Please turn to the Letter to the Colossians, Chapter 1. We shall read from Colossians 1:15-23. I will read it in English first, and then my brother will read it in Chinese.
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;
for in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth,
things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;
all things have been created through Him, and unto Him;
and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.And He is the head of the body, the church;
who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead;
that in all things He might have the preeminence.For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in Him should all the fulness dwell;
and through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself,
having made peace through the blood of His cross;
through Him, I say, whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens.And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works,
yet now hath He reconciled
in the body of His flesh through death,
to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before Him:
if so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and stedfast,
and not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye heard,
which was preached in all creation under heaven;
whereof I Paul was made a minister.
For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,
and in Him ye are made full.
Where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman;
but Christ is all, and in all.
Dear Lord, as we gather here this morning, our hearts are full of gratitude. Thou hast been good to us. Thou hast led us until this morning.
In Thy presence is fulness of joy. We rejoice that Thy heart is toward us, and that it is Thy good pleasure to bring us into the fulness of Thy holy Son.
Dear Lord, enlarge our capacity. Our capacity is very limited, but Thou art an unlimited God. It is Thy good pleasure that we may experience the fulness of Thy Son.
So, Lord, enlarge our capacity, that we may be able to receive Thee in a full way and thus be complete in Thee.
We commend this time into Thy hands, and we look to Thee. We ask this in Thy precious name. Amen.
By this time, I believe everybody knows the theme of this conference: Christ is all, and in all.
We hope this is not merely a slogan. By the grace of God, we hope that we may experience the fulness of Christ.
Before the foundation of the world, God made a wonderful and glorious will according to His good pleasure. This is something that pleases Him very much.
Out of that will, He began to create. Out of that will, He began to redeem. Out of that will, He reconciled all things unto Christ.
This is the eternal will of God. He wants all things in Christ Jesus. He wants to see everything reflect His character. His Son is the principle behind everything.
Why is this so? Because the Bible declares that all the fulness of the Godhead dwells in His Son.
When we think of God—His righteousness, His holiness, His power—we can go on and on and on. Our God is infinite: infinite in holiness, infinite in righteousness, infinite in love, infinite in power and authority.
This is the fulness of the Godhead, and all the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Christ.
We cannot comprehend the fulness that is in Christ Jesus. Thank God that He gave His Son to us. If you come to God and ask for anything, He gives you His Son. God has nothing greater to give than His Son.
Therefore, we should be complete in Him. This is why the eternal purpose of God is so essential.
It is the only way in which God will deal with us. It is only when we are in that will that we shall be made mature for eternity. Otherwise, we are in vanity.
You may gain the whole world, but outside of Christ it is nothing—absolutely nothing.
Brothers and sisters, the eternal purpose of God is not merely a beautiful thought. It is real, it is true, it is living, and it is eternal. It governs everything concerning your life and my life.
This is how important the eternal purpose of God is to every one of us. I hope every one of us asks himself one question: Do I live today in the eternal purpose of God, or am I outside that will?
That will not only determines the kind of life we are living today; it also determines our eternal destiny.
This is how essential it is that Christ be everything and in all.
This morning, we would like to fellowship together concerning the meaning of Christ being all and in all.
We do not want to approach this merely from a theological standpoint. Of course, truth is basic. Outside of truth, we are outside of God.
But upon the basis of eternal truth, we want to approach this experientially. We do not want merely objective truth; we want to know how to experience Christ as all and in all in our daily lives.
When we speak of experience, what is the experience of the Christian life? Upon what basis do we know that we are growing in spiritual life?
God is not only truth; He is also love. Love is what He is in His very being.
So we would like to see how we can experience Christ as all and in all in our daily life.
In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul speaks about knowledge and love.
We know that we all have knowledge.
Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth.
If any man thinketh that he knoweth anything, he knoweth not yet as he ought to know;
but if any man loveth God, the same is known of Him.
Brothers and sisters, there are two kinds of knowledge. One is mental knowledge. It comes from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
There is no knowledge in the world higher than what we call moral knowledge or ethics. But such knowledge comes from our natural life; it is acquired from outside.
It makes us knowledgeable, but often the more knowledgeable we become, the prouder we become.
Love, however, is what God has planted within us. This morning, we would like to approach this matter of Christ being all and in all from the standpoint of love.
We all know that we were far away from God. But God, in His mercy and grace, loved us.
We were like the prodigal son. He wanted his father’s property, but not his father. He had no love for his father; he loved the property.
