The Integrity of Finishing Well, Part 2

In the closing portion of his second letter to Timothy, the Apostle Paul offered compassionate counsel to his protege.

It's as though Paul was putting his arm around Timothy, giving him wise instruction on how to navigate the future. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll presents the final message in his 12-part series called Walking with Integrity in Times of Adversity. He's chosen to focus our attention on this warm admonition from Paul, drawing relevant application for anyone who wants to leave a lasting legacy.

Chuck titled his message The Integrity of Finishing Well. We turn to you, our Father, confident that in you we have hope, always hope. Because of you, we have been delivered, directed, sometimes rescued, often comforted in the passing of the months of this year. As we approach the end of it, we pray that this approach will be filled with joy, music, great reminders of your son's arrival among us, how grateful we are that he came, and how mindful we are that the same attitude that was in him, you have told, should be in us as well. Thank you for his humility in leaving the magnificence of heaven and coming to such a place as this earth to become one of us. Thank you that he lived among us and was never once contaminated with sin. Thank you for the strength of his life and for that strength as it is transferred to us that we might live in many ways as he lived his life. We give you thanks for the passing of a wonderful holiday, the joy of family and friends, the love of life as we find it in one another. Thank you, Father. We're grateful for those who, to this day, bring us such joy. And though we're separated from many of our friends, thank you for the memory of their lives and the joy of our times with them in days past. We confess our hearts are heavy for those who are wayward, those who have left the path of righteousness and turned to their own way.

Bring them back, Father. Give us the faith of the prodigal's father as he every day waited for the return of his dear son. We trust you, Lord, as we move into this season to speak to us in fresh ways as we celebrate this time of year.

Love has come down and surrounded us and invaded us and changed us. Give us hearts that reach out to those who've never trusted in your son. And now, Lord, we will turn to a very moving section of scripture today. May we hear it well and may we heed the words that are given to us. Thank you for preserving them from the pen of a faithful apostle who served you to the end. We ask these things in the name of Christ, our Savior and Lord. Everyone said, Amen. Everything starts in this fourth chapter with a solemn charge.

Paul has lost nothing of his passion. I solemnly charge you, I urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will someday judge the living and the dead when he appears to set up his kingdom. So he's charging younger Timothy to step into the into the ranks without hesitation, without reluctance. Preach the word, be prepared whether the time is favorable or not, patiently correct, rebuke and encourage the people with good teaching. Wherever you live, wherever you move, whatever may be your circumstance, look for places where you can find the word of God taught faithfully. Because apart from it, you will be embracing nonsense and myths. Verse five, you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don't be afraid of suffering for the Lord. My life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death, it's near. And the apostle acknowledges that his days are now numbered down to hours. So he looks back and says, the Greek reads, the good struggle I've struggled, the race I have run, the faith I have kept. This isn't pride on parade.

This is this is a fact on record. He's simply declaring his life in a few words. You ran part of that race with me, Timothy. Remember it. Remember how we endured. Stay at it. And this faith that we believe in, stand on it. This is an honest appraisal of life. The struggle, it'll be there and it'll stay there.

Only means you're on the right track. And with that, interestingly, he begins a remarkable thing. Remember, remember where he is. He's in this dungeon. He has his memory and it is as sharp as it can be.

Cognitively, he is acute. And I've taken the time, I've numbered them carefully. Sixteen friends are named along with several of them telling where they are at the time. In a dungeon, only his memory and he's able to name one after another after another after another and tell where they are, what they're doing or where they left him or where he left them.

Look for yourself. He says, Demas has deserted me, verse 10, because he loves the things of this world and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia.

Titus has gone to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. I take it that Luke was able to come into the dungeon when the medical situation was at such a point that he needed a physician. I doubt that Luke stayed right there as a constant companion. I doubt the Romans would allow that. This is punishment.

Unfair to the extreme. Only Luke is with me and he says back to Timothy, bring Mark with you when you come for he will be helpful for my ministry. This is John Mark who wrote the gospel by Mark.

This is the one who had deserted them earlier on the journey, but he says now all is forgiven. Bring Mark. Bring him with you when you come. Oh, by the way, in case you wonder if you really want to see Timothy soon, look at verse 21, come before winter.

Can you feel the emotion in that? Come before the leaves fall. Come before the snow flurries blow across the street.

