Worship – It’s Background (Lesson 1) – Aaron Cozort – July 08, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, Bible, Christian living, Creation, Genesis, God, keywords Worship, Psalm 19, Revelation, Theology by Aaron Cozort

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Good evening.

Well I mentioned, I know it is a deep subject, isn’t it?

I mentioned uh last week if there was anything that uh or uh whenever it was, I think it

was last week, if there was anything that that there was interest in studying that I was

open to uh thoughts and suggestions concerning those things, and I got a little bit of

feedback from a few people.

Uh yes.

Did you just raise your hand?

Is it too late?

Well I don’t know.

What’s what’s your thought or suggestion?

The book of Acts.

Mm.

Well I suspect we’re going to be there a little bit anyway, based upon what w what we are

looking at doing.

But the a couple of people gave me feedback and I’m gonna kinda combine uh the requests,

uh one of which was spending some time with kind of an in-depth look at worship.

What is worship?

Biblical

view of worship and the the background around worship and the other one was fundamental

concepts of Christian and godly living.

And so I thought you know what?

Two kind of core basic ideas, let’s let’s bring those together because as you uh as we’ve

talked about many times before, especially in the Old Testament prophets

If our worship is being offered to God, but our lives are not in alignment with God, then

our worship is worthless.

And if we are seeking to do right things and live in good ways, but we do not honor God

and worship Him as we ought, our actions and our life is worthless.

So we’re gonna kind of bring these ideas together.

Uh and as we get over into the New Testament, we’re certainly going to deal with the early

church and some of the things pertaining to that.

as well.

So we’re gonna begin tonight with the idea of worship.

And I I’m kind of, as most of y’all know, one of these people that if I’m gonna start on

something, I want to start at the beginning.

Uh and really understand it from a conceptual level and then build up to the activity

level as it were.

Because if we were to discuss worship and we were to begin with the acts of worship as

described in the New Testament, there’s a lot of foundation behind what we understand

worship to be that would simply be missing.

So I want us to begin really where the scriptures begin with the concept of worship, and

that is at creation.

Uh when you go throughout the scriptures and you look at why God in revelation uh or in in

the through the Holy Spirit given giving revelation to mankind, why God says that he, in

contrast to others, are worthy of worship, so many occasions you find one of the very

first reasons to be because he created everything that exists.

And therefore he is worthy of worship.

He is worthy of praise, because he is the creator.

So that’s where we’re going to begin this evening, and probably where we’ll spend most of

our time, if not uh a couple of weeks, is this idea of God as being worthy of worship, and

that worship is as old as creation.

Turn with me, if you will, to Psalm nineteen.

The nineteenth psalm.

Із one of these

Passages that is is a signal passage for revelation and how God speaks to mankind.

But in being such, it is also one of these passages that differentiates the nature of God

from everything else that mankind has tried to worship through the generations.

In Psalm nineteen and in verse one we read The heavens declare the glory of God, and the

firmament shows his handiwork.

Day unto day utter speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard, their line has gone out

through all the earth and their words to the end of the world.

In them he has set a tabernacle for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his

chamber and rejoices like a strong man to run its race.

Its rising is from one end of heaven and its circuit to the other end, and there is

nothing hidden from its heat.

As the psalmist writer here begins to describe creation, he doesn’t begin with the

Makeup of creation in the sense of he doesn’t describe how things correlate to one

another.

Rather, he describes in a personification that all of creation is involved in a continual

activity.

And what is the continual activity?

that creation is involved in in view of this passage.

Speaking but speaking what, specifically, the very first line.

Declaring the glory of God.

So there’s two senses of worship that I want us to comprehend.

um One is generic, okay?

What and the way I’m going to term it is generic versus specific worship.

Generic worship is to recognize the glory and the

The worthiness of someone or something.

It is something that is done, sometimes from afar, something that is done by nature of the

activity that the person was involved in.

Example of that might be uh if you were to cons uh if you were to observe or to have stood

there in ancient times and looked at

The temple of Solomon, you would have been able to describe it just the way we did.

The Temple of Solomon, right?

The very nature of the fact that he was involved in the building of it, the designing of

it, the work of it, and finishing that work declared the wisdom and the insight and the

glory of Solomon.

But it’s also the temple of the Lord.

So in that sense, the Lord has the greater glory, but if you were to compare the temple of

the days of Zerubbabel or the temple of Herod to the temple of Solomon, you would have

clearly seen that the glory of Solomon’s temple was significantly more than the glory of

Zerubbabel or Herod’s temple.

Okay, so when we see the activity of someone, when we see what they’ve produced, then

There’s some glorying, there’s some recognition that comes with that.

The greater degree of that idea of recognition and glory is at the level of worship.

To give praise and honor to someone because they are worthy.

And creation here by the psalmist writer is spoken of as doing that every day.

That the heavens declare the glory of God.

And the firmament shows his handiwork.

And that creation is going about, personified here in this passage, as day in and day out.

Creation does nothing other than declare the glory of God.

We are constantly in our scientific world discovering something new that we did not know

about the world that has been around ever since we started studying it.

And there’s no indication we’re running out of things to study.

There’s no slowdown in discoveries.

There’s not a point at which scientists are going, you know what, I don’t think any of us

are gonna be employed uh a couple of years from now because we’re going to have figured it

all out by then.

The reality is when you look at the world, the universe that we live in, it is continually

involved in a generic concept from a biblical perspective of glorying God.

Now, when you put together what it is that Scripture says about it,

What you actually find is that God designed it to do that.

That God’s intent behind the universe that He created was to show and to reveal Himself to

mankind to describe His glory.

So look again at the passage.

Day unto day utter speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard, their line is gone out

through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

The psalmist writer says it doesn’t matter where you go on the planet, creation is going

to talk to you every day about the fact that God exists.

Creation is going to reveal to you that there is an intelligent creator, and you’re going

to actively have to lie to yourself to convince yourself it’s not true.

So turn to Genesis chapter one.

Genesis chapter one.

Moses’ law opens with the words, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the

Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Then God said, Let there be light, and there was light.

And God saw the light that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness, God

called the light day and the darkness he called night, so the evening and the morning were

the first day.

Some will come to this passage and they will attempt to argue the uh the gap theory.

They’ll argue that uh verse one and verse two are only separated, you know, when they

started making the argument, they were only separated by a few uh hundred million years.

You know, long enough for creation to or for evolution to have occurred.

Uh and then

you know, science kept flubbing the the timetable.

So now we’re up to 18 point something billion years between verse one and verse two.

There’s just a big gap in between.

Um yeah, inconsistent with the text to say the least.

But furthermore, you have in this passage a clear declaration from God

About the timetable of the passage.

Because as you open the reading, you vi you find that the Spirit of the Lord was hovering

over the face of the water.

Then God said, Let there be light, and there was light, and God saw the light, that it was

good, and God divided the light from the darkness, the darkness, or sorry, God called the

light day, and the darkness he called night.

So the evening and the morning were the first day.

Well, if you were to argue that

The universe that we live in is 18 something billion years old.

And if you were to argue that the sun in the solar system that we’re in is however many

billions of years old.

Then how long was the first day?

So some have come along and say, Well, actually what we have and what we need to

understand is that each of these days is a long eon of time.

There’s no way to make scientific sense of that, by the way.

reason number one.

What’s a long eon of time of sunlight with no darkness?

Uh the answer is the end of everything.

Because it all burns up.

What’s a eon of darkness with no sunlight?

The answer is the end of everything, because it stops growing.

You don’t get past day one with the day-age theory until you finally have to admit, well,

either God said darkness and light were a day, and there was one day, and then there was

the next day, and he said, This is day one, and this is what I did on day two, or all of

it’s just myth and folklore and nonsense.

But turn to Matthew chapter nineteen.

Because many for f in the

somewhat theological realm of things, and many in the uh scholarly realm of things and

many in the uh skeptical realm of things are more than willing to throw Moses under the

bus because most of the people that they interact with are Christians who don’t really

have a whole lot to do with Moses.

So they’re okay with that.

The problem is when you start throwing Jesus under the bus.

And when you start throwing Jesus under the bus, you’re going have a real problem.

So Matthew chapter 19, verse 1.

Now it came to pass when Jesus had finished these sayings that he departed from Galilee

and came to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan.

And great multitudes followed him, and he healed them there.

And the Pharisees also came to testing him, and saying to him, Is it lawful for a man to

divorce his wife for just any reason?

And he answered and said to them,

Have you not read that he who made them now what’s the next phrase?

At the beginning.

What was Moses’ opening phrase of Genesis?

In the beginning.

But you notice Moses didn’t begin in the beginning.

God made man on the planet that already existed and had just waited a few billion, you

know, umpteen billion years before he got around to doing it.

That’s not what he said.

Moses didn’t begin with.

Man.

Moses began with God.

And so in the beginning, God created.

Jesus says, Have you not read that he who made them at the beginning made them male and

female?

And said, For this reason, a man shall not leave his father or mother, and shall shall

leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?

So then they are no longer two but one flesh, therefore what God has joined together, let

not man separate.

It’s one thing in the minds of some to throw Moses’ statements out and just go, first ten

chapters of Genesis are just a myth.

Uh except Jesus said they were factually accurate.

And if Jesus says they’re factually accurate, then of the two people whose opinion I think

I’ll go with, any man and Jesus, I’m gonna go with the guy who was there when it happened.

Jesus said, Do you not know that he that made them at the beginning made them male and

female?

Furthermore, when you add into that both John chapter 1 and Hebrews chapter 1.

Which both testify to us that the second person in the Godhead was the person who did the

act of creating.

Jesus is actually stating in Matthew nineteen, Do you not know that when I made them at

the beginning, I made them male and female?

Because the second person in the Godhead is the one who is described as doing the creative

act, and the first person in the Godhead is the one who is spoken of as speaking.

So you have in creation a testimony to the glory of God.

But then consider as you go down through the text of Genesis 1, Genesis 1, verse 20, yeah,

verse 20.

Then God said, Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures.

And let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.

Now remember, just just a moment ago, we had great long eons of time in each day.

I’ve seen some birds that can fly a long time.

But I haven’t seen any of them that can fly for any yon.

In the midst of describing the day, God says, Here are the birds, and they’re flying.

And that’s the act of creating.

He says, So God created great sea creatures, and every living thing that moves, with which

the waters abounded according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind.

And God saw that it was good, and God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply and

fill the waters in the sea, and let the birds multiply on the earth.

So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Then God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creatures according to its kind,

cattle and creeping thing, beast of the earth, each according to its kind, and it was so.

And God made the beast of the earth.

according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the

earth according to its kind, and God saw that it was good.

As the creation account is given to us, the first and unwavering principle of creation is

everything only produces after its kind.

And while many occasions will be found in archaeological evidence of changes inside of an

animal family.

resulting from breeding or catastrophe or dominant genes?

What is the thing that’s missing from all geograph geological and archaeological evidence?

