https://c.themediacdn.com/embed/media/WIsdXt/qOJrSOosOcc/m6Upy6sZX9J_1
Moses: A Study of Israel’s Meekest Leader – Jacob Kennedy – March 22, 2026
As you can tell, I am not Aaron.
ah He is under the weather at the moment.
And so we’ll be praying that he gets over whatever is ailing him at this moment very
quickly.
So you can actually have a competent teacher teaching you again.
uh As per normal, we will begin with a word of prayer.
So if you would please bow with me.
Almighty God, most holy, most righteous heavenly father, we thank you for who you are.
We thank you for all that you have done.
We thank you for the blessing that we have today in coming to worship you.
Lord, we’re thankful for this time that we have this morning to study your word.
We pray that as we look through the life of Moses that we will try to glean all that we
can from his example, learn from his mistakes and try to follow after what he did right.
Lord, we pray that in all things we will be students of your word.
We will always be striving to grow in our faith in you and to be better servants of you
each day.
We pray this prayer in your son’s most holy name.
Amen.
We will be discussing the life of Moses today.
And as such, will be looking, of course, starting in the book of Exodus with his birth.
What we’ll do is we’ll go through a very, I say brief, as brief as we can, a look over his
life and then proceed in looking at some applications we can draw from his leadership,
from his personality, from the things that he did in his life and how he followed God.
But picking up in Exodus chapter one,
In Exodus chapter one, we know the circumstances surrounding Moses’s birth.
In Exodus one, starting in verse eight.
Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.
And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and
mightier than we.
Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply.
And it come to pass that when there falleth any war,
They join also into our enemies and fight against us and so get them up out of the land.
Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens and they
built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithim and Ramses.
But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew and they were grieved
because of the children of Israel.
Now what is happening here?
If you notice what how verse eight begins, there was a new king who did not know Joseph.
Why is this so important?
Why is it so important to the rest of the study in the book of Exodus, the study in the
life of Moses, why is it so important to note that this king did not remember or did not
heed the example of Moses or of Joseph rather.
doing it and things multiplied and flourished.
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
You look in in the book of Genesis and you see the time in which Joseph lived that there
was a great famine coming in the land and that Joseph was responsible as far as Egyptian
history is concerned.
He was responsible for helping save Egypt from this famine.
Of course, all glory being going or all glory going to God in God allowing him to be able
to interpret the dreams of Pharaoh.
But the point being that while Joseph lived and for subsequent years, Israel was viewed as
a great ally of Egypt.
They were viewed as friends of Egypt.
In fact, the Pharaoh had even granted them uh plots of land to live and grow in.
But this king rises up and he looks around and he sees the Israelites and he says, they’re
a threat to my power.
If some other country would come in and would make an alliance with them, we won’t stand a
chance.
And so naturally, instead of making, you know, confirming his alliance and making sure his
friendship with Israel, he naturally thinks that the best idea is to enslave them.
That’ll work.
That’s a great idea.
He acts in worldly wisdom is what we see.
And as we keep reading, we note that he makes a command that is really, it’s quite
disgusting.
picking up in verse 13.
And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor, and they made their
lives bitter with hard bondage and mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in
the field, all their service wherein they made them serve was with rigor.
And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives of which the name of the one was Sifra,
and the name of the other was Pua.
And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women,
and see them upon the stools.
If it be a son, then ye shall kill him.
But if it be a daughter, then she shall live.
Faro just ordered mass abortion.
He just ordered that the Hebrew midwives and assisting the wives and giving birth that
they would kill any male child that was born of the Hebrew.
all because of fear.
all because he was acting out of fear of losing his power.
We see a sobering thought there of not letting fear drive us to do something that is quite
despicable.
We need to be careful and guard ourselves from letting fear control us.
And of course we see the godly example of the midwives in that they feared God and they
refused to obey Pharaoh’s command.
But then skipping down to verse
number 22, and Pharaoh charged all his people saying, every son that is born ye shall cast
into the river, that being the Nile River, and every daughter ye shall save alive.
Now all this sets the stage for what happens with Moses when he’s born, for the
circumstances surrounding what happens right after he’s born as well.
So now we look at
Chapter two note the act or the birth of Moses and there went a man of the house of Levi
and took to wife a daughter of Levi and the woman conceived embarrassed son and when she
saw him that he was a goodly child she hid him three months and when she could know she
could not longer hide him she took him took for him in Ark of bulrushes and daubed it with
slime and with pitch and put the child there in and she laid it in the flat and the flags
by the riverbank
and his sister stood afar off to wit what would be done to him.
We see here that Amram and Jacobed are Moses’ parents and they see their baby boy Moses
being born, they say, we’re not going to fulfill Pharaoh’s law.
We are not going to murder our son and direct violation also of God’s law.
And so they hide Moses for three months as the text says.
But when it became impossible for them to hide the child, they knew something had to be
done.
But what’s very interesting is that we see great faith being expressed with Jacobin and
with Amram too, as he no doubt was complicit in what happened.
She lays her son in an ark of bulrushes, basically a little basket, a little, if you will,
something to float on the Nile.
And she lays him in that and puts him on the riverbank.
Does she know what’s going to happen to Moses?
No, she would.
She would have no idea.
In fact, that’s why Moses’s sister, she’s curious.
She wants to know what’s going to happen to her brother.
And so she hides in the bushes to see what’s going to happen.
But with Jacob, you have this faith in her that says, you know what?
If he stays with me, he’s going to die.
But I believe that God can work something out.
But I am not going to kill my son.
And she trusted in God that he would.
take care of her son, whether that be in receiving him up into paradise or in allowing him
to live.
And as we see with God in his purpose for Moses that he doesn’t leave him in the bushes.
And as we keep reading, we note that Pharaoh’s daughter came down to the side of the river
and she notices this arc, she notices this basket, if you will, and
She saves the life of this Hebrew boy.
What’s interesting is the fact that she knew he was a Hebrew and she knew her father’s
command.
But when it came down to the time when she should have carried out her father’s command,
she says no.
I’m gonna save this boy, I’m gonna raise him as my own.
and you see uh very uh wise actions on the part of Miriam as she goes up to Pharaoh’s
daughter and she says, do you want me to fetch you a midwife or rather uh a nurse for the
child?
We find that later on in the chapter, specifically looking at verse number, sorry, I lost
the verse there.
Verse seven, then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter, shall I go and call to thee a
nurse of the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for thee?
And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, go and the maid went and called the child’s mother.
And Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her,
Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages.” And the woman
took the child and nursed it.
And the child grew and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son.
And she called his name Moses and said, because I drew him out of the water.
It was so, you want to say humorous, but maybe that’s not the right word, but it’s
interesting at least.
to note that Jacob bed leaves that river thinking her son she’s never gonna see again.
She’s never gonna see her son again.
He might live, he might die.
She doesn’t know.
And then not too long later, her daughter’s coming up to her and saying, hey, so I just
got you a job taking care of your own son that you thought was going to die.
But Pharaoh’s daughter just saved him and wants you to nurse him and to take care of him.
It’s amazing to see God’s providence working throughout history and throughout this time.
But skipping ahead, have Moses, you he’s growing, he’s learning.
No doubt, Jacobet is telling him the things of Hebrew history and how God exists and how
there is one true God, not the many gods of Egypt.
But Acts 7-22 also tells us that Moses knew or was learned in all the learning of Egypt.
He was given the best education, if you will.
And there comes a point…
where he decides that he knows what’s best.
He thinks that he knows how he’s going to save his people.
No doubt Moses would have been hurt by the fact that he as he was watching Israel, his
fellow Hebrews suffering under the hands of Egypt, suffering under the hands of Egyptian
bondage.
And so he sees in verse 11, it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown that he
went out unto his brethren and looked on their burdens and he spied an Egyptian smiting in
Hebrew, one of his brethren.
And he looked this way and that, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the
Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
to a solely worldly view, Moses acted right.
It makes sense.
I here is this guy is wrongly attacking this Hebrew, wrongly smiting this Hebrew.
Well, surely it’s right for Moses to go and murder him.
But when you really look at the situation, even Moses knew he shouldn’t have done it.
Why did he hide the body?
Why did he look both ways to see there was no one around?
He knew what he was doing was wrong, but he thought it was for the right reasons.
He thought he was doing something that would be good, something that would endear him more
to his brethren the Hebrews and something that would honor God.
But as we know many times in the Bible, sometimes the worst things we can do, the worst
thing we can do is say, behold, I thought.
Because often what we think is not what God truly wants.
That’s why it’s so important to look at scripture and let our decisions be based on
scripture.
So in verse 13, and when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove
together and he said to them,
that did the wrong, wherefore smidest thou thy fellow?
And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?
And tendest thou to kill me as thou killest the Egyptian?
And Moses feared and said, Surely this thing is known.
We have a saying that actually comes from the book of Exodus, I believe.
Be sure your sins will find you out.
Moses witnessed that firsthand.
He thought no one saw it.
He thought that he had gotten away.
but his sin was not hidden.
Even if none of the Hebrews knew, God knew what he did.
But it’s interesting to note that you see Moses in his early years, these first 40 years,
give or take, you have him as one who’s very impulsive.
He’s thinking, okay, this is what I should do, so I’m going to do it instead of let’s plan
what we’re doing.
Let’s think about what we’re doing.
Let’s ask God about what we’re doing.
He just says, well, I know best, so I’m going to go murder this Egyptian
and then he tries to put himself in a place of authority over the Hebrews.
All that Moses is doing right here is giving glory to himself.
He’s grasping for glory for himself, thinking he’s doing it to God’s glory.
But really, he’s just grasping glory for himself
and so God doesn’t use him in this.
But as we’ll see later when Moses humbles himself, God will use him to great glory, to
great effect.
And so we have Moses running from Egypt.
He flees in the land of Midian as we note in verse 15.
And overall, it works out fairly well for him as he’s able to meet Jethro and his daughter
Zipporah.
And he marries Zipporah, as we know in verse number 21.
And Moses was content to dwell with a man and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.
And she bear him a son and he called his name Gershom.
And he said, for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.
Moses, he feels the consequences of his actions.
He feels the fear of the wrong that he did, but even in exile, God still blesses Moses.
And he still blesses him with a family, with people who care about him and for whom he
cares.
He blesses him with work to do as a shepherd of Jethro’s flocks.
And all the while,
As Moses is in this time of exile, God is preparing him for the time when he would use him
as a leader, when God would use him to lead his people out.
Verse 24
shows us the care that God has and the reason why God goes to Moses.
In other words, as Israel is crying out, as they are finding themselves in immense
hardship, as they’re facing the turmoil, the persecutions,
laid upon them by the Egyptians, they turn to God.
And as they turn to God, God says, okay, it’s time.
It’s time to deliver you.
And so that Moses that he had been preparing all this time that has been wandering in the
wilderness, or rather in exile and median, this Moses that had at one point been a little
bit too impulsive, this Moses that didn’t have all the facts together,
who didn’t know how to be a leader that honored God.
God has been training him.
He’s preparing him and now he’s saying, okay, the cake’s ready to come out of the oven, so
to speak.
It’s time.
But what’s very interesting is that when Moses is offered or is told rather, I should say,
to go into the land of Egypt and to deliver the people.
instead of jumping at the opportunity that he’d sought, not even a chapter later, he’s
like, I don’t know about that, God.
I’m not so sure about this.
Look at this uh in Exodus chapter three.
Exodus chapter 3 verses 1 through 9 give us this indication of or rather this
the scene, if you will, of this bush that is on fire but not being consumed.
It’s not being burned up.
And so, of course, this naturally catches Moses’s eye and he looks and he says, I’m going
to turn so I’m going to look into this.
I’m going to see what’s going on here.
And as he approaches, he hears the voice of the Lord telling him that the place he’s
standing is holy ground.
And so he needs to take off his shoes.
He needs to just show reverence for the fact that he is in the presence of God.
He’s the in presence of the Almighty.
And having this understanding, we come down to verse 10 of chapter three.
Come now, therefore, and I will send thee into Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my
people, the children of Israel out of Egypt.
And Moses said unto God, Who am I that I should go into Pharaoh and that I should bring
forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?
And he said, Certainly I will be with thee, and this shall be a token unto thee that I
have sent thee.
When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this
mountain.
And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say
unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they shall say to me, What
is his name?
What shall I say unto them?
And God said unto Moses, I am that I am.
And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent you.
And God said, Moreover unto Moses thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God
of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me
unto you.
This is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.
Moses at…
let me get my words together.
Moses tries to make two excuses here.
He looks at God and he says, who am I?
God, I’m nothing.
uh They’re not going to listen to me.
Well, but God, you know, if I go to the people of Israel, if I go to the Hebrews, they’re
going to ask me who you are and what am going to say?
Moses had gone from being impulsive to dare I say, whiny.
When he looks at God and he says,
you don’t know best.
God I know myself better than you.
God I know that I’m not the one you really want.
Sometimes the things that we think are being humble is actually slapping God in face.
Should it ever be the case that we boast of ourselves?
No.
Should it ever be the case that we have lift ourselves and we say, well, I’m the perfect
person for this.
I’m the perfect person and everyone should bow before me.
No, of course not.
Should Moses had looked at God and said, well, it’s about time you realized that I was the
one you needed.
No, of course not.
but when we are given a task by God.
and we can fulfill it, ought we not to do it?
Rather than to make the excuse of, I’m not best suited for this.
Well, there’s someone better out there.
Who am I?
Sometimes in our desire to be humble, we end up forsaking that which God has told us to
do.
Let that not be the case, brothers and sisters.
Moses would learn this very clearly, that you don’t get to tell God that you’re not
capable.
You don’t get the right to look at God and say, I know myself better than you.
Looking down to verse, or chapter four, continuing on with the excuses of Moses.
Verse 1, and Moses answered and said, behold, they will not believe me nor hearken unto my
voice, for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee.
He tries to make the statement of, well, God, the testimony that you told me to give, the
things you told me to say, it’s not good enough.
God, it’s not good enough, God.
They’re not going to believe.
Interesting that the one who doesn’t know the thoughts of men is telling the one who does
know the thoughts of men what they will and won’t do.
Again, Moses really had no right to argue with God as he did.
But we notice God’s patience in this too, as he then looks at Moses and he says, well,
what’s in your hand?
And then he gives him signs to prove that he is from God.
It gives him the ability to work miracles, to show that what his testimony was was true.
to show that his message was from God.
Again, pointing back as we note from the book of Mark, the purpose of miracles, that being
confirming the word of God.
But as he goes through this, Moses tries to make another excuse.
Verse 10.
And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since
thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue.
And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth?
Or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind?
Have not I the Lord?
Now therefore go, I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.” And
notice Moses’ response.
And he said, Oh, my Lord, send I pray thee by the hand of whom thou wilt send.
Moses tried to make every excuse that he could think of.
And when God shut down or gave a means of overcoming every excuse he provides, he simply
says, God, it’s not for me.
This whole leadership thing, it’s not for me, God
find somebody else.
It’s at this point that God, in essence, you could say, has had enough.
In verse 14, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses.
And he said, Is not Aaron the Levi thy brother?
I know that thou that he can speak well and also behold, he cometh forth to meet thee.
And when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart.
And thou shalt speak unto him and put words in his mouth.
And I will be with my mouth and with his mouth.
and will teach you what ye shall do.
And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people, and he shall be even he shall be to thee
instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God.
And thou shalt take his rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do sign.
God looks at Moses and he says, you know what, you’re not getting out of this.
And our modern vernacular, he says, you’re not getting out of this.
You’re not getting away from this.
This is the job you need to do.
This is the job you can do.
This is the job you’re going to do.
But even in this, one second brother, even in this though, he doesn’t leave Moses alone.
He doesn’t say, you’re just going to have to figure it out.
He says, I’m going to be with you and I’m going to send Aaron with you.
You won’t even have to speak to Pharaoh.
I will give you the message and you will give Aaron the message and he will speak it for
you.
God literally said all of your excuses don’t amount to a hill of beans.
They have no bearing because I am with you.
And that same truth can be said of us.
Our excuses that we can make for why we don’t
evangelize, why we don’t do better as being faithful to God and growing in our faith, all
those excuses, they fall on their face when we realize God’s got this.
He’s with us and we can do it.
Brother Philip?
You know, I’ve often thought about Moses here.
It really shows his human side.
We know he was well educated.
So I often thought, well, you know, he should be able to speak pretty well, would think.
But it just shows
His human side, he didn’t want to go.
He just didn’t want to do it.
So he sent Aaron along with him.
So absolutely.
And like you said, he was he was educated.
Acts 722 again, it tells us very clearly he had all this knowledge, all these all the
training that Egypt had to offer.
And yet he still is like, I don’t know enough.
I’m not good enough.
I’m not eloquent enough.
But you know, there’s another point to be brought out here too.
Even when we don’t think we’re eloquent enough to speak the gospel, to speak the truth, to
speak God’s word, the power is not in us.
It’s not in any one of us.
Justin, Walker, myself, OC, Aaron, we all can attest there are days our words don’t come
out right.
We don’t speak the way we’re intending to speak because things happen.
Your mouth gets dry.
Your tongue gets tied.
You forget part of your sermon.
That’s happened many times.
But the power is never in the speaker.
The power is always in the gospel he’s speaking.
And that’s what Moses was forgetting here.
It wasn’t about how good he was, but it’s about how great God is.
And that’s what Moses was not realizing.
And that’s what God shows to him is it’s not about how bad or how good you think you are,
Moses.
because I’m going to be with you.
I’m going to take care of you.
And so we see Moses going down into the land of Egypt and talking to Pharaoh, these
plagues befall the land of Egypt.
I know we’re skipping through a lot, but trying to get a little further in its history.
What happens with Moses, he grows into becoming the leader that God wanted him to be.
To the point where, and we will look at this, in Exodus 15,
rather Exodus 14.
In verse.
Lost the verse there.
In Exodus 14, we have the setting being set.
that Israel has just come out of the land of Egypt.
The tenth plague has happened and Pharaoh has told them, go, you have brought enough harm
onto my kingdom, get out.
But after he says that, verse five, and it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled
and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people.
And they said, why have we done this?
That we have let Israel go from serving us.
It’s interesting that that Pharaoh asked this question, having just gone through all 10 of
these plagues that completely crippled Egypt.
And he says, why did we let them go?
Maybe it was because God humbled you and showed that he has power far greater than
anything you think you might have.
But how quickly we forget.
And how quickly this Pharaoh forgot.
But as we go down to verse 10.
And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold, the
Egyptians marched after them.
and they were sore afraid.
And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, and they said unto Moses, Because there
were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?
Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?
Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may
serve the Egyptians?
For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians.
then that we should die in the wilderness.
Well, now it’s the Israelites turn to complain into wine.
Again, how soon we forget how soon they forgot that they did not say, well, leave us
alone.
Let us serve Egypt because they wanted deliverance.
They wanted to go out of Egypt.
They didn’t want to be a subject to Egypt anymore.
They didn’t want those that the oppressors that were over them.
They wanted freedom, they wanted the ability to be delivered.
And yet when push comes to shove and when it seems as though the walls are closing in,
they immediately turn on Moses.
And they say, it’s all your fault, Moses.
I guess he must have prayed all those million so prayers to God for deliverance, right?
That was just Moses praying.
That was just Moses crying to God for deliverance.
again how quickly we forget.
But in facing this.
In a time when the old Moses probably would have done something impulsive, maybe spout off
back to the Israelites or maybe just run.
Instead, we see a very different side of Moses.
We see him as one who has grown in his faith and in his trust for God.
Look at verse 13.
And Moses said into the people, fear ye not.
Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today.
For the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever.
The Lord shall fight for you and ye shall hold your peace.
Why was Moses in the land of Midian?
What do we read?
What was his reasoning for fleeing to the land of Midian?
killed an Egyptian, but what was his reaction to being discovered?
Fear.
The same Moses that ran away the Midian out of fear is the same Moses that’s standing on
the banks of Red Sea saying, fear not.
What changed?
Faith, but not just faith.
Here Moses is acting according to the Word of God.
Here Moses has God’s backing because he’s obedient to God.
In the land of Egypt he wasn’t acting in God’s will.
God had not told him, go kill this Egyptian.
He had acted against God’s will.
He had acted assuming that he knew what God’s will was, but here he knows what God’s will
was.
Confidence does not come from a self-trust, brethren.
Confidence comes from a trust in the one who is almighty.
The reason why we can have confidence as we go in and spread the gospel, the reason why
Justin and Megan can have confidence that they’re going to be able to get over in Japan
and to preach the gospel over there is because it’s not about them.
They’re not trusting in themselves, they’re trusting in God who’s given them the task to
do.
When we trust in God, when our faith is in the Lord and not in ourselves, suddenly the
world seems a little less scary.
Those things that to the world are detrimental, are so fearful and cause such agonizing
stress.
they suddenly become a little easier to bear.
Now don’t get me wrong, people who are faithful to God still face hardships.
We notice this as we continue reading the book of Exodus and the book of Numbers, the
people would wander in the wilderness.
The people would encounter hardships throughout their time.
Even Moses, he had those times of struggle.
But through it all, the burden is able to be borne, is able to, it is not too heavy to
bear because God is there.
That was not an intentional rhyme.
But looking again at Moses and continuing on, he leads the people out of Egypt.
They cross the Red Sea and in chapter 15, we have what is called the Song of Moses.
