Sunday Sermon: The Lord Rescued Me (2 Timothy 4:9-22)

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You're listening to the preaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

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Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature teaching through a New Testament book, an

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Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday. Each Sunday we are pleased to present our sermon series.

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Here is Pastor Gabe. I found a quote this past week from Richard Sibbes, the

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Puritan who said the following, the winter prepares the earth for the spring.

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And so do afflictions sanctified prepare the soul for glory.

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And we will hear in this passage today, those afflictions that the apostle Paul has endured even at the hands of antagonists that would try to stop the gospel from advancing.

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And yet through these things, he says that his soul is ready and prepared to stand before God and come into his presence in glory.

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Let's stand together as we hear the word of the King. This is 2nd Timothy chapter four, beginning in verse nine and going through verse 22 out of the

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English standard version, hear the word of the Lord. Do your best to come to me soon for Demas in love with this present world has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.

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Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me.

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Get Mark and bring him with you for he is very useful to me for ministry. Tychicus, I have sent to Ephesus.

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When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas. Also the books and above all the parchments.

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Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds.

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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.

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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

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Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth.

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The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.

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To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Greet Prisha and Akilah and the household of Onesiphorus.

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Erastus remained at Corinth and I left Trophimus, who was ill at Miletus. Do your best to come to me before winter.

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Ubulus sends greetings to you as do Putins and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers.

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The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you. You may be seated as we pray.

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Heavenly father, as we come into this passage this morning, as we think back even on those things that we've read up to this point, we've heard in this letter, a call from the apostle

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Paul to his protege, Timothy, to preach the gospel. For Paul to say to Timothy, they're going to kill me because I preach the gospel and when they do, you go on preaching the gospel until they kill you too.

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And I pray that we would not be ashamed of the gospel in these days, but that we would continue to hold fast to this as the hope that we have for everlasting life.

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As said in the book of Acts, there is no other name under heaven by which men can be saved, but the name of Jesus Christ.

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We love that name. We love you and everything that you are. And I pray you continue to show yourself to us even through this testimony from the apostle

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Paul here at the close of this letter. May we continue to hold fast to Christ and be able to say along with Paul that the

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Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.

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To him be the glory forever and ever and all God's people said, amen.

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As our brother Allen had read to us this morning from Mark chapter four, we read there the parable of the sower, or as might be known by some as the parable of the soils.

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This was Jesus first parable in the gospels. If you read the gospel of Matthew, it comes up in chapter 13 as the first of Jesus parables.

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So the very first parable that he preaches is about a sower who goes out to sow seed.

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And as Jesus explains the parable, the seed represents the word of the kingdom, the message of the kingdom, the gospel itself.

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And so as the sower cast that seed, that seed falls in one of four different soils.

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Now as some of you know, my biography, you know that I grew up in Christian radio.

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My dad used to plant Christian radio stations. And so I, as a teenager, when my friends would be working at the local pizza joint or bag and groceries,

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I was working at the Christian radio station. And we would call, we would call that broadcasting.

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That's a name that doesn't get used as often anymore. The, the casting word that you hear now is podcasting, but broadcasting was originally the word.

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Whenever a signal would go out on television or by radio, it would be a message that would be broadcast.

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Now that word itself was borrowed from the farmers. In the old days, before you had tractors that would scatter the seed, a farmer would go out with a seed bag and it would be slung around his shoulder and it would set right here and he would dip his hand into that seed bag and he would take a handful of seed.

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And after the rows had been plowed and freshly tilled so that the soil was opened up ready to receive the seed, that sower would walk down these narrow paths of packed dirt.

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And he would cast the seed into the soil. And that very action of taking his hand and casting it across his body so that the seeds scattered into the air and fell into the soil, that very action was called broadcasting.

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And it was the same word that would be used when sending a message out over radio waves or through television sets.

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It changed a little bit since we had personal listening devices. Now it's called podcasting, but broadcasting was originally the word.

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And so here Jesus talks about a sower that is broadcasting a message, that seed that represents the word of the kingdom.

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Some of that seed falls on the path. And as Jesus explains that parable, that represents these birds that would come along and would eat up the seed and immediately the word would be snatched up.

