Invite your attention to Colossians
3, 11. The epistle of Paul to the church
in Colossae, third chapter. My text is verse number 11. My message will just about cover
the entire book. And my subject is Christ is all. Colossians 3 verse 11. There is neither Greek nor Jew,
circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor
free, but Christ is all. and in all. Now, note that Paul
commenced this text with the words that there is neither Greek
nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor
free. In another place, he says neither
male nor female. A point that he makes here is
that the Christian is not to boast of his ethnic background
as might a Greek or a Jew, and a Greek here represents Gentile,
nor is he to boast of his native religion as would the circumcised
or the uncircumcised. A Jew was proud of his circumcision. It seemed to prove that he was
of the right religion. And the Gentile who hated the
Jew was more than glad to say, yeah, we are not circumcised. We are proud of our religion.
Paul says, get rid of it. Get rid of it. None of us is to lament his or
her lack of refinement in speech as much a barbarian. A barbarian
was a man who in Greek culture He just was not very good at
speaking. His accent was wrong, his vocabulary was deficient,
and he would speak, barbarian. And a Scythian, he had no manners. He's uncultured. And then, none
of us is to feel to others inferior as a serpent might, and none
of us is to feel superior as a mastermind. Always bear in
mind that the ground at the cross is level. It is as level as it
can be. The standing in Christ is on
level ground. There are no upper seats and
lower seats. We all sit together in the heavenly
places in Christ. And Paul then gives the reason
why These things are true. He says
Christ is all and Christ is in all. When Paul says Christ is
in all, he declares that Christ indwells every Christian regardless
of his or her gender, background, social status, it matters not. Christ is in every believer equally,
equally. Furthermore, when Paul says Christ
is all, he means, well, it means what he said. Christ is all. He's all that matters. There's no boasting of whom and
what we are, what we have or what we gave. Christ is all. Now, that's the point that we
want to consider today. There is no way that we can fathom
that subject. I know that my puny mind is incapable
of doing so. But here's what we're going to
do. I've got a message this morning.
It's 40 points. And we're going to finish this
message this morning. 40 points. You're going to need
your synopsis, the tract in front of you. We're going to go through
this epistle, this one epistle, And we're going to look at the
ways in which Christ is all. Only in this epistle, I found
40 things. And it was an easy subject. I
just went through the epistle. And when I found Christ in the
epistle, I made a note of what he was. Paul says, Christ is
all. There are 40 things that Christ
is in this one epistle alone. And it's a short epistle. I've
got to get rid of my introduction because we got 40 points to cover.
Are you ready to go? All right. Keep your synopsis
in front of you because we're going to be quoting sometimes
just part of a verse. First, point number one. Jesus
Christ is all. He is the giver of divine grace
and peace. Paul says in chapter one, verse
two, grace to you and peace come from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Every epistle written by Paul
the apostle has that salutation in it. Every epistle. that includes not only the epistles
written to churches, but to Timothy and to Titus and to Philemon
as well. Every epistle, grace and peace
to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. You know
what he's saying? There is equality in God the
Father and Jesus Christ in salvation. Christ is all. Christ is all. that God the Father is in giving
divine grace and peace. And bear this in mind, where
grace has come, peace is following. Where there is peace from God,
grace has already come. And it came from both God the
Father and Jesus Christ equally because they're equals. Christ
is all. Point number two. He's the king
of God's people. Chapter 1, verse 13. God has
delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into
the kingdom of his dear son or the son of his love. Now, here's
an interesting point. There are some who are pre-millennial and post-millennial
who say the kingdom is soft. Sometime in the future has not
come yet. I beg to differ, look carefully. God has delivered us from the
power of darkness, Satan's kingdom, and put us where? Into the kingdom
of Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ has a kingdom,
He's a king, and I'm in his kingdom. Every one of us who are believers,
God has taken us out of the devil's kingdom and put us into Christ.
Christ is all. He is all. He is the king of
God's people. We call him the king of saints.
