Open your Bibles, please, to
Colossians 3. Colossians 3. And I'm going to begin reading
with verse 10. All of those men and women who've
been born of God have put on the new man, their new creatures
in Christ, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of
him that created him. And to these people, there is neither Greek nor Jew. Circumcision or uncircumcision. Barbarian, Scythian, bond-free. But Christ is all and in all. That simply says that to those
who have been born of God, those who are in Christ through faith
in His name, Christ is everything. and they're nothing. Their background,
their natural heritage doesn't amount to a thing. Whether they're
rulers, kings, or paupers, Christ is everything, and they're nothing. I've said this here before, and
I'll keep saying it as long as God gives me breath, or unless
He teaches me something different. And that is, we sit here this
morning, we're gathered before that great God with whom we have
to do, and He knows our words before we ever speak them. He
knows our thoughts before they ever come to mind. That's the
kind of God He is. And the most important thing
in all this world, The one most important thing in all this world
is what we think about His Son. Sharon, what you think, what
I think about Him, each of us, what we think about His Son.
And we're going to be judged on that one thing, what we think
about His Son. There'll be many people who stand
before God in the last day who've made decisions and joined churches
and been baptized and done many wonderful works and preached
in His name. And His response to their standing
there will be, I never knew you. And all of your works are works
of iniquity. They never knew the Son. Mark
this down. This is life eternal. that they might know Thee, the
only true God in Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." Life eternal
is not a decision. Life eternal comes by revelation. Life eternal is knowing God in
Christ. Life eternal is seeing God in
Christ. Paul said, I was going down the
Damascus road, his heart was full of hatred for Christ. He
hated the very mention, the sound of the name of Christ. And God
turned on the light and he fell on the dust, in the dust on his
face. And recalling that incident later,
he says, God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
hath shined into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of that old Assyrian, Jesus the
Christ. Life eternal is knowing Christ. And knowing Christ only comes
by spiritual, supernatural, amazing revelation. Christ came down
from praying all night on a mountain one time and asked His disciples,
He said, who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? I'm standing
here, I'm a man, I'm the Son of Man, I'm born a woman. Who
do men, what are they saying about me? Who do they think I
am? They said, well, some, John the Baptist, Jeremiah, Elijah,
different opinions. He said, what do you say? Peter
being the outspoken one, he said, Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. The Son of Man is the Son of
God. And the Christ, the only Savior,
the Anointed of God. And Christ looked at him and
said, Peter, Simon, Barjona, flesh and blood, no preacher
revealed that unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
Blessed art thou. Everybody doesn't receive that
revelation, but those chosen of God. Oh, if you're here this morning,
you've never seen Christ. May this be the very hour that
God turn on the light and you see who He is. Most important
thing as you stand before God in all the world, most important
thing, singular most important thing, what you think about God's
Son, my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to say some things
by way of introduction, and then I want to make four or five points. I want to talk to you about the
Lord Jesus Christ. To believers, true believers,
He is all and in all. He's everything. What do we need
as we stand before God? It's in Christ. I may talk to
you about that next week, but it's Christ. You need wisdom. Christ's righteousness, Christ's
sanctification, Christ's redemption, Christ's resurrection, glory
Christ. To the believer, He is all and
in all. Salvation, as David taught this
morning, is of the Lord. It's of the Lord. I'm going to
show you this morning how that Jesus Christ, it pleased the
Father that He should have preeminence in all things. In all things,
He, Christ, should have the preeminence, to be the preeminent One. I want
to talk to you this morning about Christ, His past preeminence. He is all in all in creation.
He is all in all in providence, the sovereign ruler of this world.
He is all in all in salvation. And He is all in all in the life
of faith that believers live. Christ is all. We're nothing. He's everything. Christ is all
to the believer. And let me say this, and this
is so important. Every man who preaches or teaches
or just reads or hears the Scriptures, He has something he's going to
emphasize, something that's foremost in his mind. They call it in
the Bible classes, they call it hermeneutics. That's a principle
of interpretation. You interpret the Scriptures
based on this or that. Some people interpret the Scriptures
when they read them based upon their denomination, their creed,
their confession. And they must make it tie in,
you know, or they reject it or pervert it, destroy it, or just
ignore it. And some people interpret the
scriptures, their hermeneutic principle is prophecy. Everything
in this book, as they begin to read it, must fit their view,
their idea of future things. Or they just ignore it, neglect
it, reject it, distorted, whatever. But that's their principle of
interpretation. And then there's some, when they
look at this book, they have an idea of human righteousness
and works, legalism, and they interpret this book based on
those principles. Good works. And then there's some, and that's
most of the people in America today, When they open and begin
to read this book, or when they hear me read from it, hear me
preach from it, hear any preacher preach from it, they weigh everything
against the principle, their belief, of free will. If it doesn't
mesh with their idea of free will, that's not true, and they
won't have it. The chief, master, hermeneutic
principle of this book is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We look at everything in that
light. We look at everything as it relates to Christ. Because
everything in this book emanates from Christ. He is the way, the
truth, and the life. He is the Word become flesh.
