Joshua 1: The Importance of Christian Assembly – Aaron Cozort – November 08, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, Bible Study, biblical leadership, courage and obedience, crossing the Jordan, Israel wilderness, Joshua and Moses, keywords Book of Joshua chapter 1 by Aaron Cozort

image

Aaron Cozort (00:04)

For those who have been around here for enough years, you will remember there was a time when all of the classes were essentially coordinated, studying the same material. And as we would go through, now the adult class was always a little behind everybody else, but as we would go through.

We would periodically take a Wednesday evening and all of us join in the fellowship hall and we would have a Bible bowl. We would actually go through and answer the questions because we were all studying the same questions. Well, we’re going to begin doing that again for a at least for a while, for a quarter or two, ⁓ not promising we don’t go a little further than that.

Yeah, we’ve got some more studying that we’re doing in our adult class on worship. We’re going to conclude those lessons before we switch back over. But what we’ve done, the class that is Micah’s age, is in the same material, but there’s still a few lessons behind where we’re starting. So you say, why are we starting at lesson 69? The answer is because they’re already at lesson 62. And we’re going to pick up with the book of Joshua.

And they’ll catch up to us soon enough. But what we’ll do is we’ll have a new set of questions each Sunday, each Wednesday, after we finish the the worship material, and then we’ll go through these lessons during the quarter, and then we’ll pick out a a Wednesday night to go through the questions together ⁓ on Teams and ⁓ enjoy the fellowship and time together, especially watching the younger ones grow. So we’re gonna open our Bibles to Joshua chapter one.

this morning and we’re going to begin with a little bit of history behind the book of Joshua and then ⁓ as well cover chapter one as we go through our study this morning. But as we get started, let’s open with a word of prayer. Our gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day that you’ve blessed us with, grateful for the opportunity that we have to serve you, desirous that we might

Do those things which are right in your sight and in accordance with your word and your will. Lord, we pray that and ask that you be with those who are traveling. Pray especially that you be with those ladies from the congregation that are still away from us, and pray that they have safety returning home today. Lord, we pray for those who are grieving over the loss of loved ones. Pray also for those who

⁓ are struggling to recover their health and recover from surgeries or illnesses. We pray that you be with each and every one of them. And we know there are many needs that we don’t know, that we’re not aware of. And Lord, we pray on behalf of those who have those needs that you also will provide for those things. We pray for our country, for its leaders, for its citizens to open your word

To know your will, to do what you would have them to do in their daily lives. And Lord, we pray that you will help us to do the same. Pray that you will be with us as we go through this period of worship this morning. May all that we say and do be in accordance with your will and right in your sight. All this we pray and ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

So as we go through the text, ⁓ you can feel free to fill out the the questions and the sheets as we go. ⁓ we’re not going to necessarily go question by question in our study, but we will seek to review the questions when we’ve completed a lesson before we get into the next chapter. When you open up the book of Joshua, you will find you’re in the middle of a story. events have gone on and

The writer assumes that you know what has gone on. ⁓ when you open the book of Joshua, you will find that the life of Moses has concluded. And Moses has been leading Israel for 40 years. Aren’t you glad we don’t have to put up with any of the precedents that we’ve had in our lifetime in the li for 40 years? Even the ones we like. We’re like, ⁓ eight’s enough.

Thank you. Sometimes four is more than enough. Fact of the matter is, Moses led Israel for 40 years. And much like some of today’s leaders, he started at age 80. He led them until he was 120 years old. The difference was Moses was as ⁓ invigorated and and able to lead at 120 as he was at 80.

Because God preserved him. Matter of fact, it’s similar, I believe, to what you read in ⁓ the text about Joshua and Caleb. That their ability, they they were young men when they were sent to spy out the land. Forty years later, they’re now 40 years older, and they’re just as able, just as as ⁓ strong in their age at that point.

To be able to carry out the command to go and conquer the land that they did. And we know that Caleb will even go, and he and his family will conquer a mountain ⁓ and those who lived on it. So God did things for Israel that were not natural in the course of their forty years wandering in the wilderness. What was one of the things that was unnatural about what God did for Israel as they were wandering in the wilderness?

All right. He provided food, manna every morning, ⁓ and they were provided that manna how many times a week?

Six, because on the sixth day they were supposed to gather enough for what day? Seventh day. If they gathered double portion on the first day, what would happen to it by the second day? It would spoil. But on the sixth day, and on the sixth day only, they could gather enough for the seventh day, and it wouldn’t spoil on the seventh day until the eighth day. All right. Clothes didn’t wear out. That’s correct. Their clothes did not wear out.

Put all the seamstresses out of business. because there were never any holes to patch. There were never can you I as a matter of fact, I’ve got a sleeve right here on my suitcoat that the inside lining is fraying and I’m every Sunday I have to cut more more off of it until I finally get around to getting it fixed. They didn’t have that problem. They woke up in the morning. You know the garments that they made for the priests when Aaron first became priest.

At Mount Sinai didn’t have a stitch that needed to be fixed by the day that they walked into the land of Canaan.

God did things during that forty years that were not natural.

That’s correct. He parted the River Jordan. He parted the Red Sea as they would go into s ⁓ to the area where Mount Sinai is and escape the Egyptians. He will cause the sun to stand still during a battle that will occur. He will cause water to come forth from a rock.

What else? Joshua er Justin, sorry. Yeah, that’s right.

Well, to the point of them wandering in the wilderness, they were instructed by God that they were to move when the cloud moved by day, and they were to camp when the cloud stood still by day, and they were to move when the pillar of fire moved by night, and they were to camp when the pillar of fire remained still by night.

The indication as I understand it from the text, you know, sometimes we think okay, that’s that led them to sign it. Every indication that I can find indicates that every morning and every night for forty years there was a pillar of cloud and there was a pillar of fire.

Can you imagine what it would have been like to be the peoples on the edges of where the the the Israelites were wandering for forty years and looking up going, I don’t know what’s going on over there, but I’m not going over.

Whatever’s going on with that people, I’m leaving them alone.

Everybody except their family, by the way, the Moabites, the Ammonites, those that were the descendants of Lot, they didn’t allow them to pass through their lands unless they did so by first going to battle. And so God did all of these things for Israel.

And at the time that they came out of Egypt, there was a young man. Now, the text lets us know that Joshua is going to be at least 20 years old when they come out of Egypt. How will we know that?

He was a soldier, and he was among those who met the qualification for the Lord’s commandment that anyone 20 and older who was a male who refused to go into the land was going to perish in the wilderness. Except what two people? Joshua and Caleb. So we know Joshua and Caleb were both over the age of 20 when they came out of Egypt. But

They were younger men. They were they were the younger generation of that period of time. Joshua is going to end up in the position of becoming essentially an aide to Moses. We’re able to look back into that history of the time where they’re at Sinai and when Moses moves the tabernacle outside of the camp of Israel because of.

Israel bowed down to the golden calf. I think it’s Exodus chapter 33 or 34 that records that. And Moses would go out to the tabernacle. His dwelling place would become with the tabernacle outside the camp. And the people would have to leave the camp to come out to the Lord, where previously, when the original setup that God commanded, the tabernacle was in the middle of the camp.

It was in the midst, and every tribe was arrayed around the tabernacle. But because of their sin, the tabernacle moves outside the camp. And now they have to come to Moses outside the camp. And they have to come to the Lord outside the camp. But where Moses dwelled, so did Joshua. And we’re even told that there are times that Joshua will remain inside.

With the tabernacle when Moses goes to the people. So Joshua is an aid to Moses, but he’s more than an aid. He is the one who the Lord has determined will lead Israel when Moses’ time is over. And that’s where we pick up when the book of Joshua opens. Moses.

Has been granted the opportunity by the Lord to go up and to see the land that he would never get to step foot in. The land that Israel would inherit, and then Moses will end his life in what circumstance we don’t know, his life will end, and he will be buried in a place that we don’t know.

Never to be found again.

And Joshua will begin to lead the people. We read in Joshua chapter one and verse one. After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses his assistant, saying, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, and

You and all this people to the land which I am giving them, the children of Israel.

God addresses Joshua. God does not leave it to Israel to choose their own leader. God does not put it in the hand of the Sanhedrin, the 70, that had already been established as the judges and the leaders of Israel in order to pick their own leader. God does not use the judges of tens, the judges of fifties, the judges of hundreds, the judges of thousands, the judges of ten thousands.

To pick their leader. God doesn’t even use the high priest, the son of Aaron, to pick the leader.

God picks the leader. God addresses Joshua directly because for forty years Joshua has been faithful to two things.

Moses technically three things Israel and the Lord.

Joshua was still with Israel, even though Israel had said, I think we’re going to kill Moses and go back. Joshua was still with Moses, even when Moses failed and had hardships and dealt with difficult things, even in a period of time where Moses’ own brother and sister turned their back on Moses. Joshua was still with Moses.

And Joshua was still with the Lord. Joshua was dedicated to the Lord after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness where Joshua could have just as easily have said, I’m out, I’m done, I’m going back to Egypt.

But Joshua didn’t. Joshua was faithful to the Lord. He was faithful to Moses. He was faithful to Israel. But now they’re on the east side of the Jordan River. They have gone into this area and they have ⁓ defeated two different nations that were on that side of the Jordan River.

And as a matter of fact, some of the tribes have determined that they were going to remain on that side of the Jordan River. Which tribes remained on the east side of the Jordan River?

Alright. Ephraim, ⁓ half tribe of Manasseh, and Gad, I believe, is is correct. Y’all can all you pull up the map, check me on that. But the fact of the matter is, two and a half tribes say, Mm, we kinda like this land. The Lord’s given the land to Israel, and we would prefer to just remain here.

If you go and look into the passage where that is recorded, I believe it’s the end of the book of Numbers, you will find that there’s a statement that gets quoted quite often. Because Moses will address those two and a half tribes, and he will address the men of those two and a half tribes, and he will point out to them: just because you’ve made your dwelling place, and just because you found your your land where you’re going to have in your inheritance,

Do not believe that means that you can stay on this side of the Jordan River while your brethren go over and fight. And the phrase that is often quoted from Moses is Moses says to those two and a half tribes that if they do that, if they remain in the land while their brethren go into fight for this land, he says, Be sure your sin will find you out.

So two and a half tribes are going to remain on this side of the Jordan River. They found their dwelling place, they found their inheritance, but they’re going to have to send their men, their soldiers, their adult males across the Jordan with the remainder of the tribes to go conquer the land. And they’re going to be there for five years doing that before they finally come back across the Jordan River.

at the end of that period of time. So here we are. We’re on the east side of the Jordan River. We’re preparing to go across and God says

Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you, as I said to Moses.

When when you go back into the history of Israel and you think about Abraham, when God told Abram to go to come to this land, he said, You go to a land that I will show you. And the Hebrew writer tells us in Hebrews chapter 11 that ⁓ Abram and Sarai went into that land and they dwelt in that land and they dwelt as sojourners.

In the land, dwelling in tents, looking for a city made by God. They weren’t traveling around going, maybe this is the city made. No, no, no. They were looking for an eternal dwelling place with God. And in the meantime, they were sojourning in a land where God said, I will give this land to your descendants.

So Abraham dwelt in a land that wasn’t his. And Isaac dwelled in a land that wasn’t his. And Jacob dwelt in a land that wasn’t his. And Esau dwelt in a land that wasn’t his until eventually Esau and the Edomites received a land that would be theirs. And Lot dwelled in a land that wasn’t his, until eventually the Ammonites and the Moabites would receive a land.

That would become theirs. And now, finally, the sons of Jacob, the children of Israel, will receive a land that belongs to them. God is going to tell Joshua every place your foot hits the ground.

Is going to belong to the descendants of Israel. But he then says, from the wilderness of this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites and to the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory.

Sometimes I have to check myself when I’m talking about which side of the Jordan River we’re on and say, wait a minute, is it the right is it the east side or the west side? It makes it easy when the Lord says, Hey, the sun goes down over there over the Mediterranean.

We’re on the other direction. We’re off the Mediterranean. But God is going to tell Joshua here are the ultimate borders of your land. Question Is Israel going to possess all of that land and control all of that land in the lifetime of Joshua?

No. As a matter of fact, there’s cities and there’s parts of Israel that they’re not going to possess yet in the lifetime of Joshua. Are the Hittites still going to be around come the time of David? Yes, they are. Ultimately, you will find the largest period of time, the greatest expanse of control of Israel, which will hit every single one of these borders.

is in the time of Solomon. During the days of Solomon, the nation will expand to its largest point and to its greatest borders. And then what’s going to cause that to change?

Solomon’s sin. Solomon’s treaties and intermarrying with the wives of foreign leaders and foreign people, and Solomon bringing in false worship which had not been present in Israel as a governmentally condoned activity is going to result in Israel shrinking and shrinking and dividing and shrinking.

shrinking until there are periods of time where Israel controls no more than a few sections of the land of Israel and ultimately until they’re all in exile and they control none of it.

God is going to tell Joshua, this is what I am going to do. Now notice the significance of that. He says, this is what he is going to do for them. He says, I have given you this land.

But also, notice that he says verse five, no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. What does he mean by that?

Mean that Joshua’s got just such a big personality nobody can stand around him?

Okay? It means that his leadership will be unopposed and he will not be deposed by anyone. He will not be taken off of the position that God placed him in. In the same way that God would protect Moses from anyone else encroaching upon the role God had given to Moses. If you remember back in the book of Numbers, there are

Those who will come to Moses and to Aaron, and they will accuse Moses and Aaron, you’ve taken too much upon yourself. We’re just as good as you are, we’re just as holy as you are, say Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and on, and 250 of the Levites who want to be priests and not helpers to the tabernacle, but they were in the wrong family.

And God says, Well, why don’t we just find out? And so Moses tells them, You bring your scepters and you show up at the tabernacle, and we’ll let God decide whether He’s chosen Aaron and his sons, or you, Korah, and your followers.

What’s gonna happen to Cora, Dathan, Abiram, on and the two hundred and fifty followers of them?

The earth is going to open up and swallow them whole, and fire is going to come down from heaven and destroy their dwelling places and their encampments and their families.

That’s what God means when he says, No one will be able to stand before you. When Aaron and Miriam will question Moses’ leadership, and they will question his role and his responsibility before God, what is going to happen to Moses’ sister?

She’s going to be stricken with leprosy. God will make the point. My relationship with Moses is mine. And you don’t get to question it. I will deal with my servant, Moses. God is now placing Joshua in a similar situation. Now, this is no opportunity for Joshua to go, hey, I can do whatever I want to, the Lord.

Gonna protect me, that I I can just live however I want, I can do whatever I want, I can make the people give to me and serve me, and they will just be my pawns, and I will be the king and the ruler over. ⁓ no, I don’t think so. That probably wouldn’t have worked out all that well. No, rather, this was an opportunity for Joshua to continue in his faithfulness to the Lord.

And in return the Lord says, You will be unopposed.

But then notice he says, so I will be with you, I will not leave you nor forsake you. Numerous times in chapter one, God is going to tell Joshua, I will not leave you nor forsake you.

We all at times in our lives have periods being alone. There was a Dr. Seuss story that ⁓ all the places you’ll go, I believe it is, speaks about the fact that sometimes you’re just going to be alone.

And while we all have times in our lives that we’re going to be alone, God is going to tell Joshua, as a leader of Israel, he will never lead alone.

