Spiritual growth in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ is essential for every believer, as exemplified by the Apostle Peter's journey. While salvation is a gift, continued progress in understanding and living out Christ's teachings is paramount, preventing spiritual stagnation and coldness. The sermon emphasizes that Christ should be enthroned in our hearts, leading to a life of complete devotion and active service, rather than half-hearted commitment. Ultimately, steadfastness in faith and active witness are crucial, especially in anticipation of Christ's return, ensuring we are not swayed by the world but remain empowered ambassadors for Him.
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When you're reflecting upon so many things that are part of the past, you're reminiscing. It's a sign you're getting old. Just face it. You're thinking of so many things that happened in the past, so many things that they're fond memories, and there's so many experiences that you're resurrecting. because you like to think about them. And that includes people, too. There are many people. I think we made a record, and it's fairly accurate, I believe, unless someone's name's been omitted.
There are thirty-four people that have been a part of this fellowship that today they're with the Lord. And I think upon each one of them and remember many things that are so pleasant. And I know for certain that they wouldn't be back with us even tonight for one moment because they're with the Lord. And that is far better. To depart this life and to go to be with Christ is far, far better. It is with anticipation, just as Gene reminded us last night, you get the thinking about going home.
Going home. But God sovereignly hasn't seen fit to call us home yet, and we have responsibilities. If I were to say one thing to these young people, And most of those people that have been giving reports concerning what the Lord has done and is doing in their lives, all of it indeed is so encouraging. But I would say please don't let up. There's a verse of Scripture, and if you're familiar with the writings of the Apostle Peter, He closes that second epistle with a verse that is often quoted, a verse that is so appropriate for every believer's life.
He says, continue to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We dare not stop growing. we must make some progress every day in our Christian life. No such thing as standing still. When I think about most of us in this room tonight, there are some young people here in the room this evening, but when you get up about twenty or so, I'm told, I don't know anything about this, but I'm told this, and now I believe it, more and more every day, you start deteriorating.
There's a rebuilding process that goes on in the body, but at some stage in the development of your life, you start going the other way, and you begin to deteriorate. You're just falling apart. You don't believe it. Ask some of us that have kind of over the hill. you begin to fall apart. That should never be true in our Christian life. I'll remind you, if that is true, you're in trouble. You're going downhill. You're not standing still. No such thing is neutrality. You must make progress in the things of God.
I was just talking with Leroy King before the service started. Leroy says the last twelve years or so, his retirement years have been exciting times. He still studies the Word of God, and he's excited about it. And I know Ror King because we were in grammar school together, so I know about how old he is. He might be a little older than I am. Probably is. but he's still excited about being a believer in our Lord Jesus Christ. If you ever lose that enthusiasm and that desire to know more and more about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're in trouble and you're out of the will of God.
I believe the reason so often that The inspired writer in the New Testament wrote certain things is because the Spirit of God allowed him to speak out of his own experience. The Apostle Peter knew something about failing to grow in grace and knowledge of the person of Jesus Christ. He spent a lot of time with the Lord Jesus. Peter is one of those figures. in Scripture that most people feel an affinity toward Him. He's so much like you and me.
He had his weaknesses. He had his shortcomings. He could be a tempestuous character. He could wield a sword. He could speak out with great swelling words and say, Lord, if they all deny you, not me, I'll be standing right by your side. He said some foolish things. And the Lord Jesus Christ said one day, Peter, Satan has desired you that he might sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you.
a man that out of his own experience of being so intimately associated with the Lord Jesus, he never really had made a lot of progress in growth in the area of grace and knowledge concerning the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember he's the one that said, Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God. statement that came forth out of the soul of that man that was given to so much rash behavior. But he recognized in the person of Christ that he was someone very special.
But you know we can even recognize in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ someone that is special. The unspeakable gift of God. and still fail to make much progress in growth in the area of grace and knowledge of the person of Christ. I'm so thankful that those dear souls, these young men and women that we've been hearing from, they have made progress in their spiritual development. They've grown. And that's important.
I'll remind you, if you do stop growing spiritually, you're going to get cold in your heart. I think one of the things that marks those out that sometimes begin to lose interest in the things of God. No spiritual growth. No interest in the Word of God. This is God's menu for you and me. It has every spiritual vitamin that is essential for spiritual growth. For that development of a strong, robust, active Christian life and witness and testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Being gracious. Oh, I think Peter could at times be very gracious. if the occasion called for it. But my any thought of graciousness could be dispelled in a moment. That temperament of his, that personality of his, that there were flashes of fire. And he could respond. And it took a real work of the Spirit of God in that man's heart. You read so many things about Peter, if you read and look at his life, that after Pentecost, after he was indwelt and filled with the Spirit of God, he was a different man.
There was a boldness there. There was that stability of character about the Apostle Peter. And you can examine his life. Not one mark, not one thing. that you find in Scripture regarding Peter, as far as that rash behavior, that lack of real grace, being gracious in his behavior, never an indication after the Spirit of God had indwelt and filled that special vessel that God had singled out to carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world.
And that's so important for you and me to remember that. It's one thing to be saved by the grace of God. And it's wonderful to be able to say, I know my sins are forgiven and I'm on my way to heaven, but how have you progressed since you first met Jesus Christ? I was just reading before I came to the meeting tonight in that first chapter of Colossians, that He is to have the preeminent place. Jesus Christ should have first place. He should be enthroned in our hearts.