Any animal changing from one kind to another.

There’s not one example of it.

There’s not one piece of evidence for it.

Many of the pieces of evidence that have been heralded for decades have long ago been

debunked, but the scientific books in schools will still print them.

And furthermore, when you look at the geological evidence and you look at the things that

have been uncovered by archaeologists, they will argue that something is a certain age

because of where it is in that historical descent down times uh view in that earth.

The problem is that they also date the earth based upon what fossils they find in it.

So if you date the earth based upon the a based upon which creatures are found in the

fossil record, and you date the fossils by the earth that they’re found in, what do you

have?

Circular reasoning.

How do we know this is this old?

Well, look at the fossils that are in it.

How do we know the fossils are that old?

Well, look at the Earth strata that it’s in.

Doesn’t work, folks.

Furthermore, many times there have been supposedly extinct animals that they are quite

certain only live during a certain period of Earth’s history, only to be found alive.

in a part of the planet that we up until that point had not discovered.

So when you keep having problems with a theory, you can adjust the theory, but there does

become a point at which you go, maybe the theory just needs to be chucked.

In contrast, when it comes to creation, you have had a not a theory, but a declaration

from God that has been proven to be accurate over and over and over and over and over and

over and over again.

Which is why in every single zoo everywhere there has never been an occasion where two of

the primates

mated and a lizard came out.

There has never been an occasion where two of the parakeets mated and a fish came out.

They weren’t like suddenly, go get the water.

This one’s gonna need to go into the aqua display.

It’s never happened.

You wanna know why?

Because it doesn’t happen.

Do you know why?

Because God said when He created everything that He created, it’s going to produce after

its

own kind.

So there’s never been a transition fossil.

There will never be a transition fossil.

There will not be an occasion of the dog transitioning to the fish.

You might get some dogs that you never had before.

You might get some really weird dogs.

And I’ve seen a few.

But you’re never going to get a fish instead of the dog.

When the mama dog gives birth.

When you pause and consider what the psalmist writer is saying.

That creation itself declares God’s glory.

And then you examine what Genesis says, and let’s notice verse 26.

Then God said, Let us make man in our image.

When creation is

described as revealed by the Holy Spirit to the prophet Moses, it is described accurately,

it is described factually in agreement with science, and it is described with a

description at the beginning and the very outset of Scripture concerning the nature of

God.

That God is not as many in the cultural world or the pagan world believe Him to be.

He is not as the Muslim world believes him to be.

He is not as the Jehovah’s Witness world believes him to be.

He is most certainly not as the Buddhist or uh other uh Far Eastern religions believe him

to be.

But rather that he is one.

and plural at the same time.

That he is God, singular, and Elohim, plural, and us at the same time.

That he is made up of a variety of natures all in complete agreement and unity with one

another.

This, unlike many philosophies of religion that have come around through the years, is one

thing that the Bible does different than all other quote unquote religious books.

And that is it is consistent.

From Genesis one to John one, if you turned over to John chapter one.

John, as he opens his record of the life of Christ, begins with the same three words that

Moses began with in the beginning.

But as John describes, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God.

And the word was God.

Many of the religious doctrines that have been promoted by false teachers through the

years have Jesus showing up sometime later.

Some will argue, because of their failure to understand context, that Jesus was the first

created being.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses went so far, or sorry, the Mormons went so far in their Bible and

their translation to change the text from was God to was a God.

He is deity light.

The oneness will come along and say, Well, there’s only one God.

And the explanation is almost too befuddling to explain.

But John says in the beginning, Christ was there.

John says Christ was with the Father.

that he was deity, that he was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through him, the second person in the Godhead.

And without him, the second person in the Godhead, nothing was made that was made.

So

Genesis tells us God created.

John tells us the second person in the Godhead created.

Jesus tells us.

And Moses was accurate when he said it was in the beginning.

Consider Psalm twenty four.

Psalm twenty four opens the earth is the Lord’s.

If you watch children for very long, you will find invariably the moment in time where one

child picks up another child’s toy.

And they are quickly reminded.

That’s mine.

That’s mine.

Mom, that’s mine Especially when it’s a younger sibling.

Almost Ryder.

Doesn’t leave any doubt.

He says, the earth belongs to the Lord.

It is his possession.

He says, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded

it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.

Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?

Or who may stand in his holy place?

He who has clean hands and a pure heart.

Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn sworn deceitfully, he shall receive

blessing from the Lord and the r and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face.

Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the King of

glory shall come in.

Who is the King of Glory?

The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.

Lift up your heads, you O you gates, lift up you everlasting doors, the King of Glory

shall come in.

Who is the King of Glory?

The Lord of hosts, he is the King of Glory.

As a psalmist writer goes through this description of God and of those who are in

fellowship with him, of those who stand in his presence and those who are able to stand as

he describes them, he keeps using this phrase King of glory.

He’s saying that when you look at what God has made, when you look at everything that

exists, when you look at everything around you, you are going to come, if you are honest,

to one conclusion.

There is someone worthy of praise.

There is someone worthy of glory.

Turn to Revelation chapter four.

John in Revelation as he sees the vision that we’ve described so many times in our

Revelation class on Sunday.

uh

Immediately I was in the spirit and behold a throne set in heaven and one sat on the

throne, and he who sat there was like a jasper and a Sardis stone in appearance, and there

was a rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald.

Around the throne were twenty four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty four elders

sitting clothed in white robes, and they had crowns of gold on their heads, and the

thrones were

And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices, seven lamps of fire

were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God.

Before the throne there was a sea of glass like crystal, and in the midst of the throne,

and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back.

The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the

third living creature had the face of a man, and the fourth living creature was like a

flying eagle.

The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within, and

they do not rest day or night, saying Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty who was and is

and is to come.

As John’s revelation

Дискріб’свери презенс огод.

He describes something which for those of us who read scripture shouldn’t surprise us.

But to many in the world, rather a big surprise.

And I’m not talking about the vision.

I’m talking about the fact that God appears more worthy of glory the closer you get.

That he’s worthy of glory when you’re all the way out here with no verbal revelation, with

no inspired revelation from God, with nothing more than the world around you to see and to

observe, and you realize there is someone who is worthy of glory.

And the closer you get to God, the more apparent it is that he’s worthy of glory.

You know, sometimes in life you see things that look amazing until you get up close, until

you get a chance to inspect them.

Uh un until you see uh the nature of them and so that looked like a really nice house and

you get close to it and you’re like, and it is run down and in terrible condition.

Looked really good from afar when you couldn’t see all the cracks.

Except here are the beasts and the elders who are day after day before the throne of God

and what are they doing every day?

recognizing that God is worthy of glory.

In other words, you have this picture of God from afar, and when you see God from afar

through his works

You go Whoever can do this is worthy of glory.

And you get up close and you see God and you go, and He’s worthy of so much more glory

than I ever knew.

When we consider the idea of worship.

We need to understand.

We need to grasp that the very most fundamental thing that we need to evaluate when we

consider worship.

Is that God is worthy of it.

That God’s glory and his acts and what he has done and the world that he has created and

the universe that we live in and the rules that he has established and the timetable on

which he performed all that he did are a testament to his worthiness when it comes to

worship.

There in Revelation chapter 4, I mentioned that this theme pervades the scriptures.

Verse 8 describes the saying of the four living creatures: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God

Almighty, who was and is and is to come.

Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the

throne, who lives forever and ever.

The twenty four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who

lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, You are worthy, O

Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things, and by your will

they exist and were created.

We don’t leave that picture, that visionary image of the throne room of God until someone

says God is worthy because he’s the creator.

And it is the reason

Knowing that the humanist, the skeptic, the atheist, the agnostic, the unbeliever, and

even the false teacher knows that they have to dethrone God before they can do anything

They have to make it clear that God is not as worthy as is.

so that they can appear to be something.

Some reading.

I’m gonna try I’m gonna hold me to this.

I’m gonna try and do this each each week.

As we get ready for the next class, I’m gonna give you something to spend some time

reading on between the classes.

My encouragement for you for this week into next week is Job thirty eight through the end

of the book.

That’s thirty eight through forty two, I believe.

Job thirty eight through forty two.

And as you read that, you’re gonna be reading a series of questions for the most part.

A series of questions where God’s asking Job, Job, where were you?

Read it in view of is God worthy of worship?

All right.

Thank you for your attention.

Imagine Pure Religion – Justin Evergarden – July 05, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, Biblical Principles, Christian living, Compassion, Faith and Works, James 1:27, keywords Pure Religion, Obedience to God, Spiritual Holiness by Aaron Cozort

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If you would please turn your Bibles over to James 1 and verse 27.

James 1 and verse 27.

Romeo Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?

These are words from the uh very well known poet Shakespeare.

It was during the balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet.

The same balcony scene where Shakespeare’s immortal words are engrafted on the minds of so

many people, where they say, Ah, a rose called by any other name would smell just as

sweet.

However, I disagree with Shakespeare.

If any of you have ever taken classes on argument, or even basic English classes, as many

of you probably have, we know that words have definitions, and those definitions must be

exact.

In the subject of argument in and of itself, the very first thing you have to do with any

argument that’s going to have any form of foundation is to define your terms.

So every word has a direct meaning.

And the meaning must be very specific.

Few words in modern culture produce as many different reactions as the word religion.

For some, religion may bring to mind faith, hope, and even the meaning of life.

For others, unfortunately, it brings to mind division, hypocrisy, conflict,

disappointment.

And even violence.

These reactions often come from personal experience rather than history or scripture.

And to be fair, not all of those negative reactions are without cause.

Throughout human history, terrible things have been done in the name of religion.

Specifically, false religions have done everything from human sacrifice to oppression to

exploitation.

In our history books, one such example we can see is the Catholic Crusades.

How many millions of people died during the Crusades?

If we look to Scripture, we can see the prophet Jeremiah condemning the worship of Molech,

where children were literally offered as sacrifices.

Back then, the image of Molech was a statue with his hands held out, a fire placed

underneath, and they would take the children and set them on top as sacrifices.

Jeremiah said that never never have such things ever been commanded by God.

Jeremiah in thirty-two, verse thirty-five says, And they built high places unto the places

of Baal, which are in the valley of Hinnum, to cause their sons and daughters to pass

through the fire unto Molech, which I commanded them not, neither it came into my mind

that they should do this abomination.

Because of such horrible things in history, many have concluded wrongly that religion is

the problem.

The idea was probably most famously expressed by one of our musicians, John Lennon.

He wrote a song named Imagine, granted, with a very catchy tune, beautiful melody to it.

But the wording, he imagined a world without heaven.

A world without hell, a world without nations, possessions, and specifically in his song

he says without religion.

His thought was that mankind might finally have peace if these things were removed

entirely from mankind.

Truthfully, I think these are some of the worst song lyrics to have ever been written,

because they are simply not true.

The song may be catchy, but the message is not.

Because his conclusion misses something very, very important.

