If you will turn back with me to the book of Colossians, chapter 3. While you're turning, let me say that it's a delight for me to be here. It's not a hardship, although preaching sometimes can be a hardship, but it's a delight for me. It's a delight to me to be not only here, but to be among God's saints anywhere. What a privilege. When I think of where I might have been had God not intervened in my life, it sends shivers up my back. And thinking I was in religion when the Lord first called me, And I shiver to think what I might be had I stayed there. Religion without God.

But I'm here tonight among God's saints and it's a delight and I have a confident knowledge that God is using us to manifest his glory to chosen sinners. His church is the pillar and ground of the truth. And as he establishes these little assemblies around the world, he establishes in these various locations the greatest privilege that fallen man could ever have. A word from God.

I grew up in a place where religion was next door. I mean, you drive in that town and it was a church and a space and a church and a space and a church and a space all the way through the town. But there was no gospel. There was all kind of church services and buildings and activities and all sorts of things going on, but there was no gospel. Greatest privilege that any town, city, whatever, is a gospel church. This is where, when God establishes a gospel church, a local church I'm talking about, I realize His people are the church, but this is a local church here. It's the church at Madisonville. And when he does that, there could be no greater blessing on Madisonville than to have a gospel church here. Such a privilege.

You know, in these local assemblies, When God's pleased to raise up a local assembly, He puts in that assembly what He calls in the book of Revelations, an angel. Did you know pastors were angels? That's what He called them. Why would God call a pastor an angel? Because He ministers to those who shall be heirs of salvation. That's what He says over in Hebrews chapter 1. Angels. Listen to this. He writes to the angel of the church of Ephesus, and the angel of the church of Pergamos, and the angel of the church of Thyatira, and so on. Angels, he says. Calls them stars sometimes. They light up in the darkness. And John uses this same idea over in his first epistle where he talks about trying the spirits. Try the spirits. Why does he call them spirits? Because they have the spirit of Christ. Try the spirits whether they be of God. Why? For many false prophets have gone out into the world. And everything God has had to say to his churches, he said through these men.

There's actually four titles given to men concerning the Church of the Living God. He gives some prophets, Isaiah, Daniel, you can go through the Old Testament and count them. He gave prophets, some apostles, John, Peter, Paul, apostles. And then he gives evangelists and pastor-teachers. The days of prophets and apostles are past. We have the full canon of scripture now. We have no longer a need for that. God's church has been established. The ways of the church, the ways of God, all these things have been established. And what we have now is two headings. You have evangelists and you have pastor-teachers. And if I'm reading the book of Timothy right, he's instructing this young pastor and he tells him to do the work of an evangelist. That's what I'm doing tonight, the work of an evangelist. I'm not pastor here, David is. Love him. He said, do the work of an evangelist. And there's gonna be times and opportunities for pastors to minister to other assemblies other than his own.

been doing over the past week. The church in Kingsport, the church in Rocky Mountain, the church in Daniel. And I love your pastor and he and I go back many, many years. And you can consider yourself to be blessed indeed to have him here.

I said in my opening remark, I have a confident knowledge that God is at work in this place And I feel most privileged to be a part of it.

My text tonight is Colossians 3 verse 11. And I have four or five things I want us to see in Paul's epistle to the Colossians leading up to and including verse 11. However, the heart of it is this, Christ is all. That's what I want to talk about, the full provision of God in Christ.

Now, language can't get any clearer than it is in Ephesians chapter 1. I think you'll agree with me there. It can't get any clearer than that. He said, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us. Talking about believers, he's blessed us with all, how much? All spiritual blessings. I'm not interested in anything else. The rest of it will follow. If he blesses you spiritually, you're not going to have to worry about food on your table. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? You're not going to have to worry about anything.

The heart of it is this. Christ is of a full provision. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ, according as He has chosen us in Christ. You say, well, I believe in election, but I don't know about all the rest of this stuff you're preaching. Well, let me tell you something. Election's nothing apart from Christ. Everything God chose was in Christ. Everything. All the means, everything. You can't find anything separate from Christ.

