I debated a long time yesterday and especially today on what would be a good end of the year message. And I started on a couple of other passages of scripture and I just didn't have any peace with them. And then the thought, and I believe it was the Spirit of God put this thought in my mind, what would you like to to say to people as we wind up another year and we look forward to beginning a new year tomorrow. And here's what I'd like to say to the people of God.

Christ is all. That's a good watchword, three good watchwords for the new year. Christ is all, and of course that's found here in Colossians chapter three, And verse 11, wherefore there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all. There are no three words more important than those three. If the Spirit of God would burn those into our hearts, to know and remember and to live by this that Christ is all. He's all in all to his people. He's all that matters. He's all to be worshipped. He's all to be adored. We bless God for the gift of His Son, the unspeakable gift. Of all the gifts that God gives us, and James says every good gift and every perfect gift comes from above. Of all the gifts that God has given to us, only one is said to be the unspeakable gift, the gift of all gifts, and that is our Lord Jesus Christ.

How far are we to take those words, Christ is all? As far as you can take them. As far as you can take them. In all things concerning the person of God, the glory of God, in all things regarding our souls, in all things regarding salvation, in all things pertaining to a right understanding of divine things, the Word of God, the knowledge of God, and in all things related to eternity, let us always remember these three words, O Spirit of God, burn these words deep into our hearts. Christ is all. He's all the message of the Bible. He's all to be known. He's all to be preached. We can preach many truths of the Bible, but we must preach the truth of all truths, that Christ is all. He's the foundation of all true doctrine. He's the motive for all godliness. He's the message of all true preaching. And he's the object of all true worship.

Just consider a few things here this evening.

Number one, Christ is all in all the works of God. There was a time when creation had no existence. There was no heaven. There was no earth. There were no angels. There was no mankind. There was no devil. There was no Gabriel. There was no time. There was no world. There was no universe. There was a time when the triune God dwelt in the solemnness of the existence of the triune God. And God dwelt alone in His indescribable glory. He dwelt alone in His holy being, Father, Son, and Spirit. Well, if Christ is all, and He is, then where was Christ then? Permit me to read to you. We won't take the time to turn to it. Proverbs 8, verse 22 through 26, the Lord possessed me, Christ, in the beginning of His way before His works of old. And the Savior says 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 nor the highest part of the dust of the world, Christ was there. John 1 11 says, in the beginning was the word. And the Word with John 1, 1, excuse me, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. In the beginning, from the beginning, before time began, before the beginning began, he was there.

Romans 8, 28 to 31 says, And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are in the cold, according to his purpose for whom he did foreknow. He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

Before the beginning began, Christ was there. He was all. He was all.

Ephesians 1, Brother Trabant read this back in the office a few minutes ago. I'll read just a portion of what he read to us. Ephesians 1 through 3 through 6. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. According as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him. 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 the beloved."

Where was Christ? He was with the Father. One with the Father. He was with the Spirit. One with the Spirit. Loved of the Father. Loved of the Spirit. And set up and accepted as the Savior of the elect group of people who would fall in Adam's transgressions.

You see, we have always been accepted in Christ. You didn't become accepted by God when you believed. You believed because you were accepted. And you weren't suddenly accepted when Christ died for you. Now, that's the basis of the acceptance, but that's not when God accepted you. For if that was when God accepted you, then you would have to say, then before that I was rejected. Well, that's impossible. God has never rejected his people. He's never hated his people. We were never goats. We were always his sheep.

You see, as long as Christ has been the surety of the everlasting covenant, as long as He's been the representative of His chosen people, that's how long we have been accepted in Him. And literally, we were graced in Him. We're given grace in Christ Jesus. We've always been in Him.

before the earth had a being, before the heavens existed, when God dwelt in the unity of his triune being, we were there in the heart of God, and we were represented by Christ our Savior even back then. There was a time before anything existed. Even then, Christ was all.

And then there was a time when creation came into existence. That's when time began. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. There came a time when all things began to exist. The sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the land, and all of the inhabitants came into being.

Well, if Christ is all, where was he then? He's the one who made all things. You see, God, God the Son, He created everything. He created this environment. He created this globe. He created this earth and fitted it to be a suitable environment for His chosen people. We had to have a place to live, to exist, to breathe. There had to be air for us to breathe. There had to be food for us to consume. There had to be water for us to drink. All of the necessities of our physical life were taken care of by Christ our Savior, who is our all. He made certain that everything that was made was made in such a fashion it would accommodate His elect people. The non-elect just get in on it. But it was all made for the children of God.

