophimus, they're all compatriots and fellow workers of Paul. But they're all gone at this point. In fact, the only one left is Luke. And of course, Paul is commending him. Luke alone is with me. You know, there's speculation or indication here that perhaps Luke is with him because he needs his wounds and his physical needs taken care of. Luke's a doctor, the beloved physician. Luke also is going to be the one who writes a gospel, as did Mark. So Luke here is the only one there. And yet with all of this, he's not saying it's bad that all these other people had left except for Demas. Demas he describes as the deserter. Notice what he says. In love with this present world. It doesn't seem to be in this case because he does not call for God to bring recompense upon him. It does not appear that Demas has denied the faith. Now we know a little bit about Demas. In fact, in your outline there on the other side, You might see indicated in Philemon 24, he says that Demas was one of his fellow prisoners or at least a fellow worker the first time Paul was arrested. We also see that he was an individual considered one of the inner circle because he is considered one of those workers in Colossians 4 verse 14. So what is it about Demas that he was doing that caused him to desert Paul in love for the world to go off to Thessalonica? Well, first of all, Thessalonica might have been his home. Seems to be perhaps that's where he was from. So what was he doing? It seems to be that Demas here probably at this occasion thought, you know, I'm not cut out for this prison ministry like Paul. I'm not cut out to be associated with Paul at this particular point in time. I want my comforts. I want a situation where it's not so difficult. And maybe he's even going to Thessalonica to take a position of leadership there, but he considers it easier and less Difficult to minister there. And so he left Paul in his time of need. Now I have to admit, this idea of being a deserter, I just was impacted so much by a joke on the radio this week. The joke was this, what do you call someone who can't stick their diet? We call them a deserter. And the reason I mention that is not to get you to laugh, but is to remind you that that is not necessarily a terrible, sinful thing not to stick to your diet. In fact, we're not prescribed to have a particular diet in scripture. Now for some of us it might be sinful in our mind and thoughts because we have so much riding on this and it is something that is so imbued or imbibed within us that it's a sin for us to go against our own conscience in this manner. But by and large, just breaking a diet is okay. It's not a sin. And this is what Paul I think is saying here is, This might not be such a serious matter as we're going to see with Alexander the coppersmith. And yet it is a matter that is difficult and is he is not certainly not commending this man. In fact, he's saying he may in fact be doing things against the Lord here in this matter. He says he loves the world. First John chapter two verses 15 through 17. Say, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. Now I don't know all the circumstances or details of what Paul meant by saying Demas was in love with this present world. But if he was saying that he was forsaking the will of God for him in order to have comfort and pleasure in this life, this is a serious matter. We're told not to love the world. It doesn't mean, there aren't things we and joy in the world, it doesn't mean that there aren't things that we like to do or people we want to be around or we take joy in the things that God has called us to do, but it's a reminder of those things become more important than God and his calling to us and God's savior, Jesus Christ. It's a dangerous, dangerous thing. Do we love the world so much that comfort is more important to us than the gospel? Is it that there would be a less difficult calling for us? In other words, if things get rough, does that mean we just run away when they get tough? In fact, we're reminded with Paul, those called by God for the gospel keep on going, even when it's difficult. And then when things get really difficult, we trust God and we keep going even when enemies arise. Notice what happens in verse 14. He mentions this Alexander the coppersmith. He said, he did me great harm. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds. And then he warns Timothy, beware of him yourself for he strongly opposed our message. Now who is this Alexander the coppersmith? By all accounts, we encounter him at first in Acts chapter 19, verses 33 through 34, when Paul is ministering the gospel in that city, and there is a riot. And as that riot takes place, one of the ones who is put forward to give an answer to that riot is Alexander who is Jewish. And Alexander makes a defense before this riot in that city. Assumedly he has professed faith. He is one of the Jewish believers and he is someone who is being mentored then by Paul and his team. And he is standing before this riot. So he is someone that has the opportunity to come into that inner circle of Paul. And yet this passage uses the term did me great harm. In fact, the words, as one commentator writes, the word used for did me great harm can mean informed against. In other words, it might be this guy's fault that Paul was arrested. Think of this. The man who stood up trying to give a defense to a riot in Ephesus against the Christians now has informed against Paul to the Roman government so that he would be arrested and imprisoned and perhaps sentenced to die. But Paul also says this about Alexander. In 1 Timothy 1, verses 19 and 20, He says, by rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. By all accounting, we think that Alexander started out well, probably professing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, standing even before a mob trying to give a defense or an apology for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And yet at some point it becomes evident he did not really believe what he professed to believe. He became one of those that's the most dangerous of all opponents, those who have heard the treasures of the wisdom of God, those who have heard of the salvation of Jesus Christ but they have outright rejected it and even blaspheme against the name. A shipwrecked faith. What should Paul do? In our society maybe he would sue them. Maybe he should do everything he can to work against him and have him humiliated. Maybe he would personally want vengeance upon this man, whatever it would be, but what does Paul do? This most dangerous man, so dangerous that Paul tells Timothy, you beware of him. And this is particularly