[0:00] The passage which you read, Colossians chapter 3, and our text for this evening is the end of verse 11. Colossians 3 verse 11.
[0:13] Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
[0:30] Particularly these words, but Christ is all and in all. Remember the important question that Jesus asked of his disciples.
[0:45] What think ye of Christ? What think ye of Christ? Christ. It's a very important question because the answer to that question determines where we will spend our eternity.
[1:04] To most people, Christ is nothing. He's our root out of our dry ground. He has no form or comeliness.
[1:15] And there is no beauty that they see in him to desire him. Most people have no interest in Christ. They're quite apathetic.
[1:26] They couldn't care less about him. Some, of course, show some appreciation for him. They talk of him maybe as a teacher.
[1:40] Muslims regard him as a prophet. Gandhi regarded him as a great teacher and a great example. Others talk of him as an inspiration. But the true Christian sees Christ not just as a teacher.
[1:57] He's certainly that. Not just as an example. He's also that. Not even as an inspiration. He's certainly that. But the true Christian sees Christ as the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley.
[2:11] As the altogether lovely one. As the cheapest among ten thousand to our soul. The true Christian sees Christ as his food and his drink.
[2:28] Without Christ, we starve. He is the bread of life. He is the one that we must eat every day. He is the living water.
[2:40] The life-giving water. Of whom we must drink. Otherwise, we will thirst to all eternity. The true Christian sees Christ as our sacrifice.
[2:53] Christ as our atonement. Christ as the one who shed his blood to make peace between a holy God and sinful man. Christ as the true Christian sees Christ as the way, the truth, and the life.
[3:09] Without Christ, we're lost. Without Christ, we're in error and in ignorance. Without Christ, we're dead. He is the way, the truth, and the life.
[3:23] Christ is our all and in all. We love him with all our heart. With the Apostle Paul, we can say, For us to live is Christ.
[3:40] To die is gain. Let's look at some of the points raised in this chapter about Christ. Paul says, We preach Christ.
[3:52] Christ. And I hope we do the same here in this church tonight and every other night. Christ is to be the substance, the center of our preaching.
[4:07] Christ is the very message. The first thing that we notice about Christ in this chapter is that he has raised us.
[4:18] Verse 1. If then you be risen with Christ, seek those things that are above. By nature, we are dead. Dead in trespasses and sins.
[4:31] Dead to God. Wallowing in our sin and in our misery. We are dead and on our way to eternal death in hell.
[4:45] But Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. He himself rose from the dead, triumphant. Breaking the bonds of death asunder.
[4:57] Coming out of that prison of the grave. He rose. He is not here. He is risen. He ascended up on high.
[5:08] Leading captivity captive. He gives gifts to men. He is now seated at the right hand of God. And you and I too will rise physically.
[5:19] They that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God one day and live. That's a tremendous comfort to us. When we take our loved ones and when we place them in that hole in the ground and cover them with a cold earth.
[5:38] It's sad. But we know that every loved one that we bury there, every loved one who trusts in Jesus, death is not the end.
[5:51] One day the Lord will descend from heaven with a shout. What a shout! It will ring through the whole earth. It will ring through the whole universe.
[6:07] It will even ring into hell itself. And the dead shall rise.
[6:19] Every man and woman will rise from the graves. No matter what happened to their bodies. No matter for how long they have been dead. They will arise.
[6:30] But this verse is not talking to us about physical resurrection.
[6:41] That certainly takes place. But it's talking about something which has happened already in this life. If then you be risen with Christ. You are already risen with Christ.
[6:51] In what sense? The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and live. He calls us out of a state of being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive.
[7:05] Our eyes are opened so that we don't just see pews and people and a church. But we see God by faith.
[7:19] Our ears are opened so that we don't just hear the voice of a man speaking. But we hear the voice of God. Our mouth is opened so that we don't just speak to one another.
[7:34] But we speak to the Most High. We are risen to live life on a new level. Verse 4.
[7:47] Christ who is our life. When you're converted. When you're born again. Christ. Christ. Becomes your life.
[7:59] He lives in you. And he gives you a new life. Our life is hid with Christ in God. At one time our life was simply, purely upon this earth.
[8:14] But now although we walk around upon this earth. Our life is hid with Christ in God. There is a sense in which we are living in heaven. While we are still walking upon this earth.
[8:27] The spirit of the living God dwells in our hearts.
[8:37] Uniting us to Christ. Uniting us to Christ. Regeneration is that change that resurrects us from being spiritually dead.
[8:49] And gives us spiritual life. And gives us spiritual life so that we start walking on the road to heaven. So that we start living for God. So that we start this new relationship with him.
[9:01] Where our life is in heaven. Although we ourselves are still upon this earth. And we start living for God. And we start living for God. It's a wonderful thing. But although the masses of people in this world are living for the trivialities of this life.
