Revelation 10 – Aaron Cozort – April 5, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, apocalyptic imagery, Christian hope, Daniel, Ezekiel, God's sovereignty, judgment, keywords Revelation, New Testament, Old Testament, prophecy by Aaron Cozort

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Good morning.

Good to see everyone out this morning.

It’s good to have a bright sunny day.

that we can uh enjoy.

Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to Revelation chapter 10.

As we have done previously, we will briefly discuss a few of the things that we have

mentioned already, and then we’ll get into our study, but let’s begin with a word of

prayer.

Our gracious Lord, God and Father of all mankind, we bow before you, humbled in our hearts

by your magnificent existence and glory, considering the world and the universe that you

have created, the power of the very words that you speak to create all that exists.

And we…

We bow before you and offer you praise and honor and glory for you are worthy of such.

We also praise and honor your son who came and died on the cross for our sins to purchase

our redemption, who also is worthy of that honor, that glory, who was the creator in the

beginning by whom all things were made.

and we praise you and glorify your name.

We ask that you will forgive us of our sins when we fail and fall short of your glory as

you have been ah straightforward in your word to tell us that you’re faithful and willing

to do if we will confess those things and Lord we do recognize.

and understand that we sin, that we fall short of Your glory by the words that we speak,

the thoughts that we have, the deeds that we participate in and sometimes fail to

participate in.

And yet at the same time, we are thankful for Your grace, Your mercy, and Your bountiful

love and tender kindness that You have shown to each and every one of us who are servants

of Your Son.

Lord, we pray that you will be with us as we go through this day.

May the things that we say honor you and may the things that we do be right in your sight.

All this we pray and ask in Jesus’ name, amen.

In Revelation chapter one, John is on the Isle of Patmos.

He is on the Lord.

He is there on the Lord’s Day in the spirit as the text says, that is, is by all

indications.

The idea is he is worshiping as he is worshiping.

He hears a voice behind him and he turns to see the one who was speaking and the

description of the representation of Christ in the text is one of a glorified.

Christ.

And he sees that glorified Christ and he hears the message and he hears that this is the

one who holds the seven stars in his hand, the one who’s surrounded by the seven golden

lampstands or candlesticks.

And the one who is speaking to him, Christ, tells him, you’re going to write to the

churches.

So John begins to write to the churches of Asia Minor.

And he begins to tell them the things that they are commended by God for, the things that

they are condemned by God for, the things that they are warned about, that if they do not

repent, then they will become the enemies of God.

And the ones who he says, I put nothing else on you because of the burden they were

already bearing.

But in all of this, he’s telling these Christians.

that they are in a moment of peace and persecution is coming.

So chapter three concludes with that last letter to the church at Laodicea and chapter

four opens and John sees an open door in heaven and the primary visionary part of the

language of the book begins, though there’s been visionary elements throughout the book

already.

And John, as the text indicates, though it doesn’t specify it, goes through the door.

As he enters…

Through the door, he sees the throne room of God.

And we mentioned last week, as we were discussing, hold on to that picture of the throne

room of God, because you’re gonna see the rainbow that was surrounding the throne show up

again.

Well, show it up today here in chapter 10.

But as he looks at the throne of God and he sees the glory of the one who sits on the

throne, there’s this emerald rainbow.

that surrounds the throne.

There’s a sea of glass that is before the throne.

There’s the seven lamps of the Spirit of God that are before the throne.

There’s the four living beasts that are before the throne.

There’s the 24 elders that are before the throne.

And all they do continually is offer God

glory and honor and praise.

And whenever the glory and the honor and the praise comes forth from the four beasts that

are before the throne, the 24 elders take their crowns of victory and they throw them

before the throne and they offer praise and honor and glory to the one who sits on the

throne.

And then chapter five opens.

In chapter five, as that…

uh

section is open, John looks back to the throne and the one who’s sitting on the throne has

in his right hand a scroll written inside and outside.

It’s got the revelation, the message of God, and John wants to know what it says.

The problem is there’s nobody found in heaven or on earth or under the earth that is in

the grave that can open the scroll because there’s no one worthy.

John begins to weep.

One of the elders comes to John and says, don’t weep, we found the one who’s worthy.

And John looks again to the throne and now before the throne is the lamb standing but

appearing to have been slain.

The lion of the tribe of Judah, Christ, is before the throne and he’s worthy to take the

scroll and he’s declared worthy and he takes the scroll.

And so then chapter six.

Chapter 6 opens up and the scroll begins to be opened.

Seal 1 is open and the picture is Christ going forth to conquer.

Seal 2 is open and persecution and judgment begins and hardship begins and another degree

of hardship begins and another degree of hardship begins.

And when you finally get to the fifth seal in chapter 6, you’ve got the souls of the

saints who have been killed for the cause of Christ.

and they’re beneath the altar of God and they’re crying out, how long, Lord?

Are you going to allow this to continue?

And God will give them through those servants of the Lord a message to rest, to wait.

They’re clothed in white robes, they’re told to wait because God’s going to deliver the

judgment that they’re crying out for.

So then the sixth seal is opened and you have the Old Testament picture of the fall of a

nation.

The sky is rolled up.

The sun turns dark.

The moon turns to blood.

There’s fire and hail and smoke and all of these things and the rich and the great and the

powerful all run to the mountains and they cried for the mountains to fall on them because

they want to be hidden from the wrath of the lamb.

of all the creatures in God’s creation.

Outside of an overly rambunctious lamb that might nip at you, who, what adult is afraid of

lambs?

You see the paradox there?

They cry out, and they don’t cry out to be hidden from the wrath of the lion.

They don’t cry out to be hidden from the wrath of the four beasts before the throne.

They cry out to be hidden from the wrath of the Lamb.

Because the lamb is not dead.

The lamb appears to be slain, but is alive forevermore, and he is sitting on a throne.

And He offers peace and comfort to His people and judgment such that the wicked of the

earth, the inhabitants of the earth are afraid of His very presence.

But the question’s asked at the end of chapter six, in the day of the wrath of the Lamb,

who’s able to stand?

So chapter seven, we find a pause and that great angel comes up as he tells the four

angels that are standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the wind, the

judgment of God in the Old Testament pictures.

And he tells them, don’t let the wind blow.

Don’t let anything be touched until we mark all the people of God.

We’re gonna put God’s name on their forehead.

You don’t have to guess what it means.

Just go back to Revelation chapter three and you’ll read about the church with the name of

God written on their foreheads.

And it wasn’t the fact that that church singularly in the New Testament went around and

tattooed God’s name on their forehead.

All the churches had God’s name on their forehead.

They all belong to Him, except the name was a spiritual name.

The angel comes up and he says, let any of the judgment start till we mark all of God’s

people.

So the marking begins and all of God’s people are marked.

God knows everybody that belongs to him.

And then…

The seventh seal.

As Revelation 8 begins, the seventh seal begins to be opened and everything you see in the

rest of the book happens in the seventh seal.

Remember, the revelation was written inside, now the scroll was completely covered.

Well, if it was completely covered, then it was a really short scroll if we’re just gonna

read this little bit about the seventh seal and then it’s done.

Now the picture is, all of this is wrapped up in what John wants to know and what the

throne has to say.

So the seventh seal is open and inside the seventh seal, you find seven angels given seven

trumpets and they’re going to prepare to blow.

And they’re going to blow.

And as those seven trumpets are blown, you’re going to find partial judgment, partial

judgment, partial judgment, partial judgment, partial judgment, and trumpet number seven

inside the seventh trumpet.

We’re gonna read this in chapter 10.

we find complete judgment pronounced, okay?

So the people of God are prepared, the multitude is innumerable in heaven and on earth,

and God’s people are all marked, they’re not gonna be touched with the judgment, they’re

going to suffer hardship through the judgment.

They’re gonna be surrounded by it, they’re gonna deal with it, they’re gonna live through

it, and some of them are gonna die in it.

but the judgment isn’t coming on them.

God doesn’t judge the righteous.

God doesn’t bring punishment in judgment on the righteous.

Now the Hebrew writer does tell us that God brings chastisement upon the righteous.

What’s the difference between judgment and chastisement?

Now, all right, so if we were to put it on a spectrum, judgment is the judge sends you to

prison or to death for your crimes, and chastisement is the parent who spanks you to

correct you.

That’s what the Hebrew writer, by the way, tells us.

It’s unpleasant for the time, but it helps us do what we ought to do.

And so while the Christians are gonna go through chastisement, they’re gonna go through

trials, they’re gonna go through tribulations, and they’re going to be made better by

them, the wicked, the inhabitants of the earth are going to be judged by the same events.

So the first trumpet sounds and it’s fire and hail and all of the pictures are Old

Testament pictures and a third of the things are burned up.

Then the second trumpet sounds and a burning mountain is cast into the sea and you have a

partial judgment upon all of the sea things.

Then the star named Wormwood is cast down.

All the water turns bitter.

It’s an Exodus 18 picture of the bitter waters of Maraba, those who test God.

And then you have trumpet number four that sounds and darkness comes upon the earth.

And again, it’s an Old Testament Egyptian picture.

And chapter nine, verse 13, chapter eight, verse 13, a woe is pronounced saying the first

four judgments are passed, three more are coming.

And these three are not only three trumpets.

There are three woes.

Okay.

So chapter nine opens and trumpet five and trumpet six will sound which are woes one and

woe two.

And you find in Revelation chapter nine verses one through 12, the fifth trumpet sounds

and this is moral decay that is eating up the nation from inside.

Moral decay is one of those things that it doesn’t come from outside.

It doesn’t break down walls.

It doesn’t cause people to die in the streets, generally speaking.

It’s not a disease.

It’s not a plague.

It’s not a foreign nation.

It doesn’t rampage an entire city and lay it flat where you see the visual destruction.

It eats a nation inside out.

and Rome was eat up with it.

And God is going to make it clear that their tolerance of the wickedness around them,

their embracing of the wickedness around them was going to be part of their judgment.

We often look for external reasons why the world around us is the way that it is.

By that I mean when the suicide rate goes up, people start looking for external reasons.

When the depression rate goes up, when the mental…

uh illness rate goes up.

When the school system starts going off the rails by way of the ability to control the

children that are inside it, we start wondering what’s wrong with the diet?

What’s wrong with this?

What’s wrong with that?

And all of those things may have something to play in it, but I’ll tell you, when you look

at the moral picture of the home, it doesn’t take long to figure out what’s wrong.

Because when you look at America and you look at the moral picture of the home,

It is this.

It is a nation given over to every form of wickedness, every form of idolatry, every form

of self, pleasure, and pride.

and even the good quote unquote people.

in the nation are those who embrace the immorality.

Even the generally just and upright people in the way they treat others as a whole are

given over to the sin and the wickedness.

and it is pervasive.

Rome didn’t fall from the outside.

Rome fell from the inside because they couldn’t sustain the opposition of the outside

forces because of the moral decay happening within.

and you say, Aaron, I’m just not sure that America’s quite on the same par as Rome.

Well, maybe not.

I’ll grant you a maybe not at best.

But when you look at our history just in the time that I’ve been alive.

when you look at the fact that we can’t even be honest with the thing that we interact

with every day called money?

We are $39 trillion in debt as a nation and you think we’re morally upright as a nation?

What does God say about people who don’t pay their debts?

Does he call them just and upright?

Do you think there’s any possibility, any chance in the world that our government intends

to ever pay the actual debt off?

No.

And if the thing that we all use every day to sustain our very lives and to buy the things

that we need in order to function in life isn’t a moral and upright and just system.

Now what do you think the rest of the system looks like?

Verse 13-21

the sixth trumpet sound.

and you have an invading army.

And it comes in and you’ve got the one who’s described as the destroyer in two different

languages.

He rises up out of the bottomless pit and goes to war.

and you have this continuing picture of destruction, but a third of mankind die.

Again, just more pictures of partial judgment.

A third of the things die, a third of this dies, a third of this dies, a third of this is

judged.

Chapter 10.

You’re going to have an interlude.

You’re going to have a pause.

This happens in the book of Revelation quite often.

Here comes this judgment and this judgment and this judgment and this judgment as pictured

in Revelation chapter six, you’ve got seal one, two, three, four, five, six.

And before seal seven is open, wait a minute, pause, hold on.

We gotta talk to the people of God.

We’ve gotta let them know they win.

We’ve gotta let them know they are being cared for.

and taken care of by God.

So chapter eight, you have a pause.

Sorry, chapter seven, you have a pause.

Then chapter eight, judgment continues.

So in chapter eight and nine, you get partial judgment, partial judgment, partial

judgment, six trumpet sound.

Then wait, pause.

Chapters 10, 11, and 12 are a reassurance to the Christians.

God’s got you.

You win, but it’s not going to be easy.

You get through it as the church, but not without going through the tribulation and the

hardship of the chastisement and the difficulties of this life.

So chapter 10 opens.

and I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven clothed with a cloud.” Now, how did

Jesus ascend to heaven?

in a cloud, right?

You’re gonna see these pictures and this angel, and we’re told it’s an angel, so what I’m

going to assume is it’s an angel.

But this angel is a mighty angel.

This, as brother Jim McGuigan pointed out, it’s a high representative of the throne.

You know, you could get a messenger from uh a person of power and it might be a lowly

person.

It might just be somebody who hands off a message, this comes from President Trump, he’d

like you to open it.

Or you might have the Secretary of State with all his people show up.

There’s a difference in the two.

They’re both the messengers from President Trump, but there’s a difference between the

two.

This isn’t just an angel, this is a mighty angel and he comes showing up like Jesus left.

And notice we read, was clothed with a cloud and a rainbow was on his head.

Where’s the last time we saw a rainbow?

It was behind the throne.

It was the picture of the glory of God.

Revelation chapter four, verse three.

This is a representative of the throne.

This is a representative of Christ.

We’re not done with the picture.

A rainbow was on his head and his face was like the sun.

Where’s the last time we saw somebody whose face was shining like the sun?

It was Christ.

and his feet were like pillars of fire.

He had a little book open in his hand and he set his right foot on the sea and his left

foot on the land.

As the picture opens up, as John sees the vision, he sees this mighty angel and he has all

the elements of being a representative of the throne.

And he’s got a message.

Now, this isn’t new pictures.

This isn’t new language.

This is Ezekiel’s language.

Turn to Ezekiel chapter 2.

Ezekiel chapter 2

We read in verse one, He said to me, now, you got to go read chapter one and read about

the war wagon of the Lord and the presence of God before Ezekiel, but we’re going to pick

up in chapter two.

You got to read chapter one on your own.

He said to me, son of man, stand on your feet and I will speak to you.

Then the spirit entered me when he spoke to me and set me on my feet and I heard him who

spoke to me.

and he said to me, of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious

nation that has rebelled against me.

They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day.

They are impudent and stubborn children.

I am sending you to them and you shall say to them, thus says the Lord God.” Notice this

is a commission that is being enacted here.

Ezekiel is being sent with a message.

He is being commissioned to declare a message on behalf of God.

As for them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are a rebellious house,

yet they will know that a prophet has been among them.

And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words, though briars

and thorns are with you.

And you dwell among scorpions, do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their looks,

though they are rebellious house.

You shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are

rebellious.

But you, son of man, hear what I say to you.

Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house.

Open your mouth and eat what I give you.

Now, when I looked, there was a hand stretched out to me and behold, a scroll of a book

was in it.

Then he spread it out before me and there was writing on the inside and on the outside and

written on it were lamentations and mornings and woe.

Moreover, he said to me, Son of man, eat what you find, eat this scroll and go speak to

the house of Israel.

So I opened my mouth and he calls me to eat that scroll.

And he said to me, Son of man, feed your belly and fill your stomach with this scroll that

I give you.

So I ate and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness.

Then he said to me, Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them.

For you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech or of hard language, but to the

house of Israel.

Not to many people of unfamiliar speech or of hard language whose words you cannot

understand.

Surely had I sent you to them, they would have listened to you.

But the house of Israel will not listen to you because they will not listen to me.

For all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted.

Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces and your forehead strong against

their foreheads.

Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead.

Do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are rebellious

house.

Moreover, he said to me, son of man, receive into your heart all my words that I speak to

you and hear with your ears.

And go get the captives to the children of your people and speak to them and tell them,

thus says the Lord God, whether they hear or whether they refuse.

Then the Spirit lifted me up and I heard behind me a great thunderous voice, blessed is

the glory of the Lord from his place.

I also heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another and

the noise of the wheels behind them and a great thunderous noise.

So the Spirit lifted me up and took me in a way and I went in bitterness in the heat of my

spirit, but the hand of the Lord was strong upon me.

Then I came to the captives of Tel Aviv and he continues on through that.

description of those events.

But notice, Ezekiel’s given a commission.

He’s sent to the children of Israel.

He’s sent to a rebellious house.

He’s given a message.

It’s written on a scroll of a book and it’s given and laid out before him and it’s written

on the front.

Sound like something we’ve seen before?

Written on the front and on the back and he’s told, eat the book.

consume the Word of God because you’re about to go preach it.

And when he consumes the book, what did it taste like?

Honey is as sweet as the stuff Joe gives us.

Sweet is honey.

Psalmist writer, Psalm 19, says the word of the Lord is sweeter than the honey and the

honeycomb.

He tastes the Word of God and it’s sweet.

But as it goes down and he begins to process the message he’s going to have to speak, it’s

bitter because the message is judgment.

Turn back over to Revelation chapter 10.

Notice the picture.

This is just Ezekiel’s language, Ezekiel’s scenario brought forward to John’s application.

So he saw this mighty angel and in his right hand was a little book open in his hand.

And he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land and cried with a loud

voice as when lions roar.

When he cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices.

Now in the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write, but I heard a voice

from heaven saying to me,

Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered and do not write them.

There’s another passage that you need to mark down.

We’re gonna get back to the little book in just a minute.

But before we do, we gotta deal with the seven thunders.

Thunders in the Old Testament, you go back to the Old Testament prophets and the thunders

that were pronounced, the things that were visionary and prophetic when the thunder

occurred, it was God’s judgment coming.

And God was going to judge.

God was going to speak.

You remember when God spoke from the Mount in Mount Sinai in Exodus chapter 19, the voice

that the Israelites heard was so harsh and so great that they came to Moses and they said,

listen, we can’t listen to the voice of God anymore.

You’re going to have to go up.

and you’re gonna have to hear the voice of God and you’re going to have to receive the

message and then you come back down and tell us because if we continue to listen to this

we’re gonna die.

and God commends them for their awareness of their own frail state and says, that’s

probably a good idea.

Why don’t you send Moses up?

So Moses is going to go up on the mountain and be there for 40 days.

And in the midst of the 40 days while he’s up on the mountain, they conclude he’s not

coming back.

And what do they do?

They go build a golden calf.

Yeah, it’s probably a good idea they didn’t hear the voice of God anymore.

So the thundering that John hears is God declaring judgment.

Seven thunders occur.

John’s sitting there.

Now picture it.

John’s sitting there and you know how earlier John saw a vision and then the angel came to

him and said, what do these things mean?

And he said, you know what they mean.

He doesn’t answer, why don’t you tell me what they mean instead of me telling you what

they mean?

That’s not what happens here.

Here the seven thunders are uttered and John sits down, he’s about to write it all down,

he understands it perfectly.

except he’s told not to write it down.

This also is an Old Testament picture.

Turn to Daniel chapter 11.

Daniel chapter 11.

In chapter 11, you’re dealing with the king from the north, and there’s Old Testament

history combined with the gap between the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the events

that will occur to Israel during that 400 years of silence that’s all wrapped up in here.

We’re not going to focus on that.

We’re going to deal with the part that begins when he starts talking about Rome.

In Chapter 11, verse 36, then the king shall do according to his own will.

He shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the

God of gods and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished for what has been

determined shall be done.

He shall regard neither the God of his fathers nor the desire of women nor regard any god,

for he shall exalt himself above them all.

But in their place he shall honor a god of fortresses.

a God which his fathers did not know.

He shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and pleasant things.

Therefore he shall act against the strongest fortresses with a foreign God, which he shall

acknowledge and advance its glory.

And he shall cause them to rule over many and divide the land for gain.

At the time of the end, the king of the south shall attack him and the king of the north

shall come against him like a whirlwind.

with chariots, horsemen and with many ships, and he shall enter the countries, overwhelm

them and pass through them.

He shall also enter the glorious land and many countries shall be overthrown.

But these shall escape from his hand, Edom, Moab and the prominent people of Ammon.

He shall stretch out his hand against the countries and the land of Egypt shall not

escape.

He shall have power over the treasuries of gold and silver, over all the precious things

of Egypt.

Also, the Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels.

But news from the east and from the north shall trouble him.

Therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many.

He shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious Holy Mountain.

Yet he shall come to his end and no one will help him.

As the picture here of the expansion of the Roman Empire occurs and their defeat over

Egypt and their control over the whole region, we find in Chapter 12, verse one, at that

time, Michael shall stand up.

the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people.

Now notice, here’s the picture.

Here’s an angel of God.

What’s his task?

He watches over God’s people.

All right, you see the connection?

Thou, there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even

to that time.

and at that time your people shall be delivered.

Everyone who is found written in the book.

Now wait a minute, who were the people who were marked with the name of God?

the ones who had their name in the book of life, the ones who belong to God, the

Christians.

So here’s Michael.

His responsibility is making sure the Christians, the people of God don’t receive the

judgment.

That’s what’s going to occur.

He says, and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to

everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt.

those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament and those who turn

many to righteousness like the stars of heaven.

Notice there’s going to be people who are resurrected to eternal life, there are going to

be people who are resurrected to judgment, and there are going to be people going forth

and converting people.

Interesting picture, isn’t it?

But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end.

Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase.

Then I, Daniel, looked and there stood two others, one on this riverbank and the other on

the other riverbank.

And one said to the man clothed in linen who was above the waters of the river, How long

shall the fulfillment of these wonders be?

Then I heard the man clothed in linen who was above the waters of the river when he held

up his right hand and his left hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever that it

shall be for time, times and half a time.

And when the power of the Holy people has been completely shattered, all these things

shall be finished.

Here’s the picture.

God sends His messenger to Daniel and he says, you are about to get hammered.

You are about to be taken out and beaten and killed and persecuted, but don’t you worry.

I’ve got my people watching over you and you’re not gonna lose.

You’re gonna come through it with flying colors.

You’re gonna be resurrected to everlasting life.

You’re gonna be converting more than you’ve ever converted before.

But it’s not gonna be easy.

And God is going to tell Daniel, now, this revelation that I’m giving you, go ahead and

seal it up.

Time’s not yet.

It’s not for Daniel’s day.

It’s not for 600 BC.

It’s not for 525 BC.

It’s not for 400 BC.

It’s for a time way off at the end.

End of what?

The end of the Mosaic system?

The end of the Old Testament covenant?

the start of the covenant that God said he would establish because Daniel’s revelations

all begin with what?

A picture of four kingdoms in the vision that Nebuchadnezzar has.

And in the days of these kings, God shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed.

You got to be careful with the term end.

Because it could be the end of one thing or it could be the end of something else.

And sometimes people see the word end and they think, oh, end of time.

He didn’t say the end of time, did he?

He said, these things shall come at the end.

Now, he says, when this occurs, here’s what you’re gonna be looking for.

You’re gonna be looking for time, times and half a time where God’s people are going

through it.

You say, what in the world does time, times and half a time mean?

Well, I could tell you, but we’re out of time.

Let me just say this.

If you were to ascribe to that phrase the word year instead of time, what would you get?

Year, years, and half a year.

So if you had one year and then years, plural, two years, and then half a year, what would

you have?

Three and a half years.

I don’t know how to make, how do you do half with a finger?

I don’t know, half, three and a half years.

Interestingly, before we get out of the next few chapters, you’re gonna be reading about

42 months, which is three and a half years.

You’re gonna be reading about a number of days, which is three and a half years.

You’re gonna be reading about time, times, and a half a time, which is three and a half

years.

What is three and a half, half of?

What is seven in God’s prophetic writing?

Perfection.

God’s going to tell His people, you’re about to suffer, but it’s temporary.

It’s limited.

Now we just saw two chapters of limited judgment on the earth.

Daniel and Daniel 12 is going to be told about limited punishment or limited hardship

coming against God’s people, but warned in advance, don’t worry, I know who belongs to me.

and Michael’s watching over you, but you’re still going to go through the hard time.

It’s temporary, but it’s hard.

But you’re going to come out the other side and you’re going to be glorified.

So chapter 10, 11, and 12, we’re opening this picture, is the seventh trumpet about to

sound.

God’s judgment is about to come on the nations and on Rome.

And God says, hold on.

Hold on, you’re gonna go through hardship and John, you’re gonna have to tell them about

it and it’s gonna be God’s word, it’s gonna be sweet in your mouth but the message is not

going to be pleasant but you’re gonna have to tell them anyway.

But don’t worry, I told Daniel 600 years ago that you were going to get through this.

John’s about to go reach back to Daniel chapter 12 and pull it forward to the book of

Revelation and go, here you go.

It was sealed up back then because the time wasn’t yet.

But here’s the message.

OK, thank you for your attention.

Two On The Road To Emmaus – Aaron Cozort – April 05, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, Bible Study, Christian Lessons, disciples, Emmaus, faith, Gospel, Jesus Christ, keywords Luke 24, resurrection, Understanding Scripture by Aaron Cozort

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Good afternoon.

We’ll hope all of you had the opportunity to eat a meal as wonderful as the one that we

had here.

uh But I hope you don’t fall asleep because you did.

So take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to the Book of Luke.

As we mentioned this morning, we’re going to be discussing the events of the two disciples

on the road to Emmaus.

In Luke chapter 24, Luke records this event while not all of the other records of Jesus’s

life do record this event.

But Luke will, and there’s some surmising as to why Luke does when the others do not,

though Mark will mention it only in a single verse.

But Luke is going to record what

Jesus does as he appears to Mary after he has been resurrected, and then the disciples

will come and they will peer into the tomb.

You remember that the women will come to where the disciples are on that Sunday morning,

and they will inform them that the body is gone, that the tomb was opened, that there was

an angel that appeared to them and said that he is…

why do you seek the living with the dead?

and Peter and John will run to the tomb and they will race there and they will observe

that the linen cloth that Jesus was buried in and the bedding that was there or the

wrapping that was there around the body was folded neatly and laid there in the tomb, but

the body was gone.

They will have questions.

They will not…

understand everything that is taking place and they will depart.

Jesus will appear to Mary there in the garden, but then Jesus will depart.

And we find in Luke 24, the events that then proceed forth from that time.

In Luke chapter 24, verse 13, we read, now behold, two of them,

were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from

Jerusalem.

Now, as we begin this text, we’ll notice that it says two of them, is the way Luke puts

it.

But the understanding that we should have here is two of the disciples of Christ, not two

of the apostles.

The reason why we believe that to be the case and should understand that to be the case is

because one of the individuals is named in the account and his name was Cleopas, not one

of the apostles.

The other individual remains unnamed.

Many individuals could surmise, well, I think it’s this person.

I think it’s this person.

I have a sneaking suspicion that I have an idea who it is.

I think it’s either Matthias.

or justice who will be the two people who will be mentioned as potential apostles after

Acts chapter one.

But that’s just my own opinion.

Others might suggest maybe it was Luke, maybe it was someone else who was a disciple.

We do have some indicators that it’s probably not Luke because by all indications, Luke

was a Gentile and this appears to have been a Jew.

we’ll get into some of the statements that lead us to that assumption and that

understanding here in a moment.

But it appears to be a Jew, two Jews that is, one of them is named Cleopas.

We don’t read about him to my knowledge anywhere else in the New Testament, ah at least

not by that name.

And we don’t read of anyone else named that.

But Cleopas and this other Jewish man are on their way to Emmaus.

They are going down to this village and I say going down.

I don’t know uh if you would say going down in all points in time except Jerusalem was

built on a hill.

And so if you were pretty much going anywhere from Jerusalem, you were going down.

And so they’re going down the road to Emmaus.

And as they’re going, they’re talking.

Now, the new King James interprets for us the distance between Jerusalem and Emmaus to be

seven miles.

In the original Greek, it’s at 60 stadia.

It was a form or a measurement that runs out to about roughly seven miles in distance.

So not a short journey, especially since they’re walking.

Okay, so they’re going to be walking for a while.

They start off on the road headed out of Jerusalem.

They begin to go down to this village called Emmaus, and as they’re going, they’re

talking, verse 14, and they talk together of all the things which had happened.

Now, they’re disciples of Jesus.

We know that because they’re from among them, and as they’re going, they’re talking.

because not so many days ago they would have been most likely listening to Jesus teaching

the temple.

Not so many days ago they perhaps would have witnessed Jesus enter into Jerusalem riding

on a donkey.

Not so many days ago they would have heard the crowd shouting out, Hosanna, Hosanna to the

highest as Jesus entered the city.

Not so many days ago,

They would have seen Jesus cleanse the temple of those who bought and sold.

Many of those who were present, who were with Jesus, who were followers of Jesus, were

those who had heard what he had taught.

Perhaps these two individuals had been with Jesus when he fed the 5,000, and perhaps they

had been among those who didn’t turn back and walk with him no more.

But no matter who they were or what they had seen, they had seen enough to be disturbed by

the things they had seen, to be questioning the things they had seen.

So they were talking together of all these things which had happened.

So it was when they conversed and reasoned that Jesus himself drew near and went with

them.

I thought about this for a little while.

thought, how did Jesus draw near to them and then go with them?

Was he traveling faster than they were?

Did he start behind them and catch up?

You know, when you think about the way traffic goes, these people are headed from here to

there and someone else converges with their path.

Did he come from off the side?

I don’t know.

but now you know what it’s like to be in my head.

But he drew near to them and he went with them.

Sometimes in our lives, we will find ourselves going somewhere and somebody comes right

along beside us and they were uninvited and unwanted.

And they start talking to us and we’re like, can I move?

And if you’re on an airplane, the answer is no, you can’t, you’re stuck in that seat with

them.

while they talk to you for the entire trip.

But as these disciples are talking, Jesus joins with them, drew near to them, went with

them, but their eyes were restrained so that they did not know him.

As you follow through the events that lead forward from the resurrection, when Jesus first

appeared to Mary, she did not recognize him.

When Jesus appears to these two individuals, they are

withheld in their knowledge from recognizing Him.

We don’t understand all the things that that tells us.

We don’t understand how God did it other than to say that God did it.

God withheld the knowledge from them that they were in the presence of the one whom they

had known, whom they had recognized, whom they had followed but a week before.

So their eyes were restrained so that they did not know him.

And he said to them, what kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as

you walk and are sad?

We find here in the text that Jesus tells us something that the text hadn’t already told

us, and that was their disposition.

They’re talking about the events.

They’re talking about the things that have happened.

They’re talking about how Jesus, the one who they thought was the Messiah, has been put on

the cross and who has been killed, and now His tomb is empty and they don’t know where

He’s gone.

They don’t know what’s happened to His body, and they are sad at the news.

It is.

It is true that at times the things that should make us rejoice the most

cause us to be sad because we don’t understand.

Have you ever thought about the fact that at times we become separated from a person who

we know and who we love, they move away, they perhaps go off to another place, and as they

move, we’re sad because of their departure, and yet as a result of their moving, that

could perhaps be the best spiritual thing that ever happened to them.

And we’re sad, but it’s the best thing that could have happened.

Sometimes in life we have to realize that our understanding of a situation is far from the

reality of the situation.

These individuals, these two men, as they’re traveling along, they’re talking about the

events and they are sad because they believed something to be true and now they are

considering that what they believed was not true and they don’t understand.

And because they don’t understand, they’re

attitude towards the situation is directly opposite of what it should have been.

But Jesus questions them.

He says, what kind of conversation is this that you’re having?

Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered and said to him, Are you the only

stranger in Jerusalem?

And have you not known the things which happened there in these days?

In modern lingo, what planet did you fall off of that you don’t know what’s going on?

Are you the only person roaming around Jerusalem that missed all the crowds crying,

crucify him?

That missed all the signs and all the wonders and all the miracles that missed the things

that were happening at the…

How did you go to Passover and then leave Jerusalem and you don’t know, or sorry, to

Pentecostal…

No, I got to write the first one.

Passover, leave Jerusalem and you don’t know what’s going on.

How did you miss the crucifixion up on Golgotha?

How do you not know?

And he said to them, what things?

As we consider this passage, it is important and um the students in the school uh often

find this to be true, that many people ask questions that they already know the answer to,

but they want to know what you think about the answer.

and Jesus is going to ask them, what’s going on?

what things have occurred.

Jesus is fully aware of all of the things that have occurred, but He wants them to answer.

they said to Him, the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in

deed and word before God and all the people.

Notice first that they identified Jesus by His origin in His earthly upbringing.

He is the Jesus that came forth from Nazareth, but they describe him as a prophet of God.

Now, by describing him as prophet, they’re not denying the idea that he was the Messiah.

They’re not denying that he was one who claimed to be the son of God.

They’re not denying him the role of king or any of those things.

They’re simply recognizing that he spoke on behalf

of God and performed the miraculous deeds to authenticate his source of knowledge.

So he is one who speaks on behalf of God.

He is one who is doing mighty deeds in both word and deed before God and all the people.

They are saying here is one who spoke on behalf of God and proved the source of his

message.

originating from God.

And how the chief priests, verse 20, and our rulers, by the way, that our rulers is why I

would suggest both of them are Jews.

They say our rulers did this.

They’re claiming, unfortunately, much to probably their own chagrin, yeah, those chief

priests and those Pharisees and those scribes and those people who brought Jesus before

Pilate.

Yeah, those are ours.

He says, our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified him.

Here was this man who came out of Nazareth, that place where Philip said, can any good

thing come out of Nazareth?

And yet here’s this man who came out of Nazareth and who did all these wonderful deeds and

he did them before the people and before God and before everyone and spoke the words of

God and verified that he was from God and our rulers took him and killed him.

How do you not know this happened?

But we were hoping.

Now notice that.

But we were hoping.

that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.

These two men.

Reveal the cracks in their faith, in their understanding of what was going on.

Now, they’re not alone.

The disciples, the 11, they’re in the same boat.

But these two disciples of Jesus as they’re walking down the road to Emmaus have cracks in

their foundation.

They have cracks in their faith.

They said, we were hoping

that it was going to be him who was the one who was going to redeem Israel.

We thought he was the Messiah.

Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened.

Yes, and certain women of our company who arrived at the tomb early astonished us.

When they did not find his body, they came saying that they had seen a vision of angels

who said he was alive.

Now here are these two men, they’re walking down the road, they’re headed toward Emmaus.

You might ask the question, why are they going to Emmaus?

I don’t know.

You don’t either.

Luke didn’t tell us what they’re going.

Perhaps they were from Emmaus.

Perhaps they’re going home.

