Brethren, Colossians 1. Let's just read it one more time.
I'm sorry, Colossians 3. Colossians 3, 10. When born of God, you've put
on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image
of him that created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew,
circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or
free, but Christ is all and in all. Now this verse tells us
very plainly, very clearly, that in those that are born from above,
in those that are born again of God, Christ is all. Christ is all. He's in all. That's why we have a new heart,
a new man. It's Christ in you. And when
Christ is in you, Christ is all. Now, here's my subject. Is Christ all to you? Is Christ all to you? The word
is true. And the word is clear, in those
in whom Christ dwells, Christ is all. But is Christ all to
you? Now, first of all, the way that
we come into this world, Christ is nothing to us. The way we're
born the first time, Christ is nothing to us. Psalm 10, verse
four says, the wicked, that's what we are when we come into
the world, the wicked. through the pride of his countenance,
the pride of his own appearance and what he thinks of himself,
the wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek
after God. God is not in all his thoughts. That means God's not in any of
his thoughts. When the Lord dwells in you,
God is in all your thoughts. Christ is in all your thoughts.
He doesn't let you go without thinking on him, because it's
of him that we think on him, and he's not going to let his
child go without thinking on him. But when Christ is not in
a person, he's not in all our thoughts. Most have no need of
Christ because they don't think they're sinners. Worse than that,
though, The scripture tells us that carnal men despise the Lord. Isaiah 53 says we despised Christ
and rejected Christ, and we still do. He is despised and rejected
of men. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. That means hatred against him.
You know, you take a room full of people, and everybody will
talk, you bring up a subject, and everybody in the room will
talk on any subject you bring up, they'll chime in. But you
bring up Christ, and you start talking about these scriptures
in truth, and you'll hear that room go silent. And slowly, they'll
start finding a reason to leave that room. God's not in man's
thoughts by nature. But to some people Christ does
mean, he means something. There's some folks in this world
that they think of him as a historical figure. They believe there was
a man named Jesus. They believe he was a teacher,
a prophet like Buddha who founded Buddhism, or like Muhammad who
founded Muhammadism, Muslim. But they don't, he's not all
to them. There's others who, they go more
than that, he's more than that to them. There's others that
don't, they don't want to go to hell. They want to go to heaven. So they gave their heart to Jesus,
made him Lord of their lives, they say, got their name, they
were baptized, got their name on a church roll, and then went
back out into the world. Seldom ever give him any thought. They made their decision, they
got their name on the church roll, and they'll go hear about
him on Easter, they'll go hear about him at Christmas. He's not in their thoughts either.
They got their jobs and their sports and they want to use their
Sundays for playing golf and doing business. To others, he's
more than that. They're there every Sunday, every
midweek service, they're in the service. They hear messages on
morality and they go out and they try to follow Christ's example. He's an example to them. And
they follow his example. They have a robe of righteousness
that they've worked out. They've worked out this robe.
Scripture speaks of Christ's righteousness being a robe. They
have a righteousness they've worked out. But that robe doesn't
quite cover them completely. And so they need Christ to make
up the difference. They need him to make up the
difference. Christ is not all. their righteousness. He's not
all their righteousness. Others will tell you that there's
no way they could make themselves righteous. No man can be justified
by the works of the law. Christ is the only righteousness
there is. But when it comes to holiness,
when it comes to sanctification, that's a co-effort now. We have
to do our part to be holy. And we do that by going back
to the Ten Commandments. We go to Calvary, to the cross,
to Christ for justification, then we go back to Sinai, to
the Ten Commandments for sanctification. And they'll quote the scripture
like this. They'll quote Romans 10.1. Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. But
now holiness, now you gotta do your part for that. See, Christ
is not all to them. He's not all their holiness.