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It wouldn't have an opportunity to be sown into the heart of the person that heard it. Some other seed would fall in rocky places.

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Now when the sun comes out, that seed would even burst open and a plant would come out. For a little bit of time, it looks like a person who has received the word with joy and they even show themselves to be

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Christians for a time. Maybe they went and got baptized. Maybe they pledged membership to the church that they were a part of.

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But Jesus explains having no root in themselves, that plant withers away and dies.

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And he says specifically that when persecution arises on account of the word, they show themselves to be unfruitful.

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Then there's other seed that falls in thorns. And this represents a person who will be deceived by riches and the desires for other things.

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The cares and the concerns of this world will rise up and choke the word.

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And it proves to be unfruitful. So just like the seed that fell in rocky places, there's some sort of plant that shows up there for a little bit of time.

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But something comes along and shows that that word was never truly planted in the soil to begin with.

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But then in verse 20, those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit 30 fold and 60 fold and 100 fold.

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Some will show themselves to be responsible in a little bit. And there will be fruit that results from it.

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And there are others who will have opportunity to share the gospel with many more people. And there's even more fruit that results from that.

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When we come here to second Timothy chapter four, and we read these closing remarks from the apostle

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Paul, he mentions names here. And some of those names represent the same picture that we saw there in the parable.

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Some that heard the message of the kingdom, but that message fell on a path. And birds came and snatched it away as Satan would snatch away the message before it has an opportunity to be sown in someone's heart.

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In some cases, that message fell in rocky places, in others among thorns.

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But then there are those names mentioned there as well, where the message proved to be fruitful and multiplied.

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And in all of this, the apostle Paul says, there were even those that abandoned me and did not stand beside me, but the

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Lord stood by me and strengthened me. So that through me, the message of the kingdom, the message of the gospel might be fully proclaimed.

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And all the Gentiles might hear it. There are some who are going to hear and believe and others who will hear and not believe.

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Others who will hear, they will believe for a time and then show themselves to have never been truly converted in the first place.

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But the work that is done in that person's heart is truly the work of the Holy Spirit.

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We have the responsibility to proclaim it and to share it, but it is God who seals the deal and does the work on the person's heart that they may believe it and produce fruit.

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So as we come into this passage this morning, as we close our study here in 2nd Timothy with this final address,

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Paul starts off by saying, comes to me soon and you'll come to me soon. And you'll notice that at the conclusion, he says it again.

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He says in verse 21, do your best to come before winter. So this attempt to bring

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Timothy to himself before he is eventually martyred for sharing the gospel.

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And the way this passage breaks down is that first of all, Paul mentions traveling coworkers in verses 9 to 13, some of whom who were faithful, some were not.

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And next he mentions that he had been deserted by men, but not by God. That's in verses 14 to 18.

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And finally, he mentions his other faithful friends in verses 19 to 22 is the way that we have this section broken up.

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So first of all, let us consider these traveling coworkers that he mentions as we come back to the start of the passage in verse 9.

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Paul says, do your best to come to me soon. And we're going to reflect upon the urgency of that statement here in just a moment, why it's so important that Timothy come to him quickly.

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And even some of those things that Paul requests that Timothy bring with him when he comes.

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But first of all, he says to Timothy in a matter of urgency, his present state.

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And the first name that he mentions among those traveling companions that even

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Timothy would have been familiar with and Timothy would have done ministry with at some point as well. The first of those people that Paul mentions is

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Demas. And he says of Demas that he was in love with this present world.

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Do your best to come to me soon for Demas in love with this present world has deserted me.

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And gone back to Thessalonica. So less Timothy be sitting in Ephesus and thinking,

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I know that the situation for Paul is dire. I know that it's serious. But at least he's got friends there.

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I know Demas was one of those guys that traveled faithfully with us. And Paul says, no,

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Demas isn't with me anymore. He showed himself to be a false convert and was too in love with the world and deserted me.

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Demas, we don't know a lot about, but his name does come up in some other letters. In the letter to the

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Colossians and in the letter to Philemon, Paul speaks of Demas very favorably.