Perhaps they had been in the city for Passover and now they’re returning.

Don’t know.

But we do know that they still were closely connected with the 11.

because very early on that Sunday morning when Mary and the other women came to tell the

apostles concerning the things that had happened, these men were around.

They heard what the women said.

They were aware of the things that were going on, which means when Jesus was placed on

that cross.

They didn’t turn back and follow him no more.

They didn’t depart and go off to a far country and say, well, I guess it’s over.

They’re there the next day, and the next day, and the next day.

And as that Sunday morning comes and as the message comes from Mary and from the other

women that they had seen the angels and that they had been told that Jesus was alive.

it didn’t make them happy.

You say, wait a minute, how could they be true disciples and that not make them happy?

Because they don’t understand what’s going on.

They don’t know if the women are crazy.

They don’t know if this is some ploy by the Roman government or by their leaders.

They’re confused.

That’s why they’re talking about.

And it is here that I want to mention one of the lessons that we should learn from this

passage is there is a difference between talking and understanding.

All you gotta do is listen to people talk about politics and religion and things happening

in the world to find out there’s a big separation between people who talk about something

and people who understand it.

These two men were talking, neither of them had understanding.

They’re trying to get there, but they’re lost.

They do not understand.

And every piece of the puzzle they’re trying to fit in doesn’t fit in the puzzle.

And they don’t know why.

They could have looked at the puzzle and they could have said, you know what, this piece

indicates that Jesus is the Messiah.

Jesus is going to redeem Israel.

And they like, yeah, it’s in the right spot.

Have you ever done a puzzle where you put a piece in the spot that you thought, I know

that’s where it goes.

And time after time after time, you try it.

Yeah, it’s exactly where it goes.

Only you get to the end of puzzle and realize that is not where that piece goes.

I have, it’s horrible.

I could have sworn that piece fit there.

That’s what they’re thinking about Jesus as the Messiah.

Everything validated that Jesus was who He said He was.

Jesus was a prophet.

Jesus spoke the words of God.

Jesus confirmed it by miracles.

Jesus said He was the Messiah.

How could Jesus be wrong?

Now Jesus has been put to the cross.

Now Jesus has been put in a tomb, and now Jesus’s body is gone.

when they’re confused.

and they’re sad.

This is when they did not find his body, verse 23, they came saying that they had seen,

also seen the vision of angels who said he was alive.

And certain of those who were with us, notice the phrase with us, they were present with

the apostles when the women came that Sunday morning.

Those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him

they did not see.

They’re referencing John and Peter who took off and ran to the tomb.

And John got there first and then waited and Peter went in and nobody.

No Christ, no Jesus of Nazareth was to be found.

Then he said to them, O foolish ones and slow of heart, to believe all, believe in all

that the prophets have spoken.

Jesus a number of times after His resurrection will point out to His disciples that they

had a lack of faith, that they were foolish in their ignorance of the Scriptures, that if

they would trust God and know the Scriptures,

they would not have had such a difficulty understanding what was going on.

Now, that being said, you’ve got two men who are already sad, who are already confused,

and are already stumped about the things that are happening around them, and Jesus comes

and says, you’re pretty foolish.

Jesus didn’t pull many punches.

Jesus just said it like it was.

Jesus points out to them that their problem is a lack of scriptural perspective.

a bias that had caused them to think one way about Scripture, but had caused them to deny

the very truth of Scripture.

They were biased towards their idea of what it meant to redeem Israel.

You remember the apostles, even the eleven, are going to come to Jesus as He is about to

ascend back into heaven, and they’re going to ask Jesus in Acts chapter 1, will you now

restore the kingdom to Israel?

Even the apostles are under the mistaken understanding that Jesus was going to reign on

the earth, He was going to be a king on the earth, that He was going to have an earthly

kingdom, and it was going to be Israel.

because of their bias towards the things which they had been taught about the Scriptures,

they had ignored the Scriptures.

And Jesus points it out.

Be careful.

Be careful as you’re studying not to allow the things you’ve always been told about the

Bible to keep you from believing what the Bible actually says.

He says, “‘Ought not’—verse 26—’the Christ who have suffered these things and to enter

into His glory?’

Say you uh want Christ to be the Redeemer of Israel, do you?

But you don’t want Him to enter His glory?

You want Christ to reign and to rule and to benefit you, but you don’t want Him to receive

the glory He’s due from God?

and beginning at Moses, and all the prophets he expounded to them in all the scriptures,

the things concerning himself.”

as they’re walking.

they get a 4,000 year education.

of everything that God had been doing?

much like we started discussing this morning in the lesson.

Because the text is clear that Jesus begins with Moses’ writings.

And Jesus starts taking apart the Old Testament there in their eyes and in their ears and

declaring to them, this was about the Messiah, this was about the Messiah, this was about

the Messiah, this was about the Messiah, this is what I had to do.

Now, interestingly, have you noticed when he first asked what it was that had happened,

they wondered how he could be so ignorant.

Now he’s going to explain to them 4,000 years of God working and prove that it was them

who was ignorant.

We should be careful when we think we know something.

We might just find out we’re wrong.

And so Jesus begins to explain to them all these prophecies and how they had to be

fulfilled.

If you go forward a few verses to Luke chapter 24, verse 44 on another occasion not far

forward from this one, He said to them, verse 44, these are the words which I spoke to you

while I was still with you.

that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets

and the Psalms concerning me.

And He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures.

Then He said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to

suffer and arise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin

should be preached in His name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem.

And you are witnesses of these things.

Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem,

until you are in dude with power from on high.

Jesus is going to have to explain the exact same things to the eleven as He appears to

them forward from this event.

But as they’re walking down the road to Emmaus, as they’re journeying from Jerusalem to

this village, Jesus is going to begin to expound to them

the Old Testament scriptures and the prophecies concerning the Messiah.

Then they drew near, verse 28, to the village where they were going.

And he indicated that he would have gone further.

They’re getting off on the exit and he’s headed straight on and they go, no, no, no, come

with us.

No offense.

But too many Christians, if they had had to listen to a sermon for the whole trip from

Jerusalem to Emmaus for seven miles, would have been ready for the preacher to shut up.

so they could have some peace and quiet.

They would have been like the guy sitting on the airplane next to the person who wouldn’t

be quiet.

Not these two men.

They don’t want Jesus to leave.

They don’t want this person who knows so much more about the scriptures in the Old

Testament and what was going on than they did when they thought they were the

knowledgeable people.

They don’t want him to leave.

They constrained him, verse 29, saying, with us for it is toward evening and the day is

far spent.

And he went in to stay with them.

Now, are they brothers?

I don’t know.

Were they from Emmaus?

Well, it seems like they at least have a dwelling place in Emmaus.

It could have been in Ian, but likelihood is they were from there.

So they say, no, no, it’s getting towards evening.

You can’t get much further anyway.

Just come stay with us.

So he went in to stay with them.

Now it came to pass as he sat at the table with them that he took bread, blessed and broke

it and gave it to them.

One of the things that you’ll notice about Jesus in his meal time interactions is

sometimes he makes like he’s the guest and sometimes he makes like he’s the host.

You remember when he went to the place where Zacchaeus was?

And Zacchaeus is up in a tree and he comes to Zacchaeus and he says, Zacchaeus come down

for I’m going to your house.

These individuals, these two men invite him in, but when he sits down, he takes control of

the meal.

He begins to bless the bread.

He takes the bread and He gives it to them.

Verse 31, then their eyes were opened and they knew Him and He vanished from their sight.

Now already told you we don’t have the ability to explain all the things about all the

things that occur after Jesus’ resurrection.

But some of the things which occur after Jesus’ resurrection make it incredibly clear to

us that Jesus’ power to do what Jesus came here to do was not inhibited at all by having

gone to the grave.

Not far forward from this event, the 11 are going to be shut up in a room with all the

doors closed.

locked in as it were.

And Jesus is going to appear right there in their midst.

And yet at the point where Thomas doubts whether or not Jesus is actually resurrected,

Jesus will say, put your hand in my side, put your fingers in the nail prints of my hands,

and even Thomas will admit.

You’re real.

He will say, my Lord and my God.

Jesus will sit down and eat with the apostles as he eats with these individuals.

But as Jesus blesses the bread, breaks it, and gives it to them, they finally recognize

who He is.

One thing that we should learn.

is it is a far different thing to know about Jesus than to know Jesus.

I can know about someone by reputation.

I can know a laundry list of all the things they’ve done.

I can know of their successes.

I can know of their failures.

I can know of all the things and details about them.

But if I’ve never met them, I don’t know them.

These two men had met Jesus.

They thought they knew Him, but oh, they were woefully ignorant of who He was.

You remember they said, we had hope.

They were not thorough in their understanding of who he was.

but as their eyes are open, as they knew Him.

they realize that it’s Jesus.

and the moment they realize it’s Jesus, He’s gone.

Verse 32.

They said to one another, did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the

road and while He opened the Scriptures to us?

They’re now examining the events that have occurred, the things that have happened, and

they say, we should have known.

My understanding of what that means is it’s like it was just like when we were with him

before.

We should have recognized him just by the way he taught the scriptures.

You remember what was said about Jesus when the chief priest sent the soldiers to go

arrest Jesus and they came back and they said, never a man speck like this, man.

I think that’s what they mean here.

I think they mean.

We should have recognized him, if we didn’t recognize him visually, should have least

recognized him from the way that he taught.

Nobody teaches like that.

but they examine themselves and they said, did our hearts not burn within us?

while he talked with us on the road and while he opened the scriptures to us.

So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the eleven and those

who were with them gathered together saying the Lord is risen indeed and has appeared to

Simon and they told about the things that had happened on the road and how he had known

how he had known how he was known to them.

in the breaking of bread.

as Jesus disappears, as they look at themselves, imagine somewhat dumbfounded.

having the knowledge that Jesus truly is resurrected, they can’t keep it to themselves.

They can’t stay seated where they are.

They can’t go to bed in their own beds.

They determined, no, we got to get up, we got to go back.

We’ve got to go tell everybody.

So having walked seven miles, they turn around after dinner and walk seven miles back.

Now you remember they had just told Jesus as he was about to carry on.

You can’t get much further.

It’s coming evening time.

Which means it was so important for them to take the word that Jesus was resurrected back

to the apostles that they walked through the night to do it

to share the Good News.

So we too should be learning.

There will be times in our lives where we will be tired, where we will have other plans,

where we will have things that were important that needed to happen, that we were headed a

certain direction doing a certain thing when all of a sudden it is more important that we

go spread the good news.

And we lay aside all the incredibly important things we were doing for the thing that is

of greatest importance, the message of the Gospel.

So these two men will rise up and turn around and go back to tell the apostles.

We’ve seen it.

And yet, as they arrive, as they tell the apostles, the apostles do not believe them.

Mark will tell us that he appeared to them in another form.

That’s how Mark describes it in the one verse he uses to describe this event.

But that as they reported these things to the apostles, the apostles did not, the

disciples, the eleven, did not believe them.

So one last lesson.

Sometimes even the quote-unquote best Christians

Don’t believe the truth.

and won’t believe the truth when they’re told it.

That’s simply to point out that we should not put our faith in Christians, but in Christ.

We should not build our faith on top of the understanding of other people, but on the Word

of God.

We should build on the foundation which is Christ.

So Paul will tell the church at Corinth, you follow me as I follow Christ.

which in all points and in every location means this, you ever see me step away from

Christ, you quit following me.

These two men meet Jesus on the road to Emmaus.

They talk with him.

They listen to him.

Their heart burns within them.

And then they are aware of who it is that they’re talking to and they rush back to tell

the apostles,

and the apostles don’t believe.

kind of strange that we only give Thomas the phrase the the nomenclature doubting Thomas.

because they didn’t believe the women and they didn’t believe their own eyes and they

didn’t believe the witness of the two men and they didn’t believe Mary.

And we call Thomas the one who doubts.

Hopefully from this passage we’ll learn some lessons for our own lives and examine how we

ought to take the Scriptures and understand them so that we can better understand Christ

and what He came here to do so that we in turn can declare the Good News.

If you have need of the invitation of Christ

to accept Him as Lord and Savior by entering into His body through baptism?

You can do that today.

If you’ve departed from Him and you need to come home, you can do that today.

If you’re questioning things in your life and you need the Scriptures to help you

understand them, we’d be happy to help.

Why not ask?

Why not come?

As we stand.

Let Your Light Shine – Justin Evergarden – April 08, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, Beatitudes, Christian living, forgiveness, inner morality, Jesus teachings, keywords Bible study, peace, righteousness, Sermon on the Mount, Spiritual Growth by Aaron Cozort

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We’re not used to having none of the students here and none of Aaron here and none of the

boys here.

So we had to scramble to get everything done.

It is wonderful to see everybody again this evening.

Let’s go ahead before we begin the class and we’ll start with a word of prayer.

If you’ll bow with me.

Dear Lord, our Almighty God, our King, our Savior, our Father in heaven, all glory and

honor to you forever.

We come before your throne at this time praying that you’d be with us during this class

period of Bible study.

May we take what we learn this evening and apply it to our daily lives.

May it nourish our minds and our souls alike so that we can spread your light to all those

around us throughout the world.

We pray for the safety and health of all those that are ailing from ailments, hurting in

the hospitals.

uh We pray for our

political leaders as well, Lord, that they can lead the country in a manner that’s well

pleasing and eyesight.

We pray for all those that live throughout this world that they may have an opportunity in

the future to obey your word, that they may come in contact with your guidance and

eventually have a home in heaven with you.

And so we pray to thee in Jesus’ name, amen.

Alright, so for this evening, uh last class we had, we were going through the book of

Matthew and I was giving you a lot of the notes that I had been going through.

So we’re going to pick up where we left off.

If you would turn your Bibles over to Matthew chapter 5.

It’s been, I guess about two months now since we’ve been in Matthew, been a little bit.

We jump over here.

Matthew chapter 5.

Now, previously we had seen the miracles that Jesus had been doing, He had begun His

Galilean ministry, and now we come to chapter 5.

For those of you that are taking notes for the class this evening, we do have key verses,

you know I like to add context at the beginning, I typically like to put these notes on

top of my title chapters.

or my chapter subtitles.

So the key verse is going to be Matthew 5 and verse 20.

So feel free to circle that verse if you will and we’ll come to that here in a little bit.

We’re probably not going to make it through all of Matthew chapter 5 this evening.

There’s a lot to go through.

uh Another key verse, I was kind of torn between the two on this one, was also verse 48

and you’ll see kind of why.

uh Our key word for this chapter

is going to be the word righteousness.

It is not necessarily like most chapters where the word is repeated many times over

throughout the chapter, but the key idea of righteousness kind of strings everything

together.

uh And the key lesson is let your light shine.

So, Matthew chapter five opens with what we call the Sermon on the Mount.

uh From the material that has been preserved for us in scripture,

We can assume that the Sermon on the Mount would have taken roughly 15 to 20 minutes to

deliver if reading straight.

Yet, even though it would have only been 20 minutes, this one sermon changed the course of

the world forever.

It reached many, many souls and it covers a wide range of topics.

uh The one thread running through all of it, again, is that idea of righteousness.

This chapter is all about um outward morality.

following from inward character.

Okay, so Jesus isn’t just merely giving rules.

He describes the kind of heart and life that belongs to someone that’s going to live and

belong inside of the kingdom of heaven.

He’s teaching his disciples what true righteousness looks like, not the shallow

righteousness that we get from the Judaizers and the others that are going throughout in

that time period.

specifically the Pharisees.

ah But he’s talking about a deeper righteousness that begins in the heart and because of

it beginning in the heart, the outward actions reflect the light that is within that.

So before we get into the details, I want to give you an outline for the chapter.

ah Verses one, we’re going to split this actually into three different sections.

So first we have the Beatitudes, as most people have heard about the Beatitudes, that is

Matthew chapter five.

1 through 12 is the Beatitudes.

Then, for your notes, I like to put brackets around verses 13 through 16, and that’s going

to be what we call the section of influence there.

We’ll probably make it through these two, and hopefully next time we can get to the third.

At least that’s the plan.

We’ll see how far we get.

But the last section is going to be called Righteousness, and that will be going from

verse 17 through the end of the chapter, verse 48.

This is where Jesus explains that true righteousness goes deeper than external rule

keeping, i.e.

the Pharisees, and it touches topics like anger, lust, marriage, honesty, revenge, and

ultimately love.

So, let’s go ahead and back up uh with section one, the Beatitudes.

Does anyone know where we get the phrase Beatitudes?

We’ve all heard the phrase, but it actually comes from the Latin word Beatus.

meaning blessedness or blessedness.

So verse one, actually let’s go ahead and have, we’ll go ahead and read verses one through

12.

Let’s have someone read that if they would.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they should be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of

heaven.

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil things

against you falsely for my sake.

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for they persecuted

the prophets who were before you.

Okay, so we see the word blessed, blessed, blessed over and over and over again.

So starting with verse one, he talks about the multitudes and he went up into the

mountain.

Jesus sees the multitudes.

Why would they have been there?

Would they have known through word of mouth who Jesus was?

specifically some of the miracles that he would have performed.

They would have had to have if we have entire multitudes gathering there.

It’s fairly reasonable to assume they would have heard about him.

Many of those souls were looking for things like hope, truth.

Many went to him calling him rabbi so they would have been looking for teaching and

ultimately happiness.

In that sense, it reminds us of Isaiah chapter two and verse three, and I’ll go ahead and

I’ve got it right here.

Isaiah two and three said, and many people shall go and say, come ye, let us go up to the

mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways and

we will walk in his paths.

This is exactly what we’re seeing transpire right here.

The multitudes are going up to the mountain that Christ had went to and they’re looking

for His teaching.

They’re looking for His guidance.

People are coming to hear the Lord Christ teach.

And so, verse two, He opens His mouth and taught them saying, So Jesus begins to teach,

but there’s something very specific we can actually note from this.

He does not stand up and simply open His mouth and talk, does He?

You’re like, yeah, that makes sense.

Absolutely.

He teaches with purpose.

He teaches with substance.

He teaches with authority.

Most of all, everything Christ says has authority backing behind it.

And I think that this verse is a needed reminder today.

How many denominational preachers, if you ever watch the viewings of them, stand up, open

their mouth and do a whole lot of talking, but don’t say a whole lot.

lot of them, unfortunately.

There’s a lot of talking going on in the world today, but not a whole lot of teaching,

especially from people that have authority.

If you’re going to get up before people and teach the law of Christ, we need to get

ourselves out of the way as preachers and allow Christ to talk, allow the gospel to talk.

You need to have more Bible in your sermon, as it were, than your own self.

And I think that’s a problem that many preachers are dealing with today.

Many speakers can talk for a long time and say very, very little.

However, Jesus can teach truth in very little words that’s so effective that it changes

souls lives for all eternity.

Doesn’t he?

Yeah.

So we continue to verse three.

are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God.

What does he mean by poor of spirit here?

Any ideas?

core here, in my assumption, would carry the idea of spiritual bankruptcy.

Not necessarily physical bankruptcy.

The Greek idea is that one has been reduced to needing something.

If you’re financially bankrupt, you’re in need of money, right?

It ceases to be a want, and now it’s something you actively are seeking out because you

need this.

It’s the situation where a soul comes to the knowledge that he finally cannot save

himself.

Eventually you get into so much physical debt sometimes you need someone else to bail you

out or to help you.

You cannot do it by yourself without help.

This is the opposite.

Spiritually speaking, going back to the poor of a spiritual nature, it’s the opposite of a

hard conscience, one that’s

doubles down on the fact of, I’ll get myself out.

I’ll just work harder.

I can go uphill.

I know I can do it.

Some people have become spiritually hardened, especially during this time and even today.

Who else do we know that was spiritually hardened in the Bible?

Does anyone come to mind?

Pharaoh?

Absolutely.

Did you get my notes beforehand?

No, she’s just that good.

So turn our Bibles over to Exodus chapter 7 and I’d like someone to read Exodus chapter 7

verses 13 and 14.

And he hardened Pharaoh’s heart.

Now does this mean that God reached out and turned his heart to stone, physically

hardening it?

No.

Does it mean that he spiritually hardened it?

Did he do it on purpose?

Yes and no.

It’s not necessarily that God reached out and forced him to feel this way, but God’s

actions led to him feeling that way.

Because of God’s teachings, because of what was going through uh Moses and the people

there about let my people go, it hardened Pharaoh’s heart naturally.

Pharaoh never lost uh free will, as it were.

God has never taken free will from any man and has always given them the choice.

So when it says he hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he harken not into them, it’s not that

Christ made him do that.

When you discipline a child and the child gets angry at you, did you make the child get

angry at you?

In a sense, but you didn’t reach out and say, you’re going to be angry at me right now as

a command and they just follow suit.

That’s not how children work.

Less so adults.

There are other people like in John chapter 12 and verse 40 that we read as well.

has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, it says.

Now did he physically strike them blind in John?

Not in this instance.

When you look at something that you really don’t want to learn about, do you tend to avert

your eyes?

Do you kind of blind yourself to it?

Sometimes people don’t like to face the facts.

This is what’s happening here.

Turn over to Ephesians chapter four and let’s get someone get 17 through 19 as another

illustration.

themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness.

Who being past feeling they’re tired of this grandpa.

They want to get over this.

They are so beyond it they are choosing less avianess.

They are choosing sin for themselves.

They still have free will.

The poor in spirit in this verse in Matthew going back to Matthew chapter 5 are not

hardened of heart.

These are people who have softened up to the fact of, need Christ, I need God’s help.

They know they need God because there’s no other way they’re going to get out of their

present situation.

And rightly so, none of us can overcome sin without Christ’s help.

Not a single one of us.

So we move forward.

Verse four, blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are they that mourn.

so if I’m sad I’m happy well that’s a contradiction right we can close the Bible we can

all go home finally found it years of searching yea or nay

Nay, it’s not a contradiction.

In a sense, Jesus is saying, happy are the unhappy.

Now, what do I mean by that?

It sounds like a contradiction until we understand what he’s meaning.

Can someone define the word comfort?

Okay, give it a shot.

How would you define comfort in layman’s terms?

Feeling good.

Feeling good.

I would call that more happiness.

ah Comfort.

Let me ask this.

Can you have comfort where there is no pain?

What are you comforted from then?

No, no, no, not comfortable comfort, receiving comfort.

uh You cannot have comfort without pain.

You cannot be comforted without some form of grief.

It’s the basic definition of the word to have one, you must have the other.

Comfort by definition is the easing of pain or distress by Oxford dictionary.

If nothing hurts, what are we going to be comforted by?

Yes, we can be comfortable, yes, but the idea of receiving comfort is no longer there

because now everything is just so-so.

Everything is just grand all the time.

There’s no need for comfortable or comfort, but you may be comfortable.

So, spiritual mourning ah includes things like sorrow over sin.

Let’s have someone get 2 Corinthians 7 and verse 10.

Why is it good that we’re grieving or sad?

What does he mean by happy or the unhappy?

2 Corinthians 7.10.

For godly sorrow worketh repentance.

Now if we have earthly sorrow, it’s fairly safe to assume that you are sorry you got

caught.

Right?

Yes.

Godly sorrow is a totally different idea.

It’s on the total opposite end of the spectrum.

And it’s the idea of I’m sorry I ever committed it.

You see the difference, the difference between I’m sorry I got caught earthly and I’m

sorry I did it being spiritual or godly.

That is a salvation not to be repented of because you’ve repented of having ever done said

thing.

But for sorrow of the world, work at death, it says.

All right, so let’s move forward to 2nd Timothy 2 and verse 12.

It says, we suffer, we shall also reign with him.

Now, let me be fair.

The blessing is not in the pain itself.

That’s not what it’s saying.

The blessing is what God does with the pain.

God’s strength, His forgiveness is seen most powerful at our lowest moments.

Take a look at Saul.

Saul was blinded at the road to Damascus.

He was, and this was after he was killing Christians, hunting them down.

He was the lowest of the low.

He thought he was beyond.

saving when he learned the truth and yet he obeyed and he became Paul and he wrote many of

the books of the New Testament.

That’s a very powerful thing and it seems more powerful than someone who slipped up maybe

once or twice in their entire life.

You can see God’s strength for forgiveness in the weakness of man.

So those who grieve rightly can be comforted rightly.

That’s why he means happy are the unhappy.

The pain and grief that causes us to be unhappy is the same pain and grief that we can

take solace in because our God has the ability to forgive, to help us through those hard

times.

So we move forward to verse five, the meek.

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.

What is the word meek?

Strength under control.

Absolutely.

It’s not weakness.

Humility, being gentle, a submission to God’s will and restraint from self-assertion,

right?

The vengeful anger uh that is inherent in humanity.

It’s a trusting heart that leaves justice to the hands of God.

God says, vengeance is whose?

Mine.

That’s what he says.

Jesus says here that the meek shall inherit the earth.

The thought is not that Christians are going to own a vast property right now.

So let’s get that out of the way.

We’re not talking pre-millennialism or anything like that.

but that those content with God will inherit more than they ever imagined, more than we

could ever possess here on earth.

Why?

Not because it’s going to be given to us.

We may not own a single acre here, but will we be able to enjoy God’s world in the one

that’s to come?

We get to spend eternity in heaven with Him.

I’m always reminded of Christ saying as He leaves, and lo, I am with you always.

even until the end of the world.

think it’s a beautiful symbolism that we have here because Christ says, you’re here on

earth.

I will always be with you.

Now, let’s say that we live until the end of time.

Judgment day comes.

He says, I will be with you until the end of the earth.

OK, the end of the earth comes.

What now?

He’s not there.

Why?

This is the beautiful part.

I’m going to give you is the opposite.

You’ve heard me say this before, probably.

It’s the opposite.

And what a beautiful picture he paints because now if we are a Christian, if we have

heard, believed, repented, confessed, be baptized and we have lived faithfully, he is just

a forgiveness of our sins and we get to be with him forever, not just until the end of the

world.

It’s a beautiful picture that he paints here.

Second Corinthians six and verse ten, let’s have someone get that.

as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet

possibly all things, but possessing all things.

So we’re not possessing all things earthly, but as Christians, as those that have been

saved by Christ, those that are in a saved state, as long as we don’t fall away.

Let me preface this right.

Do we have inheritance laid up in heaven forever?

Yeah.

It’s way more than this entire universe could offer us.

And it’s going to last forever.

The elements here, as it says, are going to be burned up with a fervent heat.

They are going to melt and pass away.

We often sing the song, ah this world I’m just passing through.

My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.

It’s true.

It’s another beautiful song.

I also like I’ve got a side note here that says Revelation 21 6 through 7.

So I pulled it up.

And he said unto me, it is done.

I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of water of life freely.

He that overcomeeth shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my son.

We get to be part of God’s family when we enter into Christ through baptism.

We get an inheritance beyond anything that of kings on earth would ever gain.

Let’s move on to verse six.

Because he promises here and we have a nice transition, he says he’s going to give them

that are a thirst of the fountain of water of life freely in Revelation 21 six.

So let’s use that.

Who is him that’s a thirst?

Verse six tells us blaster they which do hunger and thirst after what?

Righteousness, not a steak from outback steakhouse.

for they shall be filled.

There are many kinds of hunger in life.

There are many kinds of thirsts in life.

You can wake up in the middle of the night and if you’re anything like my wife, you want

McDonald’s french fries, you’re hungry for it.

Sometimes you go to the restaurant and you really are thirsty for that Coca-Cola, but you

know what, all they have is Pepsi.

But there’s other hunger.

Mankind, I believe, have three…

central hungers.

And I have this in my notes.

We have a hunger for food.

We have a hunger for love, be that from above or from our fellow man.

And whether they admit it or not, all of mankind has a hunger for God.

We see this all throughout history because where there is an absence of the teachings of

God, people make up their own.

And even those that claim to be atheists who say there is no God, they instead worship

themselves, promoting themselves to Godhood.

Do they not?

So you see a hungering for God, for a ruler, a creator throughout all of mankind’s

history.

Most people understand physical hunger very well.

Me especially, because I’m on a diet right

What needs to be stronger?

Our hunger for food or our hunger for God?

Our hunger for God.

Let me ask, if a person, if everyone in this room took a challenge from me tonight and

went the next week without food, would it change the way you feel about some things?

Would you feel bad?

Would you feel really hungry?

Yeah, really hungry, right?

In the same way,

A soul that is not fed on the Word of God is going to starve far more than what your body

will starve going a week without food.

And yet, how many times throughout our lives do we sometimes go entire months without

cracking our Bible?

Now, I’m not accusing anyone in here, but I’m saying in general, there’s lots of people in

the world who haven’t cracked the Bible open in years.

These people are spiritually starving.

If someone says I don’t really hunger for God…

It’s not necessarily that they’re lying.

I’ve met, I’ve met people like that.

They haven’t said that exact phrase to me, but I think that they’ve already been filled

their stomachs to follow the illustration have been filled probably with self instead of

God.

It’s the equivalent between getting something wholesome and nutritious and eating a ton of

crappy junk food, right?

The thirst here in this verse is intense.

This is not just saying you’re a little thirsty for a drop here or there.

And it’s not saying a thirst for money, for power, for comfort, for success.

You’re not hungry for popularity.

The list goes on and on, but it’s he’s saying a hunger and thirst for righteousness, the

word of God.

And Jesus says those who hunger and thirst for right, the right thing are going to be

what?

Now, why is that?

How are we going to be filled?

Tell me, if you open up your Bible,

There are scholars who have spent the better parts of their lives, some 80 plus years if

they’ve lived up to their hundreds, studying the Bible almost every day.

Have they ever gotten to a full understanding of everything in that book?

Do you think if we took all the preachers at the Memphis School of Preaching and Aaron and

myself and Kennedy and we all put our heads together, we could finally figure out

everything that’s in that book?

No.

But just as deep as those waters are,

It’s very easy to understand.

You can wade through the top.

You can find salvation.

You can see the plan of salvation laid out very easily.

God does not make it hard to understand.

However, if you delve deeper, if you look deeper, if you take the time to really look into

it, there is a infinite wealth of knowledge.

We haven’t even scratched the surface of one book and his knowledge goes far beyond that

if the book

was equal to one grain of sand in all the world’s beaches.

His infinite knowledge is infinite.

It says that whenever he and I don’t remember the verse right off hand, I’m kind of

shooting from the hip, but he says that when he came up with the plan of redemption, even

the angels marveled.

These are people.

These are creatures or people that were here long before we were created.

And yet even they marveled.

at the plan of redemption.

The Word of God is an endless wealth of knowledge and we have only scratched the surface.

So can we be filled by it?

Absolutely.

It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet.

but we’ll move on to verse seven.

What is mercy by definition?

It is forgiveness, forgiveness specifically, though, to those that do not deserve it.

Do we deserve to be forgiven by our Savior?

No, no, no, we can never deserve God’s forgiveness.

That would say that we would have to earn it to some degree and we know we can never earn

it.

The merciful are forgiving.

They are people who are patient.

They are people who are compassionate.

Those that understand that you need something.

Someone get Colossians 3 and verse 13.

Yes, 313.

Bearing with one another and forgiving one another.

even as Christ forgave you.

I got $100 for anybody that can list a single sin that you can commit that God or Christ

will not forgive you of.

$100 right now.

There’s not.

What does this verse say?

Just as Christ forgave us, so also do ye.

So if one comes before us asking for our forgiveness, should we be willing to give it?

Yes, we should, because how dare we not forgive someone when we have done something far

worse by hanging Christ on the cross.

How can we expect His forgiveness if we ourselves are not willing to forgive?

And God says when He forgives, He tosses it over His shoulder into the deep.

It’s like it never happened.

We have to be willing to forgive those.

But be careful.

Does Christ forgive anyone who does not?

seek His forgiveness?

No, He does not.

Christ demands repentance and He demands confession as well.

Can we forgive those who sin against us or do something horrible?

We’ll just say for the sake of argument and illustration here, murder, right?

And I know I’m going to an extreme, but the, you know, it applies all across the board.

If they do not ask for forgiveness,

Can we take it upon ourselves to do something that Christ Himself will not?

No, we shouldn’t.

We have to follow His guidance.

Someone get Luke chapter 6 verse 37.

Judge not and you shall not be judged.

Condemn not and you shall not be condemned.

Forgive and you will be forgiven.

Forgive and you will be forgiven.

That’s a promise to each and every Christian out there.

If you are willing to forgive, you will be forgiven.

But the world likes to stop at judge not and you shall not be judged, right?

They love to stop there, but they never read the rest of the verse.

Move over one page to John chapter 7 verse 24.

When he says judge not, does he mean judge not at all?

Absolutely not.

He does not mean judge not at all.

As a Christian, it is our job to judge a very specific judgment, however.

So John chapter 7 verse 24 says, judge not according to the appearance, but judge what

kind of judgment?

Righteous judgment.

do we get righteous judgment?

Well, not just revelation.

You’re close.

We get it from God.

Where do we get God’s Word?

from the scripture, right?

So if we are going to judge righteous judgment, what do we have to measure someone up

against?

The Bible.

Absolutely.

It’s the same way as the builders that built this thing right here, this wall.

Typically in times of old, you would have had something called a plumb line.

It’s a weight on a string that would have held it straight up and down.

Our plumb line, as it were, is the word of God, is the gospel, is the good news.

It’s all the letters that we have from all the apostles, from John, from Peter, from all

of them.

But we have to use that as our measuring stick.

That’s our law book.

That’s our New Testament, right?

We’re not under the old law.

We’re not judging people by that per se, but the principles there, even Christ called them

the Old Testament, what?

Scripture.

He calls it scripture.

James 5, 9, however, takes it a little deeper.

He says not only forgive, but take a look at James chapter 5 and verse 9.

grudge not one against another brethren lest ye be condemned how many times do we hear

people say well i forgive you but man i’m just you’re not ever coming over here again do

we hold grudges we shouldn’t is god going to hold a grudge against us on the day of

judgment he said well i’ll forgive you i’ll let you into heaven but you’re gonna have to

sit in the back

No, of course not.

He says, do not hold grudges.

If someone comes to you meaningfully, heartfully, lovingly, sometimes in tears, asking for

your forgiveness, what should we do?

Do we do it completely?

Do we hold grudges?

No, we don’t hold grudges.

You’re on a roll, but in the wrong way tonight.

It’s necessary.

not just because.

Now, we are taught in the Bible that if you have fought against your brother, you what?

You go to them.

If someone has hurt you, that doesn’t mean you have to sit here and wait for them to

approach you.

Sometimes that’s the right thing to do.

Other times it is necessary for us to go to the brother and make our grievances heard.

If they’re repented at that time, absolutely.

Unfortunately, sometimes we get the door shut in our face, don’t we?

It’s not a good feeling because we want to reconcile with that brother.

we’re going to continue.

Can we hold that thought for a second because it applies to verse 9 and we’re getting to

verse 9.