Christ is all. He's all the king we need. Point
number three, redeemer and forgiver of God's people, chapter one,
verse 14. In Christ, we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. In Christ, there is
no redemption anywhere else. There were thousands, hundreds
of thousands, if not millions of lambs, oxen, cattle, slain
on the altars of Israel from 1440 BC until the day Jesus Christ
was crucified on Calvary. a morning sacrifice, an evening
sacrifice, two sacrifices on the Sabbath, and all the national
days in which sacrifices were made, and all the sacrifices
made for my sins and for your sins, and we all had to come
and bring it, and never was a single sin forgiven. But in Christ,
we have redemption. The ransom has been paid. and
our sins are forgiven and our conscience is clear because Christ
is all. Number four, he is the invisible
manifestation of the invisible God. Chapter one, verse 15. He is the image of the invisible
God. In Hebrews one, three, we read,
he is the brightness of his glory and the express image of his
person. God said, make no image of me,
make none. Then he sent Jesus Christ and
the Holy Spirit said, he is the image of God. This is what God
looks like. Jesus says, if you have seen
me, you've seen the father. Because Jesus Christ is the very
image of God. You want to know what God looks
like? Look at Jesus Christ. Look at what he did. Listen to
what he said. That's God. That's God. He is
the image of the invisible God. Point number five, God's firstborn. Chapter one, verse 15. Christ
is the firstborn over all creation. The firstborn. Not the one born first. but the
firstborn. The firstborn was never born.
He was begotten in old eternity by an eternal generation. Had
a father but no mother. Begotten in old eternity. And Jehovah says, He's my firstborn,
the highest of the kings of the earth. He's the firstborn, folks. born of all eternity, in old
eternity, and has received all the rights of the firstborn.
And God made him to be highest of the kings of the earth. Number
six, he's the creator of all creation. Chapter one, verse
16. For by Christ, what's the preposition? For by Christ, All things were
created that are in heaven and that are on earth. Okay, that's
rather inclusive, is it not? Visible and invisible. You mean
he made the rocks and he made the gases that we cannot see?
That's right. Yep, yep. Whether thrones or
dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created,
and I watch this, through him and for him. Paul is saying,
don't mistake me. I want you to get this point.
Everything was made by him, through him, and for him. Everything. Why? Christ is all. Number seven,
he is the eternal predecessor of all creation. Chapter one,
verse 17. Christ is before all things. He inhabited the halls of old
eternity. His goings forth have been from
of old, from everlasting, Micah tells us. He always existed in
the book of Proverbs before time began. He says, I was daily my
father's delight. We were here before anything
else was here. Well, it stands to reason that
if he created all things and he was here before all things,
right? He was here before all things. And number, let's see,
number eight. Sustainer of all creation. In Christ all things consist. Now that word consist may not
be the best translation. The word means adheres. Adheres. And it's even more than
that. In Him all things cohere. He
is the bonding agent that keeps everything together. In Him. all things are held together.
Furthermore, he is upholding all things by the word of his
power. If Christ is ever dethroned,
the universe blows apart. It is he that keeps it together. Number nine. Highest person in
God's church, chapter one, verse 18. Christ is the head of the
body, the church, he's the head of it. We have no pope. In every church there is a bishop,
but the only archbishop is Jesus Christ, the bishop of our souls. He is the head of the church.
His shepherds in his churches are only under-shepherds, and
they are equals. When they get together, this
one is pastoring a small church, and this one's perhaps pastoring
a large one, and they're equals, and they both look up to the
same degree to Jesus Christ. He's the head of the church.
He's the archbishop. He's the father of the church.
He is the highest person in God's church, and all we are equals
under him. Number 10, he's the first cause
of all things. Chapter one, verse 18b. Now notice
here, we're looking at chapter one, verse 18a. 18B, then 18C, then 18D, four
points out of one verse. But look at this one, the first
cause of all things, point number 10, Christ is the beginning,
the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the first
and the last, first cause and final end of all things. First
and last, alpha and omega, Alpha, first letter in the Greek alphabet.
Omega, last character or letter in the Greek alphabet. Christ
is Alpha, Christ is Omega, and Christ is everything in between.
He's the first cause of all things and the final end of all things.
He made all things and they were made for His glory because He
is the first cause of all things. Christ is all. Number 11. First
and foremost of all who will be resurrected from the dead,
chapter one, verse 18C. Christ is the firstborn from
the dead. Now it does not say he was the
first one resurrected from the dead. Lazarus was resurrected
from the dead. Jesus raised a couple of other
people from the dead. So the text here does not say
that he was the first person resurrected from the dead, but
the first born from the dead. His resurrection was different.
