Finishing Strong in a Race Against Wicked Runners (2 Timothy 4:6-8) | Worship Service

Psalm 86 and Worship Through Song

And welcome to Kootenai Church. We're glad that you're here this morning. Would you please stand as we begin our service this morning with a call to worship from Psalm 86. In verses one to eight, it says, incline your ear, O Yahweh, and answer me, for I am afflicted and needy.

Keep my soul, for I am a holy one. O you, my God, save your slave who trusts in you. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you I call all day long. Make glad the soul of your slave, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

For you, Lord, are good and by nature forgiving and abundant in loving kindness to all who call upon you. Give ear, O Yahweh, to my prayer and give heed to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my distress, I shall call upon you, for you will answer me.

There is no one like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. Let's sing together this morning, O God of mercy, hear our plea. O God, we've seen your faithfulness You brought us from the wilderness But now our faith is frail and weak O God of mercy, hear our plea You comfort our distress until the promised breath From deepest slumber in this barren land Be our hope and strength until glory we will trust and sing Abba, Father, hear our plea To take your ransomed children, here's our Abba, Father This bank, be our hope until glory, see, here's our This bank, until glory, we'll trust in this barren land Be our hope until glory, we will trust and sing Abba, Father, hear our, Abba, Father, hear our I sought the Lord and he answered me And delivered me from every fear Those who look on him are radiant They'll never be ashamed, they'll never be ashamed This poor man cried, and the Lord heard me And saved me from the Son of God, surrounds his saints He will deliver them, he will deliver them If I, the Lord, with me come exult, I, the Lord, come exult his name For I, the Lord is good, oh blessed is he who hides in his saints He'll give you everything, he'll give you everything Incense rise, let us bless the Lord, incense rise, the Lord exult his name What is our own, our souls to him belong Who holds our days within his hand What comes apart from his command And what will keep us till the end The love of Christ in which we stand Eternal is his praise, holds our hands above the storm Eternal is his praise, holds our hands above the stormy trial Who sends the waves that bring us nigh unto the shore The rocks they turn to the grace he lives, Christ he lives Life with him, there we destroy, his designs they turn Now and ever we confess, life and death, life and death Christ our hope in life, amen, you may be seated.

Well, I feel like something of a stranger back here after all this time, but I'm grateful to be back. Just a couple of announcements. First, we are three weeks away from our conference, our spring equipping conference with Owen Strand.

And I understand that they're still taking reservations for that or registrations, that's what I'm looking for. Registrations for that are still open. And we also have need for a few more volunteers who would be willing to help with the setup and the cleanup and food service for that, et cetera.

So if you are willing to do that, please get in contact with Shelley Cowell or Kathy Conger or myself. And then second, a bit on the, I mentioned this before I left for a few weeks, but just a note on the preaching schedule, it was supposed to be Jeff Miller today and then Justin Peters next week, and then Dave Rich on June 2nd before Owen Strand comes in for the conference.

And Justin is unable to make it on May 26th. And I told him you would be extremely disappointed because of all the people that you would want to listen to, he's at the top of that list. And well, I told him that God's probably gonna give him a handicap or something as a discipline.

I said, you keep doing that, it's one of these days you won't be able to walk. So Jeff Miller instead is going to be here next Sunday and Jeff is preaching today. And then you noticed as you came in, unless they were all taken up, that there's some baby bottles out on the table in the foyer.

You can sign up to take one of those home and fill it with spare change and you bring it back on Father's Day. And that is a fundraiser for the Crisis Pregnancy Care Center here in town. Will you please turn your Bibles to Psalm 50, Psalm 50 for the scripture reading.

We're gonna read the entire Psalm together. The prescript says it is a Psalm of Asaph. Asaph, if memory serves, wrote, I think it's 11 or 12 Psalms. There's this Psalm and then there is a chunk of Psalms.

