Christ Is All

Christ is all. Christ is the New Testament word for the Old Testament word, the Messiah, the anointed one of God. Christ speaks of the offices of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior. He is God's prophet. He is the one who brings the Word of God to us. He is the Word of God. I love saying this. I've said it many times. I'll say it again. Every other prophet Said, thus saith the Lord. He never said that. He said, I say unto you, as God's prophet.

Priest, this is the other anointed office in the Old Testament. A priest is the one who brings a man to God. Christ is the one who brings men to God. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father, but by me, he brings his people to God. The Christ is the King, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the one whose will is always done, Christ. Jesus of Nazareth.

Philip said to his brother Nathanael, we found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. To which Nathanael replied, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? That podunk town? Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Yes. Jesus of Nazareth. They wrote over his head, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Mary, the Son of David, the Son of God, God the Son, is the Christ. And Christ is all. What do I know of that? What do you know of that? Is this the utterance of your heart? Not a cliche statement, but the utterance of your heart.

Christ is all and in all. In the original, the definite article is used, Christ is the all, in the all. Now I realize to some, Jesus Christ is nothing in their esteem. I suppose a great, Percentage of the population of this world has never even heard His name. He's certainly nothing to them. There are some who have heard of Him, but He's nothing. Behold all you that pass by, is it nothing to you?

To some, Christ is important. They try to make a place for Him in their busy lives. He's important, they wouldn't dare say he's not, but there are some, some, who can say from their heart and mean it, Christ is all. You see, the ones who have been renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created Him, to them He is all.

And for lack of a better word, this is an infinite statement. Christ is all. That couldn't be said of any other man or any other thing. What if I said Todd is all? That grates at our ears. What a horrible thing. What a terribly arrogant thing. What a narcissistic statement. Todd is all?

We can't say that about any other man. But we can say this about the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is all. And it's the only appropriate thing to say with regard to Him. Anything else falls short. Anything else is derogatory toward Him. Christ is all and in all. Now obviously that doesn't mean He dwells in everybody's heart because He doesn't. But to every believer, He is All. Now look at verse nine of our text. Lie not one to another. Now we all know it's wrong to lie. You're born knowing that. We're all naturally liars. No one has to teach us to lie. We're born liars. But Paul says lie not one to another.

Now, in the context of this passage of scripture, what he's saying is, don't project an image of yourself to impress others. Don't try to pretend to be what you're not that would diminish the truth that Christ is all. If anyone feels judged by you, if anyone feels little around you, if anyone feels inferior to you, You're making a statement, I'm at least something, maybe a little above you. Christ is not all. That's all we make when we lie one to another and try to project some phony religious image. All we're saying by that is Christ is not all. I hope that when someone's around me, they're gonna understand Christ is all. Not me. Lie not one to another that would diminish this glorious truth that Christ is all, that they'd be looking at you instead of him.

Seeing you've put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge. Now, when someone has the new man, there's the old man, there's the new man. When God saves you, you're given a new man, a new heart, one that was not there before. He's there now. And this new man has new knowledge. And just what is that knowledge that the new man has? You put on the new man, verse 10, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. Remember, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. He's a new creation.

I've got a heart that loves the Lord Jesus Christ, that believes he's all, and I know it didn't come from me. I'm just dead sure of that. It is from a new creation created in Christ Jesus. That wouldn't come from me. I know that. And look what he says in verse 11. Where this knowledge is, this new knowledge, after the creation of God, Here's what it is.

There's neither Greek nor Jew. Circumcision nor uncircumcision. Barbarian, Scythian. Bond nor free, but Christ is all. Now let me read you the amplified version of verse 11. There is no distinction between Greek and Jew. Now where Christ is all, there is no distinction between men. Circumcision nor uncircumcision, there's no religious distinctions. None. Not where Christ is all. There's no distinctions between nations, whether barbarian or Scythian.

There is no status, no bond, no slaves, no free, no rich, no poor, but Christ is all. And in all. So believers are equal in Christ with no distinction. Isn't that glorious? No distinction, no difference. Christ is all. What's that make everything else? Nothing. Christ is all. Now, what does this mean that Christ is all and in all?

