We find ourselves in 2 Timothy chapter 4. Please open your Bibles to 2 Timothy 4. Paul and Timothy have a close relationship, nearly a father-son relationship, certainly a father and son relationship in the faith. Chapter 4 finds Paul giving Timothy a charge to do his duty, to fulfill his calling with vigilance, with endurance, and with hope. even in a time, and we could argue especially in a time of opposition and even rank apostasy when people are claiming to be blood-bought lambs of the Lord Jesus but are walking away from the faith. And so we're going to talk about the gospel soldier's faithfulness because in its context, Timothy is a gospel soldier in his ordained office. But all of us, to one degree or another, are a part of this battle and we need to take certain lessons from this. So, 2 Timothy chapter 4, I'll read the entire chapter. Verses 1 through 22. And this is God's preserved word. I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight. I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me. For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica, Crecens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry. And Tychius have I sent to Ephesus. The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee in the books, but especially the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord reward him according to his works. Of whom be thou ware also, for he hath greatly withstood our words. At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Salute Prisca and Aquila and the household of Vanessephorus. Erastus, abode at Corinth. Petrophimus have I left at Miletum, sick. Do thy diligence to come before winter. Well, these are Paul's final words. And the Apostle here is issuing a charge to his son in the faith. to be faithful, to preach the Word faithfully. Amid growing defection, you see a lot of these things reference these people that have fallen away, or have been difficult, or the cultural shift is away from holiness and righteousness. And it had to have been discouraging. Certainly we know from our own contexts how discouraging it is when people were once faithful, walking with the Lord, and you think, This is such a blessing, and you see that providentially they walk away from the faith. We'll talk more about that when we get to the appropriate section in the chapter. But this chapter encourages every believer to be sure, again, like we've said before, there is an original context for this letter, but it was also preserved for the Church. So it's for all of us. But in particular for this, for Timothy, by extension godly pastors, to press on, to labor in the power of the gospel, to be encouraged by the Lord's faithfulness, and confident, like Paul was, in what awaits him on the day when he sees the Lord upon his death. So we're going to look at the entire chapter. We're gonna look at three sections here. Verses one and two, we're gonna talk about faithfulness in the task. Faithfulness in the task, verses one and two. Verses three through eight. Faithfulness in the conflict. Faithfulness in the conflict. And then verses nine through 22. Faithfulness in the end. Faithfulness in the end. So faithfulness in the task, faithfulness in the conflict, and faithfulness in the end. So let's look at verses 1 and 2. Paul's words here are not only pastoral. They're not only meant to encourage, they're not only meant to build up, but it's sort of a judicial proclamation. He says, I charge thee therefore, I encourage thee, I exhort thee, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in the kingdom. It's like courtroom testimony. You have in mind, I mean, it's obviously a letter, but it's a father in the faith written to someone he's discipled, so there's an element of that loving care and concern. But the gravitas behind these words has in mind like a courtroom drama. And these are powerful words that are spoken with gospel power. Paul is speaking like he's under oath. He says, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ. And then speaks to the authority that Christ has. Who shall judge the quick, or the alive, or the living? The living and the dead, and his appearing in the kingdom." So, I'm saying this before God. It's a vow. It's an oath. Here are important words that are about to follow. Preach the Word. Be instant. We talk about instant. And we normally think of, like, fast. Be fast, or be urgent. is what the language, if you happen to have an authorized version that will define some terminology. So be urgent. Why are we going to be urgent? This is a matter of life and death. This is a matter of eternal life and eternal death. People that are going off to die or facing death need to be encouraged and exhorted. that today is the day of salvation. So what Paul is telling Timothy is to be urgent, to press that matter. Urge your audiences to close with Christ. But before that, we're going to go back and see what the actual exhortation is. It's one of those imperatives. It's what to do. So what's true is that God and the Lord Jesus Christ are going to judge the living and the dead on the Day of Judgment. He said, those things are true. Here is what you do, Timothy, by extension, gospel ministers. Preach the Word. Proclaim what God has sent. Don't say your