-Transcript-
00:27 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the program.
00:31 Welcome to the cafe, Pastor Clark Covington here with another episode of KJV Cafe. Good to be here. Hopefully you’re doing great, having a great day, a great week, a great month, a great year.
00:42 Amen. Today, we are looking at God’s Word and what it says about His love towards us and what it says, what God’s Word says about friendship. I want to start by telling a story.
00:56 Maybe you’ve read in the news recently about a couple of young men, college wrestlers in Wyoming. They had early morning practice and they’d gone for a hike in a nearby park to find deer antlers.
01:10 And so they were looking for antlers and they came upon a bear.
01:15 And that bear was not a happy bear. And that bear attacked one of these two wrestlers and it was an ugly attack. It was a vicious attack.
01:26 So the friend who could have run for help, who could have run away, started pulling on the bear’s ear and skin.
01:40 And that really got the bear’s attention and the bear started mauling the friend. And the friend fought with the bear.
01:50 The story said that the friend put his hand in the bear’s mouth so the bear wouldn’t chew on his neck. And it was a great act of bravery among that friend.
01:55 And we see in the end of that story that eventually the bear is pacified with the damage the bear has done to these two kids and leaves eventually.
02:07 And the young men have a broken arm, one’s got a broken arm and one has got many deep scars on his face, had to get many staples in his skull.
02:19 It was just a brutal attack, but they survived. And they’re wrestlers, you know, what do wrestlers do? They fight.
02:29 And so they fought for each other. And it’s a very poetic story. That’s why it’s all over the news.
02:33 But there’s a biblical context here. John 15:13, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
02:43 You know, we see here that in a moment, you know, you ask yourself, what would you do if your friend was attacked by a bear? Would you run and hide? Would you try to get help?
03:01 Or would you step in into the fray and take on that bear as this young man did? And it’s a pretty frightening thing. But there’s a biblical precedent, David took on a bear and a lion.
03:12 So we know that it’s in the Bible, but no less scary.
03:18 And that friend was willing to die for his friend. And if you see a picture of the friends, you’ll notice a striking thing. The first friend, one that was initially attacked, has the broken arm.
03:28 But the second one really looks bloodied and bruised and really got the worst of it. And so we see the one that stepped in got the worst of it.
03:37 Now, what do we see Jesus Christ as, if not our friend? You know, we have a true friend in Jesus.
03:47 One that not only took our place in a deadly situation, but literally died for us so that we could live. We have a true friend in Jesus.
03:59 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
04:04 Jesus Christ saw our condition, our need, being God in the flesh. And him being perfect and sinless, he didn’t have to die. He was obedient unto death, the Bible says.
04:11 But him being perfect and sinless, he was willing to die. He didn’t want to. The Bible speaks of that agony in the Garden of Yosemite, the blood, sweat coming down from his brow.
04:29 The prayer is asking the Lord to let that cup pass from him if it be the Lord’s will. But he did it anyways, despite the agony. The idea that he was willing to die for us is incredible.
04:43 The idea that he is such a good friend, that he put his life out there to save ours. And if you’re not familiar with the Gospel account, let me just explain this. Why did Christ have to die for sinful man? Because man couldn’t resolve their sin on their own.
05:02 And so in the Bible, you have the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the Old Testament, you had God’s chosen people, the Israelites, under the law.
05:11 The law that was the Ten Commandments and the various laws God gave to Moses there in the wilderness on Mount Sinai and so forth.
05:19 So you have these laws, and the Israelites are told to keep the laws. And this is God’s standard, right? And nobody can keep the law. So the law exists simply to show that we can’t keep the law.
05:31 And so for anybody that says they’ve never sinned, I’ve met someone that told me, I don’t have to ask for forgiveness, I haven’t done anything wrong.
05:37 I’ve seen people, or I’ve seen TV shows about that, or people speaking of it in this way, or preachers talking about it.
05:55 One mentioned it, I think it was yesterday on the radio, matter of fact, how someone came up to him and said, I’ve only sinned one time, and that was a lie, and it wasn’t my fault.
05:58 Well, truly, if we don’t recognize our sin, then the law should convict us. When we look at just the Ten Commandments, now the Old Testament law was 600-some laws, and they’re incredibly detailed. And so trust me that you can’t keep them.
06:13 But if you don’t want to trust me, just look at the Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not lie, thou shalt not commit adultery. The Bible says if you look upon another with lust, you’ve committed adultery.
06:24 Thou shalt not covet. Paul writes about not breaking the commandments until he understood what coveting was, and he greatly fell short once he understood that.
06:32 Coveting is desiring something you don’t have, envying another, wanting something that’s not yours.
06:39 Look, we all fall short. And if you really get specific in just the Ten Commandments alone, you’d find out you’re in violation of pretty much every single one, as am I, amen.
06:42 And the point of that isn’t for the Lord to condemn us, but it’s a starting point. Like Romans 3:23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
06:58 It’s a starting point for us to understand, okay, what’s going on with our sin nature? Can we resolve it on our own? We can’t. So that’s the starting point, right?
07:05 And then once we have that starting point, then we realize we need a Savior, right? We need a Savior. So if we can’t do it on our own, who can? Well, perfect, sinless, spotless Jesus Christ.
07:20 He will die on the cross for our sins. He did, amen? But he would do that so that we could be saved, amen.
07:22 We understand that there’s no way to be saved without Jesus Christ. The Bible talks about there’s no remission of sin without the shedding of blood.
