In the last verse of 2 Timothy
chapter 4, this is probably one of the most precious and touching
benedictions the Apostle Paul used in all his epistles. And
it simply says in verse 22, 2 Timothy chapter 4, The Lord Jesus Christ
be with your spirit. Grace be with you all. Amen. The Lord Jesus Christ be
with your spirit. Very touching act. Very precious. I love to read the apostles'
benediction, all the apostles and the writers that leave benedictions. Paul left some very good ones.
He was writing to the church at Thessalonica. And he liked
to close his epistles with this, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you. Well, that's a sweet benediction,
isn't it? Grace to save you, grace to keep
you, grace to teach you, grace to strengthen you, grace to help
you in the time of need. Grace be with you always, every
day, every moment. What a benediction. He was writing
to the Corinthians in his second epistle to them, and he made
this wonderful benediction, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you
all. The Trinity. The Trinity. And
then, the first epistle, he was writing to the church at Corinth
where he severely rebuked them. And he closes that first epistle
like this, My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. It seemed like there was a reason
sometime for him having these particular benedictions. He was
writing to the Church of Rome, and you know how deeply he went
in his theology in that book. Writing of God's decrees and
God's purposes, all the depths. of the riches, both of the wisdom
and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways
past finding out. And you remember how He closed
that epistle? To the only wise God, be honor and glory forever
through the Lord Jesus Christ. He's benediction. But I guess
probably the most competent benediction, the most instructive benediction,
is the one that I looked at here just now in verse 22. Jesus Christ
be with thy spirit. It's instructive because what
does this teach us about the Lord Jesus Christ? It teaches
us about His divinity, doesn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ be
with your spirit. Isn't that utterly impossible
if He's a mere man? He's in heaven in His humanity,
and Paul said, I pray for you, I desire for you that He be with
your spirit. How is that possible? He's divine. He's the God-man. We can say
such things to each other. My thoughts are with you. But
I tell you, I can't be with you. There's no way that my spirit
can go out of me and keep company with your spirit. It's limited
to me because I'm in your man and you're the same way. But
Jesus Christ is divine. He can be in heaven and His humanity
and be with your spirit. That's amazing, isn't it? That's
amazing. But it even goes further than
that when He says you're the grace or the Lord Jesus Christ
be with thy spirit. Not only with Timothy's spirit,
but he's with your spirit, and he's with my spirit, and he's
with everybody's spirit who belongs to God by new birth. That's a
miracle, isn't it? Listen to what he says in Galatians
chapter 4, in verse 4 through verse 6, a very familiar When
the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law, that you might receive the adoption of sons. And because
you are sons, listen to this, God has sent forth the Spirit
of His Son unto your hearts, crying, Father, Father. He's
sending them to your heart, Bob. He's sending them to Sue's heart.
He's sending them to Bill's heart and Glenn's heart. He's sending
them to every heart that He's regenerated. You know there's
a reason why you and I talk about the same Lord Jesus Christ. And
there's a reason why we love the same Lord Jesus Christ. And
why we believe in the same Lord Jesus Christ. Because we all
have the Spirit and presence of this Christ. That's how we
know Him. That's why we talk about Him
and believe in Him as we do. Just before he left the church,
he gave to his disciples this word. He said, I am with you
always. That's what he told the church.
But he didn't just tell them that as a group. He told them
that as individuals. Some of you, he said, you're
going to go to Greece. Some of you, you're going to
be going to Asia. Some of you are going to Africa.