God is. Hebrews 11, six says, he that cometh to God must believe that he is. And I love the way the Bible makes no attempt to prove the existence of God. It's a self evident fact. God is. God is as the Bible declares him to be. I love Genesis chapter one, verse one. in the beginning God." All truth is in that statement. God, Elohim, that's the plural of God. El is the singular, Elohim is the plural.

So right off the bat, in the very first verse of the scripture, we find the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. I'm not gonna try to explain that. I can't explain it. It's who God is. God is one God in three distinct persons. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. The only thing to do is bow. This is who he is. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. God is as the Bible declares him to be. God is good. Every attribute of God is good.

God is holy. He's other. He's not a part of this created universe. He's separate. God is sovereign. His will is always done. You and I are in His hands. We just read what Eli said after Samuel told him, God's gonna kill your two sons, it's the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. Whatever he does is right, just, holy, and true. Whether I see it, whether I agree with it, God is God. He's sovereign God. Any other God is no God at all, but a God who is the first cause of everything.

He's independent. There's nothing you can do that would add to him. There's nothing you can do for him. He has no needs. He is independent. He's all powerful. He's immutable. He can't change. He's God. He's the God of the Bible. God is, and Jesus Christ is all we'll ever see of God. And that's what is meant by Christ is all. Jesus Christ is all we'll ever see of God. He is called in Colossians 115, the image. of the invisible God.

Hebrews 1.3, he's called the brightness of God's glory and the express image of his person.

When John, I mean, when Philip asked that irreverent question, show us the Father. and we'll be satisfied. Irreverent. Ungodly. Show us the Father. We'll be satisfied then. Have I been so long time with you, Philip, and yet hast thou not known me? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. Did he really say that? Yes, he did. If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. Turn with me to John chapter one. J.C. Ryle said that the church should be forever grateful for John chapter one, verses one through 18. I'm not gonna look at all of those verses, but I wanna look at a few of them. John chapter one.

In the beginning was, and that could read was already, In the beginning, when time began, that's when time began. There was a time when there was no time, if I could say that. I don't know how, we can't talk about eternity with any clarity, I realize that, but in the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the Word already was. The same was in the beginning.

Now look in verse 14. We already read, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God as a distinct person. The Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God, verse 14, and the Word was made flesh. That epidermis you have, He has. He had a heart beating just like you do. He had air pumping into his lungs just like you do. The Word was made flesh. Isn't that mysterious? Isn't that glorious? Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.

And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bare witness of Him, and cried, saying, This was He of whom I spake. He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for He was before me. And if his fullness have all we received in grace for grace, for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten of the son, the only begotten son, which is in the bosom near and dear to the father, he hath the clarity. Now all you will ever see of God is Jesus Christ. In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead in a body. Jesus Christ is all that you and I will ever see of the living God. Jesus Christ is all in God's eternal purpose. God is eternal. That means he never had a beginning. Somebody says, well, God created everything. Who created God? Nobody.

God's eternal. We read in Ephesians chapter three, verse 11, of the eternal purpose, which he purposed in Christ Jesus the Lord. God's eternal purpose is the glory of his son. That's why the universe was created. It wasn't because God was lonely and he needed me or you. He did this for the glory of his son. That is God's eternal purpose.

I love to think of predestination. Let me quote this scripture to you from Romans 8, verse 29, for whom he did foreknow. Now, if you're a believer, God's always known you in love, in grace, in tender affection, in mercy. whom He did know beforehand, whom He did foreknow, them He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." Now this is what predestination has to do with. God took another look at His only begotten and well-beloved Son and said, I'm gonna have a bunch more just like Him.

The purpose of the universe is that in all things Christ might have the preeminence. He is God's eternal purpose. Christ is all in God's eternal purpose. Now, if we're believers, we receive the benefit of that. But this isn't about me, this isn't about you. This is about the glory of Jesus Christ.

Christ is all in creation. Scripture says all things were made by Him and for Him. And He is before all things. Whatever it is, He's before it. He is the creator of the universe. It was He who said, let us Make man in our own image. By him all things consist. The great creator became my savior and all God's fullness dwells in him. I love to think of the creator. being nailed to a cross by his creatures. He's all in all of the counsels of God concerning men. He created this universe that men might be allowed to see him and worship him.

