To long for a greater knowledge of Jesus Christ
our Savior and tonight let us learn more
of him. For Christ's sake I pray, amen. We have begun our ninth year
of ministry together in this place. Actually, we began that
some time ago, how the time flies. Eight years ago this month, We
took up residence as a church body in this house of worship,
and blessed years they have been. I marvel, I constantly marvel
at God's goodness to us. And yet I anticipate even greater
things from the Lord our God in the days that lie ahead. I
anticipate God's continued blessings upon this assembly and upon the
ministry he's committed to our hands. I anticipate his blessings
because I know that God honors those who honor his son. And
I know with confidence and assurance that the message we preach in
this place gives all honor All praise and all glory to the Son
of God, our glorious Redeemer. Since the day I first came to
preach the gospel to you, the one constant theme of my ministry,
of our ministry together, the one constant subject of every
discourse, the message of every sermon proclaimed from this pulpit,
has been the person and work of Jesus Christ. You're my witnesses. I call you to witness this day. I have known and preached nothing
among you but Jesus Christ and him crucified. It is my determination,
it's my desire, it's my earnest and constant prayer to God that
so long as this building stands, So often as sinners gather within
these walls to worship the living God, that the singular distinctive
message of this pulpit shall be the Lord Jesus Christ, only
Jesus Christ, in all the fullness of his glory as the Redeemer
and the Savior of his people. Now, you know that I am a thoroughly
convinced Baptist. I hold dear those sacred truths
and those blessed ordinances for which our forefathers have
willingly suffered and died for the glory of Christ. I am also
unashamedly a thorough Calvinist of the highest rank and order.
No man I know, no man after whom I have read, preaches and contends
for the glorious gospel doctrines of God's sovereign grace, Christ's
effectual redemption, and the Spirit's irresistible call, then
your pastor does. I thank God there are many who
join me in that, but I come behind none in declaring the gospel
of God's sovereignty, the glorious dignity of Christ's redemption,
and the efficacy of the Spirit's saving work. Yet, if I should
be asked, what is your doctrine? What is your creed? What is your
theology? My answer is very simple. It's
found in Colossians chapter 3 and verse 11. And this shall once
again be my subject for this evening. This is my theology. Christ is all. Christ is all. I pin my name to no confession
of faith written by any men or any group of men. I own no system
of theology. I give allegiance to no creed
but this, Christ is all. And God helping me, I never intend
to deviate even an hair's breadth from this glorious message as
often as God gives me grace and strength to preach unto men.
Christ is all. Now that's my doctrine, that's
my theology, that's my message. Jesus Christ himself is the sum
and substance of all true theology, the essence of all true doctrine,
and the embodiment of all divine truth. To borrow the language
of Mr. Spurgeon, it is Christ Jesus
who is the sum and substance of the gospel. who is in himself
all theology, the incarnation of every precious truth, the
all-glorious personal embodiment of the way, the truth, and the
life. I am in total agreement with
Robert Trail, who wrote these words. I know no true religion
but Christianity. no true Christianity, but the
doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of his person, of his offices,
