Thank you, Mike. Let's go back to the book of
Colossians this morning. And I say back to it because
last Sunday evening, I was in this third chapter of the book
of Colossians. And I'm going to go right back
to it and actually to the same verse. that I endeavored to deal
with somewhat last Sunday evening, and that is the book of Colossians,
chapter number three. And I'll just read verse 11,
speaking of being in Christ where there is neither Greek nor Jew,
circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, and then
he says bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all. It doesn't matter what your background
is. Doesn't matter who you are, as
it says here, Greek, Jew, circumcision, uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian,
bond or free. It doesn't matter on two counts. First of all, all of us, all
of us are equally guilty before God. Doesn't matter what our
background is. The scripture says in Romans
3, for all have sinned and come short, of the glory of God. That's you and me and everybody
else. Solomon said, there's not a just man upon the earth that
doeth good and sinneth not. And in that sense, we're all
the same by nature. And even though the Jews thought
that their lineage, that they could trace their heritage, their
bloodline back to Abraham, even though they thought that gave
them a leg up toward God, some advantage over the Greeks, it
did not. And the Greeks thought that they
were advantaged by their great intellectualism. That gave them
no advantage either. Because you see, both Jew and
Greek are guilty before the Lord. This is what Paul is saying.
And he says there's neither circumcision nor uncircumcision. Circumcision
was a Jewish right administered to the Jewish men to include
them under the covenant of Israel. But that made no difference spiritually
for those men. And so the circumcised were no
different from the uncircumcised in their standing before the
Lord. Then he talks about the barbarians
and the Scythians. Those who were foreigners. Those
who were strangers. It didn't matter, they were equally
guilty too. And it says, whether bond or
free, the free man was just as guilty as the slave was. So naturally,
all of us, all of mankind, all of Adam's seed, we stand on equal
footing as far as our guilt before God. and the environment you
grew up in, or what family you came from, or your bloodline,
all of those things matter nothing in your guilt before the Lord,
because you're a sinner. And I'm a sinner, from the pews
to the pulpit. That's what we all have in common.
We have different backgrounds, come from different states. Not
all of you are blessed to come from the state of Virginia like
I am, but wherever you're from, you're as guilty of sin as the
Virginians are. You see, worldwide, no one nation,
no one people, no person has any natural advantage towards
spiritual things than anybody else. You say, well, I grew up
in a Christian home. That's a blessing from God. But
that doesn't make you nearer to God than somebody that grew
up in an unchristian home. And then, not only are we all
the same naturally, But all of the people of God, all of those
to whom God has shown His grace and His mercy in Christ Jesus,
all of us are on the same footing as well. Because the foundation
we're on is not dependent upon where we're from, what nationality
we are, our intellectual achievements, Our social status, those things
mean nothing. They mean nothing spiritually.
We all stand on the rock Christ Jesus. We're built on a firm
foundation that will never fall. God has brought us by His grace
to Christ the Savior. And He is our all in all. We have no advantage over anybody
else. Listen, in the kingdom of God,
it's like this. The lost have been found. The
dead have been raised. The unwise have been made the
wisdom of God in Christ Jesus. Those of us who drank iniquity
like water, that's what the scripture says. Now we drink of the water
of life. We love the Savior. We love to
hear of His bloody sacrifice that atoned for our sin. We love
to hear of how God can be a just God and a Savior through the
doing and the dying of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it makes no
difference whether we're here, we speak English, or whether
folks in Africa, where they speak a different language, or Japan,
or China, or wherever. Wherever the people of God are,
really, we all speak the same language. In this sense, we're
saved by the grace of God through the doing and the dying and rising
again of the Lord Jesus Christ. And to all of the people of God,
we have this in common. Christ is all to us. He is all
in all to us. And I want to speak to you this
morning for a little bit on the subject, Christ is our all in
salvation. Now I'm not, I'm certainly not
denying the need of the Father in choosing us unto salvation. I'm not denying the work of the
Holy Spirit in revealing salvation to us in Christ, in quickening
us. But within the Godhead, it pleased
the Godhead, and all the fullness of the Godhead dwell in Christ
Jesus. All the fullness of God dwells
in Him. All of God you'll ever see is
Christ. And He has the preeminence in
this matter of salvation. And I want you to see that Christ
is all in salvation. And let me remind you of this. Don't ever think of your salvation
as just one thing, your experience. I do not deny the fact that salvation
has to be experienced. but there was a whole lot that
preceded your salvation before your experience of grace. In fact, if you want to know
about the salvation of your soul when it began, actually when
it was began and finished in the purpose of God, you got to
go back before time was ever established, before God ever
set the first clock. Before the beginning was begun,
by the beginner, who is Christ Jesus himself, we had a place
in him. And that's when it all started.
