Today I want to bring a message from Colossians chapter three, and this reading from 2 Samuel 19 about Mephibosheth is, I thought, a good summary of what I want to try to convey. that Mephibosheth was lame from his youth, really. He was dropped by his nurse and he became lame while he was running away.

He was of the house of Saul, he was Jonathan's son, which made him part of the opposition to David's reign as king. But because, as Brad pointed out, because of an oath and a covenant that David made with Jonathan previously. David sought out if there were any in the house of Saul that he could show kindness to for Jonathan's sake.

And that's a summary of what God has done for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. He has sought out his people for Christ's sake. to do them kindness because of his covenant he made with him before time began. And because of that, as King David did for Mephibosheth, the Lord has brought us to sit at his table as his own sons, to eat continually there.

What a blessed thing that is. And I wanna do something today, which I don't normally do, and I wanna begin the service with really the conclusion of it. so that you don't miss it. And this is a story, I'm sure you've heard it before, but it's necessary that we are reminded of these things because this summarizes everything that was just read from 2 Samuel chapter nine.

And this was a sermon that Charles Spurgeon preached. It was a sermon he preached because one of his dear friends in the church had died. And in the sermon he, I'm just gonna read this to you just as it's written here, so that you get the impact of it directly as he said it. He said, you see by this morning, meaning sadness, that our church has been bereaved.

I have lost a friend, tender and true to me, and my heart is too full for utterance. I scarcely knew what to preach from this morning, but at last I settled in my mind that I would raise a memorial to my departed friend by preaching a sermon which should be connected with himself. Therefore, I cast about me and I considered what subject he would wish me to preach from if he were sitting behind this morning as he was last Lord's Day.

I had no difficulty in answering that question. His life and death pointed in one direction. He was a man of rare common sense, straightforward, and downright in his aims, and most pithy in his speech. With such a mixture of mother wit that he might have been taken for John Plowman's brother, as indeed he was, meaning he was truly a brother of John Plowman. He cared nothing for oratory, which I have heard him call a flash in the pan. He delighted in the plain, solid gospel of Jesus Christ.

I know that he would have said to me, give them Christ crucified and salvation by grace through faith as plainly as ever you can. For when he was sore sick and in the very agony of death, he repeated as his dying creed, nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. And in his own quaint way, he added, they may talk as much as ever they like, but the whole of it lies in Jack the Huckster's verse. And this is what Jack the Huckster's verse was.

I am a, sorry. I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all. You'll find that story in the first volume of my sermons, Spurgeon said. In Park Street, early in my ministry, I told the story, and it did my friend good and helped to rest his soul all those years ago so that he remembered it and repeated it at last. For his sake, let me tell it again. For our sakes, too.

The huckster, which means a peddler, someone who sells small items in a public way and probably mischaracterizes their true value. But anyway, a huckster was a poor, wicked fellow who had gone about from village to village swearing, drinking, huckstering, and perhaps pilfering. Some thought him half-witted, but the story would show that his mind was sound enough. He heard a poor woman sing somewhere, I am a poor sinner and nothing at all.

But Jesus Christ is my all in all." He remembered the words, and what was better, he felt their sense. And he kept on humming them to himself till God's good spirit engraved them on his heart. There, they were recorded, and Jack was a new man, a saved man.

So he attempted to join himself to the church, but the brethren looked suspiciously at him and inquired, what is your experience? He said he had no experience, but this, I am a poor sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all. The good elders very properly asked, are you converted? Have you been born again?

Jack replied, I do not know much about these things, but this I do know and I am sure of. I am a poor sinner. sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all." They put him back for a while to try him to see if he would grow in his knowledge, but he never went an inch beyond that first standard. He knew what he did know, and to that he held fast.

I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all. Well, they must take him into the church. They could not well refuse a man with such a confession of faith. And when he was in the church, walking with his brethren, he was happier than the rest of them. At which they greatly marveled.

One said to him, Brother Jack, don't you remember, don't you sometimes feel doubts and fears? Doubts? He said. What do you mean? I never doubted that I'm a poor sinner. I never doubt that I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all, and I have daily proofs of it. And why should I doubt that Jesus Christ is my all in all, for he says he is, and I must believe him. Well, said one, sometimes I enjoy good frames and feelings and feel very happy, and then I lose them and sink in spirit. Jack answered, I never get lower than I am, for I am down at the bottom, a poor sinner, and nothing at all. I cannot get lower than that, can I? But I am also at the top, for Jesus Christ is my all in all, and I cannot get higher than that, can I?

