If you would open your Bibles
with me, Psalm 119. Psalm 119. As you're turning,
covet your prayers. I'm preaching in Danville, Kentucky
on Tuesday. Covet your prayers as we travel
and preach. Also, a week or two ago, Larry
and Robin Chris, Larry was in Danville preaching and when he
returned home, they found their house had flooded. It was a pretty
bad flood there, apparently. They're still living in a hotel.
It's a mess. And a group of men are going
down there tomorrow to tear out all the stuff that's been damaged,
and they're going to let it sit for a couple weeks, I guess,
and air out, and then go back and try to put everything back
in. If you're interested, you've
got the skills, you're interested in making that trip, I'll let you know
here in a couple weeks when they're going to meet back down there.
But in the meantime, what they need is financial help. And I'd like for us to send them
a good gift. So we'll be taking up an offering
for that. I would imagine they're going
to have to replace everything, I guess, their furniture and
everything. So you imagine how difficult that is for them. Keep
that in mind and if the Lord lays on your heart to give for
that we'll be sending them An offering maybe once or twice,
you know just to get some some help to them. All right Psalm
119 we're gonna go to the very end of the psalm first 169 Let my cry come near before thee
O Lord Give me understanding according to thy word. Let my
supplication come before thee. Deliver me according to thy word.
My lips shall utter praise when thou hast taught me thy statutes.
My tongue shall speak of thy word, for all thy commandments
are righteous. Let thine hand help me, for I
have chosen thy precepts. I have longed for thy salvation,
O Lord, and thy law, your word. is my delight. Let my soul live,
and it shall praise thee, and let thy judgments help me. I've
gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek thy servant, for I do not
forget thy commandments. All right, let's stand together
as Isaac leads us in singing our call to worship. Now, he's
told me he's changed the tune, so don't expect to start out
singing the tune of this hell one. Well, I think you just automatically
will sing along with the piano, but anyway. I think this is a
good song for us to sing this morning. By God's grace I am in Jesus,
who has made all things to me. All I need or want is Jesus,
Christ has made all things to me. Christ alone is all my wisdom,
He will guide me day by day. By His Word and by His Spirit,
Christ will guide me in His way. Righteousness I have in Jesus,
who obeyed God's law for me. His obedience is imputed freely
without works to me. Christ is my sanctification,
Christ is all my holiness. He has saved me by imparting
unto me His holiness. Christ alone is my redemption
His blood hides my sins from view And my grave Redeemer's
coming To redeem my body too I will glory in my Savior Who
has made all things to me All I need or want is Jesus. Christ has made all things to
me. 334. Heal Thou my vision. Lord of my heart, Naught be all
else to me save that Thou art, Thou my best thought by day or
by night, Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light. Be Thou my wisdom and Thou my
true word, I ever with thee, and thou with me, Lord. Thou my great Father, I thy true
Son. Thou in me dwelling, and I with
thee one. Riches I heed not, nor man's
empty praise, Thou mine inheritance now and always, Thou and Thou
only, first in my heart. I, King of heaven, my treasure
thou art. I, King of heaven, my victory
won. May I reach heaven's joys, O
bright heaven's sun. heart of my own heart, whatever
befall. Still be my vision, O ruler of
all. Let's turn for our scripture
reading now to Colossians chapter three. Colossians the third chapter. We'll read the first 11 verses. If ye then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth, for you're dead and your life
is hid with Christ in God. When Christ our life shall appear,
Then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore
your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness,
inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry,
for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children
of disobedience, into which ye also walked some time when ye
lived in them. But now ye also put off all these,
anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, Feel the communication out of
your mouth? Lie not one to another, seeing that you've put off the
old man with his deeds, and you've put on the new man, which is
renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.
Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all, and
in all. We'll end our reading there.
