It is not that I did choose thee,
Lord, for, Lord, that could not be. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Niver. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. In Colossians chapter 3, verse
11, Paul makes this profound statement, Christ is all. I've entitled this message, Christ
is all. I'd like to read you a poem. I entered once a home of care,
for age and poverty were there, yet joy and peace withal. I asked that lonely mother whence
her helpless widowhood's defense, and she told me, Christ is all. I stood beside a dying bed where
lay a man with aching head, waiting for God to call. I saw his smile,
it was as sweet as May, and as his spirit passed away, he whispered,
Christ is all. I saw the gospel preacher go.
To islands, sands, and Greenland snow, He heard His Master's call. No home nor life He counted dear,
And once in trials He owned no fear, He knew that Christ is
all. I saw the martyr at the stake,
The flames could not His courage shake, Nor death His soul appall. I asked Him whence His strength
was given, He looked triumphantly to heaven, and he answered, Christ
is all. I dreamed that time and years
were fled, the earth and sea gave up her dead, and the fire
dissolved this ball. I saw the church's ransomed throng. I heard them singing of this
song. They were singing, Christ is
all. What do you and I know of this
statement? Christ is all. And to many, He's nothing. To some, He's recognized. To some, He's very important.
But to some, He is all. Christ is all. Now what does that mean? In verse
9 of Colossians chapter 3, Paul said, Lie not one to another,
seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds, and
have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after
the image of him that created him. And this is what that knowledge
is that's given in this renewal, the renewal of the Holy Spirit,
where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, born nor free, but Christ is all. And in all. This is why all fleshly distinctions
are dropped when it is understood that Christ is all. There's no
Jew or Greek. There's no racial distinctions
in Christ. There's no black, white or yellow. Christ is all. There's no circumcision or uncircumcision. There are no religious distinctions. There are no denominations. Now
understand, every denomination is man-made. You won't find anything
like that in the Bible. Oh, when Christ is believed,
Christ is all. And all of these man-made religious
distinctions are dropped. In Christ, there's no bond or
free. There are no social distinctions. There are no rich and there are
no poor. Actually, they're all rich. In
Christ, there's no barbarian or Scythian. There are no educational,
intellectual, or cultural distinctions. Christ is all. And in all, all these fleshly
distinctions are dropped. Now, have you and I understood
that Christ is all. Oh, that the Lord would enable
me to speak on this most glorious subject. And I despair doing
it justice. How can you preach sufficiently
on Christ is all, but may the Lord enable me to speak of what
God the Spirit means when He tells us that Christ Jesus is
all. First, Christ is all in His person. He said, I am the beginning and
the end, the first and the last, the alpha and the omega. It pleased the Father that in
Him should all fullness dwell, to this extent that in Him dwelleth
all the fullness. of the Godhead in a body. All things. Spell. Christ is all. It please the
Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. He must have
the preeminence in all things. He's all. He's all in God's purpose. Now, what's God's purpose? Why
did He create men? Why did He create the universe? Because he determined to have
a bunch of children exactly like his blessed son. He took another
look at his son and he said, I'm going to have a bunch more
exactly like him. Listen to this scripture. For
whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. This all happened
before time began. Whom he did foreknow, those he
knew beforehand, those he loved beforehand. Remember, he said
in Jeremiah 31 3, of all of God's children, Behold, I've loved
you with an everlasting love, a love that never began and a
love that will never end. Now, here's God's purpose. For
whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among
many brethren. Now, remember, this is not about
me and you. This is about Christ and His
glory. Christ is all and all God does,
He does for the glory of His Son. He's all in God's purpose.
God's purpose is to have a bunch more exactly like His Son. Christ Jesus is all in creation. He's the one who created the
world. All things were created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things,
and by Him all things consist. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things, all things, were
made by Him. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. It was Jesus Christ who created
the universe. Evolution is not true. Christ
created the universe. Now, I know some people say,
well, you can believe the gospel and believe God and still believe
in evolution. No, you can't. Evolution says,
look how far we've come. We started way down here and
look at the progress we've made. Creation says, look how far we've
fallen. Now, Christ Jesus is all in creation. And Christ Jesus is all in providence. Now, what is providence? It's
everything that happens in time. I don't care if you're talking
about the flight of dust through the air. I don't care if you're
talking about a war in some foreign country or right here. Whatever
takes place, He is in control of. He's all in providence. 1 3 says, being the brightness
of His glory and the express image of His person and upholding
all things by the word of His power. By Him all things consist. Nothing happens without Him willing
it. Even the demons are subject to
Him. They had to ask permission of
Him to go from one place to another. While when Satan wanted to tempt
Peter, he had to ask the Lord first about whether he could
do it or not. The same is true with Job. He's
in control of everything. When the soldiers came to arrest
him before the crucifixion, he said, Whom seek ye? And they
said, Jesus of Nazareth. And he said, I am. And they fell
backwards. What our Lord was doing at this
time was letting them know that he's no victim. He's in control
of everything that's taking place. Why Pilate looked at him and
said, aren't you going to answer me? Don't you know that I have
power to crucify you and I have power to release you. And the
Lord looked at him and said, you could have no power at all
over me, except it were given thee from above. Christ controls
everything. He's all in providence. And Jesus Christ is all in the
scriptures. I want you to listen to me real
carefully. This is so very important. In John chapter 5, verse 39,
the Lord said to the Pharisees, you search the Scriptures. You
read them. You study them. And then, in
the Scriptures, you think you have eternal life. You think,
if I can just learn how to obey these laws and do these things,
I'll have eternal life. And they are they, these Scriptures
you search, but you don't really understand the meaning of them.