own thing. Preaching has at its core this idea of proclamation. I'm proclaiming what someone else has said. I'm a herald, is what the gospel minister should consider himself. These aren't our words that we say. The words that we say have to come from God's Word. They have to be God's words. If we're not doing that, we are not faithful ministers. If somebody's standing in a pulpit on the Lord's Day and laying on something real thick that was on their heart during the week and calling it a proclamation of God's Word, run from them. They are not faithful ministers. What Paul is telling Timothy is proclaim what God has said. Preach the Word. God's Word. Not yours, Timothy. Be urgent. Even if it's inconvenient, so we have that out-of-season mindset. Be instant in season, whether it's convenient for you, whether it's not, be urgent. Because today could be the day that some of your hearers stand before the Lord. We just don't know. We just don't know. And so what Paul is telling Timothy is to do the job of a faithful follower of Christ who's been called to the office. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. Correct, train, encourage. Whatever the Word has in its context, that's what you give to the people. The idea of preaching has in mind an ambassador speaking for the Sovereign that sent him. Well, the Sovereign is the Lord of the Universe. So we can only say what He's given us to say. That's why a godly minister and a faithful Christian walking with the Lord only has end to Amen. That's all we have. If we try to do anything else, we're making things up as we go along. Not telling you what's on my heart. Not telling you that the Lord gave me some message. That's another sign that you need to run. Is if somebody received a message from the Lord and it wasn't straight from the scripture. I could tell you I received a message from the Lord and I would say, turn with me to book, chapter, and verse. And that's the message. Because that's what the Lord has given us. And then we go from there. But the idea is to do all of these things urgently. Now left on its own, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Why would we want to be urgent, Pastor? Why would Paul be telling Timothy to be urgent? Look with me at verse 3. He answers his own question. He says, "...for the time will come when they will not endorse sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears." So because they have itching ears, they want somebody to scratch that itch, meaning there's going to come a time when people in the church are only going to want to hear what they want to hear, and they'll pile up teachers that will confirm what they already think. Because they've got that itch, and they want that itch scratched in a particular way. So what do we see there? We see the growing apostasy. And that's what Paul elaborates on. And because of that... So, because of number 1, do number 2. And do number 2 because there's gonna come a time in verse 3 here. And because of all of that, look at verse 4 with me. They shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. Because when you deviate from God's Word, It's just a different flavor of fable. Maybe you believe in the pansperma theory that aliens seeded this planet with DNA. They visited in the recent past what we commonly think of as the ancient astronaut theory. Maybe you believe everything sprung out from nothing and was in a space smaller than a pinprick and then nothing exploded and Created everything and it violates the the laws of physics Or maybe you believe that any one of a number of the theories from false religions. Because when you deviate from God's Word, the only thing you have left are fables. So Paul is saying to be urgent, to be instant, in season and out of season, for the people, because the time's gonna come where people are just going to want to hear what they themselves want to hear. And if anybody has seen a church go sideways, where people didn't want to hear the truth, they just wanted to hear what made them feel better, you see how heartbreaking that is. And you can imagine how Paul feels talking about some of the people in this chapter. Because they would have been people that he loved. And people that Timothy likely knew. But when you deviate from the Bible, it's not hard before you're so far afield of anything truthful that you're going to believe all sorts of nonsense. It's Paul's final command to preach the Word whether you're actually listened to or not. And that, for a gospel minister, is stark. Because you would think Well, as a minister of the gospel, Timothy's going to be talking to people that want to hear what he has to say. No, not necessarily. Not necessarily. Paul is saying as much. He says, look, whether you're going to face indifference, rejection, or acceptance, whether it's convenient or not, whether it's pleasant or not, preach the Word. Doesn't matter. Reproof, rebuke, and exhortation have to come See, this is the thing. We see long-suffering, we think of patience and instruction, doctrine. So the how matters as much as the what. Now why do you say that? Because a gospel minister has often times in the past been likened to a janitor or a custodian. The custodian comes along and says, hey, think of it