of his divine righteousness, and of his divine spirit, which
all that are his receive. I know no true ministers of Christ,
but such as make it their business in their calling to commend Jesus
Christ in all his saving fullness and glory to the faith and love
of men. no true Christian, but one who
is united to Christ by faith and love unto the glorifying
of the name of Jesus Christ in the beauty of holiness. Now,
that's the sum and substance of all Christianity. Christ is
all. Tonight, I want to make several
statements. I'm going to make a bunch of
them. I've got 13 written down. I may
get through, and if I don't, I'll come back to it again next
week. But I want to make several statements, which will declare
to you all that I believe, everything I believe. If you understand
the meaning of these 13 statements, you will understand why I preach
as I do. If you understand these things
in your heart, you know the essence of all vital truths. May God
the Holy Spirit give me your ear. And may he give us all the
hearts of spiritual discernment that we may truly know him whom
to know a right is life eternal. This is the first thing I want
you to see. I'm going to be coming back here
to some of the things we discussed last week. I'm going to spend
the bulk of my time on this one statement that I want you to
see it. Of all the statements I'm going to make, this will
be the most important as a foundational statement. In the Word of God,
Christ is all. In the Word of God. Turn over
to that passage Mark just read in Acts chapter 3. Acts chapter
3. The Apostle Peter is giving answer.
concerning the name and authority of Jesus Christ the Lord. And
he says in verse 22, For Moses truly said unto the fathers,
A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your
brethren like unto me. Him shall ye hear in all things
whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass
that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed
from among the people. Yea, not only Moses, not only
did Moses in the first five books of the Bible say this, not only
Moses, but all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow
after, that is, Moses and Samuel and every prophet after them,
as many as have spoken, that is, as many as have spoken under
the name of God, under the inspiration of God, by the power of God,
with the authority of God, every prophet then. have likewise foretold
of these days. They all spoke of one Redeemer,
one mediator, one king, one substitute, one sacrifice, one glorious gospel,
and that's Jesus Christ the Lord. Turn over to John chapter 1.
John chapter 1. It seems almost beyond belief,
so ridiculous it is, that I should have to stand before men and
make such strong, great insistence upon the fact that the Word of
God speaks of Jesus Christ always, everywhere, in all things, and
only of Christ. You would be astounded. You would
honestly be astounded to have heard a... What can I call it? certainly
can't call it a sermon, certainly can't call it a message from
God, to have heard the wranglings of a preacher, which I heard
a few months back. Someone gave me the tape. He
said, you won't believe it. I didn't believe it. I tore it
up, threw it away, busted it, didn't want anybody to ever hear
it again. This man stood and spent an hour before a conference
of what was called sovereign grace preachers endeavoring to
prove that the Bible has something more to say than Jesus Christ
and him crucified. endeavoring to prove that there
is some other message and something more important that men must
give themselves to preaching than Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
And I'm standing here tonight because I want you to understand
with perfect clarity that everything in the Word of God has Christ
for its foundation, Christ for its essence, Christ for its object,
Christ for its meaning, and Christ for its end. Everything. Everything. Look here in John chapter 1 and
verse 45. The Lord Jesus has come on the
scene. John the Baptist said, Behold the Lamb. He's the one
they've all spoke about. He's the one we've been looking
for. And then in verse 45, we read of this man, Philip. Philip
findeth Nathanael and saith unto him. Now listen to his message.
We have found him. We have found him of whom Moses
in the law and the prophets did write. Jesus of Nazareth, the
son of Joseph, this is he. This is he. This is the one of
whom all the prophets spoke. This is the one we've been looking
for. This is the one upon whom all
hope is built. This is the one who is the essence
of all the worship of the Old Testament and of our fathers.
Jesus Christ, then, is the one of whom the prophets speak. He
is the treasure hidden in the field of Holy Scripture. He is
the manna in this dew which fell from heaven. He is the diamond
which sits in this golden ring of Holy Scripture. Jesus Christ
is the milk in this breast of consolation. He said to the Jews,
search the Scripture. Search the scriptures. You claim
to know them. You've memorized them. You carry
them around in your pocket, sewn on the hems of your garment,
in your phylacteries. Now search the scriptures. They
are they which testify of me. All the scriptures. Turn anywhere
in the scriptures. The book of God speaks of this
man, Jesus Christ our Savior. All the Old Testament scriptures
speak of Christ, only of Christ, always of Christ. We won't look
again at that passage in Luke 24. I urge you to commit it not
only to memory, but to commit your heart to understanding it.
In all the scriptures, our Lord Jesus described things concerning
himself. What he tells us is that all
the sacrifices of the Mosaic age pictured the Lord Jesus Christ,
our sin-atoning sacrifice. Every time blood was shared from
the beginning of the Old Testament age to the end of the Old Testament
age, every time blood was shared, be it the blood of a lamb, be
it the blood of a goat, be it the blood of a bullock, be it
the blood of a turtle dove, every ounce of blood that was shed
always said, there's one coming whose blood must be shed, by
whom sin shall be put away. And for that one, all the saints
of God looked with blessed hope and expectation. When Abel offered
a better sacrifice than Cain, his brother, Abel was but confessing
Jesus Christ in that blood sacrifice that he offered. He was confessing
his knowledge of and his faith in that one who was promised
to his mother Eve, that one who was to come and make atonement
for sin by the sacrifice of himself. And so we're told concerning
his blood, while Abel slept in the ground, while his blood was
shed by his brother Cain, we're told that the blood of Abel speaketh
better things than that of any other man that died up to his
time and after him. The blood of Abel speaks better
things than the sacrifices even of the Old Testament. It speaks
of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord and our Redeemer. Enoch,
that man who walked with God before the flood, prophesied
of the coming of Christ, not only of his first coming, but
of his second coming in glory with 10,000 of his saints, even
to judgment. Abraham, we're told, looked to
Christ. He saw his day. He rejoiced and
he was glad, even while he dwelt in tents in the land of promise.
