All right, if you would, open
your Bibles with me to Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter
2. I want to remember Jonathan Tate,
who's preaching in Danville, Kentucky this morning. And I
also got word from Deb Sparks yesterday that Novi is officially,
she crossed all the hurdles and she is officially on the kidney
transplant list. And they are doing Dialysis at
home now Ed and Deb hook her up and do the dialysis at home
and Deb doesn't know if the doctor is being over optimistic or not
But he told her he thought it would just take a couple months
and that they would have a kidney for her. So It'll be much in
prayer for them All right Colossians chapter 2. We'll read the first
10 verses For I would that you knew what great conflict I have
for you and for them at Laodicea and And for as many as have not
seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts might be comforted,
being knit together in love, unto all riches of the full assurance
of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of
the Father, and of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. In this I say, lest any man should
beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the
flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joining and beholding
your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As you
have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in
him, rooted and built up in him, established in the faith as you
have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest
any man spoil you through philosophy, vain deceit after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you're complete in him, which is the
head of all principality and power. All right, let's stand
together as Shawn leads us in singing our call to worship. In thy great name, O Lord, we
come to worship at thy feet. O pour thy Holy Spirit down on
all that now shall meet. We come to hear Jehovah speak,
to hear the Savior's voice. By faith and favor, Lord, we
seek, now make our hearts rejoice. Teach us to pray, and praise,
and hear, and understand thy word. To feel Thy blissful presence
near, And trust our living Lord. This house with grace and glory
filled, This congregation blest, Thy great salvation now revealed,
Thy glorious righteousness. Okay, if you would, turn to song
number 175, Standing on the Promises. Standing on the promises of Christ
my King Through eternal ages let His praises ring Glory in
the highest I will shout and sing Standing on the promises
of God Standing Standing, standing on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises that
cannot fail, When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living Word of God I shall prevail, Standing on the promises
of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises of Christ
the Lord, Bound to Him eternally by love's strong cord, Overcoming
daily with the Spirit's sword, Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises I cannot
call. Listening every moment to the
Spirit's call. Resting in the Savior as my all
in all. Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Open our Bibles to Psalm 46.
Psalm 46. God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though
the earth be removed, though the mountains be carried into
the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar be troubled,
though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. There is
a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God.
the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the
midst of her. She shall not be moved. God shall help her, and that
right early. The heathen raged. The kingdoms
were moved. He uttered his voice. The earth
melted. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Come, behold the works of the
Lord. What desolations he hath made
in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto
the end of the earth. He breaketh the bow and cutteth
the spear in sunder. He burneth the chariot in the
fire. Be still. Sit and wait with patience. Be
still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen.
I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge."
Thank God for his word. Our God and Father who art in
heaven, Lord, we thank Thee for this Thy word. Lord, how we thank Thee that
Thou art our refuge. Lord, in times of trouble and
difficulty and uncertainty, how we thank Thee that Thou art
our refuge. Lord, cause us to rest. alone in thee, nor to look
to thee in all things. Lord, we thank you for this opportunity
to gather together as a people. We're thankful that you have
brought us here this morning. Lord, we desire to hear a word
from thee. We pray for our pastor. Lord,
that which you have given him, that which he has studied, Lord,
enable him this morning to declare the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Lord, take that which you've laid upon his heart and enable
him to speak freely. Lord, cause us not just to hear
the words of a man, but Lord, would you be pleased to speak
through your servant here this morning? And Lord, give us, give
us ears to hear and a heart to receive and rejoice in thy word,
to rejoice in Christ our Savior. And Lord, in all places where
thy people have gathered together, Lord, men whom you've called
to declare the unsearchable riches of Christ, Lord, bless your people.
