Thank you so much for that. Would
you go back to the book of Colossians chapter 3, back to the portion
that Ron read to us, Colossians chapter number 3. And that excellent, excellent
song that She just sang. Every time in the chorus, she
sang these words, Christ is my refuge, my all in all. She had no idea what I was preaching
on this morning. Usually contacts me Saturday
night, tells me what she's singing, usually tells her mother. And
her mother, most of the time, remembers to tell me what she's
singing, but it's always good because our musicians are so
good about picking out hymns that are truthful to the Word
of God. But she had no idea my subject this morning is Christ
is all. And I take my text from verse
11, of here the book of Colossians
chapter 3. This evening I'm coming back
to this portion of scripture by the way, and I will consider
it in the context. But this morning I just want
to lift out three words and just drive them into your memory. And I hope the Spirit of God,
the Spirit of Grace will drive them into your heart. Christ
is all, so we choose verse 11, where there is neither Greek
nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, that is, once again, Jew or Gentile,
barbarian or Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all and in
all. The subject is Christ is all.
And I felt led to go to this portion of Scripture to kind
of delve into it a little bit today, this being the first Lord's
Day of the new year. I just cannot imagine a better
subject for us to focus upon than this one, Christ is all. This is a subject that is always
vital, it is always in season, And it is always very true. Christ is all. And I would ask
you right from the outset, is He all to you? Is He all to you? I know you're religious. A good
many of you have been baptized. Last Lord's Day you took of the
Lord's Supper. I know that you've had involvement
in religious services. And those things are all well
and good. I wouldn't take anything away
from those. That is, not unless you have missed this fact that
Christ is all. And so what I ask him, is He
all to you? Is He all to you? We know He
is salvation. We know to know Him is to know
God. We know that to have the Lord
Jesus is to have forgiveness of all of our sins. To be found
in Him is to have the righteousness of God, for He is the Lord our
righteousness. So it behooves each of us today
to do an examination of our innermost being and ask ourselves this
question. You ask it of yourself, and I'll
ask it of me. Is truly Christ my all? Is He all my hope? Is He all
my salvation? Is He all I look to for acceptance
with God? Is Christ my all? Is He your all? For in the Word of God, that
which is true of every genuine believer, it is this, Christ is all to them. He is all to be known. He's all
to be believed. He's all to be embraced. If you
would go to heaven when you die, if you would be accepted of the
Father, if you would have all of your sins, the assurance of
all your sins being pardoned in Christ Jesus, this is how
you know He is all to you. He's not most things to you,
He's all to you. There's no other one to know
save Christ Jesus, because to know Him is to know the Father.
To honor Him is to honor the Father. To be filled with His
Spirit is to be filled with Christ Jesus Himself. Do you know Him? Is He your all? I said, Jim,
do you have any idea how many messages I've sat under? Do you
know how many times I've heard the gospel and you're asking
this very elementary question of me? It matters not to me how
many times you've heard the gospel. There have been lots of people
who've sat under the sound of the gospel and have become virtually
gospel hardened. To all of you and to myself,
I say, is Christ your all? Is He my all? And I think I can
answer by the witness of the Spirit. If I understand my own
heart, and I know Jeremiah said the heart is desperately wicked,
who can know it? But the Spirit of God gives us
an understanding of the things that are true. And would you
right now, in truthfulness, examine your own soul? This is not something
to take lightly. This is not something you say,
well, I took care of this years ago, so I don't have to worry
about this anymore. Every day you ought to be examining
yourself and asking yourself this question, is Jesus Christ
the Lord my all? Is He all of my righteousness? Is He all of my hope of glory? Is He all of my acceptance? To learn that Christ is all is
to kind of pick up on what Job said. If you want to jot this
reference down, Job 19, 28, he said, the root of the matter
is in me. The root of the matter is in
me. In all things spiritual. In all
things eternal. In all things vital to the soul's
salvation. In all things vital to the glory
of God. The root of the matter is this. Christ is all. That's the very
root of the matter. That has to get right down to
the heart of the issue. The root of the matter. Job spoke about the root of the
matter being in him. Christ is the root of salvation. He's the root of redemption. He's the root of justification. All things issue forth from him. If you have Him, you're immensely
wealthy. You're wealthy according to the
riches of God's grace. If Christ is all to you, it doesn't
matter what you have of this world's goods. All of those things
you will be leaving behind when you depart this world. But if
Christ is your all, He will always be your all. And there'll never
be any separation between you and the beloved Savior. And then
I think of another scripture, a New Testament scripture, which
is found in the book of Luke, when our Lord Jesus went to the
house of Martha. And Mary was there, and both
of them loved the Savior. Both of them believed the Lord
Jesus Christ. But Martha, she began to be distracted
for she wasn't certain that all of the Savior's physical needs
is being fed and all of those sorts of things. She just wasn't
sure that those things were being met. And so she began to, she
got up and she began to make preparations of all things physically
for the Savior. And she was busy about many things. In fact, the Savior used the
word, you're cumbered about many things. And there was Mary, her
sister, who sat at the feet of the Lord Jesus. This one who
spake like never a man spake before. They're issued forth
from the lips of the Savior, glorious things. The Word of
God, the incarnate Word of God, spoke forth the living Word of
God, and Mary was there just amazed at His teaching, and she
was listening to everything that rolled off His lips. And Martha
noticed Mary, and she had a little rebuke for her. And our Savior said to Martha,
Martha, one thing is needful. And Mary has chosen that good
portion, that good portion, which shall never be taken away from
her. One thing is needful. What is the one thing needful?