The problem is not religion itself, the problem stems from man’s corruption of it.

Turn in your Bibles over to Ecclesiastes 7 and verse 29.

To save time tonight, I’ve put all the verses up on a PowerPoint because I’ve got a lot to

go through.

In writing to the Ecclesiastes, he says, Lo, this only have I found that God hath made man

upright, but they have sought out many inventions.

This is exactly what mankind has done with the word religion.

Men have altered it, they have abused it, they have politicized it, they have even in some

cases commercialized it.

But that’s not what it’s about.

They want to reshape it according to human desire.

But the abuse of something good does not prove that the thing itself is evil.

To condemn religion because some have abused it would be like condemning medicine because

some have misused it.

There’s a large difference between taking cough medicine to cure your cough and taking

cough medicine to overdose on it.

It does not make the medicine itself the problem.

And the same is true with religion.

The New Testament does not define true religion by worldly terms like pride or violence or

hypocrisy and specifically not man-made tradition.

God defines true religion by purity, by compassion, by holiness, by definition obedience.

So let’s look at what James says in James 1 and verse 27.

He says, and I quote: Pure religion, and undefiled before God, and the Father is this.

To visit the fatherless and the widows and their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted

from the world.

This one verse brings us back to God’s standard and the correct definition of what

religion is.

So imagine so instead of imagining a world with no religion this evening, we need to ask

ourselves a better question: What would the world look like if people actually practiced

the religion that God approves?

There’s a major shift there.

So we’re going to break down James 129 and we’re going to look at the characteristics of

pure religion.

He uses first off two words, pure and undefiled.

Pure religion, meaning religion that’s free from contamination.

It hasn’t been mixed with human tradition or philosophy or invention or human preference.

It remains what God intended it to be.

And that matters because God has because mankind has always been tempted to improve on

God’s design.

We’ve never been able to do it, but mankind is always tempted to try.

Men often assume human wisdom can make God’s way more appealing, more digestible, more

acceptable.

But Scripture warns us about trusting our own way above God’s way.

Proverbs 14 and verse 12 says, There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end

thereof are the ways of death.

Something may seem right and still be wrong.

It may feel sincere and still be unauthorized.

It can be popular and still be false.

Pure religion asks, what has God said about it?

In Colossians 3:17, we read, And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of

the Lord Jesus.

Now in the name of the Lord Jesus means by his authority.

When the police come and knock on your door, they say, Open up in the name of the law.

It’s not just the law named, it’s by the authority that’s given to us by the law of the

land.

This is what this verse means.

So pure religion does not begin with, do I like this?

Do I like this congregation that I’m going to?

It asks and begins with, has Christ authorized this?

This is why purity matters.

If a glass of water had a few drops of motor oil in it, no reasonable person on this

planet would say, well, it’s mostly water, I’ll drink it anyway.

The issue is not the amount of water.

The issue is the contamination of the water.

In the same way, a religious system may contain many elements of truth and yet still be

corrupted by doctrines and practices that God never authorized.

James also says that true religion is undefiled before God.

This is the second one.

This phrase reminds us that God is the judge of religion in and of itself, not culture,

not tradition.

In Japan, they have a problem of family history that defines their religion.

What defines it is God.

A practice may be ancient and may be still unauthorized.

A congregation may be large, but it’s still wrong.

How many times do we read in the Bible, and few there be that find it?

It’s not saying the larger the congregation, the safer you are.

There’s not safety in numbers here.

The standard is not what man accepts, it’s the standard which God approves of.

So Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 10.

Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Again, remember that’s by the authority of that ye all speak different things.

I’m sorry, I read that wrong, didn’t I?

He said, Speak the same thing.

That there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same

mind and in the same judgment.

We can reference this with Ephesians 4, verses 4 through 5, where he says, There’s one

body, one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith,

one baptism.

That’s not six different things.

I know I’m holding up all the fingers.

It’s just one.

One, one, one.

Six different times.

These verses do not describe religious confusion, they describe unity in truth.

Pure religion requires us to have much more than simply good intentions.

Some of the worst things that have ever happened on this planet have become because of

good intentions, gone about the wrong way.

But James does not stop with doctrine.

Pure religion is not merely something we believe in, it’s something we have to practice.

So we have the practice of pure religion.

James gives us two clear evidences of pure religion.

First, we see that pure religion cares for those who are suffering.

In James 1 27.

Second, he says pure religion remains unstained by the world.

These two pictures that we’re given give us a very good balanced view of what Christianity

should mean.

We must reach outward in compassion while at the same time guarding ourselves inwardly.

Now, for those of you that like to watch uh MMA or like the boxing, you always see them

with their hands up protecting the heads, the most vulnerable part.

When you go out to do the work, one arm is bat out while the other one stays back

protecting.

It’s the same imagery used here.

You have to be doing something while protecting yourself at the same time.

James says pure religion involves visiting the fatherless and the widows in their

affliction.

Now in the ancient world, widows and orphans were among the most vulnerable of the

population.

Many lacked financial support.

Back then they didn’t have legal protection.

they didn’t have very good social standing.

They were easily forgotten and unable to defend themselves.

Back then they did not have welfare, they did not have snap benefits, they did not have

all these things to care for them.

So many times they were simply left to just fend on their own, and they were forgotten.

But Psalm 68 and verse 5 says, A father of the fatherless and a judge of the widows is God

in his holy habitation.

Let’s look further into Psalms 146 and verse 9, where it says, The Lord preserveth the

strangers, he relieveth the fatherless and the widows.

He’s there for them.

And these verses reveal the heart of God, a God that cares, a God who loves the afflicted.

He notices that all the ones the society has forgotten.

Because pure religion is a religion that reflects the character of God, not one that’s

just lip service.

It must produce that same concept in its followers, in its people, in its Christians.

James is not saying widows and orphans are the only people Christians should help.

He’s using the examples of those who are vulnerable.

Those who are in need, those have afflicted by something.

Genuine faith is one that moves beyond words and into action.

First John three, verses seventeen through eighteen.

But whoso hath this world’s good and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his

bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

How how is it possible?

He’s being facetious here.

It’s not possible.

To shut yourself up from those in need and still claim to have God.

And then he has a kind remark.

He’s he’s appealing to the ones he loves.

He says, My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and

truth.

We read elsewhere in the Bible it says, They shall know you by your works, not by your lip

service.

This is practical Christianity.

Yeah, it’s easy to say we love people.

It’s easy to fly a flag all month long.

It’s easy to speak kindly about compassion.

But pure religion will ask is our love visible?

Is it actionable?

Are we helping?

Are we serving?

Are we noticing?

Are we making time for those that are hurting?

We need to make time.

Look at Galatians 6 and verse 10.

It says, as we have therefore opportunity, when opportunity presents itself, let us do

good unto some men.

No.

The men which we agree with.

No.

The ones we disagree with?

Yes.

Unto all men.

Doesn’t matter what their background is.

Doesn’t matter what their belief system is.

Doesn’t matter what their history is.

It says, do good unto all men, especially unto those that are of the household of faith.

It’s telling us that opportunity matters.

And when God places someone in front of us who’s hurting, who’s lonely, who’s discouraged,

who’s sick, who’s grieving, who’s recovering, who’s struggling, who’s spiritually weak,

who needs prayers.

Who’s broken down on the side of the road?

Who’s broke?

I could keep going on.

He is saying we have an opportunity there to practice pure religion.

The world likes to ask, What can others do for me?

God tells us to ask, What can we do for the world?

Who needs me?

And this is what we see in Christ.

Jesus noticed the people who others ignored.

He spoke with the outcast.

He touched the untouchable.

He comforted the grieving.

He showed compassion to those whose society often rejected.

Think back at the lepers.

Matthew nine and verse thirty-six says, But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with

compassion on them.

This is a Savior who had enough compassion to see hearts and souls in need.

In Luke 10, verses 25 through 37, which I don’t have on the slides, Jesus gives us the

parable of the Good Samaritan.

A man had been beaten, robbed, and left half for dead.

A priest passed by.

A Levite passed by.

Both were religious men, as the world would define religion.

Both knew the law, but neither stopped.

So then the Samaritan came.

He saw the wounded man, he showed him compassion, he treated his wounds, took him to an

inn, and even provided for his care, paid for it.

When we read that, a lesson becomes very clear.

Actions

mean more than words.

Religious activity alone is not the same thing as pure religion.

Attendance matters, yes, worship matters, doctrine absolutely matters, but outward

religion without compassion is not the religion James described.

Just read the all of chapter one.

Charity, love.

There’s multiple different types of love there.

Pure religion helps, it does not harm, and it seeks the good of others rather than

personal advantage.

Wherever people are suffering, Christians have not only the opportunity but

But we have the need to do good unto them.

The second evidence of pure religion we see is personal holiness.

He says, Remain unspotted from the world in James 1:27.

Compassion without holiness is incomplete.

Christians are called to serve the world, yes, but we are not called to become like the

world.

And we have to be very careful there.

Let me ask: if you have a rescue swimmer, you go to most public pools, I try to not go to

those places for other reasons.

But for sake of an illustration, you go to a public pool, they always have a lifeguard on

duty.

Can a lifeguard save someone if he himself does not know how to swim and he jumps in that

water?

No.

He can’t save someone when he himself is being overcome by the same amount of water.

This is the same thing.

Christians face a similar challenge.

We are called to go forth and teach all nations, help the world, love souls in the world.

But we must not adopt the values.

We must not adopt the attitudes.

We must not adopt the desires.

And we absolutely cannot adopt the practices of the world.

Romans 12 and verse 2.

It says, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your

mind.

First John two fifteen.

We can cross reference.

He says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in it.

James uses the word unspotted.

It gives the picture of a very clean garment, a wedding dress.

You haven’t spilled ketchup on it yet.

Because you’re you’re not to that point.

You’re not eating at the end.

A small stain would be very easy to see against that clean of a background.

In the same way, sin can stain our souls, and the world is full of it.

It damages our influence and weakens our faith.

But most importantly, sin is what distance and separates us from God the Father.

Even a small sin is enough to distance us.

And the world constantly applies pressure to do just that to sin.

And sometimes, yes, that pressure is obvious.

It comes in the form of immorality, of lies, uh drunkenness, using profanity, greed.

Sometimes it’s even as as blatant as simple rebellion to God.

But sometimes it can be a lot more subtle, can’t it?

Pride?

Bitterness onto that anger?

Materialism.

Being so hooked that you just can’t let go of something.

Laziness is one.

Or it could be just the quiet acceptance of worldly values.

It’s the idea of, well, I’ll do me and you just do you.

That’s not love.

Is it love whenever you see your

We’ll say two or three-year-old child walk up and they’re gonna go put their hand on the

hot stove.

Do you intervene because you care?

Or do you say, you just do you, man?

Hopefully you’ll learn.

I mean they will learn.

But he’s gonna be punished because of it.

It’s gonna hurt, right?