They tried him many ways with their blessed experience, of which you and I have cartloads, perhaps wagon loads. But he could not be drawn out of his one firm position. They tried him with their various attainments, depressions, anxieties, quibbles, and questions. But still, Jack the Huckster would not budge. He had bought the truth, and he would not sell it. So he stuck to it.

I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all. The Cones are a feeble folk, yet they have their habitations among the rock. They are safe, but they keep their hiding place, said Spurgeon from Proverbs. Now I want to give that to you, and with that, as a sort of a summary of what, really a distillation of what is said in 2 Samuel chapter 9 about Mephibosheth.

He said to David, what am I, a dead dog? And yet David said, you're going to sit at my table, you're going to eat at my table, you're going to be as one of my sons. And so it is, the Lord Jesus Christ has truly made us the sons, the children and heirs of God himself by his own precious blood. And he has in his grace given us a place at his own table to feed us with himself. crucified for us to be our food, our life, our all.

Now I wanna read to you from Colossians chapter three, and I hope that you can see the connection here. And we're gonna begin with verse one of Colossians three. He says, if you then be risen with Christ, Seek those things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, at the king's table, where David sits.

Not on things on the earth, for you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Doesn't that describe a poor sinner who's nothing at all? But Jesus Christ is his all in all. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory. He'll make known that you're his. What a day.

Therefore, he says in verse five, mortify therefore your members, which are upon the earth, Fornication, fornication is impure sexual activities. Basically anything outside the bond of marriage is fornication between a man and a woman. There's no such marriage otherwise. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, anything unholy, inordinate affection. unnatural affections, evil concupiscence, a constant desire after more and more that God hasn't given you, and covetousness, which is idolatry, this self-serving, self-focus, this pride that puts my works in preference or alongside Christ's works. Idolatry means worshiping the works of your own hands. That's what covetousness is. What's the remedy for these things? To see that in Christ, you have everything.

He says in verse six, for which things sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience in the which you also walked sometime when you lived in them, but now you also put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Why would you be so angry? You know why we're angry?

Because we feel like we face God in judgment, and we can't answer one thing. And God, therefore, is a terror to us. And we feel that we have to preserve our lives, but we have no ability to do that. We can't give an account of ourselves to God. and we feel that we have to prop up ourselves in the presence of God or in the sight of others, and we can't do it, and we see others better than ourselves, and it makes us angry. We don't have what we want, and we can't produce it, so we get angry, angry at God.

He says in verse nine, lie not one to another. There's no more need for lying, is there? because I'm a great sinner and nothing at all. But now I see by the light of God's own bright glory that Jesus Christ is my all in all. He says, lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.

You see that knowledge? What is that knowledge? That knowledge that's renewed, that new man who's renewed in knowledge, he's resurrected from the dead and daily renewed by the operation of the Spirit of God, applying the light of the gospel to his soul, giving him life over continuously again and again. Life, your life is in Christ. This knowledge convinces us that I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all. This becomes all of our experience. This becomes all of our knowledge. This becomes all of our hope and delight. This becomes the reason for our love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Why should I lie? God knows me. I can be transparent before you because it's not about me.

It's about the Lord Jesus Christ and His grace to sinners. This knowledge that God gives to us teaches us that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the Savior of sinners. He's a Savior for sinners. He's the fullness of the Godhead to those who are empty. He's everything to those who are nothing. He's heaven to those who deserve hell. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ, why would I lie? This is the truth. This is God's truth. This is true about me. and it's a truth I love. God has made me love this.

He's renewed us. He's given us a new man. He's made us new. He birthed us by his spirit. He created us. He raised us from the dead. He gave us a sight of the glorious gospel of Christ. We see God now. It's different than it was before, isn't it? He goes on. He says, You have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him, after Christ.

Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all and in all. It's not about what you are. It's not about how you were born or who you were born to or what you can do in religion, circumcision or uncircumcision. It's not about how good you are, or how sorrowful you are, or how depressed you are, or how intent you are, or how faithful you are. It has nothing to do with what you are or what you have done. It's all about Christ.