They are they which testify of Me. Every Scripture testifies
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if I don't see that in the
Scripture, I haven't understood that Scripture. You go back into
Genesis chapter 3, right after the fall of man, we read of the
seed of woman. Not the seed of man, the seed
of the virgin born woman, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall
crush the serpent's head. He is Abel's more excellent sacrifice
that God accepted and regarded Abel, and he rejected Cain. It's pointing to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's Noah's ark. Salvation was
in the ark. Outside of that ark, there was
nothing but God's wrath. Salvation's in Christ. Outside
of Him, there's no favor from God. He is that substitute ram
that Abraham said when Isaac said, here's the fire and here's
the wood, where's the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham
replied, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And that's who the Lord Jesus
Christ is. He's the lamb of God's providing, the lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. In every story in the Old Testament,
in every ritual, In every sacrifice, it all points to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is all in the Scriptures. I remember somebody once said,
the Old Testament said, somebody's coming. The Gospels say, He's
here. And the Epistles say, He's coming
again. He is all in the Scriptures. Christ is all in salvation. Now, what is salvation? Salvation
is what God does for the sinner. Salvation is not what you do
for God. It's what God does for you. Now, in salvation, Christ
is all, because all of God's blessing is in Him. In Ephesians
chapter 1, verse 3, we read, Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. All spiritual blessings
that every believer enjoys is in the Lord Jesus Christ. All
of God's blessing, all of God's favor is in Christ. It's not
anywhere else. All of God's love is in Christ. Nothing will be able to separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Now this is a promise to the believer. God's love is not in
toward that person who dies rejecting Christ. You can't tell me that
God loves those people who are in hell. He loves those in His
Son. He loves those who believe. He
gave them the faith to believe. And all of God's spiritual blessings
are in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's all in election. Now if
God chose who would be saved before time began, you can't
believe the Bible denied that. God chose who would be saved
before time began, and they were chosen in Christ. It wasn't some
kind of arbitrary choice on God's part. Somehow God's elect, and
I don't understand this, I just believe it. Somehow all of God's
elect have always been united to Christ. Ephesians 1 verse
4 says, According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world. that we should be holy and without
blame before Him. Christ is all in the justification
of the sinner. Now, when God saves me, He saves
me by His grace, He chooses me, He justifies me. He makes it
to where I'm not guilty, where I stand before Him holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in His sight. And there's one reason, because
I'm in Christ. I'm chosen in Him, and His righteousness
becomes my righteousness. My sin became His. He's all in
redemption. He put away my sin, and He did
it with no help from me. Hebrews 1-3 says He by Himself
purged us of our sins and put them away, and His perfect righteousness
is mine. Christ is all in my salvation. He's all in my regeneration.
You know, the Spirit of God is called the Spirit of Christ,
and we read of Christ in you, The hope of glory and he's all
my preservation. I'm preserved in Christ Jesus. I must persevere all the way
to the end. I can't quit and I won't quit and I'm unable to
quit because I'm preserved in Christ Jesus and he's all in
our final glorification. When I'm made perfectly conformed
to His image, it'll be clearly seen that He is all. Christ is all in our doctrine. Whatever doctrine there is in
the scripture, He is the sum and the substance of it. And
if I don't see Him as the sum and substance of whatever doctrine
I'm considering, I've not understood it. I mentioned election a moment
ago. What is election without Jesus
Christ? Why would God choose me? Because
I'm in Christ. Why would God love me? Because
I'm in Christ. How could He redeem me? Because
of Christ's precious blood. Whatever doctrine we're dealing
with, In the Scriptures, He is the sum and substance of it,
and that doctrine is not understood unless I see that He is all in
it. What about faith? Well, He's
the object of faith. He's all in faith. We look to
Him. We don't look within. We look outside of ourselves
to Him. And He's the giver of faith. If I have faith, it's
because He gave it to me. He's called the author and the
finisher of our faith. Why, if you talk about hell,
what a horrible thing that... What a horrible thing to think
about, but it's true. It's true. There is a hell. And it was made
for the glory of Christ. You say, how can you say that?
Well, when God sends a man to hell, it glorifies his justice.
But even more so, when I think of the Lord Jesus Christ bearing
the full equivalent of hell on the cross as the sinner's substitute
and satisfying the justice of God. Oh, how that glorifies Christ. Everything God does. He does for the honor and the
glory of His Son. You know, Christ is all in our
experience. Now, here's my experience. Christ
is all. What's your testimony? Christ
is all. When were you saved? Well, in my experience, when
I understood that Christ is all. It didn't have anything to do
with me. Only to do with Him. Christ is all in my past. I was
viewed in the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Christ is all in my physical past, which is in and of itself
nothing but sin. But He said there are sins and
iniquities I remember no more. How come? Because of Christ.
