I'm speaking to you today from
the book of Colossians. I'll be reading from the third
chapter, verse 11. And while you're finding the
passage of scripture, let me announce my subject. I'll be
speaking on the subject, Christ is all. Now, I've preached from
this text many, many times. I've preached from this text
several times on this program. And with your patience and indulgence,
I want to do so again, and I might add again and again, because
this is the sum, the substance, and the essence of our gospel,
of our hope, and of our glory. It says in verse 11 of Colossians
chapter 3, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor
uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is
all. But Christ is all and in all. My friend, he who longs to know
the Living God will make absolutely no progress in his quest until
he knows beyond a doubt that in the knowledge of God, Jesus
Christ is all. Our Lord said in John 17, verse
3, This is eternal life, that they might know thee, the only
true and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Now, here's the question,
how does a man know God? The disciples asked that question.
They said, Lord, show us the Father. Show us the Father and
it satisfieth us. And Christ said, Have I been
so long time with you, and yet you do not know me? He that hath
seen me hath seen my Father. And again he said, No man knoweth
the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will
reveal him. So if there's anybody out there
who longs to know the Living God, and David said, as the heart
panteth for the water brooks, so panteth my soul for thee,
the Living God, the Living God. In a dry and thirsty land, my
soul longs to know the Living God. And my friend, he who longs
to know the Living God will make absolutely no progress, no progress
whatsoever, until he comes to this conclusion That in the knowledge
of God, Christ is all. He that honoureth the Father
honoureth the Son. And he that honoureth not the
Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. Christ reveals
the Father. God is revealed in the Son. If
you know Christ, you know the Father. If you do not know Christ,
you'll never know the Father. Here's the second thing. He who
seeks the pardon and forgiveness of sin. Now, I want that very
much. I want my sins forgiven. You
know, David said this, happy is the man to whom God will not
charge sin. Blessed is the man to whom God
will not impute iniquity. That is a blessed man. That is
a happy man, to know all your sins are forgiven, all of your
sins, past, present, and future. are put away, blotted out, covered
over, cast into the depths of the sea, separated from you as
far as the east is from the west. Do you want that? Do you desire
that? I do. But I'll tell you this, he who
longs for the pardon and forgiveness of sin will make no progress
toward that goal until he learns that in the forgiveness of sin,
Christ is all. In whom we have redemption, the
forgiveness of sin through his blood. Peter said, you know,
you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things such
as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by
tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. It's the blood
of Jesus Christ, God's Son, that cleanseth us from all sin. So in the forgiveness of sin,
Christ is all. In the knowledge of the Father,
Christ is all. Now watch this. He who would
be sanctified, he who would be made holy, I'm not talking about
in the eyes of men, I'm not talking about before this world, I'm
talking about in the sight of God. He who would be holy and
without blame in God's presence will make no progress toward
that goal until he knows that in sanctification, in righteousness,
in holiness, Christ is all. That's right. He's all of our
sanctification. We are holy in Christ. Outside
of Christ, there is no holiness. Outside of Christ, there is no
righteousness. Actually, our righteousnesses,
Isaiah said in Isaiah 64, 6, are filthy rags. We all do fade
as the leek. And our righteousnesses in God's
sight are filthy rags. In the flesh dwelleth no good
thing. In the flesh no man can please God, either saved flesh
or lost flesh. either submissive flesh or rebellious
flesh. But Christ is our righteousness. The righteousness of God is Christ,
who himself, on behalf of his sheep, fully and completely and
totally satisfied God's justice and obeyed God's law. He is our
sanctification. And then watch this in the fourth
place. He who would live forever. And that's what we want, isn't
it? He who would live forever in the eternal kingdom of God.
will only enjoy that blessed state in Christ. That's where
salvation is, and that's where eternal life is. John wrote,
this is the record, God hath given us eternal life, eternal
life. And this life is in his Son.
He that hath the Son of God hath eternal life, and he that hath
not the Son of God hath not life. So he who would know God, he
who would be pardoned and forgiven of all sin, the person who would
be sanctified wholly in the presence and sight of God, and he who
would live forever in the eternal kingdom of God must know that
Jesus Christ is all and in all. He is all of our wisdom, all
of our righteousness, all of our sanctification, and all of
our redemption. I want to divide this message
into four parts. I'll preach it to you under four
headings. And you remember these four headings
if you can. If you can't, I'll give them
to you as I go along. The first one is this. Jesus
Christ is all in the eternal plan and purpose of God. Now, God had a plan before this
world was made. God had a purpose before he ever
did a work. Almighty God always plans and
purposes what he plans to do. And then secondly, Christ is
all in the Bible. He is all, as far as the Bible
is concerned. And thirdly, Christ is all in
the redemption of a sinner, in the redemption of any sinner,
you, me, or anyone else, Abraham, Moses, or Jacob. Christ is all. And then in heaven, for eternal
eons, Christ is all. Now, let's take those one at
a time. First of all, Jesus Christ is all in the eternal plan and
purpose of God. There was a time, my friend,
when the earth had no being. There was a time when the earth
did not exist as we know it now. There was a time when there were
no mountains or rivers or seas or oceans. There was no green
grass and trees. In fact, there were no stars.