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And in fact, in both of those letters to the Colossians and to Philemon, Paul was in prison when he wrote both of those letters.

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Now, it wasn't the same situation that he would be in here as he's writing to Timothy. If you remember

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Paul's first arrest, he was under house arrest. He was placed in chains, but he would have been chained to a

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Praetorian guard in his own home. So people were allowed to come to him and he could preach to them, though he couldn't go outside of his own house.

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So in chains, to be sure, it wasn't an ideal situation, but it was better than the situation in which he is at the present.

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Here as he's writing this letter to Timothy, if you remember back to our introduction to this book, he was in like a hole, a pit in the ground.

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It was a cistern that had been converted into a place to keep prisoners. They would be lowered in there.

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They would probably be chained and there wasn't any way for them to come out. They were susceptible to the elements.

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People could come and visit them. And in fact, those that were with Paul would probably lower themselves into the hole and they would sit there with Paul.

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They themselves not in chains. They could leave at the opportunity that they wanted to get out, but Paul was going to remain there and that's where he would stay until eventually he would be martyred for preaching the gospel.

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That was the reason why he was there. So this was a much more serious situation than before. Demas was apparently able to put up with Paul's first imprisonment.

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But with the second, he decided this was too tough and he could not even sit in the hole with his friend.

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But in love with the present world, he abandons Paul and he goes back to Thessalonica, a very rich city, a very wealthy city.

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So the indication seems to be there that Demas went after the wealth that was there in Thessalonica instead of the struggles that Paul was in in Rome.

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And is this not exactly like the thorns that Jesus described in the parable of the sower? There's a plant that grows up there and appears to show an interest in the message of the word for a time.

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But the thorns represent the cares and the concerns and the deceitfulness of riches in this world.

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And they grow up and they choke the word and it proves to be unfruitful. And Demas, though at one point, even the apostle

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Paul believed this is a genuine man of faith so that he includes him in his missionary brethren, mentions him in his letters, takes him to the churches.

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Demas himself had opportunity to share the gospel and had probably even preached it himself.

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But over time, when things got tough, it turned out that Demas wasn't sincere.

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And things got hard enough to where Demas said, I didn't sign up for this and abandoned the mission and went elsewhere.

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Demas was mentioned favorably in other letters. Something happened between then and Paul's final imprisonment.

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We don't know what for sure, but we know that he abandoned the mission. And the way that Paul talks about him here, likely he abandoned the faith as well.

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Other names that are mentioned in this particular verse, Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.

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We should not think of those men in the same category as Demas. In fact, the likelihood is that Paul sent them to those places.

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So Crescens needed to go to Galatia to check on the churches there. If you've been through the letter to the

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Galatians before you got here to second Timothy, well, you know that the churches there in Galatia weren't doing so great.

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And so Paul likely sends Crescens there to see that the churches in Galatia have not abandoned the true gospel for a false gospel and that they have continued faithfully.

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Titus is the same Titus that we read about in the very next book, Paul's letter to Titus, which is where we're going to go next in a few weeks.

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So Paul sends Titus to Dalmatia, another one of his pastors that he may preach there.

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But he says here in verse 11, Luke alone is with me, which means that of everybody else that could have been there with Paul, there's only one man that stayed with him.

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And that's Luke, the same writer as the gospel of Luke, the same one who wrote the book of Acts.

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There was a movie. I've not yet seen this film. I found it streaming online. And so I've marked it and I intend to watch it at some point, but I haven't seen this film yet.

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I don't endorse movies, by the way. I tell you if they're bad. I don't really tell you if they're good. But this particular movie is about Paul's last days.

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It's called Paul. It's about the ministry of Paul. And it's Luke that is with Paul in the film and kind of receiving from him an account of those things that Paul has been through.

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And that's what Luke is writing down in the book of Acts, I think is basically the plot of the film. But in that movie,

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Paul is in a pit. It's kind of like it picks up in the life of Paul right here, where he is about to be martyred.

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And Luke goes to him to talk with Paul that he may write down some of the things that Paul had been through.

