https://c.themediacdn.com/embed/media/WIsdXt/qOJrSOosOcc/mbZfZzs192p_1
Worship (Lesson 6) – Aaron Cozort – September 09, 2026
Good evening.
Good to see everyone out this evening.
We will be continuing our study of worship
in the Old and New Testament.
As we consider additional principles
concerning worship and some
of the history behind worship,
we’ve noticed a a few of the beginning
examples of that.
We’re going to notice a few more this
evening.
But let’s begin with a word of prayer and
then we’ll get into our study.
Our gracious Father in heaven,
we
Come before your throne, grateful for the
day that you’ve blessed us with,
for the life that you have granted to us,
for the health and the opportunity that we
have to assemble together.
We pray that you will continue to grant us
that health and continue to grant
us that opportunity. Lord, we pray for
those who,
by reason of illness or injury,
are unable to be with us. We pray also for
those who have lost loved ones.
Especially mindful of Beverly and her
family at this time,
pray that you give them strength as they
grieve.
Lord, we pray that you will help us to
always be an encouragement to those
who are struggling in whatever way they
may be struggling.
And help us to be mindful of our position
in life and
be grateful and thankful for all that you
do for us.
Lord, we pray and ask that you forgive us
of our sins when we fall short
of your glory.
And all this we pray and ask in Jesus’
name.
Amen.
We’re going to begin this evening in
Genesis chapter four.
So in Genesis chapter 4, ~ we of course
have noticed the incident
of Cain and Abel earlier on in the
chapter.
We’re not gonna spend ~ any additional
time on that,
but we do notice there in that example
that we have worship occurring.
When we get to the end of the chapter,
we find verse 25 and 26:
Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a
son and named him Seth.
For God had appointed another seed for me
instead of Abel,
whom Cain killed. And as for Seth,
to him also a son was born, and he named
him Enosh,
then men, and notice this terminology,
began to call on the name of the Lord.
This evening as we go through our study,
we’re going to notice examples of altars
that were set up.
And the sacrifices that were offered on
them,
and the connection that exists between
worship
and calling on the name of the Lord.
Because that terminology is used a number
of times throughout Scripture.
Now, as Moses here records the events,
he will utilize the reference.
That is the term Lord in most English
versions you’ll find there at the
end of verse 26 is the term for Yahweh.
It it is the ~ in most English versions,
it’s either all caps or it’s l uppercase
and low or sorry,
large and lowercase. I’m gonna get it
right.
Large and small caps ~ is the way many
translations actually place it in there.
~ but that is there to
To differentiate if you see Lord in all
caps,
it’s to differentiate the fact that
they’re the passages using the term
Jehovah
or Yahweh in the Hebrew, and ~ gives some
special recognition to that.
We we recognize that God will tell ~ Moses
if you go forward into the book of Exodus
that he would be
Known by that name from that point
forward,
that that would be a recognition of God’s
place
and relationship to Israel. But here in
this text,
we notice that humanity begins to call
upon the name
of the Lord. Humanity at large begins to
worship God.
Now,
It’s not going to be but a chapter before
we see the descendants of Cain
and their complete departure away from
God,
and their departure away from what God had
told them to do,
and humanity’s departure away from what
God had told them to do.
but as a result of that,
when we get to the end of chapter five,
we’re introduced to Noah.
And Noah at five hundred years old is one
who finds grace in the eyes of the Lord,
but the contrast to Noah is the entire
rest of the planet.
Because you have in chapter five the
declaration that those sons
of God intermarried with the daughters of
men.
that was actually a discussion Kevin and I
were having relatively recently about
what what does that mean?
Some will come to that passage and they’ll
argue,
well, this is ~ I think ~ I’m not sure
what religious group it is that that holds
to this, but a number of people do,
~ that this is a a time where angels
intermarried with humans.
That’s not what the text is talking about.
What you have in that text because of the
direct reference previously to the men.
Began to call on the name of the Lord,
is you have those of Seth’s descendants
that are worshiping God,
that are faithful to God, and they’re
going to be referred to as the sons of
God.
They’re going to be referred to as those
who are following after the Lord.
They’re calling on the name of the Lord.
And yet Cain’s descendants, which you read
about in chapter 5,
are going to be those who are going to be
following after Cain.
That which is evil, they’re going to
persist in that which is evil,
just the same way that Cain did.
Actually, you read about Cain’s
descendants in chapter four,
verses 16 through 24. But there’s a
separation.
Here’s Seth’s descendants, and they’re
following after God.
Here’s Cain’s descendants, and they’re
following after their own sinful desires
and their own sinful lusts. And what
happens?
The same way it happens in the days of
Israel.
Well, the sons of
These people marry the daughter of these
people,
and guess what? It doesn’t turn out well
for.
It doesn’t turn out well for faithfulness
to God.
And so eventually, through the course of
marrying into one another,
the same way God will later tell Israel:
don’t intermarry with the Canaanites,
don’t intermarry with those Parizzites and
the Hivites and the Jebusites
and the ones that I told you you’re going
to put out of this land.
Don’t intermarry with with the people who
are in that land,
because if you do, they’re going to turn
your heart away from me,
and I’m going to come and judge you.
And sure enough, what do you find to be
the circumstance that leads to the flood?
Intermarrying between those who are
faithful and those who are ungodly.
And so their hearts are turned away from
God,
their hearts are turned away from the
Lord,
while they began to call upon the name of
the Lord.
By the time you get to the end of chapter
5,
Noah.
Stands as a unique example of those who
find grace in the eyes of the Lord.
So, as we look at worship,
we consider that first God expects it.
Secondly, God has expected it generation
after generation after generation from
garden forward. But let’s notice what we
find in the life of Noah.
Genesis chapter five, we’re introduced,
as I mentioned, to Noah, and God is going
to declare that Noah finds
grace in his eyes. You find ~ Genesis
chapter six,
verse one, now it came to pass when man
began to multiply on the face of the
earth,
the daughters were born to them,
that the sons of God saw the daughters of
men,
that they were beautiful, that they took
wives for themselves of all they chose,
and the Lord said, My spirit shall not
strive with man forever.
For he indeed is is indeed flesh,
yet his days shall be one hundred and
twenty years.
There were giants on the earth in those
days,
and also afterward, when the sons of God
came into the daughters of
men and they bore children to them,
they were the mighty men who were of old
men of renown.
Then the Lord saw the wickedness of man
was great in the earth,
and that every intent of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil continually.
And the Lord was sorry that he had made
man on the earth,
and he was grieved in his heart.
So the Lord said, I will destroy man,
whom I have created from the face of the
earth,
both man and beast, creeping things and
birds of the air,
for I am sorry that I have made them,
but Noah found grace in the eyes of the
Lord.
This is the genealogy of Noah.
Noah was a just man, perfect in his
generations,
Noah walked with God. And Noah begot three
sons,
Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
The earth also was corrupt before God,
and the earth was filled with violence.
So God looked upon the earth, and indeed
it was corrupt,
for all flesh had corrupted their way on
the earth.
And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh
has come before me,
for the earth is filled with violence
through them,
and behold I will destroy them with the
earth.
Make yourself an ark of gopher wood,
make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside
and outside with pitch,
and this is how you shall make it.
The length of the ark shall be three
hundred cubits,
its width fifty cubits, its height thirty
cubits,
you shall make a window for the ark,
and you shall finish it to a cubit from
above,
and set the door of the ark in its side,
you shall make it with lower second and
third decks,
and behold I myself am bringing the flood
waters on the earth to destroy from under
heaven all flesh in which the br is the
breath of life,
everything that is on the earth shall die.
Because of the wickedness of mankind,
because of their persistence in that which
is evil,
as the book describes it, that they only
thought of that which
was evil continually. It was the only
thing they thought about.
It was the only motivation, and their only
desire was to do that which is wrong.
Now
Could that ever happen again? Absolutely.
Absolutely. It is part of the reason why
it is a necessity
for us as members of the body of Christ,
as Christians, to continue to teach and to
preach the gospel.
It is because the world does
not trend towards righteousness.
It doesn’t habitually just decide to do
that which is right.
The world continues to
Push generation after generation towards
that which is evil.
And it is only through those who are
righteous doing what God has commanded
them
to do that that is held back. And
furthermore,
you see that God has a willingness to
judge the evil that exists in this world.
So when you look at
The events that are going to transpire in
the life of Noah.
Noah is going to build the ark just as God
commanded him to.
God is going to tell Noah to get on the
ark,
and Noah’s going to do that. Noah is going
to take him with him those clean animals
and those unclean animals that God
commands him to do.
And then we find chapter 8. Chapter 8,
we find in verse 20.
As we go down through the text,
then Noah built an ark to the Lord,
or sorry, an altar to the Lord,
and took of every clean animal and of
every clean bird,
and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
When the flood is over, when Noah and his
sons and
his wife and theirs and his sons’ wives
depart from the ark,
when the animals come off of the ark.
We’re told that Noah is going to build an
altar to the Lord.
He’s going to take of every clean animal,
of every clean bird, and offer burnt
offerings on the altar.
You notice here that as Noah offers this
worship to God,
he’s going to offer what is acceptable to
God.
We’ve already seen in the ~ events of Cain
and Abel that Cain offered
that which was not acceptable to God.
That Abel offered that which pleased the
Lord,
that which was accepted by God.
Here we have another event not too far
forward
in the text where again we’re being told.
There’s that which is accepted by God,
and there’s that which is not accepted by
God when it comes to worship.
And should it be any surprise for us today
that that’s still the case?
Should we be surprised when from the
beginning of time God has had
a standard of how worship is to be offered
in order to be accepted by Him,
that He still has a standard? Certainly
not.
But notice
The Lord verse twenty one smelled a smooth
aroma,
a soothing aroma. Let me get my words out
tonight.
Then the Lord said at his heart,
I will never again curse the ground for
man’s sake,
although the imagination of man’s heart is
evil from his youth,
nor will I again destroy every every
living thing as I have done.
You know, I have heard it said before,
usually by gardeners, that those weeds are
the curse that
God placed on Adam. No, they’re not.
We’re told here that that curse ended.
That wasn’t any more in effect the way
that it had been.
Now
There’s certainly things that exist in
this world that are bane
on somebody’s existence, especially if
they’re a gardener.
But the thing which God made that caused
the earth
to be cursed is not in existence anymore.
That was something that existed and was
for a time before the flood and not now.
~ but God says, I’ll never do this again.
I will never curse the ground for man’s
sake,
although the ~ although the imagination of
man’s heart is evil from his youth,
nor will I again destroy every living
thing as I have done.
While the earth remains, seed time and
harvest,
cold and heat, winter and summer,
and day and night shall not cease.
God makes a promise.
That the earth is going to continue to do
exactly what he made
it to do until he says otherwise.
We often ~ hear by a lot of people a
lot of ~ tumult, a lot of of worry,
a lot of hand-wringing about one thing or
another on the planet and
How you know it’s all going to come to a
disastrous end if something doesn’t change
soon. Usually ~ someone’s in an incentive
~ or position to be paid
if that thing ~ doesn’t change.
But you find that they’re quite ignorant
about what God had said.
Now, God didn’t always say that it was
going to be springtime.
And everything was going to be warm and
everything was going to
be cool and everything was going to have
rain everywhere and there wouldn’t
be any droughts and there wouldn’t be any
deserts and there wouldn’t
be any mountains and there wouldn’t be any
glaciers and there wouldn’t be any.
He didn’t say that, did he? He said rather
that the systems that he
put in place were going to persist.
The systems that he established to
maintain the earth would not.
deteriorate beyond the point that he
allowed them to go.
All the way over in the book of Hebrews,
we’re told in Hebrews chapter 1 that
the earth and the world and the universe
that we live
in is maintained by the word of God’s
power.
We notice Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 1,
God who at various times
And in various ways spoken time past to
the fathers by the prophets,
has in these last days spoken to us by his
Son,
whom he has appointed heir of all things,
through whom also he made the worlds,
who being the brightness of his glory,
and the express image of his person,
and upholding all things by the word of
his power when he had by himself purged
our sins, sat down at the right hand of
the Majesty on high.
The universe is not going anywhere.
The world is not going anywhere.
It’s not going anywhere because Jesus
Christ isn’t going anywhere.
And it is his word,
it is his authority that allows and
demands that
the world persist.
But isn’t that an interesting point to
realize?
What happened if he ever changed his mind?
What happened, I don’t know, not in
conjecture,
but to say, there is a day in which Christ
will stop doing
that. There is a day in which Christ will
return,
and the purpose that this physical world
and this universe have served
in humanity’s existence to lead us to
eternity will be over.
And when they are,
Peter will write in second Peter chapter
three that it’s going to end
in the very elements being burned up.
Just a little bit of a rabbit chase here.
It wasn’t until
the nineteen forties that we had
confirmation that there
was more power at the atomic level than
had ever been tapped into,
let alone unleashed, in this universe.
by mail.
The atomic bombs that were dropped ~ by
the United States
in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the testing of
the atomic weapons that
and nuclear weapons that followed after
that was the release
of more power in the form of energy power
in one decade than all of humanity had
released to all knowledge in human
history.
from the beginning of time to that point,
in one decade.
So when you think about all of humanity’s
existence from
Genesis all the way until 1940,
and you realize that humanity had operated
in an incredibly limited scope of
knowledge about what God created.
And only after 1940 do you have ~ really a
new world
in which we have insight into
That which goes all the way down to the
atomic level and the egg
the energy that exists at the atomic
level.
And we have the audacity quite often to
think,
well, we that was the last thing to
discover.
That that was the the last nugget of God’s
creation that we could possibly have have
have discovered and imagined and surely we
now know the the most powerful thing
that we’ll ever know about. And I think
that’s probably nonsense.
But then pause for a moment and consider
if you think about the power that exists
at the atomic level and what we know can
be unleashed,
what would happen if God ever kept ever
stopped keeping
it together?
If that’s what can be released simply by
what man can learn,
what would happen if God ever stopped
holding it together?
And we say again. It’d be gone.
He made it. He holds it together.
We exist because he holds it together.
And without that, we don’t exist
in this physical life, in this physical
world,
because it will be gone. And there will be
a day in which that will occur.
But God says, up until that point.
This is never going to happen again.
God is never going to cause an event to
wipe the planet clean like
he did in the days of Noah.
So as you look at this, you consider,
should, that Noah comes
off the ark to a clean planet,
as it were, wiped clean by the Lord.
All the sin, all the wickedness,
all the debauchery, all of the things that
had been filling the earth,
the violence that we just read about,
wiped away. Not wiped away pleasantly,
but wiped away. But as Noah came off the
ark,
Noah recognized
the Lord in worship.
Noah has lived during the time of the
flood nearly a year
in this boat with these animals.
And you can imagine what the sounds would
have been like
inside the boat.
As they listened to the tumult that
occurred outside the boat.
We’re told that God broke up the deep.
God raised up new mountains and made new
valleys.
You don’t have to spend much time looking
at the footage from
~ the event that that took place recently
on the border of China and Nepal.
or looking at the the scars that still
exist in western North Carolina after
the hurricane, to realize that when God
allows nature
to do what nature can do, especially when
it comes to water,
the landscape changes dramatically and
does so incredibly quickly.