Jacob, when he was laying on his deathbed, Blessing his son
spoke of Christ. He spoke of Shiloh who was to
come. He spoke of that one who was
to come in whom the hope of God's people was found, that one of
whom the law spoke and the prophets spoke. Not only was our Lord
represented by those patriarchs, but the sum and the substance
of the law All of the law, when you read the law of God, whether
you're talking about the moral law, that is the Ten Commandments,
or whether you're talking about the ceremonial law, or whether
you're talking about the Levitical law, the whole law of God was
given to Israel by the hand of Moses as our schoolmaster to
bring us unto Christ. That's what the book says, isn't
it, Lindsay? The whole law. The law of God was never intended
to be a code of ethics. It was never intended to be a
basis of rule. It was never intended to be a
motivation for his people. It was intended to show men their
need of Jesus Christ and what Christ must do when he came to
this earth. And now that Christ has come,
we're no longer under the schoolmaster. We're free from the law, the
ceremonial law, the Levitical law, and the moral law. We're
free from the yoke of bondage, the miracles by which Israel
was sustained in the wilderness. were daily pictures of Christ.
Those Jews, every day for 40 years, every day for 40 years,
they had a fresh morning and evening picture of redemption
by Christ. Every morning, they would go
out and gather bread which fell from the heavens in the dew of
the night. It was called manna. And our
Lord said, I'm that manna. I'm that bread which came down
from heaven. That manna was but a picture
of me as your father's eight manna in the wilderness. You
must eat the flesh of the Son of God and drink his blood. And
those that eat my flesh and drink my blood shall live by me. It
was a picture of faith. Our Lord Jesus Christ, we receive
him by faith. We digest him, his word, by faith. It becomes ours and cannot be
taken from us. There was a pillar of cloud that
guided the children of Israel by day, and a pillar of fire
that guided the children of Israel by night. That cloud was Christ. That fire was Christ. There was
a rock which followed Israel all the way through their wanderings
in the wilderness. There was a rock that followed
them. And Paul says that rock was Christ. When Moses smoked
the rock at the command of God, water flowed from the rock for
the refreshing of the people, for the life of the people. And
then God told Moses to speak to the rock. And Moses, in anger
with the people of Israel and in anger with God's providence,
smoked the rock again. God said, you can't enter the
land. Why? That rock's Christ. He can't
be smitten but one time. That rock's Christ. You dare
not smite the rock who was smitten for you. We read in the scriptures
of the brazen serpent that Moses lifted up in the wilderness,
by whom the people who were bitten with the fiery serpents were
healed. And that serpent is Jesus Christ in type, in form, in picture,
and in shadow. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in him, whosoever looks to him, should
not perish, but have everlasting life. All the prophets spoke
of Christ. All the judges of Israel, Joshua,
Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson were representatives of Christ,
our deliverer. All the prophets of Israel were
representatives of Christ, our prophet. All the priests represented
Christ, our priest. All the kings represented Christ,
our king, as the king of Zion and his sovereign authority over
all things. Now, surely no one needs me to
Now, no one who understands and knows this book needs me to convince
them that in the New Testament, Christ is the sum and substance
of all that is written. Our dear Savior is the one of
whom the apostles constantly spoke and wrote. In the Gospels,
we see Christ living, speaking, and walking among men. In the
Book of Acts, we see Christ preached, published, and proclaimed to
men. In the Epistles, we see Christ exhibited, explained,
and exalted before men. So that from first to last, the
New Testament speaks of Christ. No part of it can properly be
understood. No part of the Book of God can
be properly interpreted apart from or isolated from Jesus Christ
our Lord. No part of it, Merle. Nothing.