There was no moon and sun, no planets. There was a time when
none of these things existed. If Jesus Christ is all, I ask
this question, if he's all and in all, where was he then? Well,
let me read you the scripture in John chapter 1, verse 1. In
the beginning was the Word, capital W-O-R-D, the Word. Now, words
are vehicles of thought. Words are the way we communicate
what we want to tell someone else. That's how we communicate
with them, by word. Jesus Christ is God's communication. Jesus Christ is a revelation
of the Father. The way the Father speaks to
us is through his Son. And that Word of God, who is
Jesus Christ the Lord, it says, in the beginning was the Word,
And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. When he prayed
in John 17 5, he said, Father, glorify thou me with the glory
which I had with thee before the world was. Jesus Christ is
God Almighty. And he was with the Father in
the beginning. When God made man, he said, let
us make man. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
I can't explain the Trinity, but I can believe it. There are
a lot of things about God I can't explain. There are a lot of things
about God and his redemptive purposes and his eternal glory
and his eternal power that I can't understand. But I believe it. I don't walk by sight. I walk
by faith. And you had better also. I believe
God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And the Father and the Son and
the Holy Spirit existed together before all things were made.
Christ is all. He is all. All right. There was
a time when the world was created in its present form. There was
a time when the sun was put in space, and the moon, the stars,
each planet was ordained to follow its charted course. The world
was made and put down here, and God divided the ocean, the water
from the dry land. He made the night and the day.
He made the trees and the mountains and the valleys, and all these
things. Last of all, he made man. Now, Jesus Christ is all. Where was he then? Well, let's
read the Word. It says in John 1, 2, And all
things were made by him, and without him was not anything
made that was made. He was in the world, and the
world was made by him. Listen to Colossians 1, 16. For
by him, that's Christ, were all things created that are in heaven,
that are in earth, visible and invisible. visible and invisible. He is before all things, and
by Him all things consist. Christ is all. Christ is all
in creation. All things were made by Him and
for Him. All right, let's move on. There
was a day when sin entered this world. We know that God created
man holy and upright without sin. God created man in His own
image. And that man was given a law.
There was a covenant of works made with that man. God put a
tree in the Garden of Eden and he said, don't eat of it. And
the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. Well, we know that
man rebelled against God just like Lucifer, Satan, the fallen
angel. And he rebelled in such a way
that he ate of that tree and he died spiritually. Death, condemnation,
judgment, darkness, evil passed upon all men. Man failed. He
was permeated with guilt and shame and hatred and all these
these evil emotions and evil nature. If Christ is all, where
was he then? Where was Christ then? Well,
I'll tell you this. He was the light that God promised
to a dark world. He was the life that God promised
to a dead world. He was the hope that God promised
to a hopeless world. For God announced. Now, when
the angels fell, when the angels fell, there was no Savior provided,
there was no Savior promised. He took not on himself the nature
of angels. The angels that fell were reserved,
chained in darkness, reserved until judgment, until the day
of judgment. But God promised man a Savior. He said that a
man would come into this world born of a woman, not of the seed
of man, but of the seed of woman, and be born of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ was God's promise of redemption in the darkest
hour that this world has ever when man was plunged into death
and evil and sickness and disease. Now, there was a time when the
world, several thousand years later, there was a time when
the world was buried in religious ignorance, ceremonialism, superstition. The world, by wisdom, knew not
God. Now, Christ is all. Where was Christ then? Well,
let me tell you what the Scripture said. The Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. In the fullness of time, God sent forth his Son,
made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them born under
the law. Christ Jesus came into the world.
