You take your Bibles now and
turn with me to Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3, the
text will be found in verse 11. Colossians chapter 3, verse 11. Where there is neither Greek
nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor
free, but Christ is all and in all." The title of the message
is the gospel in three words. The gospel in three words. Christ
is all. That is the gospel. You want
a witness of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Make it plain. Make it simple. Christ is all. Christ is all. When we are given
the opportunity to witness, I know that many times we are overwhelmed
with thoughts as what to say. We have been, who have been sitting
under the gospel for many years, We have heard so much. You think
of the many hundreds, thousands of messages that we have heard. The things that we have learned
by God's grace that He has enabled us to see for ourselves and experience
for ourselves. Life from the dead. Resurrection. Justification. Sanctification. Redemption. All of these great
doctrines of the faith, we've experienced them all in some
measure. And so when we are asked the
question, what is the gospel? We begin to jump from one thing
to the other and the other. And we're so confused. How in
the world can we expect them to understand what we're saying?
Well, the gospel is plain and simple. Christ is all. If you want to preach or to witness
of the gospel, Then point men to the one man that can save
their soul. His name is Jesus Christ the
Lord, the Son of God. If you are looking to me to save
you, you are looking to the wrong person. I cannot save myself. How can I save you? That's like
one drowning man hanging on to another. save ourselves and we
cannot save those we love. Christ is all. The only hope
for any sinner in this room, under the sound of my voice,
is a man that is in heaven right now ruling over all things. His name is Jesus Christ, the
Son of God. He is all the salvation of God. There is not salvation in a creed. There is not a salvation in some
religious mannerisms or rites or rituals. There is no salvation
in our decisions or our will. There is no salvation in our
good works. There is no salvation at all
save in the person, the person of Jesus Christ the Lord. I preach
and declare to you a man, a person, a real person. that saves sinners. He is the gospel. He is the sum,
the substance, the manner, the method, the means. He is everything. He is in one man. Jesus Christ. Salvation is not learning some
catechism. Children know a catechism. You
can teach them that. They can memorize it. That's
not salvation. Salvation is not in what we know. Salvation is in who we know. Now, we preach the gospel that
most people term Calvinism. Calvinism is a very concise account
of the gospel of God's grace. There's no doubt about it. Calvinism
did not start with Calvin. It did not start at that time
during the Reformation. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ
that the same gospel that was from the beginning, that was
preached in the beginning, is now being preached to you today. I am not trying to tell you something
new, something novel. I am telling you of old things,
ancient things, things that were from before the foundation of
the world, the gospel of Jesus Christ. He has always been God's
plan A in salvation. There has never been a plan B.
God didn't wring His hands when Adam sinned and said, oh, what
am I going to do now? Oh, OK. Well, let me just send my son.
No! He was the first. God first trusted in Christ. He was the first one to believe
on Christ. You know that? God was. He set all His salvation
in one man, Jesus Christ. Now, we know the five points
of Calvinism are total depravity, Unconditional election, limited
atonement, irresistible grace or calling of the Spirit, and
perseverance and preservation of the saints. But simply said,
that's just Christ. It's the gospel. It's the gospel. All that says is Christ is all. Christ is all. I want to take
each one of these points and I want you to see Christ in every
one of them. I want you to see not a doctrine. Not a checklist of things you
need to know. I want you to see a person. I
want you to see the man who is all. The only man that matters. First of all, man is born absolutely
and completely and utterly depraved. That's just the truth of the
gospel. And if you're honest with yourself,
it is the truth of your own experience. If you're even halfway honest
with yourself, you can't help but see it. Man, by nature, is
inherently evil and has no good whatsoever. Man, by nature, cannot give himself
life. He was born dead in sins. And dead, friends, let me explain
this to you in very technical terms. Being dead is being dead. If you're dead, you're dead. I hope I made that plain. You didn't
become dead. You were born dead. Now, if you want to see this,
remove all law. And let men do what they want
to. Remove all restraints. What would what would men do?
