-Transcript-
00:28 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the Cafe.
00:34 Welcome to the program. Pastor Clark Covington here with another message from KJV Cafe. All this one will bless you here today.
00:39 It really will. And before I get to that, again, I want to thank you for joining me. I hope you’re having a wonderful day, a wonderful week.
00:46 Hopefully you’re ready to study God’s Word, get into God’s Word, understand some of these deeper truths in God’s Word.
00:54 Today’s message is titled, How Wonderful It Is to Have Unity Among the Brethren. How Wonderful It Is to Have Unity Among the Brethren.
01:04 You know, think about this. Will there be denominations in heaven? We can’t say for sure, but does the Bible ever point that out?
01:13 No. You know, when you think of heaven, there will be some kind of separation or difference or distinction, I should say, between angels, right? And those that had to live in this broken world.
01:28 Those that overcame, they overcame by the blood of Jesus Christ, amen, by the word of their testimony, they overcame.
01:35 So you’re going to have the overcomers, you’re going to have those that accepted Christ as Savior that were born here, spiritually dead, that were born again and believed on Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross, and then eventually either die or are taken up in the rapture and they go to heaven.
01:54 And so you’ll have that distinction there between the angels and those that lived and believed on Christ and were born again.
02:02 You might have distinction among who gets reward, how many rewards they get. The Bible says that Jesus comes and He’s coming with His reward, amen.
02:12 We talk here on KJV Cafe about the Bema Seat, and so we know that if we’re saved, we’re no longer under condemnation, we’re no longer judged on our sin.
02:21 Thank God for that, amen. Thank Jesus Christ specifically for that. So we’re saved by the blood of Jesus, we’re going to heaven, we get entry, we’re going to be there for an eternity, and now that we’re saved, for what we did by the working of the Holy Spirit that was for God, not for our own selfish purposes, we’ll receive reward.
02:38 So there may be a distinction for are you an angel or are you an overcomer? Did you get a reward or did you not get a reward? Or how much reward you got, okay?
02:45 But generally speaking, there’s no denomination in heaven. Think about here on earth now, let’s come back down to earth for a minute, how denominations separate us, right?
02:55 And we’re of the Baptist faith, independent Baptist technically. When I talk to people and they ask, what are you?
03:05 Because we’re Heartland Community Baptist Church and so forth and Heartland Ministries, I’ll say, well, we’re independent Baptist, but we don’t harp on it.
03:12 And the reason why we don’t harp on it is you can find great independent Baptist churches and you can find awful independent Baptist churches.
03:20 You can find independent Baptist churches that are very modern and totally fallen away. And you can find ones that are so fundamental and legalistic that they’re no better than the modern one, right? So I don’t harp on denomination a lot.
03:33 And yet we are to be unified. We are to be unified. And I’m going to get to the caveat here.
03:37 Trust me, anyone out here that’s a fundamentalist like I am, they’re thinking, oh boy, unity, here it comes. I’m not preaching any kind of doctrine other than what we have in the Bible. So get ready for the big caveat in a minute.
03:53 But let’s get to unity first before we talk about the caveat. Unity here is important. When I was driving down a road here on the way to my house in Kings Mountain, the other day it struck me, two churches that have vastly different denominations had the same message on their sign.
04:13 And the first church had something to the extent of, he’s coming soon, let everyone know. Okay. And this church has a very different denomination.
04:26 And then the next church, a little way down the road, said, you know, long awaited, Lord Jesus comes soon, you know.
04:28 And so they’re both, both signs were communicating a biblically accurate message. And it struck me as, number one, this is the mentality we should have as Christians.
04:38 Revelation 22, last chapter in the Bible, verse 20, We are to have this even so come mentality. And it also struck me, so number one, that this was a biblically accurate statement on two very different denominational signs.
04:54 And secondly, it struck me that these denominations have very different clergy and culture and tradition and so on.
05:03 And so it was like, it just as light went off like, man, that’s great. You know, how great is it to have unity among the brethren when there’s proper doctrine being preached.