Let's bow together. Our great Father, our holy, merciful
and gracious God, we bow before you this morning, daring only
come into your presence in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, we come with grateful,
thankful hearts, thankful for your mercy and your grace that
you've so freely showered upon your people in our Lord Jesus
Christ. Above all else, Father, how we
thank you for him, how we thank you for a Savior who loves his
people, would give himself, sacrifice himself to put away our sin and
make us accepted in thy sight. Father, how we thank you. And
I pray this morning that you would enable us to lift up and
exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, that you would make him to our
hearts truly all. He's all that we need. He's all
that we desire. He's all that we need to come
into Thy presence, fully accepted, righteous, sanctified. Father,
cause us to have a right view, a right estimation of who our
Lord Jesus Christ is, His glory, His sufficiency, and have a right
estimation of who we are, that we're nothing. We're less than
nothing. We're just vanity. Empty vanity. Cause us to see from a right
estimation of ourself that Christ is all. Make him all to us. To each heart here this morning,
I pray. Father, for those who are hurting, can't be with us
in sickness and sorrow and difficulty, we pray for them. We pray you'd
comfort their hearts. Those who are bereaved and sorrowing,
especially for Sandy Holbrook and her family at this time.
We pray you continue to bless Joyce and Barb as they recover.
Pray that you would give Novi a kidney soon. Father, be with
your people, we pray. We have so many needs, so many
heartaches, so many things that are on our minds and hearts right
now. How thankful we are to know we
can cast them all at thy feet, knowing that thou doest all things
well, that there are no hard cases with thee. And Father,
again, I pray you'd bless us, enable us to forget about the
cares and goings on of this life for a few moments, and let us
set our affection on the Lord Jesus Christ. For his precious
name, we pray and we give thanks. O Lord my God, when I in awesome
wonder Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made I see the
stars, I hear the rolling thunder Thy power throughout the universe
displayed Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee How great
Thou art, how great Thou art Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee Through the woods and forest
glades I wander And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees
When I look down From lofty mountain grandeur, And hear the brook,
and feel the gentle breeze. Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When I think that God, His Son
not sparing, Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on the cross my burden gladly
bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art When Christ
shall come with shouts of acclamation And take me home, what joy shall
fill my heart Then I shall bow in humble adoration And there
proclaim, my God, how great Thou art Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art Then sings
my soul, my Savior God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! I'm glad you picked that one. I like getting here early. but
one of the benefits of that is hearing people practice a specialty.
He practiced about three or four psalms this morning. I was really
hoping he was going to sing how great they are, so thank you.
All right, if you have your Bibles now, turn again with me to Colossians
chapter 3. I have a subject and title that
is very easy for us to remember. It's three words. Christ is all. Verse 11, Paul says, where there's
neither Greek nor Jew, race doesn't matter, circumcision or uncircumcision,
barbarian, sithian, your past, where you come from, what you've
done, bond or free, any kind of financial, economic differences,
none of that matters, but Christ is all. He's all and in all. Now, if we would talk about everything
that those three words mean, we'd have to exhaust everything,
wouldn't we? We'd have to exhaust the whole
Bible. There's just not time enough for that. And I'll warn
you, I will be brief, but I have a bunch of points. But I think we need to see quite
a bit of different ways to look at this, to see truly Christ
is all to the believer. I wish I'd learned this. He's
all that matters. He's all that matters. He really
is. And maybe the Lord bless us for a few minutes, considering
what this means, that Christ is all. Now, open your Bibles
or turn first. Try not to turn to all these,
but Proverbs chapter 8. I'm not going to take the time
to turn to all of them, but there's some I want us to turn to. From
eternity to eternity, what we call eternity past all the way
to eternity future, and every moment in between, Christ is
all. Christ is all in the eternal
purpose of the Father. We hear Proverbs 8, beginning
in verse 22. The Lord possessed me in the
beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up
from everlasting, from the beginning wherever the earth was. When
there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there are 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 or the highest part of the dust of the
world, When he prepared the heavens, I was there. When he set a compass
upon the face of the dead, when he established 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 his commandment,
when he appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by him,
as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing
always before him, rejoicing in the habitable part of his
earth and my delights were with the Son, sons of men. Now this
is eternity past, what we call eternity past, before time began. The only thing that existed was
God. God and the Trinity of His persons, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. And then, before anything was created, the Lord Jesus Christ
was the delight of His Father. The delight, you parents, Probably
feel this way, your children are your delight, aren't you
delighting them, don't you? Can you imagine how the father
delights in his son? He delighted in his son at that
time, because before anything was created, Christ already stood
as the surety of his people. You know why the father delighted
in his son? When nothing existed but God, you know why he delighted
in him then? Because then Christ was the lamb slain. He's the
lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The father already
delighted in what the sacrifice of his son would accomplish.