Go to a high school, take away all the teachers, take away all
the principles, take away all the rules and regulations and
the consequences. for their actions. And total
depravity will manifest itself. Anarchy, chaos will rule the
day. And it would be anywhere else
in the world. You can pick any part of the world you want to without
laws or rules or regulations or anybody to govern. Somebody
governing simply because of their own lusts and passions. You have
nothing but murder and chaos and war. Man is absolutely free
from all righteousness. And except a man be born again,
he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Why is it that men hate
the worship service of God? What is it about this? What is
it about this that really just, I don't know, it just sets men
off into a, you know, they don't even want to be a part of any
of it. They don't want anything to do
with it because they hate the gospel. It's natural for men
to hate the gospel. Men by nature cannot give themselves
life. We cannot change our natural
condition. Now, you can change your behavior. Matter of fact, I have to change
my behavior of my children constantly. I know this, I have changed my
behavior in many occasions. You can change habits. You may become religious. Who
knows? You may even desire to join a
church and get dunked in some water. Baptism, oh boy, you may
desire to eat the bread and drink the wine, but unless God gives you life, none of these things will matter
at all. Except a man be born and given
life from the dead, you are without hope. The gospel of God does one thing. It shuts the mouths of men. It stops the mouths of men. That's all it's meant to do.
The law shuts you up and says nothing to your heart, but you
are guilty before God. Guilty. Well, then how is Christ all?
Only He gives life. Only this man can give you life.
That's it. Go to John chapter 1. I want to show you this man.
Behold the glory of this one who has come. John chapter 1 and verse 1, it
says, In the beginning was the Word. This is the one I'm talking
about, who John calls the Word. He is the everlasting Word of
God. From in the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was. The same was. But when did He
begin? No, He just always was. He always
was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shined
out of darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. If anyone is to have life, spiritual
life, To understand salvation. To know Christ. Christ Himself
must give it to you. Otherwise, there's no hope for
you. You see, you have no control over this. There's no part you
play in this. If Christ lets you go on in your
sins, He is right and just to let you fall off into hell. He
has not offended you or taken one thing, but He has let you
have exactly what you want. I've said it before, but to those
who don't know Christ, who don't love Christ, heaven would be
hell for you. Heaven would be hell. You know,
people can't really stand 45 minutes or an hour and hear How
would you like an eternity of this? I love it. I think it's great. Not to the lost. If there are
any to have any hope of salvation, of life, it must come from Jesus
Christ, the Giver of life. Only He can give you life. Christ
is all the life. If you have life this morning,
you know this to be true by experience. He has given you life. You were
in darkness. You were in bondage. And now
the Son has set you free and you are free indeed. Free from
what? Free from the law. Free from
the law. I'm free from guilt. Not my conscience
guilt. I'm free from the actual guilt
of sin. Because Christ bore the actual
guilt of my sin. Believers, we witness of the
depravity of man, but the depravity of man is only seen when we see
the holiness of God in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is all the
righteousness of God. There is no righteousness apart
from this man. Now, God demands righteousness from every one
of us. You want to know what God demands? God demands absolute
and complete obedience. Wait a second. He's not saying
complete obedience from now on, is He? No. If you were to obey the law of
God from now on, what would you do with the rest of your sin
that you've already committed? There is no hope in obedience
to the law. But when we see Jesus Christ,
it is because of His life that we who were dead now live. See, I live because I was chosen
of God before the world began. I live because of God's grace
to put me in union with His Son. There was nothing in me that
ever caused God to give me life. And if you're trying to find
something in you To cause God to give you life, you'll find
nothing. You'll find nothing. The only way God gives life is
by sovereign, free grace. And that life is in one man,
Jesus Christ. Are you dead in sins? Are you
captive to the darkness of your sins? Have you been made to see the
vanity of religion? The vanity of your deeds and
works? How many decisions have you made to turn things around? And they've only ended up in
a mess, in worse conditions than before. Remember when the Lord
said that one who had the demon cast out, He said he went along
and swept and garnished his soul and made everything well? And
then seven more wicked than the first came. And the last state
of that man was worse than the first. You see, if you just try
to clean up your life, that's like cleaning up a corpse. What
good is it? You can give a corpse a bath,
he's still rotten and smelly. And that's exactly what you are
in the nostrils of God without life. Without Christ. I tell you to behold the person
of Jesus Christ. Do not look to yourself. Unconditional
election. Christ is all. The delight and
joy of God the Father has always been in the Son. Always. God is always delighted in His
Son. He said, Thou art my Son, this
day have I begotten thee. What day did He beget the Son? It was an eternal day. He was
always the beloved Son of God. Jesus was from eternity the beloved
of the Father. And God, having always set His
love on the Son from eternity, chose a people that He would
save in His Son. He chose them and put them in
His Son. What does that mean? That we
who are believers in Christ, we were in eternal union with
Christ. from eternity. There was never
a time I wasn't in Christ. There was a time I didn't know
it. There was a time I didn't feel it or I didn't care for
it. There was a time in my life that I was lost. But now then,
I have been given life to see this, that I was chosen of God
in Christ before the foundation of the world. And if anyone's
saved, it is because of this. It is because of unconditional
election. There's no cause for God to elect
anyone. The only cause is His own love
and sovereign mercy in His Son. In His Son. The only reason for salvation
of sinners is God's own glory. The purpose to save some. And the Scripture says, He hath
made us accepted. Where? In the Beloved. I am accepted of God nowhere
else but in Christ. It's not part Christ and part
me. Christ is all. If I am chosen of God, it's because
of Jesus Christ. Because God had loved him and
put me in him for no other reason than his own glory. Do you realize
that's why you breathe? Do you realize that's why anyone
has existence? Is that God get himself glory?