And God will always be with him. He says to Joshua verse six, Be strong and of good courage. For to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, that you may be that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you.

Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left that you may prosper wherever you go.

Have you noticed there’s a tendency among people that when one generation dies off, the next generation goes, Well, I know that was fine for mom and dad, but

I think we need to do it differently. I think we need to go this way. I think we need to live this way. And God says to Joshua, you don’t depart to the right hand or to the left.

You stay on course. You follow exactly what Moses laid out for you. Then notice, he will say, verse eight, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. During the forty years of the wilderness wandering, technically, during the 38 and a half years of the wilderness wandering after they left Mount Sinai.

Moses is going to write Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. By all indications of Scripture, it is during those 38 and a half years as they’re wandering in the wilderness that the book of the law is written. And God is going to tell Joshua, you’ve been handed the instruction manual.

And it’s your responsibility to put it in your heart and in your mind and to judge and act and live in accordance to it. He says, This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

It is unfortunate that so many in the world, and sometimes some within the church, seek to make their way prosperous by departing from the Word of God.

You know, there was a man that Jesus spoke about who did that. He was one who planted his fields and planted his harvest and brought in the harvest, and the harvest was so abundant that he had to ask himself, what was he going to do with all of it?

So he said, Well, I’ll tear down my barns and I’ll build bigger barns. And I’ll say to myself, Self, you have a plenty so that you can live the rest of your days.

You know how many times every day young men, y working age individuals are presented by individuals, people with a sales pitch for the opportunity to make so much money they’ll never have to work again.

Every day, non stop. Never have to worry again.

What did Jesus say happen to the person who finally got all the money that they never had to worry or work again?

It was right. The promise is true. He never had to work or worry again. Of course he didn’t live till the next day either. So, you know, probably could have made it that far on what he had before.

The fact of the matter was he exchanged his soul for the possession.

Ultimately lost both. God is going to tell Joshua, You don’t depart from my word, and I’ll take care of your prosperity. You don’t depart from my work, and I’ll make your way prosperous, and you will have good success. But then he says, Have I not commanded you?

Be strong and of good courage, do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Over in Hebrews chapter 13, the Hebrew writer will tell the Christians the exact same thing. He will tell the Christians that the Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that the Lord will not depart from you. Jesus will tell the disciples as he is about to ascend back into heaven and return to the Father, Lo, I am with you wherever you go, even to the end of the age.

Matthew chapter twenty eight. Verse ten we read, Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, Pass through the camp, and command the people saying, Prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you will cross over this Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

Question.

Were excluding Joshua and Caleb, were any of these people alive the last time they crossed over any body of water on dry ground?

Nope.

At most, you could say, well, there might have been someone who was a child. There might have been someone who was below the age of 20 who crossed over the Red Sea and was still alive.

But not any adults that experienced that, except Joshua and Caleb. And Joshua’s first order as he is as he is taking leadership of Israel, first order is get yourself ready, we’re about to cross the Jordan.

And then notice what’s going to happen to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. Joshua spoke, saying, I think we said Ephraim earlier. It’s the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh. He said, He spoke to them, saying, Remember the word which Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, saying.

The Lord your God is giving you rest and is giving you this land. Your wives, your little ones, your livestock shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan. But you shall pass before your brethren armed, all your mighty men of valor and helpful.

Where is Joshua going to position, where did Moses technically position the Rumenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh?

On the east side the Jordan, but they’re going to go in front of their brethren. They’re the ones who’ve received their land, and they are going to go before their brethren into the land. They are going to be the front of the spear. They had the ability to remain in their land. They had the obligation to fight for their brethren, and they’re going to fight from the front.

They’re not going to hang around at the back of the line and go, well, yeah, I just need to live till I can get back to my land. No, Joshua says, You all are the front of the spear. You’re going first. But then notice, he says, until the Lord has given your brethren rest, as he gave you, verse 15, and they also have taken possession of the land which the Lord your God is giving them.

Then you shall return to the land of your possession and enjoy it, which Moses, the Lord’s servant, gave you on this side of the Jordan towards the sunrise. So they answered Joshua, saying, All that you command us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we heeded Moses in all things, so we will heed you. Only the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. There is a different temperament.

to this generation than there was to the prior generation. The prior generation got to the edge of the Jordan and they said, We will not

their children that grew up in the wilderness, that watched all of their parents and their grandparents die and buried them in the wilderness.

didn’t answer the same way. They said to Joshua, We will go. We will go and we will heed you the way we heeded Moses, and we will follow you as we followed Moses. We only ask that the Lord be with you as he was with Moses.

Verse eighteen They said Whoever rebels against your command and does not heed your words in all that you command him shall be put to death only be strong and of good courage.

God will tell Joshua, be strong and of good courage. God will tell Joshua again, be strong and of good courage. And then the people will tell Joshua, be strong and of good courage.

We don’t really know much about Joshua on a personal level. We don’t have all of the interactions that we have recorded like in Moses’ life. We have more in his interactions in relationship to Moses and his interactions in relationship to the people. But consider: here’s a man who’s no less than 60 years old. And God’s having to tell him.

Be of be strong and of good courage. And the people are having to tell him, be strong and of good courage. You know, sometimes I think that we think that by the time someone’s sixty plus they’re mature enough, you shouldn’t have to encourage them anymore.

Well, much like Joshua, there will be times in our lives where we will be encouraging mature men to do something harder than they’ve ever done before.

Someone’s put in as an elder, that’s a challenge. If they’ve never been an elder before, that’s a challenge that they’ve never faced, no matter how long they’ve lived.

That means we should be doing the same thing Israel should have been doing and was doing here with Joshua and saying, we’ll be with you, we’ll help you, we’ll encourage you, we’ll follow you. You do the work that God’s given you to do. All right. Thank you for your attention. We’ll close up and we’ll cover we’re we will cover the questions. So you can use this as a review. We will cover these questions next Sunday as we open our study.

Thank you for your

We Can Have It All – Walker Cain – November 01, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, biblical satisfaction, Christian generosity, Christian joy, faith and suffering, keywords Christian contentment, Philippians, spiritual strength, Walker Cain sermon by Aaron Cozort

image

Walker Cain (00:00)

1965, the Rolling Stones released the song I Can’t Get No Satisfaction. And in the first lines they keep singing, I can’t get no satisfaction. I can’t get no satisfaction. And I try. And I try and I try. But I can’t get no satisfaction. They sang about something that we so often face in our lives. Little Ayos, he couldn’t get satisfaction.

And so now he’s not in the auditorium anymore. But we know that we can be satisfied. However, how many in the Bible tried to look for satisfaction, but they looked for it in the wrong places? Think about Eve. Where did she look for satisfaction? Well, she took of the fruit. She thought that it would make her wise as though she were God, know the difference between good and evil. She thought it looked good for food.

She thought it was going to please her body, it also pleased her eye. She thought that it would be satisfying. There is also Abel. He he not Abel, but Cain. Cain decided that he, instead of following God’s way, when he was rebuked by the Lord, he decided vengeance was going to be what satisfied him. A false vengeance where he was mad because somebody did what was right, so he was going to kill his brother because he did what was right. Was he satisfied after what he did?

There is also Lot. He thought he was going to be satisfied when he took that land over on the other side where Sodom was. He pinched his tent towards Sodom, and little by little he inched his way into that city. When Abraham was willing to go to the other place, he was selfless. He said, You know, you go where you want to go, and I’ll take the other. Lot looked for satisfaction. He looked for the pro what would profit his sheep. What did it bring him? It bring brought him harm, it brought him hurt.

When that city burned, was he likely satisfied? There was Lot, there was also Solomon, seven hundred wives, three hundred concubines. We don’t have to ask whether he was satisfied or not. The Book of Ecclesiastes shows that when he followed after the women, he followed after everything else, he followed after being a workaholic, he followed after being a pleasure seeker. None of it was worth it, including all of the women he chased. Now he would have found satisfaction if he did it God’s way.

One man, one woman for life, and with that doing everything else that has to do with following God’s way. He says that himself. Fear the Lord and keep his commandments. That is the conclusion of the matter. That is the whole of man. That is where satisfaction lies, not in what he was face wanting to ch chase with pleasure. There was Judas. He was the one who chased silver.

He chased having those things, those riches, and then when Christ rebuked him, when he slapped his hand and said, What this woman does is a good thing, and she’s going to be remembered for it. When he said, Why do you waste this money? Why do you waste this perfume and put it on Christ? Well, after that, Judas goes and he sells his Lord away. He sells him for thirty pieces of silver. That’s not a lot. That was the price of a wounded slave. What he gave Christ for

He didn’t just do it for money. This had to do with his pride as well. He was doing something showing Christ, You know what? I’m going to one up you here. Was it satisfying to him? Was it helping him? And then there was Demas. He is the one who forsook the he has forsook. Paul told Timothy, Do thy diligence to come to me shortly, for Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica.

Demas, if he continued on that path, was he going to be satisfied? All these characters in Scripture, and we’ve only scratched the surface, do any of them find fulfillment in the things of this world? Let’s think about our modern day. We can have the workaholic, someone who is similar to what Solomon experimented with in Ecclesiastes. The Proverbs writer will say that there is a man the man that laboreth, laboreth for himself.

For his mouth craveth it of him. He craves the work, he craves the fulfillment he gets in getting up early and going to bed late, running every 12-hour shift seven days a week, whatever he needs to do, and then enjoying whatever profit he might have in the bank afterward. But in the end, even though he might feel fulfilled while he’s doing it, he thinks he’s working toward a goal. Where is that goal going to lead him? And then we have the addict who, he’s not chasing work, he’s chasing the dopamine dump.

He’s chasing rather than what’s going to fulfill him and be productive, he’s chasing what’s easy, that instant gratification. Where does it lead? When we see that car that is crashed on the side of the road because of a DUI, where do we think that that addiction leads? When we see lives that are wrecked because someone chased and embraced, where did it lead? And then there is status. There can be those who

Look for you know what, I want to be up there in Hollywood, or not in Hollywood perhaps, but wherever they think is the highest they can go in the latter. Eve was like that as well when she took of the fruit so that she could discern between good and evil, so that she had that wisdom. And then there is money which just connects to status and connects to everything else we’ve just mentioned. There is no satisfaction in any of this.

This world will pretend that it can give you whatever you want. Think about the marketing of this world. The next iPhone. ⁓ so a new one’s come out. The iPhone Duo, ⁓ this one’s special. This one has a screen on the outside and one on the outside where you flip it open and it bends. It’s special. You really need to go out and spend two thousand dollars and get this new phone. It’s going to make your life better.

There’s nothing wrong with getting something that is nice technology wise. If you have the means and you have earned that, good for you. Go and do it. But let’s let’s wait and see what happens when the next generation comes out. Now, there’s likely the fact here that those who are here don’t really care about what the next phone is that’s coming out. But whatever it is that interests you, think about the thing in your life where when that commercial comes on, it’s tempting. This world wants to offer satisfaction, but all they’re offering is for you to get closer to it.

So they can get you to buy the next thing. This world offers a trick. Just as Satan offered a trick in the garden, this world offers a trick today. But we want to ask, where can we truly get fulfillment? Where can we truly have our hunger satisfied? Philippians 4 11, Paul would write, Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

Paul learned in all that he faced, in his shipwrecks, in his beatings, in being rejected by his own people, he learned in all things to be content. And in that he learned also how to be abased, as we just mentioned, but also how to abound. When he had everything, it seemed like, he was still able to be content. He did not let it get the better of him whether he was in poverty or whether he felt like he had all the riches in the world. Paul was satisfied.

If you will, turn back to Philippians 3 and look at verse 17. Philippians 3, 17 through 21 show a contrast between two groups of people. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which so walk as ye have us for an example. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly.

Whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. There is a group who are the enemies of God, and why are they the enemies of God? It’s because their God is their belly. If we are trying to chase our own hunger, if we’re chasing just our own straight desires, it’s not going to lead to satisfaction.

It’s interesting how hunger seems like it’s going to bring you everything you want if you pursue it, if you submit to it. But if we do that, are we anything more than a slave to our own impulses, to the own chemical reactions going on in our minds? Are we anything more than animals if we just chase our bellies? Those who do this are the enemy of God, but there’s another group. For our conversation or our citizenship,

is in heaven. From whence also we look for Jesus, the Lord, we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. There is the group who mind the things of this world, who they’re looking for the next best thing, or they’re looking for the next sin that they can follow. But then you have the group

Who their conversation, their citizenship is in heaven. These are the ones who are looking for what is beyond. They realize that one day, if they live as though they are trying to emulate Christ in their lives today, they will one day have a spiritual body that emulates who Christ is on the next side. How beautiful is that! If we simply decide to act like Christ now, we can be like Christ then. Their satisfaction.

When we who are made in the image of God pursue living in the image of God, we can be satisfied. We are doing what we were designed to do. Sin came to this world and offered everything to us, but it’s never going to give us what we really want, because that is never what we were made to have. We have these desires, we have these aspects that God designed us to want. We are designed to be hungry. We are desi designed to want love and compassion.

But if we chased after those things in a wrong way, that is sin. But if we do it in God’s way and do it with a focus most of all on the end of our conversation, the end of our citizenship citizenship, which is in heaven, then we can be we can have what matters most to us. We can have that which God wants us to have. It’s interesting that this says the end they are want the end of their conversation, the end of their citizenship.

What what country is home for you? ⁓ well, most likely America. You’re most likely an American citizen. Home is where the heart is. If your heart is in the things of this world, if your heart is in chasing the things that satisfy your belly, you’re a citizen of this world. But if you are chasing the things of God, if you are pursuing what he desires, you are submitting to his will, then you are a citizen of him.

Home is where the heart is. We must ask where are our hearts? Are they with our Lord or are they just going after the things of this world? There are some questions that we can ask to ensure that our hearts are aligned with what God desires, rather than just following the things that please us in the moment. If we desire to know if we are following Christ, we can first make sure that our rejoicing comes from fellow Christians.

Turning to Philippians chapter four and looking at verse ten, Paul says that he rejoiced in the Lord greatly, now that at last your care of me, of Paul, hath flourished again, wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. Now remember that Paul in verse eleven is going to say, I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. There were some things Paul had to learn, and one of the things

He learned and that we are going to learn from him is the fact that he found joy in his brethren. The Philippians, like any other Christian, in that time were living under the first century. There was persecution, there was hardship. You did not just have the freedom of religion that you have here where we live, and we cling to it and we desire it as long as we can have it, but we will continue to serve the Lord even if it leaves us one day.

They’re living in this time where they suffer persecution, but they are to continue following in the Lord’s way. And Paul rejoices in that. He rejoices that, and he also rejoices in their care. He rejoices that they were willing to look at him and say, You know what? I need this. We need to fulfill your need. Because that is something that Christians do. Not that I speak in respect of want.

For I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. This isn’t just about what Paul needs. Paul isn’t glad that you are giving me what I want. He is glad that he is doing what is befitting of Christians, that they have this kind of care that flourishes, that they want to do what is good, even if they lacked the ability to do it. When we have hearts that are aligned with God, when we are looking to be satisfied with the things of Him, we will see fellow Christians who

They’re studying the Word of God, we can see that they’re getting closer to the Lord, and we will rejoice in that. We will see those who are doing the work of the Lord in it. It won’t make us angry thinking, you know what, they’re just trying to be Mr. Goody Two Shoes. No, we will rejoice in the work that they’re doing. If we are desiring to be satisfied the way the Lord desires it, then we will look at other Christians and their work and allow it to encourage us. But also we will encourage others.