So we’re gonna move on to verse eight and I will come back to that is the pure in heart.

It says, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

Now the pure of heart here would be undivided devotion to God.

Those that want God, those that have learned to love God to the sense of yes, we are to

fear God, absolutely.

But eventually as we learn more about God,

Our love should outgrow the fear.

Our want to follow God is out of love instead of out of fear of going to hell.

That’s how Christians grow.

I’m running out of time.

It’s sincerity without hypocrisy, guile or hidden motives.

That would be pure of heart.

It goes beyond outward morality and goes back to what we said at the beginning.

It’s inward integrity.

God has always cared about the heart.

and Jesus is teaching that what is hidden inside matters more than what’s displayed.

That being said, if your heart is right, what’s going to be displayed?

The right thing.

So we move on to verse nine, cause I’m running out of time.

Peacemakers.

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.

Notice Jesus says peacemakers, not peacekeepers and not troublemakers.

A peacemaker works to bring reconciliation.

You actively pursue that.

You want whatever problem to go on to cease going on and reconcile with your brother or

sister.

It’s pursuing them at the door, like you said.

However, Christ Himself was the ultimate peacemaker, was He not?

Yes.

Ephesians 2, 14, and I’ll get it because of time, says, for He is our peace, who hath made

both one and have broken down the middle of wall of partition between us.

Does peace take work?

Yes.

And sometimes, unfortunately, peace has to come in the form of silence.

If you go to the person at the door and they slam it in your face and they don’t want

anything to do with you or they’re simply yelling out of anger,

Are you creating peace by removing yourself from the situation sometimes?

Now that’s not ideal.

We want to reconcile that, but sometimes that’s unfortunately not possible in this world

because everyone has free will.

It’s not passive cowardice to have silence, but it’s the wisdom not to fight every single

battle.

And that’s something that I’ve had to teach myself recently too.

There are some times where peace has to come by simply stepping back.

You cannot force someone to like you.

cannot force someone to love you, unfortunately.

Well, we wouldn’t want to force them anyway, but some things are simply outside our

control.

And if they are outside of our control, they need to be outside of our minds from time to

time.

We cannot fix everything.

We are not the great physician, but who is?

God.

And that’ll wrap up the class.

I’ve noted that we got to verse 10.

I thought we’d get through section two, but we’ll save that for next time.

Thank you all very much.

1 Timothy – Introduction – Walker Cain – April 12, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, Christian living, church leadership, doctrine, faith, keywords Timothy, New Testament, Paul, sacrifice, Spiritual Growth by Aaron Cozort

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If you will, open your Bibles and we will mark your Bibles at 1 Timothy.

We will be looking around at some other passages, but we will come back to 1 Timothy and

spend the rest of our time there.

But today we’re going to look, we’re going to study the background and then look at the

first chapter of 1 Timothy, looking at some of the lessons that are there for us and the

way that what Paul told Timothy as a young preacher, how it applies to us today.

Looking at this, we’re first going to study Timothy himself.

First, we’re going to look at his background.

If someone could, please turn to at read and turn to you at 16 versus 133.

At 16 versus 133.

Here we will see the background of Timothy and also Paul choosing him in his mission.

Then he came to Derbe and Lystra and behold a certain disciple was there named Timothy,

the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed but his father was Greek.

He was well spoken of by brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium.

Paul wanted to have him go on with…

and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region where they

all knew that his father was Greek.

So we learned several important things about Timothy here.

First, Paul is meeting him on the second missionary journey.

Paul has already gone on his first.

He is now on this one and he wants extra help.

He wants more servants to be with him.

And then there’s this Timothy.

Now it says there was a certain disciple there.

Timothy was already a follower of Christ by the time we are introduced to him.

Later in our study we will see the fact that Timothy is called the son of Paul in the

faith.

It seems as though Paul had already been with Timothy beforehand, but now Timothy is going

to be a part of this mission.

Behold, there was a certain disciple there named Timotheus, a son of a certain woman,

which was a Jewess and believed, but his father was a Greek.

Timothy grew up in what seems to be a divided house.

His mother was a Jew.

She was an Israelite, one who worshiped God.

She was one who would not have gone had to have gone to the feast since she was a woman,

but she was one who was faithful to God from all that we can see.

While her father, his father was a Greek.

one who followed the heathen religion, one who did not necessarily follow the morals.

He was in a divided house.

However, he had his grandmother as well, Lois and Eunice, his two female ancestors, taught

him and showed him the correct way and he was willing to choose that over the liberties of

the heathen religion that he would also have been influenced by if his father was still

around.

Verse 2, which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra in Iconium.

Again, Timothy is already a Christian.

He couldn’t be well reported of by the brethren if he was not already among the brethren.

Him Paul would have to go with him and took him and circumcised him because of the Jews

which were in those quarters, for they knew all that his father was a Greek.

It’s not only a lesson in what he had to choose when he was a child, there’s also a lesson

in what he had to sacrifice as he was going on this mission, as he was going to go with

Paul.

He was already a Christian, but he is also going to show he is willing to face this

circumcision, something that was not necessary for him as a Christian to be able to reach

more souls.

This comes to us today when we think about, no, this is not something that we need to do

to have people be more receptive to what we teach.

But there are things that we must give up, things that we must be willing to learn to be

able to reach others.

My wife and I are going to be going to do mission work Lord willing afterward.

We’re going to have to learn different cultures.

We’re going to have to go out and say, okay, this is what they do on this day, this is

what they do on that day.

They don’t wear this, they do wear that.

Of course, all of that within God’s law.

And be willing to do what it takes for them to be more receptive to the message we have to

teach.

And that applies to us in our world today.

We want to get to know

people so that we can let them know God’s Word.

We want to know what their comforts are, their discomforts.

We want to become a Jew to the Jew, a Greek to the Greek, as Paul was willing to do.

We see Timothy’s background and we see his decision to follow what was right, even though

he would have had other influences in his life and the fact he was willing to sacrifice to

do what was right.

Now also turn to Acts 17.

which is just a little way away.

Acts 17 verses 14 and 15.

We see something else here.

Then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea, but Silas and

Timotheus abode there still.

And they that conducted brought Paul.

Paul brought him unto Athens, and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus, for to

go to him with all speed, they departed.

Here Timothy and Silas are left, and it would be in Thessalonica.

We can turn to 1 Thessalonians 3, 1 and 2, and to see more insight into what happened

here.

1 Thessalonians 3, 1 and 2.

If someone could read that, please.

During it, thought it good to be left in Athens alone and sent Timothy our brother and

minister of God and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ to establish you and

encourage you concerning your faith.

Okay, so with this, we have Jews who have come to Thessalonica and they’ve come to stir up

the pot.

Paul sees it better to go to Athens and to leave Silas and Timothy here to strengthen the

brethren.

This is a situation that is not going to be easy.

There are Jews that are trying to stir the pot of religion because they do not want the

Christian way being taught.

but Timothy is going to stay under pressure there.

He is going to stay under this and be willing to strengthen the brethren in this

situation.

He is one who is willing to sacrifice for the ministry as we saw earlier, and one who is

shown to be able to withstand pressure during this kind of situation.

Now, with this, with his sacrifice, and with the things that he was facing, he would show

ultimately a proven character.

1 Corinthians 417 shows this proven character.

For this cause have I sent unto you to Mothius, who is my beloved Son and faithful in the

Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach

everywhere in every church.

Timothy is going to be sent to the Corinthians.

Now this becomes even more emphatic when we think about the Corinthians.

He is going to have to bring the Corinthians a bunch of rowdy Christians into remembrance

of the things that they were to do, of the things that they were to know.

These were the ones who were so twisted and contorted, they were taking the idea of gifts

from God, miracles that were given to confirm the message, and they were using that to try

to puff themselves up

lift themselves over each other, even claiming that they speak in some unknown tongue,

with all of that being a discussion for a different day.

Timothy would go to them and put them into remembrance.

This is someone who Paul trusts with the word of God, even when it is brought before those

who are twisting it and contorting it.

We can also go to Philippians 2, 19 through 22 and see the same thing.

But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of

good comfort when I know your state.

For I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state.

For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.” Timothy is one who has

this natural care, one who sees other souls and says, you’re worth something.

You are one who is worth my time and effort because you are of God, because you are His

creation.

I want what’s best for you.

He has this natural care, this natural compassion.

Paul is often said to be the second greatest man to have ever lived.

We can all debate whether or not that is the case.

Whatever it is, Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ.

One who was willing to leave so many things so that he could serve his Lord and then he

suffered in that service.

And when you have the reference, when you have validation from someone like Paul, you’re a

good man.

You are a servant of the Lord.

Timothy is being shown to be someone who is an example for us to follow today.

He trusts him, he trusts to sendly, to sendly short, to shortly send to Mothius unto them.

that they may be of good comfort when I know your state.

He trusts Timothy not only to relay information that is necessary to the brethren, but to

also report it back accurately to Paul.

All of this is reflecting well on Timothy so far.

Then we can turn to 1 Timothy 412.

Let no man despise thy youth.

Timothy, with all that was good about him, he was also a young man, one who

was in the early stages of life.

Now, Paul at this time would have been in his older days.

He already had some years on him as a younger man when he came to Christ, when he turned

to Christ, Acts chapter 8.

But then he continued four years in service to the Lord, dealing not only with age, but

dealing with stressful situations, dealing with long days and long nights with the

brethren.

This is an older man who has faced struggles teaching a young

that is in his youth.

Now moving forward, turn to 1 Timothy 523, and we see another thing about Timothy.

Along with all of his strengths come things that he had to face as well.

1 Timothy 523, drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake, and

thine oft infirmities.

We’re not here to talk about what a little wine is.

We have seen this before.

It is the fact that if this was alcoholic wine, it was something that could have been

medicinal for him, and it doesn’t even have to be that.

can be he simply didn’t want the luxury of grape juice.

The point for us to take right now is the fact that he was dealing with oft-infermities.

He was dealing with struggles, not just being a perfect, healthy young man.

We often think about, he’s just young.

He’s not dealing with physical ailments right now.

He’s able to get up.

He’s able to go jump off a 20-foot cliff and be perfectly fine, get up, and then get back

to work.

Timothy was not one dealing with that kind of blessing at that moment.

He was human just like the rest of us, dealing with often infirmities.

But he had to continue serving his Lord through them.

Our struggles, they can hinder us, they can limit us, but we continue serving God through

them.

We do not just stop because we are facing something, we press forward.

There will be things that we cannot do.

Not all of us can go and do everything, but there is something that every one of us can

do.

He had to face this physical weakness and overcome it.

Also, he had to face some spiritual things in his life as well.

We’ll look at a couple of passages at this point.

Second Timothy, chapter one, verse three.

Second Timothy, one, three.

I thank my God.

Well, turn to 1 Timothy 1-3 rather.

I believe that is a faulty note.

1 Timothy 1-3.

Paul is going to introduce himself.

He is going to show that he is writing to Timothy and then immediately start with his

charge.

As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia, that thou

mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine.

Note that the first charge that Timothy receives isn’t,

you need to follow the proper doctrine.

Timothy is one who has proven his character.

He doesn’t seem to be struggling with following the doctrine himself.

What he is seeming to struggle, the thing with which he seems to struggle, is keeping that

charge among the brethren, keeping them on the straight and narrow as well.

Verse 7, this is the kind of people He’s dealing with, desiring to be teachers of the law,

understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm.

He was dealing with those who are trying to twist and contort God’s Word.

Now turn to 2 Timothy, verses 6 and 7.

2 Timothy 1, verses 6 and 7.

Timothy is dealing with this opposition.

Now how does he handle it?

Verse 6 and 7, Wherefore I put thee in remembrance, that thou stir up the gift of God

which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound

mind.

Through Paul’s writings to Timothy, there seems to be this implication that Timothy was

one who faced fear.

Don’t we all today?

Isn’t there always something that we’re always a little nervous about?

Something that we need to face even though it is not within our comfort zone.

Timothy was facing these false teachers.

He was facing those who wanted to come in and tear apart the beautiful church God had

created.

But he would have to stay faithful to what God was saying, stirring up the gift that was

in him, which was then miraculous gifts from the Holy Spirit, instead of letting those

things subside, letting those things gather dust because of fear, because of those who

would not follow what is proper.

Timothy was going to continue pushing past any fear that was in him.

1 Corinthians 16 verses 10 and 11.

at this point further.

1 Corinthians 16, 10 and 11.

Now if Timotheus come, see that he may be with you without fear, for he worketh the work

of the Lord, as I also do.

Let no man therefore despise him, but conduct him forth in peace, that he may come unto

me, for I look for him with the brethren.” This does not mean that Timothy faced more fear

than anyone else, but he does tell the Corinthians, don’t put him in fear.

treat him well.

He is coming to you and he is coming to you to do good service.

Do not go and terrorize him.

Whatever the case, Timothy would have to face his own fears and overcome them.

Again, the Corinthians, as we saw earlier, were those who…

A preacher that, let’s say a preacher just came out of preaching school and came to a

congregation like the Corinthians.

That would be a frightening task at the very outset because the Corinthians were a church

who had so many things going wrong, so many issues, and yet they needed fixed.

Otherwise, this church was not going to be following God the proper way.

Timothy was one who, as we have seen, he had a background that was divided, but he was

willing to stay on the proper path.

He was one who went with Paul on his second missionary journey.

He was willing to sacrifice to follow God’s way.

He was useful in difficult situations.

He had proven character.

He was a young man.

He had this physical weakness, and he had this fear, but he was able to overcome both of

them.

And with all of that, we come to His sincere faith.

2 Timothy 1, 3-3-7.

You cannot face these kind of things without proper motivation behind you, without

something that you truly believe in.

And Timothy certainly did.

If someone could read 2 Timothy 1, 3-3-7, please.

Therefore, I remind you to stir up this gift of God, which is in you through the laying on

of my hands.

For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but the power of love and of a sound mind.

Thank you, brother.

We read six and seven earlier, it starts that context of that starts previous as we just

read.

He has this genuine faith in this genuine faith.

was given by the words that he was taught.

Romans 10, 17, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

You cannot believe the proper thing and be taught the wrong thing.

He looked at the fact that he had this divided childhood, but he was willing to follow

what was proper.

is, there’s often given the idea that there’s three votes in our lives for what we are

going to do.

There’s God’s vote, there’s the devil’s vote, and there’s what we choose.

We have the deciding vote.

Timothy had both influences in his life, as every single one of us does, in one form or

fashion.

But he was willing to look at the evidence for what was true, look at God’s word that was

before him, and he said, this is what I’m going to follow, because it

has all that I need to believe it to be true because it is reality in and of itself rather

than following what was false.

This genuine faith would have been tested but it was reinforced and he followed what was

proper.

It’s interesting as well, Paul was persuaded

that Timothy had good faith.

What is faith in and of itself?

Hebrews 11, one, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things

not seen.

We have a circle here.

We have the idea that faith comes from evidence.

We look at evidence and we see the proof and we say, okay, I am going to act on it based

on this.

Now here’s what’s interesting.

Paul is then persuaded of the faith in Timothy.

Faith is going to say, is this evidence that I believe, and then faith is going to act on

that evidence.

Otherwise, how could Paul be persuaded this faith was in him?

Faith is both going to believe what is proper, and it is going to do what is proper.

Paul had faith in Timothy’s faith.

In this world that we, in which we live, will this world be able to see the faith that is

in us

and be able to realize, okay, there is something in them.

There is a faith that is in them.

We’re persuaded that there’s something different about them so that they want it as well.

Timothy’s faith was strong enough to act and then Paul to believe in it because he saw the

evidence of his faith.

With all of this, Timothy was one for us to emulate today.

and he is one who faced struggles, he is one that we can relate to him.

Now with all of that, let’s now look at 1st Timothy.

1 Timothy starting in verse one, chapter one, verse one.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus

Christ, which is our hope.

Earlier we discussed the fact that Timothy is often called Paul’s son in the faith.

They have a special relationship, and Paul is going to emphasize that in this.

First he says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

Timothy, as we discussed earlier, was facing all of this opposition.

He was facing these struggles.

How does Paul start?

If you are facing a workforce, if you are facing a job that is brand new to you, and you

are receiving encouragement, you’re getting a call, and it’s from someone that you love

and is experienced in the task, isn’t it comforting to know that they are experienced?

What if you have a father and he knows that his son is going into the same work he is?

Perhaps his son is going into preaching.

And that father tells his son, son, I’ve been a preacher for years.

I know what you’re going through.

I know what this is like.

Now we need to be careful saying I understand exactly what you’re going through because

none of us know exactly what someone else is going through at that time.

But there is the fact that we receive encouragement from those that can relate to our

situations.

Paul was one who was experienced, he had credibility, he had authority, he was one who

knew what it was like to face struggles and oppositions.

And that would be encouragement to Timothy.

He has this encouragement in that he is an apostle once sent from Christ, but also he can

trust in Paul’s authority.

He is an apostle once sent of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, by the commandment of God our

Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope.

Hope is an amazing thing.

It is one where there is excitement in what is to come.

There is an anticipation and an expectation.

We think of hope in our modern language, and often we think, well, I hope that my team’s

gonna win.

I hope that the Saints are going to make it to the Super Bowl again.

It’s probably not gonna happen anytime soon.

They lost Drew Brees and Alvin Kamara and all those great guys, and it just fell from

there.

Hope is not thinking, I hope this is going to be the case.

Not in the Bible.

In scripture, hope is similar to faith.

It sees evidence before it and is believing the things that it cannot see yet.

We hope for heaven.

That does not mean, man, I hope I’m going to make it.

I hope that I’m going to have followed God enough.

No, you can trust that you will make it.

Jesus is your hope if you follow His word.

This hope is an anticipation, an expectation even though we cannot see it and we can be

excited because of what is on the other side.

by the commandment of God our Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope, unto

Timothy, my own son in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father, and Jesus

Christ our Lord.

Timothy is called Paul’s son in the faith.

Now there’s a question we want to ask here.

If Timothy is Paul’s son in the faith,

What is Paul to Timothy?

Is it his father in the faith?

boy, do we have a whole issue here because he is using familial terms to describe those in

the kingdom?

We have a religion today who wants to talk about fathers, who wants to call teachers

fathers.

What does Christ have to say about that?

Well, in Matthew 23, 9, Christ says to call no man your father.

He goes into this discussion of the Pharisees.

And the Pharisees wanted to be known by titles.

They wanted to be known in ways that would lift them up.

They took this term of father and they wanted to use it to elevate themselves.

Now keep that in mind.

This is entirely different from what Timothy is doing here.

Timothy, or what Paul is doing.

Paul is taking this idea of my own son in the faith, this idea of relationship, and using

it to show camaraderie, to show connection.

The world takes relationships and uses it to elevate self.

While when we use relationships the right way, even Jesus Christ was willing to call the

apostles his friends.

He was looking for connection.

Now God is above all.

God…

is sovereign, but he still says he adopts us as children.

He wants that relationship.

This is entirely different from what the Pharisees were doing.

The Pharisees wanted these titles while Paul was showing a relationship.

In our lives today, do we seek elevation?

Do we seek to climb the corporate ladder of religion?

Or do we seek to help others climb and make it their way to heaven?

We must choose how we are going to interact with others, whether the way we interact is

based on what I want for me, how I want my pride to be elevated, or if it’s going to be

based on relationships that God has given us so we can serve Him to the best of our

ability.

Moving forward unto Timothy, my own son in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our

Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

We have grace, we have mercy,

and we have peace.

These are three beautiful words that we see throughout Scripture.

Now, what is the idea of grace?

First, let’s start with mercy.

Exodus 34, 5-7, Moses is on top of Mount Sinai.

The children of Israel have been wicked and they have been going against God’s way.

They have built a golden calf.

Moses has interceded for them.

And now he is on top of the mountain and the Lord has pardoned or at least decided not to

destroy the Israelites.

They are still going to face punishment, dire punishment, but they will not be destroyed

because God is merciful.

God describes who he is in Exodus 34, 5 through 7.

says, is merciful, gracious, and long-suffering.

That mercy there was willing to say, you deserve something that I am not going to give to

you.

You deserve this punishment.

You deserve this consequence because of the actions you chose, but you will not receive it

because I have chosen for you not to.

God gives mercy to those who are penitent.

Really, He gives mercy to

all of us every day with every single breath.

Mercy comes not only to the penitent, but it is only fully manifested, only fully enjoyed

by those who choose to follow God’s way.

Because then they receive the next thing.

We have mercy when you don’t receive what you deserve, but then we have grace, where you

receive something you don’t deserve.

Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

He found favor in the Lord’s eyes.

Now Noah, just like any other man, would have sinned.

But because of his relationship, the way he wanted to be faithful to the Lord, God was

willing to show him a way to be saved.

He was willing to show him how to build the ark, to teach him how to build the ark, and

then…

receive rescue from the destruction that was going to come to the world.

This grace comes throughout scripture.

We often hear it described as unmerited favor.

Is grace always unmerited favor?

If we think about Christ,

He has said as a child to have grown in wisdom and in stature and in favor with both God

and man.

That word translated favor there is charis, the same word translated grace here.

Grace is not always unmerited favor.

But in the context of how it applies to us and how it applies to how it is when we receive

things that we don’t deserve blessings we don’t deserve, it is certainly unmerited favor

for us.

There is this grace, this pardon of punishment.

There is mercy, this pardon of punishment.

There is grace, receiving blessings that you don’t deserve.

And then there is peace.

there is no way we can have peace without God’s mercy.

Because without mercy, we receive the punishment that we deserve.

We receive the second death.

We receive hell as our eternity.

But then, not only is there mercy, there’s the grace, which means that we are able to be

with God in eternity once again.

We are able to receive the love of God.

and we are able to receive everlasting life.

John 3, 16, for God so.

love the world, that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should

not perish, mercy, but have everlasting life, grace.

And peace is ultimately going to be when we are at one with God.

If we look at that word peace more closely, it carries the idea in the Greek of harmony,

of tranquility, but also the idea of as being as one, unity.

If we look at our world, we see turmoil in every turn.

We see nation that fights against nation.

These are things that happen throughout time.

It’s not a special sign for what’s happening today.

No matter who wants to say that what’s happening with American and Iran is something from

Revelation.

These are things that have happened throughout time because man has always been divisive.

He has always had a lack of peace because of selfishness.

But God wants reconciliation with his people.

That’s why he gives us mercy.

That’s why he gives us grace.

unto Timothy my own son in the faith.

Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

We have these three blessings, but they come only from God.

If you will turn to the book of James and look at chapter one, verse 17.

James one, verse 17.

every good gift and every perfect gift cometh from above and cometh down from the father

of lights in whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning.

Every good gift is from God.

Grace, mercy, and peace, those are from the Lord.

There are things that are enjoyed in this world that are not from God.

Just because someone enjoys alcohol, they think it’s a blessing, does not mean that that

blessing came from God.

In fact, those are things that are intentional circumstances made by man to make impure

substances.

Unless they’re used properly, by and large, how do we see it used?

That is not a gift that is from God because every good gift and every perfect gift is from

above.

Grace, mercy, peace, those things are from God.

they come down from the Father of lights.

Now with that God is the source of good gifts, but He’s also the only source of good

gifts.

If we want grace, mercy, and peace, if we want unity, if we want not to have to face those

things, it can only come when we follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

If we decide to push Him off from our lives, if we decide that our relationship with Him

is not important, how would we ever receive grace?

mercy, and peace.

We see homes that are torn apart because they do not follow God’s way.

Do they have peace?

When you have…

arguments that are based on the fact that people are not following God’s word.

And when you have children who are not willing to do what is right, you have a home torn

apart out of a lack of peace because they don’t follow God’s way.

And it happens with nations, it happens with the entire world.

But when we follow God’s way, we can have that which is from our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Turning back to 1 Timothy.

As I sought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest

teach some, that they teach no other doctrine.

Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions, rather than

godly edifying which is in faith, so do.” Verses 1 and 2 are powerful, but quickly Paul

gets into the meat of his discussion.

Often with other passages, Paul shows his thankfulness for the brethren, or thankfulness

for things God had done for them.

It’s interesting with the Corinthians, we’ve talked about them already.

When he talks about them, he says, thank God not for you.

He says, I thank God on your behalf.

He shows, even in his very words there, the kind of turmoil they were in.

But he does all of that before he gets into the real meat of his discussion, the practical

application of what he is saying.

With Timothy, he gets right into it.

As I have sought thee to abide still at Ephesus, that thou mightest teach some that they

have no other doctrine.

God’s doctrine is one and no other can be followed if we want to do the Lord’s way.

Now before we go into the idea of no other doctrine, let’s investigate this charge.

He was to charge some that they teach no other doctrine.

Timothy was a minister, a preacher, a teacher.

Now the idea of charge shows that what he was left to do was something that had authority

behind it.

This is the reason why when we have the gathered body of Christ coming together to

worship, coming together as the church, we have the men lead because men are to lift up

holy hands without wrath and doubting and they are to lead the congregation in worship

because teaching in and of itself

has authority behind it, this kind of charge because it says there is something you are

doing that is not right, and there is something that you need to do.

It is being a vessel of what God would have to say, not that there is any authority within

Timothy, not that there is any special power in him, but there is something that he has to

show the brethren.

Now, moving forward, he has to charge some that they teach no other doctrine.

If you will, someone please read Galatians 1, 6, and 7.

Galatians 1, 6, and 7.

This idea comes up in scripture before we get to 1 Timothy.

that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a

different gospel, which is not another, but there are some who trouble you and want to

pervert the gospel of Christ.

Okay, so we have two different words here.

We have one that shows the idea of another of the same kind and another of a different

kind.

Any gospel that is outside of God’s is not one of the same kind, but of a different kind.

The Greek word, allos, is the idea of another of the same kind.

You have two things that are of the same category, while heteros is two things of a

different category.

Any gospel that is not the one taught by God, other than the one administered by Christ,

is one of a different kind, one that is of a different category and therefore will not

have the same consequences, will not have the same benefits.

One that while it might seem more pleasurable on this earth, it is one that ultimately is

going to lead to damnation.

Paul will also tell the Galatians that if anyone teach any other doctrine, whether it be

men or angels, let them be accursed and he will say it twice because it is so important.

Knowing the proper doctrine is of utmost importance.

That is Timothy’s job.

It’s not just you need to teach what is right.

It’s that you need to teach that they teach nothing else.

We live in a world.

where liberalism abounds.

Now turn not to the right hand nor to the left.

People can go too far trying to bind rules that God has not made.

People can also go too far trying to loose things God has not loosed.

And both of those things are teaching a doctrine that is not from Christ.

Both of those things are going to lead to damnation and that is why Timothy must charge

some that they teach no other doctrine.

We must ensure that in our lives we aren’t just listening to the preacher.

We are not just listening to the person teaching Bible class.

We are not just listening to the podcast off of the famous Brotherhood Network.

We are looking at God’s Word and we are ensuring that what we follow is from Him first.

Tampering with God’s Word has dire consequences.

Revelation 22, 18 and 19, whether it be binding or loosing.

Moving to verse four, Paul gets into some of what these false doctrines were, some of

these things that they were teaching.

He says, neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions.

Rather than godly edifying which is in faith, so do.

We’ll close on this idea.

As Timothy moves forward, he is going to discuss edification.

The church has three main goals.

We have edification in and of itself.

We have benevolence and we have evangelism.

And benevolence really ties in to that evangelism.

And if it’s not evangelism, it’s helping the brethren.

It’s edifying them.

With those things, edification is the building up.

It is constructing something, strengthening.

The brethren are to be strengthened, this godly edifying which is in faith.

It is in belief of what God has said, it is in the system of faith that he has delivered

to us.

If there is anything that is not edifying of the brethren, it is not what Timothy is

supposed to teach.

We have these fables and endless genealogies.

Now, let’s make this connection.

We look at God’s word, and it’s often described as sustenance.

Man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of

God.

Also there is John chapter six where Jesus says, I am the bread of life.

And shows that whoever believes his words, they would receive everlasting life.

The bread, that was what he had to teach.

It was what he had to say.

Now what is it that they want to teach that Timothy has to warn against?

It’s these endless fables and genealogies.

The bread of life, that is sustenance that is going to help you get to heaven.

That is godly edifying.

It is going to help you follow your Lord.

While these fables and endless genealogies,

their fables, these were just stories, these were just legends, especially Jewish ones,

ones that would make us look like we were looking at someone with three heads.

They were weird.

They were not helpful.

They were not edifying.

And then there were these endless genealogies which were not even important for them of

that day because the Jewish religion…

was now no more.

Now there were still people following it, but these genealogies had no more weight in

religious matters, in God’s eyes.

These were spiritual junk food.

God’s word, God’s way.

Things that truly matter for salvation.

They are the bread of life.

They are what we must hear.

While anything else that we follow is spiritually junk food.

It is easy for us to get caught up in debates.

Did Adam have a belly button?

Those things are not going to help anyone.

We do not need endless fables or genealogies or things that minister questions that do not

edify the brethren.

We must make sure that our focus, while we can look at things and investigate different

ideas,

we must ensure that our focus is not on arguing with each other, not on trying to prove

some odd point that has no bearing on salvation, but rather that every single part of what

we are doing is to help the brethren get to heaven, to help strengthen the Church of God.

These endless fables and genealogies, they’re described as ministering questions rather

than godly edifying in faith.

This idea of minister, the word minister is usually used to describe service.

But here it’s the idea of they reach forth, they offer questions.

These endless genealogies, these fables, they offer all kinds of things to explore.

They offer all kinds of ways where we can investigate whatever we want to without actually

looking at God’s word.

Just like pleasurable things in this world that are inherently sin, there are things that

we can investigate that while they are not sinful, they are going to distract us from what

God has to say.

They offer something interesting.

They offer something we can follow, but they do not offer anything that will help us on

our way in serving God.

After that, Paul brings it back to the end of the commandment.

These things, they are not going to be godly edifying, but the things that are godly

edifying do those.

And now what is that?

Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a good heart and of a good conscience and

of faith unfeigned.

Charity, agape, selfless love that is willing to serve and it’s based on three things.

A pure heart, one that is not selfish, not looking for its own pleasures, one that is not

defiled with the immorality of this world, one that is of a good conscience, one that is

striving.

to do what is right, but also to know what is right.

A conscience isn’t good if it thinks it is in the right, but it’s been seared, as will be

seen later in 1 Timothy.

And a faith unfeigned.

A fake faith, imagine that.

Faith is about believing the evidence, of believing the truth.

But in and of itself, an unfeigned faith is a fake belief.

It is an entire corruption of everything God designed in faith in and of itself.

But charity out of a pure heart is true faith.

It is a good conscience.

It is a pure heart.

And that is what we must have if we are going to serve God to the end of the commandment,

to the ultimate goal of what He has.

Thank you for your time.

We will continue our study of 1st Timothy and

Restoring The Erring – Aaron Cozort – April 12, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, biblical restoration, Christian responsibility, church discipline, forgiveness, keywords restoring the erring, repentance by Aaron Cozort

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Good afternoon.

That song has always held a special place since I was a child.

It was my great grandmother’s favorite song.

And so we grew up when I was very young.

singing that song whenever we would go to Ma and Paws, that’s Salem, uh Arkansas, and

visit them.

And if my uncle was there invariably, uh she would get her grandson, my uncle, to lead

that song and he led it at her funeral.

Just always a spectacular song and one with a great message.

This afternoon, I wanted to spend some time with us examining

restoring the airing.

We’re going to examine this from four different perspectives as we go through the lesson

this afternoon, but…

The scripture, both Old Testament all the way through to the book of Revelation, speaks

concerning the need for restoring the airing.

It gives us examples of the airing being restored.

It gives us examples of those who are airing refusing to be restored to a right

relationship with God all throughout the text.

But what we’re going to do is evaluate this beginning first with their scenario.

What is the scenario of the person who is erring from Christ?

If we turn to Revelation chapter two, Paul, or sorry, Christ, as he is writing through

John, will write to the church at Ephesus, a congregation that is doing many, many good

things.

They’re doing many right things.

And yet he addresses a problem with what their heart.

is doing.

In Revelation chapter 2 and verse 1 we read, the angel of the church at Ephesus write,

These things says he who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst

of the seven golden lampstands.

I know your works, your labor, your patience, that you cannot bear those who are evil, and

you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars.

And you have preserved

or sorry, persevered and have patience and have labored for my namesake and have not

become weary.

Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the first works or else I

will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.

Consider first as we examine the scenario of the airing is that you can have an individual

who, or in this case a congregation, that is on the brink of being past Christ’s long

suffering.

We all recognize, or at least we should, that for a Christian there is an individual who

has access to the grace of God.

But God is clear that there is a point in which His grace runs out.

That is not to say there’s something too great for His grace to cover, that there’s some

sin too great for the blood of Christ to redeem us from, but as someone continues to walk

further and further and further away from God, God reaches a point where He says, my long

suffering and my allowance of my grace to cover your sin ends here.

Paul will write over in book of Romans, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

God forbid.

May it never be so, he says.

Now, one chapter over from Romans chapter six where Paul says that, Paul will make it

clear that there will be times in our lives where while desire to be obedient to God and

yet with our bodies we will do that which is wrong.

where we’ll desire to do what was right and we’ll end up doing what was wrong and that we

will be held accountable for it and yet now, he says, under Christ there is no

condemnation.

So we have the benefit of grace but John makes it clear, Paul makes it clear, there is a

point at which God’s long-suffering with our failure to obey runs out and you’ll notice

that Paul points out that the heart has something to do with it, the motivation has

something to do with it, and guess what?

John points out the same thing.

And John says, as he writes this message from Christ, I know your works.

I know the labor that you’re involved in.

I know you’re active.

I know you’re defending the truth.

I know you’re doing all these things, but I also know your heart is no longer in love with

God.

So consider the scenario is that for some who are erring, they’re still in the pews.

They’re still there every Sunday, they’re still there every Wednesday, they’re still

attending all the worship services and all the Bible classes.

They may be teaching, they may be preaching, they may be serving as an elder.

We know the church at Ephesus had elders because those elders came and met Paul as he was

journeying back to Jerusalem and they wept as Paul was leaving them knowing they would

never see him again.

But to that same group of elders, Paul said that there would be some from among their own

number who would rise up causing sheep to come after themselves and turning into wolves.

Now, as you look at this, you’ll notice that the airing can be inside the assembly or

outside the assembly.

They can be regular members.

They could be teachers, they can be preachers, they can be elders, they can be the person

who helped start the congregation.

Or in the case of Ephesus, they can be the whole congregation as a unit that have become

those who are erring from Christ.

Consider Psalm 119.

Psalmist writer in this Psalm that is this extended exposition about the glory of the Word

of God and God himself will write in Psalm 119, 176 and he’ll write, I have gone astray

like a lost sheep.

Seek your servant for I do not forget your commandments.

