2nd Timothy chapter 4. I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering in teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers. And they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you, be watchful in all things. Endure afflictions. Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering. And the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness. which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that day, and not to me only, but also to all who have loved His appearing. Be diligent to come to me quickly, for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica. Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia, only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you. For he is useful to me for ministry. And Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come. And the books, especially the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the Lord repay him according to his works. You also must beware of him, for he has greatly resisted our words. At my first defense, no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also, I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion, and the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen. greet Prisca and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus. Erastus stayed in Corinth, but Trophimus I have left in Miletus sick. Do your utmost to come before winter. Iobulus greets you, as well as Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brethren. The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Amen. You may be seated. Alright, go with me to the second page of the outline. We've already talked about the first few verses that were dense. I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead that is appearing in His kingdom, preach the Word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. Now this next chunk, verses 3-5, I want to talk a little bit more about. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you, be watchful in all things. Endure afflictions. Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. There is a response to sound teaching. Sometimes it takes the form of impatience. An unwillingness to endure it. Because it's a scourge to the soul when there is unbelief, When there is unrepentant sin, sound teaching, sound doctrine has that effect. It brings about the pains of conscience. This language of sound teaching, that word for sound is the root of the word for hygienic. To be hygienic is to be clean or cleansing. It can be associated with healing. The sound doctrine is the sound Word, the sound teaching, the hygienic teaching, the cleansing, healing teaching. And when we think about it, teachers are supposed to be doctors of the soul. The language in the Middle Ages and in the ancient church was often the cure of souls. Which medieval Romanism turned into the idea of a sort of forgiveness of sins that recurs on that treadmill of sacraments. The re-sacrificing of Christ. The doing of penance. The auricular confession. All of these things for forgiveness. Cure of souls became associated with that. But that is not the idea. The idea of a cure of souls, of a physician of the soul, a doctor of the soul, is that the Word of God, the cleansing, healing, sound doctrine, has the power to cleanse and heal the soul. And the preaching of the Word is the applying of a medicine. Psychiatrists and psychologists have sought to steal from pastors the place of doctors of the soul. They have sought to make it so that their Freudian heresies, their Rogerian questioning, their Jungian archetypes, which turned the Bible into a mythos, they have desired to take these things and to put them in the place of scripture and to say, we have answers, or if not answers, at least questions, and if not questions, at least bills we can charge you. And so this idea of a never-ending therapy, a never-ending meeting with a therapist, in contrast to the idea that the Bible teaches that the Word of God is powerful to change. The law of God is powerful to instruct you in the way that you should go. It is powerful to show you what to put off. And church discipline is powerful to help you to reform your ways quickly. There's a putting off of sins quickly. There's a putting on of righteousness quickly. There's a power of the word to heal the soul so that men don't just muddle around moaning forever about what their mothers and fathers did to them. A complaining and wicked generation just constantly complains about its fathers. We are called to honor our fathers and mothers and to remember that we were handed the most prosperous and free society that the earth has ever seen. There are lots of problems, but we have so much treasure that has been handed to us. And what we need to do, as opposed to complaining, we need to recognize the beauties that have been handed to us, and we need to build. The hygienic word has the power The healing Word has the power. The sound Word has the power to transform us. To make us alive. To cause us to bear fruit. And to cause us to do useful things. And to be useful people. We must put off the sins of our fathers. But we will never know what those are apart from the cleansing Word. We must recognize that there is a healing that can occur. That we can be strong and all the wounds of the enemy can be ineffectual. And so this word must be applied and we must have our death removed by the life of the gospel. Have our wounds healed by it. And have our arms strengthened to do work