Philippians 2 2, fulfill ye my joy that ye may be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Paul again says that he wants joy, and he wants them to fulfill his joy. And how do they do it? They do it by being of the same love, of one accord, of one mind. Through the book of Philippians, there is going to be this theme of unity.

This theme of the church is the church. It is one body under Christ. If our body has an infection, or if there is a cancer, there is something in the body that has decided not to do what is right, and then the rest of the body is attacking it. It’s not what it was designed to do. It happens, but it’s not what it was designed to do. Now, what about when that the body of Christ

If the body of Christ is not one, if it is not all trying to fulfill its purpose, then we are not going we are not looking for each other’s joy. We are not looking for the benefit of everyone. But if we are truly trying to help one another, pursuing each other’s benefit, then we can rejoice and encourage each other. If we truly look toward Christ, we can rejoice when we let Christians encourage us and when we encourage other Christians.

Well not only will we have rejoicing, we can have contentment, even in the challenges of life. Looking back at Philippians 4, verses eleven and twelve. Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, I know how to be abound. Everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry.

Both to abound and to suffer need. So often we look to those who we see as older or superior, those who have been in the faith longer, and we look at them and wonder, you know what, there’s nothing that you could do wrong. We j even though we know intellectually that they are not perfect, there’s just this wanting to put them on a pedestal, whether it be an instructor at a school, whether it be a preacher at a congregation.

But you know, those men who are in those positions, who have those responsibilities, they had to learn too. And Paul was no different. Yes, he was inspired. He, as the book of Corinthians shows, was a walking New Testament. But he still had to learn something. And he had to learn how to be content. He is instructed both in how to be full and how to suffer in poverty. Verse 12 I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry.

This is not just something he was born doing, and neither are we. We are going to have to learn how to be satisfied, how to move forward in life. And sometimes what is going to teach us is what is not comfortable. Hebrews chapter twelve looks at that which is not comfortable. We have a race to run, Hebrews twelve verses one and two, and Jesus made that race for us. He ran his race so that we could run as well.

But look down at verse five. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, my son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endured chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons, for what son is he of whom the Father chasteneth not? There is a benefit to this suffering. There is a benefit

To the challenges in life. Now it’s not the fact that everything that happens in life is something God has done to us so that we will learn. But when something happens, will we be willing to ask, you know what? What can I learn from this? Paul had to learn in whatsoever state he was therewith to be content. When the challenges come in life, will we learn that it might just be chastening? It might just be God saying, You have a lesson you need to learn, and then move forward in it.

Not just asking, Lord, please take this away from me, but Lord, please take this away from me after I’ve learned what I need to learn. After I am shaped more to be who you want me to be. We live in a world that we call it wicked and sinful in so many ways it is, but it is also something good. We have so many blessings in this world. We have the blessings of the food on our table. We have the sun that continues to shine and we can depend on until the day the Lord comes back.

We can depend on the weather to be sustain to sustain life until the Lord comes back as well, no matter what any politician says. The Lord is going to keep us safe in this world and allow us to prosper physically, even though there are the specific instances where this world is going to bring tragedy. However, this world in its tragedies, it has a purpose. We live in a world that is shaping souls.

Each of us is not just a body. This world is not about what you see here. It’s not about what wakes up and those feet that go down on the floor. It’s not about the hands that continue to work. It’s not about the mouth you feed, but the soul that is inside the body. We need to remember that in this world because this world has this suffering, it has this affliction, but it’s to shape something on the inside. It teaches us hardship so that we can appreciate blessings and opportunity.

So that we can one day appreciate a blessed eternity with God. How well would we understand God shall wipe away every tear? How much would we appreciate that if there were no tears to wipe away in this life? We can take this life and look at its blessings and even its hardships as something we can learn from, and we can be content in all of it. In the things of this life, we must learn both.

In what is good and what is bad to be content. The Proverbs writer in Proverbs chapter thirty verse seven says two things I have required of thee. Dem deny me them not before I die. Remove far from me vanity and lies, give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me, lest I be fool and deny thee and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain.

There is a balance here. Son, don’t let me have everything that I ever wanted, because if you do that, then I’m going to feel self-sustained and I’m going to curse the Lord and say, Who is he at all? Or if you give me ri ⁓ poverty, if you make it to where I am poor, then I will steal, and I will go and chase other means of fulfilling my needs. There is a balance that the Proverbs writer wants. He realizes that it is easiest.

To follow the Lord when he is poor enough to see his need, but rich enough to where he does not chase his needs in a way that is sinful. He is asking for this balance. But we must recognize both whether we are in that rich state or whether we are in that poor state, that we can follow the Lord’s way no matter what. We seek the middle ground, but we know that we can serve God no matter where we are in life.

We can be content when we let challenges educate us, and when we do not let treasures or p poverty deter us. We can have this rejoicing, we can have contentment, but we can also have strength. Philippians 4 13. I can do all things through Christ which thre which strengtheneth me. This isn’t just for being on the back of a helmet. This isn’t just something that should be on a gym wall or wherever else.

It’s not just something that’s about, you know what, I’m going to overcome when it comes to this health issue. This is about our lives for Christ. This is about going through those things that are hard and also staying with Christ even when we have it all. I can do all things, whether I am rich or poor, through Christ which strengtheneth me. I can continue to serve Him. I can continue to be His and satisfy Him because of

of Christ because of what He has done for me and because of the example that He has left. Christ gives us strength. Now we know that this just this is about us serving Christ through a physical world rather than overcoming in just physical things because of the power Christ has given to us. Looking at Ephesians chapter six, starting in verse ten, what is the power that Christ has given to us?

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Okay, so we are to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. But what is this power? Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. We have this power, and this power is not against a physical enemy, it’s against that which is spiritual, it’s against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. We have everything we could possibly need to go against the wickedness of this world.

Even when it seems dark, even when when it seems like you can’t go across the street without seeing a billboard with sin on it. When you seem when it seems like you can’t vote for anyone without one of them having something wrong, when you live in a world where you just see wickedness on every side, we can know that we can stand for our Lord, and he gives us an armor so that we can do it. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that ye may be with it me w

Bless it, may be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quit quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

It’s interesting that all the things we just read, all of them come with what comes in verse seventeen. When we have the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, we can then have everything else that follows. That is when we have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. We don’t know the gospel of peace unless we have the word. We do not have the truth, we do not have that breastplate of righteousness if we do not have the word.

This is the power that we have, and if we do not hold on to it, brethren, we have nothing. Let us hold to this word, for it is where our strength lies. We can have joy in fellow Christians. We can have contentment in learning how to take the challenges of this world and making the most of them. We can have strength even when it seems like we are at our weakest time, and we can also have plenty when we work with one another.

Philippians four verse fourteen. Turning back to Philippians chapter four, verse fourteen. Notwithstanding ye have well done that ye did communicate with my affliction. Now ye Philippians know that in the beginning from Macedonia no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity, not because I desire a gift,

But I desire fruit that may abound to your account. Remember earlier we discussed the fact that Paul wasn’t glad that he had what he needed now. He was glad that they were willing to give. And now Paul himself says, I am glad that you might have fruit that abounds to your account. He wants them to do what is right, because it is going to be what is best for them. But also as they do what is right, the church is cooperating. Now we could go into a whole history lesson about

Cooperation in the church going too far, people wanting to set up societies that rule over the church and what have you. But that’s not what we are talking about here. What we are seeing is when congregations or even just fellow brethren are willing to work with one another. Paul was supported by multiple congregations. He says that other congregations supported him when he did not allow the Corinthians to do so because he thought it would be a hindrance teaching them the gospel.

That being one of the reasons that he sowed tents, he made tents. With all of this, Paul was still attempting to do what was going to be best for the brethren, and he wanted them to do what was best for everyone else as well. Galatians six verses two through ten. With all of this looking toward one another.

For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden. Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things, be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. There are two lessons being taught here. There is the lesson that

We must do what is we must bear our own burden. We must be willing to take our responsibilities and do them. And if we do not follow our own responsibilities, how are we ever going to help anyone else? And that’s the second lesson here. Bear ye one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. When we are looking toward each other, we are first we are doing what’s required of us. Part of our own burden is looking toward others’ burdens.

And second, not only are we benefiting ourselves in that, we of course are benefiting others as well. We can have plenty when the church works together. In Acts chapter 2, they did not set up a government where we are going to give all our money here, and then the government is going to give it to us. No, that it wasn’t teaching communism when the church gave to each other such as had need. But what was happening was the church was saying, you know what, I have plenty.

I’m going to give so that you can have what you need, so that we all can have those needs fulfilled. They were all satisfied because they were looking toward something better. And as they were satisfied with what was spiritual, they had what was necessitated in the physical. When we look toward what God desires, when that is our target, everything else will fall into place. And we can have plenty. We can have all and abundantly beyond what we need.

spiritually and we can have just what we need here on this earth. We can have this joy, we can have contentment, we can have strength, we can have plenty, and finally we can have confidence. Philippians four verse nineteen.

But my God shall supply all your need, according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now unto God our Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. Paul does not say, but my God, He He might supply your need. Now, when we see the word will, that word shows that something is going to take place. But the word shall, that brings even more emphasis on the fact that this is going to happen. And Paul says, My God,

shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. God is going to give us what we desire, and we can have confidence in that. Chapter 1, verse 6 of Philippians. Being confident in this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. There is this confidence again and not only in God, but also confidence in those who are doing

This good work. We can have confidence in God, we can have confidence in the brethren. Verses twelve and thirteen of Philippians two. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Paul says, Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always done this, as not in my presence only, but even when I’ve been away.

Work out your own salvation. You’ve done it before, you can continue doing it. Paul has confidence in them. He is giving them a charge to continue doing what they have already done. I can’t get no satisfaction. This world can sing that all day long. But what do we as Christians have? We have joy. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice, Philippians four four.

We have strength in our Lord. Strength to go against everything that this world throws at us. We have contentment. We know that we have what we need and we have abundantly beyond what we could ever deserve on the next side of this life. Romans 6, 23. We have plenty and we have confidence, knowing that our Lord is going to give us what we need. What could we ask for besides that?

Now when are we going to have these things? We have these things when we are Christ’s, when we follow what He desires, when His love is reflected on our lives and we look at His love to the point that we want to show Him the same love. Brethren, when we have Christ, when our all is Christ, we have it all. When Christ is our all.

We have it all. If Christ is not your all today, if you have not been following Him and faithfully serving Him as a Christian, He desires your repentance so that He can offer you forgiveness. But if you are not a Christian today, there is no way to continue to have this plenty, to have this rejoicing, to have this contentment, to have this strength, to have this plenty.

To become a Christian you must hear His word Romans ten ten. And you must believe that Christ is the Son of God. Mark sixteen sixteen. You must repent and be baptized for the remission of sins, confessing Christ as Lord, Acts two thirty eight and Romans 10:10 And continue to walk in newness of life, Romans six twenty three. If you are not a Christian today, He desires you to be blessed abundantly.

If you have any need of coming and taking of the forgiveness of God, will you come forward as we stand and as we go?

The Personhood Of A Baby Yet Unborn – Aaron Cozort – November 01, 2026

In Aaron Cozort, Admonition Podcast, biblical sermon, Exodus 21, Genesis 9, keywords Jeremiah 1, Luke 1, personhood, sanctity of life, unborn child by Aaron Cozort

image

Aaron Cozort (00:01)

This morning

I want us to consider the idea.

that is presented in Jeremiah chapter one and in verse four.

And that is the personhood of a baby yet unborn.

In Jeremiah chapter 1, we open the letter or the record of Jeremiah’s time as a prophet, and we read the words of Jeremiah, verse 1, the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah. In the thirteenth year of

Of his reign. It also came in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.

Here in verses one through three, we are presented with the fact that Jeremiah is going to receive the word of the Lord.

Through the span of king after king after king after king.

From the time that Jeremiah is an early young man.

He will begin to be given the message of the Lord. He will begin to speak, and he will do and commence his life’s work as a prophet.

And as he opens his prophecy.

He writes in chapter one and verse four, then the word of the Lord came to me saying Behold I formed you in the womb sorry, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.

Before you were born, I sanctified you. I ordained you a prophet to the nations.

Jeremiah will be told by the Lord.

Something that Jeremiah would have absolutely no way to know otherwise.

That before he was born, that while he was still in his mother’s womb,

God had already decided what his life would entail.

God had already determined what Jeremiah would do with his life.

And as we open this section of Scripture, Jeremiah reveals to us some lessons about life as they’re revealed to him by the Lord. Consider first that the child in the womb is formed by God.

Now, there’s no indication anywhere in scripture, not in this passage or elsewhere, that Jeremiah was a unique human formed a different way than all other humanity.

As a matter of fact, in the text of Scripture, there are only a small number of people who are formed in a unique way in all of humanity, namely three.

One who was formed from the dust of the ground, his name was Adam. One who was taken from the rib of Adam, who was Eve, and Jesus Christ. Those are the three that were formed in any way unique from the remainder of humanity. Christ, because he was born of a virgin.

So three individuals who are unique in all human history in their method of being conceived and brought into the world, Jeremiah’s not one of them.

And yet scripture tells us that Jeremiah was formed by God.

It is important for us to realize.

That when someone creates something, when they establish the order of something, when they put forward the method and the process of that thing of themselves,

Then when that process is followed, they did it. They are responsible for it.

The American president once said, not the current one, one many years ago, the buck stops here. Because as the person in the highest office, as far as he was concerned, if it happened, he was accountable.

God said, I form children in the womb. He created the process. It was his creation.

And therefore he is the authority on the matter.

But then consider as well that God also points out, as we read in the text, that God knew Jeremiah before he was born. The text tells us that while Jeremiah was yet in the womb, God knew him.

It’s pretty hard to know something that doesn’t exist.

And yet many in modern times and in modern culture will argue that the person is not a person until they’re born. And even not even for a little while after that.

God says, No, I I I knew Jeremiah and I knew him when he was in the womb.

But then consider as well that God not only says, I made him, I formed him, God not only says, I knew him, but God reveals to Jeremiah, I set you apart for a purpose. That’s what the word sanctified means.

God says, I established a purpose for your life before you were ever born.

Are we to imagine that somehow Jeremiah was the only person of all humanity that has ever been born that God established a person or a purpose for them before they came out of the womb? Well, certainly not. We know John the Baptist had one because Zechariah, his father, is going to be told that he has one. We know that Judah is going to be told that the scepter would come through him.

And that David would be part of that fulfillment generations before David’s born. We know that God is going to tell David that God is going to give him a son, and his son is going to have a throne, and it is going to remain forever, and that is going to be ful culminated in both the birth and the life of Solomon, but also of Jesus the Messiah.

Over and over and over again.

We’re painted a picture of the purpose of a human life.

And ultimately we should understand this that there is one purpose of a human life. It’s found in Ecclesiastes chapter twelve and in verse thirteen.

What is the whole of man? Solomon will write.

Fear the Lord and keep his commandments.

Every child conceived.

Has a purpose.

And that is to fear God and keep his commandments. There is no such thing as a purposeless life. There is no such thing as a valueless child. There is no such thing as simply a baby that is unneeded.

undesired when it comes to the Lord.