We all know that.

That’s simple.

This is the same thing of why we try to teach the world.

We’re trying to keep them from that ultimate harm because we love them.

Love is not bailing your buddy out of jail.

Love is sitting there next to them saying, Yeah, I know you messed up, man, but I’m here

for you.

I’m gonna help you through this.

Modern technology has made this even more difficult.

Entertainment, social media, streaming platforms, digital content putting the thinking of

the world in front of us every single day.

And you don’t get a reprieve from the program just because the commercials come on.

They’ve infiltrated almost every single commercial out there.

Yes, technology can be used responsibly, but they can also shape our desires and dull our

senses in a spiritual manner.

Holiness does not happen by accident.

No one drifts into holiness.

No one accidentally becomes Christ-like.

We have to pursue that.

How?

Psalms 119 and 11 says, Thy word have I hidden mine heart that I might not sin against

thee.

Psalm 119 11 on the slides.

missing it.

There we go.

Alright, we’re gonna go to the next one.

First Peter 1, 15 through 16.

But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation,

because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy.

The world do not need Christians who blend in.

We’ve got to stick out from the world.

It needs Christians who show a different way of living.

As Jesus said in Matthew 5, 16, let your light so shine before men that they may see your

lip service.

Shake your heads like this.

No.

He says that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

They see our light reflected by his light.

Light is noticeable because it’s different from darkness.

If Christians ever became indistinguishable from the world, do you think our influence

would weaken?

Yeah.

When we live lives that are holy like his, our conduct becomes a testimony to the power of

the gospel of Jesus Christ working in us and through us.

Pure religion is not about merely avoiding obvious sins.

It’s cultivating an entire lifestyle for us, that’s why we call ourselves Christians, that

reflect the character of Christ.

When we understand James’ definition of pure religion, we can better understand why so

many people are disillusioned with the word religion.

Much of what they reject is not the religion described in Scripture.

They have not started by defining the terms they are using.

They are rejecting human religion, shaped by ambition.

And all the other things we listed before.

And rightly so, we should absolutely reject all of man’s religions all the time.

In the days of Jesus, many religious leaders elevated human tradition above God’s

commands.

Let’s look at Mark seven and verse seven.

How be it in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

It’s pretty scary statement.

They worshiped, but their worship was in vain.

God does not have to accept every form of worship.

They were religious, but their religion was corrupted.

Yes, the Pharisees prayed, they fasted, they followed many traditions, yet Jesus exposed

the difference between outward religion and genuine submission to God.

Shakespeare likes to say that we’re all just actors playing the part.

We’re all actors on a stage.

Again, I disagree.

You can become something.

You are not merely playing the part.

A Christian is a Christian, not pretending to be one.

We need to define our terms.

The same danger exists today.

A person can be sincere, very much so, and still be wrong.

Look at Saul when he was confronted on the road of Damascus.

He was very sincere in what he was doing, but he was wrong.

A group may be passionate and still be teaching an error.

A practice may be popular, but still be unauthorized.

Jesus said in Matthew 7 and verse 21, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall

enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of the Father which is in

heaven.

So what is he saying?

He’s saying religious claims are not enough.

You can say you’re spiritual till you’re blue in the face, it doesn’t mean anything.

Your actions are how God is going to judge us.

Jesus continues by describing people who would say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in

thy names?

And in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works.

But his response was, I never knew you.

Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

These people were deeply religious.

But they were rejected because they did not do the will of the Father.

They did their own will.

If we don’t learn anything else tonight, it’s that the answer to false religion is to

return to God’s will.

John 8 and verse 32, Jesus said, And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make

you free.

Truth matters, truth exists, truth can be known.

It is not a spectrum.

We do not get to pick our truth.

You do not get to have your truth.

There is the truth and there is the lie.

It’s that simple.

Jesus did not speak of many conflicting truths.

Contradictory doctrines cannot all be correct at the same time.

It’s simple logic.

Not hard to understand, but that creates a serious problem in a religious world filled

with division.

Many groups claim allegiance to Christ while teaching different doctrines concerning

salvation, concerning worship.

Concerning church organization, concerning morality, and Christian living.

But the New Testament calls us back to unity in truth.

I’ve said this before, once once before, maybe you remember there’s a difference in unity

and union.

Imagine two cats running away from a dog.

You have unity.

They are one in purpose.

Escape the dog.

If you take those two cats and you tie their tails together and you throw them over a

clothesline, they are in union.

I promise they will not be in unity.

They will be fighting each other.

There’s a massive difference.

First Corinthians one and verse ten says it all.

That ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you.

None.

Zero.

If I disagree with you on a topic, we need to open the word of God and see what God says

about it.

Because if he said it, that settles it.

Our opinions do not matter.

Ephesians 4 and verse 4 through 5 again one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one

faith, one baptism, one.

It is either total immersion or it is sprinkling.

What does the word of God say?

Immersion.

Second John 9 says, whoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath

not God.

The solution to religious division is not to ignore doctrine.

This solution is not imagine no religion.

The solution is to return.

To the doctrine of Christ.

So human religion will ask, What do I want?

Pure religion will ask, what does God want?

Human religion seeks convenience.

Pure religion should seek obedience.

Human religion follows the culture.

Pure religion follows Scripture.

Removing religion has never removed any of mankind’s deepest problems.

It hasn’t removed greed, selfishness, hatred, immorality, and many, many others.

People have tried time and time again.

If you Google search, there have been a couple cities where they outlawed religion.

They didn’t last too long.

Problems do not originate with pure religion.

They originate in the human heart.

Jeremiah seventeen and verse nine says, The heart is deceitful above all things and

desperately wicked.

Who can know it?

God can.

So we need to look towards the greatest example of pure religion that we have.

That’s Christ.

It’s not found in a human system, it’s Christ.

Jesus perfectly demonstrated everything James described.

He cared for the vulnerable.

He remained perfectly unspotted from the world.

He lived in complete submission to the will of the Father, even when it came time for him

to die on a cross.

Remember the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane?

Lord, if there be any other way, however, not my will, but thine.

If there’s not, I will submit.

He was compassionate without compromise.

Hebrews 4 and verse 15 says that Christ was in all points tempted, like as we are, yet

without sin.

Jesus entered the world and faced sorrow.

He faced everything that we had to deal with.

And he remained pure.

There were no motor oil in that water.

Pure water.

John 1 14 says, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

He had the ability to remain distance.

He was God in heaven.

Further on in John chapter 1, you see where he made the world.

But he became just like us.

He understood how it felt to be sick, how it felt to be poor, how it felt to grieve.

One of the first Bible verses our little ones learn to memorize is Jesus wept.

He was definitely an outcast.

Matthew nine and verse thirty six says, But when he saw the multitude he was moved with

compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no

shepherds.

Where others may have seen interruptions, Christ would have saw souls.

Luke nineteen and verse ten says, For the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which

is lost.

He did not merely talk about love, he lived it.

He came down from heaven to prove it.

The greatest demonstration of pure religion was seen at the cross.

And you’ll never be able to convince me otherwise.

First Peter two, verses twenty one through twenty-two says, Christ also suffered for us,

leaving an example that we should follow in his steps, who did no sin, neither was found

gil f guile found in his mouth.

Tell me, was he reviled on that cross by the people there?

Yeah.

Did he revile them back?

No, he fully submitted himself, and he even said, Forgive them, they know not what they

do.

Romans 5 and verse 8 says, But God commended his love towards us, and that while we were

yet sinners, Christ died for us.

That’s the heart of the gospel, right?

The good news.

So when the world says, Imagine no religion, the Christian must answer.

No.

Imagine pure religion.

Just take a moment and imagine a people who actually followed Christ.

Let’s let’s take John Lennon’s song for a second.

I’m not going to go through all the lyrics.

But let’s just turn that upside down and imagine an entire world of people who care for

those who are suffering.

Not a single person does not care about those who are suffering and willing to put the

work in to stop the suffering.

Because you can care and do nothing about it, right?

Or say you care.

But again, pure religion is one that works.

How about an entire world who defend the helpless?

How about an entire world of people, no one left out, who teaches the truth?

How about an entire world of people who love God enough to obey Him and who love souls

enough to serve them?

This is the religion James described.

This is the religion Jesus lived.

This is the religion that God ordained.

And this is the religion every Christian in the world is called to practice.

The question is not whether or not the s the world has seen false religion.

It absolutely has.

The question is whether the world can see pure religion demonstrated when we leave this

building out those back doors.

Remember that James one verse twenty seven is God’s definition of religion.

So if we want that pure religion, we must come to God on his terms, right?

Yes.

Jesus said in John fourteen, verse six, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man cometh unto the Father but by me.

Acts four and verse twelve says, Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is

none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Christ has all authority.

Matthew 28:18, all power is given to me in heaven and in earth.

And since Christ has all authority, we have to obey his gospel.

We must believe because Hebrews 11:6 says, But without faith, it is impossible to please

him.

We must repent, because Luke 13:3 says, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

We must be willing to confess to Christ, because Romans 10 10 says, For with the man with

the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto

salvation.

And we must be baptized, because Mark 16 and verse 16 says, He that believeth and is

baptized shall be saved.

And finally, we must live faithfully because Revelation 2.10 says, Be thou faithful unto

death, and I will give you a crown of life.

Pure religion should never be something we just discuss.

It has to be something we obey.

It has to be something we practice.

It has to be something to live, and it has to be something that I hope every one of us

loves.

Because there’s no downside to pure religion.

So tonight before we leave, I hope you ask yourself the simple question: Are we practicing

pure religion before God?

If not, now is the time to return to his standard as we stand and

Value Of Christianity – Aaron Cozort – July 05, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, Biblical Principles, Christian living, Church, faith, Family, Gospel, keywords Christianity, reconciliation, Salvation, Society by Aaron Cozort

image

Good morning.

It’s good to have each of you with us, especially our visitors, those who’ve been

traveling and they’re back with us.

We’re grateful for your presence.

Take your Bible, if you will, and open it to the book of Matthew, and Matthew chapter 22

is where we’re going to begin our lesson.

The lesson this morning is entitled The Value of Christianity.

If you were to start a

Business or perhaps be interested in a business.

You maybe you would uh visit some investor meetings.

Maybe you would meet with people if you were going to start a real estate business and you

were going to own and manage real estate properties.

You might go to an investor meeting.

And someone might there at that investor meeting present you with this property is

available, this property is available, here’s the value that they return.

You would consider the value because some of the returns are immediate, some of the

returns are way off in the future.

You’d have to evaluate is it worth the cost?

Is it worth the price that you would have to pay to receive the value that would be in the

future?

I want to spend some time discussing the value of Christianity.

The value of what it was that Jesus Christ came here to establish and presented to

mankind.

For Jesus said in Matthew chapter 16 that he came to build his church, and that he would

give to the apostles the keys of the kingdom of God.

And he did exactly what he claimed he would do.