in your school years. Your school custodian comes along and says, hey, you ought not to do that. You're going to make a mess. And what do a lot of times young people say, okay, no problem, we won't. But then the school custodian goes to handle some more of his duties or affairs, and they keep going back and doing that thing you told them not to do. And when the inevitable happens, and they make a mess, what happens? The school custodian comes back around, helps them with it, maybe cleans up some of the mess, all the while saying, hey, you know, we talked about this, you shouldn't be doing that. Learn from this, don't do it again. And what do a lot of our school-age friends say? Okay, we won't do it, sorry about that. Okay, that's fine. Custodian goes about does his duties and what likely happens with near certainty? Well, the same rinse and repeat kind of cycle. And so many times people have likened gospel ministers to that, to come alongside. And eventually the temptation would be to not demonstrate the long-suffering, to be ticked off, to be angry. Paul says no, irrespective of the outcome. You preach the word. You exhort. You reprove. You rebuke. Do what you need to do. But do it with patience. And do it with doctrine. Now why would the gospel minister need to have patience? Well, what does God have with us if not patience? An insane amount of patience. Because we are all, all of us, getting on, as another generation would say, to say the least, getting on his last nerve. We've all sinned. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. We're all rightly under His wrath and curse, and He would be right to not be long-suffering with us, but because of who He is and who He said that He was, that He's slow to anger, that He's abounding in steadfast love and mercy. The faithful gospel minister must have that same thing. It doesn't mean that the gospel minister might not be righteously indignant, but there's a long-sufferingness that comes with it. And a young man like Timothy would have recognized maybe the need for it, and certainly Paul is passing that along. Have that sound doctrine. but deliver it in a sound way, because the doctrine says to be long-suffering. So delivering all of that urgency, all of that reproof, rebuke, and exhortation, delivering it in a way that demonstrates the sort of patience that God demonstrates with us is crucial for that. The shepherd has to be bold and tender. Think of it that way. Thomas Boston said, preaching is not mere speaking. It is divine pleading with souls. And that's the thing that separates preaching from just a speech in public or a TED talk or a presentation in school. This is eternal life or eternal death. This is what you are going to be judged by when you stand before the Almighty. What did you do with my son? Did you trust in Him alone, or did you say you trusted in Him, and then you did whatever you want? The faithful minister pleads with the audience, the congregation, whomever he's speaking to, to close with Christ. to see their sin and their need for a Savior, and to point them to Christ and His work on the cross who saved sinners by sacrificing Himself, by shedding His own blood, by living that life that no one else could live, and dying the death that no one else could survive. It is that pleading to see beyond your own righteousness to see that it is not even righteousness at all, but to look at Christ's righteousness, and see that that is efficacious, it's effective to save your soul, to reconcile you with the One who made you. Spurgeon just said it this way, preach the Word, the whole Word, and nothing but the Word. And this is what we say to people who say, since we have subordinate standards, what we talk about, like a summary of the faith, what we think of when we think of the Westminster Confession and the larger and shorter catechisms that are the summary documents, they're secondary documents. They are not scripture. They summarize scripture. People will say, well, you ask your ministers to affirm and subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith. You're elevating it to Scripture. Well, you haven't read Westminster, because in Chapter 1 it says there's nothing higher than Scripture. And we appeal to Scripture alone. Spurgeon is right. We preach the Word of God. the entire Word of God, even the stuff that makes some of the people in our congregation squirm and wince and wonder if he's talking about them in particular, and nothing but the Word. We may pull some references here and there, maybe some summary statements that help people to remember a particular doctrine. But a lot of times we go to the Word to confirm what the Word teaches that we happen to be preaching. The analogy of faith that Scripture interprets Scripture. If there's something difficult in one part of Scripture, we go to another part of Scripture that helps us understand that. And as a result of that, we become students of the Word. And we can apply things. And then we can lean on other people having some references for us that are helpful as well. But we're always going back to Scripture. Paul is telling Timothy, and this is the last time he's going to talk to him. So, what's the most important stuff? Hey, you preach the Word of God. Don't