Some are going to Rome. You're going to be scattered
all over the world. But I am with each one of you
as you go your separate way. Can you imagine these apostles
and these children of God getting separated for years and they
never forgot this promise? They got back together and they
saw their dear brother after years, and one of them says,
you know, the Lord, He's with me. And the other one says, He's
with me too. That's His promise. But He has to be divine not only
to be in heaven in His humanity and dwell in my heart and dwell
in your heart and the hearts of all His people. The Lord Jesus
Christ be with your spirit. The Bible tells us something
else about the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is not
only abiding in His people, but you know He is everywhere. Look
over here in Psalms 139, a very familiar passage to most of us,
but look here and let me read you a few verses. In Psalms 139,
look here in verse 1. Psalms 139. We may have never attributed
this to the Lord Jesus Christ if Paul hadn't told us that he
could be with our spirits. But look here what he says in
verse 1, Psalms 139. The Lord hath searched me, and he hath known me. I mean thoroughly. To know a
man, you've got to get on the inside. That's why we don't really
know each other. Because to know a man, you've
got to get in his spirit, don't you? You've got to get in his
heart. You've got to get in his mind. And David said, The Lord
hath searched me, and he hath known me thoroughly. How can
a man do that? Well, a man can't, but the Lord
Jesus Christ can. And look what he says in verse
2. Thou knowest my downsettings and my uprisings. You understand
my thought aforeoff. You can pass my path and my lying
down. You are acquainted with all my
ways. For there is not a word in my
tongue, but, lo, Lord, You know it altogether. You have beset
me behind, and before You have laid Your hand upon me. Such
knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high I cannot attain
unto it. Whither shall I go from your
Spirit? And where shall I flee from your
presence? If I ascend up into heaven, you
are there. If I make my bed in hell or the grave, behold, you're
there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall
your hand lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say,
surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light
about me. Yea, the darkness hides not from
thee, but the light shineth at the day. The darkness and the
light are both alike. unto thee. Thou hast possessed
my reins. Thou hast covered me in my mother's
womb." I tell you, there's something that can be said about the Lord
Jesus Christ that cannot be said about anybody else, that He fills
all spaces. He's everywhere. It ain't just
that He's been there. He is there. He is there. He's everywhere. He's with you. He's with your spirit. His presence
is there. His presence is with all His
children in their hearts. And He's everywhere. He's everywhere. What a Savior. What a God. And when the Apostle Paul says
here, The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. His meaning
is, His spirit be with you. His presence be with you in a
special way. Jesus Christ is with His people
in a way that He is not anywhere else. He is everywhere, but He
is nowhere like He is with His people. Christ is in the world
because He is everywhere, but the world does not know Him.
They do not know His presence. They don't know His Spirit, therefore
the world is miserable and the world is trouble. But the Lord
Jesus Christ said this to His little children, I will not leave
you comfortless, I will come unto you. What does it mean for
the Lord Jesus Christ to be with our spirit? It means comfort. It means comfort. I tell you,
this I've learned and you have too. There's no comfort like
spiritual comfort. There was a time when you and
I were dead in sin. We weren't even aware that we
had spirits. We were so stupid. We were so
dead in trespasses and sins until He awoken us, until He gave life
to our spirits. And it's only then that we begin
to realize our greatest need is spiritual And when he comes
to our spirits and comforts our spirits, I tell you, there is
no comfort like that, is there? If you comfort a man's spirit,
I'm telling you, he's comforted. I don't care what he may be going
through outwardly. He may be afflicted in his body.
He may have trouble on his job. But I tell you, if that spirit
is comforted, Nothing else matters that much.
If you found out that way, it's that way. I will not leave you
comfortless. I will come to your spirit. I remember Brother Glenn made
a statement last night. We were over at his house, and
he made this statement. We were thinking about this comfort
of the Lord's presence, and Glenn made the statement. There's no
trouble. Like when He hides His face, either. I tell you, if His presence with
our spirits conquers us when He hides His face from our spirits,
I tell you, it's a troubling thing. Here's what David said
in Psalms 30. He said, Lord, in Your favor,
You've made my mountain to stand strong. But that's not all he
said in that verse. He went ahead to say this. Thou
didst hide your face, and I was troubled." His presence conquers
our spirit. His absence troubles our spirit. The world knows nothing of the
presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why they're miserable.
That's why they're miserable. They don't know Him nor His Holy
Spirit. Everybody with His manifested
presence is conquered. is comforted, no matter what
your outward circumstances are, if he is present with your spirit.
Newton said, prison would palaces prove if Jesus would dwell with
me there. And listen to Hebrews 13.5. Let
your conversation, your conduct in this world, your manner of
living, Be without covetousness, and be content with such things
as you have. For he hath said, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee. Therefore we can boldly say,
The Lord is my helper. He's with me. His presence is
with my spirit. He's my helper. He's my strength. He's my joy. He's my peace. Therefore I will not fear what
man can do unto me." I tell you, it's a great advantage to have
his presence, ain't it? I will not leave you comfortless.