It's only about Him. He's all, and He is in all. He's in all of His people. He's in all things. He's all in heaven. He's all in the hearts of His people. He's our righteousness. He's our holiness. He's our wisdom. He's our life. He's our inheritance, our refuge, the cleansing of all of our sin. He goes on, verse 12, put on therefore as the elect of God. This is who you are, holy. Loved of God, beloved, bowels of mercy, do this. Put on these bowels of mercy, kindness. These are the things that Christ is.

It's in the opposite, isn't it? The law incites this greed, this seeking, this ambitious seeking for preservation and promotion and recognition and grubbing for things and trying to gain things in the world or attention to myself. Grace says, you're nothing. You're lame. You have nothing. You're the object of the, you're the opposition to the king in your heart. And the Lord has been merciful to you for his son's sake. A covenant made with him before, before you were born.

And so Christ is all in all. Put on therefore these bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering for bearing one another. forgiving one another, even if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do you. And above all these things, put on charity, love, which is the bond of perfectness, and let the peace of God That peace of God, that settled peace that comes to us knowing that Christ has made our peace with God. Judgment has been answered. An accounting has been given. What a blessed thing that is, isn't it? There's a holy God. Holy, holy, holy.

And I cannot please Him. But Christ did. There is a holy law. I cannot keep it, but Christ did. There is a perfect righteousness that God requires. I cannot fulfill it, but Christ did. There is a record against me of my sin, a convicting record that I cannot erase, but Christ did by his blood. There is a knowledge, there is a wisdom that I need to come and know God, and I do not have it. But Christ is that wisdom. There is an accounting to God in judgment. I must give, but I cannot give it.

But Christ can, and Christ did. There is a scrutiny under the light of God's own justice that I cannot endure. but Christ did. There is great wrath I cannot bear, eternal wrath, the consuming fire that God himself is in all of his holiness, and I cannot bear it, but Christ did. There is an eternal death I cannot rise from, but the Lord Jesus Christ did.

He is the resurrection and the life. There is a life that I must have, but I do not have, and that life is Christ. It's in him. He is my life. There is a holiness without which I cannot see God, and I cannot produce it, and I'm anything but holy in myself, but Christ did. He is my sanctification, and his own blood has made me holy. There is faith that I must have, but I cannot generate it. But Christ is that faith. I don't have to look within for it.

He is all and in all. And by his life, he gives that light which shines in my heart from his own word to tell me he's everything. Everything for my life, everything for my salvation, There is an old man that I am who must die. He died with Christ. There's a new man I must put on, but that new man is Christ himself who gave himself for me and who gives himself to me, and he is my all. There is so much sin in me, so much I must be, so much I cannot become, but Christ is my all in all. I am a poor sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all.

If I die because he is my all, because he is my life, I shall rise again. If I live, I cannot die because he who is the resurrection and the life is always with me and in me. He is life to the dead and he is eternal life to the living. He is the God of the living. He is not the God of the dead. My old man is crucified with him. It has been put to death. It has been buried. The body of sin is dead. But Christ, who is my life, has risen in triumph over my sin and death and the grave.

He descended, and now he ascended, and he sits at God's right hand, and I am where he is. I am his brother, God's child, the heir of God in him. God has delivered up his son and did not spare him and he will not withhold anything but give all things to me with his son who he gave for me. The Lord Jesus Christ is at God's right hand. and all power is given to him in heaven and earth, and he is my shepherd, and I am complete in him.

By the grace of Christ my King, my King, in ourselves we are unworthy, and we are by nature the children of wrath even as others and yet he has made us to sit at his table by his own sovereign command to feed us from his own table with himself out of grace on his redeeming blood, on his righteousness and all that he is to us from God.

So I am a great sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all. Though experience and knowledge and feelings prove me to be nothing, yet with God-given confidence and assurance, Jesus Christ is my all. You see what the gospel teaches us? It teaches us to trust Jesus Christ for everything. Look with me at Romans chapter 10. I want to show you how this is so comforting to us that the Lord Jesus Christ is our all.