But let us consider a few other passages on this very idea. In Genesis chapter nine.

Noah and his family have disembarked.

They have exited the ship, the boat that Noah had built. They exited into a world

Entirely unlike the one that they had gotten on the boat.

For they exited into an empty one.

And as Noah is beginning again.

I mean, not trigger that accidentally. As Noah is beginning again, God is going to reiterate some of the commands that he had already given to humanity. God is going to re-establish some things and give some new commands.

But we read, beginning in verse one, so God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Now that was a command God had already given. God gave that one to Adam and Eve back in the garden. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on every and on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea, they are given into your hand.

That had not been stated in the garden.

Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is its blood. Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning. From the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man, from the hand of every man’s brother, I will require the life of man. Whoever

sheds man’s blood by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God he made man.

And as for you, be fruitful and multiply, bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it.

God as he addresses Noah.

A man of six hundred years.

A man whose oldest son is ninety-eight years old is going to tell Noah and his sons, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.

You thought it was hard keeping up with kids when you were in your twenties or thirties or forties. Noah’s sons started out in their nineties.

But God makes it clear to Noah.

Something that had been true and remained true from the days of Cain and Abel.

That humanity is made in the image of God, and If you kill someone made in the image of God, God will not hold you guiltless.

God is going to make it clear that humans are not animals.

I do love our dog.

But If I ever have to choose between the dog’s life and the child’s life, I’ll miss our dog.

Humans are not animals. Animals are not humans.

There is one species on the face of the planet made in the image of God.

And born or yet unborn, they’re made in the image of God.

And God establishes the qualification for life.

When is a person alive? Did you notice it in the text? Because it’s right here in Genesis chapter 9. God doesn’t give us a answer that is up to our decision-making process.

He says, Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for he is in the image of God. He made man. But he goes back, or if you go back to verse 3, every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs, but you shall not eat flesh with its life. That is its life.

Blood.

God says they have blood running through its veins, then it’s alive. It’s a life. It’s a person.

When you consider that as Jesus was hanging on the cross

And that centurion took that spear and rammed it into his side. The text tells us that out came water and blood.

The fact of the matter is, it it was evidence that Jesus had died because the water in the blood had begun to separate from the blood. They knew he was dead. Then they knew he had already perished because of the separation of the water from the blood. God establishes how you can know something’s alive.

blood in it. And that blood’s flowing. But then consider as well Exodus chapter twenty one. In Exodus chapter twenty one

God is going to give ordinances to Israel, laws to Israel. And in Exodus chapter 21, beginning in verse 22, God will state through Moses if men fight and hurt a woman with child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows. In other words, the child is born premature, but the child is fine.

He says, He shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman’s husband imposes on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. Two men are at odds with one another, and they come to blows, or they begin a fight, or something begins to occur, and it causes the woman who’s with child to prematurely have that child. But the child is okay.

The child survives, there’s still a judgment against the other man. And it’s up to the husband to determine how that judgment is meted out, and up to the judges to determine how much he has to pay. Because he caused harm to the woman who was carrying the child. But notice the next verse. But if any harm follows.

Then you shall give life for life.

Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. God says if two men are arguing and fighting with one another, and they cause a woman who is carrying a child to give birth prematurely, and the child dies.

God says a life for a life.

You’re guilty of having committed murder because the child who was not yet born was alive.

And now you have forfeit your life.

In Isaac, chapter forty nine.

Isaiah

As he is giving his prophesies to Israel.

Will speak concerning the Messiah.

In Isaiah 49, beginning in verse 1, we read, Listen, O coastlands, to me, and take heed, you peoples from afar. The Lord has called me from the womb.

Anyone who argues that the child not yet born is not a person

argues with the Lord about his very son.

He says, The Lord called me from the womb, from the matrix of my mother, he has made mention of my name. And he has made my mouth like a sharp sword in the shadow of his hand, he has hidden me, and made me a polished shaft. In his quiver, he has hidden me. And he said to me, You are my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.

Isaiah here is making a comparison.

Between Israel, the nation that God had formed, that God had given birth to, that God had caused to exist, for Israel would not have existed had the natural order of things not had the natural order of things continued, for Abraham and Sarah would never have had a son.

Israel would never have existed if God hadn’t stepped in. And God says, You’re my son, Israel, but he’s also, Isaiah is also writing about a second son, the type that Israel represents, the anti-type of which is Christ.

He says, He said to me, You are my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing, and in vain, yet surely my just reward is with the Lord, and my work with my God. And now the Lord says, Who formed me from the womb to be his servant?

Again, it’s not just Jeremiah that says that the Lord does the forming.

But Isaiah says it as well as well.

He says, to bring Jacob back to him, so that Israel is gathered to him, for I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. Indeed, he says, it is too small a thing that you should be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel. I will also give you as a light to the Gentiles that you

Should be my salvation to the ends of the earth. Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One, to whom, to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to the servant of rulers, kings shall see and arise. Princes also shall worship because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel.

And he has chosen you.

Isaiah writes concerning the Messiah.

And says before you were born.

While you were yet in the womb.

You were established to bring salvation to Jew and Gentile alike.

You were called. In Izaea chapter seven.

Isaiah will further prophesy concerning the Messiah in speaking of his unique conception. In Isaiah chapter seven, beginning in verse ten, we read, moreover, the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, A sign for yourself from the Lord your God, ask it either in the depth or in the height above.

But Ahaz said, I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord. Then he said, Hear now, O house of David, is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel. God would declare through Isaiah.

The same thing that God declared all the way back in Genesis chapter three.

That the one who would defeat Satan, the one who would defeat sin, the one who would defeat death.

Would be of the seed of woman and not man.

That God would form him in a virgin. And when you turn to Luke chapter one.

As Luke records the events surrounding the life of Christ.

In Luke chapter one, beginning in verse twenty-six, we read, Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women.

But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God, And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest.

And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.

There are those within our society who

There are those around the world with agendas.

To say that it is the woman’s body and she can do with it whatever she pleases.

That’s interesting. Because I’ve never yet seen a woman who was a male at the same time, also in spite of what many in the world to now today now believe.

And yet when that baby was in Mary’s womb there was a male child inside of a female body.

And the angel said I can tell the difference between the two.

Because the one who you will give birth to

is the fulfilment of prophecy.

We read verse 32. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

Then Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I do not know a man? And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the highest will overshadow you. Therefore, also the Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now, indeed, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is now the sixth month of her who was called barren. For with God nothing

Will be impossible. Then Mary said, Behold, the maidservant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word, and the angel departed from her. Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And it happened when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leapt in her womb.

And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Have you noticed?

That the scriptures attribute independent action to the babe.

It’s not Elizabeth that reacts to the voice of Mary. It is John who is in the womb of Elizabeth that reacts to the voice of Mary. And notice what Scripture tells us. Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. But why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord

should come to me. For indeed as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.

Did you notice that the text is very clear that the Holy Spirit who was speaking through Elizabeth is very clear that the babe could have joy independently from the mother?

Joy is a feeling, an emotion, an expression from a person.

And John was a person yet unborn.

But also there was recognition.

John in the womb, through the power of God, recognized the voice of the mother of his Lord.

And so did Elizabeth.

What do we learn about the personhood of the babe yet unborn?

That they are a person.

And what does the Lord say about those who shed innocent blood? In Proverbs chapter 6, beginning in verses 16 and 17, God will through Solomon declare that There are six things the Lord hates. Yea, seven are an abomination to the Lord.

among which is the shedding of innocent blood.

Because the life of the flesh is in the blood.

And if that child has blood to shed.

That child has a life. That child is a person. And the killing of the child is murder.

We live in a society.

That would love to convince us.

That humanity is valueless and a convenience for those who already have the ability to choose.

They ask for choice.

And scripture reminds them yes, they had a choice. They had the choice before the child was conceived.

After that, what they had was a life.

And they were commanded by God to protect it, to provide for it, to do everything they could to bring it up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord, to teach it, to fear God and keep his commandments, because it is a person made in the image of God.

Someone may say, Aaron, getting pretty political, aren’t you?

No.

Getting very scriptural.

‘Cause this thing we should understand.

There is not one party guilty of shedding innocent blood and another party innocent.

But on Tuesday, when we walk in and vote

We better be able to walk out with a clear conscience.

I’ll tell you this, I couldn’t vote for a person who doesn’t respect the life of a child.

And I hope you can’t either.

There’s not an issue in all of our country.

That matters as much as the sanctity of life.

Because it determines whether or not we believe what God said as to whether or not Christ was a person in the womb, whether or not Jeremiah was formed by God and sanctified for a purpose long before he was born.

What it really matters is do we believe what God said or not? And do we believe we as a society and as a nation will be held guiltless?

if we stand by and do nothing while others teach people to kill their children.

You go back in the Old Testament and one of the things that you find over and over again that God judged the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Hivites, the Canaanites for

They killed their children in sacrifice to their own selfish desires to worship a god that didn’t exist.

And God tells Israel, You do what they did and I’ll judge you too.

We stand this day with the Lord.

Realizing that life is what God says it is.

But also realizing that this life is not all there is.

You’re here this morning and you’re outside the body of Christ. You can live this life from beginning to end.

But if you’re not prepared for the next one, if you’re not prepared for eternity, you’ve missed what is truly important. If you’re here this morning and you’re outside the body of Christ, God calls upon you to hear his commandments and to keep them, to fear him and keep his commandments, to hear that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, to repent of your sins, to confess eternal.

His name and to be immersed in water for the remission of your sins, to die to sin, to have life in Christ. And if you have need of that opportunity this morning, we encourage you to come as we stand and as we sing.

Revelation 22 (Lesson 2) – Aaron Cozort – November 01, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, Christian faithfulness, church as bride of Christ, Gospel, judgment, keywords Revelation 22 sermon, Revelation interpretation, worship God alone by Aaron Cozort

image

Aaron Cozort (00:00)

Good morning.

Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to what’s probably your last page ⁓ that isn’t footnotes and notes and and dictionary. Revelation twenty two.

Let’s begin with a word of prayer.

Are gracious Father in heaven.

We humbly come before your throne as we hallow your name, as we lift up your name in praise and in worship and in glory, as we recognize the beauty of the world and the creation and the universe that you have placed before us, that after thousands of years of studying the world.

Humanity still finds things that they did not know that you had created. Lord, we are mindful of the work that this church is doing and the work that we pray it will continue to do for many, many years into the future. We pray for this nation, and we pray for the election that is upcoming this week. We pray that it will be peaceful and that the result will be.

What those things which will promote peace and the opportunity to spread the gospel. Lord, we pray for those who are recovering from illness, from injury, from surgery. We pray that you give them the strength that they desire to have, the health that allows them to once again be at full capacity to do the things that are within their hand to do.

Lord, we pray that you be with those who struggle every day because of chronic illnesses and diseases. We pray that you give them the strength as they take each day one day at a time. Lord, we pray and ask that you be with those who are abroad throughout the world, striving to do the work of missionaries and do the work of evangelists in many far more difficult places than here.

Those who hear bombs overhead, those who see loved ones taken, those who fear for their lives and yet do not fear for their eternal abode. Lord, we pray that you be with them and help them to have the strength they need each and every day as well. We ask that you forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory. All this we pray and ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Revelation twenty two

John is being shown the bride. He is being shown the glorified church as seen from God’s perspective. Not the messy, difficult, filled with imperfect humans that we see.

One of the struggles that we have, and one of the beauties of the book of Revelation, is that we are able to see the church the way God sees it.

We’re able to see the church presented like Paul describes in Ephesians chapter 5 when he describes the bride. Turn over to Ephesians chapter 5 and notice what Paul writes concerning Christ and the church. Because Revelation 22 is not the only place where this type of picture is found in reference to.

The church as the bride of Christ. In Ephesians chapter five, we read verse twenty two wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let wives be to their own husbands in everything.

Husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her. Now notice what Paul’s about to write about the church, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word.

First thing to realize is that Christ’s sacrifice makes it such that when Christ sees the church, when God the Father sees the church, he doesn’t see the imperfect people. He sees the bride sanctified and washed by the blood of Christ. He doesn’t see

All of the failures and all of the flaws and all of the the times that we mess up, he sees the blood bought body.

Revelation 21 and 22 is a picture of the blood bought body having come out of tribulation, shining more beautifully than it ever has before. having been refined by the fire. He goes on to say.

Verse 27, that he might present her to himself a glorious church. What’s Revelation 21 and 22? It’s a picture of the glorious church.

He says that he might present him her to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife all loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Paul says, Yes, I’m teaching you about husbands and wives.

But what I’m really trying to teach you about

Is that which Christ loved so much?

That he spent thousands of years preparing for it.

Elsewhere in the book of Ephesians, Paul will point out that the church was the culminating moment of what God had been doing from the beginning of creation all the way forward. That it was an evidence of the manifold wisdom of God.

So when John opens Revelation twenty two and says he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal proceeding from the throne of God and of the lamb in the middle of its street, and on either side of the river was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month, the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

God is saying to us, You wanna fix a nation?

Convert and add them to the church.

You want to heal a broken nation? Don’t put one more warlord on the throne. Don’t fight one more battle.

Preach the gospel.

Convert them to Christ. And you’ll heal a nation. But he goes on to point out, and I love the picture here, here’s this tree, right? It’s on either side of the river. Imagine a tree so immense that it spans both sides of the river. It’s rooted on both sides of the river. And it grows up.

And in January, here comes fruit. And in February, here comes another fruit. Off the same tree. And in March, here comes another fruit. And April another fruit. And May another fruit. Every month there’s another fruit because it never runs out of the nourishment that the church needs.

Imagine if God had decided to provide us what we needed to sustain our spiritual lives four months out of the year.

Got some good harvest, and then you had to go through the winter. And you hope you got enough stored up because no harvest in the winter. Imagine what spiritual life would be like if that’s the way God had decided to do it. God says that’s not how I did it. I’m going to refresh you every day. I’m going to give you sustenance every day.

I’m gonna provide you the nourishment that you need and that heals the nations every single day. How are you gonna do it, Lord?

Well Jude says he did it once for all time.

That the faith, the system of faith, was delivered once for all time. Jude one verse three.

Now, here he says each tree is going to yield its fruit every month. ⁓ The leaves of the trees were for the healing of the nations, and there shall be no more curse. But the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him. They shall see his face, his name shall be on their foreheads. We’ve seen that terminology so many times. There shall be no night there.

They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. Where do Christians reign?

In the body of Christ.

Who does Paul say that we will judge as Christians?

Angels

Do you realize that Christians have authority higher than angels as members of the body of Christ being in the kingdom?

Did you know that in Matthew, I believe it’s chapter eleven, Jesus is going to point out that the least in the kingdom is greater than John the Baptist?

So often We look at ourselves, we look at our hardships, we look at our struggles, we look at our daily lives, and we discount everything Scripture says about the church, about Christianity, about being a nation of kings and priests, about reigning with Christ. And we somehow imagine that’s all going to happen

In heaven.

That’s not what the text says.

But he says there’s no need for light or for night there. There is no night there, and there’s no need for lamp or light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light and they shall reign forever and ever.

Now these pictures aren’t new. Are they?

Do you remember in Matthew chapter five when Jesus said to the Jews, You are the light of the world.

A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but rather put it on a lampstand so they can provide light to all who are in the house.