He did what he came for, and as a result, he presented and built that which has value.

So we’re going to examine some of that value, if you will consider the value of

Christianity to the home.

In Matthew chapter twenty two, we read, beginning in verse thirty four, but when the

Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.

Then one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him and saying, Teacher, what is

the greatest commandment in the law?

And Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your

soul, with all your mind.

Jesus will quote from Deuteronomy chapter six, where Moses is going to instruct the nation

of Israel concerning what fathers and what parents should do in their home.

That they were to teach their children the laws, the statutes, the judgments in Israel,

that they were to remind them of them when they woke up, when they lied down, when they

were walking by the way, when they were sitting in the house.

They were to bind them before their eyes and have them as a reminder continually, so that

they might never depart from God.

Those were the practical descriptions of what Jesus quoted from.

Moses, when Moses said you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your

soul, with all your mind.

But he continues.

Verse 38 This is the first and great commandment.

And the second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

As Jesus answers the question from this lawyer, now the lawyer in that day and time would

be someone who was schooled in the law.

Someone who was schooled in the

interpretation of the law.

And this individual is asking the question, I need a set of priorities.

I need to know which is the greatest commandment in the law.

Jesus takes the lawyer back to a passage where God tells Moses to tell Israel how to raise

their children.

As we consider the value of Christianity to the home, we should begin to understand that

Jesus, through what he delivers in the Word of God, and how we might know God, and how we

might have a relationship with God, and how we might walk with God, and how we might be

right with God, has presented to us the opportunity to.

to raise a home and a family that is in fellowship with God.

If you turn to First Timothy chapter three.

Paul, as he writes to the young preacher Timothy, will give a series of qualifications.

Qualifications for elders, qualifications for deacons, qualifications for the wives of

elders and deacons, qualifications for other scenarios.

But notice as you examine the qualifications for an elder and for deacons and for their

wives, how many of them revolve around how they have acted.

in relationship to God in their homes.

Consider chapter three, verse one, this is a faithful saying If a man desires the position

of a bishop, he desires a good work.

A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober minded, of good

behavior, hospitable, able to teach, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money,

but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous.

One who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence.

For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church

of God?

Not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the

devil.

Moreover, he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into

reproach in the snare of the devil.

Likewise, deacons must be reverent.

Not double tongue, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of

the faith with a pure conscience, but let these also first be tested.

Then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless, likewise their wives must be

reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things.

Let deacons be the husbands of one wi uh the husbands of one wife, ruling their children

in their own houses well.

For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great

boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

As you go down the list of qualifications for these two roles within the body of Christ,

these two positions within the body of Christ.

You look at uh item after item after item where God says you go look at their home.

You go measure their actions in raising their children.

You go measure their actions in regard to their spouse.

You go measure whether or not they have taken the word of God and applied it in their home

first.

before you ever hand them any authority in the body of Christ.

Why?

Because the home makes up the nation.

Because the home makes up the community.

Because the home makes up the business.

Because the home makes up the church.

God said, I’ve delivered to you, humanity, the things you need in order to be faithful in

your home.

To make your home something that is in fellowship with me.

If you turn over to 1 Timothy chapter 5, in 1 Timothy chapter 5, as Paul writes concerning

widows, here you have a scenario not concerning widows being in a position of authority,

but rather widows being those who are in a scenario where they are in need of financial

assistance and support.

Ongoing long-term base support from the congregation.

And he will describe in that scenario a widow who has no family, a widow who has no one

who has a God-given responsibility to provide for them, and so their care is going to fall

upon the church.

But notice in 1 Timothy chapter 5 and in verse 3: honor widows who are really widows.

But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show piety at

home, to repay their parents for this good this is good and acceptable before God.

Now she who is really a widow and left alone, trusts in God and continues in supplications

and prayers night and day.

But she lives in pleasure in uh but she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives.

And these com things command that they may be blameless.

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.

Before we get into really the discussion of widows, Paul will say, first of all, let me

talk to you about the responsibility of families.

Because you will deny your very faith in God if you have members of your family who are

destitute and in need of the daily provisions, and you

Do nothing.

Christianity.

As that which is delivered by God.

Not talking about cultural Christianity.

I’m not talking about what the world believes Christianity to be.

I’m talking about God’s definition of what it means to be Christ like, to belong to and

wear the name of Christ.

Christianity does not allow.

for someone who has someone of their own family who is destitute and in is of need to lay

that burden upon the church and say, you know what, y’all need to take care of that.

I’m out.

Unless, of course, they’re also freely admitting that in regards to fellowship with God,

they’re also out.

But then consider, he goes on to say, Verse nine, do not let a widow under sixty years of

old be taken into the number, and not unless she has been the wife of one man, well

reported for good works.

If she has brought up children, if she has lodged strangers, if she has washed the s

saints’ feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, she has d diligently followed every good

work.

Paul tells Timothy to tell the church at Ephesus to tell those Christians, if you have a

widow who says that she is in need of daily support, you better be ready to deliver it to

her.

But you get to go evaluate just exactly what kind of person she’s been in her life.

And her reputation and her history and her actions that she has been building up because

of her home, which was directed by God.

will be the standard as to whether or not she is able to be supported by the church.

Are you saying, Aaron, that there’s a list of I gotta check this off, I gotta check this

off?

Kinda like an insurance policy.

Have you done this, have you done this?

Well, sorry, you missed that box, we’re not gonna help you.

No.

What Paul is describing is the minimum viable product, if I could use the the business

term, the minimum viable product of a Christian.

What does a Christian look like?

What does a Christian do on a daily basis?

What does a Christian have in their home?

Well, we’d go back to the text.

A Christian is one who is well reported of good works.

They don’t have a reputation as a swindler.

They don’t have a reputation as a stuck up person who doesn’t care for people.

They don’t have a reputation as someone who could not possibly show any compassion for

someone who is desperate and in need.

They couldn’t possibly be described as someone who is self-centered, self-interested, and

selfish.

For you look at their lives, and their lives are the exemplification of God’s works in the

lives of people.

He says they’re well reported of good works if they brought up children.

If she has lodged strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet,

She took seriously the responsibility of a wife.

She didn’t say, you know what, I think we just need to hold off on all this children

stuff.

I’ve got a career to focus on.

I’ve got money to make.

I’ve got things to do.

I’ve got things of great importance that I need to be about and I need to be busy with.

And so I don’t have time for children.

Now see, there’s something to point out here.

And this isn’t about whether or not this woman was unfortunately barren and unable to bear

children.

This is about the biblical perspective of the value of the wife in a home.

This is a woman who has brought up children, who sees the value of the next generation,

who has raised the next generation, who has perhaps helped those orphans who have no home.

You remember what James would write in James chapter one?

That true and un pure and undefiled religion before God is the and i is this to support,

to visit the widows and the orphans in need?

Here you might have described a woman who was never able to bear children.

That’s not the qualification.

But she, being unable to bear children, said, you know what?

There’s some children who do not have a mother.

And I can raise them up to follow God.

Not saying that every home that is barren and unable to bear children needs to adopt in a

legal way.

perspective children in order to qualify for this.

What I’m saying is this is a woman who looked at God’s priorities for her life and God’s

priorities for the home and God’s function for what her role in this life is and said, I’m

going to fulfill it one way or another.

As you consider these three texts, what do you see?

You see that God has established Christianity to be of inherent, immense value to the

home.

So many who grow up in a society where their homes are in shambles.

Not just because of poverty.

Some of the people whose homes are in shambles live in the nicest houses in the entire

region.

But they don’t have a home.

They don’t have a home where they have fellowship with God.

They don’t have a home where the actions and the lifestyle and the act

Activities that are established in that home are controlled, established, and ordered

after the steps of Jesus Christ.

They don’t have a home as God would have it.

Oh, the value that they would find if the next generation was raised in a Christian.

But then consider the value of Christianity to society.

In Matthew chapter five, Jesus would confront the Jews.

He would confront the people of his day, of his own culture, of his own time.

He would confront his disciples and those who were present, who were listening to him,

those who had attention to spiritual matters.

And he would speak to them and say, You are the salt of the earth.

But if salt loses its flavour, how shall it be seasoned?

It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

Jesus makes it clear that God had established Israel in his day and time through the

history that God had given to them from the days of Abraham all the way forward to the

days of Christ as the salt of the earth.

He says, God has made you to be that which is providing seasoning to the world so that

they might see and understand that God exists.

So much of society.

lives in a world where they’re not sure God exists.

They’re not sure that the God of Heaven is real.

And if you look back over their lives, you really probably won’t be surprised.

For their lives have never been touched by the salt that God put in this earth.

That is the body of Christ.

They have no idea what it’s like to be connected to the body of Christ.

When I was doing it yesterday it wasn’t for the point of this illustration and it wasn’t

for the point of this lesson and it’s not a pat on my back.

Yesterday, as I was sitting at the house, I was thinking about all the people that I know.

That I call brother because of their relationship in Christ.

And the interactions that I have had through the years with them and the knowledge that I

have that if there were ever a time where there was a desperate need, where there was a

situation in my life, I would have someone to turn to.

And as I was thinking about that, I thought, you what, let me text a few of these people.

And so I just went through the somewhat long process of going through text messages.

I’m one of these people that doesn’t delete anything.

Drives my wife crazy.

But if I sent you a text in nineteen um twenty twenty one after I started using the

service I’m using now, I still have the text.

I didn’t make it back past twenty twenty four going down the list of people and I thought,

you know what, I need to send him a text.

Some of you got a text.

Those of you who didn’t get a text it wasn’t because I didn’t think it just didn’t it

didn’t get to y that thread.

But I sent text to many people close to sixty.

Just saying thank you.

Happy July fourth.

Glad I can call your brother.

Thank you for what you do.

And it wasn’t because of them.

It was because I was taking the time to think, you know what?

What has God blessed me with?

And the answer is the church and the people in it who by nature of their shared faith

would say, I’m so glad I can call you brothers.

Some of these people are all on the other side of the planet.

Some of these people are right here at home.

And I say that not to declare how many people Aaron knows.

It is kind of a test testament of the fact that unlike what my brothers, physical brothers

think, not everybody hates me.

They have a biased opinion.

They grew up with me.

I was annoying back then.

To some people I still am.

But rather that through the gifts that God has blessed me with in connection to the body

of Christ.

That I have a shared relationship with people all over the world, not because of who I am,

but because of who he is.

And if society understood the value of Christianity, and if their lives had been touched

by the value of the church.

They would begin to understand what Jesus says when He says, You are the salt of the

earth.

But the cautionary statement comes after the declaration, you are the salt of the earth.

The cautionary statement is what happens when the church goes sour?

What happens when the church no longer functions the way it’s supposed to?

What happens to society?

Growing up, I had a disposition concerning vegetables.

That is that they’re horrible by and large.

And all of my life growing up, we had green beans with regularity was one of the things

you could grow in eastern Kentucky.

We had a lot of green beans.