It would accomplish his eternal purpose to save his people. And
I tell you, if you would be saying, let me tell you this one more
time, come to Christ, trust Christ. Isn't it a blessing to be able
to trust an eternal savior? He's not plan B. It's not like,
well, God tried plan A of the law, and that didn't work, so,
you know, we'll try plan B. We'll try saving my people by
my son. If God failed at plan A, maybe he'll fail at plan B.
That's not the case, is it? This is the eternal Savior. He
can't fail to save his people. What a blessing, we all trust
him. He's all in the eternal purpose of the Father. All right,
now look back at the book of Colossians, this time chapter
one. Christ is all in creation. John tells us, in the beginning
was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That's
speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. All things were made by Him.
Without Him, there's not anything made that was made. He is all
in creation. He's the one that spoke and created
everything by the Word of His power. In Colossians 1, verse
16, it says, by Him were all things created that are in heaven
and that are on earth, visible and invisible. Whether they be
thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, All things were created
by Him and for Him. Not only did He create everything
by the word of His power, just by speaking, but everything was
created for the glory of Christ. You think when God existed, only
God, nothing else, God was complete, wasn't He? He was in need of
nothing, but He created a world. He created man, put man in it,
knowing man would fall. created everything in creation
for this purpose, that his son would be glorified. He created
it for his son. So his son would be glorified in saving sinful
people out of it. Everything is made for the glory
of Christ, for his glory in satisfying God's justice. It's his sacrifice
that put away sin. You know why God's people are
saved? Why the holy God can accept them?
Justice is satisfied. Justice was satisfied by the
death of Christ. And that same death showed forth
God's redeeming grace. Oh, how gracious God was to sacrifice
his son to put their sin away. Absolutely everything was made
for the glory of Christ. You, me, things that we see around
us in the world today. You know what? They're all made.
They're made for the glory of Christ. That makes you look at
things different, doesn't it? And if everything here was made
for his glory, Doesn't that give you comfort in trusting him?
What a glorious savior he is. Then Christ is all in providence.
Look down verse 17. And he is before all things and
by him all things consist. Every event in human history
has happened by the divine decree and will and purpose of God so
that his son would be glorified. Every event. Well, if we get a hold of that, we'd sleep a lot better, wouldn't
we? If we get a hold of that. What's happening to me? What's
happening to you? Maybe it's a happy thing. Maybe
it's a sad thing. Maybe it's a painful thing. It was made. It's happening.
So that Christ our Savior gets glory. If I could get a hold
of that, I wouldn't ask God, why are you doing this often?
You're wrecking. It's all for his glory. He upholds
all things by the word of his power. It all happens by his
will, by his express will, these things happen so that he would
be glorified. Now, if the Savior is working
every event in human history for his glory, Doesn't that just
let you relax and trust Him? He's not going to lose His glory
by losing one of His people. No, He's going to have the glory
for redeeming. Doesn't that just make you relax in trusting Him?
Aren't you glad He's all in providence? Aren't you glad none of it's
left up to you? But it's all up to Him. Now look at Revelation
chapter 21. Christ is all throughout history,
from eternity past, all throughout man's time on earth, and in eternity
future. In heaven, Christ is all. You think of heaven. What is
the believer's hope? What is the believer's expectation
of arriving in glory? What is it that you hope to have
in heaven, what place we call heaven? Well, you know, it's
not just to live forever. Everybody's gonna live forever
somewhere. Heaven or hell, everybody's gonna
live forever somewhere. The glory, the thing that makes
heaven so wonderful is not that it's an eternal vacation. Our
family is planning a vacation here later this month. We're
looking forward to it. We're going to do nothing but
eat and watch the ocean. Yeah, it'll be a good time. But that's not heaven. That's
just the beach. Heaven's not an eternal vacation. Listen to
me. Heaven is being where Christ
is. Heaven is... If that's not true to you, I'm
afraid maybe you don't know Him. Heaven is being where Christ
is. Heaven is being made just like Him. Being made just like
Christ. That's why David said, I've seen
enough of this and enough of me to know this. I'm never going
to be satisfied. till I awake with thy likeness.
