Today I would like you to turn
your Bible to the book of Colossians, Colossians chapter 3, and I would
encourage you to follow along. Let's get our Bible this morning
and read from Colossians chapter 3, beginning at verse 9. And
here is what we find. Lie not one to another, seeing
that ye 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, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision
nor uncircumcision, barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free,
but Christ is all and in all." Now there is the portion of Scripture
I want to focus on this morning, the last line in verse 11, Christ
is all and in all. Never were three words spoken
which are more precious and at the same time more profound and
powerful as these three words, Christ is all. Who is sufficient
to expound their meaning? Who is sufficient? Who is able
to declare the greatness and the grandeur and glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ? Who is sufficient to understand
His glorious gospel? We say with the Apostle Paul,
not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything of
ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. It is only by God's
sovereign grace, by God's sovereign revelation that we believe and
understand the gospel of God's glory, the gospel concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. For we read in the Scripture,
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. Christ is all. Here's four things
to remember in the way of introduction of this message. Christ is all
in the purpose of God. Christ is all in the purpose
of God. John 3, 35 reads, "...the Father
loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand." All
creation, all providence, and all salvation all revolve around
Jesus Christ. Christ is all in the purpose
of God. Romans 11, verse 36, declares,
"...of him, and through him, and to him are all things to
whom be glory both now and forever." Christ is all in the purpose
of God. Christ is all, secondly, in the
Scriptures. Christ is all in the Bible. What's
this Bible all about? What's the Scriptures all about?
My friend, it declares the glory of a person who is salvation. Christ is all in the Scriptures. He said to those Jews in John
chapter 5, search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have
eternal life. They are they which testify of
me. This book declares a message
that Christ is all. Thirdly, Christ is all in salvation. He is all of God's salvation. Of Him and through Him and to
Him are all things to whom be glory. He has made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification and redemption. Christ is all
in salvation. Fourthly, Christ is all in glory.
You read through the book of Revelation, what is it about?
It's about the glory of the Lamb unto Him who loved us and washed
us from our sin in His own blood. Christ is all in the purpose
of God. Christ is all in salvation. Christ
is all in the Scriptures. And Christ is all in glory. One preacher many years ago,
wrote this about this Scripture. Christ is not valued at all unless
He be valued above all. To the believer, Christ is all.
In the believer's heart, in the believer's hope, in the believer's
happiness, in the believer's holiness, Christ is all. Someone
may ask this, well, is Christ enough? If Christ is all you
have, that's enough. That is enough. We read in Colossians
2, verse 9, "...for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily, and ye are complete in him." Complete, because the fullness
of God dwells in Christ. If you have Christ, my friend,
you have enough, for Christ is all. Now to whom is this truth
recognized, that Christ is all? Paul does not say that Christ
is all to all men, but to only those to whom have been made
new creatures in Christ. You look at Colossians 3, verse
10 again. He said, "...and He put on the
new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created
him." It's not to every man that Christ is all. To many, Jesus
Christ is nothing. To many, His name serves for
nothing but a name to curse by. And we read in the Scriptures
that God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is
above every name, that at that name every knee will bow. And
every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father. But to many, Jesus Christ is
nothing. His name means nothing. To the
self-righteous, to the religious self-righteous, He's nothing
but a doormat to wipe their feet upon. In Isaiah 53, we read,
there's no beauty that we should desire Him. To the self-righteous,
Christ is nothing. To you who make Jesus Christ
nothing, who think little of Christ, I say, bow to Him and
kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish from the way when
His wrath is kindled but a little. There are others in this world
to whom Christ is something but not everything. They think of
Him only to make up some of the small deficiencies in their salvation. They think of Him as coming to
help them save themselves. They view Him only as a part-time
Savior who will divide the work and the glory of salvation with
the sinner. Those who would joke the sinner
and Savior together as each doing a part in salvation rob Christ
of His glory. In salvation, as I said already,
Christ is all. In Isaiah 63, we read this, He
trod the winepress of the wrath of God alone, and of the people
there was none with Him. In the accomplishment of salvation,
Jesus Christ stands alone. Salvation is of the Lord. He
said in John 17, I have glorified thee on the earth. I finished
the work that you gave me to do. Salvation is His doing. If
Christ is not all to you, my friend, He is nothing. He will
never be a co-pilot or a partner in your salvation. He is all
or He is nothing. But to the believer, the believer
who rests in Christ, who trusts Christ, he's just not something. He's everything. To the believer,
Christ is all and in all. Christ Jesus is not almost all
to the believer. He's everything. He is all. All
that we are by nature, sinners before God. All that we are by
nature is emptiness. Man in his best state is altogether
Vanity. But Christ alone is the believer's
fullness. For it pleased the Father that
in Him should all fullness dwell. He's the fullness of our righteousness. He's the fullness of our redemption.
