with me if you will to the third
chapter of the book of Colossians. Colossians chapter three. Colossians chapter three. If you then be risen with Christ, quickened by his spirit, raised
from the dead, seated with him at the right hand of the Father.
If you are born of God, if you believe on the Son of God, if
you are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Set your affection on things
above. Set your heart, your heart, your
affection, not some affection, your affection. Set your affection
on things above, not own things on the earth. Love heaven and
glory, don't love this earth. Set your affection on things
eternal, not on things of vanity. For you, you who are risen with
Christ, you who are born of God, you who believe on the Son of
God, ye are dead. I thought he just said we were
alive. We're risen with Christ dead
to the world. Yes. Dead to sin by his death. Yes. Dead to the law by his obedience
and death. But here he's talking about being
dead to the world. I am crucified with Christ and
crucified to the world. Paul said in Galatians 6, 14
dead to the world. so that this world is no longer
the sphere of our lives. This world is no longer the sphere
in which we live and move and have our being, but we live in
the spirit. You're dead to the world. And
your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our
life, when Christ, who is our life, Somebody says Christ is
the most important thing in my life. No Christ is our life We
have life in Christ. That's true. But Christ is more
Christ is our life In him we live and move and have our being
we have no life apart from him When Christ who is our life Shall
appear in his second coming in his glorious second advent Then
shall ye also appear with him in glory. When Christ comes again,
you shall appear with Christ. He comes with 10,000 of his saints.
When the Lord comes, Those who are dead shall be raised from
the grave and meet him in the air and we shall be called up
to meet them and our lord in the air and we will come with
our redeemer to this new new earth created new by him and
we will appear with him in glory in his glory we will appear with
him in glory now watch what paul says mortify therefore mortify
therefore slaughter Say no to and slaughter your members which
are upon the earth. What's he talking about? Your
members which are upon the earth. Everything that's natural to
you. Fornication. Uncleanness. Inordinate affection. And many
things about which we should have affection and care. but
inordinate affection, affection that rivals God, affection that
rivals our Redeemer, evil concupiscence, evil desires, and covetousness,
the love of stuff, which is idolatry, for which thing's sake the wrath
of God cometh on the children of disobedience, in which ye
also want, this is what we used to live for, fornication, uncleanness,
inordinate affection, evil desires, covetousness, which is idolatry,
in which things, for which things take the wrath of God comes on
the children of disobedience, in the which you also walked
sometime when you lived in them. But now, but now, ye also put
off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication
out of your mouth. And that's not just talking about
using bad language. It's talking about gossip and
slander. things, words that are used to
injure, whispering, backbiting, filthy communication. Next time
you pick up the phone and start to say something bad about Mark
Henson, even if it's true, that's what
it's talking about, just put that out of your mouth. Put it
out of your mouth. Did you hear what Sheila had
to say? Did you hear what Shona had to say? Did you hear what
Shana had to say? Put it out of your mouth, put
it out of your mouth, but you don't. Lie not one to another,
seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds. You
have put this off. This is, this, this is what we've
done in faith in Christ. This is what we've done by profession
in our baptism. We put these things off. We live
no longer after the flesh. And they put on the new man.
We've put on the new man. Which is renewed in knowledge
after the image of him that created him. We've come now to live in
Christ Jesus. Where there is neither Greek
nor Jew. Circumcision nor uncircumcision. Barbarian, Scythian, Bond, nor
free. There's a lot of talk this week
particularly because of that thing that God has put over us
in the White House and the horrid racism that he seeks to promote
throughout the nation and the vile way he conducts himself
about racial division. and it's worse now than it's
ever been in my lifetime. There's no question about that.
It's horrible. It's horrible. And legislation
is not going to change it. Laws are not going to change
it. You can require different people of different races and
nationalities to live in row houses next door to one another,
and you can require them to marry one another's sons and daughters
by law, and it's not going to change. is not going to change.
That is just the way things are in this world. That's the way
things are. Prejudices are evil. They're
not going to change. There's only one place where
race doesn't make any difference. There's only one place in this
world where the color of your skin doesn't make any difference.
