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A Study On Prayer (Lesson 2) – Jacob Kennedy – June 10, 2026
It is time for us to begin our Bible class portion this Wednesday night.
And a fine Wednesday night it is.
Very beautiful weather we have, though maybe a little bit less muggy would be nice, but
nevertheless, we are privileged to be in in assembly today.
As per normal, we’ll begin with a word of prayer.
So if you would please bow with me.
O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth.
Lord, you are truly a wonderful God, truly a holy and caring Father.
We are thankful for all that you do for us, Lord.
We are thankful for the time that we have to gather together tonight to study your word,
to learn more about prayer and the wonderful blessing that that is for us as Christians.
Lord, also to learn more about your word and about who you are, and to sing praises to
your name.
Lord, we pray that in all things we will strive to live lives that glorify you and that
lead others closer to you.
We pray that we will always seek your favor, always seek what is best for you for you and
your kingdom in this furthering of your name.
Lord, we pray that in all things our focus is on you.
We pray that you’ll grant safety to those who are traveling at this time.
We pray.
Are mindful of those who are not with us tonight, and we pray that they will be able to
come back as soon as possible.
Lord, we pray all these things in your Son’s most holy name.
Amen.
We began Sunday talking about the idea of prayer and what prayer is.
Specifically, our focus was in defining what prayer is and and what it looks like, who can
pray was one topic of discussion that we spent some time on.
And we noted the fact of how prayer is something that God delights in.
That it is something that He desires of us as Christians, as His children.
He wants us to pray to Him.
And so when we refrain from praying, when we refuse to give uh to speak to God in prayer,
what we are doing, in essence, is we are telling God that you don’t get what you want.
And it’s really uh a bad thought to have and a bad mindset to have, as God has given us so
much and asks so little in return.
And one of the things he asks is that we pray.
But we also notice this idea of
And we’ll begin here with this idea of sin separates us from God.
Turn with me to Isaiah chapter fifty-nine, as we look at this idea of sin separating.
Isaiah fifty nine
Here Isaiah is writing to a heretical Israel, an Israel that has abandoned God, an Israel
that has denied the Lord, who bought them, who delivered them.
And in verse one, he starts by or he says, Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened that
it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have
separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you.
That notice this.
He will not hear.
For your hands are defiled with blood, verse three, and your fingers with iniquity.
Your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
None calleth for justice nor any ple nor any pleaded for truth.
They trust in vanity and speak lies.
They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity.
The point that Isaiah is making here is that God is not going to hear their prayers for
deliverance.
Israel, when that came time for Babylon to conquer Judah and Israel, and it came time for
the people to be led into bondage and into captivity, they would no doubt call out to God,
asking for him to deliver them, as he had in times past.
But Isaiah is saying, when you call out to God, he’s not going to listen.
And he explains why it is that God’s not going to hear their prayers.
Why it is that when they call out to the Lord in their time of need, he’s going to not
answer them.
And the reason is not because God is heartless.
It’s not because God has chosen arbitrarily for them to be rejected.
But rather, it’s because their sin has separated between them and their God.
Sin is what separates us from God.
It’s what
hinders our prayers from being heard.
It is the case that God always is aware of what we are doing, of what we are saying.
He knows all things.
But this idea of hearing, this idea of listening and answering our prayers is the idea of
God paying attention, uh, of him focusing on us.
Yes, he knows the prayers of the of the unrighteous.
He knows what a wicked man says, even when no one’s around.
But the focus here is on the fact that there is a separation that exists between the
sinner and the Holy One.
We also note the idea that pro improper treatment of one’s family will also hinder
prayers.
Now for this we look at first Peter chapter three and verse seven, which states husbands
likewise dwell with them, talking about their wives with understanding, giving honor to
the wife as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life that
notice this, your prayers may not be hindered.
Husbands have a responsibility to their wives, such that if they fail in their duties, if
a husband fails to be who he should be to his wife, then that hinders his relationship
with God.
That hinders his prayers.
That is sin that separates from the man and his God.
But it’s not just this idea of a husband and a wife relationship, but if you also look at
First Timothy chapter 5.
Paul notes in verse eight, but if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for
those of his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
The picture we’re that’s being painted for us in Scripture is that to deny one’s family,
to not care for one’s family, to not be the husband, the father, the son that you are
supposed to be in the family relationship is to deny God.
We won’t spend uh more time on this, but there are many passages in Scripture which tell
us our duties as as sons, as daughters, as husbands, as wives.
God has given us what we are to do.
And when we do not do those things, when we deny what Scripture plainly says, we are in
sin.
And that sin separates us from God.
And so there’s an importance here of
Not letting our sin separate us from God, not dwelling in sin such that God does not hear
our prayers, such that there is a separation between us.
But we also note this idea of an unforgiving heart.
Now, for this, let’s look at Matthew chapter 6.
Matthew chapter 6 and verse 15, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is giving his disciples
some instruction regarding prayer.
And really, in all, it’s instruction regarding life, of how to live.
And in verse
Number twelve, in in what we term the model prayer, the outline of how to pray that God
that Christ gives, in verse twelve he says, And forgive us our debts as we forgive our
debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen.
And notice verse fourteen.
For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Great news.
If you’re a forgiving person, then God will forgive you.
As you are walking in the light, as you are striving to be who God would have you to be,
he is forgiving of you.
But there’s a contrast that Jesus paints.
In verse 15, but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive
your trespasses.
One of the most common prayers that I would argue we pray in the church is that of,
Father, forgive me for I’ve sinned.
Lord, I’ve done I have done wrong, I have sinned, I’ve I’ve been in error, and I want
forgiveness.
I desire forgiveness at your hand.
But what is Jesus saying?
Is he saying that those prayers of forgiveness by one who is unforgiving, is he saying
those will be heard?
No, he’s saying that if we harbor hatred in our hearts, if we harbor hatred such that we
will not forgive a brother who trespasses against us, then when we ask for forgiveness
from the Father, he says, you still have something wrong in your life.
I’m not going to forgive you as long as you are not forgiving yourself.
An example of this would be, uh I didn’t tell Parker I was going to do this to him, but it
happens.
If Parker does does wrong against me, and I and I harbor hatred in my heart towards him,
such that when he comes to me and he says, Hey, Jacob, I messed up.
I shouldn’t have said what I said, I shouldn’t have done what I did, and I I want your
forgiveness.
And I say, hmm, that’s hilarious.
I’m not forgiving you.
You think you’re gonna get forgiveness for what you did to me?
And then maybe later that night or the next day I do something that is a sin and I
realize, you know, I I’ve done wrong and I pray to God and I say, Lord, forgive me for my
sin.
Is he going to forgive me after I just told Parker that he’s not going to be forgiven?
According to Jesus, no.
So what we’re learning from this is the fact that as Christians, we need to be people who
are willing and ready to forgive.
Because if we do not, then there is a divide that forms between us and God.
Our prayers for forgiveness are not heard.
But we also note the idea of that prayer of empty words and mindless repetition is also
not heard.
For this we look at Matthew chapter four.
Matthew chapter four.
I have written down the wrong verse and I apologize.
See.
One of the beautiful things about Bible software is that you are able to look up things on
the spot when you have forgotten which is the right verse.
Matthew chapter six going back to Matthew Chapter six, apologies for that.
Matthew six and verse seven.
Here Jesus says, But when we when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for
they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Now what’s the point here?
What is Jesus saying here when it comes to this idea of vain repetition?
Exactly.
Speak when you have something to say.
Our prayers are not meant to just be, well, uh our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be
your name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Going down the list of the model prayer.
Which really we shouldn’t even be praying the idea of thy kingdom come because it already
has come.
Christ’s kingdom is established on earth and we’re all privileged to be a part of it.
But regardless of that, when we pray the same prayer over and over and over and over and
over again without thinking about what we’re saying, then it’s vain repetition.
It’s empty.
We don’t mean what we’re saying.
And so when we look at this idea of prayer, it
Our hearts have to be in what we’re doing.
We can’t be flippant in our prayers of just absent-mindedly saying things.
Have you ever caught yourself before as maybe it’s a late-night prayer and you’re kind of
sleepy and you’re trying to you’re trying to say a prayer to God, you’re try you’re going
through maybe the list of of of prayer requests, persons who are sick or or whatever, and
you kinda
You catch yourself waking up and saying, Lord, I don’t know what I just prayed to you.
But I’ve been praying for the past five minutes, and I don’t remember anything I just
said.
There are times when that happens.
of course there are, but when we’re praying to God, we need to understand that we’re going
before the Almighty.
We’re going before the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords.
We’re going before the Father who’s in heaven.
And we need to be thinking about what we’re saying.
Our minds need to be paying attention.
And this also goes for the prayers that we le that we pray in church during the worship
service.
There are times when the the individual who is coming up, the faithful brother who is
starting the prayer is leading the prayer, where maybe our minds zone out.
He’s still praying, he’s still talking, but our minds are on, well, what’s for dinner?
I forgot.
I I think I might have left the stove on.
Oh, I think I need to go get gas.
Man, gas is so expensive right now.
Our minds start drifting.
We need to make sure that we keep in mind what we’re doing.
When we pray to God, we’re talking to the Father.
We’re talking to the Lord, and we need to be meaning words that we’re saying.
We also look at this idea of praying with a haughty or an arrogant spirit as a hindrance
to prayer.
Look with me at Luke chapter eighteen.
Luke eighteen.
And I know we’re going a little speedy, if you will, on this, but if anyone has a comment
or a question they would like to ask, please raise your hand.
This isn’t a uh a sermon where there’s no interaction.
Uh but Luke 18, starting in verse nine, Jesus tells this parable, and he spake this
parable unto the unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and
despised others.
Two men went up into the temple to pray.
The one a Pharisee and the other a publican.
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other
men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven.
But smote his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner.
Jesus goes on to say, verse 14, I tell you, this man, talking about this publican, this
man who approached the Lord with a humble spirit, who wouldn’t even look up to heaven, but
beat his chest, saying, Be merciful to me, a sinner.
Jesus says, This man went down to his house.
Justified rather than the other.
For every one that exalteth himself shall be abased, shall be humbled, and he that
humbleth himself shall be exalted.
What’s Jesus saying here?
As it pertains to our prayers, he’s saying we don’t approach God with a mindset of, God,
look how good I am.
God, aren’t I just one of your favorite servants?
You know, I I’m d I just do so good for you.
I you know, I I I do all these things, every everything that’s in your word, you know, I
do that.
I I’m so much better than these brothers over here.
Well, you know not not to brag or anything, but you know, there’s never been a better
Christian than me.
That’s the mindset that this Pharisee has.
And when you have a mindset like that.
Your prayers aren’t heard.
Justin.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Because what do we know about this Pharisee?
He thinks that in this prayer he’s being heard by God.
He thinks that he is even showing forth more of his righteousness.
But there’s a fall waiting for him because of his pride.
And so as Christians, when we bow before when we bow our heads and we pray to God, and we
go before his throne and talk to him, we need to understand that we’re going before a
king.
And not just any king, but the Almighty, the King of Kings.
And as such, we need to have a humble heart that says, Lord, I don’t deserve to be saved.
But you allow it.
I don’t deserve to be on the road to heaven, but you paved the way.
Your son taught me what to do.
You’ve left your word to guide my steps.
The whole mindset of a Christian is to be one of intentional steps and actions and words.
The mindset of a Christian is one that is humble enough to recognize I’m a half a step
away from hell.
But God saved me.
Through obedience to his word, he saved me, delivered me from the danger I was in.
It’s kind of hard to be proud when you realize that it’s not about you, but it’s all about
God.
It’s all about your brothers and sisters in Christ.
This next hindrance to prayer i is almost set a little tongue in cheek, but look over at
James chapter four.
James chapter four.
The next hindrance to prayer the thing that can stop our prayers from being heard
Is if we don’t pray.
James 4 and verse 2.
Ye lust and have not, ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain.
Ye fight in war, yet ye have not.
Why, James?
Why don’t you have what you want?
Why why in writing to these Christians is he saying, You don’t have what you’re desiring?
He says, You have not because you ask not.
But he doesn’t stop there.
Verse three he says, Ye ask and receive not.
Why?
Because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your own lusts.
Again, when we look at this idea of prayer, a glaring hindrance is if we don’t pray.
A glaring reason why our prayers aren’t heard is if we never take the time to pray to the
Lord.
It’s kind of hard for him to answer a prayer when we don’t ever ask it.
We don’t ever pray it.
But James 4:3 is also explaining for us and reminding us of what we are to be praying.
We’re not praying, asking for our lusts, asking for our earthly desires.
It’s not time to get your list out and pretend like.
God is a genie in the bottle who’s just going to give you a million dollars.
That’s not what prayer is about.
It’s not your wish list to Santa Claus.
A prayer to God is meant to have humility.
And yes, we can ask for things that are going on in our lives.
Yes, we can ask for the health of others.
Yes, we can we can pray to God casting our burdens, as we already talked about in first
Peter chapter five, casting our burdens on God.
What do those include?
No doubt our financial struggles, our health struggles, maybe our interrelational
struggles.
But the focus of our prayers is not to be on me, me, me, I, I, I, Lord, it’s all about me,
and you better do exactly what I ask you for.
That’s not a prayer to God.
At least not one that’s going to be heard.
The focus is on in our prayers is to be like what Jesus prayed.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, what was Jesus doing?
He was praying to the Father.
And what was he praying?
It wasn’t, well, this is, you know, this is the greatest thing ever, and I’m so looking
forward to being beaten and scourged and crucified.
It’s just, it’s so fantastic.
This is a holiday weekend for me.
That’s not what he was praying.
In agony, the text says.
He prayed, if there be any other way, let this cup pass from me.
But what we need to clue in on and focus in on is the fact that Jesus doesn’t leave it at
if there be any other way, let this cup pass from me.
He concludes his prayer by saying, Nevertheless, regardless of the fact that I desire to
not have this burden laid on me, I desire not to go to the cross.
Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou will.
When we’re praying to God, our focus is not on what we want, but on what the will of God
is.
And that’s how our prayer should be.
A praying to God, look, this is the option that’s in front of me.
This is what I think would probably be best.
And I hope and I I ask you that this is what happens, but nevertheless, not as I will, but
as thou wilt.
Regardless of what happens, Lord, I’m going to trust in you.
I’m going to praise you.
I’m going to focus on you and do your work.
Those are the prayers of a righteous man.
Those are the prayers of a righteous Christian.
So we understand then this idea of what hinders our prayers, of what stands between us and
God.
But a study on prayer is not really complete until we look at some examples of prayer.
Now, unfortunately, we won’t be able to get into all the examples that there are of
prayer, because there are there are many.
But we’ll begin tonight by looking at Abraham and a prayer that he prayed in Genesis
seventeen.
Genesis seventeen.
Here we have a record of Abraham praying for his son Ishmael.
But to set the stage as we before we look at this prayer, we need to understand and go
back to the idea, or not to the idea, but rather to the history of what was going on up to
this point.
And Genesis 16, Sarah tells Abraham, look, I can’t have children.
But God says we’re going to have many descendants.
So here, take my handmaid, Hagar.
This is God’s plan.
This is how we’re going to do this.
We’re going to help God out a little.
And Abraham, rather than being the man of the house that he should be, the faithful leader
of God that he was supposed to be, he says, sure, why not?
And thus a child is born, Ishmael.
And we read of his being named in Genesis 16, 15.
But in the beginning of Genesis 17, God reminds Abraham that they kind of went out of
bounds, if you will.
They stepped out of line.
And he reminds them of what, or rather reminds Abraham, of what the promise was.
The promise was that through Abraham and Sarah, of course, at the time it was uh Sarai and
Abram.
He would change their names in Genesis 17.
But he says, between you two will a son be born, and many generations will come.
Not between you and someone else.
And so having reminded Abraham of what’s going on, uh of what the promise really is, we
pick up in verse number sixteen.
Where God says, And I will bless her and give thee a son also of her, yea I will bless
her, and she shall be a mother of nations, kings of people shall be of her, affirming his
promise.
But then looking at seventeen, then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed.
And said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old?
And shall Sarah that is 90 years old bear?
Abraham doubts God.
He looks at the God who made the universe.
He looks at the God that had taken care of him up to this point.
And he says, I don’t think you’re powerful enough for this.
Lord, can this be done?
I I’m unsure.
And in verse 18, he says, And Abra and Abraham said unto the unto God.
Oh that Ishmael might live before thee.
Abraham looks at God and and in his doubt and his questioning of God he says, Well, here’s
my son.
Yes, he he’s born not of my wife, but of my wife’s handmaid.
But he’s still my son.
And so surely the seed promise can be fulfilled in him.
Surely that will be acceptable to you, right?
But as per God’s character, he doesn’t accept just anything that man says he should
accept.
He didn’t accept the sacrifice of Cain because it wasn’t according to the method, the
order in which God had given them to worship him.
And he’s not going to accept Ishmael as the promised son when Ishmael wasn’t born from
Sarah.
And so in this prayer of a man that is widely recognized as a man of great faith, as even
the Bible the Bible calls him the father of the faithful, a man who the Jews held up as
this great bastion of what it means to be a follower of God, God looks at him and says,
No.
Look at verse 18.
Or verse 19, rather.
And God said, Sarah, thy wife, shall bear thee a son indeed.
And thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him, for an
everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.
Abraham praised, Lord, let Ishmael be the one.
But God says no.
He says, there is only one way this goes, and it’s the way that I promised you.
You don’t get to rewrite the contract, in other words.
So what do we learn from this?
What do we learn from this, what can we take away from this prayer of Abraham?
Well, number one, what we can take away is the fact that sometimes we think we know better
than God.
Humanity can at times be a very arrogant people.
I mean just look at Genesis eleven with the Tower of Babel, where they said, We’ll build a
tower up to God, when God said disperse, and multiply and f and fill the earth.
There are times when we as human beings think, Well God, surely this is the best way.
Well well God there there’s no other way than the way that I think this should go, as we
term it, my way or the highway.
That might work of a father to a son, but it’s not going to work to God.
We don’t get to, in our prayers, direct God and tell him what he’s going to do.
That’s something we learn from this.
What we also learn is the fact that God is in control.
And as such, we need to give the reins to him.
Rather than trying to buck against what he says, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel
and find something new and to say, well, this has never been before taught in the
churches.
I found this new theology.
I found this new philosophy that that is exactly what we’ve been missing.
Maybe you just need to read the Bible a little bit more and keep it in its context.
But nevertheless, what we understand from God’s word is that He’s in control and we don’t
get to rewrite the Bible.
We don’t get to override God’s commands and say, eh, not today.
But but I don’t like that as much, God.
I I know you you say to sing with a heart, make melody in in your hearts to the Lord, but
you know that band just sounds really good.
Lord, I I pray that this is a a wholesome and a good doctrine to teach that instrumental
music is acceptable to you.
Brethren, there was once a faithful church that said that very thing.
Whose eldership said to its congregation, This is a most wholesome doctrine.
Th this is an acceptable and this will be pleasing to God for us to have a contemporary
service.
as well as an occupella.
But we don’t get to tell God what to do.
We don’t get to tell God how things will be.
He is in control.
We ought to trust in him.
But a third thing we learn from this prayer of Abraham to God is this fact that sometimes
the answer to our prayers are no.
Sometimes we pray for things and God looks at the prayer and knowing as much as he knows
because he has infinite knowledge and knowing what it is that we need in our lives, he
says, You don’t know what you’re asking for.
No, I’m not giving it to you.
This goes back to the idea of trusting in God.
Do we as Christians have a faith that is able to remain with God, that is able to still
place our trust in Him even when He says no to our prayers?
What if he says no when you pray for your sickness to go away?
What if he says no when you pray for some trouble or trial in your life to go away?
Will you still trust in him?
What if he says no when you’re praying that your unfaithful loved ones will be saved?
We need to trust in God.
We need to have a faith that does not wane even when God looks at our prayers and says,
No.
There’s another prayer of Abraham, which is really more of a conversation, but we want to
take a look at it nonetheless.
It’s in Genesis chapter nineteen, ch rather the end of eighteen, leading up into nineteen.
To set the stage again, to have the context in mind, there has been a division, if you
will, a separation between Lot and Abraham.
The plains where they were dwelling were both herds of cattle to dwell, and so they
separated.
And Abraham looked at uh Lot and he says, You pick which direction you want to go.
You pick where you want to dwell.
And he said he looked over at the plains of Jordan, the how they were fertile and well
watered.
Near Sodom and Gomorrah, and he says, I’ll make that my home.
So Abraham takes the other, and they part ways as family, having no issue between the two.
Of course, later on we know that there were some issues that were that had happened in
Lot’s life as he went closer and closer to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and became
more ingrained into their culture and into their livelihood.
Until there comes a day when three men appear to Abraham.
He invites them in, they have a meal, and it’s revealed to Abraham that this is two
messengers, two angels of God.
And a very or and and a physical manifestation of deity itself.
Before Christ came to earth we know that there were times when he would appear in the form
of a man to different individuals.
The second person of the Godhead, that being the word, would appear.
And this is one such occasion where Abraham is talking to the Lord.
He is talking to deity.
And what happens here?
When we pick up in verse twenty-three.
And Abraham drew near and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
After the plans have been revealed that Sodom and Gomorrah are going to be destroyed for
their wickedness.
Abraham in verse twenty-four says, Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city.
Wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
That be far from thee to do after this manner.
To slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked,
that be far from thee.
Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?
And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare
all the place for their sakes.
On and on this goes until we pick up in verse twice thirty-two.
And he said, that being Abraham, let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but
This once.
Peradventure ten shall be found there.
And he said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.
And the Lord went his way as soon as he had left communing with Abraham, and Abraham
returned into his place.
In this conversation, in this prayer, if you will, Abraham is haggling for lack of a
better term.
He’s trying to plead with God that he spare the cities of Saw and Gomorrah and Gomorrah.
No doubt in Abraham’s mind is the thought of my family’s there.
Lot and his children are there.
What a sad testament it is.
That he got him so low as as ten souls.
All he needed to find was ten righteous souls.
But there weren’t it there weren’t even ten in the city.
Nevertheless, what we have here is a a record of
Prayer which appeals to God’s justice.
A plead that the judge of all the earth will do right.
Notice also that Abraham speaks with humility.
Though he is speaking to deity, though he is what some would say maybe being a little
arrogant and even questioning deity, he approaches it with humility.
And he says with humbleness.
Verse 27 notes the fact that, behold, now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord,
which am but dust and ashes.
Abraham knew his place.
Nevertheless, he wanted to help those people of Sog and Morah.
He wanted to spare them if possible.
He speaks with reverence.
But what do we find with the answer that God gives?
The answer to Abraham’s plea is no.
Because there were not ten righteous souls.
The cities of Sangamora they were laid to waste.
Lot o and his two daughters alone were able to escape.
And what we learn from this.
What we learned from this moment in history.
Is that we need to be people of compassion.
We like Abraham should pray for those who we know are lost.
Those that we know are in danger.
We should be people who genuinely and truly care for others, regardless of whether or not
they’ve done something wrong.
Abraham prayed for the righteous, that they might be spared from the fate of the wicked.
Ought we not to do the same?
What happens when there’s wars overseas?
Should we not pray that those who are righteous in those nations be spared?
Our brethren in Ukraine, I know, have suffered greatly during this time of conflict.
Should we not s pray that those brethren are s are spared from violence and from harm?
When was the last time?
That you prayed for God to open a door for you to teach the wicked.
Now Abraham’s not directly praying that that he will be able to go and teach that he will
be able to go and try to to bring souls to God.
But as Christians, that is the prayer we should be having.
We should be praying.
We sing the song Lead Me to Some Soul today, O teach me, Lord, just what to say.
Friends of mine are lost in sin and cannot find their way.
We sing it, but do we pray it?
Do we pray that we can follow what we have been given through the the School of Evangelism
training?
Do we pray that Justin and Megan will have good success when they get over into Japan and
as they work here?
Do we pray that we can be of service to the Lord and leading those who are lost to the
saving knowledge of who Christ is and of what He has told us to do?
Brethren, pra prayer is a powerful, powerful tool.
And it is one that Satan fears.
That’s why we seem to find so many excuses not to pray.
But when we look at prayer, when we look at what it is and the beautiful blessing that it
is in our lives, we need to remind ourselves.
That as righteous souls, as Christians serving our Lord when we pray, the very ear of the
Almighty is inclined to hear our prayers.
He’s listening.
And he is there for us, even in our most dire moments.
Unfortunately, we did not have time to look at some of the more uplifting aspects of
prayer, examples of prayer.
