Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Colossians chapter 3, and we will read one verse, which
is in this chapter. It's verse 11. The name of the
message is, Christ is all. Paul brings forth, by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, of the fact that when we're born again, Christ
becomes everything to us. He's everything to us. We want
to pour our lives out for our King. He's all our hope. He's all our redemption. He's
all our sanctification. He's all our wisdom. He becomes
all. He writes this, speaking of Jew
and Gentile, and that there's no difference within the body
of Christ between Jew and Gentile. And back then, when they wrote
Jew and Gentile, that speaks of Jew, the Jewish nation, and
Gentiles being the whole world. The whole world, outside of Judaism. And so, in Colossians 3, verse
11, the Holy Spirit has Paul penned these words, which is,
where there is neither Greek nor Jew, that's in Christ. In
Christ, there's neither Greek nor Jew. Our nationalities don't
matter. Our ethnic differences don't
matter. In Christ, we're one. It says,
where there's neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, the Scythians were the worst of the worst.
They were the barbarians of the barbarians. Well, the Lord saved
some of them, didn't he? Isn't that amazing? Barbarian,
Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all. That's what he
is to the believer. Christ is all. And then he says,
and in all. He's everything to us, beloved.
You take Christ away, we believers have nothing. Nothing. We may have a few things that
we own in this world, but those things will perish at our death,
but Christ is everything to us. Oh my, he's everything. Now,
this same man, the Apostle Paul, he said, I be nothing in 2 Corinthians
12, 11, and then he says here, Christ is all. See, as a believer,
Christ must increase and we must decrease, beloved. We see him
as our all in all. Everything. Our life is his. It's his, and we are his, purchased
with his precious, precious blood. And every true child of God agrees
with the apostle when he says that he's the chief of sinners.
We see ourselves as the chief of sinners, don't we? Every one
of us see ourselves. We who are the born-again, blood-washed
people of God, we see ourselves as the chief of sinners. But
we rejoice that Christ is the chief shepherd and the savior
of sinners. He's the only Savior of sinners.
Every child of God proclaims, I'm vile and wicked, but we rejoice
that Christ is holy and just. Oh, he's holy and just, beloved.
Every true child of God proclaims, I'm absolutely weakness. I can't
do nothing on my own. But we rejoice that Christ is
infinite strength. And without Him, we can do nothing.
Oh, but we can do all things through Christ who strengthened
us. Oh, He's our great God and King. And every child of God
proclaims, I must decrease. less of me and more of Christ. And John the Baptist said, I
must decrease and he must increase. Oh, we're brought low and he's
brought high in our lives, isn't he? We're brought low by seeing
God for who he is. Oh, God, please have mercy upon
me. And Christ increases not only
in our lives, but in our eyes. He's wondrous, beloved. He's
wondrous. And every child of God, true
child of God, proclaims, I'm worthless vanity. But we rejoice
that Christ is unsearchable riches. He's all our wisdom, sanctification,
redemption. He's everything to us, isn't
he, beloved? He's everything. As Paul said,
Christ is all. Oh, my. And every true child
of God proclaims, I deserve wrath. I deserve the wrath of God, we
proclaim. Oh, but Christ, what does he deserve? All the glory,
honor, and praise. He's the one who took our wrath,
beloved. He's the one who extinguished the wrath of God against God's
people by the sacrifice of himself and the shedding of his precious
blood to redeem our eternal souls. Oh, it's wonderful. And every
true child of God proclaims, I deserve death. But we rejoice
that Christ deserves glory. And in him, we have eternal life
because of his death in our room and place. Oh, I'll read Colossians
3, 11 again. It says, where there's neither
Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian,
bond nor free, but Christ is all, oh, he's all to us, and
in all. Beloved of God, do you know what
the glory of the gospel is? It's that God became a man and
died in the room and place of chosen sinners, of whom every
one of us who are born again say, I'm chief. I'm the chief
of sinners. Oh, my. He saved those chosen
sinners from their sins. If you have your Bibles with
you, turn with me to Zechariah chapter 9. If you don't, listen
to these wonderful words. Zechariah chapter 9, verses 9
to 11. The scriptures declare this.