Now, if He's all, understand that means nothing can be added to Him. There's nothing that you could do or be that could add to Him. He's all. You can't take anything from Him either. His purpose is to allow you and I to worship Him who is all. We receive the benefit from that. He doesn't receive any benefit from it. He's all. you and I receive the benefit of getting to see that He, in fact, is all. He is all in providence.

Just as He created the universe, everything that happens in time, everything, everything, even the bad stuff, It's all good if He does it. He brings good out of evil. Whatever it is, He is the first cause. That's what we're saying when we're saying that Jesus Christ is all. He's all in providence. Everything that happens, everything that happened to you this morning was His will being done.

Why are you here this morning? Well, because I got up and came here. No, you're here because He purposed for you to be here. That's why, you weren't conscious of it, you didn't know it, you thought, well, time to go to church, let's go. If he purposed you to be here, is there any way you wouldn't be here?

No, he's all in providence. He's all in the scriptures. I've got a lot of reasons for disliking of church confessions and confessions of faith and catechisms and church bylaws and all those things people come up with. And here's why, they're written by men and subject to error. You say, well, I don't see any error in them. If a man wrote it, there's stuff that's wrong. This is the inspired word of God. There is no error in it.

Now, I used to always wonder, how can you know? Well, when you know, you know. When you know, you know. When you don't know, you don't know. But when you know, you know. And when God reveals the gospel to you, you know. When he reveals himself to you, you know. You do.

And this book has only one message. Somebody says, well, we need to try to condense it to get it all into a way we can understand it. There's nothing complicated about this book. It's got one message. Christ is all. That's the only message of this book, that Jesus Christ is all.

He said in John 5, 39, you search the scriptures. In them, you think you have eternal life. They are they which testify of me. To him give all the prophets witness. You know, somebody will go back into the Old Testament and they'll look at some of these laws. For instance, there's a law twice, once in Leviticus, once in Deuteronomy, where you can't wear a garment made of two different kinds of fabrics. Where in the world is that testifying of Christ?

Powerfully. It tells you that the righteous garment, the glorious righteous garment that every believer wears, it's made of two kinds of righteousness, yours and His. His only. That's just one example of many how all the scriptures testify of Christ. Every story is given to teach us the gospel. Every sacrifice, everything. I love it in Luke 24, where he talked to those disciples on the road to Emmaus. And he spoke of all the scriptures that, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded them and all the scriptures, the things concerning himself.

Everything in the Bible, Genesis 1.1 through Revelation 22.21 says Christ is all. Doesn't talk about Baptists or Presbyterians or Catholics or all the different gods of the different denominations.

One God, Jesus Christ is all. That is the message of scripture. Jesus Christ is all in salvation. Why am I saved? Because Christ is all. That's why, there is no other reason. Christ is all in salvation. There is such a thing as God saving a sinner. There are people who are saved, there are people who are not saved. If you're saved, Christ saved you. And He did it all. You did nothing, He did it all because Christ is all.

When God saves a sinner, all three persons of the Godhead are involved, Father, Son, and Spirit. God the Father elects, God the Son redeems, Christ, or God the Holy Spirit regenerates. But do you know Christ is all in all three of those things? If you're elected, it's because you're in Christ.

He's the only reason for your election. It's not because of God foresaw something about you that you would do or not do. Christ is all in election. According as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world. Christ is all in redemption. He redeemed you. You didn't have anything to do with it. He by himself purged our sins. Christ is all in regeneration. Let me say two things about regeneration.

The only reason you're born again, if you are born again, is because Christ died for you. That's the only reason. And when you're born again, here's something you know, Christ is all. Everybody that's born again, everybody that's redeemed, everybody that's elected, all of God's salvation is comprehended in this statement. Christ is all.

You know, the first time you realize that is when God gives you spiritual life. And when He gives you spiritual life, you know that Christ is all. He's all in every doctrine of the Bible, whatever it is. And if we don't see Him as all in it, we've not understood the doctrine at all.

Justification, justified by His righteousness. So I stand before God as one having never sinned. He never sinned, I never sinned in Him. He never sinned, if I'm in Him, I never sinned. Justification is Christ is all. Bing. Well, whatever doctrine it is. Christ is all, and I haven't understood it if I haven't understood that with regard to that doctrine. He's all in every doctrine of the Bible, and there is no spiritual God-given understanding without this.