Second thing that we need to understand about the person who is erring is they may not be

erring because they’re ignorant.

Sometimes you will find someone who is erring from the truth, they’re erring from the Word

of God, they’re erring from faithfulness to God because they’re ignorant about God’s

commandments.

But Psalmist writer as he writes concerning himself says, that’s not my problem.

And yet he’s pleading with God to seek him, to find him, to bring him back because he

knows God’s commandments.

And so you see here the struggle that sometimes the person might be erring because of

ignorance.

Sometimes they’re erring not because of ignorance, but because something else.

has gotten a hold of their lives.

Jesus, as He spoke concerning the sower, would describe the fact that the sower would go

forth to sow and He would send that seed out and some of it would land on the wayside soil

and would never penetrate.

It was the paths that were walked in between the fields and it would sit on that path and

it would never go into the ground, it would never penetrate into the ground, it would

never produce anything, and the birds would come by and they’d pluck it up and Jesus says

that’s Satan.

Taking the word of God out of the hearts and the minds of individuals and they never will

become receptive to it.

But then Jesus also describes the thorny soil.

He describes the one who the seed goes down in and it’s, you know, at the right time of

year, the time of planting, the time when you put something in the soil and guess what?

It’s gonna come up no matter where it lands.

And the seed goes down into that soil and it begins to spring up, but as it springs up,

also come up the thorns and the brambles and the things that are there on the edges of.

of the land that’s been prepared for the seed.

And as that thorny soil produces both the seed and the plant and the thorny soil produces

the thorns and the things that are going to choke it out, you see there the Word of God

going into the heart and the mind of a person who’s still overcome with the cares of the

world.

And the cares of the world choke out the Word of God.

Sometimes it’s ignorance.

But then again, Jesus describes the stony soil where the seed goes into the soil, it

begins to grow, begins to germinate, it begins to sprout, and the plant begins to rise up,

and it’s growing and it’s looking great, except there’s no depth.

And because there’s no death when the heat of the summer sun comes out, it withers and

dies.

because the soil is not right.

Sometimes it’s because somebody’s ignorant, sometimes it’s because they have no depth in

themselves.

We need to be aware about the scenario of the lost.

If you turn over to, sorry, Luke chapter 15.

Luke chapter 15, Jesus in a prolonged parable, not three parables, one parable, will speak

concerning

four different groups of…

uh to four different groups that are lost.

He will speak concerning the coin that is lost.

He will speak concerning the sheep that is lost.

He will speak concerning the son that is lost.

And he will speak concerning the elder brother who is lost.

But as you consider the parable of uh the lost son, notice verse 11.

A certain man had two sons.

The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to

me.

So he divided them to them his livelihood.

And not many days after the younger son gathered altogether, I’m gonna get my words out

tonight.

And not many days after the younger son gathered altogether, journeyed to a far country

and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.

But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land and he began to be in

want.

Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country and he sent him into his

fields to feed swine.

and he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate and no one

gave him anything.

But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father’s hired servants have bread

enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger?

I will arise, go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven

and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

Make me like one of your hired servants.

And he arose and came to his father.

And when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and

fell on his neck and kissed him.

And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight and am no

longer worthy to be called your son.

But the father said to his servants, bring out the best robe and put it on him and put a

ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.

and bring the fattened calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry.

For this my son was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found, and they began to be merry.” As you notice this example that

Jesus places before those who he is teaching, you’ll notice that here is an individual

who, of his own choosing, became one who was erring.

out of his own desire to participate in the evil and the sinfulness of the world, took not

only his own life, his own existence, his own energy, but he took half of everything his

father had ever produced and squandered it.

And as he reaches, as we might term it, rock bottom.

He realizes as he is doing that which a Jewish young man would be aghast at doing, feeding

the swine, and not just feeding the swine, but desiring to eat what they’re eating.

He is so hungry in his current situation.

He is outcast, he is ignored, he is being actively starved to death in his scenario.

and he realizes where he’s come from.

He’s realizing exactly how far he has fallen and he determines to repent.

But consider that sometimes some of the barriers to repentance is that someone who is

erring imagines what their new scenario will be like.

Imagine if this young man had thought concerning his scenario and said, you know what, I

can’t go back.

I will never again hold the position that I had.

ah I can’t go back.

I was once well respected and no one knows where I am now.

Everyone thinks maybe I’m dead or I’m gone, but no one knows my current state.

They’ll never accept me for who I am.

Sometimes people spend time not repenting because they’re too afraid of the new scenario

if they do.

because they’re considering in their own mind what it’s going to be like, how people are

going to treat them.

This young man is determined, I’m going to go to my father and I’m going say, you can’t

put me back as your son, you can’t raise me up above the servants, no, no, make me your

lowest servant because the lowest servant in your house is still better than what I’ve

got.

And yet you’ll note that his perspective and his opinion on how things should be moving

forward was completely ignored.

He was welcomed back.

He had been sought after in a way, for the Father had been watching for him to return.

He was brought back with open arms.

He was accepted and everything was forgiven by most, not all.

But as far as his relationship with his father was concerned, he was restored back to

life.

He was accepted back home.

In Galatians chapter six, Paul, as he is writing to the churches of Galatia, who he opens

his book by writing to them his letter and writing to them, letting them know that they

are turned aside from the truth.

And so quickly after they received it.

But in chapter 6 verse 1 he says, brethren, if man is overtaken in any trespass, you who

are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you

also be tempted.

Paul, as he writes to these Christians, says, those of you who are spiritual, now be

careful with that phrase because

Quite often we all consider ourselves to be spiritual, right?

The person who looks at themselves and ignores what the Word of God says is, I’m pretty

spiritual.

Paul is using this phrase to describe someone who is right with God.

And one of the biggest struggles we have in restoring those who have gone off into false

doctrine is that the people who are actively ignoring God’s Word in pridefulness in their

lives and in their actions and in their teaching try to be the ones to restore the person

who’s gone off into false doctrine.

And guess what?

It doesn’t really work to have someone who’s separated from God because of pride to tell

someone who’s separated from God because of doctrine that they need to repent.

Because the person who teaches false doctrine will see right through the pride.

And say, wait a minute, you’re telling me to repent?

Look at your life.

See, Paul says, no, no, no, no, no.

First, you consider yourself, lest you also be tempted.

Jesus had taught in Matthew chapter seven, judge not that you be not judged, for with what

judgment you judge, you shall be judged.

And.

Paul is bringing that forward here to restoring the air and he says, you, before you go

out, before you start visiting the person who’s wayward, before you start trying to insist

that they need to repent, you shine the light on you first.

You get your life right before you start going to get them to get their life right.

But then he also says, bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Paul emphasizes that it’s going to be very hard to restore the airing if all you plan to

do is increase their burden.

I mean, that’s what everybody wants to be restored back to, right?

They were carrying a burden of sin, now they’re bearing a burden of guilt and sin.

And they’re no better off than they were when they were first told to repent.

Jesus will point out concerning the Pharisees, you remember Matthew chapter 23 as he gives

those woes, that they would search heaven and earth to go find one person who was a

Gentile.

to be a proselyte, to become a Jew, to repent of their pagan ways and make them twice the

child of hell than they already were.

We need to be careful that as we strive to restore the airing, we don’t become the airing.

But then consider not only their scenario, but our responsibility.

Galatians chapter six, verses one and two right here in this text, before we leave this

text, let us consider that we have a responsibility to those who are overtaken in a

trespass.

Brethren, we don’t belong to a social club.

We don’t belong to a polite society organization.

We don’t belong to a group of people who are perfect, walking in immaculate, flawless

perfection.

We are Christians who are righteous by the blood that atoned for our sins for which we

could never atone for our own sins.

And as we consider one who is overtaken in a trespass,

We need to remember exactly where we came from.

For in Romans chapter 5 it is made clear that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for

the ungodly.

But then consider as well that we need to be, as we look here in this passage, we need to

be those who are willing to restore the airing.

Sometimes you have individuals who are living their lives and participating in the body of

Christ and someone goes off and someone becomes wayward and we’re just like, well, I guess

they’re gone.

Maybe they’ll come back.

We don’t give it a second thought.

We don’t give it a second effort.

I guess if they’ll come back, they’ll come back.

No, it is part of our responsibility to restore those who are erring.

That doesn’t mean we’ll always be successful.

It means it’s our responsibility to try.

But it is also our responsibility to bear with one another’s burdens and fulfill the law

of Christ.

Consider James chapter five.

James, as he writes this passage, this section of Scripture that is fundamental to

practical applications within the lives of individuals, he will write as he closes out

that letter, brethren, if anyone 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.

James makes it clear that not only do we have a responsibility to do so, but there is a

blessing to those who do so.

And even better, if they consider and they see their brother wandering off into sin and

they restore them, and no one ever knows the brother wandered off.

No one ever knows that the person had become erring.

Rather, they were restored to the truth and they’re set back in a right relationship with

God.

But another point is to be made here and that is that just because someone has gone off

into error and is restored back to the truth doesn’t mean that there is a requirement by

God that all of their sins be broadcast.

All of the things that they messed up, all the things that they did wrong needed to be

declared to everybody around them.

That’s not what the Bible teaches.

Rather that the one who does this, the one who turns a sinner from the error of his way,

covers a multitude of sins.

We are not in the business of spreading dirty laundry.

We are in the business of washing people clean in the blood of the Lamb.

I don’t know about you, but if you gave me the choice between spending time with a bunch

of people’s clean, well-laundered garments and a bunch of people’s soiled, dirty, nasty

post-work-in-the-muck-and-mud garments, I know which one I’d prefer to be around.

But reminder, you know, even those of us, if we use the example of the garments, even

those of us who go about our daily lives might not have participated in it a whole lot by

way of hard labor and yet still find out those clothes still need to be washed.

just because we didn’t spend the whole day in the sewer doesn’t mean we don’t need to be

about washing our own clothes.

And it’s certainly not the case that we need to be going around criticizing other people’s

clothes if we’re not even washing our own.

Jude will write, this half-brother of Christ by all indications of both history and

tradition will write as he concludes his letter, verses 22 and 23 of Jude chapter one, he

says, but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment

defiled by the flesh.

Jude will point out,

that there are some individuals who will depart from Christ.

There are some individuals who will go off into error that we need to grasp, as it were,

by the nape of the neck the way you would a child who’s about to step into a fire and rip

them back.

And he says, you need to hate the sin.

You need to show compassion to the one who’s overtaken in it.

1 Timothy chapter 5, Paul as he writes to Timothy,

will write to this young man who is in Ephesus, who is working with his congregation that

Paul loved so much.

He will write to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 5 and beginning in verse 19 and say, not

receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses.

Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all that the rest also may fear.

Now, part of the responsibility of the church is to restore the person as quietly as

possible.

We use Matthew chapter 18 as the example.

Jesus says, the one who’s been sinned against, go to the person who sinned against you

privately.

And if he repents, you’ve regained your brother.

If he will not hear you, take two or three witnesses.

and perhaps He will hear them.

If He won’t hear you and He won’t hear you and two or three witnesses, then you’re going

to have to take it to the assembly.

And the whole assembly is to try and to get that individual to turn from the error of

their way.

You see, as we mentioned before, we’re not in the business of broadcasting people’s sins.

We’re in the business of restoring the airing.

But Paul will point out even when it comes to an elder, he says, number one, you don’t

accept an accusation against an elder unless they come with witnesses.

There is not one person who’s allowed to make an accusation against an elder unless they

have witnesses.

And the reason is because the elder should have demonstrated already by their life and

their actions and their qualifications to hold that office that their character is above

reproach.

So if their character has already been examined to be above reproach, you’re not going to

accept any testimony unless it comes with witnesses.

But Paul says if that witness and that testimony comes and is proved to be true, you don’t

get to rebuke that elder privately.

You don’t go to that elder in quiet.

You have to do it openly.

You have to rebuke them publicly so that the rest of the congregation knows and recognizes

God holds even the leaders accountable.

You step back and think of all of the disruption and all of the nonsense that goes on in

our lives and our daily lives in this country as a result of leadership in the country

that is never held accountable for the wrong that they do.

God says that’s not how my church operates.

He says you address this publicly.

Turn to Luke chapter 23.

Luke chapter 23 and in verse 33.

We find Jesus on the cross and we read, when they had come to the place called Calvary,

there they crucified him and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the

left.

Then Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.

Consider part of our responsibility is to be number one in a right relationship with God,

number two.

with a heart willing and ready to forgive.

Now there’s something interesting about this passage and this statement.

As Jesus makes this declaration to God, makes this request to God, it is not

unconditional.

It is rather a request on behalf of those who have not yet repented.

You turn over to Acts chapter 2 and Peter as he is preaching is going to confront many of

the exact same group of people who have just with their own hands crucified the very Son

of God and Peter doesn’t say but don’t worry you’re already forgiven for it because Jesus

prayed for you.

That’s not what he preached.

He preached rather that they were accountable for it and they were guilty.

And he commanded them to repent.

and be immersed in water for the remission of their sins.

It is possible to pray that God will forgive someone and still it be necessary for them to

repent.

Because God’s forgiveness always requires repentance.

So then consider as we move on from our responsibility, what do we do when they do repent?

How are we to behave?

How are we to act when they do repent?

Again, James chapter five.

James chapter five will point out this very idea.

James will tell us that the individual who wanders from the truth and someone turns him

back, let the one who does this know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his ways

will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.

We are to realize that when the person repents, we have converted them back to salvation.

Before we move on from this, let us consider that there are some physical actions that

have long-term physical consequences.

that are not immediately resolved or wiped away by a person’s repentance.

An individual who has murdered someone can be forgiven of the murder.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences for their actions.

David might have remained on the throne.

David was forgiven by God, but you might consider in the life of David and in his family,

there were an abundance of long-term consequences for the actions that David participated

in.

in regards to Uriah.

David brought catastrophe on his own house by his sin, even though he was forgiven just a

short time after he committed it.

There’s a difference between consequences for actions and forgiveness.

But James will point out that the person who has been restored is no longer to be held as

though they are still sinning.

They are to be considered a convert the same way as if they had just put on Christ.

It is important for us to realize that we do not put people on a pardon system after they

repent.

All right, well, we’re going to watch it for about six months and see whether you step out

of line again.

No, they’re forgiven.

We don’t take a new convert who’s just come out of a life of sin, just put on Christ, been

immersed in water for the remission of their sins and say, hold on, we’re going to watch

it for about six months, see if this actually takes.

No.

And yet too often, congregations do that very same thing.

Turn to Matthew chapter 18.

Matthew chapter 18 in this passage we already mentioned earlier, Jesus will point out,

beginning in verse 15, moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell his fault

between you and him alone.

And if he hears you, you have gained your brother.

Jesus says if He’s willing to repent right then and there, you’re back.

God’s restored the relationship between you and one another and between Him and you and

the situation is done.

need not go any further.

Psalm 51, this passage attributed to David in the scenario of Uriah and Bathsheba and the

sin that was committed.

We read in Psalm 51,

Beginning in verse 10, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit

within me.

Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me by your generous Spirit.

As David writes these words, he wants his relationship with God to be restored, and he

wants his joy to be brought back.

It is no surprise that Jesus, as He gives those passages in that parable in Luke chapter

15, after every single occasion where someone is restored, Jesus will point out that there

is a rejoicing that occurs in heaven over the restoration of a sinner.

And David prays for joy.

Over in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, those who were familiar with 1 and 2 Corinthians will

know that in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, Paul will write to the church at Corinth telling

them that they are needing to withdraw from a brother who is there who has his father’s

wife.

And as 2 Corinthians opens, the indication of the text is that

that they had done exactly what Paul told them to do and that the man had been restored.

But now they need to be counseled about how to treat him now that he has been restored.

So in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 and in verse 6, he says, this punishment was inflicted by

the majority is sufficient for such a man.

That is, their withdrawing fellowship from him.

He says, so that on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and to comfort him.

lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow.

Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love to him, for to this end I also wrote that I

might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things.” Paul says, here’s this

brother, he was often sinned, he was committing adultery, he was withstood to the face by

those of this congregation, now that he’s repented, you come

HIT HIM!

You restore him to a relationship, a fellowship with the whole body of Christ.

You don’t continue to stand off from him.

You don’t cause him more and more and more sorrow even after he’s repented.

But then consider, there’s an obligation when we consider restoring the airing for before

they go astray.

It is unfortunately true that there are those within the body of Christ who will depart

from the truth, but certainly we should learn that there are those who are wandering from

the truth who could be put back on the right path before they depart.

Hebrews chapter 12.

in this chapter where the Hebrew writer has just given them an example of those in the Old

Testament who were the hall of faith as we’ve often described it, will now write to them

and say in chapter 12 and in verse 12, therefore strengthen the hands which hang down and

the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be

dislocated but rather be healed.

Paul uses the analogy of a limb and he says you have an injury.

You have someone who’s struggling within the body.

You don’t look at the injured limb and go, tough luck, get over it, we’re gonna go on

without you.

And as it tries to keep up, it goes from being slightly injured to basically being broken.

He says you’ve made the matter worse.

You don’t do that.

Rather, you bind it up.

You make up for it.

You exert extra effort so that it has time to repair.

And then you move forward with a body that is fully functional.

He says, pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness

springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.

lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold

his birthright.

For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for

he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.”

Paul pushes forward from the Old Testament uh a perspective for us of Jacob and Esau and

the damage that was done to Esau by the action of his brother who did not take compassion

on his scenario, who did not allow for his weakness to be an opportunity to serve him, but

rather used it as an opportunity to gain from him.

And Paul tells us what the Old Testament didn’t.

that Esau wept as he sought every way possible to regain his birthright, and there was

not.

We need to be careful when it comes to those who are weak, that we don’t cause them to

stumble, but rather we cause them to become strong.

Galatians chapter 6, we won’t look at it again for the sake of time, we already have, but

we need to bear one another’s burdens.

I’m gonna pick on my children for just a moment.

Occasionally I hear in my house,

But that’s not mine when they’re told to pick up the things that are around the house.

You know, we sometimes have that attitude as adults.

Well, I’m not the one causing the problem.

Well, I’m not the one who’s got the bad attitude.

Well, I’m not the one who’s causing disruption among this group or that group.

I’m not the one who’s in the stick of the mud who won’t change.

I’m not gonna help that person.

Their attitude is wrong.

When they change, I’ll have something to do with them again.

God says, no, you don’t.

Because when your attitude was wrong and when your action was wrong and when everything

you did only led you to be more and more separated from me, I gave my Son to die on the

cross for your sins.

So bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

By the way, that’s what that is talking about.

That we live out in exemplification in our lives the actions of Christ exhibited by His

sacrifice for us.

But then consider Luke chapter 22.

You find an example in the life of Christ as Jesus is going to tell Peter that he’s going

to deny him three times.

Luke chapter 22 verse 31, the Lord said to Simon, Simon indeed, Satan has asked for you

that he may sift you as wheat.

But I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail.

And when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren.

Notice that as Jesus knew that Peter was going to be tempted, Jesus prayed for Peter.

And Jesus being all-knowing, something that by the way we are not, knew that Peter would

still sin, but he also knew that Peter would return.

So Jesus prayed not only for him to be strong before he sinned, that he might avoid sin,

he also prayed for him to be strengthened after he sinned.

But he said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.

Then he said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall uh not crow this day before you will

deny me three times that you know me.

Verse 54 of that same chapter, we read, having arrested him, they led him and sought and

brought him into the high priest’s house.

But Peter followed at a distance.

Now, when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the courtyard and sat down together,

Peter sat among them.

and a certain servant girl, seeing him as he sat by the fire, looked intently at him and

said, This man was also with him.

But he denied him, saying, Woman, I do not know him.

And after a little while another saw him and said, You are of them.

But Peter said, Man, I am not.

Then after about an hour had passed another confidently affirmed, saying, Surely this

fellow also was with him, for he is a Galilean.

But Peter said, Man, I do not know what you are saying immediately, while he was still

speaking.

The rooster crowed.

And the Lord turned and looked at Peter.

Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he said to him, before the rooster crows,

you will deny me three times.

So Peter went out and wept bitterly.

Jesus did not give up on Peter because Peter denied him.

Rather, Jesus spoke to Peter while there was still a chance for Peter to change and do

what was right and tried to strengthen him.

And then Jesus confidently reminded Peter that after he returned, after he was restored,

he would be accepted back.

2nd Thessalonians chapter 3.

Paul, as he writes to this church at Thessalonica, will tell these brethren, because

they’re dealing with those who are departing from the faith, they’re dealing with those

who are not walking uprightly.

He says in verse 13, but as for you brethren, do not grow weary in well-doing.

If anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company

with him that he may be ashamed.

First, Paul says, you do good.

before someone ever departs.

Make it your action, make it your habit, make it your life to do good.

We will never restore someone who’s lost by participating in the actions of the person who

is lost with them.

We will rather have the opportunity to restore them by not wavering from the truth.

But he also says, yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

Paul, as he wrote to the church at Thessalonica, those brethren that you’ve got in your

congregation that are turning away from the truth, that aren’t doing what they ought to be

doing, you don’t treat them like they’re enemies.

You admonish them, you encourage them, you exhort them, you teach them, and you do so as a

brother.

But you don’t fellowship their actions.

You don’t participate in their sin.

You seek to restore them in a humble heart.

You’re here this afternoon.

If you’re outside the body of Christ, know this.

The church is not made up of perfect people.

It’s made up of redeemed, washed in the blood of the Lamb, individuals who are imperfect

people, who the only time they look perfect

is when no one sees them, they just see Christ.

But if you’ve wandered from the truth, if you’ve departed from the right path, from

righteousness and of faithfulness and fellowship with God, you can be restored.

There was a man who became a Christian.

He had become a Christian and as he became a Christian, he had been hearing someone

teaching the truth, preaching the truth, and every day he spent time with that individual.

He wanted to hear more and more and more and more.

but his past caught up with him.

So one day down the road, two individuals came from another city and they were giving the

ability to perform miracles to all these Christians.

And this man saw that they had the ability to pass on the miraculous and he allowed his

old lifestyle to come back.

He allowed his old heart to go once again.

become a part of his life and he sought to purchase the ability to pass on miracles.

For that individual, Peter responded that he needed to repent and pray that the very

thought of his heart might be forgiven him.

That’s exactly what we’re told to do for those who are Christians who depart from the

truth.

They’re told to repent.

And in 1 John chapter 1, God makes it clear that if they will confess their sin to him, he

is faithful and just forgive them of that sin.

and to restore them to a right relationship with a God.

If you have need of that repentance, if you have need of that restoration, if you have

need of the prayers of the church, you can have that today.

But may I make it clear, you can have it any day of the week.

You don’t have to wait till Sunday.

If you have need of the invitation of our Lord, it stands always open and available.

Why not come now as we stand and as we sing?

The Mystery of Jesus’ Life In Song – Ben Shanks – April 12, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, biblical lessons, Christian faith, God's Plan, Gospel, keywords Jesus Christ, sacrifice, temptation, Victory in Jesus by Aaron Cozort

image

Number 176, Lamb of God.

Your holy son no sins to hide, but you have sent him from your side to walk upon this

guilty side and to become the lamb.

uh

Your gift of love they crucified, They laughed and scorned him as he died.

The humble king they named the fraud, And sacrificed the Lamb of God, O Lamb of God!

sweet lamb of God, I love the holy lamb of God.

Oh, watch me in His precious blood, my Jesus Christ, the Lamb of

I should have died, but you have brought me to your side, to be led by your staff and

brawn, and to be called a lamb.

Sweet Lamb of God, I love

O watch me in His precious blood, My Jesus Christ the Lamb of

Please join with me in prayer to our Lord.

Dear God, our Father, we come to you this morning acknowledging that you are the one true

and living God.

And God, we cannot begin to thank you enough for everything that you do for each and every

one of us each and every day.

We are especially mindful of the sacrifice that your son Jesus made when he gave his life

so that we, if we truly believe and faithfully follow your word and are baptized.

and repent of our sins that we have that opportunity to join you one day in heaven and

live with you for eternity.

Lord, we come to you and we want to thank you for those amongst our congregation here that

have had improving health.

We know that is because your hand was involved in that.

And Lord, we’re also mindful of those that are still uh struggling with physical

difficulties and ask that you be with them, especially mindful of Michael Stacks and ask

that you help him to continue to recovery from the surgery that he had.

And we’re also mindful of Wade and we understand, know, Wade is

going through a lot of painful skin grafts and stuff and just ask that you be with him and

comfort him as only you can and have that pain that he endures at each and every one of

those skin grafts be as minimal as possible.

Lord, we ask that you help us to understand the message that’s being brought to us this

morning and the messages that will be brought to us throughout this day as we assemble

here to worship your great name and use that message to further our faith in

you and to always be faithfully following you and putting you first in our lives.

And we ask that you help us to make the songs that we’re singing to you and this entire

worship service ah pleasing in your sight.

Lord as we uh go about our day to day ask that you give us the strength and the courage

that we need especially if we encounter those that are not believers of yours or have not

even heard of you to open their eyes and their hearts and their minds and get them to

understand that you are the one true living God and that they need to dedicate their lives

to you so that everyone has that same opportunity and that is the opportunity to live with

you in heaven for eternity.

Pray all this through your son Jesus name, amen.

Good morning, everyone.

I know we have a few visitors with you.

I want you to be assured I’m not the normal preacher today, but we’re going to have a

little different style of service.

Wanted to take a look at Jesus through a slightly different lens than we normally look at

the gospel message.

What…

I kind of like to do is frame up this as in the style of a caper movie.

Anybody who’s familiar with the caper movie, it’s a movie that is sort of like Ocean’s

Eleven or Tinker Tailor Soldier’s Side.

It’s not always criminals who are the protagonists.

Sometimes it’s spies, sometimes it’s army movies, but there’s something that’s going on

that’s a mystery to the people who the, whether it’s a con or whether it’s a job that’s

being done.

And it’s almost like a mini mystery movie.

And I wanted to take just a few minutes to ah kind of look at the mystery that is revealed

with Jesus’ life and Jesus’ death, the mystery that’s commonly talked about by Paul.

And having the growing up in the background of musical theater, I figured we’d do it as a

musical.

So we’ll be singing songs as we go ah through this frame of what, a little bit of what

this looked like from the world’s perspective.

um So if you look at John,

Chapter One.

In John chapter 1, we have those who finally understood what was going on, because it was

a mystery to the apostles most of the time that they were with Jesus also.

And in John chapter 1, starting in verse 1,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God, all things came into being by Him, apart from Him,

nothing came into being that has come into being.

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness did not comprehend it.

So here we see the setup for this story.

We see that Jesus was there at the beginning.

We see that he was actively involved in the process, so much so that he is the actual word

of God.

And we see this word remained a mystery to the world.

It remained a mystery to Satan in the fact that the darkness

could not comprehend it.

We see a setup here that John is delivering that lets us know that the world and the

darkness have no idea what’s coming for them.

They don’t understand God’s plan because they can’t begin to fathom it.

And it’s a plan that has been obvious since the initial promise was delivered to Eve, but

they couldn’t comprehend it at all.

We see back in Genesis chapter one, where John’s referring to here, we see the world.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was formless and

void, and the darkness was all over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was

moving over the surface of the waters.

This is the state that the world was in before the first day of creation.

where God granted light.

Before that it was formless and void.

Interesting words, in Hebrew they rhyme.

It’s tuhu-bahu.

And it literally means, if we were to translate it more directly than formless and void,

it means chaos.

and without any discernible pattern to it.

This is what the world was like.

And what God does over the next six days is he builds a pattern into the world.

Later on when we see these words used, these two who, but who, it is often used in

reference to the wilderness.

Jews to describe what God left to the adversary.

If you look over in Leviticus, chapter 16, chapter 16, you get into the law of atonement.

And the sacrifice for the law of atonement was two animals.

There’s the animal that we call the animal of sacrifice that’s offered to God.

And what we refer to as the scapegoat.

That translation is a little difficult because it literally means when they go through

this, it says, the goat for Yahweh and the goat for Azazel.

Azazel being the demon of the wilderness.

And it is an offering that takes the sin of Satan back to Satan.

That’s what the Israelites were doing with this atonement.

And that goat is ran out of the city into the wild, into the wilderness, into that tohoo,

bahoo.

So as we see over the course of time, God loves the world so much that he keeps making

promises that he’s going to keep.

but that promise is ruined by the people he’s keeping it for.

We see him make a promise to Abraham following Eve.

We see that promise to Abraham delivered in that in him all nations would be blessed.

The Children of Abraham ruined the other two promises.

They didn’t accept that they were his people.

And because of that, they lost the land.

They became a multitude, but they became a multitude living in sin.

Very few of the Israelites remained faithful.

We see that promise further delivered to Isaac, further delivered to Jacob, and in Jacob,

it’s distributed amongst 12 clans.

And those 12 clans have a promise delivered down through Judah.

And through Judah, it’s delivered down to David.

So this promise that the world will be saved is narrowed in its focus over time.

Till finally, the promise is delivered one night at a little town called Bethlehem.

to a virgin named Mary.

who didn’t know what kind of world she was in for after this.

But at the same time that that promise gets more and more focus over time, God is helping

his people learn what service to him means.

And we have between Abraham and Moses, we have an entire tribe of people

who disappear twice into history.

We have the tribe that came from Ishmael.

We have the tribe that came from Esau, who we see records of, but are eventually

destroyed.

We see it being filtered again as they go into the kingdom and they separate into two

kingdoms.

One kingdom that worships idols in the hills.

and one kingdom that still worships in Jerusalem.

We see those kingdoms both taken into exile because they can’t follow the truth.

They can’t follow the law.

And we see the people who return from exile, a much more kind, a much more just people.

A people still filled with failure.

A people who create

the Pharisees who want to create additional laws, who create the Sadducees who don’t

believe in the spirit world, who create the zealots that think God wants them to fight

militarily, and the Essenes who want to live in isolation.

We see a people still flawed, but a people who understand the importance of sending their

children to school.

to learn Hebrew, to memorize the Psalms, to study the law of God.

We see a people much more focused on what it means.

And in this world, we see that God has also been working in the world in the background.

He hasn’t just been refining the promise to a specific woman one day.

He hasn’t just been filtering his people

so that they could have something close to a pure worship of him.

He’s also been manipulating the entire world around.

whether it is the roads of Rome engineered so that easy passage could happen all over

Europe and into Asia, whether it’s Alexander the Great who went through an unbelievable

conquest all the way from Greece into India, where he not just

conquered a people and unified them under trade, he unified the language so that the

language the Bible is written in is that language of Alexander the Great.

It is Greek.

He reframed the entire world to make the way for Jesus one day.

And we see Jesus coming to Mary.

We see the start of the greatest blessing.

So if you’ll turn to 1003, we’ll sing Silent Night.

Silent night

you

Bright, bright.

The infant so tender and mild Sleep in heavenly peace Sleep in heavenly peace Silent night

Holy night, wondrous star, let

With the angels let us sing, Alleluia!

Christ the Savior is born.

Christ the Savior is born.

in this world that Jesus comes into, a world ruled by the Romans, living under constant

threat of being forced to take up whatever luggage the Romans had and walk a mile with

them.

Living in a world where the alternate to trial was punishment and release.

living in a world that they had been subservient to everyone around them for hundreds of

years.

From the time Cyrus sent them back till now, they had always been a people who were

oppressed.

Jesus is born into this world and the reaction to the rumors of his birth is the slaughter

of children by an insecure king.

so that his family had to flee to Egypt.

In this world, Jesus stands out as a 12-year-old boy.

He’s teaching rabbis.

As a young adult, he disappears from history only to reappear when he was about 30 years

old.

and as he reappears.

He takes a small side trick.

And he goes into the wilderness for the weirdest camping trip ever.

He spends 40 days starving.

He spends this time contemplating who he is, what he is, and what he’s here for.

Now I want to start in 1 John chapter 2.

1 John chapter 2, starting in verse 15.

Do not love the world nor the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the

boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world.

And the world is passing away and also its lust, but the one who does the will of God

abides forever.

After day 40, we see

somebody show up.

We see Satan show up at Jesus’ side.

Matthew chapter 4.

This is documented.

And the tempter came to him and said to him, if you are the son of God, command these

stones to become bread.

I want you to think about this from Satan’s perspective.

Is there any sin in Jesus using the power granted by God to turn stones into bread?

saving Logan for?

He’s looking to figure out what the caper is.

He wants to know why Jesus is here and why it’s happening now.

It’s still a mystery to Satan.

He’s trying to figure out what the purpose of this son of man is.

And so he tips something, Jesus was something, that all on its surface appears innocuous.

that on its surface appears to be something innocent.

But Jesus response, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word

that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

So Jesus replies to this temptation with scripture.

And the only thing he reveals to Satan is that he serves the father first.

He doesn’t reveal his power to Satan.

He doesn’t reveal his purpose to Satan.

All he reveals to him is that he’s here to serve the father.

So Satan tries again.

and he took him to the holy city and he had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple and he

said to him, if you were the son of God, throw yourself down for as written, he will give

his angels charge concerning you and on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike

your foot against the stone.

Satan also knows the scripture.

He also knows what prophecies are there, but he doesn’t understand them.

He was trying to figure out who Jesus is.

What are the results if Jesus throws himself off the pinnacle?

It’s only two.

God’s gonna save him or smash.

Satan’s in a win-win situation here, right?

There’s nothing bad that if Jesus does this can come from this.

But once again, Jesus looks at the devil and says to him, on the other hand, it is

written, you shall not put your Lord, the Lord your God to the test.

He continues to reveal nothing to the adversary.

He continues to hide in plain sight something that should be obvious.

Now we live from the perspective of having the mystery revealed, but Satan was trying to

figure out what was happening with Jesus.

And this is very early in his ministry.

Remember, he hasn’t really started.

the tour of Galilee.

This is very early days, right after his baptism.

So we see Jesus.

keeping things close to the sleeve or in the sleeve, whatever that statement is, but

keeping it close to his best.

He’s not revealing to Satan what his purpose is here.

It would be so easy to have that pride of life overtake him here for him to be.

Proudful and say I am who I say I am.

But Jesus doesn’t do that.

So he passes the second test, the pride of life and the lust of the eye.

So now we get to the third test.

And the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the

world in their glory.

And he said him, all these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.

What is the devil looking for here?

He’s concerned about what’s coming.

He’s looking to corrupt the thing that God is doing to bring justice to the world.

If Jesus fell down and worshiped Satan at this point, Satan just won.

He’s already stated that the word out of the mouth of God is the most important thing to

him, that he will not tempt the Lord.

So the only thing, the only device left to Satan is

If I can corrupt him just for this one minute, I’ll give him everything I have.

If I can just corrupt him a little bit.

Satan is in a win-win situation.

And once again, Jesus decides, I don’t want to play.

Be gone, Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only.