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So Luke alone with Paul. And then Paul goes on to say, get

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Mark and bring him with you for he is useful to me for ministry. And this is another gospel writer.

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So we have Luke mentioned who wrote the gospel of Luke. We have Mark mentioned, and this is most likely John Mark, who wrote the gospel of Mark.

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John Mark was a disciple of Peter. And when Peter preached the gospel, what Mark wrote down in the gospel of Mark was essentially the gospel the way that Peter preached it.

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Now, at one point, Paul and Mark had a falling out. And we don't know exactly why the book of Acts doesn't tell us exactly what the circumstance was that led

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Paul to not want to take Mark with him. But Mark was a cousin of Barnabas.

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And so when Paul and Barnabas had been doing ministry together and Barnabas wanted to take Mark along,

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Paul said, no, I don't want to take him with us. I don't think he's dependable. And so there was a conflict then between Paul and Barnabas over John Mark.

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And it caused Paul to go a different direction. And he took Silas with him. And then

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Barnabas went another way and he took John Mark with him. And so there appeared to be a kind of a falling out over John Mark.

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And we don't see the matter reconciled in the book of Acts. But according to what

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Paul says here about Mark, get him and bring him with you for he is useful to me, to ministry.

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Whatever has happened in the in -between, Paul and Mark have reconciled. And Paul even finds

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Mark a necessary advocate for the message of the gospel. Bring him with you for I need him in the ministry that still needs to be done.

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And then in the next verse, verse 12, Paul mentions Tychicus. And he says,

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Tychicus, I have sent to Ephesus. Well, where is Timothy at the time of this letter? Timothy's in Ephesus.

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He's preaching there in the church in Ephesus. So what does this mean? It means that Paul wants

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Timothy to come to him. Again, do your best to come to me soon. So that Timothy would feel like that he's got somebody appropriately suited for the task of preaching there in Ephesus.

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Paul sends Tychicus. That name has come up elsewhere in Ephesians 6 .21 and in Colossians 4 .7.

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Paul says in those places also I've sent Tychicus. So he is apparently a kind of an itinerant preacher.

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And Tychicus would show up and preach in a place so that whoever was preaching there could be relieved and be able to do something else that the apostle

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Paul has assigned for him. So in this particular case, Tychicus is going to replace Timothy so that Timothy can come to Rome.

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He will know that the church in Ephesus is in good hands as Tychicus is preaching there.

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And then in verse 13, when you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas and also the books and above all the parchments.

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So kind of bookending this particular point, you have do your best to come to me soon in verse 9.

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And then in verse 13, when you come, bring the cloak I left with Carpus at Troas.

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Not asking Timothy to have to buy a new cloak, but get the cloak that belongs to the apostle Paul and bring it with you.

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Yesterday morning, we were privileged. Some of us men here at Providence went over to Randy Wyatt's house and were blessed by his company and his hospitality that he served us breakfast.

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I wanna let any of you men know that if you want a bunch of men from Providence to show up at your house and fellowship with you, promise us donuts and coffee and we will be there.

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And we'd love to make your home our home for a time and be able to chat with you. Some of the things that we talked about yesterday morning,

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Randy talked about some of the ministry that he's done in prisons. And as we talked about, some of the rest of us had prison experience as well, not being imprisoned, but doing ministry there or something to that effect.

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And it was said that in other countries, the way their prisons work and some other places, Mexico being one of them, is that if a person's thrown in prison, the prison doesn't provide for you three meals a day.

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If you're gonna be fed when you're in that prison, it's dependent upon your family to show up and bring you food that you might be able to eat in prison.

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They have a different system here in the United States of America. Some people will go into prison because they can't afford to live outside of prison.

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But this wasn't the way things like this are handled in most parts of the world. And it wasn't the way that it was handled even here in Paul's situation in Rome.

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He talks about how winter is coming soon and even wants Timothy to be able to come to him before winter hits.

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And he says, when you come, bring the cloak that I left. Remember I said, he's been thrown into kind of a cistern pit is where he's at, chained at the bottom of this pit, susceptible to the elements.

