-Transcript-
00:31 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the program.
00:36 Welcome to the cafe, Pastor Clark Covington. So glad you joined me today. I’m so happy that you’re here.
00:44 Hopefully you’re having a wonderful holiday season. My hope and prayer is that you will tune in over and over again if you haven’t already. Remember to check us out, kjvcafe.com or on Facebook, forward slash KJV Cafe.
00:57 I think that’s where we’re at. Amen. So today I wanted to address something that’s been on my heart.
01:04 The Lord has put this on my heart for a long time. Oftentimes I am preaching, I think rightfully, but I am preaching to the believer. And I feel like we need to take a step back here and look at what it means to believe.
01:13 And the reason why I want to do that is not just for those that don’t know how to be saved, but then to inspire and layer on this thought onto the hearts of others that are listening, pour into would be another way,
01:28 so that they too can express how to be saved to those that they are trying to witness to, to those that God puts in their path. I believe the Lord is very deliberate with who he puts into our path. Amen.
01:45 And I’ve got examples that I won’t go into detail with, but I’ve been able to witness to people and some of whom have gotten saved, right?
01:55 And I’ve seen others that maybe my witness wasn’t effective and God will send somebody more like them for lack of a better term. And their witness is very effective. And you got to think about that.
02:08 You know, maybe you know somebody that is completely out in the world, right? And maybe you are completely buttoned up Christian, you know, Sunday school attender, tither, you know, never miss a service, sing in the choir.
02:22 And, you know, you try to talk to them about the Lord and they’re looking at you like you got three heads, right? Maybe you know them from work or some other place where you guys are around each other.
02:31 But maybe there’s someone that used to have a certain lifestyle, amen, and that testifies to what God did for them.
02:39 And then, oh, that rings a bell and oh, they kind of can relate and that could win them to the Lord if their heart, you know, if their heart is soft, if they have faith and they believe, amen. And not everyone will. The Bible tells us that.
02:51 But that is why it’s so important for me to share the salvation message on air, on the radio, and also for you too, to witness to those, for you, the believer to witness to those.
03:00 And maybe there’s someone that doesn’t know. I mean, they go to church, but they don’t even know if they’re saved.
03:08 Maybe you go to a church where salvation isn’t spoken of. Today, I just want to focus on one verse, Romans 3:23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
03:21 Now, Romans is a book of the New Testament written by Paul. And the book of Romans is often used to witness to others to help them understand the Lord’s plan for salvation. See, the whole Bible points to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
03:37 And the whole Bible is used to illustrate a concept that there is sin in this world. And so Romans 3:23 says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
03:50 And this is such an important statement because if in fact, we realize that we have sinned and fall short of what God desires of us to go to his heaven, then we realize we have a need.
04:05 And if in fact, we don’t think that we have sinned, that’s a problem because then we are disagreeing with God’s holy word and God will not have that.
04:20 He won’t have a, someone that with unbelief, someone that doesn’t think they’re a sinner. He won’t have them to be saved until they realize their need.
04:25 And this is why you often hear Christians speaking of being broken and finding their need and in brokenness. This is why often people are saved in a time of great need.
04:32 And you could think of, you know, a plane crash, you know, and someone’s like, oh, I’m going to die, you know, and they realize that their deeds won’t get them to heaven.
04:49 But more likely it’s oftentimes being fired from work or going through a divorce or going through going to jail or whatever it is. This is oftentimes when you realize your need. Amen.
04:55 Oftentimes when you are famous and when you are rich and when everything is going good in your life, it’s very hard to realize your need because you have decided that that fame or that money will be your God and that you will serve that God and that God will answer all your needs.
05:11 And then God in his mercy will take it away and you realize, well, that’s a false God. And then the one true God is Jesus Christ, our Lord.
05:19 But it all starts with this idea of sin. And so maybe you’re wondering if you’ve not been saved, where does sin come from? Sin comes from Adam and Eve. We understand Adam and Eve is the first humans to ever live.
05:33 God created Adam and then eventually he created Eve to be Adam’s partner, his helpmeet. Amen. And he created Eve from the rib of Adam, right? So woman means, I think in the direct translation, something like of man or made of man.
05:46 And so Adam and Eve are in the Garden of Eden. God’s given them a perfect place and everything is perfect and they’re never going to die and they have all the wonderful fruit and vegetation and animals. It’s literally paradise.