As they cross over the banks of the Red Sea, as this massive gap opens, the flood or the
waters are pulled back and they’re able to walk across on dry ground.
And the Egyptians try to go through the same path, but
God closes the sea on top of them.
Israel stands on the side of the Red Sea and they begin to sing praise to God.
Let’s look at what they sang.
Then saying Moses and the children of Israel this song unto unto the Lord and spake
saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously and the horse and his
rider hath he thrown into the sea.
The Lord is my strength and my song, and he is become my salvation.
He is my God, and I will prepare him and habitation.
My father’s God and I will exalt him.
The Lord is a man of war.
The Lord is his name.
The Pharaoh’s chariots and his host have he cast into the sea.
His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea.
The depths have covered them.
They sank into the bottom as a stone.
Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power.
Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.
and in the greatness of thine excellence thou hast overthrown them that rose up against
thee.
Thou sentest forth thy wrath which consumed them as stubble.
And with a blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together and the flood stood
upright as in heap and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.
The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my lust shall be
satisfied upon them.
I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.
Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered thee, they sank as lead in the mighty
waters.
Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praise, doing wonders?
Thou stretchest out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them.
Thou in thy mercy has led forth the people which thou hast redeemed, thou hast guided them
in thy strength unto thy holy habitation.
The people shall hear and be afraid.
Sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestine.
That was a little bit of reading there, I know, but the point that I wanted you guys to
understand, the point that we all need to understand with this, who is praise?
Who is given glory?
God.
God is giving glory throughout this entire song of praise.
Moses isn’t even mentioned.
Throughout this entire song of praise, the people aren’t even mentioned except saying,
this is what I will do because you are so great.
all glory goes to God.
And when Israel understood this, when they truly understood that it wasn’t about them, it
wasn’t about what they wanted, but about what God wanted, wasn’t about their power, their
might, but about God’s power and might, when they realized that God was better than any of
these false gods that were around them, Israel thrived.
but when they forgot God.
When Moses was on top of Mount Sinai and they say, well, Moses surely is dead.
and they look at Aaron and they say, make us an idol.
we can be influenced by the world around us,
And sometimes the influence is hard to overcome.
For Israel, they were in captivity for many years.
And so that Egyptian idolatry was around them all the time.
And it was hard for them to overcome.
But they had just witnessed God being greater than any false God that the Egyptians
conjured up.
They had just witnessed, even at the foot of Mount Sinai, the great power of God being
shown
to the point where they say, Moses, you go up on the mountain.
We’re cool right here.
We’re not going to approach the mountain.
And they go from that to looking around and saying,
this idol, this calf, this golden calf which Aaron has made, that’s our God.
That’s the one who delivered us out of Egypt.
Moses shows us that
When we want to be faithful to God, sometimes it means going against our family.
When we want to be faithful to God, sometimes it means doing the hard thing.
But ultimately what Moses shows us is that when we humble ourselves before God, when we
choose to be who He wants us to be.
It’ll all work out in the end.
Now, does that mean that we’re going to have an easy life?
No.
Well, let me show you what I mean by this.
Look at Deuteronomy as we close.
Look at Deuteronomy 34.
Bear with me just a moment.
Deuteronomy 34.
Verse 5
So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of
the Lord.
And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab over against Bethpior, but no man
knoweth his sepulcher unto this day.
And Moses was 120 years old when he died, and his eye was not dim, nor his natural force
abated.
And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Midian 30 days, so that the
days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.
Notice what is said to Joshua.
and sorry, moving over to Joshua chapter one.
The Lord speaks to Joshua and he says,
It all works out when God says, are my servant.
It all works out in the end when God gives us his stamp of approval.
Thank you for your patience and for your attention.
A True Shepherd – Walker Cain – March 22, 2026
The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul.
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for
thou art with me.
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest table before me in the presence of my enemies.
Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever.
David knew that the Lord was his shepherd.
If we look at his life and all that he faced, he started as a shepherd with his sheep.
He would play his harp, he would have his sheep, and he would go out and protect them
whenever he needed to.
He knew what it meant to be a shepherd.
And he knew that with all that he did, even though that he was a king, even though he
faced giants, even though he had a king that was running after him, he knew that all he
was was a sheep.
And the Lord was the one protecting him.
The Lord was the one guarding him.
Today we have a shepherd.
And that shepherd is Christ.
turn from Psalm 23 and look at John chapter 10.
And that’s where we will spend our time today.
John chapter 10 shows the good shepherd.
And it shows, it identifies aspects of that good shepherd.
He is the one who is the door for the sheep.
He is the one who is the owner of the sheep.
And also he is the one who sacrifices for the sheep.
We looked at Psalm 23 and all those things that the Lord does.
And he was willing.
to give his life, give all of who he was so we could have those blessings.
Looking at John chapter three, starting in verse one, before that look at the context of
this.
John chapter nine, we read of a man who was blind.
This man, the apostles asked, Lord, why is this man blind?
Was he blind from birth?
And he was blind from birth.
And they asked, Lord, who sinned, this man or his parents?
And the Lord says,
That is not how this works.
But this has left the case so that you will be able to see the power of God.
And then the Pharisees are going to kick this man out of the synagogue, tell him you have
no part in us because he believes that this man was someone from God.
The Pharisees and Sadducees, they didn’t want to believe it because this man healed him on
the Sabbath day.
So you have these people who disbelieve.
They have been given evidence.
This man had his sight given back to him.
and they disbelieved.
And then you have this man who says, look, Jesus did this thing that no one else could do.
I believe that He is from God.
And with that context, look at verse 40 of chapter 9.
And some of the Pharisees which were with Him heard these words and said unto Him, are we
blind also?
Jesus said unto them, if he were blind, ye should have no sin.
Now ye say, we see, therefore,
your sin remaineth.” Now we set the context of chapter 10.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but
climbeth up some other way, the same as the thief and robber.
But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
To him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his sheep by name,
and leadeth them out.
First, this shepherd is the door.
and he is the door, he is recognized at the door.
To him the porter openeth.
The history of this, they had these sheep folds.
They had basically, it’s like a pen, and it was made of stone often, and you would have
multiple sheep kept, multiple flocks kept in one fold, in one of these pens.
And you’d of course have multiple shepherds because of that.
The shepherds would come to the porter, the one who guarded the gate,
of this pen, and then the porter would recognize him and say, you can go in and get your
sheep.
The porter recognizes Christ.
Now, it doesn’t matter who this porter is, we can debate, okay, is this John the Baptist,
is this God the Father allowing Christ to go get his flock?
The point is, Christ is recognized at the door.
Now, why is this important?
There are those who are not recognized at the door.
There are those who should not have this open to them.
Looking at verse 5, a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know
not the voice of strangers.
There’s going to be strangers that try to come to this door, strangers that try to say,
that’s my flock.
And both the sheep and the porter are going to know that that is not the shepherd of this
sheep.
Christ comes to His fold in the proper way, not in the way of a thief.
He comes to the porter.
Now, these, looking at this context, we saw the Pharisees.
The one who is not the true owner of this sheep, the porter is not going to open to them.
These Pharisees who are trying to reject Christ, who told this man, we’re going to kick
you out because you decided that you are going to follow this man.
We’re Moses’ disciples.
They are the ones who have come to the Porter and they are acting like these are their
sheep and they are rejected.
Any doctrine, any Christian leader, or not any Christian leader, any religious leader who
says, I’m going to come to Jesus’ flock and do what I want and say that these are my
sheep, no religion like that is from God.
No man who comes and has a congregation named after him has a religion named of God.
No one who says, this is how you enter into the sheepfold.
How the Bible says it, that’s not right.
This way that I say to you, this is how you should do it.
That man is not the true shepherd.
Christ has the true way.
He came in the proper way.
He is the permitted shepherd of the sheep.
Now, He is known at the door, but also He is the door.
There’s another picture here in John 10, 7-10.
Then Jesus said,
unto them again, verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
All that came before me are thieves and robbers.
But the sheep did not hear them.
I am the door.
By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved.
He shall go in and out and find pasture.
The thief cometh not in but forth to steal and to kill and to destroy.
I am come that they might have life and might have it more abundantly.
Christ is recognized at the door in the previous idea, but now He is the door.
You would have the more urban areas where you had multiple sheep kept in this one fold, or
multiple flocks kept in this fold.
And then you had the more rural areas where you only had one flock kept in a fold at a
time, and there was no quarter at the door.
In that case, the shepherd would literally lay at the entrance of where the sheep were,
and He would be the door for them.
He would be the way in and out.
Christ is the way for us today.
And He has always been and will always be.
He is the way to the Father.
John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father but by me.
If we want to see the God in whose image we were made, we have to go through Christ.
We have to go through the way that He has shown to us.
He is also the way into the church.
In Acts 2 when the church was finally established, when the disciples spoke with tongues,
they showed the people what they had to do to be saved and they said, repent and be
baptized, every one of you, for the remission of sins.
And then after all of that, and it shows what they are doing, verse 47, praising God and
having favor with all the people.
And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
The Lord is the one.
that adds to His church.
If there is a group that says, we’re going to vote on if you are going to be a part of us
or not.
If there is a group that says, okay, do you meet these qualifications outside of God’s
Word?
That is not the Lord’s church.
The only thing that decides if you are in the church or not, if you are going to be added
to it, if the Lord will add you to it, is if we follow His words.
He is the way to the Father, He is the way into the Church, and finally He is the way into
everlasting life.
1 John 5 11.
This is the record that God has given us, given to us.
And this is the record that God has given to us eternal life.
And this life is in His Son.
Jesus is the one that gives us life and allows us to go into eternity, no longer having to
be lost, no longer having to face the consequences for the sins that we chose, but instead
being able to enjoy what is beyond.
Jesus is recognized at the door.
Jesus is the door.
And finally, as we’ve already seen, false teachers who don’t go through the door, they are
not the shepherd.
They will not be recognized.
They are not the way in.
We must walk by God’s authority and not the authority of anyone else.
Verse 8, all that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear
them.
The Lord’s sheep are not going to recognize the voice of these false shepherds
and they are not going to follow them.
Now, people can be led astray and they can be sincerely believed, but ultimately those who
are going to follow God’s way, they are going to seek the truth, they will find the truth
and they will believe it because they are objective, because they want to do what is right
in God’s sight.
As we saw in chapter 9, it’s not that this man was already a Christian, it’s not that this
man already knew Christ, what was it that was different about him from the Pharisees?
He had a mindset that was willing to believe.
This is not some predestination.
This is not Jesus saying, okay, you will be saved and you won’t be saved because, I just
feel like that today.
There is a difference in mindset.
There’s a difference in the choice of what they are going to do.
Previously we looked at John chapter 3 and the idea that the one who believes, that’s the
one who has decided to be objective, the one that is going to understand.
We looked at Nicodemus, the one who said, how can these things be when Jesus said,
except ye be born of water and of the Spirit, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”
And he was rebuked for not understanding because he had everything he needed to
understand.
But there was simply something he was deciding not to do, even if it wasn’t something that
was as direct, that he could see.
Jesus is the way, and those who desire to truly follow him, he’s going to make it
available.
Jesus is recognized at the door.
Jesus is the door and no one else is.
Now, moving forward, the shepherd is not only the door, he is the owner.
In John 10 verses 4 and 5, and when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them,
and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice
of strangers.
Jesus is let in because he has the authority.
And now the sheep are going to listen to them because they know His voice, as we already
looked at in verse 9.
With Him being known by His sheep, the reason that shepherds were all able to keep their
sheep in one pen, in one fold, is because the sheep knew their masters by voice.
If another person came and just tried to make the exact same sound, exact same voice as
another, the sheep would still know the difference.
They know who their master is.
Christ’s people will know His voice, they will know His words when they hear it.
They know that voice and they are going to follow Him with confidence.
In life today we can follow our Lord with confidence.
Looking at His words, looking at how He has told us to live, whether that be in the
selfish attitude we are to have toward life, whether it be how we are to treat our
enemies, whether it be how to enter into the Lord’s Church, what are we to do as the
Lord’s Church?
Christ makes it all.
clear to us.
We know His voice, and we know those, we know not only His direct voice in the words that
are written and read, we know those to whom He delegated authority, and who spoke the
words that He wanted us to know, and who made sure that we had the Word of God written
here so that we could follow Him.
If there is anyone who says that, I am from God, and I give a word that is not in this
book, that is not one sent from Christ, that is not one giving God’s voice.
He is just claiming to be a part of showing God’s word, and that is not true, it is false.
This is all that we have.
Timothy 3, 16 and 17, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
That the man of God may be perfect, complete unto every good work.
God’s word can make us complete that word.
perfect is complete.
It means that it is all that we need.
If we take it and we follow it, we trust in what it says and do it.
Jesus is the door for His sheep.
He is recognized, He is, and no one else is.
Jesus is also the owner.
It’s seen in not only how they know His voice, as we have seen.
Before moving forward, looking at Matthew 16, 24.
Jesus said unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him take up his cross
and follow me.” If anyone is going to follow Christ, if anyone is going to live God’s way,
he’s not going to follow anyone else.
He is going to follow Christ, willing to take up the willingness to sacrifice life daily
and live his way.
Now, moving forward, he is known by his sheep.
They know his voice.
But also, he cares for his sheep.
If you own something, if a vehicle is yours, you take care of it.
You make sure that the inside is at least relatively clean.
You wash it out, I had to not be a hypocrite right there, But you go and wash it.
You make sure that you take care of it.
Now we should do that with anything that we get to use because that’s how Christians
should be.
But there is a special attachment we have to those things which are ours.
Now move that from possessions.
from the things of this world to the ones you love.
If you’re married, don’t you love your wife?
If you have children, don’t you love your children?
Now, look at the idea of a farmer.
If he has livestock that belong to him, there’s a special connection there.
And Christ has something beyond that.
It’s beyond just livestock because he has invested all of his being into his sheep.
Now, those relationships that we have, we’ve invested in them.
If you’re married, then you went on dates.
You went and you took her out or you went out with him.
Bless your heart.
You built that relationship.
Christ has done so much to build a relationship with us.
He came and He sacrificed His life as we will look at more in a few moments.
He lived His life on earth.
He spent 33 years worth of days and nights on this world for us.
Looking at the idea of what a shepherd does for his sheep, turn to Genesis 31 verses 38
through 40.
Genesis 31, 38-40.
Jacob was a shepherd, the son of Abraham who had went out to the land where his father
Laban was.
And now we’re going to see what a shepherd had to do if he was going to do a good job as
one.
Jacob is airing his grievances toward Laban because Laban has been a rather pitiful
father-in-law.
Verse 38, this 20 years have I been with thee, thy use?
And thy she-goats have not cast their young, And the rams of thy flock have I not eaten.
That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee, I bear the loss of it, Of my
hand-stits that were quiet, Whether stolen by day or stolen by night.
Thus I was in the day the drought consumed me, In the frost by night, in the sleep
Departed from mine eyes.
Thus I had been twenty years in thy house.
To be a shepherd
to be one that is taking care of this kind of livestock, you are there day and night.
There is not a moment where you are able to say, I’m done working.
You might go sleep for a little bit, but you don’t get to just go off the clock.
You go back and work with the sheep.
Christ came to this world and as we mentioned, He spent 33 years worth of days and nights
living so that He would one day preach the message.
and also make the sacrifice that was necessary for us to have salvation.
Jesus is known by His sheep.
Jesus cares for His sheep coming down to this world and not only doing the things that
Jacob did, being willing to go out day and night whether it be sun or shine, but giving
His life for us.
Finally, Jesus loves all of His sheep.
Turn to verse 16 of John 10.
Verse 16 of John 10,
shows who all are in this flock that Jesus is going to call.
And other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall
hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.” Jesus is going to bring
others.
Now, who are these others?
During his time, Jesus spoke with the Jews.
Now, he did go north up to the land of Phoenicia at least once.
But throughout most of his time on earth he was speaking directly to the Jews.
The Jewish Pharisees, well there’s not Gentile Pharisees, the Pharisees were the context
of what is happening here.
And there is this man who was cast out of the synagogue, these were all Jews.
They were the ones who were apart out of these would Christ call his fold, but also out of
another.
What’s going to happen later is we’re going to have Peter the apostle to the Jews.
And we’re also going to have Paul the apostle to the Gentiles who are going to receive the
Word of God and be able to be saved, Acts chapter 10.
Christ cares for all of His flock even though His people, the Jews, the ones in which He
was raised, they did not care about all.
If we turn to John chapter 4, there’s more context with this.
John chapter 4 we have the woman of Samaria.
Now,
It was at first a marvelous thing for Christ to go to the land of Samaria because any time
someone went over there they would go around Samaria, any Jew would go around Samaria to
go up toward Jerusalem, if they were in the land, to go up toward Galilee if they were in
the land where Jerusalem was.
Verse 9, then said the woman of Samaria, how is it that thou being a Jew asketh drink of
me?
which am a woman of Samaria.
For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
There’s prejudice here.
There is racism here.
There is a hate between the Jew and the Samaritan.
The Samaritans were a a mixed population.
When the Assyrians took away the Israelite nation, that northern nation that had gone away
into wickedness, the Assyrian king said, okay, I do not want anyone to be coming up
against me.
So I’m going to take everybody and take them out of the land that they’re proud of being
from, and I’m going to switch them all around so that they have nothing that is a part of
their background except what I’ve done, so that I am this powerful ruler that has control.
Doing that, he brought Gentiles to the region.
Some of the Jews were left.
The poorest of the land, the ones that were taking the Jews into captivity, they just left
them.
So you have a mixed population.
the Jews hated the mixed population more than they hated the Gentiles themselves.
Jesus shows that this was wrong because He is going to call all, He is going to call His
sheep from a different fold.
He is going to include the Samaritan, He is going to include the Gentile, He is going to
include the Jew.
Everyone who is going to be willing to believe, be willing to do what the man did in
chapter 9 where He looked at the evidence and He said, this man he is from God.
and then he obeyed him.
Anyone who does that, anyone willing to obey the evidence can be part of Christ’s fold,
called into what he is going to establish.
Jesus is known by his sheep.
Jesus cares for his sheep and he cares for all of his sheep.
Now with this, he cares for you no matter where we’ve come from and he cares for us no
matter what has been done in the past.
The Lord wants…
you to be saved.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in
him should not perish but have everlasting life.
That word whosoever does not leave anyone out.
No matter how much guilt you have in your past, you are part of whosoever.
I am part of whosoever.
No matter the indifference that we might have been guilty of as Christians, no matter the
rebellion that might have been there when we were young,
or when we were older Christ wants whosoever, He wants you.
Christ cares for all of His sheep.
Jesus is the door and Jesus is the owner.
And finally, Jesus is the sacrifice.
We mentioned the idea of if something is yours, especially a relationship, you are willing
to invest in it, it is important to you.
And because it is important to you, what are you going to do about it?
look at what Jesus did.
John 10 verse 11, I am the Good Shepherd, the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.
We looked at Genesis 38, Jesus was willing to live the life proverbially of a shepherd,
being willing to go out with His apostles and do what needed to be done to preach the
message.
He lived a life that was going to be harder than what Jacob ever did.
But Jesus finally is not just going to live for His sheep,
He’s going to give his life for his sheep.
That is what the good shepherd does.
Now, what does a bad shepherd do?
He that is in hireling and not the shepherd, whose own sheep, whose own the sheep are not,
leaveeth the sheep and fleeeth, and the wolf chasteth them and scattereth the sheep.
The one who does not have this attachment with the sheep, he is one who is not going to
give his life for the sheep.
He is not one that is going to be there
for these little defenseless ones.
Christ is, I am the good shepherd and know my sheep, my sheep are known of mine as the
Father knoweth me even so I know the Father and lay down my life for the sheep.
A literal shepherd, he would have to know that throughout his life he might have to risk
his life as a shepherd.
David went and he fought lions and bears to take care of his sheep.
at any given day he could have died.
Jesus, not only did he know that any, he knew not that he would die any given day, but
that he was destined to go and face a death that was unlike anything David ever faced.
Unlike anything any man has faced that was innocent.
Anyone who has faced this kind of thing, he was not a perfect and sinless one, as Hebrew
shows.
He was one that ultimately did deserve death.
even if he might not have necessarily deserved that exact punishment, anyone who lives
that is not Christ, that is accountable, has sinned, and is therefore, there is not the
same sacrifice there, even if they face the exact same things Christ did.
He is the one who gave his life, a sinless and perfect life, so that we could be saved.
Now, he that is in hireling, the one who doesn’t have this connection, he is not going to
die for his sheep.
Jesus is going to
die for us, but He also does it not only out of care for us, but out of obedience to His
Father.
Verse 15, “‘As the Father knoweth me, even so I know the Father, and lay down my life for
the sheep.
Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall
hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.
Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it
again.'”
We looked at John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that He made this sacrifice.
And also, we now have here the Father loves the Son because of the sacrifice that will be
made, because I lay down my life that I might take it again.
There is a relationship that we have with Christ, and there’s also the relationship that
Christ has with the Father.
And the Father loves the Son.
making this sacrifice because the Father wants that relationship with you as well.
He sent His Son and said, bring them home, redeem them.
Make sure that they ensure that they have an opportunity to be with us here in heaven one
day.
Have Hebrews 12, 2-4.
We have Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before Him
endured the cross, despising the shame.
The joy that was set before Him, He would receive the glory that He did not have before,
because He fates this world even though it was a shame.