Please God that in Him should all wholeness dwell. The Father gave Him full preeminence. Isn't that what it says? Isn't that the word He used? Full preeminence. Full provision in Christ. And He tells us tells all the saints of God at Colossae to put on the new man. Now, I know people say, well, that's talking about the believer. He's the new man. No, he's not. Christ is the new man. If he puts Christ in you, you'll be a new man. But the new man that he's talking about putting on here is Christ. He's not talking about putting on religion. He's not talking about putting on a show. He's talking about putting on Christ.

Put on that new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. And in this new man, he said, there's neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free. But Christ is all and in all.

Antichrist religion is so infiltrated the minds and hearts of men and women that their minds are just flooded with endless ideas of God, of Christ, and of how God saves sinners. Why? Because they walk, Paul said, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. They walk, he said, in the vanity of their minds. What's that talking about? They have imaginations. Read Genesis chapter 6 and you'll see why God destroyed this world. Every imagination of the hearts of men was only evil continuously. Filled with the images of a false god. And they walk in the vanity of their minds. They walk believing they're friends of God. Believing they're sons of God. Believing that they please God. Without faith it's impossible to please God, isn't it? And how does faith please God? It lays hold of Christ.

They walk in advantage of their minds, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God. That's knowledge of God, if I'm reading the scriptures correctly. And it's through the ignorance that's in them. What kind of ignorance? the deceitful kind, the kind that had been told since they were knee-high.

Satan's work is not in the bars and brothels of this world. It's in the professing churches scattered throughout the world, and his work is primarily in religion. Our Lord looked at the Pharisees. There's nobody more religious than a Pharisee. And He looked at those Pharisees And he said, ye are of your father the devil. And now he said, you mean he'd say that if Paul was a Pharisee, he said it's touching the law, I blame us. He walked an outward perfect life. Everybody thought Paul was saved. He didn't have any problem. He'd go down there and seek papers to persecute what he thought was imposters. And nobody thought he was a lost man. Nobody thought he was an antichrist, but he was. And he did all those things with no conscience about it at all. I think the first time we read about Paul, he was holding the coat of a man that stoned Stephen.

They walk in a vanity of the mind. What's that mean? Well, they've been told that God is constrained by man's will. Isn't that what they say? Let God. Can you imagine God spoke this universe into existence? And you're going to let God? God's hands are tied. Who tied them? Huh? They've been told that God will accept the best you can do. I'd like to see that somewhere in the scriptures. And this one, I hear this all the time. God voted for you, Satan voted against you, and you have the deciding vote. Can you picture God, read Revelation chapter 5 about that book in the hands of God, and you try to imagine a man, any man, deciding how God's work is going to end.

I'll tell you why we thought that and taught that in religion, because we were ignorant. We were ignorant. There's an ignorance in men. And when you begin to minister to fallen men, he starts to use the word warfare. It's warfare. Just as the heirs to whom God promised the promised land, they went in, didn't they? Did they say, okay, this is yours, God promised. We've just been camping out, we're gonna leave. I don't think so. They had to strap on a sword and take them out.

And our Lord, He likens it unto a world. Listen to this. He said, I'll tell you about the kingdom of God. The strong man keeps his palace. Where's the palace? It's in the castle, isn't it? Armed to the hilt, moats around it, guards on the wall. This strong-manned arm keeps his palace and everything in it at peace. Peace, peace, where there is no peace. It's all peace. Until one stronger than him comes along and takes away from him that armor wherein he trusted. And what's he do? He spoils the house. He spoils the house. Strips him of his armor.

The Apostle Paul said the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They don't need to be carnal. I'm not trying to hurt people. I'm not trying to kill people. I'm not trying to force people to do anything. He said the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're mighty through God. What does he do with this might? What's he doing? To the pulling down of strongholds. casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. That's what this power is all about. That's why the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and that's what that power works, works in the hearts. And who does that work? God does.

My soul, what a wasted time preaching would be without the Spirit of God. Paul said not that we're sufficient of ourselves to think anything of ourselves. Our sufficiency is of God.

