I'm going to tell you what I
thought of Don the first time I met him. Oh, I've grown to love him and
Shelby. So thankful that the Lord has
allowed me to be back again this year. A lot of water going over
the bridge since the last time I stood in this pulpit. Matter
of fact, somebody grabbed my arm when Don said, anybody over
70, You can get up, go down, and eat first. Somebody grabbed
my arm and said, you're not 70. Thank you. That's very, very,
very kind of you. Not everybody's that kind. I
told some folks here not too long ago, my wife and I have
140 years between the two of us. And they said, and it's obvious,
you've got the greater part of that. What's with that? We did some shopping before we
came out. Judy doesn't need an excuse,
but if we go somewhere, she has to do a little shopping. And
I go with her. She needs to be tutored. And in one department store,
two different ladies in two different sections of that store, while
my wife was in the dressing room, They look like they should still
be in high school. Boy, people look younger every year. Two
different ladies asked me if I needed a chair. I said, no, I'm good. But boy,
I tell you what, it just starts creeping up on you. And the older
you get, the more you long for heaven and home. When we get
a little older, Hearing starts fading, our eyes grow dim, our
minds don't function the way it should. Do you ever stand
in the middle of the room and wonder why you're there? You laugh. You know, I've done
that more than once. The one thing that God's people
never forget. It's a pit that God dug us out
of. And why He did. For Christ's
sake. And that's going to be in our
minds. Those who grow old, the Scripture says, they shall keep
bringing forth fruit in their old age. Christ in us, the hope
of glory, will not allow us to forget what we were, who He is,
what He has done for us, and what He will continue to do.
It's God who works in us both to will and to do of His good
pleasure. And we've already heard during this conference and in
the reading of the Scriptures that He, the Lord Jesus Christ,
tells us that those who were given to Him by God the Father
shall come to Him and He will no wise cast us out. I'm so thankful
for this man and his wife. I don't even approach a Bible
lesson or a message without checking to see if he has written something
on that subject. You or Henry Mahan or Dr. John
Gill. You will not hear anything new
from me. Matter of fact, I mentioned that
at our men's meeting not long ago, and one of the deacons said,
well, we better not. Better not hear anything new.
And our folks love the Gospel, and I'm so thankful for those
who do. And being here with those who
love the Gospel is such a rich blessing. I told some folks just
not too long ago, there's a lot of people in California And on
our way to see our daughter Becky in Phoenix, sometimes we have
to go through Los Angeles. I never lost anything there.
I don't like going down to Los Angeles. But I've been stuck
in that traffic, bumper to bumper looking around, and it's gone
through my mind more than once. I wonder how many people in this
mass of fallen humanity know our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody asked me, what do you
think about this? I think most of you know him.
I hope you do. This is such a treat to be with
those who love the Christ of God that we love and His Gospel.
So if you would turn to Colossians 3, please. In the late 1960's,
I thought I had the world by the tail on a downhill drag.
A beautiful brunette with hazel green eyes wore her hair in a
ponytail, fell in love with me. I still wonder about that. And she married me. We had our
own home. We were paying on it. We had
bought our own home. Had two fine boys that my wife
went through the pain of delivering. We had a nice car, pickup truck
and a boat, colored television set. That was something back
then. Had a lot of black and whites.
We had a colored television set. I was playing music three nights
a week in a honky-tonk bar, country and western music. Boy, did I
think I was something. Gene Harman and the Harmoneers.
Can you believe that? You don't have to repeat that
to anybody. I was going to college four nights
a week. studying to be a civil engineer,
had a high-paying construction job. I didn't think it would
be very much longer until I was way up there on top, associating with those who were
somebody. In 1970, the divine providence
of my wonderful God brought me under the preaching of His gospel. And I was told, and it was read
right out of the Scripture, if I gained the whole world and
lost my soul, it wouldn't profit me anything. And that preacher, when he was
preaching to me, told me that I had sinned against God. He
didn't call me by name, but I thought he was going to in a minute.
Told me that I was bankrupt, I had nothing to offer God, I
was going to hell. Told me there was no good in
me, my righteousness was as filthy rags and no longer of it all
as I believed Him. Something was happening in me.