worry about our relationship. Don't say you're a follower of mine. Don't say you're my buddy. You preach the Word of God. That's it. The Word of God, come what may. A lot of times, ministers have been known to compromise. because of the outcome. We think about that in terms of second principle reading. Well, if I preach this text, then my congregation might not like it. If my congregation might not like it, then people might leave and go down the road to that other church. And if they go down the road to that other church, then giving is going to stop. And if giving slows down, then I won't have my salary. And so, maybe I water down this verse. Maybe I skip over it a little bit. That's the temptation. That's the temptation for a hireling. That's not the temptation for a gospel minister. You preach the Word. Let God be true. And all men liars, if need be. But the Word has power. The Word has the power to convert and to save souls. It is important that ministers And by extension, all of us. The things that Paul is telling Timothy apply to the non-ordained churchmen and churchwomen. So, if godly ministers have to proclaim the Word of God, the non-minister doesn't get a pass to do whatever they want. The encouragement is to still be to live by the Book, to study the Word of God, to proclaim the Word of God in your life and in your words. So, it's not just how we live our faith out, it's how we communicate with other people. We're still proclaiming the Word of God. We're pointing past ourselves and our good lives. The false teachers point to their own lives as fruit and proof that somehow the Bible is true. Well, no. What they're doing is saying, my life has the power over the Bible. No. No. All of us, minister or not, point past ourselves and point to Jesus Christ as revealed in God's Word. We are urgent in that. So while this is contextual for ministers, we can apply it to everyone. Everyone should be proclaiming the Word. Everyone should be an ambassador to some extent. We talk about that in the concept of the priesthood of all believers. Just think of it that way. We don't get a pass because we're not ministers, so to speak. That's kind of the thought process. So we've transitioned our thoughts in verses 3 and 4 and 5. We see, "...but watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of the ministry." Paul, for his part, is about ready to be done. We'll talk about that momentarily. But I've mentioned verses 3 and 4, and I just read 5. So, for people that won't endure sound doctrine, the terminology kind of speaks to healthy food, healthy teaching. They're not going to endure sound doctrine. They're not going to eat and drink things that are good for their souls. Well, what happens when we eat a heavily processed food diet and we drink a lot of soft drinks with sugar? and we eat a lot of garbage that we shouldn't be eating. Does our body function? Yeah, it functions. Does it function ideally? Of course not. And so we have to go and pause for a minute, recalibrate our thinking and say, okay, I haven't been enduring sound food and beverage. It's the same concept here in the original language. The idea of what are you eating, what are you taking in, spiritually. So there's a spiritual sickness that gets dealt with here in this context. If you won't endorse sound doctrine, you will be spiritually sick. And then eventually, You're just gonna stack up all those people that'll just keep getting you sick. Not too dissimilar from what happens with a lot of the chemicals and junk that we have in food. A high sugar diet implies like a sugar addiction. Your body craves it and so you want more to feed that addiction. That's the same concept we have in verses 3 and 4. And in 5, Paul warns Timothy. Watch that. You watch in all things. Endure afflictions. Do the work. Make full proof of the ministry. Be faithful in the conflict, because these people around you are going to be peddling a bunch of nonsense, and they're going to be drawing to themselves nonsense peddlers as well. But you be faithful, Timothy. Paul's about to be poured out as a drink offering. And he says, you be faithful. These people, times coming where because of their spiritual sickness, they're going to draw around them other spiritually sick people that will tell them what they want to hear, that will never hold them accountable for their sin and their need for a savior, who's not going to tell them, hey, You know what? You're treating people the way you treat them because you think you're better than them, and that's pride, and it was pride that got us kicked out of the garden, and it's pride that's going to send us to hell, unless you repent and trust in Jesus Christ, who died to free us from our slavery to our pride. That's what we have going on here. He said the time's going to come where they're not going to listen to that, They're going to listen to, hey, you know what, those people are wrong. They're hateful and they're bigoted. And they're distorting God's Word to manipulate you because they know you have the power within you to be a little God yourself. And all you need to do is remove yourself from those people that tell you to repent and trust in Jesus. You don't need Jesus. Paul is saying those people are going