But he’ll further point out to those who are listening, except your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no way enter the kingdom of heaven.

If you take the light of God and you take the glory of God and you soak it all in, and then you never put any light out.

If you take it and you absorb it and hide it and do not share it, if you do not live out the character of God,

He says, You’re no different than the scribes and the Pharisees.

And they’re the people that were going to get Israel judged in that generation for all the sins of all Israel all the way back to the beginning. Matthew 23, Jesus said that on this generation would come all the blood that Israel had shed from the killing of Abel all the way forward.

To the death of Zechariah.

Why? Because every time God sent them a messenger.

They said we’d rather you be dead so we can go on with our lives the way we had them.

We need to be careful because both the picture of the glorious church is beautiful.

And judges us if we don’t meet up to the picture, if we don’t live up to the picture, if we don’t decide to be the Christians who will walk through the fire and not give up.

There were those within the church, and I believe it’s Thyatira, where Christ says to them, I’m not laying any further burden on you. He says, You have kept your robes and they’re white. You have not defiled yourself, and I’m not going to lay any further burden on you because you’re already going through it.

God does not picture Christians as perfect people. He pictures them always as faithful people. Those who would not turn back on the name of God for anything, who have no price that the world can pay to cause them to walk away from the Lord. Think.

Concerning Job. What is it that God says about Job? He is a faithful and upright man who eskews evil and does good. But what was Satan’s claim about Job? Everybody has a price. And the only reason Job is faithful is because you never stop paying the price.

You’ve built a hedge around him and he is so secure I can’t touch him. And so you you let the hedge come down and he’ll curse you.

So God takes the hedge down.

And all of Job’s children die. And all of Job’s riches are gone in a day.

And Job says, The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

And that message in the book of Job never changes.

The only thing that changes is Job would like to know why he is still alive and having to go through it. Could you kill me now so I can stop suffering?

Job.

is then going to lose his health because Satan comes back to the Lord and says, Well, you didn’t let me touch him and everybody has what they will do for their own life.

You see, Job and the book of Job, not a picture of a perfect man. As a matter of fact, it’s a picture of a man who’s willing to repent when he realizes he’s done wrong.

But it is a picture of a faithful man. So much so that in the midst of Job needing to repent of what he has said against the Lord, God instills Job as the person responsible to be mediator and offer sacrifices on behalf of his friends.

picture of God’s people.

Is a picture of faithfulness, not perfection. But when God sees his faithful people,

Covered in the blood of his son, he sees perfection.

Verses six through verse twelve.

The question is answered again by John, through John in the vision. When’s it coming? it’s coming soon. And it’s coming quickly. And the judgment is coming, and it is at hand. Verse six, then he said to me, that the angel said to him, These words are faithful and true, and the Lord God.

The holy prophets sent his angel to show his servants the things which must shortly take place.

The angel says, I’m I’m Job or John, I’m here to show you what is about to happen.

I was sent to tell you this, to show you this, so that you would know in advance this is about to happen.

And then the declaration, as the angel pronounces the very words of God.

A a as if picture it this way.

Messenger shows up from a king, walks up to the person who he’s bringing the message to, and he introduces I’m the messenger of the king. I was sent to tell you what’s about to happen. He opens a scroll and begins to read.

And what he reads is, Behold, I am coming quickly.

Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.

God

Knows that the church is about to enter a period where they will question is the Lord with us?

Is the Lord acting on our behalf?

Or are we alone?

We don’t have to guess that that was their question. Because Revelation chapter six, as the those individuals are there be f beneath the altar, they say, How long, O Lord? How long are you gonna let this go on?

We know what they’re thinking. We know what they’re going to be thinking, because God tells us what they’re going to be thinking.

And what God has done in this this letter.

As he sealed up a message to declare to them, you hold on to this letter and you don’t let it go, because this is my sealed guarantee. ⁓ I see what’s going on. And I’m with you. And I’m going to deal with it.

Verse eight Now I John saw and heard these things. Now bear in mind as you read verse eight, John is seeing himself in the vision.

Okay. And he’s telling us, I am seeing myself in the vision being told this by the angel.

The angel who had one of the seven bowls that was poured out on the earth. I’m seeing myself, I’m watching myself, and I see the angel tell me this in the vision.

And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. This is the second occurrence where John sees himself in the vision fall down to worship an angel.

Actually the first occurrence is an elder. It’s one of the elders. So f so one occasion he sees himself fall down before one of the elders that he sees in the vision, and this occurrence he falls down before an angel in the vision.

There’s a there’s a point to this.

Because the same thing is stated both times.

And that is, you worship God and Him alone. Notice what the text says. Then he said to me, See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren, the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book, worship God.

Why is John seeing himself falling down before an elder and then falling down before an angel when the apostle John knows better?

You think John knows better? Of course he does. John is an elder in the church. John was John walked with Christ. John was there when Peter said, You have the words of life. To whom shall we go? John was there when Jesus ascended up into heaven. John was there when the people, the two men in white robes, said, What are you standing here gazing up in heaven for?

When those two individuals appeared, John didn’t fall down and worship them.

Does John know not to worship other men? Yes or no? Yes. Does John know not to worship angels? Yes.

Maybe we can help ourselves with this passage. Turn to Galatians chapter one.

Paul is going to write to the churches of Galatia in Galatians chapter 1, verse 6, and he is going to say, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another. But there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we

The apostles, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached to you.

Let him be accursed.

As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than that which you have received, let him be accursed. ⁓

Paul is going to tell the Christian

We’ve delivered to you the word of God.

And it doesn’t matter who comes to you if they preach to you anything different, you ignore them. You do not listen to them. You do not follow them. You do not submit to them.

Because they’ll be judged. You hold on to the word that came from the Lord and that was assured by the Lord and that was established by the Lord and nothing else. Because no one has authority to change it.

So over in First Corinthians, Paul is going to make an argument to the church in first in Corinth, in First Corinthians chapter one, now I plead with you, verse 10, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are now contentions among you. Now this I say that each of you says notice their declaration, each of you says, I am of Paul, or I am of Apollos, or I am of Cephas, or I am of Christ.

Now, when Paul says that, he’s going to later point out, he says, I transferred these things to myself and to Cephas and Apollos, so that you might learn not to think of anyone above that which is written. The church at Corinth didn’t have a single person in it saying, I am of Paul. Or I am of Apollos, or I am of Cephas. They had a bunch of people claiming to be following after Paul.

Others who Paul didn’t name. Paul allowed those who were guilty to remain unknown. The Corinthians knew who they were. They knew what teachers people were calling themselves after. Paul substituted the names of those who were doing it right for the purpose of protecting the guilty so that the guilty would repent.

But as Paul does that, he’s using himself and Cephas and Apollos as examples.

To say, don’t do this. Because if you shouldn’t be doing it to us, you certainly shouldn’t be doing it to this other teacher over here.

I believe the same thing’s happening in Revelation when John sees himself fall down before an elder and fall down before an angel and gets rebuked both times.

John is seeing himself as the example of what some in the church will be tempted to do.

And that is to call themselves after those who have no authority. To see someone who seems to have the answers and seems to have the insight and seems to have the knowledge and they’ll just say, you know what, I’m going to be a disciple of fill in the blank.

Because that’s what’s gonna get me through this tribulation.

And John gets to see himself as the example to say to the church, no, you don’t.

You worship God and Him alone, and everyone else.

It’s just a fellow servant.

They’re just like you. The angels, just fellow servants. The apostles, just fellow servants. The prophets, just fellow servants. You worship God and you hold allegiance only to Him.

So John sees

In verse ten, he said to me, Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. He’s just been told it’s shortly to come to pass. Now he’s told, I’m coming quickly. Now he’s told it’s at hand.

You would almost think the Lord was being rather emphatic about it.

But then verse 11. He who is unjust, let him be unjust still. He who is filthy, let him be filthy still. He who is righteous, let him be righteous still. He who is holy, let him be holy still.

This terminology is terminology similar to what Jesus uses when he speaks concerning the fall of Jerusalem. And it’s terminology describing the suddenness with which this will be fulfilled. There won’t be, once the judgment starts, once God commences a final judgment on Rome, there won’t be time to repent.

When when Jesus spoke to the Christians in Matthew 24, he said, When you see this coming, you don’t even go back down into the house to get your stuff. If you’re on the rooftop, you go out and leave. If you’re in the field, you don’t go back into the city. When you see it coming, time for change is too far gone. You be ready to just go. That’s what this verse deals with.

It’s not God saying, you know what, I hope the unjust just stay unjust. I hope the filthy just stay filthy. No, no, it’s not that. It’s there’s an opportunity to repent, and then there’s a point where the opportunity is past. And no more.

Verse twelve.

He says, And behold, I am coming quickly. And my reward is with me to give to everyone according to his work. Again the word comes from Christ.

A reiteration of the message just declared. The angel said, I was sent to give you a message. He’s coming quickly. Then John hears, He’s coming quickly.

But this time, he says, not only is there a blessing for those who keep the words of the prophecy of the book, he says, there’s a reward that’s coming with me. Now, when God says there’s a reward, and he says he’s going to give to every man according to his works, some rewards you might wish you never got.

Sometimes you are being rewarded justly for your iniquity from the Lord.

God says, I have an accounting, and I know who owes what. Think concerning the king. The king who went on the journey, and as Jesus gives the parable, and he leaves with one servant five cities. And he leaves with another servant two cities. And he leaves with another servant one city.

City.

And when he comes and returns to have those servants give an account.

The one who had five has been faithful and has doubled what he had.

And he says, To the one who has, more will be given. The one who had two, now’s four.

The one who had won, even that which he had was taken away. Why? Because God came with a reward according to works.

And he took the one from the one who had been unfaithful and gave it to the one who had ten.

Verse thirteen.

You commence the invitation. If you wonder where we get the idea of an invitation at the end of a lesson from, here’s one of the passages.

Because at the end of the book of Revelation, God commences an invitation. Verse thirteen, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. He’s t said this multiple times. It’s all the way in chapter one, and it’s here again.

I’m the one who tells the beginning from the end.

He’s using Isaiah’s terminology for the Lord.

He says, Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city. How do you get access to this glorious city? You’re not breaking in. You’re not tearing down the walls. You’re not overcoming it. What do you have to do? Obey the commandment of the Lord, and you get invited in.

That’s it. It’s really quite simple. Do what the Lord commanded you to do and you’ll get invited into the city.

He says, But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and whoever loves and practices a lie.

By the way, go back and read Revelation two and three again and you’ll find that describes some of the churches and some of the Christians.

You remember that Jesus would write through John to some and say, You practice the doctrine of Balaam, which taught Israel to blaspheme. And to others, he says, You have followed after Jezebel, and you let that woman speak in your assembly.

You see, we can look at that and say, ⁓ yep, Christians are going to be judged. Or sorry, the the the non-Christians are going to be judged. But what John is saying is some of you better repent while you still can’t.

Because you think you’re in the city, but you’re not. He then says, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things. In the churches, I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and the morning star.

And the spirit and the bride say come. And let him who hears come. And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take of the water of life freely.

The same thing that Jesus offered to the woman at the well in Samaria is offered at the end of the book of Revelation.

And in order for the woman at the well in Samaria to be obedient to that command, she had to hear the word of God. She had to obey the command of God. And that is the exact same thing that the book of Revelation calls upon everyone to do.

Verses eighteen through twenty, far sorry, through twenty-one, we read, for I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book.

God will judge him like he judged Egypt, and like he judged Babylon, and like he judged the Medo-Persian Empire, and like he judged the Grecian Empire, and the like the like he judged the Roman Empire. Anyone thinks they can ignore the Lord? I’m gonna tell you how this is gonna work out. It’s gonna work out the same way every single time.

Now imagine if this book was written to be fulfilled some two thousand, three thousand years in the future from the time it was written.

What a threat that would be, wouldn’t it? If you change the words of the book, you’re gonna have to hang around for three thousand years and wait until I finally actually fulfill this, so you can suffer the plagues.

You’re gonna have to wait until you die in a nuclear war.

We’re gonna be finding some really old people around come the start of whatever nuclear Armageddon the dispensationalist premillennialists are waiting for. We’re gonna have to dig a few people up just so they can suffer the plagues.

You know, it doesn’t take long when you make false doctrines actually say what they actually teach and you hold them accountable for it, where you realize it’s just pure nonsense.

The threat here was a threat that was coming real quick.

And the threat has never changed. Because this same threat goes all the way back in the Old Testament. God says, you don’t change the words that I speak. You don’t alter my message. What is it that even Balaam said when he spoke on behalf of the Lord? You remember back there in the book of Numbers, Balaam came to Balak.

And he said, Whatever the Lord puts in my mouth, that’s what’s gonna come out.

Balak said, I’ll give you half the kingdom. Go curse that people. And Balaam walks out onto the ridge, overlooking the nation of Israel and their encampment, and pronounces a blessing.

Because Balaam had no control over what came out of his mouth when the Lord spoke. The only one who had control over the message was the Lord. And the second time, Balak says, Do it again. And Balaam goes out and blesses them again.

By the third time Balak is about ready to end Balaam’s life.

You go out and curse that people. And the third time Balaam goes out and out comes another blessing.

Why do we mention that?

Because you can’t curse what God blesses.

You can’t defeat what God defends. You cannot vanquish what God lights.

You cannot win against the Lord.

But as Balaam will school Balak on

If you can’t curse the people of God, I know one thing you can do. You can get them to curse themselves. If you can just entice them

to and seduce them into sin.

He who testifies to these things says, Surely I am coming quickly. Three times. Three times in the last chapter, I am coming quickly, I am coming quickly, I am coming quickly. And that is Old Testament language for when I come in judgment, nothing will stop me.

How does Jesus describe the final day? And by the way, how does he also describe God’s judgment on Jerusalem?

It will come as a thief in the night.

When you’re not prepared, when you’re not ready, when Jerusalem will not be able to defend itself, God’s going to judge them. Nothing’s going to stop them. When Rome is unprepared and unable to defend itself, God’s going to judge them and nothing’s going to stop them.

The grace ⁓ sorry, ver the end of verse twenty. Amen. What does amen mean?

So be it. The book concludes with May everything happen just exactly the way you said it would. Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. And again, he says, May it be so.

John writes to the church.

And says, you’ve already won. Just be faithful.

And you will be the glorious church Christ paid for. Thank you for your attention.

Matthew (Chapter 6, Part 2) – Justin Evergarden – October 28, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, Christian anxiety, Christian Teaching, fasting, forgiveness, keywords Matthew 6 Bible study, seek first the kingdom of God, treasures in heaven by Aaron Cozort

image

Justin Evergarden (00:00)

With all of you Sundays. But I’m off preaching and teaching class at congregations all over the U.S. right now, so you’ll have to bear with me. Before we get started this evening, let’s go ahead and open with a word of prayer together, if you’ll bow with me. Dear Lord, our Father in Heaven, how wonderful your name is on our lips, how wonderful your message is within our hearts, and your lessons when they are applied to our lives and our minds. May we always take

all the things that you have written and use them responsibly, teach them responsibly, and apply them responsibly within our lives. Please continue to be with us throughout all the our daily walks of life. Please be with those sick and in poor health that need your aid, Lord God, as only you know how to heal. Lord God, please be with the leaders of this country as they face hard decisions coming up in relation to the world and all that that’s going on in it.