I'll come to your spirits. This brings me to something else.
That last verse I quoted to you, I'll be with you always. I'll never leave you or forsake
you. What does His presence do for us? Not just comforts us,
but His presence delivers us from a heart of covetousness
and discontent. Be content with such things as
you have. Let your conduct be without covetousness. Why? Because He said, I will
never leave you. His presence, boy, is a killing
dart into the heart of covetousness and discontent. Ain't it? And
you notice that in yourself? I tell you, the world, you see
people, and they work, and they work, and they work, and they
make all the money they can, but they still want more, don't
they? And you see some people, and they play, and they play,
and they play all they can, but they're still not satisfied.
They want to play more. things. You know one thing that will
heal our discontent. You know one thing that will
satisfy us and deliver us from our evil hearts of covetousness.
You know what? His presence. His presence. Be content. What is it that will
make a man content? His presence. I will never leave
it. And here's the secret of it.
He's with our spirits. And when the spirit of a man
is content, he's satisfied in it. He's satisfied. If you give the inside of a man
satisfied, that's a death blow to covetousness and discontent. And what is it that will satisfy
a man's spirit? Jesus Christ to be with us. Jesus
Christ be with thy spirit. His presence is vital. The Lord
Jesus Christ be with your spirit. If we're going to have any true
and lasting comfort, then that's the way it's obtained by His
being with our spirit. If we're going to be delivered
from discontent and covetousness and be content in our hearts,
It will be with His presence. But it's vital for another reason,
and I want you to look at this in Romans chapter 8. When Paul
says, The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, that's vital
that He be with our spirit. That's a must. Look what he said
in Romans chapter 8 in verse 9. They that are in the flesh cannot
please God. Verse 9, But you are not in the
flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his." Boy, that's vital, isn't it?
For Christ to be with our spirits is vital, because if the presence
of Christ is not with our spirit, he said here, we are none of
his. You know there's people in this
world that will never have the Spirit of Christ. They're not
of his elect, and they'll never have the Spirit. No matter how
old they are, they'll live and die without His Spirit. They're
none of His by election. And then there's His elect that
He hasn't called yet. Hopefully. And they have no reason to believe
they're His either. Because they don't have His Spirit.
They're not His in regeneration. They're not His in the new birth.
They're His by the gift of the Father, but they cannot say,
I'm His. The only people that can say
I'm His in redeeming love and grace are those who have the
Spirit of His Son. There's no communion without
that. There's no friendship without that. There's no enjoyment of
Him without that. None but those who are possessed
of His Spirit and presence can say and have God to bear witness
to it. They belong to Christ in redeeming
love and grace. Bible, that's Bible. There are
Pentecostals that will tell us that you can be saved and not
have the Spirit of Christ. Well, I'll say this, and I'm
probably preaching to the choir when I say this. You can talk
all you want to about salvation and being saved, But if you don't
have the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're none of His. How in the world can a man know
he's saved without the Spirit of Christ? Look at what he says
in verse 15 of chapter 8 of Romans. You have not received the Spirit
of bondage again to fear. You have received the spirit
of adoption whereby you cry, Father, Father, the Spirit himself
beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God."
We can have the knowledge of or the assurance of salvation
apart from the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, can't we?
You're not saved if you don't know Him. To know Him is salvation
and life eternal. Listen to what he says in 1 Corinthians
2, beginning in verse 9. But as it is written, Eye hath
not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart
of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by His Spirit. for the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knows the
things of a man, except the Spirit of man in him? Even so the things
of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received
not the Spirit of the world, But we have received the Spirit
which is of God, that we may know the things which are freely
given to us of God, which things we speak, not as the words which
man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing
spiritual things with spiritual." We can't know Christ, can we?