to come and they're going to poison people who are already poisoned anyway. He said, but you be faithful. Do the work of an evangelist. Proclaim and share. Give that gospel call to all men everywhere to repent of their sin. They're heavy laden. Point them to Christ who says, to come to me all ye who labor and are heavy laden. Encourage them to see that they're all, every one of them, labored, laboring in their own strength. They're heavy laden with the shackles of the sins of their lives. Encourage them to come to Christ and live, to be freed from those shackles. That's the fight. What he's talking about is be faithful in the midst of apostasy. Because these people in verses 3 and 4 have walked away from the faith. They've got itching ears. They want to hear stuff that scratches that itch. That itch is, I know I'm a pretty good person. I just need to find the right person to tell me what I already know about myself. And then I can point to that person as the one that's the faithful shepherd. Because he's telling me what I already know. It's idolatry. And it's functional apostasy. But the problem is, apostasy doesn't begin with just flat out denying Jesus. It never does. It starts with the subtle changes. Itching ears. Lies that soothe the unsettled soul. Hey, everything's fine. Those people just don't understand you, but you know you best. Follow your heart. It's gonna be fine. And then every now and then, pressure's put on a minister to just alter the words a little bit. Hey, don't be so harsh on this stuff. You know, we have people that have struggled with alcohol. Maybe you don't necessarily talk about wine in the Lord's Supper. Because you've got people that struggle with alcohol. Never mind that the Lord is the one that divinely inspired the Scriptures. The Lord turned water to wine. We can talk about that another time. But the problem is, you have people just pouring that into your ear as a minister. That temptation to compromise just a little bit. Make it a little bit easier on your people. You've been hammering them pretty hard, pastor. Well, you know what? Sin damns people and sends them to hell. And anybody that's walked with the Lord in gospel ministry has felt that pull to compromise. But the faithful minister stands there and watches as people sanctimoniously smirk and smug, and smugly wander their way down the road to hell. Because they follow after people that want their money, their influence, and they'll tell them anything they want to hear. There's a huge difference between being told what you want to hear and being told what you need to hear. What we all, every one of us needs to hear is if we don't stop sinning and thinking we're better than everyone else, we will burn in hell. Because we will have rejected Christ. We don't need Him. We're pretty good guys. We're pretty good girls. No. What we need to hear is we are a heartbeat away from judgment at any point. And if we are trusting in anything other than the finished work of Christ, it is not something that is going to save us from the wrath to come. We desperately want to hear, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. But how desperately are we told that? See, the faithful gospel minister will tell you that even if he gets run out of a pulpit. The hireling will tell you that, but he'll soft-pedal it a little bit. He'll say, but you know, you've got time to worry about that. Don't worry about that. Just focus on being the best student you can be. Focus on just doing better around the house and you'll be fine. No, the faithful gospel minister will say, you had better repent of the pride and the arrogance and the thinking you're better than everyone else. And you better turn to Jesus and ask Him to forgive you for all that. The faithful gospel minister will also tell you, because you know what? We all have to do the same thing. Because the apostasy is real. Paul knows it. Look at verse 7 with me. He says, I've fought a good fight. I've finished my course. I've kept the faith. He knows that struggle. Paul isn't a guy that was a hireling. He had it all prior to the Book of Acts. He was the Jew's Jew, remember? Trained under Gamaliel. He had the rubber stamp by the Empire and by the Jewish Council to do whatever he wanted to persecute Christians. Until God literally knocked him down, struck him blind, changed his mind, changed his heart, and turned him loose on the world. And he understood the struggle. He went from being a sinner to the chief of sinners. He understood. He kept the faith. He understood the nature of sin. He understood the glory of God. He understood the mercy of God in the person of Jesus Christ. Now, he had the ability to be prideful before his conversion. And you could argue that even in church circles, he had the ability to be prideful afterwards. But he stayed bivocational. He worked to not be a burden to people. He encouraged others. He spread the word. He was faithful. He endured persecutions and hardships and beatings and jailings. And what did he say? All that's nothing. Christ is everything. So Paul is not talking about conceptual things. He's talking about experiential, experimental things. He's talking about things he knew internally, personally. And he's saying, you do these things