But the reason He even came in the first place was for us to be saved.
The joy that Christ had set before Him was joy where He had the glory of the Father, and
He also had us with Him in eternity, forever.
The cross was worth us being with Him.
It was worth that to the Father.
It was worth that to the Son.
Jesus is the door.
Jesus is the owner.
He is the one who loves his sheep.
And finally, He is the sacrifice.
We have a Lord who in 1st Timothy is described as being beyond abundant with grace, having
grace that is beyond being abundant with grace and love.
You have a Lord.
You have one who wants to be your shepherd, who is beyond the grace and love that we could
ever imagine, beyond this faith and love that we could ever imagine.
He wants you.
Mankind’s greatest blessings are only offered in this true shepherd.
Ephesians 1-3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us
with all spiritual blessings.
Who?
In Christ.
These blessings are only from
the Messiah.
Now you can only say the Lord is your shepherd.
You can only receive these spiritual blessings if you are willing to follow Him and do as
He says.
What must we do?
John shows throughout all of it that there is this belief, this need to follow Christ and
do as he says, and also to understand the message that He has given us.
If we turn to John chapter 3, we would see the one that believeth, He is the one that will
be saved.
And the one that believes is going to do what is true.
Now, what is it that is true?
What is true is first, hearing the Word.
Romans 10, 17, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
And after you hear the word of God, what are you willing to do?
You’re willing to do that truth.
John 8, 32, and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free, but it only
makes you free if you follow it.
And to follow it, you confess Christ as Lord.
You confess Christ as being your shepherd.
Romans 10, 10, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation.
And then we repent of sins.
Acts 2, 38, when they realized that they were the ones that killed Christ, when they were
the way that Christ gave his life for the sheep, they said, men and brethren, what shall
we do?
Peter said, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the
remission of sins.
There must be this repentance, meta nuo, a change, meta nuo of mind.
This is a change of the way we live, of the way we think about the things that we once
enjoyed.
And then finally, baptism, being immersed in water, not to show that I have been saved,
but for salvation.
It is ace unto a step toward the remission of sins.
For Christ to be your shepherd, he has shown you what you must do.
If you were not a part of his flock yet, and you want to be a part of his fold, he’s
called you to it.
will you accept it.
If you are already of His fold but have wonder to stray, if you are that one that is away
from the 19 and 9, the Lord wants you back with Him.
And He will forgive any sin that we are willing to confess, that we are willing to make
sure is not a part of our lives anymore.
If there is any need for you to take part in the forgiveness of Christ today, will you
please come forward as we stand and as we sing.
Revelation 9 – Aaron Cozort – March 29, 2026
begin with a word of prayer.
Our gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day that you’ve
granted to us the life that we have as we strive diligently to follow your word, to open
the scriptures, to know what you would have us to do and how you would have us to live,
how you would have us to worship, how you would have us to serve you and serve one
another.
Lord, we pray that as we look through this book of the book of Revelation that we might
understand the things that are written in it, that we might be able to apply the things
that we read to our lives, that we might understand both how the Christians in the first
century endured suffering and persecution and hardship and how we also might be able to do
so in a way that’s in accordance with your will and right in your sight.
Lord, we pray that you be with those who are recovering from illness, from injury, from
surgeries and
from procedures, we pray that you be with them and help them to regain their full and
complete health.
Lord, we pray that you be with those who are struggling with ongoing or chronic uh issues.
We pray that you give them strength to endure in the difficult days and in the hard times
that they have on a continual basis.
Lord, we pray that you be with this congregation.
May its works be those which are right in accordance with your will.
and may we strive diligently to remain sound in the faith.
We also pray that you give us open doors of opportunity to reach the lost, to preach the
gospel, and to help those who are learning, uh yearning to learn the truth to be able to
do so.
All this we pray and ask in Jesus’ name, amen.
We’re in Revelation chapter 9, ah just by way of, especially since we have visitors, we’re
going to do a brief review.
ah Don’t expect you to write all of this down, but anyone who would like it, you’re
welcome to the PowerPoints or the things that we have by way of handout material um and to
review on your own.
As you get into the book of Revelation, John is going to see one who is standing.
in his presence.
And for some reason I’m not getting any text.
Okay, so I messed something up.
me just a minute.
Yeah, let me go fix one thing.
That’s what happens when you fix something right before you walk up and then you don’t
look at it.
Okay, there we go.
I just realized I put a black background behind everything only to…
realized that there were some slides with some black text on them and that’s kind of going
to be important.
Okay, so uh as Revelation chapter 1 opens, John finds himself on the Isle of Patmos and he
is there for his testimony of Christ.
He is by all indications of history and tradition in exile on that island.
As he is in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, that is he is worshiping on the Lord’s Day, uh
he sees and hears a voice or he
a voice, turns around and sees one who is Christ and describes him.
And as he sees Christ, Christ is holding seven stars in his right hand.
He’s surrounded by seven golden lampstands.
And this represents the seven churches of Asia Minor.
We know it represents the seven churches of Asia Minor because we keep beating this drum.
We know it because the book tells us it does.
When the book tells us what
something is and what that means, what should we know?
What it is and what it means.
When it doesn’t tell us what something is and what it means, then the first thing we
should do is keep it in its context.
And after we keep it in its context, we should understand that part of the context of
Revelation is the Old Testament prophets.
the prophets of Daniel, the prophet Ezekiel, the prophet Isaiah, because the visionary
language of Revelation is Old Testament visionary language.
Not all of the items are identical, but they carry forward Old Testament concepts.
to apply to the current generation.
Now, we read in Revelation chapter one that the things which Jesus is telling John, that
John is going to tell to the church are things which must shortly come to pass.
These are things that must take place in a near future point of time.
from the point that John is writing the book in the late 70s, early 80s AD, first century.
So, we get into chapter four.
In chapter four, after the letters have been written to the seven churches of Asia Minor,
John sees an open door and essentially is told, come through the door.
So, he goes through the door and he finds himself into the throne room of God.
As he describes the throne room of God, he’s going to describe the glory of the one who
sits on the throne, but he’s not going to describe the one who sits on the throne.
He’s going to describe his glory
Now, you remember that he describes in chapter four a rainbow as an emerald, okay?
So a greenish colored rainbow he sees in chapter four.
I mentioned that, you’re gonna need to hold on to that.
We’re gonna need that in chapter 10, okay?
uh And so he sees the throne, he sees the spirit of God before the throne, he sees the
beasts that are before the throne, he sees the 24 elders that are before the throne, and
he sees the multitudes
as it fills in throughout the progression of the next chapters.
In chapter four as well, he will see the 24 elders.
Every time the four beasts praise and offer worship to God, the 24 elders take their
crowns, their crowns of victory, they’re not crowns of kings, they’re crowns of victors,
and they’re going to cast them before the throne and praise God.
And then an angel shows up because John looks
into the beginning of chapter five, he looks at to the throne and there the one who’s
sitting on the throne has in his right hand a scroll and the scroll sealed with seven
seals and the angel is going to search heaven and earth to find someone worthy to open the
seals but nobody is found.
No one in heaven, no one on earth, no one under the earth, nobody’s worthy to open the
revelation that comes from God.
And so John begins to weep.
The angel comes and tells John, weep.
We found the one who’s worthy.
It’s the lion of the tribe of Judah.
It is the lamb who appears as though he has been slain, yet he’s standing upright and he’s
alive.
And so the lion, Christ, goes before the throne, takes the book, and is declared worthy to
open the book.
So he begins to open the book.
And in the first seal, we showed the picture earlier and I think it may be in the slide
deck a little bit later, the idea of a scroll where there’s a progression.
You open one seal and a few rolls undo and you can read what’s there, but then you gotta
open the next seal and that’s what’s happening.
You’re getting a progression of revelation.
The very first scroll that’s opened, you see a white horse and the one who goes forth is
conquering and we describe the fact that the one who goes forth is conquering.
the one who rides the white horse in the book of Revelation, the one who’s described by
perfect purity is Christ, okay?
If you’re going to interpret the first seal and the riding of the white horse and the one
who’s going forth and conquering to be anything other than Christ, you’re going to have to
argue with yourself through the whole book of Revelation.
Because every time you see a singular white horse,
and a person riding on it and conquering it’s Christ.
Okay?
And we’re gonna get into that a little bit later.
We’re gonna see that clearly defined.
But the next seal opens and we’ve got wars.
And the next seal opens and we’ve got economic destruction.
And the last seal opens or the fourth seal opens and we’ve got persecution.
We’ve got all of these things happening because the church went forth conquering and now
Satan is on the attack.
Chapter, sorry, not chapter five, we’re still in chapter six.
Chapter six, the fifth seal is opened and John sees in the vision the altar before the
throne of God and under the altar are saints crying out because they’ve been killed as a
result of persecution.
They’re crying out, how long, Lord, are you going to allow this to continue on?
They’re told to rest for a little while.
They’re given white robes.
They’re told, listen, it’s under control.
So then the sixth seal opens and God begins to bring forth the wrath of the lamb and the
wrath of the one who sits on the throne upon those who are on the earth.
And it’s a preview of what’s coming, but it describes in Old Testament language,
the fall of a nation.
That’s all it is, it’s fall of a nation.
God is saying there is someone persecuting my people and I’m going to judge them the same
way I judged Babylon, the same way I judged Edom, the same way I judged Israel, the same
way I judged Jerusalem.
I’m going to deal with them like I always have.
But the question’s asked at the end of chapter six, in the day of the wrath of the land,
Lamb, who’s able to stand?
So chapter seven opens and we begin to see the people of God sealed with the seal or the
name of God.
The point of chapter seven is none of the judgment’s going to start until God has clearly
identified everyone who belongs to Him.
Because if you belong to God, you might endure the hardship of the judgment, but you’re
not the recipient of the judgment.
God’s not judging you.
Now, let’s step back in time and just ask ourselves the question, in the days of Daniel,
Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, in the days of Ezekiel, did the faithful people of Judah
who were faithful to God, did they endure hardship as a result of Babylon coming and
overthrowing Judah?
Absolutely.
They went through suffering.
Some of them died in the middle of it.
Some of them were imprisoned like Jeremiah.
Some of them were carted off in their old age down to Egypt after being left behind in
Jerusalem.
All of these things happened to good people who were faithful to God who endured hardship
during the judgment, but were they the ones being judged?
Matter of fact, God will tell Habakkuk before it ever begins, Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 4,
that the just shall live by faith.
God’s going to make it clear to Habakkuk, I know who belongs to me.
That’s Revelation chapter 7.
Revelation 7 is a pause, a break, a wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, don’t start the judgment
yet because I’m going to answer the question, who can stand in the day of the wrath of the
Lamb?
The answer is
those who wear the name of Christ.
Okay?
So then chapter eight, chapter eight, the seventh seal is opened because there was a pause
between the opening of the sixth seal, which forecasted what was coming and the opening of
the seventh seal.
Now, everything that happens for the rest of the book happens inside the seventh seal.
Okay, the book is in outline form.
when we’re here in a moment, we’re about to get to the seventh trumpet and everything that
happens after that happens inside the seventh trumpet.
And the seventh trumpet and all seven trumpets happen inside the seventh seal.
It’s a progression, okay?
So the seventh seal is open, the first four trumpets begin to sound and in these soundings
of these trumpets, you have
partial judgment and it’s pictured in uh judgments from the book of Exodus.
These are all Egyptian pictures from God judging Egypt.
He’s going to use the Old Testament picture to say, I dealt with Egypt and I’m gonna deal
with these people now.
Okay?
So we open the first.
where we find the first trumpet and verses 1 through 6, you’ve got the trumpets being
handed out to the angels, they’re going to prepare to sound, you see the multitude in
heaven, first trumpet sounds and it’s hail and mixed with fire and a third of something is
destroyed, right?
The point that you’re going to see through all of the trumpets is a third of something, a
third of something, a third of something, it’s partial judgment.
but it’s partial judgment looking back at that Egyptian judgment in the days of Exodus.
So, hail mixed with fire.
We remember there was a plague of hail, right?
And by the way, you read the text in Exodus, it was hail and it was mixed with fire.
eh All indications, was lightning and hail and the lightning was such that when the hail
hit the ground, the lightning ran across the ground.
just based upon the way the text reads.
And then the trumpet number two, a burning mountain.
Where do you see a burning mountain in the book of Exodus?
Sinai.
When they get to Sinai and God begins to speak, what does Israel experience?
This mountain that’s on fire, that’s burning and the voice of the Lord coming forth.
But the burning mountain where God speaks is cast into the sea and a third of everything
in the sea dies.
Okay?
Then you have the third trumpet.
A star falls from heaven, it’s called wormwood and it falls upon the earth.
It falls upon the sea and a third of the sea is turned to bitterness.
Well, where do you see bitterness in the Old Testament?
In the form of water, you see it in Exodus 18.
You see it in the days of Israel as they’re going from Mount Sinai and they’re not
trusting God, okay?
Just Old Testament pictures.
Then you see trumpet number four and you have darkness.
and all the land is turned dark.
Where do you see that?
In the 10 plagues, the plague of darkness, in the book of Exodus.
These are Exodus images, all right?
Chapter eight, verse 13, and I looked and I heard an angel flying through the midst of
heaven.
saying with a loud voice, woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth because of the
remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound.
Now, if you were to go through and do a study of the book of Revelation and you were to go
read and look for the concept or the terms throughout the book, inhabitants of the earth.
You should notate that under discussion in every single one of those contexts, it’s not
the Christians alive on the earth.
It is a reference all throughout the book to the ungodly people on the earth.
It is those who are alive who are in direct disobedience to God.
They are inhabitants of the earth.
The Christians, the faithful people, where is their home?
Their home’s in heaven.
Their inhabitants of an eternal location.
They are sojourners on the earth.
The ungodly are the inhabitants of the earth.
So the woe goes out to the ungodly saying, you’ve just gotten four and the next three are
coming.
So chapter nine opens.
In chapter nine, you’re going to have trumpets five and six, woes one and two, because
again, he said, woe, woe, woe, woe one goes with number five, woe two goes with number
six, woe three goes with number seven, okay?
So we open chapter nine, verse one, then I saw the fifth angels, or sorry, then the fifth
angel sounded, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth.
To him was given the key to the bottomless pit, and he opened the bottomless pit and smoke
arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace, so the sun and the air were
darkened because of the smoke of the pit.
Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth, and to them was given power as the
scorpions of the earth have power.
They were commanded not to harm the green grass of any of the earth.
or any green thing or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on
their foreheads.
Okay, so as we open this seal, or sorry, as we hear this trumpet, let me get my words out.
You’ve got the one who comes forth, this star fallen from heaven who comes forth and he’s
got an army.
His army is what?
Locus, all right, where do we see locusts in the Old Testament?
In Egypt, what did the locusts do in Egypt during the plague of locusts?
They came in and they ate everything.
You go back and you read the text and if it had green, it was consumed.
Every plant, every crop, everything.
you do any research to locust plagues, when they start to migrate and the devastation that
is left behind, is utter.
Devastation because they eat everything except these locusts are different aren’t they?
The locust army comes and guess what?
God tells them don’t eat any of the green stuff.
Wait a minute, what do locusts eat?
The green stuff.
They eat all the plants.
Not these locusts, because guess what they’re not Physical locusts.
These are a judgment from God and they’re not going to do any damage to the plants.
By the way, if you go back and look in the prior partial judgment plan, a third of all the
plant life’s already been destroyed.
But these locusts are gonna ignore the plants, who are they going to attack?
All right.
He says, notice as they come upon the earth, they were given the command to go forth in
verse four and not harm any green thing or any tree or only the men who do not have the
seal of God in their foreheads.
God sends forth this judgment with the one who has the key of the bottomless pit.
And it up comes out of the bottomless pit, the smoke and all these things, and out of the
smoke comes the locust, but the locusts aren’t locusts because they don’t eat anything
green.
Also, the locusts aren’t locusts because what do they also have by way of their nature?
They have the power of the scorpion.
Where is the power of the scorpion?
In his tail.
So you’ve got a locust with a tail of a scorpion.
And he comes forth and the army comes forth and it doesn’t touch any of the green stuff.
It only affects the people who weren’t sealed in chapter seven.
These are the people who don’t have the name of God on their forehead.
These are the people who aren’t faithful to God and this partial judgment comes.
But notice verse 5, they were not given authority to kill them.
but to torment them for five months.
Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man.
In those days, men will seek death and will not find it.
They will desire to die and death will flee from them.
The shape of the locust was like horses prepared for battle.
Now we’ve got a third imagery here of a third animal, the locust.
are locusts that don’t eat anything green, they only attack humans, they’ve got tails like
a scorpion, and now when you look at them, they’re the size of a horse.
Can you imagine a locust plague where all of the locusts were the size of a horse?
He says…
the shape of the locusts were like horses prepared for battle.
On their head were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of
men.
They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lion’s teeth, and they had
breast plates like breast plates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound
of chariots with many horses running into battle.
They had tails like scorpions, and they were, and their…
and there were stings in their tails.
Their power was to hurt men for five months and they had as king over them the angel of
the bottomless pit whose name is in Hebrew is Abedon, but in the Greek he has the name of
Polyon.
One woe is past, behold still two more woes are coming after these things.
So we’ve got this plague, we’ve got this trumpet sound.
It doesn’t kill anybody, but it attacks the ungodly.
What is it?
It’s represented like a locust plague.
It’s got a sting of pain that afflicts people but doesn’t kill them.
The ones who approach with this plague have the appearance like horses that have armor all
over them.
They’ve got breastplates that appear to be like iron.
They’ve got heads that appear like men, hair that appears like a woman.
What are they?
Let me ask it this way, who’s in charge of them?
So the star that had the key to the bottomless pit, the one whose name in Hebrew is
Avedon, the one whose name in the Greek is a Pollyon, which by the way means destruction
and destroyer.
Who is it?
Satan.
You know, wait a minute, hold on a minute.
uh The angel is the one who sounded, he blew the trumpet, you can’t have Satan working on
behalf of God.
Really?
Because we see that all the time in the Old Testament.
Except that when Satan works on behalf of God, who does Satan think he’s working for?
Himself.
So what is Satan’s number one tool for destroying a nation?
Think about all the things represented in the image.
The locust, the scorpion, the armor, the indestructibleness.
the face of men, the hair of women?
What is it that Satan uses to destroy nations?
moral decay.
You can read from history.
What is it that took the nation of Rome down?
Outside forces or inside forces?
Inside.
What is it that is Satan’s primary use of destroying men and making them miserable to the
point that they would desire death and not find it?
sin, wickedness, and immorality.
You see, this plague, this trumpet comes forth and this is the nation tearing itself apart
through sin.
Notice this plague doesn’t affect any of the Christians.
It doesn’t affect anybody whose names, who carries the name of God because they don’t give
their lives over.
to the sin and the moral decay of Satan.
But the world does.
And the nation is persecuted perpetually without dying.
by the actions of Satan.
Have we ever known God to use the moral decay of a nation to bring about the destruction
of a nation?
absolutely, go back to Judah.
Go back to Israel.
Go back to what God would tell them if you don’t follow me.
go back to the book of Exodus and remember that when Moses stood between the two
mountains, Mount Evil, Mount Gerizim, and he gave the blessings and the cursing, he said,
if you follow my word, if you keep my covenant, then these are the things that are going
to happen and you’re going to be blessed and I’m going to cause you to prosper and you’re
going to dwell in a land that is assured and you’re going to have your inheritance and
you’re going to be at peace.
And if you don’t…
You’re going to get this and this and this and this and this and this and this.
Why?
Because you rejected my covenant and you would not follow my law and you decided to side
with sin and abomination instead of God.
Essentially what the picture is is God says, Satan, they’re yours.
They’re gonna do what you tell them to do.
And I’m going to use it as their judgment.
So then you have the next trumpet.
Yes.
It’s partial.
Yeah, so bear in mind, everything about these trumpets are partial.
It’s not perpetual, it’s partial.
Just like the destruction only comes on a third of the men, it’s not everybody, it’s
partial.
This is, by the way, this is the partial one when you get to trumpet number seven.
You’re gonna get the seven bowls being poured out and they’re not gonna be partial
anymore.
These are the warning shots.
By the way, if anybody were to uh decide to go visit a city that gives itself over to sin
and you see and observe that and you see the way the people live and you see the suffering
that is just inundated around that location.
and then you leave it, you go, I sure am glad I left.
Now imagine if you couldn’t leave because everywhere you went it was the same way.
Imagine life in the days of Noah.
You go from village to town to city to this group of people to that group of people and
every God says every thought of every man’s heart was only evil continually.
What must that have been?
So this is partial.
This is a portion of them.
And they’re supposed to be the warning sign that wakes everybody else up and says, hey,
repent.
It’s not gonna work.
So then notice the six trumpet sounds, verse 13.
Then the six angels sounded and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar,
which is before God.
And wait a minute, where was the last place we saw the altar before this?
Go back to chapter 6.
Verse 9, when he opened the fifth seal, saw under the altar the souls of those who had
been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.
The last time you saw the altar, the altar of burnt offering, the last time you saw the
altar of burnt offering, represented from Exodus,
forward into heaven, into the vision, into the picture.
The last time you saw it, you saw a whole bunch of dead Christians under it crying out to
God asking, long are you gonna let this go on?
Yes.
The altar in 8.3 most likely is the Altar of Incense.
Either way, in eight, you find the prayers of the saints offered on the altar.