~ look look at some of the the satellite
footage from Nepal before the event.
And after the event. And that’s just from
a glacier breaking loose.
So Noah worships God.
A God who could remake the planet.
A God who could start all over again.
A God who could control the deep and the
skies above.
but also a God who could save them through
the midst of it.
Noah and his family had a true
appreciation for what it meant
to be saved by God.
Then consider chapter twelve.
We put spotlight on some additional events
of worship.
In Genesis chapter 12, of course,
we’re introduced in chapter 11 to Abram.
We’re introduced to his family,
and chapter 12, we’re introduced to the
call of God to come out of his nation,
out of his country, out of his family,
and from his father’s house and go to a
land that God would show him.
So in Genesis chapter 12, verse 1,
we read, Now the Lord said to Abram,
Get out of your country, from your family
and from your father’s house,
to a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation,
and I will bless you. I will make your
name great,
and you shall be a blessing. I will bless
those who bless you.
I will curse him who curses you.
In you all the families of the earth shall
be blessed.
As the relationship between God and Abram
is
Is beginning to be unfolded here by Moses.
We’re told about this covenant promise
that God makes to Abram.
We’re told about what God tells Abram to
do.
He says, You need to leave your family,
you need to leave your country,
you need to leave your father’s house,
and you need to go to the place where I
will show you.
And so Abram does. Verse 4:
Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to
him.
And Lot went with him, and Abram was
seventy five years old when
he departed from Haran. Then Abram took
Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s
son and all their possessions that they
had gathered,
and the people whom they had acquired in
Haran,
and they departed to go to the land of
Canaan.
So they came to the land of Canaan.
Abram passed through the land to the place
of Shechem,
as far as the Terabinth tree of Morah.
And the Canaanites were then in the land.
And the Lord appeared to Abram and said,
To your descendants I will give this land.
And there he built an altar to the Lord,
who had appeared to him. God has spoken
with Abram before
when he was in Haran. God speaks to Abram
again now that he arrives in Shechem,
and God says, This is part of the land
that your descendant.
descendants will receive. And as Abram
stops there in Shechem,
Abram will build an altar to the Lord.
And he moved from there to the mountain
east of Bethel,
and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the
~ on the west and Ai on the east,
and there he built an altar to the Lord,
and called on the name of the Lord.
So here we see this continuing action,
this
This regular activity that Abram was
involved in.
Abram, when he would go from one place to
the next place,
when he would arrive there, when he would
pitch his tent,
when he would prepare to stay in a
particular place for an extended period of
time,
Abram would build an altar. You know,
over in James chapter four.
James, as he is writing to the Christians
and specifically the Jewish Christians
in the first century, will write to them
and say,
beginning in verse 13 of James 4,
come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow
we will go to such and such a city,
spend a year there, buy and sell and make
a profit.
Whereas you do not know what will happen
tomorrow.
For what is your life?
It is even a vapor that appears for a
little time and then vanishes away.
Instead you ought to say, If the Lord
wills,
we shall live and do this or that.
But now you boast in your arrogance,
all such boasting is evil. Therefore,
to him who knows to do good and does not
do it,
to him it is sin. As James writes to the
Christians,
he
Emphasizes to them that when it comes to
your plans,
when it comes to your priorities,
when it comes to your decision-making
process,
your first question ought to be:
will this accomplish the will of the Lord?
The Christians were struggling.
You go all the way back into the beginning
of chapter four,
and they were struggling with more than
just where to move to and how long
to stay there. They were struggling with
the fact that they were asking
for things from the Lord only to spend it
on their own lusts and desires.
They were only interested in what they
wanted.
And James condemns them for it.
James tells them they need to reorder.
Their priorities. They need to go back and
determine first what is the will
of the Lord. And if that is the will of
the Lord,
then they’ll go do it. They need to stop
prioritizing prophet
and start prioritizing the will of God.
As you look at the life of Abram,
one of the things that you see is number
one,
he’s following the Lord.
He’s going where the Lord tells him to go.
Secondly, you’ll notice that when he
arrives anywhere he’s going,
he’s going to worship the Lord.
There’s not a point in Abram’s life where
you
see Abram departing from God.
Abram is very conscientious to go where
God desires for him to go,
when God desires for him to go there,
and when he does go there, he worships the
Lord.
He builds these altars to the Lord,
and interestingly, as you note.
~ this particular altar that we just read
about is going to be built in Bethel.
Where is it that Jacob is going to be when
the Lord appears to him as he is fleeing
from his father’s house
and from his brother after he has taken
the birthright?
Bethel.
And so Abram builds an altar.
Abram will hear worship the Lord.
And Abram will provide an example to us,
not just in worship, but in life.
Just the same way James emphasizes that
our focus needs to be doing
the will of the Lord.
Our focus needs to be doing that which God
desires for us to do.
And when we do, God will take care of the
rest.
And when we don’t, James says,
when you know to do good and you don’t do
it.
To him it is sin. I remember all the way
back when we were in school of preaching,
we had a a student come to us and he was
young.
we were young at the time, but anyway,
he was young and and he was not quite
happy with
the political situation at the time,
and it was getting on, I think,
election year or whatnot. And ~ and he he
came to me one time,
he said, Aaron.
I’ve had somebody tell me that if I don’t
vote,
I’m sinning. And specifically if I don’t
vote for who they think I should vote for,
I’m definitely sinning. And they quoted
James chapter four,
verse seventeen to me.
And I said, well, that’s not what that
passage is talking about.
He said, but on the other hand,
if you determine to do what you want
instead of what the Lord wills,
now we have a problem. We need to be
careful with passages and keep them
in their context. But Abram’s going to
build this altar at Shechem.
He’s going to build another altar at
Bethel.
And then chapter 13.
At the end of chapter 12, Abram’s going to
go down to Egypt,
and he’s going to remain there because of
a famine that was severe in the land,
according to chapter 12, verse 10.
When Abram returns from Egypt,
we find in chapter 13, verse 1,
then Abram went up from Egypt,
he and his wife and all that he had,
and Lot with him to the south.
Abram was very rich in livestock in silver
and in gold,
and he went on his journey from the south
as far as Bethel,
to the place where his tent had been at
the beginning,
between Bethel and Ahai, to the place of
the altar which he had made there at
first,
and there Abraham called on the name of
the Lord.
You notice when Abram comes back up out of
Egypt,
Abram doesn’t say, you know what,
I’m a whole lot richer than I was when I
came down into Egypt.
I don’t know that I really need to worry
about God anymore.
After all, I’m a pretty significant guy at
this point.
I I I’ve got plenty of possessions and I’m
rich in gold
and and and possessions, such gold,
silver, livestock. What do I need the Lord
for?
That’s not what Abram does. Abram comes up
out of Egypt and he goes right back
to that altar.
But again, what’s the message behind it?
God provided for Abraham when he was in
the land.
God provided for Abraham when he was in
Egypt.
God provided for Abraham when he came back
up out of Egypt.
And Abram recognizes that not a thing
about
his circumstance and his situation was his
doing.
Except for the trouble that he almost
caused by the lie that he told in Egypt.
But everything else was God’s doing.
Abram had a recognition that he owed
it all to God. If you turn over to chapter
thirteen and verse fourteen.
We find verse twelve Abram dwelt in the
land of Canaan,
and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain
and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom.
But the men of Sodom were exceedingly
wicked and sinful against the Lord.
And the Lord said to Abram after Lot had
separated from him,
Lift your eyes now and look from the place
where you are,
northward, southward, eastward,
and westward.
For all the land which you see I will give
to you and your descendants forever,
and I will make your descendants as the
dust of the earth,
so that if a man could number the dust of
the earth,
then your descendants could be numbered.
Arise, walk in the land through its length
and its width,
for I give it to you. Then Abram moved his
tent and went and dwelt
by the Terabinth trees of Mamre.
Which are in Hebron and built an altar
there to the Lord.
God tells Abram,
after Lot and Abram have separated,
he said, You’ve you’ve got some traveling
to do.
You need to go survey the land.
You need to go view the land that I’m
going to give to your descendants.
You need to go to the north, you need to
go to the south,
you need to go to the east, you need to go
to the west,
you need to go throughout the land.
And you are going to see what I’m going to
give to your descendants after
you. Now, as God says this to Abram,
Abram has no children. Abram is over 75
years old.
He has no child. He has no descendants.
And as will be pointed out later on.
The one who is currently set to inherit
all that Abram has is one of his servants.
But God is going to make it clear to
Abram.
I’m going to not only give you servants,
I’m going to not only give you
possessions,
I’m going to not only give you gold and
silver,
I am going to give you this land,
and I am going to give you descendants to
fill it,
so that if you could number the dust of
the earth,
you would be able to number your
descendants.
God is going to make it clear to Abram.
That the promise is still in effect.
The promise that God had made with Abram
in chapter 12,
God was still going to fulfill it.
No matter how much time transpired,
no matter what had happened in the
intervening period,
Lot was not going to be the one through
whom God would fulfill the promise.
Abram’s servants were not going to be the
ones through whom
God fulfilled the promise. God was going
to provide descendants.
But as God sends Abram through the land,
what do you find Abram doing? Builds
altars,
worships the Lord.
Wherever he went, you would have found
Abram worshiping God.
As a matter of fact, it is such an aspect
of the life of Abram that over in chapter
22,
the test of Abram concerning his
faithfulness
to God will be couched in worship and
Isaac.
The two things that Abram would have
desired to do no matter what, have a son
and worship God were the things with which
God tested Abram.
Mm-hmm.
Absolutely. And you see ~ you see that all
the way forward ~
to the days in Jesus’ time where the
altars that
are discussed in the mountain of some of
the Samaritans being referenced
all the way back to the days of Jacob and
Isaac ~ and those altars being built
there. All right, we’re about out of time,
so we’re gonna go ahead and put a put a
plug in it there.
But as you think about
These passages, what I want you to do as
you’re reading,
as you’re doing your own Bible reading,
take a note. When worship happens,
what are the things that are described
around it?
What are the things that are going on?
And what do we learn about worship,
the motivations for worship, the reasons
for worship,
what is acceptable worship by the
circumstance
that surrounds the worship that is
acceptable to God.
Okay? Thank you for your attention.
Principles of Faithfulness from Hebrews – Aaron Cozort – September 06, 2026
Good afternoon. Take your Bibles if you
will and open them to the book Hebrews.
The Hebrew writer is going to write
to primarily Jewish Christians,
to those who had been in the faith for
some time.
They had gone through a number of things
as they
had been pushed back upon by their own
nation.
They had been pushed out of the synagogue
in some circumstances.
Some scenarios they had faced persecution
from their own brethren,
and yet in the midst of all of this,
they are considering going backwards.
They are considering returning to the law
of Moses.
If you turn over to Hebrews chapter 5,
you learn a little bit about these
individuals in that they’re not new
Christians.
In Hebrews chapter 5 and in verse 12,
the Hebrew writer writes, For though by
this time you ought to be teachers,
you need someone to teach you again the
first principles of the oracles of God,
and you have come to need milk and not
solid food.
As the Hebrew writer writes to these
Christians,
he’s writing to a group of people,
at least predominantly,
Who are not novices. They’re not brand new
in their Christian walk.
And yet, he says, you’re acting like you
are.
You’re acting like your babes.
You are behaving and you are in your own
spiritual walk,
those who are immature in Christ.
But notice, the Hebrew writer will point
out,
this isn’t because they hadn’t been
taught.
This isn’t because they were in a scenario
where there was no opportunity
for them to grow. This was because of a
lack
of decision making and action on their own
part.
Verse 13 for everyone who partakes only of
milk is unskilled in
the word of righteousness, for he is a
babe.
But solid food belongs to those who are of
full age.
That is
Those who, by reason of use,
have their senses exercised to discern
both good and evil.
The Hebrew writer, as he writes to these
Christians,
says: the reason why you aren’t mature is
because you haven’t used your senses.
Because you haven’t used the revelation of
God to build yourself up.
As we look at our lives.
And we look at the decisions that we make.
The fact of the matter is we choose where
we are spiritually.
Now, when a f person is first converted,
they don’t. They’re in a natural state.
Their natural state is most likely that of
being a novice in
the scripture because they’ve just now
been acquainted with it to be able
to be converted by it, to be able to.
be right in the eyes of God, and as a
result of that,
they are still novices.
But the Hebrew writer points out that
these Christians have become
satisfied with being novices.
He says, as we just read in verse 13,
for everyone who partakes only of milk.
Now it’s it’s in the analogy, right?
A baby partakes only of milk. But it’s
also in this text a choice.
They have chosen to stick with the basics
only.
They have chosen to focus so entirely on
the basics that they haven’t consumed
anything else. They’ve never determined to
move beyond infancy.
They would ask,
as it were, to their teachers,
no, no, just give us the easy things.
Just give us the basic things.
Don’t challenge us. Don’t push us.
Don’t force us to become more than we are.
Let us stay right where we are.
One of the things that the Hebrew writer
confronts in Christians in his
day and time is a satisfaction with
a spiritual state of being ignorant.
As we think about our lives,
as we think about our choices,
whether in the body of Christ or outside
the body of Christ,
whether someone who is in fellowship with
God or someone who’s outside
of fellowship with God.
Whether someone who is a Christian who has
just become a Christian or
one who’s been a Christian for many years,
we all make a choice whether we will
improve from
our current position or stay in our
current position.
We all choose wha how we will handle the
Word of God.
Turn over, if you will, to 2 Timothy
chapter 2,
and notice what Paul
Writes to Timothy. Now Timothy was one who
was a young man,
yes. He was one who was faithful and had
been taught the scriptures from infancy,
yes. But in 2 Timothy chapter 2,
as Timothy is going through hardship,
he is described by Paul at being as being
almost on the brink of tears because
~ and despair, because of the hardships
he’s going in,
and he’s suffering the hardships of
Not primarily from the world, he’s
suffering them from the church.
But he is told by Paul in Titus or sorry,
Second Timothy chapter two, verse 10.
Therefore I endure all things for the sake
of the elect,
that they also may obtain the salvation
which is in Christ Jesus with eternal
glory.
This is a faithful saying.
For if we died with him, we shall also
live with him.
If we endure, we shall also reign with
him.
If we deny him, he will also deny us.
If we are faithless, he remains faithful.
He cannot deny himself. Remind them,
Paul says. Remind the people who you
teach,
Timothy. Remind them.
These things, charging them before the
Lord,
not to strive about words to no profit,
to the ruin of the hearers, be diligent to
present yourselves approved
to God, a worker who does not need to be
ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.
Paul tells Timothy, You have a choice.
You have a choice how you stand before
God.
You have a choice to stand before God as
an approved worker,
or you have a choice to stand before God
as someone who has failed
in the basic function of working in the
body of Christ.
Now, as we go back to the book of Hebrews,
the Hebrew writer also points out that
the situation that the Hebrew Christians
are in.
is not because they’ve never been put to
the test.
It is not the situation that they’ve never
had to endure anything hard.
