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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/jim-frazier/what-god-deserves-from-us/
Apostles, four of them, that wrote the epistles and their closing words in these epistles. And I am not going to take a reading from James, the half-brother of our Lord Jesus Christ. So my first reading is in 2 Timothy.
I should be well versed on what this epistle is about, because your winter Bible readings have been about this matter. But I want to just look at the close of Paul's writing to his son Timothy in the faith.
And we are at chapter 4 of 2 Timothy, and verse 22. 2 Timothy 4 .22. We understand that Paul is at the end of his pilgrimage. He's about to be offered. He's about to die. And this is what he is saying to Timothy.
The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you. Amen. These words are very applicable to us today, because by the time I'm done I'm going to be very brief. The real success in Christian experience is enjoying the relationship that we have with our God and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we try to meet that need in any other way, we are going to be disappointed as much as so many other things are important in the Christian experience. Here he is saying to Timothy, the Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit.
You know, it's interesting. I think it's verse 23 of 1 Thessalonians 5. It talks about the spirit. We're tripartite beings. Spirit, soul, and body. Somehow we have a way of doing it just in reverse order.
We talk about the body, soul, and spirit. However, he is saying something to this dear man. The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. As far as I understand, our spirit is a God consciousness, and so when we were saved, when the Lord Jesus saved us, it pertains to everything about us, this great salvation.
And I am judging here from what Paul is saying to Timothy, and it's very applicable to us today. The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. The greatest thing we have to rejoice in and to enjoy is God has ever made a sovereign choice of us, that the Spirit of God has ever striven with us about our sin and our spiritual need.
And for that moment that we were liberated by the mighty power of God from the bondage of sin, even in that moment in which we were taken out of the family of darkness of which Satan was our father, and God became our father, and Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior.
And when we were saved, we were endowed by the Spirit of God. And so there is that which is here that is to be enjoyed. Paul is saying to it, he is leaving seemingly the last words of his writings to this young man, Timothy.
The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Am I enjoying the Lord Jesus Christ today? Am I enjoying my relationship with God? Am I living cognizant of the fact that I am indwelled by the Spirit of God?
Am I in the good and the value of the work of Christ on my behalf as my great high priest, my advocate when I sinned, the one who constantly intercedes on our behalf when the need is there? So are we occupied today with this truth?
I am linked with divine persons. I have been blessed with this great salvation. And we do have the resources. We have been given the resources to be in enjoyment with communion with God and with a blessed Son of God, the one who saved us.
And so his words are to him as such, the Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. I would judge that that is a longing of the Lord Jesus Christ in relationship to everyone that he has purchased by the shedding of his blood, giving of his life, making payment for us on account of our sins that we could be reconciled to God and to be blessed.
So I think there's really a responsibility perhaps here that I would be concerned about how is my fellowship with divine persons. The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. There's an unfailing love on the part of the Lord Jesus.
He's proven it at the cross. And in daily living, he proves it to us. He cares for us. He shows us so much and he does so much for us that sometimes we don't even recognize it. And it's almost comes, you know, I'm speaking to myself now.
Sometimes I'm not even cognizant of the grandeur of all that my blessed Lord has done and is presently and will yet do for me. So are we in the enjoyment of this? You see, it's all about our fellowship and our enjoyment of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, even he and the Godhead.
And he goes on to say, grace be with you. I cannot think of the grace of God without being reminded, for you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that while he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
And we have been brought into everything that we need spiritually, in and through what we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I hope you're enjoying it today. And I hope I'm enjoying it today. And you know what we enjoy?
There is much more to be enjoyed, because I think the grace of God is something that is infinite. And I think what the Lord Jesus Christ wants to do for us and bless us with is infinite. And we're going to enjoy him for all eternity and the glories of this wondrous person.
But I just thought of these last words that were written by Paul to his son Timothy. And if I sound redundant, listen, this is here for us. This is here for us. The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit.
There's nothing greater and more blessed to us to be living within that fellowship with divine persons. And it's a wonder to us, for none of us deserved it. And yet this is a purpose of divine grace toward us.