Please be with our families. Please be with our enemies, Lord God. Please open up their heart to the Word of God so that we can hopefully bring them over into your fold and bring more souls unto you. Please continue to be with us as when we finally leave this place this evening. Guide, guard, and direct us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. If you would please turn your Bibles over to Matthew chapter six.

we’re going to pick up where we left off last time. I believe it was a little over a month ago. We were in the book of Matthew, and we were going through chapter six. we finished up most recently with the model prayer, ⁓ but we looked at giving our looking at the daily bread, thy kingdom come, hallowed be thy name, and ⁓ how the model prayer is set up for us to imitate and not to simply repeat with vain repetitions. Tonight we open up

Our study in verses fourteen through fifteen. For if ye forgive men their trespass, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. A warning from our God straight to us to in layman’s terms not hold grudges.

Grudges are things that we hold on to, those those horrible feelings that eat us inside. The

The thought process behind the human psyche often pushes pushes us towards thoughts of revenge, towards thoughts of getting even, towards thoughts of, well, once you know, do me wrong once, shame on you, do me wrong twice, I’ll never trust you again, is kind of the way that our minds think. But God warns us against holding those grudges and says that we must forgive those that trespass against us. A Christian cannot.

Nourish bitterness within our souls while simultaneously appealing to God for his mercy. He tells us right here with an illustration, you can almost think of these two passages like a mirror. You have the affirmative and then you have the negative. You have the positive. If you forgive men, your Lord will forgive you. But if you will not forgive men, the Lord will not forgive you. What does it mean to possess?

A forgiving heart

Just something to think about as we continue through. There’s not a specific answer I’m looking for, but it’s something that we should think about. How should we respond to someone who has sinned against us? And that that takes a few different thought processes. And the answer to that is not simply one answer. Because the answer comes from how they are responding to us after the sin has been committed. And we’ll get into that.

And then finally I want you to also be thinking while we go through these next few verses, what role does repentance and confession play when reconciliation is needed by someone? So let’s get someone to read, please, Luke chapter seventeen, verses three through four.

Luke chapter seventeen three through four.

Alright, now we’re gonna take a closer look at this because here we have instructions. Take heed to yourselves. Pay attention to what you’re doing now, is what he’s saying. If thy brother trespass against thee, what is step number one that we’re told? Rebuke him. That’s part of it. You cannot fix something if you do not know what it is wrong. You cannot repair your car if you do not know which part of the car is broken, can you?

You cannot take the correct turn on the interstate if you if you have not been told that you are no longer following your GPS for the past ten miles. And I don’t know about you, but I can pass it and ten seconds later it’s screaming at me until I’m back on the proper route. We have to be told, and we can’t be shy about rebuking people either. Who can define the word rebuke for me?

Confront is a fantastic word for it. You cannot rebuke someone without confrontation. It’s part of the word. It’s built into the thought process that the word denotes. But then he says, if he repent, forgive him. Is the word if there a qualifier? Yes or no? It is a qualifier. We have to be very careful.

To not overstep bounds that our own God has laid out before us. Let me ask a rhetorical question. Is God going to forgive any sinner who does not seek his forgiveness?

No. Will he forgive anyone if they do not repent of their sins? No. So should we as a Christian ever overstep our bounds and be willing to forgive someone who is not seeking that forgiveness? It doesn’t say that we have to hold and harbor grudges for these people. We want to look towards that forgiveness. That’s the end goal. We want to have a heart that is a forgiving heart.

Heart, remember the question I asked earlier. And sometimes our hearts are not forgiving. We have to train our hearts, just like we have to train ourselves to ride a bike or learn a new skill. Your heart sometimes doesn’t just come out of the box as deep feeling for others, but it can be trained to do so. And that’s done through discipline and study of the scriptures. And while we must be ready to rebuke, we do so, that the verse says.

So that they hopefully will repent. You don’t rebuke them just to get even. We don’t rebuke them simply to tell them off, as it were. That’s a human thing to do. But if you have a righteous reason to rebuke them, it is to let them know, again, like the GPS, you took the wrong turn. You’re doing something wrong. You added too much salt to that chocolate cake, and now it’s ruined. We want you to taste the good cake.

We don’t want you to ruin the dish. But it says, If he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent. Should we forgive him? Now what about the eighth time? Should we should we forgive the eighth time? Yes, seven there does not denote a strict number. He’s not saying, Up, you know, your your counter’s going up. You only get seven mess ups in a day. Come eight.

But something that we can also wire into this verse, very confidently from the one previous, is that part of this is also would this person have been rebuked seven times?

It was in the commandment that was one verse prior. We can make that as a very, very safe assumption because it’s part of the plan. Now someone please get Acts chapter eight and verse twenty two. Acts chapter eight and verse twenty two.

Repent therefore of thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven of thee. Now, this is the rebuke. This is the rebuke that we see made to Simon the sorcerer. Simon the sorcerer had seen the great gifts, the laying on of hands, and he came up with money trying to purchase the miraculous gifts from the apostles.

And he is told rebukingly, Your money dies with you. Let’s see, if we scroll up, but Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast not thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. And then he tells him, Repent. You’re going down the wrong path. You’re looking at this the wrong way. Pray to God that your heart

That the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. So he’s he’s rebuking him, but also at the same time exhorting him, saying, Look, you can fix and guide your heart to where it should be, to what it should be looking towards. You don’t need to be looking for these miraculous gifts for to be self serving. And then finally, let’s look at first John chapter one and verse nine.

If someone would please read that.

All right. Do we see the qualifying word there? Who can point the qualifying word out? If, very first word of the verse, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. We have to be willing to repent. Again, we cannot, we seek to give someone forgiveness, but we cannot overstep the bounds in which God Himself will not give forgiveness. He’s not going to forgive a single soul that does not seek it, is not willing to confess that they’ve done wrong.

But he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So as a Christian, applying this to ourselves, if someone says that they messed up, regardless of how bad, and they ask for our forgiveness, should we give it to them? Absolutely. And there is no sin beyond that we should not be willing to forgive. Now, I completely understand that there are still consequences.

For certain sins that happen while we are still alive on this earth. But those consequences are done via the local government, through laws. Maybe it’s you’re more careful around said person, but we must be willing to wholeheartedly and fully forgive that person while here on this earth. We cannot hold those grudges. The key attitude for the Christian is this: we should always be ready and willing to forgive rather than desiring the human emotions of vengeance.

and cherishing sometimes that resentment that we so often hold in our hearts. Then we shift over verses sixteen through eighteen. Going let’s go back over to Matthew chapter six, and we’re gonna continue on through.

In verse sixteen, he starts by saying, Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces, that may they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast.

But unto thy father which is in secret. And thy father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly, he says. Now in the Old Testament, fasting is often accompanied by several different things. Fasting is typically accompanied by sorrow. It is accompanied by repentance. It could be accompanied by humiliation, because typically this was something that

At least for the Pharisees, they did it out in the streets. It would imply distress in one’s life. It would be mourning the loss of a loved one. Or it could be simply the earnest seeking of God. But fasting was never designed to become what I like to call spiritual theater. And the Pharisees at this point had put on a show of this for all that were around. And it says in verse 16: that they may appear unto men to fast.

So these hypocrites, and it’s okay, we can call them that because that’s exactly what they are in this passage, they were deliberately disfiguring their appearance so that people would notice them and point it towards their religious devotion. At least that’s what they were hoping. Their appearance essentially announced, look how spiritual I am. I’m willing to forgo my good clothes, I quit washing myself. We see of that in in one of the false doctrines that are portrayed in Japan.

All across the nation right now. It’s called Shintoism. It’s ⁓ Shintoism and Buddhism specifically have a belief that, I’m sorry, not Shintoism, it’s B Buddhism specifically, that to gain something for yourself, you must eliminate desire. That could be the desire for a good life, that could be a desire for your health, that could be a desire for comfort.

And so that’s why we see the Buddhist monks shaving their heads and going very long periods of time without eating and starving themselves. And essentially, they’re they’re doing what the Pharisees were doing, weren’t they? They were sitting there going through these, making themselves look this way. The notes summarize the attitude that I have here in my notes on the Bible. I I wrote the words, poor me. Poor me. I’m I’m so religious, poor me.

And yet, if they were truly religious and worshiping God the way he had instructed, would it be something to be sad about or something to celebrate? Because our God is a God that wins. Our God is a God that protects. Our God is a God that loves. There should be no sadness there of countenance.

So then he tells the Christians here in verse 17, anoint thy head, wash thy face. In ordinary language, he’s saying, don’t advertise it. If you are fasting to bring yourself back spiritually, hide the fact that you were doing it. Take care of yourself normally. Do not deliberately look miserable. Do not deliberately look unwashed. You don’t want people coming up to you and asking,

You know, brother, you you you looking a little thin today. Your your shirt’s all ripped and tattered. Are are you fasting?

I don’t know of anyone that would ask that right off the bat. Typically, it’s are you okay nowadays? But in their time, they would have. That spiritual discipline is between you and God, not an audience. And we can apply that to ourselves today. There’s nothing wrong with fasting today. But it definitely applied to them. And so he continues in verse 18 unto thy father which is in secret. This returns us to the repeated principles of verses 1 through 18.

Jesus fasted, others in the New Testament fasted, but Jesus did not establish fasting as a required act of New Testament congregational worship. So while it’s not a bad thing, it is also not something that we should ever bind on others. God should always be the recipient of our worship. We worship to please him. We do not worship to please ourselves. In this case, this is what the Pharisees were doing. And he tells them that they got their reward, didn’t he? Yes.

True religion is lived before God, not a performed before men.

So we move on, and we’ll read verses 19 through 24 for the next section. He tells us, Lay up for yourselves treasures upon Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where your treasure is,

there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve the

both God and mammon. So Jesus now moves from religious hypocrisy to allegiance. Who what master do you serve was the the phrase used by Doctor Strange in the the Marvel movie. Verses nineteen through twenty he says, Lay up for yourselves not treasures here upon earth. He has them start focusing on spiritual things, because as he leads the conversation to the leader

What master you serve, who what servant you are going to be, he says, are you serving those on earth or are you serving those in heaven? And so he points the conversation over to heaven. Jesus is not saying that owning property on earth is sinful. He’s not saying that saving money is a bad thing, or possessing wealth is automatically bad. The issue is making earthly possessions our treasure.

The thing that our heart and soul longs after, seeks after, chases after on a daily basis. Everything accumulated here on this plane of existence is only temporary. But that also goes to not only what we have accumulated, but also to what we must endure. So don’t forget that. Jesus Jesus here names three threats to the things that we accumulate here on earth. Moth.

or things that deteriorate, rust and corruption, those are things that decay, and thieves, which make things disappear.

We spend enormous amounts of energy obtaining things that eventually break, they wear out, they need a software update or a hardware update. Maybe they’re dropped by the company. They could get stolen. They could become lost.

Ultimately, everything that we have is going to be left behind when we die. But there’s something that we can take with us. So he continues, where your treasure is. For where your treasure is, he says in verse 21, there will your heart be also. Our treasure is what we as an individual regard in our lives as most valuable. That would be our treasure.

So I want us to think tonight as we continue through this, what is our treasure? What is the most valuable thing to us as a person and as a Christian? Because if we find your our treasure, we’re going to find our heart. And if you find out that you just absolutely cannot live without that physical item, maybe your treasure’s laid up in the wrong sp place.

If someone examined my calendar and bank statement, what might they conclude that I value most? Another good question to ask. Are we using what we have been given here on this earth, which everything has been given by God, and we are called to be good stewards of those funds, whether in our bank account, the church coffers, or ha what have you? And this also includes our time. How are we spending that wisely? Are we spending it for God?

Or are we spending it for mammon? Are we spending it to chase after things that are earthly or spiritual?

Then Jesus goes on and talks about the eye and spiritual focus. He uses the eye as a picture of focus and orientation. Our spiritual vision is fixed on earthly things, if it is, then darkness follows. The disciple needs to check his conduct. We need to check our affection, our goals, our desire, and where our eyes are pointed towards our faith. Are our eyes fixed upon God in heaven?

His word and his teachings? Or something corporeal here on earth, something physical? A divided eye leads naturally into Jesus’ next image. A divided master cannot work. When you’re looking through your eyes, can you both focus on that exit sign and that exit sign at the same time? No. No. I don’t know about you, but my eyeballs do not split that way.

But so it should apply to our spiritual nature as well. We can look forward and bring something into very clear focus, but it can only be one thing. Our minds operate very similarly the same way. We can only ever concentrate on one thing at a time. Try to think of and pull maybe the date or the location of where the Statue of Liberty is. Try to imagine the Statue of Liberty sitting there while also figuring out what you had for lunch yesterday at the same exact time.

Kinda hard to do so, right? Our minds are singularly focused. So when we think of our spiritual well-being, where does our focus lie? When we pull back the quiver to pull to shoot the bow, what are we aiming at? What are we hoping to hit? Hopefully that target is centered on Christ, and we are proceeding down that road to walk in the light as he is in the light.

I’m getting an eyeball over here, like that was a bad illustration. Teaching connection. ⁓ let’s move on to verse 24. Two masters, you cannot serve two masters. You cannot simultaneously serve both God and mammon. Now, mammon, we’ve already talked about earlier, refers to riches, material wealth, possessions treated. But this could also mean power as well, authority here on earth. Many people in power worship that instead of what they should be.

Notice what Jesus does not say here. He does not say that serving two masters is difficult. What does he say? It is impossible. It cannot be done. Eventually one of them becomes the master.

Money is a useful servant, isn’t it? But if we’re not careful about how we utilize our money, can it become our master? I know a lot of places in the world where idols and idolatry are very much alive, and they’re walking around with these idols in their pocket, it doesn’t take a trip out to a nation like Japan to see the giant Buddhas and the statues and the temples. I’ve seen people do some horrendous things simply over a dollar bill.

So what master do we serve?

Let me ask this what is the difference between possessing something and allowing that thing to possess us? Discussion question.

One inch. It can be sometimes. You can definitely own something, and it’s not wrong to own something, but to allow it to own us, we need to be very careful. Then we move on to the next section, because I don’t want to belabor the point too much. This is going to be a commentary on anxiety, and we’re going to read verses twenty-five through thirty-four. Therefore, because of all this he’s saying, I say unto you, Take no thought for your life what you shall eat

Or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what ye shall put on, is not the life more than meat, and the body more than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by th taking thought can add one cubit to his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.

They toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast in the oven, shall he not much more clothe you? O ye of little faith? Therefore, take no thought saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed?

For after all these things do the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knoweth that they have need of all these things. So here he points out the pointlessness of worry. Verse 25 says, Take no thought for your life. Now when he says, Take no thought for your life, he is not saying, Do not plan. He is not saying, Never prepare, never work, never think about tomorrow.

And to ignore responsibility. That is not what he is saying here. Scripture teaches responsible provision. Someone please get first Timothy chapter five and verse eight. It’s a very clear example.

First Timothy chapter five and verse eight.

All right.

I may have gotten the wrong verse on that one. Hold on, let me check.

