Sermon #59                                                            Series:  Isaiah

 

          Title:       Christ Is All

          Text:       Isaiah 25:4

          Subject:  Christ’s All-Sufficiency

          Date:      Sunday Evening - October 26, 1990

          Tape #

 

          Introduction:

 

          Here are three words that describe all doctrinal, all practical, and all experimental religion.  These three words contain the essence of everything I believe, everything I have experienced, and everything I endeavor to preach.  Do you know what they are?  Some of you do - “Christ Is All!”

 

          If we do not yet understand that everything God requires of sinners, everything God gives to sinners, and everything God does for sinners is in Christ, we have not yet understood the message of Holy Scripture, our religion is meaningless, and our faith is vain.  When I declare with the Apostle Paul, that “Christ Is All,” this is what I mean -

 

1.   Christ is All in the Decrees of God (Eph. 1:3-6).

2.   Christ is All in the Book of God (Luke 24:27, 44, 45).

3.   Christ is All in the Salvation of God’s Elect (I Cor. 1:30).

4.   Christ is All in the Church of God.

 

·        He is our Foundation (I Cor. 3:11).

·        He is our Unity and Peace (Col. 3:11).

·        He is our Message (I Cor. 1:23).

·        He is our Hope (I Tim. 1:1).

 

5.   And Christ is All to Meet the Needs of His People in this World (Isa. 25:4).

 

Proposition:  Christ is a suitable, satisfying, all-sufficient Savior, able to meet all the needs of his people in this world.

 

 

 

Divisions: 

 

1.   God’s People In This World Are A Needy People.

2.   Christ Is Our Help In Time Of Need - He Is All We Need.

 

I.      GOD’S PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD ARE A NEEDY PEOPLE.

 

          In our text God’s saints are described as men and women who are “poor,” “needy,” and distressed,” a people who suffer the “storm of trouble,” “the heat” of affliction, “the blast” of persecution, and “the storm” of adversity.  All men in this world must suffer.  “Man that is born of women is of few days and full of trouble.”  That is just reality - If you live, you will suffer.  But, in addition to those things which we must suffer in common with the unbelieving, in addition to temporal calamities of life in this world, there are many painful sorrows experienced by God’s saints that the ungodly never experience in this world.

 

          Let me briefly talk to you about five things that every believer experiences in this world which often cause us to be in great distress.

 

A.  Every saved man and woman in the world has experienced the guilt and danger of sin.

 

          I know that there is much more involved in Holy Spirit conviction than a sense of legal fear.  It takes more than the fear of hell to bring a man to faith in Christ.  But I also know that no one will ever seek mercy at the throne of God who has not been found guilty in his own conscience.  And guilt always brings fear.  There is nothing in all the world more tormenting to a human being than a guilty conscience.

 

          But, O, how I pray that God will make you know your guilt before him and the danger you are in.  Guilt is the forerunner of grace.  Conviction is the earnest of conversion.

 

1.   If God ever saves you, he will make you to know your guilt before him (John 16:8-11; Rom. 3:19; Rom. 7:9).

 

          It does not matter how stout-hearted a person is, when God begins to write the sentence of death upon his conscience, like Belshazzar, his loins are loosed with fear and his knees buckle beneath him.  Like the Philippian jailer, he will tremble as he cries, “What must I do to be saved.”

 

2.   Let me tell you four things about Holy Spirit conviction - Holy Spirit conviction…

 

a.   Deals with Sin, Sins, and Righteousness (Lk. 18:13; I Jo. 1:9; Isa. 64:6).

b.   Is without Excuse Before God (Rom. 3:19).

c.   Justifies God in the Punishment of Sin (Ps. 51:4).

d.   Causes a Person to Look to Christ Alone for Mercy and Grace.

 

B. Every believer is engaged in a warfare in his own heart, which never lets up or ends until the death of this body (Rom. 7:14-25; Gal. 5:17).

 

          The believer is a person with two natures, the flesh and the spirit, sin and righteousness, the old man Adam and the new man Christ.  The new man reigns.  But the old man will not surrender.  The new man governs.  But the old man will not be governed.  The spirit will never surrender to the flesh.  But the flesh will never surrender to the spirit - So the warfare goes on.