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So as things are starting to get colder, well, unless somebody brings him a cloak, Paul will just freeze to death in the midst of this pit.

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So bring the cloak that I left. Luke is thankfully there with Paul so that he's able to have sustenance.

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Somebody's able to give him food, but it's not like the Roman guards are feeding these prisoners and making sure that they're well taken care of.

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And in addition to this, Paul says, bring the books and above all the parchments. Now the books would have been exactly what you think they are.

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They're books. They're bound books. Yes, even at that time, it wasn't like everybody just read from scrolls back in this day.

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They had actual bound books and there were things that Paul wanted to read and wanted to study. And so he's asking

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Timothy to bring those books. Likely they would have been scripture. And he says, above all, bring the parchments.

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Now the parchments would have been like, I've got this folio up here that has all of my notes in it like this.

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So it would have been something like this that would have folded in half. And in addition to papers that would have been on the inside, it would have included

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Paul's writing materials. So he would have kept his writing materials folded up in those parchments, which seems to indicate that Paul had written other letters even after this one.

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Now, what he would have written, we don't know whether he would have written to other churches or he just would have written to individuals.

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The Holy Spirit did not find it necessary to have to preserve those letters as scripture for us today.

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But Paul did write other things that were distributed to churches before his death. This isn't necessarily the last letter he ever wrote.

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It's just the last one that we have record of. And it's the last one that the Holy Spirit deemed scripture.

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God breathed. And so Paul asked for those parchments that he might continue his letter writing even as he's sitting in this dank hole.

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And so these are the co -workers, the traveling co -workers that Paul mentions in this first section.

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Again, some who were faithful and some who were not. And in the next section, he goes on to detail that he was deserted by certain men, but emphasizing

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I was not deserted by God. Go on to the next portion and you'll see in verse 14, the apostle

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Paul says, Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm and the

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Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Now, we don't know anything about Alexander the coppersmith, whether he was a false convert, maybe he believed for a time and then he ended up turning away and he turned on the apostle

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Paul or perhaps he was one that would have been like seed that fell along the path. The birds came and ate up the seed and it never had the chance to implant itself in the person's life.

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Satan had snatched away the word before that. Maybe that was Alexander the coppersmith, but whoever he was,

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Paul identifies him by name and occupation. This man is a danger to you.

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Have nothing to do with him. Do not be fooled by him and be careful of his schemes. It's almost like he gave the address of the guy.

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Hey, you know Alexander? He's got that coppersmith shop down there on Dreschen Street.

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You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, avoid that guy. He did me great harm, but Paul doesn't take vengeance out on him.

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He mentions him by name so that Timothy will be aware of him, but the

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Lord will repay him according to his deeds. As Paul writes in Romans 12, vengeance is mine, saith the

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Lord. At the beginning of our study in 2nd Timothy, I had said to you that this is not the kind of letter that I would have written if I found myself imprisoned for preaching the gospel.

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I probably would have written something to the effect of, hey, Timothy, remember that Roman guard that protected us from the

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Jews when they wanted to kill us? There was a hundred guys that were protecting us from that mob. Go get them and get them to get me out of here.

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That's probably something like I would have written, but that isn't what Paul said. And even here on this occasion, when

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Alexander did him great harm, perhaps Alexander did something and that's the reason why Paul ended up in this place.

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Yet Paul doesn't say, go get some guys and get revenge on that dude for me.

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He doesn't say that. He mentions his name, not taking vengeance out, but so that Timothy will be aware of him himself, but instead leaving it in the

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Lord's hands to repay whatever it was that Alexander did. And sometimes my friends, it is necessary for us as teachers to name not only the false teaching, but the teacher that teaches it.

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And should there ever be an occasion when somebody comes against this church and means to do us harm, we would mark that person so that you would know this person does not speak honestly about the teachers here or the ministry that goes on in this church.

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There was a church in Southwest Missouri that I became acquainted with about a year ago. And when

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I was asking the two elders there, their story about how they got planted and how the church was growing, they talked about how there was a former elder that was involved in the planting of this church, but he had committed adultery.