You know, sometimes, especially if you’ve
worked with people when they’re young
in age, when they’re just growing up,
when they’re just getting out of those
late teenage years,
you get one a few of these people and and
they’ve never had to do anything hard.
They’ve been coddled pretty much their
entire life.
And they get out into the workforce and
it’s quite apparent they don’t know
how to do anything. If you ask them to
clean the bathroom,
they wouldn’t know how. If you ask them to
make a meal,
they wouldn’t know how. It’s been done for
them their entire life.
The Hebrew writer is writing these
Christians,
and he’s not saying, I know you’ve never
done anything,
I know you’ve never exerted yourself,
I know you’ve never suffered, I know
you’re in this state of of infancy.
He says, No. Turn to Hebrews chapter ten.
In Hebrews chapter 10, he writes to them,
beginning in verse 32, he says,
But recall the former days in which after
you were illuminated,
that is, after you came to a knowledge of
the truth,
after, as it were, the light of the word
of God shone in your life
and you became obedient to it.
He says, After you were illuminated,
you endured a great struggle.
with sufferings. The Hebrew writer,
as he writes these Christians,
says, I know what you’ve been through.
But here’s the key. They went through
those things when they were infants.
They went through those things when they
were novices.
They went through those things when they
were new Christians,
when they were on fire for Christ,
when they had a zeal for Christ.
Notice what he says. He says, partly.
While you were made a spectacle,
both by reproaches and tribulations,
and partly while you became companions of
those who were so treated.
He points out that in the former days,
in the earlier times of their Christian
walk,
they not only suffered persecution,
they were willing to walk alongside those
who were suffering persecution.
He says, For you had compassion on me and
my chains,
and joyfully accepted the plundering of
your goods,
knowing that you have a better and an
enduring possession for yourselves in
heaven.
Therefore, do not cast away your
confidence,
which has great reward. The Hebrew writer
writes
to them and he says, I know what you’ve
been through in the past,
because you went through it with me.
You helped me. You sent your funds to help
me as I was being persecuted,
as I was in chains, and now you’re
considering turning your back
on your faith?
You see, they had gone through hardship,
but they had gone through it when they
were young and zealous
and had bunches of strength to be able to
endure,
and now they’ve become complacent.
He says, Verse thirty five, Therefore do
not cast away your confidence,
which has great reward, for you have need
of endurance.
So that after you have done the will of
God you may receive the promise
for yet a little while, and he who is
coming will come and will not tarry.
Now the just shall live by faith,
but if any one draws back, my soul shall
have no pleasure in him.
As the Hebrew writer here
Brings to mind the things that Habakkuk
was told.
The things that he was told when God says,
Listen, I’m gonna bring the Chaldean
nation against my people,
but don’t worry, I know who belongs to me.
I know who are mine. The just shall live
by faith.
And I’m coming, and I’m going to judge,
and I’m going to deal with your enemies,
but you be faithful. The Hebrew writer
says,
You listen, you have need of endurance.
Because the immediacy of the problem is
not your persecution.
It’s not the people who are against you.
It’s your own state of mind.
One of the greatest struggles,
as identified by Brother Franklin Camp in
the church,
in any generation, isn’t persecution.
It isn’t the difficulties within the body
of Christ by way
of contentions or arguments. It’s apathy.
It is being in a state of being complacent
and no longer having the zeal.
That we had when we were younger,
no longer having the desire to endure hard
things for
the cause of Christ. The Hebrew writer
writes,
verse 39, but we. One of the things you’ll
notice in the book of Hebrews
is the Hebrew writer will talk about them,
talk about them, talk about them.
But every time he turns it around and says
something about what they’re about to do,
he includes himself in it.
As if it is a forethought that they are
going to follow his example.
They’re gonna do what he’s gonna do.
Over and over in the book, he’ll say,
Let us, let us, let us, let us,
as if, here’s my plans, here’s what I’m
doing.
Come on, let’s go. Brings to mind,
in my mind, at least, the end of the book
of Joshua,
where Joshua will say to the people,
Choose you this day whom you will serve.
But as for me and my house, we will serve
the Lord.
The Hebrew writer says, but we are not of
those who draw back to perdition,
but of those who believe to the saving of
the soul.
The Hebrew writer says, I know what camp
I’m in.
And I know what camp you’re going to be
in.
There are times in life
Where we have to help people make
decisions.
I’ve seen this with missionaries,
I’ve seen this with elders, I’ve seen it
with preachers.
Where they’ll take somebody who’s kind of
waffling on something,
the idea of doing something in the kingdom
is in their mind,
but they just can’t make a decision,
and they’ll walk up to them and say,
Brother so-and-so, here’s what you’re
gonna do.
And that person will go, okay,
let’s go. They couldn’t make the decision,
but they could do the action. As soon as
someone presented them with
an already determined decision.
They were indecisive, but they were not
uncommitted.
And so the Hebrew writer says,
Listen, you need endurance, and here’s
what we’re going to do we’re
not going to draw back to perdition.
We are going to move forward. We are going
to believe to the saving of the soul.
But then consider as well that the
placement of this book
is likely before the fall of Jerusalem.
It’s during the period of the church.
It’s after the church has been established
for some consigant period of time.
But it’s not yet at the point where
Jerusalem has fallen.
Turn to Hebrews chapter 8.
In Hebrews chapter 8 and verse 1,
we read, now this is the main point of the
thing we are saying.
We have such a high priest who is seated
at the right hand of the throne
of the majesty in the heavens.
As the Hebrew writer has written to them
about the high priest,
about Melchizedek, about this idea of a
king and priest.
He says, We have one of those.
And he’s sitting or serving at the right
hand of God.
But then he says, a minister of the
sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which
the Lord erected and not man. The Hebrew
writer says,
Let me tell you where our high priest
serves.
Our high priest is in heaven. Our high
priest is in the tabernacle,
not the tabernacle made by hands,
but the tabernacle of God. And he is
seated at the right hand of
the throne of God. But he goes on to say,
For every high priest is appointed to
offer gifts and sacrifices.
Therefore it is necessary that this one
also have something to offer.
For if he were on earth, he would not be a
priest,
since there are priests, and notice the
phraseology,
who offer present tense, the gifts
according to the law.
As the Hebrew writer is writing this book,
the the fall of Jerusalem has not come
yet.
The temple has not been destroyed yet.
The priests are still there. The Jewish
priests are still making offerings.
They’re still offering these sacrifices
every day in Jerusalem.
And the Hebrew writer says listen,
if our high priest was a high priest under
the law of Moses,
he wouldn’t even be able to go up on the
altar.
He wouldn’t be able to offer those
sacrifices,
but the priests are offering them right
now.
As the Hebrew writer writes to these
Christians,
they’re facing the difficulty of the fact
that they still
have a choice. Consider that for a moment.
Sometimes when a person has no choice at
all,
they’re not given an option, they just
move forward and serve.
But when they’re given a choice,
when there’s an alternative, there’s a war
going on in their mind
as to what decision to make. These Hebrew
brethren were at a point where they’re
in a war in their own mind. Do I continue
to follow Christ with all
the things that are going on, with all the
hardships,
with all the things that are involved in
my nation?
In the situation where I’m set apart from
my nation,
where I’ve been kicked out essentially of
Jewish society?
Do I continue to serve Jesus?
Or do just go back to Moses? It’s easy
enough that the temple’s still here.
The priests are still offering sacrifices.
Surely it would be okay for me to just go
back to Moses
and to the law and to the priesthood and
to the temple.
And the Hebrew writer says, No.
Not only is it not alright,
this is what would happen if you do.
Turn back to chapter ten.
He says, therefore, brethren, verse 19,
having boldness to enter the holiest by
the blood of Jesus.
He establishes that their current
spiritual condition
is a state of being holy,
washed in the blood of Jesus Christ,
and that because of that holiness,
they are holy and they are able to enter
the presence of God.
Notice what he says.
He says, by a new and living way,
which he consecrated for us through the
veil,
that is his flesh. The Hebrew writer says,
you can approach God. You can go into the
holiest.
The phraseology here means the holiest of
holies.
In the old tabernacle, when God gave the
tabernacle and told them how to build it,
there was the holy place.
At the outer portion of the tabernacle,
when the when the person went in,
the priest went into the holy place,
they entered into the tabernacle,
the very first room they entered into was
the holy place.
And then there was a veil right in front
of them.
And beyond the veil was the holiest of
holies.
They couldn’t go in there except once a
year,
and only the high priest could go.
So nobody from the tribe of Judah could go
in.
Nobody from the tribe of Naphtali could
even enter the holy place,
let alone the holiest of holies.
And yet the Hebrew writer says,
Jesus Christ consecrated and made possible
a path
for you to boldly enter the holiest,
the holy of holies, by his blood,
by his flesh. And then he says,
having a high priest over the house of
God,
let us draw near.
With a true heart, in full assurance of
faith,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure
water. He says, You’ve gone through the
process of salvation.
You’ve gone through the process like the
high priest of old would have done
on the Day of Atonement. He would have
gone through that brazen labor before
he ever was able to enter into the
tabernacle,
before he was ever to go into the holy
place,
before he could ever enter in through the
veil.
He had to first be washed.
And the Hebrew writer says that’s happened
to you.
You’ve been washed,
you’ve been consecrated, you’ve had your
evil conscience cleansed.
He says, Let us hold fast the confession
of our hope without wavering,
for he who promised is faithful.
As they’re considering the direction
they’ll go,
as they’re considering whether to stay
with Christ or whether to return to Moses,
the Hebrew writer says, Don’t you waver.
You made a decision, and you have access
to the holiest.
You have access to something you never had
in the Old Testament.
You never had through Moses.
But then he says, and let us consider one
another in order to stir up love
and good works, not forsaking the
assembling of ourselves together as
the manner is is of some, but exhorting
one another and so much the more
as you see the day approaching.
I firmly believe because of the Hebrew
context,
because of the context of the entire book,
that the Hebrew writer is saying,
Listen, there was a day that Jesus told us
was coming.
In Matthew chapter 24,
Jesus told us about a day where the temple
would be destroyed
and not one stone would be left upon
another.
And as Hebrew brethren, you need to exhort
one another to be faithful.
You need to make sure no one gets caught
up in iniquity.
You need to be focused on remaining in the
assembly of the body
of Christ and remaining faithful and
steadfast because the day of the demise
of the Jewish nation is at hand.
He says, verse 26, but if we sin
willfully,
after we’ve received the knowledge of the
truth,
there no longer remains a sacrifice for
sins.
See, Their mindset was, you know what?
Well, Under the old law, we could offer
these sacrifices,
we could offer blood the blood of bulls
and goats,
we we could offer atonement for our sins,
and God accepted it in under the old law.
Can we not just go back?
Will God not now accept it again?
If we just turn back from Christianity and
go back to the law of God,
I mean God gave the law. Surely we can go
back to what God gave.
We’re not asking to go off into paganism.
We’re not wanting to go off into man-made
doctrines.
We just want to go back to what God gave
that we’ve always had.
And the Hebrew writer says, no.
Because If we sin willfully after we’ve
come to a knowledge of the truth,
there is no sacrifice for sins.
There’s only been one, and it’s Christ.
He goes on to say but a certain fearful
expectation
of judgment and fiery indignation that
will devour the adversaries.
Anyone who rejected Moses’ law dies
without mercy on the testimony of
two or three witnesses.
Of how much worse punishment do you
suppose will he be thought worthy
who has trampled the Son of God underfoot?
The Hebrew writer asked them if they would
think back
to the judgment that was given in the Old
Testament,
in the law of Moses. What happened to the
individual,
for instance, under the law of Moses,
as the law had been given, the ordinances
had been given,
and then there was the man who determined
to go out and pick up sticks
on the Sabbath day.
As if he were to shake his fist at God and
say,
You know what? I don’t care that you said
we weren’t to work on the Sabbath day.
I’m going to do it anyway.
He was observed, he was found,
he was taken, he was brought under
custody,
and it was questioned of Moses,
what are we to do? For he has violated the
Sabbath,
what does the law say we’re to do?
And so Moses goes to the Lord and inquires
what it is that they are to do.
And the punishment was death.
The man suffered the punishment under two
or three witnesses because he had rebelled
against God.
And the Hebrew writer says, think back.
What was the punishment when someone
rebelled against the law of Moses?
It was death. How much.
How much worse do you think it’s gonna be
if you take the very Son of
God and the blood that He offered for you
and you walk on it as
if it means nothing? He says,
Of how much worse punishment do you
suppose will he be thought worthy
who has trampled the Son of God underfoot,
counted the blood of the covenant by which
he was sanctified a common thing,
and insulted the Spirit of grace?
For we know him who said, Vengeance is
mine,
I will repay, says the Lord, and again the
Lord will judge his people.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the
hands of a living God.
You say in your mind it ought to be okay,
God gave the law to begin with.
In your mind you can’t see a problem with
it.
Love Is Not Provoked – Aaron Cozort – September 06, 2026
One clarification on the announcements,
which it’s clear when you write it,
not always clear when you read it.
~ Nathaniel Lebow,
who we’ve sent cards to, ~ is a contact in
South Haven.
He has ~ cancer.
His father unexpectedly passed away this
week.
So he’s this young man’s dealing with
cancer at age 17.
And now the sudden passing of his father
at the same time.
So keep Nathaniel Lebow and his family in
your prayers.
Charlie was his his father who passed
away.
~
Take your Bibles, if you will,
and open them to First Corinthians.
We’ve spent some time in the last few
weeks examining this idea of love does
not,
love is not. Paul, as he’s writing to the
church at Corinth,
will help them to understand love.
He is helping them to understand love in
view of
the miraculous gifts that they are
struggling with because they have raised
The miraculous gifts in their minds to
such great importance to
be more significant than basically
anything else in their spiritual lives.
To have a priority on these things,
to measure oneselves by these things,
to say this gift is better than this other
gift,
and therefore the person who has this gift
is greater than this other person
who has in their minds a lesser gift.
Paul will begin as he writes to them and
say,
Though I speak with the tongues of men and
of angels and have not love,
I have become a sounding brass and
clinging symbol.
Paul says, if you can perform these great
miracles through the power
of the Holy Spirit in the first century,
if you can speak in a language that you’ve
never studied and open your mouth
and proclaim God’s word in that language,
A language that you don’t even understand
when you speak it.
But you don’t have love?
You’re empty. He goes on to say,
and though I have the gift of prophecy
Excuse me.
Hmm. The air’s thick this morning.
And though I have the gift of prophecy and
understand all mysteries
and all knowledge, and though I have all
faith,
so that I could remove mountains and have
not love,
I am nothing.
Prophecy was in their minds the second
greatest gift right next
to speaking in tongues. And at the same
time,
there were the gifts of knowledge,
the gifts of faith. He says, if you If you
have one of these and
you don’t have love,
Do nothing.
He says, and though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor,
and though I give my body to be burned,
but have not love, it profits me nothing.
It doesn’t matter what gift you have.
It doesn’t matter what level of sacrifice
you’re willing
to give if the only thing you’re
interested in is yourself.
If it is not motivated by love.
