May 19
22
Christ In You
Colossians 1:27
What we need in this thing of salvation is not merely to be acquainted
with Christ but to have His righteousness! It is nothing to reform a
man, to get him religious and make some decisions for Jesus, but what is
needed is regeneration from the Holy Spirit. “But when it pleased God,
who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, to
reveal his Son IN me….” (Gal 1:15,16a). The passage did not say to
reveal Christ TO me but IN me, now there’s the difference for sure;
that’s the problem with today’s preaching, the pulpiteer is more
interested in the facts and trivia surrounding the Son of God than he is
in the Person of Christ. In John’s gospel and the 14th chapter Christ
himself is saying the same thing when he mentioned ‘At that day ye shall
know that I am in my Father and ye in me and I IN you.’ We must have a
vital union with Christ Jesus for there to be life! He has eternal life
and this life is IN Him; ‘…Christ IN you, the hope of glory’ (col.
1:27). Do you abide with Him, in Him? If not you will wither and fall
away like the grass that dries up and blows away or the chaff that is
sifted from the threshing floor. Oh, to be found IN him not having mine
own righteousness! Drew Dietz.
Christ Is All
I like to garden. Nothing to me compares to the taste of fresh fruit and
vegetables. I wait patiently all winter and spring for the first sweet
bite of a fresh tomato or corn on the cob. I remember the first garden I
ever planted. I planted a tomato plant in just the right place expecting
it to grow and be a specimen plant. But to my surprise it did not.
Almost overnight its leaves curled up and day after day they would turn
yellow and fall to the ground. I watered it, fertilized it, and kept the
weeds away but in spite of all my help it got worse until finally it
withered and died. Later my dad, who had been gardening most of his
life, told me the plant was diseased and doomed from the start.
Man, before he is born of God, is like this plant. All of the influences
of good have no affect on him. The glories of heaven are not enough to
move him to praise, nor all the blessings of God to make him thankful.
Like a withered vine that receives no benefit from the sun or the rain
his diseased soul is not touched by all the gracious influences of God.
What is needed in the man is a man. It is the man which God created that
died in the garden. “For as in Adam all die— (I Corinthians 15:22,
Romans 5: 12, 18, 19, Ephesians 2: 1-3) It is man that died, not an
idea, creed, or doctrine. It is man himself that is lacking in this
thing of salvation. To be saved necessitates a new man. It demands one
disconnected from Adam and that death which is passed on to him. It
requires a totally new creation within. The message of Ephesians is what
we are in Christ – The message of Colossians is what Christ is in us.
The old man must be put off and the new man put on. But how does a
ruined sinner put off or put on? Colossians 2: 11-12 says, “In whom also
ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting
off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.
Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through
the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.”
To be saved is not a reformation but regeneration. “Therefore if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things passed away: Behold all
things are become new.” (II Corinthians 5: 17)
In this new creation Christ is all! Everything of our humanity flows
into him as the little streams flow into a mighty river and become one
with it. For the believer then to live is Christ and to die is gain. The
believer, having the mind of Christ, thinks Christ, walks in Christ,
understands in Christ, and considers others as he is in Christ. Christ
is made of God unto him wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and
redemption. And so in short – Christ is all and in all.
Darvin Pruitt
Why Must Every Sermon Be Christ?
1. Christ is our Deliverer. (Col. 1:13) Why do we need deliverance? For
we are captives of sin and Satan (2 Tim. 2:24-26). So I preach Christ,
the Deliverer.
2. Christ is our Reconciler. (Col. 1:20-21) Why do we need
reconciliation? Because we are at enmity with God Almighty (Rom. 5:10).
Can you imagine that awful fact? So I preach Christ, the Reconciler.
3. Christ is the Bringer of Grace. (Rom 3:24) You do not go get grace;
Christ brings grace. How will poor sinners get grace if we preach not
Christ the Bringer? So I preach Christ, the Bringer of Grace.
4. Christ is Completeness. (Rom. 8:2-4) Who does not want to be
complete? So I preach Christ, our Completeness.