The only thing Jesus has revealed in all this is who he serves.

He serves Yahweh.

He hasn’t revealed his purpose.

Satan’s gonna have to figure that out.

He hasn’t revealed anything about God’s plan that hasn’t already been revealed.

But we see in this in first Corinthians chapter two.

We see Paul’s take on this a little later.

In chapter two.

versus six through nine.

Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature, a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor

of the rulers, nor of this age who are passing away, but we speak God’s wisdom in a

mystery.

The hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory.

The wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood.

For if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Jesus is not only hiding in this temptation to the wilderness what the true method of God

is, but he’s creating the opportunity for it.

He’s got Satan worried.

And I want you to think about where this is happening.

Where does the scapegoat get sent to?

The realm of Satan, the wilderness.

Jesus brought the fight to Satan directly.

He’s in the realm that Satan occupies with this story.

It’s not just that Jesus is out here to meditate.

He’s bringing the fight to Satan.

So God’s wisdom is a mystery.

We’ll see number 470 because in this we saw one of the greatest victories recorded for us.

We see the point where the world changes and Jesus is victorious over Satan.

and all of history pivots on these few years that Jesus has won the earth.

Victory in Jesus.

I heard an old, story, how a changer came from glory.

How he gave his life on Calvary to save a wretch like me.

I heard about his grime.

of His precious blood’s atoning.

Then I repented of my sins and won the victory.

Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior forever.

He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood.

He plunged me to victory, beneath a cleansing flood.

I heard about a mansion, he has built for me in glory.

And I heard about the steel of gold, beyond the crystal sea.

About the angels singing, and the old redemption story.

And some sweet day I’ll sing up there the song of victory.

Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior forever.

He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood.

He loved me and I knew Him.

uh

He plunged me to victory, Beneath a cleansing flood.

So from here, we see Jesus deliver the message in parables.

In Mark chapter four,

verse 33 through 34.

And with many such parables, he was speaking the word to them, and they were able to hear

it.

And he did not speak to them without a parable, but he was explaining everything privately

to his own disciples.

Jesus continues to deliver the message in the form of a mystery.

He delivers it in parables.

He delivers it in ways that, if you wanted to understand, you could.

Luckily, Satan didn’t want to understand.

The world didn’t want to understand.

So he was able to create a message of redemption prior to the coming of the kingdom.

Paul frequently speaks of how the mystery was revealed.

And all Satan had to do was watch what was going on to figure it out.

If you watch what Jesus does,

He’s the janitor of Israel.

He spends his time cleaning up their mess.

The Baptism of John.

was a baptism of repentance.

It wasn’t a baptism of redemption, which is what we get with the baptism of Jesus, but as

a baptism of turning away from a life of sin.

He cleansed the temple.

He ran the world out of the temple, which is what had happened there.

Money changers selling things inside the walls of the temple.

Jesus was angry enough at this insult to God.

That is the only physical violence you see in the Bible from him.

He cleansed people of illness.

The torments of the world.

He cast out demons.

taking away the direct interference of Satan in the world.

He delivered the word that would eventually reveal the new covenant that was being

established.

And the thing he was called out for was forgiving sin.

He’s revealing that he has power over everything and can cleanse everything.

So what does Satan do?

He starts figuring out how to get rid of him.

So he tempts those who are in power with their own pride.

And he starts.

to develop.

the dumbest plan possible because it’s exactly what God wants.

But he can’t take it.

He can’t leave Jesus here.

And he can’t leave long enough long.

So.

Here we see Satan start the process of setting up Jesus for a downfall.

And the whole time Satan is working his.

plot.

Jesus is taking care of people.

He’s training the apostles that will one day become his soldiers.

He’s training the disciples that will one day follow him and become his kingdom.

He’s delivering messages and words of love, of understanding, and he’s setting up for a

new kingdom.

And through these words, he’s developing a new life for people.

Number 543, Wonderful Worlds of Light.

Sing them over again to me Wonderful words of love

See wonderful words of life.

Words of life and beauty.

Teach me faith and duty.

Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful.

Beautiful world

Sweetly echo the Gospel call Wonderful words of life Offer pardon and peace to all

Wonderful

Jesus, Holy Savior, sanctified forever.

Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life.

Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life.

Throughout all of Jesus’ teaching.

all the signs and wonders, all the direct evidence that he was losing, he remained

clueless.

Jesus makes his final entry into Jerusalem as a king.

as a king of peace riding a donkey.

and Satan finally gets his set up.

We see the Last Supper.

Following the Last Supper, Jesus knows the betrayal’s coming.

He’s already talked about it.

eh

But you see a pattern start to happen at this point.

You see a pattern of threes.

How many times did Jesus separate himself for prayer?

Three times.

He woke the apostles up twice and then gave up on the third.

Came and woke them up when he had finished praying.

We see after he’s captured.

We see Peter deny him three times before the clock grows.

We see three trials happening.

You have the trial before the Jews.

Where through a series of three trials there also inside that one trial, you have Jesus

being abjectly rejected by the people who should be the first to serve him.

The leadership, the rabbis, the Sanhedrin.

too high priest reject Jesus outright.

We see him brought before pilot to start the final trial only for pilot to interview him

and be confounded as to what they actually want.

So he sends him to Herod Herod starts the second trial where the only thing here at once

is to see

and be entertained.

That’s what here is looking for.

He wants to see Jesus perform.

And when he doesn’t get what he wants, he mocks him and sends him back to pilot.

This pilot’s the only one that can fulfill what needs to happen.

And pilot washing his hands of the whole situation, doing everything he can to remove

himself from being part of this problem.

turn Jesus over to be destroyed.

devil thinks he won.

Hanging above Jesus’s head was three languages.

There three nails used three hours of darkness.

It started on the third hour.

There were three crosses there with him.

There was the cross of the criminal who repented.

There was the cross of rejection from the other criminal and there was the cross that

brought us redemption.

are also three Marys there.

His friend Mary Magdalene, mother of James and his own mother, which he spends some of the

last words he has available to him to make sure she’s taken care of.

Jesus is winning.

It’s a horrible victory he’s going through.

But he’s winning.

and the devil doesn’t understand yet.

But he will soon.

in about two days time.

Understand what a mistake he made when Jesus comes back and finishes the promise that was

delivered thousands of years ago.

to Adam and to Eve.

to Abraham, to Moses, to Isaac and Jacob and Judah, to David, and even to his own mother

Mary.

This promise that God is going to take care of the world is finally coming to pass.

Number 496.

After this song, we’ll have the Lord’s Supper.

Oh, listen to our wondrous story, counted once among the lost.

Yet one came down from heaven’s glory, saving us at awful cost.

Who saved us from eternal life?

What did He do?

Where is He now?

Is heaven interceding?

Will you surrender to this Savior To accept her humbly bow?

You too shall come to know his favor He will save you, save you now Who saved us from

eternal harm?

did he do?

Where is he now?

He’ll in heaven interceding

Shall we pray for the bread?

Our Lord and our Father, who is above all, who is through all, who is in all, our God who

formed this world, who had a plan from the very beginning, who has strength over the enemy

who has always been here, who has been here since the beginning of creation.

But you, Lord, have been here since before that.

And Lord, we thank you that you had a plan and you sent your son who lived this life on

earth, willing to come down and came and was willing to die for our sins, suffering brutal

agony.

We thank you for the sacrifice of his body, giving of his flesh so that we could be united

with you again one day.

Lord, we…

Bless this bread and thank you for your son once again and give this prayer in his holy

and righteous name.

Amen.

Shall we pray for the cup?

our Lord and our God, we come before thee again, thanking you not only for the flesh that

your Son gave for us, but for the blood.

You created the concept of blood at the beginning, and you taught us as mankind that the

life is in the blood.

And then with that, with the death that your Son faced, you made eternal life available

for us in His blood.

We thank you for your wisdom and the lessons you teach.

And we thank you for the redemption that we have in your son’s blood.

And give this prayer in his holy name, amen.

separate and apart from the Lord’s Supper, we have the opportunity to give to our Lord

again.

Shall we bless that uh opportunity to give?

Lord, we come before you and we thank thee that you have blessed us so richly.

We thank you that you’ve given us every good and every perfect gift and we thank you for

the physical finances with which you bless us.

We thank you for the work we are able to do with it.

We thank you for the blessings that you give for us to enjoy.

And Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to give back to you, our God who has given all.

Lord, we pray for hearts that are wise and are open to the fact that you give us all that

we have and that the purpose of all that we have is to serve you.

But Lord, we love thee and…

Give this prayer in your son’s holy name.

Amen.

Following his return, spent several weeks meeting with the other disciples, appearing as a

mystery on one road, showing up to Thomas to offer him his wounds so that Thomas could

examine them, being with his disciples for a few more days before he departs and ascends

into heaven.

At this point,

The Jewish leaders had rejected God’s plan.

The world and its representative, a pilot, had rejected all responsibility for what had

just happened.

And yet Jesus was willing to offer himself up so that both groups could be redeemed.

whether you were a people who refused God, whether you were a people who refused

responsibility.

Jesus was there to grant redemption to both.

In Acts 2,

We see it begin.

We see the start of this new kingdom.

We see the work of this new army.

to starting in verse 29.

Brethren, I may confidently say to you that regarding the patriarch David, that he both

died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day.

And so, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat

one of his descendants upon the throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of

Christ that he was neither abandoned to herades nor did he suffer decay.

This Jesus, God raised up again, to which we were all witnesses, therefore having been

exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the

Holy Spirit, he has poured forth which you both see and hear.

For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says, the Lord said to my

Lord, sit at my right hand until I make thy enemies a footstool for thy feet.

Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and

Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.

Here we see the start.

of something wonderful.

We see the gospel being delivered.

We see this message that now has been completed.

This promise that has finally been fulfilled be delivered to the world.

We see Jesus being taught.

not doing the teaching directly anymore, but establishing his army.

It starts this day.

3,000 were baptized this day, and it multiplied in the following days.

We see the beginning of a new type of army.

We see a new type of soldier for this army.

In 2 Timothy chapter 2,

We see a new description of what it means to be a soldier for God.

Therefore you, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus of the things which

you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men

who will also teach others.

Suffer hardship for me as a good soldier for Christ Jesus.

No soldier active in service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life so that he

may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

And also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes

according to the rules.

For the hardworking farmer are to be the first to receive the share of his crop.

Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David according to my gospel,

for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal, but the word of God is not

imprisoned.

Just like the book Tinker Tailor Soldier Steps By, here we have

God’s soldier being identified.

Soldier, athlete, farmer, criminal.

We are a different type of soldier.

We’re a soldier that is supposed to, according to Paul in Ephesians, strapple in the belt

of truth, the breastplate of righteousness.

Cover our feet in the gospel of peace, take the shield of faith, wear the helmet of

salvation, and fight with the sword of the Spirit.

We’re a soldier, not as the Zealots thought, a soldier of assassination, not as the

Pharisees thought, a soldiers of rigorous legal law, not as the Sadducees thought, a

soldier who fought through wealth.

and not as the Essings thought, a monk soldier who went and hid in a tower in the

wilderness.

But we are a soldier who is meant to be out there and be active in spreading the word,

spreading the gospel.

So with that in mind, I feel like this song has been co-opted ah and I want to sing it.

So don’t frame your mind the way we normally sing this song.

Read the words as we go through it.

This is a song about serving in God’s army.

My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

He is straddling out the vintage where the greats are at the store.

He has loosed the fateful lightning and has his terror of all so sore.

His truth is marching on.

Glory, glory,

God is marching on!

Please turn to 943.

We don’t have slides for this one.

oh With that, if there’s anyone here who would like to become part of God’s army, anyone

who needs prayer, anyone who is ready to sign up,

to become part of God’s kingdom.

We have the opportunity this morning.

The opportunity we have is to remember what God was willing to do for us, what Jesus was

willing to sacrifice for us, how much he loves us, and how much he wants us to be with

him.

So with that,

you would like to become part of God’s army or if you need prayers for help, please come

forward as we.

Mark 14 (Lesson 6) – Aaron Cozort – April 15, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, Christian living, keywords Jesus Gethsemane, sanctification, Scripture fulfillment, sin, spiritual identity by Aaron Cozort

image

All right, let’s begin with a word prayer.

Our gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day that you’ve

granted to us, for the life that we have and the opportunity that we have to serve you.

We pray that you will strive, you will be with us as we strive to be obedient to your will

and follow your word and your commandments.

We pray that when we sin and fall short of your glory, that you will forgive us of those

things.

Lord, we are mindful of those who are dealing with uh illnesses, those who are recovering.

recovering from surgeries or procedures and those who are dealing with ongoing uh or

chronic illnesses.

We pray that you give them the strength that they need each and every day and pray that

you will help us to be a comfort and a strength to them.

Lord, we pray for our nation and nations throughout the world that they will do the things

which are right and in accordance with your will, that they will uphold values that are uh

those values that you would have each nation

to have and to utilize each and every day.

And Lord, we pray that we might be a shining example to those around us in our daily

lives, in business, in school, in all of our activities as to how Christians ought to

behave.

All these things we pray and ask for in Jesus’ name, amen.

As we mentioned, we’re in Mark chapter 14.

And we are in the account of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

uh What mountain region or area is the Garden of Gethsemane at?

Anybody remember?

Mount of Olives, okay, so, or also known in some texts as Mount Olivet.

So, the Mount of Olives was just outside of uh the

city proper, and this garden there existed there.

It was one of the places that Jesus was known to go to, uh as the text lets us know that

he went where he was known to go to.

uh And so, part of the reason why uh Judas knew where he would be is he went where he

would normally go.

And that included the Garden of Gethsemane there in the Mount of Olives.

So, Jesus is going to go there.

He is going to pray.

We’ve already discussed most of that, so we’re not going to necessarily revisit those

things.

But we are going to pick up about verse 36.

He said,

Abba, Father, all things are possible for you.

Take this cup away from me.

Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.” Then he came and found them sleeping

and said to Peter, Simon, are you sleeping?

Could you not watch one hour?

Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.

The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Again he went away and prayed and spoke the same words.

And when he returned, he found them asleep.

again, for their eyes were heavy and they did not know what to answer him.

Then he came the third time and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting?

It is enough.

The hour has come.

Behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hand of sinners.” So as Jesus arrives,

back at their location and as he is preparing for what is coming next, he shows up the

third time after praying for an hour and what are they doing?

Sleeping again.

They are still sleeping in this regard.

And so as he arrives this time, he doesn’t question, you sleeping?

He rather says, it is enough.

Now, Mark combines it, says, are you still sleeping and resting?

And then says, it is enough.

Indicating that time’s at hand.

It’s time to wake up.

It’s time to go to the next, as it were, of things.

Jesus will identify the hour is come.

Behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.

Now,

It’s interesting because as you go throughout the majority of the New Testament text,

there’s going to be a phrase that shows up, publicans and sinners.

Now, when that phrase arrives, when you see that in the text, what does it normally mean?

basically working for the Roman government.

All right.

So the publicans were tax collectors and notably when you look in the text, the

associations that they kept when you read in the text, publicans and sinners, it usually

meant tax collectors and harlots.

In other words, these were the people who were outcasts from Jewish society, either

because they held allegiance to Rome for their income in opposition to their own country

because they collected taxes on behalf of Rome, or they were active in prostitution or in

harlotry.

And so these two categories were referenced together.

And all throughout Jesus’ ministry, you have this representation that Jesus was willing to

sit with, to eat with, to study with, to teach the Scriptures to these two groups of

people that the Pharisees wouldn’t be caught dead with.

And yet when you get to this text, when Jesus is now describing the people who He’s about

to be handed over to, how does He describe them?

As sinners.

not because of their reputation, not because of their position in culture, but because of

their actual participation in sin.

Jesus is going to identify the fact that He is being handed over to those whose allegiance

is not to God.

And Jesus is going to tell the disciples, hours come, the Son of Man is being betrayed

into the hands of those who do not hold allegiance to God.

Jesus isn’t going to pull any punches.

Jesus isn’t going to mince any words.

He says, these people are sinners.

Now.

We know there are passages in the New Testament, for instance, where Paul describes

himself as the chief of what?

Sinners.

Did Paul consider himself to be the chief of sinners because of his current lifestyle as

an apostle in the New Testament church?

Okay, what was the statement in view of?

Absolutely.

It was in view of his former participation in uh persecuting the church and acting in

opposition to Christ and to God.

And actively seeking to participate in those things that were seeking to destroy the

church that Jesus Christ came to purchase.

When Paul describes himself as the chief of sinners, he’s not talking about his current

state.

He’s talking about his former state.

and yet he lived every day recognizing that he was what he was by the grace of God.

That he had been allowed the opportunity to change because he rightfully recognized that

on the road to Damascus he could have just as easily been struck down by God as been

confronted and given the opportunity to repent.

Now, as you think about that…

John in 1 John chapter 1 will tell Christians.

If any man says that he has no sin, he’s a what?

He’s a liar and the truth is not in him.

But should Christians go about calling themselves sinners?

Not unless they’ve denied the faith of Jesus Christ.

We should be careful about portraying an attitude and a mindset and a description that

we’re not righteous, holy, sanctified, purchased by the blood of Christ people.

And yet some will go, perhaps in a show of humility, and describe themselves as, well, I’m

just a sinner.

That’s not the description of a New Testament Christian.

That’s not how the New Testament talks about Christians.

The New Testament speaks of us as being sanctified.

What does the word sanctified mean?

Set apart.

Well, if you are set apart for the purpose of God, then if you describe yourself as just a

common sinner, then guess what?

You’re saying you’re not set apart.

You’re saying, hey, if you want to find me, find me over there with the sinners.

because I haven’t been set apart by God.

When the New Testament speaks concerning Christians, it frames them in terms of holiness,

righteousness, set apartness, if you could allow the terminology.

It doesn’t speak of them in their former state unless it is setting a juxtaposition

between their current state.

1 Corinthians chapter 6.

Notice this.

Paul as he is writing to the church.

will write to them and say in verse 6, do you not know that the unrighteous will not

inherit the kingdom of God?

First thing Paul wants us to identify is if you’re actively participating in

unrighteousness in an unrepentant way, in a lifestyle in opposition to God, he says,

I need you to understand you will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

Well, Paul, what lifestyles are you talking about?

He says, do not be deceived.

Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexuals nor sodomites nor thieves

nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners will inherit the Kingdom of God.

Paul doesn’t pull any more punches than Jesus did.

Paul says, this is your lifestyle…

I can assure you that one place you’re not going is heaven.

because God’s clear on it.

You live this way, you will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

But notice He says, and such were past tense, and such were some of you.

Could those in the church at Corinth, if they had been asked, raise your hand if you’ve

ever been a drunkard.

Do think someone in the church at Corinth could have raised their hand?

Absolutely!

Could there, based upon the text, have been those who could have been asked, raise your

hand if you were formerly a homosexual?

They would have raised their hands and said, yes.

But notice what he says, but you were washed.

Here’s the thing about pigs.

What happens when you wash a pig and they get free for a moment?

They’re going to go waller right back in the mire, right?

That’s what Peter tells us.

Those who are not faithful to God do.

You go wash them, you go clean them up, and they’re headed right back to the dump heap to

go waller in the filth.

Paul says, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the

name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Paul says, you may have been these things before, but you’re not now.

But notice what else he says.

He says, all things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful.

Now, some will come to this passage, they’ll ignore the whole context about being washed,

justified and sanctified.

They’ll go, see, you can live however you want to because you’re saved.

No, that’s not what Paul’s talking about.

The idea of the phrase here, even in the original language is all things that are lawful

are lawful.

He’s already excluded the things that are not lawful.

He says the things that are lawful are lawful, but not everything that’s lawful is

helpful.

Elsewhere, he’s going to argue that those who use their liberty in Christ as an excuse to

trip their brothers up and cause them to sin are condemned.

He says, not everything that’s lawful is helpful.

But he goes on to say, all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the

power of any.

Foods for the stomach.

and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them.

Now the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body.

And God both raised up the Lord and has also raised us up by His power.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot?

Certainly not.

Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one with her?

For the two, he says, shall become one flesh.

But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.

Flee sexual immorality, he says.

Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins

against his own body.

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?

whom you have from God, you are not your own.

For you were bought at a price.

Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Paul as he carries forward from this consideration of what they were to what they have

become will lead into a conversation about the fact do you not realize you belong to God?

By the way, in the church at Corinth, they had a group of people who lived in a city where

in the exact same city they had temples to gods where people would go into the temple to

commit fornication and offer that as worship to God.

Paul says, oh no, absolutely not.

Rather, do you not realize that your very body is the temple of God?

That you as a church together are collectively the temple of God?

that your body belongs to God.

We do not go about describing ourselves as sinners unless we’re simultaneously going to

describe the temple of God as a house of harlotry.

No, we’re not.

We are to speak of ourselves in view, not of our own imperfection.

but of Christ’s perfection.

Are we those who should freely admit we’re far from perfect?

Sure.

Are we those who should claim that we’re sinless?

Never.

But we should very much understand that we belong to God.

and that as those who wear the name Christian, as those who wear the name of the people of

God,

We ought to describe ourselves as nothing less than holy, sanctified, justified, and

washed in the blood of the Lamb.

Jesus says here in verse 41.

I’m going to be handed over to the hand.

of those who oppose the very nature of God, those who live in rebellion against God and

would kill His very Son.

When I come to this text, I cannot help but think concerning the parable of the Vineyard

Keepers.

Jesus in the parable of the vineyard keepers does not describe those vineyard keepers as

those who were generally obedient to the owner of the vineyard.

They just made some mistakes every once in a while.

No, that’s not how Jesus describes them.

He describes them as wicked and evil and those worthy of judgment by God.

that’s who he’s about to be handed over to.

He says, let us be going.

See my betrayer is at hand.

Not so many hours before, Jesus had just sat at dinner with Judas.

Jesus had just proclaimed that there would be one who was sitting there who had partaken

of the supper with him who would betray him, and they all asked, is it I?

Is it I?

Is it I?

Judas also asked, is it I?

He already knew the answer

because Judas had gone out from the event where Jesus had been anointed by the woman who

was there in Simon’s house and had actively sought to betray Jesus coming out of that

event.

Mark tells us that.

He knew it was him.

Jews didn’t get up from that supper and go, well, I guess I’m gonna betray him.

No, Judas had been looking for an opportunity to betray him, Mark tells us.

And now Jesus says, my betrayer is at hand.

And immediately, verse 43, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, with a

great multitude with swords and clubs, came from the chief priests and the scribes and the

elders.

Is this the first time that the chief priests have sent someone to arrest Jesus?

No, the last time they sent soldiers to arrest Jesus, they sent the officers by

indications of the text, the officers of the uh the priest or the chief priests.

uh They had their own little uh perfunctory guard.

It is kind of like the the royal guards that are around certain places and and you know,

they have authority.

right there on the grounds.

But you go too far away from the palace and they don’t have any authority.

That was basically what Rome let the chief priests have.

You can have guards, but they’re not centurions and they’re not Romans.

And when we say this is what’s gonna happen, this is what’s gonna happen.

So they had limited authority, yes.

uh

on the types of people and what they brought with them.

says lanterns, torches, and weapons, a detachment of troops and officers from the chief

priests and Pharisees.

So with them are those who are, carrying torches, they’re carrying lanterns, they’re of

course making their way there in the middle of, in the midst of the night, they’re coming,

they’ve uh got weapons, they’re doing all of these things.

Now where has Jesus been for the last?

uh Six days.

In Jerusalem, what location specifically during the day?

In the temple.

Teaching.

Really hard to find, right?

No, really hard to find without a crowd of supporters around.

And so notice they come.

and they came uh from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders.

Now his betrayer had given them a signal saying, whomever I kiss, he is the one, seize him

and lead him away safely.

So the common greeting of the day in Jewish society was the brotherhood kiss.

And so he says, whoever I greet, that’s the one.

indicating that many of the people who are coming along didn’t spend their time in the

temple studying about the Word of God.

They didn’t spend their time listening to the message of the teachers and the rabbis in

Jerusalem because otherwise they would have recognized Jesus.

Judas is going I’m going to have to point him out to you.

By the way,

By the way, also tells us that Jesus wasn’t the only blond-haired, blue-eyed Jew walking

around, if you’ve seen any of the English movies.

Jesus looked like a Jew, by the way, because He looked like all the other Jews who were

there.

not an Englishman.

So they come and Judas has told them, whoever I greet, seize him, but notice the rest of

the phrase, and lead him away safely.

Judas made it clear in his agreement to participate that as far as he was concerned, Jesus

was going to be taken safely out of this.

They weren’t gonna just kill him on the spot.

Bear in mind, when Jesus is crucified, what’s Judas’ reaction?

He goes out and hangs himself.

Judas, as we’ve mentioned before, had a position and a mentality and actions.

Judas thought Jesus was going to get out of this and Judas was still going to get paid.

So Judas is gonna make sure they know, you can’t harm him.

Just go get it.

As soon as he had come, immediately he went up to him and said to him, Rabbi, Rabbi, that

is teacher, teacher, and kissed him.

And they laid their hands on him and took him.

And one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and

cut off his ear.

One of those who stood by, what’s that mean?

That’s right, one of the apostles, one of the eleven who had gone with him into the

garden.

As he’s observing this, as they come for Jesus, as they lay their hands on Jesus, here

comes one of them, grabs his sword

and swings at the head of one of the soldiers of the high priest.

And well, and I’m firmly convinced he was a better fisherman than he was a soldier.

Because every indication of the text is he was not aiming for the year.

This was not a warning swing.

This was a decapitation swing that missed.

Who is it?

Peter.

Jesus answered and said, Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to

take me?

I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me.

But the Scriptures must be fulfilled.

Then they all forsook him and fled.

Now, Mark tells you about the ear coming off.

Mark doesn’t tell you about the ear going back on.

believe it’s John will tell you that Jesus puts the ear back on.

And isn’t it interesting that these individuals are so set on taking Jesus that they can

witness someone’s ear being cut off and then witness it being put back on and they’ll

still take it.

But Jesus will point out.

Why are you coming to me as if I’m a thief, a robber, a hoodlum, someone who’s dangerous?

Could be said another way, you do remember this afternoon I was in the temple teaching,

right?

and have been for days.

Jesus says that the Scriptures had to be fulfilled.

The things that they were doing, they weren’t doing to fulfill the Scriptures.

but they were a fulfillment of the Scriptures.

Many times in the Old and the New Testament, you find people participating in that which

is wrong, participating in that which is in opposition to God, participating in that which

they believe is of their own motivation, only to have it fulfill exactly what God said

they would do.

Yes?

Surprising that we stopped to think about the way people treat what they read in scripture

now.

I mean we’re talking about these people watching an ear that is cut off and bloody and a

hot mess and then all of sudden it’s back on and I mean you just have to believe that the

mess of the ear is as though it was never touched.

But we have people that read scriptures today that are so clear and they still can’t see

it as clear as what it is because the hardness of their hearts.

And so it really shouldn’t be a surprise to us that it was missed by them, the very things

that were being done in front of them because they were so filled with hate that they

could not see the people.

They could not see Jesus.

They could not even hear what he was saying because they were

so filled with that.

And we have people in our culture that are so filled with self-preservation and myself

more than Scripture that they can’t see what is very clear in front of them.

Absolutely.

You know, as you think about this, Jesus…

Jesus is pointing out.

things that should have made the honest person go, wait a minute, what’s going on here?

He’s identifying the actions that were inherently unjustified.

that would have made the sincere, honest heart

step back and wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, something’s not right.

And all of these will be details that will become, as it were, chinks in the armor of the

story of the chief priests and the elders that this man was a sinner.

further added to by the testimony of Pilate and others.

But notice as the statement is made, but the scriptures must be fulfilled, they all, who’s

the they all?

The apostles.

Then they all forsook him and fled.

Now we often,

give uh a hard time to Peter for his denial of Christ.

because Jesus points out what Peter’s going to do.

But Peter and John, if you read carefully in the text, are going to be two that actually

at least followed Jesus to the high priest’s location to his house where he’s going to be

put on trial.

All indication is the rest of the disciples are just gone.

So they forsook him and fled.

Now Mark tells us about another young man who was there.

that the rest of the gospel records don’t tell us about.

Some have some suspicions as to why that is.

But verse 51 says, certain young man followed him, having a linen cloth thrown about his

naked body, and the young men laid hold of him, and he left the linen cloth and fled from

them naked.

Now this isn’t just likely some odd story that Mark decided to include.

What do some consider this to likely be?

Mark talking about the fact that he was present.

In the same way that John never mentions John’s name in the entire book of John, John

won’t reference himself in the record of the life of Christ.

He will describe himself as the apostle whom Jesus loved.

He will use other figures to describe himself, but he’ll never use his own name.

Mark.

likely is describing himself as, and the text here seems to be clear enough that when the

idea of young man is that this is an adolescent like early teenage years, which would be

probably right for the participation of Mark later on in…

the travels that will occur as he is a young man at that point traveling with Paul and

Barnabas.

So early teenage years at this point,

and uh considered a full-grown man by the time that he is traveling with Paul and

Barnabas, someone old enough that he should have known better than to turn around and go

back during his time with Paul.

So whether this is Mark or not, we don’t know, but it does tell us that there were

innocent bystanders who were around watching these events transpire.

awoken as if in the night uh and came out trying to figure out what’s going on.

So perhaps this is not Mark.

Maybe this is just an innocent bystander, but the point is someone was awoken by all of

this going on.

They came out to see what was going on and they fled.

Verse 53, and they led Jesus away to the high priest.

And with him were assembled all the chief priests, the elders and the scribes.

But Peter followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest.

So, you got to high priest’s house.

And they’re going to bring Jesus to the house of the high priest.

Interestingly, there’s actually two high priests at the time, one appointed by Rome, one

appointed by the Jews, because the Jews weren’t willing to accept the Roman appointee.

But as they come into the house of the high priest, they come into the courtyard, they

come into the area of the house, there’s an area around the house.

and Peter will follow them into the courtyard of the high priest.

Again, John’s record indicates that John was present as well.

And he sat with the servants and warned himself at the fire.

This would have been the area of the courtyard where the uh servants would have been

allowed to be.

If you could give it uh a terminology, this was their break area.

All right?

It’s the middle of the night.

Those who didn’t have responsibilities were over here warming themselves by the fire.

Now the chief priests and all the council sought testimony against Jesus to put him to

death but found none.

First thing is, was it lawful for them to hold a trial at night?

No!

As a matter of fact, as you go through the text and you look at it, if you did a complete

study of it, you will find they break law after law after law.

Secondly.

They sought testimony.

What did the law say that they needed in order to put someone to death?

two or more witnesses.

Well, they’re at least giving some moderate attempt to find witnesses.

What’s the problem though?

For many bore false witness against him, but their testimonies did not agree.

See, the pesky thing about the law was the law required them to have two witnesses that

both condemned them for the same thing.

Except all the people who were willing to be bribed to be false witnesses hadn’t spent any

time listening to Jesus per say

so they couldn’t get their story straight.

Then some arose and bore false witness against him, saying, We heard him say, I will

destroy this temple made with hands, and within three days I will build another made

without hands.

But not even then did their testimony agree.

They’re trying.

The sham trial really is underway.

They’re trying to get this done semi-legally.

But witness after witness after witness.

Can’t get two to agree.

The high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, do you answer nothing?

What is it these men testify against you?

Now, as the testimonies keep rolling in, the high priest wants to know from Jesus, are you

not going to answer for yourself?

Of course, I’m sure they supplied him with a lawyer, No, not any more than the Jews

supplied Paul with a lawyer.

and he as this parade of false witnesses come before the court, Jesus just stands there.

doesn’t say a word.

Sometimes the best defense.

Keep your mouth shut.

Because then you can’t be a witness against yourself.

Some have suggested it’s better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove

all evidence.

All right, we’re going to put a peg in it there and then we will come back.

Thank you for your attention.

The Character of a Faithful Servant – Aaron Cozort – April 19, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, Christian character, Faithfulness, Gospel, keywords Timothy, Paul, Philippians, service, Spiritual Growth, Timothy's qualities by Aaron Cozort

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In Acts chapter 16

where we are introduced to a young man whose name is Timothy.

He is one who is a Christian in the region of Derbe and Lystra.

We read in chapter 16 of the book of Acts in verse 1 that he came to Derbe and Lystra,

behold a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who

believed, but his father was Greek.

He was well spoken of by brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium.

Paul wanted to have him go on with him and took him and circumcised him because of the

Jews who were in that region.

For they all knew that his father was Greek.

And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the decrees to keep, which

were determined by the apostles and elders of Jerusalem.

So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily.

This begins Timothy’s travels with the apostle Paul.

We’re familiar with Timothy, or we should be if we’ve studied our New Testament, as we

know that Paul will write two letters to Timothy.

We know that Timothy will travel with Paul.

Timothy will be sent by Paul to different regions.

But what I want us to focus on is the character of a faithful servant as exhibited in the

life of Timothy.

not looking at all the different texts that have to do with Timothy, but rather one

section in Philippians two.

As Paul is sitting in a Roman prison, he is sitting in Rome, Timothy being present at

times with him and then not at times because of him being sent out by Paul.

But at this moment in time, Paul is going to write to the church at Philippi, and he is

going to write to them, and he’s going to tell them that he desires to send Timothy to

them.

And as I was looking at this passage, you know…

Sometimes, let me just take a sidebar here and say this, sometimes when I’m preaching and

I look out of the audience, I see somebody who’s thinking about something other than what

I’m preaching.

and it doesn’t bother me too much because there are times where someone else is preaching

and I’m listening and they say something and then for a period of minutes my mind’s

somewhere else because they took me to a passage and suddenly I’m looking at the passage

and go, wait a minute, there’s a sermon right here.

And so if you find one of my other Bibles, you’ll find here in Philippians chapter two, a

sermon outline that preaching this morning.

that occurred to me as someone else was preaching about Philippians and about Timothy.

And I’m like, wait a minute, what did Paul just say about Timothy in these verses?

And truly, as you look at this, he outlines what it means to be a faithful servant,

especially a faithful servant of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So notice nine points.

So we’re not going to dwell on any of them.

Nine points in this passage that Paul identifies in the character of Timothy that teach us

what it means to be faithful to Christ.

Number one, we find in Philippians chapter two, verse 19, and it is a willing spirit.

You turn to Philippians chapter two, beginning in verse 19, Paul writes, but I trust in

the Lord to send Timothy to you shortly.

that I also may be encouraged when I know your state.” Going all the way back to Acts

chapter 16, when Paul was first introduced to Timothy, the thing and the characteristic

that you see in Timothy is his willingness to go, his willingness to be sent, his

willingness to do the work.

He had a willing spirit.

He was not one who every time he was presented with an opportunity had an excuse why he

couldn’t.

He was not one who endeavored to find a reason why he couldn’t go.

