This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Lewis
Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland
County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
Paul is in this prison. You know, he's not eating well,
and I'm sure he probably doesn't have a whole lot of physical
strength at this point. And I'm sure they try to weigh
him down as much as possible, try to wear him out.
But the truth of the matter is, Paul says that at one point he
felt strong. Even though his outward man was
perishing, his inward man was being renewed.
He felt strong in the Lord at one point, and even to the point
where he was bold enough to stand up and in front of the
rulers of a Pagan nation. Have you ever felt inadequate
for the task in front of you? Sometimes it can give you
butterflies in your stomach. Maybe it's a physical task that
you just don't know how you're going to get it all done.
Maybe you have to make a presentation in front of people
where there's a lot hanging on the outcome.
In today's message, Pastor Lewis shares with you that even when
you don't have the strength in yourself, God will strengthen
you. When God calls you to a task,
his Spirit will empower you to do it.
Now here's Pastor Lewis in the Book of Second Timothy, Chapter
4, with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
That is not of the Lord. When two people or how,
regardless of how many people, have contentions for extended
periods of time and they're never resolved, that is not of
the Lord. That is not the Spirit of
Christ. He was denied by Peter three
times, yet after his resurrection he said go get
Peter and bring him with you to Galilee.
Don't leave him out. I'm not casting him out.
I'm not forgetting about him. Go get him and bring him with
you. I'm reconciling with Him.
I want Him to know I've forgiven him and that's what we should be
doing with each other. Either I need to call you or you
need to call me, but we need to reconcile.
We need not to be allowing this thing just to last forever and
ever and ever. You talking to your people about
what happened and somebody else talking to their people about
what happened. Let's sit down and talk with
each other and let's love on each other the way Christ
intended so that we can do the work of the ministry.
And that's exactly what happened.
Paul is basically saying, he said I need, I have need of him.
I have use for him for ministry. And that's exactly, and this is
what gives the devil a black eye, because the devil knows
that we have use for each other that we add to each other's
ministry. Just the evil one knows that,
our enemy knows that. And So what he's going to try to
do is to keep us separated so that your ministry can't bless
me and my ministry can't bless you, and we can't serve together
to be a blessing to whomever the Lord has sent us here to be a
blessing too. Paul says I have need bring him
to me. I have need of him for ministry.
But it took him a while to realize that.
Let us not take us that long to realize that we need each other.
So let's reconcile. Let's reconcile quickly.
Is that one of the things that we would do today if we knew
that we were short and we didn't know how long we would live?
Well, guess what? We don't, we don't.
We can reconcile quickly. And then he goes on.
He says in in Tychicus, I have sent to Ephesus, Tychus.
Tychus also was a beloved brother.
He was a ministry, very faithful man in the ministry with Paul
and he sent him to Ephesus. And the reason why he sent Ticus
to Ephesus is so that he could free up Timothy to come to Rome
to be with Paul. So Tychus would go to Ephesus
and deal with the with the church at Ephesus, while Timothy
would be traveling to be with Paul because Paul wanted Timothy
with him. Paul needed Timothy to be with
him. He had things he wanted to say
to Timothy. He had things he wanted Timothy
to understand before he left this world.
And, and what's amazing about that is that he wrote this
letter. The reason why he even wrote
this letter in the 1st place was just in case Timothy didn't get
there in time. So Timothy would have a record
of the things that he wanted to say to him, to the things that
he wanted to encourage him in, in the faith.
This is a record. And then after he, he talked to
about tigers, he sent him. But the amazing thing is all the
men that Paul had access to because he had discipled these
men, he has spent time with these men.
So now he had a number of men that he was able to distribute
into place in different places so that they could minister and
they can go on with the work that Paul had began.
It's one of the things that Clark is doing here in this
church with us. And my heart is that there be
men that continue to be raised up by the Lord so that in
different places they can be distributed, be assigned to do
the work that the Lord wants to do here.
It blesses me on Wednesday night when there's a rotation of men
who teaches because that ministry is not dependent upon
just one man being there. We have many men who can teach
on a Wednesday night and teach us well, and that's our heart is
that men be raised up for ministry, women be raised up to
do the ministry that they do, and that there's depth with that
ministry, but there's many who can do it, many that can do it.
Whatever the ministry is, God give us more men and women who
can step up and take over if need be.
And this is what Paul was doing. It's a blessing that he had all
these men that he had discipled. And then in verse 13, he says,
bring the cloak that I left at car what I left with carpets.
Bring it. He said he left.
He left some things with with carpets when he was at tro ass,
he said bring those things with me.
And the things that he left, he left books and he left his cloak
and he left parchments. Now his cloak, now as you know,
cloak is a covering. It's around the circular
covering. And it, you know, he's going to
need it because, you know, he was in the maritime prison.