They have to add their part and their morality and their works
for sanctification. There are people, by God's grace,
that our text says Christ is all to them. Now what does that
mean when Christ is all? Well, I... Go here all the time,
and I'm not trying to impress people with going to new scriptures,
so let's go back here again. Go to 1 Corinthians 1. This says it as clear as I know
how to preach. I'm just going to show you what
this says. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30. Here you go. He said in verse
29, no flesh shall glory in God's presence. You're not going to
have a part in this right here. No flesh is gonna glory in God's
presence. Now watch this. But of him are
you in Christ Jesus. This is what the Lord's gonna
make you know when he's created this new man in you. He's gonna
make you know that God the Father chose his people in Christ in
eternity and that's how his people are in Christ. It's of God that
we're in Christ. It began way back before he created
anything. That's how we were in Christ,
by the Father. And then through this gospel,
as our text says, Christ created a new man in you and gave you
faith, and that is of God. Of God are you in Christ Jesus. You see that? Is that clear? Of God are you in Christ Jesus.
Those folks who Christ wasn't all to them, they said, we made
our choice for him. So he wasn't all in how we are
in Christ. He's not all to them in how they're
in Christ. But for those saved, those that
the Lord has created a new heart, they say Christ is all to me.
God is all. It's of him that I'm in Christ.
I didn't do it. He did it. He did it. It wasn't our choice. And we
didn't accept Him, the Lord accepted me for His sake, for Christ's
sake. Verse 30, who of God is made unto us wisdom. We saw recently
from Isaiah 53, it's by His knowledge that we're justified. It's by
Christ's knowledge we're justified. And He has to be made wisdom
of us, and that's of God. of God as Christ made wisdom
unto you. We don't have spiritual discernment
by nature. Now you can be religious and
you can join a church and you can be very zealous in that religion,
but it not be according to knowledge. That's what Paul said in Romans
10. He said, I bear witness of my Pharisee, the countryman My
countrymen in Israel, the Pharisees, he said, they have a zeal for
God, but it is not according to knowledge. Look at chapter
two right here. First Corinthians chapter two.
Look there. Verse 14, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, they're foolishness to
him, neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned.
But he that is spiritual, he in whom Christ has created a
new man, he discerneth all things, he judgeth all things. He knows
these scriptures, yet he himself is discerned of no man. For who
hath known the mind of the Lord? Christ is not discerned of any
man by nature. It takes God giving you discernment.
And you that know Him, He's given you the mind of the Lord. We
have the mind of Christ. That's when Christ has made wisdom
to you. You're given spiritual discernment.
That's of the Lord. Look at 1 John 5. Hold your place
there in 1 Corinthians 1. Look at 1 John 5 and look at
verse 20. that the Son of God has come
and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is
true, and we're in Him that's true, even in His Son, Jesus
Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. How did you, of God is Christ
made wisdom to you? He came and gave us wisdom. We
have understanding by Him. So now, Are you adding your understanding
to it? No, Christ is all my wisdom. What do you think this means?
It don't matter what I think. What does God say it means? That's
what matters. It's not what I think, it's what
God says. And when Christ has made wisdom
to you, he's all your wisdom. Lord, I don't want to lean to
my own understanding. There's a way that seems right
unto man, and the ends thereof are the ways of death. Lord,
don't let me lean to my own understanding. I need Christ to be all my wisdom. I need Him to lead me. Don't
lead me to myself. All right, back in 1 Corinthians
1.30, And of God is Christ made unto us righteousness. We talked
about these folks who They have a robe, but it don't cover them. You know what the Lord said about
that? The Lord told some in Israel, He said, you're on a bed that's
not long enough with covers that can't cover you. And when the
judgment comes, you're going to be swept away. That's what
it is, trying to come to God in a righteousness by your works,
by what you've done. It's not going to cover you.
But when God makes Christ's righteousness to us, God makes him all our
righteousness. I'm not looking to any works
I did. I don't want to stand before the all-knowing, holy
God who knows everything that I have ever done. I don't want
to stand before him. I can't even remember the sins
I've committed. He can, he knows them all. I
don't want to stand before him by any works I did Christ is
all my righteousness. I don't have any. And when a
new man is created in you, God makes Christ to be your righteousness,
not some of it, all your righteousness. All your righteousness. Paul said in Philippians 3, he
said, I count everything else loss. for the excellency of Christ
that I may be found in him, not having my own righteousness which
is of the law, but that which through the faithfulness of Christ
Jesus, the righteousness which God's freely given to me in Christ
Jesus. He's all my righteousness. He
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. The
law, if you're gonna come to God in the law, the law says
this do and you shall live. No faith is involved in that.