You remember when Moses was spoken to by God from the burning bush there in Exodus chapter

three and Exodus chapter four, as God gave him sign after sign that God was going to send

him to Egypt.

to stand before Pharaoh, to tell Pharaoh to allow his people to go, to do the work that

interestingly Moses thought he was supposed to do 40 years ago.

During that conversation, Moses comes up with excuse after excuse after excuse why he

shouldn’t be the one to go before he finally says to the Lord, can you send somebody else?

That wasn’t Timothy.

Timothy exhibited a willingness to go where others would not, to go when others would

stay.

He had a willing spirit.

And Paul writes to the church at Philippi, a congregation that had supported Paul, had

worked with Paul, had helped Paul, and that loved Paul.

that Paul was going send Timothy back who they also loved.

but notice as well.

He lived a trustworthy life.

As Paul sends word to the church at Philippi that he desires to send Timothy to them

shortly, he desires to send Timothy so that he may be encouraged to know their state.

One of the things that’s true is we live in a time where we know about the current events

of the lives of all sorts of people.

People we haven’t seen in years.

We see on social media what they’re doing.

We know where they’re traveling, know how their kids are, know how their grandkids are.

We haven’t even talked to them.

We know all about what they’re doing.

But Paul didn’t know how the church at Philippi was doing.

Other than the last communication that he had received from them.

And in Paul’s day, that communication traveled much, much slower.

So Paul had gotten word from Epaphroditus when Epaphroditus had come, but Paul wanted to

send Timothy back so that he could be encouraged about the state of the church in

Philippi.

that it was remaining strong, it was remaining faithful.

Well, if you want to find out how someone is doing, you better send someone who’s going to

come back and tell you the truth.

So Paul was going to send Timothy because Paul knew that whatever report he received back

from Timothy was going to be the truth.

Timothy was trustworthy.

He was able to be entrusted with a mission that was near and dear to Paul’s heart, and he

was able to be trusted that whatever report he brought back would be accurate.

is you consider the life and the character of a faithful servant of God.

It is a person with a willingness to do the work of God.

It is a person who lives a trustworthy life.

But then consider number three.

Paul writes concerning Timothy that he had a like-minded heart.

Paul will write about this young man and say, I don’t have anybody else who’s quite as in

tune with me as Timothy is.

Notice what he says in Philippians chapter two in verse 20, for I have no one like-minded

who will sincerely care for your state.

Timothy was truly exceptional.

He was exceptional.

because he lived out in faithfulness the model of Paul.

It’s one thing to teach people.

It’s a whole other thing entirely to care about those people.

We teach people sometimes that we don’t even know, that we have no close relationship

with, but Paul exhibited in his life a tender love, care, and concern.

even for churches that were maligning him.

Paul would write in 2 Corinthians, he writes to the church at Corinth that was allowing

people to come in and say, Paul’s not an apostle, Paul has no authority, and they’re

listening to these people.

Paul will go down a list of the things that he had endured and hardships for the cause of

Christ, and at the end of that list he says, the care of all the churches.

Paul writes to the church at Corinth, one that he had a very complicated relationship

with.

He points out how much he cares for them.

And Timothy was like-minded with Paul and that he cared deeply, sincerely, honestly for

the church.

It’s so sad when ministers go out from us and they start proclaiming a message of Christ,

but not the church.

They want to declare Christ, but not His Kingdom.

They want to talk about Christ, but not His people.

They want to encourage people to be saved by Christ, but not added into the kingdom of His

dear Son.

They want to talk about anything except the Church.

That wasn’t Timothy.

Timothy was like-minded with Paul that he cared deeply for the church.

But then consider number four, that he was genuine in his care for others.

Paul will write, as we just read concerning Timothy, that he sincerely, as the New King

James puts it, genuinely cared.

At times in our lives we go through scenarios where we’re busy doing other things.

We’re focused on something of priority and importance and someone comes up and they say,

hi, and we say, hi, how are you?

And our entire focus is on the thing we were already doing.

And they say, whatever they said, we don’t even hear it.

Now, that’s an example of maybe a bad tendency, but if we lived our entire lives that way,

if our care for everyone around us, if our care for our brethren was only a surface level

care.

If we desire to know how they were and then we find out that they’re absolutely in pain

and misery and difficulty and they need desperate help and we go well be warmed and filled

and move on.

James says, that’s not pure and undefiled religion before God.

That’s not what it means to be Christ-like.

That’s not what it means to be a Christian.

Timothy exhibited a genuine care for the church, a sincerity of heart that said he wanted

the best for this congregation, and I guarantee you it was not the only congregation he

felt that way about.

Paul will tell us that if we’re going to be faithful, we’ve got to move beyond the

surface.

We’ve got to move beyond the casual.

We’ve got to move beyond that which costs us nothing.

to a care and a concern for one another that is deep and genuine.

But then consider number five, that Paul will say concerning Timothy, that Timothy had

Christ-centered priorities.

You go back to verse 19 and he says, I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you

shortly, that I may also be encouraged when I know your state, for I have no one

like-minded who will sincerely care for your state.

for all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus.

Paul says, I’ve dealt with a lot of people.

I’ve known a lot of teachers.

I know a whole lot of people who I could send to you, but I’m gonna send Timothy to you

because in Timothy’s life, Christ comes first.

In Timothy’s life, his priorities are properly set.

Now that doesn’t mean that every person who has Christ as a highest priority has to become

a missionary, has to travel around with Paul.

That wasn’t Paul’s point.

Paul’s point was when he looked at Timothy, Timothy didn’t ask, what about me?

Timothy asked, what about Christ?

Timothy didn’t look at his life and say, wait a minute, what do I want?

Timothy looked at his life and said, what would Christ have me to do?

if the church was filled with more Timothes.

there wouldn’t be a brotherhood work that didn’t have enough financial resources to do

their work.

If the church was filled with more Timothes, there wouldn’t be an empty seat in a school

of preaching.

if the church was filled with more Timothes, there wouldn’t be a Bible class in need of a

teacher, for there would be one.

If the church was filled with more Timothes, there wouldn’t be any empty pulpits.

There wouldn’t be a lack of elders.

There wouldn’t be an absence of those willing to work and evangelize if the church was

filled with more Timothes because there would be people who would say, not, what do I

want?

What does Christ want?

Timothy was one who sought the things of Christ.

Now that’s not unique to teachers.

It’s not unique to preachers.

What did Jesus say?

Matthew chapter 6 verse 33, seek those things which are above.

Jesus will tell his disciples to seek first the kingdom of heaven and all these other

things shall be added unto you.

Did Timothy go through hard times?

yeah, he did.

In 1 Timothy, Paul is going to write to Timothy and he is going to describe the

difficulties that are going to arise and the things that he is going to endure as he is

teaching and preaching there in Ephesus.

And when you get to 2 Timothy, Timothy is in crisis.

Timothy is near giving up.

Timothy is in tears because of the scenario that he finds himself in and Paul’s writing to

him to carry on.

The fact that someone puts Christ as the determining factor in their life does not mean

their life will always be easy or the decisions they have to make will always be simple.

Timothy exhibited faithfulness as a servant, and that he did not consider what it was for

him that he should do, but what it was for Christ.

Then consider number six.

He had a proven character, proven through testing.

As Paul…

writes concerning Timothy, he says, for all seek their own, not the things which are of

Christ.

But you know, he writes to the church of Philippi, you know his proven character, that as

a son with his father he served with me in the gospel.

Paul will write concerning this young man and he will say, listen, I’m gonna send Timothy

back to you because he cares for the church genuinely, just like I do.

Because I want to be encouraged to hear about your state, but also because you know

Timothy and you know he’s proven himself.

over and over and over again as Timothy has remained with Paul, as he has served with

Paul.

Paul says, no one has been with me like Timothy.

and how he has proven himself again and again and again.

Paul again would write to the Corinthian brethren in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, and he

would write to them to follow me as I also follow Christ.

And Timothy lived out that message.

Timothy followed the example of Paul.

Paul as he wrote to Timothy,

would remind him concerning the things which he had already been taught and the things

which Paul had taught him privately and the things which Paul had taught him publicly.

Timothy was one who was listening and was fervent in his desire to know how to live and

how to serve and he followed Paul’s example.

Paul said to the church of Philippi, you witnessed it and it hasn’t changed.

We’re going to be faithful servants of Jesus Christ.

Our faithfulness must not be a whim.

Our faithfulness must not be something that flutters in and out with the breeze.

Our faithfulness and our service to God must not be that which is easy when life and times

are easy and absent when difficulties arise.

Our faithfulness to Christ, our faithfulness to His kingdom, our faithfulness to service

must be, as Paul writes to Timothy, instant in season and out of season.

That is constant and unchanging, always present.

As Paul said, he was.

Then consider number seven.

Timothy was one who was humble, uh

in service.

He had humility in his service.

Notice Paul writes, but you know, verse 22, his proven character that as a son with his

father, he served with me in the gospel.

Timothy, after he joined with Paul in Acts chapter 16, would travel with Paul over years.

And you want to know what typically happens with young people over years.

They start off humble.

They start off knowing, I don’t know anything.

They start off willing to learn and then they get too big for their britches.

and they think they know everything.

And they’ve got it all figured out.

I don’t need that old man anymore.

That wasn’t Timothy.

Paul writes concerning Timothy that his continued action year after year after year on

these journeys with Paul was to behave as a son to a father.

to be one who went where he was told, did what he was told, uh helped where he could,

served where he was able, and functioned with adoration and admiration to Paul.

Paul is going to say, here’s my son, my son in the faith, his name is Timothy.

Paul is going to describe the humility with which Timothy operated

and that was unchanging.

It was constant in his actions and his service.

Timothy was willing to submit himself.

Timothy didn’t say, you know what, Paul, I’ve got my own ministry to be active in.

I’m starting my own thing don’t need your instructions on where to go.

I’m not going to be sent by you.

I’m going to do what I want to No.

All the way up until the end of Paul’s life.

At time when Paul and Timothy were separated and Timothy, by and large, was operating on

his own, Paul will write in 2 Timothy chapter 4 as he’s nearing the end of his life for

Timothy to come to him

and to bring his cloak

and to bring the Scriptures, the parchments, and all indications of Scripture is that

Timothy did exactly as he was instructed by Paul all the way up to the end of Paul’s life

because he was humble in service.

But then consider number eight.

Timothy was committed to the gospel.

Once again, in verse 22, he says, but you know his proven character that as a son with his

father, he served with me in the gospel.

The good news, the declaration of the message of Jesus Christ, that message

that Paul said he proclaimed faithfully that Jesus Christ came to this earth, lived and

died and was buried and was resurrected and ascended back into heaven that we might have

the hope of eternal life.

And Timothy didn’t just serve Paul.

Timothy wasn’t a bond servant to Paul.

Timothy wasn’t enslaved to Paul.

Timothy was a bond servant to Christ.

and he declared faithfully the message.

Again, Paul in 2 Timothy chapter 4 would write to Timothy and charge him to preach the

word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering

and doctrine for the time will come where they will not endure sound doctrine but will

heap unto themselves teachers having itching ears.

Paul writes to Timothy and he says, never change the message.

no matter what people want to hear.

No matter whether they all leave, no matter whether the room you’re talking to has got one

person in it or a million people in it, you don’t change the message.

because the message doesn’t belong to you.

It belongs to God.

Paul said that as a faithful servant, Timothy was committed to the gospel.

And you say, well, Aaron, does that mean I need to quit my job?

Does that mean I need to go live on a foreign land?

Does that mean I need to live in a hut in Africa somewhere in order to be committed to the

gospel?

No.

It means wherever you are, in whatever state you’re in, whatever period of life you find

yourself, whatever opportunity that you have, you will declare the truth of the Word of

God.

You will stand firm for the doctrine of Jesus Christ.

You will hold fast to it and not your opinion.

You will proclaim it and not fables.

You will declare the truth of it, and you will never turn from the right hand or to the

left.

because your commitment is to the message of Jesus Christ.

Then consider number nine.

Paul will write that Timothy was valuable.

He was valuable to spiritual leadership.

He was valuable to Paul.

As Paul writes to this church which he loves, this church which had sent him support,

this church which he was concerned about, this church that he earnestly desired to hear

their state so that he could be encouraged, he will go ahead and notate that I’m not

sending Timothy until I’m done with it.

Paul will say, verse 23, therefore I hope to send him at once as soon as I see how it goes

with me.

But I trust in the Lord that I myself shall also come shortly.

Paul’s going to tell the church at Philippi, I’m going to send Timothy after I know what’s

happening here.

If you have a tool that is useless, you don’t care if you’ve got it with you or not.

It’s useless.

I’ve got a lot of tools, and if they’re broken, they’re useless.

If they don’t work right, no point in carrying them.

If they don’t function for the job, no point in having them.

It’s kind of like,

when you go into that drawer and you grab the tape, you know, the tape that’s been in the

drawer for like 10 years, and it got all hot and it congealed together, and now it’ll

stick to nothing except itself.

You can’t get it off by the time you get it off, you put it on something, it won’t even

hold it together.

It’s worthless.

If you’re like, well, do I want to keep it or get rid of it?

Get rid of it.

Why?

It’s worthless.

Not Timothy.

Paul said, I’m going to send him to you right after I’m done with him because he was

valuable.

He had value to the work of Paul.

And Paul is going to make sure of his state before he sends Timothy to somebody else.

Paul valued Timothy.

He valued the work he could do, the effort that he could put forth, the labor that he

could accomplish, because at the time that Paul’s writing this, he’s sitting in prison.

There’s only so far Paul can go.

There’s a limitation to who Paul can see.

There’s a limitation of the work Paul can accomplish.

So he needs someone who can go for him, even locally.

And that’s what Timothy was doing.

So Paul says, I’m going to see how it goes with me before I send him to you.

the characteristics of a faithful servant.

They’re not mind-blowing.

They’re not the characteristics of some above-human hero or God.

They’re the characteristics of faithfulness.

And they’re exhibited in the life of a young man named Timothy.

But as Paul writes about Timothy, he could be writing about any one of us if we were

willing to exhibit the characteristics of Timothy.

so as you consider your life.

Paul will write to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 2 and in verse 2 that the things which

Paul had taught Timothy, Timothy was now charged to commit to other faithful men.

who would be able to teach others also.

Paul says, Timothy, can’t die with you.

It can’t stop with you.

You know what I taught you.

Now you’ve got to go teach others.

But here’s the shining characteristic that you’ve got to look for as you decide who to

teach, Timothy.

They must be faithful.

They must be willing to live the same life you’ve lived.

They must care for the Body of Christ.

They must genuinely care for the Body of Christ.

They must be humble.

They must be willing to serve.

They must be committed to the Gospel.

They must be those who are trustworthy.

They must be those

are valuable.

And you’ve got to hand the gospel to them so they can hand it to others.

that faithful character of Timothy encourages us, exhorts us.

Perhaps it rebukes us if we are not of such character.

If you’re here this morning and you’re outside the body of Christ, this message was not

primarily intended for you.

For in order to be faithful to Christ, you must first be willing to submit to Christ.

Timothy was.

Back in Acts chapter 16, we read that there was a disciple there in Derbe.

And that disciple’s name was Timothy.

That meant he had already been obedient to Christ.

He was a Christian.

So what did he do to begin his journey of faithfulness?

He heard the Word of God and believed it.

He repented of his sins and confessed the name of Christ, and he was immersed in water for

the remission of his sins that he might rise to walk in newness of life.

But he didn’t determine that to be the end.

He determined that to be the beginning.

And then he lived faithful unto death.

If you have need of the invitation of Jesus Christ, either to put him on in baptism or to

once again become faithful to him, why not follow Timothy’s example?

and be committed to the gospel no matter what comes.

If you have need of the invitation, why not

Mount Carmel – Aaron Cozort – April 19, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, Baal, biblical history, biblical lessons, Elijah, faith, keywords Mount Carmel, Obedience, Old Testament, prophecy by Aaron Cozort

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Good afternoon.

This afternoon, we’re going to spend a little bit of time looking at Mount Carmel.

Some of the events that transpired at Mount Carmel and the history of it in the Old

Testament, its location, as well as some of the attributes of that location in the

prophetic period of the Old Testament.

Now, Mount Carmel is actually a ridge of mountains, not a singular mountain.

It is there up there at the hook, the northern part of Israel.

It forms the uh border of the region of Galilee and the southern region of Samaria that is

there in the northern part of Israel.

It is one of those regions that has

Old Testament significance from the days of Joshua till the latter part of the Old

Testament.

It is an area that is on the edge of a very fertile plain, that is the Valley of Jezreel.

It is one of the most fertile areas of the northern part of Israel and of Israel at large.

As a result of this, the

view of Mount Carmel is one of both beauty and oh the plenty that is provided by that

region.

It receives more moisture, more rain because of its proximity to the seas than some of the

other areas around it do.

And as a result, it is very uh plentiful in the growing of crops and the growing of things

in the valley around it and even some of the regions on top of it.

When you begin to look at Mount Carmel in the early portions of the Old Testament, you

first see it as a border reference in the book of Joshua.

If you’ll turn to Joshua chapter 19.

As the land is being divided up, Carmel will be mentioned within the land of Asher, the

tribe of Asher.

Verse 24, we read, the fifth lot came out for the tribe of the children of Asher according

to their families and their territory included Helcath, uh Halai, Benton, Akshaf,

Elimelech,

Amad and Mishal.

It reached to Mount Carmel westward along the brook Shihur-Libnath.

So the first reference you really have of that location by name is of it as a border

reference for the tribe of Asher.

You skip forward to 1st Samuel chapter 15 and you’ll find another occasion where

Carmel is going to be mentioned.

It’s going to be mentioned in reference to the events that will transpire in this chapter.

God has told uh the king, King Saul, to go and to defeat uh another nation and as they go

and and seek to defeat them as they have been told to do by God, God gave them very

specific instructions.

He says, you go and you do war against the Amalekites and you don’t leave

any of them alive.

You don’t keep their cattle, you don’t keep uh their possessions, you don’t keep any of

that, that you are to destroy all of it.

And yet, Saul did not do so.

We find in 1 Samuel chapter 15 and verse 1, Samuel also said to Saul, the Lord has sent me

to anoint you king over his people over Israel.

Now therefore heed the voice of the words of the Lord.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he

ambushed him on the way when he came up out of Egypt.

Now go and attack Amalek and destroy, utterly destroy all that they have and do not spare

them, but kill both men and women, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and

donkey.

So Saul gathered together the numbered, uh numbered them in telling.

200,000 foot soldiers and 20,000 men of Judah.

Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley.

So as the events transpire, Saul is going to defeat them, but then Saul is not going to

keep the commandments.

You go down to verse 10, now the word of the Lord came to Samuel saying, I greatly regret

that I have set up Saul as king.

For he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.

And it grieves Samuel and he cried out to the Lord all night.

So when Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, it was told Samuel, saying Saul

went to Carmel.

And indeed, he set up a monument for himself and he has gone on around, passed by and gone

down to Gilgal.

Saul, having defeated the Amalekites and yet not having kept the commandments of God,

will go about to erect a uh monument for his own glory.

And yet he did not obey the Lord.

He sets that monument up at Mount Carmel.

And so there in this northern region of Israel, there by the sea, as you were to…

travel down into the southern regions of Israel everybody would see the monument up on top

of the mountain.

Oh great Saul

except that God says, Saul has not kept my commandments.

You turn over to 1 Samuel chapter 25.

We read about the death of We read in chapter 25 verse 2, then Samuel died and the

Israelites gathered together and lamented for him and buried him in his home in Ramah.

And David arose and went to the wilderness of Peran.

Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel and the man was very rich and he

had 3000 sheep and 3000 goats and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

The name of the man was Nabal.

and the name of his wife, Abigail.

And she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance, but the man was harsh

and evil in his doings.

He was of the house of Caleb.” So here another occasion where you read about Carmel is you

find out that this was the business location and the dwelling location of Naboth.

And Naboth, or sorry, Nabal.

Nabal will be one who will uh end up being smitten

and Abigail will become the wife of David, but you read here in the text that this is one

who is a descendant of Caleb and he is dwelling, and at least his operations are dwelling

in Carmel.

So you have different events in the early period of the Old Testament.

They reference Carmel.

You see most specifically and the significance of it as a border city.

And of course you also realize by the time you get to the days of David that there’s also

a city that is there in addition to the mountain itself.

Then you get to some of the imagery, that being textual imagery about Mount Carmel.

If you turn over to Song of Solomon, Song of Solomon is going to reference Carmel and

going to use it in terms of its beauty.

Here in Song of Solomon chapter seven, we read beginning in verse four, your neck is like

an ivory tower.

Of course, writing about this woman that Solomon is writing about, he says, your neck is

like an ivory tower.

Your eyes like the pools of Neshbon by the gates of Beth-Rabim.

Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon, which looks towards Damascus.

Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel.

You and the hair of your head is like purple.

A king is held captive by your tresses.

OK, so used poetically here to describe the woman who he speaks of it.

She’s above everybody.

She is superior in her appearance above everybody.

Just the same way Mount Carmel stood out above the landscape around it being surrounded

both by the sea.

and then by the Valley of Jezreel.

You turn over to Isaiah chapter 35 and while the beauty of the location is mentioned in

Song of Solomon, Isaiah’s usage is also going to carry some similar ideas and in the

concepts there.

Isaiah chapter 35.

As he opens this chapter, we read the wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them

and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as a rose.

shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing.

The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it.

The excellence of Carmel and Sharon.

They shall see the glory of the Lord, the excellency of our God.

So.

As Isaiah speaks concerning the future glory of Zion, he uses the imagery and the

reference to Carmel and to Lebanon and to this region because of its grandeur, because of

its beauty, because of its glory to give forward that concept speaking of Zion.

But when you turn over to Amos, you know, when you have glory, you have beauty, you also

tend to have the other side.

of that coin.

And so, as Amos will begin to write and begin to prophesy in Israel, he will speak

concerning desolation when it comes to Carmel.

He will speak concerning judgment.

And notice what Amos is going to write.

Chapter 1 verse 1, the words of Amos, who was among the sheep breeders of Tekoa.

which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of

Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel two years before the earthquake.

And he said, the Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem.

The pastures of the shepherds mourn and the top of Carmel withers.” Amos says he speaks

concerning the judgment of God against Israel.

will point out that it doesn’t matter how high and lifted up you are, it doesn’t matter

how abundantly safe you appear to be because you have the high ground when the Lord speaks

judgment against you, even the mountains wither.

And so you have across the Old Testament a picture of beauty, a picture of being a border

location, a picture of a place of commerce, a picture of judgment.

But then the most significant events that transpire at Mount Carmel are found in 1 Kings

chapter 18.

1 Kings chapter 18 occurs during the days of Ahab.

Ahab is going to be king in the northern kingdom of Israel.

Ahab is going to be one who does not follow the commands of God.

He is not obedient to the message of the prophets, specifically of the message of Elijah.

Elijah is going to tell Ahab to be obedient to God and Ahab is going to refuse.

As a result of Israel’s rejection of God and their following after idols, in chapter 17

Elijah is going to proclaim a drought.

We made mention of this in our Bible class this morning.

And for three and a half years that drought is going to transpire.

But as the time of that drought comes to an end,

Elijah is going to come back to Israel.

And if you go through and read all of the text, we won’t for the sake of time.

uh Ahab has been sending out soldiers and messengers and people searching everywhere for

Elijah because he knows it’s not raining because of Elijah and knows that if Elijah will

say the word, the rain will continue.

Now, it’s interesting to note

that here is a king who knows that if he could get Elijah to tell it to rain, it would

rain, but he won’t do what Elijah says.

He won’t obey the word of the prophet, but he knows that the weather will.

So Ahab is going to be told by Elijah that he’s returning and there is going to be a

contest that will transpire on Mount Carmel between Elijah and the prophets.

of Baal.

You’ll notice in 1 Kings chapter 18 beginning in verse 19 we read, therefore send and

gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel.

The 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Assyria who eat at Jezebel’s table.

Elijah is going to call for the king.

He’s going to call for Jezebel.

He’s going to call for their prophets, the prophets of Baal, which was the god of the

storms of the Canaanites.

The Canaanites held special significance to the region of Mount Carmel as well.

And so the god of the storms, Baal, is going to be represented here at this time.

And Elijah is also going to call for the gods or sorry, the prophets of the gods of

Asheroth or Asherah.

And this is the God of Jezebel’s preference.

her parents, her lineage being the daughter of a king, they were more followers of Baal,

but she had her preference for Asherah.

And so they’re going to call the prophets.

Now we know from the event that only the prophets of Baal are going to show up.

But verse 20 says, So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, gathered the prophets

together on Mount Carmel.

And Elijah came to all the people and said, How long will you falter between two opinions?

If the Lord is God, follow him.

But if Baal, follow him.

But the people answered him, not a word.

Then Elijah said to the people, I alone am left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal’s prophets

are four hundred and fifty men.

Therefore, let them give us two bulls and let them choose one bull for themselves

cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it.

And I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it.

Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord.

And the God who answers by fire, he is God.

So all the people answered and said, it is well spoken.

Now, Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it

first.

For you are many, and call on the name of your God, but put no fire under it.

So they took the bull which was given to them, and they prepared it, and they called on

the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us.

But there was no voice.

No one answered.

Then they leaped about the altar which they had made.

And so it was at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, Cry aloud, for he is a God.

Either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping

and must be awakened.

So they cried aloud and cut themselves as was their custom with knives and lances until

the blood gushed out of them.

But when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening

sacrifice.

But there was no voice, no one answered, no one paid attention.

All Israel’s gathered for this contest.

All Israel’s waiting to see which God really exists.

Which God is actually going to act on behalf of His prophets.

Now consider that Baal was the god of storms, and yet it hasn’t rained for three and a

half years.

And here are 450 of the prophets of the god of storms.

And not only that, can they not get it to rain?

They can’t get fire from heaven.

Now, what is it that is uniquely important about the God of storms?

Well, he can send lightning.

He can send fire from heaven.

He can cause this sacrifice to light up.

except no answer, no response from their God.

Verse 30 we read, Then Elijah said to all the people, Come near to me.

So all the people came near to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken

down.

You’ll note that Elijah has not just come to a random

place.

Elijah has not come to a random location.

Elijah has come to a location where there had been an altar to God.

but Israel and the people had allowed it to crumble.

Israel and the people had allowed it to become that which was broken down and in

disrepair.

And so Elijah will come to this altar and he will begin to repair it.

And Elijah took 12 stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob.

to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, Israel shall be your name.

Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord and made a trench around

the altar large enough to hold two sies of seed.

And he put wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood and said, Fill

four water pots with water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood.

Now as Elijah commands this, you can probably imagine what the reaction of the people is

going to be.

Do you realize how precious water is?

You’re telling us to take water when it hasn’t rained for three and a half years and we’re

going all over the place just trying to find enough water to be able to water our flocks

and our herds and you’re telling us to pour it out on the ground?

That’s exactly what he tells them to do.

And notice what we read.

He says, fill four water pots with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the

wood.

Then he said, do it a second time.

And they did it a second time.

And he said, do it a third time.

And they did it a third time.

So the water ran all around the altar as he also filled the trench with water.

Elijah said, not enough.

You remember how in the days of the judges, God called a judge to come and to defeat an

army and he gathered together an army of 30,000 people and he started off to go do battle

and God stopped him and said, too many people.

You go and fight the battle with this many people and Israel’s going to be convinced that

they won the war.

So everybody that’s afraid, send them home.

So they sent home everybody who was afraid.

And they still had thousands and God says, no, too many people.

He said, you’re to have to get them to go take a drink out of the water and whichever ones

lift the water up versus the ones who go and lap the water, send one group home.

And so they go to battle with 300 men.

300 when they started off with 30,000.

And God says, okay, now Israel will know that I am the one who has delivered their enemy

into their hand.

So Elijah’s doing the same thing for the Northern Kingdom of Israel because he’s saying,

no, I’m not gonna test God with a dry altar.

Israel’s gonna find some excuse some reason why yeah, there was a spark under there.

He hid something in it It wasn’t real.

It wasn’t really the Lord So he says pour water on it That’s not enough water pour water

on it.

No not enough water pour water on it till the water is flowing out of the altar Flowing

into the trough then he says fill the trough with water

Elijah is not going to leave any room for them to be ambivalent about who this is.

So the water ran all around the altar, verse 35, and he also filled the trench with water

and it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the

prophet came and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day

that you are God in Israel and I am your servant.

and that I have done all these things at your word.” When Elijah says that, he doesn’t

just mean the event on Mount Carmel.

He means three and a half years of no rain since the last time the people saw him.

They need to know that this wasn’t Elijah doing this, this was the Lord.

And so he says,

Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that you are the Lord God and that you

have turned their hearts back to you again.

Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the

stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench.

Elijah finishes praying and he doesn’t wait half a day.

He doesn’t wait till the next morning.

He doesn’t wait until he jumps around and makes a big ruckus.

He finishes praying and fire comes down from heaven and consumes the sacrifice.

It consumes the wood.

It consumes the stone.

It consumes the water.

Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, the Lord, He is

God.

The Lord, He is God.

And Elijah said to them, seize the prophets of Baal, do not let one of them escape.

So they seized them and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and executed them

there.

Then Elijah said to Ahab, go up, eat and drink.

for there is the sound of the abundance of rain.

As Elijah proceeds from the events of the challenge, he tells Ahab, hey, it’s time for you

to get home.

Rain’s coming.

It’s time for you to finally be at peace.

Rain’s coming.

And he says, so Ahab went up to eat and to drink and Elijah went up to the top of Mount

Carmel.

Then he bowed down on the ground and put his face between his knees and said to his

servant, up now, look toward the sea.

So he went up and looked and said, There is nothing.

And seven times he said, Go again.

So you can imagine here’s Elijah, he’s there at the top of Mount Carmel.

He’s there and the people have dissipated, the people have gone home.

They’ve seen what they came to see.

They know that the Lord Jehovah is God.

and they have put an end to the 450 prophets of Baal.

But as Elijah is there, he prays, he sends his servant, go look.

Now from, as you can see here in the image on the screen, from the top of Mount Carmel,

you can look right off into the Mediterranean Sea.

So the servant would walk from where Elijah was and he’d go look out over the

Mediterranean Sea.

So Elijah prayed and sent the servant out, the servant came back, nothing.

Elijah prayed, sent the servant out, nothing.

Six more times Elijah prayed, sent the servant out, came back, nothing.

And he said to his servant, go up now, look toward the sea.

So he went up and looked and said, there is nothing.

And seven times he said, go again.

Then it came to pass the seventh time that he said, there is a cloud.

as small as a man’s hand rising out of the sea.

So he said, go up and say to Ahab, prepare your chariot and go down before the rain stops

you.

Notice that the clouds not descending out of the sky.

The cloud is a rising out of the sea.

God creates the cloud out of the Mediterranean Sea.

And as the servant observes it, Elijah says, hurry up, go tell Elijah, get on his chariot

and go.

Or he’s not getting home.

And notice what we read.

Now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind and there

was a heavy rain.

So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel.

Then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah.

and he girded up his loins and he ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jizreel.

Ahab takes off running.

It’s going to be the beginning of a lot of running for Elijah in the coming days.

But Elijah is uh swiftly footed by the hand of the Lord, kind of like in my mind, Philip

in Acts chapter eight, when Philip goes and meets the eunuch as he’s on the chariot headed

out of Israel, I get the feeling it’s uh very much the same thing.

If you had probably watched Elijah go by, you would have gone.

What was that?

That was a prophet, headed to go do something.

Elijah went by, Elijah beat the king back who was traveling via chariot and he met him at

the Valley of Jezreel.

Sadly, from this location, Elijah will prove to Israel that the Lord is God.

And from the high mountaintop of Mount Carmel, the evidence will be given that God alone

is the God they should serve.

But as is often the case when someone leaves the high of

Knowing for certain how everything’s going to turn out they often end up down in the low

of uncertainty

Because as Jezebel is going to find out what happened to the 450 prophets of Baal, Jezebel

will say, before this day is done, I’m going to have Elijah’s head.

And Elijah will begin running and he won’t stop.

He won’t stop for quite some time.

As a matter of fact, he’ll reach Sinai before he’s done.

running away from Jezebel.

There’s some things we need to learn, but I want to focus on this one.

What Elijah said to Israel before the contest began.

Elijah said to Israel, if the Lord is God, follow Him.

Simple enough.

If God is who he says he is, and he’s proven it over and over and over again, then follow

the Lord.

If you’re here this afternoon and you’re not following the Lord, may I encourage you to

learn the lesson of Mount Carmel.

May I encourage you to understand who created this world and everything that exists in it,

who is above all kings and all principalities and all powers, who controls the nature of

this world and everything around it, and who will tell you that one of these days this

world’s coming to an end.

and you don’t know when it will be.

But you know this, he said, today is the day of salvation.

He has assured you that if you will be humble and repent, if you will be obedient to his

will, then he will forgive and he will give you a home in heaven with him.

Jesus said, you believe in God, believe also in me.

For in my Father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you, I go

to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place, I will bring you again to

myself, that where I am there you may be also.” If you’re here this afternoon and you’ve

not been obedient to the message of Christ, why not do that today?

To hear the Word of God and believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, to repent of your

sins and confess the name of Christ.

to do exactly what Israel finally did when they declared, Jehovah, He is God.

To declare that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, lived, and died, that we might be saved.

Confess the name of Christ and be immersed in water for the remission of your sins, rising

to walk in newness of life with the realization and the knowledge.

But this world is not our home.

This world is temporary.

This world is under the control of one who created it and will end when he says it’s going

to be done.

You’re member of the body of Christ and you’ve done what Israel did and you departed from

the Lord.

Maybe the place of glory and significance and honor for God in your life is in shambles

and disrepair.

It’s time to repent.

It’s time to come back.

God was willing to forgive Israel.

He’s willing to forgive you too.

If you have need of the invitation, why not come now as we stand.

Mark 14 (Lesson 7) – Aaron Cozort – April 22, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, biblical prophecy, Christian Lessons, Humility, Isaiah 53, keywords Jesus trial, Mark 14, Peter denial, repentance, resilience by Aaron Cozort

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Open your Bibles,

Appreciate your presence.

We’re down into the latter portions of this chapter.

We’re gonna pick up around verse 53 this evening as we continue through our study.

But let’s begin with a word of prayer.

Our gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day that you’ve

blessed us with, for the life that we have, the opportunities that we have to serve you,

and we pray that we might strive to do so diligently.

We pray that you be with those who are dealing with illnesses, injuries, recovery from uh

procedures or hardships in this physical world.

We pray that you give them strength and comfort and peace.

pray that you

help us to also be an encouragement to them.

Lord, we pray that you be with those who are dealing with issues of a spiritual nature.