He's God's message. There he goes. What's God's message
to men? There he goes. Mary's son, the
Lord Jesus. He is the Word of God incarnate. This book is about Christ. And
every preacher is commanded to preach Christ and Him crucified.
Paul said, I determined. I sat down, thought it over,
weighed it, and made a determination not to know anything among you
except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Then in Galatians 6.14, in closing
out that letter, he said, God forbid that I glory except in
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom This world is crucified
to me, and I'm crucified to this old world. Christ is everything
to the believer, all in all. And I'm commanded to preach Christ,
and I desire to preach Christ. I heard an old preacher One time
say, I'd sure like to preach Christ like He ought to be preached.
One time before I die, I would too. I've never done it yet,
but I'd like to. Because He's everything. He's
everything. And once you see Christ, there's
nothing else to preach. Jesus Christ is all and in all. We don't preach and get up and
talk about the history of our denomination, rattle the bones
of our denomination. We preach Christ. We don't get
up and try to show how much we know about future things. We
preach Christ. And it all comes from Him and
points back to Him. Christ is in everything, and
everything emanates from Him. All these things in Scripture.
I've heard this statement. I listened to it. And don't you
ever say it. Don't you ever think it. I've
heard people right here in this congregation, not nobody here
today, but I've heard them say, Preacher, we've trusted Christ,
we've said, now we want to go on to other things and better
things. What's better? What other things? I'm going to tell you this, any
moving away from Christ is a downgrade. Any moving away from Christ for
whatever reason is the spirit of apostasy turning away from
Him. Better things, all things are
in Christ. He is all and in all. Nothing
in the Word of God, now listen to this statement, nothing, nothing,
nothing in this book can be rightly understood except in the context
of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Nothing. I've heard people that
they preach in a series. They preach a series of messages
on creation, a series of messages on this and regeneration, and
whatever the subject may be, they just preach 25, 35 messages
on that same subject. and never preach Christ. They
mention His name, but they never preach Him. A lot of people talk about redemption,
but not many are talking about the Redeemer. And we must know
Him to be redeemed. We must know Him to have eternal
life. People talk about they can preach
creation and, oh man, they're just right down the line, you
know. They overthrow this doctrine of evolution and they just lay
it out one stick behind the other and got all their ducks in a
row. They preach creation. But if
they never preach Christ, they never preach creation at all.
But listen to this. This is why. Because this Bible
teaches concerning creation. that all things are of Him, and
by Him, and for Him, and for His good pleasure. How can you
preach creation without preaching Him? He's the Creator. He has preeminence in creation. Without Him was not anything
made that was made. He's the Creator. Not only that,
He's the ruler of His creation. The ruler of His creation. If
we studied Abel's sacrifice and just brought out all the points
we could think about and never preached Christ from that sacrifice,
we haven't preached anything. Nothing. Wasn't worth preaching
and wasn't worth listening to. Same with Noah's Ark. Same with
all those forms and ceremonies and rituals of Old Testament
worship. They're just a shadow. They were
just a shadow of good things to come. And those good things
to come, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. His redemptive work. That's it. Now, let me show you
just as briefly as I can this morning. Christ is all in all
in the Scriptures. Turn to Luke 24. Christ is all and in all in the
Scriptures. Luke chapter 24. These disciples
were walking to Emmaus. Christ joined Himself to them
on the road. They as yet didn't know who He
was. Then in chapter 24 of Luke, Chapter 24 and verse 25, Then
he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart, to
believe all that the prophets, all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and have entered into His glory? They trusted
in Him that He was the Christ, that He was the Savior, that
He was the Messiah, that He was the King they've been waiting
for. But He died. And He said, don't you understand
the Scriptures? And beginning at Moses, Genesis, And all the prophets throughout
the Scriptures. He expounded unto them in all
the Scriptures. This whole Old Testament. The things concerning Himself. This whole book, all the Scriptures,
talks about Christ. in ways we'll never understand
in this life down here below, but they speak of Christ. This
book speaks of Christ. This book speaks of Christ. It
