A young boy and his father walked
home together one day after church service. The young man asked
his father a question which absolutely amazed the father because he'd
never realized just how closely that his young son had listened
to the pastor's message. The question the young man asked
was, Daddy, how can one man die and pay for the sins of so many
people? And the father could see the
seriousness in his son's eyes and he knew that he was serious
about the question that he asked. So he pondered it for a short
while before he answered that he might answer it in a way the
young man could understand. So they continued to walk along
and the father looked down and on the freshly cut grass he saw
a grasshopper. So he reached down and he picked
up the grasshopper and he held it out in his hand showing his
young son, and he asked his son, he said, do you know what this
is? And he answered quickly, and he said, Daddy, that's a
grasshopper. And the father nodded, yes, that's
what it is. And the father said, son, you're
my only son, and I love you very, very, very much. And the young
boy smiled and he said, I know you do, Daddy. And the father
continued on and he said, I wonder how many grasshoppers are worth
one little boy. He said, oh, Daddy, I don't reckon
all the grasshoppers in the world are worth one little boy. He
said, Daddy, you wouldn't take all the grasshoppers in the world
from me, your little boy, would you? And the father said, no
son, I wouldn't take all the grasshoppers in the world for
you. So then he said to his son, Jesus
Christ is God's precious, beloved, and only son. And God loved him
more than anything, anybody. And the Bible teaches us that
God sits in the heavens upon his throne and all the inhabitants
of the earth are considered as grasshoppers. And all the grasshoppers
in the world are not worth God's Son. So son, you see, it's not
that just one man died, but who that man was that died. He was God's only begotten son. The unsaved masses of the world,
my friends, look on the cross of Galgotha's Hill up on Mount
Calvary, and they see a man hanging on the cross. They see a man,
but he is much more than just a man. They saw Mary's earthly
son, but more importantly, he was God's heavenly only begotten
son. The lost may look upon the cross
and see a good man, but he was much more than just a good man.
He was the God-man. Salvation is accomplished by
the death of one man, but who that man was and who that man
is, is what makes our salvation effectual. He's the Son of God
and He is God. John 3.16, most everybody in
the world knows that verse. For God so loved the world that
what He gave, He gave. Everybody wants to concentrate
on the fact that he loved the world, but the issue is he gave. He gave His only begotten Son. And that's who and what makes
salvation effectual. Salvation is in, it's by, and
it's through the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is salvation. He is the way. He's the only
way to God. He is the truth. There's no truth
outside of Him. He is the life. There's no life
other than what's found in Him and Him alone. And Ephesians
1, I'll tell you what, turn there with me if you would. Ephesians
chapter 1. Look at verse 7. Ephesians 1
verse 7. Notice those first two words.
In whom? That's where salvation is. It's
in whom? It's in a person. In whom we
have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of His grace. Look down at verse 11. In whom?
Also, we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. Look down at verse 13. In whom
ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation. In whom also after that ye believed,
you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Salvation
is in a person and that person is God's Son. Look at chapter
2, verse 21. In whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord. In
whom, verse 22, in whom ye also are built together for a habitation
of God through the Spirit. Look at chapter 3, verse 12.
in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the
faith of Him." That's what we're talking about here, Him. And
now, if you will, turn with me to Colossians 1, where we read
earlier. Colossians 1. We see that salvation
is in a person. It's not in how much Scripture
you've memorized. It's not in how many facts you
know about the Bible. It's not in how many years you've
been faithful and never missed Sunday school. That doesn't buy
you anything. Salvation is in Christ. And the
question is, and I say this all the time, but it's the most important
question that you could ever be asked. What do you think of
Him? What is He to you? Verse 12 again,
giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life. Why do
we give thanks to God Almighty? Why would the Apostle here write,
giving thanks? Because salvation is of the Lord.
Our redemption comes from Him and Him only. If I could save
myself, then I ought to say, give thanks unto myself. But
we give thanks unto God the Father, which hath made us, made us,
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints and light." Notice
those words, hath made us. Every page of this book, dear
friends, if God give us eyes to see, declares the salvation
of the Lord from beginning to end. He hath made us. That's the key. That's the theme
of this book. And notice that it's past tense.
He hath made us. Not He's going to make us. Oh
no. He that hath the Son hath life. And he that hath not the Son
hath not life, 1 John 5, 12. And if you're without the one
thing needful... Do you remember the story when
our Lord visited the house of Mary and Martha and Lazarus?
And Mary sat at His feet. That's where God's people want
to be, at His feet. And Martha, she was so encumbered
about with all the things she had to do. She was wanting to
serve. She was fixing the food. She was preparing the drinks.
And she was all just in a tizzy, as they say. And she even asked
the Lord, she said, Lord, won't you make her get up and help?
