Well, my prayer this morning
is that the Lord will bless you through the preaching of his
word as much as he's already blessed me by being here. Your
song service, I tell you, is wonderful. One of the messages,
in trying to find what the Lord would have me preach on, one
of the messages that I looked over was, Praise ye the Lord. Well, I don't think y'all needed
that message this morning, y'all. Y'all praise the Lord. Your singing
was just a blessing to me, I tell you. It was like every heart
and voice was in union praising our God. And Jerry's song was
just so appropriate. How great is our God! And I pray he'll bless his Word
this morning as much as he has the service so far. I want you
to turn to Luke chapter eighteen again and you can mark that because
we're going to spend a good bit of time there. But as soon as
you find that. Turn back to the book of Lamentations
and I want to read you the verse from which my message finds its
text. So mark. Luke eighteen. And then turn back to Lamentations
one Lamentations one. And Lamentations 1, verse 12,
that's between Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Lamentations 1. If you read with me verse 12
of Lamentations 1, it says, Is it nothing to you,
all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any
sorrow like my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger." And
if you went on and read the rest of this chapter, what you find
out that, and I've heard this verse preached from numerous
times, and it is right to make the application. Now what's being
said here is that the way of salvation is in the Lord Jesus
Christ and him crucified. And what it's saying here is,
is it nothing to you who pass by the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ and behold his suffering? Is it nothing to you? Well, it's
everything to his people. Because we know that through
his shed blood, our sin is covered. And that through his righteousness,
we have a righteousness of our own. And that's all, when we
pass by the cross, that's what we see. We see our Lord in all
his glory there, doing for us what we can't do for ourselves,
in the putting away of our sin and in giving us his righteousness
as our substitute there. And it's right to preach that,
but I saw something recently in this verse which, you know,
Scripture is bifocal or trifocal. I recently have gone from, not
from one set of glasses, but these kind that I start here
and I go to here and then I go here. They just get the further
I tilt, the more they magnify. So Scripture, the more you look,
the more it will magnify Christ. There's not any one interpretation
as long as all the interpretations glorify Christ. So what I want
you to do here is stay with me and I'll show you what I saw
that I think the Lord would have us look at. There are two center
references in my Bible concerning this verse, the first of which
says, Is it nothing to you? And my center reference says
it's a statement. It is nothing. It is nothing. And the second reference says
pass by. And my Bible says pass by the
way. And that ought to ring just a
little bell. Even though this was written
hundreds of years before John fourteen six was written, you
know, without even looking it up, don't you? You know, John
fourteen six. It says, I am the way. The truth and the life and no
man cometh unto the father, but by me, you know that by heart,
don't you? Do you think it's just a coincidence
or an accident? That our Lord spoke those words
when, in fact, back here, a person reading this in the Hebrew language
would have read it. It is nothing to you that pass
by the way. He's saying. And here's here's
here's how this can be read and how I want you to hear it this
morning. Is it is Christ nothing to you? That's what it's saying
there. Is he nothing to you? Is he nothing
to me? Because the title of this message
is that the Lord Jesus Christ is everything. He's everything. But the question I want us to
ask ourselves this morning is, is he nothing to me? Is he nothing
to you? That's what that's exactly what's
being asked here. Is the Lord Jesus Christ nothing
to you now? Let me tell you, there's Now,
I may shock you here because there's not many absolutes in
our society today. There's all these gray areas.
Let me tell you, in God's Word, there's no gray areas. Christ
is either everything or he's nothing to you and to me. It's that simple. He is everything
or he's nothing. In fact, the word gray, do you
know the only way it's used in the Bible? It's talking about
the color of the hair of the aged. That's all there's no. There's no in the Scripture there. All these in-betweens are the
inventions of men. Men say, oh yeah, I believe Christ
was a good man. He was a good example. You know
what that is? That's between everything and
nothing, and God has no part of that. Let me tell you, he
is either everything to you or if you think he was a good example,
well, he's nothing to you. He's either everything to you
or if you think Oh, well, I believe he lived and I believe he died,
and I believe that he's nothing to you. He is either everything
or is nothing the scripture. It's either light or darkness. There's no gray, not in the scriptures. Gray is not there. It's either
light or darkness in the scripture. There's either. There's either
sight or there's blindness. There's either hearing or you're
deaf. You're either Life or your darkness,
you're either hot or you're cold. Our Lord said, I despise your
lukewarmness. These people trying to hedge
their bets, you know. Listen, you young people need to understand
when it comes to the law, when it comes to the matters of God,
there's no in between when they give you. I hear people say about
all manner of things. You know, do you use drugs? Well,
not really. I mean, I smoke a little marijuana,
maybe. Now, if they give you a drug
test, does the test reveal he smokes a little marijuana, but
he really doesn't do drugs? No, it says you either don't
use them or you do. You understand? And you young
people need to understand you, you know, take a drink. The cop
doesn't say, did you have a lot? No, the test says, He was drinking. You either are or you aren't.