Bless with your presence. For those of our number in a
time of trouble and difficulty, Lord, we pray that your hand
would be upon them, Lord, that you would comfort and strengthen
and encourage, and in all things teach us to look to thee, to
rest in Christ and Christ alone. Lord, for these many young ones
you've given us, Lord, we pray that you would protect and keep
them in this world in which we live. But Lord, above all things,
that you'd be pleased to reveal Christ to them in mercy. Again, we thank you for this
day. We thank you for this place. We thank you for the opportunity
to worship. We're thankful that you have
brought us here to this place. And again, we pray you bless
us with your presence, that you would set aside the thoughts
and cares of this world. Let us seek Christ, which in
his name we pray and give thee thanks. Wonderful, merciful Savior Precious
Redeemer and friend Who would have thought that a lamb would
Rescue the souls of men? Oh, you rescued the souls of
men Counselor, Comforter, Keeper, Spirit we long to embrace. You gave us hope when our hearts
had hopelessly lost our way. Oh, we hopelessly lost our way. You are the one that we You gave us healing and grace
Our hearts always hungered for Oh, our hearts always hungered
for Almighty, infinite Father Faithfully loving the lost Here
in our weakness You find us Falling before You are the one that we praise
You are the one we adore You gave us healing and grace Our
hearts always hunger for Oh, our hearts always hunger for
You are the one that we praise You are the one we adore You
gave us healing and grace Our hearts always hunger for Oh,
our hearts always hunger for All right, let's open our Bibles
again now to Colossians chapter two. I titled the message this morning,
It's All in Christ. In our text, the apostle expresses
some fears. Fears that are at the heart of
every pastor for the people to whom we preach. Now, these are
not fears because we don't trust God's not in control of everything,
that God can't keep any of his people. We know and believe that.
We know better than that. These fears are born out of experience.
They're fears that are born out of experience with people in
the flesh. You never know what people in
the flesh are gonna do till they do it. They're fears that are
born out of a knowledge that all of us, will do anything if
the Lord will allow it. They're fears that are born out
of a knowledge of the deceitfulness of sin, the deceitfulness of
our sin nature, and the deceitfulness of our religious flesh. And there
are so many pitfalls around us that people will be prone to
fall into, I mean even believers now, because of our flesh. These are fears that are born
out of a love for people. I want the best for you. I want
the best. I mean, honestly, I want the
best for you. And I've seen people fall short.
And I don't want that for you or me either. Now, Paul had never
seen these brethren in the flesh, but he still loved them. He still
wanted the best for them. He still feared that they might
fall into these many traps that are going to be set before them.
And to the best way, the only way to avoid these traps is to
know and to believe and to remember that it's all in Christ. Everything
spiritual is in Christ. Now we know that, we forget it
from time to time, maybe we seem to need to remember that, but
we also need to believe it. It's all in Christ. Look here
at verse three, Colossians 2 verse three. In whom, in Christ, are
hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In verse nine,
for in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now you
see from those two verses, it's all in Christ, isn't it? Every
spiritual blessing God has for a sinner is in Christ alone. Alone. Now remember that now,
it's not Christ plus our orthodoxy. It's not Christ plus our morality. It's Christ alone. Every spiritual
blessing that we hope to have is in Christ and it's because
of Christ alone. because of what he's accomplished
for his people. It's not Christ plus the strength
of our faith. It's not Christ plus the straightness of our
doctrine. It's Christ alone. Every spiritual blessing is in
Christ and because of Christ. And looking to Christ alone and
truly believing salvation from its beginning to its ending is
Christ alone. You know, that will solve nearly
every doctrinal error that we're faced with. It's all in Christ
alone. It really is that simple. Believing that salvation and
righteousness is in Christ alone. Do you know that'll keep us from
getting off on a tangent? It'll keep us focused on Christ
alone. I'll tell you what else, knowing
it's all in Christ now, that'll keep us having the right, humble
attitude, both toward God and toward each other. that it's
all in Christ alone. And Paul says God has hidden
all of these treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He's hidden them
in Christ. He's put every spiritual blessing,
he's put everything that we require, or everything we need and everything
he requires, he's put them all in one place. He put them all
in Christ. Isn't that gracious of God? He
put all those things in one person so they'd be easy to find. They're all in one place. They're
all one glorious person. A few years ago, after we had
Bible schooled, Sabrina made up a scavenger hunt for us. And
she had us, we went down to the mall. She had us going all over
creation, looking for all this crazy stuff. Man, we thought
we were never going to find it all. That's not what God's done.