And so you have the crying out of the altar of the saints under the altar in chapter six,
you have the prayers of the saints in chapter eight as the judgments begin.
So everywhere you see the altar, you’re seeing God’s people being persecuted and God’s
answer.
Okay.
So.
Then the sixth angel sounded and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar,
which is before God saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, release the four angels
who are bound at the great river Euphrates.
God sits on the throne, the altar before the throne, the sounding comes forth, you go
release the four angels.
Where was the last time we saw four angels?
Chapter seven, chapter seven open.
After these things, I saw the four angels standing at the four corners of the earth,
holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth or on the
sea or on any tree.
Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God.
And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth
and the sea.
saying, not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our
God on their foreheads.” You’ve got four angels standing there and they’re pictured in
chapter 7 holding back the wind.
They’re holding back the judgment on the earth and the sea and the trees and everything
because God’s people have to be marked.
Now you have in the sixth trumpet that one who comes from before the altar comes to the
one who’s on the throne and he’s told, let him go.
Let them have at it.
All my people are sealed.
Now notice these individuals, these four angels are bound at the what?
Great River Euphrates.
It is of interest that excluding all of the southern attackers of the nation of Israel,
almost every enemy and invasion of the nation of Israel in Old Testament history came from
a nation that crossed the river Euphrates.
Babylon crossed the river Euphrates.
Assyria crossed the river Euphrates.
The Medo-Persian Empire crossed the river Euphrates.
All of them crossed the river Euphrates to come and invade Israel.
Obviously that wasn’t their only destination, but the point was all the enemies of God’s
people historically in the Old Testament came across the river Euphrates except Egypt.
They came across the Nile.
But the picture is,
God’s judging nations and armies come across the River Euphrates to bring about their
judgment.
So here you have the four angels, they’re standing, they’re bound up at the river
Euphrates.
And notice he says, release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.
So the four angels who had been prepared for the day, the hour, month and year were
released to kill a third of mankind.
So what you need to do, because this is what the book of Revelation says, and therefore,
since that’s what it says, that’s what it means, you need to go find a moment in history
where one third of all humanity dies, and there’s the fulfillment of this passage, right?
Shake your head this way.
Because if you were going to do that right before that, you would have needed to find
where one third of mankind was persecuted.
You would have needed to find where one third of the sun and the stars and moon fell from
the sky.
You would have needed to find one third of this that died and one third of that that died.
The point consistently is not that one third of all humans on the earth suddenly fell over
and died.
The point is,
It’s not all, it’s judgment and not everybody’s dead.
It’s judgment and it’s partial, okay?
So now the number of the army of the horsemen.
Okay, so what do we know about this thing, this uh judgment that comes across the river
Euphrates?
It’s an army, it’s horsemen.
But notice, he says,
uh So the number of the army of the horsemen was 200 million.
In the Old King James, you’re gonna get, uh somebody read it.
All right, 200,000,000.
So in other words, if you have 200,000, you multiply it by a thousand, what do you get?
200 million, okay.
They just did the math for you.
Okay, so the number of the army of the horsemen was 200 million.
I heard the number of them and I saw the horses in the vision.
Oh, by the way, John tells you,
I’m seeing a vision, right?
Did he say he was seeing the events in history as they actually unfolded with an army of
200 million horsemen?
No, he said I saw in the vision.
I just was impressed that he could count all of them.
All right.
So I saw in the horses in the vision, those who sat on them had breastplates like fiery
red, hasent blue and sulfur yellow.
And the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions.
Out of their mouth came fire, smoke and brimstone.
Guess what?
In the vision, even the horses aren’t horses.
In the vision, he sees 200 million horsemen and every single one of their horses has a
head like a lion.
And when they open their mouths, out come fire and brimstone and smoke.
And a premillennialist says, see, it’s nuclear weapons.
As brother Jim McGuigan said, you can’t even spell nuclear weapons that way.
to which the premillenials would say, well it’s figurative.
really?
If it’s figurative then why is it nuclear weapons?
But notice what happens.
Verse 18, by these three, what?
Fire, smoke, brimstone.
By these three, a third of mankind was killed by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone
which came out of their mouths.
their power is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like serpents
having heads with them, they do harm.
But the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works
of their hands, that they should not worship demons and idols of gold, silver, brass,
stone and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.
They did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or
their thefts.
Army of 200 million comes across the River Euphrates.
They’re on horseback, except the horses have heads of lions.
And when they open their mouths, fire, smoke, and brimstone come out.
And guess what the destruction comes from?
their words.
their words.
You see…
God saying, I’m going to unleash.
those who are going to bring about people’s destruction through their words.
If
If you were to listen to a false prophet, if you were to listen to a false teacher, if you
were to obey their commands and do what they said, where would you end up eternally?
Hell!
Why?
Because instead of worshipping God, you’re going to worship demons and idols of gold and
silver, brass, stone, wood.
You’re going to involve yourself in murders and sorceries and adulteries and fornication
and all things that God oppose
and God’s telling His people, I’m gonna send them lesson one, lesson two, lesson three,
lesson four, lesson five, lesson six, and by the time we get to the end of lesson six,
after we’ve seen all of this partial judgment, guess what?
They’re not gonna.
and because they don’t repent, chapter 10 through chapter 12.
God’s going to begin to comfort His people.
because had the wicked of the earth repented, just like in the days of Jerusalem and
Judah, had they repented, then the judgment would have stopped.
But God’s gonna tell Jeremiah, they’re not gonna repent.
And so the words that you speak are going to tell them of the judgment that’s going to
come.
And chapter 10, you’re going to see God saying to His people, you’re about to go through
it.
You’re about to suffer.
You’re going to be killed.
You’re going to be hurt.
You’re going to be persecuted.
And don’t you think for a moment that I don’t know.
As a matter of fact, I’m going to tell you it before it ever begins.
Okay?
That’s where we’ll pick up.
Who Will Our God Reward – Aaron Cozort – March 29, 2026
Again, want to welcome you to our worship this day.
We’re grateful for your presence and encourage you, if you will, to open your Bible.
We’re going to begin in Zephaniah.
Zephaniah, one of the Old Testament prophets.
It’s going to prophesy to Israel.
And in Zephaniah chapter 2, he’s going to call upon Israel to gather yourselves together.
He is going to tell the people to pay attention, to observe and to listen to the things
that he is about to say.
He says, gather yourselves together.
Yes, gather together, O undesirable nation.
If you’ve ever had somebody encourage a bunch of people to gather around and then insult
them, that’s what Zephaniah just did.
In my mind, I kind of picture the drill sergeants with the young recruits or the Navy
SEALs going through as is pictured Hell Week.
they get torn down every way they can get torn down verbally by their instructors during
the process of that time.
Zephaniah is going to say to Israel, gather yourselves together.
Yes, gather together, O undesirable nation, before the decree is issued or the day passes
like chaff, before the Lord’s fierce anger comes upon you, before the day of the Lord’s
anger comes upon you.
Zephaniah draws Israel’s attention and he focuses their attention and he gathers them
together and says, hey, you need to listen up.
because God’s anger is about to be poured out on you.
and you need to hear something before it happens.
Verse three, we read, seek the Lord.
As Zev and I addresses the people that claim to belong to God, that claim to be the
descendants of Abraham, that claim to be the people in a covenant relationship with God,
though they do not live like it, he calls upon those people to wake up, listen up, gather
up and seek
the LORD.
He says, seek the LORD all you meek of the earth who have upheld his justice.
Seek righteousness, seek humility.
It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the LORD’s anger.
As Zephaniah calls the people together and he broaches this conversation with them, he
lets them know that by and large
They’re going to be judged!
But just like as you gather a large group of people who appear to be of the same
background, appear to be of the same persuasion, appear to be of the same nature, appear
to be of the same walk of life, there are a few scattered around that aren’t.
And so he gathers the people not because of the people at large, but because he needs to
talk to the ones who are scattered among them.
who are living differently than they are.
who are going to seek the Lord, who are living in humility, who are going to stand before
God in meekness and obedience.
And Zephaniah says, if you do this, it may be.
It could be the outcome of that you will be hidden in the days of the Lord’s wrath.
From this discussion, I want us to consider…
who our God will reward.
To the nation of Israel as addressed by Zephaniah, God is going to give to that nation
judgment.
He is going to bring upon them His fierce anger.
But to those scattered amongst them who live a life of meekness, who live a life of
humility, who live and seek the Lord, God says, you will have my
refuge
and my reward.
So let us consider who our God will reward.
As we already see here, number one, God rewards the meek and not the proud.
As you consider Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 11, Isaiah will write as another prophet to Israel
as he looks forward to the things that are going to occur later on in Israel’s history.
as he continues to look forward to the days of the Messiah as well.
We read in Isaiah chapter 11 and beginning in verse three, his delight is in the fear of
the Lord, and he shall not judge by sight, by the sight of his eyes, nor decide by the
hearing of his ears.
But with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the
earth.
He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips he
shall slay the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt of his loins and faithfulness the belt of his waist.
As Isaiah looks forward to the rod of Jesse pointing to the Messiah, as he looks forward
to the Messiah, the King of the kingdom of God,
the King of kings and Lord of lords.
He says concerning that one who will reign that he will judge with the poor and he will
decide with equity for the meek of the earth.
As Isaiah looks forward to Christ, as he looks forward to the Messiah, he says in the very
nature of how he judges and how he acts that he will decide on behalf of those who stand
in meekness before God.
It is therefore no strange wonder that as Jesus opens the Beatitudes, as He speaks in that
Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew chapter 5 through Matthew chapter 7, that He says,
blessed are the me.
Now, some might ask, great Aaron, but you keep using this word and I don’t know what meek
means.
Does it mean weak?
No.
It means strength under control.
Moses in the Old Testament was described as the meekest man in all the earth.
And yet Moses was no weak individual.
Moses dealt with leading a nation of a million plus people through a wilderness for 40
years, starting at age 80.
He was no weak person.
when he arrived at death’s door, when he arrived at the point at which God says, you’re
not going to cross over, you’re not going to go into the land, the text tells us in the
book of Deuteronomy that Moses’ strength was not diminished at all.
And yet…
Moses is described as meek.
Moses was one who had strength under control, deferred to the control of God.
You see, there are individuals who have strength under control.
They have their own strength and they have it under their own control.
God says that’s not going to work.
It has to be turned over to my control.
God wants those who will seek the Lord.
They desire His purposes be brought forth.
They desire that His work be done.
When you turn back to Matthew chapter 5…
Jesus.
will admonish the people over and over and over again to be like their God.
If we start in verse 3 of chapter 5, we read, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of
God.
You go down to verse 43 and Jesus says, you have heard that it was said, you shall love
your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate
you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the sons
of your father in heaven.
Jesus is not calling upon people to exert self-control in their lives.
Jesus is calling upon people to exert God’s control over their lives.
Paul O’Riite and Philippians.
As he writes to this church that interacted with him so often, that supported him, that
gave aid to him, he will write to them in chapter 1 and in verse 19, he says, for I know
that this will turn out for my deliverance, though your prayer or through your prayer and
supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed.
but with all boldness as always so now also Christ will be magnified in my body whether by
life or by death.” Paul would insist that his life had been handed over to Christ to do
the will of Christ.
That wasn’t something that Paul just thought might be a good idea.
He was simply following the example of Christ.
As Jesus knelt in that garden and prayed to the Father, as the uh betrayal was about to
happen, as the trials were about to commence, as the crucifixion was nigh, Jesus prayed,
not my will, but thine.
Be done.
God will reward the meat.
but not the one who usurps God’s authority.
God also will reward, as we saw back in Zephaniah chapter 2, those who live with humility.
God rewards the humble and not the proud.
In James chapter 4,
James will write to the Christians beginning in verse 6, God resists the proud.
James doesn’t leave any arguments.
He doesn’t leave any negotiations.
doesn’t leave any hedging.
He doesn’t leave any margin.
He says, God resists the proud,
but gives grace to the humble.
He goes on to say, therefore submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee you.
Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Lament and mourn and weep.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up.
Who does the Lord reward?
The humble, not the proud.
Many times in our daily lives as we observe the world going on around us, as we observe
the actions of people around us, we see the proud being successful.
We see the proud boasting.
We see the proud doing well.
We see the proud being those who are recognized, those who are elevated, those who are
exalted, those who are praised.
and yet we often fail to consider.
What does the LORD see?
The Lord sees someone He opposes.
The Lord sees someone that He is in distinct opposition against.
The Lord sees someone that He is actively resisting because of their choices.
And throughout all of these passages, Zephaniah has told us, Jesus has told us, Paul has
told us, James now tells us.
Get close to God.
Zephaniah said, Seek the LORD.
Jesus said, be like the Lord.
James now says, draw near to the Lord.
when you read those words.
Imagine if you would a small child.
And they know that in the vicinity, in the closeness to their parent, as the small child
latches on to the leg of the parent…
They know they have safety.
They do not imagine themselves to be equal with the parent, not in those moments.
They do not imagine themselves to be authoritative over the parent.
They do not imagine themselves to be those who can direct their own path.
As a matter of fact, wherever that leg goes, they are going to go.
They have exhibited the perspective of seek the Lord, draw near to the Lord, hold on to
God.
in first samuel chapter seventeen
David will be sent by his father.
to go to where the army is of Israel because his brothers are in the army.
And he will go with supplies to where the army is located as they are encamped across the
valley from the Philistines.
So David, as the young man that he is, will bring the supplies that his father has sent
him with.
And as he arrives at the place where the army is encamped, he will hear the declaration
made by Goliath by the Philistines across the valley.
Send out one of your men.
We will do battle.
And the winner takes all.
Send out your best.
Send out the warrior that holds allegiance to your God.
I will.
David is astonished.
because no one from Israel is going out to meet Goliath.
You notice there in 1 Samuel chapter 17 as David is observing this, he is going to be
admonished by his older brother concerning the things that he is doing and verse 29 David
said, what have I done now?
Is there not cause?
as David is wondering who is going to go out on behalf of God and defend against this
blasphemer.
David wants to know from his own brother, is there not a cause?
If you go down in the text to verse 40.
David will have said, I’ll go.
And so Saul’s going to offer David his armor.
And David says, I’ve not proved these things.
I’ve not tested them.
They’re not mine.
Verse 40, then he took his staff in his hand and he chose for himself five smooth stones
from the brook and put them in the shepherd’s bag in a pouch, which he had, and his sling
was in his hand and he drew near to the Philistine.
So the Philistine came and began drawing near to David.
And the man who bore the shield went before him.
And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him, for he was only a
youth, ruddy and good looking.
So the Philistine said to David, Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks?
And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of
the air and the beasts of the field.
Then David said to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword, with a spear and with a
javelin.
But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom
you have defied.
This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head
from you.
And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the
air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in
Israel.
Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save.”
with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.”
So it was when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David that David
hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.
Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone, and he slung it and struck the
Philistine in his forehead so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his
face to the earth.
So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone and struck the Philistine
and killed him, but there was no sword in the hand of David.
As David went down into the valley to confront the Philistine, David did not say, I can
accomplish this.
as the Philistine, as Goliath boasted and claimed he would take David’s carcass and feed
it to the birds, he said, oh no.
but the Lord is going to deliver you into my hands.
David was humble.
David did not lift himself up.
David said,
I don’t know who you got on your side, but I know who I’ve got on mine.
And you’re not winning.
in Micah chapter 6 and verse 8.
Micah asked the question of Israel, what does the Lord require of you?
but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
God will reward the meek and not the usurper.
God will reward the humble and not the proud.
But then consider as well that Paul tells us that God will reward the obedient and not the
great.
Paul as he is nearing the end of his life.
We’ll write to Timothy, this young preacher who had spent so much time traveling with
Paul, who had observed Paul’s age.
I imagine for Timothy, the impressiveness of Paul in physical presence had diminished
somewhat from what he had met during that second missionary journey.
You say, Aaron, why would you think that Paul had diminished?
Well, go read 2 Corinthians and read the list of things Paul’s physical body had gone
through.
And you’ll see why I say he’s probably diminished somewhat physically.
When you’ve been shipwrecked,
When you’ve been beaten, when you’ve been stoned, you’re going to carry around in your
body, as Paul said he did, evidence of the things you had endured for the cause of Christ.
And for everyone who’s ever spent a whole bunch of years pursuing athletics, and then they
get older, and you realize you’re paying for all of those years where you thought you were
just getting stronger and stronger, and now you’re paying for it over and over again.
Paul, most likely in his physical presence, had diminished as he sat in a Roman prison.
But as he writes to Timothy, he says, I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus
Christ, will judge the living and the dead and is appearing in his kingdom, preach the
word.
Be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and
teaching.
Paul tells Timothy, you keep speaking God’s word.
You do it day in and day out.
season in and season out whenever they want to hear it and whenever they don’t.
As a matter of fact, he says, for the time will come when they will not endure sound
doctrine.
But according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap to
themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside
to fables.
But you be watchful in all things.
Endure afflictions.
Do the work of an evangelist fulfill your ministry?
He says, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering in the time of my departure
is at hand.
I have fought the good fight.
I have finished the race.
I have kept the faith.
Finally there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous
judge will give to me on that day and not to me only.
but to all those who love his appearing.
Paul will admonish Timothy, you keep preaching the truth.
You preach the truth when they are not living right and need to be rebuked.
You preach the truth when they’re not acting right and they need to be exhorted.
You preach the truth.
when they’re slowing down in their obedience to God and they need to be admonished.
You preach the truth when they turn their back on God and don’t want to hear it anymore.
But then you obey the truth and you fight the good fight and you finish the course no
matter who else does.
because my Lord rewards the obedient.
My Lord rewards those who love His appearing.
Matthew chapter 7.
Jesus will point out, not everyone that says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of
heaven, but those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Our God will reward the obedient, not the great.
Your stature, your grandeur, your glory, your riches, your prominence, your dwelling place
do not matter when it comes to the reward of God.
Your obedience does.
But fourthly and finally, turn to Revelation chapter 13.
I know for those who are in my Sunday morning Bible class on the book of Revelation, I’m
getting ahead.
That’s OK.
We’ll get there.
Revelation, Chapter 13.
John will make clear to us in chapter 13 and chapter 14 that God will reward the faithful.
not the success.
God will reward the faithful.
In Revelation chapter 13, then I stood on the sand of the sea and I saw a beast rising up
out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his
head a blasphemous name.
You don’t have to understand all the pictures, just know this.
The very name of the creature was in stark opposition to God.
The very presence of the creature was in stark opposition to God.
And notice, now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a
bear, his mouth was like the mouth of a lion, the dragon gave him his power, his throne,
his great authority, and I saw one of his heads as it had been mortally wounded, and his
deadly wound was healed, and all the world marveled and followed the beast.
So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast, they worshiped the beast
saying, who is like the beast?
Who is able to make war with him?
And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority
to continue for 42 months.
Then he opened his mouth and blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name, his tabernacle,
and those who dwell in heaven.
It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority was
given him over every tribe and tongue and nation.
All who dwell on the earth will worship him whose names have not been written in the book
of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
If anyone has an ear, let him hear.
The picture John writes is of Satan handing off his power to this great world power and
this world power blasphemes against God.
And he causes people to worship Satan instead of God.
And he causes people to do that which is in opposition to God.
And then he begins to torment and to persecute and to kill the people of God and he
overcomes them.
and the people of God could not be considered in terms of the beast successful.
For they’re defeated, they’re killed, they’re persecuted, they’re destroyed, and the whole
world praises the one who’s killing the people of God until you go to chapter 14.
In chapter 14, beginning in verse 9, then the third angel followed them, saying with a
loud voice, If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on their
forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God,
which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation.
He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in
the presence of the lamb.
and the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever, they have no rest day or night
who worship the beast in his image and who receive the mark of his name.
Here is the patience of the saints.
Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me,
And the thing that comes forth from the throne of God that is spoken by the angel, that he
tells John, you need to write this down.
He tells John.
Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.
Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works followed.
The whole world.
in the days of the first century church.
Had gone after the world power that looked to be so great,
so powerful.
The solution to all their problems, prosperity, joy, all the things that they wanted they
could get from the beast.
And God says…
and when you die.
Let me tell you where you’ll end,
but to the Christians who that world power was killing, throwing into the midst of the
lions and having them torn apart for sport.
God says, and when you die, let me tell you where you’ll
because God rewards the faithful, not the successful.
as you consider your Lord, as you consider the God of heaven who exists.
Who will our God reward?
The meat.
humble, the obedient and the faithful.
So the question for us is, are we?
Are we meek?
Are we humble?
Are we obedient?
Are we faithful?
Because if we’re not,
Scripture is quite clear that there is a reward for the enemy of God.
And it’s not a crown.
It is judgment.
If you have need of the invitation, maybe you say, Aaron, I’m not sure whose side I’m on.
I’m not sure how I would know.
I know whose side I want to be on, but I don’t know.
How can I know?
Well, the scripture can tell you how you
So if you’d like to study more about it, we’d love you to ask your questions.
But if you have a need of the invitation of Christ right now, why not come as we stand and
as we sing.
How We Got The Bible – Ben Shanks – Jun 7, 2026
Tonight, or this afternoon, we’re gonna have a little different topic um than my normal
Psalms.
ah But today I wanted to talk about…
um
How we got the Bible.
So if you think back throughout history, the Bible is a strange book.
