-Transcript-
00:35 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the program.
00:41 Welcome to the cafe. So great to have you here today on this wonderful day as we get into God’s Word. Here we are in the second part of a two-part series on why Christianity is an exclusive religion, one that requires your full devotion.
00:57 And this seems, I think, like if somebody’s a theologian or someone studies the Bible a lot, they’d kind of be like, yeah, duh, it’s a Christianity’s exclusive, you know. There’s no way to the Father but by me. Have no other idols.
01:11 I mean this is kind of elementary sometimes, but then at the same time, if you look at it from the world’s perspective, they’re aghast, they’re offended, they are absolutely blown away that you can only be Christian and not something else.
01:23 And so here I am today trying to dive a little bit into this by helping, working of the Holy Spirit. Last episode we looked at salvation, went through Romans Road, and this idea that in order to be saved we must realize the role of Christ.
01:41 And I did a video recently on this, looking at the differences between Christianity and Buddhism in that regard. And I ended it, I ended the video with discussing, and it’s on our Facebook page, facebook.com forward slash KJV cafe.
01:57 I ended it with talking about Christ on the cross and thinking of Christ on the cross.
02:03 Thinking of what Christ did for us. Understanding what true Christianity is, which is simply believing on Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 15 1- 4. And understanding to be Christ-like is to accept him as Savior and understanding that that sacrifice was so great.
02:19 That how could we then say, well your sacrifice was incredible, you were so obedient, you were so, you were perfect, you were God’s perfect plan for salvation, you’ve given me everything I’ve ever needed, but I’m thinking this other religion’s looking pretty good.
02:37 And if I could just take some of this other religion and some of Christianity and I could kind of mingle them two together, I mean I’d have, I’d have more fun, I’d have more friends, I’d be more popular. I’d just kind of do things my way.
02:51 And see that’s the problem, is God doesn’t want us to have fun, be popular, and do things our way.
02:58 God wants us to have peace, be holy, and do things his way. Amen. And that’s a big difference.
03:03 And so I spoke about what makes a Christian a Christian, and I spent most of the last episode on Romans Road, on salvation. Sanctification would be the other one. Amen.
03:14 And sanctification, 1 John 1:9, if we confess our sins, see it’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so to be Christ-like, number one, we are to live, we are to be saved.
03:26 And then number two, we are to live like him, and yet we’re still in the mortal body, we’re still in the flesh, we still fall short, we still mess up.
03:32 I mess up every single day. I thank God for this verse. Can I tell you, I thank God.
03:39 I literally go to this verse earlier this week, I said, Lord I thank you for 1John 1:9, that I can confess my sins, and you are faithful and just to forgive my sins, and to cleanse me from all, all, underlined capital, or not capital, underlined bold, A-L-L, all unrighteousness. I thank you God for that. I personally thank him for that.
03:59 You should thank him for that. That’s that idea of sanctification, that we can go to God and be forgiven. We don’t need to go to man, we don’t need to go anywhere else, we can approach the throne boldly, because what Christ did on the cross allows us to be reconciled to God.
04:18 So when Christ died on the cross for our sins, him being perfect and sinless, when he died on the cross for our sins and was buried three days, was resurrected from the grave, that sacrifice is now complete, it is finished,
04:27 as Christ himself mentions on the cross, says on the cross, when we believe on Christ, we accept that free gift of salvation, we’re now reconciled to God. We now, there was a veil or a curtain between the old temple, old tabernacle, between the Holy of Holies,
04:45 where God was to reside, and only certain people could go there besides the other places in the temple. And when Christ died on the cross, the Bible says that that veil, that curtain was torn in two, it was ripped in two, it was rent in two, I believe the King James says.
05:03 And so that means that we now no longer need to be on the other side, we can approach God boldly. And so he expects us to. He says, look, I’ve made a way, I gave my only begotten to die the most brutal death mankind has ever seen, and now I’ve made a way, you can come to me directly in prayer, you can pray to me directly.
05:22 What is Christ called in the Bible? He’s called the Mediator, amen? So when we’re saved, we have the Holy Spirit living within us, so we pray by the working of the Holy Spirit, through Christ the Mediator, to God the Father.
05:37 That’s the Holy Trinity at work, as I understand it. The idea here is atonement, that Christ died for our sins.
05:43 The idea that believing in Christ is exclusive, as I mentioned, John 14 6, Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, the life, and no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
05:54 So we understand by John 14:6, the only way to the Father is by Jesus. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, Acts 4:12.
06:09 The gospel is offensive because God is asking for complete devotion against any kind of like worldly ideas that we may have that would prioritize otherwise.
06:21 Luke 9:59-62 gives a really interesting example, and he said unto another, follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
06:30 Jesus said unto him, let the dead bury the dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee, but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.
06:47 And Jesus said unto him, no man, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
06:55 You see here, people were giving reasonable explanations for why they needed to do something else besides follow God. So Christ says, follow me. And this individual says, Lord, suffer me to go bury my father.
07:09 I mean, that’s a pretty good reason. Your father’s dead. You need to go bury him.
07:14 You’re involved in it. Maybe this was the man of the house or the eldest son or whatever the role would be. And Jesus replies, let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.
07:22 Jesus is saying, even though your reason sounds good here on earth, you keep following me and you go preach the kingdom of God. It’s got to be hard to hear for people.
07:30 And also another said, Lord, I’ll follow thee, but first let me go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.
07:37 They’re saying, you know, they’re saying, let me tell my family goodbye. I’m going to go do this. And Jesus said unto him, no man having put his hand to the plow, believing on God, serving God, living for God, and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.
07:52 And so we see an exclusivity here. We see a no playing around here. We see a no excuses need to be made here.