It's not a scavenger hunt. He's made it easy. It's all in
one person. It's all in Christ. Part of this
meaning hid means it's stored up. Everything that we need in
order to be righteous, in order to be accepted of God, is all
stored up in one person, in Christ. Everything we need to be made
righteous, everything we need to have our sin forgiven, everything
we need to be redeemed and saved from God's wrath against our
sin, it's all in one person. It's all in Christ. And if you
need any of that, if you need righteousness, if you need to
be forgiven, if you need to be redeemed, tell you what? Go to
Christ, because it's all there. It's the only place you'll find
it. The other part of this meaning, this word hid, means hidden in
secret. Now, everything that you and
I need in order to be saved, it's all in Christ. It's all
in Christ. And all these spiritual truths,
all these spiritual blessings, all these spiritual treasures,
they're going to remain hidden from us until we look for them
in Christ. You know, as long as you look
for righteousness in your own works of the law, you'll never
find righteousness in Christ. As long as you think, you know,
God will forgive me because I'm better than most people. And
it's easier for God to forgive me because I have less sin than
somebody else. As long as you think that, you'll never find
forgiveness in the blood of Christ. As long as you think that you
can be redeemed by being a more moral person, that'll make God
more likely to be gracious to you, because you keep the law
better, and you have right doctrine, you attend church in a place
where the gospel is preached. As long as you think that makes
you somehow a better candidate for God's grace than somebody
else, you're never going to find redemption in Christ. Never. Because you're looking for it
in all the wrong places. It's like an old country singer looking
for love in all the wrong places. He never found it. You're never
going to find these things if you're looking in the wrong place.
They're all in Christ. I'm telling you, don't look for
anything regarding salvation, regarding religion. Don't look
for anything, any place other than Christ. Because if you do,
you'll miss it. God did not put these things
in our hands. Even these great giants of the
past, He didn't put these things in Moses' hands. Look what happened
when God put the law on stone tablets in Moses' hand. Look
what happened to that. God didn't put them in David's hand. God
didn't put them in Abraham's hand. God didn't put them in
our hands. God didn't put them in a preacher's hand. Because
you know what? If he did, we'd lose them. I
mean, they'd just sift through our fingers. We'd lose them in
a heartbeat. God put all of these things in Christ for his people. He didn't hide them from us in
Christ. He hid them in Christ for us
so they'd be easy to find. And all these things, these spiritual
blessings I'm talking about, these are not just doctrinal
stances, doctrinal theological ideas, righteousness and peace
and forgiveness and redemption. These things are not just, you
know, doctrinal definitions. These things are treasures for
our soul, treasures, the riches of God's mercy and grace. the
riches for your soul, the treasures for your soul that will cause
you to have eternal life, not just a long life now, eternal
life. The value of these treasures
is beyond human calculation. Let me name just a few of them.
Look first at Job chapter 25. How about the treasure of a sinner
being justified before God? Now this is the age old question.
How can a sinner be justified before God? This is what Bildad
asked Job and those men gathered there. He says in verse four,
Job 25, how then can a man be justified with God? For how can
he be clean that's born of a woman? Behold, even to the moon, and
it shineth not. Yea, the stars are not pure in
God's sight. Then how much less man that's
a worm. and the son of man, which is a worm. If the stars are not
pure in God's sight, how's a sinner like me ever gonna be pure in
God's sight? How can a sinner like me ever
be justified? How can God, I mean, the heavens
are not pure in his sight. Sin's been there, hasn't it?
That's not pure. How can a worm, a maggot like
me, be pure and clean and accepted in God's sight? That's a question,
a question we better find out the answer to. How can a sinner,
who all we do is sin, our nature is sin, we're dead in sin, we're
contaminated with the filth of sin, how can it be that we have
no sin at all? Well, thank God there's a way.
There's only one, but there's a way. The way a sinner can be
justified before God is in Christ. God's hidden answer in Christ.
Matter of fact, the answer is Christ. How can a sinner be justified
before God? It's not just that the answer
is in Christ, the answer is Christ. Jehovah's-seeking the Lord our
righteousness The Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God came to
this earth in flesh clothed himself in flesh He came as a man so
that he could be the representative of a sinful people Now Adam was
the first representative Adam made everybody he represented
unrighteous. He made them all sinners by his
disobedience Well Christ came and he undid for his people everything
Adam did to him Christ made his people righteous by his obedience
to the law. That's how we're made righteous.
That's how we can be justified. And then Christ dealt with the
sin problem of his people. In order to make his people the
righteousness of God in him, you know what he did? He did
the unthinkable. The Holy Son of God was made
sin for his people. He took the sin away from his
people and he made it his and he sacrificed himself to put
that sin away. and made His people righteous. He justified them before God.
Now you want to talk about a treasure? That somebody can tell me, based
upon the Word of God, that I am the righteousness of God in Christ. That in Christ I'm as righteous
as God's own Son? Mm-mm-mm. That's a treasure for
my soul. Oh, what a... And you know what?