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And the woman that he committed adultery with became an antagonist of the church. And she was posting all kinds of stuff online, on websites and opening up blogs and stuff and trying to warn people about how crooked this church is.

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And yeah, there was a guy that did evil. The Lord will repay him for his deeds, but the church found it necessary to warn about that woman.

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What the things that she speaks about us are not true. This man sinned, but that is not reflective of everybody that is here at this particular church.

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And so sometimes it's necessary when those things arise that the false teacher is named and a warning given.

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Paul goes on to say in verse 16 at my, or sorry, verse 15, continuing that warning, beware of him yourself for he strongly opposed our message.

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So likely Alexander is there in Ephesus, or it could be the sort of a thing when

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Timothy comes to Paul in Rome, there's a possibility that Timothy who is known as Paul's protege could be opposed by Alexander.

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Alexander would find him and try to oppose him. So either way this warning works,

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Paul has named the man and told Timothy to beware. And then in verse 16, he says at my first defense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me.

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And may it not be charged against them. Is this not similar to what the

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Lord went through when Jesus was arrested in the garden? He had told

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Peter that he would deny him three times. Peter, what did Peter say? No, even if I have to go and die with you,

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I will never deny you. Peter said, even if these all fall away, talking about his fellow disciples,

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I won't fall away. And Jesus' response to Peter was, well, the flesh is willing, but the spirit is weak.

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And the devil has asked to sift you like wheat, but I am praying for you so that when you are restored, you will come back and strengthen your brothers.

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And indeed on that very night, when Jesus was arrested, he said in fulfillment of the prophecy, when the shepherd is struck, the sheep will scatter.

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And that's exactly what happened. He was arrested and all of the disciples ran away.

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In fact, Mark even includes the account of an extra person that's not recorded in Matthew, Luke, or John.

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If you go and read Mark's account, there's even a young man there who is so afraid that he runs away naked.

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He runs out of his own garments to get away from that scene. And as some scholars have said, likely

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Mark's talking about himself. He may have been not among the 12, but another disciple who was there.

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And once Jesus was arrested, well, he ran out of his own clothes, but Jesus nonetheless forgave his disciples.

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And even hanging on the cross amidst those who were crucifying him, he prayed to God and said, father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

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And that's a word recorded in Luke, who is right here with Paul. As Paul recounts, those who did not stand with him at his first trial, they all deserted me.

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But he says to Timothy, may it not be charged against them.

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They were weak in the moment, but if they continue in the ministry, don't hold it against them, but continue in ministry together.

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Though they did not stand with Paul, Paul says this in verse 17, the Lord stood by me and strengthened me so that through me, the message might be fully proclaimed and all the

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Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued out of the lion's mouth.

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Jesus commissioned his disciples to go and share the gospel throughout the world. And he said to them, I am with you always, even to the very end of the age,

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Matthew 28, 20. And so he has stood by Paul in the same work as an apostle.

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And Paul says this to Timothy, because remember this letter is being written, telling Timothy, they've persecuted me.

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They're gonna put me to death for preaching the gospel. Timothy, they're gonna do the same thing to you too. But when they do know that the

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Lord is with you, he did not abandon me.

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He will not abandon you either. And in verse 18, the

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Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and will bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.

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And Paul gives the praise and the glory, not to himself, but to God. He doesn't say,

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Timothy, the message of the gospel is successful because I endured. You know, all the stuff that I went through.

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Now he says, the Lord has rescued me from the lion's mouth and he will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.

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Not because of anything that I have done, but because God is merciful and good.

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And closing with to him be the glory forever and ever, amen. And now in this last section of this letter, we have these final greetings and these marking faithful friends.

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In verses 19 to 22, Paul says, greet

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Priscia and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus. So of the first of these friends,

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Priscia and Aquila, Priscilla is also the name that she's known by.

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They're mentioned several times in the New Testament as Paul's companions. They are the husband and wife team that were introduced in Acts 18 as Priscilla and Aquila, not just as co -missionaries, but as co -workers.

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Paul was a tent maker by trade and we know that Priscilla and Aquila were the same. They were also tent makers.