That God get glory for himself? Go over to Ephesians chapter
1. Read it with me again. Ephesians chapter 1, Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places, because I was a good person.
Is that why? Is that why I have all spiritual
blessings? Because I was smarter than someone else? Because I
made the decision to serve Jesus. Because I gave my life to God.
Is that why I have all spiritual? No! All spiritual blessings in
heavenly places are given to me in one man. Christ. Christ. In Christ. According as He has
chosen us. In Christ. before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him, in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made
us accepted in Christ, in the beloved Christ is all." Christ
is all my election. Christ is all my election. If I've been chosen of God, it
is because of Jesus Christ. Limited atonement. Limited atonement. Jesus Christ is all the atonement
of God's elect. What is atonement? Atonement
is used, the one word for atonement that's used in the New Testament
is reconciliation. It's in Romans chapter 5. I'll read it to you, Romans chapter
5. Look at what verse it is. Verse 11. In verse 10 it says,
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by
the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be
saved by His life. And not only so, but we also
joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received
the reconciliation. You see, my reconciliation was
already accomplished, but now I've received it. A joy in it
now. I receive it now. I rejoice in
the reconciliation that Christ has made. You see, Jesus Christ
made all my reconciliation to God while I was yet an enemy,
while I was yet a rebel, while I was yet after the lust of my
own flesh while I was after my own sin, caring nothing for God
or His Son, yet while I was an enemy, God reconciled me to Himself. He atoned for all my sin even
before I committed it. The Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
died 2,000 years ago. I have been on this earth for
42 years. Some of you longer, some of you
not so long. But really, in the scope of 2,000
years, what is our brief moment of life that we have? Jesus Christ
came into this world to be the representative man of God's elect. He came to provide the righteousness
of God that He demanded for those of us who could not do it. And He died for the sins of His
people. How far did He have to come to
atone for my sins? The Scripture says the angels
are not even clean in His sight. He is too holy to even observe
evil. He is too holy and pure. And if He condescends to do things
in heaven, how much lower does He have to condescend to do things
here in the earth? And not only did He condescend
to save men of the earth, not just kings. Matter of fact, few
of them are kings and princes of the world. You see, Christ
came to save the vilest of men, sinners. I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. They that are whole need not
a physician, but they that are sick. Is that plain? Is that
not simple language that everyone can understand? Are you sick? Then you need a doctor. Are you
a sinner? You need a Savior. You don't have any sin. What
are you doing here? What are you doing here? You
should be with the rest of the world. Jesus Christ. alone came to atone
for the sins of God's people. How foolish of men to think God
to be like themselves. Isn't it foolish to think of
God to be like you? Matter of fact, we don't think
God to be like us. We think God to be much less than us. Some
things we can't tolerate, we can't stand it, and yet we expect
God to. Expect God to be, you know, more
tolerable with sin. Just overlooked sin. No. God doesn't overlook sin. If
you want to know what God thinks about sin, then you need to see
Christ is all. Look at what God did to His own
Son. What do you think He'll do with you? If God took my sin and put it
on His own Son, whom He loved from eternity, And he suffered
under the wrath of God for my sin. What do you think he'll
do with you if you die in yours? Do you think somehow he'll pass
over you as though you're special? As though you have some special
rite of passage? No. He'll kill you. He'll destroy
you for eternity. I tell you, Christ is the only
reconciliation with God. Christ is all. He is all the
atonement. The only place where you will
find peace with God. I mentioned just a moment ago
the word justification. It's a beautiful word. You know
what it means? Innocent. Not pretending to be innocent. The beauty of the word means
that God is not pretending regarding
our sins. Jesus Christ actually atoned
for our sins. Jesus Christ was made sin for
us. So that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. And my sins, friends, are really
gone. Gone. This is not pretend. This is for real. My sins are
gone. Where did they go? They were
punished in my substitute. They were punished in my substitute.