It is a book that is written by 40 plus authors.
um It was written over a very long period of time, um but it is a book that has a unified
message to it.
So how did we get
the Bible that we use today.
If you look at Christianity as a whole, there are several versions of the Bible.
um There is the 66 book collection ah that we probably all have sitting in front of us
right now.
um If you look at the Orthodox and Catholic Church, they have a few extra books in there,
seven additional books and a few extra chapters in Daniel and Esther.
And those books that are in the Catholic Bible are
referred to by the Catholics as the deuterocanon, um referred to by uh most non-Catholic
Christians as the apocrypha.
um
But they’re a collection of books that are mostly historical in nature or prayers or
sermons.
So Tobit is a story about uh God testing the faithful.
Judith is a war adventure story, almost like the Xena warrior princess of the Bible.
ah
And Esther has some additionals, but it’s mainly like collections of sayings from
Mordecai’s perspective.
ah First and second Maccabees document the war that happened with the Maccabean revolt.
About our main point of reference is saying happy Hanukkah to somebody once a year.
ah
Wisdom of Solomon were other collections of proverbs that were attributed to Solomon.
Serach is a collection of sermons.
Baruch was Jeremiah’s scribe and his writings were collected here.
There are two additional chapters in Daniel, one where Daniel ah proves that the
idolatrous priests were making magic happen through Mary Manuel activity um and one that
was him defying
offending a young uh Israelite girl um from elders who were taking advantage of her.
um Then you also have in some versions of it first and second address, are expansions on
Ezra.
um One of them is ah basically history from other perspectives.
It contains the book of Ezra, but then it also has some additional stuff to it.
Second, Ezra is more of an apocalyptic approach about the return from the perspective of
Jews who were in the diaspora, specifically Jews who lived in Egypt.
And then there’s also the prayer of Manasseh, which is…
um
Manasseh’s prayer when he is finally captured and taken back and rejects idolatry finally
from being like one of the most idolatrous kings there were.
ah Then there’s the Ethiopian ah Orthodox Bible which adds some additional books of
estrus, more modern or more versions of the story of the Maccabean revolt, the book of
Enoch, and one additional psalm.
But when we look at these books,
The reason they’re not included in the Bible we use is because they were only included as
some additional writings in ah the Septuagint.
So if you look at what happened, there was a concerted effort to translate the Bible to
Greek.
ah The Greek world was…
interested in what the Jews were doing and they brought 70 scholars over, they brought
them down to the city of Alexandria and they started translating the Bible from some
original Hebrew, mostly Aramaic texts, but they started translating the Bible and when
these scholars got together, these scholars said, okay, of these 70, 80 writings that we
have, these are the 39 that should be considered scripture.
These other writings are writings that should be considered more of spiritual works, but
not necessarily scripture.
And so as they collected these 39 books together,
There was a, of the other books were included as part of the collection.
But one thing that is a little different in the way we think about something is we use a
technology that was invented in the first century AD.
Prior to the first century AD, all of these writings were on scrolls.
And it’s difficult for us to kind of frame our mind around the mindset they had then, that
you had a common knowledge of what was scripture, but that there wasn’t something that had
a sequence to it.
So you had what they referred to as the Tanakh.
So the Tanakh is, the translation is that they are the law, the prophets, and the
writings.
And the Tanakh is often what is referred to by New Testament apostles as scripture.
So those were the 39 books that we call.
So the law was the books that we call the law, the Torah, but it was also all the
histories all the way up through Second Chronicles.
And then the…
Writings were Psalms, Job, uh Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, and then the
prophets were all of the books of the prophets, whether it was the major or minor
prophets.
So divided up a little differently than what we think about now.
But they also, when they translated them, they also translated um the Apocrypha.
and they included that in the writing.
And they also had a bunch of writings from different religious groups, different, so all
of these were like collections of, considered part of the collection of knowledge, but not
necessarily considered part of scripture.
When we get to the New Testament, some of these scriptures, mostly when it’s referred to
in the New Testament, they refer to a specific author, it’s from the 39 books.
There is one reference to the book of Enoch
Jude, but the reference in the book of Enoch was because Enoch collected ideas from three
or four other writings into that one passage that he quoted.
So these were all books that were considered to be worthy of study.
And when we look at
ah The idea of canonicity how we collected the 39 books of the Old Testament It’s
something that was sort of a new concept Because when you had this collection of scrolls
you wanted to get as many scrolls as you could Because you wanted to study about God you
weren’t concerned with are these specific scrolls?
Scripture or not, but it was commonly acknowledged that the Tanakh was what was considered
to be scripture So the 39 books that are the law the prophets and the right
meetings.
What drove that is you had to think about how you organize things differently when you
built a codex, when you built a book, than you had to when you built a collection of
scrolls.
So.
The move from a codex or from the scrolls to a codex system had them start thinking and
putting thought into how do we put this together in a sequence that makes sense.
So if you look even back to how the Torah itself was written, the Torah itself, we
commonly say Moses wrote the Torah.
But there’s a lot of things in the Torah that had to have been added later.
So all the references pretty much every time you see and is the same until this day, that
was a comment that was added later.
So we have a little different way of perceiving the Bible because we have 2,000 years of
history of having it collected, whereas the Jews didn’t necessarily add that.
They had a collection of religious writings that they were looking at.
And there’s three views of how the Torah was put into its final form.
One is that there were four separate groups that were authoring it.
That’s kind of the scholar review.
There’s been a lot of questions about that, a lot of arguments about that.
And that’s one thing scholars love to do is argue about stuff.
ah So ah people have made their doctorates based on this.
But realistically, when we look at it, we have references back to the Torah existing at
least since Ezra.
So if you look at the collections of the writings of Moses, of Joshua, of Ezra, probably
had editorial things entered in it.
That’s probably where a lot of these references to it remains this way until this day is
because Ezra was a scholar and when he was putting the Torah together in its final form,
he was adding notes in there to put it into the historical reference for a collection of
people who had been sent in an accident
and were um needed to be reminded that this was real and needed it to be framed up into
something that was real.
So when we look at these writings, even down to, we like to refer to book, chapter, and
verse, right?
That’s a very recent addition to the Bible.
And there are lots of mistakes that were made when we did that.
So if you look at the chapters, the chapters are divided out around 1200 AD.
The verses weren’t added until around 1500 AD.
The first English Bible that had book chapter and verse was the Geneva Bible.
And if you look, you don’t have to look further than the first page to see where they made
a mistake.
when they had the book chapter and verse.
We have to remember that
While the word of God is infallible, the work of man is very fallible.
So if you look at Genesis chapter 1, chapter 1 really doesn’t end until Genesis chapter 2
verse 3.
So when man started working on organizing things, not changing the words, but trying to
help people get things organized, there are mistakes made all throughout out the books and
chapters and verses where they’ll end a verse in the middle of a sentence or they’ll end a
chapter before they finish the thought from the previous chapter.
So we have to remember as we study the word, it wasn’t written from a perspective of being
divided up into books and to chapters.
into specific verses that were called out.
It was meant to be read as a whole, as something that was complete.
So when we look at how we got the Bible, it was a lot of people working towards a common
goal, trying to establish what God wanted us to say.
Inspired by God, but
it was something that had modified over time.
When we get over to the New Testament, it’s a more recent history, less authorship in it.
And it’s a lot easier to nail down exactly how we got the New Testament.
So the New Testament is made up of 27 books.
They’re divided into the four gospels, the book of history of the Acts of the Apostles,
the writings of Paul, the writings of other disciples, and then the book of prophecy.
So when they were trying to decide what was going to be included in the New Testament,
they said, is there something that directly connects this to an apostle, to one of the 12
plus Paul?
Does it align with the rest of the words?
And was there common acceptance?
So by 140 AD, we have records that there was common acceptance that the books of the New
Testament were the 27 that we look at.
If you look at how they were circulated during the time, first, second, and third John
were circulated together across the churches all the time.
A lot of these epistles were connected together.
So 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians would have been connected together into one codex.
They would have been sent to different churches and put into the collection of together.
Not something that after the initial writing, because there were four letters to the
church at Corinth, we only have two of them.
There were…
Likely, first, second, and third John were written at the same time.
They read very similar.
And they were probably written to one church specifically, but intended for different
members of the church.
First John intended to be read publicly amongst all the members.
And then second John and third John written to specific people.
But these works were all circulated together.
They’re all commonly accepted.
During this time frame, there were a lot of people writing additional works.
There were works that we call the Gnostic Works.
where people were trying to take Eastern religion, take things that were passed along the
Silk Road, and integrate those into this new religion that seemed to be taking over the
world.
And you went with books like the Gospel of Thomas or the Gospel of Mary Magdalene or the
Gospel of Judas, which the Gospel of Judas being a glaring example of somebody writing
something from a very biased perspective that had very little to do with the rest of the
scripture.
ah You have the infancy gospels, which frame, some of them frame Jesus in a negative
light.
ah You have the apocalypse of Peter, but you also have a bunch of sermons that were passed
around.
So the Shepherd of Hermes, the Didache, the writings of Barnabas, these were sermons that
were collected and were passed around.
But it was pretty easy for them to decide.
And realistically, the first reference we have that says these are something to be
considered canon comes all the way from 350.
But that 350 traces its way all the way back nearly to the first century.
have original writings where they are saying that these are the only books that are
important.
So why am I talking about this?
Because I’ve had conversations with people over the years.
Like, they frame up the Bible as something that is foulable because it was written over
such a long period of time.
They frame the Bible as something where you can’t trust it because how can you be sure we
have the original words?
If you look back to Hebrew, Hebrew didn’t have vowels.
The vowels are added, I think, around 700 AD.
So it is not something, it is, they didn’t even have spaces when Moses was writing.
So how can you be sure that the Bible is infallible if they don’t even have any of modern
things?
So about 500 years after Moses lived, they invented the space between words.
So there are lots of arguments.
And part of what we need to be able to do is we need to be able to counter those
arguments.
So I’m gonna turn over to the book of Matthew real quick.
And in Matthew chapter five, we have what is famously referred to as the Sermon on the
Mount.
And Jesus is delivering a sermon, and during the sermon he goes through the blessings.
And then he goes to, in verse 13, he starts to talk about the people.
You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made
salty again?
It is good for nothing anymore except to be thrown out and trampled under feet by men.
You are the light of the world, a city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a peck measure, but the lamp stand and give light
to those in your house.
Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and
glorify your father who is in heaven.
So after that framework.
of you need to go share truth with the world.
You need to go be that light set on a hill.
Jesus takes just a minute to explain what he means by that.
Do not think that I came in to abolish the law or the prophets.
I did not come to to abolish but to fulfill.
For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or
stroke shall pass away from the law until all is accomplished.
Jesus didn’t struggle with what was law and what wasn’t law.
He didn’t struggle because he knew the Father provided.
He knew that God would not let the law be confusing.
He would not let people struggle with it.
So when that argument is framed up, that we can’t trust the Bible, it’s because they’re
missing the whole point.
They’re missing the fact that God is actively involved into protecting his word.
Even today.
If you think back.
Over the last 100 years or so.
There’s been a lot of attempts to discredit the Bible by doing a new translation.
And this has been going on for a long time.
Thomas Jefferson famously threw James out of his version of the Bible.
because he struggled with the idea of faith and works.
So he just removed the whole book from his Bible.
There’s been translations like the Jive Bible, where not only do they translate it into
slang, but they translate it into very vulgar slang.
There’s been translations that have been done as a spoof or as a joke.
but everyone on the planet still has access to the word of God.
God’s not going to allow that to be taken away.
Jesus promised us there that it wouldn’t be taken away, that there was nothing man could
do to destroy the word of God.
In 2 Timothy 3,
All scripture is inspired of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and
instruction in righteousness, that the man may be perfect, thoroughly furnished to all
good works.
That is both a promise and a challenge.
God is going to protect the scripture.
He’s going to make sure that it’s there for our instruction, for our correction, for our
perfection.
But it’s also a challenge to us that we have to become that word.
We have to become living embodiments, just as Jesus referred in Matthew chapter five.
We have to be that light to the world.
We have to know God’s word.
We have to live God’s word.
in Revelation 22 as John is closing out the prophecy.
We see him make a reference that reminds us of this promise that Jesus gave.
Verse 18, I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book.
If anyone adds to them, God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book.
And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away
his part from the tree of life and from the holy city which are written in this book.
those people who have made those changes, who have made a mockery of the scripture.
That’s who this promise is to.
So how can we be sure?
Well, if you flip over to Hebrews chapter 11, we have something that is much more
powerful.
much more powerful.
than a documented systematic history, a record of exactly who wrote what chapter, what
verse, what letter.
We have a promise.
Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
For it, the men of old gained approval.
By faith, we understand the worlds that were prepared by the word of God.
so that what is seen is not made out of the things which are visible.
Faith is our proof.
It is the evidence.
It is our conviction.
Because we know God has promised that he’s going to provide his scripture to us, that he’s
going to give us what we need.
And we know he’s active.
You can see his influence all throughout history.
The level of excruciating detail that the scribes went to when they were translating or
when they were transcribing the Bible literally dictated letter by the letter in Latin to
make sure that the Bible, every time it was printed, was 100 % correct.
through all the translations that we have, whether it’s to English, whether it is to
Latin, whether it is back to Greek, whether it is to modern Greek, all of these
translations, God is actively protecting.
And if he’s not protecting it, it’s obvious.
Things like the Jive Bible.
But he’s actively guiding us even today to make sure that no letter disappears from the
Bible.
So it wasn’t a struggle for the apostles.
They knew what they were doing when they referenced scriptures.
All throughout the New Testament are hyperlinks back to the Old Testament, back to
prophecy, back to Psalms, back to Proverbs, back to Job.
This Bible is a living document.
It is a living word.
Jesus didn’t struggle with it.
The scholars of the day didn’t struggle with it.
They were pretty firm when they picked the 39 books that we included in the Old Testament.
They’re extremely firm and there are thousands of documented discussions about the New
Testament and what books we picked.
But at the end of the day, it’s not something we have to worry about because it’s
something that God promises he’s going to take care of.
So in Hebrews chapter four, back a few pages.
Verse 12 and 13.
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing
as far as division of the soul and spirit, both joints and marrow, able to judge the
thoughts and intentions of the heart.
There is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the
eyes of him.
to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
There’s nothing hidden from God.
and he’s providing protection for his word.
It’s not something that’s going to change because God’s not going to allow it.
It’s not something that we have to worry about because we have faith in God, in His
instruction, and in His desire to be with us, to be reunited with us.
With that, knowing that we are assured that God is providing for us, knowing that we have
a God who we can see evidence all throughout history, has protected his word, has
protected his message to us.
who not only was willing to save the Word, but was willing to send the Word to us, was
willing to offer his Son up to come here and show us what it meant to be the living Word
of God.
To be an example,
to be.
what we all hope to be.
someone who was so zealous and so strong in his knowledge of the word.
that he didn’t have to make decisions, he just was.
He was the greatest of teachers.
He was someone who loved not just those around him, but loved so deeply that the whole
world is now blessed through him.
Loved his creation so much that he was willing to offer himself as a sacrifice.
This is the same God that’s actively protecting His Word.
So if anybody needs to be reunited with God, needs to follow the word religion to its
original route, to be re-tied to God, if anybody needs a prayer, please come forward as we
stand and sing.
What Future You Needs To Read – Jacob Kennedy – Jun 7, 2026
If you think back over the last 100, well, I guess you could, seeing that it’s the 250th
anniversary of the United States, 250 years ago, a lot’s changed in the world today.
A lot has changed since the era of horse and buggy travel.
A lot’s changed since the invention of the light bulb and electricity.
A lot’s changed over the years, and yet one thing stays the same.
man still has trouble.
Man still has things that we need to know.
Things that we maybe even look forward into the future as it were and say, future me needs
to know this.
when we think about our lives as individuals.
Maybe there are certain problems that uh you say that’s a future me problem.
That’s a problem for another day, right?
But when we think about our lives as Christians, some things don’t need to be put off.
Some things need to be taken care of right now.
But as taking the high road, most of us in here are faithful children of God, faithfully
trying to serve the Lord.
What do you want your future self to know?
What do you want your future self to read?
When we think about this idea, we are going at it from this idea of there will be
struggles in our lives years from now, maybe just weeks from now.
But when we face these struggles in our lives, when we think about what our future holds,
we need to think about it from the standpoint of what the Word of God tells us, of how we
can endure troubles, of how we can make it through trials.
of how we can be strong in the Lord no matter what happens on this earth.
The first thing that we need to know is that we are not alone.
If you would, open your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 20.
You see, Jeremiah, he was no stranger to difficulty.
He was one that faced much persecution in his life.
In fact, his time as a prophet was spent without anyone ever listening and truly heeding
his words.
He was ignored.
And so he had a strenuous tenure.
He had a difficult time as a prophet.
Picking up in verses one through six of Jeremiah 20,
Now, Pasher the son of Emre, the priest who was also chief governor in the house of the
Lord, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.
He prophesied of coming destruction.
He prophesied of where their sin would lead them, of what the end result of falling in
their current wicked state would be.
Now, Pasher didn’t like to hear this.
And so in verse 2, then Pasher struck Jeremiah the prophet.
and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house
of the Lord.
And it happened on the next day that Pasher brought Jeremiah out of the stocks.
Then Jeremiah said to him, the Lord has not called your name Pasher, but Maggermizbub.
Try saying that three times fast.
thus says the Lord, behold, I will make you a terror to yourselves and to all your
friends.
and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it.
It will give all Judah into the hand, and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king
of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon and slay them with a sword.
Moreover, I will deliver all the wealth of the city and all its produce and all its
precious things, and all the things of the treasures of the king of…
of the kings of Judah, I will give into the hand of their enemies, who will plunder them,
seize them and carry them to Babylon.
And you, pasture, and all who dwell in your house shall go into captivity.
You shall go down, you shall go to Babylon, and there you shall die, and be buried there.
You and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lie.
When we think about this idea of Jeremiah as being facing trouble, of facing trial.
there were those who were claiming to be servants of God.
Pasher was one who was claiming to be a prophet of God, but he was prophesying lies.
He was lying about the very things that Jeremiah was speaking the truth of God concerning.
And when Jeremiah presents the truth, Pasher tries to silence him.
Now as we kept reading, we noted that he didn’t succeed in silencing Jeremiah.
Jeremiah kept on prophesying the word of the Lord, but…
The point we’re trying to make here that we need to understand is Jeremiah faced
struggles.
He faced trials.
He faced hardship.
and he even wanted to quit.
Look at verses seven and verse nine.
Verse seven, oh Lord you induced me.
and I was persuaded.
You are stronger than I and have prevailed.
I am in derision daily.
Everyone mocks me.
For when I spoke, I cried out, I shouted, violence and plunder, because the word of the
Lord was made a reproach and a derision daily.
Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name.
Jeremiah wanted to quit.
He wanted to stop.
He thought, I’ve had enough.
The persecution is too much.
Are there times when we feel the same?
Are there not times when we feel like this Christian life is just not worth it?
Or we become discouraged?
When we look at these things that surround us, the wickedness, I just think about what
month this is and what our country has sadly chosen to do with this month.
And it’s easy for us to look at all these things and to say, there’s no hope.
There’s no reason to keep going.
Lord, they’re not listening.
They don’t want to hear the gospel.
I’m done.
But if you notice, we didn’t finish reading first nine.
but his word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones and I was weary of
holding back and I could not.
Jeremiah says, Lord, I’m done.
I quit.
I don’t want to speak anymore in your name because they’re not listening.
They’re mocking me.
They put me in stocks.
They have slapped me.
They have
persecuted me beyond what I thought I was going to face.
And Lord, you just lied to me because you said I wasn’t going to face any of these things.
The Lord didn’t promise him that.
He promised to deliver him through these trials.
But nevertheless, Jeremiah feels like quitting, but yet when he tries to actually quit, he
says, word was like a fire in my bones.
I couldn’t but speak the truth.
I couldn’t bud speak these things that God has told me about.
He got back to work.
Brethren, there are times when we feel like quitting.
When we say, it’s enough, I’m done, I can’t go on, I can’t keep going like this.
But we, like Jeremiah, need to get back to work.
And we’ll come back to this idea of the word being a fire in our bones later, but
We need to make sure.
We need to truly consider the words that we hold in our hands of how important these words
are, what they truly mean.
Because when we do, when we truly appreciate that these are the words by which man can be
saved, that teach us how to live, that teach us how to have a home and glory with our
Father, well then we like Jeremiah.
We’ll get back to work.
We’ll have those moments of struggle, yes, but we will remember Jeremiah and we too will
continue serving our God.
What else do we need to know?
We need to know, yes, that we’re not alone, that there are others who have faced similar
trials, there are others who have even faced worse trials than us, but we also need to
know that we can endure.
Carrying on with this idea of those who have faced worse trials than us, look with me at 2
Corinthians.
2 Corinthians chapter 11, there are few in the church
recorded for us in scripture that faced as much difficulty as Paul did.
He struggled much.
He faced much hardship, much persecution for the cause of Christ.
And yet, we read a record of his struggles, of his trials here in chapter 11.
Starting verse 16, I say again, let no one think me a fool.
have otherwise at least received me as a fool, that I also may boast a little.” In the
context of these individuals who were trying to say, well, I’m better than Paul, you
should be listening to me.
Paul doesn’t know what he’s talking.
Paul’s not even an apostle.
There’s no reason to listen to Paul.
