-Transcript-
00:37 Amen. Glory to God. Good to be here today.
00:41 Hey, it is a wonderful day in the Lord. It’s the day that he hath made and we should rejoice and be glad in it. Amen.
00:47 I sure am glad to be here today. I’m glad that you’re here with us today with me and with everyone else listening. I’ve got a great message for you here today on salvation.
00:58 Salvation. Amen. If you’re saved, do you know you’re blessed? The Bible says blessed are those that are saved for their iniquities or their sin is not imputed on them.
01:10 That means that God will not judge them for their sin. And you know, God is going to judge all. There’s no one that will not bow the knee to the Lord and the Lord will hold us accountable.
01:21 Me being saved and you being saved, if you’re saved, we will be looked on as the blood of Jesus Christ will be looked on as pure and holy, saved and sanctified through Christ alone is through grace alone by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. And yet, what are we doing to tell others about our salvation? What are we doing to save others? Now we can’t do the saving. Only God does the saving, but we can plant the seed and we should plant the seed.
01:51 And so this message is twofold. For those that have not been saved, this is the perfect time to get saved. And for those that are saved, I hope you’ll keep listening.
02:01 It’ll fire you up to share your salvation with others, to make you more sure about your salvation, to understand exactly how you know that you’re saved. You know, we can know, we can know without a shadow of a doubt that we are saved. And how do we know? Let’s go right to the Bible.
02:18 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, which Ipreached unto you. This is Paul writing to the brethren.
02:27 That’d be those that are saved. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, which I preached unto you, which also ye have received and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved. If you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain, for I delivered unto you first of all, that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures.
02:59 That’s the gospel in a nutshell. You say, Brother Clark, can the gospel be in four verses in the Bible? Absolutely. There it is.
03:04 And the reason why it is so succinct is because God doesn’t add to or take away from his gospel, from the good news. And the good news simply is, as Paul writes here, as we have heard before, most certainly for those that are saved, that Christ died for our sins. It’s very important to understand that he died for my sin, for your sin, for the sin of each individual, not the other person’s sin, but your sin.
03:32 Christ died for your sin, according to the scriptures, and he was raised again, according to the scriptures, after being buried on the third day. And so we see that this was referencing the prophecy in the Old Testament, that this would happen, and that it did happen to fulfill the prophecy, and that Christ finished that work on the cross for all humanity to be saved. So what we have here is a simple, beautiful picture of us needing salvation.
04:04 And I believe that this is what’s missing here today, why more people haven’t come to a true salvation experience. More people have not been truly saved, I believe, because they don’t understand that Christ died for their sins, that there is a need there. Amen. Romans 3:10 says, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.
04:26 Romans 3:23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Do you recognize yourself as a sinner? Do you recognize yourself as someone in need of a savior? You know, I didn’t, for a long time, I didn’t. I thought I had a lot of good works under my belt, and I thought I had been through a few things, and therefore, hey, I was good with God.
04:46 Oh no, but I wasn’t good with God. Makes me think of Romans 5:1, a beautiful verse, Romans 5:1. I’m punching it up on my computer right now, so I can share it with you. Romans 5:1, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through, through our Lord Jesus Christ.
05:08 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ. That through Jesus Christ, that idea that we can only have peace with God by having Jesus is the principle of being saved, and a lot of people think that they can have peace with God through their good works, through their pedigree, through their hometown where they grew up, through their grandma or their great-grandma, through their church, even through baptism. I’m all about believers’ baptism.
05:35 I was baptized, Amen. I publicly professed my faith. I believe it with all my heart.
05:41 At our old church, we couldn’t afford a baptismal pool, so we bought a horse trough, Amen, and we took it out there. We’re baptizing people out there in the mountains, in the foothills of the mountains, and it’s freezing cold, especially these young kids are getting immersed under the water and coming up as a new creature in Christ. It was absolutely beautiful to see.
05:56 I believe it. I mentioned our old church, our new church. I can’t wait for the day that we’re going to need one, Amen, that we’re going to need a baptismal pool.
06:06 I’ve had some young folks in there that said, well, Brother Clark, I’m saved, but I’ve never been baptized. Well, we can make that happen, but they got the right order. They were saved, amen, and a lot of people now are confused.
06:15 A lot of people are coming to church. They’re saying, okay, I get a free t-shirt if I go in the parking lot and I get dunked underwater, and they don’t even know why, or some other people are saying I had water sprinkled on me at birth. Now, listen to me.
06:26 Listen carefully. We are not saved by getting immersed in the water. We are saved, Amen, and this is Baptist included.
06:33 We are saved by understanding our need for salvation, understanding that’s only through Christ and accepting Christ as our Savior. Romans 3:10, as it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. Romans 3:23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and we see here in1 Corinthians 15:1-4 that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
06:57 He was buried, and He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and when we believe on what Christ did for us, that’s how we’re saved, amen. There’s no other way to it, and I know that that might sound like a broken record, or that might sound very harsh or restrictive, but I got to tell you the truth. That is the gospel truth, the Bible truth, Amen, to be saved, we must first recognize our need.
07:24 Paul writes there in Romans about none being good, no not one. Paul also writes in Romans, I think it’s 4, chapter 4, about how Christ died for our offenses, and when He was risen again, as we believe on Him, we are justified in Christ for those offenses, and so you have to understand your need for salvation. You have to go to God in prayer and say, Lord, I’m a sinner, and I need help.
07:50 I need a Savior. When we do an altar call, and I don’t have the most polished altar call in the world, to be honest with you. We do an altar call at our little church or on the radio.