by the gospel and the law to instruct And when people won't endure this word, but instead want an affirming word for whatever it is that is causing their ears to itch. And by the way, if you have a perpetual itching of the skin, it's not a good sign. If there's always a scratch that needs to be itched, it's not. a good sign. Parts of the body that begin to decay sometimes begin with a constant itching. And this need to hear not a hygienic word, but a filthy word, a disgusting word, a wrong word, will bring about further destruction. If you have a part of the body that's infected, an itching, and you put filthy things on it, do you think that will promote health? If you apply dung to your ear when it has a weird skin disease on it, do you think that will promote health? That's what this is, the desire for a disgusting doctrine to apply to the ear that itches. And what's needed is the cleansing, healing word. And so people who want to have their itching ears scratched will heap up for themselves false teachers, teachers who teach another doctrine. And so you go, which teachers are good and which teachers are bad? Is it the ones who have an apostolic succession back to Rome or maybe the Constantinopolitan Patriarchate? You see, Moscow is really the new Rome, because Constantinople was new Rome. And from Rome to Constantinople, and then they went to Moscow. Just don't worry about it. It's just the Eastern Orthodox patriarchy is really the Roman seat. It's a real thing. This is the kind of nonsense. that people want to do, or they'll say the Constantinopolitan one is somehow greater or at least equal, and we need to go back to one of the patriarchates. These kinds of things. How do you know which teachers you should believe? It is by judging by the word. Teachers are for the purpose of teaching the word. If they're not teaching the word, they're not good teachers. If they're teaching the word, they're good teachers. That's how you judge. You're heaping up. of teachers to teach things other than the word is a problem and it does not solve disease. It does not solve the itching ear. What it does is it makes the disease worse. It makes it so that we can't solve our problems. It makes it so that we can't stop complaining about what others did to us. It makes it so we can't stop complaining what happened to us in terms of the society that's been handed to us. It makes it so that we can't stop complaining about what our fathers and mothers did to us. It makes it so that there's always complaints. There's always excuses. We're always the victim and incapable of doing anything. But the Word of God gives us faith and that faith makes us more than conquerors. It gives us strength. It's the comforting Word. It's the healing Word. It is the Word that gives us courage to act. And they will turn their ears away from the truth. Sometimes the medicine does not taste good to the sick. And the procedure is discomforting that's meant to solve the long-term discomfort. And so, because there is a desire not to bear with not to endure the hygienic word, the cleansing word. It's not typically pleasant feeling to wash out a wound. It doesn't generally, in the short term, make you feel more pleasantness. It's a short-term pain, and the cleansing of wounds helps them to heal. and helps them to heal properly and to avoid long-term scarring and damage and infection and long-term pain. The cleansing word washes the soul. It renews us and sanctifies us. And if we won't deal with it, if we won't endure it, and we heap up instead teachers that will give us what we want for our short-term pleasantness, and we turn our ears away from the truth, It will not go well for us. It is the tendency of man, unconverted, to be turned aside to myths, to fables, to old wives' tales, to the doctrines of men and demons. Verse 4, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you, be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. We talked about the office of evangelist and the need to take the Word. But these things apply to lower offices of preachers as well, and to all Christians. The duty to be watchful in all things, to endure afflictions, and to do the work of our calling. to fulfill whatever ministry we have. So if you're a husband, fulfill your ministry as a husband well. As a wife, do your job well. Help your husband well and wisely. If you're a child, obey and learn and be useful to your house. Take initiative and look for opportunities to do work to support your parents in the home. Those who minister in the diaconate, minister diligently. Those who rule and teach, rule with all diligence and teach with all pains to be clear and wise. These are the callings. Now, go to page three. Really go to page four. We get to this section now. on different responses to the apostasy and unbelief that comes up as Paul is in his fight. He says, For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. The idea of pouring out as a drink offering It's pouring yourself out. This is a language that we use frequently in the church. And it's good language that you're pouring yourself out. When you give of your time, and your energy, and your resources, you are finite. You don't have an infinite reserve of power, or resources, or time. Not in this life. Your days are numbered. The dollars you earn are numbered. and your energy is limited. And when you give, you might think, I don't want to give. I want to preserve that for me. But when you give, The Lord rewards it. When you pour