Paul said in Galatians, the law's not of faith. No faith involved,
no grace involved, no help of God involved, nothing. If you're
gonna come to God in law, you're a debtor to do the whole law
of God. You gotta do it all. But when the Lord gives you faith
and he makes you to see Christ is your righteousness, Christ
says, it's finished. He's done it all. He's all the
righteousness I need. God, he's made his people the
righteousness of God in him. That's as righteous as you can
get. The righteousness of God, as righteous as God is, that's
how righteous Christ has made his people. That's what He is
when Christ is all. And then look here now, 1 Corinthians
1.30, and of God is Christ made unto us sanctification. That's
holiness, same word. Sanctification, holiness, it's
the same word. There's some people out there
that they'll say Christ is all my wisdom. They'll say He's all
my righteousness. But they'll say, but now when
it comes to being holy, I have to do my part. There are people
And I believe they're the ones that Christ said if it was possible,
they would deceive the very elect. They sound like they're right
on and everything else, but when it comes to sanctification, that
is between you and the Lord, they say. You gotta do your part. Christ is not all their sanctification. Well, with God's child, Christ
is all our sanctification. Look here in Hebrews 10. Hebrews
10. Hebrews 10 and verse seven. Now let me tell you what, righteousness
is being legally without any guilt or offense at all before
the law. That's what righteousness is,
it's a legal matter. Sanctification, holiness is purity. It's with not being defiled at
all. Holy, pure, and that's a heart
matter. Well, here's why Christ came.
Look at verse seven, Hebrews 10, seven. This is Christ speaking.
Then said I, lo, I come. In the volume of the book it's
written to me, I come to do thy will, O God. Now above, when
he said, sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering
for sin, thou wouldest not. Neither had his pleasure therein,
which are offered by the law. God said, none of that ever put
away sin. He gave that to picture Christ. That's what the whole
Hebrew letter is declaring. He goes through here and shows
us how all the law pictured Christ. But he said that, and then he
said, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first. Christ takes away that old covenant
law. He fulfilled all of that. It
was all in the volume of the book. It was all written of Him,
and He fulfilled it all. He took that away from His people.
That includes the Ten Commandments. If you read 2 Corinthians 3,
Ten commandments were the law written and engraved in stones. It was the ministration of condemnation,
the ministration of death. It's the law of sin and death.
That's what it was given for, to declare us guilty, condemned
before God. But when Christ comes, he makes
you know he's established and fulfilled all the law of God
for his people, and he takes it out of the way. and he turns
you to the glory of the new covenant, and Christ is the glory of that
covenant, because he did it all. Look, he taketh away the first
that he may establish the second, the covenant of grace, and he
says, by whose will, by him doing the will of God, we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
There's priests standing daily, ministering, offering oftentimes
the same sacrifices which can never take away sin. But this
man, after he offered one sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down. On the right hand of God, from
henceforth expect until his enemies be made his footstool. Here's
why he sat down. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. We're of the Holy Ghost as a
witness to us. This is how you're given this
pure heart. Our text says a new man is created in knowledge after
the image of Christ that created him. There's the wisdom. Christ
is, it's created in the knowledge of Christ, we see Christ our
wisdom, we see Christ our righteousness, and this new man is holy within
by Christ our holiness dwelling in us in spirit. And the Holy
Ghost bears witness and says, because he said, this is a covenant
I'll make with them after those days, said, Lord, I'll put my
laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them.
This is the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. This
is the gospel, he writes on the heart. And this is what God declares
in that new heart. Their sins and iniquities will
I remember no more. Now where remission of these
is, there's no more offering for sin. Now you can sit down
too and quit standing and working and offering. No more offering.