Mom made green beans.

I hated green beans until I was introduced to salt.

Because my mother was one of those people that grew up in a household where her

grandmother oversalted everything.

And she couldn’t stand it.

And she determined when she was going to become an adult, she was just going to let people

add the salt they wanted instead of the abundance of salt someone else thought they

needed.

So she doesn’t really salt food.

Some of you may know that vegetables are horrible without salt.

least in my opinion.

When I was introduced to salt, my perspective concerning vegetables changed.

Hey, you know what?

You put something worthwhile to eat by way of flavor on this, and actually it’s okay.

Can’t do anything for berries, but vegetables you can save.

He says, You are the salt of the earth, but if salt is loathed as its flavor, how shall it

be seasoned?

It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

You are the light of the world.

A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand and it gives light

to all who are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your

Father in heaven.

Many in society.

cannot describe the value of Christianity because they live in a world of darkness because

they have no association with the body of Christ and the good works that come as a result

of what Christ has done.

Or the only introdu introduction they’ve ever had to it has been salt that’s lost its

flavor.

And a light that has been shuttered and closed off from the world.

Christianity has value to society when Christianity is done God’s way and not man’s.

Then consider the value of Christianity to the lost.

The value of Christianity to those who are separated from God in Acts chapter two.

In Acts chapter two and in verse thirty six.

Peter is there on the day of Pentecost and he is preaching to a nation that had murdered

the very son of God.

They had for centuries spoken of the promise of the Messiah.

They had spent generation after generation after generation rehearsing the stories and the

words of the prophets and the words of David and the words of the psalmists and the words

of Moses about the one who is going to come in the name of the Lord.

The Savior of

The king, the prophet, the priest, the one who was going to come and they told told their

children about it, and they told the next generation about it, and they rehearsed the

stories.

And they lived in anticipation of the day when he would finally arrive.

Generation after generation after generation of people looking for the Messiah to come,

like Simeon, who was there in the temple when Jesus was born and brought to the temple.

thirty three years later that same nation who had rehearsed those same stories, those same

accounts who they had spoken of for generation after generation after generation had to

hear the words Verse thirty six, therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that

God has made this Jesus whom you crucified.

Both Lord and Christ.

For a millennia and a half.

From the day when Moses said, as we read in Deuteronomy eighteen, that the Lord would

raise up to you a prophet like unto me.

To go back another four hundred years to the day when God would tell Abraham, In your seed

shall all nations of the earth be blessed.

One family had been rehearsing one story of one individual who was to come and this

generation killed him.

How much you describe the nation of Israel at that moment in time.

Well, you might describe them as lost.

Verse thirty seven Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter

and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, What shall we do?

Sometimes we come to that question and we just imagine they’re saying, I know that I’m a

sinner in need of salvation and I need to know what to do to be saved.

There is so much more than that.

Yes, they were sinners.

Yes, they were in need of salvation.

And yes, Peter was going to give them exactly what Jesus said they had to do in order to

be saved.

But there was so much more than that.

Peter didn’t say you haven’t lived a life of equity and righteousness before God, and that

because of your ongoing life in sin, you need to repent of those things.

There’s certainly passages that talk about that and situations where people were preached

to where that was the situation.

That wasn’t what Peter said.

Peter said, You’ve killed the very Son of God.

They said, what do we do now?

We’ve spent sixteen hundred years saying he was coming.

And you’re saying we killed it?

But notice that Peter didn’t say you killed him and he’s dead and there’s nothing you can

do about it.

That’s not what Peter confronted them with.

Peter confronted them with the same thing that Jesus confronted Saul of Tarsus with on the

road to Damascus.

It’s really, really hard to fight against the will of God.

Who are you, Lord?

I’m Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute.

And what was Saul’s question?

What will you have me to do?

Because Peter didn’t proclaim to them, you took the very Son of God, you took the Savior,

you took the Messiah, the priest, the King, the prophet, you took the one who we all hope

for, and you’ve dashed our hope into nothing because you killed him, and now we have no

hope.

No, that’s that wasn’t Peter’s message.

Peter said.

God has taken this very one who you crucified and has made him both Lord and Christ.

And the one who you killed.

is ready to save the one who killed him.

And they said, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

And Peter replied, 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

promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord

our God shall call.

Peter said, You didn’t intercept the promise of God?

Юдин the plan of God.

Now you have the opportunity to take part in what God has been building all along.

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 added to them, and guess what?

Two thousand years later, God’s message hasn’t changed.

When people realize that they’re lost, that they’ve sinned, that they violated the very

terms of God’s allowance of salvation, that they have to respond and that they have to

deny their sin, deny themselves, deny their interest in this world.

and change to be conformed to the very nature and the very image of God so that they might

have an eternal home when this life is over.

When they realize that God’s message is exactly the same.

When they’ve heard that Jesus Christ is the Savior, the Messiah, the Christ, the one who

God raised from the dead and did not allow him to remain in the tomb and has set him at

the right hand of the throne of God and he is reigning right now.

And they come to that realization and they say, what shall I do?

I now know that I am lost, and I now know that He is the Savior.

What would He have me to do?

Message hasn’t changed.

Repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins.

First John chapter four.

John writes to these Christians.

And he says, Beloved, let us love one another.

For God for love is of God.

And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

In this, the love of God was manifested toward us.

That God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might have life, that we might

live through Him.

And this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the

propitiation for our sins.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

John the Elder, the one who at that night of Jesus’ betrayal had laid his head on the

shoulder of Jesus.

says, I need you to understand the love of God.

А нідістан the very nature of love itself.

The love is demonstrated in what God did for us.

when he sent his only begotten son that we might live.

Buddha didn’t do that.

Muhammad didn’t do that.

None of the world religions in all of human history.

can tell you of a God who did that.

Because they can’t first tell you of a God who exists.

They can’t tell you of a God who spoke.

They can’t tell you of a God who brought forth humanity and created the world and created

the universe and everything that exists and allows it to continue to exist by the word of

his power.

It they can’t tell you.

They’re missing an integral integral piece to the story, God.

And their hope is an earthly one.

It’s hope of a nation, hope of power, hope of might, hope of glory, hope of peace, hope of

being reborn into a some greater form and not some lesser form.

But not hope of salvation.

Not hope of redemption purchased for the very blood of the Son of God.

Romans chapter five.

Paul would write for when we were still without strength.

In due time Christ died for the ungodly.

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, 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.

For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much

more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom

we have now received the reconciliation.

Paul looks back at his life.

Paul looks back at his circumstance.

And for him, this is more than just theoretical.

More than just doctrinal.

Paul who held the coats of those who stoned the servant of Jesus Christ.

Paul, who was on the road to Damascus, ready to take those Christians that he found in

every house that he entered and bring them in bondage or to death.

Куд Вен Христ Дід.

He didn’t die for good men.

He died for the ungodly.

And he didn’t wait for them to become godly to die.

He died for them when they were yet enemies of God.

Christianity has value to the lost, to God’s enemies, because it provides the alternative

to God’s righteous judgment.

For all those who are willing to hear the Word of God and believe that Jesus Christ is the

Son of God, who are willing to repent of their sins and confess the name of Christ and be

immersed in water for the remission of those sins, rising to walk in newness of life,

being uh immersed, as it were, in the blood of Christ, as Paul describes, that through the

life of Christ they might have reconciliation and hope.

Of eternity with God.

But before we close, consider that the value of Christianity also exists

to the penitent.

To the one who said, In times gone by, I’ll be faithful to Christ.

I’ll be faithful to his name.

I’ll walk that walk.

I’ll establish Christ in my home.

I will establish Christ in my life.

I will give over control of my life to the Messiah who has redeemed me from sin and from

death.

And from judgment and from hell, I’ll give the my life over to him.

I’ll give my family, my decision making, my principles, all of the things that I thought

were of greatest importance that I had always known, my philosophies, my undergirding

value in life.

I’ll give it all over to Christ and I will conform to his name.

And then they turned back.

James chapter five.

James makes it clear

That when God established in Christ his church, his kingdom, and the doctrine and the

pattern and the message of the gospel that we are to preach, that God did not just

consider the lost.

He also considered the wayward, the Christian who has departed from the faith and is

penitent and willing to come home.

James writes in James chapter five, confess your trespasses to one another and pray for

one another that you may be healed.

The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain,

and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months, and he prayed again, and

the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

Brethren, if any one among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back.

Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from

death and cover a multitude of sins.

value of Christianity.

Unlike many of the things in this world where you miss it, you mess it up.

No bringing it back.

that when you have departed from the faith of Christ, when you agreed to that covenant and

then you broke that covenant and now you say, I want to come home.

That much like that prodigal son who realized I was raised in a home where God was.

I was raised in a home with a father who taught me what I should have been.

And now here I am in a pig sty, and I just want to eat what the pigs are eating just so I

have something.

You know what?

I can’t ask my father to take me back.

Not worthy of it.

I’ll just ask to be a servant in my Father.

And he goes back.

And he goes home.

And his father runs to meet him.

value of Christianity to the penitent.

You don’t come home as someone of no value given maybe one more opportunity to not mess it

up.

You are invited to come back with rejoicing in heaven.

Over one who repents, then over 99 who are saved.

If you have need of the invitation of Christ to take part in the value of Christianity,

you’re invited to do that this morning.

If you say, Aaron, sounds interesting.

You know what?

Might be willing to invest in that.

I might need to learn a little bit more.

So let’s study.

Let’s open the Word of God so we can know the value of Christianity.

Unlike those deals and those investor meetings where maybe the deal’s not quite everything

it’s cracked up to be in the investor summary.

When it comes to Christianity, we’ve only touched the hem of the garment of the value of

the name of Christ.

If you’re outside the body of Christ this morning, why not change that?

If you’re a member of the body of Christ this morning and you need to come home to Christ

to once again wear that name proudly, why not repent today?

If it’s time to open the book and study, let’s start today.

If you have need of the invitation, why not come now as we stand and as we say?

Revelation 15 (Lesson 2) – Aaron Cozort – July 05, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, Armageddon, biblical plagues, end times, God's wrath, judgment, keywords Revelation 16, Old Testament, prophecy, symbolism by Aaron Cozort

image

Good morning.

Good to have a few people back from traveling.

Uh we are in the book of Revelation.

We’re in chapter sixteen.

And we are in the section concerning the pouring out of the bowls.

And so ah

This is this is one of those sections where we’re not going to spend an an extreme amount

of time, uh, because if you’ve read the book of Exodus, you’ve read most of the uh the

details that are uh important in the uh the actual playing out of the text, but we’ll

discuss a number of things.

But 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, grateful for your blessings that you shower upon us, the opportunities

that we have to serve you, and the opportunity we have this morning to come together, to

open your word, to read the visions that you have placed here, that you gave to your

servant John, that he delivered to the church, that we might understand both how you have

continued to deal with nations and how you

have fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament down to the very most intricate of

ones.