out, the Lord blesses that work to accomplish the purpose that it was meant for, and He blesses you. And here's the thing, He often increases your possession, not to an infinite amount, but He increases you. He prospers you, so that you end up with more than what you started with. And that's certainly true on the Day of Judgment. That when you pour out the last of what you have to give in your cup, That last drop is worth more to you than gallons from someone with a tanker that's full. That last drop that you pour out. It's like what Jesus said about the widow's mite. The temple shouldn't have been taking the widow's mite. But to her, it was all she had. It was her very livelihood. When you pour out, when you have little in service, if your time is limited because you have so many duties that burden you, giving a little bit of your time is a great value. When your financial resources are limited and you're generous, you share a meal with a brother in hospitality, that is something that gets a greater reward than he who has much sharing a meal. When you pour out in service, there is a reward Those good works done in faith to the glory of God according to His law are rewarded in Christ. On that last day. But also, in time and providence, God blesses things and He often takes when you give and causes you to prosper more. Just like the promise for tithing is that the barns will overflow, and the promise for keeping the Sabbath, you go, well, if I have seven days, and I spend one out of seven resting and worshiping God, and I don't do my ordinary work, it seems like I'll have less dominion than other men who work seven days for dominion. And God promises, if you keep the Sabbath and call it a delight, And don't turn aside to your own pleasures. He will cause you to ride the high places. In other words, He will cause you to be in positions of power. Exactly the opposite of what you expect with tithing. Exactly the opposite of what you expect with Sabbath keeping. God increases your dominion, though you give up time. And He increases your wealth, though you give away wealth. And when you pour yourself out in any way, in the way that God commands, God blesses it, gives rewards, and strengthens. But someday, we pour out the last drop. And we are told to be wise and to number our days. And to recognize that we are not infinite. We will live forever. But our lives here, before we are taken, they are limited. 70 or 80 if you're strong, but Moses says We have limited time Before we die The Apostle Paul was recognizing that and he was recognizing that he was coming to the end of the cup And he says I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure is at hand when you look at the Sacrifices of the Old Covenant. Whether it was a grain offering, or a sin offering, or a burnt offering, or a peace offering, you can find wine there. There's oil, and there's wine, and there's salt. And the wine, the pouring out of the drink offering, as a part of that wine being dedicated to God. That's what he's pointing to. Wine is used as a symbol for thanksgiving and joy, and rejoicing, and giving thankfully. Giving out of gratitude. Giving with thanksgiving. Lord, thank You for this that I have to give. and asking for God's blessing on the giving. That giving of that drink offering, the pouring out with gratitude, is something that God loves. He loves a cheerful giver. And that giving can be financial, or it can be time, or it can be effort and energy. It can be service of various kinds. And the Apostle Paul here is a man who has basically nothing at this point. and very few companions. And what he has to give is his time, which is very limited, and his last energy. The dregs of his energy and his time, and he's giving them in service, and he's doing things that are meant to be a powerful witness before he goes. He is being poured out as a drink offering. and the time of his departure is at hand. There is little left in the cup. And as he looks back, when we approach the end of a thing, we often begin to look back at the whole of it that preceded. When people come to the end of their lives, they begin to think about what has come before more. They tell stories more. They think back on the past more. They reflect on it and the changes that have occurred. And what the Apostle Paul does is he looks back and remembers that day when he was met by the Lord Jesus Christ after having been involved in the murder of a Christian man. On his way to persecute the church, the Lord Jesus Christ said, why are you persecuting me? He blinded him, and he brought him spiritually to sight, and then restored his physical sight. And from that point forward, he was zealously advancing the truth and serving the Lord Jesus Christ. And he can look back from that time and say, I have fought the good fight. Men love this passage. It's quoted in all sorts of movies that are pieces of art that hate God. Because it's such a stirring line. I have fought the good fight. Every man craves a good fight to fight for. And so just, I fought the good fight, that sounds great to men. But the fight is not the thing. What you're fighting for is the thing. Men who fight very well for wickedness are nothing more than scoundrels. Fighting very well For wickedness is horrifically evil. What we're called to is to fight well, fight skillfully, fight courageously for the good fight. I have fought the good fight. Fighting's important, but what you're fighting for is supremely important. And so you must know what you're fighting for. You must know the goal. You must know how to fight well. So fighting the good fight. And the good fight is, of course, displaying the glory of God according to His law in the face of all opposition. And spreading the knowledge of Him in the earth. And the Apostle Paul did that. He suffered much loss. And his fighting with the spiritual sword was very effective. And he worked hard in all manner of works. And was no pacifist. He was not afraid for physical fighting. But physical fighting only served to allow him to defend what could potentially be done spiritually. Fighting doesn't build. Fighting protects what's built. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. He is there. He is close to the finish line. He is about to die. And He has time and again courageously faced down unbelief and suffered under power. Men who have power over Him have abused Him in many ways. They have beaten Him. They have scourged Him. They have caused Him to suffer. He has gone under shipwreck. He has gone through suffering, suffering, suffering. And he continues to go and finish the race. He is there at the end. He sees the end coming. I have kept the faith. Keeping the faith. We are called to fight the good fight, to finish the race, and to keep the faith. Keeping the faith is upholding the revealed religion. and what's been attained to in the history of the church. We look at what God does in history. He's given to us the Scriptures. He's given us a complete book. And He's also caused the church to grow in its understanding of the words of this book across time. We have the mind of Christ in this book. And God has caused the church to be matured and to then gather the revealed truth more and more in terms of systematic and plain, clear teaching. And there's a duty to guard what has been attained to. And Paul kept the faith. He didn't retreat at any point. He didn't give up on anything. He was willing to do what was necessary to defend every proposition that was revealed by God. He would not lie about any of it. He fought the good fight. He finished the race. And he kept the faith. And he's looking forward to the reward. How do you fight when it's painful and finish the race when your breath feels like you cannot swallow it in fast enough? How do you carry on with the faith when it's under attack? You look to the reward. We often see in Protestant circles a diminishing of the principle of reward But rewards are very important. Because we are rational creatures. And we pursue what we believe is our self-interest. And we must remember that God has revealed these things for our good. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that day. And not to me only, but also to all who have loved His appearing. When Christ returns, Those who look upon His return with joy. Those who have faith. Those who love His coming in judgment. All of those. All of those will receive a crown of righteousness. Now we think now about the imputed righteousness of Christ in terms of we're covered in His clothing. But this crown, what is the crown about? A crown is a sign. It's a glory to the one who wears it. And it's a symbol of rule. The rule of the righteous. The reign of the just. A royal priesthood given these crowns. We are now ruling with Christ who is at the right hand of the Father. And He is subduing all of His enemies and ours under our feet progressively. But at the Day of Judgment, at the Day of Judgment, the saints will be openly acknowledged and given a glorious acknowledgement and reward. And this includes open acknowledgement of their righteousness and of them as those who reign along with Christ as the righteous. So the Apostle Paul reminds us of this idea of crowns. And there are other places in Scripture that talk about crowns for things like evangelism. All who have loved the appearing of Christ are those who will receive the crown of righteousness. So the reward that comes is the thing to look to to help us through the difficulties. Christ rewards. He is a king who provides for his people. One of the duties of kings is not just to protect but to provide. And he provides spoil. He conquers and he gives spoil to his people. After defeating Satan on the cross, after he rose again to signify his victory, after he ascended to the right hand of the Father, At Pentecost, He sent His Holy Spirit. And He gave gifts by the Holy Spirit. Spiritual gifts to empower His saints to overcome the world. So they might fight the good fight. And finish the race. And they might keep the faith. These gifts were given to powerfully be able to work as saints. So He gives to us the power to fight. And He gives to us the rewards He gives us the gifts that enable us to be effective. And He gives us the fruit of that effectiveness. V. 9 The Apostle Paul in pouring himself out and doing this work, he's giving to us an example, and he reminds Timothy to follow his example of diligent labor. He says, be diligent to come to me quickly, for Demas has forsaken me. When you see your brothers in arms betrayed by men that were covenanted, it should inspire you to keep your covenant better. It should inspire you to come to the aid of your brothers who were betrayed. When one portion of the line doing battle is abandoned by another portion of the line who retreats in the face of the enemy, your response should not be to cower and run away like the men that ran. but you should long to come to the aid of the men that still stay on the line. We do not want