Paul is saying, okay, if you want to play the game of I don’t have the right to speak when
God’s given me the inspiration, let me tell you what I’ve endured.
Now he mentions I speak as a fool.
This is not how Paul
normally would approach these things, but he needed to in this moment and the spirit gave
him inspiration to do so.
And in verse 17 he continues, what I speak I speak not according to the word or to the
Lord, but as it were foolishly in this confidence of boasting, seeing that many boast
according to the flesh, I will also boast.
For you put up with fools gladly since you yourselves are wise.
For you put up with it.
if one brings you into bondage, if one devours you, if one takes you from, takes one from
you.
going down to verse 22.
Paul says, are they Hebrews?
So am I.
Are they Israelites?
So am I.
Are they the seed of Abraham?
So am I.
Are they ministers of Christ?
I speak as a fool.
I am more.
And laborers more abundant.
And stripes more, and stripes above measure.
And prisons more frequently.
And deaths often.
From the Jews five times I received 40 stripes minus one.
Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a
night and a day I have been in the deep, and journeys often, and perils of water, and
perils of robbers, and perils of my own countrymen, and perils of the Gentiles, and perils
in cities, and perils in the wilderness, and perils in the sea, and perils among false
brethren, and weariness and toil, and sleeplessness often.
and hunger and thirst and fastings often and cold and nakedness, beside the other things,
what comes upon me daily, my deep concern for all the churches.
Who is weak and I am not weak?
Who is made to stumble and I do not burn with indignation?
He goes on and continues this thought, but suffice it to say, Paul suffered greatly.
He faced more than I would dare say any of us will ever face in our lives.
Than any of us have faced in our lives as Christians.
And yet, what do we see about Paul?
endured to the very end.
In 2 Timothy 4 and verses 6 through 8, Paul in concluding his time on earth and writing
his final epistle to his son in the faith, Timothy, he tells him, I have fought a good
fight.
Back in verse 6, he says, my time is at hand.
I’m ready to be offered as a drink offering.
I’m ready to go and be with the Lord.
Why?
because I have fought a good fight.
I have finished my course.
I have kept the faith.
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous
judge shall give to me at that day and not to me only but into all them also that love is
appearing.
Paul shows us the weekend in dirt.
And the apostle Paul faced far worse than we will ever face or have ever faced, and he
endured to the end, then so too can we, brethren.
Brothers and sisters, there is not a trial, there is not a temptation, there is not a
struggle on this earth, a persecution that we can face that can force us to abandon our
God.
Only we can choose that.
but stay true to him.
You can endure.
We can endure just as did Paul.
But you know there’s another example in scripture of one who endured and quite frankly
he’s the ultimate example.
That being our Savior Jesus the Christ.
Now Jesus suffered.
He suffered far worse
than what we can even possibly imagine.
And the reason was not that no one had ever suffered on the cross before.
The reason was not that no one had ever been scourged and beaten like Jesus was.
That was not why he suffered so much worse than everyone else.
The reason he suffered so much worse than any other human being, than any other being on
this earth is because he could have said no at any moment.
with any of the lashes that ripped his back apart.
He could have said, I’m done.
in any of the six hours that he remained on the cross, he could have said, Lord, I’m done.
No.
They want to see me come down from the cross.
I’ll show them how I can come down from the cross.
He could have said that.
but he didn’t.
and we look at passages such as Isaiah 53, wherein his suffering is prophesied.
And we read in verse one, verse two picking up, he shall grow up before him as a tender
plant and as a root out of a dry ground.
He has no form nor comeliness.
And when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He has noticed this despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrow.
and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from him.
He was despised, and we did not esteem him.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him, stricken,
smitten by God and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are…
Jesus suffered greatly.
1st Peter 2 and verses 22 through 25 tell us this again that how he suffered and yet he
did not revile.
He did not respond in kind to those who had treated him like dirt.
to those who had slapped him across the mouth for saying, as they would say, for speaking
to the high priest like he did, to those who would blindfold him and beat him and say,
tell us, teacher, if you are the son of God, tell us who struck you.
to those who wagged their heads at him as he hung on the cross in agony and said, if he’s
the son of God, let him come down.
He said to others, surely he can save himself.
but Jesus not respond in kind.
suffered but in his suffering he shows us an example of how to endure.
He shows us the fact that we too can endure.
We’re not going to be facing the same thing Jesus faced.
We won’t be hung on a cross for our faith.
We won’t endure the same mocking and beating that Jesus received.
But he has, as 1 Peter tells us, left us an example that we should follow in his steps.
Brethren, we can endure.
And in Hebrews 5, starting in verse 7, we see this very fact that Jesus did endure.
Hebrews 5, 7, who in the days of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and
supplications with vehement cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death and
was heard because of his godly fear, though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the
things which he suffered.
And having been perfected, he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him.
Why did Jesus endure?
How did Jesus endure?
How did Paul endure?
Because their focus was not on this earth.
Paul looked for the place beyond the veil.
as Philippians 1 talks about, uh he was longing to be with his Lord, to be united with the
Father.
And when we think about Christ in his mind was the fact that he is the Savior of man.
with every stripe, with every hour he spent on the cross, there was the thought of…
Eric, you need this.
Jay, you need this.
Terry, you need this.
Jacob, you need this.
And further still was the thought of this is what the Father’s will is and I will do the
will of my Father.
in the life of Jesus and in the, what we have recorded for us in the Bible is this idea of
endurance through commitment, endurance through an understanding that this world is not
our home.
we can endure.
And when we face trials in our lives, when we face persecutions, when we face these
difficulties, we need to understand, we need to read the scriptures and realize we can
endure.
Number three, we need to understand, we need to realize that we have a purpose.
You have a purpose in this life.
I told you we were going back to Jeremiah.
We look at this idea of Jeremiah and how his purpose in life was to proclaim the word of
God as a prophet of the Lord.
And when he abandoned his purpose, when he abandoned the very reason he was walking on
this earth, the word of God was like a fire in his
It’s this idea of you just gotta tell somebody.
You can’t keep it quiet.
Have you ever had some news that you just could not help but sharing?
Now I know a lot of you in here are grandparents and I know that with my mom and dad just
about anytime you asked them about, you know, well how’s Brittany and Sam doing?
well let me show you the pictures.
We got two beautiful grandbabies.
You know, they would show pictures and everything.
They could not help but spread that news.
Is the Word of God like that to us?
is the Word of God such that we cannot help but spread it, but proclaim it.
Brethren, the gospel by its very definition is good news.
And yet many times we treat it as if it’s the worst thing that’s ever been brought to man.
try to hide it away.
when we look at this idea of the word being a fire in our bones.
Look with me at Acts chapter four.
Acts chapter 4.
In the context you have these individuals, Peter and John, who have faced or are facing
persecution because they faithfully proclaim the Word of God.
They were teaching about Jesus in the temple.
They had healed a man who had been lame since his birth.
He was lame 40 years.
and they were proclaiming the good news of Christ.
the scribes and the Pharisees, the religious leaders, they didn’t want hear that.
They didn’t want Peter and John to be saying that they had crucified the Son of God.
And so when they tell these faithful apostles to stop speaking in the name of God, notice
what happens here.
Verse 15 starting, when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they
conferred among themselves saying, what shall we do to these men?
For indeed, that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell
in Jerusalem.
And we cannot deny it.
But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that
from now on they speak to no man in this name, the name of Jesus.
So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of
Jesus.
And notice their response.
But Peter and John answered and said to them, whether it is right in the sight of God to
listen to you more than to God, you judge.
For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.
In other words, Peter and John said, you’re not going to keep us quiet.
You’re not going to stop us from spreading the gospel.
We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.
Well, brethren, what have we seen and heard?
We have heard God’s word.
We hear it every time we come together.
We hear it and read it as we do our personal Bible studies.
But we also hear God’s word.
The things that we have seen and heard as it were is the fact that salvation
is available that you don’t have to die in sin.
that you can be saved.
You can be in a right relationship with the Father.
Is that not good news?
Tell me, have I misunderstood something?
Is this not good news?
It is.
So why don’t we share it?
Why don’t we lead others to the one who can save them?
Brethren, our goal is heaven.
The purpose of this earth, of being on this earth, yes, part of that is the idea of the
word being a fire in our bones that we are here to spread the word of God.
Matthew 28, 18 through 20.
but another purpose of ours.
Another reason, the reason why we fight, the reason why we struggle, the reason why we
endure is because heaven is the victory.
Yes, we fight Satan on this earth.
2 Corinthians 10 verses 3 through 6 tell us this plainly that we are in a spiritual
warfare.
We are in a battle against the devil.
We are fighting against his cause.
doing our best to serve the Lord.
And we are as soldiers of the cross.
As Christians, we are soldiers fighting for our Lord, fighting for our King.
It’s not yet time to lay down our weapons.
until the trumpet of God sounds or until we are lying on our deathbed.
It’s not time to drop your weapons.
Rather, it’s time to take up arms against the devil and to fight with a purpose in our
hearts.
The purpose of heaven as our reward, as our home.
We fight to attain heaven.
We fight to go home.
My great uncle served in World War II.
My dad one time asked him, what were you thinking when you were over there?
What were some of the things that were just going through your mind?
And he said, it was a job.
We did our job and we wanted to go home.
What was the goal for my great uncle?
His goal was to get back home.
Brethren, for us as soldiers of the cross, soldiers of Christ, soldiers of the King of
Kings, our goal is to go home and to take as many people with us as we can.
That’s our purpose.
That’s the reason why we fight.
That’s the reason why we struggle.
Look with me at 1 Corinthians 9.
Read with me there, 1 Corinthians 9, starting in verse 24.
Paul writes, you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the
prize?
Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
And everyone who completes or competes, rather, for the prize is temperate in all things.
Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.
Therefore I run thus, not with uncertainty.
Thus I fight, not as one who beats the air.
but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to
others, I myself should be disqualified.” Paul’s purpose on this earth, his goal in
preaching to the Corinthians, his goal and doing the work that he did in those missionary
journeys and just his life in general, his goal was that imperishable crown.
His goal was reaching heaven.
His goal was bringing all of us with Him, as many as He good, as many as He could reach.
But His purpose was also seen in glorifying the Master.
Back up a few chapters to chapter six.
1st Corinthians 6 and verse 20, for you were bought at a price, therefore glorify God in
your body and in your spirit, which are God.
Brethren, don’t belong to ourselves as Christians.
We don’t belong to ourselves.
We belong to the Master.
We belong to the Lord.
We belong to the one who bought us, who saved us from our sin.
We belong to the Savior.
And as such, our purpose on earth is to glorify our master, it’s to glorify our Lord.
We have been bought with a price.
What was this price?
First Peter 1: 18 through 19 tells us we were not redeemed with corruptible things as
silver and gold.
We weren’t bought with currency, but we were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as
of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
We have been bought.
Therefore we glorify our Father.
We shine the light of God.
We do what we can to be an example to those around us, to point people to God.
Matthew 5:16 tells us that we are shining our light, not so that men can glorify us, but
that so they can see our good works and glorify the Father, which is in heaven.
Our purpose is to live for the Lord.
Our purpose is to serve Him.
Brethren, we have one purpose on this earth and it’s not to get the most riches.
It’s not to have the most comfortable lifestyle.
Our purpose on earth is revealed to us in Ecclesiastes 12 and verse 13.
Fear God and keep His commandments.
Solomon tried everything.
He lived in luxury.
He lived for the thrill as the saying goes.
He did everything that the world says, surely this will give you a good life.
Surely this is what life is all about.
And he says, it’s all vanity.
It’s all pointless and empty.
but to live for God, to keep His commandments, now that is a life worth living.
That is our purpose on earth.
What future you needs to read?
We looked at this idea of.
enduring.
The idea of suffering, that we’re not alone in our suffering, but that just as others
endured, just as others went through trials, we too can endure and come out the better.
and that we have a purpose on this earth.
It’s not all for nothing.
But what does present you need to read?
What do you need to know right now?
If you’re not a Christian, then you need to know that there’s a way to be saved.
That although you’re lost in your sins and you are on the road to hell, you can be saved.
It’s not too late.
having heard God’s Word, do you believe it?
Will you repent of your sins?
Will you confess that Jesus Christ is Lord?
Will you be baptized for the remission of your sins?
But maybe present you is a Christian, but wayward.
Having lived a life that was at one point dedicated to the cause, dedicated to the truth,
dedicated to the Lord, but Satan’s good at his job.
and you fell and you want to come home.
You want to be reunited with your family.
Be reunited with the Father on the path to heaven.
And we stand ready to help you.
Friends, if we can be of any assistance to help you make your life right with God so that
you’re ready to see Him, so that future you, the you that’s in eternity can say, this is
exactly what you need to do.
Don’t give up because heaven’s worth it.
If we can help make heaven your home, then come now as we stand.
A Study on Prayer (Lesson 1) – Jacob Kennedy – Jun 7, 2026
As you can see, I am not Aaron.
uh He is traveling at this time and he’s out of town, asked me to fill in for him for the
Bible class portion of service this morning.
And so please accept the poor substitute of an Aaron.
But we’ll begin as per normal with a word of prayer.
If you would bow with me.
Almighty God, most holy, most righteous heavenly Father, we thank you for who you are.
We thank you for this day that you have blessed us with.
We thank you for all that you have done.
Lord, we are thankful that we have this time to gather together to praise your name, to
study from your word.
Lord, we pray that as we consider the topic of prayer, as we look at your word, at what it
describes as being prayer, that we will grow in our faith and grow in our appreciation for
the beautiful gift that we have.
be able to come before you and to talk to you, Lord.
Lord, we pray that in all things we will strive to be the Christians that you would have
us to be, strive to live for you, and we pray all these things in your Son’s name, amen.
We will be discussing in Bible class today the topic of prayer and we’ll also carry this
over into Wednesday night class for Lord willing.
We’ll continue this topic of describing prayer and doing a study on prayer.
First and foremost, when we consider this idea of prayer, the first thing we need to
understand is, well, what is prayer?
What is this thing that we call prayer?
And it’s interesting that the word itself of pray does not appear in the Old Testament
until Genesis 20 in verse 7.
Now, if you look at me, look with me in Genesis 20 in verse 7, we know something very
interesting about how prayer is used here.
The context being of course that Abraham and Sarah are in Abimelek’s country and Abraham
fears Abimelek that he’s going to kill him to take Sarah to be his wife.
And so he lies to Abimelek and Abimelek takes Sarah to be his wife or to do and in that in
so doing he sins against God.
Now Abimelek doesn’t know this at this point but God reveals it to him and we pick up in
verse seven.
where God says, now therefore restore the man’s wife, for he is a prophet and he will pray
for you and you shall live.
But if you do not restore her, you know that you shall surely die, you and all who are
yours.
So the first mention of prayer we have in scripture of the actual term pray, not to say
that there weren’t prayers before this, as we’ll note later, but the first use of the word
pray,
has to do with intercession.
It has to do with someone who is praying, who is going to God on another’s behalf.
Abimelech is told that Abraham will go to God on his behalf to get forgiveness for him.
And when we think about this idea.
It’s not just in the Old Testament.
The idea of intercession through prayer is not just in the Old Testament, but if you look
at Matthew chapter five and verse 44, which is the first mention of pray in the New
Testament, we read, but I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do
good to those who hate you, and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you.
So the first mention of pray in the Old Testament, the first mention of pray in the New
Testament, both have to do with praying for others.
So with going to God for others.
intercession.
And this hits at what prayer, a large part of prayer is, and that’s going to God for
someone else.
It’s this idea of looking at your fellow man and saying, you need God’s help.
Or maybe even as we say, as Christians, brother, I need, I need prayers.
Sister, I need prayers.
This is going on in my life and I need you to go for God for me.
We have this idea of prayer being something we do between us and God, but that reflects on
other people.
There’s a connection here between others and us and our God.
Now, the key element of prayer, course, is the fact that we are praying to God.
We’re not praying to ourselves.
We’re not praying to some pagan deity.
We’re not praying to science.
No, we’re praying to the Almighty.
We’re praying to the Lord God.
He is our Father.
And there’s an interesting point that’s brought up in Proverbs 15.
If you would turn with me there, Proverbs 15 and verse 8.
An interesting point about prayer that I actually had not seen until studying for the new
converts class and in the book that Bobby Bates wrote, Growing in Christ, he mentions this
verse in relation to the topic of prayer.
It’s very interesting to see how God views our prayers.
15 in verse 8, the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord.
But notice this.
But the prayer of the upright is what?
His the lie.
Now just think about that for a moment.
Have you ever thought about the fact that prayer is a delight to God?
He delights, he is happy to hear from his faithful children.
He is happy to hear from the righteous.
We of course think about prayer as being this idea of intercession for others or even
praying to God about things that are struggles in our lives, maybe asking for forgiveness
as we’ll note later.
But just stop and consider the fact that when we pray to God, He smiles.
He’s happy to hear from us.
When we think about this idea of God being our Father, I can’t help but think about how
with my dad, whenever he wants to hear from me, he and mom both, they want to hear from
me.
And I don’t, I see you, Miss Eddie.
I know I don’t always do a good job of talking to them, but they enjoy to hear from me.
The same is true with God.
He enjoys to hear from His children.
He enjoys those conversations that we have with Him.
Now, they might be painful at times.
The times when we go to God saying, I’ve failed you, Lord.
I need your help.
There are times when we are deeply concerned and troubled for others and there’s a pain in
our prayer, yes, but in the end, God loves to hear from you, from every one of you.
Everyone who is righteous, God loves to hear from you.
But we also consider prayer as it is a casting of our burdens upon God.
In 1 Peter 5 and verse 7 tells us to cast all your cares upon Him.
Why?
where he cares for you.
When we cast our burdens on God, it takes the form of a prayer often, where we look to God
and we say, Lord, I can’t handle this.
This is above my pay grade.
I need you to take care of this.
One of the instructors at school talks about how there are times when he’ll be restlessly
sleep, or trying to sleep, I should say, heavy burden on his mind, and he’ll just stop and
say a prayer to God and say, Lord, you take over.
I can’t do any more with this.
I’ve done what I can do.
It’s all up to you now.
I said, you know, those are the sweetest nights of rest for him.
And truthfully, that is the case when we cast our burdens on God in prayer, when we say to
the Lord, you’ve got this, I don’t.
There’s a peace there.
There’s a comfort.
Along these lines of comfort, along these lines of thanksgiving even, look at me at
Philippians chapter four.
Philippians chapter 4, where Paul writing to the church in Philippi gives them some
information about how to, as verse 4 says, rejoice in the Lord always.
In verse 6 he says, and notice this, peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
How is it that the peace of God guards our hearts and minds?
How is it that the peace of God that passes understanding keeps us and gives us comfort?
Well, it’s because we pray to God.
We cast our cares on Him.
When the struggles of our lives become over burdensome, too much for us to bear, we throw
them on God.
We cast them to God because guess what?
He’s got shoulders that can bear the load.
He can bear the weight of our struggles.
He can bear the weight of our burdens, but it’s up to us to cast them on him.
We often have a mindset in this nation and it’s not a bad mindset, but it’s one that says,
I can do it myself.
I don’t need anybody else.
I can handle this problem on my own.
There are some problems we can handle by ourselves.
Yes, absolutely.
And God does expect us to do what we can do.
Absolutely.
But what about the times when we can’t do anymore?
What about those burdens that we cannot, we just simply cannot bear alone?
Well, those are the ones that we cast on God.
Those are the ones that we lay at His feet for Him to pick up and carry, because we can’t
carry it alone.
And through this, through this casting our cares on Him, through this avenue of prayer, we
can have peace.
We don’t have to be over worried or as the new King James says, anxious about the things
in this life because we know who can bear our burdens.
We know in whom we trust.
And so prayer is how we cast our burdens on God, but it’s also part of how we thank our
Lord.
Now, we notice this a little bit in Philippians 4 and verse 6, but look at me at Psalm 91.
Psalm 92, if I could read my notes that would be great.
Psalm 92.
Here we’re going to notice how that David describes, the psalmist describes this idea of
thanksgiving through Psalm and prayer and worship.
Read with me.
It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to your name, O Most High.
to declare your loving kindness in the morning and your faithfulness every night on an
instrument of ten strings on the lute on the harp with harmonious sound.
For you, Lord, have made me glad through your work.
I will triumph in the work of your hands.
O Lord, how great are your works!
Your thoughts are very deep.
A senseless man does not know, nor does a fool understand this.
When the wicked spring up like grass,
and when all the workers of iniquity flourish, it is that they may be destroyed forever.
But you, Lord, are on high forevermore.
For behold your enemies, O Lord, for behold your enemies shall perish.
All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.
But my horn you have exalted, you have exalted like a wild ox.
I have been anointed with fresh oil.
My eyes have also have seen my desires on my enemies.
My ears hear my desire on the wicked who rise up against me.
The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree.
He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall they shall still bear fruit in old age.
They shall be fresh.
and flourishing to declare that the Lord is upright.
He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him.” When we think about this idea of
prayer, part of our prayer should be exactly what’s expressed in this song.
The idea of giving thanks to God for who He is, for what He has done.
Have you ever thought about the fact that without God, we wouldn’t exist?
Without God, we would be nothing but a pile of dirt.
Without God, we are nothing but with God.
We have value.
We have purpose.
We have a family that goes beyond biological family.
We have a relationship with the Almighty Himself.
Does he not deserve our praise?