That's heaven. It's being made just like Christ.
Heaven is only heaven because Christ is there. You can have
the pearly gates. You can have the streets of gold.
If Christ is not there, who cares? And if Christ is there, who cares
about streets of gold and pearly gates? Look here at Revelation
21, verse 22. And I saw no temple therein.
That had to be a shocking statement. Wasn't it for a Jew? I saw no
temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are
the temple of it. And the city had no need of the
sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did
lighten it. And the Lamb is the light thereof. You know, how important is the
sun to life? There's no need of the sun there
because Christ is the light of it. He's the life of it. He's
the glory of it. How important was the temple
to the Jew? I mean, it's the only place you
worship. There's no need of a temple there. Christ is the temple. We worship God in him. He's all,
he'll be all in eternity. Then Christ is all in election. Did you know that the Lord Jesus
Christ is God's first elect? The father first chose the son,
chose the savior first. Then he chose the people that
he put in him to save. Isaiah told us about that. Isaiah
42 verse one, God says, behold, mine elect, in whom my soul delights. Now, you want to know something
about election? Behold Christ. It's all in you. Behold Him. The Father first
chose the Savior. And then, Paul says in Ephesians
1 verse 4, the Father has chosen us in Him. Chose us in Christ. When? after you did something
good, after you made a decision, after you walked an aisle, after
you were baptized, after you took the Lord's table, after
you observed, you know, ceremonies and feast days and holy days,
when? Before the foundation of the
world. See, it has to be in Christ. It's all in Christ. God's election,
God's choosing is all in Christ. And that, again, these things
just take the pressure off of you. Our actions have absolutely
nothing to do with our salvation. They don't contribute to it and
they can't make us lose it. It's all in Christ. God did not
choose a people because they were good and he saw that they
would deserve him to be merciful to them. You know why God chose
a people? Because they're sinners and they
couldn't save themselves. They can't do one blessed thing
to even get God to save them. God chose sinners who were helpless
and dead and in need of a Savior to do all of the saving for them.
That's why God chose them. God said He chose Jacob. He loved Jacob. And He hated
Esau. I really wouldn't want Jacob
to be my neighbor, I don't think. I think he'd end up losing on
every deal you ever had with a guy. Why did God love Jacob?
For the same reason, God loves all of his elect because he delights
in his son. He loves them in Christ. Now that just takes all the pressure
off, doesn't it? The father's unchanging love is on his elect
because they're in Christ, in Christ. Then Christ is all in
predestination, Romans chapter eight. Christ is all in predestination. Predestination doesn't have to
do with things and events. It all has to do with Christ.
He's all in predestination. Romans 8 verse 29. 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.
The predestination, like I said, doesn't really have to do with
events and these different things. It all has to do with Christ. In eternity, remember before
anything was created, only God existed. The Father was delighted
with His Son. He was so delighted with His
Son, He said, I'm going to populate heaven with a people made just
like My Son. That's how much He delights in
His Son. He's going to populate heaven with a people made just
like His Son. And what a blessing it is to
know that I won't be like me in eternity. I won't be a grouchy old man
there no more. Just like Christ. Just like Christ. To not bear the image of Adam
anymore. That's two great for my mind
to be able to comprehend that the Father predestinated sons
of Adam to be made just like Christ. See, it all has to do
with Christ. The end Christ is all in justification.
The justification is being made without sin. Not like you don't
have any sin. It's being made without sin.
And Christ is all in justification. Romans 3 24. being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that's where? In Christ
Jesus. It's all in Christ. Now you want
to talk about grace. This is grace. It's unspeakable
grace. The Lord Jesus Christ, the holy,
perfect son of God, the son in whom the father delighted. He
spoke from heaven and said, I love him. I'm delighted in him. He
freely, by His own will, took the sin of His people away from
them. All they are is sin. He took it all. All of it away
from them. He took it into His own body
on the tree. And then He put that sin away.