to see them left alone. We do not want to see them betrayed and destroyed. The courage of those who stand in the face of betrayal, in the face of the enemy, in the face of wickedness, should call us by their example to be more diligent and to be quick. We say with John Calvin, Lord, cause me to obey you promptly and sincerely. Or with Augustine who said, Father, command what you will and give what you command. So we have the example of Demas who forsook Paul. Having loved this present world, And he ran away from the danger of Nero's court to Thessalonica, across the sea. Crescens leaves for Galatia. Titus leaves for Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you. For He is useful to me for ministry. And Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come. And the books, especially the parchments. I'll come back to these other men, but think about this for a second. Think about Carpus. Who is Carpus? I mean, is Paul just leaving cloaks around? He's got like, put this cloak in your house in case I need a cloak later. I mean, in Troas. Troas is in Turkey. It's in Asia Minor. Where is he? He's in Rome. He's not leaving cloaks in Asia Minor because it's a convenient storage location in case he needs a cloak later. Why would this guy have a cloak from him? Well, the scriptures teach us when our brothers are in want and they have nakedness. If you have two cloaks, what should you do with the one you're not wearing? That's why this guy has Paul's cloak. He needed it. And now Paul doesn't have a cloak. And so he's wondering if perhaps he who he lent it to might have had time to get another cloak so that he could get his back now to put it on since Paul's naked. He's waiting for somebody to come from Troy to Rome for him to get clothing. Verse 14, Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the Lord repay him according to his works. You also must beware of him, for he has greatly resisted our words. At my first defense, no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them. So what we have here is a request of a higher officer for a lower ranking officer, a lower ranking person, to come quickly and to be diligent in executing the mercy ministry and logistical help that he needs. Things are getting bad here. I remember when you look at World War II, there was a time period where the Italian boot was being invaded by the Americans. They were moving up, and there's a town called Anzio on the coast where the Germans put up a very strong resistance. The Italians had already surrendered. The Germans were fighting there, and there's a lot of hill country. And what started to happen is the casualty rate reached about 1,000 a day. And the Americans were not expecting this level of resistance from the Germans there. The losses became so horrific that they started to pull men out of headquarters units and ambulance units and put higher ranking men up onto the front line because they were so concerned about the breaking of the line and a breakthrough by the Germans there. When things are bad, you start to ask evangelists to do the work of deacons. And that's what's happening here. The ranks have gotten so thin that the Apostle Paul is saying, Timothy, could you go pick up my cloak and bring it to me? Timothy the Evangelist, could you do this work to help me? The lines had gotten thin. There's a need for people to reach down and to do work that's below their station. There's a need for people to sometimes reach up and do work that is beyond them in terms of what they would normally be expected to do. These are the kinds of things you start to see. Alexander the coppersmith, there'd be much harm. May the Lord repay him according to his works. You also must be aware of him, for he has greatly resisted our words. At my first defense, no one stood with me. At the very beginning, when the Apostle Paul was having to give his first defense to Nero, everyone left him, and he was there alone. No one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them. They later repented. Some of them came back. Some of them decided they loved the world more. And they went. But some of them came back. The Apostle Paul is gracious, following the example of his Lord. And he prays that it would not be charged against him. When there's abandonment, when there's a shortness of resources and people, there's a special higher calling to jump in and do the work. We should all look upon abandonment of duties as a great shame. All the disciples that were with him at the time of his first defense abandoned him. Demas, because of the love of the world, Abandoned him. Some people say this. Demas is Demetrius. I do not know that's a found in a number of the commentaries. In I'm inclined to think is not Demetrius. Mainly because in 3rd John 12 Demetrius has a strong character that's on display. He's commended by many witnesses as being somebody who is standing in the faith. I have a hard time there, but it's possible he will be strong at one moment in the week at the other. There's Alexander the coppersmith. And there are three Alexanders that we run into. in the New Testament. There's Alexander who is related to Annas, the high priest. There's an Alexander who's a Jew at Ephesus who, when the Ephesians are all real angry about the creation of Diana statues and the destruction of the silver Diana statue tray that's occurring from Paul's preaching, they start to get real angry about this and they throw a riot about Paul. And there's an Alexander that comes out