Nothing. Any doctrine Any doctrine divorced
from Christ is heresy. I don't care what doctrine it
is. You take the doctrine of predestination, divorce it from
Christ, it's utter heresy. You take the doctrine of election,
divorce it from Christ, it's utter heresy. You take the doctrine
of repentance, divorce it from Christ, it's utter heresy. Any
doctrine divorced from Christ is heresy. It cannot be understood
apart from Him. Any duty divorced from Christ
is self-righteousness. Any ordinance divorced from Christ
is idolatry, any of them. Men obey many things written
in the Word of God without faith in Christ and their obedience
is nothing but self-righteous obedience, nothing else. Many
people observe the ordinances without faith in Christ and their
observance of the ordinances God has given has become to them
nothing but ritualism and idolatry. To be buried in the waters of
baptism without faith in Christ is an exercise in ritualistic
idolatry. To eat the bread and drink the
wine without faith in Christ is an exercise in ritualistic
idolatry. Well, how can a man possibly
be guilty of idolatry when he's doing what God commands? You're
not doing what God commands if you do it apart from faith in
Christ. Does that make sense? When those
Jews sacrificed upon the altar, you can read it in Isaiah 64,
when they made sacrifices upon the altars, they were doing what
God commanded them to do. They were going into the temple.
They were making sacrifices according to the commandment of God, according
to the word of God. But they were doing it without
faith to Jesus Christ, without any reference to Christ at all.
And in doing so, God said, you just as well have slain a man. You just as well have offered
swine's blood upon my holy altar. It's nothing but idolatry. In
the word of God, Christ is all. He's all to be seen, all to be
learned, all to be believed, all to be obeyed, all to be worshiped,
and all to be loved. If Christ is all in the book
of God, then Christ is all to be preached by the servants of
God. And therefore, Paul said, I am determined not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now, if that's
settled, if that point is settled, that Christ is all in the word
of God, then everything else I have to say will just be easily
understood, easily grasped by you. Everything else falls into
place. For if Christ is all in the book
of God, then Christ Jesus is all in all things revealed in
the book of God. So here's my second statement.
In the election of grace, Christ is all. We won't turn to the
scriptures again. You can look in Ephesians 1,
4. God the Father chose Christ to be our head, our substitute,
our surety, and our representative. And he chose us in him before
the world was made. Christ be my first elect, he
said, then chose us all in Christ our head. The free grace of God,
the everlasting love of God, was the only cause of our election
in Christ Jesus. He chose us because he loved
us and he loved us because he would love us and no other reason
for our election can be found. God did not choose us because
we were better than others. We were just like all others.
We were even chosen before there were us or anyone else. Before
there were any others to be chosen from among. He chose us even
before Adam was created. He chose us before the world
was made. He did not choose us because
he foresaw some good disposition in us. He did not choose us because
he looked out in time through tunnel vision and he saw what
was going to happen and we would in time choose Christ for ourselves. Oh no, the Lord God chose us
because he would be gracious to us. Turn over to Deuteronomy
chapter 7. Deuteronomy chapter 7. Here's
what God himself says about his election. Deuteronomy chapter
7. Others might cavil at this and
say, well, that's talking about Israel. I hope all of you here
have enough sense to know that God's Israel is his church, you
and I who believe. Deuteronomy 7 and verse 7, the
Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you because you
were more in number than any people, for you were the fewest
of all people, but because the Lord loved you. And because he
would keep his oath, which he had sworn unto your fathers,
hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed
you out of the house of the bondman from the hand of Pharaoh, king
of Egypt. Why did God choose me? Why me? Why me? Because he would. That's all. That's all. because
he'll be gracious to whom he will be gracious, because he'll
have mercy on whom he will have mercy, because he'll have compassion
on whom he will have compassion. That's all. Altogether, because
he would, he said, I will be their God and they shall be my
people. We were chosen in Christ, chosen
to be conformed to Christ, and being chosen of God in Christ
Jesus, we were eternally accepted of God in Christ the beloved. so that in him we from eternity
have been accepted with God Almighty. And now God begins the work of
time which we experience and of which we read in this world.
So thirdly, in the creation of all things, Christ is all. Christ is all. I'm not going
to spend much time here. I spent a good bit of time discussing
it in the recent weeks. Let me just say this, I totally
reject as heresy every theory of evolution, every theory, whether
you're talking about the Darwinian theory or whether you're talking
about the evolutionary creationist theory or whether you're talking
about some other theory that I'm not aware of. Every theory
of evolution I totally reject as heresy for these two reasons. Number one, it's contrary to
the word of God. The book says in the beginning
God created the heavens and the earth. That's what the book says.
