Last Sunday I began a series
entitled, Accepted in the Beloved. And actually, in some of your
Bibles, some of you who do not have the Old King James, it will
read, Accepted in the One He Loved. That is, in the One that
God loved. We are accepted in the One that
God loved. Last week I made this statement.
Most of us seldom say what we really mean. Most of us never
expose our real selves, and there's a good reason for the cover-up.
We're afraid we will not be accepted. We fear rejection. Rejection is a big thing. We
want to be accepted, and especially is this true of young people. That's why the cute little 16-year-old
you know, going from bed to bed with the guys, so she'll have
stories to tell around her girlfriends about her sexual experiences.
It's not that she enjoys that necessarily so much. It's just
she wants to be accepted. Amen? That's true. The young
man who gets drunk and brags about throwing up all night after
a wonderful party of just drink, drink, drink, drink, drink. You
know, it's really not that he enjoys that. He just wants to
be one of the guys and be accepted. In forty-some years of ministry,
the sad fact that I have observed is that not many professing Christians
have a personal, experiential, daily realized assurance that
God loves them. And that's really sad. It's more
like, God is love. God loves everybody. Yeah, I
think there's a God. Yeah, I'm a Christian. Oh, yeah,
I'm not a heathen. Yeah, there's somebody out there that did something
or other. But a daily encounter with and consciousness of I,
Kent Ward Clark, am accepted, loved, and cherished by God,
and He is working everything For my good, He is on my side,
and who can be against me?" Boy, to have that consciousness will
bring such joy and power to your life. I don't think many of us
live in that light, and it's usually because of the baggage
of our past. The baggage of our past life
carries over into our Christian life. If you've ever known the
power of being rejected by a parent. You know, you bring home a report
card with all A's and B's and Dad says something like this,
Oh, I had old Ms. Van Dyke. That's all she gives
is A's and B's. You could do better than that.
You know, that sort of thing. Or just flat out rejection. Or
maybe a father that just totally ignored you. He worked. He brought
home a paycheck. But you never had any interaction
with him. There was never any real knowledge
that He loved you and cherished you, well, you bring that over
into your Christian life and think, well, Mom and Dad didn't,
God won't either. And then you get into the tailspin
of trying to earn His love. You know, you've got to be good
enough, you've got to do this, you've got to do that, so God
will love you. There's another reason we don't
know God loves us, and that's because we don't understand the
Gospel. Many of you understand the doctrine of the Catholic
Church, the Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church, the
Baptist Church, the Church of God in Christ, First Pentecostal,
tongue-talking, Hallelujah Church. You understand, you know, you've
got some kind of assent to that theology, but you really don't
know the Gospel. Oh, it's essential you know the
Gospel. There are people in here today that are very religious,
but you don't know the gospel. You're doing your dead-level
best to work your way to heaven. You're trying to earn the right
to get into heaven. And you feel like there are things
that you must do and things you must not do. And if you don't
do those things and not do those other things, then you're going
to go to hell for sure, because you have the mentality that you
earn heaven. And all that means is that you
don't know the gospel. Listen, if you could be saved
by going to church, let me make this clear. Some of you know
this. I've said this enough. But going to church does not
make you a Christian any more than walking in your garage makes
you an automobile. You don't walk in your garage
and say, Ha! There it is. I'm a Ford van. You don't say
stupid stuff like that. Going to church does not make
you a Christian. We go to church because we are
Christians. We want to be together, so forth. So, I want to try to
declare to you again the gospel of Jesus Christ. By the way,
I often hear this third thing, too, with regard to, I don't
believe I'm accepted by God, because things go wrong in life.
Never had anyone die that you loved out of the clear blue sky,
or your children get sick, or business goes bad. Ah! God doesn't
love me. You know, we've all experienced
things like that. That has nothing to do with it
at all, but somehow religiously we think that way. Well, I want
to tell you, we are accepted in the Beloved, and hopefully,
I can teach you Christians that I can deliver you from a perverted
gospel. Some of you are too religious.
You got it down pat. You're just not real. Amen. You know, honest people don't
go to hell. I'm trying to preach here enough where I make you
mad enough or get you glad enough, where you just flat out get honest.
Amen. You look at what happened this
week. That guy had 14,000 church members. He was head of the evangelical
group here in the United States. Lo and behold, he's meeting a
male prostitute. He's gay. And he's buying drugs. How many of you heard about that?