After receiving all that was assigned to him, he went into a far country to enjoy himself. He enjoyed himself in such a way that he wasted all his property.
Then came a famine, and he had nothing to eat. He was sent to feed swine. He was so hungry that he would have filled himself with the husks that the swine were eating.
Then he woke up. Brothers and sisters, this is your picture and my picture. We will not wake up until we come to the end of ourselves.
Thank God that he woke up and went back to his father.
The father was waiting for him every day, looking for him. When the prodigal was still a long way off, his father saw him.
This is so touching. The father ran to him, fell on his neck, and kissed him.
We were all sinners, but the love of God kisses us and makes us soft. This is how our Christian life begins, and this is how our neck is broken.
When we enjoy the Father’s kiss, there rises within us a desire to know the Father. We begin to say, “Lord, I love to know You more. I want to draw closer to You.”
When King Solomon wrote the Song of Songs, he told how a virgin longed for her beloved. The virgin prayed that he would kiss her.
The Bible does not call the people of the world virgins. In the sight of God, the people of the world are adulterers. Only those saved by grace are called virgins.
Paul said:
I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
What is the heart of a virgin? The heart of the virgin is to know her Beloved more.
Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth;
for Thy love is better than wine.
If you do not have a heart for the Lord, you are merely a mental believer. But when we love the Lord, naturally and supernaturally we want to draw close to Him.
We want to know His character. We want to do the things that please Him. This is the proof of our salvation.
Because there is such a longing toward the Lord, He responds to us.
The virgin discovered that there are many things to do if she is to walk closely with the Lord. Others asked her to keep their vineyards, and she neglected her own vineyard. Because of all these labours, she became dark.
Yet she said, “I am black, but comely.” She desired to know where her Beloved fed His flock. She did not want to turn aside with the flocks of His companions; she wanted to be with the flock that He Himself shepherded.
As this virgin longed for the Lord Himself, the Lord began to work in her life. This is like Paul’s personal cry in Philippians 3.
Our Christian life begins with this longing: we want to know Him, we want to understand His character, and we want to be like Him.
From the very beginning of our Christian life, God has put within us the longing that Christ may be all and in all to us.
This life that has been given to us is the life of Christ, and this life must grow until we are mature in Christ Jesus—until Christ is all the more to us.
It is not merely something we have heard. It is something imprinted in each of our hearts. As we follow this inward way of life, we shall enter into Christ as all and in all.
If we do not follow this inward way, we will fall back into an outward way of life. We will rely upon this and upon that. In other words, we fall back into the old covenant, and it becomes a life full of failure.
But, brothers and sisters, if we follow that inward life, we will grow.
As this virgin began to have a closer walk with the Lord, she began to realize the meaning of the cross.
The cross is not only something our Lord has done for us. That is true, but the cross is also the way of life that God has ordained for us.
We must deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow the Lord.
When you begin to know the cross, you begin to look more into yourself. Yet the Lord seeks to bring you out into resurrection life.
You begin with the cross, and from the cross you enter into resurrection life. To know Him is to know the power of His resurrection.
It is only when you know the power of His resurrection that you gradually become more and more like Him.
In Song of Songs 6:3, the order changes:
I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine.
Here Christ is first. He is still hers, but Christ has become first and she has become less occupied with herself.
As she continues to grow in life and love, she is conformed to the death of Christ, and the stature of Christ increases in her life.
At last, in Song of Songs 7:10, she says:
I am my Beloved’s,
and His desire is toward me.
In other words, it is all of Christ and none of self. This is the way in which we enter into Christ as all and in all.
Now, brothers and sisters, we would like to apply this to the various aspects of our lives.
Human life on earth is composed of several dimensions: personal life, family life, social life, and church life.
First, there is personal life. We want to see how Christ can be all and in all in our personal life. Can we say before the Lord that, so far as our personal life is concerned, Christ is all and in all to us?
Let me give you an example from the life of C. T. Studd.
When he was at Cambridge, he joined the Cambridge Seven who went to China as missionaries. They travelled around England and Scotland before departing.
One November, a brother noticed that C. T. Studd’s room had a light on early in the morning. He was concerned and finally knocked at the door.
He found him reading the Bible. He asked him, “What are you doing?” C. T. Studd said, “I search the Scriptures to find God’s commandments, that I may obey.”
Many people search the Scriptures looking for promises. They want to find a promise to claim. But this brother was different: he searched the Scriptures for God’s commandments, that he might obey.