Does he not deserve our thanks?
There are times when we get caught up in this world, and we get caught up in the struggles
and the trials of this world, and every prayer, it seems like, is either a prayer for
forgiveness or a prayer asking for help.
But is it not beneficial to take a step back?
and to just thank God.
When was the last time you spent an entire prayer doing nothing but thanking God for what
He’s done, for who He is?
It’s a sobering thought.
We as Christians have a a beautiful blessing of being able to talk to God at any time and
yet so many times we squander that.
Isn’t it wonderful to be able to thank our Lord?
Isn’t it wonderful to stop and as the song says, count your blessings, name them one by
one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.
Prayer is not only this idea of thanksgiving, but it is also, as we’ve noted, supplication
on the behalf of others.
Well, let me backtrack on that.
We’ve noticed this idea of intercession on behalf of others, but now we’re looking at
supplication on behalf of others.
And there is a slight difference in these two.
But what we’re considering with this idea of supplication is found in 1 Timothy chapter
two.
1st Timothy chapter 2.
Well, Reed versus one and two.
Paul writes to the preacher Timothy, Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications,
prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for, notice this, all men, for kings
and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness
and reverence.
For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior who desires all men to be
saved and to come to the knowledge.
of the truth.
part of this idea of prayer is going before God on behalf of others.
We’ve already noticed this to an extent, yes, but I want you to notice specifically this
idea of all men.
Now, Paul, are you saying that I need to pray for those who I don’t really like?
Now, Paul, surely you’re not saying I need to pray for those who voted against the guy I
wanted to run for president.
Now, surely, Paul, you’re not saying I need to pray for those who are in denominations and
those who are attacking the church.
Surely I don’t need to pray for those, right?
Now Paul, you’re not saying I need to pray for those politicians that are making a mess of
Washington.
He says, all men.
It doesn’t matter if you like who it is or not.
We as Christians ought to have a mindset that says, I’m going to pray.
There are times when we find people who grind our gears, so to speak.
They’re hard to get along with.
But have you ever tried praying for…
Have you ever taken the time to maybe in your morning prayers or before you go to bed at
night, you just stop and say, Lord, you know this guy gets on my nerves, but be with him.
Lord, help him with whatever he’s going through and help me to have a good mindset when I
encounter him.
Help me to show your light in the way that I live and the way I conduct myself.
Admittedly, I’ve had to pray that prayer a couple times myself, but it makes a difference.
It’s kind of hard to be rude and ugly towards an individual that you’re constantly praying
for.
And that’s what Paul is saying.
We are to lead a quiet and peaceable life.
And he’ll later say, or he also says, and I believe it’s in Romans, he mentions the fact
that as much as lies within us, we ought to live peaceably with all men.
And part of that is involved in praying for them and going to God on their behalf.
A lot of these people that get on our nerves that are hard to get along with, they have a
lot of struggles in them.
they’re irritable because they’re constantly facing things that they don’t know how to
deal with.
And if you know that that’s the case, maybe try to help.
Maybe try praying for that situation.
That’s what Paul tells us to do.
The goal is to not get one over on them, is not to win the argument.
The goal is to have peace.
And if the person is a lost individual, the goal is to bring them to Christ.
The goal is to show them what they’re missing.
But we also know that prayer is our access to the throne of grace.
In Hebrews 4 and verse 15.
We are shown something that’s very important for us to note when we look at this idea of
prayer.
In Hebrews, really the whole book of Hebrews addresses to us the fact that we have
something better.
The old law served its purpose.
The law of Moses was effective for what its need was to be a schoolmaster to bring us to
Christ.
But now that we are in Christ, now that we have the new covenant, now that we have the New
Testament, we have something better.
That’s the whole point of the book of Hebrews is don’t turn back because you have that for
which these people fought and died to even get a glimpse of.
So in chapter four, we specifically note the comparison between the old high priest and
that of Christ.
In verse 14, seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the
heavens, Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.
but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Now this sets the stage for
verse 16.
He says, us therefore, because of who our high priest is, because he has faced all these
trials, because he knows what it means to be human, and because he has delivered us from
sin, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy,
and find grace to help in time of need.
Brethren, there are times when we need mercy.
Well, maybe y’all don’t, but I know I do.
There are often times when the majority of my prayers in a week are just praying to God,
forgive me.
I’ve messed up.
I’ve done wrong.
But what we have as Christians is a direct line to the Father.
We don’t have to go before a priest and say, I need you to offer a sin offering for me.
We don’t have to go to the high priest and say, could you inquire at God’s hand?
Could you go before God for me?
Because I can’t go to him myself.
at any moment that we realize what we have done is wrong, we can stop and pray to God and
ask him for forgiveness, for mercy and no granted.
But not only that, we also can be given grace to help in times of need.
There are times when we face the great struggles in our lives.
There are times when Satan’s temptations are hard to resist.
But in those times of need, when we reach out to God, when we pray to Him, we can have
strength.
We can have what we need to resist the devil.
And truthfully, he’s given us what we need in his word.
When Jesus faced off against Satan in Matthew 4, what did he use?
The words of God.
He used the Bible, the Scriptures to defeat Satan.
to drive him away and that’s what we have today.
We have the completed Word of God in the palms of our hands.
but we also have the power of prayer on our side.
And truly it is a powerful, powerful tool.
But one final note on this idea of what is prayer.
Welcome me at John 16 and verse 23.
John 16 23, Jesus tells us that prayer is not through anyone else but him.
That our prayers are to be through him.
John 16 23, and in that day you will ask me nothing.
But assuredly I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.
Why is it that we end almost all of our prayers with, Jesus’ name, amen?
By his authority, he’s our mediator.
What we are doing when we’re saying those words, if we truly mean them, is we’re saying
that this prayer is by Christ’s authority.
It is through Jesus that we pray.
It is through His blood and His saving as we have become Christians and have been washed
in the blood of Christ, it is through that means that we can go before God in prayer.
Enter his throne and talk to him.
But it also means that the prayers that we pray need to be in accordance with Jesus’s
authority, with the Father’s will.
Meaning we’re not going to pray for a sin to take place.
That prayer’s not going to be heard.
But a prayer asking God for help in times of struggle, a prayer asking for forgiveness
when we’ve done wrong, a prayer asking for blessings on those who are
down on their luck, a prayer for help to those who are sick, those prayers are heard.
What we understand when it comes to prayer is that it is something that’s far more
powerful than we often give it credit for.
but only if it’s truly through Christ.
But next we ask the question, well then who can pray?
So we understand now a better picture of what is prayer, but now we need to ask the
question, well, who is it that can go before God in prayer?
Prayer is a conversation between God and His children.
Now, let me preface this term conversation by saying God is not directly talking to us
today.
When you sit down or get on your knees or stand in prayer, whatever posture you take when
praying,
God is not going to part the clouds and directly speak to you.
That’s not how this works nowadays.
But what we mean by conversation is that we are conversing with God.
are talking to the Father.
We are speaking to Him and by His Word and by His providence we hear Him.
But when we think about this idea of father-son relationship, father-daughter
relationship, Matthew 6 and verse 9 gives us a record of how Christ was teaching his
apostles, his disciples, how to pray.
And how did he begin?
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
but don’t run over the fact that he says, our father.
God is not some distant figure.
disembodied voice that we just blindly follow because we’re afraid of Him.
Yes, there are times to be afraid of God, absolutely.
But as Christians, we have a closeness to Him, where He’s near at hand.
He is our Father wanting to hear from us, desiring to hear our voices and wanting to aid
us when He can and when it fits His will.
But what’s important is the fact that we have to make sure our relationship with Him is
right.
If we are not a child of God, how can we go before the Lord and say, Father?
you can make the argument, well, he created the universe.
So in that sense, he’s our father.
You can say that.
But Paul had something a little bit more different to say.
Second Corinthians, chapter six.
2 Corinthians 6 in verse 18.
Paul in quoting the prophecies of old said, I will, he’s referring to God, I will be a
father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters says the Lord Almighty.
Now how does this happen?
How do we become the sons and daughters of God?
How do we become his children?
Well in verse 17 he says, therefore come out from among them and be separate says the
Lord.
Do not touch what is unclean and I will receive you.
How is it that we can become sons and daughters of God?
How is it that we can be called children of God?
How is it that we can call God our Father?
He says it in the text.
We have to separate ourselves from the world.
We have to be different than the world.
And how do we do that?
By becoming a Christian.
By following in the plan that God has laid forth for us to be saved.
Romans 12, verses 1 2 tells us that we are giving ourselves as a living sacrifice to God.
As Christians, we’re offering ourselves up to God to say we’re not following the world.
We’re not remaining in the world as those who seek after the worldly pleasures whose only
drive is for the things of this world.
But no, we live for the Lord.
We live as living sacrifices saying not my will,
But yours be done.
And when we are Christians, when we are faithfully living for God, we can pray to Him and
He hears our prayers.
Truly prayer is a beautiful thing.
to think about the Almighty as powerful as He is, to think about the One who knows all
things.
stopping to listen to us.
to hear our prayer.
beautiful thought.
It truly is a wonderful thing that we have.
And when we think about this idea of prayer, of course, this idea of the prayer of
children, of his children, of those who belong to him.
Look with me at James, or rather at 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 12.
First Peter 3, 12.
Peter writes, for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous.
His ears are open to their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
There’s an important contrast here.
An important contrast between those who are doing what’s right, those who are living for
the Lord, and those who are serving Satan.
Living in wickedness, living in unrighteousness.
those who are doing evil.
And what we see is a God who looks at those who are doing righteous, who are living for
Him, who are serving as Christians, and He says, my ears are open to your prayers.
My eyes are looking on you, keeping you safe, caring for you, watching over you as the
Father does His children.
But when we think about those who are against God, those who are living in wickedness,
those who are serving the devil, you almost see as it were his back is turned to them.
he’s listening.
He hears what they’re saying.
but what they’re saying is not being truly heard.
because there’s a separation.
And that brings us to something we must understand is that sin separates us from God.
When think about those who are lost in sin praying to God, it’s often been described that
their prayer doesn’t go above the ceiling.
And that’s true.
God does not forgive those in sin just simply because they pray.
We look at Acts chapter 9 and what was Paul doing?
After being confronted with the weight of the fact that he had been persecuting the very
Lord he thought he was serving.
When he’s confronted with the fact that he was kicking against and biting against and
fighting against the church that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, deity himself died for.
When he’s confronted with this truth, he’s in mourning.
He’s in agony.
He’s fasting.
And notice what the text says he was doing.
He was praying.
Now when God sends Ananias to Paul, does he say, so Ananias, I need you to go and give
some comfort to your brother Paul?
As a fellow Christian, he needs a little comfort because he’s still in mourning.
Is that what God tells Ananias to do?
No.
He says that there is one who needs to know how to be saved and you’re going to preach the
gospel to him.
and by the way, you’ll know him because he’s the one that’s praying.
If prayer alone saves an individual, then why did it not save the Apostle Paul?
If all one has to do is say a quote, sinner’s prayer to be saved and in a right
relationship with God, then why did God not save Paul?
But rather when Ananias comes to Paul he says, why are you waiting?
Arise and be baptized and what?
Wash away your sins.
because I hadn’t been forgiven yet.
So while prayer is powerful, sin separates us from God in prayer.
He’s not hearing the prayer of those who are lost, but he’s listening.
His ears are turned towards the one, the ones who are righteous, who are Christians, those
who are living for him.
Now does that mean that God will never hear the prayer of an individual who’s saying,
Lord, I don’t know what I’m doing, but I know I’m doing something wrong.
I need your help to find the truth.
Well, Jesus says that the one who’s seeking, the one who’s knocking is going to be
answered.
He’s going to find what he’s looking for.
And we look at a man like Cornelius in Acts chapter 10.
He was one who
was righteous in the sense of living a worldly, considered good life.
He was trying to do what was right, but he still had some things wrong.
Specifically, the fact that he was not a Christian.
That didn’t know how to become one.
So what does God do?
Does he just ignore Cornelius?
No, he sends him Peter to preach to him the gospel, to teach him the truth.
And so there is a case to be made that God does hear the prayer of a soul who’s seeking
the truth in the sense of allowing them opportunity, opening doors before them to hear the
word of God proclaim.
but it is not to the extent that he hears the prayers of the righteous, that he hears the
prayers of help and strength that the child of God offers to him.
And so sin separates us from God.
But when we think about this idea of sin separating and we think about this idea of being
a Christian, what does 1 John 1 tell us about what happens when we sin as Christian?
1 John 1.
There’s great comfort given in the text of 1 John as he writes to Christians, helping them
to know how they can know that they are saved, that they don’t have to fear the judgment
day but can look on it with a hope and a comfort knowing that they’re right with God.
And picking up in verse 9,
John writes, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Now keep in mind, to whom is John writing?
He’s writing to Christians.
And as he’s writing to Christians, he tells them, if you stumble and fall, if you have sin
in your life, go to God and He’ll forgive you.
Repent of your sin and confess it to the Lord and He’ll forgive you.
What a beautiful picture that is for those of us who are Christians.
That when we fall short, when we stumble and fall, when sin is in our lives, we can look
at the Lord and pray to him and say, Father, I’ve sinned.
I’ve wronged you.
And just like that prodigal son, the Lord welcomes us with open arms.
Happy that a lost soul, a son of his who was lost is found again.
A son of his who was dead is alive again.
Sin separates the child of God from his father, but prayer is the means by which we can be
restored.
and what a beautiful thing that is.
What a beautiful blessing we have in this idea of prayer.
And we’ll study this again more on Wednesday night.
But as we face the week, take some time to pray.
I’m sure many of you already are, but maybe throw in an extra prayer here and there.
Watch if it doesn’t change your life.
How you think about things.
How you trust in the Father.
Brothers and sisters, we as Christians are to be people of prayer because God wants to
hear from His children.
Thank you for your kind attention.
You’re dismissed.
The True Messiah – Aaron Cozort – April 5, 2026
Good morning.
on a day.
where much of the world is thoughtful and conscious of Christ.
where many who sadly go through their lives week in and week out with no thought to Christ
focus on Him on days like today.
We often speak concerning Jesus, speak concerning what He did, speak concerning the
salvation that is offered through His death, His burial, His resurrection.
But as I was considering that and considering what to discuss with you this morning,
thought about the fact that, sometimes we make a lot of assumptions about what people
know.
Sometimes we make assumptions when someone’s driving down the road that they have a clue
what any of those signs mean.
Sometimes, like recently, you get into a car and you make an assumption you know where all
the switches and the buttons are.
Come find out it’s not your car and no you don’t.
Right, Shelly?
We make assumptions.
This morning we’re going to dispel what for some may be things they don’t really know
because they’ve never been taught.
and verify and demonstrate from Scripture why Jesus is the true Messiah.
that it is not a belief or an understanding that people have as a hope in the dark.
It’s not a leap of faith.
It is something that God in His infinite knowledge, in His infinite wisdom, played out in
His plan of redemption from the beginning of time until Jesus came, until Jesus went to
that
until Jesus died, was buried, was resurrected, and arose the third day.
That it was intentional, that it was foretold, that it was every bit according to the
plan.
and that it was for you and for me.
Jesus Christ is undeniably the Messiah, and we’re going to show that.
I will say this, we’re not going to show that exhaustively.
We’re going to take a few items in the time that we have and demonstrate it from those,
and there are mountains more evidence beyond what we can discuss.
this morning.
We know that Jesus is the Savior of the world.
That’s what Messiah means, by the way.
That he is the Savior of the world sent from God because he fulfilled all prophecy.
as you go through the Old Testament, which we’re going to do this morning, and you see
what God through His prophets in the Old Testament said concerning the Messiah.
Jesus not only came to this earth and fulfilled some, Jesus fulfilled all of the things
that they said concerning the Messiah.
I don’t know about you, but most days when I get up, someone might ask me, what are you
going to do today?
And I might give them an idea on what I think the day holds, and more often than not, I’m
proven wrong.
There were the things I planned to do that day, and then there were the things that I
actually got accomplished, and then there were the things that I had no idea I was going
to be involved in that day.
And if you and I can’t even wake up in the morning and get the day ahead of us right, how
could we reach out hundreds of years and be specific and be numerous and be detailed about
someone who had not even been born?
and not miss it on a single point.
answer is we couldn’t, but God can.
And it demonstrates that Jesus Christ is exactly who He claimed to be.
Consider as we examine a few of the prophecies and the fulfillment that demonstrate that
Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world sent by God.
We begin with the fact and the nature
of God’s prophecies that were given before Jesus was born and yet they spoke concerning
the place of His birth.
And before we get into the exact prophecies, I want you to look at a passage in 2 Peter
because God does not allow us to have our own assumptions about what prophecy is.
He does not give us permission to just make up our own
concepts and theories concerning his prophetic work.
Rather, God is very specific about what he did in prophecy.
In 2 Peter chapter 1, Peter will write, beginning in verse 16, he writes to these fellow
Christians, he says, we did not follow cunningly devised fables.
When we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but were eyewitnesses of His Majesty.” As Peter writes this second letter to his audience,
he makes it clear to them, I was there.
I didn’t tell you about rumors.
I didn’t tell you myths.
I didn’t tell you folklore.
I didn’t tell you what the latest gossip people said.
I told you what I was eyewitnessing.
while Jesus walked on this planet.
But then he says, for he received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice
came to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
Two occasions where God spoke from heaven and declared Jesus as his son, declared his
position, his glory and his honor,
One of them was when John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan River and the other was
when Peter and the two other apostles were on the Mount of Transfiguration with him in
Matthew 17.
Peter says, I saw what he did.
I heard the voice from heaven that declared he was the son of God.
But then he says this.
And we heard this voice, which came from heaven when we were with him on the Holy
Mountain.
And so we have the prophetic word confirmed.
Peter points to those events.
Peter points to his eyewitness testimony and says, I know what I read in the Old Testament
prophets, and it’s been fulfilled.
But notice what he says.
We have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in
a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this
first, that no prophecy of scriptures of any private interpretation.
for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved
by the Holy Spirit.
Peter will nail down the nature of prophecy.
If a person makes a prophecy and they thought it up in their head, Peter says, that’s not
what we’re talking about.
If the prophet even had any part in interpreting it, he says, nope.
not what we’re talking about.
What we’re talking about is that which originated with the Holy Spirit and was interpreted
by the Holy Spirit.
And the only part that mankind played is they spoke it.
That’s what he means when he says it’s of no private interpretation.
It’s quite often when we read that we think, he means that, you know, there’s only one
meaning and we don’t all get to have an opinion on what it means.
That’s not what you’re talking about.
The wrong subject there.
The interpretation in view in this passage is by the prophet himself.
In other words, God gave the prophecy and he didn’t allow the prophet to mess it up.
He didn’t allow the prophet to have his own opinion about it.
God gave it and the prophet spoke it exactly as God gave it.
So since God gave it, God controlled it as it was spoken, God made sure that it was
recorded, and then God fulfilled it, guess what we don’t have in the midst of any of that
chain?
Human error.
So Peter will point out that I was an eyewitness so I can assure you of the things which
Jesus did.
I was present when God spoke to him while I was on the mountain, so I know what God
testified, but even more so, I know what you can do of your own accord.
You can go back and look at all those prophecies that were made and see how Jesus
fulfilled every single one of them.
And you can have the same assurance that I had, even though I was on the Mount of
Transfiguration and you weren’t.
So that’s what we’re going to do this morning.
Before Jesus’ birth, turn to Luke chapter 24.
This event doesn’t occur before his birth, but I want to talk about this before we get
into that.
Luke chapter 24 verse 25.
Jesus will say to two individuals on the road to Emmaus, O foolish ones and slow of heart,
to believe in all that the prophets have spoken, ought not the Christ to have suffered
these things and enter into his glory.
Now, if you come back this afternoon, we’re going to be discussing this passage and the
road to Emmaus and the discussion that occurred there.
But let us begin by pointing out Jesus said to these two disciples after he was
resurrected, why are you so foolish to be so slow to listen to the prophets?
Knowing that what God prophesied before, he is going to fulfill.
Go to verse 44 of the same chapter.
Jesus will say, then he said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was
still with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses
and of the prophets and of the Psalms concerning me.
Jesus made it clear that if he did not fulfill every single one of the things that the Old
Testament prophets had to say about him, if he didn’t fulfill them all, he wasn’t the
Messiah.
but that he would fulfill them all and did in doing what he came to this earth to do.
In Luke chapter four.
Luke chapter four, beginning in verse 16.
Jesus will further point out as He is in Nazareth and as He is in the town of His
upbringing around people who knew His family, they knew His parents, they knew Him as a
child, and they do as individuals who did so, they did not understand who He was.
They did not appreciate what was said concerning Him, but He’s going to draw that to a
point.
We read in verse 16 of chapter 4 of Luke, so He came to Nazareth
where he had been brought up and as his custom was he went into the synagogue on the
Sabbath day and stood up to read.
And he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah and when he had opened the book he found
the place where it was written.
The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor.
He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and
recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed and to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord.
Then he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.
And all the and the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him.
And he began to say to them, Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.
So all bore witness to him and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of his
mouth.
And they said, Is this not Joseph’s son?
And he said to them, You will surely say this proverb to me, Physician, heal yourself.
Whatever you have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in your own country.” Then he
answered and said, “‘Surely I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.
But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah when the heaven was
shut up three years and six months.