[9:22] For money, pleasure, success. You and I. If you are converted. If you are converted. Born again. Born again. Are living on a totally different plane.
[9:33] Your interests are different. Your ambition is different. Your life principle is different. Your life principle is different. You see and hear and think and perceive differently.
[9:47] You are relating to God in a different way. He has raised us. Christ is our all and in all.
[10:01] Why? Because Christ has changed our lives. We look back with sadness on these years when we were dead.
[10:12] Years which the locust has eaten. Wasted years. Lying about in the graves of this world. And we thank God that one day Jesus Christ came into our life.
[10:24] And that day was the day of our birth. Our new birth. The beginning of a new life. A new precious glorious existence.
[10:39] Christ is our all and in all. Without him we are dead. But with him we live. Do you live? Verse 13.
[10:54] Christ forgave us our sins. Forbearing one another. Forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any. Even as Christ forgave you.
[11:06] So also do ye. It's an amazing thing. That our sins are forgiven. When we think of all that we have done against Christ. He blots out our transgressions.
[11:20] The hand-writing of the ordinances that was against us. He took a nail to the tree. The curses. The condemnation.
[11:31] The sentence of wrath and damnation. He nailed to his tree. I am he that blotteth out as a thick cloud thy transgressions.
[11:41] And as a cloud thy sins. He forgives. And he forgets. He casts into the sea. Casts behind his back our sins.
[11:54] We mocked him. We spat on him. We scourged him. We crucified him.
[12:07] And yet he says. Father forgive them. For they know not what they do. Our life up till our conversion was a life spent in sin.
[12:24] In verse 8 we are told of all the wicked things that we used to do. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication, lying.
[12:36] That was our past. But he forgave us all our sins. But even after our conversion we still sin.
[12:49] Sadly. There is still so much wrong in our lives. What a saviour though. He washed us in his blood. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses us from all sin.
[13:05] Though your sins be as scarlet. They shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson. They shall be as wool. There is a fountain opened in the house of David.
[13:22] For the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The fountain of blood. That washes away our sin. There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.
[13:40] No condemnation. Those who are outside of Christ, they are condemned. But if you are in Christ, there is no condemnation.
[13:51] You cannot be condemned. You have been forgiven. You have been justified. Wherein he pardoneth all our sins and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us and received by faith alone.
[14:12] He forgave us. He forgave us. Are you a sinner? Have your sins been forgiven? Have all your sins been pardoned?
[14:25] Have you pardoned? If they have, you too rejoice. And you say, Christ is my all and in all.
[14:39] Through Christ, I stand. I stand before the judge. But without Christ, I'm condemned.
[14:51] Christ is our all and in all. Through him, we have forgiveness. Thirdly, he transformed us.
[15:07] Verses 9 and 10. Lie not one to another, seeing ye 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.
[15:20] You have put off the old man, the old unconverted man, with his ways of sin. And you have put on the new man, the spiritual man.
[15:34] This is the change of the new birth. The new person born. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away.
[15:47] Behold, all things are made new. Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but arrive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
[16:03] What a change through Christ. Crucified with Christ, nevertheless we live. The past behind us.
[16:15] Dead and buried with Christ. Being planted together in the likeness of his death. That, like as Christ has risen from the dead, so also you should walk in newness of life.
[16:27] As you have yielded your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin in your unconverted past, so now yield yourselves to God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
[16:46] He transformed us. In the past we were just like others. Verse 5. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
[17:07] For which things sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience. That's the past. We must consider it the past.
[17:21] Regard it the past. Turn away from it. Put off the old man with his deeds. Leave the old man behind. That's the unconverted man. That's the man of the past.
[17:34] Put on the new man. Be new men and new women in Christ Jesus. Walk in newness of life. Be new. Be his. Set your affections on things that are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.
[17:51] Seek those things that are above, for you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ and God. Christ sanctifies us.
[18:04] He makes us holy. He transforms us and makes us new. He is our all and in all. Is he working in your life?
[18:17] Has he brought about this great change? Are you rejoicing in Christ tonight? Christ binds us together, verse 11, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, scythian, born nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
[18:44] We are united in one body, whatever the past. All the divisions are broken down when we become Christians. Christ unites us.
[18:57] The divisions of race, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, Scottish or English, white or black, there is neither Jew nor Greek.
[19:11] We are all one. The division of religion, circumcision or uncircumcision. It makes no difference what our past was.
[19:25] Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, free church, free Presbyterian, brethren, Baptist, Church of Scotland, Church of England, what does it matter?
[19:38] All one in Christ. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision. Education or culture make no difference.
[19:55] Barbarian or Scythian makes no difference. Or social standing, slave or free. Remember Galatians 3.28.
[20:12] There is neither Jew nor Gentile. There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female. We are all one in Christ.