We pray that they will have a heart willing to open your word, to study your will, to know

what you would have them to do and how you would have them to live and to walk and the

peace that they should have in knowing what you have put in your word.

Lord, we pray that you will forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory.

In all this, we pray and ask in Jesus name.

Amen.

Mark chapter 14, beginning verse 53, they led Jesus away to the high priest, and with him

were assembled all the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes.

What time of day was this?

Nighttime, not evening time, nighttime.

uh The evening time is when the feast or the supper would have been held.

And then they continued to talk after that supper was held.

And then uh after they had talked for a while, Judas went out from among them after that

supper was held.

Then Jesus continued to talk and continued to teach and instruct the disciples.

And then when that was finished, Jesus and the disciples went out to the Garden of

Gethsemane.

So you have the travel time from wherever they were in the city to the garden.

And then Jesus spent three hours praying.

So at the earliest, if you could imagine they probably began the feast supper, let’s say

if they began it at 6 p.m.

What time does this make this?

probably close to midnight or either close to midnight or even later than that.

And interestingly, just by pure happenstance, every single one of the chief priests

happened to be at the high priest’s at midnight when they brought Jesus back.

Pure coincidence.

Everybody just happened to be there for this event.

So the chief priests were there, but not just the chief priests.

All the elders were there.

So the 70 of the Sanhedrin were there.

And not just the chief priests, not just the Sanhedrin, but all the scribes were there

too.

as if maybe they knew something was going on.

and that they were in a hurry to make sure it started, happened, and finished because they

had a narrow window of opportunity.

So, notice they arrive.

Peter followed him at a distance right into the courtyard of the high priest and sat with

the servants and warmed himself at the fire.

Now the chief priests and all the councils sought testimony against Jesus to put him to

death, but found none.

As they are searching for testimony, Mark makes it clear they didn’t find anybody.

They didn’t find what met the legal parameters.

They found volunteers to lie.

They found volunteers to uh bear false witness.

They just didn’t find any legal reason to do what they were trying to do.

Verse 56 says, For many bore false witness against him, but their testimonies did not

agree.

Then some rose up and bore false witness against him, saying, We have heard him say, I

will destroy this temple made with hands.

And within three days I will build another maid without hands.” But not even then did

their testimony agree.

And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, saying, Do you answer nothing?

What is it these men testify against you?

The high priest, seeing that they’re having a bit of an issue because they’re not getting

to the legal excuse to kill him,

tries to get Jesus to testify against himself.

The question is not an honest one.

The question is not that which is seeking for knowledge concerning the testimony and the

witness that these individuals were giving because who had gone to find the witnesses.

the people at the instruction of the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes.

So he says, do you answer nothing?

Are you not going to rebut their testimony?

What is it these men testify against you?

But he kept silent and answered nothing.

Again, the high priest asked him, saying, are you the Christ, the son of the blessed?

Jesus said, I am.

And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming with the

clouds of heaven.

Jesus here utilizes the imagery of Daniel 7.

Stick your finger over here in Mark 14 and take a brief jaunt, if you will, with me to

Daniel chapter 7.

Daniel chapter seven.

We read beginning in verse 9, I watched till thrones were put in place and the ancient of

days was seated.

His garment was white as snow and the hair of his head was like pure wool.

His throne was a fiery flame and its wheels a burning fire.

A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him.

A thousand thousands ministered to him.

Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.

The courts were seated and the books were opened.

I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking.

I watched till the beast was slain and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame.

As for the rest of the beast, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were

prolonged for a season and a time.

I watched in the night visions and behold one like the son of man coming with the clouds

of heaven.

He came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him.

Then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom.

Then all peoples, nations and languages should serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away in his kingdom, the one

which shall not be destroyed.

As the vision.

puts these items before Daniel.

Daniel, of course, is seeing this imagery that corresponds to the imagery of chapter two

and the kingdoms in chapter two.

So this fourth beast is a picture of Rome.

But the point is that as the fourth beast is in its power, Daniel is going to see the son

of man seated on the throne.

there with God and reigning.

And the picture of Jesus and the picture Jesus identifies for the chief priest, for the

high priest rather, is not one of his return from heaven.

The coming with the clouds in this context is not the return of Christ.

It is rather the ascension of Christ to

the position of authority returning not to earth, but to where He came from.

Where did Christ come from?

Heaven.

By the way, as He identifies that fact, as He points this out, He’s identifying that His

origin isn’t earthly.

His origin isn’t from men.

His origin isn’t what everyone else’s is and his authority isn’t either.

So he is arguing for as he makes this statement, I am the one who fulfills the prophecy

made by Daniel.

Therefore, I am king.

I am ruler.

I am over all of you, you included.

and he tells the high priest, you’re going to witness this.

You’re going to see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

He says, I am and you will.

It is important to realize that Jesus directly gives attribution to Daniel 7 being

fulfilled in

his day.

Quite often, people come to Daniel 7 and they say, this is when Christ returns.

No, no, no.

You got to pay attention to the direction he’s going.

He is going to the Father, not from the Father, in Daniel 7.

So Jesus says, you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming

with the clouds of heaven.

Same way Daniel describes it.

Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, what further need do we have of witnesses?

It really probably wouldn’t have mattered what had come out of Jesus’s mouth.

That would have been what the high priest would have said no matter what.

But he essentially is saying, he’s claiming to be God again.

That’s all we need.

We’re all witnesses now.

They argue what they have argued before that he was blaspheming by claiming this position.

He says, you have heard the blasphemy.

What do you think?

And they all condemned him to be deserving of death.

What person was among the number of the elders or the Sanhedrin that we know of, that we

know by name?

Turn to John chapter 3.

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

Now we learn elsewhere of Nicodemus later on, I believe it’s John that records it, that he

was not consenting to the death of Christ.

But the uh perception here ah is that the

crowd, totality of those assembled there were in favor of this.

Now, don’t have Nicodemus specifically stated as being present when this occurs, not by

name, ah but he is among one of the rulers, so it certainly is a possibility.

But he also points out, Mark does, he says, then some of them began to spit on him and to

blindfold him.

and to beat him and to say, prophesy.

And the officer struck him with the palms of their hands.

They go beyond just the actions of a judicial proceeding to now starting to assault Jesus,

to mock him.

So as to say, hey, if you’re who you claim to be, if you are…

who you say you are, if you have the knowledge you claim to have, then just tell us who

hit you.

This goes back to Isaiah chapter 53.

In Isaiah 53…

Isaiah will write beginning in verse one, who has believed our report?

And to whom is the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground.

He has no form or comeliness when we shall see him.

There is no beauty that we should desire him.

He is despised and rejected by man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid as it were our faces from him.

He was despised and we did not esteem Him.

Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed Him stricken,

smitten by God and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities.

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us

all.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.

He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is silent.

So he opened not his mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment.

And who will declare his generation?

For he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people.

He was stricken.

and they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death, because he had

done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him.

He has put him to grief.

When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his

days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied.”

By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their

iniquities.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with

the strong, because he poured out his soul unto death.

He was numbered with the transgressors, and he bore the sins of many and made intercession

for the transgressors.” As the prophet Isaiah

speaks concerning the treatment of Christ.

As he speaks concerning the things that he would suffer, he points out again and again and

again and again, this happened because of us.

This didn’t happen because of him.

The idea that we sometimes come to, you know what?

If somebody had something bad to them, what bad thing did they do to deserve it?

The answer with Jesus?

Nothing.

The answer is what bad thing did we do to cause him to deserve it?

What did we do to cause him to have to go through it?

As these men are hitting him, as they are assaulting him, they do not realize that it is

for their very sins that he’s allowing it to happen.

So often we think about us, we think about our sins, we think about current moments in

time, but there is a reminder that Jesus was dying even for the people who were putting

Him to death.

Jesus would teach over in Matthew chapter 5 as He speaks to His disciples and to the

crowds that are gathered around that they ought to do good for those who mistreat them.

They ought to love those who despitefully use them and persecute them.

because in doing so they will share the characteristics of their Father in heaven.

For he sends his reign upon the just and on the unjust.

Jesus is going to point out that if you’re going to be like God instead of like men, as a

matter of fact, he points out the juxtaposition is not between like God or like men, but

between like God and like those who are not worthy of the kingdom of heaven.

That’s the separation he makes.

He says, your righteousness is going to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the

Pharisees, which shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.

then you’re going to have to do good to those who do evil to you.

You’re going to have to love your enemies.

You’re going to have to pray for those who do wrong to you.

And the prayer isn’t going to be, sure hope they get what’s coming to them.

for the prayer of Jesus on the cross was, Father forgive them for they know not what they

do.

They’re going to beat him.

They’re going to mock him.

And as they do so, they’re only getting started.

We read then in verse 66, now as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant

girls of the high priest came.

And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, You also were with

Jesus of Nazareth.

But he denied it, saying, I neither know nor understand what you are saying.

And he went on the porch and a rooster crowed.

And the servant girl saw him again and began to say to those who stood by, this is one of

them.

But he denied it again.

And a little later, those who stood by said to Peter again, surely you are one of them,

for you are a Galilean.

and your speech shows it.

If you’ve ever traveled somewhere you’re not from, and I don’t mean you went out of Shelby

County and you went to DeSoto County.

I mean you went to somewhere you’re not from.

And someone comes up to you at any random public place and says, where are you from?

Because they know you’re not from here.

You don’t talk like you’re from Jerusalem.

You don’t talk like a Judean.

You talk like a Galilean.

There was an accent difference and they knew it.

Said, you’re not from here.

You’re one of those Galileans.

Now, were there any Galileans there in Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover?

Sure there were, but were they hanging out at the high priest’s house at midnight?

No.

So Peter kind of stuck out like a sore thumb.

So, they say, you are a Galilean and your speech shows it.

Then he began to curse and swear, I do not know this man of whom you speak.

Peter insists, no I don’t know him.

No, I don’t know him.

No, you got the wrong guy.

And the second time, the rooster crows.

Jesus would tell Peter before the cock crows second time.

You’re going to deny me three times.

mark is going to give both rooster crows.

It’s interesting to note, not all of the writers list both occasions.

Some just describe Jesus as saying, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.

And they only reference the first sounding of the rooster.

But if the rooster is crowing, by the way, what does that tell you about how long how much

time has transpired since this whole thing got started?

All night.

Roosters don’t crow at 1 a.m.

Well, he’s not the ones that stay alive.

The ones that stay alive are the ones that crow when the dawn comes.

They crow when they’re supposed to, not all night long.

So this has been transpiring, not for a moment, not for 15 minutes, but for hours.

as they have gone through the night with Jesus on trial and with the persecution that

would follow after it, we’re into the morning.

But the other thing I wanted to point out is, as Mark mentions, with the first denial that

the rooster crowed.

I think perhaps he’s helping us realize, you know, sometimes…

when we know we shouldn’t do what we’re doing?

We have that reminder right there, right in front of us that sounds, that says, hey, pay

attention, you’re not supposed to be doing this.

And we just keep on.

The other thing perhaps we should consider.

Why is Peter there?

Peter there getting ready to pull his sword to defend Jesus and vanquish all the soldiers

of the high priest that are…

No indication.

Why is Peter there?

Okay?

How so?

But yet what’s happening, he doesn’t understand.

Jesus even said they didn’t understand.

So here’s this man that he has believed to be the son of God this entire time.

And how is it that now he is finally caught by those who’ve been trying to kill him all

along?

So what is Peter supposed to do?

Is he supposed to keep following?

Because he said, I’ll follow you anywhere.

But yet at the same time, he knows this can’t be good because Peter’s not ignorant of the

ways of the laws of the land and the fact that this is all illegal.

So I think he’s conflicted in what am I supposed to do?

uh we have no indication that Peter ever behaved in such a manner before to swear and

curse at somebody.

And when people are torn up over something,

That’s usually when they start to make decisions that they might not otherwise make.

And here he is wanting to do what he said he would do for the Lord.

But also a little self-preservation.

Maybe they’ll take me next if I get too close.

So I don’t want them to think I’m with him, but I don’t know what to do.

That’s why I think he’s conflicted.

I think part of what Eddie, encapsulating what Eddie said is part of what’s going on.

Now, bear in mind, we’re somewhat reasoning about what we’re not told, but we’re looking

at the events.

And as humans, we need to think what is going on?

Bear in mind that all the rest of the disciples,

fled.

Peter also fled, but it seems as though Peter fled with the soldiers and all those who

were arresting Jesus and then followed at a distance.

And then as they’re going in the gate of the high priest’s house, Peter sneaks in as

behind him.

By the way, if you read John’s record, you’re going to find out John’s there too.

because John knew someone in the house of the high priest.

So John is there, Peter is there, no indication the rest of the apostles are there.

So the two of them are there, they’re present, they’re on the periphery of these events

going on.

But Peter…

had been told by Jesus, if you kind of track back over the last little bit, Jesus had told

him that Satan desired to sift him his wheat.

That before the cock crow twice, you will deny me three times.

He had been told, let me wash your feet, and Peter had refused.

And then Peter had reversed back to, don’t wash all of me.

Throughout this night, there have been these exchanges between Jesus and Peter over and

over demonstrating to Peter that Jesus knew what was going on and Peter didn’t.

When Jesus goes and prays in the garden and comes back and the three of them are asleep,

who does he address?

Peter.

Could you not watch with me one hour?

as he gets to the second time he comes back?

He points out that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Pray that you enter not into temptation.

As the soldiers come, who pulls the sword and cuts off the ear of the servant of the high

priest?

Peter does.

You’re watching a series of events where Jesus is saying, Peter, you’re…

under attack and you don’t even see the opponent.

We’re reminded.

from scripture.

Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

Paul will remind the Galatian brethren to be humble and watchful as they seek to restore

someone else that they don’t find themselves caught up in sin as well.

Peter is being told again and again and again, Peter, you’re not as strong as you think

you are.

You’re not ready for what’s coming.

You’re not listening.

You’re not paying attention.

And the enemy you face is bigger than you.

But Peter was also told that not only would he get through it, that he would repent and

return.

There are times…

Where the people around us will look at the direction we’re headed and they will tell us,

you do realize there’s a cliff over there, right?

Right over there, right the direction you’re going.

Straight ahead of you.

There’s a cliff.

No, no cliff.

Straight ahead.

Straight on till morning.

Isn’t that the phrase from Peter Pan?

No problem at all.

Smooth sailing.

No, there’s a cliff in front of you.

We don’t listen.

And we should, as we look at this, realize

one of the problems Peter had

was humility.

Peter struggled with the humbleness to examine, to listen, to understand what Jesus was

telling him

and the lack of humility became a blind spot.

It became the opening for the attack.

So now Peter’s not there saying, I’m going to be a witness on behalf of Jesus.

I’m going to stand up for Jesus.

He’s back in the background pretending he’s not who he is.

We need to be careful when we find ourselves in a position that we are tempted to pretend

we’re not who we are.

Where we think, you know what, people will not accept me as the Christian that I am, so

I’m just going to keep my mouth shut.

I’m just going to act like I’m just one of the people.

I’m not going to do anything wrong.

I’m just going to pretend I’m not who I am.

Careful.

That’s an opening for Z.

That’s you saying, you know what?

I’m not going to do anything wrong, but I’m not going to stand up for what’s right.

I’m not going to be seen to be an ally of God.

I’m just not going to be an ally of Satan.

Careful.

Eddie, do you have another thought?

being humble and then it made me think of 1 Peter 5, 8 where Peter draws on Satan being a

roaring lion, but it’s just two verses before that where he says, humble yourself before

the Lord.

I wonder if he thinks, as he wrote that, if he was thinking back to those events that

transpired.

And we can often see things looking back better than when we were in that situation.

And at the same time,

Give Peter some credit.

ah The likelihood is that maybe at this point in time he’s 25 years old.

The likelihood is he was at least a good number of years younger than Jesus.

Quite often the disciples of a rabbi would be ten or more years younger than the rabbi

himself.

So if Jesus begins his ministry at age 30, it’s quite likely that those who were his

disciples were in their either late teens, early 20s.

If Jesus has been ministering for three and a half years and if Peter was 22, 23 when

Jesus began ministering, he’s only 25, 26.

Raise your hand if you were making a bunch of wise decisions at age 25 or 26.

You’re not there yet.

patient.

doing before he thinks and everything.

But everybody, you we all need to remember, he’s the only one that stepped out of the

boat.

He’s the only one that had the faith to do that, you know?

And in doing that, yes, we all have done things in our lives what Peter’s doing now, you

know?

But Peter’s the one who was, who did come back.

He’s one of the characters that I love so much in the Bible.

That is, they’re all real, we can relate to.

And then they’ve done that kind of thing, you know, and it gives us hope that if Peter can

deny Christ and turn around and come back and be the preacher on the first day of

Pentecost and then everything after that, we can too.

Absolutely.

And, you know, in that same vein, you also have to appreciate the fact that there’s a

reason

Satan wanted Peter and it wasn’t just about Peter.

because Peter was the one willing to walk in front.

Peter was the one who was in front of, ahead of, and willing to go in front of and before

the other apostles.

Peter was the one willing to walk out on the seat of the Lord while all the other apostles

are staying in the boat.

So,

the person willing to step forward, the person willing to lead, suddenly also gets a much

bigger target on their back.

Certainly, uh but I think it’s more, again, my opinion.

Jesus is identifying Peter as the one who needs to be strong, but who will fall, who will

then need to be strong again for the rest of them.

And he knows that he’s susceptible, but he also knows he’s resilient.

There’s a principle of uh design and engineering.

In some engineering scenarios, you want as much strength as you can get.

You want…

Something will not bend ever.

It will only hold its position.

But what is true about an object of great strength like steel, when you have an object

like steel, that it is incredibly strong, it is incredibly resistant to bending and to

breaking, but it does have a breaking point.

that when it breaks.

It doesn’t get back together again.

It is.

It’s not like the limb that gets blown down and it lays on the ground for a little bit,

but then gets a little bit of soil, gets set back up, starts growing again.

It’s.

Bro.

So there’s a principle of strength and then there’s a principle of anti-fragility.

Something that is anti-fragile is both strong, but it’s resilient and it pushes back and

it reforms over time.

So when you have something that is anti-fragile, it’s actually more resilient than

something that is just strong.

Jesus is going to tell Peter, you’re not going to be able to out-strength the person who

you’re going up against.

But when you repent, when you become anti-fragile, when you return back to your former

position,

you help the others.

So Peter.

rubber on a tire at the east of the road.

So Peter is going to deny Jesus three times.

The second time, verse 72, the rooster crowed, Peter called to mind the word that Jesus

had said to him, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.

And when he thought about it, he wept.

Mark tells us that the words came to mind.

Another of the records, I think it’s either Luke or John, tells us that at that moment

that the rooster crowed the second time, Jesus looked across the courtyard at Peter.

Peter saw Jesus and knew exactly what he had done.

Now, here’s a interesting thought question for you.

Is it disappointing to people when we do exactly what they told us we were going to do?

Yeah, generally, it’s a little disheartening.

I don’t know how many times my wife has said to her children, how many times have I told

you?

She never has to say it to me.

I’m perfect.

But anyway.

when somebody says, told you you were going to do that.

We had a friend growing up that had a habit of saying to people.

Never a good time to say I told you so.

What she really meant was I told you so.

But here’s the thing, Jesus told Peter two things.

Jesus told Peter He was going to deny Him.

Jesus also told Peter that he was going to repent and be restored.

And so often we focus on the first one because of the drama of it, because of the account

of it and the story of it.

But Jesus said with as equal assurance to Peter that he was both going to deny him, that

he was also going to repent and be restored.

And I surmise that the second part

was of far greater comfort to Peter afterward.

It is with that in mind that I think the Hebrew writer utilizes the same type of statement

when he over and over and over again uses the term, let us in the book of Hebrews.

He talks about how they’re turning back and then he says, let us and he calls them to

faithfulness.

He doesn’t separate them and say, you know what, you all are sinning, you all are doing

wrong, you all need to repent and you all need to get it right.

He identifies that they’re making a wrong decision, that they’re determining a wrong path.

And then he says, and he puts himself right there in there with them and says, let us do

the right thing.

Let us hold fast.

We need to remember that when someone struggles and when someone falls and when someone

sins and when someone does it, even when we told them they were going to do it, if they

didn’t change and they said, I’ll never do that.

And then they go and do it.

Hopefully we have also said and when you realize what you’ve done

I’ll be right here for you.

so you have someone to come back to who loves you.

Peter knew.

that the person who he had denied.

was also the one who was his Redeemer.

And we can’t forget that.

When we look at ourselves, our failures, our sins, our faults, we are to remember that the

one who we deny when we live a life that is not Christ-like is also the one who has said,

I’m right here waiting for you when you come back.

Thank you for your attention.

Revelation 11 (Lesson 2) – Aaron Cozort – April 26, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, biblical interpretation, city imagery, keywords Revelation, prophecy, seals, symbolism, throne room, two witnesses by Aaron Cozort

image

Got a few more coming in.

We are in Revelation chapter 11.

You might wonder how when I did a gospel meeting down in Louisiana, I managed to go

through the entire book of Revelation in just four days.

Of course, then again, each night of the gospel meeting was about an hour and a half long.

And we went really, really fast.

ah We didn’t do a lot of review either.

All right, let’s begin with a word of prayer and then we’ll get into our study.

A gracious father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day that you’ve

given to us, grateful for this book of revelation that helps us to understand the Old

Testament better, helps us to see the fulfillment of the prophets and the prophecies that

were made in the Old Testament, and also helps us to understand the message that you will

provide for and protect and deliver your people, that you will defend your church from its

enemies,

and that ultimately our concern should be about being faithful to you, knowing that there

is a reward in heaven awaiting those who are faithful.

Lord, we pray that you be with all those throughout this world who are struggling with

just such persecution.

We pray that you will be with them and help them to be strong and faithful, always serving

you no matter what comes and help us to do the same.

Help us to have a mindset ready to endure persecution

and hardship, at the same time willing to preach the truth and stand up for your Son and

the testimony of His Word.

All this we pray and ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.

They’re all streaming in behind you.

Isaiah, you’re on the wrong screen because I can’t click and it won’t move.

There we go.

All right.

So, chapter one of Revelation opens up and John is…

in the spirit on the Lord’s Day as the text tells us, he opens the book, introduces it and

introduces who’s writing it.

But this was a message that John was given.

It was sent and signified.

In other words, it was given in the form of signs, visions, pictures, not straight, normal

prose.

and it was of things that must shortly come to pass.

Verses one through three tells us that.

So when John opens the book twice in verses one and three, John tells us the things are

about to take place.

They’re not way off in the future.

In the first century when John wrote it, these things were at

hand, any interpretation of the book that ignores that message that’s in verses one and

two, and by the way, also is in chapter 22.

It bookends the book in chapter 22 verse five or verse six.

John says, these things are shortly to come to pass.

If you ignore what John says, guess what?

You’re going to get the book wrong.

Okay.

So the events were at hand.

John is going to be there worshiping on the Lord’s Day and he hears a voice behind him and

he turns around to see the one who is speaking and it is a picture, uh a representation of

Christ in a glorified state and he has in his right hand the seven stars and he’s

surrounded by seven golden lambstands and he says to John, you’re going to write what I

say.

You’re gonna write what you see.

And so John is going to introduce the book to the seven churches of Asia Minor, and as

these churches receive the book and as they are introduced with a message from God about

their current state and about what’s coming, then chapter four opens and John sees an open

door.

He goes through the open door and in the vision as he goes through the open door, because

he’s presented with an open door, so you’re supposed to understand he went through it, all

right, because he was told to come.

He comes into the throne room of God and he sees the one who’s sitting on the throne and

he doesn’t describe the one sitting on the throne, he describes the glory of the one

sitting on the throne.

He’s surrounded by a rainbow of emerald.

He’s one of great power.

Before him are the seven spirits of God.

Before him is the sea.

Before him are the four beasts that look every direction and that are representative of

different types of power.

And then you also have the 24 elders.

So the 24 elders have crowns of victors.

They have a victory crown upon their head.

And whenever the four beasts that are before the throne begin to praise God and declare

how worthy he is, the 24 elders come off of their thrones.

They cast their crowns before the throne and they worship God.

Then Chapter five opens, and as that occurs.

there is a book in the hand or a scroll in the hand of the one who’s sitting on the throne

and it’s sealed with seven seals.

It’s got a progressive revelation from the one who’s sitting on the throne, God, and John

wants to know what it says because it’s written.

It’s as though, and again, I always form this in view of like a movie, you know, when they

show the person sitting on the throne and in his right hand is the scroll.

You have that moment in the movie where the camera just zooms in and you can see the

writing on the inside and it zooms back out.

John knows it’s got a revelation from God.

He wants to know what it says.

But they search heaven and earth.

They search the under the earth.

They search those who are alive, those who are dead and those who are in heaven.

And nobody’s worthy to open the scroll.

Nobody has the right authority to open a seal.

All right.

So John begins to weep, but one of those in the vision comes to John and says, they’ll not

weep, we found the one who’s worthy.

And the one who’s worthy is the lion of the tribe of Judah.

He is the lamb that was slain.

He is the alpha and the omega.

He is the first and the last.

He is the one who was, who is, and is alive forevermore.

And so the picture of Christ,

is of the lamb who is standing as if he had been slain, but he’s standing, so he’s not

slain, he’s not dead.

And the lamb who has the seven eyes and seven horns and has the seven spirits of God goes

to the throne, takes the book, and begins to open the book.

Chapter six, the book begins to be opened, the seals begin to be opened, and inside the

first seal you have the white horse, the second seal the red horse.

Third seal of the black horse or third seal of black horse, fourth seal of the pale horse.

These progress, this imagery comes from Ezekiel, by the way.

But as you get into the fifth seal, you see the souls of those slain for the testimony of

the word of God under the altar.

And they’re crying out to God, how long?

These are Christians and they’re being persecuted and they’re being killed.

Now, back in Revelation, Chapter two, verse 10.

you have a message to the church in which John is told to write to the church, some of you

are going to be put in prison and some of you are going to be killed.

Be faithful unto death.

Now we’ve often been told and rightfully so that the be faithful unto death means up to

and including.

Well these Christians had been.

Be faithful unto death and I will give you a crown of life is what the passage says and so

here in

the fifth seal, you open the book, or He opens the revelation from God as the fifth seal

is open, and here are the Christians who have been slain for the testimony of the Word of

God, and they’re crying out to God, how long you let this go on?

And they’re told to rest, and they’re given white robes, and they’re told to rest for a

while, and then the sixth seal is open.

And sixth seal is open, you have a pre-vision of…

the judgment of God and the wrath of the lamb coming upon those who are persecuting.

But at the end of that initial picture, which is really a picture about the rest of the

book, you have a question that’s asked.

In the day of the wrath of the lamb, who is able to stand?

So chapter seven opens, there’s the picture from the sixth seal.

All right, chapter seven opens and the angel comes up.

and tells the four angels that are holding back the wind, they’re holding back the

judgment of God, say, wait, wait, wait, wait, don’t let the judgment happen yet.

We’ve got to mark all of God’s people.

We’ve got to make sure we don’t miss a single one.

We’re going to write God’s name on their forehead so we know who they are.

So in the beginning of chapter seven, all of God’s people are marked and how, what’s the

number of them?

144,000, there literally were only 144,000 Christians in the whole world at the time,

right?

And it was exact, not 144,001, it was just 144,000 and oh, they were all Jews because they

were all from specific tribes and there were 12,000 from each, no, no.

The number 12, some of this is gonna be important when we continue in chapter 11, the

number 12 represents God’s people.

The number 1,000 represents all.

When you multiply 12 by 1,000, what do get?

12,000.

God’s people and all of them.

When you multiply that by another 12, what do you get?

144,000.

You get God’s people multiplied by God’s people multiplied by all of them.

And they’re pictured with Old Testament imagery because the whole book is pictured with

Old Testament imagery.

If you went to the Old Testament and you said, what would be a representation of God’s

people?

Well, it’d be 12 tribes of Israel, wouldn’t it?

Absolutely it would, okay?

So God’s people multiplied by God’s people multiplied by all of God’s people is the

picture.

And how could we represent it?

Old Testament imagery of the tribes of Israel, okay?

So all of God’s people are marked because none of God’s people are going to be judged by

the judgment that’s coming.

They’re gonna suffer through it.

They’re gonna go through it.

They’re gonna endure it.

And some of them are gonna die because of it, but they’re not going to be judged by it.

All right, so then you have seven angels with seven trumpets and they’re about to start

sounding.

They’re about to start delivering the judgments of God.

And you see there in chapter eight and chapter nine, those initial blasts from the

trumpets, you see.

partial judgment coming forth.

A third of this is affected and a third of that is affected.

Partial judgment, partial judgment, partial judgment.

So the first four sound and then you get to the last four.

Sorry, the last three, I can’t do math.

The first four sound and as you get to the end of the fourth and to the beginning of the

last three, you have a series of woes that come along with the last three trumpets.

But you don’t have the last three trumpets yet.

You have the first one, number five, the second one, number six, and then another Paulist.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

We got to tell the church they’re going to get through this.

We’ve got to show them because of what’s coming, because of the danger and because of the

threat and because of the persecution that’s coming with this judgment and with what this

nation is doing to them that is being judged.

Rome.

that they’re gonna get through it.

So before the last trumpet sounds, before the last whoa, there’s pause.

And in that pause, you have a mighty angel.

comes up and he’s got one foot on the land and one foot on the sea and he’s holding a

little book.

What does the little book signify?

A message from God, another revelation.

So John sees the one who’s clothed with a cloud, who’s got the rainbow above his head.

He’s a mighty representative of the throne.

And it’s again, Ezekiel imagery.

And he’s got a little book and he gives John the book because John’s told to go take the

book.

And John consumes the book.

He eats the book and it’s sweet as honey in his mouth.

But in his belly it’s what?

Bitter, it’s sour.

It’s a message from God.

It’s sweet as honey.

But it’s not good news.

bitter.

Okay, the message that’s going to be declared is not going to be one of sunshine and roses

and happiness.

It’s going to be one of hard times.

Okay, so then we get to chapter 11.

Chapter 11 opens and we’ve got two witnesses.

Verses one through six, which we covered last week, we’ve got the two olive trees and the

lampstands and the city being measured.

Okay, so John first is told, go measure the temple, said the city, my brain’s on Ezekiel,

uh go measure the temple, the temple’s measured, but the word for temple is the inner

sanctuary.

And God tells Israel, or sorry, God, let me get my words out.

God tells uh John that he’s gonna go measure the inner sanctuary, but don’t measure the

outer courts.

because they’re going to be trodden under.

He’s telling John the church, because that’s the temple of God in the New Testament,

right?

It’s not a physical temple.

God didn’t send Jesus to come build a physical temple.

You remember what they accused Jesus of so that they could crucify him?

What did one of the false witnesses come and say?

Alright, Jesus had made the statement that He would tear down the temple and rebuild it in

three days.

First they said, well this guy’s a lunatic.

There’s no, you see how many years it took Herod to rebuild this temple?

There’s no way anybody could tear down and rebuild it in three days.

But what was Jesus talking about?

That’s right, his body.

He was going to be crucified.

He was going to go down in the grave.

He was going to be resurrected in three days.

Hold on to that.

But oh, by the way, when you come to the New Testament period under the church, what is

referenced as his body?

The church.

So the temple is the body.

The body is the church.

And it’s, by the way, in this chapter going to be killed for three days.

And then it’s going to come back to life.

Watch it.

All right.

So John’s told, go measure the temple and the outer part of it is going to be damaged.

It’s going to be trodden under, but the inner part doesn’t get touched.

Now that can be a picture of Jerusalem.

Can be a picture of the physical temple because that temple, what happened to it?

Not one stone left upon another.

So when you come to this passage and you open it up and you see temple and you see it was

trodden under, but not destroyed, can’t be the temple in Jerusalem.

That temple is completely gone.

But then you see the olive trees.

This is a picture from Zechariah.

So the Zechariah’s picture is a leader of Israel and the governor.

Zerubbabel and the high priest of Israel as the city of Jerusalem is being put back

together.

And Zechariah says, God to Zechariah says, these are my two witnesses.

They represent the leadership of my people and the spiritual leadership of my people.

Okay?

Two witnesses.

And the point is,

if we can combine the picture of the olive trees and the lamps.

The point is this, Matthew chapter five.

You are the light of the world.

City that’s set on a hill.

No man lights a candle and puts it under a bushel.

God has always told His people, you are the light of me in the world.

Now what happens if you’ve got a candle and it’s just a normal candle and you light it?

burns down until eventually does what?

Goes out.

What if you instead have a wick that is connected to a pool of oil that is constantly

being fed by a new supply of oil from an olive tree?

never goes out.

First picture of the two witnesses in chapter 11 is number one, the temple where the inner

sanctuary is never touched.

It doesn’t get destroyed.

Second picture of the witnesses is the lamps connected to the olive trees where they are

continually supplied with oil.

and they never go out.

All right?

Remember, the picture again and again and again in chapters 10, 11 and 12 is two God’s

people.

You’re going to get through this.

You’re going to continue.

God is going to provide for you.

So then we have the next picture of the two witnesses and this is chapter 11 verse 7.

I’m going to back up, though, and get just a couple of things.

Verse three, I will give power to my two witnesses and they will prophesy one thousand two

hundred and sixty days clothed in sackcloth.

Now, what did we say one thousand two hundred sixty days is?

Three and a half years, okay?

So three and a half years is going to come forward from Daniel chapter 12, time, times and

half a time.

Three and a half is half of what?

seven.

eh So instead of a perfect amount of time, you have a broken amount of time.

You have a temporary amount of time.

It’s going to be hard, but it’s not going to be permanent.

Okay.

So notice what he says.

He says, I will give power to my two witnesses.

They will prophesy for 1260 days, clothed in sackcloth.

These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth.

And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth, devours their enemies.

And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner.

These have power to shut heaven so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy.

And they have power over waters to turn them to blood and to strike the earth with all

plagues as often as they desire.

OK, so the the prophets are here pictured in the form of Elijah and Moses.

So you’ve got two witnesses from Zechariah that represent God’s people.

You have two pictures of prophets who represent God’s people who declare God’s message.

And God says they’re going to declare God’s message for a temporary period of time.

The message is going to be heard and nothing’s going to stop them.

Everybody who tries to oppose them as God’s message is proclaimed is going to lose.

But then this happened.

when they finish their testimony, verse 7, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless

pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them.

Now, we’re not going to go into full detail about the beast yet.

I want to hold off on that.

Just know that the beast here is the same beast as Daniel 7.

Daniel’s beast is borrowed.

Daniel’s pictures are borrowed.

So we’re gonna get a land beast, we’re gonna get a sea beast, we’re gonna get all sorts of

things.

But where does it come out of?

Bottomless pit, uh that’s hell, right?