And then from that, Paul will write,
Love suffers long and is kind.
Love does not. And with verse 4,
he begins a series of things that love
doesn’t do.
That love isn’t. We’ve noticed all of them
except one.
We’ve noticed love does not behave rudely.
We’ve noticed that love does not envy,
does not parade itself, is not puffed up.
We’ve noticed love does not seek its own.
We’ve noticed that love does not rejoice
in iniquity.
So we will conclude with this one.
Love is not provoked.
As Paul writes to the church at Corinth,
then he says, Love does not seek its own,
is not provoked.
The word provoked in the original language
comes from a word meaning to irritate,
to stir up, to sharpen, to make angry.
Something being sharpened to a razor
point.
is the idea. But as it’s used,
it usually connotates a sudden or intense
outbreak.
It is the response where someone lashes
out at you and says something incredibly
pointed and incredibly mean as a reaction
to whatever you did. That’s this word.
And Paul says this
is not a description of love. There’s a
word in the English,
paroxysm.
Which means a sudden intense outbreak of
something.
It comes from it’s really a tra almost a
transliteration wor letter
for letter of this Greek word.
Here though, it’s in the passive.
In other words, in the Greek it’s saying
this is something we,
if we have love, do not allow ourselves to
respond with when
others do something to us.
We do not have this reaction to what
others do.
So, in other words, Paul is saying love
refuses
to allow the actions of others to set it
off and control its reaction.
Sometime.
We all have to admit.
That we, in a circumstance, on a rare
occasion,
lose control. Yes.
At some point, all of us are going to say
something we shouldn’t have said,
react to someone in a way that they did
not deserve.
Quite often in a scenario where
circumstance after circumstance after
circumstance
after circumstance have piled on one
another,
and they were the straw that broke the
camel’s back.
They didn’t deserve that. They just ended
up being the one who got it because
of all the people who frankly did deserve
it along the way,
but didn’t get it.
The idea here isn’t, and as Paul writes
these things,
Paul does not intend for us to look at our
lives and go,
well, okay, I never do that, and I never
do that,
and I never do that, and I never do that,
and I never do that, and therefore I have
love.
Because I never do all of the things love
is not.
That’s not what he means. Paul’s talking
about when
we build our lives structured.
In love, that these things will
not be a common description of our
everyday life.
Not that we’ll be sinlessly perfect or we
can’t possibly love anyone.
But rather that the description of our
lives
is built up in a description of this isn’t
how we live.
Paul says
Love is not provoked.
Now the King James says it is not easily
provoked.
a as if
This attitude, this reaction is dry
kindling and somebody lights a match.
You know, if you take wet wood and you try
and build a fire with it,
you’re gonna have to have some patience.
You’re gonna have to have some endurance.
You’re gonna have to have some other fuel,
and you’re going to have to wait to get
that in the right state where it will
burn.
You take dry Kinlin and you light a match
to it and it’s up.
That’s this.
The person who Paul is describing is not
on the edge of their seat,
a hair trigger, waiting for the very
moment for someone to do something
so they can let off.
But what is it not?
This idea is not first righteous anger.
Over in the book of Mark, Jesus
on the Sabbath day is with his apostles in
the in the fields.
And the people,
the Pharisees specifically, bring to him a
man who has a withered hand.
And the text tells us that they did so.
to see whether or not Jesus would heal the
man on the Sabbath.
So here is an individual who’s become
nothing more than a prop to their
argument.
Nothing more than a potential opportunity
to catch Jesus
in something that they can leverage
against him so as to say Jesus
is in violation of the law and contrary to
Moses.
They don’t care about this man,
they don’t care about his withered hand.
They don’t care about the fact that in the
first century where
the majority of people build and maintain
their income by the work
of their physical hands, that this man is
incapacitated and in some
way unable to provide for himself.
They don’t care about that.
They care about the fact that they believe
that Jesus is healing people
on the Sabbath and that’s a violation of
the law,
and they’re gonna prove to the people that
Jesus is in violation of the law.
Now, of interest, it is the same law of
which Jesus said,
the greatest commandment in the law is to
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
with all thy soul, with all thy strength
and all thy mind.
And the second was like unto it,
to love thy neighbor as thyself.
That is not a concern to them.
The thing that concerns them is the nature
of the commandment about
not violating the Sabbath.
And not what Moses said about not
violating the Sabbath,
but rather what their elders had taught
about not violating the Sabbath.
So they bring a man into the situation in
the presence of Jesus
as a test, as a tripwire,
as an opportunity to create a stumbling
block for someone they disagree with.
And when they bring the man with the
withered hand before Jesus
Jesus asked the question, is it lawful to
do good
or to do evil on the Sabbath?
And the text tells us.
that they wouldn’t answer.
And the text tells us that Jesus looked
upon them with
anger.
And said to the man, Stretch forth your
hand.
And his hand was made whole.
Consider what Jesus has done.
Jesus has become righteously angry
because they, in their position of power,
in their position as leaders,
fulfilling what Ezekiel had prophesied
about them,
that they would be the evil shepherds who
would not take care of the sheep.
They would not provide for the sheep.
They would not console the sheep that was
injured.
They would not heal the sheep that was
sick.
They would rather consume the sheep than
help them if
it was in their interest to consume the
sheep.
Jesus looks upon them in righteous anger
because they
in their hardness of hearts did not care
what happened to this man.
They cared about keeping their power.
So Jesus not only proves them to be hard
hearted,
he also demonstrates that he was far more
intelligent than they were.
As all he did was ask the man to put out
his hand.
He didn’t pray to God. He didn’t shout
some great shout.
He didn’t cause the man to do some great
wonder.
He just said, put forward your hand.
How are they going to claim Jesus worked?
He didn’t do anything other than tell him
to put his hand forward.
Righteous anger.
That is anger which exists because someone
realizes that the very nature
and law of God is being violated,
oftentimes in God’s own name, it’s being
violated
is not under consideration when Paul says
love is not provoked.
But then consider as well confronting
wrongdoing.
Over in Galatians chapter 2, Paul
is going to describe a scenario and a
situation when he was among
the churches of Galatia, and there were
those from Jerusalem that were coming
and were gathering with the churches of
Galatia,
and they were teaching them and they were
helping them grow.
And one of those who came is Peter.
And he says in verse 11, now when Peter
had come to Antioch,
I withstood him to the face because he was
to be blamed.
Wait a minute, Paul. Are you saying Peter
provoked you?
Not in this sense. Rather in the right
sense.
Because Peter was at fault.
Notice what occurred.
For before certain men came from James,
he would eat with the Gentiles.
But when they came, he withdrew and
separated himself,
fearing those who were of the
circumcision.
And the rest of the Jews also played the
hypocrite with him,
so that even Barnabas was carried away
with their hypocrisy.
And when I saw that they were not
straightforward about the truth of the
gospel,
consider here that this is no slight
against Paul.
This is not a reaction of Paul because he
is personally offended,
because they have done something against
his teaching.
Paul is slighted,
Paul is reacting this way because of what
they’re doing in violation of
the word of God.
He says, But when I saw that they were not
straightforward about the truth
of the gospel, I said to Peter before them
all,
if you being a Jew, live in the manner of
Gentiles and not as the Jews,
why do you compel Gentiles to live as
Jews?
We who are Jews by nature are not sin or ~
and not sinners of the Gentiles,
knowing that a man is not justified by the
works of the law,
but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have
believed in Christ Jesus that
we might be justified by faith in Christ
and not by the works of the law,
for by the works of the law no flesh shall
be justified.
Paul made it clear, Peter,
you’re being a hypocrite.
And you’re leading others to do the same
thing,
even Barnabas, because you’re afraid of
others’ opinions.
Now was Paul in violation of love is not
provoked when he did that?
No. Then consider Acts chapter seventeen.
And Act chapter seven teen.
We read as Paul is there in Mars Hill.
As Paul is in Athens,
as he’s not yet to Mars Hill, but he is
he’s in Athens.
This is the only other use of this word,
the Greek base word in the New Testament
for provoked.
And it’s here in this text. Now,
while Paul waited for them at Athens,
his spirit was provoked within him.
When he saw that the city was given over
to idols.
Paul, as he walks through the streets of
Athens,
passes idol after idol after idol on every
corner,
in every house, in every business,
another idol and another idol.
It was said of Athens that there were more
idols than there were people
in the city of Athens in the first
century.
And Paul in his heart, in his spirit,
is provoked by this. He’s got to do
something about it.
It causes him to have a reaction.
The reaction is to go to the Areopagus and
speak to these people.
Feeling of indignation at wrongdoing,
and the seeking to right that which is
wrong by teaching the truth
is not under consideration when Paul says
love is not provoked.
Now, we would be tempted to say,
okay, that means as long as the person
deserves it when I lash out,
then I’m justified.
I don’t think that’s what that means.
You’ll notice in every single one of these
scenarios,
the indignation, the response,
the anger is because of
a person’s violation against God.
and not the person who’s having the
reaction.
You see, it is right for us to abhor evil.
It is right for us to react strongly
against sin.
It is right for us to stand up against
brethren who are behaving
in a way so as to put a stumbling block in
front of those who are weak
and those who are ignorant.
But when we try to justify ourselves
by our sharp reactions,
now we’re in violation of the command.
So some examples. As we’ve gone through 1
Corinthians 13 and we’ve looked
at all these examples over and over,
we found Paul’s already talked about this.
Paul has already
Corrected situations in which they’re not
living out what they should have been
living out. First Corinthians chapter 3.
Paul says, And I, brethren,
could not speak to you as to spiritual
people,
but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.
I fed you with milk and not with solid
food,
for until now you were not able to receive
it,
and even now you are still not able.
Paul said, I I taught you the basics.
Because that’s all you could handle in the
beginning of your Christian walk.
You weren’t ready for the meat.
You weren’t ready for the substance and
the depth of God’s Word,
yet you needed to get out of the Word.
You needed to slowly but surely migrate
out of a mindset of
~ of carnal and fleshly things and the
paganism that you had grown
up in into spiritual things. So I gave you
milk so that you could take it.
He says, The problem is I still can’t give
you any meat.
I still can’t give you the bulk of the
word because you’re still not able
to take it, because you’re not growing.
He says, For you are still carnal,
for where they are or Where there are
envy,
strife, and divisions among you.
Are you not carnal and behaving like mere
men?
There’s your picture.
Paul said, I look at you, and you’re at
war with one another.
You’re striving not against spiritual
matters,
not against principalities and powers of
this world,
not against the evil ruler of darkness,
not against Satan and his minions,
not against the wickedness that exists in
your culture.
You’re striving against one another.
For when one says I am of Paul or I am of
Apollos.
are you not carnal? Who then is Paul?
And who is Apollos but ministers through
whom you believed as the Lord gave
to each one?
Paul says, you want to know how I can
prove you’re carnal?
You want to know how I can prove you’re
fleshly minded?
You’re arguing over which teacher to
follow instead of following the Lord.
You’re being provoked to react to the
teaching of others instead
of following Christ.
Over in First Corinthians chapter ten.
Paul will point out that he intentionally
avoids causing this reaction
in evangelism. First Corinthians chapter
10,
he writes, beginning in verse 31:
Therefore, whether you eat or drink,
whatever you do, do all the glory of God,
give no offense, either to the Jews or to
the Greeks,
or to the church of God.
He says, when you’re out there in your
daily life and you see a scenario where
you could provoke someone to anger,
you could provoke them to having a mindset
that is a stumbling block to the gospel.
Stop it. Don’t do it.
Hold yourself back from creating the
reaction.
He says, verse thirty-three, just as I
also please all men in all things,
not seeking my own profit, but the profit
of many that they may be saved.
says you know somebody has a problem with
something.
This is much to the to the mindset of i i
if you knew that
it was something against the conscience of
a of a friend of yours who’s a Jew.
To do something or to eat something and
you invite them over for dinner,
don’t serve them the thing that you say,
you know what, I’m gonna prove them wrong.
I’m gonna put it on the plate and see if
they eat it.
He says, Don’t you do that. Why don’t you
worry about their soul instead?
Why don’t you help them hear the gospel
instead and get the stumbling block
out of the way?
So then, Paul tells them in chapter 11,
verse 1, imitate me as I also imitate
Christ.
Then you see in chapter 14.
You see the reaction from the
disorderliness in the assembly.
As Paul writes to them, How is it then,
brethren? Whenever you come together,
each of you has a psalm, has a teaching,
has a tongue, has a revelation,
and has an inner interpretation.
Let all things be done for edification.
He says, I’m gonna demonstrate you’re
doing this in your own assembly.
Everybody shows up and they’ve got
something to say.
But you’re not edifying one another.
You’re not getting up to say something to
the benefit of the congregation.
You’re getting up to say something for
yourself.
To prove how good you are.
To prove what you know. To prove what you
can do.
He says, verse 27 if anyone speaks in a
tongue,
let there be two, or at the most three,
each in turn. And let one interpret.
He says, You’ve got somebody who knows how
to speak in tongues?
Great. No more than two or three in a
whole service.
Ain’t got time for that.
And if you don’t have an interpreter,
as you’ll notice, sit down and be quiet.
He says, Let one interpret, but if there
is no interpreter,
let him keep silent in the church and let
him speak to himself and to God.
Let two or three prophets speak and let
the others judge.
And if anything is revealed to another who
sits by,
let the first keep silent. Notice,
he says, you’re supposed to give way for
somebody else.
If something is revealed to one who is a
prophet and you’re in
the middle of speaking, and they say,
the Lord has shown me something and I need
to speak,
he says, Go sit down and let him speak.
He says, For you can all prophesy one by
one,
that all may learn, and that all may be
encouraged.
And the spirits of the prophets are
subject to the spirits.
For God is not the author of confusion,
but of peace, as in all the churches of
the saints.
He’s pointing out, he says, if God gives a
prophecy to someone and it’s
in the middle of the service and they see
that prophecy,
and they have that vision given to them,
or they have that revelation given to
them,
guess what?
They can keep their mouth shut until
there’s an opportunity to speak.
Imagine the scenario in the first entry
church in Corinth as they were getting
up and one person would get up and they’d
start speaking in tongues.
And in the middle of that person speaking
in tongues,
someone would get a prophecy and they’d
start speaking as well.
And then this person over here would start
speaking in tongues at the same time.
And then this person over here said,
Well, I had a prophecy too, and they’d
start speaking.
You ever been in a room where everyone’s
talking,
nobody’s listening? That was the church in
Corinth during their assembly.
Everybody wanted to be seen.
And everybody wanted to be heard,
but nobody wanted to listen. Nobody wanted
to be subservient
and humble and sit down and be quiet.
Paul goes on to say.
Verse thirty four, let your women keep
silent in the churches,
for they are not permitted to speak,
but they are to be submissive as the law
also says,
and if they want to learn something,
let them ask their own husband at home,
for it is shameful for women to speak in
the church.
Or did the word of God come originally
from you,
or was it you only that it reached?
Paul says, here’s the ordinance when it
comes to women.
They may be a prophet.
They may be able to speak in tongues.
They may have a gift of the Holy Spirit.