07:35 The Bible speaks of Jesus as the sinless, spotless lamb. So when Christ died on the cross for our sins, we then, when we accept his free gift of salvation, we’re saved because we now have his righteousness applied to us because he was crucified, buried three days, and resurrected from the grave.
07:55 And that’s God’s way of saying, this is the Messiah.
08:00 This is Christ. Here he is. He was seen by over 500.
08:04 He walked the earth 40 days and 40 nights, amen. And today is ascended up into heaven at the right hand of the Father.
08:12 And so Jesus is alive and well. Jesus died for our sins, and when we accept him as Savior, amen, we’re born again.
08:17 And we can start to understand what it means, like John 15:13, that greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. But think about this.
08:24 What is the context in which Jesus died for us? Were we friends to Jesus when he died for us? Think about that.
08:29 Romans 5:7-8, That’s Romans 5:7-8. So God’s love to us was so great that he wasn’t going to the cross and dying for mankind while we were friends with him.
08:54 The Bible talks about the carnal man being at enmity with God, being at warfare with God, that the natural man is spiritually dead, and that we can’t discern the things of God.
09:11 And again, the law speaks to us not being able to fulfill the standard that God has for us. So we were not friends with God.
09:14 We were an enemy to God when Christ Jesus died on the cross for our sins.
09:20 So not only did he lay his life down for us so courageously and so obediently, not only did he do that, but he did it when we were still living in sin. He did it to get us the availability to be saved, amen.
09:38 Think about this. Jesus Christ loves you so much that even when you were at odds with him, when you were an enemy of him, he laid his own life down.
09:50 Read about the crucifixion. He was humiliated and tortured and brutally beaten. He was unrecognizable.
09:58 It was the worst death that anyone has ever suffered. And that’s just the physical part. He had to bear that sin, drink of that cup of iniquity.
10:04 That’s why the scripture talks about God having to turn his back on Jesus. That’s why Jesus on the cross asked, why has thou forsaken me?
10:11 Because God couldn’t look at Jesus when he bore the sin of all mankind, past, present, and future on the cross at Calvary. And that is the love Christ has for you.
10:22 It’s an indescribable love. It is an incredible love. I mean, think about this.
10:28 We can’t fully understand his love, right? We can’t understand what that’s like.
10:32 Again, the scripture says in Romans 5:7, scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet pre-adventure for a good man, some would even dare to die.
10:43 Think about it. Look, if there is a very, very, very good person, you may vaguely consider doing something like that. But for someone that hates you, you’re lucky to even give them the time of day and now you’re going to go ahead and lay your life down for that individual.
11:00 That’s the level that we’re dealing with. It’s an indescribable love that God has for his people. But while we can’t understand the depths of his love, we can never understand, the Bible says that his love passes all knowledge and understanding.
11:15 What we can do is understand the principle that shows the depths of his love. You know, when you hear about this story, and I didn’t do a great job paraphrasing it, but these young men attacked by a bear, one young man, you know, his life is going to be taken away.
11:29 Another steps in and risks his life to save the other one.
11:36 You know, when you look at those two young men together, is there any doubt of their devotion to one another, of their friendship, of their love? The one that stepped in for the friend, would you doubt that he loved his friend?
11:49 You couldn’t doubt that. Well, when we see Christ dying on the cross, buried and resurrected the third day for us so that we could have life, when we see what Christ did for us, is there any doubt that he loves us?
11:55 Is there any doubt that he truly is the Messiah and Lord? Is there any doubt that he deserves our adoration, our beholding, our love, our praise, all glory, all honor? They are due to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. This isn’t just church speak.
12:11 This isn’t just pastor talk. This is a fact. God loves you so much that he died on the cross for you.
12:18 And that begs the question, how do you feel about God? How are you? Are you turning to God? Do you love God? Do you seek him?
12:26 Are you devoted to him after what he has done for you? I mean, there’s no doubt that he loves you. So how do you feel about him?
12:35 The Bible speaks of God being a jealous God, right? We should be jealous of our God too. He’s jealous of us.
12:45 We should be jealous of him. He loves us. We should love him.
12:46 We should live for him. That’s our reasonable service. But so many get caught up in the things and ways of the world which are temporal, which are just for now, right, that have nothing to do with eternity.
12:59 We get caught up in these things and these ways. We get caught up in the devil’s perversions of things and we get far off from God. You want to know where the devil is tricking people?
13:07 If God has a way in the Bible and it is perverted in this world, the devil’s perverted it and made it stink so you don’t go around God, right? Is that not true?
13:19 We need to stand up for the ways of God and the things of God.
13:22 We need to behold the glory of Christ and what he did. We need to think about how glorious Christ is. You know, in the scriptures it talks about, I just finished preaching a series on overcoming, the overcoming life.
13:31 It talks about overcoming the temptation, loving the Lord, living for God, and then in heaven, overcoming temptations of this world, then in heaven we will sit on the throne with Christ.
13:44 We will be co-heirs with Christ. We will be reigning with Christ.
13:48 It also speaks of Christ himself serving us, serving us in heaven. I imagine that nail scarred hand serving us in heaven. Can you imagine that God himself serving you or me just because we chose to give our life to him when he so earnestly deserves that devotion, so earnestly deserves our praise and adoration.
14:08 Think of what Christ has done for you today. Think of what he’s done for you today. Praise him today.
14:14 Amen. Praise him. He is worthy of our praise.
14:16 I could go on and on. I’m so thankful that Christ died for you and for me. Thank him today.
14:22 Accept him today as Savior. Live for him today and enjoy his peace forevermore.
14:27 Thank you for listening. Take care. God bless and amen.