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. That's the people of God.
That's the people of God. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem,
behold, thy king cometh unto thee. He is just and having salvation,
lowly and riding upon an ass, upon a colt, the fowl of an ass,
and I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from
Jerusalem and the battle bull shall be cut off and he shall
speak peace unto the heathen. Oh, has he not spoke peace to
we who are the heathen, we who are the saved Gentiles in the
body of Christ? Oh, he has, he has, he has. And
his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river even
to the ends of the earth, as for thee also by the blood of
thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoner out of the pit wherein
We're in his no water. Do you know we're the prisoners
of hope, beloved? Oh my, our hope is in Christ, beloved. And
in Zechariah 9, verses 9 to 11, we see that God gave to his prophet
the very exact description of our Lord Jesus Christ as he entered
into Jerusalem to accomplish our salvation. 550 years after, before this
actually happened. Zechariah's prophecy was 550
years before this actually happened. And look at, Zechariah not only
describes for us the circumstances of how Christ would come into
Jerusalem, but he gives us a vivid description of who he is. Notice
these things. In Zechariah 9, verse 9, it says
this, Behold, thy king cometh unto thee. Oh, who is our king? He's Christ, who is all to his
people. The wise man asked, where is
he that's born king? Our Lord God, our Lord who is
God incarnate. He's king of kings and he's Lord
of lords. He's sovereign of sovereigns,
beloved. Oh, he's mighty. He's Lord of
lords and he's sovereign in salvation and he's sovereign in all things,
in providence and in salvation. Oh, and look at the next thing
we see in Zechariah 9.9. It proclaims that the Messiah
is just. And we know the Lord Jesus Christ
is called, one of his titles is the Just One. The Just One. That means he's righteous in
all his ways, beloved. See, we're unrighteous in all
our ways, but he's righteous in all his ways. He's holy in
his character. Stephen and Peter called him
the just one. Beloved, he's the sinless, spotless
lamb of God. God in the flesh sent to save
his people from their sins. And then we see also in Zechariah
9, 9, it proclaims the Messiah heaven salvation. Oh, not only
is he a just God, but he's also our Savior. Oh, Paul often calls
Christ God, our Savior. Here's one example in Titus chapter
3, verses 4 to 7. Listen to what it says. But after
the kindness and love of God, our Savior toward man appeared. God our Savior. Isn't that wonderful? God's our Savior, beloved. Not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
His mercy He saved us, by the washing of the regeneration and
renewing of the Holy Ghost. There's the blood sacrifice there,
right? Oh, my. Our Savior, He come and
died for us, not by our works, but by His. According to His
mercy, He saved us by the shedding of Christ's blood. And there's
the born again, by the regeneration and renewing of our minds. Oh,
by the Holy Ghost, which He has shed on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ, our Saviour, Titus 3, 6. And in Titus 3, 7, that
being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. This is wonderful, beloved. Christ
came, He gave His life as a ransom to purchase the souls of His
covenant people to save us from all our sins, beloved. How? By
the shedding of His redeeming, precious blood. It's wonderful. Oh, there's power in the blood,
isn't there, beloved? Oh, it's so powerful. It redeems
us from all our sins. And then we see Zechariah 9,
9 proclaims to the Messiah that he's lowly and riding on an ass.