Later on, he's the one who wrote Psalm 73, which deals with the prosperity of the wicked. He was a music leader under David in the nation of Israel. Psalm of Asaph, Psalm 50. The mighty one, God, the Lord has spoken and summoned the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shown forth. May our God come and not keep silence. Fire devours before him and it is very tempestuous around him. He summons the heavens above and the earth to judge his people.

Gather my godly ones to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice and the heavens declare his righteousness for God himself is judge. Hear, O my people, and I will speak. O Israel, I will testify against you.

I am God, your God. I do not reprove you for your sacrifices and your burnt offerings are continually before me. Shall take no young bull out of your house nor male goats out of your folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.

I know every bird of the mountains and everything that moves in the field is mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you for the world is mine and all it contains. Shall I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of male goats?

Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and pay your vows to the Most High. Call upon me in the day of trouble. I shall rescue you and you will honor me. But to the wicked, God says, what right have you to tell of my statutes and to take my covenant in your mouth?

For you hate discipline and you cast my words behind you. When you see a thief, you're pleased with him. You associate with adulterers. You let your mouth loosen evil and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother.

You slander your own mother's son. These things you have done and I kept silence. You thought that I was just like you. I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes. Now consider this, you who forget God, for I will tear you in pieces and there will be none to deliver.

He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me and to him who orders his way aright, I shall show the salvation of God. Will you stand with me as we open in prayer? Let's bow our heads. Our Father, we gather together as a called out assembly of redeemed sinners whose sin and iniquity and transgressions have been atoned for by the work of your Son.

And because we have been brought into one body by the work of your Spirit through the regenerating work that he does in the hearts of those who are yours, we gather together to worship you with hearts of thanksgiving and praise.

We thank you that we need not fear your condemnation or the judgment that is here described against the wicked, not because of anything that we have done, but because of our confident trust in Jesus Christ.

By virtue of his death and his resurrection, we have been made yours. And by virtue of his death and his resurrection, we have been justified and declared righteous all on the basis of faith. And so we thank you for the salvation that is ours in him.

And we thank you for the privilege and the joy that it is to gather together in fellowship and in worship to praise and adore our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave his life to bear our sins so that we might have eternal life with him.

Thank you for your loving kindness, O great Father. And we pray that you would shed the love of Christ abroad in our hearts, filling us with love for you, love for your Word, love for the truth and for righteousness.

Give to us, your people, a hatred for sin in all of its forms and give to us a passionate desire to mortify sin in us and to walk in holiness and righteousness of the truth. We desire and long to run our race well and to live our lives for the glory of Christ.

And we pray that you would strengthen us to that end. And may you be honored and glorified here through our worship together in the name of Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Should mountains melt into the roaring oceans The earth give way or heaven's lights grow cold O mighty God, you are my strong defender Be still, be still, my soul When all I see are enemies before unbelief And doubt have taken hold O Lord of hosts, you promised to defeat Be still, be still, my soul But fear your son and all in you alone My soul, it seemed to prosper They mock your name and rise against your throne O righteous judge, their deeds you will remember Be still, be still, my soul For you not leave us orphans O nation's rage, you guard us as your own O prince of peace, we will not be abandoned

In James chapter one, verses two to four, it says, consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith brings about perseverance. And let perseverance have its perfect work so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

We're gonna end our music service this morning and sing together what, Ere My God Ordains, is right. Ere my God ordains is right His holy will abided I will be still whate 'er he does Where he guideth He is my God though dark my road He holds me that I shall not fall And so to him I leave it all And so to him I leave But ere my God ordains is right He never will deceive He leads me by the proper path I know he will not leave me I take content what he has sent His hands can turn my griefs away And patiently I wait his day And patiently I wait his day But ere my God ordains is right Though now this cup in drinking May bitter seem to my faint heart I take it all unshrinking My God is true each born anew His sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart And pain and sorrow shall depart And pain and sorrow shall depart Father's care is round me there He holds me...

Exposition of 2 Timothy 4:6-8

Thank you, Josh and our worship team. Don't they do a good job? Always easy to worship God here at Kootenai Community Church, I think. Now we come to that point in our worship where we worship God through the proclamation of his word.