It was prophesied all the way back in the
days of Joel that there would
be women who received the gift of
prophecy.
Philip had four daughters who had their
gift of prophecy.
Paul says, that’s great. Not in the
assembly in public.
Not in leadership in the church.
Now when he says to keep silent,
the idea here is utter silence.
But he’s not talking about the
participation in worship.
Because they’re also commanded to sing.
Have you ever noticed someone sing
silently?
Not in accordance with the New Testament
commandment,
you haven’t. Not unless they were quite
literally mute.
They’re doing everything they can to sing,
and that’s physically unable to.
Paul is not teaching that the women be
utterly silent.
In worship, he is teaching that they be
utterly silent in leading in worship.
He says, It’s not gonna happen.
That’s not appropriate. That’s not what
God commanded.
So then we consider as well that Paul
and his companions also lived this out
before the church in Corinth.
If you go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 4.
When Paul is using himself, Apollos and
Cephas as examples
He says down here in verse 10,
he says, We are fools for Christ’s sake,
but you are wise in Christ. We are weak,
but you are strong. You are distinguished,
but we are dishonored. He’s using sarcasm
to set a contrast between
the way the Corinthians view themselves
and the way he was living.
He says.
To the present hour we are but we both
hunger and thirst.
We are poorly clothed and beaten and
homeless.
We labor working with our hands,
being reviled, we bless.
Being persecuted,
we endure. Being defamed,
we entreat.
We have been made the filth of the world
and the off scouring of
all things until now.
Paul says, if there’s anybody who could
return evil for evil?
If there’s anyone who’d be justified in
reacting because they were done
wrong? If there’s anybody that would be
justified
in the human mind of pushing back instead
of taking it,
he said, we’re right at the top of the
list.
That’s not what we do.
He says, when we are reviled, we do
exactly what Christ said,
we bless in return.
You see, Love doesn’t do what’s natural.
What’s natural is to when someone does you
wrong,
you fire back. Paul says that’s not love.
As a matter of fact, Jesus said that’s not
love in Matthew.
Matthew chapter 5. Jesus in the Sermon on
the Mount will establish this very idea.
He says you have heard that it was said
verse thirty eight,
an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
But I tell you not to resist an evil
person.
But whoever slaps you on your right cheek,
turn the other to him also. If anyone
wants to sue you and take away your tunic,
let him have your cloak also. And whoever
compels you to go one mile,
go with him too. Give to him who asks you,
and from him who wants to borrow from you
do not turn away.
You have heard that it was said you shall
love your neighbor and hate your enemy,
but I say unto you, love your enemies,
bless those who curse you, do good to
those who hate you,
and pray for those who spitefully use you
and persecute you.
Jesus, why? Why would we ever do such a
thing?
Why would we allow ourselves to be
trampled under?
Why would we allow ourselves to be
persecuted?
Why would we not stand up for ourselves?
That you may be sons of your Father in
heaven,
for he makes his son to rise on the evil
and on the good,
and sends rain on the just and on the
unjust.
And then he says this: For if you love
those
who love you, what reward have you?
Do not even the tax collectors do the
same?
And if you greet
Your brethren only. What do you do more
than others?
Do not even the tax collectors do so?
Therefore you shall be perfect as your
Father
in heaven is perfect.
When Paul writes to the church at Corinth
and says to them,
Love doesn’t seek its own. Love is not
provoked.
He’s saying when someone does you wrong
If your reaction is to get them back,
to respond sharply, he said,
It’s time to go educate yourself in the
ways of God.
It’s time to send some sunshine on their
dark day.
It’s time to give them some rain when it’s
a drought.
It’s time to demonstrate love toward your
enemies and not.
just your friends. Because love
is different than the world.
Love suffers long and is kind.
Love does not envy. Love it does not
parade itself,
is not puffed up, does not behave rudely,
does not seek its own, is not provoked,
thinks no evil, does not rejoice in
iniquity,
but rejoices in the truth.
If you have need of the invitation of our
Lord to put Christ on in baptism,
to be once again reunited with Him through
repentance,
or for any reason, why not come forward
now as we stand and as we sing?
Revelation 19 (Lesson 3) – Aaron Cozort – September 06, 2026
Test one two. All right. There we go.
It’s good to see everyone this morning.
It’s good to see a face we haven’t seen in
a while.
Someone finally repented and came back
from Louisiana.
Sorry. Did I say that out loud?
Good to have Tanya with us. ~ take your
Bibles,
if you will, and open them to the book of
Revelation.
We are in chapter nineteen.
Uhhuh.
We’ll get into our study i in just a
moment,
but let’s begin with a word of prayer.
A gracious Father in Heaven, we come
before your throne grateful
for the opportunity that we have to be
able to study your word,
to join in fellowship with your body,
to praise your name, to sing songs of
praise to you,
to remember your Son and the sacrifice and
the offering that was made on our behalf,
to examine ourselves whether or not we are
in the faith.
To look at our lives and see w if we’re
walking in the light as you
are in the light. And Lord, as we look
through this book,
as we know it, the Book of Revelation,
we pray that we might look and examine our
own lives to see whether or
not we are those who truly dwell in
heaven.
Lord, we pray that you be with us as we go
throughout this day.
May all that we say and do be right and in
accordance with your will.
And may we grow in wisdom, in knowledge,
in stature, in faith, in holiness each and
every day.
We pray for those who are struggling
because of illness.
We pray for those who are dealing with the
hardships of caring for others
and being caregivers. And we pray for
those who are dealing with ongoing
difficulties. We pray that you give them
strength and give them their desired
position in life and care.
the ability to endure through the
hardships that this life brings.
All this we pray and ask in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
As we’ve discussed the book of Revelation,
we’ve mentioned over and over again,
and it bears mentioning again,
that the book of Revelation is not
presented
in a strict timeline of events order.
The book of Revelation will go through and
tell you something’s going to happen,
and then it will go back up and it will
discuss it in more detail.
And then it will go through go forward and
then it will back up and
it will discuss something else in more
detail.
And it will give you picture after picture
of what is going on
and what you’re supposed to draw from it.
What many people struggle to do in
understanding the book of Revelation
is they try and make every single scene,
as it were, a new event happening in a
progression.
And so they’re expecting because this
happened at one point,
then it’s sometime in the future before
the next thing in the next chapter
happens.
When in reality the thing that was just
discussed and the thing that’s being
discussed in this chapter might be right
in line with one another,
just a zoomed-in view to examine the
detail of what
is being discussed. That’s what’s going on
in Revelation.
Chapter 19. In Revelation chapter 19,
you have a discussion of things that were
already presented in the victory scene
in Revelation 16, and the victory scene in
Revelation 17,
and the victory scene in Revelation 18.
It’s just a different picture for the
Christians
to realize you win. And you win in victory
over Rome
so thoroughly.
that it’s gonna be like a marriage feast
is happening.
Back in the first century, especially
among the Jewish cultures,
~ w what length of time was a common
marriage feast?
A week, all the way up to a month.
Now, bear in mind, agrarian cultures could
do that.
All right? You you put the seed in the
ground,
you have the harvest, and then you have
the time in between the harvest
and the next time to plant. There’s a lot
of farmers that take vacations
at very specific times of year because
they don’t have anything to do.
So they could be gone for a month.
Well, often it was that case.
In this day and time, they could afford to
take a week to go to
a marriage feast because the marriage
happened at a time of year where they
could.
Well, what if you were under threat,
under attack, constantly under siege by an
enemy?
Do you think you’d take a whole week for
the marriage feast?
No. If you picture in your mind what
Nehemiah,
the book of Nehemiah, tells us about what
Israel was doing in Jerusalem
as they were rebuilding the wall that had
been torn down by the enemies that were
around them, that had been burned,
and that they had
No protection for the city of Jerusalem.
You read there in the book of Nehemiah,
because of their enemies, because of the
threat that they were under,
because they were building the wall to
defend themselves,
they were constantly aware,
and it describes a point in which they had
basically a sword in one hand
and they were building with the other.
They weren’t taking a day off to have a
marriage feast.
They weren’t taking a week off to have a
marriage feast.
They were constantly on guard and
constantly building because without that
they were going to perish.
The threat was such that they could not
even
put down the sword to build with two
hands.
So when God pictures the Christians coming
out of the persecution of Rome,
the persecution of the great harlot,
the persecution of the great city,
the persecution that would come in the
eighth head,
which was Domitian, it pictures the defeat
of God’s enemies
so completely that the church could go
have a marriage feast.
That the church could celebrate with not a
concern in their mind
of the threat that Satan could bring
through Rome.
That’s the picture of Revelation 19.
That the enemy has been so completely
vanquished.
Everybody can lay down their sword.
Everybody can lay down their defenses.
Everybody can relax and rejoice.
You pick up in chapter 11 or chapter 19,
verse 11. Now I saw heaven opened,
and behold, a white horse.
And he who sat on him was called faithful
and true,
and in righteousness he judges and makes
war.
His eyes were like a flame of fire,
and on his head were many crowns.
He had a name written that no one knew
except himself.
I want to point out something that’s
interesting.
~ How many heads are on the beast?
There were seven, and then one was as if
it was killed,
and then another one came up. So there’s
eight total when it’s all said and done.
How many horns are on the beast?
Ten. All right, because we’re told there
were seven heads and ten horns.
And then another horn. So eleven.
Alright, so you’ve got eight heads,
you’ve got eleven horns.
And we’re told that all the horns were
kings.
They were subservient kings to Rome.
When you see the picture of Christ,
how many heads? One.
But how many crowns?
Doesn’t give us an exact number,
but is it one or is it multiples?
As a matter of fact, as he is described
here,
he had many crowns.
If you were to think about it this way.
Imagine if someone got a crown every time
they won.
If you were to think about the Olympics,
in our modern day and time, you invariably
have somebody who ends
up at the Olympics, summer, winter,
doesn’t matter, that just dominates in a
particular arena.
So much so that by the end they’ve got.
Gold medal after gold medal after gold
medal after gold medal after gold medal
and then whatever team they’re on in the
team sport has a gold medal
and a gold medal and a gold they just
dominated.
I’m gonna leave that comment where it is.
And
That’s the picture of Christ here.
When you look at Christ,
it was as if in the vision you got one
head because
he didn’t die. There was no transition
from him to somebody else.
There’s no other ruler. There’s no one
like Christ.
By the way, when it comes to the church,
there is, according to the book of
Ephesians,
one what?
One body, and how many heads do typically
bodies have?
One. There’s one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, one God and Father
of all.
There’s one head when you see Christ.
But on top of that head in the vision,
crown, crown, crown, crown, defeated
enemy,
defeated enemy, defeated enemy,
defeated enemy, defeated enemy.
No losses.
All victories. They’re undefeated.
He is undefeated.
So notice in the picture: his eyes were
like a flame of fire,
and on his head were many crowns.
He had a name written that no one knew
except himself.
I mentioned as we came through this
passage last week that we were going
to come back to this idea.
The idea of a name which no one knew,
~ what good would it be if you have a name
and I don’t know
it if I’m trying to get your attention?
Not all that useful. So you might look at
that and say,
well, so is are we saying that everyone’s
a stranger to him?
Nobody knows his name? That’s not the
idea.
The idea here is much like the picture
in the Old Testament where God will work
with an individual,
God will have a relationship with someone,
and then through the course of time,
God will give them a
A new name.
Abram, Abram, Abram, Abram, Abram,
Abram, Abram, until a certain point where
God says,
I’m calling you Abraham. Sarai,
Sarai, Sarai, Sarai, Sarai, Sarai,
Sarah. Saul,
Saul, Saul, Saul, Saul, Paul. Cephas,
Cephas, Cephas, Cepha, Peter. God hands
out
all through Scripture names.
And the name is never just a way to
reference the person.
The name is always saturated with meaning,
with connotation, with character in
relationship
to that person and God.
And so God here
in describing Christ describes him as
someone who God
has given a name that is entirely unique
to him.
It’s not the idea that no one would know
how to call him that name,
it is the idea that there is no one else
that has that name.
There is no one else who shares that.
That character in relationship to God.
But notice as you carry that idea forward
that you’re going to
see some other things about names before
we get out of the text.
He was clothed with a robe dipped in
blood,
and his name is called the Word of God.
Now, wait a minute, I thought you just
told us there was a name that no one knew.
And then you come around and tell us what
the name is?
Yeah. Nobody knew because
it was about God giving the name.
It was in the mind of God that the name
was there.
Interestingly, where in all of scripture
is Jesus referenced as the word of God
until John writes it in John chapter one.
He’s not. It isn’t until God,
through John, gives Jesus
the declaration of the word
of God that we’re ever told.
Now, was Jesus the word of God in that
function
all the way back in the beginning?
Absolutely. That’s what John tells us.
John tells us that from before creation,
Jesus in his relationship to the Father,
in his role in the Godhead,
was the Word of God. Notice the text.
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God and was God.
He had the role, the position,
and the function before the world was
created,
and we’re never told about it for 4,000
years.
Until God through John says He’s the word.
A name that no one knew.
And then John’s like, and by the way,
the name was the Word of God.
God knew something about Christ.
And didn’t tell anybody. Now, when you
read it in John 1 and then
you go backward through the Old Testament,
you are saturated with meaning in the Old
Testament when you realize references
to Christ and things that occur in Christ
and the descriptions,
even in John Genesis chapters 1 and 2,
God spoke and it was done.
And John tells us through him God created
all things,
and without him was not anything made that
was made.
But we’re not told that in Genesis.
We’re not told that in Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
We’re not told that in the Old Testament
anywhere.
There’s a saying that often goes around
houses
by parents to children. You don’t have to
tell everything you know.
Because children have a habit of saying
the thing that not everybody wanted said.
Because they know something that nobody
else knows.
And they just blurt it out.
God here says, I kept a secret.
I held back from
you for generations. Something you would
eventually learn,
because I’d eventually reveal it.
That shouldn’t surprise us. Paul tells us
about that all the time.
Paul talks about mysteries that existed in
the Old Testament,
which God reveals in the church.
All through the years of God and Israel
and marriage and all of the things that
God had done, you would never have known
when God
was giving Moses the ordinances for the
tabernacle that he would
be explaining in pictures the church.
But when you put the types and the
anti-types together,
you find him not only explaining the
pictures of the church,
you also find him explaining heaven.
But he didn’t tell them that when he gave
them the ordinances for the tabernacle.
He said, put a drape here, make it this,
make it of this kind of cloth,
put this garment on it, put this or put
this helm on it,
do this, wear this, build this.
And he never once said, and by the way,
I’m explaining to you spiritual matters
that you do not yet understand.
Christ had a name. It was the word of God.
And notice the armies in heaven,
clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
Stark contrast, by the way. Here’s the one
on the white horse. How is he arrayed?
How is he adorned?
In a robe dipped in blood.
Then you see in the picture all of his
armies,
all of his soldiers. How are they arrayed?
Not a speck on
Now, what army are you aware of where
there’s multitudes
and millions in the army and the only one
who goes out to fight is the king?
Don’t think that’s the way it normally
works.
But in the Lord’s army, that’s how it
works.