But I hope that as you go into your life as and continue your lives as Christians, that
you will study prayer.
And you’ll study examples of those who prayed to God.
And note how God was working in the Old Testament.
Note how he was working in the New Testament.
And appreciate the fact that though not miraculously, and though we may not see how he’s
working today, he is still working.
He still blesses those who serve him.
Thank you for your kind attention.
Mark 14 (Lesson 1) – Aaron Cozort – March 04, 2026
Good evening.
We are in the Book of Mark.
Mark chapter 14 is where we will pick up as we close out chapter 13.
It’s good to see everyone here this evening, and we appreciate your presence.
We’re going to begin with a word of prayer, and then we’ll get into our study.
Our gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day you’ve
blessed us with, grateful for the opportunity that we have to serve you.
mindful of the blessings that you shower upon us each and every day.
Lord, we are mindful of those who are in less fortunate scenarios in life, that maybe in
terms of finances, it may be in terms of location, it may be in terms of wars or
disruptions and things going on in their world around them.
Lord, we pray that you will be with them and pray especially that you be with those who
are Christians who are striving to do what is right in your sight.
Lord, we pray that you be with us as we go through this period of study.
May we apply our hearts and our minds to your word that we might know better how to serve
you, how you would have us to live, and also so that we might better understand who you
are and what you have done in history and in bringing about our salvation.
All this we pray and ask in Jesus’ name, amen.
Jesus, as He says in verse 32, but of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels
in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father.
He is referencing the fact that it is the case, because He’s just given an analogy, that
heaven and earth shall pass away, but His words will not pass away.
And so building off of that analogy says, but of that day and hour knows no man, not even
the angels in heaven, nor the sun, but only the father take heed, watch and pray.
For you do not know when the time is.
It is like a man going to a far country who left his house and gave authority to his
servants and to each his work and commanded the doorkeeper to watch.
Watch, therefore.
For you do not know when the master of the house is coming in the evening at midnight at
the crowning of the rooster or in the morning, crowing of the rooster, sorry, uh lest
coming suddenly he find you sleeping.
And what I say to you I say to all, watch.
Jesus, as he has warned them concerning this coming judgment against Jerusalem,
against the Judean people and Israel at large, as he speaks to them concerning the end of
their nation and the things that were coming to pass, though they did not understand
really the things of which he spoke, he’s going to tell them, you have to be watching.
You have to be ready for these things to occur.
And there’s two senses in which they needed to be watching.
They needed to be watching for the signs that would precede the fall of Jerusalem because
he gave them specific signs, correct?
But they also needed to be watching for the time of his return.
Now, if Jesus has already told them that his return will not come until after the fall of
Jerusalem, should any of them have to care about watching for the time of his return?
before that point?
Can’t they just live carelessly however they want to until the fall of Jerusalem knowing
that, you know what, uh Christ isn’t coming back yet?
Why not?
Not a good plan.
All right.
Alright, because while he might not return before the fall of Jerusalem, and it was very
clear that he would not, the fact of the matter was that didn’t mean that they would live
to see the fall of Jerusalem.
And so they needed to watch and be ready.
They needed to be aware that their time on earth would come to an end.
And as a result of that,
The end result is the same thing.
Eventually, they’re going to meet their Lord.
Eventually, they, the servant, are going to meet the Lord, the master, and they’re going
to have to give an account as to whether or not they were ready for that meeting.
But it is also worth pointing out in this context, because this context and others like
it, revealed to us something that sometimes we think about, and then sometimes we…
Maybe don’t grasp.
Is there…
Doesn’t know.
then Jesus isn’t God.
or maybe not.
Hold on.
If we insist that it is an impossibility for God to have something that he does not know,
then how could Jesus be both God and man at the same time while in the flesh and Jesus
said the Son doesn’t know the hour of that event?
And it may seem like a paradox or an impossibility, except we have the answer in
Scripture.
And the answer is not, Jesus is not God, okay?
uh The answer is, the text of Scripture tells us that Christ, when he came to be born in
the flesh, emptied himself, okay?
Paul writes about that, believe it’s, I didn’t look it up in advance, but I believe it’s
Philippians chapter three or four.
I’ll let Jacob tell us where it is in a moment.
Philippians two, all right, well I was in the same book.
All right, so if you start reading in Philippians one and you read till you get to end of
the book, you’ll get to it, okay?
But the point is that Christ,
because of being God.
had to change the nature of his existence to take on flesh.
True or false, flesh cannot continue into eternity.
True, it cannot.
Paul tells us that, 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
So the nature of God in eternity is completely incompatible with flesh.
So something had to change to come this direction.
Let’s add to that.
Is it possible to kill God?
No.
Satan could try to the ends of eternity to try and kill God and would he ever succeed?
Would anyone else succeed?
No.
So in order for Christ to die it had to have been his flesh that died but there’s a clear
picture that Christ changed something about his existence in order to take on flesh.
So, one other passage.
Because we read through these passages and we read the text and then we don’t always think
about what we read.
Turn to Luke chapter 2.
In Luke chapter 2 we have the record of Jesus’ parents bringing Jesus to the feast,
bringing him to Jerusalem, and then departing thinking that he is with a family member or
someone from their group, only to get three days down the road and realize their child is
missing, and they turn around and go back.
They find him there in Jerusalem sitting and uh asking questions of the priests.
But notice uh verse 47.
and all who heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.
So when they saw him, they were amazed, and his mother said to him, Son, why have you done
this to us?
Look, your father and I have sought you anxiously.
And he said to them, Why did you seek me?
Did you not know that I must be about my father’s business?
But they did not understand the statement which he spoke to them.
Then he went down with them uh and came to Nazareth.
and was subject to them but his mother kept all these things in her heart and Jesus
increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.
If Christ embodied the entire nature of God at every moment of his human existence, and in
no way emptied himself of that role during any point in his human existence, then how
could it be said that God grew in wisdom?
God can’t grow in wisdom.
God has all wisdom.
God has all knowledge.
God has all insight.
In order for Jesus to grow in wisdom, there had to have been wisdom he did not yet have.
Okay?
So, stay with me.
John chapter 17, Jesus prays to the Father that his time is about to come, that he is
about to glorify the Father through the work which he is going to complete.
And he prays to the Father that the Father will return to him the glory that he had with
the Father before the world was.
Jesus states emphatically in that prayer in John 17 before he goes to the Garden of Eden
and before the Garden of Gethsemane and before he is betrayed that there was a glory that
he had in his nature that he did not presently at that moment have.
and it was by nature of the fact that he had taken on flesh.
So was he a hundred percent God still?
Yes.
But he withheld certain things from himself so that he might be able to function as a man.
if you turn over to James chapter 1.
James chapter 1 tells us that God cannot, and it doesn’t say will not, it’s cannot be
tempted with what?
Evil.
It says that it is an impossibility for God to be tempted with evil, and yet Hebrews
chapter 4 tells us that Christ was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.
All of these points declare to us quite clearly that something in the nature of Christ had
to change for Christ to come and take on flesh and to die as a man for us.
to be that atoning sacrifice for us.
And yeah, Paul will write
that Christ was the fullness of the Godhead dwelling bodily.
So we have these tentacles of understanding that help us to realize what Christ did, what
He was willing to give up for us so that it would even be possible for Him to come and
live as a human and to die on the cross, let alone to suffer.
at the hands of His own creation, let alone to then also be willing to be tempted with
sin.
so that we might have a perfect mediator, a perfect covenant, a perfect sacrifice, and we
might have His righteousness brought on us by His blood.
So I bring all of that up to point out as we get into Mark chapter 14.
that Jesus is going to begin in this text the events that will transpire leading up to His
betrayal, His trial, and His death.
and you will see in the process of these events a clear picture of His knowledge of what
is going to come.
and also his submission to it.
His willingness to do it even though he had every ability to remove himself from the
situation.
Chapter 14 verse 1, after two days it was the Passover and the feast of the unleavened
bread and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by trickery and
put him to death.
But they said, not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people.
And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman
came having an alabaster flask, a very costly oil of spikenard, then she broke the flask
and poured it on his head.
But there were some who were indignant among themselves and said, why was this fragrant
oil wasted?
if you were to give an analogy here, kind of a uh modern parallel, it would be as if a
woman went out and spent tens of thousands of dollars on a bottle of perfume and, you
know, justified to herself, hey, well, at least it’s going to last a long time, right?
Because you’re not going to dump the whole thing on you one use.
Alright, yeah tens of thousands of dollars but it’s going to last for a long, long time.
Except this woman does what with it?
Youth is it all.
There are some people who very sensitive to smells.
I imagine they were a little overwhelmed at that moment.
But she takes this fragrant oil and she uses all of it.
And the declaration from some who are present is that this had been wasted in its use.
and yet Jesus will disagree.
Now, the statement made is for it might have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given
to the poor.
Basically a year’s wage, just shy of a year’s wage for an average worker.
So here is this woman, she has access to this uh fragrant oil and instead of selling it,
instead of keeping it,
Instead of using it for herself, she takes it and uses all of it on Jesus at one moment in
time.
And the individual there says that this could have been used for the poor, and the text
says that they criticized her…how?
Sharply.
Here’s a woman who understands something that the apostles do not understand.
This was not just another feast and Passover that Jesus was coming to.
This was not just another feast day where Jesus shows up in Jerusalem, because this woman
knows this is the last Passover that Jesus is coming to.
and she understands it when no one else does.
Let’s spend just a moment thinking about what we do when we understand what is true and no
one else does.
We are challenged on a daily basis as we go through our lives if we have spent time in the
Scriptures, if we have spent time with the text of the Word of God, if we have taken that
and instilled it into our lives and caused ourselves to become what God would have us to
be and are insistent on being obedient to God, insistent on keeping His commandments,
insistent on living the kind of lifestyle that God insists upon.
and we live every day knowing what people that we come in contact every day do not know.
And there’s a challenge on a regular basis to live like we don’t know what we know.
to live like everybody else lives just because it’s easier to get along and to pretend we
don’t know than it is to frankly make it clear that they don’t know.
This woman.
performs an act that was a clear statement that she understood what they had not even
begun to grasp.
and she was willing to accept the criticism.
in spite of the fact that she was right and they were wrong.
And it is significant, it is worth pointing out, that there is nowhere in any of the
records of this event where the woman defends herself or her actions.
Rather, is Jesus who defends her actions.
Jesus said, let her alone.
Why do you trouble her?
She has done a good work for me.
as the criticism begins to come by the people who are present, perhaps the apostles, some
of them, it is clear from the other texts, are involved.
We know from one of the other texts that Judas is involved, though Judas’ motivation, John
will tell us, is not because he cared about the poor, but rather because of what?
He was the keeper of the money bag.
He wanted the money not in that flask of oil, not used to anoint Jesus.
He wanted the money where he could get access to it.
But Jesus does not say your motivations in questioning her are not right.
He says you misunderstand what is going on.
She has done a good work for me, for you have the poor with you always, and whenever you
wish, you may do them good.
But me you do not have always.
She has done what she could.
She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial.
Jesus will point out that the actions that this woman takes is because she knows the time
is at hand.
and we read verse 9, assuredly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole
world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial for her.
as you understand her actions.
Understand that she probably was well aware before she ever entered the house, before she
ever entered the room, that what she was about to do was not going to sit well with
others.
that what she was going to do was going to be considered on the border of being improper.
and yet out of her deep love and her deep care and concern for Jesus and out of her
understanding that existed beyond what even the apostles had of what was coming, she knew
her opportunity to do anything was short.
And so she acted.
Verse 10, then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priest to betray him
to them.
Out of this event, and we touched briefly on this and some of the reasons why I believe
that you have these two things connected, that out of this dinner, out of this event at
Simon’s house, not Simon Peter, not Simon the one known as Cephas, but Simon, who I firmly
believe to be the father of Judas, because Judas’ father’s name was Simon.
This Simon was a Pharisee.
And Judas is going to sit here and witness Jesus rebuking his father for his father’s
failure to provide hospitality to Jesus, and yet this woman does.
Between the actions of the woman and the rebuke of the father, Judas goes out and goes to
find the chief priest.
when they heard it, they were glad.
like kids in a candy store, we finally got somebody who can give us Jesus.
and promised to give him money so he sought how he might conveniently betray him.
Mark makes it clear Judas goes out with an intent.
And Judas wants a result.
He wants to get paid.
And yet, Judas doesn’t want to risk too much to do it.
He wants it to be convenient.
You remember that there was one of the individuals that Paul stood before, and Paul told
him concerning the gospel and concerning judgment and concerning righteousness, and he
said, if I had a more convenient season, I’ll call for you again.
To hear more about this Christianity thing, just not so much so that it will inconvenience
me.
Judas sought, means he was looking, he was paying attention, he was always eyeing from
this point forward an opportunity to betray Jesus.
Verse 12, now on the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover lamb,
his disciples said to him, where do you want us to go and prepare that you may eat the
Passover?
And he sent out two of his disciples and said to them, go into the city uh and a man will
meet you carrying a pitcher of water.
Follow him.
Wherever he goes in,
say to the master of the house, teacher says, where is the guest room in which I may eat
the Passover with my disciples?
Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and prepared there make ready for us.”
Jesus is going to send two of his disciples.
He’s going to send them with instructions, go and loose this colt.
Sorry, rather go into the city getting my my events confused uh go into the city and find
the man What type of man are they supposed to find?
Alright, one carrying a pitcher of water.
Why is it that they didn’t get confused with the other 100 men who were carrying a pitcher
of water?
Alright, the carrying of water pitchers was a woman’s job.
So it was pretty easy to identify the one man carrying a pitcher of water.
But he says, when you find him, follow him.
They’re going to go, they’re going to observe the man, they’re going to go with the man.
He says wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, which indicates that the man
is probably not what?
not the master of the house.
Would indicate he’s probably a servant or he is in some lower position than the master of
the house.
You go follow the man who’s got the pitcher of water and then you say to the master of the
house, the teacher says, where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my
disciples?
What does this perhaps remind you of earlier on in Jesus’ ministry when He sends others
out?
What instructions does he give to the 12 and to the 70 when he sends them out?
So they were to go into the villages and into the cities, and when they entered into a
city, they were to find a house that was willing to lodge them, willing to provide for
them as they’re teaching the gospel.
And as they arrived, if that family, that house, was willing to accept them, they were to
leave their blessing with the house, and they were not to go from house to house to house.
They were to stay in that house.
and people would come to them to be taught.
and their blessing was to remain on that house and they were to pronounce peace on that
house.
Jesus is essentially having His disciples do that here in preparation for the feast.
and there to go and Jesus says you’re going to find that the master of the house not only
is going to allow it, he’s going to show you a large upper room that’s already ready.
So his disciples went out and came into the city and found it just as he had said to them,
and they prepared the Passover.
He came with the twelve.
Now as they sat and ate, Jesus said, Assuredly I say to you, one of you who eats with me
will betray me.” Now if you do some studying on the Passover meal, you will find that in
standard Jewish fare there is a series of courses in the meal.
There’s a process that you go through during that meal.
And without going into all the detail, the point is that as the meal is progressing, more
things are being said.
Now, Matthew, Mark, and Luke give us some of the things that are said.
John gives us volumes more of what is said during this Passover meal.
John chapters 14, 15, 16, and 17 are all in the middle of this meal.
So Jesus is going to tell them about the Comforter coming.
Jesus is going to tell them about Him going away.
Jesus is going to tell them about the gifts of the miraculous of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is going to tell them about the fact that Jesus is going to pray to the Father
before they leave and depart from the Upper Room.
All of that is going to occur in this meal.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke give a very condensed, focused point.
concerning what is discussed in the meal.
But Jesus first points out that one of you who eats with me will betray me.
and they began to be sorrowful and to say to him, one by one, is it I?
And another, is it I?
Now do you think in their minds, excluding Judaism, that they were thinking like betray me
this very night?
I don’t think so.
Think about it.
In their minds they’re waiting for Jesus to become king.
They’re waiting for the kingdom to be delivered back to Israel.
They’re not paying attention at all to the fact that Jesus has told them that he’s going
to Jerusalem in order to be betrayed to the scribes and the Pharisees and killed.
They’ve missed all of that.
They’re waiting for…
they started the week
with a triumphal entry of Jesus riding in on a colt and people laying palm leaves down and
laying their coats down and crying out, Hosea, you’re the highest.
Their mindset and their disposition is not something’s happening before this night is out
and he’s going to go to the cross.
furthest thing from their mind.
I think, again, opinion alert, my opinion.
Their mindset is going somewhere down the road.
Think about David.
How David became king and often had those who later on in his role as king, those who used
to be his friends who betrayed him.
Those who started off with him and eventually turned against him.
My opinion is that’s what they’re thinking he’s talking about.
That one of these days down the road after I’m in power and after the kingdom has come and
after all of these things that they’re thinking are physical that he’s told them all along
are not physical.
That there’s coming a day where one of them is going to betray him.
One of them is going to turn back and no longer do what is right.
There is no indication that they comprehend the immediacy of what this is about.
And so they say, is it I?
Is it I?
He answered and said to them, it is one of the twelve who dips with me in the dish.
Part of that feast at one point is to take the bread and dip it into the dish and partake
of it.
So he’s utilizing aspects of the feast, aspects of the meal, to bring this discussion
forward.
Then the Son of Man, sorry, rather, indeed goes just as it is written of Him.
But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!
It would have been good for that man if he had never been born.
Jesus will point out that what is going to occur was prophesied, it was in accordance with
the commandment and the Word of God, and it was inevitable.
But the fact that it was inevitable, the fact that it was in accordance with prophecy, the
fact that it was going to happen because God said it was going to happen did not absolve
the person who would cause it.
when we
step back and realize that God holds us accountable for our choices.
We are not always held accountable for the results.
Prime example, we’re held accountable for teaching and preaching the gospel, for helping
the lost to know their state and helping them to become saved.
But are we held accountable for the results?
No.
Paul will point out that he planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
Many other scenarios where we understand that what we’re accountable for is the choice.
You go back into the Old Testament, back into the days of the judges, and Gideon is called
by God to go to battle.
And when Gideon gets the army and prepares to go to battle, God says, you have too many
men.
And so God goes through a process to pare down Gideon’s army until now Gideon has how many
men?
300.
And he’s going to battle against an entire army.
But God’s point to Gideon is, is your responsibility to carry out my command.
It is my responsibility to assure the results.
Jesus will point out that for this individual who would betray him, Judas iscariot.
that it would have been better off if he’d never been born.
But did that mean that Judas had no ability to not betray Jesus?
Was Judas forced beyond his own capacity or choice to betray Jesus?
No.
And it is this, again, we’re dealing with a number of things tonight that are difficult
for us to explain, difficult for us to grasp because of our finite nature, the existence
of God, the nature of God, and the possibility and the recognition that Christ is both God
and man and yet has all of these things that God can’t have.
The ability to sin, the ability to be tempted, the ability to die.
And yet as well in the same text we’re dealing with the fact that God has prophesied from
generations before, as a matter of fact, all the way back to the Garden of Eden.
that this betrayal event was going to occur and that he was going to be betrayed.
You go back to Psalm chapter 22, you go back to previous Psalms, and what do you find?
Specific reference concerning a betrayal.
A thousand years before the man who’s going to do it’s ever born.
And we’ve got to hold in our understanding both that Judas was going to do it
and it was assured by prophecy that he was, and yet Judas had entirely his complete
ability to choose.
He had agency.
except that Judas had given up his decision-making process to his own selfish interests.
So Judas was willing to betray his Lord so long as he got paid.
We read in verse 22, and as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed and broke it
and gave it to them and said, take, eat, this is my body.
Then he took the cup and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them and they all drink
from it.
And he said to them,
this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many.
Surely I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until the day when I
drink it new in the kingdom of God.
When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
All right, so in that short span, that’s Mark’s whole account
of what John gives in multiple chapters.
And yet, Mark is focused, as Mark always is, he’s getting to the cross.
He’s getting the immediacy, the urgency, the focused intent of Christ to go to the cross.
Do you have a comment?
Okay.
So, my, again, opinion alert.
All right, my opinion is Judas had seen Jesus escape death multiple times.
There was a point in time where those in Nazareth took Jesus up to the crown of a hill to
throw him off, and Jesus walked right out of their midst.
Jesus had been seen walking on water by Judas.
Jesus had been seen telling the Sea of Galilee in the midst of a storm to be still by
Jesus.
Judas witnessed Jesus take seven loaves and two fish and feed five thousand people.
No, I don’t think Judas had any aspect in his mind that this was going to result in Jesus’
death.
This was a payday.
And you see the reaction when Judas realizes what is going to occur by him bringing the
money and throwing it back at the feet of the priest.
oil that he started to focus on the money that he was sidetracked and that’s…
John indicates to us that Judas was a thief from the beginning, so that Judas was the
keeper of the bag and Judas was stealing funds from Jesus’s ministry all along the way.
And so, there’s a couple of things that you can combine here.
Number one, uh
Again, going back to what we discussed earlier about Judas’ father, if Judas’ father is a
Pharisee, who were the ones that Jesus condemned over and over and over and over again?
Pharisees.
Jesus, if you go read Matthew’s account, Matthew 23, Jesus has just leveled, right before
he talks about the destruction of Jerusalem, he’s just leveled seven woes at the Pharisees
proclaiming their unrighteousness, their hypocrisy, their hypocrisy.
And so, every single one of if Judas is the son of a Pharisee, that’s like getting shot.
My family’s getting shot every single time this comes up.
dinner with where he told the prayer about, in his disciples not washing their hands, the
same Simon.
I believe it is.
Add to that yet, alright so here’s the mixed bag, the text indicates that at one point
Simon had been a leper.
So here’s Simon, his own father, who had been a leper, and how could a leper be made
whole?
Only one way.
Jesus made his father no longer a leper.
Because if he was still a leper, he couldn’t be holding a feast, he couldn’t be having
people over for dinner, right?
He would have had to have been outside the city.
So you have Judas as this very mixed bag when you pull all of these details in, he’s
somebody who’s indebted for his father’s very life to Jesus, and yet Jesus condemns his
father’s.
actions and his allegiance to the Pharisees, and Jesus is going to bring forward against
his father this statement of, didn’t provide anything for me when you came in, and brings
about an accusation against him, and yet Judas is in the midst of this watching all of
this, and Judas has a problem with his own selfish interests.
Which, by the way, wasn’t too far off of the nature of most of the Pharisees.
He had learned really well from the people he grew up around.
You have a very complicated person in the form of Judas.
We don’t talk about it a lot.
Revelation 7 (Lesson 2) – Aaron Cozort – March 08, 2026
Good morning.
Good to see all of you this morning.
I’m running a few minutes behind because I had to do my job, Eddie’s job, James and
Isaiah’s job.
poor, poor me.
But I also forgot that if I set up a PowerPoint the way I set it up, it’s gonna hang off
the edges behind me.
uh for those who are watching online or watching this later, you won’t have that problem,
but the people in the room, you’re gonna see it kind of hang off either side.
And I apologize in advance.
All right, we are in the book of Revelation.
We are in chapter seven.
And we’re going to begin with a word of prayer as we get into our study.
Let us pray.
Gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day you’ve granted
to us, grateful for the blessings that we have.
We’re grateful for the opportunity that we have to come together to have the energy and
the ability to assemble together to study your word, understand your will and how you
would have us to live.
Lord, we pray that you be with us as we go throughout this day.
We pray that you will be with us as we strive to serve you and we pray that you will
forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory.
Lord, we pray that we might open the words of this book, that we might apply our hearts
and our
to read it, to understand it, that we might know how to uh learn from it and how to apply
the things that you’ve placed here in it for uh us to learn and for our lives, for wisdom.
Lord, help us to open the text and to read it in its context and not add things to it, but
rather gain what is in it.
Lord, we pray that you be with the church throughout the world.
We pray that you be with mission.
and we pray that we might always be attentive to those opportunities here in Collierville
and in this congregation.
And we pray for open doors in our service and in our evangelism as well.
Lord, we ask that you be with this nation, with its
leaders and with nations throughout the world.
May they make the decisions that lead towards that which is good, that they might lead
towards peace, but also that they might uh act in a way that is proper in accordance with
your word and your will.
All this we pray and ask in Jesus’ name, amen.
So just a quick review, and this was actually the slideshow that I intended to have up
last week and put the wrong one up.
So we’re gonna utilize this a little bit this morning.
Chapter one is introductory.
It introduces John, his circumstance, and who is speaking to it.