There's only one place in this world where the way you talk,
whether you have a southern accent or a northern accent or an Indian
accent where that make any difference. Only one place in this world
where it doesn't make any difference whether you're rich or poor.
There's only one place in this world where it doesn't make any
difference whether you have a great education or no education or
a little bit of education. There's only one place in this
world where Men who labor with their hands and earn their living
by the sweat of their brow and men who are brilliant scientists
and brilliant intellectuals. That doesn't make any difference.
And that's in Christ. Doesn't matter. Christ is the
melting pot, the only one. In Him, these things moulding
up because we are one in Him. When Mark read that passage in
Ezekiel, I thought he couldn't have read a better passage to
prepare for this message. He takes the sticks and brings
them together, makes them one stick, makes them one stick.
Why is that? all and in all Christ is all
and he is in you all that's exactly what the Apostle means Christ
is in you all. And since Christ is in you, all
of you who are born of God, all of you are raised together with
him, all of you who believe on the son of God, since Christ
is in you, you are one in Christ Jesus, the Lord. You understand
that? I never will forget my first visit to Kingston, Jamaica.
I used to go down every year and preach for there and do most
down there. And Aaron picked me up at the airport in Montego
Bay and we drove 90 miles in his little VW with the windows
rolled down because it was about 110 degrees and visited a little
bit. But got into his house and his
boy met me at the door, a little shaver, and then met his wife
and his older son. And we sat down in the living
room. And one of the first things Aaron said to me, he said, in
this house we don't see color. I said, Aaron, that's just not
so. That's just not so. You're a black man and I'm a
white man. And we have prejudices. You do
and I do. That's just fact. The difference
between us and the other folks in this world is we recognize
the evil of it and deal with it. Because in Christ, the color
of your skin doesn't matter. In Christ, what you have doesn't
matter. In Christ, where you live doesn't
matter. Christ is all and in you all. God, teach me that every
day. And teach me to live by that
rule every day. Christ is all and in you all. But now, tonight, I want us to
focus one more time on these three precious words. Three short,
one-syllable words that carry a wealth of meaning of more value
than mountains of gold. Christ is all. Christ is all. Christ is the foundation of all
true doctrine. And Christ is the motive for
all godliness. Christ is the message of all
true preaching. Christ is the object of all true
worship. In what sense do we understand
this? When the spirit of God says Christ
is all, surely we must not carry that too far. I keep saying this
because I keep hoping folks will hear me. When you read something
in this book stated by God, pick it up and run with it just as
far as you can run and you haven't come close to getting started
to getting to the end of it. Christ is all. You can't understand
that too fully. You can't understand that too
entirely. You can't stretch that too far. Christ is all. In all things concerning our
souls particularly, in all things regarding the knowledge of God,
In all things concerning salvation, in all things spiritual, in all
things eternal, in all things relating to eternal life, Christ
is all. And let me show you four things,
and let's begin back in the book of Proverbs, Proverbs chapter
8. When the Spirit of God tells
us Christ is all, he would certainly have us to understand that Christ
is all in all the purpose, counsel, decrees, and works of the triune
God. There was a time before time
when nothing existed. There was no world, no universe,
no angels, no men, a time when the triune God dwelt alone in
the ineffable glory of his three sacred persons, Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost. Where was Christ then? Look here
in Proverbs chapter 8. Let's see what it says. We begin
reading at verse 22. Even in that time before time
began, Christ was with the Father. One with the father, loved of
the father, brought forth by the triune God as our covenant
surety in whom we were saved, accepted, and blessed with all
things by our God because we were accepted in the beloved.
Proverbs chapter eight, verse 22. Our Lord Jesus is speaking. The Lord possessed me in the
beginning of his way before his works of old. I was set up from
everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there
were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before
the hills was I brought forth. While as yet he had not made
the earth, nor the fields, or the highest part of the dust
of the world, Now when he speaks of him being brought forth, obviously
this is not talking about him being brought forth in his eternal
Godhead. Obviously this is not talking
about God the Son being brought forth. There never was a time
when he began to be. There never was a time when he
began to be the Son of God. He's talking about him being
brought forth as our surety, brought forth as our mediator. brought forth as the surety of
the everlasting covenant, as the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, whom the Father accepted for us, and into whose
hands the Father trusted all his people, all his will, and
all his glory. Where was Christ in the beginning?