You know what? That is religion. That is a preacher
locked up in a church where you can't be real. You can't be real. That's why I'm always saying
to you, y'all are messed up. And so is your pastor. So if
I mess up before you do, you say, we already knew he was messed
up. He told us. Amen? But God doesn't mess up. I'm not counting on Kent Clark,
and you shouldn't either. And I'm not counting on you either.
Man, if I was counting on some of you, Ooh, the things you say
about me. He preached too long. He called
us crackheads. He said we're sinners. You know,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I wonder who told
him I said that. I wonder if he knows it was really
me. See, you're dishonest. You're dishonest, but that's
okay. We accept dishonest people here. We accept people who've
messed up, people who've blown it. People who are crackheads
and, you know, people who are self-righteous Pharisees, we
say, come on in here, we know what you really are, because
we've read the Bible. You need saving by the grace
of God. That's right, that's what we
say. Now, I want you to consider this. Just think about this for
a minute, this statement. The true God, the true God, There
is a God and He's God Almighty. He's a God who walked out of
eternity one day and said, let there be light. And there was. The true God, the living God,
Almighty God has accepted us who believe. I want you to think about that.
Did you get that? He has accepted those of us who
have believed. Now, I hope your attitude is
not, ho-hum, big deal, so what? Some of you are like this. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, I know that. God loves everybody. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah. He's a God of love, but He's
a God. Every once in a while I tip Him, at least on Christmas
and Easter I go to church. You know, I've got to get it
over with. I'm not a heathen after all. But really, you talk about
God is love, but you don't know it. You don't experience it. It's kind of ho-hum. It's just
something kind of you take for granted. God loves everybody
some way or other, somehow. I think it will all work out.
You know, you just have this general theistic atheism. I don't know whether that's a
word or not. You're really an atheist. But you use the term
God every once in a while. Oprah confuses me. I mean, bless
her heart, I love her, and I like her shows. And every once in
a while, she's such a right on track. And then every once in
a while, I think she's totally new age. I said, I just pressed
my head. She said, God bless you. She'll
say that to people. God bless you. But then she'll
say, we're God, and I have to. I hope I'm not God, and I hope
you're not. Do you understand what it means
to be accepted by God? Do you experience that? To be
accepted. Now watch this. We are accepted
by God in the beloved. That's what Ephesians 1, 6 says.
How does God accept us? In the church? In baptism? In
our good works? In our morality? No. We are accepted
outside of ourselves in Jesus Christ. Boy, that will change
everything once you begin to see that. Once you find out,
you don't have to go to confession. You don't have to say 20 Hail
Marys to be accepted by God. How come it's getting quiet in
here? that God does not accept you on the basis of what you
do. He accepts you on the basis of His Son, Jesus Christ. Totally
outside of you. And when you come to face the
declaration of God's Holy Word, you come to the conclusion that
you and I, by nature, by nature, we are not accepted. What do
you mean by that, pastor? I mean this. No one in here sets
their children down and tells them, now today Mommy's going
to teach you how to steal, lie and cheat. That's today's lesson.
And I'm going to throw this into, I will also show you how to stick
out your tongue and spit at Mommy. How many of you have noticed
you didn't have to teach your kids how to sin and be disrespectful? Many children learn, shut up,
before they learn Mommy and Daddy. Many of them learn to Lay on
the floor and kick and just scream and scream and scream and scream.
I have people come to me all the time, I just can't handle
my three-year-old. I can handle your three-year-old. Amen. You know what you're saying? That three-year-old is out of
control. That three-year-old got his or
her nature from you and your mate. Right? So what you see
kicking on the floor, screaming with murder in their heart, because
you will not let them do what they want to do, is a real little
demon, not an angel. And as that little guy grows,
he becomes more aggressive, sneakier, smarter. In sin, you ever heard
this? You must be born again. Because
there's something radically wrong with you. You need to be born
over again with a different nature because it seems like you're
out of control. And so God works this miracle
of the new birth and we become new creatures in Christ Jesus. You and I are not accepted by
nature. We're not born little angels.
There are no halos over anybody's baby. Not even your mother had a woman say, yeah, I know
most kids are demons except mine. What was she saying? She was
a self-righteous person. She didn't even know herself.
