Christ the Medium — Bill McLeod

This is Bill McLeod from Winnipeg, Canada, bringing this message to you today. Before you listen any further, I would suggest why don't you just take a moment and bow your head and ask God to bless this particular message to you in a very specific and wonderful way.

He's able to do that. I'm sure he wants to. So just take a moment. The title of the message is Christ the Medium. And I'm thinking here of Hebrews chapter 1, the only book in the Bible that starts with the word God.

Salvation Through Jesus Christ

And at the same time, it ends with the phrase, through Jesus Christ, God. In other words, it's God working through Jesus Christ. My text will be Colossians 3 .11, Christ is all and in all. When it's through him we're saved.

John 3 .17 says that God didn't send his son into the world to condemn the world, but the world through him might be saved. And Romans 5 .9 says we should be saved from wrath through him, through Christ.

Romans 3 .24, justified freely through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Romans 3 .25, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation, a satisfaction through faith in his blood. Romans 5 .1, being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 6 .23, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And then Acts 15 .11, we believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they.

And so it's through Christ that men are saved, and there is no salvation apart from him. Then through him prayers are answered, John 16 .23 -6. In that day, and he's referring to the day of his resurrection, in that day Christ said, you shall ask me nothing.

Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. You recall when Matthew 7, when Jesus gave us what we call the Lord's Prayer, it went like this, our Father who is in heaven. That's how the prayer starts, our Father which is in heaven.

When Paul prayed in Ephesians 3, a great prayer of his, he said, for this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's not a place in the New Testament after Pentecost where anybody prayed to Christ, they prayed to God the Father.

We have one exception when Stephen was dying, he simply said, Lord Jesus receive my spirit. Apart from that, people were supposed to be praying to God the Father in the name. He said, you'll ask me nothing.

Read that carefully, John 16 .23 -26. Luke 10 .17, when the seventh day returned, they returned with joy saying, Lord even the demons are subject to us through your name. Romans 1 .8, I thank God through Jesus Christ for you all.

And so we thank God, we should be thanking God. But we should do it through Jesus Christ for all he's done for us. And then, death has been abolished by Christ. John 8 .51, if you keep my saying, you will never see death.

Christ's Victory Over Death

2 Timothy 1 .10, Christ has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to life through the gospel. Hebrews 2 .9, Christ tasted death for every man. Hebrews 2 .14 -15, for as much then as the children, that's the children of God, for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might deliver them who through fear of death for all their lifetime, subject to bondage.

And of course we know well, Psalm 23 .4, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. The shepherd, Psalm 23, is the shepherd of the person in Psalm 22 who said, I'm no man, I'm a worm, no man, reproach of men, despise of the people, they pierce my hands and my feet.

Obviously it was Christ, and so it's through him that the sting of death is taken away. We find that in 1 Corinthians 15 again. Christ came that the fear of death might be destroyed once and for all. He's abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

Christ the Mediator Between God and Humanity

Then he is a mediator between God and men. Job lamented because, in Job 9 .33, because he said, neither is there any umpire between us that might lay his hand upon us both. He was thinking of a mediator between God and himself that might lay his hand on God, lay his hand on Job, and somehow bring them together.

He didn't know there was an umpire, a mediator. 1 Timothy 2 .5, there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And so in Hebrews 9 .13 -15, we read again about Christ the mediator.

He is that, the only one, none other than Christ, stands between God and men. No man comes to the Father, Christ said, but by me. Then we're more than conquerors through him that loved us. Romans 7 says, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. We must remember, dear people, we're not saved by a plan. We're saved by a person, and that person is Jesus Christ. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

More Than Conquerors Through Christ

Romans 8 .37 says, we're more than conquerors through him that loved us. Think of that. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us in Philippians 4 .13. In 1 Corinthians 15, thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Victory over sin, over death, over hell, over Satan, over anything that might stand in the way of me walking with God. Thanks be to God. He told us to abound with thanksgiving in Colossians 2, so let's do that.

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And 1 Corinthians 8 .9 says that we know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, and who can compute his riches, he became poor.

And we see his poorness in the New Testament Scriptures as he took that downward plunge. Because remember, he is so great a God, the Bible says, that he has to humble himself even to behold the things in earth and the things in heaven.

And yet he did more than that. He came down and was born of a woman. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And so he became poor that we through his poverty might be rich.

Through his poverty we might be rich. And then there are many other blessings that come to us through him. 2 Peter 2 .20 says that we have escaped the pollutions of the world through him. In Galatians 1, Paul said that Jesus Christ came that he might deliver us from this present evil world.

Deliverance From Sin Through Christ

And we get polluted through our contact with this world. We get polluted completely, totally. And he came to deliver us completely and totally from the pollutions of this world. We have obtained like precious faith, it says in 2 Peter 1 .1, through the knowledge of him who has called us.