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. When John uses the term word
It's much like using the word wisdom as is found in Proverbs
or in first Corinthians where Paul says Christ is made of God
unto us wisdom the word means that Christ Stood forth as that
one by whom God would make himself known to man. I the one in whom
God would express himself, the one by whom God would reveal
himself. In the beginning was the word,
this one standing forth as our mediator, the God-man who would
come in human flesh at the appointed time. He stood forth in eternity. He's brought forth by the triune
Jehovah and stands there as that one by whom God will show his
glory to men on the earth. And the Word was with God. Face to face with God. One with
God. In fact, the next line tells
us exactly what that means. And the Word was God. A better translation would be,
and God was the Word. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was face to face with God, and God was the Word. So that Jesus Christ, standing
forth as our covenant surety, as that One who stood with the
Father as our surety, who is Himself God, He was accepted
by Him as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
and we were accepted of God in Him. And then time began. There came a time when sin entered
into this world, into the earth that God had created. Satan tempted
our parents, Adam and Eve, in the garden. and brought forth
sin and corruption in the world, the world that God had created
for himself, the world God had created for the display of his
glory, the world that God had created in which he would display
the glory of redemption. And so this coming of sin, this
entrance of sin into the world didn't take God by surprise.
It's not something you caught God off guard. This is exactly
according to God's purpose And where was Christ then turn back
to Genesis chapter 3. Let's see where he was Eve took
the forbidden fruit and Gave it to Adam Eve we are told was
deceived The serpent beguiled her. Adam knew exactly what he
was doing. Adam rebelled against God with
his eyes wide open. He knew that eating that forbidden
fruit Eating that forbidden food which God commanded him not to
eat. That one symbol, that one representation,
that one element of God's display of his absolute sovereignty as
God. God said, don't you eat this.
That's the only thing God commanded him to do and it was negative. He said, don't eat this. In the
day thou eatest thereof. He didn't say if you eat. He
said in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And Adam
looked at Eve, knowing what the consequences of sin would be.
And he said, God, you can't do this. And he plunged himself into death. and sin and the curse because
of his love for Eve. Rather than be separated from
Eve, he chose separation from God. And the Holy Spirit tells
us in Romans 5 verse 14 that Adam was a similitude of the
last Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ, who would come in time. So we
have portrayed in the very beginning our great Savior, who came into
this world for love of his people, for love of his bride, for love
of his church, and sooner than be separated from the bride to
whom he was betrothed from eternity, he chose with his eyes wide open
to plunge himself into sin. and death and the curse of God
to be forsaken of God that he might forever bring us into union
with God in himself. And he portrays it for us and
declares it in Genesis 3 15. As soon as sin entered into the
world, before the Lord Jesus shoved Adam and Eve out of the
garden, he promised them that he would come the woman's seat.