And it is a, it's very bad conditions in this particular
prison in Rome, very bad conditions.
It was actually an old cistern of some sort and they turned
into a prison. I think it's only like 2 cells
or two blocks in that whole particular prison.
I think there's a lower cell and an upper cell.
I think it's only like 2, but the conditions are just
terrible. Basically, they sent you there
when they know they're going to execute you.
So that's probably one of the other reasons why Paul knew he
probably wasn't going to come out of there alive.
But he says bring my cloak because it's damp there.
It's wet there. And you know, those are probably
just a milder conditions that he has to deal with there in that
particular prison. But he says bring my cloak and
also bring books in the parchments.
Now books are going to be Old Testament scrolls and things
that he has there that in the Old Testament and he probably
left urgently. He probably left quickly.
He's probably arrested there Troas and taken, you know, or
taking the after he left Troas, he probably went to Roman, was
arrested there, you know, but something caused him to leave
all of these personal things. They're a troas and he said
these books, these Old Testament scrolls.
He wants those. You know, Paul has, I mean, my
goodness, he wrote, you know, we know now that he wrote half of
the, the, the, the, the New Testament, but yet he continues
to want to be kept up in study. He wanted to continue to study
the word of God. But I can imagine some of the
things that he wanted to read out of the Old Testament sitting
there in that prison. He probably wanted to read those
scriptures that men wrote, that God inspired men to write, that
would that would help him, that would comfort him, that would
give him some sort of relief, some sort of hope.
I would imagine he probably wanted to read some of the
Psalms that were written by David and some of the other
psalmist because these Psalms offer comfort.
Can you imagine if he was just sitting there?
He probably wanted to read Psalm 27.
The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my
life. Of whom shall I be afraid?
He probably wanted to read that. He probably wanted to read Psalm
46. God is my refuge and strength.
He's a very present help in trouble.
I'm sure those things will comfort him in that particular
time. And he probably wanted to read
Psalm 62. Truly, my soul silently waits
for God. From Him is my salvation.
For He only God only is my rock and my salvation.
He is my defense. I shall not be greatly moved.
These are probably some of the things that he wanted to read to
encourage his heart while he sat there in that dingy dudgeon
prison, cold, damp. And like I said, those are the
milder conditions that I would mention in this particular
place. But he said bring nose.
But then he said also bring the parchments.
And those parchments are animal thin animal skins that were used
for notebooks. And Paul probably has some
things that he wrote out that he probably didn't even publish
that didn't put them out there yet to everybody.
Just some thoughts that he would have in different places that
he's been. And he probably wanted him to
bring nose as well, Bring those parchments.
And then he gets to verse 14. He says Alexander the
coppersmith didn't me much harm. May the Lord repay, repay him
according to his works. Can you see how Paul will go
back and forth? There are those that were a
blessing to him even though he was still by himself.
But there were those who were a blessing to him.
And then there were those who he remembers did him harm.
But unlike me, sometimes when people do me harm, I want to get
back out of myself. I feel like I have a right to
get back out of myself because I feel like I can, at the very
least, I can get even. Because this is what we're
taught in the world, right? Get even, you know, get back at
people. Don't let people do that to you.
Don't let people walk over you like that.
You, you, you, you get back at them.
Get even. But that's not what the Word of
God says, because if you look in Romans 12, round verse 19, the
Bible says avenge not yourselves, avenge not
yourselves, but give place to wrath.
And I always fill that in and say give place to godly wrath
because we don't want to give place to our own fleshly wrath,
our own, you know, human wrath, because we go overboard.
God does it justly. He's the only just judge.
He judges righteously. And then he says, you know, for
vengeance is mine. Vengeance doesn't belong to me,
although I think it should. I may think it should sometimes.
Lord, did you see what they did to me?
I don't have the right to respond to that.
He says vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord.
Says the Lord. Not Says Joe or Johnny says the
Lord, so that's why we obey that and Paul did just that.
Now some people get kind of stumbled with this one verse
when he says may the Lord repay him according to his works.
Paul is not he's not praying a a prayer of a curse upon, you
know, Alexander the coppersmith. He's not praying that Lord judge
him and and and and and just bring down fire upon him and and
just do him in Lord. I mean, give him your best
judgement. That's not what he's doing.
He's actually giving it over. He's doing exactly what the
verse tells him to do and give it over to the Lord.
He's giving place to godly wrath, not his own.
And that's what we should do. It's hard.
It's very hard, and it's the Holy Spirit that helps us to do
that. But that is what we are intended
to do. That's what God intends for us
to do. Now, one of the reasons why he
says Alexander Coppersmith had harmed him or did a lot of
things to harm him is because, you know, it's believed that it
was Alexander Coppersmith was actually one of the witnesses
for the prosecution. So he probably gave some very
damaging witness against Paul, probably caused Paul.