Now watch this. Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter the holiest, You gotta be holy to enter the holiest.
The holiest is where God is. That's God's presence, holy God's
presence. We can have boldness, confidence
to enter the holiest because he's made us holy. Who did this? By the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the
veil, that is through his flesh, and we have him as our high priest
over the house of God, now watch what we have. Let us draw near
with a true heart, that's a holy heart, in full assurance of faith,
we saw this morning, Christ said, they're sanctified by faith that's
in me. Having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience, made pure, and our bodies washed with the
water, pure, holy water of this gospel of the word. When He's
done that, brethren, and He's formed in you, Christ is holiness
in you, and He makes you to know Christ is all my holiness. He's
all my holiness. I'm accepted of God. I can call
out to holy God and draw near to Him in the holiest of holies,
and He will actually hear me, because I'm holy in His Son. And the Lord, listen, now here's
where people, wherever Christ is not all holiness, here's where
they go. Yeah, but you gotta continue
that, and you gotta grow in holiness. Now listen, I don't wanna just
be a stickler for words, but this is important. Look, when
you're born anew, and there's a new man created, that new man
is holy. You're not gonna get more holy
than holy, you're holy. You're either holy or you're
not holy, that's just all there is to it. So you're gonna be
holy. Now we do grow in grace and knowledge
of Christ. We grow up, a baby doesn't stay
a baby, a baby grows up. He increases you in knowledge
of him and he gives you more grace and gives you graces. Makes
you more patient, it makes you more temperate, it makes you
more, loving and forgiving and forbearing. He grows you in these things.
But you're not getting more holy and more accepted of God. He's
all our acceptance. And we don't, by our works, do
any of that. He feeds us. He's the bread,
and He's the one that feeds us. Do you take, do you glory in
your body growing? You didn't do it, the Lord did
it. That's why we pray and say, Lord, would you bless this food
to the nourishment of my body? If he stopped blessing that food
to your body, you're gonna die. We don't even take glory for
that. Well, we don't take glory for growing as a holy new man
in grace and knowledge of him either. It's of the Lord that
does this. But you know how he does it? Look back at Colossians
2.6. This is the same message I preached to you when we looked
at mortifying the flesh. This is the same book, same message. Look, Colossians 2 says, As you
have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in
him. Now how did you receive him?
Remember what we saw? How did you first receive him?
Of God are you in Christ? He brought you this gospel of
God are you in Christ, who of God was made unto us wisdom and
righteousness and sanctification and redemption. That's how you're
gonna keep walking. He's gonna keep sending the gospel.
He's gonna keep making Christ all to you and keep renewing
your new man and making your old man to die. That's how he
does it. as you received him, the same
way you received him. So, after this manner, keep walking
in him. It's what Paul meant in Galatians
5 when he said, he told them, you're biting and devouring one
another because you're trying to be holy by the works of the
law. He said, if you walk in the spirit, you won't fulfill
this lust of the flesh. What is that, walking in the
spirit? It's Christ making you have a heart to come here and
sit down and hear the gospel preached and your affection being
set on Christ and God making Christ your wisdom and your righteousness
and your sanctification and your redemption and you're growing
from a baby up into him. And you know what the message
is, what he's teaching him one more? I always use this illustration
of a desk and you got all these things you thought was important
on that desk and things that, you know, that things spiritually
that you had to do or things that you thought was required,
and all this stuff's on this desk. Earthly things you thought
was important. And as you hear this gospel,
that desk just starts getting more narrow and more narrow,
and those things are just dropping off. And it keeps getting more
narrow and more narrow, and those things are dropping off. They're
not important. and you keep going and going
and going and going and when it's all done and there's no
more and you close your eyes in death and you open them, the
only one you're gonna be face to face with is Christ. That's
what he was teaching you the whole time. Christ is all. He's the one thing needful. That's what he told Mary. She
sat there at his feet. Martha's doing all this other
serving. And she said, Lord, don't you
care that I'm doing all this? And Mary's not doing a thing.