was written that we might know who He is and believe on Him,
on the everlasting life. John chapter 5, These people
came to Christ and claimed to believe in Moses. He said, if
you'd have believed in Moses, you'd have believed in me. Because
Moses wrote about me. John 5.39, I believe it is. Look
at 1 Corinthians. Let me show you something. This
is amazing. 1 Corinthians. Chapter 9. When I was a child growing up
on the farm, a young kid, we had one horse. When Dad would
use that horse to plow the corn, he would put a muzzle on him
because he just got so distracted by that corn, he couldn't walk
straight. He'd trample the corn and be
eating from this side and take a bite from that side and it
ruined the corn too. But let me read you something
here. Verse 7, 1 Corinthians 9. Who goeth of warfare any time
at his own charges? Who planteth a vineyard, and
eateth not of the fruit thereof? Or who feedeth the flock, and
eateth not of the milk of the flock? Say I these things as
a man, Or saith not the law the same thing? The law, the law
teaches the same thing. For it is written in the law
of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth
out the corn. Well, what does that mean? God
taking care of the oxen? Is that all that means? Or saith he it altogether for
our sakes? A spiritual teaching, a spiritual
lesson. For our sakes, no doubt, that
is written, that he that plows should plow in hope, and he that
thresheth in hope should be a partaker of his hope. And if we have sown
unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall
reap your carnal things, that the preacher is to live off the
ministry? That's all it's teaching. Would you have thought that?
Unless he told me, I wouldn't have come up with that. I wouldn't
have thought that. But all the Bible is about Christ. It's about
spiritual things, not just carnal people, carnal Israel, and carnal
things, carnal ordinances. It's about Christ and spiritual,
eternal, invisible, everlasting things. That's what this book
is about. Creation. He's all in all in the Scriptures. He is the Word of God incarnate.
He is the sum and substance of all truth. Mr. Spurgeon used to say, he's the
way, he's the truth, he's the life. He's the Word become flesh. Secondly, in the scriptures,
in the beginning was the Word, Christ, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. And without that Word was not
anything made that was made. Christ the Creator. John chapter
1, verse 3 verses. Without Him was not anything
made that was made. Hebrews chapter 1. Look at Hebrews
just a moment. Hebrews chapter 1. Look what
it says here. Verse 2. Chapter 1. God, who at sundry
times in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, and by whom also
he made all things. He made it all. Look at two more
verses here. Verses 10 and 11. And thou, Lord,
in the beginning hast laid the foundation to the earth, And
the heavens are the works of your hands, Christ. They shall
perish, but not Mary's son. Thou remainest. They all shall
wax old as an old garment. Oh, how it's waxing old. And as a vesture, Christ, Mary's
Son, the Nazarene, meek and lowly one, you shall take them up,
fold them up, and they shall be changed, but they are not
the same, and thy years shall not fail." One day this whole
shooting match, he's going to roll it up and change it and
renew it, purge it. New heavens and a new earth.
But He'll be just the same, the God-man. Because it's all of
Him, as I said in the beginning, it's all of Him, and by Him,
and for Him, and for His good pleasure. That's what the Scriptures
say about this whole creation. It's of Christ, it's by Christ,
it's for Christ, and for His good pleasure. For His good pleasure,
Revelation 4.11. He is not... I'm telling you
all these things because I said in the beginning, knowing Him
is life eternal. He's not the little pygmy Jesus
we hear about today. He's not a would-be Savior. He's
not a trying-to-be Savior. He's not a hope-to-be-a-Savior.
He is the Savior. He saves whom He pleases. He
quickens whom He wills. He gives life to whom He wills. He's the Christ of God. And knowing
Him and loving Him is life eternal. Now look at Providence. The Scriptures,
He's all in all. Creation? All and in all. Providence? He's all and in all. The God-man, the mediator, the
man Christ Jesus rules this universe, all worlds, and all things in
all the worlds. He is the ruler. He is the only
potentate, king over all kings. and Lord over all lords, of all
time, and eternity, and eternity. Mary's Son, our Savior, is the
ruler of this universe. Let me read to you one place,
Colossians chapter 1. Many other places I could read,
but look at Colossians chapter 1 just a moment. This is, this
is Shocking, awe-inspiring, when you really
think about Mary's son, this man, Christ Jesus. Verse 15 of chapter 1, who is
the image of the invisible God, and the Creator. He's the firstborn
of every creature. For by Him were all things created
that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones, dominions, or principalities, or powers.