Christ is everything to the believer. The sinner is at his best state
filthiness. All of our righteousness is filthy
ragged. Christ alone is our cleansing.
The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.
All that we are before God is ignorant by nature. The carnal
mind does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. But to
the believer, Christ alone is our wisdom. He's made unto the
believer. What? Wisdom. That's our ability
to know God. All we are by nature is guilty
before God. We know the law says, let every
mouth be stopped and all the world become guilty before God.
But listen, we also know that Christ alone is our pardon. You see, Christ to the believer
is everything. We have redemption and pardon
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace. To the believer, Christ is precious,
highly esteemed and valued above everything. He is not almost
all. He is all and He is everything
to the believer. Now what does this truth include?
What does this truth include? Jesus Christ, my friend, is all
before God. There is nothing that God will
accept but that which He has provided in Christ. We are accepted
in the Beloved. We need a mediator to stand between
us and God, and certainly Christ is that. There is one God and
one mediator between God and men. That is the man, Christ
Jesus. We need a high priest to offer
a sacrifice for sin unto God for us. My friend, thank God
that Christ is that. He is our high priest. In Hebrews
2 we read, Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like
unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high
priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for
the sins of the people. We need a high priest to offer
a sacrifice, and my friend, Christ is that to us, for us, before
God. We need a spotless Lamb to satisfy
God's holy justice, and certainly Christ is that. John said, Behold,
the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. We need a kinsman-redeemer to
identify with our desperate condition, and Christ is that. You see,
Christ is all before God. He is our mediator, our high
priest, our Lamb, our Redeemer, to reconcile us unto God, that
just for the unjust that He might bring us unto God. What does
this truth include? Jesus Christ is all before God. Secondly, Jesus Christ is all
for us. all for the believers, all for
His elect. He is the surety, the substitute
who stood in our room and who stood in our stead to bear the
sin of God's people. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity
of us all, all His sheep. The Lord Jesus Christ made sufficient
atonement for the elect of God. God made Him to be sin for us
who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. He is the One the righteous worker,
the righteous one, to fulfill all righteousness for us. That's
why Paul wrote, blessed is the man to whom God would impute
righteousness without works. He is the end of the law to everyone
that believes. All that God requires us to be,
Christ is for the believer. He is our wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Thirdly, Christ is all as a means
of blessing. or as a channel of blessing.
God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in
Christ, according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world. Christ is all before God. Christ
is all for us. And Christ is all as the means
of blessing, all the love. Now listen to me. All the love
and mercy and grace and forgiveness flows from God to us, to His
people, through Christ. We receive no blessings apart
from Him. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man comes unto the Father
but by and through Me. He is able to save to the uttermost
all that come to God through Him. Christ is the pledge of
righteousness, the pledge of mercy, the pledge of grace to
us. And He is the sum and substance
of all blessings. All blessings flow from the throne
of God to the sinner's heart through Christ alone. If Christ is yours, you have
all things. If you listen to Romans 8, He
that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all,
how shall He not with Him also freely? I like that word, don't
you? Freely. Freely give us all things,
justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in closing, what does this
truth involve? Well, two things. What does this
truth involve? Two things. The first thing is
this, the glory and excellency of Christ alone. Of whom else
could it be said that He is all and in all? He cannot be less
than God if He be all. For all is the word meaning God. Jesus Christ, who is called all
in all, is very God of very God. What does this truth involve?
It involves the deity and the glory and the Godhood, the Godhead
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said in 1 Timothy 3, verse
16, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness,
God was manifest in the flesh. We worship Him as God. We rejoice
in Him as God. And we bless His name as our
only God and Savior. In the book of Titus, when Paul
wrote to that preacher Titus, he mentioned several times, and
he called our Lord Jesus Christ our God and our Savior. What does this truth involve?
It involves the deity, the glory, and the excellency of the Lord
Jesus Christ. There is none like Him. Christ
is all. Second thing, what does this
truth involve? It involves the security, the
safety, and the eternal security of the believer. Listen to what
the Lord says in John 10, verse 27 and following. He said, My
sheep, His elect, His chosen, My sheep hear My voice. I know
them, and they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hand. You see, the sheep of Christ
are secure. Our life is hid with Christ in
God. Now can the Almighty God have
anything left? than an all-conquering and victorious
Savior? Absolutely not. Those for whom
Christ redeemed and regenerated are saved with an everlasting
salvation and will enjoy Christ throughout eternity as all and
in all. Christ is all, my friend, and
to the believer we say, Amen, and thank God that He has revealed
to us the glory and the excellency of Christ as everything in our
salvation.