05:12 Philippians 2:2, So what does that mean to be of one accord and one mind? Well, it means I think to be unified in the causes of Christ, doing what God’s called us to do uniquely as a church body, but unified as a church body.
05:30 And not just a denominational group. And I’ve got all kinds of tidbits and stories. I heard, I think it was a radio preacher mentioned that there was someone in the Philippines or in Asia, and they were of a like-minded fundamental faith, and no one in their denomination was nearby.
05:48 But then there was someone that was similar in the sense that they weren’t part of these Jehovah Witness or these ecumenical groups, and they got along great.
05:59 And they had never even thought of talking to each other, and they became very good friends, even though they weren’t exactly aligned in the same denomination.
06:07 I went to a friend’s church one time years ago, and it had a denomination on the sign that you might say, oh, that must be very liberal.
06:16 And you went in this church, and it was a hot Baptist meeting with a different name on it. Amen. I mean, a different denomination.
06:23 But this preacher was preaching Christ crucified. He’s preaching heaven sweet and hell hot. Amen.
06:28 And again, I’ve been in churches, fundamental quote-unquote churches that were very modern or preaching false doctrine or legalistic to the point where they were putting people back under the law.
06:38 So we have to understand that, look, unity comes down to trusting the Lord, living for Him, letting His principles and doctrine guide us, and not getting in the way of what God called us to do. Think about this.
06:53 This is our text verse here today. John 3:17. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
07:04 For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him, through Jesus Christ, might be saved.
07:12 So the context of this verse here, we always got to talk about context, John 3, spoken by Jesus Himself, red letter text. He’s speaking to Nicodemus.
07:23 He’s telling Nicodemus about being born again, amen, explaining it to him. And He’s speaking of His coming work on the cross at Calvary to save those that would believe on Him. So think about this idea.
07:45 God did not come here in the flesh to condemn us. He came here to save us. But then here we are in the flesh, in the church, trying to condemn everybody, having a really hard eye on everyone else and taking it easy on ourself.
07:49 We need to be hard on ourself and a little bit easier on everyone else. Churches are often condemning each other. Goodness, there was, they were ringing the bell outside of Ingalls today.
08:00 I went to the grocery to get some lunch and some stuff for our house, some groceries. And there were some ladies out there, and they were raising money for the crisis ministry.
08:07 And I was able to talk to these ladies for a little while about the local Kings Mountain crisis ministry and the role that they played and how I believe I, as a pastor, have referred people to them because we had a food bank, we were in Lincolnton,
08:20 that was food strictly and people were asking for other things, we’d refer them to these different crisis ministries.
08:28 I don’t know what denomination they’re from. I don’t know what group they’re from, but I know that that crisis ministry is showing the love of Christ to the least of these. I know that it is a good ministry.
08:35 Again, I have referred people to that ministry that I could tell were in genuine need, amen. And so why are we going to jump all over these people if they’re not in the type of church that we’re in?
08:43 I mean, to be Christ-like means that we should save the lost, right? We should look to save the lost. We know God does the saving.
08:51 We plant the seeds. But instead of that, we should certainly not splinter the saved and become poor witnesses to the lost. I mean, think about that.
08:59 How often times do we splinter the church and we go off over here and over there and then the lost person says, well, if that’s what church is, I don’t want anything to do with it.
09:08 You know, I can’t, I mean, it’s kind of like, what do lost people think? They’re looking for a way out, right? They’re looking for a hole in your argument and there’s no hole in the Bible.
09:18 The Bible is true and perfect and rich and living, amen. But in us as witnesses, in God’s peculiar and fascinating plan, he said, here, you broken sinners that have been saved, I’m going to use you as witnesses.
09:30 In us as witnesses, we oftentimes can fall short and we can hurt the witness of the Lord Jesus Christ by our own grumblings and mumblings and all this.
09:40 I mean, look, they have enough conflict and stress and problems in the world. I used to live in the world.