All things were created by Him and for Him. And He is before
all things. This man is God. And He is before
all things. And by Him all things consist. I like that word there, consist.
By the Lord Jesus Christ, by Mary's Son, the resurrected Christ,
this same Jesus, the resurrected Christ, all things are held together. They find their pattern and cohesion
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He keeps all the stars, all the
heavenly bodies in their circuit. By Him all things consist. That's my Savior. You reckon
He can save us? If He can do all that, I expect
He can. We should trust Him. We should
trust Him. We should indeed trust Him. And then in Philippians chapter
1 it says, Because of what he did, God gives him a name above
every name. There'll never be a name, never
has been a name before his. There is not today and never
will be a name as high as his. Name above all names. That one
day, one day, every knee shall bow. Things in heaven, things in earth,
things under the earth, every knee shall bow. And every tongue
shall confess that he is L-O-R-D. To the glory of God. One day. One day. I don't want to talk
about Jesus. You've got to meet Him one day.
I'll never bow to Jesus. I'll let Him reign over me. Yeah, you will. Yeah, you will. He's reigning over you right
now. He has the power to save your
soul and just let you go on. And he exercises it every day. He said, the Father hath delivered
all things into my hands. I have all power, this man, the
man Christ Jesus, the God man. I have all power in heaven. I
have all power in earth. I have all power over all flesh. That's me, that's you, me. All
power over all flesh. I have the power to give you
eternal life. to as many as the Father gave
me, and I shall." He's not a hope to be tried to be anything. He's
a Savior. Sovereign, successful, sufficient
Savior of His people. This is Jesus, our Savior. Now
look at salvation. There is no other name under
heaven given among men. whereby we must be saved. You
want to be saved? Not without Christ. He's the
only Savior. The only Savior. Galatians chapter 4, two or three
verses in the first part of that chapter. God sent His Son into this world. made of a woman, made under the
law to redeem us from the curse of the law. He's the only Savior
there is. The only one. And He's the one
that was preached in the Old Testament. He's the one that's
preached in the New Testament. There never has been another
gospel, never will be another gospel. Christ is the only gospel,
the only good news there is for sinners. People don't want to
do business with Christ. Maybe He'll let you get by with
it while you live out your days through this world. But one day
you're going to meet Him. One day you're going to bow to
Him. One day they'll confess who He is. They'll say, that's
the Lord. We're not as smart as the angels,
the fallen angels, the demons of this world. When He ran into
demons in His earthly ministry, we know who you are. You're the
Holy One of God. We're in your hands. If you come
to torment us before our time." That great number of demons that
was in that old man of, I can't think of the name of the place
now, but this man is filled with demons. They cried out to the
Lord, said, let us go into those swine. They had to have his permission
to do anything. If you're trusting Him for your
salvation, you're doing good. He's able. And He only is able. He is the only Savior. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Philippians 2, we love Him because
He first loved us, gave Himself for us. For time and eternity, all that
we need is Christ. If we have Christ, we have wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. If we have Christ,
we have salvation. He's not only the Savior, he
himself is God's salvation. If we have Christ, we have all
we need. Jesus Christ has made to me all
I need. All I need. He alone is all my
plea. He's all I need. He's all I need. He is all and in all. If you have Christ, this world
is yours. You're heirs of God. What does
He have? What does He not have? He has
everything. And you're joint heirs with Christ. And that doesn't
mean that the inheritance is divided up. That means whatever
He inherits, I inherit too. Whatever He inherits, Purim,
Betty, Perry, they inherit too. They reign with Him. Dwell with
Him throughout eternity. Lastly, I just want to say this
briefly. Lastly, in the life of faith
and obedience, Christ is all and in all. We have preachers
across the land that are trying to drive people with the whip
of the law, and threatening people with punishments if they don't
do this or that. That's not Christianity. If you
hear it on TV or radio, and the most respected preacher, I don't
care. That's not Christianity. Christianity is free. Free. Christ's people serve Him freely. He doesn't bribe them to do it.
They serve Him freely. And the way He gets them to serve
Him and keeps them on track and keeps them full of zeal and the
desire to love Him and worship Him and serve Him. Look at Titus
3 just a moment. Titus chapter 3. Now let me read this several
verses to you here. And may God help you to take
it to heart, not just bounce around in your head, because
it's very serious, wonderful and serious. Paul told this young
preacher, He said, you put the people in mind to be subject
to principalities and powers, to obey the magistrates, to be
ready to every good work. Tell them that. To speak evil
of no man, not to be brawlers, not with fists to cuffs, not
with words, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men, for we ourselves It tells us
where we used to be and what we used to be. We ourselves also
were sometimes foolish and disobedient and deceived, serving divers
lusts and pleasures, living in malice, envy, hateful and hating
one another. But something happened. Something
happened. That's where we were, children
of wrath, Paul said, just like everybody else. But something
happened. The kindness and love of God
our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness,
not because of anything we did or thought or said, not by works
of righteousness which we've done, but according to His mercy.