That age-old question? The answer's easy. as long as
you see Christ because he's the answer. All right. Now look at
first Timothy chapter three. Here's a second, second treasure.
The mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
First Timothy chapter three verse 16 And without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. This is a mystery the natural
man never could have expected. They never could have figured
out, even those Jews that had the Old Testament scriptures,
that had so many pictures of Christ coming, the natural man
could never figure this out. Here's how God's going to save
his people. It's not through their obedience to the law. It's
not them following the ceremonies and animal sacrifices. God's
going to save his people through the God man. See God and his
purpose hid all of his purpose of salvation in his son. Salvation
is not us keeping the law. You know, the Jews thought salvation
was born as being a Jew. You know, great, I'm born a Jew,
not a Philistine. Well, you know, I'm saved because
I'm a Jew, not a Philistine. Salvation's not being born a
Jew. And I tell you, to make that applicable to our day, salvation's
not born being a Calvinist. Not being in a home, you know,
where your parents are Calvinists and they teach you Calvinism
from the time you were a little fella. And I can tell you that
based on my own experience. I've always been a Calvinist.
I sure was a rebel too, Eric. I didn't know God. I knew Calvinism,
but I didn't know God. Salvation, I'll tell you where
it's found. It's all in Christ. It's trusting Him. It's trusting
who He is. It's trusting what He said He's
done for His people and just resting in Him. He's taking care
of it. See, salvation is a mystery to the natural man. How can a
man come before God? How can a man worship God? How
can somebody's sin be put away? It's just a mystery. That's why
people made up so many wild religions. But I'm telling you, if you see
Christ, if God ever shows you the Lord Jesus Christ by faith,
God's way of salvation is obvious. It's just obvious. Of course,
it's got to be in this mystery of godliness that God was manifest
in the flesh. It's obvious the Savior has got
to be both God and man. He got to be. He got to be God
so he can satisfy God's character. He's got to be God so he can
satisfy God's righteousness and God's holiness. And God's justice,
but he's also gotta be a man. So he can be a substitute for
you and me. So he can be a representative for people like us. Now the human
mind cannot comprehend that. The math of it doesn't add up. How can one man, the Lord Jesus,
how can he be 100% God and 100% man at the same time? The math doesn't add up, does
it? Now that's spiritual arithmetic. But that's easy, the God man,
that's easy to believe. It's easy to see if you see Christ.
See, it's all hidden in Christ. And the amazing treasure for
my soul is this. I mean, I see the truth of that
from scripture. The Lord Jesus is the God man. I see the truth of that in scripture.
But here's the treasure for my soul. This is a mystery. The Son of God took on him flesh
so he could be my representative. So he could be my substitute.
So he could be the sacrifice for my sin. That's a treasure
for my soul. Clark, if the God-man died for
you, your sin's gone. Isn't that a treasure? I mean,
what a treasure. Oh my goodness. What good news
we have to tell sinners. The God-man died. If he died
for you, your sin's gone. Your soul's redeemed. Here's
a third treasure. How about God's love? for sinners. We mistakenly think that God
loves us because our mama loves us. But here's a question. How can a holy God, how can a
holy God love a sinner like me? My mama loves me because she's
got to. She's my mama. She's got to love
me, you know. But how can a holy God love me? That's not required. He don't
have to love me. He don't have to show his love.
How is that possible? Well, you know, the answer is
only in Christ. That's the only way it's possible. God can only
love perfection. God can only love holiness. So
you know what God does? He took his people and he put
them in his son so he could love them. So they'd be perfect and
holy in him. The very reason God chose a people
and put them in his son is he loves them. And I'm telling you,
if Almighty God loves you, His love means something. This is
a treasure for your soul. If God Almighty has set His affection
on you, you're saved. You cannot perish. His love won't
allow it. God put His people in His Son
so that when He sees His people, you know what He sees? He sees
Christ. He'll accept them. What a treasure
for my soul. That's the only way God could
love me. Fourth, how about the treasure
of the forgiveness of sin? Have you ever wronged a friend,
either accidentally or on purpose, and you felt so horrible about
it, and you just bowed down? Oh, and you go to them and you
apologize, and they say, I forgive you, and they actually act like
they forgive you. You know, there's such relief, isn't there? But
now, how's God gonna forgive my sin against Him? All of our
sin is trespassed against Him. And man would think, well, God's
going to forgive my sin if I'm just sorry enough, and if I act
like I'm sorry enough, and I just don't do that again. Can you
think of a sin you've never done again? John Chapman talked about him
being little and his dad whipping him. He grabbed him by the arm.