So I invite you to open your Bibles this morning to 2 Timothy chapter four. 2 Timothy chapter four. We're going to spend a little bit of time this morning orienting ourselves to this passage because it's been a couple of weeks since we've been in 2 Timothy chapter four.

And then we're gonna circle and land on chapter four and look closely at verses six, seven, and eight. And you have an outline there in your bulletin if you care to follow along on that. And we're gonna zero in on the Apostle Paul, some of his last words to his young protege Timothy and his important exhortations for Timothy in his own personal ministry.

Before we do, let's commit our time to our Lord and ask His blessing on our study this morning. Our Father, we know that we are totally dependent on Your Spirit to lead us and guide us, to illumine Your Word to our hearts and minds.

This is what Paul exhorted Timothy to pay so much close attention to in this very letter. And it hasn't changed for us. We are also dependent on Your Spirit to guide and lead us. And so Father, this morning as we open Your Word, we pray that You would show us what You would have for us this morning.

Teach us from Your Word by Your Spirit. And we will always be careful to praise You. In Jesus' name we ask it, amen. When we began this brief study in 2 Timothy several weeks ago, we spent some time reviewing the history of what led up to Paul's situation from which he wrote this very last letter to Timothy and his last letter to the church, of course.

And one of the reasons we wanted to remember the history and think about it a little bit and set this up is because this is God's Word, of course, so we need to pay attention to everything it says. But also, this is how Paul begins this letter, by remembering after some very personal statements to Timothy, he talks about how he is remembering things in Timothy's life and in his own personal ministry.

In verse three of chapter one, he says, I remember you constantly in my prayers. And then in verse four, he says, I remember your tears. Very personal, very compassionate. And then in verse five of chapter one, he says, I am reminded of your sincere faith.

And that reminiscence then moves Paul in that first opening statement to remind Timothy to do something that is absolutely foundational to everything else Paul will tell him in this letter, and it's foundational to our lives as well.

There are 32 command force verbs in this letter, and we mentioned a couple of weeks ago that that kind of makes a very convenient outline if you just track through these command force verbs, these imperative verbs, that helps us to see what Paul wants Timothy to do.

And as he gets to verse six in chapter one, he gives the first of the commands. And it is foundational to everything else he's going to tell him. And it's also foundational for our lives and ministries as well.

He says in verse six, for this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God gave us a spirit, not a fear, but a power and love and self control.

Timothy is going to have to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit, the encouragement of the Holy Spirit in his life to accomplish everything else Paul tells him throughout the rest of this letter. And he says it's the power of the Spirit that's going to enable you to do that.

And two of the things he mentions there, he just says love and self control, very important. The power to manifest all the fruit of the Spirit mentioned elsewhere by Paul in Galatians. And this is, I think, what Paul is doing here.

By mentioning love and self control, that list of the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians chapter five, he just simply picks the first one and the last one in that list. The list says that he is to walk by the Spirit and he will not carry out the desires of the flesh.

That list is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. So when he writes them in this last letter and he mentions to stir up the Spirit, rekindle the Holy Spirit, and so that he will have the power to manifest love and self control, he simply employs what's called, it's a figure of speech called a merism, where he takes the first and last of the list.

And he's not talking about just those two things. By doing that, he's including everything in that list. Very similar to how our Lord defines himself as the alpha and the omega. Now he just simply takes the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, the alpha and the omega, but he's not saying I'm just those two.

I'm those two and everything in between. And I think this is what Paul's intent is here. Power to manifest all of the fruit of the Spirit and to carry out everything else Paul is going to tell him to do in the rest of this letter.

And that one, self control, is extremely important. Mastery or dominion over self. Self command. Self control, which is the opposite of self indulgence. In other words, the grace by which the flesh is controlled.

The virtue of one who masters his desires and passions, especially his sensual appetites. It is a calling to soundness of mind and to moderation in his life and ministry. Timothy is a young man. He's a younger man than Paul.