He said, she was sitting at his feet hearing the Lord declare
himself and preach himself and declare his glory. And the Lord
said, Martha, you're coming about all this serving. Mary has the one thing needful
that'll never be taken from her. All this other stuff, if you're
trusting in your works and you're trusting what you've done, Paul
said those are to perish with the using. All that's gonna fall
off the desk. Christ is all. He's all. You need him. If you have him, you have all. And let me tell you something,
he is all or he is nothing. He's all to you or he is nothing
to you. There's no middle ground. It's
either all grace and no works or it's all works and no grace.
It's either all Christ and nothing of you and me or it's all you
and none of Christ. It can't be both. All right,
let's go on now. Verse 30, 1 Corinthians 1.30.
of God is Christ made unto us redemption. I'm going to be quick
here. Redemption is, there is a, the
law had us held for ransom. We sinned in Adam, we're guilty,
the law had us held for ransom. And the law required a payment
be made before it would set us free. What was the payment? The wages of sin is death. We earned eternal death. We earned hell. We earned for
God to condemn us for eternity. Now look here, hold your place
in 1 Corinthians 1 and look at Galatians 3.13. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. You know that's what the law
was saying all along, that it required that love right there. Be willing to be made a curse
for those you love. Take the bullet for them. Fall
on a grenade for them. You die for them. That's the
love it takes to fulfill God's law. God is love. That law shows you God's the
only one that loves in perfect righteousness. And how do you
see it? In this was the love of God manifest,
God sent his only begotten son that we might live through him. God provided his own son to die
because he loved his people so much, so perfectly. That's what
the law is declaring. That's what the law requires.
You and me can't do that. You can't fulfill that. When
your neighbor's house burned down, did you say, I'll just
give them my house and I'll live on the street? If you was loved
perfectly, you would. We can't, can we? What did the
Lord tell that rich young ruler? Sell everything you have and
give it to the poor and follow me. He thought he'd fulfilled
the law. He thought he was righteous by his works. Lord showed him,
let's see how much you really love. Sell everything you have
and give it to the poor. Provide for the poor with everything
you have and leave it all and follow me. And he left Christ
and went away. You know why? Christ wasn't all
to him. See, the fulfillment of the law
is Christ loved his people so much, he laid down his life for
a bid, made a curse for us. Suffering the condemnation we
would have had to suffer. And by that, he redeemed everybody
he died for. He paid the price and he redeemed
us from the curse. There's therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. gonna be all your redemption
or is he just gonna be some of your redemption? Now we look
at this and say, well, I know I can't partly be made a curse
and live, so he has to be all my redemption. Well, he has to
be all in all. He has to be all in all. And He came and when He created
this new man, He delivered us from our sin nature in the sense
that He made us be able to believe Him. And one day He's gonna deliver
us from the presence of sin entirely when He brings us into glory
with Him. And then eventually raises us with a new body. That's
redemption in its totality. Redeemed from the curse, redeemed
from your sin nature, and redeemed out of this world. And it's all
Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ alone. Will he keep me and will
he bring me into glory like that? I'm confident of this very thing.
Paul said, he which hath begun a good work in you shall perform
it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Paul said, well, I'm partly persuaded
that Christ is gonna keep that which I have committed to him,
but I know I'm gonna have to keep it too. I'm working to keep
it too. If he'd have said that, Christ
wouldn't have been all to him. But he said, I know whom I have
believed and I am persuaded he by himself is able to keep that
which I've committed to Him. He's all in perseverance. He's all in me continuing sanctified
unto Him and redeemed unto Him. He's all in keeping me. He's
all in salvation. Look here in verse 31, that according
as it's written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. That's what the Lord's people
do. We glory in Him alone. with glory in him alone. All
right, let me give you one last thing here. And I'll say this too, when we
do get to glory, Christ is gonna be all in heaven. Right now to
the believer, he's all our heaven. He is heaven to us. We're not
wanting some other kind of reward other than him. He's all, he's
all. I like what, I think it was Matthew
Henry or one of the old preachers said, if you got the sun, do
you want a candle? If you had the sun in the sky
and it was yours and you had all the light of the sun, were
you going to fret if you don't have a candle? Everything else
about heaven would be You don't want the streets of gold? They're
gold on the street, so we walk on it, because it ain't going
to be nothing compared to him. I don't want anything but him.