Lord, we pray that you will be with us as we grow in confidence and knowledge, both in

understanding your word, but also in confidence that what you have promised, you will

certainly fulfill.

All these things we pray and ask in Jesus’ name.

Amen.

Chapter sixteen opens, and as we close chapter fifteen last week, John looked and behold,

the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven, verse five, was opened.

And out of the temple came seven angels, having seven plagues, clothed in pure bright

linen, and having their chest girded with golden bands.

Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of

the wrath of God who lives forever and ever.

I want to make mention of something before we before we pass too far by it.

Here you have a picture of

Of God preparing to deliver judgment in the form of plagues like the Old Testament

plagues.

And it’s visionary language, and we we appreciate that.

We’ve discussed that many times.

We understand what’s going on.

That we’re not supposed to say, okay, well, there was a point in time where there was an

angel who took one step and then another step and another step as they walked out of the

throne of God and then went to go pour.

That’s not the picture.

The picture is God sends his judgment at the hand of his messengers and his servants.

Now, if we think back to the Old Testament passage and the text of Exodus, where are we

first told concerning the judgment being delivered on Egypt through the hands not of God

directly, but of angels?

Where does the text specifically identify that angels are delivering the judgment?

Say again.

Uh with the Passover and the death of the firstborn.

Because if you remember, what is it that is described concerning the death of the

firstborn and who, the individual, the messenger of God who was doing that action?

We’re told that it is the angel of the Lord or the angel of death.

And what was the angel’s commission when it went out to deliver this judgment?

Everywhere where you didn’t see what?

The blood on the doorpost received the judgment.

But everywhere where you saw the blood on the doorpost, what happened?

Passed over it.

So bear in mind that this idea of God bringing a plague by the hand of an angel on a

nation in judgment, and God’s people who had a mark.

Identifying them being Passover is a picture that Israel as a nation was commanded to

remind themselves of in the Passover feast every single year.

That’s how deep this imagery and this concept that we’ve been looking at in the book of

Revelation would have been for the Jewish Christians, especially, but even for the Gentile

Christians as they had been taught the Old Testament scriptures by the Jewish Christians.

That this idea of the angel of the Lord delivering judgment upon a nation.

And delivering his people through a mark and bringing them through where not a single one

of them was touched by the judgment is something that would have been rehearsed year after

year after year, and they even called the feast Passover.

The reason I’m bringing this up is the moment that we’re introduced to these visionary

elements of the plagues being poured out, being poured out by angels, being handed off by

one of the beasts that’s before the throne, indicating this isn’t God working directly.

This is God working through the systems He’s already established.

He’s used them for millennia.

He’s using his messengers through his uh representatives.

To go deliver this.

God didn’t need to go take a vacation from everything else God was doing in order to bring

the plagues on Egypt.

The reason why I’m rehearsing that

is to demonstrate the true separation between earthly power and God.

that to bring a nation to its knees, God simply needs to send a servant.

Not a million of not a hundred thousand of them.

One.

To bring the nation of Egypt to its knees one.

Angel.

With one job in one night.

We are to understand the separation, the universal size separation between the power and

the authority of a ruler and a government on the earth and God.

Because they’re not even in the same category.

They’re not even in the same arena.

God’s going to send the beast to hand off a plague to seven angels.

And the seven angels are going to go pour out the plague.

Have you ever poured something out of a bowl before?

Like anything?

How much effort did it take?

Spend the whole day doing it?

it’s going to take so long, it’s going to be so much energy involved just to pour out a

bowl.

You see, what the scriptures have done is they have taken something that is a truly menial

task.

Something of i it does not require genius to pour out a bowl.

It does not require great power.

It doesn’t require even a lofty position to pour out a bowl.

I’m pretty sure that the lowliest servant could pour out a bowl.

Now, if you wanted to go fight a war, now in your brain you’re going, okay, well, we need

leaders, we need generals, we need we need soldiers, we need skilled armor, we need we

need people with the right weapons, we need logistics, we need all of that.

If we’re gonna fight a war, we’ve gotta have some impressive things.

You look at the display from yesterday.

What it were all the social media feeds blowing up with?

Wow, look at the American military and what it can do.

For the person in the room who’s flown jets before, he can probably tell you just exactly

how impressive it is for a jet to stop midair, turn around, fly backwards, then take off

and go flying again.

That is a feat.

God’s picture here is not pictured with the impression, we need all of this majestic stuff

to accomplish this.

No, it’s seven servants with seven bowls and they’re just gonna go pour it out.

The lowliest servant in heaven could do it.

It’s one thing to read the text.

It’s another thing to go, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Why?

Why bowls?

Why servants?

Why angels?

Why is it that the Lord opens, that the temple opens and the tabernacle of the temple is

open, the most holy place, the inner sanctuary of God’s presence is opened and judgment is

going to commence, but God doesn’t have to move.

The the the ment God doesn’t have to get up off the throne to bring Rome to its knees.

So who are you serving?

The God who doesn’t even have to get up off the throne to take Rome to its knees, or Rome?

The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power.

Just even this is an Old Testament picture.

There were times as Moses was in the tabernacle and the people were surrounding the

tabernacle back when they were at Mount Sinai that events would occur and God’s presence

would come in and it would fill the tabernacle.

And when it did, you couldn’t stay in the tabernacle.

Moses couldn’t stay in the tabernacle.

The people who were there, and the priests, the Levites, the others who were attending to

the things that were around the tabernacle, they all had to leave because they could not

stand to be in the presence of God manifested in the tabernacle.

So when you see the picture here in chapter 15 of the doors opening up and smoke coming

forth from the tabernacle, this is a picture, an Old Testament picture of

God’s presence being manifested in what is about to occur.

The smoke filled or the temple was filled with the smoke of the glory of God and from his

power, and no one was able to enter the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels

were completed.

It is a picture to describe that this judgment is being done at the direct power and

authority of God.

Then I heard a loud voice, chapter 16, verse 1, from the temple, saying to the seven

angels, Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth.

So just like in chapter six, we had the opening of the first seal of the book, and then

the second seal of the book, and then the third seal of the book, and the fourth seal, and

the fifth seal, and the sixth seal, and then in the seventh seal we found seven angels

with seven trumpets.

And so inside the seventh seal, seven angels start to blow, and you read you read

concerning the sounding of the first trumpet and the second trumpet and the third trumpet

and the fourth trumpet.

And then a series of woes in the last three trumpets.

There’s the first woe with the fifth trumpet, the second woe and the sixth trumpet, the

third woe and the seventh trumpet, and inside the seventh trumpet is all this stuff we’ve

been reading.

You’re still in the seventh woe, in the seventh trumpet, in the seventh seal of the

revelation that the Lamb took.

From the throne of God.

God’s telling you, all the way back, beginning in chapter six, here’s what’s coming.

That’s John’s message to the church.

It’s gonna happen.

I’m gonna tell you what’s gonna happen.

I’m gonna tell you there’s gonna be partial judgment that you’re going to see as an

identification that it’s happening.

Then there’s going to be a point when my long suffering runs out, and then I’m gonna deal

with this nation, and I’m gonna deal with it completely.

And it’s not going to be with a lot of pomp and circumstance.

It’s just going to be done.

Isaiah, go ahead and move to the next slide.

So in chapter sixteen, you have the seven bowls poured out.

Verse two So when the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth.

And a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those

who worshipped his image.

The plague of boils from the Old Testament.

You remember in the plague in the Old Testament in Egypt where the plague came upon them

and they had boils all throughout the land of Egypt.

This is just a picture of plague of boils.

Alright?

But remember, we’ve already had partial judgment where a third of this and a third of this

was destroyed, a third of this was killed.

Now these are full judgments.

You had the warning first, you didn’t repent, now you’re actually getting the judgment.

Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood as of a dead

man, and every living creature in the sea died.

What happened in Egypt that accords with this?

The water of the of of what what body of water turned to blood?

All right, the Great River, the Nile.

Now it didn’t become like blood, it became blood.

Now notice the text here.

The second angel pours out his bowl on the sea.

And it becomes blood.

It didn’t become like blood.

It didn’t become red.

It became blood.

Now, you have friends and family, you have associates at work and people you’ve known for

years.

Who are going to come to Revelation chapter 16, and they will have been told for decades

that every minute detail of this is going to literally, physically occur.

So much so that the promoters of premillennialist doctrine will say and have said in the

past that the water will be turned to blood to the point where there’ll be a run-on water.

There’ll be no water left anywhere.

People start buying up.

you you you know how uh precious toilet paper was in the early in in the beginning of

COVID.

That’s how desperate people are gonna be for Coca-Cola.

Just to have something to drink.

Because there won’t be any water anywhere.

Of course, they’re quickly gonna run out of that because guess what?

You make Coca-Cola out of.

Yeah.

And I don’t know of any industrial process for turning blood back into water to make more

coke.

So the picture that someone comes to and says, Well, I think this is going to physically

happen at a point in time is that every sea across the entire planet turns to blood.

Now hold on for a moment.

Because what was unique about the day and time of Egypt where it wasn’t the sea that was

turned to blood, it was a river.

What’s the difference between the function of the sea and the function of a river in the

water supply system of this planet?

All right.

River transports and is constantly being what?

replaced.

Uh i if you’ve ever spent much time by a river, you’ll notice the water doesn’t stand

still.

That’s a good thing.

It’s because there’s water upstream that’s gotta go d down to the sea.

Now if you took the entire Nile River, one of the largest rivers in the planet and it

turned to blood, how long think about it, this just from a physical perspective, how long

would it be blood?

Until all the blood had flown down where?

Downstream.

Till eventually hit the Mediterranean Sea.

And then it would be replaced by, since only the Nile River was turned to blood, all of

the source locations for the Nile River were not turned to blood.

Therefore, when the replacement water flows through, guess what it is now?

It’s water.

What happens if all the seas turn to blood?

Guess what you don’t get back from?

Guess what you don’t have a re s a cycle to replace.

Once the seas which are the reservoir turn to blood, sure you can have evaporation, but

you’re not ever gonna get back to a point where the seas aren’t blood anymore.

The climate scientists of our planet are constantly worried about all of these glaciers

melting and the desalination balance in the oceans changing as a result, the planet

changing, because we’ve got uh imbalance in their mind, short-sighted though they may be,

of the amount of salt in the water in the seas across the entire planet.

Because the water that’s melting from the polar ice caps is fresh water.

Now you’ve got a real issue because they’re worried about the amount of salt in the water

changing across the planet.

What if it was all blood?

You think we’d have a much bigger problem?

The vision is visionary.

But what part of the planet is untouched by a sea?

There is a

This perspective, this vision is to supply scope.

When you look and see all the people who don’t have the mark of God have boils.

All right, well, that’s all the people.

That doesn’t affect all the animals.

That doesn’t affect all of the creatures.

That doesn’t affect anything except humans.

What if all the seas turn to blood?

What does it affect?