And Paul has left Timothy back in the city of Ephesus, a major city in that day. It's a major city in Gentile country, and it's a pagan city. It's just a hotbed of pagan corruption and sin and all manner of idolatry.

It's a city that was dominated by the massive Temple of Artemis up on a hillside. And it's also a seaport. So there were ships coming and going, sailors and all those people disembarking. The first thing they could see when they sailed into the harbor of Ephesus was that massive idolatrous Temple of Artemis.

It sounds like Artemis might've been in a kind of a very attractive svelte goddess, right? But that was a place where they worshiped cult prostitution as part of their religion. And so it was just shot through with all manner of sin and corruption and perversion.

And Paul knows that he's not going back to Ephesus. He's not gonna be there. Timothy's gonna be on his own there in this city. He's going to have to rely on the powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit in his life to accomplish all that Paul has for him to do in his ministry.

And of the 32 commands Paul issues in the rest of the letter, fanning into flames the Holy Spirit, rekindling the Spirit's ministry in his life is absolutely critical to carrying everything else out. And what was true in Paul's day is true right down through the centuries and right true for us here and now as well.

You and I are absolutely helpless to accomplish anything God wants us to do apart from our total dependence on the encouraging and empowering work of the Spirit in our lives. Not to mention if a person is not even regenerate, the Spirit of God is not even there.

We looked at that passage in Romans chapter eight where Paul basically says without the Spirit of God, you can't even begin to understand anything the most basic spiritual principles. And the main tool that the Spirit uses in the life of the believer is the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.

So when he gets down to verse 14 of chapter one, Paul says, and again, by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. And this is just an echo of what Paul had said previously in his first letter to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter six.

He ends that letter with a plea for Timothy and you can just hear the passion in his words. Oh, Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. And he's talking about the deposit of the Gospel, the Word of God that Paul has placed into his trust.

We saw in our study of chapter two that Paul continues to be concerned for two basic issues in Timothy's life. Timothy's personal life, in other words, his sanctification, his walk with God personally, his spiritual maturity, and also the Word of God.

The purity of Timothy's life and the purity of the Word. And again, in the first letter, Paul had focused on these two critical areas. In 1 Timothy 4 .16, he says, keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching.

Those two areas, very critical. They're thematic with the Apostle Paul and all of his writings and also throughout the rest of the New Testament. John 17 .17, our Lord said in His high priestly prayer in the upper room, the night before He was crucified, He's praying on behalf of His disciples.

And He says, Father, sanctify them in the truth. Your Word is truth. And there you see the connection, the link between the Word of God and our personal sanctification. We are sanctified, we are brought to spiritual maturity by and through the Word of God.

And the issues of both sanctification and scripture together are energized and empowered by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And again, Timothy must rely on that strengthening power to accomplish all that Paul would have him to do.

And especially as we saw in chapter two, verse two, passing on the Word to others. And we use that metaphor of Paul in the running of the race and passing the baton onto others, the baton of the Word of God.

Paul is concerned for the propagation of the gospel, but he also knows that Timothy has to pay close attention to his own sanctification if he's going to be an effective communicator of that Word. And then as he moves into chapter two, Paul continues to stress these two issues and their interdependence.

Look at verse 22 of chapter two. Once again, we have an imperative. Flee, he says, flee youthful passions. There's a statement concerning his own spiritual development, his own sanctification. Flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

And then in verse 23, have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. You know that they breed quarrels. There's a statement concerning his ability to handle the Word of God. Don't get all tangled up in stupid controversies.

Don't get on YouTube and consult YouTube theologians. Oh, wait a minute, that's an anachronism. Anyway, have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. So those two areas of his life are there.

They're both very important and they work together. And then when we get to chapter three, again, using the imperative verbs as the outline, there's only three of them in chapter three. First one is found in verse one.