How come you all are looking at me that way? Let's get honest
now. What about our actions? Can we
be accepted by God by our actions? What about all those secrets
that fill this room? All the secrets. We have about
300 people here today. I wonder how many secrets we
got in this room. Ooh, that's a scary, ugly thought,
isn't it? That is a scary, ugly thought. How many things have you done
that you didn't get caught, maybe happened 30 years ago, you still
know about it? Nobody knows but you. Secrets. In other words, we are not accepted
by our nature and we are not accepted by our actions. Our
actions are not good enough. You and I from the womb are not
accepted. You and I by our choices are
not accepted. We are unacceptable to God by
our nature, by our choices, by our actions. We do not come into
the world acceptable. Now, I'm going to tell you, and
I'm going to offend you. Some of you have had, took your babies,
and you've got holy water sprinkled on their head. And while the
holy man was sprinkling holy water, that baby was saying,
Holy cow, let me out of here! Have you ever seen a baby throw
a fit while the holy man is sprinkling water on that kid's forehead? That holy water doesn't work.
I've seen some of you grow up. There is no magic in the holy
water. And so we grow up living in a
world unacceptable. We all come into the world sinners. We grow up in the world expressing
that nature of sin in this world in various attitudes You know,
that's something that's big to me. When you get a person saved,
their attitude changes. Their attitude changes. Their
actions change. Their words change. They become
like Jesus. They care about people. They're
loving. They're tender. They want to
get the gospel out. They want to comfort people.
They're not mean and cruel and backbiting and hurting. We came into this world with
a nature that hates God, not wanting anything to do with God,
telling Him to keep His cotton-picking hands off us. Oh, when it's convenient,
we'll show up at church. We'll acknowledge there's a God
when it's convenient. Otherwise, you know, I love to
be right in the midst of a bunch of heathens and talk about God,
because I'm not ashamed of my God. Amen. I'm not ashamed of my God. I'm
a Christian. I'm not ashamed to be a Christian.
Well, we've got a paradox here. By nature, by choice, by my actions,
I'm a sinner. I'm not accepted. But then what
does the Scripture say that has nothing to do with it? I am accepted,
not by my nature, my actions, or my choices. I'm accepted in
Jesus Christ. The Beloved. You know, the hardest
thing for a preacher to do is get a lost man to believe God
has rejected him and get a saved man to believe God has accepted
him. I've noticed that that's a hard job. See, some of you
are out there like this, Oh yeah, I wonder how long he's going
to go on with that. I've known God. God loves everybody. God's a
good God. He's a mighty good God. He's
kind of like Santa Claus. He just kind of blesses everybody. You're sitting out there, you
don't care. All you care about is getting out of here. But some
of you are sitting out there, you're going like this, Oh, I
know, I'm a sinner by nature. I know what he's talking about.
Somebody's told him about all my secrets. He's read my mail. He knows all about it. I couldn't be a child of God.
There's no way I could be a child of God. And I'm up here trying
to convince you. Your actions, your nature, your
choices have nothing to do with your acceptance. You are accepted
in Jesus Christ. I mean, just between us girls,
aren't we all mess-ups? I mean, just look at us. Just
look at us. What a bunch of mess-ups. But we've been accepted. That's
the wonder about this group called Christians. We're accepted. And God wants us to know that.
Right? God wants you to not only know
that, experience that. I see people crying and mourning,
and they're really hurting all the time. And they are confessing
themselves to be Christians, and they go like this, Oh, Pastor,
Pastor, I know everything's working for my good. You do? You're not acting like it. That
doesn't mean you can't weep over certain things. A loved one dies. We sorrow not as others who have
no hope. We have a good hope. Yeah, we're
going to miss you, but we're going to see you again, too.