I don't know how long this process of regeneration, how long I struggled
with the burden of guilt and sin and how to get rid of that. It wasn't real long, but it was
a while. But I knew this for sure. I couldn't
stay away from my little country church out there in Central Valley,
California, way up close to Shasta Dam. I had to keep going back. And hearing those truths over
and over and over again. Until one glorious day, God commanded the light to shine
in my heart and I saw His glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
I heard that my Creator became a man for the purpose of redeeming
me, to by Himself purge my sins, to obtain eternal redemption
for me. I had nothing to do with that.
He did it all. I tell you, when the light came
on, I cannot begin to express the joy, and I don't have to.
If you've experienced that, you know what I mean. And this wonderful
Savior, I had folks say about me when the Lord brought me out
of darkness into His marvelous light. These were Arminian free
will people. He stay under that doctrine.
He's going to lose his zeal in no time. That was back in 1970. You do the math. If anything,
the truths of the Gospel cause me to be more zealous today than
ever before. And it's all by His grace. I
have learned, thank God, that Jesus Christ is my all. I learned that under the preaching
of the Gospel. I heard that He came to call
not the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now, I knew I
qualified. I knew I was in that camp. And
then when I heard the Gospel and I heard that Christ was my
all in all, I believe that. There was nobody else that could
have done what he had done. The preacher admitted that he
had nothing to do. He was just an instrument. It
was God who took the gospel and made it effectual in my heart.
Isn't that the truth? Isn't that what happens? Thank
God for godly preachers, godly parents who teach their children,
Sunday school teachers, faithful witnesses who plant seeds and
water seeds. But only God can give the increase. And when He does, He which hath
begun a good work in us will perfect it until the day of Jesus
Christ. And He's been working in me,
and He's still working in me, and He will yet work in me, till
that day, that one glorious day when this old body will just
lay down in the dust, and I'll be delivered from this body of
death, and I'll see Him in all of His glory. But between now
until then, all of God's children can identify what I'm about to
read to you from Colossians chapter 3. Now, let me say this before
I read it. When I was listening to the Gospel,
I heard that it didn't matter if a person was rich or poor,
if he was educated or illiterate, prominent or nobody, all had
to come the same way. Bowing down to the Lordship of
Jesus Christ, believing in our hearts, that He took care of
the sin debt in full by the sacrifice of Himself. I heard that it didn't matter
what color your skin was. It didn't matter if you were
black, white, yellow. It didn't matter if you were
Jew or Greek. And that's what this verse seems to be pointing
to. Verse 11 of Colossians 3 says,
Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in
all. Christ is all and in all. And while we're in this life,
all enlightened minds of God's elect, from the first one who
was enlightened who is dead in trespasses and sins to that last
one who will be called out of darkness. All of us put together
will never be able to plumb the depths of what's contained in
those words. Just that one statement concerning
our Christ. Christ is all and in all. And though we might not understand
all of it, all of God's enlightened children Believe and understand
and fully agree with these words by Pastor Don Fortner when he
said, so far as the believer is concerned, Christ is all. He is not the best thing. He
is everything. Christ is all. Now let me take
you over to Romans chapter 5. I just wanted to use this passage
of Scripture in Colossians 3.11 to get us started in this subject
of Christ is all. Three points. We could have four,
five, or six, but just three points that I want to give to
you in regards to this subject of Christ is all. Jesus Christ
is all in the life He lived while He walked on this earth. Jesus
Christ is all in the life He gave for His elect when He died
on that cruel cross at Calvary. And Jesus Christ is all for His
people in the life that He now lives. The life He lived, the
life He gave, and the life He now lives. Now, Christ is all,
first of all, at this first point, Christ is all in the life He
lived while He was here on this earth. Now, how important is
that? Just how important is it to know that He's our all while
He walked on this earth? In sin, our mother conceived
us. Not so with the Christ child. He didn't have Adam's fallen
nature. We were estranged from our mother's womb, gone astray,
speaking lies. Not so with the Christ child.