Understand, okay? And then down in verse five, avoid. And then way down in verse 14, continue. So he needs to understand, he needs to avoid, and he needs to continue. Between understand and avoid, Paul mentions 19 kinds of people there, okay?

He says, understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people, now stop right there. People, and now look down at verse five. Avoid such people. Difficult times, according to Paul, that are going to come have nothing to do with cosmic global changes of temperatures or sea levels or things like that.

The focal point of problems and issues in this world back then, now, and in the future is going to be who, what? People, it's people. That's very important to see. And he has a 19 word or phrase description of these people that are going to be there, were there, and are there, and are here now.

In fact, since he calls them people, maybe we could just sort of personify them, okay, to get a little better handle on here. There's gonna be a lot of people going along in this race that is the race of life.

Some of them are lovers, by the way. Oh, no, not like that. Notice in verse two, people will be lovers of self, lovers of money. Down in verse four, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. So these are the lovers that are going along in this thing.

And then, in verse two again, look at Mr. Proud, Miss Arrogant, Mr. Abusive, and even some younger people, some that are disobedient to their parents. There are those who are ungrateful, unholy. A lot of people going along here.

You can just sort of see the crowd gathering here. There are those in verse four, Mr. and Mrs. Treacherous and Reckless. And how about this guy here? He's swollen with conceit. You ever notice in the Bible, whenever it talks about somebody who has, they're full of pride or conceit, or even the Greek word is hubris, that type of person, it always speaks of them as being swollen or puffed up.

It's almost like it's a medical condition or something. But that guy is here and running along too. You don't wanna fall down in front of him. He's not able to step on you. Mr. Swollen with Conceit. And then, down in verse five, this is a group of people you gotta watch out for.

Oh, from the outside, they have the appearance of godliness. They look from the outside like they are really godly people. But what does he say? Denying its power. They look from the outside like they're godly, go through all kinds of external religious ritual, maybe even stand up and teach or preach the Bible in certain environments.

But they are denying the power of God. Part of the power of God is the Holy Spirit. And they also, you remember what Paul said to the Romans, that the power of God is the gospel. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

So even though from the outside, they look godly, they have the appearance, they deny its power. Paul says, avoid such people. He ends this chapter by once again, focusing Timothy on the scriptures, the word of God, the truth.

And even though there will be a devolution of human morality, and this is one of the things that you'll see all through scripture, the world will tell you that humanity is evolving, it's emerging, it's growing upward and getting better and better.

But when you read the Bible, it's the exact opposite. It's not evolving morally, it's devolving. And this is what Paul says. And look at verse 12, down in chapter three. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

While evil people, verse 13, and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But Paul wants Timothy to not go after them. Don't be deceived, avoid those people. And he says in verse 14, as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it.

And here Paul zeroes in on the nature and the purpose of the word of God. And he has three ways he mentions the word of God. He talks about the nature of scripture, the nature of the word of God, but then he also talks about the value that it has.

In verse 15, from childhood, you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, he said, the sacred writings. And what's their value? Able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

And then in verse 16, he uses a different word. All scripture is breathed out by God. Pasa grafe theopneustos is the Greek phrase. Theopneustos, God breathed, the compound word. The Bible is the very breath of God breathed out.

And what's the profit that it has? For teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness. That the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. And then Paul moves into chapter four.

I know there's a great big black four there in your Bibles, but if you could just pretend like that's not there and see this, remember, this is a letter that Paul wrote. That wasn't there originally. I'm really thankful for the chapter breaks and the versification that we have in our modern Bibles.

But this was a letter that Paul wrote. So you can just move right through into this incredible charge that Paul gives Timothy in verse one. He says, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom.

And here's an imperative, preach the word. Absolute mandate in this charge. And for Timothy and for us here and now and for the church all through history is to preach the word. And so Paul begins a list here, just in these first five verses, there are nine commands.

He really clusters them together here. And it's very, very important to see what he's doing. Preach the word. And he says, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and teaching.