And concerning the full provision of Christ, let me just give you a few things tonight to think about. First of all, I know by the Word of God and by personal experience that Jesus Christ sets up His reign and hope in men through the preaching of the Gospel. That's how he does it. That's how he does it.

I read books. I read Pink. I read Gill. I read all kinds of books about Calvinism. I did all these things and still didn't understand the Gospels. I didn't know the first thing about the Gospels. I knew everything about election. Boy, I could tell you anything you want to know about election, except Christ.

Paul talks about their hope, which he says, they heard the word of truth, the word of the truth of the gospel. Men and women are not saved by the word of God as in a general sense. They're just sitting in their living room, thumbing through the Bible, read a verse, God saves them. No, I beg your pardon, you won't find that in the scripture. We said Paul told Timothy that the word of God could make him wise unto salvation. Yes, and it does when somebody tells him what it means. You just take the word of God completely out of the picture over here and it's talking about creation. That's not how men are born. They hear the gospel, the word of the truth of the gospel. You read it over and over and over all through the New Testament.

And we live in a day where men believe they have a multitude of options concerning faith and hope in God. Everything from visions to feelings to hearing voices in the dark. Well, let me tell you something. In James 1.18, having told us where all these gifts come from, Every good and perfect gift cometh down from the Father of Lights. And then he tells us that the Father of Lights is immutable. You know what he says? Cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow or turning. And then what does he say? Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth. The word of truth.

Well, you say, that's talking about the word of God. No, it's not. He tells you right after that, be careful how you hear. Careful how you hear. And that's not to mention Romans chapter 10, and I could go on and on. Place after place after place. Faith cometh by hearing. Go back and read the four questions he asked before he gets to that. How shall you hear without a preacher? How shall he preach except he be sent? Therefore, faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God. The all wise God determined that the world by wisdom would never know the living God, but it pleased him by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

And here's your verse, 1 Corinthians 4, 15. He said, you may have had 10,000 instructors. I can't keep count of the instructors. But you only got one father. He said, I have begotten you through the gospel. How'd he do it? Through the gospel. How'd God do it? Through the gospel. Go ye into all the world. Now all power is given unto him in heaven and earth. He could do anything he wanted to do. What did he want to do? What was his will to do? Proof's the gospel. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned. There's no gray area there, is there?

Who is Paul? Who is a Paulist? Ministers by whom you believe even as God has given to every man. The full provision of grace and mercy from God finds its way into the hearts of chosen sinners by the preaching of the gospel.

Secondly, Christ will never be all till he has established in you the fact that God has nothing for chosen sinners apart from the person and work of Christ. That was the big revelation of my life. Christ. That's what was missing.

I told them a story about an old logger that came to church down at our place. He had brain cancer. He couldn't talk very clear. Cass, my wife, had brain cancer. She couldn't talk very clear, but those two could talk to each other and understand each other perfectly. But anyway, he kept coming to the services, coming to the services, and he would tell me, he'd been going to a reformed church, and he was telling me all about what they preached and so on, and he said, but there's things I don't understand. And I said, well, we don't charge admission. Just come and sit down. I'll do my best to teach you.

And one night, he was sitting out there, and he couldn't talk very clear, and it was real quiet, just like it is right now. And I was talking about redemption. And all of a sudden, old Nate said, that's right! And I stopped for a minute and looked back. I went on teaching, and a few minutes later, that's right! So we asked him after the service, well, what were you talking about? He said, what you said. That's right. That's right. I can't make a man say that. Only God can. And boy, he knows how to do it. I'm telling you, when he brings that bell in your heart, that's exactly what you're going to do. That's right. And nobody can convince you otherwise.

You know, what I teach is just doctrine, basically. But boy, when God takes that doctrine and writes it on your heart, nobody's going to take it away from you. Nobody's going to convince you otherwise.