05:58 And they’re in there and everything is good. And then Satan creeps in. And why does Satan creep in? God allowed it.
06:04 Okay. God allowed Satan to creep in as a snake. We understand that God is sovereign.
06:09 He allows this to happen. The snake comes in and tells them, oh, you can eat of that fruit. You surely won’t die.
06:14 And the snake, the devil beguiles them. He tricks them. And Eve, you know, she eats of it fruit, but Adam being the head of the house, the man, he eats of it as well.
06:20 And he’s held accountable. So Adam and Eve sin. Amen.
06:26 And once they eat the fruit, the one fruit God told them they could not eat, they disobeyed God and sin entered the picture. And all of a sudden they realized they were naked. They realized all these things.
06:36 Death enters the picture. They’re expelled from the garden and God gives them animal skins. He gives them clothes, which shows God’s love for the center.
06:43 But sin still entered the picture. And sin from that point has been hereditary. It’s been passed down from generation to generation.
06:51 You know, we don’t, we don’t become sinners. Like we don’t go to a bad movie. And now all of a sudden we’re sinners or we don’t, uh, you know, see something on social media and become a sinner.
07:01 We are born sinners. I have young kids. It’s fresh in my memory.
07:06 As, as a little, as they are, you have a one or two year old, uh, with a toy that they like and then ask them to share it, you know, sign to them. They don’t, they don’t understand the words signs. They show them to share.
07:17 Amen. They’ll start crying. You know, they’ll, they’ll have a fit sin is in us from birth and sin, unfortunately is not going away.
07:29 Amen. We are all sinners. We can’t just rectify that sin on our own.
07:33 Many people think they can kind of get that sin under control and live a good life and that they can live in pursuit of happiness and they can have material things and they could be a good citizen and not break the law quote unquote here on earth.
07:47 And that will be okay. But the difference in the problem here is God’s law is so much different than man’s law.
07:52 You know, there are a lot of things that are legal that are not godly. Amen. I can think of a bunch.
08:00 Amen. Uh, in some states you can murder an unborn baby and that is legal. That’s not godly.
08:02 That’s shedding innocent blood. That is against God’s will here in Kings mountain. You can go gamble at the casino.
08:07 Is that godly? That’s not of God. Amen. If I want to, I can go out and buy a bunch of alcohol and be drunk.
08:13 The Bible says be of a sober mind. Uh, in some states you can buy marijuana and you know, you can do drugs. That’s not godly.
08:19 Amen. That’s not of a sober mind. And yes, you say our drugs in the Bible.
08:26 They are pharmacopeia is in the Bible. Amen. You can read about it.
08:30 It’s in there. And so there are a lot of things we can do legally here on earth that are not godly. God’s standard is so high that no one could meet it.
08:36 And that is why in the old Testament, we see the Israelites, God’s chosen people put under a law with over 600 rules that they could never keep because the law didn’t exist to show them that they were good enough.
08:48 The law was there simply to show they couldn’t live up to it, but not just the Israelites that couldn’t live up to it. No one can live up to the law.
08:56 Amen. If you look at the 10 commandments, no one can live up to the law. It says, thou shall not commit adultery.
09:03 When you say, I’ve never cheated on my wife. Well, have you ever looked at anyone with lust? Because that means that you’ve committed adultery. According to the Bible, thou shall not steal.
09:14 You know, uh, I mean, on and on, you know, how about coveting? Paul writes in the new Testament that he didn’t know sin until he understood what coveting means. Coveting is desiring something that someone else has. Amen.
09:23 Trust me, you’ve coveted before. If you’re of any kind of age, you’ll say, oh, I want those headphones. Oh, I want that boat.
09:28 Oh, I want that house. So I want that job. I want that wife or husband.
09:33 That’s coveting. Amen. We’ve all fallen short.
09:37 All have sinned. So God tells us what sin is. He shows us where it originated in the garden of Eden.
09:44 And he shows us that we all have it because he gives us the law and says, look, no one can uphold it. Now, are we still trying to live by the commandments?
09:48 Absolutely. Jesus in the new Testament, uh, writes that we should, or speaks, which is then written that we should, um, if you love it, if you love me, you’ll obey my commandments, right? If you love me, you’ll obey my commandments.
09:57 So we are to try, okay, to, to live holy, to live separate, to be of a sober mind, to love our neighbor, to forgive others, to not covet. We are to try, but our efforts without God are insufficient. And God understood this.