from the Jews who starts to try to speak to the crowd, and the crowd just brushes him aside. And so I don't think that's the guy either. Who is this? The third Alexander. There's an Alexander who is the son of Simon the Cyrenean. And Simon the Cyrenean was the man who was chosen by the Romans who they required to carry the cross of Christ on his way to be crucified. when Christ was stumbling. And instead of Him, He had two sons. Alexander and Rufus. Alexander gets mentioned elsewhere. And Alexander is shown to be an enemy of Paul in 1 Timothy. And also here in this passage. And the idea that Alexander as a person who was excommunicated, who was cast out, is a person who then continued to seek to harm The Apostle Paul. And when the Apostle Paul was called before Nero in his great appeal as a Roman citizen, this is the stuff that's happening here. How did Alexander cause him harm? Alexander caused him harm in terms of his ministry and in terms of the testimony brought against him. Rufus, on the other hand, is commended In Romans 16, verse 13, greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother in mind. Rufus continues in the faith. And you know, there's a great little book on the idea of terms of communion. It was written by an associate Presbyterian minister in about 1820, where he takes these two men, their names, Alexander and Rufus, And he has them have a conversation about the terms of communion. It's a dialogue. If you are looking for a way to talk about the idea of the fenced table and the guarding of the table and the requiring of examination and using terms of communion in terms of a covenant, There is a great little booklet that I've given you the name of. That's right there. Alexander and Rufus or a series of dialogues on church communion written by the minister John Anderson. So I commend that book to you. But Alexander the coppersmith. Was a professing Christian and he betrayed Paul after discipline. Now. We have these who have abandoned and caused harm. But there are also other men who did not abandon the faith, but because they were deployed to do good works, they were not available to help Paul. And so one of the things that's tragic in this life about finding friends is you find friends and you say, here's a brother. Here's someone that will fight alongside me. And for a moment, the flash of the joy of that But there is also the reality that there is so much need and the lines are so thin that the men that you find that you love to work beside, you often end up having to send them away to fill the line that the fight can be fought where the men are needed. And so Crescens and Titus and Tychicus, they're all deployed. They're all away. And now, who's with him? His beloved brother, the beloved physician, Luke. And when we find the requests that the Apostle Paul gives to Timothy, he asks Timothy to come. And he also asks for Mark to come. And this request for Mark to come is a beautiful sign of the ability for restoration and forgiveness in relationships. Mark, also known as John Mark, was the author of the book of Mark. It is often believed that John Mark's interactions in terms of after he was spending time with Paul that it ended up with him spending a good deal of time with Peter. He goes with Barnabas. Paul takes Silas with him on a missionary journey. And here's what happens. Here's the text from Acts 15. There had just been in Acts 15 a fight against heretics who said they were the Judaizers that first said circumcision was necessary for a man to be righteous in the sight of God. Then they tried to retreat off of their position because heretics are slippery and they refused to be accountable for the things they say. And they just said, we didn't mean that you had to be circumcised to be justified before God. What we meant was it's just necessary for you to keep all the ceremonies of the Mosaic law. And even that position, that retreat position of the Judaizers was condemned by the Council of Jerusalem. And they said there were only four laws of the old covenant ceremonies that needed to be maintained. But after that, there was a period of joy where the letter of the Council was taken to the Gentiles. And there was joy. And there was unity between Jewish Christian and Gentile Christian. And there was work in Antioch. But there was a need to return out to the missionary field. And after some days, verse 36, Paul said to Barnabas, let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we've preached the word of the Lord and see how they're doing. Now, Barnabas was determined to take with them John called Mark. But Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia. Last time, John Mark was with them, and he left them early in the trip, and apparently in a way where Paul thought it left them high and dry. That when the going got tough or something like that, he left. And he's going, no, no, no. You do not take out to the battlefield the unreliable people. Barnabas, who apparently had a closer relationship, a familial relationship with some variety, thought, no, John Mark has grown. We should continue. He was determined to take with them John Mark. But Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. Then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. They reached a point, arguing about this, that they couldn't work together on that. And so John Mark not only failed Paul on a previous missionary journey, but he also caused Paul to lose the co-labor of Barnabas. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and departed. being commended by the brethren to the grace of God. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. Now, at the end of life, Paul looks upon John Mark, knows that he has matured, is confident in his work at this point, and tells Timothy, bring Mark to me. that his ministry is useful. And think about this. It's possible that Mark might come and benefit Paul there. It's possible that Mark might come and be useful to Paul and have Paul be useful to him. But how joyous would you be as Mark to hear Paul commend you as a useful minister of the Lord Jesus Christ when you previously had this difficult break To have your reputation defended in writing by the Apostle Paul. To have the Apostle Paul say to you, you are useful to me. And in my last days, I want you to come to me. The further requests that he makes are for a cloak to cover his nakedness and coldness. And for the books Namely, the parchments. What he's talking about here is a copy of the Scriptures. He wants the books. There's the definitive article before the books. It's the books. He's asking for the Scriptures to be brought to him. The parchments to be brought to him. That he would be able to enjoy the comforts of the reading of the Scriptures In these times. Now the last thing before moving to this last section that I want to point out to you. Is what he says about Alexander the coppersmith? Alexander the coppersmith did much harm. And he calls on the Lord to repay him according to his works. What a haunting curse. Can you imagine the dread that you would have if you knew that the Lord was going to repay you according to your works? What a haunting curse. Verse 17, But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me. You know, everyone abandoned Paul, but you know who didn't abandon Paul? The Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord stood with me. And strengthened me. So that the message might be preached fully through me. He preached the message fully. He was able in Nero's court to preach every word that he needed to preach. A pretender of divinity. An emperor that exalted himself. Paul was able to speak to him all the words that God intended for him to speak. In the highest court of the land, the greatest prince that was merely human, in that court, in the great empire of Rome, the gospel was preached in full. The most powerful people in the land heard the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and heard that there was a king above kings who would judge them. This was Paul in his mission to the magistrate. The Lord stood with me and strengthened me so that the message might be preached fully through me. And that all the nations, all the Gentiles might hear. The highest position in this world empire of Rome, at its capital, in its supreme court, Caesar. He's taking the Word of God to that emblematic, symbolic, central place of the nations. Also, I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. People read this, and they typically think, oh, this must be talking about Satan. Providentially, we're singing Psalm 17, which talks about our enemies being like lions. The idea that Satan is a lion that prowls around. But you know, Christians were thrown to lions in Rome. This occurred in the Colosseum, but before the Colosseum, there was the Hippodrome. People don't think much about the Hippodrome. The Hippodrome was just a Colosseum that was built earlier. And Christians were thrown to lions there. When he says that he was delivered out of the mouth of the lion, we all want to make it poetic. But beloved, I mean Daniel was delivered from the mouths of lions and I think the Apostle Paul was also delivered from the mouth of literal lions. I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion and the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for his heavenly kingdom. This preserving that Paul was beat multiple times, he was stoned multiple times, he was shipwrecked multiple times, and God preserved his life. He apparently had an encounter with lions that did not kill him. God preserves life and makes us as safe under persecution as we are at peace in our beds if he has determined that we should not die. And so Paul is reminded that He was able to run the race and fight the fight and keep the faith because God, because the Lord Jesus Christ by His Holy Spirit preserved Him and kept Him strong in the face of the enemy. And He will do that for you. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen. Verse 19. He ends that great story with a calling, a doxology upon the glory of God. Verse 19. You're faithful saints, he wants to encourage. And beloved, we need to remember that greetings are powerful. They strengthen souls. They encourage people. And when we greet each other, when we pass along greetings, when we affirm people, when we draw attention and honor to people, Greet Prisca and Aquila. I am out of time or I would read to you Acts 18 and exegete that too because the story of Priscilla and Aquila is beautiful. They meet Paul and they're Jews and they are tent makers, like Paul, and they build up this friendship, and they work together, and they're hospitable. And then, after spending all this time with Paul, and they've been built up by his ministry, they run into Apollos, who's a believing Jew, who has believed John the Baptist, but hasn't heard about the new administration, the covenant of grace, and what Christ has accomplished. And he's happy to add that when he meets