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And these two, this husband and wife, they help Apollos to a deeper understanding of the gospel in Matthew 18, or sorry, in Acts chapter 18.

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They're also mentioned in Romans and in 1 Corinthians. Now this name,

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Onesiphorus, we've seen that name in this letter already. It was mentioned in the first chapter and both times

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Paul uses his name. He doesn't say Onesiphorus in the singular. He mentions the household of Onesiphorus.

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So indeed, Onesiphorus's entire household had welcomed Paul, but it's still unusual that on both occasions,

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Paul mentions the household and not simply the man himself because it was Onesiphorus, if you will remember, that went all throughout

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Rome looking for Paul. He didn't know which pit Paul was in, but he went about looking for him so that he may find him and minister to him.

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Now, the reason why Paul mentions the household of Onesiphorus is likely because Onesiphorus had died.

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So by this point, Onesiphorus wasn't alive any longer, but may his household be blessed because of the faithful work that he had done.

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He had a reputation for being a compassionate man and a lasting example of gospel service.

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In verse 20, Paul mentions Erastus who remained at Corinth and likely this was the same man mentioned as a co -missionary with Timothy in Acts 19 .22.

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His name also comes up in Romans 16 .23. The next one is Trophimus who was ill and Paul says he left him there at Miletus.

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Trophimus is a Greek from Ephesus and he is mentioned in Acts 20 .4 and 21 .29.

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As Paul had previously instructed Timothy to raise up faithful men, some of those names mentioned at the close of the letter serve as examples of the kind of men that Paul was talking about and men that Timothy was specifically associated with.

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He knew Erastus and we see in the book of Acts that Timothy was part of that team that included

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Erastus and Trophimus as well. And then in verse 21, Paul says, do your best to come to me before winter.

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Now travel from Ephesus to Rome was dangerous in the winter time, whether by land or by sea.

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So to make Timothy's journey safer and quicker, Paul said to come before winter and it could also have been that Paul did not expect to remain alive after winter was over.

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The last four persons that are mentioned here do not appear on any list anywhere else in the

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New Testament. You have Eubulus, Pudens and Linus are the names of some of the men and Claudia is one of the women.

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And then finally in verse 22, the Lord be with your spirit, grace be with you.

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Now the you there is actually in the collective there rather than in the singular.

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It's grace be with all of you. That would be the literal way to read it. So this letter was not just intended for Timothy, although he is certainly whom

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Paul addresses. Paul also meant for this letter to be read to the men whom

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Timothy would entrust the gospel to in the church in Ephesus. And so we know then that this letter was not just simply to be a hidden or secret letter between Paul and Timothy and obviously not because it shows up in canon for us.

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But God addresses all that are with Timothy, the Lord be with your spirit and grace be with all of you.

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The closing benediction is brief, but likely because he expected to see

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Timothy soon. And just as the Lord had been expecting then with Paul, he likewise blesses

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Timothy, the Lord be with your spirit. And so here's how we conclude this letter that Paul has written to Timothy.

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And I could have taken much more time on the letter than we did. In fact, after just about every sermon that I did through 2

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Timothy, I would get to Monday and go, man, I wish I could do that one again because there's all this other stuff that I wanna add to that.

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I generally have about a sermon and a half when I come and stand up here to deliver a sermon, which is why my sermons go on 50 and 55 minutes because I've got more to go.

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But we have invested this time in these two letters thus far, 1 Timothy and 2

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Timothy. If you'll remember when we embarked on 1 Timothy, it was so that we may know how one ought to conduct themselves in the household of faith.

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And then in this letter, the purpose, the point that Paul gives to Timothy is to preach the gospel, share in suffering with me.

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Do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.

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We had that at the very beginning of the letter. Paul brings that back to Timothy's reminder here at the close.

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And so how do we find application then in this, even in these final instructions and these personal greetings?

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Well, I opened with the parable of the sower and Alan read that as our scripture reading this morning for a reason so that we may see in that parable and in even the things that Paul says here to Timothy at the close about some of his missionary brethren, we would see in that parable and in this conclusion, a warning, how easy it is for any single one of us to lose sight of the gospel.