You understand? You're either hot or you're cold.
There's no in-between. And I understand. The problem
is that I understand in our society folks get away with things. You
know what I mean? A fellow murders his ex-wife
and her boyfriend and there's not enough evidence. Even though
the odds are the DNA was 999,000 out of a million that it was
his. There was circumstantial, there
was all, you know, we had extenuating circumstances. Let me tell you,
according to God, it's either innocent or it's guilty. Do we
see that? And Christ is either everything
or he's nothing. There is love and there is hate. Don't let somebody tell you that
God's Word says, Jacob have I loved and Esau, I loved a little less.
It's a funny kind of love sends a man to hell, isn't it? Huh?
Yeah. Was it plastered across the back
of the ark? God loves you a little less. No siree. I tell you, those in the ark
knew God's love. Those outside knew His wrath. And Christ is
either going to be everything or He's nothing. Absolutely nothing. No in-between. And God demands. God demands
that Christ is everything that he's all in all does it say in
the Scriptures. Well, God would like for you to give Christ the
preeminence or you know you should give Christ the preeminence does
it say Christ might have the preeminence is that what it says.
No, the Scripture says Christ must have the preeminence. He
must be everything or he will be nothing to you. There is no
in between. Now you look at Psalm Psalm 58,
verse 1. And here, the first point of
my message is this. By nature, by nature, Christ
is nothing to all of us. To all men, Christ is nothing
by nature. By nature, Christ means nothing.
We value Him as nothing. Christ is the way, and we regard
by nature His way as no way at all. We don't want any part of
that way. We want our own ways, what we want. We don't want to
have anything to do with his way. We want to go our own way.
We'd rather be lost. You ladies, I bet there's not
a lady in here that's been married to a man that doesn't know what
I'm going to be telling you about here right now. When my son was
a freshman in high school, we went to this basketball game
on a Saturday morning in Lawrence County, Kentucky, a new high
school. Nobody knew how to get there,
but I was fortunate. I happened to come up on the
back end of the athletic director whose son was on the team, and
I followed him right to the school. But as the game got started,
parents kept straggling in, and every wife was mad as a hornet
at her husband. You know why? He wouldn't stop
and ask for directions. Wouldn't do it. And the truth
of that is, they all got to talking about it and laughing about it
at halftime. And you know, the truth of the matter is, we'd
rather be lost than ask directions. We'd rather be lost than found.
I mean, all we got to do is stop and say, where's the high school?
Go down here a mile, make a right, go two blocks, and it's right
there. Oh no, not us guys. No, no siree, I'd rather be lost
than ask somebody. You understand? That's our nature. We'd rather go our way than his
way. Even knowing his way. All you've
got to do is ask and Paul will tell you the way. Everybody in
this town, Paul, wouldn't you be thrilled to tell somebody
the way? Tell them about Christ. Is anybody asking? No, folks
would rather be lost than found. It's our nature. We're blind,
just like our father, Adam, in Psalm 58. It tells us what's
wrong here. Psalm 58, verse 3, the wicked
are estranged from the womb. They go astray. We're lost as
soon as we're born. Speaking lies. That's how we're
born, lost. We're not born thinking Christ
is everything and then we get to messing up and get out here
and all of a sudden need nothing. No, we're born. believing that
Christ is nothing to us. He's just not anything to us.
His way doesn't mean anything to us by nature. We're blind. Does it not say in Isaiah 53,
all we, all we, not some of us, all we like sheep have gone astray.
