A GROWING IN GRACE
Dr. W. A. Criswell
2 Peter 3:18
04-16-87
Thank you, dear Martha Branham. And
welcome, the great throngs of you that are in God's sanctuary this high
noon. Remember, if any moment you must leave, you will not disturb me and
all of us will understand. This is a busy lunch hour and you stay as long
as you can and leave when you must. This is the seventy-first year that
our dear church has conducted these Pre-Easter noonday services. With my
predecessor, Dr. Truett, and in the years of my pastorate the services now
number seventy-0ne years. The theme this year, as was announced by Dr.
McLaughlin, is THE GOLDEN CHAIN OF SALVATION. On Monday, A
TURNING REPENTANCE; On Tuesday, A CONFESSION UNTO SALVATION;
yesterday, A BAPTISM INTO THE FAMILY OF GOD; today, A GROWING IN THE
GRACE OF OUR LORD; and tomorrow, Good Friday, OUR ENTRANCE INTO HEAVEN.
There are two letters in the New Testament written by the apostle
Peter. And he closes his second letter with the words, "But grow in
grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him
be glory both now and forever. Amen" [2 Peter 3:18].
Growing in Grace. We begin with a
commitment to the Word of God. This is our guide and our foundation, our
chart across the sea, and our map across the uncharted land, the Bible.
This great throng of a thousand young people and youngsters in our academy, are
too young to remember, they were not even born, but to us who have been in the
pilgrim way, many of us can recall the coronation of Queen Elizabeth [II], the
present queen of the British Empire. And in that coronation—one of the
most dramatic of all the moments in the gorgeous ritual and impressive
ceremony—was occasioned by the archbishop of Canterbury, who is the titular
head of the Anglican communion, when he presented to the Queen a Bible.
And this is what he said in the presentation, "Our gracious Queen, to keep
your Majesty ever mindful of the law and the gospel of God as the rule for the
whole life and government of Christian princes, we present you with this Book,
the most valuable thing which this world affords, this book. And how
appropriately said, the most precious of all the possessions of humanity, this
Book. The universe is upheld by the Word of God. Hebrews 1:3:
“Upholding all things by the word [of his power].” We are convicted by
the Word of God; Hebrews 4:12, 13: We are born again by the Word of God;
I Peter 3:25, 27. We are to live by the Word of God. Matthew 4:4:
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of
the mouth of God.” We are to work, we are to walk by the Word of
God. Psalm 119:105: “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my
path.” We are convicted of sin by the Word of God. Psalm 119:11:
“Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.” And
we are to die by the Word of God. The beautiful, preciousness of the
Lord's promise in Revelation 3:10: Because thou has kept my word, I also will
keep thee in the hour of trial that comes over all the earth.” Living and
dying by the Word of God.
In these days gone by, there was a beautiful
and gifted and gracious business woman in this city who was a faithful member
of our dear church. In her many journeys to New York on business trips,
she met and fell in love with a producer of plays on Broadway. He did not
write the plays, he produced them. And after they were married, he
decided to retire from his Broadway productions and come down here to live in
Dallas. He was as much a pagan, a heathen, as I ever met in my
life. All of his days, been up there in that big town producing those
plays on Broadway. But he came to church and he was wondrously and
gloriously saved; just a marvelous conversion. Oh, my heart was so
grateful to God, and my anticipation of his work in our church was so full of
brilliant expectation. I could just see our church doing, oh so many
things under his direction and with his help. We have a little theater
over here, Ralph Baker Hall. We have people who would love to share in
dramatic presentations of our Lord. Oh I just had so many dreams and in
the midst of them. He suddenly died. Oh, I was just crushed.
Well, when I went to the chapel, to the funeral home, to bury him, and I looked
into the casket, he had a Bible in his hand. Just like that, lying in
that casket with a Bible in his hand. And I turned to his gifted wife and
I said, "In all the years and the years I have been a pastor, I have never
seen that; lying there with that Bible in his hand and to be buried with the
Word of God pressed against his heart." And she replied to me, she
said, "When he was converted, when he was saved, he read the Bible all the
time. When he would shave, he would prop it up by the side of the mirror
and as he shaved, he would read the Bible. When he would wait for me to
prepare lunch or dinner, he would sit there and read the Bible. And
before we went to bed, he read the Bible. And,” she said, "when I
looked at him in the casket, his hands seemed so empty; and I had so often seen
him with a Bible in his hand. So,” she said, "I went upstairs to our
bedroom and I got his Bible and I just placed it in his hand. It seemed
so appropriate." I have said publicly, many times here in this
sacred place, when I die, I want them to place my Bible in my hand and I want
to be buried with this Book next to my heart.