07:57 I just frankly start out with saying, Lord, I’m a sinner. Lord, I identify that I have a sin that needs the payment that I can’t make, and the reason why we start with that in our altar call is so that people can realize that if they’re going to pray this prayer, they have to understand their need. Think about this.
08:16 God sent Jesus to die for the lost sinner. How can the lost sinner accept Jesus if they don’t realize that they’re lost or that they’re a sinner? You understand? There are a lot of people that are willing. I saw a celebrity interview the other day.
08:31 It was very sad, and this person is very lifted up in the world, very wealthy, literally a time person of the year and all that, very celebrated in the world, and they were willing to say, hey, you know what, I don’t mind being saved by Jesus, but they were not willing to admit their sin debt. They were not willing to admit that they were lost. They were not willing to admit their need for a Savior, and so what we need to do, what we need to do is work our salvation out with fear and trembling.
08:57 As the Bible says, we need to go to the Lord in understanding that we have committed an offense, every single one of us. As the Bible says, there are none righteous, no not one, and then we see if none are righteous, that means all have sin. We see in Romans 6:23, for the wages of sin, the payment for sin, if you will, is death, is death.
09:20 So the payment for sin is death. Now I’m so glad the Bible does not stop there. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
09:32 That’s Romans 6:23, that for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, but that free gift, that comes with acceptance. I’ve given the example before, if I came and knocked on your door, and that might be a scary proposition. I’m a big old bearded man.
09:49 You may say, who’s at my door, and you open the door, and you say, well I don’t know about this guy, and I say, I’ve got a free gift for you, and I hold it out in my hand. Now if you slam that door shut and say, I’m not taking what this guy’s got, especially in this day and age, right, and you slam the door shut, did you accept that free gift? No. I mean, it was a free gift.
10:06 I was willing to give it to you, but you didn’t accept it, and what God is showing us through the scriptures here, despite my silly example, what God is showing here is that you must accept that free gift by understanding your need and saying, you know what, I need that free gift. Okay God, you’ve got this gift of salvation for sinners. Well, I’m a sinner, and I need that free gift, and so identifying why we need to be saved is so important, and as we start the new year, and as we prioritize, and as we look to our calendars, and maybe we buy a new Bible, maybe we rededicate our lives to the Lord, maybe we decide this is the year that we’re going to shape up and get this little pet sin out of our life, or get this little thing that’s been distracting us taken care of.
10:49 As we do all those things, let’s not forget salvation. Let’s not forget our desperate need. Let’s not forget what God did for us through Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son on the cross, because when we put those things aside, when we put those in the corner, so to speak, when we do that, then that is effectively making what Christ did of no use to you, right, or no use to me, and so as those that love the Lord here today, and I believe that there are many that listen to Christian radio or Christian podcasts that love the Lord, I also believe there’s some that are lost.
11:26 The first step is understanding our need to be saved, and going to the Lord, and asking Him to save us, asking Him to save you, asking for salvation through what Christ did, because you know what? If you knock, He’ll open that door. If you say, Lord, I’ll take that free gift, He will give you that free gift. I believe it.
11:47 The Bible says that Lord desires all to come to repentance, all to come to an understanding, but again, how can you repent? How can you say, I’m saved, if you never recognize your need to be saved, and that’s what I’m preaching about here today, recognizing our need, our offense, and it’s a difficult subject. I’m sure this won’t be a popular message. I’m sure this won’t make the headline news, but that’s just fine.
12:10 I appreciate you listening. I appreciate you taking the time to hear this, and I’m telling you, it can be a blessing to you, twofold. One, if you’re not saved, you can realize your offense, your need for a Savior.
12:22 You realize the fact that you’ve transgressed. As the Bible said, there’s none righteous, and you can ask Jesus to save you. You can ask God to give you that free gift, and you can accept that free gift of salvation here today.
12:32 You don’t need to be in the church. You don’t need to have any, you don’t need a college degree. You don’t need a certain kind of job.
12:38 You don’t need to wear a certain kind of clothes. You can accept Jesus today and be saved. Amen.
12:40 Let’s do it. Be saved today. Accept and pray right now.
12:43 Pray right now and accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. And if you’ve already done that, why oh why are you not telling others about Christ? We need to be about our Father’s business, this preacher included. The Lord has lit a fire in me this year to preach more on salvation, to focus more on salvation, to tell others about salvation, because the time is at hand.
13:06 We are certainly in the last days. Talk to anybody. Talk to someone in church.
13:11 Talk to someone not in church. They’ll all agree. No one’s ever seen anything like we’re going through today.
13:17 No one’s ever seen prices going through the roof and pandemics sweeping here and there and natural disasters and all these other things happening. We’re in the last days, folks. We need to be about our Father’s business.
13:26 Let’s talk about salvation, and let’s get down to the nitty-gritty, understanding our need for a Savior and understanding what beautiful Jesus Christ did on the cross to save us by shedding that precious blood. The Bible says there’s no remission of sin. There’s no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood, and Christ shed His perfect blood so that we could be saved.
13:49 Let’s thank Him today. Let’s behold His glory today. Let’s say glory hallelujah today, and let’s get on the ball telling others about salvation, helping them understand.
13:59 There’s nothing wrong with just asking them, saying, Brother, Sister, I want to make sure that you’re saved. I want to make sure you understand this. I want to go down Roman’s road with you.
14:08 I just want to make sure I love you. I care about you. I want to see you in heaven.
14:09 There’s nothing wrong with that. You can send a text. You can get on social media.
14:14 You can talk in person. Imagine that. All these things.
14:17 Praise God. He is worthy to be praised. That’s what we can do today.
14:19 Let’s focus on salvation before it’s eternally too late.
14:25 Thank you for listening. Take care.God bless. Amen.