It also introduces the…
uh
time perspective of the book, that is to say that twice in the first three verses, God
says the events that are being discussed are going to happen soon.
These things were at hand.
Okay?
Then chapters two and three, you have Jesus and the Spirit writing through John to the
seven churches and many of the types, many of the figures that you’re going to see later
on.
you’re going to see alluded to in chapters 2 and 3.
Just like when we opened up chapter 7 and we saw God’s name being written on the
Christians or being written on individuals, it would have been much harder to interpret
who is getting the name of God written on their forehead had it not been for the fact that
chapter 3 told us who it was.
Okay, so many of the figures have clues in those first two or chapters 2 and 3.
Chapter four and five, you have the groundwork for comfort.
God is on the throne.
God the Father is not changed.
He’s not moved from the throne.
He is not diminished in power.
And God the Son, God the Lamb is right there before the throne and He is equally worthy of
praise.
Chapter six, the seals of the book that were in the hand of the one who’s on the throne
and the lamb was worthy to open begin to be opened.
Seal one, seal two, seal three, seal four, seal five, seal six are all opened in chapter
six.
Chapter six ends with the question, who is able to stamp?
And that’s uh what chapter seven is answering.
So chapter four begins with the open door.
Chapter four, you see the throne.
You see, and I was gonna go through all this last week, we’re gonna go through all of it
again.
Chapter five, you see the lamb.
That was the image of the scroll.
I told you a few weeks ago, I had seen one, I knew I had one of my notes that just kind of
gives you a visual of the idea of uh the scroll with seven seals where it’s progressively
able to be opened.
That was the image I was trying to find.
and think of just a useful mental image for you.
Chapter five, you have the lamb and uh Christ standing as if he was slain and yet being
alive, you have the praise given to him.
Chapter six, you have the seals, the white horse, the three horses with destruction, the
souls under the altar.
And then the figures in the end of chapter 6, which by the way, if you go read Joel
chapter 2 and the destruction of Edom, you’re going to see most all of the exact same
figures given in view of the destruction of Edom in Joel chapter 2.
Okay, so a lot of the similarities in that passage are right there.
So the question is answered at the end of chapter six.
The question is, who is able to stand?
That gets us into chapter seven and the Mark of the Faithful.
We went through some of this uh last week.
We’re going to continue with it, but uh the first thing that we need to understand is this
isn’t the first time this question’s been asked.
Turn to Zechariah.
The Old Testament prophet Zechariah as he is writing…
nearing the end of uh the Old Testament.
He’s living in the days of the Persian kingdom.
Darius is on the throne in chapter 1 verse 1, but you’ll notice in chapter 1 verse 12,
then the angel of the Lord answered and said, “‘O Lord of hosts, how long will you not
have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah against which you were angry these
seventy years?’
And the Lord answered the angel who talked with me, and with good and comforting words.
So the angel who spoke with me said to me, Proclaim saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, I
am zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great zeal.
I am exceedingly angry with the nations at ease, for I was a little angry, and they
helped, but with evil intent.
Therefore, thus says the Lord, I am returning to Jerusalem with mercy,
My house shall be built in it, says the Lord of hosts, and a surveyor’s line shall be
stretched out over Jerusalem, and uh again proclaims saying, thus says the Lord of hosts,
my cities shall again spread out through prosperity.
The Lord will again comfort Zion and will again choose Jerusalem.
Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were four horns.
And I said to the angel who talked with me, who were these?
So he answered,
These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.
Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen, and I said, what are these coming to do?
So he said, these are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one could lift up his
head, but the craftsmen are coming to terrify them, to cast out the horns of the nations
that uh lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.” Now the direct
question isn’t found here in Zechariah 1, but what you have
is kind of a parallel situation and a parallel description.
In Zechariah God is asked the question, how long is this going to continue?
How long until Israel and Jerusalem is going to see peace, bearing in mind there are
people who have gone back to the land of Jerusalem because it’s in the days of Cyrus, it’s
in the time of the Persians, they’ve been allowed to go back but they’ve had trouble.
and difficulty and persecution nonstop since they got there.
So Zechariah is asking the question, how long, Lord, is this going to go on?
Sound like seal number five?
Sound like the soul’s under the altar?
How long are you going to let this continue?
And God says, he answers them with comforting words, rest a little bit.
You see the parallel?
Rest a little bit and I’m gonna take care of it.
And so he,
uh In Zechariah’s vision, Zechariah sees four horns.
And he says, what are these?
And God says, those are the people who’ve been causing Israel trouble.
Then he sees four craftsmen.
And he says, what are those?
He says, they’re my answer to the four horns.
So you remember when chapter seven opens, you’ve got the what?
You’ve got the four angels at the four corners of the earth holding back what?
the wind.
And we’re told God’s going to bring judgment, the fifth angel comes up, says God’s going
to bring judgment, but wait a minute, you can’t start the judgment until God’s people are
marked.
God’s people are not going to be the recipients of the judgment.
They are going to be those who are going to endure and who are going to be found faithful.
in the midst of the judgment.
So the fifth angel comes up and says, not harm the earth, verse 3 of chapter 7, the seed,
the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.
And I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000 of all the tribes of the children
of Israel were sealed.
Now, if anyone’s paid attention to our Facebook page in the last week, there’s been a
number of people who would like to disagree about the fact that
the text is either literal or it’s not.
And they want it to be half literal.
They want it to be figurative only where they desire for it be figurative.
But if the text is not literal, and by literal we mean this, if the number is 144,000,
then it’s literal.
If the number is 144,000 and that is literal,
then the tribes are literal.
You can’t have one without the other.
By the way, after AD 70, how many Jews could prove their tribe?
Surely there’s gotta be something with AI right now that can go back and prove what tribe
they came from?
DNA research?
Nothing?
No, nothing.
There is not a Jew alive today who can prove what tribe they came from.
And they haven’t been able to for 2,000 years.
As a result, if the passage is literal and John wrote after AD 70, it’s nonsense.
The whole book is worthless if the passage is literal.
Because you can’t prove a tribe in Israel today.
So certainly can’t be literal and in the future.
When we say literal, we’re not meaning, and it’s important to point this out, we’re not
meaning God doesn’t mean what he says.
We’re meaning God gave it in the form of verbal pictures.
And God instructs us, just like he instructed the Old Testament recipients of those Old
Testament prophets, to interpret the meaning of the picture.
Jesus would criticize
the Pharisees and the Jews and even at times the disciples over and over for not being
able to interpret the Old Testament when they could interpret the sky and the color of the
sky and know whether or not it was going to rain or whether the seasons were changing.
He would fault them because they could interpret nature and they couldn’t interpret the
Word of God.
And we can’t be guilty of that.
John makes it clear that the things in the vision are visionary language.
So we’re supposed to ask the question, that’s what I see, what does it mean?
And when we see 144,000, we see 12,000 from each tribe.
When we see 12,000, we see 12 multiplied by the number 1,000.
When we see the tribes, we see a figure from the Old Testament of God’s people.
When we see the number 12, we see a figure of God’s
people.
And when we see anything multiplied by a thousand in the book of Revelation, it is all of
them.
When you see thousands multiplied by thousands, you see God saying, and I didn’t miss one
single person.
Ezekiel chapter 9, similar figures to what you see in chapter 7 verses 3 through 10.
We’re not going to get into all these passages as we go, but I do want to spend some time
with the markings that exist in the book of Revelation.
I want to show you a few of these things because when you see it, we’re not going to be in
all these contexts yet, but you’re going to see the markings over and over and suddenly
when you get to that context you go, yep, I know exactly what’s going on.
So let’s start in chapter three.
Chapter 3, beginning in verse 12, he who overcomes, this is said to the church at
Philadelphia, he who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of God.
Now, hold on real quick.
I know I’m harping on a couple of things, but let’s just be fair with the text.
If all of the book of Revelation should be understood literally,
then we’re going have a real problem with this passage because the one who overcomes is
literally going to have to stand around and hold up the ceiling.
because that’s what a pillar does, If we do not appreciate that figures can be used that
are visionary, that do not, are never intended to be literal, when he says the person who
overcomes, they are going to be a pillar in the temple of God, either he means that
literally or he means it figuratively.
He means it metaphorically.
And when, by the way, Paul said that there were certain of the apostles and elders who
seemed to be pillars in the church in Jerusalem, in Galatians, he was not meaning that
they had a regular practice of standing around holding up a ceiling.
We know that because we use the type of terminology all the time.
And he uses it here.
Okay, now, who overcomes, will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go
out no more.
All right, again, if we’re gonna be literal, just take it 100 % literally, let’s see if we
can do that.
All right, he who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of God.
He’s gonna stand and hold up the ceiling, and he shall go out no more.
He literally will never leave the building ever again.
All right, let’s see what else it would say.
And I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God.
So he’s gonna have the literal name of God and the literal name of Jerusalem, if we’re
going to interpret it that way, written on his head as he holds up the ceiling and never
leaves the building again.
Do we really think that’s what John means?
No.
So if the pillar is figurative, and if the never leaving the building again is a metaphor
for never leaving God’s presence,
then why can’t the name and the writing on the forehead be figurative?
Why can’t that be a picture that we are to interpret?
The answer is it has to be because it had two figures in front of it that we knew were not
literal.
You don’t pick and choose text and go sentence phrase one,
is figurative.
Sentence phrase two is figurative.
Sentence phrase three, which matches the figures that we need to interpret literally.
Nobody does that in everyday language.
Nobody does that if they’re honest unless the person as they’re writing or speaking says
something to say, hey, by the way, I’m changing from figurative to literal.
But notice what else.
He says, I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the
new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and I will write on him my new
for the individuals who sadly, even some within the body of Christ, have begun teaching
the idea that the New Jerusalem is the renovated earth where the Christians are going to
live because we’re not going to go to heaven when this world is over.
God’s going to renovate the earth and we’re going to live forever on a perfect earth.
By the way, you don’t have any more right to change
figures into literal statements in the middle of the text than the person who argues that
the name of God is physically going to be written on the forehead of the people.
It’s not a renovated Jerusalem and it’s not a renovated earth.
And if we would go back and read Isaiah, Isaiah 66 specifically, and we would understand
what Isaiah was saying to the Israelites in that day in anticipation of the kingdom, we
would know better.
Now, if we use proper interpretation, we’d also know better.
Chapter seven, verses one through eight we’ve just read, so we’re not gonna go back and
read those again.
Go to chapter nine.
Chapter 9, this is when the fifth angel is sounding.
We’re gonna get into the trumpets, we’re not gonna go through all of that, but chapter 9
verse 2, he opens the bottomless pit, smoke arises out.
Verse 4, they were commanded not to harm the grass or any green thing, this is the
scorpions by the way that are in chapter 9 verse 3, they were commanded not to harm the
grass over the earth or any green thing or any tree or, sorry, but only,
those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
Okay?
So there’s a picture in chapter nine, scorpions come out and they’re gonna hurt the earth,
they’re not gonna hurt the green things, they’re not gonna hurt anything living on the
earth, they’re only gonna hurt the people who don’t have the name of God written on their
forehead.
Okay?
Let’s see another one, Revelation 13.
Revelation chapter 13 verses 16 and 17, causes all, both small and great, rich and poor,
free and slave, to receive the mark on their right hand and on their foreheads, that no
one may buy or sell except one who has the mark of the name of the beast or the number of
his name.
Now we are seeing markings on the hand and on the forehead, but it’s not the marking of
God.
It’s not the name of God, it’s the number of the beast or the name of the beast.
Now if we’re honest with chapter 3, when we see that the people of God who were the
Christians alive in the church in Philadelphia were going to have the name of God written
on their forehead, then we would have to be equal with our interpretation that there were
going to be people in the days of the church of Philadelphia who were going to have the
name of the beast written on their forehead
and the number of the beast written on their hand and on their forehead.
So if it’s literal in chapter one, if it’s physical in chapter, sorry, chapter three, then
it’s literal and physical in chapter 13.
But if it’s not there, is it here?
If it’s a figure in chapter 3, is it a figure here?
Yes.
If it’s a figure in chapter 7, is it a figure here?
Yes.
If it’s a figure in chapter 9, is it a figure here?
Yes.
So should we be waiting for a day where some government comes along and starts putting
things on the back of people’s hands to declare that they’re allowed to do commerce and
something written on their forehead that says they belong to that government?
No.
m
But if you talk to a premillennialist, boy, they’re going to tell you how it’s going to
work out.
And they’re looking for every new tech device coming out that’s going to be the mark of
the beast.
Chapter 14, verse 1, we’re back to the 144,000, by the way.
Then I looked and behold a lamb standing on Mount Zion and with him 144,000 having his
father’s name written on their forehead.
Now where is Mount Zion?
Jerusalem, if we’re talking about the physical Mount Zion, but is that where John saw this
individual who’s known as the Lamb, which means it’s who?
Christ.
Is John seeing him on the earthly Mount Zion with 144,000 people behind him, or is he
seeing him in the visionary Mount Zion?
Visionary.
Alright, notice the 144,000 are with Jesus and they all have the Father’s name written on
their head.
Chapter 14 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, 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, and
they have no rest day or night who worship the beast and his image and whoever receives
the mark of his name.” Now I’m going to go from preaching and teaching to meddling.
In verse 8, chapter 14, the proclamation is made, another angel followed saying Babylon is
fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of
the wrath of her fornication.
Alright, question.
If we were interpreting the book,
should we assume that the physical, literal city of Babylon is the one under consideration
here?
Or should we consider that Babylon’s a figure?
The answer is we should consider it a figure.
By the way, as we go down the verse, let’s see if we can identify which thing is a figure
and a picture and should be interpreted such and which one should be interpreted
literally.
All right?
So Babylon, literal or figurative?
Figurative, okay?
Let’s go to the next one.
The wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Literal or figurative?
literal line or not.
the one who worships the beast and his image and receives the mark on his forehead or on
his hand.
First of all, is the worship done in a real sense?
In other words, allegiance to the enemy of God.
Is that a uh figure we understand?
Let me ask you this way.
uh Would a person have to fall down before an idol?
in order to worship the enemy of God?
No.
How do we know that?
Well, Paul tells us that covetousness is idolatry.
So, if a person loved money, would they qualify under this figure?
Absolutely.
They don’t have to fall down and worship before an idol or worship before Satan himself or
go about their daily lives practicing devil worship.
They could just worship money in their actions, in their life, and in their lifestyle.
And they’d fit the qualification.
All right?
So, we understand even the picture of worship is a figure.
Hold on.
So if the worship is a figure, then is the mark that they receive literal, physical, or
figurative?
Figurative?
Alright, here we go.
Verse 10, 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.
The wine and the cup of the wrath of God and his indignation, are they physical or
literal?
Sorry, physical, literal, or figurative?
Get my words out.
Figurative.
Okay.
See, I’m going to start meddling.
and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels of
God, in the presence of the Lamb, is the fire and brimstone literal, physical, or
figurative.
You see, this is where we also have to be honest.
This is where we also have to be fair with the text.
You don’t get to have six figures and read Fire and Brimstone and jump to literal.
You don’t get to do it.
And this is where we sometimes trip up, okay?
Now.
Question.
Does flesh inherit eternity?
Is fire a physical thing that is an attribute of this physical earth?
Yes.
Should we assume that fire is going to be transported into eternity?
No.
But is that a figure that we can consistently understand on the concept of torment that
never ends?
Anybody who’s ever been burned, they get that figure real quick.
Anybody who’s ever been near a fire and felt the heat, they get the figure real quick.
So is the torment
is the wrath of God and the judgment and the punishment figurative in the text?
No.
That’s what the figures are pointing to.
That’s the thing being pictured so you can understand it in human terms.
See, whenever there’s figures, there’s a point behind them.
And the point of the figure here is there are people who have allegiance to God’s enemy
and they’re going to be judged.
And God’s judgment, while the nature of the judgment is humanized, given in earthly terms,
given in a picture, by the way, a picture from Isaiah 66.
Is the judgment real?
Is the judgment guaranteed by God to actually occur even though it’s pictured so we can
understand it?
Yes.
Just like the tabernacle was a picture of the church.
It doesn’t make the church not real.
It means it was a picture that had a meaning.
Yes, Ava, did you have a thought earlier?
correct.
All right, chapter 16 verse 2.
So the first went and poured out his bowl.
This is another set of judgments on the earth.
And a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those
who worshiped his image.
There’s another marking, chapter 17 verse 5.
And on her forehead a name was written.
This is the great harlot that’s riding the terrible beast.
On her name was written mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the
abominations of the earth.
So she’s got a name written on her forehead.
Chapter 20 and verse 4, we have, I saw thrones and they that sat on them and judgments
committed to them.
Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the
word of God who had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received the mark on
their foreheads or on their hands.
And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
You know?
We really have to be careful about all these figures.
because if this one is accurate, the only Christians who are going to reign with Christ,
which the New Testament describes over and over as being an attribute of regular
Christians, are the Christians who are beheaded while they’re still on the earth.
If they die by…
they could be crucified upside down like Peter, but Peter’s not going to qualify to reign
with Christ.
He wasn’t beheaded.
James probably not going to qualify.
He wasn’t beheaded.
Wait a minute.
Was there a significant person in New Testament history that was beheaded for his
testimony of Christ?
Hoo!
John the Baptist.
Here’s a figure, and it’s a figure of faithful spokesmen of God who speak truth to rulers
in this world.
And God said, on the other side of eternity, you’re going to be ruling, while on this side
of eternity, they’re going to be killing you.
Okay?
It’s a picture.
It’s a picture of John the Baptist.
in that text.
Chapter 19 verses 12 through 16, ah let’s go to verse 11, now I saw heaven opened and
behold a white horse and he who sat on him was called faithful and true and in
righteousness he judges and makes war.
We mentioned like umpteen times the white horse in chapter 6 and we’ve mentioned later on
in the text you’re going to see a white horse and you’re going to see the person riding on
him is Christ.
Here it is.
Chapter 19 verse 11, saw in heaven opened and behold a white horse and he who sat on him
was called faithful and true.
Who’s that?
Christ.
and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
Huh, what did the white horse in chapter six do?
It went out conquering.
It made war.
It’s kind of consistent, isn’t it?
Anyway, chapter 19 verse 12, his eyes were like a flame of fire and on his head were many
crowns and he had a name written that no one knew except himself.
This individual, Christ, has a name written on him and no one knows what it is.
Now, notice, he was clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called
John doesn’t want you to miss this one.
The Word of God.
Now, anybody who had ever read anything John wrote wouldn’t have missed that one, would
they?
Let’s see.
John chapter 1 verse 1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made, and the Word
became flesh and dwelt among us.
And the one riding on the white horse is the word of God.” Now notice, now out of his
mouth goes a sharp sword, sorry, verse 14, I skipped that one, and the armies in heaven,
clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses.
Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, with it, and that with it
He should strike the nations, and He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron.
He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of the Almighty.
He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
which names, on which places, on which people are physical and earthly.
None of them.
None of them.
There’s not going to be a bunch of Christians going around with Christian tattooed on
their forehead.
There’s not going to be a bunch of devil worshippers roaming around with 666 tattooed on
their forehead either.
And if a doctor gives you a shot of anything, it’s not the mark of the beast.
It may kill you but it’s not the mark of the beast.
Well, I’d add that one in for your benefit.
All right.
Chapter 7 of Revelation.
who are the marked and the sealed ones?
They’re all the people of God.
Every single one of them that could possibly be affected by the judgment that was coming
on the earth.
Verse 9.
catch up here alright first night after these things i looked and behold a great multitude
which no one could number of all nations tribes people’s tongue standing before the throne
of before the lamb clothed with white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying
out with a loud voice saying salvation belongs to our god who sits on the throne and to
the lamb you go back to chapter six and the question
until God’s gonna deal with it.
Chapter 7 says, everybody in heaven’s shouting out, God’s got it dealt with.
Assurance to the church in the first century, God has the situation under control.
Verse 11, all the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living
creatures fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped saying, Amen, blessing and
glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and
ever.
Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, who are these, arrayed in white robes, and
where do they come from?
Now isn’t that strange?
Here’s one of the people in the vision, and he’s asking John about the vision.
It’s kind of like the teacher who wrote the test asking the questions of the students who
didn’t write the test, isn’t it?
I guess maybe he’s asking to make sure John doesn’t miss a point.
So one of the elders comes to John and says, who are the people in white robes?
Is it because John needs to know or because the first century Christians need to know?
Notice, and I said to him, sir, you know.
Sometimes when a teacher asks you a question, you should answer in such a way as to get
the teacher to answer the question, because you don’t know the answer.
John says, why don’t you answer that for me?
You asked it, you answer it.
He says, sir, you know, so he said to me, these are the ones who came out of the great
tribulation and washed their robes.
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple and
he who sits on the throne will dwell among them.”
Hmm.
Do we think we can understand that?
Let’s turn to Isaiah chapter one real quick before we run out of time.
Isaiah chapter one, we’ll get to the rest of these passages that are on the slide later.
As Isaiah opens his prophecy to Israel in 800 BC, he writes to them, verse 16, wash
yourselves, make yourselves clean, put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes,
cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the
fatherless, plead for the widow.
Come now and let us reason together, says the LORD, though your sins are like scarlet.”
They shall be as white as snow.
Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Turn to Romans chapter 6.
Romans chapter 6 verse 4, Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death,
that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should
walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also
be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with
Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of
sin.
for he who has died has been freed from sin.” Go back to chapter 5 and you’ll get the
context of being freed from sin.
Chapter 5 verse 6, “‘For when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for
the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would
even dare to die.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us.'”
much more than having now been justified by His blood.
We shall be saved from wrath through Him.
Where are we justified in our sins washed away?
in the blood of Christ.
Where do we come in contact with the blood of Christ according to chapter 6?
Same place we come in contact to it is death in baptism.
Someone says, Aaron, you’re just trying to work your way to heaven.
No, sir.
No, sir, I’m not.
First John chapter one.
Verse five, this is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you that God
is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
If we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the
truth, but if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one
another and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.
John gets asked, who are these people in white robes?
John says, Mr.
Elder, sir, do you mind answering that question for me?
The elder says, it’s the one who faithfully obeyed God, having become a Christian, having
the blood of Christ wash away their sins and remained faithful until death.
Romans two, verse 10, or sorry, Revelation two, verse 10.
and they now have received a crown of life.
That’s all we got time for.
The Value of A Soul – Aaron Cozort – March 08, 2026
Good morning.
Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to the book of Matthew.
Matthew chapter 16.
We’re going to begin in this text.
Many of you were present just a few weeks ago as Fr.
Keno Schrum came and did some continuing work with us on our evangelism efforts.
This morning I wanted to spend some time following up on one of the things that we
discussed during that period of time, and that is the value of a soul.
In Matthew chapter 16, we will read in verse 26, what profit is it to a man if he gains
the whole world and loses his own soul?
Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
Jesus asked the question,
after already pronouncing to the people, to His disciples, to those who were present, if
anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself.
Take up his cross and follow Me.
Jesus will help us to realize, as He helped His disciples to realize, that the soul
has value.
That who a person is has value.
Now we should be clear what we mean by a soul.
For not everyone in the world, not everyone in culture today, not everyone around us
understands the biblical concept of a soul.
It means that you, particularly, are a person made in the image of God.
That you have within you a soul that is not like your flesh, for it is
eternal, it is everlasting in nature, having been created, it will not die.
That when this life is over, when you see the end of this life, and when your flesh goes
to the grave, when your flesh sees corruption, as the New Testament tells us, that your
soul will go into eternity.
Job will tell us.
that the soul returns to God who made it.
And the Hebrew writer tells us in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 27 that it is appointed unto men
once to die and after this the judgment.
That means that the soul is the part of you that will go to the judgment.
Therefore it is a part of you that is intelligent.
the person, the mind of the person, it is that which can be judged.
Now sometimes, a few of you who have pets will get after your pets for not doing what they
ought to do.
But when their life is over, they’re not going to God to be judged.
at the end of our lives.
We will.
Which is why Jesus asked the question, what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
For if you gain the whole world, it all stays here when your soul departs.
If you gain everything that you could desire or ask for,
You’re going to lose it.
You may not lose it while you’re alive, but the moment you die, it’s gone.
Matthew chapter 16, Jesus says, verse 25, for whoever desires to save his life will lose
it.
Even this very life you will lose.
You’ve probably known a few people in your life, you may have been one of them at one
point in your life, that was fastidious about everything they ate, about the amount of
exercise that they get every day, about the amount of sleep that they get every day, about
the longevity of their life trying to extend their lives.
All of that is good stewardship in moderation.
but it will not change the reality.