He paid for it by the sacrifice of Himself. Now that sin is gone. If the sacrifice of Christ is
real, if the sacrifice of Christ, if the blood of Christ means
anything. If it has any value whatsoever,
the sin of God's elect is gone. It's none left for God's people.
They have no sin because Christ took it away. That's justification. If there is any sin left in me,
God must condemn me. He must. But if Christ took my
sin away, I cannot be condemned because I'm without sin. Then,
buddy, I can die in peace. I made a big mistake this morning.
I turned on the TV and saw this crazy TV preacher. I don't know.
That's not a good thing to do on Sunday morning. That's not
a good thing. My dad used to, we lived in Danville,
he used to do that. I watched this fellow, Rex Humbart.
Mom asked him, why are you watching? You just get so upset. Why are
you watching him for? He said, well, I got to see what
the enemy's saying. I watched this fella, he was talking about
preparing to die. And I thought, I mean, my coffee
was done, I had to get over my nose. He talked about preparing
to die, all the things you gotta do to prepare to die. The name
of Christ wasn't mentioned one time. And he, how can you die in peace
if you got any sin left in you? It must be justified. It's all
in Christ. If Christ has justified me, I
can die in peace. Then Christ is all in sanctification. Sanctification just means being
made holy, set apart for holy use. Christ doesn't make his
people holy and then they have to keep themselves holy by just
not sinning. Christ makes his people holy
and he keeps them holy. By the witch will were sanctified,
made holy. How? Through the offering of
the body of Jesus Christ once. His one sacrifice made his people
holy forever. And sanctification is not a state
of being. I tell you this all the time.
It's a person. It's all in Christ. He is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. He is our holiness. His name
is the Holy One. Well, if you're holy in Him,
brother, you're holy and you can never lose it. Isn't that
a blessing to be able to trust Him as your all? Then Christ
is all in righteousness. And we talk about righteousness,
but I'm telling you, we're not going to know anything at all
about the subject until we know Christ is our righteousness. His name It's Jehovah Sidkenu,
the Lord, our righteousness. We don't have any righteousness
that we produce. He is all of our righteousness.
Righteousness is found in Christ. It's earned by Christ. It's given
to His people by Christ. For He, the Father, had made
Him sin for us, Him who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. If Christ died for you, you are
as righteous as God himself. That's a statement. The Lord
Jesus Christ traded his perfect obedience for the sin of his
people. What a trade. He traded his righteousness,
his perfect obedience for the sin of his people. And he was
made what he is not, sin, so that his people could be made
what they're not, righteous. Now look at Romans chapter four.
And that righteousness, just so you know, I need to feel the
need to point this out, is received by faith, by faith in Christ,
by believing Christ. It's not our works. It's by believing
Christ. Romans four verse three for what
say at the scripture. Well, you want to know the answer
to any question. Find out what scripture says. What say at the
scripture, Abraham believed God and it was counted. It was imputed
unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. If you work, it's
what God owes you. But to him that worketh not,
to him who has no works to offer to God, but believeth on him
that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. In order to be righteous, all
it takes is to believe Christ, to believe him and rest in him.
It takes all the pressure off, doesn't it? All right, now look
at John chapter one. Christ is all in regeneration. He is all in the new birth. He's
all in the spiritual life of his people. John one verse 11. He came into his own and his
own received him not. But as many as received him,
To them gave He power. He gave them the right, the privilege. It's not something they earned,
it's a privilege. He gave it to them to become the sons of
God. Even to them which believe on
His name, which were born, not of blood, nor the will of the
flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. See, Christ gives His
spiritual life to His people. When He causes them to be born
again, they're born. Not of blood, not of the will
of man, they're born of the power of God the Holy Spirit. They're
born by the will of God the Holy Spirit. When He blows where He
lists it, He gives life to whom He will. And that life is Christ. Being born again, the apostle
Paul told the church at Galatia is having Christ formed in you.