Well, the text tells us every sea creature dies.

Every single one of them.

But they’re not the only things that are fed, nourished, and maintained by the sea, are

they?

Okay?

Now we have the third bowl.

The third angel poured out his bowl, verse 4, on the rivers and springs of water, and they

became blood.

God doesn’t just do the sea.

Nope.

Round two of the plague.

Now bear in mind, in the days of Exodus, it was one plague.

The river Nile turned to blood.

It was over.

Next plague.

God takes the vision and says, No, no, no, I’m not just touching the ocean faring people,

I’m gonna touch everybody.

And so the seas and the rivers are all sorry, the the rivers and the springs of water,

they became blood.

So even if you could have argued a moment ago, well, you know what, we’re gonna we’re

gonna we’ve still got a water cycle.

It’s still gonna be able to replace the blood with water, we’re gonna s somebody’s gonna

survive this.

Nope.

Not if the s the springs that flow out of from underground have turned to blood.

Nobody’s surviving this.

If

We’re on hold on to this because this is important.

If we’re on bowl three and the global water supply has become nothing but blood.

Лет’счя: How long can a human uh survive without water?

Approximately three days.

So if bowl three, the water supply on the entire planet is done.

Uh you kinda end the book pretty much right here.

Nothing else gonna happen.

by the way, how are the Christians who have the mark of God going to be untouched by the

entire planet’s water supply being turned blood?

They’re not.

I bring all this up and I’m spending the time on it to help us realize what

premillennialist doctrine does, what doctrines about the Battle of Armageddon, which we

haven’t even gotten to, about the rapture.

What they do is they give you one little picture and another little picture, and they

never actually put the pictures together.

Because they’re expecting a great big battle to start being fought here just in a moment

or two.

And the problem is, three days from this point, everybody everything on the planet’s dead.

Терзно батл.

Or you have to reject the way they interpret the book.

Doesn’t mean you have to interpret it the way I’m telling you to interpret it, but you

have to reject the way they’re interpreting it.

Because if this is physical and if it’s literal, and if it’s scoped to the text exactly as

the text says it, which they will argue, that there’s an actual 144,000 down to the

number.

That there’s an actual mark, that the mark’s gonna actually be 666, that the mark’s

actually gonna be on somebody’s hand and it’s actually gonna be on their forehead, and

it’s going to be a physical thing.

Фізикл ами, фізика начин і фізика Ізраї.

Then the problem is come plague three, everybody on the planet’s dead.

I heard the voice or sorry verse uh verse five and I heard the angel of the waters saying

You are righteous, O Lord, the one who is and who was and who is to be, because you have

judged these things, for they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have

given them blood to drink, for it is their just due.

The angel identifies for us why the picture of the blood is pervasive.

And the answer is because of all the blood of the Christians that these people have shed.

And I heard another.

From the altar saying, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments.

Hold here for just a moment.

I want you to come over to Romans chapter one, and I want you to notice something.

Romans chapter one verse eight.

First I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of

throughout the whole world.

For God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without

ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, making request if by some means now at

last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you.

For I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gifts so that you may be

established, that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both

of you and me.

Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you but was

hindered until now, that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other

Gentiles.

I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and 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 everyone who believes, for the Jew first and

also for the Greek.

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written.

The just shall live by faith, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all

ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

Paul opens his letter to the church which assembles in Rome.

And he opens it by saying, I want to come to you.

I want to be in your presence.

I want to impart spiritual gifts to you.

And I want to have the benefit of being able to preach and convert people because you are

going to experience the righteous judgment of God.

When Paul quotes Habakkuk 2 verse 4, he is quoting the passage where Habakkuk asks, how

God are you going to use a nation like the Chaldean Babylonian nation to judge your people

and who is going to survive the judgment to come if you use such a wicked nation?

And God tells Habakkuk The just shall live by faith.

When my righteous judgment comes.

Now, if you go back to Ezekiel chapter 9, which we won’t for the sake of time, you will

find pictures of judgments like this.

You go back to Exodus chapters 7 through 12, you’re going to find pictures of judgments

like this.

You’re going to find historical events and visionary events, depending upon which context

you’re in.

But the point, every time.

Із год дефендспи.

And when God brings his judgment against the unrighteous world, he is justified in that

action.

The angel that comes and pours out the water or pours out the bowl upon the water says,

Lord, you are righteous.

You’re not an angry God throwing vengeance every direction.

The reason we need to spend a moment with this is because we need to be careful.

that we do not in our own lives and in our own minds and in our own actions describe God

as anything other than just and righteous when He establishes and performs His judgment.

The angel who’s before the altar.

Now remember back to chapter six.

Chapter six, where did we see the altar?

In which seal?

Fifth seal.

What was under the altar?

Souls of the saints that were dying.

They were being killed for their testimony.

So the angel pours out the waters.

Pours out the bowl upon the waters, and all the waters turn to blood.

And when the act is done, the angel declares God was justified.

And the answer comes back from the angel who’s standing with the saints who’ve been

killed.

And his reply is, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments.

The Christians asked, How long till you deal with this?

And the angel who pours out the bowl upon the waters says,

Done.

And the angel that’s with the Christians who’ve been killed says, you’re right, it’s done.

And it was justified.

Then the fourth angel, verse 8, poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him

to scorch men with fire.

First bowl comes out and it boils.

Second bowl comes out and the seas turn to blood.

Third bowl comes out and all the rivers and the springs of water turn to blood.

Then the sun gets turned to darkness.

By the way, that Old Testament Exodus picture.

Absolutely.

You have the plague of darkness.

The sun was poured, or the bowl was poured out on the sun, and power was given to him to

scorch men with fire.

Notice it’s going to be darkness, but it’s going to be darkness and fire.

Okay, watch this.

And the men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has

power over these plagues, and they did not repent or give him glory.

Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom

became full of darkness, and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain, they

blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent of

their deeds.

Now you’re gonna keep being told they didn’t repent, they didn’t repent, they didn’t

repent.

That also is an Exodus picture, remember?

The plague would occur.

And Pharaoh would call Moses and Aaron in and say, All right, we’re gonna let you go.

And then Moses and Aaron would leave and Pharaoh would say, We’re not letting you go.

And when Moses and Aaron come before Pharaoh during the plague of the frogs and they say,

How long do you want the plague to continue?

Pharaoh says, Well, one more night.

Have it in tomorrow.

You’ve got every house in the entire nation filled with frogs to the point you couldn’t

open a stove without getting frogs jumping out.

Frogs in your bed, frogs everywhere you can imagine, so much so that when they finally

started cleaning up all the dead frogs when the plague was over, the entire nation stank

from the pile of frogs.

But the frogs were a god in Egypt.

And so when asked how long do you want this to continue, Pharaoh said, One more day.

Don’t want to offend the frog god.

as the people go through the judgment.

They don’t look at the judgment and realize, you know what, we caused this.

They’re not going to be introspective and say, you know what, we need to repent.

If we would have repented, this would never have happened.

No, they blasphemed God.

Saw his fault.

Verse 12.

Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was

dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared.

Now you’re going to ask the question wait a minute, who are these kings from the east?

And we’re going to get into that a little bit later, so I’m not going to tell you yet.

But I’m going to tell you it’s not China.

It’s not Japan.

It’s not the kings from the Orient.

But there’s an old testament picture here, for there was a king from the east in the Old

Testament times who dried up the river Euphrates.

You read about his conquest and the con the ending of that conquest in the city of Babylon

in the book of Daniel, because Daniel read some writing on the wall the night that it

happened.

Cyrus, as he led the overthrow of the city of Babylon, diverted the Euphrates River, which

ran under the walls of Babylon, so that they could come into the city through the riverbed

and conquer and defeat Babylon.

Oh, right.

That’s what we read back in chapter 14.

Babylon is fallen, is fallen.

Great city.

When you find this plague drying up the river Euphrates, it’s an Old Testament picture of

the fall of Babylon.

So the great river Euphrates with its water is dried up so that the way of the kings from

the east might be prepared.

And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of

the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

So that this this onslaught is occurring, and they’ve got answers for it.

They’ve got reasons to convince people that it’s not their sin, it’s not their iniquity,

it’s not their

their mistreatment of the Christians as to why all this is happening.

They’ve got false prophecies, galore.

For they are spirits of demons performing signs which go out to the kings of the earth and

of the whole world to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty.

You’re going to read that, chapter 19, chapter 18, you’re going to find the picture of the

great battle.

Hold on to it.

But God’s reply, Behold, I am coming as a thief.

Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his

shame.

False prophets start delivering their messages that we’re going to be victorious, we’re

going to win, we’re going to conquer.

You know what, nations, you better be on our side.

They’re threatening their allies.

You better be on our side.

You better make sure you’re aligned with us because we’ve always won before and we’re

gonna win again.

God says you don’t stand a chance.

And they gathered them together to the place called in the Hebrew Armageddon.

Now, if you’ve watched much television, if you’ve seen many movies, especially from the

religious quote unquote Christian right in this country.

Then you might have imagined that the Battle of Armageddon is some great giant battlefield

where multiplied millions and millions of people will come and do battle, and the greatest

battle that’ll ever take place will happen in this place called Armageddon.

Except the Valley of Megiddo, which is the Valley of Armageddon in the Hebrew, is not a

big place.

It is not a place where large armies are ever going to meet.

It is certainly not the culmination point from a physical perspective of all of the

central powers of all of the planet coming to do battle.

The picture is a picture.

It’s a vision.

And while Lar Mageddon sounds mm pretty scary in English.

It sounds like the valley of Megedo in Hebrew.

And everybody who would have travelled through the valley of Megetta would have been

going.

Really?

This place?

Are you sure?

it’s a vision.

Okay, got it.

I mean i it it’s kinda like when Jesus and by the way there’s a connection here when Jesus

starts talking about eternal hell.

But he doesn’t use some mystical visionary language for hell.

He uses the word gehenna.

And yet Gehenna was the word for a place that everybody in Jerusalem knew about.

They knew where it was.

It wasn’t some spiritual place that God had prepared for the devil and his angels.

It was the trash heap of Jerusalem.

It was the place that Isaiah said, We’re going to take all the dead bodies of all God’s

enemies when God brings Israel back from Babylonian captivity, and we’re going to go burn

them in the valley of Gehenna.

And the fire of the torment of us burning the body of God’s enemies is never going to go

out.

Because God is going to conquer so victoriously, so completely, that we’ll never stop

piling up the bodies.

And the worm will never die because he never runs out of food.

And the fire will never be quenched.

Now I’m not telling you hell’s not a real place.

I’m telling you Jesus used a picture of a place people could go walk to and say, I get the

picture.

Not that there was going to be some coming day where hell would be located in the valley

of Henam outside Jerusalem.

And we need to have the honesty with the text to do the same thing with the Valley of

Meghetto outside of it or in the region of Israel.

All right?

Thank you for your attention.

We’re dismissed.