And there was a great famine throughout all the land, but none of them was Elijah sent
except to Zarephath in the region of Sidon to a woman who was a widow.'”
and many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet and none of them was
cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.
So all those in the synagogue when they heard these things were filled with wrath and rose
up and thrust him out of the city and they led him to the brow of the hill where their
city was built that they might throw him down over the cliff then he passed through the
midst of them and he went his way.
Why do we bring up this passage?
Number one.
because Jesus made it clear he was going to fulfill prophecy.
Furthermore, number two, he made it clear that those who knew the prophets and knew what
they said and claimed to be the people of God would reject him even in his own city.
You see, sometimes what we do is we look at the Bible
and we read what it says and we read how it should apply to us and then we look at the
world around us and go, but the world doesn’t believe that, so I better not either because
they must know better something I don’t know.
We just go along with popular opinion on whatever the current decision is.
And as a result of that, we become just as ignorant as they are because we don’t choose to
believe God.
The people of Nazareth who knew Jesus from the time he was a young man all the way up
until this point, who knew his father, knew the carpenter that he was, knew his mother,
knew his brethren, knew his sisters, still tried to kill him.
Why?
Because he told him what the prophets said and told them it had been fulfilled.
We cannot decide on the Word of God whether to believe it or not based upon what the world
around us decides to understand.
We must be accountable to God to open His book, to understand what He said, and believe it
and obey it because He said it.
Now then, consider prophecies concerning the birth of Christ.
Now, there are a lot of things you can control in this life.
Once you are of sound mind and age where you can start determining things, you can decide
where to live, generally speaking.
You can decide what job to have.
You can decide a lot of things, but I guarantee you what none of you had any say in is
where you were born.
There was a preacher who I know and love who got up one time many years ago and said, I
always wanted to be born in Texas, but I felt an obligation to be where my mother was at
the time.
You don’t get a say where you’re born.
And yet God, hundreds of years before Jesus came to this earth, told the Israelites where
the Messiah was going to be born.
Turn to Micah chapter 5.
In Micah chapter 5, God will speak to His people.
And he will write, but you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands
of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be ruler in Israel, whose going
forth are from of old, from everlasting.
God through His prophet Micah is going to tell Israel the one.
The ruler, the prophesied one, the one who God is going to send who is God because he’s
from old, he’s from everlasting.
He’s going to be born.
I don’t know what’s going on with this thing, but if it continues, we’ll switch to that
one.
God is going to tell hundreds of years before Jesus is born that the Messiah is going to
be born in Bethlehem.
Turn to Luke chapter 2.
In Luke chapter two.
Hey Jacob, bring me a new set of batteries.
Sometimes the batteries don’t charge right and that may be the problem.
In Luke chapter two and beginning in verse one, it came to pass in those days that a
decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.
This census first took place while Quinterus was governing Syria.
So all went to be registered, every one to his own city.
Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea to the city of
David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and a lineage of David, to
be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.
So it was that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered.
And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in the swaddling clothes and laid
him in a manger.
because there was no room for them in the inn.
hundreds of years before the Messiah was born, God said the one who is going to rule, who
is God in the flesh is going to come forth in Bethlehem.
And as he says that, so it is fulfilled.
Give me just a moment.
All right, we’ll try that.
It’s fulfilled.
But did you notice it’s not going to be fulfilled because the family to whom he was born
were native to being from Bethlehem?
that the family from which he is going to be born weren’t living in Bethlehem at the time?
That the family from which he was going to be born were not going to be long-term
residents in the city of Bethlehem?
God is going to see that the fulfillment of this occurs through a decree of Caesar
Augustus, a Roman emperor who decides to make the entire nation go participate in a census
and in order to be registered, they had to go back to where their family was from.
So Joseph, who had lived in Nazareth, took the woman who he was betrothed to, who was with
child, and brought her back to Bethlehem, where he was from, to be registered.
And while they were there, the Messiah was born.
and God fulfilled exactly what He said He would do.
Turn to Luke chapter 9.
In Luke chapter 9, beginning in verse 21, we read this.
And He, Christ, strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, The Son
of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the
scribes, and be killed and be raised the third day.
Then He said to them, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up
his cross daily and follow Me.
For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake
will save it.
For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and himself
is destroyed or lost.
For whoever is ashamed of me in my words of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when he
comes in his own glory in his fathers and in his fathers and with of the holy angels.
But I tell you truly that there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they
see the kingdom of God.
As Micah prophesies concerning this one who’s to come, as he prophesies concerning the
location where he’s going to be born, he prophesies that he is going to rule.
And Jesus will make it clear to His apostles that they will not see death before they see
His rule enacted.
See, it’s not just about the place of His birth.
If He was born there and never ruled, prophecy not fulfilled.
If He ruled, but He was born somewhere else, prophecy not fulfilled.
But God, when He spoke concerning the birth of Jesus, spoke specifically.
He spoke in detail and it was fulfilled in detail.
Turn to Daniel chapter two.
In Daniel chapter two, you will find as Nebuchadnezzar has had a vision and he has had a
dream and he has seen this vision of this image that has a head of gold and belly, or
sorry, shoulders and arms of silver and belly and thighs of brass and…
legs of iron and feet of iron mixed with clay that he sees this vision and he doesn’t know
what it means and he needs it interpreted and guess what Daniel will tell him.
Daniel will tell him I don’t interpret dreams.
God does.
And I’ll tell you what the interpretation means but it’s not me who interprets dreams.
God does.
So Daniel will make the same point that Peter made.
Vision wasn’t given by man and vision wasn’t interpreted by man.
It was interpreted by God.
Therefore it was right.
In Daniel chapter 2 and in verse 40 we read this, Daniel will say to Nebuchadnezzar as he
interprets the dream, and the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, and as much as
iron breaks in pieces and scatters everything, and like iron that crushes that kingdom
will break in pieces and crush all the others.
Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom
shall be divided, yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron
mixed with ceramic clay.
And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall
be partly strong and partly fragile.
As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men, but they
will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.
And in the days of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never
be destroyed.
And the kingdom shall not be left to other people.
It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.
Inasmuch as you saw, the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it
broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold.
The great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this.
The dream is certain.
and its interpretation sure.
As Daniel speaks to Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel will tell Nebuchadnezzar about a kingdom that
was the head of gold and he says that’s the Babylonian Empire.
And he will speak to the king about the shoulder and the arms of silver and he will tell
him that’s the Medo-Persian Empire.
And he will speak to him about the belly and the thighs of brass and he will reveal that
that is the Grecian Empire.
And he speaks to him about the iron legs and the
feed of iron mixed with clay, he will declare that that is the Roman Empire as you go
through the entire book.
And as history is fulfilled, in the days of the kings of the Roman Empire, God says, I
will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed.
Wonder of all wonders when Jesus there Luke chapter 9 tells his disciples about the
kingdom that he is going to establish and about the fact that it is going to exist while
they are still alive.
Guess what kings are ruling the Roman Empire.
God speaks concerning His Son being born.
He speaks of where He will be born.
He speaks of the rule that He will have.
And He speaks concerning the nature of His Kingdom and the very nations that will be in
power when that Kingdom is brought forth.
Now you answer for yourself, what factor of all of those could a man have controlled on
the day he was born?
Alright, I give up.
Don’t tell my wife, even I can take a hint.
But then consider that God made prophecies concerning his lineage.
Now some of you were born to good reputable families.
Some of you, I don’t know.
but you just have to tell me one way or another.
But the reality is this, you didn’t get a say.
You can pick your friends.
You can’t pick your family.
You weren’t asked what family to be born into.
You were born, and you got what you got.
But consider that God
when he brought forth his son into this world, fulfilled prophecies concerning that son’s
lineage.
Go back to very beginning, to Genesis chapter 3.
In Genesis chapter 3, God will speak there in the garden after that first sin was
committed, after the things that had occurred there in the eating of the fruit of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil.
And in Genesis chapter 3 and in verse 15, God will make a statement concerning the
judgment of these things.
He says in verse 14, to the serpent, because you have done this, you are cursed more than
all cattle.
And more than every beast of the field, on your belly you shall
go and you shall eat dust all the days of your life and I will put enmity between you and
the woman and between your seed and her seed he shall bruise your head and you shall
bruise his heel God will speak to the serpent and he will declare that Satan through his
actions through his choices would cause an injury to occur to the seed of not man but
woman
and that that seed of woman would cause a death blow to Satan.
Then consider what Isaiah writes 800 years before Jesus is born.
Isaiah will write in Isaiah chapter 7 concerning the coming Messiah.
In Isaiah chapter 7 and in verse 14 rather
He will say, therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.
Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name, Emmanuel.
When you turn over to Luke chapter one, we find that…
God fulfilled exactly what he said in Luke chapter 1 and in verse 35.
As the angel is speaking to Mary, Mary said to the angel, verse 34, how can this be since
I do not know a man?
She’s not saying I walked around this city and there are no men here.
That’s not what she’s saying.
She’s saying she’s never had sexual relations with a man.
She is a virgin.
And she says, how in the world am I going to have a child being a virgin?
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 that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
The angel will make it clear to Mary.
that the thing which is going to occur, the child which is to be born will not come forth
from man’s seed, but will come forth as an act of God’s creation.
But then turn to Galatians chapter four.
Paul as he writes to the church at Galatia.
as he writes to these Gentiles and Jews that are together in this congregation.
We’ll write to them in verse four of chapter four, when the fullness of time had come, God
sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
Paul will point out that God not only sent
his son not only sent his son born not of a man but of a woman but he sent his son at the
exact right moment he intended to
If Jesus had been born in 200 BC, it wouldn’t have been the right time.
If Jesus had been born in 2026 AD, it wouldn’t have been the right time.
If Jesus had been born on the day after the first sin had been committed, it wouldn’t have
been the right time.
No, Paul makes it clear.
God brought forth his Son at the exact time that was right.
Because God doesn’t do things by way of happenstance.
Because God doesn’t make a statement and hope it turns out.
God speaks and it happens.
But then consider as well that not only did God make it clear that Jesus would be born of
a woman, not of a man, but that he would be born to the descendants of Abraham, to the
descendants of Judah, to the descendants of David.
generation after generation after generation hundreds of years separated from one another
God is going to make it clear that this is going to occur as he fulfills and brings forth
this prophecy over 1600 years.
Genesis 12 God is going to tell Abraham that his seed singular as Paul points out will be
a blessing to all nations.
and God will fulfill it.
As Jacob is preparing to die and Jacob makes a prophecy concerning his son Judah, Jacob
will declare that from Judah will come forth the scepter, that from Judah will come forth
a king, and Jesus will be a descendant of Judah.
In 2 Samuel chapter 7 in verse 12, God will tell David,
that from his son God will bring forth one who will rule forever.
And all of these things will be fulfilled if you look at Luke chapter 3.
Luke chapter 3 beginning in verse 31 Luke will speak concerning these things and Luke
chapter 3 verse 31 as he describes the lineage of Jesus.
He says that he is the son of Melia, the son of Menon, the son of Mathiah, the son of
Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of
Salman, the son of Naishon, the son of Amenadam, the son of Ram, the son of Hizran, the
son of Pires, the son of Judah.
Luke looks at that lineage and he says, check, check, check, check.
He goes on and he says, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham.
You go forward to, or go backwards rather, to Matthew chapter 1.
You see, because Luke gives the lineage of Joseph.
And someone might say, well, that doesn’t count.
You see, you just told me he was born of a woman.
Joseph didn’t have anything to do with it.
You can’t use Joseph’s lineage.
It’s not going to work.
Well, that’s okay.
Because God doesn’t do things by happenstance.
Notice in Matthew’s record as Matthew makes it clearer.
that both through the lineage of Mary and through the lineage of Joseph, it’s going to be
fulfilled.
Notice what we read in Matthew chapter 1.
We’re not going to read all of it.
We’re going to start in verses 1 through 3.
book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Abraham begot Isaac.
Isaac begot Jacob.
Jacob begot Judah and his brothers.
Judah begot Peres and Zeran by Tanpar.
Peres begot Hezron and Hezron begot Ram.
He’s going to go all the way down.
And notice what you find in verse 15.
uh
Jacob, Jacob, got Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called
Christ.
I got them backwards.
Luke describes Mary’s lineage.
m Matthew describes Joseph’s.
Shouldn’t always believe my own notes.
They’re not prophetic.
What do you find?
Doesn’t matter which one you use.
You use Mary, you get back, and you find every prophecy fulfilled.
You use Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus in the form of his upraising in his household
and his Jewish lineage, and he fulfills every prophecy.
But then consider the details of his death.
We’d be here all day if we discussed everything in between those two, but we’re just
dealing with his birth and we’re just dealing with his death.
In Psalm 41, the psalmist writer will declare in prophecy in Psalm 41 and in verse 9, even
my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against
me.
The psalmist writer hundreds of years before Judas Iscariot was ever born.
will prophesy concerning the betrayal of one of Jesus’ closest friends.
The betrayal of the Messiah by the one who sat at bread with him the very night he
betrayed him.
You turn to Zechariah.
Zechariah will further prophesy concerning these matters.
In Zechariah chapter 11,
Zechariah chapter 11 and in verse 13, notice what we read.
And the Lord said to me, throw it to the potter, that princely price they set on me.” Now
notice, this is the Lord who says that there was a price set on him.
And notice what it was.
So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the
potter.
The price of a slave is what this was, thirty pieces of silver.
And for the price of a slave, Jesus Christ is going to be betrayed.
but not only is God going to be specific that a friend is going to betray him, not only is
he going to be specific and detailed that he is going to betray him for thirty pieces of
silver, but he is further going to point out that those thirty pieces of silver will be
cast back to the ones who gave it.
And as you open the text of the New Testament and you turn to Luke chapter 6
Luke chapter 6 and in verse 16, we read Judas, the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who
became a traitor.
Luke’s going to record that this is the one who betrayed Jesus.
His name was Judas Iscariot.
Turn to Mark chapter 14.
In Mark chapter 14 and in verse 10,
We find there the text says, then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief
priest to betray him to them.
Judas goes because he wants to be paid, but Judas is not going to get to decide how much
he’s paid.
They’re going to decide what to pay him.
Judas is the friend who is going to betray his very Lord.
Turn to Matthew chapter 26.
Matthew chapter 26 beginning in verse 14 and notice what Matthew records.
Then one of the twelve called Judas Iscariot went to the chief priest and said, what are
you willing to give me if I deliver him to you?
and they counted out to him 30 pieces of silver.
So from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.
Turn to chapter 27.
Matthew chapter 27 verse 3, then Judas his betrayer, seeing that he had been condemned.
was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and
elders, saying, have sinned by betraying innocent blood.
They said, what is that to us?
You see to it.
Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went and hanged
himself.
But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, It is not lawful to put them into
the treasury, because they are the price of blood.
And they consulted together, and they bought with them the potter’s field to bury
strangers in.
Therefore that field has been called the field of blood to this day.
Then they fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, And they took the
thirty pieces of silver, the value of him who was priced, whom they of the children of
Israel priced,
gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.”
There’s a lot of things you can control as a person.
You can’t control where you’re born.
You can’t control what family you’re born into.
You probably can’t control the price your enemies put on your head or the willingness of
your friend to take it.
And as you’re hanging on the cross,
You can’t control the fact that he decides to take it back, throw it at their feet as he
goes out to hang himself, or what they’ll do with it afterwards.
But when God makes a prophecy, he’s specific, he’s detailed, and he’s right.
but then consider even the place of his burial is prophesied in Isaiah chapter 53.
The prophet Isaiah will write beginning in verse 9, and they made his grave with the
wicked, but with the rich at his death because he had done no violence.
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him.
He has put him to grief.
When you make his soul uh an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his
days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied by his knowledge.
My righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.”
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with
the strong because he poured out his soul unto death and he was numbered with the
transgressors and he bore the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors.”
As they take Jesus to the cross, as they lift him up on that cross, he is lifted up in
between two
thieves.
And before the deed is done, one of those thieves coming to his senses will make it clear
we are here because we deserve to be here.
but he doesn’t.
Even that thief will make the point that this innocent person in whom there was no guile,
who was tried three different times and found innocent every single time, was lifted up
and numbered with the transgressors, even when he wasn’t one.
And yet, as he is buried in Matthew chapter 27, we find that Matthew will point out the
location of his burial.
No, Matthew’s not going to walk through the locations all throughout the gardens of Israel
and say, this is the tomb.
Make sure that when you go visit Israel in modern times, you can walk straight to the
right tomb.
No, that’s not what he’s going to do.
Matter of fact, what he is going to do…
He is going to write, now when evening had come there came a rich man from Arimathea named
Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.
This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
Then Pilate commanded the body to be given to him.
When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his
new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock.
And he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb and departed.
And Mary Magdalene was there and the other Mary sitting opposite the tomb.
You see, Isaiah said, he’s going to be killed with the transgressors, but he’s going to be
buried among the rich.
Because he’s going to be buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, a tomb that had never
been used.
but then he’s going to be resurrected.
In Psalm 16, the psalmist writer will write concerning Jesus, will write concerning the
Messiah, that he’s not going to go to the grave like everyone else.
God is not going to permit him to be put in the grave, to be there, to decay, and to
remain there until judgment.
Rather in Psalm 16 verse 9, we read, Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices.
My flesh also will rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in sheol.
Nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption.
You will show me the path of life, and your presence is fullness of joy at your right
hand, our pleasures forevermore.” Someone say, well, he’s talking about the resurrection.
He’s talking about the final day.
He’s talking about, this is David talking about himself.
In Psalm 110…
In Psalm 110 and in verse 1, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make
your enemies your footstool.
The Lord shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion, rule in the midst of your
enemies, David writes.
But when you turn to Acts chapter 2,
after the events of that Sunday morning, after Jesus has been resurrected from the grave
by the power of God, after he has walked through the earth and spoken to over 500
witnesses according to what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15.
after he has shown himself to be alive and ascended into heaven and given his apostles
instructions to remain in Jerusalem until they are endued with power from on high and
after that event has occurred and begun Peter is going to preach and he is going to say
this Acts chapter 2 verse 22 men of Israel hear these words
Jesus of Nazareth a man attested to by God to you by miracles wonders and signs which he
did through him in your midst as you yourselves also know Him being determined by the him
being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God You have taken by
lawless hands have crucified and put to death Whom God raised up having loose to the pains
of death because it was not possible that he should be held by it
For David says concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is at my
right hand that I may not be shaken.
Therefore my heart rejoiced and my tongue was made glad.
Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor
will you allow your Holy One to see corruption.
You have made known to me the ways of life.
You will make me full of joy in your presence.
And notice he says, men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David,
that he is both dead and buried, and that his tomb is with us to this day.
As Peter spoke those words in the midst of the assembly, Peter could have walked out of
that assembly and walked to the grave of David and said, see, he’s still here.
And they all knew it.
But he goes on to say,
Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the
fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his
throne.
He foreseeing this spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul was not
left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.
This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.
Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the
promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out that which you now see and hear, for David did
not ascend into the heavens.
But he says himself, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your
enemies your footstool.
Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you
crucified both Lord.
and Christ.
As we conclude, know this, we do not follow cunningly devised fables.
We do not follow myths.
We do not worship a savior who is dead and in the grave.
We do not follow
the stories of a man who lived in a far-off land of which there is little evidence about
what he said, what he did, or how he acted.
No, we follow Jesus, of whom there were prophecies hundreds and thousands of years before
he was born.
of the very nature of his birth, of the very place of his birth, of the family from which
he would come, of the lineage through which he would proceed generation after generation
after generation, that he would be born in the days of the Roman Empire, that in the days
of the Roman Empire he would set up a kingdom which would never be destroyed, which Jesus
said in Matthew chapter 16, I have come to build my church.
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” And he told his disciples that while
you are yet alive, that kingdom will be set up, and you will see it come with power.
And it did.
And so Peter would preach on the day of Pentecost that those same people who had put that
same Jesus to death
now needed to confront the fact that God had made him both Lord and Christ.
That means Messiah.
He’s the Savior of the world.
He’s been established as being what He said He was by prophecy from the beginning of the
world until today.
So the question for you as you consider who Jesus is.
is what are you going to do with the knowledge?
As I mentioned before, this is not an exhaustive list of prophecies.
As a matter of fact, there are 300 prophecies about Jesus.
And every single one of them, he fulfilled.
So if He is Lord and Christ, the question for you is, are you obeying Him?
Jesus would say in John chapter 12, and in verse 48, by my words you will be judged.
If you’re here this morning and you’re outside the body of Christ, if you’re outside of
the kingdom that He built and established for your salvation, if you’re outside of the
redemption that was prophesied of old time that He might bring about the salvation of the
world,
If you have not been obedient and submissive to him, may I encourage you to begin today,
because you’re not assured of tomorrow.
But you can be assured of this, the one who spoke in Genesis chapter 3 of the seed of
woman and spoke concerning the one who was going to be born and the place he was going to
be born and the lineage from whom he was going to be born and the nature of his birth and
the nature of his death and the place of his burial and the place of his resurrection and
the power that he would have.
If that God could speak accurately about this, then know this.
He also spoke accurately about this.
He said, is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment.
There’s coming a day where you will stand before the Lord and the Christ, and you will be
judged by His words.
Are you ready?
If you have need of the invitation to be obedient or submissive to Him, to return to Him
in righteousness and obedience, why not come forward now as we stand and as we sing?