We have a good hope. Paul said, we know that all things
work together for good. I want to ask you, Christian,
do you know that? If you know that, it will empower
your life. God loves me. I'm accepted and
He's working everything for my good. God's accepted me in Jesus Christ. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Christians
are such messed up people. And you know, I preach this all
over the country, and church people as a whole come up to
me and like, you really confused me today. I've never heard any... I've
been in church all my life. You really confused me. About
what? Well, that God has accepted us
outside of ourselves. You know, I've been around the
world in churches. I've been to every kind, color,
shape and form in 43 years. And a lot of folks don't know
the gospel. And a lot of folks are trying to get saved by what
they do. It's working. And you know, I can't find any
happy churches. That's why I started this. I
figured out, well, I'm going to start my own. See if we can
have a happy church. This church ought to be every
person in here. I don't care though you've wallowed
in the stables of sin, you're as black as all hell, you've
been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, now you know God loved
you before you were ever born, before you ever came into the
world. And you were predestined. Amen. Don't go backing up on
that word. We believe in predestination
around here. Nothing can stop me because God predetermined
me to salvation. Amen. You didn't kiss the rabbit's
foot and get saved. You didn't get saved because
you don't walk under ladders or horseshoes or you didn't break
a mirror. You got saved on purpose. Somebody
was after you before you ever knew it. Somebody loved you before
you were ever born. Somebody predetermined your destiny. and mark the day on the calendar
that you would meet up with God. Boy, when you begin to find out
that, hey, I'm not gas and dust. My granddaddy didn't swing from
a tree by his tail either. I'm here on purpose. I was appointed
to be here. Amen. Even those of you who don't
know who your daddy or your mother was, and you're here. Years ago,
I had a little lady come up to me in my class over at Grace
Centers. And she said to me, with tears
running down her cheeks, she said, would God love a bastard
like me? Oh, oh, I could have said, but
she was crying, I could have said, that's the only people
we love. You'll get that when you get home. Us illegits. Us mess-ups. Us nobodies. Hey, if you're a
mess-up, I've got some good news for you. God came into the world
to save sinners. Are you one? Do you qualify?
Now, if you're a good person, you don't qualify. You ever think
about all of our pride and arrogance and lust? You know, I'm around
wealthy people a lot. You know, wealthy people aren't
any happier than crackheads. The reason I keep using that
is because it makes some of you mad. That's the only reason I
do it. When you quit writing letters
and grumbling about it, then I won't say it anymore. I know
you're all right. That's right. It doesn't make any difference.
You know, the truth is, in California you can go to the lowest below
sea level or the highest above sea level and still be in California. And that's the way it is in the
world of sinnership. It doesn't make any difference
whether you're down here in the crack house or way up here with
all the money you could ever want, still an emptiness on the
inside, still gangrene on the inside. You must be born again. You must come to know God. What
a wonderful thing it is to come to know God. That empty place
is finally filled with His person and presence. When we come to
see that the worst about us or the best about us, it doesn't
matter. what I was going to say a while ago about being in these
churches all over the world. Every church I go in has a list.
Some churches don't believe in roller skating and make-up. Some
churches believe in eating fish on Friday. Is that still in? Let's not practice much. It's
kind of iffy. But anyway, and you know what
denominational people do? Catholics look at the Baptists,
the Baptists look at the Catholics. We got our list. They look at
you, you're a Catholic. Okay. Aha! Ah, you're breaking
all ten on my list. Catholics look at the bed. You
know, you know what the lists are? This is cow manure and this
is horse manure. It's just the difference in time.
That's all. The lists don't matter. Am I too bold for you? The lists don't matter. We are
not accepted because of what we do on the list. You can be a good Baptist and
die and go to hell keeping the list. Let me tell you what was
on the Baptist list. I never played pool. I never
went to a drive-in theater. I never wore shorts. I was an
All-State football player. Never wore shorts in 90-degree
practice. You know why? You go straight
to hell, you wear shorts. I met Miss Pam. She was an All-State
diver. And I said to her, I don't believe
in mixed bathing. She said, neither do I. I've
never taken a bath with anybody. That was going to the beach swimming. That was mixed bathing. That's
the way I was raised. And that way I was scoring points,
you know, thinking God was going to accept me. The girls, Shannon
and Amber, will not play cards with me to this day because I
go like this. I got three of those black cards
with puppy paws. And then I got a J, Joker, you
know. They quit a long time ago. In
elementary school they wouldn't play cards with me. Religion. Trying to be accepted by God.
We are accepted in the Beloved. I want to hurry here now. In
the 1611 version of your Bible, if you've got a King James Version,
it says in verse 6, Ephesians 1, 6, that we are accepted in
the Beloved or Beloved. Really, Beloved ought to be capitalized
because that's Christ. It really ought to be capitalized.
We are accepted in Christ, in Him, by Jesus. That's what the
Scripture says. God accepts sinners, hell-deserving
sinners, not because they joined the church, not because they've
been sprinkled or immersed, but He accepts them for Jesus' sake. All of God's gracious dealings
with sinners are in Christ and by Christ and through Christ.
The emphasis is Christ. Christ. Do you know Christ? Have
you trusted Christ? Here's where the emphasis is.
that God so loved, He came into the world in the person of His
Son. Listen, if you could be saved
by going to church, why did God come down here? What's He doing
on the cross? If you can be saved by being
good, by doing the best you can, what is He doing on the cross? The reason He came down here
is because there was no other way. And what religion has done
is I've simply done this. Yes, it's Jesus plus, plus, plus,
plus. And what the Bible declares is
it's Jesus alone. No plus, no minus. Jesus alone. What's your ticket, preacher?