Well, turn, if you would, to Matthew chapter 21, or listen
to these verses as I read them. Matthew 21, verses 1 to 7, speaking
of Christ coming into Jerusalem. just before he's going to be
sacrificed, just before he's going to go to the cross and
bleed and die for our sins. It says, and when they drew nigh
unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethage, unto the Mount of
Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, saying, go unto the village over
against you, and straightaway you find an ass tied, and a colt
with her. Now, think of this. This shows
you again his absolute sovereignty, how he's God. He says, there's
a colt over there. Look at, go get it. Loose them
and bring them unto me. And if any man say unto you,
ye shall say, the Lord hath need of him, and straightway he will
send him. Look at that. Oh my. All this was done that
it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet, saying,
Tell ye the daughter of Zion, behold, thy king cometh unto
thee, meek and sitting upon an ass and a colt, the full of an
ass. And when the disciples went and
did as Jesus commanded them and bought the ass and the colt and
put them, put on them their clothes and they set them there. And
we know he went into Jerusalem. Oh my. And they received him
joyfully. The Lord Jesus Christ is totally
and fully God Almighty, beloved. He's God Almighty. He's a real
man, and yet he's the God man. He's 100% man, and he's 100%
God. He honored the law perfectly
in our room and place, beloved. We are clothed in his perfect
righteousness. Isn't that wonderful? So God
sees us, he looks at us and sees Christ. Sees us clothed in the
perfect righteousness of his son. And we know, we know for
a fact that he's well pleased with his son. Remember Sunday's
reading, this is my son and whom I'm well pleased. And we know
he's well pleased with anyone who's in the son, anyone who's
in Christ. It's wonderful, beloved. Oh,
it's wonderful. And how did he save us? Well,
he saved us by his perfect sin-atoning work when he shed his precious
blood to redeem, to pay the ransom that God demanded for our eternal
souls. See, all those lambs in the Old
Testament pictured Christ who would be the Lamb of God sent
by the Father. And then we see in Zechariah
9, 10 of the Messiah, that he shall speak peace unto the heathen.
Now, this is just beautiful. This is beautiful. We were at
enmity with God in our minds. We broke God's law. We must be
reconciled to God. How can we be reconciled to God
when we can't save ourselves from any of our sins? by the
only one who can save sinners, and his name is the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's why we say, put your trust and rest in Christ. Put your faith in Christ, not
in what you can do, because you and I can't gain heaven at all
by anything we do. Only salvation comes through
the Lord Jesus Christ, in him alone. Listen to this, sinner
friend, listen from this sinner, who's saved by the grace of God,
who now has peace with God, Because if you're dead in trespasses
and sins and you do not know Christ, you do not have peace
with God. The only way to have peace with God is through the
Lord Jesus Christ. I'm speaking to someone who's
been a receiver of this marvelous peace that's spoken of here. And think of this, no one else
has the authority to speak peace unto the sinner, but Jesus Christ
himself. The only way I can say I have
peace with God, that I've received what's spoken of, in this, speak
peace unto the heathen, is through Christ and him alone. No other
way. Christ has made peace with God. Oh, it's wonderful. Peace
with God. Oh, by the shedding of his precious
blood for his people. My oh my, his blood, his precious
redeeming blood is being accepted by God. He's the perfect spotless
lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice for the sins of his people, and
God is satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ. And if he's satisfied
with the sacrifice of Christ, then he's satisfied with all
whom Christ redeemed. And all whom Christ redeemed
will believe. He'll get every one of them.
He'll get everyone. There won't be one of them missing.
Not at all. We may get rebellious and wander
off, but he's going to take us home, beloved. It's wonderful. And then the last point we see
here in Zechariah 9-11 is that he's our deliverer. He's our
deliverer. Look at this. By the blood of
thy covenant, I have set forth thy prisoners out of the pit
wherein is no water. Oh, we were in the pit of sin,
beloved. We could not escape by anything we do or anything
we did, but Christ rescued us. Help come from above, beloved.
We're in a pit, deep pit. We can't get out. We can't get
out. The scripture says it's like miry clay. You just grab
hold and you slide right down. Oh my. And there's no water to
satisfy the soul in their blood. Christ is the water of life.
Oh my. Our blessed Lord, listen to this,
sinner friend. From one sinner who's been saved
by the grace of God, our blessed Lord came to set his people free. from the curse of the law, from
the bondage of the sin, and from the terror of death, and from
the grip of the devil. And what's God's people say?
Praise his mighty name. Amen and amen.