He saved us by the washing, regeneration, renewing of the Holy Ghost. which
He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that
being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. This that I've just read to you
is a faithful saying. But what does it mean? Why important
is it? It's important enough in the life of faith and obedience
that Paul said, and those things I will that you
affirm constantly. Just remind them over and over
and over and over and over again who they were, where they came
from, Christ visited them, Christ delivered them, Christ redeemed
them, Christ justified them. Look where you are today in your
glorious inheritance. And you keep preaching these
things over and over and this will be the end. Mark it down. This is where it gets serious.
that they which have believed in God, truly believed, might
be careful to maintain good works. Be careful to try to please God
in their lives. Be careful to glorify God. These
things are good and profitable to man. They that have believed
God. You know what I love to hear?
Well, you do, too, because I love to preach. I preach the same
thing over and over every Sunday. What Christ has done for His
people. What Christ is doing for His people. What Christ is
to His people. That's my hope. That's your hope.
That encourages this heart. That encourages your heart. Because
Christ is all and in all. All and in all. And every command
in this book It brings us back to Christ and
Him crucified. Back to His love for us. What
did He say in John? He said, you folks love one another
now. Not love your brother as yourself,
but you love one another like I loved you. Like I loved you. You know anything
about that love? Then you'll try to love other
folks. It said in Ephesians 4, 30-32,
Be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for
Christ's sake, forgave you. That's the motivation. You can't
separate obedience from the faith that's in Christ. For the spirit of obedience,
the power of obedience, We're always called back to Christ.
Always called back to Christ. Every time called back to Christ. Let this mind be in you, Philippians
2, which was also in Christ Jesus. Over and over. Throughout the
word of God. 1 Peter 2.20. What glory is it if when we're
buffeted for our faults, we take it patiently? But if when you
do well, and you suffer for it, and you
take that patiently, this is acceptable with God. Now look
where it takes us. And every time it's like that.
For even here unto where you called, because Christ also hath
suffered for us, leaving us an example to do like he did. On and on and on. 2 Peter chapter 3. I'm going
to close. 2 Peter chapter 3. I could talk
on and on and on about this subject. How that Christ is all and in
all. We are nothing and He's everything. All we need for time and eternity. And it's all given us by free
grace, bestowed upon us through the free grace of God. Sovereign
grace of God. Look at 2 Peter chapter 3 and
verse 18. Peter closes out this second
letter and how gloriously he ends it. Growing grace. Oh, everybody talks about that,
but very few know what it is. Grow in grace, and in the knowledge,
and in the knowledge, and in the knowledge of our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. Arthur Pink said, you can't grow
in grace without growing in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, our
Savior. And to grow in grace is to grow
in the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Savior. Look at this same
book, first chapter, verse 2. In opening up this book, he says
in verse 2, grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the
knowledge of God, of Jesus our Lord. How does grace and peace
come? through the preaching, the testifying,
the witnessing, the teaching, the truth about God, Christ. You know, we have so many preachers
across the land that are telling folks what to do and talking
about sin and how many perverts and homosexuals and all these
things, how many drug addicts we have in the world and how
many abortions and all these things. That may be all right
in its way, But if you want to get people
to straighten up, preach Christ. Preach Christ. For whatever they
do, whatever reformations of life they make without Christ,
God said it's filthy rags and it's works of iniquity. May God
bless us. to see Christ more and more in
all things. Because He is all and in all. He is the only Savior. He's the
one sent by the Father to be the propitiation of our sins. He lived before God all of His
days. in perfect righteousness. And
that righteousness, He infused His people. We stand before God
in His righteousness. And at the end of His days, He
had no sin, He did no sin, He knew no sin. And yet God made
Him to be sin with my sin and your sin. And He suffered the punishment
for our sins. He purged our sins. And put them
away. And perfected us by that one
offering. And we're free in Christ. No
condemnation. No condemnation. He is our Savior. He is Our salvation. He that has the Son, he has life. Lord, increase our faith and
grant faith to those here who don't have it. For Christ's sake. Okay, David.