And by the word, by the way, when it says one thing is needful,
The Savior was speaking not in a masculine or a feminine way.
You're missing something, is what He was saying. What am I
missing? Here's what you're missing, Martha.
I'm all. You have the very Son of God
in your presence. The living Word. The God come
down from heaven. I'm here. Leave the dishes alone. Don't worry about preparing a
meal for me. Don't worry about, you know,
kind of straightening up the things in your house here. Listen,
He who lives forever is in your house. He who speaks words of
grace is now speaking to you. Stop being busy about other things
and sit and listen. Mary has chosen the good part. She's chosen the good portion.
And here's what he's saying. When he said one thing is needful,
he's saying this. I'm all. I'm all you need to
know. I'm all you need. You don't need
anything else. And I say to all of us how easily
it is for us to be cumbered about by many things. Isn't that true? We all know that's true. We have
many responsibilities in life to which we have to attend. We
have our families, we have our jobs, we have this, we have that,
but nothing and no one is more important than the Lord Jesus
Christ and that salvation that's in Him. All that Christ would
be are all. He is sufficient. He's all you
need. Without Him, you're the poorest
of the poor. With Him, you have the riches
of God's grace. What is a sick man's all in all? Would you not say it would be
a physician? What is a diseased and dying
man's all in all? Would you not agree it would
be a remedy? What is a sinful man's all in
all? Would you not say it's forgiveness?
What is a debtor's all in all? Would you not say it would be
the payment of his debts? What is a captive man's all in
all? Well, the payment of his ransom. What is a hungry man's all in
all? Food. What is a thirsty man's
all in all? Water. Well, in all things pertaining
to your soul, let's talk about you. In all things pertaining
to your soul, Christ is all. In all things that have to do
with the knowledge of God, which is so vital to know God, In all
things that have to do with the knowledge of God, Christ is all. And in all things that have to
do with this book, the book of books, all 66 books which make
up one Word of God, in all things that have to do with this book,
Christ is all. You see, Christ is all to the
Father. That's the reason He's ordained
that all men honor the Son. God's ordained that. God has
purposed that. And you will honor Him either
in this life or at the judgment, but you're going to honor God.
You're going to bow before the Lord Jesus Christ. He's all to the Father. He's all to the angels. He's all to all the saints who
are in heaven. He's all to all of His people
on this earth. But is He all to you? Oh, that's
the big question, isn't it? Like they used to say, that's
the $64,000 question. Ah, it's much more costly than
that. Is He all to you? Here's the
title, Christ is All. And those three words, those
three words, they form the very essence of Christianity. And
they're not difficult words, they're not complicated words.