He's all in my present. I'm not looking to some experience
in the past for assurance of salvation. My assurance comes
from Him. He's all right now. There is
therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
He's all right now. He's all I'm hoping in right
now. When I first looked to Christ, He's the only hope I had. Right
now, it hasn't changed at all. He's the only hope I have. He's all in my assurance. Knowing
that His death is all I need. He's all in my faith. I look
to Him. He'll be on the future. When
my name is called on Judgment Day, He'll answer for me. And
it will be seen clearly that I've been saved by Him. He's
all my peace. I have peace. And that peace I have is because
I know in Him I have all, because He's all, all that God requires
of me, I have. And I need nothing else. He's
all in my comfort. What is it that comforts me?
Knowing that in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in
the body and you are complete. Nothing lacking in Him. There's nothing I can do to make
myself more accepted, more saved, more loved, more secure. Christ
Jesus is all. He's all in my hope. I've got
a confident expectation regarding the future. I know I'm going
to stand accepted before God. And there's one reason. Because
Christ is all. He's all in the sweetness of
forgiveness. Ephesians 4.32 says, Be ye kind,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven you. He's all in our motivation. I
need no other motivation. I don't serve out of hope for
reward or out of fear of punishment, but because He is all. And my dear friend, He is all
in our preaching. What do I mean by that? Well,
what did Paul mean in 1 Corinthians 2, verses 1 and 2, when he says,
I determined not to know anything among you, not to recognize anything
or think of anything as even important, save Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. It was said of the apostles and
daily in the temple and in every house, they ceased not to teach
and to preach. Jesus Christ. Christ is all in
our preaching. And every time I preach, it better
be a variation on this theme, Christ is all. Now, this is what
the unbeliever needs to hear. Christ is all. This is what the
atheist needs to hear. Christ is all. This is what the
worldly needs to hear. Christ is all. This is what the
believer needs to hear. Christ is all. What about when I'm sick? I feel
like I'm dying. What do I need to hear? Christ
is all. What about when I'm depressed
and I feel my sin and I feel my need and I'm just so discouraged
with myself and the things around me? What do I need to hear? Christ
is all. What about when I'm happy and
elated and seemingly enabled to believe God? What is it I
need to hear? Christ is all. At all times, this is what I
need to hear, that Christ is all. Now quite often, preachers
advertise their preaching as Christ-centered preaching. We
have a Christ-centered preaching or a Christ-centered church or
Christ-centered worship. That's not good enough. It must
be Christ is all, not just Christ-centered. If he's centered, that means
there's other stuff that are being said. Christ is all. He's all in all of our preaching. I love that hymn. All that thrills
my soul is Jesus. He is more than life to me and
the fairest of ten thousand in my blessed Lord I see. Living, He loved me. Dying, He
saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day he's coming. Oh, glorious
day. He's all in the second coming
in this sense. You know, people have all kinds of different beliefs
about eschatology, pre-millennial, post-millennial, all-millennial
views, and they put all this emphasis on when and what's going
to take place. The emphasis, my dear friend,
is who's coming? Who's coming? I don't care how it happens.
I care about who's coming. He's coming and He is all. And I'll tell you when I have,
when I will have a true appreciation of this, that Christ is all. And I have an appreciation of
it now, but I'll tell you when I really have an appreciation of it, when
I stand before God in judgment and He answers for me. When my name is called and He
says present and accounted for. When I'm made to stand before
God, holy and unblameable and unreprovable in God's sight,
then I'll have some understanding that Christ is all. The songwriter said, when I stand
before thy throne, dressed in beauty not my own, when I see
thee as thou art, love thee with unsinning heart, then, Lord,
shall I fully know Not to them how much I owe. And the believer,
every believer, will spend eternity learning more of this. Christ is all. That's what heaven is going to
be about. And throughout the eternity we'll never plumb the
depths. of Christ is all. Now, to some people, if all they
heard was Christ is all, they'd get bored. I mean, give us something
else. Give us some other subjects. But if you've ever seen the beauty
of Christ, you see that Christ is all. Now, true story. Somebody was scared to death
of dying, didn't have any assurance of salvation, and they went to
a preacher. to ask them about their state. They told the preacher
how they felt. And they asked this question, if all you've got is Christ, is that enough to save you? If
that's all you've got, you don't have any works that you think
would recommend you. You don't have anything. If all
you've got is Christ, is that enough to save you? And the wise
preacher answered and said, it is if he's all you got. If he's all you got, that's all
you need. I need no other argument. I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. Now, we have this message on
CD and DVD. You call the church, write or
email. We'll send you a copy. I'd like to invite you to services
at Todd's Road Grace Church. We begin Bible study at 9.45
this morning. Worship services at 10.30 and
the evening worship is at 6. This is Todd Nyberg praying God
will be pleased to make himself known to you. That's our prayer.
Amen. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com
or you may write or call the church at the information provided
on the screen.