That's because that's how we're born. Not the way, our way. And look at Isaiah 1 with me
real quick. Isaiah chapter 1. You see, when
Adam fell, he lost all sense of value. And we all are just
like our father, Adam. Sin has left us without concept
of value. Sin has left us to where, you
know what? Rather than like, we like darkness.
Rather than hearing, we like being deaf. How many of you young
people, when your mom or dad tries to instruct you, you You
don't want to hear it, do you? You know it's right. That's what
irritates you so much, isn't it? When somebody tries to tell
us what's right, we don't want to hear it. It makes us angry.
Why is that? That's because we've gone astray. By nature, we like
the wrong way instead of the right way. Listen, we like sickness better
than health. We like death better than life. Look here in Isaiah 1, verse
5. Why should we be stricken anymore? You children, how many
of you want to go home today and get a whipping? I don't see
a hand in the bunch. Well, you don't want to get stricken,
do you? You don't want to get that. All
you have to do is do what your parents tell you to. But you
know what? Somebody's probably going to
get one today. Because we just can't help it, can we? Even though
we know when mom or dad says, Just go clean up your room. And
if we don't do it, we're going to get what we deserve, aren't
we? We're going to get, maybe get a little spanking or get
a talking to anyway, right? So why don't we just go do it?
You know why? Right here it tells us, look
at the rest of the verse here, it says, you will revolt more
and more. You sure will. Yep. Because the
whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint. When we're born
from the sole of our feet to the top of head, there's no goodness
in us. There's no right way of thinking.
We're always going the wrong way. And that's our problem. That's why we got to understand
by nature, we don't come into this world thinking. Christ is everything we come
in thinking, who needs that? I'm not interested in why, why
do we why is it hard? I mean, there's not there's not
a. a young man, young or old, in here today, I suspect, who,
if he has any interest at all, isn't going to want to be watching
the Super Bowl this afternoon. Well, why don't... the whole
world's that way. Well, why aren't they interested
in being in church this morning? Why aren't they interested in
hearing the gospel this morning? It's simple. Football's everything! Not Christ. No, Christ is nothing,
you see, especially stacked up against the big game. Understand,
it's just our nature. We don't look at them and go,
well, you know, we're just like them. The only reason we're any
different is by the grace of God. But we've got to understand
that by nature, left alone, all of us, when given a choice, will
choose the wrong way. It's why election's important,
folks. If God didn't choose us, we never would choose him. I'm
telling you, we have no sense of worth or values. And let me
drive this point home if I can. Recently, I was when I'm on traveling. That's a lot of places I stay. They give you a USA Today newspaper. They slip it by your door on
the door knob there. And I'll look at it sometimes.
And recently there was this little survey where they asked if you
were rich. OK, and I ask these people who
had net incomes of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a
year where they had two point five million dollars in net worth. Now, what that means is that
if you took everything they had and sold it and paid all their
debts, the pile of money they'd have left is two and a half million
bucks. That'd fill up a suitcase, wouldn't it? OK, now that's who
we're talking to. They ask these people that question.
You've got two and a half million dollars. Let's say it's right
here in a suitcase. All right. What are different
things worth to you? Well, they said, what would you
give out of that two and a half million to be president of the
United States? Probably not a nickel today,
but on the other hand, you know what they said? They said $55,000.
I don't much blame them. It's a pretty rotten job, best
I can tell. It's hard, isn't it? Being tough
right now. The respect of the office has
been besmirched to the point where who would want to? So $55,000. But listen to the
rest of these things. If if you can have great beauty. Well,
I said, well, we give eighty three thousand dollars for that.
And they said eternal youth. Oh, now two hundred and fifty
nine thousand dollars a year for that. What about talent? Up to two hundred eighty five
thousand dollars. Great intelligence. Four hundred and seven thousand
dollars. True love. $487,000. You know what they pay more for
than anything? A place in heaven. And you know
what the price is? They would give $640,000 for
a place in heaven. Now, I'll bet somebody's out
there thinking, wow, man, they must really want to go there.
That's a lot of money, $640,000. Well, let me get this in perspective
for you if I can. Most of us have never had a pile
of money, $2.5 million. I can't even imagine that sum.
