Second Timothy four, we are going
to finish, if the Lord is willing, if he tarries for 30 more minutes,
we are going to finish our study of Second Timothy this morning. We've been going through this
for quite a while. I am so thankful the Lord allowed us to go through
this book. This has been such a blessing
to me. I believe it's been very profitable.
I'm very thankful for it. And the last verse is our text. This is the only verse we haven't
looked at. Verse 22, it says, The Lord Jesus
Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you, amen. What a wonderful verse. What
a wonderful way to end a letter. These were Paul's final words
to Timothy. And these were Paul's final words
to all of God's people. This is the last letter that
he wrote. First and second Timothy were
his last two letters. And this is the last of the two
and the last verse of the letter. These are his final recorded
words. And the way he ended this is
the way he ended most of his epistles to all the different
churches that he wrote to. I just want to show you some
of these. Turn over to 2 Corinthians 13. Second Corinthians 13, look at
verse 14. It says, the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the
Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen. Don't you just want to
hang on that? I just want to hang on to that
forever. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, love Communion
be with you. Let it be with you. Look at Galatians 6 verse 18. Brethren, the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Grace. Look at Ephesians 6. Verse 24. Grace be with all them
that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. Look at Philippians 4. Verse 23, the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ be with you all, amen. We see in the theme, the
common theme, let's just work our way back to 2 Timothy. Go to Colossians 4, verse 18. The salutation by the hand of
me, Paul, remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen. 1 Thessalonians 5. Verse 26, I just like this one,
we'll include it. Greet all the brethren with a
holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read
unto all the holy brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you. Amen. Turn the page, 2 Thessalonians
3.18. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you all. 1 Timothy 6. Verse 20, oh Timothy, keep that
which is committed to thy trust, avoid profane and vain babblings
and oppositions of science, falsely so called, which some professing
have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Grace, amen. Where are we, first Timothy?
No, did I just read first Timothy? I don't know what I told you,
but it doesn't matter. Go back to our text. You get the point. Grace,
grace. Okay. Grace, grace, grace. Now, not only in the last letter
that Paul wrote to Timothy, but in the last letter that Paul
wrote period, his last words were grace. Grace be with you all. That's
the final word, grace. That is the sum of salvation. That is the hope of glory. That's the message of the gospel
to sinners, grace. Grace, brethren. Paul said, that's
my great desire for you. I repeat that. I second that. That is my great
desire for you. Oh, if men and women could just
get a hold of grace. Men and women, they cling so
tightly to works. It takes God Almighty to open
the hand and let that go. We don't really cling to grace.
Grace clings to us. Grace, grace. All right. What is grace? Here's the answer. It's Christ. It's Christ. Look right here at 2 Timothy
4 verse 22. The Lord Jesus Christ be with
thy spirit. Grace be with you. Amen. If God's
grace is with us, what it means is a person is with us. That's what it means. A person
is with us. We all, we all go through things. You know, God's people are always
going through something, some kind of trial, something. And whenever a brother or sister
goes through something difficult, we say things like, My thoughts are with you. We say things like, my prayers
are with you. Our hearts are with you. Our sympathy is with you. Our
pity, our compassion is with you. What we're saying in that
is, I wish there was something that I could do to physically
bear this burden with you, but I can't. Our sympathy is in the
fact that you're the one having to go through this. Do you know that our Lord has
said that his thoughts are with his people? And his prayers are
with his people. And his sympathy and his pity
and his compassion is with his people. But he didn't stop there. He didn't say, our Lord did not
say, I deeply feel for you right now, but there's nothing I can
do about it. You're on your own. He didn't stop there. Aren't
you so glad he said, I am with you. I am with you, not just
my thoughts, even though his thoughts are precious. David
said in Psalm 139, how precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them. Does that warm your heart? You
ever get a call from somebody and they say, I was just thinking
about you and thought I'd give you a call. That means so much,
doesn't it? All right, listen to this. David said, if I could
count how many times you have thought on me, it would be more
than the sand. That's a lot of time. That's so precious, his thoughts
are precious, his thoughts are great. But he said, it's not
just my thoughts that are with you. And it's not just my prayers
that are with you. He said, Father, I pray for them. Peter, I've prayed for you. And his prayers are effectual
and fervent. He's the righteous man. They
are very effectual, very fervent. His prayers contain groanings
of intercession that we could never utter. But he said, it's
not just my prayers. It's not just my sympathy. It's
not just my pity. It's not just my compassion,
even though his compassions fail not. He said, it's not just my heart
that's with you. He said, I am with you. I am
with you. And you think about that. Think about all those times in
the scripture that it was proven the Lord was with him. You know,
Paul found himself in trouble one time and the Lord whispered