And I've already touched on this, but election, God choosing who would be saved before time began. If I just think of election in this light, and this is a wrong way to look at it. Well, I choose to save this one, I choose that today and that one. That's not election. Election is how God chose his people in Christ before the foundation of the world, and they've never been viewed independently of Christ.

Christ is all in election. He's all in preservation. I'm preserved in Christ Jesus. He's certainly gonna be all in heaven. I think it's almost amusing when people talk about, well, they're down, looking down at me from heaven. Ain't nobody in heaven looking down at you. They're all looking at Him. Christ is all. Jesus Christ is all in our preaching. If He's all, He's all, isn't He? And any message that's not Him is a wrong message. It's a bad message. It's a message that ought not ever to have been preached.

Jesus Christ is all in our preaching. Paul said, I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And here's, I love all those points, but here's the point I wanted to get to that I hope the Lord will enable us to enter into this. Jesus Christ is all in our experience. Jesus Christ is all in our experience. What does that mean? But let's begin here.

All that God requires of me, he looks to his son for. And all God requires of me, I look to his son for. I don't look for a thing out of me. I look for everything from him. That's my experience. Christ alone, is the only object of our faith, not Christ and, but Christ alone, looking unto Jesus. The author and finisher of our faith, not looking at myself, not looking at my works, not looking at my growth and grace, not looking at my fruit, not looking at something, experience I've had that would make me think maybe God's done something for me, looking to Christ only. looking nowhere but Him. Christ is all in our experience, Christ alone.

You know what gives me assurance? It is finished. That gives me assurance that I'm saved. It is finished. I don't look at myself for some kind of object of, I need to see this before I can have it. No, here's what gives me assurance of my salvation. It's altogether outside of me. It is finished. And if it's anything other than that, it's a false assurance. If you get assurance of your salvation from anything other than it is finished, it's a false assurance.

When I say that Christ is all in my experience, my experience is that my experience is inadequate. You know, when I confess my sin, I feel like a hypocrite when I confess my sin. I feel like it's not sincere enough, it's not real enough. When I experience sorrow over my sin, it's inadequate. I'm not sorry as I ought to be. I'm way too hard-hearted. I don't have the, when I think of the fear of God, I think of the irreverence that's in my heart. Every time I even use the Lord's name, there's an element of guilt when I use His name because I know I'm not showing the proper reverence for His name. In my experience, here's my experience. My experience is no good. I've got to look to Christ even in my experience. I'm trusting His faith for my faith before God.

You know, in Psalm 38, 19, Christ said from the cross, I'm amazed by this. He said in Psalm 38 verse 18, I will declare my iniquities. I will be sorry for my sin. He's the only one to ever truly confess sin. When my sin became his sin, he said, I will declare my iniquities and I will be sorry for my sin. Only he expressed the true sorrow over sin. Now, when I'm talking about my experience, here's the most accurate thing I suppose I could say about my experience.

Christ is all. I don't even trust my experience, my thoughts, my feelings. Christ is all. He's all my motivation. If there's anything that I must do, all I do is resent God. He's too strict. He's expecting too much. I can't come up with it. It never produces love. Only Fear, the fear of mistrust. The fear that I haven't done enough. I haven't done enough. What do I need to do?

But oh, when I see by the grace of God that Christ is all, I love Him. I'm not afraid in a slavish fear. I love Him when I see that Christ is all. The Lamb is all the glory. Emmanuel's land. Jesus Christ is made to me all I need, all I need. He alone is all I plead. He is all I need. Wisdom, righteousness and power, holiness forevermore, my redemption full and sure. He is all I need. If Christ is all I have, is that enough? It is if he is all you got. Is he all you got? That's when he is all to you.

I'm a poor sinner. Nothing at all. but Jesus Christ is my all in all. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you that your son is all. That's your purpose, that's your way of salvation. And Lord, by your grace, we love that being the case. That thy son is all to you. He's all in this book. He is all in our salvation. Enable us by your grace to rest, have the peace and joy, safety and security that he is all. In His name we pray, amen.

Christ Is All

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