Lazarus was resurrected from the dead. He had to die all over again. Now
think of that. Lazarus died. was resurrected, then died again. Jesus was resurrected and never
died again. He's the firstborn of all those
who had been resurrected from God. He's the one who's on the
throne. He's the one who was highest
ranking of them all. And then, number 12, he is the
sovereign over all things. Chapter 1, verse 18, the last
part of the verse, that in all things Christ may have the preeminence. God's works, all God's works
may be divided into three sorts. All his works, creation, preservation,
salvation. or if you will, creation, providence,
salvation. All God's works may be put under
those three heads. Christ has the preeminence in
all three works. He's preeminent in creation,
He made it. He is preeminent in providence,
all things in Him consist. cohere, and he's preeminent in
salvation. He's the savior. There is no
savior other than him. He is sovereign over all things. Number 13, possessor of all divine
powers and attributes, chapter one, verse 19. For it pleased
the Father that in Christ all the fullness should dwell. It
pleased the Father that in Christ all the fullness should dwell.
All the fullness of what? This is fullness of divinity. Christ has the fullness of God's
divinity. He possesses all the divine attributes,
and He has the divine power to execute the divine will for the
salvation of His people. Now, watch carefully here. Paul
here says he's full of divinity. Later on, he's going to say he's
full of deity. There is a difference in divinity
and deity, and Christ is full of both. We'll come to that in
just a moment. Number 14, the reconciler of
God's people, chapter 1, verse 20. and by Christ to reconcile
all things to himself. Notice, God reconciled all things
to himself. Now notice, people are reconciled
to God. We sang a hymn this morning.
There was one mistake in that hymn, Mr. Wesley's fault. He
says, my God is reconciled. Well, no, God is not reconciled. God never needs to be reconciled. It is we who need to be reconciled
to him. God never changes. But we better,
we better, and we do in Christ, by Christ to reconcile all things
to himself by him, by Christ, whether things on earth or things
in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
And you who once were alienated the enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now God has reconciled in the body of Christ's flesh
through death to present you holy, blameless, and above reproaching
in his sight. God used Christ to reconcile
his people. Not only that, Christ is the
reconciliation. Christ always is what he does
and does what he is. He not only is the reconciler,
he's the reconciliation. He not only is the sanctifier,
he is the sanctification. He not only is the redeemer,
he also is the redemption. Christ is all. Everything. You cannot multiply that too
much. Christ is all the reconciler
of God's people. Now, point number 15, the hope
of believers. Christ in you is the hope of
glory, and it is an absolute hope. Our hope is an anchor. It is an anchor. An anchor is
what keeps a ship in place. Where is our anchor? The scripture
says it's already in heaven. My anchor is in heaven, folks.
I think I'm safe. I know the cable is strong. The
anchor is sure. And you ask people, are you safe? I hope so. Hope so? Hope so? No, no, no. I have a hope, but it is not
a hope so salvation. Christ is my hope, and he is
absolutely certain and sure. Okay, he's hope of believers,
number 16. The theme of every gospel preacher. Chapter one, verse 28. Christ
we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all
wisdom. that we may present every man perfect in Christ. Christ
we preach. A gospel preacher is like a, he's like a guitar player whose
guitar has only one string. What does he do? He plucks Christ,
Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ. Every time he comes to the pulpit.
Now, he's gonna use a different text. There'll be a different
aspect, but it's always Christ. I hope you will tell me that
in every time that I have preached to you since I have been here,
I've preached to Christ. I hope so. I'm gonna tell you... As long as you keep me here for
your pastor, I'm going to preach Christ. And I think that's what
you want to hear, is it not? I mean, come on, folks. You don't
want to hear about me, do you? Would you like me to get up and
talk to you about the virtues of our president or this or that
or the other? No! No! Jesus Christ, we want
to see. Well, if that's what you want
to see, Gospel preacher says, that's all we have to preach.
We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. I must
carry on. All right, number 17. He is the worker in the labors
of his people. Chapter one, verse 29. To this
end, I also labor, striving according to, watch this, watch this, Christ's
working which works in me. Work out your own salvation. You got a work to do, folks.
You got a work to do. Work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling, knowing that it is God who works in you. If there is any prophet in God's
kingdom from my ministry. I cannot claim it. It's not mine. Christ worked in me. All the glory goes to him. Number 18, hide in place in which
is found all we need to know and understand regarding salvation. In Christ are hidden all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and you will not know wisdom
and knowledge about God unless you're in Christ. All the treasures
are in Him. Folks, you must be in Christ
to know God. Number 19, the regulator of believers'
life. As you therefore have received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. So walk in Him. It is one thing to follow Him
in His footsteps. It is another thing to put your
feet in His and walk with Him. It's like a little boy who stands
with his father and puts his feet on his father's feet and
his father steps, and everywhere he steps, the lad steps with
him. Well, let's walk with Christ
that way. Walk in him. No one ever erred
or strayed who walked in Christ. Okay, moving along. Number 20. the ground of believers,
chapter 2, verse 7. We are rooted in Christ as trees
of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah, planted in the house
of Jehovah. Who did the planting? He did.