And may we make it the priority in our life. And again, I say, I speak to myself, sometimes we go around and we go about and we find our disappointments and we're disturbed about one thing and another and so on.
But, you know, the big picture is we belong to the Lord Jesus. He saved us by his grace. And here we are left with the responsibility to pursue this fellowship, the divine persons makes available to us.
Let's take a move over then to Peter's writing. All the word of God is precious, but I enjoy Peter tremendously because we know how his history reminds us of how Peter acted at times in his pathway of life and his shortcomings.
But his restoration to the Lord is a real thing at the end of the Gospel of John, wasn't it not? And furthermore, everything that he writes in these two epistles confirm that. And so notice here, verse 17 of 2nd Peter, He therefore beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.
That is not talking about salvation. That is talking about the stability of our personal walk as a professing Christian. But then he goes on to say, and these are so beautiful, this is how he concludes his writing, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To him be glory both now and forevermore. Amen. Is our greatest desire in our experience of life and the Christian experience is to know more of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ? I think that's what Peter's talking about here.
But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We can think of the glory of the Lord Jesus in his pre-incarnate glory before he ever took a body, the incarnate incarnation of our Lord Jesus in coming into the world.
But I'm going to tell you there was glory seen in the moral glory of our Lord Jesus Christ as he moved in this world. So flawlessly he moved without sin, without spot, without blemish, without failure.
I often like to see how he spoke to sinners. I like to see how he spoke to his disciples. I like to see how he dealt with the religious people of the day in such a flawless, pure, holy way. And we need to know more about the Lord Jesus Christ and what he said and what he did and how he, in his righteous performance of life and even in his obedience to his Father who sent him, we need to learn of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We need to know more about him. That should be our deepest desire because we can only approach this in this way because realizing that one day this little life is going to be over for all of us and we will be in the presence of this glorious one.
And I believe that even while we live in this life, we are to gain more knowledge and more knowledge and more knowledge of him. And we'll never get the full of it. And I don't believe we'll get the full of it for all eternity as to this glorious person and what he has done.
And the goodness and the kindness of God in dealing with us and bringing in, bring us into this great salvation. And so Peter is saying here, but grow in grace. And in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, is that something that we have a hard time understanding?
It's really our responsibility. And we can come into a fuller knowledge of him. Really it'd be a grand thing if we come into a greater knowledge of him on two or three things that we would learn about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ every day.
That would be kind of a small accomplishment, some might think. Have you ever had times in your meditation of the Lord Jesus in your private prayer life and in your own worship life? I'm not talking on Lord's Day morning, but in your own life, worshiping him in the quietness of your own home.
You ever had that sweet moment when something dawned into your soul relative to the teaching of Scripture that brought you a fresh appreciation of the Lord Jesus Christ? If you think that isn't the highlight in Christian experience, you better think again, because I believe it is, as we wait for the Son of God from heaven to come and to take us to be with himself.
So this is somewhat quite easy to understand, but grow in grace. Think of the grace of the Lord Jesus and how he graciously behaved. I haven't heard a lot there. There's a lot of room for improvement on that on my part.
But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen. Let's move over then to John's writing. Now I found this interesting. I want to look at the last words in his first epistle.
You're going to say, what's the matter? What's the matter with looking at it? I'm not prepared to say which was his last writing. I think it all came in about the same proximity of time. But there's something I did see just recently, and as he is writing his second epistle, John is writing.
He says, having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink, but I trust to come unto you and speak face to face that our joy might be full. I would have to say, shamefully, I didn't know that that is the way the third epistle ended.
I know your great students know all that, but here it is. Verse 13 of the third epistle. I have many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee, but I trust I shall shortly see thee, that we may speak face to face.
So he's saying the same thing at the end of these two epistles. But I am going to look at the closing here of 1 John and chapter 5. Now, our brother Eric has been speaking to us from some of the tender words of this epistle.