true because where was Timothy at this time? He was in Ephesus, where Alexander was from. And Alexander likely would have either been there or been going back there to Ephesus and he could cause all kinds of problems for Timothy just as he did Paul. Here's what he does. He says, the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. In other words, it's the Lord's recompense. It's his vengeance. Here is Paul sitting in prison, likely at the hands of Alexander the coppersmith. Here he is sitting in prison, probably pondering what Alexander could have been in Ephesus He may be thinking about all the things that have happened to him in this later arrest in his life. And he simply says, the Lord will repay him. But notice what he says, he will repay him. Paul has no doubt, Paul is a man of faith. He recognizes that if Alexander does not repent and come to Christ, then he will be repaid for the harm he has done. And then he also says it's according to his deeds. You see, God is a fair judge. He will not give him more than he deserves. He will not give him less than he deserves. If he continues in his disobedience, he continues in his sin so that when judgment day comes and here Alexander would get his comeuppance, whatever he gets in hell will be deserving. It will be according to the deeds he has done, and it will be according to the revelation that was given to him, those two consequences. God is a fair judge. I don't know how it works. Some parts of hell will be worse than others, but he will repay him according to his deeds. You see, Paul, as he goes on, wants to fight the battle God's way. And when we do it God's way, We don't use the same evil tactics as the enemy. We don't lie. We don't gossip. We don't do all those things. In fact, when we fight a battle God's way, it's going to feel sometimes like we've got our hand or one arm tied behind our back. It's going to feel like it's not a fair fight because the other guy can do all the tactics of the world and yet we're situated and commanded by Christ to do things in such a way that they please and honor God no matter what we do. We should never be lying. We should never be treating other people badly. In fact, we're even to treat our enemies kindly. Now we know sometimes when we do that it might heat burning coals on their head. But think of this. We must trust God to avenge, particularly in these spiritual circumstances. You see here, we're reminded that the principle of justice, vengeance belongs to God. And so we have faith, even if we don't see anything that will cause them grief in this life, we have faith that God will repay and give justice. We have faith that God will treat fairly. And we have faith that calling God's retribution on someone is only for these very serious cases of the reprobate or those who would deny Christ. You see, Paul even looks at the errors of others. He's forgiven Mark. We're going to see that he says something about others that is quite merciful. But here in this particular case, this man who had rebelled against them and apparently had blasphemed the Lord and it's assumedly had committed apostasy here. He calls a curse on this man that God would give him justice for what he's done. And with that, he can move on. and keep on going with the gospel. Assumedly here now he can leave that in God's hands and not let the bitterness just envelop him to the extent that he can no longer minister because he trusts God to repay his enemies. This is against the world's way, isn't it? You know, I hate to think about the politics of our day when everybody's afraid of vengeance and it's partly because they've already been exacting vengeance on anybody they can. And of course here in the sports world what happens when somebody gets into a fight on the field they want vengeance for somebody else and then there are those who will do all kinds of things whether it's exposing people's records to to dangerous circumstances, whether it's coming to their home and marching against them, whether it's going on social media and blasting everybody that they didn't like, whatever it is, the faithful person leaves justice in God's hands. It doesn't mean there aren't times we don't stand up for our rights. It doesn't mean that there aren't times when we don't pray for God to do other things. It doesn't mean we don't use the court system, but it does mean that in the end we trust that God will repay are enemies. But finally, how can Paul keep on going? Because the Lord is with his people. Notice what he's been saying. It's almost as if Paul is playing the victim here. He says, only Luke's with me. Everybody else is gone. But remember, he's in a tough place. Then he says the same kind of thing in verse 16. At my first defense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. You think he's playing the victim here. Now, this first offense, we don't know exactly what he's talking about. Some people might think, well, it was the first time he stood up for himself when he was arrested in Jerusalem. Other people might think it's the first time he was sent to Rome. Others think, and I think this is probably the correct understanding of this, is in the Roman legal system, they would have an initial pretrial event where they would give an initial defense of what they had done. And so here he is standing up to give this initial offense and this scandalous first defense was such a scandal because of this. No man was by Paul's side. Assumedly not even Luke. Where was the Roman church? Where was everybody to stand there at least if not saying anything at least standing by his side? There's nobody. It's scandalous for this man who's devoted his life, given everything, being beaten, being shipwrecked, being stoned, left for dead, having opposition in city after city, and yet people coming to Christ so that the gospel marches on and marches on, and he has all these men around him, a dream team with all these names, Crescens, Titus, Tychicus, Erastus, Trophimus, Luke, Mark, where are they? When he has to stand in trial, they're gone. But that's not his point, is it? In fact, he says this, may it not be charged against them. Paul begs for mercy upon those who wouldn't stand with him at this trial. Here he is on trial for his life. And he knows evidently it's been revealed to him that this is it. The judgment he's gonna get is the judgment of death. And of course he's already said, my death is imminent. It's here. I'm on the doorstep. I'm being poured out as a drink offering. And yet the people all around him that should have been there for him, they weren't there. But I like how one writer says, this is a foil because he wants to draw our attention