You see, when things were created, If Christ is all, what was He doing then? Well, He was the Creator. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. Then there came a day when sin entered into the world. Well, did our Savior, did our Lord, did the Son of God then Did He take leave of His throne and was He absent when sin entered into this world? Absolutely not. He governs all things and that includes even sin.

And in a way that I can't comprehend and you can't comprehend either, this matter of sin, as awful as it is, as tragic as it is. It came into existence because of the eternal purpose of God, because God would get more glory in the existence of sin and then the obliterating of sin through the bloody death of the Lord Jesus Christ than He could get glory any other way. It's against the black backdrop of our wickedness, our transgressions, and our iniquities, that the brilliance of the grace and the mercy of God and the substitutionary work, the justice satisfying work of our Lord Jesus Christ shines most brilliantly.

And when sin showed its face in this world, The Son of God was right there to announce Himself as being the seed of the woman who'd come and do something about it. And make no mistake about it, when the Lord spoke to Adam, Adam, where art thou? That's the Son of God speaking. That's Christ who is all. Because God will not speak to nor be spoken to by any son or daughter of Adam apart from a mediator. That's God talking to them. God the Son talking to them.

And then the Son of God in an amazing illustration of death. which had never been seen, no blood had been shed up to that time. In an amazing illustration of mercy and substitution, He took animals and killed them. The Son of God killed animals. Animals He had made. Animals that were not guilty of any treasonous act against Him. They were innocent. And he killed them. He shed their blood. And then he took the skins of those animals and those fig leaves that Adam and Eve had tied together for a covering for an apron. He just stripped them of those and he put his robe around Oh, bless the name of Christ.

We had tried to cover our shame and our nakedness with fig leaf aprons, works, deeds, doing what we thought were good things. This will be, we'll appear more pleasing to God by these things. And our Lord comes to us in sovereign mercy and grace and strips us of those things that these won't do. And He robes us in the garments of salvation. He robes us, He dresses us in His own righteousness, which He established for us by His obedience unto death. And He puts that righteousness on us, not just skin deep, but we're made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. And we're beautiful to Him, because that's His righteousness.

Where was he when sin entered into the world? He was the preacher of good news. Just as soon as it happened. Because it all happened according to the purpose of God.

And then there came a time about 4,000 years later, after the fall, when the world was sunk deep in sin, Buried in rebellion. Engrossed in the dense darkness of false religion. Imprisoned by idolatry. Utterly ignorant of God. That's the kind of shape the world's in when Christ the Savior came.

After 4,000 years, the nations of the earth knew not God, the God who made them and the God who provided for them. And the Egyptian empire and the Assyrian and Persian and Grecian and Roman empires had done nothing but just spread false religion, superstition, idolatry, The poets and the historians and the philosophers had proved that with all of their intellectual abilities, with all of their mental capabilities, they had no knowledge of God. He's the smartest people in the world. And they proved by their ignorance that man was absolutely corrupt. To express it the way The Apostle did in 1 Corinthians 1, a world by wisdom knew not God.

Except for a few despised Jews in a small corner of the earth, the whole world was dead in ignorance and religious stupidity. Well, if Christ is all, what did he do then? He left the glory, the glory above where angels bowed to him and worshiped him and ran errands for him, flew at a moment's notice. He left that glory. to come into this world to obtain, to take hold of salvation for us, for His chosen people.

He took our nature into union with Himself. He did the will of God perfectly. He left nothing undone that needed to be done. And then he suffered on the cross of Calvary having taken full responsibility for the indebtedness of his people that he had pledged in old eternity in the covenant of grace to pay every farthing that we owed to the justice of God. And all of the wrath of God burned into his soul that we ought to have suffered. and he put away our sins. He came down here to do that and to bring in everlasting righteousness. He redeemed us from the curse of a broken law. He opened up a fountain for cleanliness and from sin.

He died for our sins and he arose because he had justified us By His death, He ascended to God's right hand and He rules the world. And there He sits upon His throne. To none of the angels did He ever say, sit here till I make you enemies, you footstool. He said to all of the angels of God, worship Him. And they do. And there he sits right now at the right hand of God. He governs all things. There's nothing that exists but what Christ doesn't have absolute authority over.