Because the one who never loses is the
king.
And he comes out of the victory covered in
blood,
and everybody comes out.
Pure white.
By the way, if you’re ~ prepping for war
and you’re ~ you you’re at the closet,
right? It’s like, ~ today’s battle day.
I think I’m wearing the fine linen.
I think that’s the right choice for the
battle.
It’s definitely gonna hold up,
right?
No, the Lord is wearing a robe dipped in
blood,
he has defeated his enemies, he has been
victorious,
and all of his armies get the benefit.
All of the Christians come out of it,
adorned in fine linen, clothed in white,
arrayed in the righteousness of.
The works of the saints.
They don’t look defeated. They’re not
arrayed
for war because he won the battle.
Turn to Hebrews chapter two for a moment.
Actually we’re gonna start in chapter one.
Chapter 1, verse 8, but to the Son,
he says, these are all Old Testament
passages the Hebrew writer is bringing
to bear on explaining why Christ is better
than everything else.
He says, And to his son, he says,
Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
A scepter of righteousness is a scepter of
your kingdom.
You have loved righteousness and hated
lawlessness.
Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness more than your
companions. And you, Lord,
in the beginning laid the foundation of
the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your
hands,
they will perish, but you will remain,
they will all grow old like a garment,
like a cloak, you will fold them up,
and they will be changed, but you are the
same,
and your years will not fail. Now
The Hebrew writer, as he quotes Psalm 102
in this second passage,
takes this and says, You would have
thought that was talking about the Father.
But that wasn’t talking about the Father.
When he says you laid the foundations of
the earth,
it’s talking about Christ.
And that your reign, your years will never
fail?
Talking about Christ. But notice what else
he says.
But to which of his angels has he ever
said,
Sit at my right hand till I make your
enemies your footstool?
Are they not all ministering spirits sent
forth to minister for those
who will inherit salvation? The Hebrew
writer says,
Do you not realize that all the angels,
all the messengers from heaven,
all the spiritual beings are here as
ministers on behalf of those
who are being saved?
And they’re helping those who are being
saved?
Because God’s defeating Christ’s enemies.
And He’s going to put all of His enemies
under His feet.
Now notice what he says: therefore we must
give the more earnest heed
to the things that we have heard,
lest we drift away. For if the word spoken
through angels proved steadfast,
and every transgression and disobedience
received a just reward,
how shall we escape if we neglect so great
a salvation?
Which at the first began to be spoken by
the Lord and was confirmed to
us by those who heard him. God also
bearing witness,
both with signs and wonders, with various
miracles and the gifts of the Holy Spirit,
according to his own will. The Hebrew
writer says,
Do you not realize that we didn’t just we
didn’t just read these things?
We haven’t surmised these things from our
deep study of the Old Testament.
These were the things that were spoken to
us.
They were confirmed by miracles,
they were attested to by that which God
said,
by Christ Himself, and they are assured
through the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
There’s no doubt about anything I’m saying
to you.
He goes to verse five. For he has put the
world to come,
of which we speak in subjection to angels,
but one testified in a certain place,
saying, What is man that you are mindful
of him,
or the Son of Man that you’d take care of
him?
You have made him a little lower than the
angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor,
and set him over the works of your hands,
you have put all things in subjection
under his feet.
And you read that in the Old Testament,
when David writes it, and you go,
he’s talking about humanity.
For in that he put all in subjection under
him,
he left nothing that is not put under him.
But now we do not yet see all things put
under him.
The human writer says, He’s not talking
about humanity.
He’s talking about Christ.
That he made Christ lower than the angels.
That he did so so that he could put Christ
in a position
to die for his brethren.
Because they could never win the battle.
He could. And he could do it once for all
time.
Watch this. For it was fitting for him,
for whom are all things, and by whom are
all things,
him bringing many sons to glory to make
the captain of their salvation perfect
through sufferings. For both he who
sanctifies and those who
are being sanctified are all of one,
for which reason he is not ashamed to call
them brethren.
Saying, I will declare your name to my
brethren.
In the midst of the assembly I will sing
praise to you,
and again I will put my trust in him,
and again here am I, and the children whom
God has given me.
Inasmuch then as the children are have
partaken of flesh and blood,
he himself likewise shared in the same,
that through death he might destroy him
who had the power of death,
that is the devil.
Why is Jesus the only one arrayed in a
robe dipped with blood?
Because he was the sacrifice. Because he
was the victor.
But his victory wasn’t in life,
it was in death.
And as we come to the book of Revelation,
you might say, Well, wait a minute,
Aaron, but that happened before Domitian
ever came to the throne.
Christ Christ reigned and died on the
cross,
AD 33, not AD ninety-six.
You’re right.
Pause a moment and consider when
did God end the nation of Israel as his
people?
A.D. 33 was Jesus hung on the cross.
When Christ was nailed to the cross,
we’re told that the Old Testament,
the laws, the ordinances, the thing which
held them in bondage to that point
was nailed to the cross too.
In the days leading up to it, Jesus made
the declaration that
on this generation that was alive at that
moment in time,
all the blood of all the righteous
prophets that Israel had killed
in all their history was coming on that
generation.
Their defeat was signed,
sealed, delivered, A.D. 33, when Jesus
hung on that cross.
When did the city of Jerusalem fall?
eighty seventy.
Thirty seven years later, the entire
lifespan Jesus walked the earth and then
some.
So did Jesus not fulfill what he said in
ending Israel?
he most certainly did.
The fact of their defeat was done.
The fact of the end of them as God’s
people was finished when Jesus went
to that cross. The rest is just the
details playing out.
When Daniel
in the vision sees in Daniel chapter seven
this fourth beast
and he sees him consuming the saints and
he sees him destroying everything
in sight and sees him so monstrous in his
character that he can’t even describe him.
And he wonders at the beast.
Daniel’s told by the messenger,
what are you worried about? Who are you
wondering for?
I’m gonna tell you how he ends.
He’s slain. He’s destroyed.
And the Christ, the Messiah,
the son of David, is going to ascend back
to his throne.
And he’s going to be there forever.
When Rome is pictured as being defeated,
they’re pictured as being defeated in the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Not in AD 96.
Because in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ,
Jesus laid the foundation for the church,
the kingdom of God. In Acts chapter 2,
as
Jesus in Acts chapter 1 has said to his
apostles,
You remain in Jerusalem until you are
endued with power from on high,
and you will be witnesses to me in
Jerusalem,
in Judea, in Samaria, and in the uttermost
part of the earth.
He says, My kingdom will cover the planet,
and you win. Now,
when was that enacted? It was enacted in
the sacrifice of Jesus Christ
on the cross and his resurrection from the
dead.
How long did it take? It’s still going on.
And it will till the end of time.
But what Revelation wants you to realize
is that every enemy that will ever
come against the church isn’t defeated in
that moment in time.
They’re defeated before they ever arrive.
They’re defeated before they ever come up.
They’re defeated in the sacrifice of Jesus
Christ on the cross.
There’s not a nation, there’s not a
government,
there’s not a person, there’s not a power,
there is not anyone who will ever defeat
Christ.
And as a result, there’s never anyone who
can defeat the church.
Because when the battle’s over,
you’re going to find the church arrayed in
fine linen,
white and holy, and you’re going to find
there’s that sacrifice again.
That nobody can ever defeat. Turn to
Hebrews chapter nine.
Verse sixteen, for where there is a
testament,
there must also of necessity be the death
of the testator.
For a testament is in force after men are
dead,
since it has no power at all while the
testator lives.
Therefore, not even the first covenant was
dedicated without blood.
For when Moses had spoken every precept to
all the people according to the law,
he took the blood of calves and goats with
water,
scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled
both the book itself and all the people.
In the old testament,
They consecrated, they sprinkled the blood
of the sacrifice on all
the people after the law was given.
Saying, This is the blood of the covenant
which God has commanded you.
Then likewise he sprinkled the blood both
with blood,
both the tabernacle and all the vessels of
the ministry.
And according to the law, almost all
things are purified with blood,
and without shedding of blood there is no
remission.
Therefore it was necessary that the copies
of the things in heaven should
be purified with these, but the heavenly
things themselves with better sacrifices
than these.
For Christ has not entered the holy places
made with hands,
which are copies of the true, but into
heaven itself,
now to appear in the presence of God for
us.
Not that he should offer himself often.
Notice, the Hebrew writer says,
Listen, don’t you think that your Lord
goes out and dies every time
an enemy comes up? Don’t you think that
your Lord goes out and dies every
day when you sin?
Don’t you imagine that your Lord is put to
death again and again
and again and again? Nonsense.
He says, not that he should offer himself
often.
As the high priest enters the most holy
place every year with the blood of
another,
he then would have would have had to
suffer often since the foundations
of the world. But now, once, at the end of
the ages,
he has appeared to put away sin.
By the sacrifice of what? Himself.
There’s your picture in Revelation
nineteen.
The one on the white horse. He goes forth
judging and making war.
He’s adorned in a robe covered in blood.
Because he is the victor.
He is the conqueror.
He is the king. He
Is the one doing battle, and he is the
sacrifice that defeats every enemy.
So he says, sacrifice of himself,
and as it is appointed for men once to die
once,
but after this the judgment, so Christ was
offered once to bear the sins of many.
To those who eagerly wait for him,
he will appear a second time, apart from
sin.
For salvation.
The Hebrew writer says, listen,
when he comes back, he’s not coming back
to solve the problem again.
He’s coming back to welcome home those who
are righteous.
Okay? So back to Revelation 19.
The armies in heaven clothed in fine
linen,
white and clean, followed him on white
horses,
now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword,
that with it he should strike the nations,
and he himself will rule them with a rod
of iron.
He himself treads the wine press of the
fierceness of the wrath of the Almighty
God.
He we’ve seen this picture over and over
and over again.
I think it’s chapter fourteen,
where the wine press is poured out.
God calls all of his people and says,
Cred out the wine press, end my enemies.
And he has on his robe and on his thigh a
name written,
King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Then I saw an angel standing in the sun.
Pretty hot place, isn’t it? It’s a
picture.
He sees an angel standing in the sun and
cried with a loud voice,
saying to all the birds that fly in the
midst of heaven,
All right, watch the picture. Here’s the
angel.
He’s standing in the sun, and he’s going
to yell out to all the
all the flying creatures of earth.
He calls and says to all the flying
creatures,
the birds of heaven that fly in the midst
of heaven,
come and gather together for the supper of
the great God.
Now, back in Isaiah,
there’s a picture of God defeating his
enemies
to such a degree that,
by the way, the New Testament.
Picture that Jesus uses is Gehenna.
He says, I’m going to defeat my enemies to
such a degree that
the worm never runs out of something to
eat.
Where the worm dieth not,
and the fire is not quenched. We’re going
to burn my enemies,
and the worms are going to consume my
enemies,
and they’re never going to run out of
food.
Well, here’s the picture in Revelation:
God calls the birds.
And notice he says, Come and gather
together for the supper of the great God.
Th this is not a moment in time where
suddenly all of for those of
you who’ve seen Lord of the Rings,
you know, you there’s always that point in
one of the movies,
invariably where the eagles show up and
they either carry someone away
or they defeat the enemy or whatever.
Like the birds arrive just in time.
That’s not the picture here. God says,
Listen, you want to get the vultures over
here?
There’s a lot to eat.
There’s a feast. It’s all of God’s
enemies.
Come on. He says that you may eat the
flesh of kings,
the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty
men,
the flesh of horses, and those who sit on
them,
and the flesh of all people, free and
slave,
both small and great.
So we gotta ask. Is this picture a
physical event that we’re supposed
to be waiting on? We’re supposed to be
waiting on the day where all
the birds of heaven just come in and
attack God’s enemies?
No, that must these these must be 117s.
These are the B 2 bombers, these are the
birds that fly into heaven,
these are the these are the planes that
John was forecasting being part
of this great nuclear war at the end of
No.
Turn back to Matthew chapter six.
And appreciate something that Jesus said.
Connect in your mind these two pictures.
Therefore I say unto you, do not worry
about your life.
Jesus, when he was speaking to the people,
the Jews, the people of God, his
disciples,
said, stop worrying about your
life.
He says, what you will eat or what you
will drink,
nor about your body what you will put on,
is not life more than food and the body
more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air, for they
neither sow,
nor reap, nor gather into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not of more value than they?
God provides for his creation.
He provides for the nature that he
created.
He provides for the birds of heaven.
He provides for the animals that he
created.
They glorify him. They glory glorify him
in doing what he created them to do.
And here’s a picture over in Revelation
where God says,
Hey, I got a feast for you.
I’m not just taking care of my people,
I’m gonna take care of my creation too.
I’m gonna let you feed on my enemies.
But remember this Jesus’ point with the
analogy that God takes care
of the birds.
Is what are you worried?
God’s in control. What’s the entire
message of Revelation been about?
What are you worried for? Yeah,
you’re going to go through persecution.
Yeah, you’re going to get come under fire
from Rome.
Yeah, some of you are going to die.
But what are you worried for? God’s in
control.
If he wanted to defeat his enemies,
he could just call the birds of heaven.
And hand them over.
Sometimes we worry too much and about all
the wrong things.
Jesus said, seek ye first the kingdom of
heaven,
and all these things shall be added unto
you.
That’s still the message of revelation.
Thank you for your attention.
Hebrews 1-3 – Walker Cain – Sep. 2, 2026
Abraham, and then you have all of the
history from Genesis through
the Old Testament showing how God was
using Abraham to bring the Israelites.
And then the Israelites to bring about all
this prophecy preparing
the world for Christ. This law that
prepared the world for knowing how bad sin
was,
so that one day they could recognize how
great their Lord was.
You have this Old Testament that is
bringing man ready to where he
can see the Christ, he can know the
Christ.
And then you have Matthew.
Where we get to see our Lord is born.
He comes to this world. John starts
preaching,
repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at
hand.
Christ preaches the same message.
You have this entire buildup through
thousands of years coming to
the point of Christ preaching salvation.
And then you have Acts chapter two where
the church is established.
Christ has died on the cross. Acts chapter
two now says that men can repent
and be baptized for the remission of sins.
In the name of Jesus Christ. Mankind is
able to be saved and follow this
new law rather than following the old law.
And now we have the book of Hebrews.
Now, for reasons we won’t look into today,
~ it’s thought that Hebrews was written
around sixty-three AD or so.
Now we don’t know who the writer was,
but we can tell that it seems as though it
was written before
The destruction of Jerusalem, which
occurred in AD seventy,
because it refers to so many things about
the old law,
about the Old Testament, about the
priesthood.
It shows so many things that say,
hey, look at what the old law was and
compare it to what the new law is,
how good God’s way is. So you have Hebrews
building up to this point where
the gospel has been preached, and now you
have Jews who are part of that old law,
who have become part of the new law.
They have become Christians.
But now they are facing something.
A right after Acts chapter two,
you begin having the seeds of persecution
grow.
And that persecution is going to become
more and more severe.
It’s first not the Romans who do it,
but the Jews. They’re the ones who are
bringing the apostles to the court.
They are the ones saying, Preach no more
in this name.