Now lastly, so how does this affect a believer? When he's
all to you, he said there, there's neither Greek nor Jew. You know,
when we come into this world, we're superficial. We're very
shallow. We only see the things we can
see and hear what we can hear, and we focus on the outward,
and that's what our religion is by nature. It's all surface.
It's all on the outward what we can see. We judge by outward
appearance. So, but now there's neither Greek
nor Jew. Race has nothing to do with salvation. It don't matter if you were a
Jew or a Gentile. Black, white, it don't matter.
Yellow, it don't matter. in Christ were one. There's neither
circumcision nor uncircumcision. This was a ceremony and the Jews
that had been circumcised, they hated those Gentiles that were
uncircumcised. But all of that pictured how
God gives a new heart and turns you from that fleshly looking
at outward superficial things and trying to say I'm so much
better than you because I've done this ceremony. It's not
whether you were under the law or not under the law that matters.
It's Christ making us entirely new. Neither barbarian, Scythian,
these were uneducated, uncivilized folks that people looked down
on. That's not what matters. It doesn't matter if you've been
educated. You don't educate yourself into
the church of God. He has to reveal Christ in you.
He has to make Christ's wisdom to you. And none of us know as
we ought to. None of us know as he knows us,
and we see through a glass dark. We can't boast about our knowledge
of him. We're at best, in this body right
now, we are grade school children that just barely know our ABCs
and our one, two, three. That's what we are, concerning
spiritual things. Christ is our wisdom. There's
neither bond nor free. If you're in prison, If you were
a slave, the scripture said, and Christ is your all, you're
Christ's free man. You're free. And if you were
free, and Christ is your all, you're his bondservant. You see
that? Where he is. Paul spoke, go to 2 Corinthians,
and in verse 5, and I'm going to end with this. Paul talked
about those that glory in appearance, not in heart. And what he's telling
us here is by one spirit we're baptized into one body, whether
we're Jew or Gentiles, whether we're bond or free, we're made
to drink into one spirit. There's neither Jew nor Greek,
bond nor free, male nor female, you're all one in Christ Jesus. And here's what he said, these
folks that were judging after the flesh, here's what we know
by the gospel. We know all gods that died in
Christ, our old man of sin died. We know we all arose in Christ
and were made new in Christ. We're righteous, holy, redeemed
in Christ. Christ is our wisdom, not gonna
lose one of us. He's the master teaching us,
our prophet, priest, and king. He's everything to us. So here's
our regard for one another. Verse 16, 2 Corinthians 5, 16. Wherefore henceforth know we
no man after the flesh. We're not judging by the outward
appearance. Superficial. We've known Christ
after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more after the
flesh. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things, all those old carnal
distinctions and old ways of judging things are gone. Behold,
all things have become new, and all things are of God, who reconciled
us to himself by Jesus Christ and gave us this gospel, this
ministry of reconciliation, declaring that God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself, not his elect only among the Jews, but
his elect among the Gentiles in all the world. and he did
it not imputing our trespasses to us and hath committed to us
this word of reconciliation. And so I'm standing here as Christ's
ambassador, an ambassador for Christ, as though God did beseech
you right now, I'm praying you in Christ's stead, now be you
reconciled to God. Has he reconciled you? Is Christ
your all? Then quit fighting him and just
come down to his feet and trust him to save you. Trust Him to
carry you all the way to glory. How do you know He will? Because
He hath made Him sin for His people who knew no sin that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And that's what
He accomplished. He made us the righteousness
of God in Him. We must be saved because He justified
His people. Is Christ all to you? Is Christ
all to you? He's all in all His people. In all these ways, is He all
to you? I pray the Lord make it so. All
right, Brother Greg.