[20:26] Christ unites us into one loving family. Christ is the center. Indeed, we are one body. Verse 15.
[20:39] Let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which you are called in one body and be ye thankful. Christ is the head. We are the body. Different parts of the body.
[20:52] Nerves connect the body to the head. The head, the brain, controls the body. And so Christ is united to us, unites us to one another, controls us, works in us.
[21:05] Christ in you. The hope of glory. Christ uniting us all in one body. Friday night, I was down in Campbellton and was addressing the entire Christian fellowship.
[21:24] There were folk there who were free church. There were folk who were Church of Scotland. There were folk who were Salvation Army. Folk who were brethren and Baptist.
[21:37] But there was a bond that bound them all together. And what is that bond? Christ. Christ. Christ is all and in all.
[21:50] If we are born again and if we believe in Jesus, it makes no difference what denomination we belong to. There is a basic unity. And it's wonderful how when you meet a true Christian, somebody that perhaps you've never seen before, immediately there is a friendship.
[22:12] there is a unity. There is something that binds you one to another. Fifthly, he is coming for us again.
[22:31] Verse four. When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Christ who is our life shall appear.
[22:47] He is the lover of our souls. He is the great bridegroom. The wedding day is approaching and the bridegroom won't forget that day.
[23:01] He will descend from heaven with a shout. He will gather us from the four corners of the earth. the sea will give up the dead which are in it. Death and the grave will deliver up the dead which are in them.
[23:16] The dead in Christ shall rise first and then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air.
[23:28] And then shall we forever be with the Lord. we will see him in his glory the lover of our souls but we too will be revealed in glory.
[23:44] The new Jerusalem descending from heaven out of God as a bride adorned for her husband. How beautiful we will be on that day made perfectly holy.
[23:57] no sin to be found no spot or wrinkle there nothing to disfigure the perfect beauty of the church of Christ.
[24:11] United on that wedding day to the Saviour eternally to share in the blessedness of worshipping him forevermore.
[24:23] it's amazing that God should take such filthy sinners as we are and make us into the beautiful queen of heaven.
[24:39] This is what Christ does. He does it and he does it all and all the glory must be given to him. The church was given to him by the father those who thou have given me have lost none save the son of perdition that the scriptures might be fulfilled.
[25:04] Father I pray that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory the glory which I had with thee before the world was and the glory with which thou wilt glorify me again.
[25:23] Christ never gives up until he has saved all his people and until his bride is perfectly beautiful clothed in the long white robe of his righteousness and we shall be happy in the fulling joy of God to all eternity.
[25:48] Christ is our all and in all. He raised us. He forgave us our sins. He transforms us.
[26:01] He binds us one to another and he is coming again for us. Christ is our all and in all. He is our creator. He is our preserver.
[26:13] He is our ruler. He is our redeemer. He is our judge. He is our husband. Christ is all and in all.
[26:27] Is he precious to you? What think ye of Christ? What does he mean to you? Do you see his beauty? Do you love him with all your heart?
[26:40] Is he everything to you? If we don't have Christ, we have nothing. We're poor and blind and miserable and naked. We are lost and we are damned without Christ.
[26:56] But if you have Christ, you have the pearl of great price. You have heavenly treasure. You are wealthy.
[27:09] You have an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled. We served in heaven for you. If you have Christ, you have everything.
[27:20] If you don't have Christ, you have nothing. And friends, I'm offering you Christ tonight. He's there and he's there for you.
[27:33] Just this afternoon, I was reading a sermon of Spurgeons. Spurgeons. He was talking about Christ nailed to the tree and he said, just look at his arms.
[27:46] Spread out there on the tree as he dies. Spread out as a pledge of his willingness to receive and embrace everyone who comes to him.
[28:00] Christ nailed to the cross with his arms extended. I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.
[28:17] Come to Christ tonight. Come and embrace Jesus for yourself. Find out the true blessedness of salvation.
[28:28] salvation. Begin to live. For too long you've been dead. Experience what it is for your sins to be forgiven and the joy of the Lord to fill your heart.
[28:42] Assurance of God's love and peace in your conscience. Find for yourself the transforming power of the Spirit of Christ making you into a new person.
[28:57] and experience the love of God shed abroad in your heart. And begin that relationship with him which will end on the judgment day when he says come ye blessed into that inheritance prepared for you from before the foundations of the world.
[29:30] Take Christ and rejoice in him. Christ is our all and in all. Without Christ we have nothing. Having Christ we've got all that matters.
[29:46] Let us pray. Amen. gracious God we thank thee that thou hast called us to thyself and revealed thyself to us.
[30:00] Thou art a great saviour and we pray that we would trust in thee for salvation. Bless us Lord each one and help us to follow thee with love and with commitment and consecration.
[30:15] Grant thy blessing to be upon us and forgive us for all our sins for Jesus sake. Amen.