And this is going to not just be something
that happens to the apostles,
this happens to all the brethren.
You have Saul who is persecuting the
Christians and they were scattered abroad
everywhere. This persecution has built up
and it is severe.
And just because Saul decided to convert
didn’t mean that all
of that persecution stopped. The Jews were
still hurting their bret hurting
the Christians. They were still
persecuting them as though they were
heretics.
And now you come to the book of Hebrews.
Now, with all of that, they’re wanting to
go back to the old law.
You’ve had this thousands of years where
they look back and they say,
This was the way we were to follow.
And then Christ comes and he changes all
of their reality by saying,
Listen, now the old law is fulfilled,
you follow this now. And then you have old
you have Jews who do not want
to go toward it. In fact, they tell
Christians,
if you try to go toward this, you’re going
to be persecuted.
You are going you are going to be
suppressed for what you’ve decided to do.
So there were Jews that were there were
Christians who were tempted to
go back to the old law.
They were tempted to go back to what they
knew beforehand.
And because of that, you have the book of
Hebrews that shows the fact that
we can look toward the new law and see how
much better it is than the old.
Now, the what we want to focus on today is
going to be the fact that Christ,
with all the things He is, He He is so
much better in so many facets.
But tonight we’re going to focus on the
idea of Him being
the better lawgiver compared to Moses
himself.
Now before that we’re going to prove what
we’ve talked about with
the fact that Christ he is the focus from
the very beginning of this book.
Starting in Hebrews chapter one verse one,
God, who at sundry times and in diverse
manners spake in time past unto
the fathers by the prophets, hath in these
last days spoken unto us by his son,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
and by whom he made the worlds.
Who, being the brightness of his glory in
the express image of his person,
and upholding all things by the word of
his power,
when he had by himself purged our sins,
sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high.
We already get to learn so many things
about Christ in these three verses.
It says, God spoke through Christ.
He spoke through the prophets beforehand.
Remember that Old Testament that we
referenced,
where it was preparing the world for
Christ.
But now the Lord speaks through Christ.
God tells us what we need to do through
Christ,
and then Christ, He speaks with His own
words,
the words that are written and read that
we all know and love.
But also He spoke through His apostles.
He told them, Whatever you bind on earth
will have been bound in heaven.
Whatever you loose on earth will have been
loosed in heaven.
He delegates to them authority that says,
What I tell what you say
Is what I want you to say. They are going
to be inspired,
as is shown in his discussion with them,
starting in John chapter 13. The Christ is
now the one through whom
God lets us know what it is we must do.
And this in and of itself is one reason he
is our lawgiver.
A lawgiver is one who tells you what you
must do.
Now, with that, Christ is also the one by
whom God made the world.
He appointed him heir of all things.
He is the one who possesses all things,
and he is the one through whom the worlds
were made.
He is the designer. He is also the owner.
And throughout the rest of this book of
Hebrews,
it’s going to show that he is better than
Moses,
as we will focus on. He is a better high
priest.
He is a better sacrifice. Christ is better
than everything they could have turned
back to, than everything they could have
looked at and said,
you know what, I want this instead.
Christ was what was better.
Now, with that laid before us,
let’s look at Moses himself. Or let’s
let’s look more into Christ being better
than Moses. First, with the Old Testament,
as we have said, it shows that the fact
that Christ was better.
Looking at Hebrews chapter one,
verses four, verse four, and then through
chapter two through eighteen shows that
Christ is better than the angels.
Remember, we’ve talked about the fact that
the Old Testament shows how much
we can look at Christ and say,
Look at how great He is. Look at how
magnificent He is.
Hebrews chapter one, verse four,
being made so much better than the angels,
as he hath by inheritance obtained a more
excellent name than they.
Christ, it it’s not that he was
It’s not that he was made and then now you
are greater than the angels.
Christ was and is and shall always be.
But Christ, after he was willing to suffer
what he wa did,
and even before that, he was greater than
the angels.
He was greater than the ones who were made
to serve the Lord.
And it’s going to show more of why he was
greater throughout the rest
of this chapter. But we’ve just we’ve
established that Christ,
we can better understand the glory of
Christ by these angels.
But also they allow us to understand the
humility of Christ.
Remember with Moses, how is he described?
He was the meekest man to walk the earth
during his time.
Now what is Christ going to be?
Verse 8, Thou hast put all things in
subjection under his feet,
thou being the Father. For in that he put
all in subjection under him,
he left nothing that is not put under him.
But now we see not yet all things are put
under him.
But we see Jesus, who was made a little
lower than the angels,
for the suffering of death, crowned with
glory and honor,
that he, by the grace of God, should taste
death for every man.
For it became him for whom are all things
and by whom are all things,
in bringing many sons unto glory,
to make the captain of their salvation
perfect through suffering.
Angels were amazing, weren’t they?
You have a hundred and eighty-five
thousand enemies against the Israelites,
who were slain in one night by an angel.
Christ is greater than the angels.
But also Christ, not only is he greater,
he was willing to be made a little lower
than the angels.
He was willing to come down to this earth,
literally be lower and on this earth,
not in heaven, with mankind. You have God
the Father who is above all.
You have the angels who are below him.
You have man down here. And Christ decided
that while he was still fully God,
he was also going to be fully man.
He decided to humble himself by taking the
form of a man so that
he could suffer death for us. It says,
for the suffering of death.
But we see Jesus who is made a little
lower than the angels for
the suffering of death, crowned with glory
and honor,
that he by the grace of God should taste
death for every man.
He came down to this earth, being made a
little lower than the angels,
so that he could f face death for us.
You see, a spirit cannot face death,
not in a physical way. They can certainly
face spiritual death,
but Christ could not be our sacrifice
without coming to this earth.
He was greater than the angels,
more powerful.
more eternal than they ever were.
And then Christ was willing to be lower
than the angels.
Now, Moses was the meekest man on the
earth,
but then you have Christ, who was God
himself,
but he was willing to be made lower than
the part of his creation,
and then be made equal with a part of his
creation,
mankind, so that he could serve them.
Now Christ was still God. Christ was fully
God and fully man the entire time.
And if we deny either the fact he was
fully man or fully God,
We deny who he called himself.
He was both the Son of God and He was the
Son of Man.
John chap John is going the book of John
affirms the fact that Christ
was with God and that he was God.
We do not want to take away from that
fact.
But also Christ was willing to be humble,
to be meek, to come down to this earth for
the purpose of not just living among us,
but dying for us. The Old Testament
prepares us for seeing how great Christ
is.
It also prepares us for seeing how humble
he was willing to be,
and why did he do that? For it became him
for whom are all things,
and by whom are all things, and bringing
many sons unto glory to make
the captain of their salvation perfect
through sufferings.
Christ is the captain of our salvation,
and he was made complete through
suffering.
There’s things that we get we can learn
when it comes to suffering.
But Christ was willing to learn by
experience what it was like to suffer,
so that He can make our salvation sure.
You have all of this in the Old Testament
with angels preparing us.
And then after that, you have Moses
himself.
We’ve seen the glory of Christ affirmed by
the Old Testament,
the humility of Christ affirmed by the Old
Testament.
And now it is going to affirm his
authority.
And for this we want to turn to Hebrews
chapter three.
I said we talk about Moses at some point.
We finally made it. Hebrews chapter three.
Starting in verse one, wherefore,
holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly
calling,
consider the apostle and high priest of
our profession,
Jesus Christ, who is faithful to him that
appointed him,
as also Moses was faithful in all his
house.
For this man was counted worthy of more
glory than Moses,
inasmuch as he who hath built the house,
hath more honor than the house.
With Moses he was one who
God appeared to him in a burning bush,
and the Lord said, You’re going to go
deliver my people.
This is one who God worked miracles
through him.
He led potentially two million people
through the wilderness.
We had six hundred thousand men.
If you put an equal number of women with
that,
and then you have children, it grows and
grows.
He led a multitude through the wilderness.
He had the Lord speak to him directly.
He is the one that the Lord said,
He is my when the Bible describes him,
it says, Moses spoke to the Lord face to
face as a man speaks with his friend.
The Lord is going to defend Moses later on
against Aaron and Miriam,
who come against him because of who he had
married.
They don’t agree with it being a
Phoenician woman,
if I remember correctly. And it looks more
like
also in their rebuttal against Moses,
they didn’t like the fact that he was the
authority.
They go against Moses and the Lord is
going to say,
When I speak to this when I speak to this
world,
and I do it through a prophet,
I do it through dreams and visions.
But this Moses, I speak with him face to
face.
And you’re going to speak against him.
You’re going to think that you can come up
and speak against my servant,
also the one who is o who is called in
scripture my friend.
Moses was one who was amazing and he had
authority because he simply spoke what
God wanted to be spoken. Now that’s
something for us as Christians to keep in
mind.
It’s not that we have an authority,
we have a greatness over anyone else,
but we do have a message that is
authoritative to give to those around us,
to give to those who need to hear the word
of God.
If we make sure that what we say is what
God has shown to us,
we can be like Moses in that we show the
law.
That God wants to be given. No,
we are not lawgivers like Moses or a
lawgiver like Jesus was,
but we do show the law that God has given
if we speak what has been spoken
to us like Moses did. You have Moses who
is this great,
he was this amazing, and but the Hebrews
writer is going to show that Christ
is greater. First, while Moses served in
the house,
while he served and he served faithfully,
Christ built it.
As we read before, verse two, Moses,
who was faithful to him that appointed
him.
Verse two, who was faithful to him that
appointed him,
as also Moses was faithful in all his
house.
For this man was counted worthy of more
glory than Moses,
inasmuch as he who hath builded the house
hath more more honor than the house.
You see a mansion and you see all those
beautiful,
those hedged bushes, those trend bushes,
you see every flower that is ornate,
and then you look and you see that
structure itself.
You see those window panes that are clear
and crisp.
You see all the different other aspects of
that house.
So you even realize they didn’t go cheap
on the gutters.
The gutters even look good. It’s like even
today you look at a nice house
and it’s like, you guys did the gutters on
that house cheap.
But you look at this one and no,
they did it right. They did it well.
Every aspect of that house, you look at it
and think,
that’s impressive. I’m happy for them.
I’m glad that they get to live there.
But then you think, you know, someone
designed that house.
Someone built that house. Now,
what’s more impressive? The fact that the
house is there or the person
who built the house? Well, the fact that
that house is there is great,
but that house didn’t have any muscles or
brain to put itself where it was.
There was a person who went to school.
Or learned as a tradesman the ability to
build that structure,
~ multiple men realistically, who learned
the trade to build that structure
and then they made it together.
And they are the ones that are impressive.
That house, it’s just material.
It’s just components that were put
together.
The people who made it, that’s who are
impressive.
Whether we talk about automobiles,
we talk about houses, or whether we’re
talking about something that
is such so spiritual as the people of God.
The designer is greater than what is
designed.
This world we live in is designed.
Christ made the world as we described
earlier,
by whom he he appointed heir of all
things,
and by whom he made the worlds.
That’s what we read in Hebrews chapter
one.
Christ is the maker of all things.
And he’s going to be the maker of what
Moses was over.
Now what are some things that we recognize
when we see a house?
We first recognized as we described that
there was a designer.
Somebody laid out the blueprints for that.
Somebody made sure that when they went and
built it,
they had what they needed to build it.
They knew how to put together what they
had.
They had the plumbing, they had the
electrical,
they had the a the ventilation,
they had all of it set up to where they
knew how it was going to go together.
There was a designer. But a designer is
not enough.
You can have all of the plans in the
world.
But if you’re not willing to carry them
through,
or if you don’t have the power to carry
them through,
they’re not going to do much good.
You have the Galatians who they had many
things that they lay laid up to do,
but then they didn’t follow through.
Now they had the power to do it,
but they decided not to, or they just let
it fall by the wayside.
Our Lord was both the designer of what
Moses was over,
but he was also the builder. Now,
as the builder,
Something interesting about builders
today.
Usually when you see a house built by
someone,
is he going to live in it or someone else?
Someone else is usually going to live in
it.
It belongs to someone else. He’s building
it under a contract.
Our Lord didn’t make this world under a
contract.
Now he has given us the opportunity to be
stewards of it,
but it’s his. And the same is true over
what Moses was over.
Now what was the house Moses served in?
Moses was over the Israelites.
He was over, and this is important,
the people of God. Revelation is going to
speak of that woman who
was trying the dragon was trying to
consume.
And there are those who want to say,
Well, this is the Israelites, or no,
this is the church. Well, if we just step
back and say,
no, this is the people of God,
it all makes sense. This is the people of
God throughout time.
Moses was over the people of God here.
He was faithful in all his house.
Now this house could be his as in it’s
Moses’ house,
or he was over stewarding it. Or it can be
Moses,
he was over the father’s house.
He was over the house that was given to
him to serve in by God.
Now, as we described earlier,
everything was built by someone.
As we described with that house,
all things were built by God.
This house, it says
Everything every house is builded by some
man,
but he that built all things is God.
Now turn back to Hebrews chapter one
verses five through eight,
making sure that we don’t make any
assumptions,
but we pull what this is from the text.
Chapter one starting in verse five,
for unto which of the angels said he,
the Father, at any time, thou art my son,
this day have I begotten thee,
and again I will be to him a father,
and he shall be to me a son.
And again, when he bringeth in the first
begotten into the world,
he saith, And let all the angels of God
worship him.
And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his
angels spirits,
and his ministers a flame of fire?
But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne,
O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of
righteousness is the scepter
of thy kingdom. So we’ve established the
fact that a house is built by somebody,
whether it’s a physical house or it’s the
people of God.
A house is built by someone. Now,
and then also he that built all things is
who?
It’s God. God is the one who has built all
things.
But also what we’ve just read,
the Father looked at the Son and said,
Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.
The Father, the one who has all authority,
looked at the Son. He looked at Christ and
said,
Thy throne is
is forever and ever. God Himself affirmed
that Jesus was God,
right here in the book of Hebrews.
And as we described earlier, it’s done in
the book of John.
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, distinct from
the Father,
but also the Word was God. It was part of
deity as well.
The Lord the Father in heaven calls Jesus
God Himself.
God the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost are the Godhead.
Now, with this idea, turn to Matthew
chapter 3,
verses 16 and 17, just for a brief review
of this idea.
Matthew chapter 3, verses 16 and 17.
Jesus has come to full age, and he is
desiring,
as he tells John,
To fulfill all righteousness. Now the
purpose of baptism for
the whole of man was for remission of
sins.
Even under John’s baptism, they were to b
be baptized in repentance.
And then when Christ came, when there was
that baptism that was under
the authority of Christ rather than the
baptism that is called John’s,
it is still for the remission of sins.
Well, Christ didn’t have any sins to be
remitted,
but he still decided to be baptized.
To to do this, to fulfill all
righteousness,
to be an example of what must be done,
verse fifteen. Now, verse sixteen,
and Jesus, when he was baptized,
went up straight away out of the water.
And lo, the heavens were opened unto him,
and he saw the Spirit of God descending
like a dove,
and lighting upon him. And lo,
a voice from heaven saying, This is my
beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased. You have the
Son who is being baptized.