10:13 So he sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins. So that when Jesus Christ came, he was born of a virgin. He was perfect.
10:20 Amen. Sinless, spotless. He never sinned.
10:24 He lived on this earth 33 and a half years. He was fully man. Cause he was born of a virgin yet.
10:28 He was fully God. God is his father. Amen.
10:32 And so Jesus Christ, uh, fully sinless goes to the cross. Not because he is being punished for something that he did some, some kind of violation. Okay.
10:40 He goes to the cross for us as a replacement and the Bible word there would be atonement or another one is substitutionary death. The idea is Jesus says, you’re a sinner. You have a sin you can’t fix.
10:52 I’m God in the flesh. I’ll go to the cross, even though I don’t want to, and I’ll die the most brutal death that mankind has ever seen so that you can be saved.
10:59 And when Christ died on the cross and was buried three days and risen again, miraculously resurrected and walked the earth 40 days and 40 nights, it was seen by over 500.
11:07 He completed his passion. He completed the salvation program. And now all we have to do is simply believe in what he has already done.
11:16 It’s past tense. It’s already been done. And so to be saved means to believe in what Jesus has done.
11:22 So do you want to be saved today? If you have not accepted Christ as Savior, if you have not realized your need that you have a sin debt that you cannot repay, simply believe on Christ. Trust Christ as Lord and Savior. Pray right now.
11:35 Say, Lord, please save me. I am trusting you as my Lord and Savior. I believe in you, Lord.
11:40 I believe that you died for my sin, that I can’t reconcile it on my own. I know what’s in me and I know that’s no good things in me. Lord, please save me.
11:47 And if you call out to Jesus in prayer, understanding what it means to be saved, understanding that he paid that debt at Calvary for your sin, he’ll save you, friend.
11:56 The Bible talks about how God desires all to come to repentance, all to come to knowledge of him. He will save you.
12:07 Trust in Jesus today and he will save you. Believe on him and he will save you. You don’t have to be perfect.
12:13 In fact, he came, the Bible says, Jesus Christ himself says, I came not to heal the healthy, but to heal the sick. He came to heal you. If you haven’t been saved, if you’ve been fighting against God, if you’ve been under conviction, maybe you’re in the car, maybe you’re walking, just stop right now.
12:25 Pull over. Obviously, don’t get in an accident, but pull over, park somewhere. Amen.
12:32 And pray this prayer. Ask God to save you. Say, Lord, I’m ready to be saved.
12:36 Don’t wait till tomorrow. Tomorrow is not promised. Amen.
12:40 I’m not telling you anything that’s not in the Bible. You can verify every word that I’ve said that is in the Bible. Amen.
12:43 And it is true. And this is God’s plan for salvation. From Adam, what’s called the first Adam, Adam and Eve to the last Adam, which is Jesus Christ.
12:51 This is his plan. This is the only plan. The Bible says that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life.
12:57 No man come with the father, but by me. Amen. But by me, it’s only by Jesus Christ.
13:03 So is there another way? There is not another way. And the world tells you there’s all kinds of ways. The devil, he’s called the author of confusion.
13:09 He’s trying to confuse people and get people away from a true gospel doctrine. But this is it. 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 repeats this.
13:17 The whole Bible emphasizes this. And here in the book of Romans, we’re told that we can be saved if we trust in Jesus Christ. Romans 10:13 for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
13:29 And that’s going to be my next message. But just understand that whosoever is you, and if you’ve been saved, what are you doing to communicate this to others? Is that your top priority in life? It should be. And everyone can do something.
13:42 Oh, I don’t like to speak. Get a gospel track. Oh, I don’t really go anywhere.
13:48 Write a letter. You’re on social media. Start posting gospel messages on social media.
13:53 Start sharing the gospel. Start telling friends about how Jesus loves them and wants to save them. Okay.
13:59 You can go to our website. We’re full of gospel messages. KJVcafe.com. Text that to somebody.
14:05 Text another gospel preacher to somebody. Be about the father’s business before it’s too late. Don’t just talk the talk, walk the walk.
14:14 He desires us to be fruitful. And that means to win souls. And he’s blessed us.
14:18 Jesus Christ died for us. Therefore, the least we can do is live for him. I thank you so much for listening.
14:24 Tune in next time as we get to another message about salvation. Take care. God bless and amen.