The book says all things were made by him and for him and without
him was not anything made that was made. That's what the book
says. The book says he created all things by the word of his
power. That's what the book says. Now
you got two choices. You can hear and believe and
worship that God who speaks in the book, or you can hear, believe,
and rebel against this God, believing only what men tell you by their
much learning and understanding. I was watching the news this
morning and reminded my wife, you know, that I've forgotten
the name of that satellite they've got up in space. They said it
has now gone outside our solar system and outside our galaxy. It's out into the unknown area. It may even reach what they call
Planet X. We know it's out there somewhere,
we just don't know where it is. And they have a picture on there.
They have a picture on there designed by Mr. Sagan. of a naked man and woman standing
upon the earth, reaching out, reaching out. And somebody suggested
that they ought not have that picture of that naked man and
woman. Mr. Sagan said, well, there may be
beings out there whose genitals are on their fingers and they'd
be offended if folks were covered up otherwise. So we don't want
to, we want them to understand all of our knowledge. And here
we are standing on a ball naked, reaching out to the world. stupidity. And men believe those things.
And men prefer those things to the Word of God. Not only is
it contrary to the Word of God, every form of evolution, to one
degree or another, robs Christ of His glory as the Creator and
gives the glory of creation to the creature. And to deny the
creation is to deny the Creator. You can't do it. You cannot deny
that Christ created this world without denying that Christ is
the creator and denying his very being as God. Our Lord Jesus
Christ is everything in creation. It was all made by him and it
was all made for him. But that's not all. In divine
providence, Christ is all. Turn over to John chapter 3,
John 3. These are all things that we've
gone over so many times in these past years together. As I was
preparing the message today, I kept thinking to myself, now
you need to refer to some different scriptures rather than the standards
that we always refer to. Here in John chapter three in
verse 35, listen to this. You're familiar with the eighth
chapter of Romans. You're familiar with the 17th chapter of John.
Look at what he says here. The father loveth the son. and hath given all things into
the hands of the Son." Everything. Everything. God put everything
in his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. What is providence? Providence is nothing more and
nothing less than the mediatorial rule of Jesus Christ by which
he rules the world and all things in it. all things, all creatures,
and all events, for the everlasting good of his church and the glory
of the triune God. Christ alone orders all the affairs
and the events of the universe, everything, even the babbling
words of men like Mr. Sager. He alone orders the universe. His thoughts of a king's heart
are the words of Christ put in his heart. The deeds of men,
good and evil, are nothing but the providential rule of Christ
for the good of his people, whatever it is. Boy, I wish you could explain
all that. I can't explain it, but I know
it's so. When Shammai came out to touch David, one of David's
men said that they'd go over and lift his head off his shoulders. David said, For the Lord said
to him, if the Lord hadn't said it, he couldn't do it. The prophet
said, shall there be evil in the city? And the Lord has not
done it. Shall anything come to pass that
is out of the control of Jesus Christ, the sovereign ruler?
Why, what? Such a thought's absurd. Having
all power, Christ Jesus always does exactly that which pleases
himself. People say, well, the Lord wants
to do this and the Lord wills to do that and the Lord's pleasure
is to do the other, but this or that or the other keeps him
from doing it. He has all power, but that means
he does exactly what he pleases, exactly what he pleases. And
that which pleases Christ, now listen to me, that which pleases
Christ is the everlasting salvation of His elect people. That's what
pleases Him. And that's what He's doing. That's
exactly what He's doing. I do not understand the beginning,
the middle, or the end of things. But I do understand the whole
picture and its consummate end. Christ is saving his people. He's doing his pleasure in everything
that takes place. If the Son of God, the ruler
of providence before us, it matters not who or what shall be against
us, all is well, for in providence Christ is all. Fourthly, in the
redemption of our souls, Christ is all. Christ alone is our Redeemer. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. By his own blood he entered in
once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for
us. Our Lord Jesus, when he had by
himself purged our sins, he took his seat at the right hand of
the majesty on high. I spent a good part of the morning,
most of the morning in fact, answering the letter I received
earlier this morning, in which the person writing kept
asking me about works. And this person, not being rebellious,
just confused. Do you mean to say that all people
who believe in works for salvation are lost? How can they all be
lost? There's so many. And my answer was this. Is the
blood of Christ alone, alone, alone sufficient to satisfy the
justice of God for sin? Is it? If the blood of Christ
alone is sufficient, and the blood of Christ alone is efficient,
and the blood of Christ alone is effectual, having satisfied
fully, completely, everlastingly satisfied the justice of God
against our sins, then nothing can be added to it. Nothing.