Christ is all in the purpose of God to save sinners, predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. Isn't that right? Adopted into beloved, preserved in Christ, gathered in Christ, drawn in Christ, every soul that God teaches comes to Christ, isn't that what you see? Everybody hears from God. They come to Christ. They don't come to the front. They don't come down to sign a card. They don't, huh? And the latest thing when I first left Armenian religion was testimonies. They come to church and tell their story. That's not how God saves sinners. He brings you to church and he tells his story. Drawn to Christ. Longing for his return. Huh? Looking. Stand on your tiptoes, looking. Been over 2,000 years. Could be tonight. Wouldn't that be something?

Yeah, but what about the believer's daily life? Listen to this, Colossians chapter 2, verse 6. The fact is, turn over and look with me, just one page back. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 6. Don't they have to be especially instructed for their life and how they live? Listen to this. As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you've been taught. There's only one effectual way to walk and please God in this world, and that's to walk and live in Christ.

Well, how's that possible? Colossians 2, 9. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you're complete in Him. You want to learn something about God? Study Christ. That's God. That's God come into the flesh. God doesn't reveal himself anywhere else except in his Son, affectionately. I'm talking about the saving of your soul now. I know creation bears witness of him, and conscience, but neither one of those will save you. That knowledge in Christ is a saving knowledge.

You're complete in him, but that ain't the end of it. You're complete in him whose head of all principality and power. There's nothing beyond His reach, nothing beyond His power. Oh, you'll never convince that man. Maybe not, but God can. And I don't have to write a book to do it.

Yeah, but what about sin and resistance of sin? Don't they have to be taught that? No, the love of Christ constraineth us. Isn't that what it says? I'm telling you, you don't need anything but Christ. If you get Christ, you've got it all. Why? Because He is all. There's nothing else.

Oh, I know we want to run to the books. I know that. And I'm not talking about not teaching word for word the epistles. I've been through every verse of the New Testament teaching our people. But I always tell them what it's talking about. It's talking about Christ. You can't walk apart from Him.

And what about your confidence? You're going to preach, you're going to teach, you're going to do these things? You better do them in Christ, and you better have Him as your message.

Like that one fella got up, a young preacher, he got up to preach, and boy, he brought a wonderful message. And the old preacher was just sitting over there with his arms folded, you know. Finally, the young man got down, and he sat down there, and he said, well, what'd you think? He said, I didn't think much of it. Well, he said, you didn't like my illustrations. Oh, he said, your illustrations were great. Well, my voice, did I not speak loud enough? Oh, he said, your voice was fine. He said, well, what's the problem? He said, there wasn't any Christ in it. And he said, well, Christ wasn't in my text. He said, Christ is in every text. To him, give all the prophets witness.

You know what his eternal name is? The Word. The Word. Everything God has to say, he says to his son. The Word. Peter said, you're born again, not a corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Isn't that talking about the Son? Sure it is. Well, no, that's talking about the book. Well, read on down to verse 25. This is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

Talk about people who sit under a pastor and what they do. You don't need a drill sergeant with a whip to keep us in line. The love of God constraineth us. Gratitude and love motivate us. And we recognize and submit to his leadership. We honor and applaud his person and accomplishments.

Christ is all, is he not? I'm sitting in my study preparing a message. I'll tell you what's on my mind. Where's Christ in this text? Where's Christ in this text?

Thirdly, by gospel revelation, the believer sees himself before and after in two men, Adam and Christ. Is that right? That's what scripture said, isn't it? Adam and Christ, as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Romans 5, 7, for if by one man's offense death rang, by one, much more, they which receive Abundant grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. What's he talking about all men? He's talking about everybody represented in that. That's mankind, isn't it? By the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all, under justification of life. Who's the all there? All represented in Christ. Is that right? Whereas by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

There's the first and the second Adam. It's talking about federal headship. Christ is the head of the body of the church. And so he is all as to his work being the representative of his elect. He's all. He's all.