He came forth, not gone astray, in perfect obedience to the will
of God our Father. We came forth with nothing but
sin in us. There's no sin in Christ. In
our unregenerate state, Every step we took, every thought we
had, every word we spoke, every deed we performed, and the motives
for doing those things was nothing but an abomination to God. Do
you hear that? Everything. In our unregenerate
state, there is none that doeth good, no, not one. We're just
nothing but an abomination to God in the flesh. Not so with
our Savior. Every word He spoke. Every thought
He had. Every step He took. Every deed
He performed. And the motive for doing all
of those things was nothing but perfection. Nothing but perfection. For a child of God, we need a
Savior from our mother's womb until we leave this life. Unless
we're as perfect as God Himself, We cannot enter into His presence. You say, that lets me out. Me
too. Me too. If I'm trusting in the works
of the flesh. But if I'm in Christ, listen to me, this is good. If
I'm in Christ, everything He did, that's perfect. Every word
He spoke, that's perfect. Every thought He had, that's
perfect. The motive for everything He did, that's mine. That's mine,
that's yours if you're in Christ. We were in Him when He walked
on this earth. Establishing a righteousness
for us that makes us acceptable in the sight of God our Father.
We've been made accepted in Him. So it's His words. It's what He has done. It's His
righteousness. And here in Romans 5, and in
verse 18, it says, Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment
came upon all men to condemnation. You know, we didn't come into
this world waiting to see if we're going
to be found guilty or not. We come into this world on death
row. Condemned already because we believe not on the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We stand before God. We're not
going to hear whether we've done enough good to make us acceptable
in this kingdom, or we haven't done anything that's good. So
we're already condemned by one man. And God's only dealt with
two men. The first Adam and the second Adam. But look at the
last part of verse 18. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of
life for as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners the last
part of verse 19 says so by the obedience of one shall many be
made righteous by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous
it's his obedience it's the life he lived the life that our Savior
lived while He walked on this earth. All of God's laws have
been perfectly honored by the perfect obedience of our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Law has no hold on a believer.
Our Lord Jesus fulfilled it all. He didn't come to changed the
law, He came to fulfill it and He did for His people. So we
have a righteousness through Christ our Savior that makes
us as holy as Him. Christ is all. Folks, listen.
If we're not robed in the wedding garment of our Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, not only will He not allow us to enter into His
kingdom, we can't even approach God in prayer. We have to be
robed in His righteousness, washed in His blood. No man cometh unto
the Father but by Jesus Christ. And so as we approach the throne
of grace, we come. We come in the name of Jesus
Christ, pleading His blood. We come boldly before the throne
of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need. But we come in His name. We have no right to enter into
the presence of God based upon what we have done. It's all based
upon what Christ has done. And God accepts us. He hears
the prayers of the righteous. And so, we encourage God's people,
come to Him in prayer, but make sure you come the only way that
any man can approach Him through Christ our Savior washed in His
precious blood. Now let me take you, if you will
please, over to Hebrews chapter 10. Secondly, Christ is all in
the life He gave when He died for our sins. He's all in the
life that He lived He's all in the life that He gave because
God's holy justice was satisfied for all of His let by the death
of Jesus Christ our Savior. God Himself justifies His people. He is just and justifier of all
those who believe because His holy justice was satisfied by
His darling Son. When the Lord Jesus uttered those
words, it is finished. pillowed his chin on his chest
and said, into thy hands I commend my spirit and gave up the ghost.
The work of redemption was done. And God accepted all of that.
His holy justice was satisfied for his people. Listen, not one
thing can be laid to the charge of God's elect. Does that bless
you? Have blessed me. I'm thankful that it's all taken
care of. Not just because of what I did
before I came to Christ, but every day since then, and it'll
be every day until He takes me out of this world or until He
comes. We're sinners saved by the grace of God, and God help
us not to sin what we do every day. But we have a Savior who
has satisfied the holy justice of God for us. God sees no sin
in Christ. And if we're in Christ, He sees
no sin in us. That's so good. Listen to this. If you're in Hebrews chapter
10, Christ is all in the life He gave when He died for His
people. Starting at verse 9, we read,
Then said He, Lo, these are the words of Christ, I come to do
Thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that
He may establish a second. The old covenant of works replaced
by the covenant of grace. God's mercy and His grace is
bestowed upon us through the finished work of Jesus Christ.