Growing in grace. After our conversion,
and after our baptism, and now belonging to the family and the household of
God, our guide is this Book, the Word of God, the Spirit of the Lord speaking
to us through these inspired pages. Growing in grace. A time in
every day just for the Lord, a devotional time, a moment of meditation.
When a young preacher will come by and shake my hand, and he will say, "If
you had just one word for a young preacher what would you say?"
Immediately, I have always answered, "Keep your morning for God."
In the afternoon, do anything the church would ask. In the evening go to
any meeting arranged, but in the morning, stay to yourself, you and God, to
read the word, to pray, to meditate, to talk to the Lord and let him talk to
you. I say to the young man, if I have time to visit with him, "When
Sunday comes, they will know whether you have been with the Lord or not.
Preach out of the fullness and out of the overflow of your life."
All of us, every day ought to have a sacred place and a sacred time when God
speaks to us and we speak to the Lord.
Growing in grace, accepting an assignment in
the church. Doing something, it does not matter. It was because of
an altercation with the disciples about who would be greatest, that the Lord
washed their feet. To be humble in our service does not matter. If
a bank president, to teach a class of little junior boys or to stand at the
door to hand out a leaflet, a program or to open the windows or to sweep the
floor or to knock at the door, to do some humble service for Christ. But
always, faithful, to be there doing it. Growing in grace, accepting a
humble ministry in the house of the Lord and in the family of God.
And one other. Growing in grace,
accepting our assignment in life as from heaven. Wherever it is, God has
placed me, and in whatever circumstance I walk and live, may I receive it as
from the Lord. In the first chapter of this Second Epistle of Peter, out
of which I am speaking; growing in grace, he refers to the word of the Lord how
he should die. Do you remember it? It is in the twenty-first
chapter of the Book of John. The twenty-first chapter of the Gospel of
John is an addendum. It is an appendix. It was added, I think,
years and years after the Gospel was written. John closes his gospel at
the twentieth chapter, closes it gloriously. Then, in some of the years
that followed, it could of been many, many years, John wrote one other chapter,
it is the twenty-first and it is a tribute to his old friend Simon Peter, who
has been dead years and years and years. Anyway, he refers to that in
this twenty-first chapter, and the reference is this. When Jesus invites
Simon Peter to follow Him, He prophesies the issue, the ultimate of his life:
that he will die by crucifixion. He will die with outstretched
hands. Peter is to follow our Lord unto death and unto death by
crucifixion. Then, Peter turns and sees John, his old friend and fishing
partner. He sees John also following. And Peter turns to the Lord
and says, "Lord, if I am to die by crucifixion, what about this man?
What about John?" And the Lord replies, "If I will that he
tarry till I come, what is that to thee? You follow me” [John 21:22]. If
I will that John never suffers, that he never dies what is that to you, you
follow me." And the gospel closes with Simon Peter following Jesus
to crucifixion and to death, and John living beyond 100 years of age. Isn't
that hard to accept? The providences of life, “you will be
crucified.” Someone else may never experience the harsh judgments and
realities of which life is capable. But we are to accept them, whatever
life and lot is assigned to us from heaven. We are to accept it in
humble, grateful, praise, and appreciation from God. He chooses, God
chooses.
There was a little crippled boy who cried to
the conductor of the streetcar, "Mr. Conductor, Mr. Conductor, wait up,
wait up, wait up." And the conductor stopped the streetcar and the
little crippled boy ran, climbed up into the car, sat down by a man. And
the little fellow was so bright and so happy. The man by whom he sat,
turned to him and had the temerity to say, "Son, you are so bright and you
are so happy and you are so crippled, how do you be so happy and bright?"
And the little lad replied, "Mister, my father says to me, that God always
gives us what is best. And don't you think I ought to be happy with what
is best?" Lord, in heaven, what a glorious response to the
providences of life. God gives what is best. And I will rejoice in
His joys for me. That is the grace of God in our lives. As you
know, the great coliseum in Rome was finished about 70 A.D.* And
the first Christian to be fed to the lions was Ignatius, the pastor at
Antioch. And they say that when Ignatius stood in the midst of the coliseum
and the hungry lions were loosed from their cages and they rushed toward him,
that Ignatius held out his hand to the leading lion and said, "Today, I
begin to be a Christian." That is what it is to follow the Lord into
any providence of life or any choice or assignment that heaven makes, and to
rejoice in it. This is the grace of God. And Lord, may I be found
faithful in the assignments that God hath given to me.
Our Lord, as we sit at Thy feet, may we learn
the deep things of the meaning of life from thee. And give us strength
for the way and a rejoicing thanks giving heart, whatever the providences in
Thy dear and precious name. Amen
.