He who seeks to save his life will lose it.
But he goes on to say, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Verse 27, for the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, then he
will reward each one according to his works.
Point number one, the value of a soul to yourself.
is such that it is worth more than everything else you will ever have combined.
and it doesn’t matter how much you have.
It doesn’t matter how much you accumulate or how much you lose in this life, your soul is
still worth more than everything you could ever accumulate in this life.
Matthew chapter 10, Jesus will send out his disciples to teach and to preach.
throughout the Judean cities and in Matthew chapter 10 beginning in verse 29 he will say,
not two sparrows sold for a copper coin?
And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your father’s will, but the very hairs
of your head are all numbered.
Do not fear therefore you are of more value than many sparrows.
Sometimes people look at themselves and they critique themselves and they overly criticize
themselves and they think, am not worth anything.
I am worthless.
Sparrows were the Old Testament sacrifice equivalent of, am poor, destitute, and have
nothing.
A sparrow is, a bird is the lowest cost item you could offer as a sacrifice when you could
not afford a lamb.
And yet, Jesus says, the sparrows?
God cares about them.
God knows them.
God knows how many there are.
God makes sure to provide for them.
How much more so you?
You say, I’m not worth much.
Or you might say, I’m worth a lot, Aaron.
Well, God knows how much you’re worth.
And God’s even bothered to number the hairs on your head, something you haven’t done, in
spite of the fact that for many of us it’s much easier now than it’s ever been.
We still have other to do it, but God did.
He knows and He cares.
The value of a soul is such that to the person’s own self it is worth more than they will
ever achieve in this life.
So for the person here this morning who might consider themselves unimportant, not
significant, unvaluable, you are.
It is your soul that is of great, immeasurable, everlasting value.
But then consider as well the value of a soul to God.
If you turn back to the book of Ezekiel in Ezekiel chapter 18,
Ezekiel will write concerning the righteous judgment of God how that God does not judge
those who are not worthy of the judgment.
He does not hold the wicked son uh accountable for the righteous father nor the righteous
son accountable for the wicked father.
He judges each one according to their own works.
In Ezekiel chapter 18, in we read, The soul whose sins shall die.
The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son.
The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked
shall be upon him.”
But if a wicked man turns from all his sins, which he has committed, keeps all my
statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live and not die.
None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him.
Because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live.
Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?
says the Lord God, and not that he should turn from his ways and live?
Consider that Ezekiel points out that God desires individuals to turn from wickedness so
that they might live because his soul has no pleasure in meeting out judgment.
The skeptic and the agnostic and the atheist will accuse God of being a hateful God.
They will accuse God of being a vengeful God.
They will accuse God of being a judging God who just simply wants to torment people
forever and ever.
Ezekiel sets the record straight.
God does not take pleasure in judging.
He takes pleasure in forgiving.
and yet it is the individual who will have to choose which scenario they find themselves
in.
But God values the soul.
Turn to 2 Peter chapter 3.
In the very last chapter of Peter’s second letter, as he writes to the Christians about
some who had argued that God wasn’t going to return, that there was no end coming, there
was no final day that was going to arrive, because everything had continued the way it
always had.
Peter will point out that they don’t know their scriptures very well, and they need to go
back and look at Genesis chapter 6 through 8 and the flood.
to the that God made it clear things have not always continued the way they always had.
But he will write in 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 9, the Lord is not slack concerning His
promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
The value of a soul is such that God will prolong judgment and extend long-suffering for
the individual who’s willing to repent.
because God desires that everyone is willing to repent.
And therefore He will extend His long-suffering and hold back His judgment in that effort.
But then consider John chapter 3 in verse 16.
Consider that the value of a soul to God is clearly demonstrated by what Jesus says in
John chapter 3 and in verse 16.
For he says, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever
believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
The value of a soul to God is seen that he was willing to send Christ.
He was willing to give his only begotten son that we might be saved.
value of a soul to God is clearly demonstrated.
But then consider as well we have not only the value of a soul to the individual, the
value of the soul to God, but the value of the soul to Christ.
In Luke chapter 19
as Luke, sorry, as Luke records, Jesus’s interactions with Zacchaeus and his household.
We read beginning in verse 9, Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house
because he also is a son of Abraham, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that
which was lost.
The value of a soul to Christ is such that Jesus came to this earth to seek and to save
souls.
Jesus didn’t come to this earth so he could set up a physical kingdom.
Jesus didn’t come to this earth so he could set up a throne to rule on.
Jesus didn’t come to this earth so that he could live in the pleasures of the world for a
thousand years, reigning on a throne.
Jesus came to live, to die, to pay the price for a lost soul to be saved and to build His
church, His assembly of those who are saved.
so that one day they might return to be with Him and dwell with the Father.
The value of the soul is such that Jesus was willing to purchase it.
Turn back to 1 Peter.
In 1 Peter chapter 1,
Peter writes in verse 18, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like
silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers.
Peter says, you realize the price of your soul was not purchasable by a measurement of
gold?
If someone came to you with a truckload of gold, they showed up, they pulled into your
driveway in the morning, they knocked on your door, it was bright and early, they said, we
have great news, we have a truckload of gold for you.
All you have to give us is your soul in return.
It’s a bad deal.
because Christ did not redeem us with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but,
verse 19, with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without
spot.
The value of a soul to Christ is such that he was willing to shed his blood to purchase
it.
Hebrews chapter two.
The Hebrew writer.
will write concerning Christ, you have put all things, verse 8, in subjection under His
feet, for in that He put all things in subjection under Him, He left nothing that was not
put under Him.
But now we do not yet see all things put under Him, but we see Jesus, who was made a
little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor,
that He by the grace of God should taste death for everyone.
for it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing
many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering.
Hebrew writer tells us.
You have been bought.
by the death of Christ.
You have been bought by the sacrifice and the suffering of your Lord.
in John chapter 10.
Jesus will say,
I am the Good Shepherd.
and I give my life for the sheep.
The value of the soul to the individual, it’s worth more than the combined amount of
everything they’ll ever possess.
The value of the soul to God is that He cares about it so much He will prolong judgment
and extend long-suffering if there’s a soul to be saved by doing so.
and that He knows and cares for every soul and every individual and has no pleasure in
bringing wrath and judgment upon them, rather desires them to repent and be saved.
So much so that He sent His Son to die for us and He cared so much that He desired to come
to die for us that His blood might pay our
Pardon.
but then consider the value of the soul to heaven.
In Luke chapter 15, as Jesus speaks concerning the value of the soul, as he speaks
concerning a soul that is lost, and as he teaches his disciples about the importance of a
single soul.
We read in Luke chapter 15, beginning in verse seven, I say to you that likewise there
will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 just persons who need
no repentance
or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin does not light a lamp, sweep
the house and search carefully till she finds it.
And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, Rejoice
with me, for I have found the peace which I lost.
Likewise I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner
who repents.
The Bible is clear, Jesus is clear, the one who actually experienced heaven could actually
testify concerning the fact that heaven itself values a soul!
that the angels in heaven rejoice.
Sometimes.
We get busy in life.
We get busy and we get to doing things and sometimes in the midst of doing things, in the
midst of being busy, we will hear from someone else exceedingly good news.
News that would just thrill our hearts and overjoy us, but because we’re busy at times we
don’t stop to rejoice.
Other things on our mind diminish the value of the news that we heard.
Jesus is giving us a picture so as to say heaven doesn’t do that.
as if to imagine in our hearts and minds that the news were to come that one soul, one
sinner has repented and be saved and everything the angels were doing at that moment gets
laid aside for them to take time to rejoice.
because of the value of the soul.
value of the soul to the individual, value of the soul to God, the value of the soul to
Christ, the value of the soul to heaven.
But what about the value of the soul to those who are saved?
By that I mean to those who are already saved.
In Matthew chapter 28.
Verse Jesus came to them, the disciples, and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been
given unto me in heaven and on earth.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have
commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
The value of the soul to the saved is such that it is their mission.
If you had a background in the military and in the active part of the military, you would
know that mission comes first.
The mission gets priority over life.
Limb.
It is that which comes first.
And for Jesus’ disciples, Jesus left them with the parting instruction, souls come first.
But then consider that all souls in all nations come first.
Turn to Luke chapter 24.
In Luke chapter 24,
Jesus will say as Luke records the event beginning in verse 46, He said to them, thus it
is written and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and arise from the dead the
third day and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in His name to all
nations beginning at Jerusalem.
And you are witnesses to these things.
Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until
you are endued with power from on high.” Notice that Jesus points out that God is
righteous.
God is not one who prefers one nation over another.
but rather sent His Son that in accordance with the Old Testament prophecies He might pay
the purchase price for all sinners from all nations.
in 1 Corinthians chapter 1.
Paul will point out that while there are many things that we can do in this world to
demonstrate to people oh
that God loves them, that God cares about them, that God was willing to pay for their
salvation if they are willing to obey His commandment.
All of those things are true.
Many things can be done, and yes, it is certainly true that our example and our lifestyle
is a great way to communicate.
Paul was very insistent.
that God intended a singular way of carrying out the mission.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 20 he says, where is the wise?
Where is the scribe?
Where is the disputer of this age?
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
For since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God
through the foolishness
of the message preached to save those who believe.
The value of the soul is such that we must follow God’s method of saving it.
And that begins with a message that goes forth in the form of the Gospel.
If we will not preach the Gospel, if we will not declare the message, all we have declared
is that we do not value the soul.
But it should also be understood that as has been pointed out when Jesus sent them, He
sent them with a message to teach, to baptize, to teach, to proclaim repentance and
remission of sins throughout every nation under heaven.
Because that is how a person can be saved.
And Paul said, I won’t preach anything else.
In Romans chapter 1,
Paul would point out.
that he was a debtor.
Verse 14, both to Greeks, to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise, so as much as is in
me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also, for I am not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for the Jew first and also
for the Greek.
Paul says, God’s no respecter of persons, and God made me a debtor to preach the gospel.
So I’m going to preach the gospel in Rome.
Paul didn’t know how he was going to get there, but he was firmly convinced he was going
to preach the gospel in Rome.
And he did.
Handcuffed, chained, imprisoned, under house arrest, he preached the gospel in Rome.
but then let us be reminded that the value of the soul is such that not only should we
preach the gospel and reach those who are lost, but that we must be committed to restoring
those who have become wayward.
In 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, Paul will write to the church at Thessalonica and he will
write verse 14, if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle,
Note that person and do not keep company with him that he may be ashamed.
Yet, not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.”
The value of a soul is such that we never stop admonishing the wayward.
We never stop encouraging the lost to repent.
We never stop preaching the message.
For is the power of God to salvation.
The value of a soul.
It doesn’t matter how much money this world creates.
It doesn’t matter how much money it spends.
It will never equal one soul, let alone all of them.
If you’re here this morning and you’re outside the body of Christ, Jesus would have you
examine the value of a soul, and He would have you begin with yours.
If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself.
take up His cross and follow me.
If you have need of the invitation of our Lord to be saved, to have your sins washed away,
to be in a right relationship with God and to value your soul appropriately, meaning you
will give everything in this life that you have to to reach heaven when this life is over,
then we encourage you to come forward if you will.
to talk with us and study to make sure that you know what you must do.
That’s the question asked throughout all the New Testament.
What must I do?
If you’re wayward, if you’ve departed from the Lord, if you’ve no longer valued your soul
appropriately and no longer acted in accordance with that value, why not repent?
Why not be restored back to a right relationship with God?
If you have need of the invitation this morning,
Why not come now as we stand and as we
Mark 14 (Lesson 2) – Aaron Cozort – March 11, 2026
Good to see everyone out this evening in spite of the rain.
we’ll get into our study.
Let’s begin with the word of prayer.
Gracious Father in heaven, we come before your throne grateful for the day that you’ve
granted to us, the blessings that you give us, mindful of all that you have done for us
throughout this day and throughout every day of our lives.
Lord, we pray that we might always strive to be diligent in our efforts, diligent in our
labors and our work.
We might serve you acceptably and do that which is right in your sight.
Lord, we pray for this congregation and for its labors that they may grow and they may be
blessed.
We’re grateful for what you have done for us throughout uh this year already and we pray
that we might continue to serve you faithfully throughout this year and throughout the
years to come.
Lord, we pray that you be with those who are dealing with illness, those who are
recovering from injuries or from
from sickness, Lord, we pray that you be with those who are struggling with ongoing health
concerns and issues and pray that they might have their strength returned back to them.
All these things we pray and ask in Jesus’ name, amen.
Mark chapter 14, Jesus beginning in verse 13 tells the disciples, into the city and a man
will meet you carrying a water pitcher.
Follow him.
Wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, the teacher says, where is the guest
room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples?
Then he will show you a large upper room.
furnished and prepared their make ready for us.
So his disciples went out and came into the city and found it just as he had said to them,
and they prepared the Passover.
In the evening he came with the twelve.
Now as they ate, as they sat and ate, Jesus said, Assuredly I say to you, one of you who
eats with me will betray me.”
And they began to be sorrowful and to say to him one by one, Is it I?
And another said, Is it I?
He answered and said to them, It is one of the twelve who dips with me in the dish.
The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of him.
But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
It would have been good for that man if he had never been born.” So as you find here in
the text,
Jesus uh sits down with the Passover meal with these disciples and Mark records the
revealing by Jesus of the fact that one of them was going to betray him.
And the response of the twelve is recorded by Mark, is it I, is it I, is it I?
Now was there one there who knew the answer?
Yes, actually it will be technical.
There were two there who knew the answer.
Jesus knew who it was and Judas knew who it was.
But as this continues, Jesus will say, is one of the 12 who dips with me in the dish.
Now, of course, if you read the other recordings of this event, you’ll find out more about
the details and the things that go through with it.
go through that event.
We’re not doing that not because the details are not important that are in the other
books, but because we’re trying to get Mark’s perspective.
We’re trying to understand what Mark is teaching the people and there’s a reason and it’s
something sometimes when we want to get the whole picture of an event and we go from this
version, you know, this writer’s uh writings about what occurred and then this one and
then this one, we lose vision of
Why is it being written?
What is the writer trying to convey to his audience, to the ones who receiving his uh
letter?
And Jesus here, as Mark portrays the events, uh we’ve already made mention that Mark is
one who uses the term immediately and deals with the quickness of the things that Jesus
did.
and the fact that Jesus was constantly moving and constantly active and constantly
teaching.
And so, he gives the progression, but he doesn’t dwell on it.
He doesn’t dwell on the details of the identifying of Judas.
He doesn’t dwell on the discussion that John does.
He simply addresses, this is what occurred, and then moves forward.
In verse 22 we read, as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed and broke it and
gave it to them, or sorry, and said, Take, eat, this is my body.
As Jesus hands them the bread, he This is my body.
Is Jesus using
uh description or a use of the term body that is entirely metaphorical.
Is he saying that the flesh is his physical flesh?
No.
There are some who teach that when you consume the Lord’s Supper, you consume the physical
flesh, you drink the physical blood of Christ in that memorial.
And yet that’s not what Jesus teaches here.
They say, well, he says this
is my body.
We understand that there are figures of speech in which someone can say this is that and
it is in a representative way.
There are other figures of speech where we can say this is like that.
And as a result of the differences in like and is, sometimes people will be confused.
but the point that we’re to understand from this and we’re to gain from this that Jesus’
command was structured in a message that had already been taught.
If you turn back to John chapter 10 in your mind, John chapter 6 in your mind, you will
find other passages where Jesus teaches on this idea and so in one of those occasions
The people found the teaching so hard because they understood it the same way that many
misunderstand it today.
They understood it to mean Jesus was going to have people eat His actual body.
And they said, this is too hard.
Who can accept it?
And they went away.
I bring out the point because it was a misunderstanding then, it’s a misunderstanding
today, and at some point when you sit down and study with someone you may find that that’s
what they actually believe.
They believe in transubstantiation.
That’s the big long word to describe that.
But then there are others will come to this passage and they will say,
that he took the bread and then verse 23, he took the cup and when he had given thanks he
gave it to them and they drank they all drink from it and so they’ll come to this passage
and say see because they only use one cup the only thing that’s authorized is one cup so
the only way to protect the Lord’s Supper properly is to take one cup and everybody takes
a drink out of the same cup
Then he said to them, verse 24, this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for
many.
Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day
when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.
Others will argue that because their belief, according to premillennialism, is that the
kingdom has not been established,
then this actual event that Jesus is speaking of has never actually taken place because
he’s not drinking anew in the Kingdom of God because the Kingdom is not here yet.
Why mention all of these things?
Partly because you may study with someone who doesn’t understand them.
But also partly because it is important for us to realize that sometimes people insert
into the text what they want it to say by way of how they interpret it.
They have a belief and instead of allowing the text to speak for itself,
Instead of allowing the text to be handled in a reasonable and right way, they want their
doctrine proven by the text.
When you go into the text, you’ll see a number of things that I think are valuable.
First of all, the text says Jesus took bread.
Does it say what type of bread he took?
it just says he took bread.
So, can we just use any type of bread in the Lord’s Supper?
As long as it’s bread, it should be good enough, right?
I had a sandwich from Chick-fil-A.
Can we just go get Chick-fil-A buns and get some nice butter on them, stick those on the
Lord’s table?
Why not?
Part of the reason why not is even when something is unstated explicitly in the text, by
the statements of the text, you have a context that demands what type of bread.
So what day, what feast were they observing?
Passover.
And in the Old Testament law,
What was not allowed to even be in the house during the Passover feast?
Leaven.
So could you have leavened bread during this meal when Jesus is observing the Passover?
No.
Add to that, when you have them partaking of the bread, and when you have it in the
context of the Passover, is there a typology from the Old Testament to the New Testament?
When you look at Exodus chapter 12 and the commands for the Passover lamb, matter of let’s
do that for a moment, you’re going to see some aspects of what the Old Testament
Israelites were commanded to do and the connection of those things to what Jesus is doing.
During the time of the plagues, while Israel was in Egypt, God is on that very last night
that they’re going to be in Egypt.
God is going to establish this feast.
In Exodus chapter 12 and in verse 1 we read, Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the
land of Egypt, This month shall be your beginning of months.
It shall be the first month of the year to you.
speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, On the tenth of this month every man
shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a
household.
And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house
take it according to the number of the persons, according to each man’s need.
You shall make your count for the lamb.
Your lamb shall be without blemish.”
a male of the first year.
You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.
Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month.
Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.
And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of
the houses where they eat it.
Then they shall eat the flesh on that night, roasted in fire, with unleavened bread,
and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire.
Its head with its legs and its entrails, you shall let none of it remain until morning,
and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire.
And thus you shall eat it with your belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and
your staff in your hand.
So shall you eat it in haste
it is the Lord’s Passover.
For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and I will strike all the
firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I
will execute judgment, I am the Lord.
Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the
blood I will pass over you and the plague shall not be on you.
to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
So this day shall be to you a memorial, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord
throughout your generations.
You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.”
God, under the Old Testament, as He is establishing the Passover, is going to tell the
Israelites, you’re going to keep this feast until I tell you to stop.
You’re going to keep this as an everlasting ordinance.
As long as my covenant with you continues, you’re going to keep this feast.
uh
Did they keep it faithfully throughout their generations?
No.
But God had commanded them that they were to keep this feast and they were to do it a
certain way.
And did God specify the things they were to use in the feast?
Yes, He did.
And did He specify how often they were to keep the feast?
How did He specify how often they were to keep the feast?
Okay?
So he said, you’re going to keep this on, and first of all he pointed out, this is going
to be the beginning of your calendar.
God is going to start them all over and say, this is when your year begins.
Now was it in the middle of the Egyptian January uh at that moment in time?
Probably not.
God didn’t care.
God said,
Here’s when your calendar starts.
On the first month of the year, on this day, you’re going to keep this feast.
So God declared and commanded that they were going to keep the feast once a year.
You say, Aaron, I don’t read where He says for them to keep it every year.
I only read that they’re supposed to keep it in the first month of the year.
Okay.
Do we see the problem?
How many years have a first month?
of them do.
And since all of them have a first month, which years are they supposed to keep the
Passover?
Love them!
When Jesus is going to establish that which we now often refer to as the Lord’s Supper,
Jesus is going to establish it upon the principles and in the backdrop and in the context
of the Passover.
But Jesus, as the church is given birth and brought forward, is going to deliver through
the Holy Spirit the fact that they were to uh partake of this on the first day of the week
this memorial was to be held.
So the question, how many weeks have a first day?
All of them.
So which ones are supposed to be, are we supposed to keep the memorial on?
The special ones?
I know, on Easter, right?
All of them.
When you have in the text details, you have to ask yourself which of these details are
instructive, which of them are incidental, which of them are commanded, and which of them
are simply describing the scenario of the time.
Okay, so let’s go back through the text and ask ourselves, are there any details in here
that really, clearly are incidental details?
If we were to go back into the text, you remember that the feast that they’re eating was
being eaten in an upper room.
So, or false, the only way you can protect the Lord’s Supper correctly is if you eat it in
an upper room.
I don’t know anybody who teaches that doctrine.
which if we understand that, we have now identified that there are incidental details in
the text.
There are details that are neither binding nor a command because they are just describing
what occurred.
Well, maybe we should ask it this way.
Would it be wrong to eat the Lord’s Supper in an upper room?
No.
As a matter of fact, you find an occasion over in the book of Acts where Paul in Acts
chapter 20 will meet with the apostles in an upper room.
And why did they meet in the upper room?
Do you remember what the text says?
Because there were many lights in the upper room.
What does that tell you about the time they were meeting?
It was night time.
They met in the upper room because it was convenient.
They could see.
That’s pretty convenient if you’re meeting.
So they met in an upper room.
The fact that they met in an upper room and that there were many lights there was that
incidental or commanded or necessary.
It was incidental.
It was what they did because it facilitated what they needed.
But it wasn’t commanded.
Paul didn’t go around and say, you didn’t protect the Lord’s Supper in an upper room, you
didn’t take it faithfully.
But let us further examine.
How did they find the place where they were going to eat the feast?
Alright, they followed Jesus’ instruction, they went into the city, they found a person
who was carrying a pitcher of water.
In order to keep and eat the Lord’s Supper faithfully, do you have to follow a person
who’s carrying a pitcher of water and make sure that person is a male in order to find the
correct location to eat the Lord’s Supper?
Why not?
because there are some details that are incidental and there are some that are
prescriptive or commandments and we have to be able to discern between the two.
So let’s go back down.
As they were eating, oh, here we go, here’s another one.
In order to take the Lord’s Supper faithfully, do you have to take it in conjunction with
another
regular meal.
But they did.
As a matter of fact, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 11.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 11 beginning in verse 17, Paul is going to deal with the fact
that the Corinthians also ate the Lord’s Supper in conjunction with another meal.
We read in verse 17, Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come
together not for the better but for the worse.
For first of all when you come together as a church,
I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it.
For there must also be factions among you that those who are approved may be recognized
among you.
Therefore, when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper.” He
says, for in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others, and one is hungry and
another is drunk.
What?
Do you not have houses to eat and drink in?
Or do you despise the Church of God and shame those who have nothing?
What shall I say to you?
Shall I praise you in this?
I do not praise you.
For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on
the same night in which he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke
it and said, Take eat, this is my body which is broken for you.
do this in remembrance of me.
In the same manner he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant
in my blood.
This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till
he comes.
Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner
will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
But let a man examine himself
examine himself and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup for he who eats and
drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself not discerning the Lord’s
body.
For this reason many are weak and sick among you and many sleep for if we would judge
ourselves we would not be judged but when we are judged we are chastened by the Lord that
oh we may not be condemned with the world.
Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.
But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment, and the
rest I will set in order when I come.” So what was going on here?
Well, here’s what was going on in the Corinthians congregation.
They were assembling on the first day of the week.
and as was common in the first century, they assembled for a meal, for fellowship, and for
the breaking of bread.
They assembled together as a church and they ate together a meal, and also assembled for
worship.
And during the period of worship, they also partook of the Lord’s Supper.
What the Corinthians had done is they’d shoved them all together.
And the partaking of the Lord’s Supper was a function of their coming together for a meal.
but some of them were wealthy.
And some of them were in deep poverty.
And the wealthy ones would get there first, probably because Sunday, by the way, in the
first century was a work day.
It was a day where especially those who were slaves had to work.
Those who were poor had to work.
And so when they would assemble together, the wealthy ones showed up first.
And they had an abundance.
And they just went ahead and started eating.
And the poor ones showed up, and Paul says, and there was nothing left.
because you didn’t wait for them.