You see, when you think of salvation, think of it this way. It's the
entirety of the work of grace. That work of grace which brought
you from the very gates of hell to someday within the gates of
heaven. That's salvation. I'll tell you what salvation
is. It's the Lord bringing you from the pit of corruption, our
natural state, to the very heights of eternal
bliss, conformed to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. Think
of salvation this way. He lifts us up from the miry
clay. You didn't lift yourself up by
your own bootstraps. You're sunk in the mud. You couldn't
get up. Furthermore, you had no will
to get up. It's the Lord who lifted you
up by His almighty free and sovereign grace. And He washed you, you
needed a bath, and He bathed you in the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And He stripped off of you your
robe of self-righteousness, and He clothed you with the beauties,
the fragrance of our Lord Jesus Christ. He set you upon a firm
foundation that will never fall. Of this we are assured, in this
work of salvation, Christ is all. And I'll give you several
things here, and if you want to go back to Ephesians chapter
1, Ephesians chapter 1, and I'll have to be brief on each one
of these, but I want to show you the vital importance of our
Lord Jesus Christ in salvation. Number one, Christ is all, and
this is our theme now, Christ is all in salvation. Number one,
he's all in our election unto salvation. We were chosen in
Christ. And those of you who are very
familiar with Ephesians 1, which is pretty much all of you, I
think, and a good many of you who are watching by way of the
internet, you know that throughout this, especially the first chapter,
we're looking for this little short phrase, in Christ or in
him or in whom. Because everything that God has
for sinners like you and me, Everything He has for sinners
like us is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. As somebody
said, God has put all of His eggs in one basket, and that's
the Savior. You see, He is the unspeakable
gift that God gave. And we can talk about all of
the gifts that God has given to His people, and we're thankful
for all of them. but really all of the gifts of
God are given to us in one great big gift, Christ the Savior. If you have Him, if you know
Him, if you're found in Him, you have the riches of God's
grace. Don't go around poor mouthing,
well, what I don't have. Well, you have all things in
Christ, is that enough? You need Him more than Him? You
see, we need no more than Christ Jesus, who is our daily bread. Isn't He? He's our daily bread. Did not the Savior teach us in
that model prayer in Matthew? Did He not teach us to pray,
give us this day our daily bread? Who is our daily bread? Well,
that's Christ our Savior. He's the bread who came down
from heaven, and we feed on Him. We eat of Him. Well, number one, Christ is all
in our election unto salvation. Look at verses 3 and 4, Ephesians
1. Blessed, what's that mean? Eulogized. Eulogize, bless, be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. How many spiritual
blessings do you have? You have all of them. So you don't have an edge on
me. because we all have all of them. See, that's what's wrong with
this idea of rewards in heaven, that some will get more than
others. If we have all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, if we've got them all now, we'll have them
all then. You can't have more than all,
can you? And the thing of it is, Christ
Our Savior, He is the fullness of our inheritance. Let others
talk about clicking up their heels on the streets of gold
and looking at the gate, the pearly gates and all the rest
of it. Folks that just speak about those
things, they don't know what the very glory of heaven is. He's the glory of heaven. And
somebody asked me the other day, is heaven in another dimension? I don't know. But I'll tell you
this, wherever He is, that's where heaven is. Because He makes
heaven to be heaven. And it says here in the fourth
verse, "...according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world." Understand this, in this matter of salvation,
there was a choice made. And the first choice made was
the choice of the Savior. Jehovah spoke in Isaiah, "...behold
My servant, Mine elect." in whom my soul delighteth. Our God in
the Trinity of His persons, having chosen to save poor sinners,
chose a worthy Savior, one but one qualified, the Son of God. And in order for Him to save
us, He had to step out of eternity into time. He had to get up off
his glorious throne and come down here and be born of a virgin.