If you remember in the book of Romans, Romans chapter nine explains God's eternal electing grace. And we love that, don't we? Romans chapter 11 continues that thread. He picks up on it and he says, At this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace, and if by grace it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But in between Romans 9 and Romans 11, these doctrines of God's eternal electing grace and predestinating purpose to save his people, that mercy is his prerogative, and he shows mercy to whom he will. And then we see the condemnation, the severity of God in Romans chapter 11, that the Jews who were by nature the people of God have been cast away, and yet the elect have been kept. We have right in the middle between those two chapters, chapter 10, Romans chapter 10, And look at verse 1. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved.

For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. They haven't been renewed in the new man after the knowledge of him who created, of the image of him who created them. They have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. They're very zealous. They're very active. They're ardent. They have an intensity about them that I don't seem to have. But they, even though they're zealous, being ignorant of God's righteousness, going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

Verse four, what is that? Christ is the end of the law, the consummate end, the perfection of the law, the fulfillment of the law, and therefore the end of the law for righteousness. He says to everyone that believeth, everyone that believeth. Now, remember those words, everyone that believeth, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. And notice in verse five, and this is taken from Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 11, and in that area, he says, for Moses describes the righteousness which is of the law.

This is what the law says. Notice, there's a couple of points I wanna make about this. The law is absolutely clear. The law excludes everything else but this message. Notice, Moses describes the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which does those things shall live by them. You must keep the commandments to live. You must not do what God forbids. Ever. All the time. Perfectly. Completely. Don't leave anything out. Never miss. And don't cease. Don't stop doing this. Perfectly.

That's what the law says. It's clear. If you want to live by the law, you must do the law. You must not just learn the law. You must not just memorize the law. You must keep the law. This is the only way that the law teaches salvation, or teaches life. This is the only way that the law holds forth to you for life. Keep it. All of it. Continuously. Perfectly. You see how clear it is? We may not like it, but it's clear. We may want an alternative method. It says, no, this is it. But notice now. But.

And here is the triumph of the gospel. The apostle Paul, by the Spirit of God, takes the law, and he takes that statement about how the law is so clear, so singular, and he elevates it, and he says, but the gospel is even more clear and more singular.

Notice, the righteousness which is of faith Speaks on this ways, do not say in your heart, who shall ascend to heaven? That is to bring Christ down from above. Or who shall descend into the deep? That is to bring up Christ again from the dead. But what does it say?

What does the gospel say? The law says this, the word is nigh thee in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the word of faith which we preach. That's the righteousness of faith. He says in verse six, the righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise. That's what it says. The gospel says, the word is near you in your mouth, just like the law did, only it's this way. The word of faith which we preach.

The law said only one way, do it all. Do and live. The gospel says one thing, believe. and you have everlasting life. Look to Christ. Believe Christ. Live by Christ. Walk in this faith. This is your life. Looking to Him. You're a dead sinner. You have nothing at all. You're blind. You're ignorant. You're lame. You're helpless. You're defiled. You're defiant. You're perverse. You've sinned. and you cannot do what the law has said, but notice the righteousness which of faith says Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. This is the only way. The gospel doesn't leave you alternatives. It doesn't let you do anything else.

This is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent. In John chapter six, I want you to notice the clarity of the gospel. He says in John chapter 6 and verse 47, the Lord's own words, Jesus said, verily, verily, John 6, 47, I say unto you, he that believeth on me has everlasting life. We look away to Christ, don't we? Now in Colossians 3, he says, put off and put on. And our natural instinct is to rely on what we previously used to think and do.

In Galatians 3.3, the apostle says to the Galatians, are you so foolish? And this is a rhetorical question.

Having begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? The flesh is what we are naturally, is what we're born with. It's what we are until the Lord saves us, flesh only. You can't be perfect by the flesh. The only way you can be made right is by the Spirit of God revealing Christ to you, the light of the glorious gospel of Christ shining in your hearts to tell you you're a poor sinner, nothing at all.

Jesus Christ is your all in all. There's no sense in trying to produce sorrow or good works or self-affliction or flagellations, whatever it is. austerity, asceticism, religious learning and education or evidences or experiences, all these things that's relying on what you formerly relied upon.

And when you hear these words from Galatians chapter 3, it may be that our first inclination is to say, oh look, now there's something here to do and I gotta get busy. But what he's saying here is what you are, you are in Christ and in Christ you are complete. You've been qualified by God, the father, you've been translated into the kingdom of the son of his love, the shepherd of your souls is the Lord of glory.