and I've done them. I've finished it all. I've kept the faith. I've persevered. You need to be this. But, he goes to verse 8, he said, "...there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me on that day. Not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing." So it's not just him. He's not saying, it's not just me because I'm a great guy. He's saying it's everybody that loves the Lord. So there's your inroad to understanding that this is not merely just a pastoral epistle that only matters to preachers and everybody else can check out. No, it's all of us that love the Lord. All of us that love the Lord and persevere and receive the sound doctrine that godly, faithful ministers are putting out. And they have a shared love, not only of the doctrine, but the One who gave the doctrine, and the One who made the Word flesh to dwell among us. We get that crown of righteousness by trusting in Christ, as revealed in the Scriptures, and proclaimed by faithful ministers. That's the fight, is to trust in the sound doctrine given to us by faithful ministers, versus the itchy ear content of the hireling, the false teacher. the last portion of our scriptures. Actually, before that. Matthew Henry said, "...the time of Paul's departure is near, yet his hope is firm in Christ the Judge." That should be how we die. Whether we die at 2, or 22, or 82, or 102. That should be how we should die. I think it was William Perkins that said that Puritanism is the art of living well and the art of dying well. Henry says our hope should be firm in Christ the Judge. That's what Paul's hope was. It wasn't hope in his own righteousness. It wasn't hope in his theological chops. It wasn't his hope in his background or his lineage or any of that nonsense. His hope was in Christ the Righteous Judge. And that's what our hope should be in. We shouldn't be stacking up acclamations and accolades for ourselves, whether we're ministers or not. Our hope is in Christ. The work that He did for us. The intercession that He is giving right now, for us, right next to God, seated at His right hand. It is in Christ who will come to judge the world with righteous judgment. That is how we're faithful to the end, and faithful in the end. And Paul, like I said, he points out that crown of righteousness that the Lord is going to give him. And then he lays out the reality of the situation. Paul is deserted, but he's not alone. We see the last portion of this chapter. He says, do thy diligence to come shortly unto me. So, he loves his younger son, Timothy. He says, please, please get here. He says, for Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed unto Thessalonica, Crecens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. It's heartbreaking, he's heartbroken. Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world." When we see people turn from the faith because they love the world more than Christ, or they love some worldly thing, some issue, some teaching, whatever the case may be, when we see that happen, it's so heartbreaking we almost don't want to admit it, and we almost don't want to address it at all. Because we know the end goal of that. We know the end point of that. And it's nothing good. And we don't want that. And we plead, and we beg, and we pray. So for Paul, he was abandoned. Crescens to Galatia, Titus on to Dalmatia. He says, only Luke's with me. He's not completely abandoned, to be sure. He tells Timothy, take Mark, bring him with thee. He's profitable for me to the ministry. He wants his ministry brothers around. Paul's alone and he's lonely. And that's what gospel ministry is. It's lonely. It's isolating, just as Paul is isolated. Paul is cold, and he's isolated, and he's awaiting execution. And what does he say? Look at verse 8. There's laid up for him a crown of righteousness that the Lord's going to give him. If you know you have a crown of righteousness waiting on you from the Lord Himself, who cares if you're tired, or cold, or hungry? I know it stinks. I know it's unpleasant. Who cares if you're isolated, though, here? There's nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. It's hard to be isolated and alone. We are creatures made in God's image hardwired for community because of the nature of the Trinity having perfect fellowship prior to creation. It's one of the ways we reflect being made in God's image. So to take us from people or to take people from us is isolating and it's damaging. That's why a lot of people argue that solitary confinement is cruel and unusual punishment. That's why a lot of people that are deployed in a way, that's why they bond so well to the people around them, because they're the only people that they have to look after one another. And it's hard when they come back and they're integrated into a larger society. They don't know how to handle those people. And those people weren't there doing those things with me. So that's the challenge as we're hardwired for community. And so Paul being isolated, it's heartbroken. He's heartbroken. But at the same time, he knows he's not alone. And he knows that there's something better waiting for him in glory. His focus isn't on what he's lost. It's not on bitterness. He's not angry and belligerent. His focus is