And here's the first gospel sermon, Genesis 315. I will put enmity
between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed. It, the woman's seed, shall bruise
thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. The woman's seed will
crush your head, And in the process, he will have his heel crushed
by you. And then he gave a picture of
how it would be done. Look at verse 21. Unto Adam also
and his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed
them, so that the Lord stripped off their fig leaves. And when
he stripped off their fig leaves by which they had attempted to
hide from God, he took an animal, an innocent victim, and slaughtered
it in their stead. The scripture doesn't tell us,
but I'm pretty sure it was a lamb. I'm pretty sure it was one of
those lambs, and he took the skins of that innocent victim
and clothed Adam and Eve to portray how that God Almighty in the
slaughter of the Lamb of God would take the very righteousness
of Christ and make it ours. And Adam and Eve passed this
news on to their sons Cain and Abel. And when Abel came to worship
God, he brought a lamb to worship him. From that day to this, there's
never been any who come to God except by faith in Jesus Christ. That's the only way men come
to God throughout the Old Testament from the day that God clothed
Adam and Eve in the skins of that innocent victim to this
day. All who are God's look to God's
salvation Christ Jesus like Simeon of old who looked for God's salvation
in the temple. There came a time when the world
seemed to be entirely buried in rebellion and sin, engrossed
in darkness, imprisoned in idolatry, and utterly ignorant of God. For 4,000 years, for 4,000 years,
the world had the advantages of learning and science from
the greatest empires in world history. the Assyrians, the Egyptians,
the Persians, the Greeks, and finally the Romans. And they
had all of the marvelous, marvelous philosophers, marvelous educators,
marvelous men of science and learning and wisdom. And by all
their wisdom and learning, intellectual powers, nothing was ever done
to advance humanity even a little. Not even a little. We read our
newspapers today and we see the perversity and the vileness and
the corruption and our hearts just are angered and We feel utter grief and anxiety
with regard to our children and grandchildren and things they
have to live with. Read your history books. Don't forget to
do that because what you read in the newspaper tomorrow morning
was written in history. Things are no worse now than
what Paul described in Romans Chapter 1. Things are no worse
now. It was the way things were in
that day. All the religion and science
and philosophy and learning of the whole world for 4,000 years
only resulted in this. And the world by wisdom knew
not God. The world by wisdom knew not
God. And finally, when the Lord Jesus
came into this world, except for a few despised Jews in a
small corner of the earth. The whole world was ignorant
of God, the whole world. And where was Christ then? He
left heaven's glory and came into this world in human flesh. You hear that so often, and you
think of it so often, and I say it so often. We fail to even
be overwhelmed by it, let alone give consideration to it. God
stepped into time. God came in humanity. God became one of us. The infinite,
incomprehensible Jehovah came into this world in a baby's body,
a real man, a real man. When he was in his mother's womb,
our Lord Jesus depended on the fluids of his mother's body for
his life. Without them, he would have died
like any other baby. And yet in her womb, he was God
who gave her womb the fluids of life for himself. When he
lay on his mother's breast and nursed at her breast like any
other baby, he had to have the milk of his mother's breast or
he would have died. And yet he was God giving milk
in her breast to sustain his life. You have an idea what I'm
talking about? Our Lord Jesus came into this
world on purpose. He assumed our flesh in order
to redeem and save his people from their sins. He walked on
this earth as a man in perfect obedience to God, brought in
everlasting righteousness, not for himself, but for his people.
And then at the appointed time, he went up to Mount Calvary.
and took our sins into himself, so that he was made sin for us,
bearing our sin in his body on the tree. so that he might justly
be put to death in our room instead, by the hand of God's fury and
anger. And God Almighty cried awake,
O sword, against one that is my fellow, in spite this man,
this man made sin for his people. And the Lord Jesus Christ died
under the furious wrath of Almighty God as a willing sacrifice in
our room and in our stead. And then Our Savior rose again. He rose justified in the Spirit. He ascended into heaven. He's
exalted with all power and glory put in Him and given to Him manifestly
as our surety who has accomplished redemption for us. And yonder
He sits now on the throne of grace, the throne of glory, the
throne of judgment, and rules and reigns the universe On behalf
of his people to give eternal life to as many as the father
has given him More than anything else the great great thing That
sustains me from day to day in the affairs of the world And
that keeps me from pulling my hair out and going nuts seeing
what's going on in the world around us Is this knowledge? He who sits on the throne is
God my Savior and He is ordering the affairs of the universe.
So fully ordering the affairs of the universe. that the thoughts
and intents of the hearts of all men, even of all rulers,
is ordered by God, ordered by God our Savior, to give eternal
life to as many as the Father's given him. So let us bow down. Every time you catch yourself,
as I often do, arguing with God about what God's doing, Every
time you catch yourself, as I often do, getting upset with what's
going on around me, pause. Oh, God, pause now. To fuss with
history is to fuss with God. To fuss with providence is to
fuss with God. To buck the affairs of the day
is to buck God. Bow down! God's doing good for
His own, everywhere, in everything, for the saving of His people.