Fourthly, I see Christ in the full provision of God for chosen sinners in that he makes it sure sitting on the throne of God. God said, I'm putting full provision in my son. When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them. He did his work, didn't he? And then he hung on the cross, and he's ready to die. And he cries, it's finished. What's finished? What he came to do. And what'd he come to do? I've come to do my father's will. And this is the Father's will which has sent me that of all which he has given me I should lose nothing but raise it up again until the last day." It's finished. Redemption's a finished work. It's accomplished work. It's accomplished redemption. And I'll tell you something else, it's eternal redemption. That redemption was purposed in the Lamb's plan before the foundation of the world. You think he's going to save every man that he died for, every woman he died for? I guarantee it. And I can guarantee it because the guarantor sits on the throne. Every man that was purposed an inheritance is going to get it. Why? Because he's the one dispensing. And he's not sitting on the edge of something up there. He's seated on the throne, all power in his hands. The men may fuss and rebel for a little while, but when he gets weary, he's the king. You know what the king's gonna do? Step all above it. That's what he's gonna do. When he gets weary with men, they disappear.

Listen to this. He ruleth. Where? In the armies of heaven. You know, he said, be careful how you talk to one another because their, T-H-E-I-R, their angels do always stand before their father. It'd be better for you, he said, to tie a millstone around your neck and throw it out in the ocean than to offend one of these little ones. He's absolute sovereign lord over all things, all power given to him in heaven and earth. And you may not be aware of this, but it's so anyway. He said, no man liveth to himself. I'm a self-made man. You're a liar, what you are. You're no self-made man. No man liveth to himself, period. And no man dies to himself. Oh, I'm gonna lengthen my life not one second longer than what God's purpose you live. None of us live unto himself, and no man dieth to himself.

So, here's what that means. Whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. So whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. It means you're in His hands. Is that right? You're in His hands. He can hold you and protect you the way He talks about over in John 10. No man can pluck them out of my hands. or He can turn you loose. Just like He did Judas, just like He did Demas, on and on, He can just turn you loose. He's Lord. And aren't you thankful He's Lord? Oh my soul.

And then lastly, I see the full provision of Christ as His gospel in the power of the Holy Ghost sitting up His reign in the hearts of men. All for the Spirit of God. You talk about a useless exercise, preaching. Preaching. Apart from the Spirit of God. I pray for it every time I stand up. I pray for it when I'm done. Oh, Spirit of God, don't leave me alone in this book.

Listen to these verses over in Romans 6 and I'll quit. Know you not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are, to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness. But, God be thanked, you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. How did you do that? By the Spirit of God. Being then made free from sin, you become the servants of righteousness. No man, no woman has any hope of salvation who has not submitted their souls to Christ their Lord. That's what the Spirit does first in men. He convinces them of sin, and then he makes them bow. And you bow. You bow willingly. Ain't nobody gonna have to twist your arm. You bow. And then you see his righteousness and his glory and everything that God has put in him. And you want to bow then, don't you? He's worthy to be bowed to. Oh, my soul.

I don't know. I listened. You want to know how depraved men are, go to a funeral home. Well, you know them or not. Just go down there and walk around and listen to them talk. Fishing in heaven, and I don't know. I've never heard such foolishness in all my life, what they do there. I was talking to David earlier. I pastored a church down in Ball, Louisiana years ago, and there was an old man came up there to mow the grass. He had one of those old push mowers with the big bicycle wheels in the back, you know, helped him push it through that thick grass. And it was 100 degrees outside, and this old man, he had to stop and take a blow, you know, he was tired. And I brought him out a glass of ice water, gave it to him, started talking to him, Asked him if he knew the Lord, and he said, well, he said, I ain't always done the right thing. But he said, one thing I can say. How many times have you heard that out of religion? One thing I can say. You better have more things than that. He said, alcohol never passed over these lips. And you might get angry with me. I told him he might ought to get a shot. Might help you out. I tell you, I just, I listen to people talk, and I wonder, you can't possibly have read this book and talked like that. You can't do it. It's not in here. Those things aren't in here.

But I tell you what is, and it's on every page, Christ. A lady stopped old Scott Richardson that afternoon. Message had a whole paper full of notes, and she said, I got a bone pick with you. She said, look here, all you ever preach is Christ. Christ, Christ, Christ, that's all he ever preached. Scott was standing there listening to her. He said, would somebody put that on my tombstone? All I ever preached, boy, I'd like to have that on mine. All he ever preached was Christ. Well, I hope they put a billboard up over mine.