He's running around. His dad's whipping him. He said,
I won't do it again. I won't do it again. He said, I was lying
to him the whole time I was whipping him. He was whipping me. Of course
I'm going to do it again. What sin have you ever done you didn't
do again? No. God can't forgive sin that way.
That would just be him ignoring sin. When God forgives sin, he
puts that sin away so there's nothing for him to be angry about
anymore. And God's put that forgiveness in his son. His son took the
sin of his people and he covered it with his blood. So the all
seeing eye of God doesn't see. He blotted it out. Oh, what a
treasure for my soul. I still see it and it bothers
me. It doesn't bother me as much as it should, but it bothers
me. And to think that God forgives my sin. He put it away by the
blood of his son. And you know that never, That
means I don't have to come to God in prayer saying, oh God,
I promise I won't do it again if you'll just... I'm thinking
He's not going to hear me because I've been sinning. He's already
put it away by the blood of His Son. I'll tell you what, even
I'm smart enough to know this. If the blood of Christ put my
sin away, I cannot perish. No matter how bad I seem. That
doesn't make me want to sin more. It makes me want to sin less
to think that Christ had to shed his blood. He had to suffer and
die to put my sin away. I don't want to sin more. No.
But to think that despite my sin, despite how I disappoint
myself, I cannot perish because the blood of Christ has forgiven
my sin. That is a treasure for my soul. That lets me go and
get up more and face the world, you know. Here's another one. How about grace and truth? Grace
and truth. You know, God hid both in his
son. The law came by Moses, didn't it? How'd grace and truth come?
By Jesus Christ. And we need, genuine sinners
need salvation in both grace and truth. God saves sinners
in truth by truly making his son sin for his people. and truly
giving his son everything that that sin deserves so his justice
is satisfied. God doesn't ignore sin. He fully
punished the sin of his people in the person of our substitute.
Now that's true redemption. The price has been truly paid.
That's true. And God also saves sinners in
grace. Grace and truth got to be tied together, don't they?
What could be more gracious than the father giving his son everything
I deserve? so he could give me everything
his son deserves. Wayne, I can't think of anything
more gracious than that. I can't think of anything I deserve
less than that. To be given what the Lord Jesus
deserves? What he earned by his perfect
obedience as a man? What he earned by his perfect
sacrifice of this pure, precious blood? I don't deserve that. I don't deserve that. But God
gave it to me in grace. See, salvation's got to be in
grace. And salvation that's in both
grace and truth, that can never be lost. Never. God's never gonna
violate His truth, is He? Ever. Everything God does is
true. And He's never gonna take back His grace. Now that confidence
is a treasure for my soul. I don't have to live doubting
all the time. Surely God couldn't have saved
me. Surely God couldn't have put that sin away. No, He saved
me in grace and truth. And despite my disappointment
in myself, that gives me confidence. It's in Christ, you see that?
The only place we can find that confidence is in Christ. I could
go on and on and on and on about these blessings, but you get
the point. God's put it all in His Son.
Whatever it is you need spiritually, I promise you this, it's in Christ.
Now you go to Him and beg Him to give it to you. God's stored
up everything that we need in His Son. Think about those years
in Egypt before the famine. The Lord told Joseph there's
gonna be a famine, and Joseph told Pharaoh, this is what we
need to do. We need to plant as much as we can plant, and
these seven years of planting, we need to store it all up, so
we'll have it when the years of famine come. Pharaoh said,
that's a good idea. Joseph, you're in charge of it. That's a good business practice,
that somebody comes up with a solution to the problem, put them in charge
of it. He put Joseph in charge of it. Well, the seven years
of famine came. People were hungry. They came
to Pharaoh and said, we need some grain, we need some bread.
What did Pharaoh tell him? Go to Joseph. He's got it all
stored up. And scripture says, and Joseph
opened the storehouses. God stored up every spiritual
blessing in his son. Now you go to him, begging him,
I need bread. I need the bread of life. I need
forgiveness. I need a tomah. I need forgiveness, I need peace
with God. He'll open the storehouses. It's
all in Christ, now go to him. And these are the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge. Wisdom and knowledge. I told
you this a few weeks ago. Knowledge is knowing the true
facts. It's a right, true knowledge
of the facts. Wisdom is acting on that knowledge. Now spiritual knowledge is knowing
the right, true facts. Here's how God saves sinners.