There is a time coming, there is a time coming when our God
shall make all things new. Creation will not always grow
being burdened. Sin shall be cast out of this
world. Wickedness shall be no more. Satan shall be cast into hell. There is a day coming Oh, God,
hasten the day. There is a day coming when the
slime of the serpent shall be eradicated from God's creation,
when God shall make all things new. There'll be a new heaven
and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness and the knowledge
of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
And where will Christ be then? Our Lord Jesus will return to
this earth making all things new. He'll come in the clouds
of glory and power and great glory and the kingdoms of this
world shall become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ. The heathen all shall be given
to him as his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth
his possession. To him at last Every knee shall
bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father and His dominion shall be an everlasting
dominion. There is a day coming when all
men shall be judged. Turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter
5. The sea shall give up the dead
which are in it. Death and hell shall deliver
up the dead which are in them and all that sleep in the graves
Shall awake and come forth and shall be judged according to
their works and Where will Christ be then? Before him all Nations
shall be gathered and he shall judge all Christ Jesus shall
be the judge on the throat look here 2nd Corinthians 5 10 For
we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ That
everyone may receive the things done in his his body According
to that he hath done Whether it be good or bad You're going to receive from
Jesus Christ the judge Exactly what you deserve according to
the record books of heaven So that if he finds any sin, any
sin to be yours, if he finds any iniquity to be yours, if
he finds any transgression to be yours, to hell he will send
you! But his people shall be found
without sin, spotless, holy, unblameable, and unreprovable
in the sight of God. Because He is our righteousness. He is our redemption. He is our salvation. He is all our souls desire, all
our souls need, all that God requires of us, Jesus Christ
is. And we in Him have fulfilled
all God's law and all God's justice and all God's will. Brother Mark mentioned this morning
in his excellent message to us, God's requirement, love God with
all your heart, love your neighbor as yourself. And our natural response, and Satan
loves to do it. He loves to do it. He loves to
point you that way. Larry Brown, you don't come close
to measuring up. And you know it. And you know
it. And Satan would raise Moses up
and say, look here, you can't be gods. Bless God, I know that so. And I chose my words deliberately.
I bless God that I know that so. I don't love you like I should. And I don't love God with all
my heart. Not this old man. that's in me. But there's a new man in me that
does. His name is Jesus Christ, my Savior. And that's my hope
of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory. How do you know he's in you?
Because I believe him. I believe. I trust him. I trust
him. All right. That's the first point.
The next three will be very brief. Look at Acts chapter 10. Chapter
10 in all the purposes and counsels and decrees and works of God
Christ is all Here's the second Acts 10 43 To him give all the prophets
witness Now why you got your hand there next Ian Open back
to Genesis chapter 1. Open back to Genesis chapter
1. Hold your Bible open there and
go back just a few pages beyond Acts to Malachi chapter 4. Malachi
chapter 4. Got it? All right, here's the
first word in Genesis 1, Ian. Here's the last word. in Malachi
chapter 4. Curse. Got this? Do this right here. Right here.
Look here. Everything there speaks of Christ. And you will read this book with
no benefit to your soul until you discover that. To him give
all the prophets witness. Witness of what? That through
his name Whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission
of sins. Isn't that wonderful? This whole
book, this whole book, everything written here, everything written
here, says whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission
of sins. The whole book is written for
that purpose. It all speaks of Christ. It all speaks of him. I think I've told you this before.
Years ago, Will was just a little shaver. And he'd come over on
Sunday mornings before anybody else did when I was over here
studying, when they'd be over visiting. And I sat at my desk
studying, preparing to preach. And Will came in. He just stood
there for a few minutes. And finally, he walked over and
he said, Papi, is that where Jesus lives? He pointed to this
book. And I looked at him and I said,
son, in a very real sense, this is where Jesus lives. He's in
this book. And unless you see him in the
pages of the book, you don't understand the book. Not occasionally,
not here and there, but everywhere in the book. Christ is the one
God had in mind, the triune Jehovah, when God created things as he
created them. The opening chapters of Genesis
were not written. They were not written to prove
creation and denounce evolution. They certainly do that. There's
no question, they certainly do that, but that's not why they
were written. And if that's what you use them for, you use them
to no profit. In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth. And the earth was, the earth
became without form and void and darkness was upon the face
of the deep. And the spirit of God brooded
upon the waters. God said, let there be light
and there was light. That's a picture of the new creation. How Christ makes us new creatures.