Yep, I got the wrong one on that one. It happens sometimes. Essentially, what he’s going here, I don’t I don’t have the the correct verse written down, my ⁓ my cross reference here. But the take no thought for your life, the Greek word there actually should be better translated as have no anxiety for your life. Don’t worry about it to the point of becoming anxious. He’s not saying don’t plan for it, don’t think about it, don’t

Take action to preserve it, he’s saying, Don’t worry, don’t become anxious, don’t let it wreck and ruin your life. Because life is bigger than the things that support it. He tells us there in verse twenty-five, Is not life more than meat and the body more than raiment? Our lives mean so much more than just the physical existence here and making sure that we have a roof over our head and meat to fill our bellies. But often we reverse the order. We become consumed with the idea of

Food, clothing, income, possessions, material security, while forgetting that God who gave life itself is so much greater than the things required to sustain it. Not only that, he’s the one that does sustain it with his power.

So he continues. The birds. He shows that worry is senseless. Behold the fowls of the air. They don’t sow, they don’t reap, they don’t store crops in barns. Yet, what does the Heavenly Father do every single day for those birds? He provides, He feeds them. Are we better than birds? No. Are we better than birds? Yes, we’re better than birds. We are so much more important to God than birds.

We are so important that God sent His Son to die on the cross for our souls to wash our sins away.

The argument moves from lesser to greater. If God cares for birds, is he going to care for his children? Specifically something that was made in his image? Absolutely. This does not mean that birds don’t do any work. Birds search, they gather, they build. They still plan, they still do things to take care of themselves. They don’t just sit back and wait for the seeds to just appear on the ground. I know sometimes they do that in state parks, but that’s our fault.

And notice Jesus repeatedly says, Your heavenly father. He’s our father. He he secures fatherhood. Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit to his stature? He says in verse 27. Whether understood in reference to strength or length of life, Jesus’ point is the same. What has worry or anxiety, it should be spent, what has anxiety ever accomplished in our lives?

Can you ever think of a single time where being anxious about something, not the actions you took to correct something, but simply the anxiety itself, what is it ever corrected? I’ll give you the answer. It’s nothing. Anxiety in and of itself is only going to cause mental damage. The load of that yesterday, applied to tomorrow, carried today, can make even the strongest person falter. We can live with any form of

burden that we have simply from sun up to sundown if we can trust in our God.

Then we get to verse twenty eight through thirty. Consider the lilies of the field.

He says Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed such as one of these. If God’s clothes, grass, if God can clothe the grass that is alive today and gone tomorrow, how much more will he clothe us? Let me ask this when we are baptized into Christ, are we clothed? We are. We put on Christ in baptism. And his blood washes away our sins continually.

That’s the best garment that I could ever think of. A garment far more beautiful than any flower of any field of any museum of flowers on this entire planet. It is the best piece of garment.

People normally do not expend great energy decorating something that are going to be gone tomorrow. But think about this does God clothe the grass beautifully, even though he knows it’s going to be gone tomorrow? We read in the verse where it says it’ll be out in the field one day and then it’s tossed into the furnace the next. They’re using it for bread or any other various uses. And then he points out, O ye of little faith. Excessive worry is not only an emotional problem.

Jesus also is connecting it to a trust problem that we have with the Father. So the next time that we notice that we are getting anxious about something, that we’re really getting worried, our heart starts beating fast, sit back and pray to God. Ask him for guidance. Say, is this problem something that God can handle? I guarantee every single time the answer will be yes. And at the end of the day, What’s the worst thing that can happen?

You lose your car, you lose your home, you’re kicked out. There’s a a laundry list of things that I could say that could go along with that. But can we take any of that stuff with us when we leave this earth? If we are righteous and holy in Christ and we keep obeying him as the Bible teaches us, then what is our end result no matter what happens here on earth? Where do we wind up going? Heaven, with him forever.

So, what are we worried about on a day-to-day basis? Why do we allow ourselves to become so anxious? I I gave ⁓ a sermon about this I I think a little over a year ago here, and I made the illustration of the Titanic. And you had the bulkheads on the Titanic. Now, I don’t know if you guys remember the Titanic and why it sank, but the iceberg hit it. And one of the fatal design flaws in the Titanic was the fact that they had the bulkheads.

And you would think bulkheads, that’s a great idea on a ship. I think they had 13 or something, 18. I used to have it memorized, I don’t know. But they have all these little bulkheads. And bulkheads are designed so that if the room next to it or the room adjacent ruptures, it will close off and contain the water in this side. Now the problem with the Titanic was the bulkheads went up to about a foot from the ceiling. And so you had compounding interest from this water flowing into the vessel.

And it was only a matter of hours. So as the water rushed in through the side where the iceberg tore open the metal and grates and bolts, it allowed all that water to rush into the compartment. And so now they were on a ticking time clock, with the water rising up in one room. And once it reached that top, because it wasn’t fully sealed off, what happened? Where did the water go? Right into the next compartment, and into the next one, and into the next one, until the entire ship sank.

So when I say to live in daytight compartments, the same thing that he said here, don’t have anxiety for tomorrow. There’s another verse that we can go back and cross-reference. I don’t have it here, that says, Lord, give us our daily bread. He’s not asking for tomorrow’s bread, and he’s not complaining about yesterday’s stale bread. He’s focused on what he can do today and what he can ask for today. Because if you don’t shut off the memories of the past,

Those horrible experiences, the anxieties that you had from yesterday, and allow that water to flow in. And then you also have the opposite bulkhead. You’re worried about the future. You’re worried about the mortgage. You’re you’re sitting there being anxious about it instead of taking action. Are you eventually going to sink your ship? You’re going to be just like the Titanic, unless you put up proper bulkheads. We have to fight that anxiety. And the best way is with the Word of God. We can trust that He knows how to steer the boat.

If he was at the helm he probably would have never hit that iceberg.

We don’t need to worry what we shall eat, what we shall drink, and what we shall be clothed with. After all these things, he says, do the Gentiles seek? The world focuses specifically on physical things. And when a person’s horizon contains only this life, material concerns naturally become their ultimate concerns.

And then eventually you hit that wall. What happens when all your concerns are laid to rest? You’ve you’ve maybe gotten that promotion and you have more money than you ever thought possible. For some in the world, it may be winning the lottery. They think they take care of everything. I lay lay by in store. You know, we’re gonna tear down barns and build bigger barns, we read in the Bible. And yet what happened to that gentleman who said he was going to feast and celebrate and build bigger barns because he had such a large harvest?

Fool, tonight thy soul will be required of thee. His focus was on material things and not spiritual. We need to take that kind of stuff to heart.

Our Heavenly Father knows what we have need of. He says, Your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye need of all these things. Before we tell God what we need, I promise you he already knows it. He knows well before we ever even had the thought to ask for it. And this is the same Father that we were introduced to in verse 8. Verse 8, the Father knows you need before you ask. And in verse 32, the Father knows that you need these things. So both prayer and

And freedom from worry are built on the same truth. How do we beat anxiety? Our Father knows. Not only that, but Christ the Son experienced it. He became our high priest. He came down to earth to experience the same fears, the same attacks, the same everything that we went through so that he can know what it’s like. He already knew. But he even taught himself service to God the Father.

By coming down to Earth.

Now let’s get ⁓ Matthew chapter six and verse thirty three.

He continues, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. You notice that Christ here does not simply say the words, stop worrying. He gives us a much better replacement, doesn’t he? He doesn’t just tell us to do something, he attacks the underlying issue. He doesn’t just give us medicine that attacks the symptoms, they attack the root cause. He says,

To fix this issue that you have with anxiety, with lusting after the world, seek ye first the kingdom of heaven. And then all these things shall be added unto you. I have an outline over here that breaks down the different words. His words seek, desire. First, this is placing the priority that we are to put this command.

The kingdom of God, that’s what our pursuit is to be after. His righteousness, that’s to be our behavior. And all these things shall be added unto you, that’s the benefit, that’s the promise that He gives us when we do that.

Then we get on to Matthew chapter six, verse thirty-four. Take therefore no thought for tomorrow, for tomorrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Tomorrow we’ll have enough difficulty when tomorrow gets here. It is going to be bad enough. There is no need to sit here and worry and be anxious about what’s going to happen tomorrow. Because we’re just getting that compounded interest once again. Again, he’s not saying don’t plan. He’s not saying don’t take precaution. He’s not saying don’t don’t do something if you know that something is coming up, not to not to prepare for it. I keep thinking there’s a different word that I can use other than prepare, but

He’s just saying don’t don’t be anxious about it. It’s going to happen whether you like it or not if you see it in your future, so do what you can, but don’t cry over the spilt milk either.

Tomorrow there is the key word, the future. Worry attempts to live in a future that has not arrived yet. But our faith should always ask, what does God require of me today? We need to live in the now. We need to stay within that daytight compartment.

There is not enough room in our mind for both worry and faith. At the end of the day, we are going to have to decide in our mind’s compartment which one gets to live there our faith or our anxiety, our worries.

Another statement I heard from somebody a while back and I I’ve got it written in my margin here is worrying is like praying for what you do not want.

Similar, right? It’s not a technical definition of worry, but I think it vividly exposes just how much mental energy sometimes we can devote to rehearsing feared outcomes. Or past outcomes. I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with people and they just keep replaying in my mind over and over and over again like a really bad blooper reel. Well, what if I would have said this? What if I would have attacked it this way? What if I would have stepped over here?

What if I would have done that? And we can wreck our entire afternoons by concentrating on this. When the milk has poured down the drain, is there anything that you can do to get that milk back? No. No. So you know, to to quote a really old line, we’ve got to make sure that we don’t cry over spilt milk.

We need to trust God for tomorrow when tomorrow arrives. Often we suffer twice. We can sometimes suffer once in our imagination today, and then once if the difficulty actually arrives tomorrow, right? So we’re just compounding it. We’re compounding the hurt. Every day has its own problems. Do not add tomorrow’s problems to today. All right. So

Conclusion for Matthew chapter 6. I’m not sure where we are on time. I think I’ve got a little bit left. Verses 1 through 18. When I give, pray, worship, fast, sacrifice, and serve, am I doing it for God or because I want people to notice me? Jesus demands sincerely focused. This was verses 19 through 34. Where is my treasure? Where is my heart? Who is my master? What consumes my thoughts? What am I seeking first?

Do I live as though I truly have a Father in heaven who knows what I need? This is singular devotion. That’s what Christ wants us to have. And so how do we fit the whole chapter together? If I’m living for the approval of men, who is my audience? Men. If I am living for my possessions, who is my master? My possessions. If I am constantly consumed by worry,

What is controlling my heart? Is it my circumstances? Can be. But Jesus gives us something far better.

He gives because he sees. We pray because we hear, because he hears. We serve because he knows. We should forgive because he has shown us mercy. Fast if you choose to fast, because he is your audience. Lay up in treasure because of his rewards, not the rewards of man, and seek his kingdom because

At the end of time and even now, He is the one ruling it. He rules both heaven and earth. Face tomorrow without being consumed by it, because He is He already knows what we need.

So that’s the challenge of Matthew chapter six in a nutshell. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. That’s all I had for chapter six, and I don’t think I’ve got enough time to start chapter seven. So does anyone have any questions, comments, philosophical meanderings, astute observations?

That’s right. Worry about what we can change. All right. Thank you all very much for your attention.

There you go. Anybody else?

No, we’ll go ahead and conclude there.

Judah and A Series of Unfortunate Decisions (Genesis 38) – Aaron Cozort – October 25, 2026)

In Admonition Podcast, Bible sermon, Christian character, Joseph, Judah and Tamar, keywords Genesis 38, marriage, Old Testament, repentance, temptation by Aaron Cozort

image

Aaron Cozort (00:01)

Good afternoon.

Got a number that are traveling this weekend and appreciate Ben stepping in and taking the role of leading singing both this morning and this afternoon. He always does an excellent job. Take your Bibles, if you will, and turn to Genesis chapter thirty-eight.

We consider lessons from an unfortunate series of decisions. Genesis 38, we are in a section of scripture dedicated to the lives of the children of Israel, specifically Israel the man, not Israel the nation. And

In chapter 37, we’re introduced to Joseph and the events that will transpire there, and Joseph being sold into slavery and some of the events that that will go on with that. But in chapter 38, we have kind of a brief pause from the saga of Joseph to discuss Judah. And Judah is the central focus of this chapter.

As matter of fact, when you go down through the chapter, you can pretty well see how it centralizes around everything that Judah chooses to do and chooses not to do. But you also have in this chapter a comparison between Joseph and Judah. Now it’s not spelled out. It’s not a a comparison that is done by the scriptures actually saying.

Here’s Joseph, here’s Judah, here’s where this one did better. It is rather there in the text by their lives. And so we’re going to spend some time with chapter 38 and go through it in our lesson this evening and notice a number of things from the chapter as we break up the events that are transpiring within the text and some lessons from them. In chapter 38, verse 1, we read, and it came to pass at that time.

That Judah departed from his brothers and visited a certain Adulamite whose name was Hira. Now, Joseph and his brother, sorry, Judah and his brothers had sold Joseph into slavery down into Egypt. And the Midianites and the ⁓ Ishmaelites had taken Joseph down into Egypt and sold him as a slave.

Judah is now going to depart. And notice it doesn’t say from his father, but from his brothers. Judah is going to separate himself. One of the things that you’re going to see when this passage fills out in its context is the danger that comes when an individual who knows how to be obedient to God.

Surrounds himself with people who are not obedient to God. Judah is going to depart from his brothers, and he is going to go to an Adulamite whose name was Hira. And verse two says, And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shua, and he married her and went into her.

The first poor decision that Judah makes is departing from his family. The second bad decision that Judah makes is marrying from the families that were in the land, and specifically from a Canaanite woman. Judah is going to make a decision in who he marries, and the decision of who he marries is going to bring.

A significant level of difficulty on Judah and his family. Judah is not going to make a decision that was in accordance with what God had done, with what Abraham had done, with what those who were from Abraham’s lineage had done. Every single time you see someone from Abraham’s lineage marry someone from the Canaanites, there’s going to be trouble.

And there certainly will be in Judah’s house. So Judah marries this Canaanite woman whose name is Shua. So she conceived, verse 3, and bore a son. In verses 3 through 6, we find Judah’s sons named and given. ⁓ He’s going to have three. The first one is Heir, the second one is Onan, the second or the third one is ⁓ Sheila.

And so we read in verse three, so she conceived and bore a son, and he called his name Er. And she conceived again and bore a son and she called his name Onan. And she conceived yet again and bore a son and called his name Sheila. He was at Shizib when she bore him. Then Judah took a wife for heir, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. As Judah is still separated from his family.

As Judah is bearing children and his children are beginning to grow into adulthood, we find now that Judah has his oldest son who is of marrying age, and so he gains for him a woman to marry.

But does Judah go back to his father’s house? Does he go back to Ur the Chaldees? Does he go back to the family of people who know the Lord in order to find a wife for his son? No, he does not. So now Judah is married to a Canaanite, and likely his son is now married to a Canaanite. Her name was Tamar. And then we read: but heir.

Verse seven Judah’s firstborn was wicked in the sight of the Lord and the Lord killed him.

Judah has departed from his family. He has intermarried with the Canaanites, a group of people that he knows God has said they are going to be judged and that their land is going to be given over to the descendants of Abraham.

And surprise, surprise when he marries someone who is not a follower of the Lord, and they raise children in a family where the wife is not a follower of the Lord, the oldest son is raised and co grows up with such a disposition that the Lord strikes him dead.

We look into the Old Testament. ⁓ how important it is who a person marries.

⁓ the long standing destruction and difficulty that arises when we marry someone who does not serve the Lord.