Paul said, I'm travailing, I'm working hard, I'm straining it
to preach Christ to you. I'm going to keep doing it until
Christ be formed in you. Christ is our life. Then Christ
is all in salvation. The Apostle Peter in Acts 4 verse
12 said, neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none
other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved. If you know Christ and you know
his name, you must be saved. Salvation is all accomplished. Every bit of what is required
to save a sinner has all been accomplished by Christ the Savior.
And that salvation is received simply by believing Him, by trusting
Him to do everything it takes for me so that I don't contribute
any of my works to it. It's just trusting Him. What
a comfort to know, not only do I not have to earn my salvation,
I don't have to do any works to keep it either. Christ is
all my salvation. And I'm telling you that's good
news because I can't produce any good works. I just can't
produce any good works and you can't either. But what a blessing
to know Christ is all of our salvation. Then Christ is all
in redemption. Peter said, you know that you're
not redeemed with corruptible things, silver and gold, for
your vain conversation received from your fathers, but how are
you redeemed? With the precious blood of Christ.
Christ has paid the redemption price for his people. He's redeemed
them from the law. He's redeemed them from the curse
of the law. He's redeemed them from their sin and he didn't
leave one cent for his people to pay. The great transaction
is done. That gives my soul joy in resting
in Christ. It's paid. We talk about salvation
being received by faith. Christ is all in faith. I know,
the Apostle Paul said, whom, whom, I have believed. Not what,
but whom. And since I know whom, since
I believe him, I'm persuaded he's able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. What you're persuaded of, what
you know, all depends on who you believe, on who you know.
I know whom I have believed. The sole object of our faith
is Christ. And that's why I'm just determined
to preach nothing but Christ. He's the sole object of our faith.
Ain't nothing else worth believing. There's nothing else worth hanging
your soul on. He's the sole object of our faith. Then Christ is all in love. Christ
is all in the love of the Father to us, and he's all in our love
to one another. 1 John 4, verse 10. Herein is love. You want to know
what love is? Here it is. Not that we love God. You ought
to love God. How can you not love God? That's
not love. Here is love, that he loved us. And he sent his
son to be the propitiation for our sins. Christ is all in the
love of the father. He proved it when he sent his
son to die for the sins of his people. And John went on, he
said, now beloved, if God loved us, we ought also to love one
another. See, Christ is all in love. He's
the reason that we love one another. And the reason we love God is
because he first loved us. The reason we love each other
is because God loved us enough to sacrifice his son for us.
Then in case you're keeping up, this is number 15. Christ is
all in the life of a believer. For in him, we live and move
and have our being. We get all of our life, physical
and spiritual life, we get it all from Christ. And you think
about life. Physical life is impossible to
define. It's impossible to capture and
keep in somebody's body. That life force is just a mystery. It's either there or it's not.
And when it's gonna leave, there's nothing you can do to stop it.
It's a mystery. A person who has spiritual life, That's a
mystery to the flesh, a mystery to the natural man. But a person
who has spiritual life can define that life exactly, precisely. It's Christ. When Christ our
life shall appear, then shall we be made just like him. The
believer's life is Christ, is Christ. Our life on this earth
for the life of a believer is wrapped up in knowing him. in
loving Him, in having His presence. Have you ever felt like, and
if you're a believer, you're a child of God, you've felt like
this at times. You've felt like His presence is not there. Are you miserable? You are, aren't
you? Our life is wrapped up in having
His presence, seeking Him and knowing Him. There's a lot of
other things you've got to do. But our life is knowing Christ. I tell you, that's a mighty good
way to spend whatever time God gives us in this world. To seek
Him, to know Him, to have His presence. In Christ is all in
the acceptance with the Father. Ephesians 1 verse 6 says, wherein
He hath made us accepted. And as you've heard so many times,
not acceptable, He's made us accepted. Where? In the Beloved. In the Beloved. Now, we need
to remember this. God's not going to accept us.