Take upon himself the form of human flesh or humans who were
sinful, but he himself without sin. Born of a virgin, grew up
in obedience to God's holy law, then bearing the sins of all
of his people on the tree, he died under the wrath of God.
to pay our sin debt. Christ was the first one chosen,
and we were chosen in Him. And I ask all of you who profess
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, all of you who are here, and
all of you who are watching, I want to ask you this. Did you choose to be saved, or
did the Lord choose you to be saved? Who chose? There was a choice made, I promise
you that. I grew up in Armenian religion. I was a get them down the aisle
preacher, make your decision for Jesus. And I remember in
the days I used to say, you know, God voted for you and the devil
voted against you. And now the ultimate election
is determined by your vote. And then I found out I'd been
lying to people. You see, when a choice was made
of a multitude which no man could number, I wasn't there except
in the purpose of God. I wasn't there, and you weren't
there, and furthermore, the devil wasn't there either. This is God's determination.
Whose salvation is it anyway? It's God's salvation. Does He
not have the right to choose who will be the recipients of
that salvation? Would you charge God foolishly? Hath not the potter power over
the clay to make one vessel unto honor and another vessel unto
dishonor? And God, for the glory of His
grace to magnify His dear Son, He chose a multitude of sinners
to be the recipients of His saving grace in, through and by Christ
Jesus our Lord. Don't be ashamed of the doctrine
of the election. You wouldn't be a believer apart
from it. You want to trace it back to
its origin? Trace your salvation back to
the very beginning? There it is. The Lord chose you
in Christ to be a recipient of His grace. You say, but I was
converted in time. I know. I know. but your conversion
in time is a result of that which was purposed before time ever
began. And when God chose you unto salvation,
He not only ordained that you would be saved by His grace through
the bloody redemption that is in Christ Jesus, He ordained
when you would live, when and where you would hear the gospel
of His grace, When the Spirit of God would come upon you in
irresistible power? When you would hear of Christ
Jesus, the only Savior? He ordained when you would be
quickened? When you would be gifted with
faith to believe the Son of God? He ordained all of that. And don't you dare try to steal
His glory. He'll put you in hell for that.
I promise you that. Don't you try to take any credit. Salvation's of God and of God
only. We were chosen unto salvation
in Christ. And here's something else. Christ
is all in the election unto salvation. He's also all in predestination. You say, well, I don't believe
in predestination. You believe Bible, don't you? The words found
in the Bible, predestination is merely to determine ahead
of time. Why, you exercised predestination
yourself this morning. You decided what you was going
to wear? Look. Matching outfits? That was determined ahead of
time. That was predestinated by y'all, I know. And you decide
you'd come. So I told Nancy yesterday, I
said, I'm wearing a red tie today. I'm dressed in red, white, and
blue. I determined that yesterday. You see, we all predestinate things. It's just
sometimes what we have predestinated, what we have determined to do,
Unforeseen things happen and what we determine to do doesn't
come to pass. But that don't happen with God.
And He predestinated us in Christ. Look at verse 5. Having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will. God predestinated us in Christ
to be His children. Why are you a child of God? You
say, because I believed on Him. No, you believed because you
were already a child of God. You're a child of God because
you were predestinated to be in the family of God, to be a
child of God. And that predestination was in
Christ Jesus. You see, Christ, as I just said,
was God's first elect. And then we were chosen in him.
And in Romans chapter eight, it says we're predestinated to
be conformed to the image of Christ Jesus. One of these days, we're gonna
be perfect, body and soul. When we get to glory. When our bodies are raised. Because
God has predestinated that. We'll be conformed to the image
of Christ Jesus. That don't mean we're gonna be
little gods. We're not gonna be gods. I tell
you what, we will be. We'll be perfect. We'll be perfect. And this perfection that we shall
have in heaven, we're predestinated under that. There's a lot about that, it's
foggy in my own mind. Because I think in heaven, while
we'll be perfect without sin, of course, we're not gonna know
everything. We're gonna still be learning,
I believe. And learning from the Savior. And I'll tell you this, If you
don't enjoy, if there's anybody here, you don't enjoy learning
and hearing of Christ Jesus down here, you wouldn't be happy in
heaven. Because heaven is all about hearing
him, seeing him, learning of him. What will it be like when
the Son of God takes the scriptures and opens our understanding to
things that we haven't seen yet. What will that be like? This
one of whom had said, never a man speak like this man. We're gonna
hear him speak. He's gonna speak to us in glory. And he'll be instructing us in
the things of God. We're just, we go fall at his
feet and learn and adore her. and worship. Christ is all in
predestination. I'll tell you something else.