And it says in verse 10, after He said, I come to do Thy will,
by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. When He offered Himself for the
sins of His people, He sanctified us. Can't get any more sanctified
than that, I don't believe. I don't guess on that. That's
not guess work. We're sanctified in Jesus Christ. He's our sanctification. I just
get a little disturbed by these lawmongers who say that you can
become more sanctified by keeping the law. How can you become more
sanctified than what we already are in Christ? Now, I know we
grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Savior, but we can't become
any more perfect, any more complete than what we are in our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And by His one offering, He sanctified
His people once for all. Look at verse 11. And every priest
standeth daily in ministering and offering oftentimes the same
sacrifices which can never take away sin. They can't sit down.
Their word is never finished. Our Lord Jesus, when He finished
His work, He sat down. Look at the next verse. But this
man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat
down on the right hand of God. His work was complete. His work
was finished. And He sat down at the right
hand of the Majesty on high. Not only as our Sovereign Lord,
not only as our God who works all things after the counsel
of His own will, but as our High Priest who pleads our case. He's our Heavenly Advocate. He's
the one who pleads for His people. He doesn't have to say a word. His hands. A nail prints in His
hands and His feet. He finished the work and the
Father accepted that. And so, He sanctified us and
He said down, but read on. It says in verse 13, from henceforth
expecting till His enemies be made His footstool, for by one
offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. The
same offering that sanctified His chosen people perfected us
forever. That's what I was saying. If
you're in Christ, we're perfect. We need to just quit struggling,
give up that awful, terrible, sinful desire to try to please
God with the works of our own hands and just lean back into
the arms of Jesus Christ. Enter into His rest. That's what
we read in this same book. Where God created everything
in six days, on the seventh day He rested. God never got tired.
That means He ceased from His works. So we're to labor to enter
into that rest. Jesus Christ is our Sabbath.
We enter into that rest by God's grace. Just thank God that the
work has already been accomplished for us. And that we can just
praise Him and thank Him. for a work that has made us acceptable
in the Beloved through Christ our Savior for who He is and
what He has done for us. Now, we didn't know anything
about this until the Holy Spirit regenerated us. Verse 15 says,
We're of the Holy Ghost also as a witness to us, for after
that He has said before, This is the covenant that I will make
with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put My laws
into their hearts and in their minds will I write them And their
sins and iniquities will I remember no more. No more. Our wonderful Savior by Himself
purged our sins. They're gone from God's sight
forever. He has removed them as far as
the east is from the west. And here's the wonder of love.
He remembers them against us no more. Nothing can be laid
to our charge. And the Holy Spirit is the one
who takes these things and reveals them to us. I shared with the
folks over at Madisonville Wednesday night that I received an email
from a lady, her and her husband visited our church two or three
weeks ago, and I read an article from our bulletin and the last
paragraph in that article said that the gospel is the work of
our Father electing us, God the Son redeeming us, God the Holy
Spirit regenerating us, quickening us, taking the things of Christ
and revealing them to us. And she found fault with that. She said the work of the Holy
Spirit is not the Gospel. We don't have the Holy Spirit
to quicken us, to raise us from that state of spiritual deadness,
to reveal what Christ has done to us. We're going to stay in
that state of spiritual deadness and darkness until we go through
that doormark death and wind up in hell. The Gospel is not
just one Scripture. It's on every page of the Bible
from cover to cover. And God's people get a little
excited about the work that God has done for us and the work
He is doing for us. Now, go back to Romans 5, if
you will, please. I have one more point. Christ
is all for His people in the light that He now lives. And let me share something with
you. It's just a personal testimony. I was foreman for a big construction
company out of Montana. Our second son, Scotty, wasn't
very old. And the company flew their supervisors
around to different jobs in a real small plane. And they asked me
if I would fly over to a job that they had just completed
and drive an old war out service truck back to the yard in Montana.
This job was over in Idaho, up out of Orfino, where the big
lake is. And I asked the owner of the
company if I could take my son, Scotty, with me. He'd never ridden
in an airplane. He said, sure, take him. Should be a good experience
for him. So we got over there. George was the name of the pilot.
When he landed, I said, you're a good old pilot, George. And
he said, they don't get old if they're not good. But anyway. I got into that truck and my
son next to me, and it was an old Ford. The hood raised up,
the whole top of the hood was one piece. And I didn't know
that hood would fly up. I was behind a camper, a pickup
camper, an old Idaho mountain road that's twisting and turning.
And I finally got a long stretch where I could speed up and get
around him, and just about the time I got even with him, that
hood flew up into the windshield, covered the whole windshield.