07:58 So do you think the Jesus in this chapter here in the new Testament would be with, okay, with you saying, I want two thirds of your religion, Lord, but I also want a third of something else.
08:07 You think that Jesus would be okay with that? Another one comes to mind when, uh, Sodom and Gomorrah, the angels are there. They take lot and his wife and his daughters out of there.
08:19 They’re going to burn it down. They say, do not turn back. You run as fast as you can.
08:24 And the wife turns back and turns to a pillar of salt. Was she turning back? Um, because of a good reason. I can’t think of one, you know, often it’s been mentioned in commentaries and so forth.
08:36 She was turning back cause she was mourning. She was leaving this place that she liked. She was turning back to the world.
08:44 She wanted to look at it one last time and she turned to a pillar of salt. Let it be a lesson. Remember the Lord burned down Sodom and Gomorrah as a lesson.
08:51 It’s a, it is an example for us. If he were to burn down every unholy place, we wouldn’t have much world left. Amen.
08:56 This was an example for believers to understand and follow, uh, not in their footsteps. Right. And yet she turned around and turned to a pillar of salt.
09:06 And when we say we love you, Lord, but we also love the world. And I want to kind of turn around and look at the world. Jesus is saying, you’re not fit.
09:14 You’re not fit for the kingdom of God. That’s the Lord’s words, not mine. You can look at that Luke 9:59-62.
09:23 And I encourage you to study that up. Um, you must choose Christ and forsake all else as I have understood it. And trust me, you may think, oh, well, you’re just some fundamental preacher.
09:32 Just going to go on this tangent. Look, I lived, I got saved in my early twenties. I believe that.
09:37 Amen. I had a big church and I believe I was saved at that time. And I was baptized after that in front of a large group.
09:45 And I just felt like a million bucks. And, uh, I was excited. They put my picture in the bulletin and I went right back to living in the world and I was miserable and I was depressed and I had seemed like one problem after the next, almost like dominoes falling down to the point where I felt like I was cursed.
10:02 I didn’t even want to live. Amen. And it was at that point that that breaking point, when I turned to God and asked God to help me and to get me out of this mess that I got myself into, that the Lord got me into the ministry, got me away from the world and got me focused on him.
10:18 And it was the more that I dialed in on him, the more that I started to say, you know what? I’m going to stop reading this worldly garbage and I’m going to read the Bible every day.
10:27 I’m going to stop listening to all this worldly music and I’m going to listen to good uplifting Christian music at the very least things that are not bad. I’m going to stop drinking and I’m not going to drink ever again.
10:37 Uh, I’m going to stop cursing. I’m not going to curse ever again. And of course I didn’t do these things out of my own power.
10:43 The Holy Spirit within me did those things. And here’s the point that I’m getting at for you. The more that I turned to God, the more that I got right with God through the whole working of the Holy Spirit by studying the Bible and understanding and going to church, being involved in my local church and on and on.
11:01 The more that God showed up in my life, the more peace that I had, the more discernment that I had on and on. And so, you know, I think of the verse, uh, draw an eye to God and he’ll draw an eye to you. Cleanse your hands.
11:13 You filthy sinners, uh, purify your hearts. You double minded. I think it is from the book of James.
11:19 That’s, that’s the, that’s the lesson here is that God demands devotion, right? Now you’re saying brother Clark, if I get saved legitimately and I live for the world, am I not saved? You’re saved. I believe in eternal security. God’s not a liar.
11:34 Amen. And he’s not mocked. Amen.
11:38 So yet if you’re saved, then I believe the Lord will take you to the woodshed over and over again to the point where you’re like me and you turn and get right with him. And that was, uh, some years ago, maybe, I don’t know, it was, it was over probably over a decade ago that that happened in my life. And it was a massive change.
11:51 And I continue to seek the Lord. And I, my only regret is I didn’t do that sooner. And I share this with you to help you understand that we serve a God that demands obedience, that that obedience is better than sacrifice, that the gospel is exclusive.
12:04 The gospel is offensive. Uh, John 3:16 for God’s to love the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That, that connects everlasting life to the sun.
12:16 Amen. John 3:36, he that believeth on the sun has everlasting life. And he thatbelieveth not the sun shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
12:27 So again, if you believe in the sun, can you truly be lukewarm and walk, uh, you know, this way in that way? I don’t think so. Acts 10:43 to him, give all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remissions of sin. It sounds very exclusive to me.
12:47 1 Timothy 2:5, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. Again, 1 Timothy 2:5 tells us there’s only one God, John 17:3, and this is life eternal, that they might know the, the only true God and Jesus Christ to whom thou has sent. So this all comes down to a matter of faith.
13:12 Do we believe the Bible is true? Do we believe God as holy and righteous? Or do we think that we know better? Or do we think that other religions have something to offer us?
13:19 Let’s guard our hearts here today. Let’s stay in the word. Let’s trust the God that has delivered us to this point.
13:27 The good God of the Bible, Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior. Let’s trust him today and let’s keep our hearts knit to his and let’s stay sold out to him and let’s make sure that we’re saved and that we’re turning to him in repentance every single day, repenting for any sins in our life so we can be close to him and
13:43 that we’re reading his word and that we’re sharing his gospel, that we’re not ashamed of Christ, that we’re standing up for the truths in his word and we’re not bowing down to the culture and bowing down to this mishmash of things that people want to put together and call religion, but that we are trusting in the true God, the one God, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
13:57 He died for you.
14:01 He gave us all for you and yes, he expects you’re all in return. Trust him today. Live for him today.
14:06 I thank you so much for listening. Again, check out our Facebook, facebook.com forward slash kjvcafe or kjvcafe.com.
14:15 Take care. God bless and amen.