Where are you planted? Where He put you. We are His
planting. Why am I here? That's where He
planted me. Where are you here? That's where
he planted us. Do you like where you are? Well,
then praise him. He's the one who did it. All
right, moving along. Number 21, foundation and builder
of believers. We are built up, chapter two,
verse seven, we are built up in Christ as living stones, being
built up a spiritual house on Christ the living stone. He's
the foundation. Not only is he the foundation,
he's the builder. It is he who chooses every stone
that is put into the building and it rises up to be his house. He's the foundation and he's
the builder. Number 22, complete deity dwelling
in a visible body. Now we come to the point of which
I told you earlier. For in Christ dwells all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. Christ has not only the fullness
of divinity or the divine powers and attributes, but also the
fullness of deity or the essential being or essence of God. Christ
is all God, not a demigod, not a partial God. I have spoken
with Jehovah's Witnesses and others of that persuasion who
follow the modern teaching of Arius and ask him, Scripture
says Jesus is God. Yeah, but he's not really the
God. Oh, how many gods are there? Well, there's only one God. Yeah,
but Jesus is a God. Well, yeah, but he's not a full
God, all right? No, no, no, no, no. That's not
true. All the fullness of whom and what God is is in Jesus Christ. And then he is the completer
of believers. Point number 23, chapter two,
verse 10. You are complete in Christ. The fullness of deity resides
in Christ and saints reside in Christ, resulting in them lacking
nothing regarding the blessings of God and salvation. I've had
people tell me that I need to join their church because what we believe in preaches lacking
a little bit. And there's more, oh really?
I thought I was complete in Christ. You got more than what Christ
has? No, no, no. We are complete in him. Number
24, he is the supreme ruler. Chapter two, verse 10. Christ
is the head of all principality and power. The king's heart is
in the hand of the Lord and he moves it with us whoever he will. This man is put down from his
rule and another man is put into the place who did it. The voters did it, no God did
it. He may have used voters. Remember this, the leader of
every country is the person God wants, is the person Christ wants
to be there. He is the supreme over all rulers. Number 25, remover of sin from
God's people, chapter two, verses 11 and 14. In Christ, you were
also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by putting
off the body of sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.
All right. In physical circumcision, there
was the removal of what was said to be unclean. When it was removed, the man
was said to be clean. We're not under that law, but
we are circumcised. This circumcision is not only
for men, but also for women. It is a circumcision of the heart.
And Jesus Christ has come to the heart of every man and woman
and circumcised all uncleanness from it. And now every heart of every believer is pure before
God, circumcised by Jesus Christ. Number 26, victor over Satan
and his demons, his demonic forces. Chapter two, verse 15. Having
disarmed the principalities and powers, Christ made a spectacle
of them, triumphing over them in it. Here it is, folks. There's
a grave, a tomb. Jesus Christ is in it. And the
devil's doing his little dance on that tomb. We got him here. We got him. We won! Well, at
least his demons are. Satan's a little concerned. He
knows more about the scriptures than they do. And all of a sudden
it happens. The tomb is opened. And out steps
Jesus Christ. Satan now has to keep him from
getting into heaven. and they're doing their best.
And Jesus Christ is ascending in the glory. And Satan and his
demons are doing their best to keep him down. And if you had
the eyes to see what was going on in that battle, you'd have
said, what a spectacle Jesus Christ is making of them, made
a public spectacle of them. They were looking down from heaven.
God's calling his angels over. Here comes my son. Look at him. over Satan and his demons, and
he did so. He did so. He is the victor over Satan and
his demons. Number 27, reality of the old
covenant shadows, chapter 2, verses 16 and 17. So let no one
judge you in food or drink or regarding a festival or a new
moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come but the substances
of Christ. Do we keep Sabbath? We sure do. I don't see you worshiping on
Saturday. No, but you see me worshiping Christ, don't you?
Yeah, he's my Sabbath. Do you observe the law regarding
clean and unclean foods? I sure do. and all I eat and
drink is Christ. Except you eat the flesh of the
Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. He's
our diet, he's our Sabbath, he's all. Christ is all. Number 28,
he's the head of his church and therefore provider of our needs.