Well, I had enough speed, and I had a mirror, and I stuck my
head out the window and gassed it and got around, and there
was a big white spot up there, and I pulled over. I was too
busy to notice my son. Scared him to death. I got out and closed the hood
and the fence there, took a pair of pliers and wired it down so
that wouldn't happen again. As I got back in the truck, he
started bouncing. He loved to sing. He loved the
gospel too, by the way. He loved to sing. Started bouncing. I heard this song from Alan this
morning, His Eye is on the Sparrow. He sung that whole song all the
way. It's one of my favorite songs, by the way. He died in my arms not long after
that. The Lord was pleased to take
him home, only 11 years old. But I'll never forget that event. When he was so scared that he
couldn't hardly speak, he started singing to his Savior. His eyes
on the sparrow. Now our Lord comforted me and
my wife through that ordeal. That's the toughest trial we
ever went through. But Christ is all. in our comfort. He's all in everything. He lives.
Folks, He lives. He has risen from the grave. We serve a risen Savior. He's
our all. He's our all in everything. Our Lord says, because I live,
ye shall live also. And there's a glorified man in
heaven seated on His sovereign throne of power. His name is
not the man upstairs. His name is Jesus Christ the
Lord. Let's get it right. And He's not just Lord over a
little piece of ground over here. He's Lord of all. God has made
that same Jesus whom they crucified both Lord and Christ. All power in heaven and earth
has been given to our Savior. And He gives. We heard it read
tonight from John chapter 17. He gives eternal life to as many
as God the Father gave Him. No more, no less. But He does
give it. He doesn't offer it, He gives
it. I know the gospel preachers, we're ambassadors. If God Himself
did beseech you, we pray in His stead, be you reconciled to God.
But God's not standing pleading and begging and trying to get
you to make a decision for Him. He's coming in power. Sovereign
power. And He's giving us life. He's
giving us a new heart. He's enlightening the mind so
that we can believe the things concerning Christ. He lives.
Our Lord Jesus lives. And He's going to live forever.
His throne is forever. And as long as He's on His throne, we're as sure of heaven as if
we're already there. He is our all. And here in Romans
chapter 5, We read this, starting in verse
8. It says, But God commendeth His
love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Much more then, being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if,
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son, now catch this, much more being reconciled, we shall
be saved by His life. Before our Lord will lose one
for whom He died, we're going to have to take Him off this
throne. Who's going to do that? He's God Almighty. And He works
all things after the counsel of His own will. All things are
under His feet. Even the devil and all the fallen
angels have to get permission from Him before they can do anything.
So Christ is all. He's all. Our text in Colossians
3.11 says that Jesus Christ is all and in all. And I'm not sure
how to explain that. In all. I don't know that I have
to, but I know that Jesus Christ is all and in all those who experience
the miracle of the new birth. I also know that Jesus Christ
is in all that happens to us. And we know that all things work
together for good to them who love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose. No accidents. Whatever's happening
to us is predetermined by God before a star ever twinkled in
the sky. And God's too wise to make a mistake and loves us too
much to do anything but that which is for His glory and for
our good. So we trust Him as the One who
is in all that happens to us. I know that Jesus Christ is in
all those things that He has ordained for us. I know that
He's in all the Holy Scriptures. And I know if He is in us, He's
all to us. He is all our salvation. He's
all every sinner needs. He's all our wisdom, our righteousness,
our sanctification, our redemption. Jesus Christ is all to every
believer. And He's all every believer glories
in. Isn't that not right? He's all
to be known, all to be trusted, all to be loved, all to be desired. God's preachers say He is all
to be preached. Those who love Him say He's all
we want to hear preached. And they're right. God's enlightened
children love the Gospel. You can't give them too much
truth. You can't give them too much grace. You can't preach. The gospel too many times through.
As a matter of fact, that's what we come to hear. Amen? The gospel
of Jesus Christ. He is all our hope. He is all
our desire. The sweet psalmist of Israel
said, Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon
earth that I desire beside Thee. Beloved, if Jesus Christ is not
everything to us, He is nothing to us. But Jesus Christ is everything
to every believer. Is He all to you? If not, why not? Christ is all and in all. Thank you for allowing me the
honor of preaching to this congregation. Thank you, Pastor.