Come before this tomb-like dungeon becomes like an icebox. Do your best to get here before winter, Timothy. Going on with the names, he said, and by the way, when you come, oh, I missed one. I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. And when you come, be sure to bring the cloak I left with Carpus.

There's another name at Troas. That's where he was arrested and chained and brought back to Rome for the final time. So he had left his cloak in a hurry.

Probably it was good weather there or maybe didn't have a chance to grab it on his way out. Now he needs it. And he said, bring my scrolls. It reads books in our Bible, but it really is scrolls and especially the parchments. That would be the fragments of scripture that he carried. Isn't that beautiful? Right up to the end, the man is studying. I love it. Oh, I got to have my books.

Maybe when the light is just right, I'll be able to do a little extra research. And I miss the scriptures. When you're dying, you long for the scriptures. You long for verses that have comforted you through life. Bring the scriptures, Timothy. And then, if you will, drop over to verse 19. Give my greetings to Priscilla, her husband Aquila, those living in the household of Onesiphorus.

What a great man he was. Erastus stayed at Corinth. I left Trophimus sick at Miletus.

Do your best to get here before winter. Publius sends you greetings. And so do Pudens and Linus and Claudia.

These are people we don't know anything more about. Paul's got them on his mind right to the end, right to the end. Acute, sharp, with it. And how much his friends meant. And he wanted Timothy to remember.

Oh, speaking of remembering, I deliberately walked past a man. He especially wanted Timothy to remember. Verse 14.

There's Alexander the coppersmith. He did me much evil, the Greek reads. He did me much evil.

Don't you wonder what that included? I've had evil done against me on several occasions. Sometimes threatening evils. I don't know what happened in the case of Alexander. But he said the Lord will judge him for what he has done. There's no vengeance. That's the Lord's work.

He's finishing well, isn't he? But he also adds this. Timothy, Timothy. Be careful of him. He fought against everything we said. The Greek says every word.

He fought against it. There are some people like that. There are some people just, they just have the gift of criticism.

There is no such gift, but they think they have it. And so they exercise it regularly. And if there's something they can criticize, they'll criticize it. If there's something they don't like, they'll talk about what they don't like.

I often wonder, why don't they just leave? But the church is a great feeding ground for a place like that. My mentor, Howie Hendricks, used to say, where there's light, there's bugs. So remember that. Alexander was a bug. He was in fact a bore in God's vineyard.

By the way, remember this. God dies and relocates. His enemies reload. They're still around. They're still doing evil.

They're still doing mischief. Guard against him, he says. Guard against Alexander.

He'll take you on next. Part of finishing well is to pass along warnings. He wants Timothy to watch out for him when he starts coming to the church at Ephesus. Be careful, Timothy. In former churches, when I have begun my ministry there, good friends warned me of certain individuals to watch out for. One or two here, one there, one or two here.

You know what? Invariably, they were right. Invariably. Carnal people remain carnal people unless God does a magnificent work in their lives. Watch out for them.

Guard against them. They hurt the ministry. Who knows but about this time he hears the boots above him and his time has come.

Before he knew it, he was surrounded by Roman soldiers, one with an axe. You know, wanting to end this well, because it is at the end of this series and because it is such a moving scene at the end, for this is the final period in Paul's writing, I wondered how do I do this best? Well, I have a confession to make. I realized that it would take time to really develop this and I remembered something I had written in my book on Paul back in 2002 and I decided I will do what I've not ever done before. I will read from something I've written. You've reached the bottom of the barrel when you start quoting your own stuff. But knowing the work I'd put into the book and the research, I felt like that would say it best rather than my rambling and trying to say it as best I could today.

Here's my best effort. The manic older prisoner walking stiffly, ragged and filthy from the dungeon was not ashamed or degraded. The squad of grim-faced soldiers never noticed as they frowned and steered ahead, but there was a faint smile on their prisoner's face. Paul was en route to a triumph. The crowning day of his reward. For to him to live was Christ and to die was gain. No axe across the back of his neck would rob him of his triumphant destiny.

It would, in fact, initiate it. They marched Paul to the third milestone on the Ostian Way, outside Rome, to a little pinewood in a glade, a glade of the tombs, known now as Trefontaine. At that place today there stands an abbey in his honor. He is believed to have been put overnight in a tiny cell near the place of his execution. At first light, the next dawn, the soldiers took Paul to a stump-like pillar. The executioner stood ready, stark naked, axe in hand. The men stripped Paul, tied him, kneeling upright, to the low pillar, which exposed his back and his neck. The lictors beat him with rods for the last time.