He does it through the obedience and through the sacrifice of
his son. That's spiritual knowledge. Spiritual wisdom is acting on
that right knowledge and going to Christ and begging him for
mercy, begging him to give me everything that I need. Spiritual
wisdom is trusting Christ to do all to save him, to be all
that I need to be saved. And I trust that he is all I
need to be saved because that's what God's word says. That's
spiritual wisdom. It's trusting Christ to be what
he said he is. Alright, now just in a nutshell, that's the gospel
that we preach and that we believe. The foundation of our faith is
all in Christ. It's all Him. Everything we need
is in Him. Now you go to Him. Go to Him
for righteousness. Go to Him for forgiveness. Go
to Him for eternal life. God's going to save His people.
That's the gospel God uses to save and keep His people. I couldn't
be more confident of anything. Yet, we still have some worries. I'll tell you a man, is just
not a good servant of God if he doesn't worry about the people
to whom he preaches, to whom he ministers. I just would not
be a good pastor if I didn't worry for your soul and pray
for you. I worry about you. Just the same way you parents
understand this. A parent's not a good parent if you're not worried
about your child's future. I mean, you know God's in control,
don't you? But you still worry about their future. Well, Paul
here has some fears for these believers, and every pastor has
the same fears, I would just bet you, at least from time to
time, every believer has these same fears about their own selves. Worrying. Will I leave? You know, when the Lord told
disciples, one of you is going to betray me. All of them except
Judas said, Lord, is it I? I mean, I worry, will I leave? Will I get bored? I mean, am I ever going to just
get bored with preaching the same message every Sunday and
every Wednesday? Am I going to get bored with
that? Am I going to get itch in the ears? I want to hear something
new. I want to hear something interesting.
I hear this. I want somebody to challenge
me. How about the challenge of believing Christ? Is that going
to happen to me? And the cure for all these fears
is this. It's remembering and truly believing.
It's all in Christ. All my salvation, all of my acceptance
with God is in Christ. And Paul gives us five fears
here. I want to show you how each one
of these fears is answered by believing, trusting it's all
in Christ. You know, I don't want me or
you to live in a constant state of fear and uncertainty about
our souls. Believers have some confidence
in this thing that Paul says in verse two, Colossians two,
that their hearts might be comforted. I want your hearts to be comforted,
knit together in love unto all the riches of full assurance
of understanding. I want you to have some comfort,
comfort for your heart, some assurance of salvation. Well, you know the only way you
can have assurance of salvation for your soul? It's by trusting
Christ. It's by looking to Christ, because
it's all in you. I'm telling you, if we start
looking for assurance, in what we do, or what we don't do, we'll
have no assurance, and rightfully so. We shouldn't have any assurance
by looking at ourselves. If we look for assurance in myself,
how strongly do I really believe Christ? In this flesh, can you
believe him strongly enough? He ought to be believed perfectly.
Can you do it perfectly? The only thing we can do perfectly
is sin. If I look for assurance of salvation in, oh, is all my
understanding of God's word right? Do I have it all nailed down,
all my ducks in a row? I'm never gonna have assurance,
and I shouldn't, because it's something that's based on me.
Salvation is in Christ and Christ alone, not Christ plus me, not
Christ plus anything about me, it's Christ alone. Salvation
is trusting Christ alone. Assurance is the exact same thing.
You know how you have assurance? Looking away from yourself and
looking to Christ and Him alone. It's trusting Christ and Christ
alone. Every believer has perfect assurance. If Christ died for
you, you cannot perish. Your soul cannot perish. It's
perfect assurance. But we don't always enjoy it
perfectly, do we? You want to enjoy the assurance you have
in Christ? Trust Him. It's all in Him. It's all in
you. Number two, I don't want us to be divided and fussing
and fighting all the time. Paul says in verse two that their
hearts might be comforted being knit together in love. And I
want our hearts to be knit together in love, knit together in love
for Christ and knit together in love for each other. And this
is important because love is the mark of discipleship. What
our Lord tell his disciples, By this shall all men know you're
my disciples. Here are people who are going
to know that you're my disciples, if you love one another. Our Lord
commands us, this is my commandment, that you love one another. It's
not optional, is it? It's important. And you know,
we may not all be, you know, in each other's daily lives.