Heir is going to die. But in accordance with the way that things had been done, and the way that God was going to command for them to be done in the nation of Israel, if you reference Deuteronomy 25, verses 5 through 10, and even Matthew chapter 22, verses 23 through following, God is going to set a premise.

That if the oldest son, through whom the name, the lineage, and the inheritance were to go, if the oldest son lived and married but bore no children by that wife, it was the responsibility of the next son to raise up children to the oldest son’s name, to receive the oldest son’s inheritance. We find this

Law being put into place in the days of Moses, but it seems as though it was already clear that that was the way that God had instructed it to be done by Abraham, through Abraham, to his children, even at this point. For notice what we read in verse 8. And Judah said to Onan, Go into your brother’s wife and marry her, and raise up an heir to your brother. Onan’s responsibility.

To the family was to raise up an heir to Er, his brother, and that through that lineage, that would not be Onan’s, it would be his oldest brother’s lineage, the descendants and the inheritance and the things that involved the family and the firstborn would continue through that air.

But Onan will refuse. Notice verse nine, but Onan knew that the heir would not be his. Don’t miss the context of this discussion in verse nine is not about as much what Onan did as about what Onan did and why he did it. So Onan will go in to Tamar, and we read: Onan knew that the heir would not be his. It came to pass that he went into his brother’s wife.

That he omitted on the ground that lest he should give an heir to his brother. So he’s willing to take the wife, but he’s not willing to take the responsibility. He shows dishonor to both the instructions of his father and to the inheritance of his family and his role in raising up an heir to his brother.

And notice the thing which he did displeased the Lord verse ten, therefore the Lord killed him also.

Judah made a decision to depart from his family. Judah made a decision to marry a Canaanite. Judah’s decision has now resulted in the death of the first two sons that he had. Not just because of what Judah decided, but because of what they grew up to be growing up under the influence of Judah.

of the Canaanites.

Part of the action here on Onan’s part is a rebellion against the Lord, not just a rebellion against Judah. This is a decision that was made to defy the responsibility that God placed on the oldest and on the next oldest. If you turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 25, you’ll notice.

Something about the law that God is going to give. So bear in mind, while this law is not going to come about and not going to be written down as a national law until the days of Moses, that didn’t mean that God hadn’t already given it as a law going back to Abraham just because we don’t read about it. It’s the fact that they weren’t a nation yet. So that wasn’t a law in that sense. But notice in chapter 25 of Deuteronomy, we read, if brothers dwell together,

And one of them dies and has no son, the widow of the dead man shall not be married to a stranger outside of the family. Her husband’s brother shall go into her, take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. And it shall be that the firstborn son which she bears will succeed it to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out.

Of Israel. God set forth a standard and an action involved within their marriages, within their homes, within their families, to keep the lineages alive. When you step back and consider, from whose lineage is David going to come? The answer is through Judah’s. Through whose lineage is Jesus going to come?

The answers through Judah.

God is going to make a law, and God is going to set a standard, and Onan refuses to live up to it. But notice what else the law says. Verse 7 But if the man does not want to take his brother’s wife, then let his brother’s wife go up to the gate to the elders and say, My husband’s brother refuses to raise up a name to his brother in Israel. He will not perform the duty of my husband’s brother.

Then the elders of the city shall call him and speak to him, but if he stands firm and says, I do not want to take her, then his brother’s wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, spit in his face, and answer and say, So shall it be done to the man who will not build up his brother’s house. And his name shall be called in Israel the house of him who had his sandal removed.

The motivation whereby someone would do this is they did not desire to take on that responsibility while at the same time granting the inheritance and those things to their brother.

You’re going to see this happen again in the book of Ruth, where there is the opportunity to marry Ruth, but there is the realization that with Ruth comes Naomi, and with Naomi comes the redeeming of that which is Naomi’s, but ultimately it would mean that you’re raising up a son whose inheritance won’t be yours, and the nearest kinsman refuses.

And Boaz is going to do exactly what he should have done in taking that role and raising up a descendant that wasn’t going to be the descendant of Boaz. It’s going to be the descendant of the oldest son of Naomi. And yet that descendant is as well going to be in the lineage of Jesus Christ.

Over in the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 22, the Sadducees are going to seek to use this very law ⁓ to argue for their position that there is no resurrection. Matthew chapter 22, we find the same day, verse 23, the Sadducees who say there is no resurrection came to him and asked him, saying, Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.

Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh. Last of all, the woman died also. Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her. Jesus answered and said to them, You are mistaken, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels of God in heaven. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Jesus, as he answers this quandary, which I’m quite certain they had.

Perplexed many a Pharisee with, many a Jewish teacher with, Jesus said, You don’t know your scriptures, that’s why you’re ignorant.

And you don’t know the power of God. You also don’t understand the resurrection and what comes in the future life that we all have awaiting us. He says there is no marriage. I know many times we think about individuals who have loved their spouse into the very dying day that they have and have been with their spouse and look forward to a reunion in eternity, but that reunion is going to be different than this life.

For God says in eternity we’re not given in marriage. For some spouses they may say finally out.

And for others they may say, But I really wanted to be married to her forever. We said forever. No, you said till death do you part and you are now parted.

But you see, what Onan did is Onan said, I’ll take the wife, but I won’t raise up the child.

I’ll take what I want, but I won’t give back to my brother. And God is going to strike him dead. So now Judah’s departed from his family. Judah’s departed from his home. Judah has married a Canaanite. Judah has raised children that are raised by a Canaanite woman. And now Judah has lost two of the three to wickedness and rebellion against the Lord.

But the story’s not over. Then verse 11 says, Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, Remain a widow in your father’s house till my son Sheila is grown. For he said, Lest he also die like his brothers. Judah betrays Tamar. Judah tells Tamar, Go back to your father’s house. When Sheila the third is old enough, I’ll give him to you as a husband.

To raise up a child to err.

But that’s not what Judah said inside his head. Inside his head, Judah said, I’m not letting this woman anywhere near my third child. I don’t want him dead too.

But step back and ask yourself, was it Tamar’s fault that the first two brothers were dead? Or was it Judah’s?

Judah was the head of the household. Judah was the one who should have raised his children to be obedient to the Lord. And instead, they both died in rebellion to God. Don’t think that was Tamar’s fault. But then consider as well, in the process of time, verse 12, the daughters of or the daughter of Shua, Judah’s wife, died, and Judah was comforted. Now Judah is

A widower. Judah’s wife dies, and time passes after her death. And he went up to his sheep shearers at Timnah, he and his friend Hira, the Edulamite. The next thing that we see about Judah is that Judah has become friends with those who do not follow the Lord. Judah now has a friend. He is an Edulamite, he is one.

Who is going to be described using that term friend every time his name shows up? You think God’s making a point? Judah’s associations are those which he should not have. Judah’s wife is someone he should not have. Judah is making all the wrong decisions.

And just like in the life of Lot and others, you’re going to see the impact on Judah’s character, Judah’s morals, and Judah’s family. Judah is going to go up to Timnah with his friend Hira the Adulamite, and it was told Tamar, saying, Look, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep. So she took off her widow’s garments, covered herself with a veil, and wrapped herself and sat in an open place.

As Tamar goes, you’ll notice that she has been doing in the intervening years that have transpired, she’s been doing exactly what Judah told her to do. She’s been waiting in the house of her father. She’s been adorned as a widow. She’s been bearing the shame of a widow who is childless.

Waiting waiting waiting and all the while

Here’s the third child. Grown to adulthood. No word from Judah. You see, it was Judah’s decision whether or not to give Tamar to the third son. It wasn’t Tamar’s choice. You go back to the Old Testament periods and you read about ⁓ Abraham sending his servant out to get ⁓ a wife for Isaac. It wasn’t Isaac’s choice.

It wasn’t the girl’s choice, it was the father’s choice.

And the father is quite concerned about his sheep, and not at all concerned about his son and his daughter in law. So Tamar is going to take actions. She’s going to cover herself with a veil, and wrapped herself and sat in an open place, which was on the way to Timnah, for she saw that Sheila was grown and she was not given to him as a wife.

When Judah saw her, he thought she was a harlot because she had covered her face. And notice there’s a lesson here, and one of the lessons we learn in Scripture is not all indecency is immodesty.

In order for her to convince Judah that she was a harlot, she actually puts more clothing on, not less.

But you might also recognize that our clothing says something about us.

Judah didn’t have to guess what type of woman he thought was sitting there. He could tell by looking at her what type of woman she was claiming to be. Too many times we have even those within the body of Christ today who adorn themselves like harlots and try and claim they’re not one.

Tamar is going to deceive Judah. But notice Judah, the widower, sees the harlot, and he turned, verse 16, to her by the way, and said, Please let me come in to you. For he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. So she said, What will you give me that you may come into me? And he said, I will send a young goat from the flock.

So she said, Will you give me a pledge till you send it? Then he said, What pledge will I give you? So she said, Your signet and cord and your staff that is in your hand. Then he gave them to her and went into her and she conceived by him.

Judah commits adultery. Judah commits sin. It’s not excused because Judah is now a widower. It’s not excused because Judah didn’t know any better. Judah knew better. Judah even left the evidence to prove he knew better.

So she arose and went away, and laid aside her veil and put on the garments of her womanhood. And Judah sent the young goat by the hand of his friend, the Adulamite, to receive his pledge from the woman’s hand, but he did not find her. Then he asked the men of the place, saying, Where is the harlot who was openly by the roadside? And they said there was no harlot in this place.

Now, here is a family that is supposed to be the descendants of Abraham, the descendants of Isaac, the descendants of Jacob, the people of God, the promised of God, the nation through which the Messiah will come. And here we have them going to a city.

Participating in harlotry and expecting the city knew full well about it. And the city turns around and says, No, there’s no harlots that operate here.

So the Adulamite comes back to Judah. Verse twenty two, he returned to Judah and said, I cannot find her. Also the men of the place said there is no harlot in this place. Then Judah said, Let her take them for herself, lest we be shamed. Judah says, You know, this could ruin our reputation.

You know, people could find out what happened here, just let it die.

You see, Judah knew what he did was wrong. Judah knew what he did was sinful. Judah even knew that the reputation he would have gained by doing what he did was something that would bring shame upon his family and himself. And now that the situation is what it is, Judah just wants to cover it up.

Verse twenty four it came to pass about three months after, that Judah was told, saying Tamar, your daughter in law has played the harlot. Furthermore she is with child by harlotry, so Judah said, Bring her out and let her be burned.

When word comes that Tamar has been guilty of the same thing Judah was guilty of, Judah didn’t hesitate to bring judgment on her. Judah didn’t hesitate to condemn the woman that he told to remain in her father’s house until he took the action that was his responsibility to take. No, he didn’t take just even a moment to hesitate.

To condemn her when he had caused her situation. But then notice.

As Judah will say that when she was brought out verse twenty five, she sent to her father in law saying, By the man to whom these belong I am with child. And she said, Please determine whose these are, the signet, and cord and staff.

There’s an event that occurs over in John chapter eight. In John Chapter eight, Jesus is teaching, and as he is teaching, the Pharisees come with a woman. And they tell Jesus, This woman has been taken in the very act of adultery.

Moses said that we were to stone her. What do you say?

And there in the text we’re told that Jesus stoops to the ground and writes in the ground, in the dirt, in the dust, as if he didn’t hear them.

And as they persist.

Jesus will say

You who are without sin, cast the first.

See, Jesus knew Genesis thirty eight.

Judah’s response in verse twenty six, so Judah acknowledged them and said, She has been more righteous than I, because I did not give her Sheila, my son, and he never knew her again.

Jesus will say to that woman, when finally all of her accusers are gone, go and sin no more.

You see, the men who brought her before Jesus had committed a sin against her in the very act of bringing her because they didn’t bring the person she was committing adultery with. They were more than willing to sacrifice the woman who was guilty, but the man who was guilty was not present nor condemned.

And Jesus wasn’t going to let that go. For the punishment described by the law, the punishment that they quoted was on both parties, not one.

Judah is going to bring such destruction upon his house now his grandson is his son.

Came to pass, verse 27, at the time for giving birth, that behold, twins were in her womb. And so it was when she was giving birth that one put out his hand, and the midwife took a scarlet thread and bound it on his hand, saying, This one came out first. Then it happened, as he drew back his hand, that his brother came out unexpectedly, and she said, How did you break through this breach be upon you? Therefore his name was called.

Perez or breach. Afterward his brother came out who had the scarlet thread on his hand, and his name was called Zerah.

As we consider the lessons from Judah, as we consider what Judah did, his betrayal of Tamar, his departure from his family, his marrying of a Canaanite, of which they were told not to marry, his sons that departed from the Lord and rebelled against God and were killed by the Lord for it, all of these things we consider as Judah continues to cause problems and create sin in his life and in his family.

And now the contrast.

In chapter thirty nine, Joseph is a slave in Egypt, sold into bondage, put into a position of authority as everything that he does gets blessed by the Lord, and before long when Joseph is now supervisor over everything in Potiphar’s house, here comes a woman.

And if Joseph had been of the character of Judah?

Joseph would not have refused. But Joseph knew the same thing that Judah did. Joseph’s response is, How can I commit this great sin against my God?

It’s not incidental that Judah’s life and family description is right in the middle between the time that the brothers sell Joseph into slavery and the time that Joseph is not only going to be put in slavery, but is going to be imprisoned for over two years just for having moral courage and an upright character.

Judah is going to surround himself with the wicked. Joseph is going to stand fast with the righteous. And as we consider the Old Testament text, we need to examine what kind of person we’re going to be. As the difficulties of life arise, as the situations that we find ourselves continue, as the decisions have to be made, the temptations come, what type of person will we be?

James tells us that every sin that a man commits begins first when he is tempted by his own lust and enticed. And lust when it is conceived brings forth sin, and sin when it is finished brings forth death.

But don’t you ever say, When you’re tempted, I’m tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with sin, neither tempteth he any man.

Peter will write, Be holy, for I am holy. As we look at our lives, as we teach our children, as we raise the next generation, as we seek to give insight in decision making, may we always remember it to encourage people to understand it matters who you marry. It matters who you surround yourself with and who is going to influence your children.

And it matters what your character is, and whether or not you will be righteous before God. But let’s note one last lesson.

Did Judah sin? Yes. Did Tamar sin? Yes. Did Judah’s sons sin? Yes.

But when it came to Judah and Tamar, were Judah and Tamar forever flushed from Old Testament history and castigated out and sent out from all future involvement in the nation of Israel and the family of God? No.

One last lesson we need to remember from the life of Judah is it is possible for a person to commit great sin and repent and hold faithful to the Lord in the future.

Interestingly, when the famine comes, when Joseph is now sitting in the position of second in the kingdom of Egypt, Judah is back with his family. And when it comes time for the family to move to Egypt, Judah and his descendants go with them.

We should never have a mentality that says once a person who’s a Christian sins, they can never come back. And even if they did, we’ll never forgive them. No, that’s not what Scripture teaches. It is possible to commit grievous sin, and it is possible to repent and be restored to faithful, righteous service with God. So we should never fear.

If we are caught up in sin, that we too can repent. We too can be restored to righteous service with the Lord, and we too can be right with God and resume our labors in the Lord. If there is any who has need of the invitation for this reason or for any other reason, the invitation is open. Why not come forward now as we stand and as we sing?