He's not going to bless us because of our morality and our good
works. Now, you ought to be a moral person. You ought to be. You
ought to live a moral life. You ought to do good works, things
to help God's people. But not so that the Father will
bless us. Not so that the Father will accept us. Because we're
not accepted in our good works. The Father can only accept his people
in Christ. And in Christ, that acceptance
is full. It's complete, completely accepted
and free. You don't have to earn it. You
don't have to deserve it. Christ already did that for his
people. We're accepted in Christ. And I tell you what, that acceptance
is eternal. It's eternal. It doesn't have a beginning and
it doesn't have an ending. He'll never take his acceptance
away from you because it's entirely based on Christ. Now that's a
comfort, isn't it? To know Christ is all. Christ
is all in our preaching. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 23, Paul
said, we preach Christ crucified. End of sentence. We preach Christ
crucified. That's it. Now we can preach
from a lot of different texts. We can preach from different
stories and pictures in the Old Testament. Preach from different
texts in the New Testament. But I'm telling you, every verse
of Scripture has a subject. And it's all the same subject.
It's Christ. And if you don't see Christ in
it, then you're not seeing the true meaning of the verse. I'm
telling you, it's all Christ. He's the only thing that we preach.
I'd like to see God save His people. Wouldn't you? We have
children here. I pray for them. I pray for them
every day. God save people that don't know the Lord. I pray for
them every day. If we'd like to see God save His people, what
should we do for them? Preach Christ to them. How can they
be saved if they don't know the Savior? Preach Christ to them.
God's children need to be instructed, don't they? They need to be taught.
You have these graces in you, but these things have to be taught.
We need to be encouraged, don't we? We need to be encouraged.
Well, how are you going to do that? Preach Christ to them. God's children need to be comforted.
At times we need to have our attitudes corrected. How are
you going to comfort God's people and correct them at the same
time? We preach Christ. That's why the Apostle Paul says,
woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. If I don't preach
Christ, woe is unto me. Because the only good news we
have to preach to people, the only message we have that matters
anything to the souls of people, is Christ. He's all in our preaching. If somebody's not preaching Christ,
Don't listen. Don't listen. Then Christ is
all in judgment. The Savior said, the Father judges
no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son. In Acts
17 verse 31, the apostle said, God has appointed a day in which
he'll judge the world in righteousness by that man, by that man whom
he hath ordained. Now, if you're in Christ, if
Christ is your all, You have no reason to fear judgment. Yes,
there's gonna be a judgment day. And the judge who sits on the
throne to judge all sons of Adam, I don't know how all that's gonna
work out exactly, but he's the judge. But this is what I know.
I know who the judge is. And the very one who made you
holy, the very one who paid your sin debt is the very one who's
gonna pronounce judgment. He knows better than anybody
the debts paid. then you have no reason to fear
judgment. Then here's the last thing. Christ is all in the believer's
walk. Now, turn back to our text in
Colossians chapter three. I, Lord willing, intend to deal
with this a little more next week. But let's start to look
at it today in this light, that Christ is all in the believer's
walk. He says in verse three, for you're
dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. and when Christ
our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory.
Mortify therefore, since this is true, you're dead with Christ
and Christ is your life, mortify therefore your members which
are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection,
evil concupiscence and covetousness, which is idolatry, for which
things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience,
and in which he 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. Lie not one to another, seeing
that you've put off the old man with his deeds, and you've put
on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image
of him that created him, where there's neither Greek nor Jew,
circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or
free, but Christ is all. Now the believer's righteousness,
the believer's holiness, is Christ. We already looked at that. He's
all of those things, isn't he? And that means, since Christ
is all, that means there's no room for any of my sinful deeds
to be added in. He's all. He's all of it. So
our actions don't contribute to our righteousness or our holiness,
and they don't subtract from it. Now that's a true statement.
But this is also a true statement. The believer's conduct matters.
The believers walk. We talk about the believers walk,
even our conduct as we go through this world. And the believers
walk is important. Your conduct is important. You
ought to be known as honest and kind and gracious people, you
know, but we've got to be very careful. You pray for me as I
try to talk about this for a few minutes and deal with it again
next week. That saying is right. We have to be careful. There's
a fine line here, I believe, in looking at the believer's
walk and saying that the believer's walk is doing certain things
or not doing certain things. That's an inaccurate statement.