So now the ones who have something are fed and the ones who are in poverty are destitute.
And you want them to come and worship and you won’t even share food with them?
on to it he says you’ve taken the Lord’s Supper and you’ve shoved it into nothing more
than a common meal.
So in this text, Paul demonstrates that what they had done, which was part of the thing
they had understood from the accounts of the Lord’s Supper, that was the eating of a
common meal and the partaking of the memorial, they were doing erroneously, and he tells
them, stop, go eat your meal at home.
Is Paul telling them to eat their meal at home because Paul is opposed to the assembly
also having a meal associated with it?
How do we know?
Paul just said, if anyone’s hungry, let him eat at home.
Well, let’s turn over to Acts chapter 20.
Acts chapter 20 and in verse 7, Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came
together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued
his message until midnight.
There were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered together, and in a window
sat a certain young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep.
He was overcome by sleep and as Paul continued speaking he fell down from the third story
and was taken up dead.
But Paul went down, fell on him, and embracing him said, Do not trouble yourselves for his
life is in him.
Now when he had come up and had what?
Broken bread and eaten and talked a long while.
Even until daybreak, he departed.
And they brought the young man in alive, and they were not a little comforted.
In this same passage where the text says that they gathered together on the first day of
the week to break bread,
What did they also do while they were assembled?
They ate a meal!
Now, some may conclude that’s because Paul preached so long that he preached till
midnight, then a guy fell asleep, fell out of a window and died, then he continued talking
to them all the way until morning.
They had to eat a meal!
They were there for like 12 hours!
But see, some will argue from 1 Corinthians 11 and the fact that Paul says, don’t you have
houses to eat in?
It is not scriptural for the congregation to have a kitchen and eat a meal in the building
because they claim that’s the house of God.
And if you’re hungry, go home and eat.
Except that’s not what Paul’s arguing against in the Corinthian church.
Paul’s arguing against them turning the worship assembly into nothing more than a common
meal.
and in doing so they’re not even providing the meal to those who are destitute.
They’re showing a lack of love, they’re showing a lack of concern, they’re showing a lack
of understanding concerning what the Lord’s Supper is and what it was created for and its
purpose, and they are eating and drinking condemnation to themselves because they’re not
discerning the purpose of the memorial.
They’re making it about them and not about Christ.
So, let’s go back to Mark.
Mark chapter 14, we’ve already concluded that they don’t have to meet in an upper room,
though they could.
We’ve already concluded that they don’t have to eat a meal because Paul told them at
Corinth to quit because of how they were doing it, but they did still have to partake of
the Lord’s Supper.
So it is both possible to eat a meal at an assembly and not eat a meal.
at an assembly, which makes the eating of the meal here in this text incidental.
Okay?
It’s not a command, it’s not a requirement, it is incidental.
Now notice what else we read.
As you go through the text, uh we have here in verse 22, as they were eating, Jesus took
bread and broke it and gave it to them and said, take eat, this is my body.
Is the physical breaking of the bread incidental, required, or commanded?
Some would argue it’s required.
It’s not commanded because he didn’t command them to do it.
What did he command them to do?
Take it and eat.
He did the breaking, they didn’t do the breaking.
He broke it, he handed it to them.
He told them take and eat.
So it’s not commanded first.
He didn’t tell them to do it.
He didn’t give an explicit command.
Is it required?
That’s the next question.
Or is it incidental?
How many people were eating?
13?
How many original pieces of bread were there?
The likelihood is one, we’ll just give it to the number one because it’s listed in the
singular form.
He took bread, okay?
So we’ll argue one.
How do you get 12 people fed with one object?
You break it.
You can either break it by everybody biting a piece off, that’s going to break it.
Or you break it in advance and you hand it to somebody.
Either way, you broke it.
So is the text commanding, requiring the breaking of bread?
Or is it simply describing what he did?
And I would suggest to you that most likely based upon all the other texts where we have
the Lord’s Supper described, that it’s simply describing it.
But it becomes a
common description so much so that it becomes the synonym for the Lord’s Supper.
What did they call the Lord’s Supper?
Next chapter too, breaking of bread.
Acts chapter 20, breaking a bread.
But by the way, that was a common description because elsewhere in the New Testament they
describe a meal as breaking bread.
It was a common description, okay?
It does not imply necessarily that it is a requirement that the person who uh use
accommodative terms we use in modern times quite often, who is presiding over the Lord’s
Supper
breaks the bread.
If we were to be consistent with that, because I’ve seen some congregations where they
argue, if you don’t have one loaf and then you break it before you pass it out, you’re
sinning.
If we were to be consistent with that, he’d have to break it for everybody.
He couldn’t just break it once, because the text indicates Jesus broke a piece off, passed
it, broke a piece off, passed it, broke a piece off, passed it.
They didn’t just ceremonially break it.
So one or the other.
Okay?
Now, you also have, as you go down, he took the cup.
And when he had given things, he gave it to them and they drank from it.
Now, Mark’s text says they drank from it, but let’s go back over there to 1 Corinthians
chapter 11 and notice what Paul said.
Verse 23, for I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord
Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread.
And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take eat, this is my body, which is
broken for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
In the same manner he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the New
Testament, or the New Covenant, in my blood.
This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me, for as often as you eat this bread
and drink this cup you
proclaim the Lord’s death till he comes.
Now you remember how we talked about the use of one term and another term being
descriptive but not equal?
And sometimes we use a certain figure, would say, is like that.
But in some cases, you just say, this is that.
Did they drink the cup or did they drink the contents?
Well, they didn’t liquefy the cup.
They didn’t melt down the cup to drink the cup.
But what does Paul say?
This cup, not the fruit of the vine in it, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
This do as often as you drink it.
What is the preceding subject from the it?
What’s the nearest antecedent?
It’s the cup.
Not the contents.
If we were to be technical, would say, a minute, the cup means cup, not contents.
If we were to improperly handle it,
by way of language, and yet Paul says, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this
cup.
You proclaim the Lord’s death till he comes.
This is by the way, one of those clear indicators where you can say, wait a minute, Paul’s
using the term cup, but he means the contents.
Could that not also be true when Jesus says this is my flesh, but he means it represents
it?
Okay, it’s entirely consistent in the language.
for both of those things to be true.
So back over in the text we read, is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many.
Mark gives you the meaning.
Paul gives you the container.
He says, this is my covenant of the new covenant which is shed for many as assuredly I say
to you I will no longer drink
of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” Mark
gives you the meaning and the substance, and Paul gives you the container.
What’s the point?
The point is that they were commanded to drink the fruit of the vine.
Could they choose what they drank?
Could they just drink any, you know what?
Pepsi’s really popular among our congregation.
Why don’t we, sweet tea’s really good.
Why don’t, why
Why?
Because Jesus specified.
Jesus was particular with what he did and because there is an Old Testament type that if
you violate, we can talk about this later, but if you violate the type you sin.
So here in the text.
Paul is going to say, drink the cup.
And Mark is going to say, drink the fruit of the vine.
And Mark’s also going to say, it’s representative of his blood.
That’s what the picture is.
That’s what it represents in the memorial.
And they’re commanded to do it every single time.
And they’re commanded to do it every single.
week where there’s a first day and how many first days of the week are there?
One.
No, there’s only one first day of the week and how many weeks have a first day?
All of them.
So why do we partake of the Lord’s Supper and why do we only use the fruit of the vine
and the bread, and why do we make sure and do it on the first day of the week and not on
Friday and not during a wedding and not on special ceremonies?
And the answer is because none of those things are commanded.
We are commanded to partake of it on the first day of the week.
It is part and parcel to the worship assembly of the church from Acts 2 at its inception
all the way forward.
It is to be done in consideration of Christ and His sacrifice and not our own personal
substance and nutrition.
It is not to be mixed with a meal so as to dilute the meaning of this supper.
It is to be done when all
of the Christians are present, that is to say we don’t rush to do it the moment we walk
through the door.
You know what?
I already took it.
Y’all just go ahead whenever you’re ready.
No.
It is something we do together.
It is a memorial of Christ that is commanded.
and is representative of a message from the Old Testament of salvation.
So, as you go through and study a text, as you read concerning the events of Christ’s
life, one of the things I encourage you to do is ask yourself the question, is it
commanded?
Is it required?
Is it incidental?
And how can we know the difference?
Sometimes we need some other passages to help.
Sometimes when we read the other passages, we go, look, it’s an incidental.
Or it’s commanded because another passage clearly states the command and one passage
doesn’t.
Or sometimes passage goes, here’s an example of how we know it’s not commanded because
guess what?
Paul just commanded them not to do that when they assemble.
Okay?
Some thoughts that I thought might be useful.
The more time you spend studying with people, the more of these things you’re going to run
into.
And they’re going to ask you questions.
Now, if you’re in the middle of a personal Bible study and you’re going through back to
the Bible when they ask you, you defer, don’t debate.
Okay, thank you for your attention.
Revelation 8 – Aaron Cozort – March 15, 2026
Let’s begin with a word of prayer and then we’ll get into our study.
Gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day that you’ve
blessed us with, for the opportunities that we have in this life to serve you.
We pray that we might always be diligent in that service, that we might be mindful of what
you would have us to do.
But we also pray that we might learn the lessons from this book uh of Revelation.
that we must live to be overcomers no matter what comes in this life, no matter what we
face, no matter the difficulties that arise or the persecution that may come, no what
quarter it comes from.
That we might always know and understand that you are in charge, that you are reigning
upon your throne, and that we must be faithful to you if we desire to receive that crown
of life.
Lord, we pray that you be with those who are away from us, those who are traveling.
those who are ill, those who are facing recovery and surgeries or medical related issues.
We pray that you give them strength.
Pray that you bring them back to us and their desired help.
Lord, we pray that you be with the work of the church throughout the world.
We pray that open doors of opportunity will be available to those who will boldly proclaim
the truth and stand firm for the faith.
We pray that we might never depart from it, even here.
All this we pray and ask in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
We were concluding chapter seven last week, but we’ll go through just a brief
introduction, a brief review.
Chapter one of the book of Revelation is introductory.
Chapters two and three says what Jesus commands, what Jesus condemns, what Jesus advises,
what Jesus promises.
Chapters four and five is the groundwork for comfort.
Jesus said in John chapter 14 verse one, you believe in God, believe also in me.
That’s the premise of chapter four and chapter five.
God is on the throne.
The lamb is is reigning and is victorious.
Chapter six, the six seals are opened in the uh scroll.
The first six seals that is, uh seal one, we see the white horse coming forth.
Seal two, we see the, or seal two, three and four, we see the progressive horses of uh
judgment, persecution coming after that.
the fifth seal is opened and the souls of those who are dying for the cause and the
testimony of Christ are under the altar and they’re crying out like the words of
Zechariah, how long are you going to allow this to continue, Lord?
And their answer is, here are white robes, rest for a little while, and then you have the
sixth seal.
The sixth seal is open and it is almost a,
Forecast, you know, if you looked out at the weather today, you might have looked at a
forecast of what’s coming.
The wind’s coming, the thunderstorms are coming.
That’s a forecast.
It’s not here yet.
It’s not gonna happen yet.
It’s not happening right now, but you’re looking at what’s coming.
That’s seal number six.
John opens the seal and he says, this is what’s coming.
for those who are on the earth who are in opposition to God.
And the question at the end of the sixth seal is, who’s able to stand?
When the forecast stops being a forecast and the storm arrives, who’s able to endure the
storm?
Chapter seven opens and that is the answer to the question because God’s people are going
to be sealed.
God’s name is going to be written on their forehead.
And the ones who are bringing the judgment, the angels who are bringing the judgment, that
is the wind of God in the beginning of chapter seven, are holding back the wind from every
direction.
God’s judgment is coming from every direction.
You know, one of the things that most armies don’t like to do is fight a battle on
multiple fronts.
When you fight a battle against God, you fight a battle on all fronts simultaneously.
And as a result of that, you’re going to lose.
Now, chapter eight, seal seven is open.
And inside chapter eight, inside the seventh seal, you’re going to find seven trumpets.
Remember, I told you earlier on that if you were a preacher, you would love the book of
Revelation because it’s all in outline form.
Here’s six seals, inside the seventh seal, here’s seven trumpets, inside the seventh
trumpet, here’s seven bulls, it’s all in outline form.
But as you’re reading, bear in mind that everything you read from this point forward,
until the last bowl of God’s wrath is poured out happens inside the seventh seal.
The rest of the book happens inside what John sees in the seventh seal.
So for the rest of the book, we’re not leaving the seals.
We’re not leaving the scroll that John wanted to know what was in it.
But the first six seals are opened in chapter six.
Then you have the marking of the people of God to declare God’s people are not going to
get touched by this judgment.
Now we’re gonna say something about that in just a moment, but God’s people are not going
to be judged.
Chapter eight opens and now here comes the seventh seal.
Because the question was asked and answered, who is able to stand in the day of the wrath
of the Lamb?
And the answer was everyone that belongs to God.
single one of them.
And that’s represented in the 144,000.
12,000 from each tribe of 12 tribes, okay?
So as we get into the end of chapter seven, I wanna read just a little bit of the end of
chapter seven, and then we’re going to get into chapter eight.
Because we’re gonna run into a few of those verses again.
where we’ve gotta be really, really honest with context and not just hear something we
associate with heaven and immediately assume we’re talking about heaven, okay?
So we’re gonna get challenged again before we get out of chapter seven with language that
describes what we think of as heaven, but the context isn’t, okay?
So we read in verse 11 of chapter 7, all the angels stood around the throne and the elders
and the four living creatures fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,
saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might be
to our God forever and ever.
When, if we go back to chapter 4 and chapter 5, when do the beings
in heaven, stop praising God.
Never.
Never.
They never stop.
In the vision, in the vision every moment the beasts that are before the throne are
declaring God is worthy of praise and every moment the elders that are surrounding the
throne are taking their crowns and casting them before the Lord and bowing down and
declaring that he’s worthy of praise.
The picture that John sees is God is always worthy of
praise, so much so that those who are in his presence, those who are in his very presence,
never stop praising him.
Now this is not intended to be a scenario where we start arguing with, a minute, what are
they doing right now?
Well if the beast is doing something else then he can’t be praising, therefore John’s
contradicting himself.
No, that’s not the point.
The vision is to tell you,
If there’s never a moment where all the beings in heaven stop praising God, then why would
there ever be a moment for the Christians to fear that God can’t provide for them?
Do see it?
If there’s never a moment where every creature in heaven, every being in heaven,
everything that God could send one of them out and destroy a hundred and eighty-five
thousand soldiers of the Assyrian army in one night…
That amount of power from one being in heaven can do that on the earth and these beings
never stop praising God.
then why would a Christian worry about what men can do?
Do remember Matthew chapter 10?
As we get into our study, Matthew chapter 10 verses 32 and 33, 31, 32 and 33 are an
incredible text to keep in mind as you’re going through the book of Revelation because
they’re really the point.
They are the thrust.
As Jesus sends out His disciples to go out into the villages, Jesus tells His disciples,
do not fear what men can do to you.
Do not fear Him who can destroy the body.
Rather fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.
Jesus tells His disciples the same message of the book of Revelation.
You have nothing to fear from who’s on the throne in Rome.
You have nothing to fear from the persecutors that are surrounding you.
You have nothing to fear from the magistrates, from the governors, from the senators.
You have nothing to fear from the centurions and the soldiers.
You have nothing to fear from the marketplace.
You have nothing to fear because the most they can do.
is include you in that list of people who are crying out under the altar.
How long?
But the moment they do that, you’re out of their grasp.
You’re out of their hands.
They can’t do a thing to you at that point.
As a matter of fact, that’s when God’s comfort takes over and God says, here, rest for a
little while and let me show you what’s gonna happen to them.
Okay, so notice, then one of the elders answered me saying, who are these arrayed in white
robes and where did they come from?
And I said to him, sir, you know, so he said to me, these are the ones who came out of the
great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.
We went back last week and looked at Isaiah chapter 1.
We looked at the call of God to Israel to reason together with the Lord, to cleanse
themselves of their sin, to repent and wash themselves.
And God says, I will make you white as snow.
That imagery is being pulled forward here as John is told, these are the ones who came out
of the great tribulation.
What tribulation?
Is that some ancient prophetic thing that…
Chapter 6.
It’s the ones who came out of the seals that have already been opened.
But how did they come out of it?
They came out of it because they washed themselves and became holy.
The question was asked, who can stand in the day of God’s judgment?
The answer from the elder is the ones who wash themselves.
But notice what he says, they were made white in the blood of the lamb.
What New Testament washing occurs in which a person is in contact with the blood of the
lamb of God?
Baptism.
Remember Peter says, baptism doth also now save us.
Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh.
He says, you’re not getting in the water to get the grime on your skin washed away, but
the answer of a good conscience towards God.
So these elders are telling John, you want to know who is able to be arrayed in white
robes?
Baptized, obedient believers in heaven because they’ve been washed in the blood of the
lamb.
Okay, now notice what he says, and I said to him, sorry, verse 15, therefore, they are
before the throne of God.
and serve Him day and night in His temple.
And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them.
They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore.
The sun shall not strike them nor any heat, for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne
will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of water, and God will wipe away
every tear from their eyes.”
Now, in this imagery, the context of the number that are arrayed around 144,000, this is
the innumerable number around 144,000.
Because there’s 144,000 that are representative of God’s people on the earth.
There’s an innumerable multitude in heaven that surround that number.
And these people are those who have come out of the Great Tribulation, who are washed and
have made their robes white and are made white in the blood of the Lamb, and they serve
God day and night.
and as they do so they serve Him who sits on the throne, they dwell with Him who sits on
the throne, they hunger and thirst no more.
Now does that mean that we are to immediately assume that they have left this world?
because they don’t hunger and thirst anymore.
So they must be spiritual beings,
Remember John chapter 3?
John chapter 3, Jesus is speaking with Nicodemus and he will talk to him about being born
of water and of the Spirit.
in John chapter 4, Jesus speaks to a woman at a well and he asks water from her and he
says, you knew who it was who was asking water from you, you would ask water from them and
you would drink water and you would never what?
Thirst again.
In John chapter 6, Jesus is going to speak to the people about the bread of life.
He is going to declare Himself to be the bread of life, and if they will eat of that
bread, they will never hunger again.
In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus is going to tell those disciples and those present, those
Jews, that if they will hunger and thirst after righteousness, they will be what?
Filled.
All throughout Jesus’ ministry, Jesus is making the point that the sustenance that a
person needs isn’t bread alone.
You remember that phrase?
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
When Jesus said, if you knew who I was, you would have asked water from me, what type of
water was he going to give her?
living water, which is what?
The Word of God.
When the individuals who had been fed, those 5,000 who had been fed, who then chased down
Jesus halfway around the Sea of Galilee so they could be fed again, showed up, Jesus
rebuked them because what they were interested in was the earthly food.
What they needed to be interested in was the heavenly food, which was what?
Word of God.
The point that is being made when you see they shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst
anymore is not that they’re in heaven.
The point is that they have followed the commands and the instructions of God so that they
have been filled, they are nourished forever by the Word of God.
They don’t hunger.
They don’t thirst because what Jesus brought, they received.
Notice he says, the sun shall not strike them nor any heat, for the lamb who is in the
midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters.
And God will wipe away every tear from their eye.
We have a song in our songbook about no tears in heaven.
There is a reminder in the book of Revelation that for the person who has taken Jesus up
on his offer of living water, and for the person who’s taken up on his offer of living
bread, and the person who has accepted Jesus’ command to be obedient to God and is living
faithfully with God,
There’s no tears here either.
You say, wait a minute, Aaron, I’m pretty sure that if nothing else there’s going be tears
because somebody’s going to hit their hammer or hit their thumb with a hammer and they’re
going start crying over it.
Somebody’s going to get cancer and somebody’s going to be in pain and it’s going to be
excruciating and they’re going to be crying.
And somebody’s going to lose a loved one and somebody’s going to go through a trauma and
they’re going to be crying.
Those aren’t the tears we’re talking about.
just like by the way the food they have to eat and the water they have to drink every day
isn’t the food and the water we’re talking about.
The context is who will have to mourn because of the wrath of the Lamb of God.
Go back to chapter 6.
I looked, verse 12, and he opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great
earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood,
and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is
shaken by a mighty wind.
Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was
moved out of its place.
and the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men,
every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the
mountains and said to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of
him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.
Why are there no tears in heaven?
Because you don’t ever have to face the judgment of God.
Why are there no tears on earth for the church?
Because that’s the picture you’re going to get in Revelation 21 and 22
because God’s always on your side.
You remember what the psalmist writer would write in Psalm 23?
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
For you are with me.
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You makest me to lie down in green pastures.
You leadeth me beside the still waters.
You restore my soul.
And what did he want?
What did he say was the blessing that concluded that, will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
psalmist writer as he writes that psalm looks straight forward to the church to the
blessing of the assembly of God led by the Good Shepherd which Jesus proclaims himself to
be but now let’s continue Let me skip a few of those things we’re gonna
catch up here to chapter eight.
All right, seventh seal.
As the lamb is in the midst of the throne, he’s going to shepherd this multitude.
God will wipe away every tear from their eye.
When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
Now, I had one teacher that said this is proof there were no women in heaven.
But I’m convinced it’s proof there’s no preachers in heaven.
You can’t have silence for half an hour with preachers or women in heaven.
So no preachers and no women.
What does silence do for us?
I love the illustration that one of our instructors gave as they were teaching the book of
Revelation ah in school.
They said, try this.
Get up to preach a sermon.
Go stand behind the podium and say nothing.
Everybody who was fidgeting with something in their lap quits fidgeting.
All the kids suddenly go, what?
What’s going on?
Everybody who was paying attention to something else suddenly starts paying attention not
because you’ve told them to pay attention but because there’s an absence of anything going
on.
And our brains go, wait a minute, that’s not normal.
Silence is a focusing attention technique.
because everybody’s waiting, remember?
Angels are holding back the wind, chapter 7, verses 1 and 2.
They’ve been told to wait!
And in chapter 8, when the seventh seal is finally opened, God just says, hold on, we’re
going to pause for about 30 minutes.
How long is 30 minutes in heaven?
nonsense question, isn’t it?
So why does John describe it as 30 minutes?
Because it is a vision.
And in a vision you can have a bunch of things happen simultaneously and you can pause for
30 minutes.
But the question for us is, what does 30 minutes tell us?
This is a span of time where there’s silence.
There’s attention, there’s focus, there is something about to happen and everybody needs
to be paying attention.
So chapter eight, verse two, and I saw the seven angels who stand before God and to them
were given seven trumpets.
Have we seen these seven angels before?
Not specifically by name, not.
not drawn out in reference, but now again John sees the throne of God and look, just like
before, he saw the throne and he saw the one on the throne.
Then he looked at the throne again and he saw something in the hand of the one who’s, then
he saw the throne again and then he saw the lamb before the throne.
Every time John looks back at the throne there’s something new.
This time he looks and he sees seven angels that stand before the throne and to them were
given seven trumpets.
What were trumpets used for quite often in Old Testament history?
A couple of different things.
Alright, Cold War.
What else?
All right, to herald something.
They were also used for a call to worship.
So they were a call to declare God’s power going forth.
They were a call to declare God is worthy of praise.
Seven trumpets are given to these angels.
Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar.
He was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon
the golden altar which was before the throne.
just want to harp on one thing before we get too far into the text.
Are we dealing with a vision?
Yes.
So when we get to heaven, are we going to be terribly worried about whether or not there’s
physical gold in heaven?
No, I don’t think so.
You know, we read about the streets paved with gold.
You go, I’m looking forward to walking the streets paved with gold.
Gold is a physical object, isn’t it?
It’s a visionary tool.
But in this text, it connects them back to an Old Testament object.
Because what you’re seeing here, you’re seeing trumpets, sensors, altars.
What does that sound like?
the tabernacle, the temple.
These are visionary tools because even what the Hebrew writer tells us is that the things
that were in the Old Testament were pictures of the real thing in heaven.
So, another angel, this is an ape angel by the way, having a golden censer came and stood
at the altar was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the
saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints ascended before God from the
angels hand.
Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar and threw it to the
earth and there were noises, thunderings, lightnings and an earthquake.
Now as you notice this, you have first the seven angels.
They’ve all got seven trumpets.
They haven’t sounded their trumpets yet.
They blown any of their trumpets yet.
They’ve handed their trumpets, but before anything else happens, here comes an angel with
a golden censer.
He’s given much incense, and what does he mix it with?
prayers of the saints.