Some people didn't believe that he was the reason why Paul got
arrested was because of this Alexander Coppersmith.
But he also opposed the teachings of Paul and that was
probably even worse. He opposed the teachings of
Paul. He went against it.
He was one of the ones that they mentioned earlier in the, in
the, in first Timothy, second Timothy mentioned earlier when
he said that there were people, you know, who were, you know,
teaching blasphemy over here in first Timothy chapter one, verse
20, I believe it is, he mentions the fact that it was Alexander,
it was him. Now he believes that this is the
same person. Some people say it might not be,
but he believes that it is. But here in verse 20, he says
that he's the one that made shipwreck of his faith.
Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may
learn not to blaspheme. So obviously they were teaching
some things that were contrary to the teachings of the true
faith, contrary to the teachings of the gospel, is what they're
saying here. So he did Paul a lot of harm and
he warned Paul, warned Timothy against that.
He said you must be, you must also be aware of him, for he has
greatly resisted our words. And then in verse 16, I think
things get really interesting. Paul says here, he says at my
first defense, no one stood with me, but all forsook me.
No one stood with me at my first defense.
Now we first read that. We say, oh, poor Paul.
You know, he was, he was in a room with all Pagan Roman
leaders. Everyone that was in that room
was actually considered to be an enemy of Paul because they all
wanted to see him dead. The people that they brought in
as witnesses against them, the Roman leaders, Neo, you know,
wanted to see these people, wanted to see him dead.
Nero wanted to see him dead. And yet Paul says, no one stood
with me. Could you imagine going to court
and no one testifying on your behalf?
Everybody's testifying against you.
You don't have nobody there that can even say, hey, he's actually
a good guy. No one can even do that.
So Paul's in this room and he's before all of the leaders of the
Pagan world, of one of the biggest nations of the Pagan
world. But then Paul says may it not be
charged against them. No one came to identify
themselves with Paul. No one came to associate with
Paul. Again, probably out of fear if I
will come and identify myself, then I'm next, I'm next, I'm
going to be executed next after Paul.
So no one came to do that. But he says may it not be
charged against them. Just as when when Jesus was
forsaken and when he was on the cross, he said forgive them for
they know not what they do. He interceded on behalf of the
people. Stephen also interceded on
behalf of his persecutors when they were stoning him.
Stephen said forgive them for they know not what they do.
And Paul is saying the exact same thing here.
He's saying, look Lord, may it not be charged against them.
He had the right to be angry, but he wasn't.
But he wasn't and it actually opened up a door for Paul
reading verse 17, he says with the Lord stood with me and
strengthened me. That's interesting because you
say, wait a minute, Paul is in this prison, you know, he's not
eating well, and I'm sure he probably doesn't have a whole
lot of physical strength at this point.
I'm sure they try to weigh him down as much as possible, try to
wear him out. But the truth of the matter is
Paul says that at one point he felt strong.
Even though his outward man was perishing, his inward man was
being renewed. He felt strong in the Lord at
one point, and even to the point where he was bold enough to
stand up and in front of the rulers of a Pagan nation, he
stood up and shared the gospel. So maybe it was better that no
one came because he had time to do all the talking and he took
it. The Lord gave him a window, he
said, But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me so that the
message might be preached fully through me.
He didn't just mention parts of the gospel, he said it was
preached fully through him. He was able to preach the whole
gospel to these unbelievers. What a blessing.
If you have a desire to have an opportunity to teach the gospel,
to share the gospel, to to speak with someone about Jesus Christ,
He will give you that divine appointment.
He will give you an opportunity to do it if you really want to
do that, because He knows that that is a desire that you have
and it is surely His desire that you share the gospel.
So we go, we, we, we get, we get to the point we're closing to
the end now. And he says here that the gospel
was preached to that all the Gentiles might hear it.
And I also was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
He wasn't executed that day because of what he taught the
people were thinking on those things and they were able to get
more time. And then in verse 18, he says,
and the Lord will deliver me. He was delivered from the lion
at that particular day, meaning symbolic for he was delivered
from Nero and from those who wanted to take his life.
He was delivered from those and he says in 18, and the Lord will
deliver me. That was just like the three
Hebrew boys right back in the book of Daniel where he said,
look, you know, I'm not going to bow before your golden, your
golden image. I'm not going to bow before you.
And even if you throw me in this, if you throw us in this
fiery furnace that you're threatening us with, even if you
throw us in there, it don't matter because God is able to
deliver us. I want you to know he's able to
do it. But even if he chooses or he
wills not to, I am. We are still going to be
delivered from you. Rather we delivered in life or
in death, we will still be delivered.