5. Christ is our Comfort. (2 Thess. 2:16-17) In all the perplexities of
life, people need comfort. It is found only in Christ. So I preach
Christ, the Comforter.
6. Christ is the Supplier of Need. I said need, not want (Phil. 4:19).
How can poor sinners have any hope without Him who fulfills spiritual
and physical need? So I preach Christ, the Supplier of Need.
So, there is not more than Christ. He is the whole counsel of God.
Preach more than Christ? God Himself summed it up. Christ is all. What
is more than all?
Bruce Crabtree
The Union Of Christ And His People
It often happens, in the Psalms, that you can scarcely tell whether it
is David, or the Lord Jesus, or both of them, to whom the writer is
referring. Oftentimes you lose sight of David altogether, and are quiet
certain that he is not there; while, at other times, the words seem equally
suited either to David as the type, or to Jesus as the antitype. I think
that this fact is very instructive to us. It is as the Holy Ghost intended,
even in those ancient times, to let God’s saints know that there is a
mysterious union between Christ and His people, so that almost all things
which may be said concerning Him may be said, also, concerning those who are
in Him. They are so completely one, they are so intimately united in bonds
of mystic, vital, conjugal, eternal union, that it would not be possible
always to keep the sayings concerning them apart. — Charles Spurgeon
HIS BLOOD ALONE!
The vital thing to understand about the blood of Christ is this: IT IS
ENOUGH! Nothing else is needed to accomplish the salvation of all for
whom His blood was shed. Not His blood plus my works; not His blood plus
my “decision”; not even His blood plus my faith – His blood purchased my
faith. HIS BLOOD ALONE paid the price required by His justice, and His
blood alone can make a sinner clean. “By His own blood He entered in
once into the holy place, having OBTAINED (not made possible) eternal
redemption for us” (Heb. 9:12). – Donnie Bell
WITHOUT TRUTH
Without Truth there is no regeneration; for it is by ‘The Word of Truth”
that we are begotten and born again (James 1:18; I Peter 1:23). Without
Truth there is no justification; for we are justified by faith, which
faith consists in crediting God’s Truth, and so, gives peace with God
(Rom. 4:20-24; 5:1). Without the Truth there is no sanctification; for
the Lord Himself says, “Sanctify them through your Truth: your Word is
Truth.” And without the Truth there is no salvation, for “God has chosen
us to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
Truth (II Thess. 2:13). And as the Truth is the instrumental cause of
all these blessings, the divinely appointed means whereby they become
manifested mercies, so Truth enters into and is received by all the
graces of the Spirit as they come forth into living exercise. Thus,
without the Truth, there is no faith, for the work of faith is to
believe the Truth. What is all the difference between faith and
delusion? That faith believes God’s Truth, and delusion credits Satan’s
lies. “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they
should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not the
Truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (II Thess. 2:11-12). – J. C.
Philpot
“And they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance, and found
him not.”—Luke ii. 44, 45.
May we not gather a lesson of sweet instruction from the anxious and
fruitless search the parents made for Jesus in the days of his flesh?
What kinsfolks and acquaintances shall we now search among for the
Saviour? My soul, how little of Jesus is to be found in this Christless
generation! What parlour conversation makes mention of his name? Is it
not plain and evident, from the general, nay almost universal silence
observed in all companies concerning his name, and offices, and
characters, and relations, that Christ is not there? Shall we seek him
among the professors of the gospel? Who are they that honour Jesus? Not
they who deny his Godhead; not they who deny the influences of his Holy
Spirit; not they who set up their own righteousness as part, or the
whole of their justification before God. Jesus is not in that house, in
that family, in that heart, among that people who live in sensuality,
profaneness, and impiety. Where shall we seek Jesus? Blessed Lord, mine
eyes are unto thee to be taught. I would say unto thee, in the language
of the church, “Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest,
where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon. Oh when I shall find thee
without, I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house, who
would instruct me; and I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the
juice of my pomegranate.”
The Poor Man’s Morning and evening portions