And He said, Martha, she's chosen the one thing. And if you're
without that one thing that you need, which is Christ, then the
wrath of God and condemnation abide on you. But if you have
Him, you have all and everything that God requires to be adopted
into His dear kingdom. To the praise of the glory of
His grace, Paul wrote in Ephesians 1, wherein He hath made us accepted
in the beloved. All God's elect are chosen in
Christ before the foundation of the world. We were purchased
by the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world.
That's what the Scriptures say. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
You remember Psalm 100? All of you that are my age are
close to it. I went to school in a time where
you learned Scripture. Psalm 100, you know that. Make
a joyful noise. But in verse 3 of that precious
psalm, it says, Know ye that the Lord, He is God. It is He
that hath made us. And not we ourselves. And we
are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Now it's true
that God hath made us as men and women. The Scriptures teach
that without Christ nothing is made that was made. In Christ
we live, we move, we have our being. It's true that God has
made us fleshly human beings, but it's also true that He has
made us new creatures, those that know Christ. Born again,
new creatures. We're His workmanship, created
in Him and by Him and for Him. We're made alive by His Spirit
and grace and formed for His service and His glory. In Christ
and by Christ, I was raised from a low estate to a high estate. Well, how low? Well, I went from
being a beggar on the dunghill to sit among princes. That's
a far cry from where I was. And I did nothing but fall at
His feet and beg for mercy. And God caused me to do that.
I didn't do that on my own. Oh, made kings and priests unto
God. How? By Him. Oh, don't miss those
little words of Scripture. By Him. Through Him. In Him. They're precious. And friends,
what belongs to my Lord as God's only rightful heir now belongs
to all those who trust in Him. Because God hath made us what?
Join heirs with Christ. Romans 8, 17. Notice those words
also, made us meet. M-E-E-T. Now that word means
sufficient. He's made us sufficient. It means
fit. He's made us fit. He's made us
worthy. And I'm convinced that that won't
mean much to you, the fact that God's made you worthy until God
shows you just how unworthy you were by nature and by birth. But if and when He shows you
how unworthy, and God always does His people, He shows them
what they are, worms, undeserving worms. When he shows you what
you are then and only then you'll see the beauty of him making
you worthy Making you fit making you sufficient to be a partaker
of his inheritance Okay, look at verse 13 who hath delivered
us from the power of darkness and and hath translated us into
the kingdom of His dear Son." Now here again in this verse,
we see that what was done for the child of God, it was done
for us, not by us. It was done for us. We see who
it is and what it is that was done for us. He delivered us
from the power of darkness. If you're without Christ, dear
friends, you're a child of darkness and you lie in darkness. spiritual
darkness. One day our Lord said, I am the
light of the world. And he that followeth Me shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. And notice
also here in verse 13, that word translated. And have translated
us into the kingdom of His dear Son. That word in the original
language means transferred. transferred from one place to
another. We've been transferred to the
kingdom of life in Christ by the power of God. We who once
dwelt in darkness have been transferred unto light by Christ. Oh, friends,
do you see the pattern here? How were we transferred? The
first thing that comes to my mind, and I've mentioned it several
times lately because it's just been a blessing to my heart,
when the Lord had the one lost sheep. He left the ninety and
nine. And he sought after the one that
was lost. How was I transferred? I was
sought after. Because I was the one that was
lost. And he laid hold of me. And he put me on his shoulders.
And my Redeemer transferred me from my state of being lost into
the fold of God. And that's exactly how you were.
You were translated, transferred from one, your lost estate, into
your saved estate. Our Lord said in John 3.19, this
is the condemnation, this is why men perish, that light has
come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light,
because their deeds were evil. Look at verse 14 of our text,
in whom, there are those two precious little words again,
in whom we have redemption. How do we have redemption? Through
His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Now friends, redemption
is not found in religion. I had a fellow ask me not long
ago, he said, are you still religious? And I said, I hope not. It was
religious people that killed and crucified the Lord of Glory,
was it not? It was the religious people that
day, the somebodies of religion, the Pharisees, they're the ones
that hard false witness against our Lord, that paid them money
to stand in the crowd while our Lord stood before Paladins and
say, He's guilty of this, He's guilty of that, crucify Him.
No, no, no. Redemption's not in religion.
That's not where redemption's found. Salvation is not in works
of what we call righteousness. Our righteousness is filthy rags.
Are we going to bring filthy rags before the throne of God
and try to merit our way into heaven by those filthy things? Oh, no. Salvation is not in works
of righteousness that we've done. Salvation is being transferred
from darkness to light. And it happens only one way.