And as you and as I embark upon a new year, Know this, every step we take, everything that happens to us, if we feel good, if we feel bad, if we have good health or if we have poor health, Christ our Lord governs everything and makes them all work together. Doesn't that blow your mind? He makes everything work together for your good? I don't see how my rheumatism can work for my good. Well, by itself, no, but with everything else. See, all things work together for good.

And I'll tell you this, there's coming a time when our God will make all things new. Creation will not always groan as it does now. The slime of sin is everywhere. It won't always be like that. Sin's going to be cast out of the world. Wickedness shall be no more. Satan shall be flung into hell. There's a day coming. It's called the day of restitution of all things. And there shall be a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. And the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord from sea to shining sea. And that filth that the serpent brought into this world shall be wiped away.

And if Christ is all, where will he be then? He will be the one who makes all things new. You see, He bears the governments of the world. We know that from Isaiah 9, 6, right? He shall bear the government upon His shoulder, not shoulders, just one shoulder's just fine. He governs all things, and then He's gonna make all things new.

Children of God, we have nothing to worry about. Why are we anxious for anything when Christ is our all and our all in all?

He shall come in the clouds of heaven and every eye is going to see Him. And He's going to wrap up this whole thing Like folding up a curtain, folding up a garment. And the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God. The heathen have been given to him for an inheritance. And every knee is going to bow to him, to Christ. Every tongue's going to confess he's the Lord.

But some have already bowed before he comes a second time. Many people will have already bowed, have already bent the knee, have already kissed his scepter. Those to whom grace has flooded into their hearts. Everybody else will be forced to bow. And there's going to be a judgment. Everybody knows there's going to be a judgment. Well, you know, there's going to be a judgment one of these days. They don't know anything about the standard for judgment. Who'd know about that? Everybody knows there's going to be a judgment.

If that's true and Christ is all, what's he gonna be doing then? He's gonna be doing the judging. Sheep over here. Goats over there. You sheep, what did you do to deserve to be at my right hand? Absolutely nothing. I'm here by the free and sovereign grace of God. And these others just left to that which they deserve. And our Lord Jesus will cast the wicked into hell. And all of the elect of God will be gathered in his garner. Bring on the garner. Bring on the barn. Bring on heaven's glory.

And in heaven, what are we gonna do then? What are we gonna do there? Well, if Christ is all, he'll be all there. He'll be all the one to praise. We'll glorify him. will sing his praises. Blessed be his name in that wonderful day. My soul shall rejoice to say three very simple but weighty words. Christ is all. Christ is all. He is all my righteousness. He is all my cleansing. He's all my hope. He's all my plea. He's all my confidence. He's all my desire.

And I'll tell you just a little bit more, because my time's about gone. If Christ is all, then He's all in the Word of God. He's not the most important message of the Bible. He's not the central message of the Bible. He is the message of the Bible. Christ and His substitutionary work. I have people say to me, I'm sure they say to Bill, Talk to people about the things of God. People will say, I just don't understand the Bible. I don't understand the old Bible. Well, that's because you don't have the key. I tell you, if you had the key, it would unlock for you the treasures of the word of God. Well, Jim, what is the key? Christ is all. That's the key. And you remember that, you're not going to go far wrong, I can tell you that, in interpreting any passage of Scripture.

Christ is all in the Word of God. He's all to be preached. And Christ is all in the salvation of a sinner. We're Trinitarians. The Father chose us. The Son redeemed us, the Holy Spirit regenerated us, and yet it is the purpose of the triune God to glorify the God-man. It pleased God that he have all the preeminence. You see, hear this verse, a couple of verses, 1 Corinthians 1. But of Him, of God, Christ is made unto us. Now, listen to this. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. You need anything else? That just about covers the whole gamut right there. That's because Christ is all.

And He's all to all of His children. He's your greatest treasure, isn't He? He's your life. He's all to be known. He's all to be loved. He's all to be worshipped. It pleased God that all the fullness of the Godhead dwell bodily in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is all. You take that home with you. Mull that over. Make those three words three single syllable words. That's not complicated, but let me tell you something. It's deeper than the deepest sea. It's higher than the highest heaven.

So let's get our psalm books out, and I want us to sing Blessed Be the Fountain, hymn number 196.