That is a blessing of the Lord. And he said he will preserve me
or he will keep me for his heavenly Kingdom, and then he
goes down. Paul went into a praise and
worship service right there. He started saying glory to God
forever, you know, to him be glory forever and ever, Amen.
He he, he himself began to feel the spirit raising up in him.
And then in verse 19 he talks about, you know, come before
winter. He says Greek Prisca and Aquila,
they are from Ephesus and they worked with Paul.
They were Akeelah was a tent maker just like Paul was a tent
maker. And they met with each other and
they were blessed by each other's ministry.
He says give them, give them a greeting from us and the
household of Onisphorus. Onisphorus back in chapter 1
again, Onisphorus was one of the people who zealously came from
Ephesus and sought out Paul, so that while Paul was imprisoned
there in Rome. Artnisophus was one of the
people who came and ministered to him, kept him company,
blessed him. Erastus was actually one of the
other Co laborers with Paul and he end up staying in Corinth.
The Bible know what we learned about him is that he is actually
a treasure. He works on the treasury in
Corinth. And then there's Trufflemis.
Trufflemis was it was another Gentile who was with Paul.
He was actually one of the reasons why there was this big
anarchy back in Jerusalem. You know, the riot that actually
led to Paul being forced out of there was because of Trophimus,
he said, but he left him in Malita's because he was sick.
OK, so this young man was sick and he needed healing.
So Paul left him in a place where he was able to get care.
And then in verse 21, he says do your utmost to come before
winter, Timothy. Do your utmost.
Do as much as you can to try to come before winter.
And the reason being is because the the the ships were in harbor
in the winter, they couldn't go out.
It was too dangerous for ships to travel over the winter.
So they harbor the ships in the winter.
So if Timothy didn't come before winter, he would not get there
before Paul would be executed. It would delay his coming.
And then he says also Ubilis greets you as well as Putin's
Linus, Claudia and all the brethren.
And then he goes into his farewell.
This is the last line that he goes into.
He says, the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
Again, it goes back to the same thing we were talking earlier.
If this was your last day, what would be your parting line?
What would be your parting line to someone that you cared about?
What would be the line that you would give?
What would you say? Well, Paul's heart was toward
them. He say, may the Lord, may the
Spirit, may the Lord be with your spirit.
And then just as he started his letter, and just like every
other letter, he started with grace and he ends it with grace.
Just as we started our journey with the Lord and grace, by
grace we are saved through faith.
We start this journey with grace and when we end, we will end in
God's grace and everything we do in between.
The time that we start and the time that the Lord gracefully
takes us out of here, everything that we do in between will be by
his grace. So grace be with you all.
Amen. I just wanted to say imparting,
just wanted to mention that as we think about this last letter,
Paul's last time ever being able to talk with Timothy, ever being
able to to be any kind of help to Timothy.
Paul is just emphasizing one thing.
He's saying look, finish, finish what the Lord has given you to
do finish. He said, I have fought the good
fight. I've I've finished the course.
I finished and I kept the faith. Paul is just saying finish,
finish, finish strong. If you need help, a body of
believers is of good help. People can pray with you, people
who can encourage you, people who can help build you up.
That's the way you want to finish.
You want to finish faithfully, finish the race that is set
before us. That's what Jesus Christ did.
He finished. In fact he said at the end of in
his prayer to the Father, he said, I have finished the work
that you have given me to do. I finished it.
Thank you for tuning in to Living Waters of Grace with
Pastor Louis Harrell. We're currently in the books of
First and Second Timothy. Some of the things included in
these New Testament letters from Paul are that the young and
newly established Pastor Timothy was being encouraged to hold
fast to what was true. He was challenged to confront
and address the false teachers that were rising up.
He was also reminded to accept his calling to the ministry with
gratefulness and to address the happenings going on in the
Ephesian church. Paul was imparting his
experience and knowledge to the next generation.
Timothy was receptive to learning and gleaning what he
could from Paul's wisdom. This is how it should be in
ministry across multiple generations.
Those who have lived a little more life should be open to
sharing their successes and also things they've learned along the
way that we're not a wind. The younger generations coming
up can learn and appreciate much from those ahead of them and
perhaps avoid some of the same pitfalls that their mentors work
through mentoring. It's a beautiful relationship
when the hearts are in the right place to learn and grow.
We trust that you're in a community where this is
happening. Older ones providing advice and
wisdom and each side learning and growing from one another.
This certainly was the case for Paul and Timothy as they were
comrades for the sake of the gospel.
For more information on where this teaching came from, go to
calvarychapelonline.com. There you can also learn about
our service times to join us in person.
This has been living waters of Grace.