In whom? In whom? It's a person. That
person is God's only precious son. And we are what? Undeserving
grasshoppers. I don't appreciate you calling
me a grasshopper. I didn't. God did. That's what God called
me. And you know what? A child of
God, you can call him a maggot. And he goes, you're right. You're
right. That's what I am. I'm a worm,
a maggot. You can't offend a child of God.
He knows, He's been shown, He's been taught of God what He is.
Eternal life. Now, that's something I'm interested
in. I'm going to be honest with you,
I'm interested in that. Eternal life is in His Son. It's
through His blood. That's what He says. In Christ
we have redemption. Redemption means to redeem. To
redeem something means to purchase it. Is that what it means? We were bought with a price and
that price was His precious blood. Now you stop and you think about
that. How horrible was my sin? It was so horrible that God's
blood was the only thing that could cleanse me from it. And
those of you whom God has saved, you know that. His blood was
shed and His people's sins have been washed away and forgiven
forever. Forever. Never to be remembered
again. And it's all because, as the
father told his little son that day on the way home from church,
because of who he is. It's who he is. Wherefore he is able to save
them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing that
he ever liveth to make intercession for them. It's because of who
he is. Hebrews 7.25. Okay, look at verse 15 here in
our text. We're still talking about Him.
Who? Verse 15 is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. Now notice
these words. For by Him were all things created. He created everything, He sure
did. He created all things that are in heaven and that are in
earth, visible and invisible. Whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him.
And notice those next three words, and for Him, even Satan. What? Oh, there's a Satan. And
I tell you what, we're no match for him. But God's got him on
a chain. And he goes only where God allows.
That's right. You ask old Job, he'll tell you
about that. Yes sirree. God said to Satan,
has thou considered my servant Job? God said, you got a hedge
about him, you won't let me touch him. You let me take something
away from him, he'll curse you to your face. God said, you can
take all he's got, but you can't touch him. That sounds to me
like God's in control of that situation, doesn't he? You know
the rest of the story. Satan afflicted him, took all
of his children and everything he had, still didn't curse God.
Satan again comes before the throne of God and he says, you
let me touch him and he'll curse you to your face. He says, you
can touch him, but you can't take his life. And Satan afflicted
him with boils from the top of his head and the soles of his
feet, and he still didn't curse God. Friends, God's in control.
In verse 17, He is before all things, and by Him all things
consist. He holds the universe together.
That's what this means. Thousands and thousands and millions
upon millions of light years in every direction. Galaxies
are held together by Him. It's amazing. The vastness of
this universe. And yet, our Lord Jesus holds
it all in His hand. It's unfathomable. But that's
God. And unfortunately, men have portrayed
him as a poor, pathetic little ring in his hand. Oh, please,
please, that's not God. No, sir, that's not God. Come
on now. For the earth is the Lord's and
the fullness thereof. 1 Corinthians 10. I heard Pastor
Mahan say once in a message, we never run out of rain. There's
times when, like lately, we've needed some, but we got it, didn't
we? Some of these men, they keep
catching fish year after year out of Lake Livingston. You catch
a lot of fish year after year after year. Why? Because the
earth is the Lord's and all the fullness thereof. He's going
to take care of His people. We keep planting and it keeps
growing. It's God's doing. For thousands and thousands of
years now, our Lord has held it all together. Friends, this
God of the Bible, the Savior of these Scriptures, is worthy
to be worshipped and praised. Oh, I stand here week after week. I'm not begging you for money.
You won't ever hear me ask you for money. You know why? Our
God supplies all our needs, and He does it through the giving
of His people. You don't have to be fussed at about giving
money. You'll give. You'll want to give. And I'm not asking you to give
the church all your time, all your talent, and all your effort. But you know what? God's people
are willing to do so. We meet and we worship together
about three hours a week. Three hours a week. Surely God
deserves that much. We don't need to harp on those
things. That's not going to help anybody. Salvation is in God's
Son. That's the only thing worth talking
about. I'm pleading with you to consider the things that I
preach to you week after week. And I'm pleading that you ask
God to show you that these things that I'm telling you are so.
Salvation is in Christ, the Son of the living God. No man's promised
tomorrow. Big thing going on right now.
Let's see, this is May 15th. There's billboards all over this
country. A man's predicting that the Lord will come May 21st. May 21st. You know, he's wrong
because the Bible says no man knoweth the day. So I know he's
wrong before he starts. Oh, friends, I said that to say
this. Today the Lord could come for
you. You're not promised tonight. I wonder how many people got
up this morning and their feet hit the floor that won't be here
this evening. And when they got up, they never
gave a thought that this would be their last day. God could
come for you today. What do you think of His Son?
