“Will worship” (Col. 2:23) is ascribing to the will of man the work of God. Like all other forms of idolatry, it is damning to all who practice it.
Blessed Unction! — Don Fortner (Tune: #291 —Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah —87.87.87 )
1. Holy Spirit, come deliver All Your saints from slavish fear; Blessed Spirit, comfort giver, Rest upon Your people here: By Your unction, (Blessed unction!), Bring the Savior’s fulness near.
2. By Your mighty operation, Every contrite heart revive; And reveal that full salvation, By which ruined sinners live; By Your unction, (Blessed unction!), Pardon, peace and comfort give.
3. It is by divine anointing, Ransomed sinners know the Lord; Gospel truths, to Jesus pointing, Strength, delight and joy afford, When Your unction, (Blessed unction!), Rests upon the gospel word.
4. Come, O come, almighty Teacher, Let Your people know Your pow’r; On the hearers, and the preacher, Send a rich refreshing shower, Of Your unction, (Blessed unction!), In this consecrated hour.
“Christ is All” — Colossians 3:11
Three simple words. Yet these three words are full of instruction. Here is our creed, the foundation of our faith and the cause of our hope. These three words are the joyful expression of every true believer’s heart. Christ is God’s all to chosen sinners; and Christ is our all before God.
In Salvation
Christ is all in the salvation of God’s elect. Our election in eternity was in Christ. God has chosen us in him as our covenant Head. In the matter of our redemption Christ is all. He alone is our Redeemer. He bore our sin. He paid our debt. He satisfied the justice of God for us. And he did it all by himself. Christ is all in our justification too. We stand accepted and acquitted before God, only by his righteousness and shed blood. His name is “the Lord our Righteousness.” The quarrel between God and our souls was taken up by Christ and settled by Christ. And Christ is all in sanctification. We are positionally sanctified in Christ. We are experimentally sanctified by the power of God the Holy Spirit forming Christ in us in regeneration. We shall be perfectly sanctified by the glorification of our bodies and souls in union with Christ. Salvation, from start to finish, is the work of Christ.
Practical Christianity
Christ is all in what we call practical Christianity. Christ alone gives me comfort and hope before God. Christ alone gives me strength for every trial and grace to persevere in the faith. Christ is all to be known, all to be chosen, all to be loved, all to be desired, all to be delighted in, all to be thought upon, all to be followed and all to be obeyed. We need no law but Christ and the example he has left for us to follow. Does any believer need a higher, more compelling motive for anything than Christ himself?
In Preaching
Christ is all to be preached. The Bible in its entirety is a book about Jesus Christ. No doctrine and no precept can be rightly understood apart from Christ. Christ is the key which unlocks the treasure chest of Holy Scripture. “He is,” as Philip Henry wrote, “the treasure in that field, the marrow in that bone, the manna in that dew, the diamond in that ring, the milk in that breast (John 5:39).”
In Heaven
Christ is all in heaven. The foundation of that city is Christ. The gate to that city is Christ. The light of that city is Christ. The joy, bliss and happiness of heaven is Christ. The praises of the redeemed in heaven for all eternity are the praises of Christ. The reward of God’s saints in heaven is Christ himself. Heaven is Christ and Christ is heaven to my soul.
What is Christ to you? To some he is nothing. To others he is something, but not much. To many, Christ is all in some things, but not in others. But to the poor, hell-deserving sinner, who has been redeemed by the Savior’s blood, clothed in his righteousness and renewed by his Spirit, Christ is all in all.
“Christ is All” — 1 Corinthians 1:30
In the matter of salvation, “Christ is all!” That is a blessed fact of divine revelation. It cannot be insisted upon too emphatically or too often. It is a fact that must be known. It is essential to the gospel, essential to the souls of men, essential to salvation, and essential to the revelation of the glory of God.
Wisdom “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111:10); and Christ is our Wisdom. If you would be wise unto salvation, you must know Christ. He was our wise Counselor and Advocate in the covenant of grace, before the world was made (Proverbs 8:12-31). He is our wise Prophet, who alone reveals God (John 1:18). He is our wise Intercessor at the right hand of God (I John 2:1-2). And he makes his people as wise as serpents and harmless as doves, directing us in the paths of faith, according to the will of God.
Righteousness Christ is our Righteousness. In the matter of righteousness, we are totally bankrupt. We have no righteousness of our own, and no ability to produce any. We are sinners. We cannot do anything good in the sight of God. In fact, even our righteousnesses are filthy rags in his eyes (Isaiah 64:6). Yet, in order for us to be saved, we must be made perfectly righteous (Matthew 5:21; Psalm 24:3-4). By his life of obedience to God as a man, the Lord Jesus Christ established and brought in everlasting righteousness for his people. By his death at Calvary, he satisfied the justice of God for the sins of his people, which were justly imputed to him, when he was “made to be sin for us.” Just as our sins were made his and imputed to him, his righteousness is imputed to every believer, and we are “made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Sanctification Christ is our Sanctification. All who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ were set apart in him from eternity by God’s electing love (Jude 1), set apart unto God by legal purchase, through the redemptive work of Christ (Hebrews 10:10, 14), and shall be set apart and distinguished from the rest of the human race by God the Holy Spirit in regeneration. In the new birth the Holy Spirit puts within us the very nature of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17; 2 Peter 1:4; 1 John 3:9). Thus he imparts to every chosen, redeemed sinner the very righteousness of Christ.
Redemption Christ is our Redemption. He redeemed his people from the penalty of sin by blood atonement when he died as our Substitute at Calvary, paying our debt to the infinite justice of God for us (Galatians 3:13). He redeems his elect from the dominion of sin by the almighty, irresistible power of his grace in the new birth, sending his Spirit to regenerate his ransomed ones (Romans 6:22). And he shall redeem all who trust him from the very being and all the consequences of sin in the resurrection at the last day (Hebrews 9:28). All that your soul needs Jesus Christ is. All that God requires from you is in Christ. The Lord God accepts sinners as his sons by the merit of Christ his Son. Believe on Christ alone as your only, all-sufficient Savior, and all that he is and has you are and have!
GRACE BULLETIN
April 5, 2009
GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH of DANVILLE 2734 Old Stanford Road-Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438 Telephone (859) 236-8235 - E-Mail don@donfortner.com
Donald S. Fortner, Pastor
Schedule of Regular Services
Sunday 10:00 A.M. Bible Classes 10:30 A.M. Morning Worship Service 6:30 P.M. Evening Worship Service
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