And to add any work to it is to say that his blood's not enough.
That's what it is. The blood of Christ by itself
is the atonement of sin. Not our feelings, not our emotions,
not even our faith. Our faith receives the atonement,
but it does not accomplish the atonement. Christ alone is our
atonement, is the righteousness of Christ alone. The obedience
of Christ is our representative. His life as a man on this earth
is that in and of itself, all alone. to make us righteous before
God. If it is, then we're righteous.
By His obedience, we're made righteous. And if you endeavor
to add any work of your own to His righteousness, you can't
have His righteousness. That's what Paul says in Galatians
5. If you were justified by works, then you've fallen from grace.
If righteousness come by the law, then Christ died in vain.
Christ's death was absolutely useless if it's possible for
men to be justified by their works. His death was shed, or
his blood was shed for nothing. His death was an act of vanity,
futility, and frustration. That's the problem with works.
to mix works with the blood of Christ and the righteousness
of Christ in any way whatsoever is to deny him altogether. We
proclaim blood atonement all the Lord. Perfect righteousness
by imputation, Christ's righteousness being imputed to us. Fifthly,
in the conversion of sinners, Christ is all. In John chapter 5 and verse 21,
Our Lord Jesus is speaking. And he says, as the father raises
up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the son quickeneth, or
gives life, regenerates, he quickeneth whom he will. What does that
mean? Well, when the fullness of time
has come, that redeemed sinners are to be brought home to God,
whose work is it to bring them home? Whose work is it? Is it the work of the sinner?
Well, of course not. How could he fetch himself from
death to life? Is it the work of the preacher?
Of course not. Preacher can't help himself,
much less help another. The preacher is only an instrument
in the hands of God. It's the work of Christ alone.
who gives life to the dead by sending his spirit to his redeemed
ones. It is the good shepherd who seeks,
finds, and fetches his sheep home. He regenerates the dead. He convicts of sin. He gives
faith to the faithless. He saves the lost. He preserves
his saved ones and brings his elect ones safe to glory. Sixthly, in sanctification Christ
is all. Let's look at this text over
in Hebrews one more time. Hebrews chapter 10 Hebrews chapter 10 verse 10 By the which will that
is by Christ obedience to the will of God in the covenant of
grace by Christ obedience to God's everlasting decree by the
which will We, we who believe, we who are chosen of God, we
who are redeemed by Christ, we are sanctified through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once. Once. Notice the words for all
are in italics. They were added by our translators
not to imply that the body of Christ was offered one time for
all men but rather that the body of Christ was offered as a sacrifice
for sin one time forever one time by the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once verse 14 for by one offering he hath perfected
that is he has made complete forever them that are sanctified
that is holy set apart, declared by God to be holy, made by the
blood of Christ to be holy, made by the Spirit of God to be holy.
Now, I ask this question, is sanctification necessary for
salvation? Well, it certainly is. An unsanctified
man cannot enter into heaven. He that is holy, he shall let
her in. He that is unholy, he shall be
cast out forever. If sanctification is necessary
for salvation, then it is altogether a work of grace and works never
enter into the picture. It is altogether the work of
Christ. He is our righteousness, all
our righteousness for justification and all our righteousness for
sanctification too. In justification, let me try
stressing it one more time. I hope I make it clear. In justification,
the righteous obedience of Christ is imputed to the believer. That is, it is charged to the
believer. Let me give you an illustration.
You remember when Mike Marsh was down here a few weeks ago.
He came down and he called me when he was about halfway here.
He was in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, one. He said, Don, can you meet
me at the airport? I've got a car waiting at the
car rental. But I left my wallet, my credit
cards, and all my money in my brother-in-law's car when he
took us to the airport in Minneapolis. I said, sure, I can meet you
over there. So I went to the airport, and I rented a car. First time I ever rented a car
in my life. I rented a car and charged the bill to me. But it was Mike's rental. It
was Mike's rental altogether. And I gave Mike my credit card.
I said, now you take it. Enjoy your vacation. Go where
you got to go, get whatever money you have to have, and just charge
it to me. And he did. He did. Now, he's
paid. He's already paid it. It's done.
I'm not liable for it anymore. I'm thankful for that. But the
bill was charged to me. Do you follow? He was the one
who did the buying. He was the one who did the spending.