on the blessing. He's talking to his boy, so to speak. And he's talking about Jesus. And he's encouraging his son in the faith. To be faithful. Other people won't, Timothy. You have this idea of a dying father writing a letter to his surviving children. He says, I'm not going to be around. But here's what you gotta do. And you saw how I lived that out, so here's what you need to do. Because it's gonna be hard. People are gonna abandon you. It's gonna be awful. But remember Christ. Because I had Christ. People have abandoned me, you saw. But we have Christ. That's what we should want for our children, our covenant children. That's what we should want for the people that we disciple. That's what Paul wanted for Timothy. His final words to Timothy speak to a Christ-centered heart. He's got issues with people, right? He's heartbroken about Demas. He's irked by Alexander the coppersmith here in verse 14. Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. Lord reward him according to his works. The Lord's going to handle him, he says. Many of us, as bibliophiles, appreciate verse 13 to be sure. He said, So he still has a mind to minister, to labor. We should still, irrespective of circumstance, have a mind to ministry and to labor. His focus is on Christ, and that is what our focus should be. Spurgeon said, when all others leave, Christ remains. And he brings with him not only help, but heaven. That's our default setting. When people abandon us, when people mistreat us, when people that we thought were our brothers and sisters in Christ walk away, when they are difficult with us, we can say, look, the Lord will deal with them. I'm going not only to trust in Christ, I'm going to point others to Christ, because I know that what He offers me is glory, but it's glory because of His righteousness and not my own, and I can trust His righteousness, because I know my own wickedness, and I've seen the wickedness of others. Thomas Manton said, It is a blessed thing to die having lived for Christ, and to be remembered for nothing but the gospel. Paul's legacy here is faithfulness to Christ. In addition to calling the minister of Christ to faithfulness, it calls us all to that. Sure, the minister of the gospel has to be faithful in preaching. Has to endure conflict and has to hope in death. You see a lot of people at the end sometimes, for some reason, become iconoclastic. They become bitter and jaded. And it's regrettable. The Lord knows His people and He sorts all that stuff out. We can't pass judgment on that because we don't know. But the Lord calls us all to that same faithfulness. As we live out the Gospel, we have to be faithful. As we deal with conflict, we have to be faithful. And as we come to the end of our lives, whether that comes tomorrow or 20 years from now, we still have to point to Christ. We still have to look to Christ and the hope that we have in Him that He brings with us, or brings to us. He brings us not only help in the power of His Spirit, He brings us heaven. We're reconciled to Him, and through Him, and because of Him. We go home because Jesus brings us there. A couple points of application. Ministers are called to preach the Word. Every Christian should vow you in support and proclaim sound doctrine. It doesn't mean you have to have a pulpit to do it. Contextually, the ministers preach the Word. But the non-minister still has to support sound doctrine, still has to live it out, still has to model it, encourage it, point others to it. We have to endure hardships, especially in times of apostasy. We have to focus on the truth. God's word is true whether massive amounts of people walk away from the faith or not. Let God be true, and all men liars. And we can trust in Christ's presence and His work. When everyone else fails, when they walk away from us, when they backstab us, when they betray us, remember that they did the same to Jesus. And He was faithful. And Christ is near us. He's spiritually present in the Lord's Supper. His Spirit abides in us. We can finish well, and like Paul, look for the crown that He, Christ, is going to present us because of the work that He did for us. Let's stand as we call on Him in prayer. Lord, we struggle so much in the face of difficult times. We don't know what tomorrow brings, but we know that you do. And we know, Lord, that you reward your people. And so, Father, as we are struggling to be faithful, we know that we are not struggling to stay in your kingdom. There are many reasons for our struggles, you know them, and you meet all of our needs. But we remain in your kingdom because of the finished work of Christ. And so, Father, help us, we pray, to be faithful. Remind us that your Spirit's presence in us equips us to live as befits your followers. And help us, like Paul, even at the end, yes, maybe we need a cloak, and maybe we need some books and parchments. But help us to encourage others and to be reminded ourselves that we have a crown of glory and a crown of righteousness waiting for us that Christ will give us because it was His work that purchased it for us. And help us to point others to that same crown that's available to them if they would but repent and believe the gospel. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.