to verse 17. but the Lord stood by me. The faithful Lord of the kingdom is the central figure of all of this time period of Paul's life. How can he keep going? He couldn't do it by his own power. He couldn't even do it because Luke was beside him in the dungeon. He couldn't do it because he recognized the team that was around him. It was the Lord himself who stood by him. That's what the word here describes. He stood by me. Do you realize how important that is to know that Jesus is standing by you? Here is Paul, knowing that this may be the end, standing here in his first court pretrial event, and he knows that Jesus is there, and he strengthens Paul. And why did he do it? Paul is so, focused, isn't he? He's so, so one-focused. Paul, you know people like this that are just, they're so focused on one thing they can't talk about anything else. He says, he strengthened me and stood by me. Why? So that the preaching might be fully proclaimed and the Gentiles might hear it. In other words, the reason he was strengthened in that pre-trial convert, or whatever you call it, diversion, conversion, whatever, The reason why he was able to stand there and give a defense was so that everybody in the courtroom could hear the gospel from people all over the world that were there in that courtroom. It was brought, it was to bring about the full gospel preaching. The Lord did it. It almost reminds me of Aaron and Hur in Exodus chapter 17. If you remember the battle that the Israelites fought against the Amalekites before they even get the Ten Commandments. They're fighting this battle against the Amalekites and as long as Moses held up his hands. They were winning the battle. But as soon as he put his hands down, they began to lose. But Moses is an old man now, so if you try to stand there and hold up your hands for hours at a time, your muscles weaken and they can't hold them up anymore. And so Aaron had to stand on one side, and Hur had to stand on the other side, and they held his arms up so that his hands were up, and they won the battle. We need Jesus Christ. We can't win the battle without him. Some of us may have great gifts to give. Some of us may have wonderful talent. Some of us may have great resolve, but you're not gonna keep going without the Lord's strength and the Lord's presence. The idea here is that he is empowered and he is strengthened in order to do what he's doing even at his arrest and impending death. And so he says, so I was rescued from the lion's mouth. Apparently here, he was spared after that first pretrial event, he was spared so that they would have another time before the court. And then he says this. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever, amen. He says, the Lord will deliver me into the heavenly kingdom. Notice he doesn't say, I'm gonna be alive for a lot longer. He doesn't say everything's gonna be hunky-dory and I'm gonna just have all the comforts of life. He doesn't say I'm gonna be prosperous and become a wealthy man and enjoy my time because God is so pleased with me. I was a faithful preacher. He says no. I will be brought safely into his heavenly kingdom. He's looking towards his death and being reminded that all these things happening to him, Demas deserting him. The history of Mark, deserting him on the mission field but now being profitable. Alexander the coppersmith done him great harm. All the stonings, all the physical beatings and duress, all the things that have taken place, he recognizes that all those things that have happened, yet God is with him and he will be delivered to heaven at his death. And so then he says, glory be to God. And then verse 22, The Lord be with your spirit, grace be with you. Now we could mention all the things about Priscilla and Aquila and Onesiphorus, all these other names, Trophimus and so forth, Ubulus, Pudens, Linus, it's interesting, Linus evidently takes Peter's place and becomes the next leader of the church in Rome. We know all these other things, but in the end, what does he say? It's all about the Lord's power and presence that lets me keep going. and it's his grace that I want for you. In the 1984 Olympics at Los Angeles was the first ever Olympic women's marathon. The temperatures in Los Angeles reached 86 degrees during the race. At that time only five water stations were permitted on the race. A Swiss athlete by the name of Gabriella Anderson missed the last station, and she became severely dehydrated as she entered the stadium. She lost control of her legs and began wobbling all over the track. People rushed out to try and help her to the finish line, but she waved them off because she would have been disqualified. So she wobbled around and the crowd was cheering for her and trying to get her past that finish line. When she went past the finish line, she collapsed. And the medics had to lift her up and carry her to take her off to the hospital for treatment. How is it that such a person had the audacity to finish the race when she didn't even have control of her own body anymore? The human spirit is very resolved, isn't it? I'd like to say she was filled with the strength of the Holy Spirit, but I don't know that she's a believer. I'd like to say that it was all the cheering of the stadium that was cheering this woman who was near collapse at the finish line. Maybe, but I do know this, we are like that woman in the fact that we cannot finish the race on our own. When Paul had said, I have finished the race, I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith. He is reminding all of us in verse 17, it is the Lord that is underneath us to strengthen us and let us do it. We cannot do it apart from God's grace. When he says, grace be with you, it's not just that he's saying, here's my final greeting and my final words, and it's just everything we all say to each other, blessings, grace, whatever it is, he really means it. Apart from the grace of Jesus Christ, we have no hope because we have nothing in us that will allow us to finish that race and go to heaven unless the Lord stands by and strengthens us. It takes the power and the presence of the Lord. If your faith is not in him, if it's in your own resolve, If it's in your knowledge of the scriptures, if it's in your abilities or your strength, you are not going to finish the line. But if your faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ, he will be with you and has the power to save you forever. Let's pray. Father, give us this power and strength. Help us to finish that line and help us with Paul say, I know. You will rescue us from every evil deed and bring us safely into your heavenly kingdom. We pray in Jesus name, amen.