Chapter two, verse 19. Holding fast to Christ the head,
from whom all the body nourished and knit together by joints and
ligaments grows with the increase that is from God. Holding fast
to him, he's the head of the church. He's the head of the
body. Folks, as long as you keep holding
on to the head, you're gonna be okay. Number 29, enthroned
in glory, chapter three, verse one. Christ is sitting at the
right hand of God. You know what that means? At
God's right hand. The right hand is God's hand
of power. And Jesus makes a public spectacle
of Satan and his demons and sits and he comes into heaven's glory
and the father's on his throne and sees his son and says, son,
come on up here. I've got a place right here on
my right hand made just for you. He who is on the right hand of
the king acts with the king's authority. And in this case,
he is the king. Number 30, hiding place of a
believer's life. Chapter three, verse three. For
you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Now watch
carefully. Our life is hidden with Christ.
Christ is in God. God is in heaven. I think I'm
safe. I think I'm safe. And Christ
is all. Number 31, the believer's rule
of life, or pardon me, the believer's life, chapter 3, verse 4. Christ
is our life. When the scripture says, he who
believes in him shall have everlasting life, what it means is he has
Christ. Christ is our life. I am crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ lives in me. He's our life. I think my life will never die. I'm convinced of that. Christ
is the life. All right. He's the glorifier
of believers. Number 32, chapter 3, verse 4. When Christ who is our life appears,
then you will appear with him in glory. When he who is my life
appears, I'm gonna look just like him.
I'm going to be just like him and never die. Number 33, the
believer's exemplar when forgiving others. Chapter three, verse
13, as Christ forgave you, So you must also do. Folks, that
will be one of the hardest lessons you ever learn. As Christ, well, I forgive you,
but I won't forget. I'm so glad Jesus never said
that to me. We are told to forgive others
as he forgave us. Number 34, the doctrine of believers. Chapter three, verse 16. Let
the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching
and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. What
is the word of Christ? It's our doctrine. It's our doctrine. The website of the church pastored
by David Mitchell I think it still says so, but it used to
say, people ask, what do you believe? And he replied, it's
not what we believe, it's whom we believe. He's our doctrine. We preach Christ. Every doctrine
has for its central point, Jesus Christ. Number 35, the name in
which believers speak and act. Chapter three, verse 17. And
whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord
Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Every speech
we, or every word we utter, every act we do, should be done in
His name. Folks, if you ever do that, you
will not speak nor act incorrectly. Number 36. the one to whom believers are
to perform all their deeds toward others. Chapter three, verses
18 through 23, summed up in these words, and whatever you do, do
it heartily as to the Lord and not to men. Some people are, they're like a person wanting
to give alms to somebody who's poor. but they cannot give a
gift to a poor person without taking a selfie. Gotta make sure I got proof I
did this. No, no, no, forget the selfie.
Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.
You're doing it under the Lord. Then number 37, rewarder of all
who faithfully serve him and recompenser of all others, chapter
three, verse 24 and 25. Knowing that from the Lord you
will receive the reward of your inheritance, for you serve the
Lord Christ, but he who does wrong will be repaid for what
he has done and there is no partiality. Every deed we do, will be judged
by Christ and rewarded or recompensed accordingly. Number 38, he's
the master of masters, chapter four, verse one. Masters, give
your servants what is just and fair, knowing that you also have
a master in heaven. He is the master of masters.
Number 39, the one gospel preachers hope
to reveal to their hearers, chapter four, verse three. Pray for us
also that God would open to us a door for the word to speak
the mystery of Christ that I may make it manifest as all to speak. Pray for me. And I want you to
do that every day as the Lord brings you to mind. When you're
driving to the worship service, think about that man that's gonna
be behind the pulpit. Pray for us. We preach Christ
is all, but we do need your prayers. And then number 40, we're gonna
finish. Number 40, in chapter four, verse
17. Christ is the sphere of the preacher's
ministry. He is told to take heed to the
ministry which you have received, now watch this, in the Lord. Notice, in the Lord. The preacher's ministry is not
only from Christ, through Christ, and of Christ, but it is also
in Christ. Now, do you get the impression that Christ
is all? I mean, all the way through this
epistle, He's everything. Everything we need. He is what
He does. He does what He is. You and I
are nothings. We have nothing of which to glory,
to make ourselves above others. We are not to consider others
lower than us. But we are to say, Christ is
all. I'm going to tell you something,
folks. There are very few people in this world who can truly say,
Christ is all and in all. Oh God our Father, bless we pray
this word to your glory and make your son everything to us. In his name we pray.