in his ear, I'm right here, right here with you. Paul was on a
ship, you know, he was gonna go down. Fear not. As long as they're behind the
ship, they're gonna be fine. He's with us. Paul said, Timothy,
the Lord Jesus Christ himself be with you. Christ is with us. Christ is literally with his
people. He is with his chosen, elected,
redeemed, particular people. That's who he's with. He said, I'm with you always,
even unto the end of the world. Verse 22, Paul said, Timothy,
the Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you. Not just to you, but with you. Amen. Turn over to the scripture
I just quoted. That's Psalm 139. Psalm 139, verse 17, it says, how precious also are thy thoughts
unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they
are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with
thee. David is saying, oh, I thank
you for your thoughts toward me. But what really comforts my heart
every morning when I wake up is knowing that I'm still with
you because you are with me. You're with me. Turn over to
Isaiah 41. We read this Wednesday night. Isaiah 41 verse 13 it says. For I the Lord thy God will hold
thy right hand. Do you know to hold somebody's
hand, you have to be with them? You have to be with them. Look
at verse 10 right here. Fear thou not, for I am with
thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee. Yea,
I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. Verse 13, for I, the Lord thy
God, will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not, I
will help thee. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and
you men of Israel, I will help thee, saith the Lord and thy
Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. I'm with you, fear not, I'm with
you. Paul said, Timothy, this is my desire for you. And I would
like to name all your names. I'd like to just go down the
pews and name all your names. And I kind of like to put mine
in there too. This is my desire for me. This is my desire for
you. The Lord Jesus Christ be with
your spirit. And in him being with you, Grace
being with you. Grace be with you. John 117 says,
the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. If Jesus Christ is with us, then
grace and truth are with us. And here's the truth concerning
God's grace being with us. Turn over to Romans 3. Romans 3 verse 23, it says, For all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by
His grace. If God's grace is with us, then
we are justified freely Verse 24 says, through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. God's grace is justifying grace. What does that mean? What does
justified mean? Years ago, in the town that I
grew up in, there was a local incident. A police officer had
an altercation with someone, and I don't remember the details.
I was young, but the officer ended up shooting the suspect,
and the person died. And there was a big investigation
into it. There was a trial and all that
kind of stuff. And after it was all looked into,
it was deemed that the officer was justified in his shooting. No wrongdoing had been committed. All right. What that means is
no sin was committed. He was justified in what he did.
He was justified. He was in agreement with the
law. He was justified. What does it mean to be justified
before God? That means when God looks at
you, he says no sin has been committed. None whatsoever. That's amazing, isn't it? Justified. Justified. Well, verse
23 right here says, all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. I have sinned. I know I have
sinned. How could God look at me and
say justified? Verse 24 says, being justified
freely by His grace. That's how, His grace. What is His grace? Christ is
His grace. You could just say Christ right
there, being justified freely by His Christ. That's how we
were justified. through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. Redemption means the payment,
the payment of blood. God's gift to his people was
a payment of blood in Christ. That was his grace, that was
his gift, that was his favor and kindness. Paul said, I was
crucified with him. Grace was with me. I was crucified with Him. My
sin, His blood. My condemnation, His death. I was with Him. He was with me.
We were made one with each other. Look right here at Romans chapter
5 verse 20. Romans 5 verse 20. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. God's grace, His gift, it was
an abounding gift, an abundant gift. Verse 21 says, that as
sin hath reigned unto death, Even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. God's gift was a reigning gift. It's sovereign grace. You know,
the name of our church is very hard to say and spell. I have
to say it a lot. Where do you pastor? I have to
say it. We go buy something that's tax exempt. I have to say it.
Kingsport, they got Kingsport, but sovereign, S-O-V-E-R. I just
like, I have to say it, spell it. I love that that word is
in our name. This is sovereign grace. That
means it's God's grace. That's what it means. It's grace
to whom he will be gracious. And to whom he will be gracious,
it's abundant. It's the grace of our sovereign
Lord. Turn over to Ephesians 2. I'm
done. Ephesians 2. Verse 8, for by grace are you
saved. Through faith and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift or it is the grace of God. By grace, you're saved. It's
saving grace. If grace is with us, it's saving
grace because it's Christ's grace, the savior of his sinful people.
So Paul's last words to Timothy, his last recorded words to all
of God's people are, this is my desire for you. If this is
to you, it's of God. It's not of me, I can't impart
it. It's not of you, you can't impart
it. If this is to you, it's of God,
but this is all my desire for you. The Lord Jesus Christ be
with thy spirit. Grace be with you. Grace be with
you. Why, Paul? Why? Because if Christ
is with you and if his grace is with you, then you're justified,
you're redeemed, and you're saved. Period. Amen. You're dismissed.