But it was charged to me. Is that clear, Merle? That's
imputation. When he purchased something,
the bill was charged to my account. When the Lord Jesus Christ stood
as our substitute, our sins were charged to his account. When our Savior chose us and
accepted us and made us his own, just as our sins were charged
to him, his righteous obedience has been imputed, charged to
our account in the book of God's law. And he makes us righteous
and we'll reap the reward of righteousness. That's clear,
isn't it, buddy? Man, that's clear as daylight
and a whole lot more precious. That's clear. You mean nothing
we do? There, there, you got it. Nothing
we do. All His work charged to us freely. But in sanctification, in regeneration,
the righteous nature of Christ, that holy seed is imparted to
us so that He puts a holy nature in us, a holy will, a holy heart,
a holy mind. Now there's nothing holy about
us by nature. Paul said, I know that is in
my flesh. In me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. There's not a good thing about
me or you by nature. If there's anything good in you,
anything good, anything God honoring, anything Godward, that's Christ. Anything. Prayer, faith, obedience,
love, joy, peace, longsuffering. That's Christ, Lindsay. That's
not you. You're not that way by nature. That's Christ, only
Christ. You see that? It's imparted to
us in sanctification. Seventh, in the believer's consolation,
Christ is all. Turn over to John 14, John chapter
14. The Holy Spirit, who is our comforter,
is the Spirit of Christ and the peace which he gives is the peace
of Christ. In John 14 verse 16 our Savior
says, I will pray the Father and he shall give you another
comforter that he may abide with you forever even the Spirit of
truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not neither
knoweth him but you know him for he dwelleth in you and shall
be in you I'll not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. Our Lord is speaking of the Spirit
of God and yet he says I will come to you. The Spirit that
comes to us is the Spirit of Christ. Verse 27. Peace I leave
with you. My peace I give unto you. Not
as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. The Holy Spirit gives us peace,
comfort, consolation. You know how he does it? He does
it, Harold, by telling us that Christ is ours. That's how he
does it. Peace. Christ is yours. Christ
is yours. Now, I can't tell you that. I
can't tell you that. Ralph Barnett said one time,
the only man who will try to convince a lost man that he saved
is another lost man. I'm not about to try to convince
anybody that Christ is yours, but the Spirit of God can convince
you. The Spirit of God can convince you. And he gives peace by telling
us that Christ is ours. He gives peace by taking the
things of Christ and showing them to us. The Holy Spirit ever
comforts the believer by causing the believer to look away from
himself, always. The Spirit of God, there's some
things the Spirit of God will never do. These things are not
of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit will never call
you to look to him, never. The Holy Spirit will never cause
a man to speak of him and to give praise to him. Never. Never. He called men to look to Christ,
to speak of Christ, to give praise to Christ. The Holy Spirit will
never cause you to look to the law. He'll never do it. That's not the work of the Holy
Spirit. No, sir. That's not the work of the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit will take the law and use it to cause you to
look to Christ. The Holy Spirit will never cause
you to look to yourself. Never. You're looking at your sin. And
your sin drives you down into despair. Some folks come along
and tell you that's spirit's work. But that's not the spirit's
work. No sir. That's the devil's work
and the flesh's work. That's not the spirit's work.
Some folks will tell you that the spirit's work will cause
you to look to yourself for graces and evidences of eternal life
and when you look in yourself and you find that you've been
praying a lot and you're meditating a lot and you're thinking holy
things a lot and you find in your heart a degree of growing
love and these things and all these things are in the believer.
Don't misunderstand me. But when you look at those things
and say, now I can have assurance that I belong to Christ because
I've looked in my heart and this is what I found. Mark, that's
not the Holy Spirit's work, never. The Spirit of God directs sinners
to look to Christ. And when the Spirit of God speaks
to you, you're going to look to Christ, only to Christ. Listen
to what he says. This is his word. My little children
don't sleep. Don't do it. Don't do it. But if any man sin, and you most
certainly do, for sin's what you are, don't despair. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he's the propitiation for
our sins. I've got to hurry. Here's an
eighth statement. In the perseverance and preservation
of God's elect, Christ is all. We're preserved in Christ Jesus.
We don't preserve ourselves and we can't preserve one another.