 

1.   The outcome of this warfare is sure - We will be triumphant!

2.   But the warfare is as real as if victory or defeat hung upon the next move.

 

C. Every believer suffers from the persecutions of an ungodly world.

 

          As Cain persecuted Abel his brother, and Ishmael persecuted Isaac his brother, those who are born after the flesh always persecute those who are born of the spirit.  As satan hates Christ, so the seed of the serpent hates the seed of the woman.  Those men and women of whom God says “the world was not worthy” are made by the world to be the filth and off-scouring of all things.

 

1.   Persecution comes from the religious world - (John 16:2).

2.   Persecution comes from the secular world - (Matt. 10:22).

3.   Persecution comes from your own flesh and blood - (Matt. 10:36).

 

D. Every believer must endure the temptations of satan (Lk 22:31).

 

          Satan will not lose any of his slaves without violence.  He walks about the earth as a roaring lion, stalking and seeking to devour every ransomed soul.  And our flesh, like a monstrous traitor within, is in league with the devil.  Every snare and temptation by which he seeks to destroy us is most naturally appealing to us.

 

1.   The Pleasures of Sin.

2.   The Deceitfulness of Riches.

3.   The Cares of the World.

 

E.  And every believer in this world suffers great distress by the hidings of God’s face from him.

 

          Perhaps the most distressing of all earthly trials for one of God’s saints is the hiding of his Father’s face.  For wise and gracious reasons, known only to himself, God frequently hides himself from his people for a season - (Song 5:6).  (Isa. 54:7-10).

 

          “Our blessed Lord, who never complained of the cruelties exercised upon his body, cried out with inexpressible anguish, by reason of the dereliction he felt in his soul, “My God!  My God!  Why hast thou forsaken me?” - (C. Simon).  Many a believer has, in a measure, experienced that same tormenting sorrow (Isa. 49:14; Ps. 77:7-9; 22:1; Lam. 3:1-26).

 

          This is the lot and portion of every believer in this world.  God’s saints in this world are, by God’s wise and gracious design, poor, needed and distressed.  One reason for this is that we might ever be compelled to look to Christ and find our all in him.

 

II.   Here is the second thing I want you to see - CHRIST IS OUR HELP IN TIME OF NEED.

          Read the text again - Christ is our Strength.  Christ is our Refuge.  Christ is our Shadow.  Christ is our Protector.  Christ is all we need.  To God’s poor, needy, distressed, troubled people “Christ is all.”  Do you see that?

 

          I have been talking to you about the things I experience.  But I want so much for you to know one more thing I have experienced in my soul - Christ is the help I need.  (Read Heb. 2:16-18 - “Succour” means “help”).  Look to Christ and find your help in him.  When you are in trouble the world, the flesh and the devil say, “Look here” or “Look there” or “Look anywhere except to Christ.”  Christ says, “I am thy Help.”

 

A.  He is a suitable help.

 

          Whatever it is that we need, we find in him and receive out of his fullness.

 

·        Are you guilty?  Christ is Pardon.

·        Are you tempted?  Christ is Strength.

·        Are you needy?  Christ is Fullness.

·        Are you distressed?  Christ is Comfort.

 

B. Christ is a seasonable help - (Ps. 46:1).

 

          The Lord always interposes at the right time.  He comes to help at the moment that help is needed.

 

                   Illus:  Abraham on the Mount - “Jehovah-jireh.”

                              The Disciples (Matt. 10:19).

 

C. Christ is a sufficient help - (Isa. 41:10; 43:1-5).

 

·        No matter how strong our enemies.

·        No matter how great our weakness.

 

D. Christ is a sure help - (Ps. 89:33).

 

          Never yet has there been a child of God who needed help who did not have help from Christ (Ps. 37:25).

 

E.  Christ is a satisfying help - (Ps. 73:25-26).

 

·        David found him so.

·        Jeremiah found him so.

·        Paul found him so - (Phil. 4:11-13).

·        I pray that you may find him so.

 

Application:  Learn these two things -

 

1.   God’s people in this world are a needy people.  Learn to help them.

 

·        I need a little kindness.

·        I need a little sympathy.

·        I need a little encouragement.

·        I need a little understanding.

·        I need a friend.

 

2.  Christ is our Help in time of need - Learn to trust him (Matt. 11:28-30).