We can't know the things of the Lord. We can't even believe. We can't repent. Without me,
you can do nothing. How vital it is, therefore, for
us to have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in our hearts. Look
here in Romans 8, chapter 11. Here is something else that is
vital. The Lord Jesus Christ be with
your spirit. Look in verse 11. But if the
Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in
you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken your
mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." What is this? This is our hope of a resurrection,
the resurrection of the body. Paul said if the Spirit of Christ
dwells in your body, you're His temple. You're the temple of
Christ. You're the temple of the Holy
Ghost. And someday, this temple is going to come down. It's going
to be come down. It's going to be destroyed by
death. It's going to decay. But what
did the Lord Jesus Christ say about His temple? You destroy
this temple, and three days, I'll raise it up again. Well,
here's the temple of Christ. and let it be tore down and go
back to the ground, but if it has the Spirit of Christ in it,
there is coming a day that He is going to quicken this temple. Just as He raised Christ from
the dead, He will raise these bodies from the dead. And that
is our hope. So when Paul says, The Lord Jesus
Christ be with your spirit, that is Bible language. That's Bible. Not just for our joy. Not just
for our peace. Not just to guide us. Not just
to reveal the things of Christ to us. But I tell you, it's our
very hope of a resurrection and the assurance and the knowledge
that we're God's children. One more scripture in closing.
I want you to look in Exodus chapter 33 and verse 12. The Lord Jesus Christ be with
your spirit. Exodus chapter 32, chapter 33. I know of nothing, brothers and
sisters in this world, that you and I should desire and seek
more of than the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ be with
our spirits. If Paul desired that for young Timothy, I think
you and I should desire it for ourselves. And we should seek
after it. And this is what we find the
great prophet Moses doing here in Exodus chapter 33. Look in
verse 12. Exodus 33 verse 12. And Moses
said unto the Lord, See, thou saith unto me, bring up this
people. and thou hast not let me know
whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee
by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now therefore
I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now
thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy
sight, and consider that this nation is thy people." And here's
what the Lord said to Moses. And this solved all of Moses'
difficulty. And this verse 14 answered all
his requests and met all his need. This one thing in verse
14. And the Lord said, My presence
shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. Rest. You give a man's spirit
rest, and boy, he's got rest. You give a man's soul rest, and
that's rest indeed. Moses was a laboring man. He
reached the point where he said, Lord, I can't bear all these
people. It's killing me. And the Lord said, Moses, I can
solve that. And here's the way I'm going
to solve that. I'm going to be with your spirit, and I'm going
to give you rest. Well, Moses so valued that, look
what he said in verse 15. Moses said unto the Lord, If
thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. Man, I don't want to go anywhere. I don't want to be anywhere.
I don't want to do anything without Him. Do you? I've often said
this, and I think it would be true if it could be possible.
Heaven would be hell without Him. and hell would be heaven
with him. That's the presence of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And Moses said in verse 16, For
wherein shall it be known here, that I and thy people have found
grace in thy sight. How can we know we've found grace?
How do we know we're His people? Is it not in that thou goest
with us? How do I know I'm His child?
His presence is with me. His Spirit bears witness to my
spirit, and I am His child. Is it not in that thou goest
with us? And look at this. You talk about
separation. You talk about holiness. You
talk about being delivered from worldliness. So shall we be separated,
I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face
of The earth. There's a good reason why you
and I are here worshiping this afternoon. Believe in the gospel
that we believe. We have the Lord's presence.
Let the Lord take His presence from us. I want down here to
evict you or something. It don't matter who preaches
what. Why are we here separated from
all these false gospels? and false Christs and false gods. Why has He separated us and how
has He done it? He's given us His presence. If the Lord had been with Billy
Graham, that would have kept him from all the mess he's got
himself mixed up into, wouldn't it? Yeah. Yeah, it will. It will. You let the Lord be
with our spirits, and He'll keep us. He'll separate us. I don't
have to get with Glenn and Clarence and some of you brothers and
write out a bunch of do's and don'ts and don't go here and
don't go there and abstain from this and do that and do that.
You don't have to do that. Not if His presence is with you. That's what we want. And the Lord said in verse 7,
I will do this thing also that you have spoken, for you have
found grace in my sight, and I know thee thy name. Oh, may the Lord Jesus Christ
be with our spirits for His glory.