Can you? I mean, you've got to do a lot
of work on cars to get that, Sam, don't you? You've got to
do a lot of work to get that kind. You probably won't get
that much in a lifetime. But I tell you what, I bet everybody
in this room, from the kids on down, has had $2.50 in your pocket. Haven't you? Well, now, what if I said to
you, You got $2.50 in there. What part of that would you give
to go to heaven? And you said. 64 cents. Let me tell you what you just
told me. You just told me heaven doesn't mean a whole lot to you.
Because I tell you what, anything short of the $2.50, you know
what you're telling me? Absolutely nothing. And I cringe
to think what the response would have been had the question been
phrased just a little differently. If the question had been, what
would you give to go be with Christ, with the Lord Jesus Christ? I'm afraid, I guess some might
have given a pittance or something. Understandably, people who think
heaven is this paradise of eternal happiness and they're going to
get all the stuff they always wanted and so on and so forth,
I understand somebody saying, I'd give a lot to go there. But
if it were phrased, what would you give to go be with the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ, whether it's no matter what it's like?
I'm afraid we've gotten a whole lot closer to the truth, which
is nothing, nothing. But anything short of the 2.5
million, all of it. Anybody who said, I'll give it
all, Christ is everything to them. Anything short of that
$2,499,000.99, it's nothing to you. It's nothing to you. And
that proves the point, my first point. All men by nature, Christ
is nothing. But now the second point is,
is that Christ should be everything to all men. That's what He ought
to be. Listen to who He is. Who is he, anyway? What is it
about him that makes him worth something to us? He's the Son
of God. His name is Emmanuel, which is
God with us. If you're with Him, God's with
you. Christ is Jesus, the Savior.
He'll save His people. Christ is holy. Christ is righteous. Christ is almighty, all-powerful. He's sovereign, he's ruler of
the whole creation, he's love, he's peace, he's goodness, he's
mercy, he's grace. So he said, How great thou art! That's who he is. Well, is he
nothing to you? What's he done? He's God who
was born of a woman to identify with us. He's righteous. He has a righteousness. He allowed
himself to be tried and crucified and buried. for sins he didn't
commit. He sits now at God's right hand,
and by his Spirit he calls out his people. Well, who are they?
Who are these people that are going to do that? You know who
they are? Those who think he's everything. And anything short
of that, he's nothing to you. Now, let me ask this. I just
told you who he is and what he did. I'll bet you, I'll bet you
that if I asked This is not a criticism, because I don't think I could
do it. If I ask somebody, I gave you
five seconds to tell me what the chapter and verse, the book
chapter and verse was of your message last Sunday morning.
Anybody got it yet? I know why you don't. You know
why? By nature, that's all nothing to us. On the other hand, I suspect
most of us could tell me, anybody who played sports, you could
tell me what the score of the last football game is you played in
high school. You know why? That stuffs everything to us
by nature. And if we're not careful, now
listen, you know, we sit here every message and we hear who
he is, what he's done, why he did it, where he is now. And
you know what? If we're not careful, it just
gets to be nothing to us again. That old man in us doesn't make
us hunger after that like it does a Super Bowl or something.
Do you understand what I mean? He is everything to us. Everything to us. And it's just
by His grace that He doesn't become nothing to us. Because
that's our nature. That's our nature. What is it
that we need that Christ does not provide? I made a list of some things
we need. Well, when we appear before God's judgment, you know
what we need? We need a righteousness. We need that, don't we? We have
none of our own, and by nature we have none. But Christ lived
and established a righteousness, so if we have Christ, we've got
everything we need, and that counts, don't we? The second
thing we need is we need to have something done about our sin.