In fact, each one is just a one-syllable word. It can't get any more simple
than this. Christ is all. Is Christ all
to you? That's the question. The person
who wants to know God, not merely know about God, but to know God
in a way of salvation, will make no progress in that quest until
he understands that in this matter of The salvation of your soul
in this matter of acceptance with the Holy God, Christ is
all. You're not going to make any
progress at all unless you see in all these things Christ is
all. And if He is all, that doesn't
leave any room for anything else. And to the degree that you add
something in that you must contribute, then you bring the Lord Jesus
Christ down from being all to being mostly. And that can be
deadly. That will be deadly. Because
He'll be all to you or nothing to you. And really, that's the
way it is. He's either all to you or He's
nothing to you. The Scripture says, this is life
eternal, that we might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ whom Thou hast sent. He is all. Indeed, there was a time when
this world had no existence. It had no being. There was no
heaven. There was no earth. There was
no hell. There were no seas. There was
no land. There were no flowers. There
was nothing. There was no man. Nothing existed
but our God in the Trinity of His persons. If Christ is all,
then I would ask you, where was He then? Well, He was with the
Father, because He's always been. He is the eternal God. In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God, the Scripture says. That's where He was. He was with
God in the beginning. He was not only with God, but
He was God, and He is God. Therefore, He said in John chapter
10 and verse 30, I and the Father are one. He shared the glory
of God. For he said in his high priestly
prayer in John chapter 17, glorify me with the glory that I had
with thee before the world was. If Christ was all, what was he
way back then to the Father? Well, according to the book of
Proverbs chapter eight, he was the Father's delight. He was
the one the Father delighted in. The Father received all of
His enjoyment and all of His happiness, if we can speak of
the joyfulness and the happiness of God, He received it all from
the Lord Jesus Christ, His Son, His everlasting Son. Not a Son
who had a beginning, but here the Son of God is as eternal
as the Father and as the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when he came into
the world, the father said of his son, this is my beloved son
in whom I'm well pleased. Look with me over in the book
of Proverbs chapter 8, if you would, the book of Proverbs chapter
8. It's a very interesting comparison. between Proverbs chapter 7 and
Proverbs chapter 8. Proverbs chapter 7, almost all
of it is about false religion. The great harlot, which John
identified in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ as
being Babylon. A great harlot is set forth in
Proverbs chapter 7. She deceives the foolish. This is false religion. And she
lures people in. They believe her lies. She's
very seductive. She's gorgeous. She's very entertaining. She's likened to an adulteress,
to a harlot, to a prostitute. That is false religion. But her
ultimate name is not your life. Her goal is your death. That's what she wants. Therefore,
look at verse 24 of chapter 7. Let me read you these verses. And here Solomon speaks. He says, Harken unto me now therefore,
O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. Let not
thine heart decline to her ways. Don't you go down to her ways.
Go not astray in her paths. Here's what she says in this
harlot. She goes by many different names
as far as denominations and churches are concerned. But here's what's
always a key. Here's how you can tell whether
it's false religion or not. There's a condition upon your
salvation that is dependent upon you. Some condition you must
meet. Some contribution that you've
got to make. And most people fall for that.
Because to the natural mind, it seems reasonable that the
more I do for God, the more I'll get out of God. But that's not
right. You can't make any contribution. The Bible says if there's anything
clearly revealed in the Word of God, salvation is of the Lord. So it says, don't let your heart
follow her ways. Don't go astray to her paths,
for she's cast down many wounded. Yea, many strong men have been
slaughtered or slain by her. Her house is the way to hell,
going down to the chambers of death. You don't want to go that
direction. Now here's the one you need to
know in chapter 8. You need to know Him whose name
is Wisdom. Wisdom is the Lord Jesus. You
remember in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, who of God, that is Christ
Jesus of God, is made unto us to be Wisdom. Righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. So in chapter 8,
we're introduced to wisdom. Here over against, here's false
religion, but over against false religion, here is one whose name
is wisdom. He's the very wisdom of God,
and he's got to make us wise unto salvation. And he likens himself unto wisdom,
and he puts it in the feminine gender. Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her
voice. She standeth in the top of high
places, by the way, in the place of past. She cries at the gates,
at the entry of the city, at the coming in of the doors. Unto
you, O men, I call. My voice is to you, the sons
of men. Listen up, Christ Jesus says.
I'm talking to you. I'm warning you. This is a general
call of the gospel. O ye simple, Oh, ye simple... What does simple mean? Empty-headed
and empty-hearted. That's exactly what it means.
Empty-headed and empty-hearted. Oh, ye simple, understand wisdom. Understand who wisdom is. And
ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart. Hear! Will you listen? Close your mouth and listen,
he says. For I will speak of excellent
things, noble things, spiritual things, eternal things. Things
that have to do with life. Things that have to do with righteousness. Things that have to do with acceptance.
Listen. Will you listen? Will you listen? For my mouth shall speak truth. For He is truth. He said, I'm
the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life. No man cometh unto the
Father but by me. And wickedness is an abomination
to my lips. All the words of my mouth are
in righteousness. There's nothing forward, there's
nothing perverse, there's nothing twisted in them. And then for the sake
of time, Go a little bit further into the chapter. And here's
the Lord Jesus. Here's the Son of God. He sets
Himself forth as being equal with the everlasting God. Look at verse 23. I was set up,
I was inaugurated from the beginning, wherever the earth was. What was He inaugurated as? He
was inaugurated to be our Savior. He was set forth to be our Savior
secretly in the counsel of God. That's when God set him forth.
This is my son. He's the Savior. Look at verse
24. When there were no depths, Christ
says, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before
the hills was I brought forth as the mediator, as the Savior. while as yet he had not made
the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust
of the world. When he prepared the heavens,
I was there, wisdom says, Christ says. When he set a compass upon
the face of the depth, When He established all the clouds above,
when He strengthened the fountains of the deep, when He gave to
the sea His decree that the water should not pass at His commandment,
when He appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by Him.