I love this in Jeremiah chapter 50. It's one of my favorite passages
of Scripture. I'll read it to you so don't
misquote it. Jeremiah chapter 50 and verse 20. In those days and at that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for
and there shall be none. The sins of Judah and they shall
not be found. For I will pardon them whom I
reserve." God can't find my sin. Is God searching? His eyes are
consuming fire. He's holy. He can't overlook
sin. So, friends, God can't find my
sin. How in the world can I? It's gone. How did it go? It went because Christ atoned
for my sins. Now, when I say limited atonement,
I'm not talking about the limitation of His atonement. I'm just talking
about the limited number of His atonement. The limited number
of His people. I don't know who God chose. I
don't know who God will save. Therefore, I cast the gospel
at a venture. I throw the gospel in the air.
The Spirit of God directs where it lands. It's not for me. It's not my business to save
anyone. My business is to throw the gospel.
Here it is. Christ is all. And you know,
the Spirit of God will take that and He'll penetrate the heart
of sin and He'll break that heart and He'll give you a new nature.
Just like when He said to Lazarus, Lazarus, come forth. You see,
Lazarus had no choice in the matter. Lazarus got up and came
forth from the dead. And when God speaks to your heart,
You won't know what happened. God did it. God gives life. His atonement is only limited
to those who God has given him. He said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. The atonement of Christ was not
for all men without exception, but it was completely made by
Christ for all those the Father gave him. Fourthly, Christ is all in irresistible
grace. All who are saved of Christ alone
are born again by the grace of the Holy Spirit
through the preaching of the gospel. Listen to me. If you've not been born again,
if God has made you at least a sensible sinner, at least a
sensible to know your condition, I tell you the only place where
God will save you is under the sound of the gospel, only by
the means of Preaching the gospel. Now why? Because it pleased God. That's the only reason I'm given
in Scripture as to why God chose preaching. Because it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. The preaching
of the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to whom? To
them that believe. To the world it's foolishness.
But to us who have been given life, we know Christ is all.
Christ is all. There's nothing else. There's
no other atonement. There's no other righteousness.
There's no other salvation. There's no other person worthy
to open the book and to loose the seals of God's salvation
and providence and grace. It is only the Lamb of God, Jesus
Christ alone. And when He speaks, there's power in His voice. Power not to change habits, but
to actually give a new life. A new heart. And friends, when this comes,
it is irresistible. There's no moment of decision.
There's just life. When the Spirit calls, there's
just life. There's faith. There's an understanding that
overcomes the soul and the mind and moves the will to see that
Jesus Christ is all. The power of spiritual life and
faith, friends, is not by any means of the flesh. It is an
act of God. An act of God. And when God moves, it's irresistible
to see Christ is all. And lastly, the perseverance
and preservation of the saints in this Christ is all. If I persevere
in faith, I know this is because of Jesus Christ, I persevere
in faith. Because His faith is not a work of my flesh. It's
not by the gritting of my teeth. It's not by the power of my abilities. It is by the sheer grace of Jesus
Christ that I continue in faith. How many have we seen that have
gone away? Who started well. Who ran well. Even those we've held as champions
of the faith. And we've watched them and they
just fell off. Why? They had no faith. Their faith
was a sham. It was a deception of their own
heart. But to us who persevere, we know
this, that Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. If
I persevere, it's because of Christ. If I persevere, it's because
I've been kept. Preserved. The scripture says that we are
sealed by the spirit of promise. You know, when a king would seal
a letter, it was high treason for anyone to open that letter
except for the person it was sent to. Jesus Christ has taken that book
of election, the book of salvation, And he himself alone was worthy
to open it. And the scripture says that he
hath prevailed to open the book. Christ, to us who believe, is
all the gospel. So, if you witness of anything
If you are given the opportunity to witness, don't testify of
a creed, testify of the man. Jesus Christ. He alone is life. He alone is
atonement. He alone gives faith and keeps
faith. And he's promised to bring me
to heaven where he is. And so now I'm resting in Him.
My whole soul, my whole life rests in one man. May God, by His Spirit, give
you grace to see Jesus Christ. To believe on Jesus Christ. And if I've never believed on
Jesus Christ, I tell you I believe now. Now, right now, he's everything
to me. Is he everything to you? I hope so. Pray that God be gracious. Have
the men come and prepare the Lord's table.