Jesus Christ. Who's your redemption, preacher?
Jesus Christ. Who's the propitiation for your
sins, preacher? Jesus Christ. What's your hope
of heaven, preacher? Jesus Christ. What's your merit? What's your value? Jesus Christ.
Amen. That's the way it is. And I experience
Him on a daily basis. You know why life's so good?
I'm the happiest man in the world, really. Well, besides space. Think about this. Here's what
the Bible says, that we are accepted in Jesus Christ. And John 17
says this, that God has loved us as he has loved his own son."
I can't get down that deep. That God so loves me, in John
17, verse 24, it says, Father, thou hast loved them as thou
hast loved me, and thou lovest me before the foundation of the
world. I want you to think about that
a little bit. Before there was a world, God already loved You. Not everybody. You. God loved
a whole bunch of people before He ever created this world. Now,
in order to love them particularly... And by the way, you know, Miss
Pam doesn't get real excited when I go like this. You know,
I just love all women. I love all women. You know, if
they're a female, I'm just telling you, I love them. You know that
just doesn't float her boat. When I say to her, you're the
most beautiful, the most precious woman in all the world to me,
she has a very different little smile that I love comes over
her face. Have you ever thought about this? Has God ever told you this? I
love you. You. Do you know that? Loves you. Not God loves everybody,
ho-hum. God loves you. And I want you
to know I loved you before there was a world. Before I ever said,
let there be light, I loved you. I wrote your name down in the
book. I watched you as you messed up, messed up, and messed up.
Many times you would have been dead had I not sent an angel
to stop. That will give you goosebumps
if you ever get into it. That I'm not an accident. I'm
on purpose. You know why I'm so confident
about what's going on here? Because God's in control. I could
have taken it. Believe it or not, I probably
wouldn't have lasted too long in one of those upper churches.
But, you know, I have had a few offers along the way. I don't
want to be there. You can't breathe there. I want to be somewhere where
there's big sinners, slimy, worthless folks, and watch
God totally turn them around. And they fall in love with Jesus
Christ. That's what I've seen here in 20 years. Ever thought
about that? God has loved me before there
was a world. This last thing. prove the reality and greatness
of His love to me and Jesus Christ. Let me ask you this. How many
of you in here have said goodbye to your child? They've gone off
to college or somewhere and you've said goodbye. Well, many of you.
That's not fun, folks. When Amber got married, I walked
down that aisle with a smile on my face, but inside, I remember when they were little,
I'd go into their bedroom and I'd see them sleeping and I would
say this to myself, one of these days you're going to leave me.
And I would cry. There was a time when the Father
in heaven sent forth His Son to be born of a virgin. There
was a time when Jesus Christ left the Father. And the Bible
says that He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for
us. That's so far beyond me. There
was a time when He said, Go, My son. Accomplish the work that
I've given you to do. And He watched as that embryo,
that fetus, good thing we didn't have abortion then, As that fetus
was formed in the womb of Mary the Virgin, God watched. And
He watched and said, That's my son. That's my boy. That's my beloved, the one in
which all my love is channeled. And upon him, the elect of God are accepted. He
watched as He was born and was laid there in that feeding trough.
What a delightful thing it was as I came down Seneca Street
today and I saw a manger with a cradle. And it reminded me
one day Jesus came, born of a virgin in Bethlehem. He watched as He
increased in wisdom and stature with favor with God and with
men. He said, My Son has gone into the world. He's gone there
to accomplish a task, the work upon which all the ages have
met. He watched as He preached there
in Nazareth. And He said, This day is the
Scripture fulfilled in your ears. And He watched as the unbelief
spread across their faces and entered into their hearts. He
watched as they took His Son and would have taken Him to the
brow of that hill and thrown him over and would have killed
him that day. God watched. He watched as he
camped by the roadside those three years, by the creek side,
the riverside of Palestine. He said, the foxes have holes,
birds of the air have nests, but my son, my boy, has not a
place to lay his head. He watched as he moved toward
Jerusalem. to his rejection and to his final trial, to his shameful
and painful death. He watched the Beloved. The Beloved
is going there to Calvary. He watched as he himself laid
the sins of his people upon him and took the sword of his own
justice from its sheath and pierced his soul with its point. He watched
and beheld.