Now wait a minute, where did we last see saints praying?
Under the altar.
They’re the ones being persecuted and killed for the testimony of God.
And so the angel takes the prayers of the saints that are being persecuted, mixes them
with incense, and offers them before God.
And the aroma, as it were, goes up before God, and then what does the angel do?
He takes a sensor.
and he filled it with fire from the altar.
and threw it to the earth.
Watch it.
Here’s the picture.
The persecuted Christians are crying out.
They’re praying.
They’re asking for God’s help.
They’re asking for deliverance.
The prayer comes up to God.
in the form, visionary form, of the angel with the incense offering the prayers of the
saints as a sacrifice before God, and God’s answer comes back.
because the angel grabs the fire out of the altar and casts it down on the earth and the
events of judgment commence.
You remember when the sixth seal was open?
Sorry, the fifth seal was open?
The Christians that were praying, the Christians who were dying, the Christians who had
already died and made it to heaven were told, rest for a little while.
Just wait.
Just wait.
God’s going to have an answer.
This is the beginning of the answer.
This eighth angel cast the fire to the earth and notice there’s noises, thunderings,
lightnings, and an earthquake.
So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
This is, if you were to imagine this as a military action, this is the first barrage.
This is the initial shot.
from heaven in judgment to the persecutors of God’s people.
And the seven angels are being told, all right, it’s time.
Now the seven angels with the seven trumpets are going to bring partial judgment.
You’re gonna see that as we get into the text.
There’s going to be complete judgment that corresponds.
But as you watch these judgments come forth here in chapter eight,
You’re gonna go, wait a minute, wait a minute, I’ve seen some of these things before.
Where have I seen them before?
that’s right, Egypt and Exodus.
because this is Old Testament imagery.
This is scriptural imagery.
And the people of God are going to go, wait a minute, I know this story, and I know how it
turns out.
Okay, so notice what we read.
Trumpet number one, you’re going to have hail and fire, and it’s going to destroy a third
of something.
If you have a third of something, what do you not have?
You don’t have all of it, all right?
It’s partial.
We know this.
Go make a recipe.
It’ll say have a half cup of this.
When you put that half cup in, what did you not put in?
A whole cup.
We know how this works.
They knew how it worked in ancient times.
Notice what we read.
So the first angel, verse seven, the first angel sounded and hail and fire followed,
mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth.
and a third of the trees were burned up and all the green grass was burned up.
Was there a plague in Egypt of hail?
Did it include hail and fire mixed?
Yes, it did.
Oh, look, here’s the Egyptian, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, and 13.
imagery that’s about to get thrown in the book of Revelation because the book of
Revelation is an Old Testament message in a New Testament book.
So the first angel sounds, and one third of all the trees are burned up.
Now do you think that what we have here, because this is 100 % literal according to some
people, that somebody went around the planet and just calculated, here’s how many trees
there are, and here’s how many got burned up, so we’re at one third.
If we got up to half, God’s prophecy’s wrong.
If we only did a quarter, God’s prophecy, no.
partial judgment.
right, number two.
Second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown
into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood, and a third of the living creatures in
the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
You’ve got this great object.
It’s like a mountain.
Doesn’t say it’s a mountain.
It’s like a mountain.
and it’s cast into the sea.
And what happens to the sea?
turn to blood.
Can anybody remember anything that happened in Egypt that might be a figure of this?
that’s right.
The entire Nile River was turned to blood.
It say it looked like blood.
It was turned to blood.
So, God takes through the angel, through the second trumpet, He sends this great object
into the sea and the whole sea gets turned to blood.
But it only kills a third of the creatures.
But it also destroys a third of the ships.
Who made their living off of the creatures in the sea?
Fishermen!
Who made their living off of the ships?
fishermen and the people who transport goods.
God’s creating impacts.
Okay?
Who creates, who makes their living off of the forest?
people who dwell in the land, people who harvest the wood, people who use it for homes,
people who need it for the creatures that people who hunt, all those people are being
affected.
There’s partial judgments.
The third angel.
Verse 10, the third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven burning like a torch,
and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.
The name of the star is wormwood, a third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died
from the water because it was made bitter.” Now this one isn’t exactly a picture from the
judgment in Egypt, rather it’s a picture of the experience in the wilderness where they
couldn’t find any water.
and all the waters that they could find were Mera, they were bitter.
So they cried out to God and they complained to God, okay?
So you still got Old Testament imagery, it’s just mixed between the Egyptian experience
and the plagues and other events, okay?
So it falls on the earth.
Now what fell?
A great star.
Now question, since we all know the book of Revelation is 100 % literal, which one’s
bigger, generally speaking, stars or planets?
Stars only by, I don’t know, a few hundred million times.
So this was a great star, which means not a small star, and this great star, that’s
hundreds of millions of times larger than the planet Earth, fell to the Earth, but it only
affected some of the water?
Do we see the point?
If you’re going to come into this book and you’re going to get literal things, you’re
going to go, well, it’s not really a star, it’s a nuclear weapon.
You know, if we’re not going to take it literal and physical in our own interpretation of
it and accept what it says, then why don’t we just be honest with it
and let it interpret itself.
You know earlier on in the text we had a star, had seven stars actually, that represented
seven churches.
Why can’t the star here represent something else?
It does.
It represents a judgment from God.
Doesn’t have to be a comet.
It doesn’t have to be something that impacts with the earth in a physical sense because
the judgment is not going to come in that way.
notice here as this star comes it is named.
What is it named?
Wormwood.
It’s named for something that is connected with bitter water.
Okay?
You spend a little bit of time in your own study doing that just for the sake of time, but
the fourth angel sounds, verse 12.
and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that
a third of them were darkened.
A third of the day did not shine, likewise the night.
And I looked and I heard an angel flying through the midst of the heavens, 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.
So this angel sounds, and a third of the sun is darkened, and a third of the moon is
darkened, and a third of the stars are darkened.
Now wait a minute.
Did we have an Egyptian connection here?
What was one of the plagues?
Darkness.
This is partial judgment.
It’s like Egypt, but it’s not all the way there yet.
Now, question.
Why does God ever deliver partial judgment?
If we were to step back into Old Testament history and into Israel’s history, why does God
ever deliver partial judgment?
because if God delivers partial judgment and the people who are rebelling against Him
realize who they’re in opposition against and what they’re up against and the fact that
they’re bringing this upon themselves and that they have done wrong and they repent, what
is headed off?
Full and complete judgment.
all throughout the Old Testament history.
The prophets would tell them, if you don’t observe this, if you don’t pay attention to
this warning, then God is going to bring complete judgment against you.
So the nations, the persecutors of God’s people, even in spite of their heinous
persecution of God’s people and their killing of God’s people, they’re still being given a
chance to repent.
As the chapter closes, an angel flies through the midst of heaven.
And again, Old Testament language.
Woe, woe, woe.
When you repeat something three times, it means pay attention, pay attention, pay
attention.
because the first four trumpets were not nearly as severe as the last three are going to
be.
And they’re being warned in advance.
More judgment is coming.
Okay?
Put a marker in it there, we’ll pick up.
The Attributes Of God’s Saving Message – Aaron Cozort – March 15, 2026
Good morning.
Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to the book of Colossians.
We’ll be spending the majority of our time in Colossians chapter 1 this morning as we
consider the nature of the message of that which causes us to become a Christian.
As you look at this text, Paul is going to write to a church that by all indications of
the text, he had never visited the church at Colossae.
This was not like the church at Ephesus, the church at Corinth, the church at uh Philippi,
where he is writing to them having been there.
Now there’s some indicators that point us to that conclusion, and one of the primary ones
is right here at the beginning of book, he says all of the things he has heard about them,
but unlike many of the other writings where Paul writes to a church,
he doesn’t begin by talking about his relationship with them.
Really the only other time you find that type of situation is in the book of Romans where
Paul is writing to the church at Rome, which also he had never visited before at the time
of the writing.
The likelihood is that Paul is writing to the church at Colossae having never been there
and yet having heard concerning them.
and being directed by inspiration by the Holy Spirit to write to this church.
He is going to write about things that he has heard that, of course, the Holy Spirit has
confirmed are true.
But as he does so, he sets out seven principles that are an aspect of that which is
preached and that which makes a person a Christian.
So I want us to examine those seven principles as we go through the text this morning.
So we’re going to begin in Colossians chapter one.
You’re not going, if you’re a note taker, you’re gonna have more thoughts to write down
than external passages, because we’re not gonna go very many places.
We’re gonna stay right here and examine what it is that Paul has to say to these Colossian
brethren.
But notice in chapter one and verse one, Paul writes, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God and Timothy our brother.
The very first thing that you’re going to notice concerning that which saves us, that
which brings us to God, is that the message is that which is sent by God.
As Paul describes himself, he describes himself as an apostle.
Now the word in the original language means
one cent, but I don’t want you to focus so much on the term apostle, though that is
certainly what Paul’s function was, as much as I want you to notice that he was sent by…
Paul is going to describe that his work and the work of Timothy, his work and the work of
Timothy in declaring the gospel and preaching the gospel was by the will of God.
If we are going to be saved, if we are going to be redeemed, if we are going to be saved
from our sins and washed in the blood of the Lamb, we are going to have to be saved by a
message that originates by the will of God and not by the will of men.
It is a challenge when you sit down with someone and they have been taught their entire
life to obey the commandments of men.
They have been taught to be saved by the commandments of men and they have never opened
the Word of God and actually looked at the text and said, what does God tell me to do?
But if on the judgment day we are going to stand before God and be held account for the
things that we do, if on the judgment day it is going to be determined whether or not we
have been uh living in a way that is acceptable to God or in a way that is condemned by
God, I would suggest to you that it is very, very important that we obey the will of God
and not the will of men.
Jesus in Matthew chapter 7, as He will speak to those individuals, as He closes out the
Sermon on the Mount, as we have so described it, Jesus will describe the one who is
accepted by God.
And He says, it’s not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, but those who do the will of My
Father who is in heaven.
If we’re going to understand how to be saved and if we’re going to understand what we must
do in order to be pleasing to God, we must first understand that we must obey the will of
God and not substitute it with the will of men.
But then consider as you continue down through the text, Paul writes, Paul, an apostle of
Jesus Christ, by the will of God and Timothy our brother,
to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colossi.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now grace and peace was a common greeting in that day, but Paul meant more out of it than
just what common people meant.
Paul meant that they as part of the body of Christ, those who were in Christ,
Those who were a part of the church were those who had grace and peace in their
relationship with God, which meant they had been reconciled to God.
Isaiah 59, 1 and 2 tells us that sin separates us from God.
But Christ in His work reconciled humanity to God if they would be obedient to the will of
God.
So as Paul writes to these brethren, he points out by desiring that they receive grace and
peace from God that they are one with God.
In John chapter 17, Jesus as he is praying to the Father, prays that those who hear the
words of the disciples will be one with him as he is with God.
and that they might be one with one another.
You see, if we’re going to be saved, if we’re going to be those who stand before God in
judgment and are right and in a right relationship with Him, we must have access to grace
and we must have access to peace and those are found only if we are reconciled to God.
Because otherwise we’re separated from Him.
We don’t have grace, we don’t have peace, we are
enemies of God, Ephesians chapter 2.
So if we’re going to understand the message, have us to understand, we’re going to
understand that message because it originates with the will of God and it is the message
which reconciles man to God.
But then consider, he says, we give thanks to God.
To the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of
your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints.
Two things here, the first one comes from verse three.
When you consider the power of God connected to the message of God.
Paul writes, we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always
for you.
Now don’t know if you’ve ever thought about this, but if you are thanking someone for
something, it probably means they did something.
Generally speaking, in society, we don’t go around thanking people who did nothing.
Sometimes we will sarcastically to make a point, thank someone who did nothing, to point
out they did nothing.
But that’s not what we have here.
Paul is thanking God for them, praying for them, because God has done something for them.
If we’re going to be saved by God, if we’re going to be reconciled to God, it is going to
be because we have been obedient to God.
In John chapter 3, Jesus will say, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish but have everlasting life.
In Romans chapter 5, Paul will point out that God loved humanity enough to send His Son to
die for them when they were enemies of God.
1 John chapter 2 will point out that Christ was the propitiation.
He was the substitutionary sacrifice that was actually worthy and capable of taking away
our sins.
All of these things are true, but the point is God did all of those things when we were
completely incapable of doing anything.
Now some will say, and some have said recently, that we preach a gospel that is all about
working your way to heaven.
They will claim that if you are buried in a watery grave of baptism, you’re trying to be
saved by works.
That’s nonsense.
That’s obedience.
That’s not works.
Works in the biblical sense is when someone tries to
do something so as to show that God owes them something.
This is how this works, by the way.
If you get up tomorrow morning and you go to your job and you work until the end of the
work day and you come home, as of the end of that work day, your employer owes you because
of your work.
And if they refuse to pay you, you can take them to court and show that, according to the
law, that they owe you.
There will never be a time, There will never be a work you can do, there will never be a
thing that you can accomplish on this earth whereby you can stand before God and say, God,
you owe me salvation.
And that has nothing to do with whether or not you have to obey the commands he actually
gave you.
When you obey his commands, Jesus will tell us that when the unprofitable servant does
everything that he was commanded to do, he is still an unprofitable servant.
He has simply done that which he was commanded to do.
So when Christ tells His disciples as He is about to ascend to heaven, go into all the
world and preach the gospel to every creature, He that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved.
He has simply set God’s conditions.
He has simply told humanity what God said they must do because God’s grace has always been
conditional.
from the days of Adam until this world is over, God’s grace will always be conditional
upon obedience to God’s commandments.
But then consider, not only do you see the power of God enacted in that salvation, and
that’s why Paul is thanking God, it’s because God is the one who’s doing
the thing that needs to be done in order for them to have salvation in the form of sending
Christ and giving His word and commandments, but then also verse four, since we heard of
your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love to all the saints.
Twice already in this text, Paul has mentioned the saints, the saints.
Back in verse one, the saints and the faithful brethren.
The saints, by the way, saints and faithful brethren aren’t two different categories of
people.
It is two descriptions of the same people.
The word saint comes from the idea of to be made holy, to be separated, to be sanctified
by God.
Paul says, I’m writing to the people, not that we’ve been dead for 400 years and somebody
voted them into sainthood.
Writing to the people who have been set apart by God.
I’m writing to the faithful brethren.
By the way, that means they’re obedient people.
They’re doing what God said.
He says, I’m writing to the sanctified, set apart, holy ones who are faithful to God,
which by the way, was the church.
You say, Aaron, I don’t see the word church here.
Really?
Who’s he writing to
to the church in Colossae.
And he’s writing to the saints and the faithful brethren who are in the church in
Colossae.
You cannot have the message of salvation, the message of reconciliation, the power of God
to salvation without the church.
Because when you are sanctified, when you are made holy, when you are set apart by God,
you are set apart into an assembly of the called out people of God.
That’s what the word ecclesia or church means.
You’re the separated ones.
You’re the ones set apart for holiness, for God’s work.
In Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10, are His workmanship in Christ Jesus.
So Paul says, if we’re going to be obedient to God and be found faithful to God, we’re
going to obey His will, we’re going to be reconciled to Him, we’re going to obey and act
according to the power of God, we are going to be part of the Church of God.
Verse 5 he says, because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you
heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel.
consider that Paul also points out that those who are saved, those who are sanctified,
those who are made holy, those who are reconciled with God, are those who have received a
message of hope beyond this life.
If we do everything we can to make people comfortable, happy, thrilled with their life,
and we don’t prepare them for eternity, we’ve done them no good.
If we solve all of the world’s problems, if we help every mental disorder, if we ail every
sick individual, or if we make well every ailing individual, if we bring to…
uh prosperity everyone who is poor and we leave them unprepared for eternity we’ve done
them no good
And yet Paul says that the message which these Colossian brethren had heard, though he had
never met them, the message they had heard, though he wasn’t the one that preached to
them, was the truth of the gospel.
And the truth of the gospel declared a message concerning the hope of heaven.
In John chapter 14, Jesus will say to His disciples, if you believe in God, believe also
in Me.
In My Father’s house are many mansions.
If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, that I may receive you to
Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
Jesus never intended for us to dwell on this earth perpetually.
Jesus never intended for us to be left behind.
Jesus never intended for us to be separated from Him and from His power and from His glory
and from His reign in His kingdom.
He intended for us to use our time on this earth to become ready for that time, to become
ready for eternity.
Paul says, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the
saints because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before
in the word of the truth of the gospel which has come to you as it has also in all the
world.
and is bringing forth fruit.
that you find here number six.
I had to count them again because I didn’t have them numbered.
Number six, that the message which brings salvation is that of grace and truth.
Some individuals in the religious world want a whole lot of grace.
They want grace everywhere.
They want grace, so much grace, that there’s no obedience, there’s no faithfulness,
there’s no conditions, there’s nothing.
There’s just grace.
And yet John will write in John chapter 1 as he writes concerning the Messiah, the Savior,
the one who came into the world, the one who took on flesh, the one who was God by whom
all things were made.
He says grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
You can’t have grace without truth.
You can’t have reconciliation with God without the message of God.
You can’t have reconciliation with God without obedience to God.
As a matter of fact in Titus chapter 2 and verse 11 Titus is being told by Paul that grace
teaches us to do certain things, to be obedient to God.
to change our lives, to mold them to the message and the character of God, to set aside
the things of the world and be remade in the image of God’s holiness.
as Paul writes to these brethren.
He tells them and reminds them of the grace and the truth that they’ve received.
But he also points out that the grace and the truth is universally available.
God did not send Christ to save the Jew.
God did not send Christ to save the Arab.
God did not send Christ to save the American.
You say, Aaron, are the Jews, the Arabs, and the Americans, are they all excluded?
No, no.
You need to understand those sentences with the word only on the end.
God didn’t send Christ to save the Jew only.
God didn’t send Christ to save the Arab only.
God didn’t send Christ to save the American only.
God didn’t send Christ to save the Chinese only.
God sent Christ because He loved the world.
So Paul would write in Romans chapter 1 verse 15 that the gospel is the power of God and
salvation to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
That’s the Jew and the non-Jew.
The gospel, the grace and the truth that came by Jesus Christ is universal in its nature,
which is why Paul says, gospel has come to you as it has also in all the world and is
bringing forth fruit.
If there is a person alive today that you say, know what, I don’t like that person’s
background, I don’t like that person’s origin, I don’t like that person’s country, I don’t
like that person’s disposition, I don’t like the way that person looks, I sure hope God’s
not going to save them so I don’t have to spend eternity with them, you’re going to be
woefully mistaken.
But if that is your attitude, there’s a good chance you won’t have to worry about it.
Because while they might be in heaven, you won’t be.
God’s message is universal.
God’s message is not bound by territory.
It is not bound by borders.
It is not bound by politics.
It is bound by grace and truth that came by Jesus Christ.
But then number seven, he says in verse six, which is come to you as it has also in all
the world and is bringing forth fruit, as it is.
you heard and knew the grace of God in truth.
As you also learn from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of
Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.
When you consider the message of God,
when you consider the doctrine of Christ, when you consider that which saves us, that
which prepares us for eternity, that which reconciles us to God and makes us acceptable
before Him, that which sets us apart from the world and establishes our righteousness
before God, not because of our righteousness, but because of His.
you should be reminded that the message doesn’t change no matter who the messenger is.
Paul had not been to Colossae, but Apaphras had.
And when Apaphras showed up, Apaphras preached the same gospel Paul did.
When Apaphras arrived and taught these brethren the truth, Apaphras didn’t change it to be
his version of the gospel.
He didn’t change it to be his version of the religion.
He didn’t change it to where he could have people call themselves Apaphrites.
He declared the gospel so that they could be Christians.
There is no such thing as Church of Christ doctrine.
There is Christ doctrine.
And we agree with it or we don’t.
We’re in alignment with it or we’re not.
But there’s never a point someone should have to ask, what do I have to do to join the
Church of Christ?
The answer is you can’t.
You can be added to the body of Christ.
Because that’s what the Church is.
It is the body of Christ.
Turn to Ephesians chapter one.
In Ephesians chapter 1, Paul writes, verse 19, and what is the exceeding greatness of His
power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked
in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at the right hand in the
heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion in every name
that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.
and he put all things under his feet and he gave him to be head over all things to the
church which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
If you were to ask the first century church…
How do I join your church?
They would have been very confused.
They would have been very, very confused.
Why you would ask such a question?
Because it’s the wrong question.
The question is, what must I do to be saved?
And in Acts chapter 2, they asked that question.
In Acts chapter 2 and in verse 36,
Peter, as he is preaching, says, Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that
God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of
the apostles, Ben and Brethren, what shall we do?
Peter responded and said, Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of
Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.
And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises to you and your
children and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God shall call.
And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this
perverse generation.
then those who gladly received his word were baptized and that day about three thousand
souls were what?
Added to them.
Added to who?
The disciples.
Added to who?
The church.
Added to who?
Added to the called out, sanctified ones.
When they did what?
When they were baptized.
When they were immersed in water for the remission of their sins, because that’s exactly
what they had been told they must do.
but then notice what happened.
And they continued steadfastly in the Apostles’ doctrine, in fellowship, and in breaking
of bread, and in prayers.
Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the Apostles.
Now all who believed were together and had all things in common, and sold their
possessions and goods, and divided them among all as anyone had need.
So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and in breaking of bread from house to
house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart.
Praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily
those who were being saved.
You don’t join the Church of Christ.
You don’t join the Church of Christ by obeying Church of Christ doctrine.
You are added to the body of Christ, which is the Church, when you obey Christ’s commands
to obey God in order to be saved.
When your sins are remitted and washed away,
in the blood of the Lamb in contact with that blood through the command of obedience to be
baptized.
and have your sins remitted.
And when you come up out of that watery grave of baptism, you don’t fill out a form to
join the church.
You’re added to the body of Christ by God.
But then, Paul as he’s writing to the church at Colossi said, I noticed that after you
received those things, after you heard that gospel, after you were obedient to that truth,
you didn’t then walk away, but you continued in these things and you showed your love to
the other saints and you bore fruit in the form of souls throughout the world.
You see, when a person is saved, their work has not ended.
It’s only just begun.
If you’re outside the body of Christ this morning, we encourage you do not stay there.
There was a time when the people who were in the church in Colossae were outside of
Christ.
They were aliens from God and separated.
They were sinners.
but then they obeyed the command of Christ to believe and to be baptized, to repent of
their sins and confess His name and be immersed in water for the remission of their sins,
to lay aside their sin, to be separated by God, made holy and sanctified, to become saints
and faithful brethren.
And we call upon you to do the same thing today.
you’re outside the body of Christ, why stay there?
If you have questions, if you don’t understand everything you think you need to
understand, that’s fine.
We’ll study with you.
Just let us know.
If you’re a member of the body of Christ and you say, you know what?
I was once sanctified.
I was once faithful.
But now I’ve turned back.
I’ve no longer walked with Him.
And I need to come home.
You can do that this morning.
You have need of the invitation in any way for any reason.
Why not come now as we stand and as we sing.
How To Spend God’s Time – Jacob Kennedy – March 15, 2026
I appreciate Walker leading that song.
I don’t know who holds tomorrow, but I know who holds my hand.
The emphasis there being on the fact that we don’t worry about time.
We don’t worry about looking at the future.
We worry about and we focus on serving our Lord.
But for a moment, or for a few moments, y’all know I don’t talk too short.
For a few moments, we want to notice this idea of time and how we.
You know, it’s said that we are living on borrowed time.
Often when we hear this phrase, we think about maybe a child who is awaiting punishment,
he’s living on borrowed time, before that punishment comes.
Or in a more somber way, we think of those who are nearing the end of their life, they’re
living on borrowed time.
But when you take a step back and you really think about it, all of us as human beings are
living on borrowed time.
because the time that we have is not our own.
God made time.
He made everything that we see around us and as such the time that we possess is not our
own but it’s God’s.
He’s given it to us to spend as we see a depiction of the master giving the servants
talents to spend.
And one day just as
Jesus told that parable, in that parable the master returning to call into account those
servants of how they use that money.
One day God is going to call us into account for how we’ve used our time.
when we think about this idea, when we think about how we are spending this time, we need
to understand and focus on the question, how are you, how am I spending God’s time?
First and foremost today, spend time working.
Look with me at Ecclesiastes chapter nine.
Ecclesiastes nine and verse 10.
Here the wise man Solomon writes, Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.
For there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou
goest.
I returned and saw unto the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the
strong, nor yet bred to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to
men of skill.