Those in that first, that single verse, verse two, there are five command force verbs. Preach the word, be ready, reprove, rebuke and exhort. And why, Paul, why should I do that? He says in verse three, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.

There's going to come a time, and we're obviously living in it right now, when people don't wanna hear the word of God taught. They don't care about the truth from the scriptures being taught and applied to their lives.

So what do they do? They go find teachers that tell them what they wanna hear. That's more comfortable, that's more pleasing to them. They're not gonna hear anybody confront them in their sin, and that's the big issue.

And this has been going on all through history, and it's going on now, and it's increasingly more and more common to find people who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, but they accumulate to themselves teachers after their own lusts.

How convenient. Just like at the foot of Mount Sinai, the law had been delivered by Moses, and when Moses went back up on the hill, the people of Israel decided, well, we don't want that God, not that one up there up on the hill who's making the earthquakes and he's kind of scary.

We want another God. So what did they do? They found a ministerial calf maker named Aaron, and guess what Aaron said? See if you recognize this. What did he say when they said, we want another God? He said, give me your gold, give me your gold.

They gave him the gold, and he gave them a false God, and it's still going on today. Itching ears, accumulating for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. And what else do they do? Verse four, will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

That first verb there, this is very important. First verb is active in its voice, active voice. They actively turn away from the word of God. That second one there, it really doesn't come through in the English too well.

The ESV says, wander off into myths. That is, that's in the passive voice. You could translate that, they will be led into myths. When people reject the word of God, actively turn away from the word of God, they don't wanna hear it, don't wanna have anything to do with it, then they go find false teachers.

They will be, not might be, for sure and for certain, they will be led away into myths at some point in the future. But, Paul says in verse five, as for you, as for you, Timothy, you don't be like that, as for you.

And here are four more commands. Be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. And it's almost as if when Paul says to Timothy with that comprehensive statement of fulfill your ministry, he comes to an abrupt stop.

It's like, okay, now you know, now you have your marching orders. And that brings us to verse six. What we're gonna see this morning as he closes this letter, Paul's thoughts turn to his own life, his own situation, his own ministry.

And what we're gonna see this morning from these three verses is Paul makes a comment about his present situation, and then his past, the statement in verse seven, and verse eight, he looks into the future.

Very, very simple outline. Paul's present, verse six, Paul's past, verse seven, and Paul's future, verse eight. What does Paul say here in this very first part of this in verse six? He makes a statement about his present situation.

And he says, and Paul is very fond of this little preposition for, it's called causal gar in Greek, it's the cause. So you could say, because, because I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

Paul's present status, he understands his life is over. He's under a death sentence. He arrived in Rome during a time of great persecution against Christians. And this time he's recognized as the ringleader, so to speak, of the Christian sect, as they call it.

And he was arrested and tried and condemned to death. The Romans were very effective in putting down insurrections. We know this from our Lord's own trial, right? And if there was an insurrection, what they would do, they would find all the people that were following along, they would just be summarily executed.

But that leader, they always had special treatment for him. Very public, very well known to take them out and to send a message to everybody else. This is what will happen to you if you defy Roman authority and try to start an insurrection.

But Paul was a Roman citizen, so he was not gonna be crucified. His method of capital punishment was going to be beheading. And Paul understands that's his situation right here. His status is that, and he says in chapter two, verses eight and nine of this same letter, he said, remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains, but the word of God is not bound.

Paul understood his present situation, but he's not in despair. He's not moaning or complaining or anything else over this. His imprisonment, in fact, is validation that his message, that Jesus Christ is the true King, is simply confirms that he had the right message and was doing the right thing and was in the will of God at all times.

And even though he's in chains, here's how Paul saw the word of God. He says, I'm in chains, but the word of God is not chained. His life is over, but the word of God still lives. And as the writer of Hebrews said, it's active, and it's sharper than any two-edged sword.

It accomplishes what God has for it to accomplish. Paul would have been very familiar with Isaiah's words in chapter 40, verses six through eight. It says, the grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of Yahweh blows upon it.