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And don't think that you will just always know it and you will always have it and you will always be passionate about it.

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You could very well become like the one where the message was sewn on rocks.

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And for a period of time in your life, you demonstrate enthusiasm for Christ.

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You wear the Christian t -shirt. You've got the WWJD bracelet. You're listening, but nothing to Christian music and can sing all the songs on Caleb.

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But when persecution comes, when people start making fun of you for that, when people say it's ridiculous that you worship a zombie, a guy that came back from the dead, how silly you

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Christians are. They start trying to hit you with science. Science proves you wrong.

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How foolish the fairy tales that you believe in. You're trying to impose your religion on me.

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You're just taking away everybody's fun. Jesus would love everybody. You don't love everyone. All these different things that the world will try to impose on you and you start to get heckled and you start to feel insecure about it and you start to think to yourself, well, what if I just change something a little bit?

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And then people won't make fun of me for it. Oh, yeah, yeah, I hear you, but I'm not one of those

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Christians. Because the version of Christianity that you follow is something that's a little more palatable to people so that maybe it'll be a little easier on you and you don't have to put up with all that ridicule so much.

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You're gonna find very quickly that it turned out you're just like the rocky soil. It showed enthusiasm for the truth for a time, but then persecution caused you to fall away from the true word of Christ.

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Or would you be like those where the message was sown in thorns like Demas?

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Again, you may even demonstrate yourself to have been such a faithful Christian. You went on missions trips.

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I was out there preaching the gospel to people and yet what ended up happening when the world enticed you with its stuff, when your flesh wanted to go after what the flesh wanted, when the world promised you material possessions and popularity and all these other kinds of things and you thought, you know what, that stuff looks kind of good and you abandon the mission and you go after the stuff of the world and over time, you even forget the gospel and all the stuff that you had done in the name of the gospel in the first place.

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It was a passing opinion. It was a season that you were in. It was good for the period of time in which you enjoyed it, but then after that, you moved on to the next thing and the thorns have grown up and choked out the word and it has proved to be unfruitful.

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Or are you the good soil where the message of the kingdom has been sown and it is producing fruit and in the midst of persecution and affliction, these things don't cause you to fall away.

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They cause you to cling to Christ more and when the world wants to entice you with its ideas, its philosophies, the passions that satisfy the flesh, material, popularity, whatever else, when you start to see that stuff in the world, you're looking at that going, are you serious?

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Are you kidding me? This doesn't even remotely compare to the son of God who was given for me, who died for me, who rose again for me, so that I might also rise again.

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Hey world, do you have an answer to my sin problem? Do you have an answer to my death problem? Because you're going to die and I'm going to die and then what?

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And the stuff that's wasting away in the midst of you is not going to save you and it's not going to save me either.

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And you look at the stuff of this world and you will see it just does not satisfy. It does not give you what you need.

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We need the forgiveness of sins. We need to be made right with God. We need resurrection from the dead.

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And the only one who can give that to us is the one who rose from the dead, who himself conquered death.

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And as he was rescued, the son of God was himself rescued from the mouth of death.

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So the apostle Paul says, the Lord will rescue me.

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From every evil deed and will bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.

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My friends do not be discouraged by persecution. Do not be enticed by the way of the world.

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Hold fast to Christ and he will deliver you into his eternal kingdom.

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To him be the glory forever and ever.

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Amen. It is well, it is well with my soul.

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It is well as regarded by my soul.

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It is well, it is well in all the midst of this.

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I sing, I imply, but the hope is nailed to the cross.

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And I pray, praise the

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Lord, O my soul. It is well with my soul.

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And Lord, they shall be sighed.

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The clouds be rolled back as a scroll.

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The trump shall resound and the

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Lord shall descend. Even so, it is well with my soul.

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It is well with my soul.

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It is well, it is well, my soul.

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You've been listening to the preaching of Pastor Gabriel Hughes, a presentation of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

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For more information about our church, visit our website at providencecasagrande .com. On behalf of our church family, my name is

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Becky, thanking you for listening. Join us again Monday for more Bible study, when we understand the text.