Someone asked him, “What is the secret?” He asked, “Have you consecrated yourself to God? Have you gone to the Lord and handed over your life to Him, point by point?”
Many of us have consecrated ourselves in a general way. But we need to hand ourselves over to the Lord point by point, in every area of our life.
There came a time when he struggled with the Lord concerning a particular matter. He said, “Lord, if You allow me to keep that, I will serve You with double effort.”
But the Lord said, “I am not bargaining with you. I am your Lord.”
In desperation, he cried, “Make me willing to be willing. I am not willing, but make me willing to be willing.”
The Lord turned back to him, and God began to search him in every area of life. He was greatly used of the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, how about our lives?
Another brother was saved when he was nineteen years old. After he was saved, he truly had a heart for the Lord and tried to preach to his fellow students.
He did it in such a way that his fellow students began to avoid him. When they saw him coming, they went the other way.
One day he met a missionary, Mr. Groves. Mr. Groves asked, “How many people have been saved since you believed in the Lord?”
The young man answered, “I have preached to many people.” Mr. Groves then asked, “Have you ever prayed for them?” He said, “Never.”
Mr. Groves said, “You had better pray for them first.” So he put the names of his fellow students in a book and began to pray for them every day.
One day, while he was going to Shanghai, his heart turned to Psalm 73:25.
Whom have I in heaven but Thee?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee.
He wanted to preach from this verse, but he had to be honest before God. He said, “I can say, ‘Whom have I in heaven but Thee?’ But I cannot say, ‘There is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee.’”
He loved a young lady. They had grown up together, and he hoped that one day they would be united. Yet she did not share his devotion to the Lord.
He prayed, “Lord, if You allow me to have her, I will even go to Tibet.” But the Lord said, “No.”
Finally, he was so constrained by the cross that he gave her up. Years later, the Lord gave her back to him.
Christ is all and in all. Is He all and in all in your life? Do you love Him?
Sooner or later, the Spirit of God will prove whether Christ is truly all to you. Our God is a jealous God. He will not allow us to have anything in our lives higher than Him.
He wants to deliver us from everything that is higher than Him, so that Christ may be all in all to us.
In our personal life, Christ must be all and in all. You do not need to search yourself constantly; let the Holy Spirit do His work in you.
When He is doing that work in you, He will give you the love of Christ, which constrains you and enables you to overcome.
The second area of our life is family life. Thank God for the family.
The Bible tells us that salvation is for the family. Remember Acts 16: Paul and Silas were put in prison, and at midnight they prayed and praised God. Then came the earthquake, and all the prison doors were opened.
Paul said to the jailer:
Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house.
In other words, if you believe, you shall be saved, and God desires to give the whole household to you.
We need a good testimony in our families. We need to pray before the Lord concerning our household, trusting that God will honour faith.
In our modern families, everybody is so busy. We have neglected the family altar.
When I was a boy, my father held family prayer every day. He would ring a bell, and we would all kneel down together while he prayed for us. I can never forget it.
Today we neglect the family altar. I do hope that we will restore it: that our families may read the Word together and pray together.
Joshua declared:
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Dear brothers and sisters, I hope that our families will truly allow Christ to be all and in all.
When I came to this country, I noticed that there was a great emphasis upon family life. In China, we emphasized church life very much. We had meetings almost every night.
But in this country, the family is very important. We need to let our family life glorify God.
There is also our social life and our relationship with the world. We are in the world, but we are separate from the world.
Yet the Lord has sent us back into the world to be a testimony for Him. Therefore, it is very important that we understand our relationship with the world.
Do not love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
And yet we have a commission to the world. We need to testify to them concerning our Lord Jesus.
Church life is important. God has gathered us together that we may be built together as the body of Christ.
Hebrews 10:25 tells us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. We should not be individualistic.
We need God, and we need one another. We need to gather together, encourage one another, and build one another up until the fulness of Christ is revealed.
Christ as all and in all is not merely a slogan. It is not just a truth. May we open ourselves to Him and let the Spirit within us lead us, that we may truly grow into Christ.
Dear Lord, we thank Thee for Thy wonderful will. Thou wilt not allow us to be anything less than what Thou wantest us to be.
Thou hast made provision for us. Teach us how to cast ourselves upon Thee and allow Thee to lead us on, until Christ be all and in all.
O God, by Thy grace, lead us into the fulness of Thy Son. Amen.