And it was he who died for you to redeem you by his precious blood to take away and forgive all your sins. and to reconcile you to God and to bring you into his presence and present you by himself, by his blood, holy and without blame and faultless in his sight. Christ did this when you were a lame and helpless and defiled and abhorrent sinner. And that's all you were with no life. And the Lord shined his light and gave you life by his own life and showed you that he is your life. He is your righteousness. He is your holiness. He is your wisdom. He's everything.

Now, he says, because of who you are, do not do this in order to become God's child, in order to make yourself something. Because what you are before God, you are in Christ. Therefore, that old man has been put to death. in the Lord Jesus on the cross.

And out of his resurrection, he created in you a new man. He raised you from death, gave you himself, his life, and he showed you his work and his glory. And now you've been so endeared to him by his great love to you in the gospel that he says to you, your members, which are upon the earth, Consider those in light of what you are in heaven at God's right hand in Christ. You've been made new, you've been raised up, you've been given an eternal inheritance. You stand before God holy and without blame and faultless. And those things that brought you into death are now associated with your life in this world, in the body of this flesh. So put them to death, not in order to become something, but because you are. what you are in Christ, you see? The Lord has done it all.

And so there's no point in, what shall we say, grasping in order to gain something. Faith says, I have it in Christ because it's in him. I never, as Jack the Huckster said, happy Jack, I never grow lower than a poor sinner and nothing at all. I may discover it, rediscover it, but I can't get lower than that. And I certainly can't get any higher than Jesus Christ is my all in all. That's what he's saying here. Let this rule in your mind, in your attitude. toward your own life in this world. You can, and back in chapter one, he says it this way. He says, we, in verse nine, this cause, we also since the day we heard of how the gospel came to you. He says, we don't cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will.

You see, that's what the renewing of this new man is, knowing what we are in Christ in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of the Lord. You can't walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing except by faith. We think, well, he told us to believe, and now that we believe, we got to move on. No, no, no. As you have received Christ Jesus, the Lord so walk ye in him. rooted and grounded in him. And so he goes on in chapter one, he says that you might walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work. You see, looking to Christ is what produces fruit. Jesus said it this way, abide in me, and my words will abide in you, and you'll bear fruit. increasing in the knowledge of God, seeing how God has done all these things and revealed himself to us in Christ, strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness. My shepherd is on the throne. He can't do wrong. He's not going to let any of his sheep perish. He's going to bring all of them. And he's going to keep them. by his great power, purchased by his precious blood. He says in verse 12 of chapter 1, giving thanks to the Father. You see, it's a life of thanksgiving.

It's not a life of striving, trying to get what we don't have. We have all things in Christ. And so that's what he's telling us here. Live accordingly. And we don't do this out of strength in us. But we do it by the life of Christ in us. We depend on Him, just as we depend on Him for everything. We go to Him, look to Him, rely on Him, call on Him, thank Him. His word reveals that in Him we have all things, so we therefore live by faith in what He says is the way it is.

We put off. By faith, we put off. He said, we're dead. We say, yes. I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all. I'm dead in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're risen. I put on. I put that on. By faith, I just put on Christ. You see his humility. You see his grace and his mercy towards sinners. I love the gospel. Don't you? Put it on. Put on Christ. And put off everything but Christ.

We didn't start by faith and end by works. We start by faith, we end by faith. We started looking to Christ, we're going to end because we're in Christ. We're going to be brought to glory in Him and that's it. We're already seated with the Lord Jesus Christ in glory.

But these things are practical things. They're the result of the result of God's work in us. It is God who's at work in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. And He is able to do it. We look to Him. He who promised is faithful and He is able. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your grace that You would give to us everything in Your Son. And by His blood, You would give us all things.

You would bring us to Yourself as Your sons and seat us at His table. And you would be so delighted. Nothing in all of heaven and earth could delight you more than what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. And by your grace, you have made him delightful to us. Because as sinners, we know ourselves to be nothing. But we see with great wonder and amazement that you would be so holy and so full of grace that you would make us in him everything that he is.

What a gospel. Lord, help us to endure all things with patience in this life, knowing that our shepherd sits on the throne of glory. Help us to take every anxious thought to him and trust him and help us above all things to have love one toward another. We didn't make ourselves this way. We made ourselves sinners, but we can't make ourselves holy. You have to do it in your son. In Jesus name we pray and thank you. Amen.