We may not talk to each other. We talk to our children. They
live two hours away. We talk to them pretty much every day,
you know. I don't do that with everybody, but I'll tell you
this. You know when somebody loves you. You know when somebody
loves you. You young ladies, you just mark
this down. When some young fella comes courting
you, you'll know if he loves you. You'll know. Young men are
good at making that obvious. We know when somebody loves you.
Well, here's the thing, my admonition, my encouragement to you. Don't
really be concerned, well, is everybody loving me like they're
supposed to? Here's our job. Here's my job.
Make sure everybody else knows I love you. My job is to make
you know I love you. I care about you. Make sure people
know it. And we're just being honest.
It's just us here. That's what you're popping. It's
just us here. We're just here talking. We'll
be honest. Some people are more lovable
than others. Well, here's how you handle that situation. Look
for reasons to love them. Look for reasons to love them.
And here's the main reason to love them. They love Christ. They love Christ. Just remember,
it's all in Christ. It's all in Christ. The main
reason to love believers, other believers, is they're in Christ.
We ought to be able to love one another, shouldn't we? If we're
both in love with the same person, we ought to be able to love one
another. We ought to be. All right, here's
the third thing. It'll be easy if we just remember
it's all in Christ. Look for those reasons to love
Him in Christ. If you want to have trouble love somebody, think
about Christ's love for you. That'll be a motivation for me
to love somebody else, don't you reckon? All right, number
three. I want you to know, and not just
know, I want God to make you believe how it is God saves sinners. In verse two, Paul talks about
the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father and
of Christ. And we looked at that mystery
a week or two ago. The mystery here Paul's talking about is
the mystery of how God saves sinners. And I told you, a mystery
is a whodunit. When it's all this matter of
salvation, Christ done it. It's all in Him. Salvation is
all in Christ, it's all by Christ, it's all through Christ. It's
never by our works, ever, ever. It's always by grace. We're saved
by grace, we're kept by grace, we're comforted by grace, and
one day, by God's mercy and purpose, we'll be glorified by grace.
Never by works. Always by grace. Now, when you
first came to Christ, you first came to love the gospel, that's
the way you started out, isn't it? You loved it. It's all of
grace. It just took all the pressure
off of you, didn't it? It's all of grace. Brother, keep
it that way. Keep it that way. Don't ever
think, oh, now God saved me by His grace. Now He's strengthened
me. He's fed me. And now, you know, I've graduated
a little bit, and I'm able to kind of stay in some of my own.
No. Stay as needy as when you very
first started. I need God's grace just as much
now as when I first started. Somebody starts getting too big
for their britches and starts thinking it's not all of grace.
I can do some of this by myself and I can do this and I can do
that and God be more happy with me and somebody's not done that.
That person will always leave the gospel unless Lord corrects
them first. Always. Salvation is by grace. It's all in what Christ has done
for us. I know people, and this is why
we fear this, because people in congregations, you know, everybody
in a congregation don't know the Lord. Everybody's not saved.
Everybody's not an object of God's mercy and grace. And somebody
will leave. They'll get, you know, for whatever
reason, people, they'll make up one, they'll find one. If
they want to leave, they'll find a reason. It's not hard to do.
I know they went out from us because they never were of us.
I know that. I know that they went out from
us because God just didn't keep them. If God wanted to keep them,
they would. I understand that. But it still breaks my heart
when I see it happen. It's just heartbreaking. It's the worst thing. And the
best thing I can do to try to stop that from happening to you
and me is constantly preach Christ is all. I hope you don't get
tired of me telling you to look to Christ. I hope you don't get
tired of me telling you to come to Christ because that's the
only protection that we have from falling away. It's all in
Him. is completely being dependent
on him. And that brings me to the fourth thing. I don't want
some religious talking religious or some slick talking religious
person to deceive you. Because you know that can happen.
Paul was worried about it. He says in verse four, in this
I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. You know, I don't want to see
somebody start believing on Christ and start well. and then get
pulled off on a tangent and start thinking, oh, well, you know,
yeah, there's this grace business. There's this business of Christ,
I believe, before, but, you know, you got to add to that. That's
what the Judaizers did. They said, oh, you can believe
you're saved by grace, but you also got to keep the law of Moses.