Christ keeps us from falling. And even when we do fall, Christ
lifts us up again and keeps us from perishing. Steps of a good
man are ordered of the Lord. Though he fall a thousand times
in a day, the Lord will raise him up. Peter's an example. If
it hadn't been for the fact that the Lord Christ prayed for Peter,
Peter would have perished by his fall. Not only did he cuss
and deny his Lord, when he got done, he told the other disciples,
I'm going fishing. I'm going fishing. And when he
said that, he didn't mean I'm going down the river and fish
for a little while. He meant I'm returning back to where I
was when the Lord came to me. I'm going fishing. But the Lord
said, Peter, I prayed for you. I prayed for you that your faith
fail not. And it didn't. and spiritual instruction, Christ
is all. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, he said. He is that one who has seen the
Father and declared him unto us. What I'm saying is that he
is all to be taught, all to be learned, and all in the teaching.
He's the lesson and he's the teacher. He is the one who gives
us instruction. He's the one who gives us light.
He's the one who directs our steps. Tenth, in spiritual strength,
Christ is all. The apostle said, the Lord spoke
to me and he said, my grace is sufficient for me. David said,
the Lord is the strength of my life. He is our arm for doing
what he requires. He's our back for bearing what
he lays upon us. And Paul says we can do all things
through Christ who gives us strength. 11, in the believer's death, Christ
is all. There's no safety in death apart from him. The swelling
of the Jordan will surely overwhelm us if Christ does not open the
way before us. But if Christ is yours, you need
never fear dying. He takes the sting out of death.
In the hour of death, nothing will be of value to your soul
except Jesus Christ. The unbeliever has nothing to
comfort him in death. I read of one infidel, I believe
it was Voltaire, I'm not sure, whose son was dying. His father, in helplessness,
at his son's bedside, took him by the hand and he said, hang
on, son, hang on. And the boy with trembling voice
looked at his father, and he said, Dad, there's nothing to
hang on to. There's nothing to hang on to. The believer, now he has everything
to comfort him in death, for he has Christ. And having Christ,
he has all. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
son, cleanseth us from all sin. There's therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. I recall going to visit Harold Martin, first deacon I ever had, first
one I met at lookout when I became pastor there. Shortly after I went to lookout,
I went to visit Harold's brother on his deathbed. And his brother
died with hell in his eyes. A few years later, I went to
visit Harold on his deathbed. I suppose his last intelligent
words were spoken to me. And this is what he said. He said, it's good to know that
everything is under the blood. that has something to die with.
Even those who do not know Christ to be all while they live will
recognize that Christ is all when they come to die. None but
Christ, none but Christ can do dying sinners good. Twelve, in
the day of judgment, Christ will be all. He will be the judge
of all. He will be the advocate of God's
elect, and he'll be the issue in judgment. The one issue in
judgment will be this, what think ye of Christ? What think ye of
Christ? The Lord Jesus Christ will be
the plea of his saints. By what do you hope to enter
into heaven? There he is, there he is. His blood, his righteousness,
that's all, that's all my plea. My only hope, my only plea is
that Christ died and he died for me. And the Lord Jesus Christ
will be the executioner of every unbeliever, saying, Depart from
me, ye cursed. I never knew you. One last thing, in eternity,
Christ will be all. What is heaven but to be with
Christ? Now, here's something that ought
to give you something to meditate on. None of you and Shirley, Lindsay,
Diane, while you're running up down the beach next week, you
can think on this one. That'll give you something to
entertain your mind and entertain your hearts. It will be the eternal joy and
glory of Jesus Christ to have us with him in heaven. It'll be his joy, his delight,
his glory, his happiness. This is what he said, Father,
I will, I will, that they also whom thou hast given me be with
me where I am, that they may behold my glory. It'll be his
joy to see in us the travail of his soul with satisfaction. It'll be his glory as our redeemer. And it will be our eternal joy
and our eternal glory, our eternal bliss, our eternal reward to
be with Christ. Oh, what a sweet and glorious
home heaven will be to those to whom Christ is all. How blessed
a time that timeless age will be, eternity, when Christ, who
is our all, shall be fully ours and us fully in his presence. No word of man can describe the
bliss. No word of man can describe the
glory. I have not seen nor ear heard,
neither has it entered into the heart of man the things which
God has prepared for them that love him. But then, in eternity,
we shall fully know what we now know only in part in what I've
been able to describe only with base words, Christ is all. Now this is my hope, this is
my joy, this is my creed, this is my message, this is my doctrine,
this is my theology. Christ is all. Christ is all. May God make him all in all your
hearts, for Christ's sake. Amen.