God created us perfect and then there was a terrible fall and
darkness covers all mankind and the spirit of God moves upon
men in the world and God says let there be light and the sinner
begins to live and everything else in all the word of God came
to pass by God's decree to portray Jesus Christ and him crucified
and the remission of sins for all who believe on him. To him,
give all the prophets witness of all these things so that everything
written in the word of God is designed of God to turn our hearts
toward Christ. Back in 1799, in a northern Egyptian
town called Rosetta, Some folks were doing one of those archaeological
digs and they found a stone, a slab. And it was strange. They bust that thing off and
they discovered that on that Rosetta Stone, written as you
have columns here in your Bible, some of you may have these parallel
Bibles, you'll have the Amplified and the King James and the New
International Version and maybe the Greek text in different columns
all together. They found Egyptian hieroglyphics
and a Greek text corresponding to the hieroglyphics. And the
common language of the people corresponding to the Greek text
and hieroglyphics. So that for the first time, men
could take this discovery and go into those Egyptian pyramids
and read the drawings written in those pyramids. Why? That's
what that picture means. That's what that picture means. Isn't this wonderful? It is wonderful. We've wondered for years what
this meant. Christ is the Rosetta Stone by
which you understand what God means in this book. Get that
and you'll get the meaning of the book and you'll get the message
of the book. Christ crucified is the subject,
the theme, the message of Holy Scripture. I want you to understand
something else. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
3, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, I'm sorry, in verse 30. In God's salvation, Christ is
all. Christ is all. We are Trinitarians. We worship Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. We recognize salvation planned
by the Father and purchased by the Son and performed by God
the Holy Spirit. But the triune God has determined
that Christ should have preeminence in all things, especially in
salvation. Now look what the book says here
in 1 Corinthians 1.30. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who
of God is made unto us wisdom. and righteousness. He alone gives
us knowledge and understanding in the knowledge of God and God's
word and God's ways. He alone is our righteousness. He earned for us perfect righteousness,
worked for us a perfect righteousness, purchased for us a perfect righteousness,
and in the new birth he comes and puts a righteous nature in
us so that he is made of God to us righteousness, and he's
made of God unto us sanctification. sanctified in Him from eternity,
sanctified by His blood at Calvary, and sanctified in the new birth
by the gift of His Spirit, and redemption. Redemption. Redemption takes in the whole
thing. He redeemed us with His blood. at Calvary. And He redeemed us from the power
of sin by the power of His grace in the new birth. And soon He
shall redeem us, these very bodies, from the grave in resurrection
glory. Why? That according as it is
written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. One more thing. In eternity heaven's glory Christ
shall still be all to all God's people In Solomon's temple when you
walked into the temple if you can picture it in your mind's
eye You approach the temple and as you enter into the temple
The very first thing you'd see is that huge brazen serpent It
just, it would consume your mind. It would consume your eyes. That'd
be first, not brazen serpent, but that brazen altar of brass.
It'd consume your, your mind and your thoughts. The altar
of brass was 20 cubits long. You know how wide the temple
was? 20 cubits. So we walk up the temple, walk
in, all you can see is that altar brass. That's the preeminent
thing that will be in your mind's eye. And when we enter into heaven's
glory, whatever that glory is, Christ will consume your thoughts
and your minds for he shall be the object of your eyes, the
object of your heart, the object of your joy, the object of your
song, the object of your praise forever. Christ, the lamb standing
in the midst of the throne, as it were a lamb that had been
slain, who has fulfilled everything, written in the book according
to God's decree and God's purpose. May God make Christ all to you. May God make Christ all to me
all the time and make us laborers together in him for Christ is
all and in you all. Amen.