He came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Yes,
in that dark hour of superstition, religious ignorance, idolatry,
ceremonialism, when the world by wisdom knew not God, God himself,
in the person of his Son, clothed in the likeness of sinful flesh,
came into this world and was made flesh and dwelt among us
for the purpose of saving people from their sin. He came into
this world numbered with the transgressors, identified with
the rebels. He came into this world clothed
in human flesh and was tested and tried and tempted in all
points as we are yet without sin. And bearing the burden of
our sin, he went to the cross of Calvary, and there, under
the wrath of God, he died, was buried, and rose again. That's
the good news of the gospel. Well, let's go further. There's
a time coming when this world shall end. God said he wouldn't
destroy the world by water anymore. When Noah's ark came to rest,
God put a rainbow in the sky. And he said, that's my covenant,
that's my promise, I'll never again judge the world by water. I'll never destroy it, but I
will destroy it by fire. And the day is coming when God
will end this earth's existence. There will be a new heaven and
a new earth. You say, why a new heaven? Because
sin entered there too. I saw Satan fall from heaven,
Christ said. Sin entered this earth, and God's
going to do away with all sin, every stain of sin, every jot
and tittle of sin, every atom of sin, every spot of sin. God
will make a new heaven and a new earth. And God will judge all
men. Every man shall give an account
of himself to God. We shall all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ. If Christ is all, where will
he be then? Listen to the word. God hath
given him a name which is above every name, that at the name
of Jesus every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess
that he is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. We're not
going to give credit to men, or glory to men, or praise to
men. We're going to give that credit and glory and praise to
the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Every knee shall bow. Every tongue
shall confess that he's Lord. God hath made all things in order
that Jesus Christ might have the preeminence. And he said,
The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to
the Son. When this world ends, and when
God's judgment throne is approached by every son of Adam out of Christ,
The judge on that throne will be none other than the lamb who
died on the cross. But he'll be the lion. He'll
be the judge. He'll be the one who'll commit
every rebel to the pits of the dam. Jesus Christ is all. He said he's Alpha and Omega.
He's beginning and end. He's all in between. Everything
that the Father had decreed, planned, purposed, and provided
is because of and in Jesus Christ the Lord. Secondly, Christ is
all. He is all in the Bible. Now,
the Bible, my friend, is a book of redemption. Christ is the
key that unlocks the treasures of Scripture. Listen to Acts
10, verse 43. To him, that is to Christ, give
all the prophets witness. He said, Moses wrote of me. He said, Abraham saw my day and
was glad. If you can compress and condense
this book, until you get one word. That word will be Jesus
Christ. In Luke 24, verse 44, He said
to them, These are the words that I have spake unto you, while
I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which
are written in the law of Moses, in the prophets, in the Psalms,
concerning me. In the beginning of the Bible,
in Genesis chapter 3, we have Christ in promise. In the middle
of the Bible, it is Christ in prophecy, and Christ in picture. In the end of the Bible, in the
New Testament, it is Christ in person. You read the Scriptures. Christ is our Passover. Christ
is that rock. It was Christ to whom Abel looked
when he brought that sacrifice, the lamb without spot or blemish.
It was Christ of whom Enoch prophesied, the Lord cometh with 10,000 of
his saints. It was Christ that Abraham saw
on Mount Moriah when he substituted the ram for his own son. It was Christ of whom Jacob spoke
when he lay dying and said, The scepter shall not depart from
Judah till Shiloh come. It was Christ that the Israelites
pictured in the Passover in Egypt. It was Christ pictured in the
wilderness. The bread from heaven is Christ. The rock Moses smote
is Christ. The brazen serpent lifted up
is Jesus Christ. The tabernacle where God met
men and men met God is Christ. The priesthood, the atonement,
every sacrifice, every scapegoat is Jesus Christ. It was Christ
of whom David wrote in the psalm, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit
thou on my right hand. It was Christ prophesied from
Isaiah to Malachi. I ask you, my friend, what is
the Bible to you? Is it a book of history? Is it
a book of good moral precepts? Is it a book of doctrine to be
argued? Is it a book of prophecy to be speculated? Or is it the
Word of God in which you have found Jesus Christ? If you have
not found Christ to be all and in all, if you have not found
Christ to be the blessed key to the treasures of Scripture,
then you've read your Bible to very little purpose. And you
will find at the end, as our Lord said to the Pharisees, this
book will judge you. And then, my friends, thirdly,
Christ is all in the redemption of a sinner. Now, I don't wish
to be misunderstood. I hold to the election of the
Father, God the Father's purpose to redeem. He chose a people
in Christ before the foundation of the world. We're sanctified
by God the Father. I believe that. I know that to
be true. The purpose is of the Father. He purposed salvation,
He planned it, He executed it, He applied it, He sustains it,
and He will perfect it. I believe the Bible teaches the
sanctification of the Holy Spirit, the effectual call of the Spirit
of God through the Word of God. There is perfect harmony in the
blessed Trinity. But, my friend, in the redemption
of a soul, in the salvation of a sinner, it is the purpose of
God to glorify his Son. Christ is all in redemption.