Look at verse seven. He's all in redemption too. In
whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins, excuse me, according to the riches of his grace. He's all in redemption. The son
of God was made flesh and dwelt among us. Great is the mystery
of godliness. He came to live a life of perfection
we could never live. And he came to die as a substitute
of his people. I'll give you a biblical illustration
and I love this story and you do too. It's right out of Genesis
chapter 22 when Abraham was told by the Lord to take Isaac His
son, his only son, whom he loved, take him up in offering as a
burnt offering to God. And so there were three days
journey. And Abraham and Isaac and the servants. And Abraham
told the two servants to stay behind and he and the lad would
go and worship God. And they went to worship God.
Isaac said, Dad, here's the fire. I got the wood strapped on my
back. And you got the knife. We can't worship God without
the lamb. Where's the lamb? You know what
he said? God will provide himself, himself
a lamb. Well, Abraham put Isaac up on
the altar. Up on the wood had been laid
in order. Then Isaac laid down. Abraham
strapped him down. Abraham took out that sacrificial
knife. I can see him in my mind's eye. He is determined to go through
with this. And as he was ready to let that
knife fall, the Lord said, stop! I see you, believe me. There's a ram caught in the thicket
over there, Abraham, caught by his horns. You go get that ram
and offer him up in the stead of Isaac. You see, Isaac, he
couldn't be a burnt offering to God. Did you know that? You
ever thought about that? He couldn't be a burnt offering
to God. Leviticus 22, 21 says, it shall be perfect to be accepted. You see, that ram had not sinned
against God. That ram's a picture of our Lord
Jesus in the perfection of His humanity. The sinless one. Isaac isn't fit to be a burnt
offering to God. And neither are you. And neither
am I. You see, if we went to hell forever,
it wouldn't be a burnt offering to God. Why not? Because we're sinners, that's
why. Only the perfect one, only the holy one, only one equal
to God in every way was worthy to be the substitute. And Abraham,
he cut Isaac loose, And he took that ram and put it up there,
strapped him down, tied him down, and then he killed that animal,
innocent of many transgressions, and offered him as a burnt offering
to God. And he said, I'm gonna call this
place Jehovah Jireh. In the Mount of the Lord it shall
be seen. The Lord will provide. And in that same mountain, hundreds
of years in the future, in that same mountain, the Father of creation, God the
Father, He took His Son and He nailed Him to a tree. The worthy one, the perfect one,
the sinless one, the only worthy sacrifice. And God killed him. The son of God bore in his soul
the very hell of God's wrath and consumed it. Christ is all
in redemption. It says here in verse seven,
in whom we have redemption through his blood. And where you have
redemption through His blood, you have to have the next line,
the forgiveness of sins. Where the blood has been shed,
forgiveness of sins is a guarantee. That's just the result of it.
And it's all according to the riches of His grace. Christ is
all. He's all in election. He's all
in predestination. He's all in redemption. He's
all, all the way through to glorification. One of these days, we're going
to be glorified. Say, Jim, ain't much to you. No, it ain't. Ain't
much to me. But you ain't seen the finished
product yet. One of these days, I'm going
to be conformed to the image of Christ Jesus. And so will
you. Every child of God, so will you. And what we gonna do in heaven?
We gonna sing praises to the Lord Jesus Christ. See, Christ
is all in our praise in heaven. He's all in our adoration in
heaven. He's all of our singing in heaven. Worthy is the lamb that was slain. who has redeemed us to God by
His blood. That's the song, and we're learning
that song down here, aren't we? That's what we're singing about
now, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God. Christ is all
in salvation. And since He's all in salvation,
know this, there's no room for you in there. You see, from the beginning of
salvation, He's Alpha. To the end of salvation, He's
Omega. At no point from Alpha to Omega,
from the beginning to the end, at no point can you put your
finger and say, now that, that part of salvation was me. No. No. It's all Christ. and therefore we worship Him
and we adore Him. Well, I'm gonna kind of continue
along this general theme tonight. Let's sing 125. Jesus paid it
all.