You know, and they started, they started, I'm just sure the Judaizers
did this. They started quoting scripture.
They started talking about the law. They started saying, you
know, you don't want to see somebody see you doing that because that
means, you know, you're, and you're not saved, you don't know
the Lord. What that degenerates to is you're just believing something
completely other than Christ. I don't want to see that. I don't
want to see somebody's soul being lost because they just don't
trust Christ alone because some slick-talking snake oil salesman
uses a bunch of religious jargon and twists Scripture and pulls
them away. I don't want to see that for
you. I don't want that to happen to us. And you know, the human
mind will think, Wow, that sounds good. I mean, that guy's really
smart. He's really studied all this stuff. He knows Greek and
Hebrew. He's got to know something. I
don't know. It sounds logical. You know what will protect us
from that? Salvation is not in human logic.
It's in Christ. Trust Him. Look to Him. Salvation,
I'm telling you, is the way God made it. It's all in Christ. Now trust him and don't let anybody
pull you a millimeter away from Christ is all. Here's the last
thing. I want you to maintain your order
in steadfastness. Verse five, Paul says, for though
I be absent in the flesh, yet I'm, am I with you in the spirit,
joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your
faith in Christ. That word order means arranged
correctly. Let your doctrine always be arranged
correctly. Every point of doctrine. And
you know how to make sure your doctrine is arranged correctly?
Know Christ is all. Believe Christ. Trust it's all
in Christ. Now I thought it was interesting.
I looked this word order up and you know how it's almost always
used in scripture? In this phrase. After the order
of Melchizedek. Now Melchizedek's a pre-incarnate
appearance of Christ. Our Savior came after the order
of Melchizedek. We'll be someone who's after
the order of Christ, who's joined to Christ, who's born of Christ,
and don't ever move away from it, because it's all Him. And
Paul mentions your steadfastness, and that word means to stand
firm. And this goes back to what I
was talking about a minute ago. Don't move an inch from where
you started in the faith. Look what Paul says here in verse
six. As ye have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and built up
in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught,
abounding therein with thanksgiving. Now again, you who believe, how
did you begin in the faith? I imagine like all of us, we
began in the faith thinking, I don't know much. I don't know
much. But I do know Christ is all. I do know I believe Him. I do
know I trust Him to save my sorry soul. I do know this. I don't
have any righteousness of my own. If I'm going to be righteous,
Christ has got to be my righteousness. That's how you came to Christ.
That's how you first came to believe Christ. Paul said, now
walk that way. Continue that way. Continue trusting
Christ alone. Continue this. When you first
came to Christ, you didn't want God to see you anywhere except
in Christ. Well, don't start thinking you
want God to see you in Christ plus your morality, Christ plus
your good words, Christ plus your, your doctrine, you know,
continue this way that you want God to see you only in Christ. Continue, continue to seeking
to be found in Christ. Not having your own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ. The righteousness which is of
God by faith. By faith. Not just knowing, but
believing. It's all in Christ. He's all
I need. He's all I want. And if you continue
that way, you'll never depart from the gospel. And that's what
we want. We don't ever want to depart
from the Savior or depart from His gospel. And the best way
I know to continue is to keep hearing over and over and over
again, Christ is all you need. He's all you need. All right,
let's bow together. Our Father, we thank you for
your word. We thank you for both the warnings and the precious
promises of your word. And Father, with all the pitfalls
of religion and its flesh that we have all around us that our
flesh is so prone to, Father, I pray you keep us by your mercy,
by your grace, that you keep us looking to Christ alone, that
you keep us trusting him alone. And Father, above all, that you'd
always see us and hear us only in our Lord Jesus Christ. For
it's in his blessed name, for his sake and his glory, we pray.
Amen. All right, Sean. Okay, if you would, turn to song
number 129 and stand as we sing At the Cross. Alas! And did my Savior bleed? And did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I. At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received
my sight, and now I am happy all the day. Was it for crimes
that I have done? He groaned upon the tree. Amazing pity! grace unknown,
and love beyond degree. At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received
my sight, and now I am happy all the day. Well might the sun
in darkness hide, and shut his glories in, when Christ the mighty
Maker died. and the creature sinned. At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received
my sight, and now I am happy all the day. But drops of grief
can ne'er repay The debt of love I owe. Here, Lord, I give myself
away, Tis all that I can do. At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received
my sight, and now I am happy all the day.