But notice this, time and chance happeneth to them all.
For man also knoweth not his time, as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the
birds that are caught in the snare, saw the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it
falleth suddenly upon them.
Solomon in writing this text of wisdom of wise advice to a future generation.
He emphasizes this idea of working diligently, of doing whatever you’re doing, whatever
work you have set your mind to do, do it with all your mind.
In other words, we shouldn’t be people of half measures.
We shouldn’t be lazy in our work ethic, but rather, no matter what we are doing, we need
to be doing it to the glory of God.
In Romans 12 and verse 11,
We know that Christians are not to be those who are slothful in business, but fervent in
spirit, serving the Lord.
how we act, we live, how we in this case work reflects on our God.
It does not just reflect on us, it does not just reflect on our family, it does not just
reflect on our friends who might doubt for us, it reflects on any and all who understand
that we’re Christians.
Think about how it would look for someone in his workplace to be lazy and to be known for
completely avoiding work altogether and then for someone to say, he’s a Christian.
What does that say to those who don’t know what it’s like to be a Christian?
To everyone else that’s not a Christian in that workplace, they say, oh, so Christians are
lazy people.
Oh, so that God they serve must be condoning and must approve of laziness.
Meanwhile, the scripture tells us the exact opposite.
We as Christians must be hard workers, but note that Solomon emphasizes this fact that
there is no work in the grave.
In other words, Solomon is saying, do what you can now, because there’s coming a day when
you can’t.
We’ll notice this more as we continue.
But for us as Christians, death is not the end.
Death is not.
a mournful thing, but rather a restful thing.
Look together with me at Hebrews chapter four.
That’s Hebrews chapter 4, starting in verse 9.
In emphasizing this idea of rest, the Hebrews writer notes in verse nine starting, there
remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
For he that is entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works as God did
from his.
Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief.
The Hebrew writer here is not saying that we strive for rest on this earth.
He’s not saying that we work so that we can take a break on this earth.
No, he’s saying we work because we know the rest that’s coming.
We work for the Lord, we labor for the Lord, specifically in the context we work to ensure
that we are who we are supposed to be.
We grow in our faith because we know that there’s going to be a time when we can sit back
and relax.
When we enter those, as have been described, those pearly gates, when we are with the Lord
for all of eternity, we can have true rest.
And that’s the rest that we’re longing for.
That’s the rest we’re looking toward.
And that’s why we as Christians ought to be the hardest workers imaginable.
But know also that we are to be hard workers because our master was a hard worker.
John 9, 4, I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day, for the night cometh
when no man can work.
Jesus emphasized this idea of I must work.
And Jesus is our master, absolutely.
He is our King, 100%.
Could he have said, it is you apostles’ work, pardon the grammar, it is the responsibility
of you as apostles, the responsibility of you as disciples to work.
Could he have said that and be right?
Absolutely.
But the work that Christ had to do was something that only he could do.
And so when he looks at this situation,
He says he takes personal responsibility.
I must.
How many times do we look at the work of the church and we say, that’s Aaron’s job.
Well, that’s Michael’s work.
Well, that’s Eric’s work.
Maybe it’s time for us to say that’s my work.
Maybe it’s time for us to take personal responsibility in the work of the church.
Now understand there are things that not all of us are good at doing.
There are some jobs that are better left to other people, but the work of the church, the
work that is edifying the saved, that is seeking the lost, that work is a responsibility
of us all.
We all have a part to play.
We all have a work that we must
do.
I know that Jesus mentions the work of Him that sent me.
The focus was not on selfishness.
The focus was not on what He wanted to do.
The focus is what on God sent Him to do.
The focus was on the Father’s will.
The focus was on the work that He had to do, that was laid before Him to do.
But what was his work?
Well, Luke 19 10 tells us that his work was to seek and to save that which was lost.
That’s why he came.
That’s why he came to earth was to seek and to save the lost.
Is that not also what he leaves for us to do?
Mark 16 15 and 16 tells us to teach to every creature to preach to all who will hear.
Jesus worked in ministering and giving his life as a sacrifice.
Matthew 20 verse 28 tells us that Christ did not come to be ministered unto, but to
minister and to give his life a ransom for many.
Our job as Christians is to minister to each other, to help each other.
Jesus emphasized in John 13 that he had given them an example that they should go and do
likewise.
that they too should go and serve the brethren, that they too should be servants in the
house of God.
As Christians, that responsibility is laid upon our shoulders to be ministers one to
another, to serve one another, to help.
And as Romans 12, verses 1 and 2 tell us to be a living sacrifice to God, saying it’s not
about me, it’s not about what I want, but it’s all about what God wants, what He has
commanded.
And Jesus’ work was also to establish
the church.
Matthew 16, 18.
We cannot establish the church as Christ did.
Only he could do that.
But what we do as Christians is build up his church.
We strive and live in such a way that we have to build a bigger building.
That’s our goal as Christians.
eh It’s not just to focus on the numbers.
The focus of a Christian, the focus of the Christians work in building up the kingdom is
so that souls are saved and God is glorified.
Brethren, we can’t fill up heaven.
There’s always room for more.
and that is the work we have to do, the work that is laid upon us to do.
But note also that Jesus said while at his day, he knew his time was limited.
He knew that he did not have forever on this earth.
He only had about three years of ministry, about 33 years in total of his life that he
lived on this earth.
It was a short time.
But oh, what he packed into those three years.
The work that he accomplished.
We as human beings only have about 290,000 days.
We need to make sure that we spend every one of them to the best of our ability, every one
of them glorifying our God and working for Him.
while we spend our time working for the Lord.
We don’t need to forget to remember.
That’s the second way in which we spend our time today and that’s to spend God’s time
remembering.
Look at me at 2 Peter, 2 Peter chapter 1.
Second Peter 1 and verse 12, starting.
Peter writes, Wherefore, I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these
things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.
Yea, I think it mean as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in
remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put off this tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus
Christ hath showed me.
Peter in writing the second epistle says I’m writing to remind you.
I’m writing to put you in remembrance.
To put you in a state of remembering those things which you know.
You’ve already heard them.
You’ve already been taught these things but you need a refresher.
You need to be stirred up again.
How often is it that we’ve heard something years ago and we don’t remember it?
We don’t even remember that we forgot it.
It’s just gone.
Well that happens with studying God’s Word too.
There are things that we learn along the way that we forget.
And so it is beneficial to go back and to learn those first principles.
To go back and to re-study those things which we’ve already studied.
Peter, an inspired apostle, took the time to sit down and write an epistle, higher
focusing on remembrance.
Remember what you have learned.
And yet there are some today who think we need to be looking for some new thing.
Well, it’s just not a good sermon if it’s not something new.
There’s nothing, if I’m not learning anything, then there’s no point in even going to
worship.
Sometimes the thing we need to learn is the thing we already know.
But we need to put it into practice.
We need to be, as Peter says, stirred up.
But note again this immediate nature, this time crunch if you will, that Peter says,
knowing I must shortly put off my tabernacle.
This body, this physical dwelling of mine, I am very close to the grave.
That’s what Peter is saying.
And he says, in my last moments, in the last epistle I’m going to write, I want you to
remember.
I want to remind you.
When we approach the end of our lives, often see that, or rather when we see those who
approach the end of their lives, we often see them truly show what’s important to
They might say some final words of great weight to their loved ones.
Peter shows is the importance of not only hearing the gospel once, not only hearing the
truth once, but of truly implanting it in you, of being reminded of it, of being stirred
up to follow it.
When Paul told the Ephesian elders in Acts 20 and verses 26 through 27 that he was freed
from the blood of of their souls, that he was he was washed and he was guiltless before
them because he had not shunned to declare unto them the whole counsel of God.
Do you think maybe they had heard some of those things before?
But yet Paul put them in remembrance of it, just as Peter did.
If we are to teach the whole counsel of God, it involves reteaching things that have
already been taught.
But know also Hebrews chapter 10.
Hebrews chapter 10.
starting at verse 23.
Hebrews 10 and verse 23.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful that
promised.
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good work.
Let us.
Brethren, we are all in this together.
We are growing together.
We are in this business together.
Ephesians 4 and verse 16 talks about the emphasis of there’s differences of each
individual’s set of skills.
Everyone has a different role to play, but we are fitly joined together in the body.
In the body of Christ, we are fitly joined together.
We work as a unit.
We work in unity.
Growing in Christ.
Growing in our faith.
And note how he says in verse 23, holding fast the profession of our faith.
If we’ve forgotten our faith, if we have forgotten why we held to our faith in the first
place, how can we hold fast?
How can we hold fast to that which we have forgotten?
But note that he also says, one another, brethren, we each have a responsibility to one
another.
Galatians 6 and verse 1 tells us that we are to bear one another’s burdens, rather 6 and
verse 2 tells us that we are to bear one another’s burdens and to so fulfill the law of
Christ.
It’s not a suggestion, it’s a law.
The law of Christ says I’m to look out for Brother Philip, just as he’s supposed to look
out for me.
I’m to look out for brother J just as he’s supposed to look out for me.
We’re supposed to look out for each other.
We are in this together.
And sometimes we need to be reminded of that.
Sometimes we forget and get lost in our own lives and forget that, hey, there’s a brother
who needs help.
Hey, there’s a sister who’s going through some.
I don’t say this pretending that I’m perfect at it.
We all have improvements to make, but when was the last time you reached out to somebody
who was struggling?
Now for some of you, I know that’s every day.
Don’t get me wrong.
But we need to make sure that we are truly showing the love of Christ to one another.
truly caring for one another.
understanding that we are in this together.
And as we are growing, as we are spending time remembering, we also spend God’s time,
number three, in evangelizing.
Acts 20 and verse 24.
24 rather in verse 25.
I’ll get it right eventually.
24 and verse 25.
And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come, Felix trembled and
answered, go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.
Now in context of Acts 24, Paul is on trial.
He is standing to be judged.
and yet he took this opportunity to teach the gospel.
How many of us, we were in Paul’s shoes, would be focused on getting the best lawyer we
could?
Would be focused on, I wonder if this trial is going to go in my favor.
I wonder if I’m going to be pardoned or if I’m going to be found guilty.
But Paul said, hey, there’s an opportunity to preach.
Here’s an opportunity to share the gospel.
Some people have said jokingly, and there’s some truth to it, they’d hate to be Paul’s
guard, Roman guard, who was chained to him 24-7.
Because you know that man heard an earful of the gospel.
But shouldn’t that be for all of us?
Shouldn’t we as Christians be those who reason of righteousness, of temperance, of
judgment to come, using logic, not emotion, to show the gospel, using what we have, the
time that we have been given to spread the gospel of Christ?
We might not be standing on trial for our Christianity, but our Christianity is being
tested and it is being judged.
How do we stack up?
Well, it has been asked.
It’s always been a sobering reminder when it is.
If you were to be brought on trial for being a Christian, would you be found guilty or
innocent?
What a court of law finds you guilty of being a Christian or innocent.
Sometimes I fear that we don’t have enough evidence to convict ourselves.
We aren’t working as hard as we could.
We aren’t serving God as we should.
Again, the time that we have is not our own, but God.
We ought to use it to His glory.
Romans 13, 11 tells us that now is the day of salvation.
That the day of salvation is nearer than before.
We don’t know when our lives will end.
We don’t know when we will come to the end of this life.
But do you want to come to the end of your life saying, oh, I’ll get around to that being
saved?
Or for those of us in here who are Christians saying, well, I know that this friend of
mine needs the gospel, but I’ll get around to it.
Eventually when there’s a convenient season, I’ll teach them the gospel.
rather than a convenient season will never
We look for opportunities to reach the lost, yes.
but don’t wait to the point of their losing their soul because you didn’t tell them.
Tomorrow may be too late.
We work for Christ now.
We serve Him now because we don’t know if tomorrow is coming.
How do you spend God’s time?
It’s a sobering question, one that deserves much contemplation.
Will we spend God’s time in working for the Lord?
Will we spend God’s time?
and truly helping, truly remembering what Christ has done for us and teaching it to our
brothers and sisters.
And will we spend God’s time in reaching and saving the lost.
Brethren, we will be called into account for how we spent our time.
We are stewards of God’s time and as 1 Corinthians 4 and verse 2 tells us, stewards must
be found.
Stewards are required to be found faithful.
Will God find us faithful?
and how we’ve used our time.
If not, then what hinders you from making that right?
If you stand today not using your time the way God would have you to, choosing to waste
your time instead of spending it to God’s glory.
then let us help you.
If you are not a member of the church,
be happy to study with you.
Don’t put it off.
But as most in here are members, are true Christians, maybe it’s the case that you realize
that there’s areas that are lacking in your life.
Where you need encouragement, or maybe you need to repent.
If we can help you to ensure that your time is spent for God’s glory, then please don’t
hesitate.
Come now as we stand and as we sing.
Mark 14 (Lesson 3) – Aaron Cozort – March 18, 2026
bookmark.
Chapter 14.
We have been discussing the events of the Upper Room and uh we will continue with those
events and then the proceeding out into the Garden of Gethsemane this evening in our
study.
But let’s begin with a word of prayer as we get started.
Our gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for your blessings, for
your care that you provide to us.
for all that you do for us on a daily basis.
We pray that you will be with this country of ours with all of the turmoil and all of the
difficulties that arise in it, that we will still be granted the opportunity to have
peace, to be able to…
worship you in a way that is in accordance with your will without fear of molestation or
threat from governments, but at the same time that we might not hand over our peace and
our mindset to the circumstances of this world.
then we might always remember that no matter what comes in our lives, no matter what
circumstance we find ourselves in, in our nation or around the world, that our allegiance
is to you and that our faithfulness is to keeping your word and your will and being
obedient to it.
Lord, we pray that you be with the leaders that make decisions throughout the world.
May they look to your word for guidance and for wisdom.
May they make decisions.
which will produce in the lives of the people of their nations things that are in
accordance with your will and not in opposition to it.
Lord, we pray that you be with those who are struggling with illness, especially those who
deal with chronic diseases and issues.
We pray that you give them strength to overcome those things and to endure those things
and help us to be an encouragement and a strength to them.
Lord, we also pray that you be with those who are facing recovery from injuries or
difficulties and we pray that you might help them to heal and return.
back to their full and desired help.
Lord, we pray for missionaries around the world and those here at home.
We pray for those who have difficult works, those who are in fear for their life, those
who struggle because of circumstance or because of a lack of provisions.
We pray that you will help us to be a blessing to them.
But we pray especially that your hand will be upon them, that they might have the things
that they need.
Lord, we pray for those who are looking for the truth.
May they find
the truth and may we be a conduit for them to hear the gospel and be obedient to your
word.
All this we pray and ask in Jesus name, amen.
In Mark 14, Jesus has instituted the Lord’s Supper.
We spent some time on some of the language that is found in this text last week.
But as we did that, really what I wanted us to realize
as we’re going through this is in the text where most false concepts are taught, they are
also answered.
And that was one of the things that our director, Brother Wesley Simons, uh who’s recently
passed away, continued to reiterate to us.
I think I may have told some of you, some of you may have never heard this, but every
Thursday,
in chapel at Tri-Cities was called Hot Seat Thursday.
And what we did every single Thursday during chapel is Wesley would get up and he’d call
three of the guys up and we’d have to sit on the little seats up there and he’d get up and
he would take a false position.
from scripture, a real, legitimate false doctrine that people in the religious world
teach.
And we weren’t told in advance what it was gonna be.
We weren’t given any indication of what he was gonna say.
He got up, he said, and presented the false position, and we had to answer it on the fly
with no prep.
And then when inevitably, especially in our first year of school, we couldn’t answer it.
He’d walk everybody through, and invariably you go back two or three verses and you read
the whole context and suddenly right there in the context where it was taught from is the
answer to the false doctrine.
About 85 % in by way of at least anecdotal perception, about 85 to 90 % of all false
doctrines are answered in the text where the false doctrines taught from.
because most false doctrines come as a result of people ignoring the context, teaching
what the context does not allow the text to teach, ripping it out of context to make it
mean something it doesn’t say.
So when we get into texts like the institution of Lord’s Supper, when you pay attention
and you force yourself to stay
in the context, to understand the background of the context, then you are alleviated of
many of the false doctrines and the false ideas that are taught about the Bible simply
because you bothered to read the passage in its context.
Jesus will say to them, verse 25, assuredly I say to you, I will no longer drink of the
fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.
And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Jesus is going to take them from the upper room where they have observed the Passover.
where he has instituted the Lord’s Supper.
And he’s going to take them out to the Mount of Olives and he is going to go to a place,
to a garden to pray.
Jesus is taking actions, knowing the outcome, knowing where it’s headed, while the
apostles are generally speaking oblivious to what is coming in spite of everything that he
has told them.
Now, in Mark’s account, as we’ve already mentioned, Mark pushes through the events
rapidly.
He gives the record of Jesus’s life with the urgency that Jesus operated with.
He speaks concerning things happening immediately.
He speaks concerning the things that occurred and then moves on.
ah John is going to give a much more complete record of the events of the Upper Room.
whole chapters dedicated to the events of the Upper Room in the Book of John, which the
others pass over and do not record.
And yet the reason is because of the purpose of the book.
The reason has to do with who John was writing to and what he was writing about.
And so we need to be careful to realize that we should not
uh We should not put on one book the purpose of another book.
When we come to the text of Ephesians or Colossians.
we cannot assume that the environment that Paul’s writing to the brethren at Philippa, or
sorry, at Ephesus or Colossi is the same environment that John’s writing to the church
about in 1 John.
Because the likelihood is that the writing of those books was separated by maybe more than
a decade or two.
Circumstances are different.
The difficulties when John’s writing 1 John are the Gnostics and their doctrines.
The difficulty when Paul’s writing to the Ephesian brethren and the Colossian brethren is
the Judaizing teachers.
They’re in a different circumstance.
You can’t go to one and apply its circumstance to the other, even if you read something
that sounds a lot like something said over here.
That’s one of the things that we have to be careful about.
It is very good, and I enjoy doing it, but it’s very good to do word studies, you know, to
go through the Bible and read, what does the Bible say about the word love?
What does the Bible say about the word hope?
What does the Bible say about the word compassion?
What does the Bible say?
And look at those in all the different contexts that they’re found everywhere in the
Bible.
That’s valuable.
But like a lot of things that are valuable, use with caution.
Because if you assume that every writer meant the same thing when they used the word love,
you’d be wrong.
We have to be careful that we actually understand who’s writing, to whom are they writing,
when are they writing, what are the circumstances behind the writing, what are these
people going through and what are they facing when they’re receiving that book.
Now, we don’t always know, but a lot of times we know.
In the Old Testament, we have the writer,
who quite often will say, in the year of this king.
This prophet was prophesying.
Okay, well that tells you a little bit.
That gives you some historical context if you read the rest of the books and you read
about what was happening in the days of that king.
Same thing true in the New Testament.
When Mark is writing, when Luke is writing, when Matthew is writing, they’re writing at
different points in time, but they’re not writing as the events are happening.
The record isn’t written down consecutive with the, it’s not like every night Peter went
back to the room and said, all right, we gotta get together and get the notes down for
what happened today.
The records concerning the life of Christ were written by the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit years after Jesus had already ascended back into heaven.
During the growth,
period of the church when finally there were people who were hearing the gospel who were
not Jews, who were not from that region, who were not ever individuals who had met Jesus
in person.
They needed to hear concerning His life because they weren’t there when it happened.
And so the Holy Spirit gave these things to the church through these writers for the
purposes of establishing that truth.
Now, how do I know that’s the case?
Because Luke explains it.
If you go back to the beginning of the book of Luke, Luke will spell out that many records
concerning the life of Christ had been made.
And that the reason he was writing his is because he had inspired knowledge
concerning all the details of a complete record.
And so he was writing to give a complete record, which is why the book of Luke and the
book of Acts are actually a pair written by Luke to the same person, to the same
recipient, and it’s a continual story of Jesus’ life all the way through the beginning of
the church.
because Luke had inspired knowledge to take the information from all of these records that
had been written and compile it into a unified account.
And Luke tells you that’s what he’s doing.
So in the same way, John will tell you, in the end of the book of John, these things are
written that you might believe.
And the believing you might have life in his name.
John will tell you that I’m writing the signs that Jesus did that are sufficient to know
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
And that with that knowledge, you might have sufficient evidence to believe in Him, be
obedient to Him, and have the salvation that He offered.
That’s why John was writing.
Because he was writing at a time period where…
people were arguing that Jesus never came in the flesh.
Where the Gnostics and others were claiming that Jesus was a spirit because if he had come
in the flesh, he would have been evil.
But he, so he came, but he was spirit only.
He appeared as though he was in the flesh, but he never actually was.
And John will write in 1 John that anyone who denies that Jesus Christ came in the flesh
is not of God.
So as we’re reading and as we’re studying, word studies, great.
Subject topic studies, great.
But never without the context.
If you’re going to use a passage, especially if you’re teaching, you’re going to use a
passage, you better know what the context is.
You better know why it was stated, to whom it was stated, when it was stated, and the
purpose behind it.
Because otherwise somebody’s going to come up to you and say, brother, I don’t think that
means what you think that means.
And then they’re going to explain to you why.
And it’ll generally be uh a kind-hearted, retired preacher.
Because if it was your grandmother, she’d be a lot less gentle.
Right?
She was like, that was nonsense.
Now let me sit down.
You need to understand this.
Right?
All right.
So Mark chapter 14, Jesus will take them out to the Mount of Olives.
Then Jesus said to them, all of you will be made to stumble because of me this night, for
it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.
but after I have been raised, will go before you to Galilee.” Jesus is going to tell the
disciples that they are going to do something and He knows they’re going to do it because
He knows Old Testament prophecy.
And Peter is going to argue with it.
But if you’re ever in a discussion where one person says they’re right and God’s wrong,
and you say, God’s right and they’re wrong, I know which one’s right.
And it’s evidenced right here because Jesus said God knew what was going to happen and He
told us in advance what was going to happen and it’s going to happen and Peter said it’s
not going to happen.
Jesus said, yes it is.
If you go back to Zechariah chapter 13…
Zechariah chapter 13.
We find a passage that speaks concerning the cutting off of idolatry in the future days of
Israel.
But then it comes to verse seven and there’s a prophecy given.
In verse seven we read, awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is my
companion, says the Lord of hosts, strike the shepherd and the sheep.
will be scattered.
Then I will turn my hand against the little ones.
And as shall come to pass in all the land, says the Lord, that two thirds in it shall be
cut off and die, but one third shall be left in it.
I will bring the one third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined and
test them as gold is tested.
They will call on my name and I will answer them.
I will say, this is my people.
And each one will say,
This is my God.
Jesus reaches back to this prophecy.
And you notice here in verse seven that the one speaking, the one who is making clear the
message through the prophet is who?
look for the word, says the Lord of hosts.
The pronouncement is not being made by a king, by a ruler, by an earthly governor.
Now, when Jesus is sent to the cross to be crucified, who’s going to send Him?
by way of the physical events in history.
Pilate is.
The Roman governor’s going to do it.
The Jewish people are gonna cry out for it.
The Jewish leadership is going to turn him over to Pilate to be tried and to be crucified
because they say, uh don’t have any authority to kill him ourselves, so you’re gonna have
to do it.
All of these individual people had a hand to play in Jesus being crucified, but Zechariah
says, no, they’re not the ones in charge.
They’re not the ones making sure this happens.
Jesus was not defeated by the Jews.
Jesus was not put to the cross and crucified and killed by the Romans.
yes, I understand they were the ones who physically did it.
But as Jesus will point out when he is before Pilate, he could have called 10,000 legions
of angels.
He could have walked out of that scenario any moment he chose to.
when a young child
and their father get down on the floor while the child’s maybe three or four or five years
old and they wrestle.
and the father’s down there and the child’s beating them back.
Is the child really beaten to bat?
Or is the father letting it happen?
Can the father remove the by comparison helpless child at any moment he desires to?
Yes.
So who’s really winning?
The child thinks they’re winning.
The father says, no, I’m in charge.
I’m tell you who’s gonna win.
It’ll be you, but not because you have the strength.
It’ll be you because I let you.
When you come to verse seven, you have God pronouncing a Waco sword against my shepherd.
The sword is going to be deployed by the government.
It was the authority of the government.
You can even go to Romans chapter 13 and Paul will say that it is the role of a government
to have the sword of judgment.
And God is going to call for a governmental action against His own ship.
And then he says against the man who is my companion.
God is going to use Rome, and God is going to use the Jews, and God is going to use Judas,
Ascariot, and God is going to use the circumstances, and God is going to use the Passover,
and God is going to use all of those things to bring about His intended will.