It says, In Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
and you are complete in him. that in all things he might have
the preeminence. Of God he is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Christ is our
wisdom, all of our wisdom. Outside of Christ there's nothing
but ignorance and foolishness. No man knoweth the Father save
the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal. Christ is all our
righteousness. He who knew no sin was made sin
for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Christ is all of our sanctification. He, Jude said, will present you
holy. Christ is all of our redemption,
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin through his
blood. Christ is all of our hope. He says, Christ in you. That's
the hope of glory. My friend, faith is not the Savior.
Christ is. A man's not saved because he
believes. A man is saved because Christ died for his sins. And
a man's not saved who doesn't believe. Works is not the Savior. Christ is the Savior. Works didn't
bow on the cross. Works do not intercede at the
throne of God. Works cannot make us whole. It
is Christ that makes us whole. But a man's not saved who does
not work. Faith without works is dead. Prayer is not the Savior. But a man is not saved who does
not pray. Christ is the Savior. Jesus Christ is our redemption. He is our sanctification. He
is our righteousness. He is all things. The Father
looks on the Son. and redeems us. The Father looks
on the Son and receives us. The Father looks on the Son and
raises us. The Father looks on the Son and
enthrones us. It's all in Christ. When He died
on the cross, we died. When He was buried, we were buried.
When He rose again, we arose in Him. Christ is the Savior. He's the object of faith. Now,
the Word of God is the foundation of faith. Faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God. We believe because God has said
it, God has written it. All Scripture is God-breathed.
It's given by inspiration of God. It's profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
But the Word of God is not the object of faith. Christ is. The
Word of God is not the Savior. Christ is. Somebody said this,
I once was lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I
see. The only hope, the only plea,
is that when Christ dies, He died for me. That's the hope,
and that's the plea. Now, let's look at the last thing
now. Christ is all and in all. He's all in the eternal purpose
and plan of Almighty God, known unto God of all His works from
the beginning. He purposed to save. He was pleased
to save. He planned to save, and that
in Christ. And Christ is all in the redemption
of a sinner. And Christ is all in the Word
of God. The Word is Christ. Christ is
the Bible. Christ is salvation. Christ is
eternal life. But last of all, Christ will
be all in heaven. Our Lord said to that thief who
was hanging with him on Calvary's hill, he said, Today shalt thou
be with me in paradise. With me. Christ is heaven. He is heaven. Heaven is to be
with Christ. To be with Christ. The Apostle
Paul said, I am in a straight betwixt the two. I have a desire
to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. He said
to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Heaven is Christ. It's to be
with Christ. It's to gaze upon Christ's face. It's to be conformed to the image
of Christ. It's to be made in his likeness. Heaven is Christ. In John 14, verse 1, our Lord
said to his disciples, let not your heart be troubled. You believe
in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many
men. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare
a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I
am, there you may be also." Christ is our heaven. He's all in heaven.
As I said before, every knee shall bow, every tongue shall
confess that he's Lord. Everybody in heaven, earth, and
hell. But the praise of Christ will be our eternal song. That's
what the song of heaven is, unto him who loved us and washed us
from our sins in his own blood. The glory of Christ will be our
delight. We're going to proclaim his Lordship.
We're going to exalt and magnify his name forever and forever,
the Lamb on the throne, as if it had been slain. The service
of Christ will be our occupation in heaven. That's what we're
going to do, day and night, serve him. And then the presence of
Christ will be our security. Our security is not ourselves
or our deeds or our works or our records. Our security is
the Lord Jesus Christ. Would you know the Father? The
only way to know the Father is in Christ, the Son. Would you
have your sins all forgiven, all pardoned, all put away? The
only way for sin to be pardoned and put away is in Jesus Christ,
who loved us and gave himself for us. Would you, my friend,
be sanctified, holy, righteous, in the presence of Almighty God,
without sin, without stain, without mark, holy, unblameable, in His
sight, justified in His presence, would you? The only way is in
Christ. It's not in an altar, it's not
in a law, it's not in a denomination, it's not in a religion, it's
in Christ. Would you live eternally in glory? Christ is heaven. And this is what disturbs me,
how little men know who talk of going to heaven when they
manifest no love for Christ now, no concern for Christ now, no
delight in Christ now, nor in His presence. My friend, He is
heaven. If you don't enjoy Him now, you'll
never enjoy Him there.