He groaned and bled from his nose and mouth. And then, without a hint of hesitation, the executioner frowned as he swung the blade that gleamed in the morning sun high above his head, then brought it down swiftly, hitting its mark with a dull thud, and the head of Paul rolled down into the dust. In that brutal moment, silently and invisibly, the soul of the great apostle was immediately set free. His spirit soared into the heavens. Absent from the body, he was at last at home with the Lord. Wherever we may be and however we may die, whenever it occurs, whatever the circumstances, we who know Christ can claim that hope, hear it again. At death, there's a separation. The body remains, the spirit soars instantly to be with the Lord. Absent from the body, face to face with the Lord, and there we are with those we have lost but now found, spending our eternity forever with one another in our heavenly home. But you who are without Christ, there are not words to describe the dread of what you face.

No exaggeration here. The truth is, you will know nothing of a heavenly home. There is no purgatory.

There will be no change after your death. If you die without Christ, into a Christless eternity you will go. Judgment awakes you, and ultimately the eternal flames will surround you forever, without comfort, without hope of ever being removed.

Is it any wonder that we who preach inevitably plead with you without Christ to turn to him? You have a gift offered you that will change your entire way of life as well as your destiny. For you to wait is a risk not worth taking. It can be well with your soul in this life as it was with Paul. To the very end, you can know the joy of no complaints, no bitterness, no blame, no fear, for you are soon to be with the Lord.

But you today must make your decision. You do not know what tomorrow will hold. So for you especially, I ask that we bow our heads together. Please sit quietly. Please pray. If you are hearing me today and you are without Christ, you have no hope apart from him beyond the grave.

There will be no relief. It will not be well with your soul. Those flashes of insight given in the scriptures reveal torment, misery, pain, heartache, loneliness, lostness, suffering.

And so I plead with you today to turn to Christ. Take the gift. He who has the Son has the life.

He who does not have the Son does not have the life, but the wrath of God abides on him. If we can help you make this decision, that is why we exist. Connect with us. We will show you the way.

The path is clear and simple, but it isn't automatic. You must make the decision. Dear Father, as we close on this emotional note, I pray there will be no relief, no rest, not even sleep through the night for those without Christ, that they might turn to you and trust in your Son, Jesus, that it might be for them well with their souls. Thank you for your help in delivering this message. May it be drilled into our minds and never forgotten that we, too, are to fight the good fight and finish the race and keep the faith to the last day of our lives. In the name of Jesus, I pray.

Amen. Concluding his 12-part teaching series called Walking with Integrity in Times of Adversity, you're listening to the Bible teaching of Chuck Swindoll. And if you'd like to learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. Then if you're prepared to dig deeper into this topic, I'll remind you Insight for Living provides interactive study notes for every message.

Please take a few moments to review this popular resource. In fact, we were pleased to read a recent comment about searching the Scriptures. It said, I absolutely loved the year-long study of Matthew. I was a little behind the daily broadcasts, but finally finished it. I cried when it came to an end. The writer continues, I read the commentary on Matthew and did the STS for the entire series. I started and ended each day in the Word.

I was drawn to it like a moth to a flame. Thank you, Chuck and the team, for these resources. Well, you'll find the entire series that ends today, Walking with Integrity in Times of Adversity, available right now in the Searching the Scriptures section of our website. There's no cost to access these interactive study notes. In fact, you can print them out and share them with friends. So just go to insight.org slash studies. In addition, we're pleased to remind you that Insight for Living offers a daily devotional from Chuck. It's called Wisdom for the Way. With this devotional, you're able to start or end each day with inspirational writings from Chuck. And the timeless biblical wisdom will guide your steps and your thoughts throughout the entire year. The devotional called Wisdom for the Way is available when you call 1-800-772-8888 or go online to insight.org slash offer. We rely on your support to make these daily Bible studies with Chuck possible. To give a donation today, call us. If you're listening in the U.S., dial 1-800-772-8888 or give online at insight.org slash donate. Join us when Chuck Swindoll introduces our next series, A Practical Study on Marriage, starting Wednesday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, The Integrity of Finishing Well, was copyrighted in 2021 and 2022, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2022 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.