Which is why when Jesus prays in the garden, not my will, but thine be done.
Jesus is alluding back to the fact that even from prophecy.
this was going to happen.
Isaiah 53 verse 4 because it says that there in that prophecy he was smitten by God.
Absolutely.
It puts those two together as just kind of another reference that it was he was smitten of
God.
was God’s will that this happened.
So Isaiah 53 verse 4.
in the midst of that text speaking concerning.
the shepherd who would be smitten.
Verse four, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him
stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.
He was wounded for our transgression.
He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him and by His stripes we are healed.
Go down to verse 10.
We read, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him.
He, the Lord, has put Him, Christ, to grief.
When you make His soul 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 servants shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.”
One of the most ludicrous doctrines.
that has ever existed is premillennialism.
Because it argues that God sent Christ to this earth to establish His Kingdom and He
failed because the Jewish nation rejected Him.
That doesn’t line up with prophecy.
That doesn’t line up with Zechariah 13.
That doesn’t line up with Isaiah 53.
That doesn’t line up with what Jesus told the disciples for months before going to
Jerusalem, where He would tell them again and again and again exactly what was going to
happen.
God didn’t make a mistake.
God didn’t fail to anticipate Israel’s rejection of Him.
And premillennialism is false from beginning to end because it demands that Christ came to
the earth and failed.
I’m but my Lord doesn’t fail.
Now, you find here in this passage in Zechariah 13,
Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is my companion, says the Lord of
hosts, strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.” Jesus will point out to the
disciples, as Mark records it, that this was evidence that that very night they were all
going to forsake him.
That they were all going to stumble
as a result of him.
He says back in verse 27 of Mark 14, all of you will be made to stumble because of me this
night, for it is written, and he quotes Zechariah, but after I have been raised, I will go
before you to Galilee.
What is the significance of Him telling them they’re going to stumble?
And then there would be things that would occur after He was raised.
Redemption.
The fact that while they would stumble, they weren’t going, there’s a difference between
stumbling and falling.
In the sense of someone who stumbles.
They may fall, but they’re not staying down.
They didn’t depart.
He doesn’t say, you’re going to depart from me.
He says, you’re going to be caused to stumble.
Now, who is not present amongst the apostles when this statement occurs?
Judas.
Judas has already preceded the other apostles in going out of the upper room.
When Jesus goes to the garden without, in this occasion, and he goes out to the Mount of
Olives,
Judas is no longer present.
This statement does not include Judas.
As matter of fact, when you go to the final prayer,
of Jesus in the upper room in John 17, Jesus will pray concerning the one who would fall,
and that it was prophesied that he would fall.
And yet, he’s praying in recognition that these others would be faithful.
So, Jesus is going to declare this is what’s going to happen.
He knew it was going to happen.
He was assured it was going to happen.
There was no doubt it was going to happen because God had prophesied it hundreds of years
beforehand.
And yet Peter said to him, verse 29, Even if all are made to stumble, yet I will not be.
Jesus said to him, Assuredly I say to you that today, even this night, before the rooster
crows twice, you will deny me three times.
but he spoke more vehemently, if I have to die with you, I will not deny you.
And they all said likewise.
You know, sometimes we kind of harp on Peter and we forget that Mark says, and everybody
else said the same thing too.
to the standard.
Yeah, so 1 Corinthians chapter 10 you said 10 verse 12.
First Corinthians 10.
when Paul is writing about the example of Old Testament Israel, he will say, verse 11, now
all these things happen to them as examples as they were written for our admonition upon
whom the ends of the ages have come.
Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
And then he reminds them.
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man.
But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able.
But with the temptation will also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it.
So question.
Since you brought up that passage.
Is it true or is it false?
Is it true that no temptation will be presented to us by God that we’re not able to
overcome and to bear?
And if so, how is it that God could prophesy that they were going to stumble?
And they all did as if they didn’t have any choice.
Alright, you see, there would be no stumbling involved if God was the only player, if God
was the only one involved in the decision, but they all had agency.
They were all going to make the choices.
They were all insistent that they weren’t gonna make that choice, and Jesus was insistent
they were.
The difference is, He knew what was going to happen, and they did.
God didn’t cause them to stumble.
God just told them in advance they were going to.
just like the mother did not tell the child that they were going to put their hand on the
stove.
She told the child not to put their hand on the stove.
knowing what would happen.
Eventually, the child doesn’t listen.
and the child puts a hand on the stove and guess what?
It hurts.
And invariably the mother says, I told you not to put your hand on the stove.
Now they may not do that immediately during all the pain and the crying, but eventually
they’re going to say, now are we going listen next time?
the disciples were not caused to stumble simply because God prophesied hundreds of years
in advance that they would.
Any more than Judas was caused to betray his Lord or the uh Pharisees and the scribes and
the elders were caused to take Jesus and bring him to Pilate or the Pilate was caused to
do all these things.
God didn’t cause it to happen.
They chose.
for it to happen.
But God determined in advance that it was going.
You say, Aaron, how can God determine in advance it’s going to happen and them still have
a choice?
There you go.
God repeatedly in the Old Testament, in Isaiah, all through the book, will point out to
Israel, I’m the one who tells you the end from the beginning.
I’m going to tell you how it’s gonna turn out before it ever starts.
So you would do well to obey me.
You would do well to listen to me.
Because I’m going to tell you how it’s going to end up.
Whether you do or whether you don’t.
Moses is going to stand before Israel and he’s going to stand there at Mount Ebal and
Mount Gerizim and he’s going to give them the blessings and the cursings and he’s going
tell you, if you obey God, these are the things that are going to happen.
If you keep the covenant, these are the things that are going to happen.
If you do not obey God and if you do not keep the covenant, these are the things that are
going to happen.
Moses didn’t cause the things to happen.
Israel chose for the things to happen when they determined not to obey God.
And yet God knew long before…
that very first sin ever occurred.
that Christ was going to have to come and he was going to have to die.
and he knew it to such a degree that he could give Adam and Eve on that same day a
prophecy about how it was going to turn out.
and every single intervening time.
for the next 4,000 years.
Event occurred, event occurred, event occurred, event occurred exactly the way God said it
would.
because he’s the one who knows the end from beginning.
Eddie.
Also makes that clear in his book and the first chapter because he says God does not tempt
mankind God cannot tempt us now there are trials that get put in our path to strengthen us
to Try our faith, but trials are not the same as a sin temptation God does not put sin in
front of us and cause us to stumble absolutely so
Jesus is going to tell His disciples.
you’re going to stumble.
I think there’s one last lesson that I want us to focus on from this, and it’s this.
Sometimes we imagine that we can be perfect.
Sometimes we play a little game with ourselves and you know what?
If I’m a Christian long enough, I’ll finally reach perfection and I’ll never fail.
And I’ll never stumble and I’ll never have any more weaknesses.
And I’ll be good enough to go to heaven.
John the Elder, who was advanced in age, who was writing to church, said, you’re wrong.
He says if any man says he does not sin, he is a liar and the truth is not in it.
At no point should we use our weakness to justify our choices.
Jesus wasn’t going to give them an easy out simply because they were going to do this in a
moment of weakness.
They were.
As a matter of fact, they’re at a point of physical exhaustion.
They’re at a point of having gone through a series of long extended hours, so much so they
can’t even stay awake.
And then someone of their own number is going to come with a group of people to take
their…
teacher, their Lord, their master away, and they’re going to be ready to defend him.
And Jesus is going to keep them from doing so.
all of these things are going to occur.
Jesus doesn’t give them a pass just because they’re weak.
Jesus is going to admonish them.
Jesus is going to tell them to stay diligent and sober that the flesh is weak and the
spirit needs to be strong.
but he also understands.
And that’s the challenge for us, is to remember that our weaknesses never get to be an
excuse for why we sin.
But at the same time, we have a High Priest who is touched with the feelings of our
infirmities being in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Hebrews chapter 4.
that he is able as one who suffered, who had to obey God and had to obey through
suffering, he is able to succor those who are tempted.
He is able to help them as if they are helpless.
We are challenged to understand that our weakness is never an excuse, that we always have
a choice.
and we are accountable for our actions.
and yet we are simultaneously given the opportunity to rejoice in grace and forgiveness.
What we must never do is accept our own sin.
normal.
What we must never do is say, you know what, this is just how I am.
Nonsense.
It’s how we’ve chosen to be and we can choose otherwise.
because there is no temptation overtaking you that you can’t resist.
So as Jesus looks at these disciples and he tells them, you’re going to stumble.
He also tells them, and I’ll meet you on the other side.
I’ll proceed you into Galilee and I’ll see you there.” They don’t understand that.
They don’t understand what’s going to happen.
They don’t understand what they’re about to go through.
They don’t understand their own weakness, but he does.
and he understands us as well.
understands our weakness.
He understands our difficulties, our frailties, our areas where we’re going to stumble.
and He already gave a sacrifice for us.
So we’re reminded back to Zechariah that God sent the sword against His own shepherd,
against His own companion.
and He did so for us.
Thank you for your attention.
Three Wise Monkey’s and What They Missed – Justin Evergarden – March 22, 2026
Today’s lesson, as oddly enough as it sounds, comes from three monkeys.
Now what do you mean by that?
When I was growing up…
My mother would tell me a story about a Christmas when she grew up, specifically a
Christmas when money was very tight.
That year there were only a few simple gifts under the tree, an apple, an orange, and
three little monkeys.
This was because my grandmother at the time had lived through the Depression.
She had never fully recovered financially from that.
But she was given these three little monkeys, and you may or may not be familiar with
them.
These were little plastic ones.
They just sat there.
One monkey covered his eyes.
other one covered his ears, and the last one covered his mouth.
So you might know the saying, see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
As a child, I thought that this would have been a lesson about staying out of trouble.
Most kids do.
Especially if you get that on Christmas.
The parents are trying to tell you something.
It’s not as fun as getting socks.
Later though, most recently actually during my trip to Japan, I learned that these are
actually denoted from what are known as the three wise monkeys.
uh Mizaru, if I’m remembering how to pronounce it correctly, is see no evil.
Mikazaru, which is hear no evil, and Iwazaru, which is speak no evil.
While their message has values, value, it leaves out something very, very important,
however.
It leaves out the seeking
for God’s wisdom, doesn’t it?
We can be told to push things out of our lives, but what are we taking in?
So God calls us not only to avoid evil, but to pursue what is right all at the same time.
Tonight, let’s think about how the monkey’s lesson compares to what God really wants from
us.
He doesn’t want us to simply shut ourselves off away from the world.
He wants us to…
input what we should.
So let’s start with the first monkey, Mizaru, who teaches to see no evil.
There’s truth in that idea, isn’t there?
See no evil.
The Bible tells us to guard what we look at.
Turn your Bible with me over to Matthew chapter 6 verses 22 through 23.
Matthew chapter 6 verses 22 through 23.
But before that, let me get a little more uh context.
Psalm 101 verse 3 is almost a precursor to this voice.
And it says, will set no wicked thing before mine eyes.
No wicked thing.
Okay, what does God deem wicked?
But Jesus says here in Matthew 6, the light of the body is the eye.
If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
Here Jesus is showing us that what we focus on shapes who we are.
How true is that?
Tell me, do our eyes guide our hearts to the men?
And I really wish Aaron was here on this one.
When we walk into the fellowship hall for the meal and we see the dessert table, do our
eyes guide us towards the dessert table, Absolutely.
Yeah, you’re also one of the dessert guys.
What we keep looking at on a day-to-day basis, it will shape our thoughts, it will shape
our desires, and it will shape our actions.
That’s why it’s important to pay attention.
Is it important to pay attention to what our Children see on a day to day basis?
Very much so.
But it’s also what we ourselves as adults take in.
Let’s consider David’s story in Second Samuel, Chapter 11.
Starting in verse one, it says, was the season when kings went to war, but David stayed
behind in Jerusalem.
Now, I don’t know about you, but most good kings that are featured in movies and things
like that typically are on horseback at the front of the line.
This is where David typically would have been, but on this occasion, when it was time to
go to war, David stayed behind.
He was already in the wrong place.
He should have been on the front lines right alongside his men.
And this is well before anything happened with Bathsheba.
But from his rooftop, as we read in verse two, he saw a woman bathing.
This was Bathsheba.
The verse says she was very beautiful.
We’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
The first glance may have been by chance.
But David doesn’t stop there, does he?
What does David do?
As we read throughout the chapter, he continues.
He asked about her.
He pursued her.
He sent for her, did he not?
And eventually, he took what wasn’t his.
What started as a look led him down the path to adultery.
And then eventually, the arranging of Uriah’s death, didn’t it?
What started as a look led all the way down the road to murder.
David’s downfall didn’t happen all at once, though.
That’s a very important point to think about.
It began when he let his eyes linger, didn’t he?
Specifically where they shouldn’t have been lingering.
Isn’t that how temptation often works?
Is by letting our eyes linger where they shouldn’t for longer than they should.
A wrong look becomes a steady gaze.
A gaze becomes desire.
And desire leads to action, eventually.
If that action is a wrong action, that action leads to sin, doesn’t it?
That’s kind of why I like to use the idea of a camera lens.
Now we have these smartphones that you can pull out.
And typically you can, you’ve got the front and the rear facing cameras.
And when you take out your smartphone, I’m not going to do it here because people in the
nosebleeds can’t see it.
But if I were to point it at that plant up there, you could catch because typically these
come with wide angle lenses, don’t they?
You can see everything in front.
But if you take your fingers and you pinch in like that, what are you doing?
Are you zooming in?
Eventually, you’re going to lose sight of everything around that plant.
You lose sight of everything that you’re not focusing on.
You get tunnel vision.
Whatever you focus on fills the entire picture.
And soon, you stop noticing everything around.
All the good things, all the bad things.
That’s what happened to David.
He lost sight of his duty as He lost sight of God there for a little while, didn’t he?
He knew better than to do what he did with Bathsheba.
All he could see in that moment, he zoomed in his lens and saw what he wanted.
So, the monkey, Mizaru, see no evil.
He’s partly right, but he’s not completely right.
What offers more knowledge, a monkey or the Bible?
The Bible, obviously.
Please don’t tell me you got that one wrong.
I’d be worried.
There is wisdom in the phrase, see no evil.
But the Bible offers more, doesn’t it?
Hebrews 12 and verse 2 says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
What are we to be looking to?
It’s not good enough simply to push the evil out of our eyes.
We have to fill our eyes with something so it should be our Lord and Savior.
It’s not enough just to avoid what’s wrong.
We need to focus on what’s right.
The real lesson that we should garner from that is not just see no evil, but look unto
Jesus.
The second monkey, kikazaru.
Try reading this stuff, let alone pronouncing it.
teaches us to hear no evil.
That reminds us what we listen to matters.
It’s very similar to what we see.
Turn your Bibles over to 1 Corinthians.
We’ll go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
And verse 33.
As 1 Corinthians 15-33 says, not deceived.
Evil communications, what?
Corrupt good manners.
Evil communications can only give you bad manners.
Romans 10-17 is a great uh analogy to this as well.
Romans 10-17 says, then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Does what we listen to shape our hearts?
Our attitude.
Our actions.
Both faith, and this is important, both faith and deception come from what we allow into
our ears.
Are you listening to a sermon being preached on Sunday?
What aisle of politics are you listening to?
What are we hearing on the television?
Turn all the way back to Genesis chapter three.
We’re gonna take a look at Eve and what she heard.
Eve’s story in Genesis chapter three is a very, very good example of this.
Eve didn’t fall because of what she saw.
Yeah, I’m sure the fruit would have looked good.
It would have been pleasing.
But she fell because she listened.
I don’t have the mic.
I walked away and I forgot my body mic wasn’t on.
I’ll just stay here, fellas.
Got it?
Okay.
She fell because she listened.
Satan came to her with his words, right?
Now, he’s a serpent.
He’s wise as a serpent.
He didn’t directly challenge God.
He starts out by questioning God, as Genesis chapter 3.
It was subtle.
He asks, yea, hath God said?
He didn’t begin with open rebellion.
He probably wouldn’t have gotten anywhere with that.
But with doubt.
When you plant seeds of doubt, when you plant seeds of anything, typically if they’re in
good soil, they’ll grow, right?
He knew that whatever he was planting in, that would grow.
Adam and Eve were good soil.
They were innocent soil.
He plants it with doubt.
And then he contradicts God.
Ye shall not surely die.
And after that he tempted her, right?
We keep reading and it says,
I lost my place.
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof that your eyes shall be opened.
Is he making God seem strict?
Yeah, he’s making God seem strict.
In fact, he’s making God seem…
he’s trying to paint him as unfair, isn’t he?
He made disobedience sound like a good thing.
Well, if you disobey, your eyes will be opened.
You’ll know the difference between good and evil.
You’ll see as God sees, right?
That’s one of the key lessons that we can learn from Genesis chapter three is that Eve
kept listening.
But who did she listen to?
Did Eve listen to the wrong voice?
She did.
You see how important it is to listen to the right voice.
She let the serpent’s words take root in her mind.
That seed?
It spread forth.
It let roots develop.
It took roots specifically in her mind.
And the longer she listened to that serpent, the more sense he made, the more believable
that lie became.
Because that’s how deception still works today, right?
False teaching, bad advice, gossip, bitterness, slander, all the bad things in the world.
Most people don’t fall typically because of one shocking statement, do they?
No.
They fall because they listen to the wrong voice.
They fall because they listen until the lie starts to sound normal.
There’s a big difference there.
I kind of like to equate it to following a broken GPS.
You have the GPS, voice giving you directions is wrong, you might feel sure of yourself,
things are going right, right, but you’ll still end up lost.
I don’t care what voice you have programmed on it.
It could be Sean Connery, turn left.
It could be Optimus Prime, Transformers, roll out, take a right.
It sounds authoritative.
It’s a good voice to listen to, right?
But if the voice is wrong, it’s wrong, isn’t it?
We can joke about it all day, but it’s a very serious matter.
Eve listened to the wrong guide.
She had the wrong GPS and it led her to sin.
Shame, we see that in the garden, and eventually separation.
They were pushed out of the garden, weren’t they?
That was their punishment.
So, there is wisdom in hear no evil.
But the Bible goes further.
It is not enough to block out the wrong voices.
We need to listen to the right ones.
We need God’s Word in our eyes and in our ears.
I can assure you.
What you listen to most on a day-to-day basis is going to shape what you believe, whether
that is a political podcast about Bitcoin and rising technology, and especially about the
Bible.
We need to make sure that we are following the appropriate guide.
The Bible is a GPS that we can count on.
I’ve heard many a sermon titled GPS.
a gospel positioning system.
It’s good.
But now let’s look at the third monkey.
Iwazaru teaches you to speak no evil, right?
There’s truth in this as well.
James 3 and verse 5.
It says, even so the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things.
Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth.
Ephesians 429 also reflects this by saying, let no corrupt communication, no corrupt
communication, proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good under the edifying.
Right?
James reminds us, the tongue is small.
Do you know what the strongest muscle in your body is?
The tongue.
We use it more than anything else.
Its impact is huge even though it’s so small.
Do think just a few words could break trust?
Karma home.
Can a few words divide a church?
What about twist the truth?
Yeah, it doesn’t take many words.
Let me give you an example.
Asked Rebecca where I could find these in the back.
Men, I’m not gonna light one, I promise.
Imagine holding a book of matches like I am here.
It’s a match, little thing, right?
It’s only a little match.
But if you strike it and you drop it and the flame were to let, be allowed to touch the
carpet, would anyone in here call it harmless?
Let me ask this, if I actually was brazen enough to strike this match and drop it on the
carpet, how long until the men in here rush up and stomp out the fire?
Not long.
I hope I have faith placed in the right place.
Kennedy, I’m sure you would be right up here to stomp it out.
Why?
It’s just a little match.
It’s just a little flame.
Can it have a big impact if left alone?
If not put out?
A fire can destroy a room
but careless, angry, deceitful words.
They can destroy a home.
They can destroy friendships very quickly.
They can destroy a church or even a life.
Yeah, match can burn a carpet, but an unguarded tongue can cause so much more damage.
love thine enemy.
That’s what the Bible tells us.
The Bible shows us how powerful words can be.
Turn over to Genesis chapter 1.
Let’s look at the beginning of all words.
In Genesis chapter 1, we read again and again and again and again and again.
If you take your finger and just go down the left side and you will see, and God said, and
God said, and God said, and God said, and God said, and God said.
God spoke.
Creation happened.
Light appeared.
The heavens took shape.
Life began.
The universe itself shows the power of God’s word.
Does it or does it not?
Yes.
Flip over one or two pages over to Genesis chapter three.
Do we see someone else using words?
Satan used words.
He didn’t force Eve.
He didn’t overpower Adam.
He didn’t get him into a headlock like teenage boys like to do and force him to eat
something gross.
He used speech, twisting truth with a lie.
Ye shall not, three-letter word, surely die.
Lies are dangerous.
Lies are dangerous.
More often than not, because they sound close to the truth.
Those are the most dangerous lies of all.
Satan’s words led to the fall of man, the introduction to sin.
In the first pages of the Bible, words built the world and worlds and words helped break
it.
All at the same time.
Words can be used for edifying and they can be used for tearing someone down.
Because of this,
we need to be very, very careful about how we use our words, not just between each other
in the church, but between our enemies as well, between us and everyone we come in contact
with outside of those back doors.
It’s not enough just to avoid cursing.
It’s not enough just to avoid being cruel to one another.
We should use our speech the way God wants us to.
We even sing the song.
Can’t help but think about it.
Angry words, let them never from the tongue, unbridled slip.
May the heart’s best impulse ever check them or they’ll soil your lip.
The hymn is right.
Our words matter.
Our words can build up.
Our words can tear down.
They can spread truth.
or they can lead to confusion.
Our words can point people to Christ.
or they can point people away from him.
What do our words say about us as Christians on a day-to-day basis?
So while speak no evil is a wise saying, God asks a whole lot more.
Matthew 1032, whosoever thou therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess
also before my Father which is in heaven.
We are called to do so much more than simply avoid wrong speech.
We are to use our words for truth, encouragement, and most importantly of all, our words
should always be confessing Christ.
That’s why it’s called the gospel, right?
The good news, the good word.
Going back to the central theme, when we look at all three monkeys together, the
difference between their lesson and the gospel starts to stand out, doesn’t it?
Over in Japan, a lot of them, they only stop with just the three monkeys.
Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.
The monkeys teach it.
Don’t see it, don’t hear it, don’t speak it.
But they’re lacking so much more on the other side of the coin, aren’t they?
God and the Bible teaches us to be changed from the inside out.
It’s not just about guarding against evil, shutting the door and not allowing anything
else to come in.
Here’s what it amounts to.
Guard your eyes, but look unto Jesus.
Guard your ears, but fill them with truth.
Guard your mouth, but use it for good.
Think of David.
He fell because of what he saw.
And Eve, who fell because of what she listened to, what she heard.
In the end, humanity fell by believing a lie and acting on it.
The main point is this.
The real issue isn’t just what we do on the outside.
trying to keep things out of our lives, but what’s in our hearts?
That’s why Jesus said in Matthew 15 and verse 18, those things which proceed out of the
mouth come forth from the heart.
Real change only happens if your heart changes.
So how do we get a changed heart?
You’re not going to get it without the Bible.
You’re not going to get it without Christ in your life.
Someone can try to control what they see, what they hear, and say.
You can control it all and still be lost, can’t you?
Christianity is not just about managing behavior.
It’s about a changed heart.
You can cover your eyes, ears, and mouth, but only God’s Word can change your heart.
This is where the invitation comes in.
Real change starts with how we respond to Christ.
Romans 10, 17 says, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
Hebrews 11, 6 says, we must believe.
Acts 17 and verse 30, everyone everywhere must repent.
Romans 10, 9 says, we must confess Christ.
Galatians 3, 27 says, we put on Christ in baptism.
As our brother said earlier today, ace unto the remission of sins.
That’s where the transformation begins.
That’s where the old life and the new life starts.
You’ve heard me say it many times.
That’s where the old man of sin dies and you’re raised in newness of life as a Christian.
So tonight, while the three monkeys offer a simple lesson, God’s Word teaches us something
far deeper than that.
It’s not just about avoiding evil, it’s about becoming new.
It’s not just about staying silent, it’s about speaking truth.
It’s not just about holding back, it’s about exhibiting the real change Christ has made
inside of you.
If you need to come to God for a new start or prayers to help you through what you’re
going through now, please come forward as we…