It needs to be put away. Well, eternity is apparently
not long enough for us to die and put it away ourselves. But
Christ, being the Son of God, when He died, He was able to
put away sin. The sin of all those who were
in Him. So if we're in Him, we got everything, don't we? There's
nothing we need there. You say, boy, I need food on
my table. We're moving into another area
now. You say, I need food on my table. Well, let me ask you,
who owns the cattle on a thousand hills? I believe that's enough
to make a hamburger for us this afternoon. I believe, I believe
that's everything I need. I believe that'll keep me fed
the rest of my days." He said, well, I got a lot of
expenses. Well, the gold and silver, it's not yet mine, it's
his. Sounds like enough to me. Had a lady, as an elder, sometimes
folks call us and talk about things, had a lady Say she was,
her situation had changed a lot and she's going to need some
money. She didn't know what she was going to do. And I said,
well, you know your brothers and sisters in Christ are not
going to let you do without. And the right thing to do is
let your brethren know so that they can do for you if you have
need in any way. Wouldn't you be thrilled to do
for somebody you knew needed something? And I said, well,
what about next month? I said, don't you think God's
able to give, make your boss give you a raise if you need
it? I mean, the heart of the king's
in the hand of the Lord. He's everything. So the rest
of this is just nothing. You say, well, I got to have
clothes. That's true. Well, does not Christ clothe
the lily of the valley? You think he can't whip up a
garment? He's everything we need in that.
And you can get down to any level you want. You can say, I just
wish I had a little peace of mind. Well, don't we think the
king of peace, the prince of peace, is able to give us a little
peace of mind if that's what we need? He's everything. You
say, well, I'm so distressed. I'm heartbroken. I need a little
comfort. Christ is the God of all comfort. He's everything
we need. And you can go bring up the topic. Doesn't matter. Christ is everything. So you see, not only by nature
is he nothing to us, but the truth is, he ought to be everything
to everybody. He is. He is. That's the reason
when he says, he doesn't, that's the reason when Moses says, who
should I tell your people sent me? He said, you tell them I
am. Well, most of us think that's not a complete sentence. That's
because you can put anything you want on the end of that.
You say, I need a righteous. He says, I am that righteousness.
So now I need my sin put away. I am Jesus. I shall save my people. He can say, I'm I'm I'm in trouble. I am that comfort. I am just
put wherever you need. He's everything we see. Yeah. But now here's the third thing,
and here's here's where we get down to it. Christ is nothing
by nature to all of us. He ought to be everything to
all of us. And here's the issue. What is he to you? What is he
to me? I remember the time when he was
nothing to me. And we ought to all remember
that time. Because if he never was nothing to us, he's not now
everything to us. We've got to understand where
we came from before we know where we are. Christ. Is he nothing
to you or me, or is he everything? And if we think we can get what
we need by ourselves, now listen to me. Whatever it is, good works,
righteousness, forgiveness of sin, money, lands, clothes, goods,
riches. If we think we can get what we
need. By some other way than the way. Some other way than by Christ.
Let me tell you, when we do that, we make Christ nothing. He's
nothing to us. The key is that to you and I,
being in Christ, is to realize that we are nothing. We're the
one who's nothing. It's not him. He's everything. We're nothing. I am nothing. Christ is everything. And we
must confess who we are and who Christ is. And the example of
that is in the scripture that Stan read In Luke 18, do you
see the comparison that's made there between the two men? The
one man came, the one man came, and what did he say? He said,
Oh, I thank God I'm not like other men. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not. You know what he was
saying? He was saying, I'm somebody. I'm somebody. And you know what? That man went away condemned
of God. Because he thought he was somebody.
He didn't realize he was nothing. On the other hand, this other
man came, and he thought he was such a nothing, he wouldn't even
raise his eyes. He wouldn't even come down front
the way they're urging everybody to. He stood afar off, and he
knew he was so empty he smoked on his own breath. And he said, oh God, oh God,
be merciful to me, the nothing, the sinner. He admitted, I'm
a low down lying, cussing, thieving, stinking skunk, nothing. And now what happened to that
man? Christ said, he went home justified. Because in his saying,
I'm nothing, he's saying, Christ is my everything. The Pharisee
came and said, I can do this for myself. I can be my everything
before God. I can make my own righteousness.
I can be without sin. I'm going to go before. God said,
oh, when you arrive, I'm going to tell you you're nothing and
dispatch you. I'm going to burn up that philosophy.
But the man who came, I need mercy. Well, who was his mercy? The Lord Jesus Christ. It was
everything he needed. Mercy. You see that? How did all this happen? Christ,
who is everything, including mercy, had mercy of plenty to
bestow on this man. The child of God must come to
the place of believing, believing, believing in the heart that all
spiritual blessings are in Christ. righteousness, forgiveness, holiness,
goodness, love, peace, contentment, mercy, grace, all that's in Christ. Everything is in Him. Everything
is in Him.