He is the one thing needful, as we've said, and His words
are the words of life. This book is about Him. Now that
green book that you held earlier, that's a hymn book, H-Y-M-N. This right here, it's a hymn
book, H-I-M. That's what it's about. That's
what it's about. In verse 18, and he is the head
of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, then in all things he might have the preeminence.
And don't let that word go. You know what that means? First.
It means first. That's God's eternal purpose
to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. It pleased the Lord to do so.
Verse 19, For it pleased the Father that in Him should all
fullness dwell. The psalmist there even said,
Our God is in the heavens. He has done whatsoever He hath
pleased. It pleased God to make you His
people. It pleased God to bruise Christ in our place. It pleased
God to reveal His Son in me. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them who believe. It pleased God that
in Christ should all fullness dwell. That's why things are
like they are. Oh, this world's in a mess. I
agree. But they are exactly how God
intended them to be. It pleased God. One day our Lord
just stopped in His tracks. It says He lifted His eyes to
heaven. And this is what He said. He said, I thank Thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. And that's what God does. This
will never be seen by the wisdom of man, by the wise and prudent. God reveals it unto babes. And
then He says, even so, even so. It seemed good in my side. It
seemed good in thy sight. Men and women foolishly ask,
but why does God do this? Why does God do that? The answer
is plain and simple. It seemed good in His sight.
The problem is, and the reason you don't like that answer is
you don't like the idea that He does as He pleases. Let's
just be honest. It was good in His sight and
He was pleased to do so. And I hope and pray that the
next time something doesn't go the way I want it to, that I'll
remember that. that I will remember and bow
to that wonderful truth, even so, Father, it seemed good to
You. Not my will be done, but Thy
will. I know that all things work together for my good, if
I want to be called according to His purpose. That's what Romans
8.28 says. The most needful thing that men
and women desperately must have in order to obtain eternal life,
is absolutely and 100% free. It's free. It can't be earned. It's not deserved. It can only
be given from God as a gift. Verse 20. I'm almost done. And having made peace through
the blood of His cross by Him to reconcile all things unto
Himself by Him, I say whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven, God's angry with the wicked every day. Psalm 711. If God's not angry with the wicked,
why is there a need to be reconciled, I ask? Christ came to reconcile
us to God because God's angry with the wicked. All my life,
men told me from the pulpit that God loved me. They said it so
flippantly, never telling me why He loved me. It's just He
loves you. And to me, that just seemed to
cheapen His love. Then one day, a messenger from
God, not a harling, but a true shepherd told me God was angry
with me. He told me I was wicked, a sinner. And He told me God was angry
with me. And His wrath abided on me. And He pointed me to the
cross. And I saw the one hanging there.
And that He had made peace for me with God through His blood.
That's what verse 20 says, isn't it? His blood was shed for me
to reconcile me to an angry God. And notice again those two little
words in verse 20, by Him. That's how. I'm a grasshopper. By Him, Christ Jesus, everything
is now alright between God and me. Did you hear that? Everything's
alright between God and you. But it was only by Him. And if
God loves you, dear sinner, it's in Christ alone. Okay, verse
21. And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled. Now after
those two words in verse 21, the redeemed of the Lord can
rightfully put their name in there. And you, Tyler Richards. And you, Georgia Gibbs. And you,
Shirley Shanks. You, you and you, that were alienated
and enemies, yet now hath He reconciled." Brought together. Translated from one place to
another. Isn't that wonderful? Who reconciled
you? Christ did. It's His salvation. Verse 22 of Colossians 1, "...the
body of His flesh through death This is how salvation comes.
In the body of His flesh through death. To present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable. in His sight. How were we reconciled? In the body of His flesh through
death. God died for sinners. God died for sinners. God was
in Christ and He's reconciled us to Himself. And when Christ
came to earth as a man, God came to earth as a man. When Christ
took on flesh, God took on flesh. When Christ lived perfectly as
our substitute, God lived perfectly as our substitute. When Christ
died on the cross in disgrace, God died on the cross in disgrace. Do you see that? God. It's who
it is that matters. It's who it is that matters.
Son, it's who it is. All the grasshoppers in the world.
are worth you, my precious son." It's who it was that died, dear
friends. When Christ died for your sin,
it was God dying for your sin. Oh, may God give us ears to hear. Christ is truly just. He's just. In the salvation of
His life. His law and His justice are perfectly
kept. And He is my justifier. doing
for me what I could not do for myself. And for all those who
believe in Christ. That's the gospel. That's the
gospel. It's not me doing anything for
God. Why do people think that? It doesn't have anything to do
with me doing anything for God. It's God doing everything for
me. Nothing by me, all by Him. That's the only message that
brings glory to God. Talking about men's works and
what they do and all that, that doesn't bring God any glory.
God's glory is in His Son. What about Christ? What do you
think of Him?