You have the voice from heaven saying,
This is my son, therefore that voice is
the Father.
And then you have the Spirit of God
descending like a dove,
Father, Son, and Spirit. You have three
distinct personalities here,
three distinct beings occur doing what is
occurring here.
Now, does that mean that we have three
different gods?
Certainly not. Scripture itself tells us
that we have one God.
Deuteronomy six verse four. Deuteronomy
six four.
It’s a short verse, but ever important.
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God,
is one Lord. We have one God.
And yet this one God decides to show
himself as the Father,
the Son, and the Spirit. Now all the
aspects of how the Godhead work
no man can fully explain, and surely not
the immature one standing here before you.
But what we do need to know, and what we
can know is the fact that our Lord
is one Lord. And for whatever reasons he
has chosen,
he has shown himself to us as the Father,
the Son, and the Spirit. We can be sure
that Christ Himself is God.
He is not just a God, He is God.
Just like the Father is God, just like the
Spirit is God.
Every house is built by someone.
As the Hebrews writer says, every house is
built by some man,
and then he that built all things is God.
And also as the Hebrews writer says,
Christ himself is God. Looking back at
Hebrews chapter 1,
verse 2, it says, Christ is the one by
whom he made the worlds.
Throughout this book, it’s go it shows the
fact that Christ is the
one through whom the worlds were made.
He is God himself. In the beginning
God created the heavens and the earth.
Well, if God created the heavens and the
earth,
and Christ created the heavens of the
earth and the earth,
therefore Christ is God Himself.
If A equal if A equals B and B equals C,
then A equals C. Throughout Scripture it
affirms this.
Now we’re going to have those who are out
in this world who they don’t like
to read the book of Hebrews. They like to
say that Christ is not God.
They want to say that he was a created
being.
Instead of looking at what Scripture has
to say.
And we must keep in mind that if we fail
to see the fact that our Lord is
the Son of God, and He also is God,
we lose the key to what we believe.
We are Christians. We follow Christianity.
If we lose the Christ out of Christianity,
then we have nothing that we follow.
Let us keep ever in the forefront of our
minds that our Lord,
the one who made the worlds,
Christ is God, and He is the one who is
over us.
Since he is God, and since he built all
things,
he built the house over which Moses
stewarded.
The people of Israel, they were under
Moses’ delegation,
under his authority. But got God in Christ
built that house.
He was the one who made this people.
It then follows that Christ is in charge
of those people,
and he is in charge of anything that he
makes.
He is the designer, as we described
earlier.
He’s also the builder.
Well, if someone is the designer and the
builder,
they get to decide how it works.
Moses was over the children of Israel,
but Christ had built all things,
therefore is the creator of the
Israelites.
They were Christ’s house. But you have the
Israelites there,
as has been described. But what do you
have today?
You have the church that has been made.
Matthew 16, 18. Christ is going to say,
Upon this rock, upon the confession of
Christ being Lord,
I will build.
my church. Christ is going Christ has
built a new house.
That isn’t the people of Israel.
It is the people that are now Christians.
Now, as we described earlier, we can see
this as the people of God throughout time.
But we today are part of something
special,
something that cr God was preparing us for
since the foundation of the world,
and that is the church. Now, what are the
implications?
What do we need to take home from the fact
that Christ built the church?
He is over
What we are now a part of. If Christ built
it,
then he was able to design the door.
We have a world who wants to say,
you can go into the church this way or
that way.
You can be sprinkled, you can have water
poured on you.
You can just say this is how you you just
say this little prayer.
You we call the sinner’s prayer.
No, you can’t find it in Scripture,
but just roll with it anyway. They want to
say that that’s the way in,
that that’s the door. Well, Christ says
that he is the door,
and he himself said
If any man come after me, let him deny
himself,
take up his cross, and come after me.
And part of that denying self is being
willing to do what the Lord has said,
and one of the things he’s told us to do,
Acts two thirty eight, repent and be
baptized,
every one of you in the name of Jesus
Christ,
for the remission of sins. If we are going
to go through the door that Christ
designed for us, we must ensure that we’re
not following anything that a man made,
but instead what Christ made, since he is
the one who designed the house.
If Christ built it, then who laid the
foundation of it?
Men or Christ? When you build a house,
you need to lay a foundation to it.
Christ, he laid the foundation.
He said, Upon this rock I will build my
church.
And he says, Upon this rock I will build
my church,
after Peter says, Thou art Christ,
the Son of God. Christ built the church on
his identity,
on confession of who he was.
As we described earlier, we must keep ever
in the forefront of our minds that Christ
is God. He is the one who created the
world.
He’s not a created being, he is part of
God Himself.
If we forget that, then we have lost the
foundation of the church.
We have lost the foundation of what Christ
has built,
and what we follow means nothing.
If Christ built it, he got to design the
door.
If he built it, he laid the foundation of
it.
And guess what? It was him himself.
And then
If Christ built it, who chooses how large
it is or what it encompasses?
Christ got to decide the borders of the
house.
No one gets to say, you know what,
the house is going to be this much bigger.
We’re going to expand onto it.
We’re going to make this denomination that
has some different rules when
you come into this house. That’s not it.
There is one house that follows one set of
rules.
You have houses that, you know,
they have rules, you know, if you’re in
this house,
we love each other. We’re going to hug,
we’re going to say I’m sorry.
Well Christ has rules on his house,
the house that he built, and he gives
those rules to us in his word.
If we follow those, we get to be in his
house.
If we don’t follow them, there’s no extra
house on the side that we get to be in.
We must follow his word, otherwise we are
not in his house.
We are not in what he has designed.
Christ is the better lawgiver because he
built the house.
But also he is the better lawgiver because
Because he is the man of the house.
Continuing forward, verse four says,
For every house is built by some man,
but he that built all things is God.
And Moses was verily faithful in all his
house as a servant,
for a testimony of those things which were
to be spoken after.
But Christ as a son over his own house,
whose house are we, if we hold fast to the
confidence and the rejoicing of the hope,
firm
To the end. Now, Moses, as we described
earlier,
he had a special relationship with God.
There was no man like him, as described in
Deuteronomy thirty four,
verse ten. But Jesus had a relationship
with the Father,
not even Moses did. Moses was a servant,
but Christ was a son. Verse six,
but Christ as a son over his own house.
You have fathers who they they go and they
build their income,
they build their wealth, and then they
they might even give a son to the
a house to their children if they have got
ha gained that ability,
if they have that blessing. And if they
give that house to their
son or their daughter, that house belongs
to them.
Now, is it still the same thing if that
person,
if that father gives a house to a servant?
no, that servant’s just taking care of it.
That servant, maybe he’s making sure it’s
dusted,
it’s mopped, it’s cleaned.
But a son, he takes care of the house,
but also it belongs to him. As we
described earlier,
the fact that he built the house makes it
his.
But also not only did he build it,
it is his because the Father gave it to
him.
Verse six Christ as a son over his own
house.
Christ has authority, he has possession of
this house.
Whose house are we if we hold fast to the
confidence of the hope,
firm
unto the end. Christ has authority over
his own house.
And also it shows who are part of his
house.
An idea we will look at more momentarily.
At the moment, turn to Matthew twenty
eight verses eighteen through twenty.
Matthew twenty eight eighteen through
twenty.
Christ has given the great commission to
his apostles,
or is giving the great commission to his
apostles.
And he tells them, All power is given unto
me in heaven
and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach
all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you.
And lo, I am with you always, even unto
the end the day.
of the world. That first verse that we
read,
all power is given unto me in heaven and
in earth.
The Father had given all authority to the
Son.
He was now king, he was now head over his
people,
or he would be very soon. And the apostles
were therefore to go
and teach all nations. Christ has been
given authority,
He’s been given authority over his house,
as he says in Matthew twenty eight
eighteen.
And we bring that to Hebrews chapter 3,
verse 6. Christ is the Son over his own
house.
He has been given all power and authority
in heaven and in earth,
and certainly in the church. Now,
as we described earlier, if Christ built
the house,
does he not get to lay the design out for
it?
But also if Christ, he not only built it,
he owns it. Well, if Christ owns it,
what does he get to decide? Christ’s
If Christ owns it, whose name should be on
it?
If Christ built the house, should it be
named after Calvin?
Should it be named after Luther?
Should it be named anything else besides
Christ himself?
Now there is not a scripture that says
thou shalt have a church that
is called the Church of Christ.
There are sound congregations in other
countries where they follow God’s word
and they don’t call themselves they don’t
have on their sign Church of Christ.
But they follow His will. They follow His
way.
But then you also have congregations that
have the name Church of Christ
on the outside, but they don’t follow
God’s way.
They have gone to the right or they’ve
gone to the left.
But do we ensure that God’s authority is
written on us in everything that we do?
If it’s not written on the name outside
because that’s just not the name used
in that particular country, do we ensure
that God’s name is written when
it comes to what we follow, when it comes
to the authority that we base
our actions upon? We are the church of
Christ because we belong to Christ.
His name is what is on it, whether that’s
what’s on the sign outside or not,
when we follow his will and his way and
his alone.
Now Christ, as we described earlier,
if he is the owner of the house,
he gets to decide the rules for entering
it,
and no one else can change that.
And also he gets to decide the rules for
how to stay in it.
Verse six, but Christ as a son over his
own house,
whose house are we, if we hold fast and
The confidence and the rejoicing of the
hope firm unto the end.
Now, when we were building up the context
of the book of Hebrews,
what is it that the Hebrews the Hebrew
Christians were wanting to do?
They were wanting to go back to Judaism.
They were being persecuted, and you know
what?
This was discouraging. You know,
if we just go back to Judaism,
we have the temple, we have an entire law
that we’ve been following for generations,
we have an incredible history of.
The fact that we’re even here,
even though the Romans have come,
now we’re under the Romans, but we don’t
like to talk about that.
But we’re still here, even though the
Romans have come and have subdued us,
they could go back and they could be proud
of what they were a part of,
but they could be a part of something
better.
They were a part of something better,
but if they held fast to the confidence
and rejoicing of the hope,
firm and to the end. The condition that
the Hebrews writer shows is
we must hold fast to our confidence,
otherwise
We will not be a part of the house.
Now it’s not the case that if we have a
moment where we struggle,
that it’s immediately, nope, you’re not
going to be a part of the house anymore.
But we must decide that we are going to
hold to it even if we’re struggling,
that his will comes before ours,
his way comes before anything of the world
if we desire to be in his house.
The Hebrews writer is then going to show.
What happens when his will is not
followed,
when God’s will is not followed.
Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith,
Today if ye will hear his voice,
harden not your hearts as in the day of
provocation,
in the day of temptation in the
wilderness,
when your fathers tempted me, proved me,
and saw my works forty years. Skipping to
verse twelve,
take heed, brethren, lest there be in any
of you an evil heart of unbelief.
The Hebrews were tempted to do what?
They were tempted to turn back to the old
law.
They were tempted to turn back from
Christ’s way.
And the way that’s going to be described
is their hearts were hardened.
And how does the Hebrews writer apply it?
How does he say, You know what,
now that you’ve looked at this,
what should you do? He says, Don’t you be
turned away by a heart of unbelief too.
Even if we looked at God’s word and say,
You know that’s right, but I want to go to
something easier,
that is unbelief in itself.
If we decide to turn to something easier,
if we decide to try to justify it,
to try to rationalize it, that is still a
heart of unbelief toward what
God has said. The belief that Scripture
shows,
pistis is a belief that says,
I believe this to the point I’m going to
invest my actions into it.
I’m going to invest my life in this.
We can be a part of this house if we hold
fast to this confidence,
to this hope.
Firm unto the end, but only if we do that.
We have a world where we might not know
what happens tomorrow.
So far in our country we have had the
freedom to worship our Lord,
but if that freedom is taken away,
will we still be willing to preach God’s
word to follow his way,
even if it means danger for us?
Now there are times where wisdom must be
used.
The Christians scattered abroad because it
wasn’t wise for them to just stay
in Jerusalem and to be massacred.
There was also a time where in our own
country there was a disease going around
and elders had to decide, you know what,
we need to do what’s wise. And so many
decided we’re not going to
be meeting right now. But when it comes to
following God’s way,
to being a part of His will, to doing His
will,
are we going to be willing to stand up to
persecution?
We don’t have to stay and try to be
slaughtered by the opposition that comes,
but we certainly cannot back down from the
truth given to us.
We can use prudence, but we cannot forsake
the way God has given us.
There is a difference between being wise
and worshiping where one needs to worship,
and also deciding not to worship because
it’s what is convenient for
me or because it’s too dangerous to do it.
Take heed, my brethren, lest there be in
any of you an evil heart
of unbelief in departing from the living
God.
If we desire to be in Christ’s house,
Christ, who is the better lawgiver,
we must recognize that He built the house,
that He is the owner of the house,
and He has decided that the way we stay in
the house is we hold fast to Him.
And as we have described, Christ is the
way into the house.
The Hebrews wanted to go where?
They wanted to go and enter the land of
rest.
But God is going to swear that they would
not enter into his rest.
Verse 18. But with whom was he grieved
forty years?
Was it not with them that had sinned,
whose carcass carcasses fell in the
wilderness?
And to whom swear he that they should not
enter into his rest,
but to them that believe not. The they
could not enter into rest because they
did not believe what God had said.
And in the same way, if we decide to go
against what God has shown us,
if we decide not to follow
What he has given to us, then we will not
be able to enter rest either.
Now, we aren’t going to try to enter the
land of Canaan,
but we do want to cross Jordan and see
heaven on the other side.
But we must hold fast to what God has
shown us.
Now, there’s an encouragement in that,
a beauty in that. What they could not have
within them was a heart of unbelief.
Now, when God commands us to do something,
is it ever impossible for us to do it?
If God commands us to do something,
that means we can do it. And God has
commanded us to believe.
Well, if God, who has never given us
anything we can’t do,
has told us that we can believe,
then we can go to His Word and be
confident that there is evidence in it
for what we are to believe. Remember that
this pistuo,
this piste, this is a belief that invests
itself into what is believed.
And we can be sure in
Scripture itself. As we looked at already,
Scripture all throughout it shows the fact
that Christ is God.
It is all consistent and shows that fact.
It also shows in its inerrancy.
It shows in the accuracy that even when
the historians say,
No, this isn’t the case, then Scripture
comes and says it is,
and after a hundred years, they dig up
something and they realize,
you know what? The Bible was right.
Of course, just saying that it has all of
the information doesn’t make
it have all the information. But if we
dig,
if we look, which all of us should be
doing,
if we dig and we look at Scripture,
we can be sure what God has given,
so that we need not have an heart of
unbelief,
but a firm foundation of belief in Christ.
Christ is a better lawgiver because he
built the house,
because he is the owner of the house,
and because he is the way into it.
And he has shown us that that way is
believing in him to the point
of submitting to what he has given,
with a firm hope in what he has allowed us
to follow.
Our decision, our question is if we are
going to follow it so that we can
be a part of that house, seeking the
evidence so that we can believe
and one day enter into that rest.
Thank you for your time, plus thirty
seconds.