09:47 I used to be a lost person. Even as a young adult, I know what it’s like and there’s skepticism and depression and problems and all these things.
09:54 Okay, well then you look at the church and you have all these things happening in the church.
09:55 You say, well, I don’t want that. People should desire what we have. People desired to be with Christ.
09:59 They desired, their hearts were on fire. They desired to be around him, amen? They want to just touch the hem of his garment. They wanted to get, think of our text verse, Nicodemus just wanted to know in the night hour, oh Jesus, please tell me what you’re here for.
10:18 I know you’re from God, amen? That’s how we should be. We should be with each other so that people know that we are God’s own and that’s Bible right there.
10:26 How about John 13:35, by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another.
10:38 If you have love one to another. Now that’s a whole message on its own, but at the very least we can say that we need to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. We need to look at them as co-laborers.
10:50 We need to look at them in the eyes that Jesus explained to disciples when one was casting out devils in Jesus’ name and they didn’t know who he was. And Jesus said, look, if you, even though you don’t know him, right?
11:01 I still, if he’s not against me, he’s for me, right? If he’s not against me, he’s for me. And so what did they do? He said, leave him alone.
11:08 Right? That’s, I mean, think about that. That’s not that hard to do. If someone is doing the Lord’s work and they’re not exactly like us, if we can’t come alongside them and pray and give to their causes and help when we can and so on and so forth, lift them up, compliment them, support them.
11:29 If we can’t do that, at least we should be able to leave them alone so that they can do the work the Lord has for them to do.
11:36 And what does it mean when we say our denomination, our church, our congregation is the best, is the greatest, is the most elite? What are we saying?
11:45 I think we’re elevating ourselves above where even Jesus was. Jesus says the servant’s no greater than the master.
11:51 And Jesus condescended himself down to sinners. The Bible talks about how while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And so Jesus condescends himself down to us as sinners and says, look,
12:04 I’m going to take on your sin, sin debt all the way to the cross at Calvary and I’m going to bleed and die the most gruesome death that anyone’s ever died and be risen again on the third day so that you can be saved.
12:17 You know, that is humility. That is meekness. That’s strength under control.
12:22 He didn’t have to do that. Christ, it didn’t have to die that death. Christ was obedient unto the cross, which means that he didn’t have to be.
12:29 He could have been disobedient. He could have been rebellious. Certainly he had the power to just blink an eye and have all the legions of angels come down and wipe out every enemy he’s ever had.
12:38 Certainly Father God was very protective. I mean, loving Jesus to the core and desiring for vengeance upon his enemies. I mean, can you imagine they’re plucking his beard out? If I have a son, I have a son.
12:54 I’ve got a couple of them. I was going to say if they had a beard, which they don’t, they’re not that old yet.
13:04 But if one day they do and I’m up somewhere far off and I see someone torturing them and mocking them and spinning on them and ridiculing them and plucking that beard hair one by one off their face, dad’s going to come down and deal with that.
13:16 Dad’s going to want to come down and deal with that very quickly and firmly and let them try to pluck the beard out of my face. Amen. But God the Father, the Bible says it pleased him that Christ was bruised for our iniquities, chastised for our sin so that we could be saved.
13:32 Amen. What a great God we serve. What a great God we serve.
13:36 And here we are. What are we to do? We are to go win souls for him. Amen.
13:41 I wish I had more time, but in the next episode, we’re going to look at this caveat, this idea that unity among the church should not compromise biblical doctrine.
13:53 So I’m going to tackle that. I’m sure someone listening today is thinking, well, what about if a church is totally left field, totally, you know, changing the Bible, changing the gospel? No, no, we don’t accept that.
14:06 We’re not unified with that. We’re going to mark that. We’re going to call that out.
14:11 We’re going to stay away from that. I’m going to tackle that in the next episode. For now, just continue to pray and think about how God would have you be unified with other like-minded churches and ministries in your area to see what you can do to help propagate the gospel so that all can be saved before it’s eternally too late.
14:26 I thank you for listening today. Tune in next time. Take care. God bless and amen.