Through the knowledge of Christ. So Romans 6 .11 says that we are to reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, through Jesus Christ our Lord. You know, as Christians we often, we kind of look at it this way.

Well, I know I'm going to keep on sinning, I can't stop sinning. So we more or less reckon on sinning until we die. The Bible says, no, no, reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed to sin. Now we know we may die, we may sin, we may sin, yes.

If any man sin he has an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, 1 John 2 .1. But we should never reckon on sin. We should reckon that we are dead indeed unto sin, Romans 6 .11. But alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I think one of the mistakes we make with this text is this, we reckon on being dead to sin, but we don't reckon on being alive to God. But that stands together in Romans 6 .11. In John 17 .11, Jesus Christ prayed in that great, great high priestly prayer of his Father, Keep through your own name those whom you have given me, that they may be one through your name.

2 Peter 1 .3, His power, His divine power has given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue. Again, it's through Him, through Him.

And so in Colossians 2 .10, it says so simply, so wonderfully, keep this in mind, never forget it. You are complete in Him. You don't lack anything, you have everything in Christ. You are complete. It literally would be you are made fullness in Him.

You're filled right up through the Lord Jesus Christ. Then Ephesians 2 .7, a marvelous verse, I've thought of it often. That in the ages to come, He might show the extreme riches of His grace and His kindness toward us through Jesus Christ.

So He, in a marvelous way, He has worked on our behalf. And so in the ages to come, He'll never... I remember my three brothers and I trying to figure out what to get my mother for Christmas. She had everything.

No matter what we thought, we just couldn't think of anything that she really needed. You know, God is not like that. We think, well, He'll run out of ideas after maybe a thousand years. And then what?

No, no. In the ages to come, that means in the endless ages to come, eternity, He'll spend His time in showing us the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Jesus Christ. He'll never run out of ideas, dear people.

It'll go on forever and ever. He'll be showing us new and ever wonderful vistas of His grace and His kindness to you and to me. Thank God for that. So we should be praising Him more, dear people. And then through the Spirit of Christ.

Victory Through the Holy Spirit

It's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by the grace of God. It says in Titus 3, 5, and 6, it's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy. He saved us.

And He poured His Spirit on us. Jesus says in the context there, richly, poured His Spirit on us through the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 8, 13 says, if you live after the flesh, you'll die. But if you live through the Spirit, now remember the Spirit of Christ, He's called that often in the New Testament Scriptures.

If you through the Spirit do put to death the deeds of the body, you'll live. Don't allow any. I remember reading about Sam Jones, that famous Southern Methodist evangelist who was used so mightily of God.

He was a contemporary of Dwight R. Moody's. And if through reasonable bad planning the two found themselves in the same city at the same time, they said that Jones used to get the bigger crowd. And he used to tell Moody they were good friends.

He'd say, well, Moody, you can have my overflow crowd. Anyway, he had been at one time an alcoholic, became a Christian, took some training, felt a call to the ministry. And he was doing fine. And then one night in the hotel room, he had an intense desire for liquor.

The old lust had returned. And he tells how he lay in his bed struggling with this. And he got up and he ran to the door. There was a beer parlor downstairs. And he stopped at the door, ran back and knelt at the bed and prayed for power and nothing happened.

And he ran back to the door. He ran back from the bed to the door several times. And then finally, here's what he did. He threw himself across the bed and he cried with all his heart, dear God, can't you do better than this?

And he said the liquor thing left him and never, ever returned. It was gone. If you through the spirit do mortify, put to death the deeds of the body, you'll live. It's only through the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ that we can have victory over these, the corruptions of the flesh.

Romans 15, 13, the God of peace, fill you with all joy and peace that you may abound in hope, it says, to the power of the Holy Spirit. So the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, we have purified our souls, 1 Peter 1 .22 says, and obeying the truth through the Spirit.

And so Christ, the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, these things, these blessings come to us through Him, all of them. Remember again that wonderful verse, you are complete in Him. Christ is all and in all, and all we need we will find in Him.

Glorifying God Through Jesus Christ

Conclusion, that God in all things, 1 Peter 4 .11, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ. God is glorified through Jesus Christ. And then Ephesians 3 .21, unto Him, unto God be glory in the church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without end.

God is glorified. Through the church, and you and I are members of the church. He wants to glorify Himself through us, and so we have that responsibility. If you recall, we're reminded in 1 Corinthians 6 that we're not our own.

We are bound with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. So we have a responsibility here to do all we can to glorify God. Now before you do anything, stop and think, will this glorify God?

Is this a selfish thing? Is this a Christ-centered thing? Should I be doing this? We need to be asking ourselves that question constantly to make sure that what we're doing, saying, thinking, glorifies God.

May the Lord bless you as you meditate on these great things, this great truth of Christ, the medium through which the blessings of God come to us. God bless you. Amen.