We think of the Father who's spoken about so much in this epistle, the Son, the Holy Spirit, personal responsibility, the family epistle, of course. So here we are, verse 29, sorry, verse 20. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may know him.
That is true. And we are in him. That's positional truth. That is true. Even in his Son, Jesus Christ, this is the true God and eternal life. That nearly reminds you, doesn't it, of John chapter 17 and verse 3.
And this is life eternal, that you may know him, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent. And then, after that great summer, as it were, and so much is brought together, even in those closing verses, but then he says, little children, keep yourselves from idols.
Now, that may seem strange, but I think if we really are found enjoying our relationship, the persons of the Godhead, and enjoying the Lord Jesus Christ as we could do better at, maybe there wouldn't have been the need of writing this.
But I'm not condemning it. He says, keep yourselves from idols. Do we have idols today? I got a little note here. I'm going to read it a time or two. And it says this, anything we allow to displace or rob God as to what he deserves, that's an idol.
We can be very, we've been hearing about pride this morning. You know, sometimes people are proud and they're just proud of it. And that's the way it works. And you hear them talk, and it's kind of a big flow of something that comes about their own personal self-appreciation.
I don't know where that fits with practical Christianity, but I guess it should be a message to me that I shouldn't perform that way. Things that we accomplish in life, sometimes people, as they talk about children and grandchildren, you'd almost think they were an idol.
They're very important, and rightly so. But nothing should ever displace what God is deserving of. And therefore, there should be in our hearts a worshiping and a gratitude that just doesn't come at the breaking of bread, meaning it should be a daily activity to be occupied with divine persons and worshiping them, and have nothing that is an idol or would displace what God deserves.
I am obviously not criticizing. I stand in amazement that John writes this right at the end of his epistle here. Little children, keep yourself or garrison yourself. You make it a business that you are not affiliated with any idols, no matter what they may be.
We need spiritual discernment to understand what is an idol. And sometimes, you know, we get very fond of something or someone, whatever the case may be. And we're occupied with them a lot, and way too much, because we owe to our God everything.
One more reading, then, at the end of Jude. Verse 24. Jude has been telling us of last day things, you know, and the misery of this world that's overtaken by sin, and all the shameful things that are going on.
But notice how he says it here in verse 24. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling. That is a thought of stumbling. It is not the thought of any way in which your salvation is interrupted.
For a person is saved, born again, saved by the Lord Jesus Christ, and given spiritual and eternal life. There is a possibility that we can fall. And it goes, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.
He's able to keep us from falling. He's able to keep us from stumbling. But, you know, we can never resist the strivings of the Spirit of God as it seeks to teach us and to guide us. Sometimes we might quench the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God does not have liberty to do what he desires to do with and for us.
But notice as it follows on here. Verse 25. To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty and dominion and power both now and ever, or unto all the ages. Amen. And so we can see here that the Apostle Jude, as he is writing, he's bringing his few words all to a summation here.
And what is he doing? He's bringing us to a focus of something, of someone I should say, the greatness and the glory of our God, and the one that has pleased God to take sinners as ourselves and link them with himself through sacrifice of his Son, to make us children of God, and to keep us and take us one day to forever be of himself.
I know this is kind of a scattered presentation, but I want to say this. I think as these four apostles are writing, they are bringing us and endorsing and seeking to bring us closer to divine persons and appreciation of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know it's a real manifestation that a genuine work has been done in our heart if we respond to God and to our Lord and Savior and seek to practice obedience to him in every way that he presents the Word of God, that we would be obedient people, obedient children for his glory and honor, that we might be a people that would be loyal to the lovely person of the Lord Jesus.
We owe our loyalty to him. Christianity doesn't have to be something where we run around, we try to prop each other up and make us take our next step. We have the Holy Spirit of God within us, and here's the Word of God, and is there to teach us as to the lovely person of the Lord Jesus.
And may we seek the best of our spiritual ability to be imitators of the Lord Jesus, followers of him, and seeking to please him in our Christian experience.