with Priscilla and Aquila. And they talk to him in fellowship in private hospitality. And Apollos' ministry is improved by it. If you have a house where you can be hospitable and have good conversation, where husband and wife together as a team can minister to, even ministers, and witness to other people, there's a powerful ability to see the church strengthened by that. great Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus. Erastus stayed in Corinth. Metrophimus, I have left in Meletus sick. This deployment of the people of God, they are stretched so thin, there's work to do everywhere, and there's this scatteredness, and he is asking for people to be remembered, asking for people to be greeted, asking for strengthening, asking for help, and there's this stretchedness to the empire of God, the kingdom of God, which was just mentioned. Do you see the beautiful picture of the kingdom of Christ? This domain, this dominion, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, this empire that is grinding to dust, the Roman Empire, as he preaches there to Caesar. The Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for his heavenly kingdom. The kingdom of Christ in the face of these human empires. It is spreading. It is conquering. It is overcoming. It is infiltrating and destroying. It is plundering the world. Even here, back in the first century. And there are fellow soldiers who are being encouraged on and greeted. And there are those who are distressed and suffering other ways, like Trophimus, who by his sickness was stuck in Miletus. Do your utmost to come before winter. He really needs that cloak before it gets too cold. Eubulus greets you, as well as Pudens, and Linus, Claudia, and all the brethren. There's a church in Rome. These people, these Christians in Rome, had abandoned Him. At His first defense, they all fled. He had written them the book of Romans. They had received a special letter from Him in the past addressed to them. All of that grand theology written to their church. They abandoned Him at His first hearing before Caesar. And he prays that God would not count it against them. And he passes along greeting on their behalf. And honors them by name. A mercy exemplified in the Apostle Paul. The grit exemplified by the Apostle Paul. And in this last letter, writing to Timothy. The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. He recognizes the glories and value of having Christ with him in all of his troubles. Christ would not abandon him, though everyone else did. Christ gave him strength when he was facing down Caesar and his court. Christ closed the mouths of lions on his behalf. And so to pray that the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. What a glorious blessing to have called upon you. Grace be with you. The idea of the sanctifying power of God. That Christ would be with you to protect you, and the grace of God would strengthen you and sanctify you and make you capable to do all good works. And to testify to the whole of the letter and to that blessing being given in a hearty way. At the end of it, he says, Amen. Let it be so. Be it. This is a beautiful letter from a dying man. Seeking to be giving a blessing. These are the words on the deathbed for the Apostle Paul. This is his last letter. This was the testimony he sought to leave. There is a special place in the scriptures for when men give their deathbed blessings. And this was the deathbed blessing of Paul. Let's pray. Father, we ask that You would bless us from this Word, that You would build up our knowledge of You, that You would cause us as a church to be strong, that You would cause us to keep the faith and to fight the good fight, that You would cause us to run the race, that You would strengthen us and help us to hold the line and to not abandon each other, and even when left alone, to remind us that we have Christ with us who strengthens us. Father we pray that you would powerfully bless us out of your word. We thank you that we have the presence of Christ by the preaching of the word the reading of the word that he is with us by faith as we take the Lord's Supper that we have the presence of Christ by faith. We pray all this in Christ's name. Amen. Comments questions objections from the voting members and those with speaking rights. Mr. Price. Jesus says that he asked to be baptized. John says I'm not worthy to unloose your sandals. Like why am I baptizing you. He says well even so. Yeah you're totally right John. Absolutely. Even so to fulfill all righteousness you baptize me. So it was a positive command of the ceremonies of the new covenant to be done. And he institutes baptism as Trinitarian by being baptized. John's baptism was not the Trinitarian baptism. It was an old covenant ceremonial washing. And that's why you find in Acts, for example, men who were baptized by John, but they get baptized again with the Trinitarian formula. They get baptized in the name of Jesus because it's a different baptism. And so the baptism of Jesus was the institution of new covenant baptism. And he is there present in visible form. You have the Holy Spirit coming in the form of a dove. And you have the voice of God the Father coming from the clouds. And so you have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit there in terms of those manifestations, those theophanies. So it's a Trinitarian baptism. It's a baptism in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That's the instituting text for Christian baptism.