The believer's walk is faith. We walk how? By faith. The believer's
walk is faith in Christ, trusting Christ to save us, trusting Christ
to keep us saved. And while that's true, Our conduct
is important, isn't it? But you can't say, well, if a
person does this, they're saved. And if they do this, they're
not saved. That's looking at the outward,
not the inward. Could you look at David sometimes?
If all you were looking at was the outer, could you look at
David sometimes? That man don't know the Lord. Could you say
that about Lot, Abraham, Peter, me, you? Yeah, we could. It's not in the outward. And
when people, when they get on the believer's walk and conduct,
they all deal with the outward. But you notice here, half these
things Paul mentions, they are outward. Half of them are inward. Half of them are inward. Their
attitudes and these kinds of things. It seems like nobody
talks about those things, do they? Don't talk about those
things. I want to conduct myself in such
a way so like the apostles and the disciples. Somebody might
take note that I've been with Jesus, that I might know the
Lord. I would like that. But be careful
that you're not trying to act like a Christian. Don't go around
acting like a Christian so people think you're a Christian because
you know what you'll end up doing? Acting. Acting. Don't act like
a Christian. Be one. Be one. Be one by believing
Christ. Now, all these sinful attitudes
and actions that Paul mentions, and we'll probably deal with
them, like I said, in some more detail next Sunday. You know,
they're in all of us. These things, being hateful and
envious and all that, you know, filthy communication and, you
know, blasphemy. All these things are in every
human being because that's the old man. That's all that old
man is. Only the believer knows to fight
against these things because we have a new man. And you see
if this isn't helpful. It's not just fighting not to
act this way. You know what the believer also
does? I hate that I feel this way. I hate that these sinful
emotions are in me and I can't stop. Do you hate that? That's
a believer. Only the new man can hate that.
The flesh is never gonna hate that. Inordinate affection. You know what that really means?
I mean, there's a lot of things people talk about it means, but
you know what it really means? It means loving anything as much
as we love Christ or more than Him. I hate that. It's in my flesh, don't you?
Well, what's the believer's motivation to suppress these things and
not act on these things? Christ is all. And let's get right down to where
the rubber meets the road. Christ is my all. Christ is my
all. I don't want to conduct myself
in a way that brings reproach and shame upon my Savior. I know
that the, I don't want to dishonor him. The Savior died to put my
sin away. I don't have to worry about my
sin debt. But I don't want to just send more that grace may
abound. Do you? I don't want to send more to
do more of what caused my Savior to suffer so much. The believers
motivation in our walk is Christ is all. Christ is all. From eternity. To eternity. And everything in between everything
regarding salvation in between. And even in our attitude. Christ is And believe it or not, I could
have gone much, much, much further. But I kept reminding myself as
I was preparing these notes. Brother Henry told me one time,
he said, you don't have to tell everything you know every time. I believe that was his kind way
of telling me, shorten, don't bring it so long. You don't have
to tell everything you know every time. Hopefully by going over
that and looking at it, maybe we got this. Christ is my all. Alright, let's bow together.
Our Father, how we thank you for your word. How we thank you
that you've showed us in such clear, unmistakable language
that a small child can understand. Christ is all. Father, I pray that you would
Apply that blessed truth to each heart here this morning, that
we might not just know some religious facts that Christ is all, but
enable us to leave here this evening or this morning as Christ
is my all. He's all I want. He's all I need. Father, we thank you for your
mercy. We thank you for your grace, how abundantly you blessed
us in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I pray that you keep
us ever mindful of him, that we be taken up with him who is
our all. It's in his blessed name we pray,
amen. All right, Isaac. Stand and sing 449. To God be the glory, great things
He hath done. So loved He the world that He
gave us His Son. Build in His life an atonement
for sin, And open the life-gate that all may go in. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the earth
hear His voice. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the people rejoice. O come to the Father, through
Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He hath done. O perfect redemption, the purchase
of blood To every believer the promise of God The vilest offender
who truly believes That moment from Jesus a pardon receives
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the people rejoice. O come to the Father, through
Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He hath done. Great things He hath taught us,
great things He hath done, and great our rejoicing through Jesus
the Son. But purer and higher and greater
will be our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the people rejoice. O come to the Father through
Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He hath done. you