I was co-existent with Him. That's what that means. As one
brought up with Him, And I was daily His delight. That's why
I say Christ has always been the delight of the Father. Rejoicing
always before Him. Oh, what joy there was between
the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. And of course, the Father
and the Son, the scripture says, there was a covenant of peace
established between them. And this was for us. And notice in verse 31, so not
only was Christ the Father's delight, but way back yonder
when Christ is all now, He was all in the covenant of grace,
He was all before the world began, all the way back when there wasn't
any such thing as time, our Lord Jesus, He found delight in His
people. Notice the order here. He is
all the Father's delight. Well, what about the Son of God?
In whom does He find His delight? In His people. He's the covenant
head. Rejoicing in the habitable part
of the earth, that part of the earth that men will inhabit,
the land. And the Son of God says, and
my delights, my enjoyment, And if I could put it this way, my
everlasting happiness is with the sons of men in the covenant
of grace. When our Lord Jesus, who is all
in that covenant, He found His joy, He found His satisfaction,
He found His delight in us, in His people, in those the Father
gave to Him. in everlasting election. And
back then before the world began, before the world ever was established,
our Lord Jesus was all. He was all to the Father. And
He was all in this covenant of grace wherein God established
salvation, the means of it, the manner of it, and the people
who will be the recipients of it. No wonder he then says in verse
32, now therefore hearken unto me. Oh, you children, for blessed
are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction. Watch it. Be wise. Refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth
me. Will you hear him? If you'll
hear Him, you're blessed. In fact, if you hear Him, you've
always been blessed. And if you hear Him, the hearing
ear is a gift of God. Blessed is the man that heareth
Me, watching daily at My gates, waiting at the posts of My doors. For whoso findeth Me, findeth
life. Well, you know about that. Whoso
findeth me, findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord,
but he that sinneth against me, he who doesn't believe me, he
who cannot honestly say, Christ is all to me, he wrongs his own
soul. and all they that hate me love
death." Back before God made the world,
Christ was all then. Back when God established salvation,
when the Lord Jesus, the Son of God said, I'll be the covenant
head of these that you give me, I'll represent them. I will redeem
them. I will reconcile them. I bear
full responsibility for their salvation. In that covenant of
grace, you were in the mind of Christ Jesus. You were in the
heart of Christ Jesus. You were His delight. You were
His happiness. You were the one who made Him
joyful within. But that salvation that would
be accomplished for you, you would have no part in it. You
would just be the recipient of it. For Christ is all in the
covenant of grace. We were his delight back then. And you know, it truly astounds
me, and I can never, I shall never get over this, that I would
be the delight of the Son of God forever. That way back, you know, the
earth was made roughly 6,000 years ago. It was made to look
older than that. But everything, if I understand
the Scriptures correctly, everything was made about 6,000 years ago.
And before that, there was no anything called time. There was just eternity, endlessness
back this way. And only God existed. But God
existed in the three Persons of His Trinity. He existed with
love and grace in His heart for His people that He's loved with
an everlasting love. And we were His delights. And the next time you begin to
feel low in spirits, and you begin to feel a little down,
and you need something to pick you up, just remember this. The Lord God of glory is always
delighted in you. You've always been His joy. His
joy. You know, our children and our
grandchildren, and some of you have great-grandchildren, they
bring great delight. It just brings joy to your heart.
And you know what I mean. But there is no joy like the
joy found in the heart of the Son of God. As He looks on you,
and you, and you, and you, and me. And He does so with exceeding
joy and happiness. That's one of my children right
there. He saw you, Ron, before he ever made anything. And he
delighted in you. He delighted in you, Trish. He
delighted in you, Judy. He delighted in you. I'd go around
the room, so many more here. And I can say, the Lord, He found
His joy in you. Do you not find your joy in Him? And He left heaven above, and
I'll get into it tonight. And He came into this world to
live and to die, to satisfy divine justice for you because He delighted
in you. And you see, Christ is all in
your salvation. He's all in your redemption.
He's all in the reconciliation between you and a holy God. You
didn't have anything to do with it. You just receive it. by God-given faith. And the Spirit of God now has
done a work within us, and we can honestly say, He's my all. I don't have any other hope. He's everything. Fannie Crosby,
I told you she wrote over 9,000 songs. She said, take the world,
but give me Jesus. Take the world. Take it all.
That's okay. Take my family, if you will.
Take it all. But give me Jesus. Because He's
all. He's all. I'll try to finish
this tonight. Let's turn to Numbers 7.