And if He's not, if He's not enthroned in our hearts, He's not where He belongs in our lives. When I read in the Word of God that I can't do anything without Him, I can't do anything for the glory of God apart from God's enabling grace as revealed in the person of Christ, how important it is to grow and develop. I think Paul knew a whole lot about this. Paul was a man that was zealous for knowledge, knowledge in many areas of life. When he found Christ, Christ occupied the very center of his whole life.
Everything that he sought to learn in some way somehow was identified with the person of Christ. He had recognized Christ as a source of divine life that had been imparted to him, and it thrilled his soul. It would cause him and others to say, I am a bond slave of Jesus Christ. I'm making a commitment, a devotion of heart to Him in which He will be first in my life. He is worthy of my complete devotion. I will give my life. And that's exactly what the Apostle Paul provided for us in the way of instructions when those words were penned in Romans twelve one.
I would beseech you, therefore, brethren. I would pray, I would beg of you, to recognize you should present your bodies as a living sacrifice unto God. It's the most reasonable thing you ever did in view of all that He has done for you. And it thrills you to hear Christians, believers, men and women that we have known from their youth, and today they are saying, Jesus Christ means so much to me in my life.
He has become a part of their life, and they have attached great importance to the person of Christ in their lives. That sort of recognition and to see that growth in grace and knowledge of the person of Christ. that development that speaks of spiritual growth. I know when we see the kids grow up and they begin to mature and they get a little taller and they get a little broader and they're able to sometimes excel in sports, you feel a sense of pride about the way they are developing physically.
But the longer I live, the thing that thrills me most is to see believers in Jesus Christ develop spiritually. Begin to grow the spiritual muscle and fiber of their Christian life. It's strong. They're strong in the Lord. They're able to stand. And indeed, we must be strong if we're to stand in these days in which we're living. And again, I would remind you, as Peter pins those words in that third chapter or second Peter, he looks back and he reflects upon those living in these last days in which there are scoffers.
There are those that are saying, Where is the promise of the coming of the Son of God? There's a lot of those still around. Oh, you Christians, you've been looking for Jesus Christ to come for two thousand years. He hadn't come yet. Peter said, be very careful that you're not influenced by those that have never had the touch of Christ upon their lives and their hearts. Be very careful. Don't be of the same mind. Don't be swept away by the spirit of the world in which we're living. for young men and women to maintain that steadfastness in their life.
And again, I'll remind you, this was detected in the testimonies of these that have borne testimony this day and last night concerning their faith in Christ and what He has done for them. Still looking with a steadfast hope to the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ, we're going home. When will he come? Today. I know James says perhaps today, but today. Today. Know perhaps about it. Today. He's coming. You say, well, it's getting pretty late.
If he doesn't come today, he'll come tomorrow. And that'll be today. He'll come today. But when we have that tiptoe expectancy about the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ, I believe we're right in the center of God's will, because it does something to us. I think it's one of the greatest deterrents to loose, lax Christian living. If we keep in mind the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ, I'm going to stand in the presence of the Son of God. I followed the instructions in Scripture.
I've enthroned Christ in my heart. I can say with Paul, for me to live is Christ. I've made spiritual growth in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. It's the kind of knowledge that has enriched my life. And beloved, unless you're growing, unless the person of Jesus Christ and the knowledge of Him has been expanded over these years that you've been saying, your life has not been properly enriched. Because he wants us to be enriched with a consciousness of his presence and to be able to detect at any moment his will for our lives.
He wants to fill our lives. He wants us to act when He beckons us to act. We live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us. Let's be sure we're growing. Let the watchword be until I see Jesus Christ, the Son of God, face to face and stand in His presence. I'm going to do all that I can do. with the help of the Spirit of God to make progress in my Christian life. No half-heartedness.
The book of Jeremiah says, you know, those that are half-hearted in their commitment to the Lord, God takes no knowledge of half-heartedness. So if you are saying, in some way, I'm just yielding some little part of my life, or some percentage of my life and what I have and my activities, God wants all. He wants all. And you know, the thing that can sober you up sometimes is to be aware that God knows all. And he knows where you and I stand tonight.
You know, I know that the Word of God warns us about being judgmental, and we're not to judge one another. I'm not judging you. Please don't judge me, because it is God, and God alone, that knows how to judge righteously. But we must encourage each other. We must exhort each other to a steadfastness in which we grow. in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was a costly experience for Peter not to grow spiritually, not to know more about the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It will cost you and me. And you know, the body of Jesus Christ suffers because of this. Every member in the body, every joint supplying a need within the body, This body of Jesus Christ is a living organism made up of born-again believers in Jesus Christ. And every member in that body has a place, and it has a role that it must play. And you know, the body of Christ suffers today because there are some that are not taking their faith in Jesus Christ seriously.
They're just kind of drifting with a tide in and out and leaving themselves wide open sometimes to all sorts of things that certainly do not honor the person of Christ. Let's exercise that steadfastness, that care. I'm so thankful that these testimonies and in these testimonies we got those strong indications that these young men and women are just as assured of the salvation of God in the person of Christ, and that it is the one and the only way to go in this life.
They're just as assured of it today as they were when they were young people, perhaps in the Awana program, in the Sunday school, away at the Bible camp, I'm still persuaded it's really the only way to go. And yet you know in this world tonight we are in a minority. Most of the people in this world tonight are still on the broad road that leads down to destruction. And I want to leave you with these words. Jesus Christ left us with some awesome responsibility.
Do you know that you are His representative? Paul says we are ambassadors for Jesus Christ. We are His witnesses in this world. We are filled with His Spirit. We are empowered to tell others with boldness about the person of Christ. And it's the only way they're going to find out about the Lord Jesus Christ. That's that awesome responsibility that He's entrusted us with. to tell others about the Lord Jesus.