As we’re going through this, we need to appreciate the pictures.

The pictures that we often struggle with because we want the picture to be literal.

We want it to immediately attach to something we already recognize to be something God has

said is actually going to happen.

Well guess what?

When the Christians in the first century were persecuted and killed, did they see beasts

killing them or humans killing them?

Did they see a great big giant beast that just swept them aside or did they see an army

and centurions and emperors who were throwing them to literal beasts in a coliseum?

That’s what they saw.

But in Daniel’s vision, a nation is represented by what?

a beast.

If you go back to Daniel 7, the first nation Babylon is represented by a beast, the second

nation, the Medo-Persian Empire is represented by a beast, the third nation, the Grecian

Empire is represented by a beast, and the fourth nation is represented by an indescribable

beast.

Well, this is your indescribable beast.

He comes up out of the bottomless pit, makes war against them, overcomes them, and kills

them.

Now just a minute ago, for 1260 days, nobody could kill him.

Why?

Why could nobody kill them before the end of 1260 days?

The key is in the beginning of verse 7.

correct because they hadn’t finished their testimony yet.

Here’s the thing you need to think about and need to realize from all Old Testament

history.

No prophet dies until he’s done talking.

No prophet dies until God’s finished relaying his message.

Think about the young prophet that was sent to Jeroboam.

God sends this young prophet.

He goes to Jeroboam with a message saying, Jeroboam, you have rebelled against me.

I’m going to rip away the kingdom from your lineage.

You’re no longer going to get to be on the throne.

And what does Jeroboam do?

He reaches out to tell them to kill this man.

And what happens to his hand when he reaches out?

withers.

While the prophet is still speaking, nobody can kill him.

While God’s message is still being declared, nobody can touch him.

When the young prophet goes back home and the old prophet convinces him to stop and eat,

and then the young prophet carries on after he had been told, don’t stop, don’t eat, get

out of that nation.

What comes and kills him?

A lion.

And then does it consume him?

Nope.

Kills him and sits right there next to him.

See, God’s messengers will declare God’s message and nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing

will stop them.

But the message has been declared and now the persecution begins.

Now they’re going to start dying.

Okay, so notice this, their witness is finished.

The beast ascends out of the bottomless pit, will make war against them, overcome them and

kill them.

and their dead bodies will lie in the streets of the great city which spiritually is

called Sodom, Egypt, and where our Lord was crucified.

Now this is where a lot of people struggle.

Because where was our Lord crucified?

Jerusalem, that’s where the physical city was, where the Lord was crucified.

But was he crucified inside of?

was he crucified in Egypt?

Was he?

No.

This is one city described three ways.

one city described by three analogies.

And Jerusalem is not named, but it is an analogy.

Just the same way Sodom is and just the same way Egypt is.

The city where the beast comes up out of, the city that is pictured here, the city where

the people of God are killed.

isn’t Jerusalem.

Because the beast that’s persecuting them is Daniel’s beast.

And Daniel doesn’t ever speak of Jerusalem as a persecutor, does he?

The indescribable beast, the fourth kingdom, the kingdom of iron and iron mixed with clay

in the image in chapter two is what nation?

Rome.

Now over in Revelation chapter 17, and I’m trying not to spend too much time in 17 until

we get to 17.

John decided to wait until chapter 17 to give it to us.

I’m trying to wait until chapter 17 to get to it.

In chapter 17, you’re going to find out that the city rests on seven hills.

And there’s only one ancient city of power that rested on seven hills, and it’s Rome.

When John describes the city, it’s the city that rests on seven hills.

When John describes the beast, he uses Daniel’s language of the indescribable beast and

the kings and the heads of that beast as his picture.

John says Daniel’s indescribable beast is Rome and its persecuting power is in its kings.

but the beasts that you’re going to see in the coming chapters are going to be two beasts

and a harlot.

Okay?

The persecutors that you see making war with the saints are going to be two beasts and a

harlot.

And you’re seeing an initial description of the persecuting power here in these three

cities or these three locations.

Notice the description.

We read.

Let me get back here where I was.

and the dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which is spiritually, or

sorry, which spiritually is called.

Now notice, John is specific with his language.

He’s telling you that the spirit of the city is Sodom.

What was Sodom known for?

corruption, abomination, but notice this, go back to the earliest description of Sodom.

What is the earliest mention of the city of Sodom?

All right.

The very first picture of Sodom is when Abram and Lot have to part ways.

They have to part ways because they’re growing too big, they’re getting too big.

So Abram tells Lot, you go one way, I’ll go the other.

You pick, you decide.

And the very first mention of Sodom and the very first picture of Sodom we have in

Scripture is that Lot lays his eyes on the well

watered plain of sod.

And the picture of Sodom is, by the way, Lot’s going to start off outside.

And then he’s gonna move further in, and by the time you get to the end, he’s in the city.

It is a seductive commercial city.

It is full of corruption.

It is full of the abomination and wickedness and yet it is pleasant to the eye.

It is something that looks like, you know what, if I get closer and closer to this, I’m

going to get more prosperous and more prosperous and more prosperous.

It is a picture.

of the seductive commercial nature of Rome.

Sodom represents seduction.

All right, so you’ve got beauty to desire something.

You’ve got this natural richness.

You’ve got seduction because when you get to the core of it, what is it?

The city of abomination.

It looks real good on the outside.

It looks beautiful and plentiful and like you’re going to be successful and grow and

prosper.

And instead, it’s going to kill you.

going to eat you from the inside with immorality.

There’s the picture of Sodom.

Now Egypt.

What is the Old Testament picture of Egypt?

abundance, plentifulness, and what did they do to God’s people?

Enslavement.

Okay?

This is the nation that enslaved God’s people.

This is the nation that persecuted God’s people.

and put them to task.

So you’ve got Sodom, looks beautiful, but is seductive.

You’ve got Egypt, looks plentiful, but enslaves God’s people.

And then the city that’s not named, the city where they killed the Lord, that’s the

description.

What does Jerusalem represent in the picture?

Say what?

Rejection of God and religious corruption.

Think about it.

This is the city that represents God’s people, God’s religion, where God’s temple is, and

I use the word God’s in air quotes because guess what?

They were the people who killed the very son of God.

This is the city where they took God’s primary witness.

The one in whom was no guile, the one in whom was no sin found, the one in whom where they

could not find two witnesses that could agree on anything they could put him to death for,

and they killed him anyway.

And it wasn’t the people that did it.

It was the corrupt religious leaders that did it.

So you’ve got commercial beauty and yet corruption.

You’ve got prosperity in Egypt and corruption.

You’ve got religion and corruption in Jerusalem.

What’s God saying about the great city?

The great city has three aspects that are all gonna go to war with His people.

They’re gonna go to war economically, they’re gonna go to war in regards to all of the

things that the nation does and enslavement, and they’re gonna go to war in terms of

religion.

John is not telling you that this is the city of Jerusalem.

John’s telling you it’s not the city of Jerusalem.

He’s telling you that it’s spiritual Jerusalem, the city that claims to belong to God but

would kill his very son.

by the way, what

world power killed the Son of God.

Because the Jews didn’t even have permission to kill anybody.

The Jewish nation and the Jerusalem leaders didn’t have authority to take anybody’s life.

So who killed the Son of God?

Rome did.

Rome has held the task because Rome is about to start persecuting Christians.

By the way, Rome, nowhere in Scripture, nowhere in the New Testament, nowhere in any

archaeological evidence or traditional evidence that we have ever persecuted the

Christians in Jerusalem.

The Jews persecuted the Christians in Jerusalem.

In the book of Acts, who saves Paul from the threat of death from the Jews in Jerusalem?

The Roman soldiers do.

Rome’s never pictured as persecuting Israel, or sorry, persecuting the Christians in

Jerusalem.

Where did Rome persecute the Christians?

In Rome?

Where did Rome kill Paul?

In Rome!

Rome is pictured here as Sodom, Egypt, and Jerusalem in their spiritual application, okay?

So, verse nine, then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, nations will see their dead

bodies three and a half days and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves.

Now, if you wanted to say,

that their death was complete and finished and never again would they live again, what

number could you represent it as?

the number of completeness and perfection.

A seven, but this is what?

A broken seven.

They’re going to prophesy for three and a half years.

They’re gonna be dead for three and a half days.

He says short temporary period of time with a connection by the way to who else who was

dead for three days.

Christ.

Who claimed he was going to tear down the temple and rebuild it in how many days?

Three days.

Okay.

So the picture here, by the way, where does this three day picture come from when Jesus is

asked about that statement?

He said, I’ll give you no other sign but this.

Jonah, who was in what?

The belly of a fish for three days.

It’s a picture of a prophet.

It’s a picture of the fact that God will get his message declared and God will provide for

his prophet whether the prophet likes how it happens or not.

You think it was pleasant in the belly of the fish for three days?

I don’t know that waits signing up fish cruises.

Hey, you can end up here in the belly of a fish for three days.

Don’t worry, you’ll come out alive on the other end.

Don’t think so.

And yet God is saying, listen, I know how to protect my prophet.

I know how to deliver my prophet and I know how to get my message spoken.

By the way, that particular prophet was sent to preach to what?

a great city that was either going to repent or be judged.

Over and over and over again, Old Testament pictures that represent what we’re being told.

Judgment’s coming, judgment’s coming, judgment’s coming.

My messenger will speak, my people will speak, and I will protect them, but it’s not gonna

be easy.

He goes on to say, then from those, ah sorry.

So in this great city, we have,

peoples, nations, tongues, and they’re all going to see the bodies of who?

The two witnesses.

They’re lying in the street.

Now, as you notice this, the witnesses are killed.

They’re not buried.

They’re just left there.

McGuigan pointed out that when Mussolini was killed in Italy, the end of World War II,

they didn’t even bury him.

They just left him dead in the street.

because of their despising of everything he had done.

The not burying is an act of despising someone.

If you care about someone, you bury them.

Who buried Jesus?

Was it the Jews?

No, it was his disciples and Joseph of Arimathea who came and requested the body to bury

him.

Okay, now the Jewish leadership needed the bodies down because of the Passover, but they

didn’t care what happened to them.

Jesus’s people cared what happened to them.

Okay, so notice this, they leave the bodies in the street, they’re there for three and a

half days and

They did not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves and those who dwell on the

earth will rejoice over them, make merry and send gifts to one another because these two

prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.

We’ve made mention of this already and we’re going to keep mentioning it every time we run

into it.

Those who dwell on the earth doesn’t represent the people alive on the planet.

It represents the enemies of God because the people who are alive on the planet who belong

to God

They’re dwelling places where?

In heaven.

They’re sojourners on the earth, not dwellers of the earth.

They don’t have a permanent home here.

They have a sojourning place here.

All right?

And so those who dwell on the earth are gonna rejoice.

Here comes God’s messengers.

Here comes God’s people.

They make testimony of God’s message.

They tell us that we’re gonna be judged and we kill them for it.

and we think because we killed him, hey, let’s have a party, we’re not going to be judged

now.

Isn’t that the way Israel always treated the prophets?

You know what?

If the prophet prophesies something against you, throw him in prison or kill him.

Then you don’t have to worry about the prophet or the prophecy anymore, right?

Except is that how it actually worked?

No.

But that’s the way the world thinks.

They were tormented

by the message.

They were tormented by the truth, so they killed the messenger.

Go back to the uh parable that Jesus gives of the vineyard keepers.

King has the vineyard, he goes off on a journey, hires vineyard keepers to keep the

vineyard, sends back a messenger to get his portion of that which the vineyard has

produced.

What do the Vineyard Keepers do?

Well, the first one, they beat and send him back.

So he sends another, beat and send him back.

Sends another, they beat or kill him.

Finally sends his son, what do they do to him?

Kill him and say, hey, we get to keep the vineyard down.

Jesus’ question, what is the King going to do when he returns?

He’s going to destroy the vineyard keepers.

Here’s the picture.

God sends a messenger, they reject the message.

God sends a messenger, they beat the messenger.

God sends a messenger, they kill the messenger.

Does that keep the judgment from happening?

Now, we’re going to read these last few verses of verses 11 through 14, and then we’re

going to get into uh the rest next week.

Now, after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered them, and they

stood on their feet, and great fear fell on all those who saw them.

They kill them.

They don’t even bury them.

They leave them in the street and they throw a party.

Three and half days later, what happened?

God resurrects them back to life.

And everybody’s afraid.

Why are they afraid?

They just thought they had won.

They killed the messengers.

But now they realize they can’t win.

Because they can’t even keep the dead people dead.

He’s, they see them.

Great fear fell on all those who saw them.

They heard a loud voice from heaven saying, come up here.

And they ascended to heaven in a cloud and their enemy saw them.

Who went to heaven in a cloud?

Christ and who else?

Elijah.

God’s messengers keep.

Defeating all their enemies.

You can’t keep God’s messengers dead.

You can’t kill them and have victory over them.

Now Elijah didn’t die.

But they have really, really wanted him dead.

He just avoided it all points.

So again.

They heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, come up here.

And they ascended to heaven in a cloud.

And their enemy saw them.

In the same hour there was a great earthquake and a tenth of the city fell.

In the earthquake, seven thousand people were killed and the rest were afraid and gave

glory to the God of heaven.

The second woe was passed.

Behold, the third woe is coming quickly.

Now, all of this, if you go back into chapter nine, all of this happens in the sixth.

trumpet.

Okay, we’re still in the sixth trumpet because in the sixth trumpet was a second woe.

And John just said, all right, I wrapped up the second woe.

Okay, so the sixth trumpet actually goes from chapter 9 verse 13 all the way through to

the end of or to verse 14 of chapter 11.

Here’s the thing, we’re still in a partial judgment phase.

We’re still in a partial condemnation phase.

God says, I’m gonna send my witnesses, you’re gonna tell them that they’re gonna be judged

and they’re going to kill you for it.

But don’t worry, I’m gonna resurrect you back to life.

And then I’m gonna get you out of the judgment and I’m gonna give them what they deserve.

But it’s still only partial judgment.

Still just the second woe Okay, we’ll pick up in verse 15.

The Chariots of the Bible – Aaron Cozort – April 26, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, Chariots, Elijah, Exodus, faith, Joseph, keywords Bible, Philip, Salvation, Solomon, trust in God by Aaron Cozort

image

Good morning.

In ancient times.

one of the most feared weapons of war.

one of the most likely assurances of victory.

is the army with the iron chariots.

Chariots in the Old Testament were a mighty weapon.

They had some disadvantages.

They uh didn’t do well in mountainous terrain.

They were better on the valley.

But in the plain, in the open field, they presented an overwhelming force.

to the enemies of the opposite army.

Egypt was known for its chariots, not always of iron, but often of iron.

They were known for their power and their prowess on the battlefield.

but in Exodus chapter 14.

the chariots were not the weapon that they thought they would be.

In Old Testament history, back in Exodus chapters three and four, God tells Moses to go to

Pharaoh in Egypt and to tell Pharaoh to let my people go.

And as Moses and Aaron go before Pharaoh, Pharaoh asked the question, who is this God that

I should hear him?

Pharaoh wants to know, why should I care?

what the God of the Hebrews says.

Pharaoh refuses to let the people go.

And Moses and Aaron will begin to show a number of signs that God had told Moses he would

show Pharaoh to demonstrate to Pharaoh just exactly who God actually was.

and to demonstrate to the world that God, Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, the I Am that I

Am, is Lord of heaven and earth, and beside him there is no God.

to demonstrate to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians that it did not matter what God they

trusted in, that God could not deliver them from Jehovah.

And so, through the series of miracles and plagues, as we call them, that God, through

Moses and Aaron’s hand, will deliver to Pharaoh, God will make subservient and make it

clear that He is superior to all other gods.

So when that last plague comes, the death of the firstborn, and a cry goes up throughout

all Egypt because of the firstborn of man and beast that dies in the night.

Pharaoh sends word to Moses and Aaron, take Israel and leave.

Now before they left, God had told Israel to go to all their neighbors, to go to all those

around them and ask of them anything that they would give them.

the nation of Egypt was plundered by choice.

handed many great riches over to Israel.

and Israel left Egypt.

As they began journeying, God takes them not the normal way.

He doesn’t take them the normal path out of Egypt, the clear road that was the commerce

road, which by the way was the same road that Joseph had been brought in on as a slave

after he had been sold to the Ishmaelites and the Midianites all those years before.

No, we’re not taking that road.

They go down into Egypt and they go to the edge of the Red Sea.

But after Pharaoh has determined to let them go, Pharaoh has a change of heart.

So Pharaoh and his army are gathered together and they get on their chariots and they give

chase.

Exodus chapter 14, we find the events that transpire in the remainder of the text.

You’ll take your Bible and turn over there.

Exodus chapter 14, we find the chariots of defeat because the weapon that they thought

would be their victor, that would cause them to defeat Israel finally on the open road,

not in

their place where they were in Egypt, not under the power that I imagine perhaps they had

surmised that God had somehow gotten control over Egypt.

No, they were out on the open road.

They were in the place where the battle could be easily won.

They get on their chariots and they go and we read verse 6, so he made his chariot ready

and took his people with him.

Also, took 600 choice chariots and all the chariots of Egypt with captains over every one

of them.

And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt and he pursued the children of

Israel and the children of Israel went out with boldness.

So the Egyptians pursued them all, the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and

his army, and he overtook them camping by the sea beside Pyhathoron, Hyaroth, before

Baal-Zethon.

And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the

Egyptians marched after them.

And so they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.

As the nation of Israel is camped by the sea, by the Red Sea, not the Reed Sea as all the

modernists want it to be, they weren’t camped by an ankle-deep body of water.

They were camped by a sea.

They had an impassable location to one side and an army to the other.

They look behind them and they see the chariots.

They see the forces of Pharaoh and they’re afraid and they cry out to the Lord and notice

what occurs.

Then they said to Moses, because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to

die in the wilderness?

Why have you so dealt with us to bring us up out of Egypt?

Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, us alone, that we may serve the

Egyptians?

For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than we should die in the

wilderness.

Moses said to the people, Do not be afraid.

Stand still and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will accomplish for you today.

For the Egyptians whom you see today you shall see again no more forever.

And the LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.

And the LORD said to Moses, Why do you cry to me?

Tell the children of Israel to go forward.

You ever have somebody come to you and say,

I have looked all over the place for this object.

I have searched high and low.

I cannot find it anywhere.

and they’re asking you about their glasses that are sitting on top of their head.

Where are my glasses if you go?

Right there.

God says to Moses, why are you crying out to me?

As if it should be obvious.

I brought you here.

Where’s the logical next step?

Except the logical next step for God.

was insurmountable for Israel.

It was impassable for Israel.

It was a sea.

But God tells Moses, what are you waiting for?

Tell them to go forward.

Then notice what occurs.

Lift up your rod, verse 16, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it.

And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.

And I indeed will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will follow them.

So I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, his chariots and his horsemen.

Then the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gained honor for myself over

Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.”

and the angel of God who went before the camp of Israel moved and went behind them and the

pillar of cloud went from them before them and stood behind them.

So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel.

Thus it was a cloud and darkness to one and he gave light by night to the other so that

the one did not come near the other all that night.

As the Egyptians arrive the day is coming to an end.

The time when camps are being set up and battle is inevitably going to come first light.

And so as Egypt is behind them, the Red Sea in front of them, God says, go forward.

And you’re going to go on dry ground.

And you’re going to go through the sea.

And I’m going to use the sea to make it the last point to Pharaoh.

I win.

Because I am God and Pharaoh is not.

And so Pharaoh is there, his army is there, his men are ready.

They’re going to destroy this nation of the Israelites, except God takes the cloud that

Israel had been following, that had been guiding them as they’ve gone on their journey.

And instead of it being in front of them, He moves it behind them.

By the way, tells you that the cloud’s an angel.

And so the cloud is behind them and you can’t see through the cloud.

So on one side of the cloud it’s darkness.

On the other side of the cloud, the cloud’s giving light to all the nation of Israel.

So it’s just normally dark and black as night, except the Egyptians can’t see through the

cloud to see the nation of Israel.

Imagine probably they couldn’t hear through the cloud either.

Text doesn’t tell us that, but you get a couple million or so people traveling and moving

and you think you’d probably be able to hear it.

Not too far away.

But as the night comes, sea is going to divide, Israel is going to go through on dry

ground.

Notice what the text says.

Verse 21, Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea.

And the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the

sea into dry land.

And the waters were divided.

So the children of Israel went in the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters

were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

And the Egyptians pursued and went after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s

horses and his chariots and his horsemen.

Now it came to pass in the morning.

Watch.

that the Lord looked down upon the uh army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and

cloud, and he troubled the army of the Egyptians, and he took off their chariot wheels so

that they drove them with difficulty.

And the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fights for them

against the Egyptians.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea, and the waters may come

back upon the Egyptians and their chariots and on their horsemen.

And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, when the morning appeared, the sea returned

to its full depth, while the Egyptians were fleeing into it.

So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.

Then the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of

Pharaoh that came into the sea after them, not so much as one of them remained.

But the children of Israel had walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters

were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the

Egyptians dead on the seashore.

Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt.

So the people fear the Lord and believe the Lord and his servant Moses.

here in the Old Testament.

Egypt thought chariots are our solution.

Pharaoh thought I couldn’t get them any other way.

I’ll get them with my military might.

I’ll run them down with my chariots.

I’ll defeat them, God says.

I’ll make your chariots your weakness.

So we think through some of the episodes in the Old and New Testament of chariots.

This one stands notably before us as a picture of defeat.

What they thought was their strength became their weakness.

But then another picture, chariot of promotion.

In 1 Kings chapter 10,

We find another event.

I’m sorry, I’ve got the wrong verses on the slide.

Turn to Genesis chapter 41.

Go the right way.

Genesis chapter 41, I mixed the passages with the wrong title.

So ignore that promotion.

Promotion is right, passage is wrong.

In Genesis 41, we’ll find another occurrence, this one again having to do with Egypt, but

earlier on in their history.

in the time where Joseph was in Egypt.

Joseph will be called upon to interpret a dream.

And in Genesis 41, we find that Joseph is going to interpret that dream to Pharaoh.

Pharaoh is going to see a dream in the night.

He’s going to not understand.

He’s going to be troubled by it.

He’s going to look for an interpretation.

of the dream and will be completely failed in giving that interpretation by all of his

wise men by all of those who should have been able to tell him according to their own

claims what the dream meant.

But there was one who had earlier gotten in disfavor with Pharaoh and had been put in

prison who suddenly remembered that two years before when he was in prison, he had made a

commitment to a man who had interpreted his dream that when he got out of prison, as the

dream had declared that he would, he would remember Joseph and he had forgotten.

He had failed to remember Joseph.

So Joseph was brought out of prison and brought before Pharaoh and he interprets Pharaoh’s

dream.

And he tells Pharaoh, there’s going to be seven years of plenty.

There’s going to be seven years of prosperity.

There’s going to be seven years of abundance.

As a matter of fact, if you go and look at the passage and you do the math, 20 % of the

produce from the seven years was sufficient

to feed the entire nation.

for the entire year.

And yet the land produced enough that 20 % was all that they set aside to feed the entire

nation and all the nations around them in the years of famine.

So every year uh Joseph tells Pharaoh, 20 % of all that is grown and produced in the land

should be stored up.

because coming after the seven years of prosperity are seven years of famine.

And we read in verse 37, so the advice was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of

all his servants.

And Pharaoh said to his servants, can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the

spirit of God?

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, inasmuch as God has shown you all this, there is no one as

discerning and wise as you.

You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word.

Only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you.” And Pharaoh said to Joseph, See,

I have sent you over all the land of Egypt.

Then Pharaoh took his signet ring off his hand, put it on Joseph’s hand, and he clothed

him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck.

And he had him ride in the second chariot, which he had.

and they cried out before him, the knee.

So he set him over all the land of Egypt.” Earlier on in Egypt’s history, the chariots

were a sign of the king’s power.

They were a sign of the king’s authority.

And as Joseph is placed in this second chariot behind Pharaoh, he is promoted from

prisoner

to second in the kingdom.

and he is paraded through the land on this chariot to make it clear to all the nation,

whatever Joseph says, you do it.

Chariots declared prominence, authority, and power.

And in this scenario, Joseph is raised up by a chariot of Egypt to declare that he has

authority.

But notice this, that Joseph’s authority came not because of his greatness, not because of

his lineage, not because of his background.

not because of his education, not because of where he had been the last few years

preparing for power, but it came because of his submission to the wisdom of God.

The chariot and the promotion came as a result of Pharaoh saying, there is no one in all

the kingdom who should be given this authority except you because God has given you this

wisdom.

So while the promotion is given to Joseph, the credit as Joseph gives it to Pharaoh goes

back to God.

But then consider 1 Kings chapter 10.

and the chariot of misplaced confidence.

In 1 Kings chapter 10,

We’re going to read concerning Solomon.

As Solomon grew in wealth in all the things that he had, in all the wisdom that he had, as

his wisdom brought to him the wealth of the nations around him, we find that Solomon is

going to start doing things that God had specifically told him not to do.

And one of those things is he is going to build a standing

army.

God told the nation of Israel, you don’t do that.

You don’t need to gather to yourselves horses and chariots.

You do not need battlements for I am your defender.

But as Solomon grows in his wealth, Solomon is going to turn against that command.

We read in verse 14 of chapter 10, the weight of gold that came to Solomon yearly was 666

talents of gold.

Besides that, from the traveling merchants and from the income of traders, from all the

kings of Arabia and from the governors of the country.

And King Solomon made two large shields of hammered gold.

Six hundred shekels of gold went into each shield.

He also made three hundred shields of hammered gold.

Three minas of gold went into each shield.

The king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.

Moreover, the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold.

The throne had six steps and the top of the throne was round at the back.

There were arm-

on each side of the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the armrest.

Twelve lions stood there, one on each side of the six steps.

Nothing like this had been made for any other kingdom.

All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were gold, and all the vessels of the house of the

forest of Lebanon were pure gold.

Not one was silver, for this was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon.

Recently, uh this last year, we saw silver spike up to a really big high price.

In the days of Solomon, it went down to nothing.

It wasn’t worth a thing.

There was so much gold around, nobody even wanted the silver.

Notice we read, for the king had merchant ships at sea with a fleet of Hyrum.

Once every three years, the merchant ships came bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes and

monkeys.

So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.

Now all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put in

his heart.

Each man brought his present, articles of silver and gold, garments, armor, spices, horses

and mules at a set rate year by year.

And Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen.

had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen whom he stationed in the chariot cities with the

king at Jerusalem.

The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones and he made cedar trees as abundant

as the sycamores, which are in the lowland.

Also, Solomon had horses imported from Egypt and Kiva.

The king’s merchants brought them in, bought them in Kiva at the current price.

Now a chariot was imported from Egypt.

Now a chariot that was imported from Egypt cost 600 shekels of silver and a horse 150.

And thus through their agents, they exported them all.

to the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Syria.

Solomon goes against the command in the law not to build standing armies, not to gather to

Israel horses and chariots, rather to trust in God.

When you turn over to Isaiah chapter 31,

Isaiah is going to speak concerning this matter, concerning the things that had transpired

in the intervening time in Israel.

In Isaiah chapter 31 and in verse 1, notice what we read.

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses who trust in chariots

because they are many.

He says, but do not look to the Holy One.

of

Solomon is going to begin something that will lead straight to the demise of the nation.

He’s going to begin their attitude of trusting in worldly power, trusting in armaments and

battlements instead of their God.

And as a result of that, he is going to bring shame and disgrace and misplaced confidence

into the life of Israel.

And instead of trusting in the one who Joseph trusted in, instead of trusting in the one

who gave the wisdom to Solomon, they rather trusted in the power and the military might

they surrounded themselves with.

But then consider another chariot in the Old Testament, this being the chariots of

deliverance.

In the days of Elisha in 2 Kings chapter 6,

We find that Elisha is not in good graces with the king of Syria.

And as a result of that, the king of Syria is bound and determined that he is going to

stop Elisha from telling all of his plans to the king of Israel.

Because everything that the king of Syria told his servants in the secret place, Elisha

would tell to the king of Israel openly.

And so the king of Syria has determined that he’s going to do something about it.

So he sends his chariots, he sends his armaments, he sends his battlements, he sends his

horsemen to go get Elisha and to finish this problem.

So one morning, the servant of Elisha goes out of his house and as he goes out of his

house, he sees they’re completely surrounded by the armies of Syria.

Notice what we read beginning in 2 Kings, Chapter 6.

beginning in oh verse 8.

Now the king of Syria was making war against Israel and he consulted with his servant

saying my camp will be in such a such place and the man of God sent to it king of Israel

saying beware that you do not pass this place for the Syrians are coming down there then

the king of Israel sent someone to the place of which the man of God had told him thus he

warned him and he was watchful there not just once or twice

Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was greatly troubled by this thing.

he called his servants and said to them, Will you not show me which one of us is for the

king of Israel?

And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king, but Elisha the prophet who is in

Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.

So he said, Go and see where he is, that I may send and get him.

And it was told to him, saying, Surely he is in Dothan.

Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there.

and they came by night and surrounded the city.

And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army

surrounding the city with horses and chariots.

And his servant said to him, Alas, my master, what shall we do?

As the servant of Elisha comes back in, you can imagine, just picture, he walks out the

door.

turns around and walks back inside.

That says, Master, what are we going to do?

And notice the answer.

Verse 16, do not fear for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.

And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.

Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold, the mountain was

full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

So when the Syrians came down, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, Strike this people,

pray, with blindness.

And he struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

As the king of Syria sends his army, his horses, his chariots, his overwhelming force to

get one single man.

They surround the city, they begin their advance, and as they come down into the city,

Elisha prays.

And he doesn’t pray that the chariots of fire come down and wipe the nation out.

He doesn’t pray that the chariots of fire come down and eliminate every last one of them.

He doesn’t pray that the chariots of the Syrians lose their wheels and the horses go lame.

He doesn’t do any that.

He just prays that God give them life.

So the entire army becomes blind.

Verse 19, now Elisha said to them, This is not the way, nor is this the city.

Follow me and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.

But he led them to Samaria.

So it was when they had come to Samaria that Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of these men

that they may see.

And the Lord opened their eyes and they saw and there they were inside Samaria.

Now bear in mind that the king of Syria has been at war with the king of Israel and the

capital city of Israel is Samaria.

They just ended up with their entire army in the place the Syrian king has been trying to

get to to defeat Israel.

And their whole army is there.

they had been walked into the capital city by Elisha.

But they don’t overthrow the city of Samaria.

As a matter of fact, they’re going to be afraid.

as he takes them into the city.

Verse 21, now when the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, my father, shall I kill

them?

Shall I kill them?

He answered, you shall not kill them.

Would you kill those whom you have taken captive with your sword and your bow?

Set food and water before them that they may eat and drink and go to their master.

Then he prepared a great feast for them, after they ate and drank, he sent them away, and

they went to their master, so the bands of Syrian raiders came no more into the land of

Israel.

as God delivers Israel not by defeating the other army, not by annihilating them as He

certainly had the power to do, but He delivered them by treating them with kindness.

They go home and they never come back.

But now consider another chariot, this one from the New Testament.

In Acts chapter eight, there’s a man from Ethiopia.

He comes to Jerusalem to worship.

He comes to Jerusalem because as a proselyte, as one who had been converted to the Jewish

religion, that’s what you do.

You sojourn to come to Jerusalem, to the temple to worship.

And that’s what he’s done.

And as he is proceeding home back to Ethiopia from Jerusalem, he is reading the

scriptures.

He’s reading the thing that he had been converted to.

He was one who had converted to believe in the God of Israel.

And so he’s opening the scriptures of Israel, the Old Testament prophets, and he’s reading

them and he’s trying to understand what he’s reading.

And so as a result of that,

as he is in his chariot as he is going back to Ethiopia.

Philip is going to be sent to him.

Chapter 8 verse 26.

Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, arise and go toward the south along the

road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.

This is desert.

So he arose and went and behold a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under

Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians.

who had charge of all her treasury and had come to Jerusalem to worship was returning.

And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet.

Then the Spirit said to Philip, Go near and overtake this chariot.

So Philip ran to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, Do you understand

what you are reading?

Notice first that the Ethiopian was reading.

Notice second, he was reading

out loud.

because you can’t hear someone reading silently.

You can see someone reading silently, but you can’t hear someone reading silently.

So as the chariot is going, here is the man, he is in the chariot and he’s going and he’s

reading out loud the prophet Isaiah.

Notice what we read.

He says, do you understand what you are reading?

He said, how can I understand unless someone guide me?

And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him, tells you the chariot’s large enough to

have seats in it.

Then the place in the scripture which he read was this, he was led as a sheep to the

slaughter and as a lamb before it shears his silence.

So he opened on his mouth in his humiliation.

His justice was taken away and who will declare his generation for his life is taken from

the earth.

So the eunuch answered Philip and said, I ask you of whom does the prophet say this of

himself or of some other man?

As the eunuch is reading from Isaiah 53, this passage that speaks concerning the Messiah,

the eunuch doesn’t know and the eunuch had no answers from the Israelite religion.

Who is this one being spoken of?

Is it Isaiah?

Is he talking about himself or is he talking about someone else?

Then Philip opened his mouth, verse 35, and beginning at this scripture preached Jesus to

him.

Now as they went down the road, they came to some water.

How far down the road did they go?

Don’t know.

But they kept going.

As they kept going, Philip kept teaching.

And as they’re going down the road, as Philip is preaching to him, Jesus, the eunuch comes

up with a really strange question.

For notice what the eunuch asks.

As they’re going down the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, see, here is

water.

What hinders me from being baptized?

The eunuch asks a question that many in the religious world today would never have asked,

because they never would have been preached Jesus.

They would have been preached man’s doctrines.

They would have been preached church tradition.

They would have been preached the things that have been preached for hundreds of years,

not thousands, because they wouldn’t have been preached Jesus.

But from the very prophet Isaiah,

Philip is able to teach the gospel and to preach Jesus and the conclusion of the eunuch

is, I need to be baptized.

So when he sees water, he does what anyone in authority does.

He sees an asset, he sees a resource, he sees a need, he says, hey, can we do it now?

He says, hinders me?

What is holding me back from being baptized?

Phillips answered.

If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, I believe that

Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

So he commanded the chariot to stand still and both Philip and the eunuch went down into

the water and he baptized him.

Now, when they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord caught Philip away so the

eunuch saw him no more and he went on his way rejoicing.

But Philip was found at Aztos and passing through, he preached in all the cities till he

came to Caesarea.

We find here the chariot of salvation, not because the chariot saved the eunuch, but

because the chariot provided the place for the gospel to be heard.

The chariot provided the opportunity.

Imagine the eunuch had been on a horse.

You think he would have been reading?

You think he would have been reading out loud?

Probably not.

But the chariot provided the opportunity.

The chariot waited.

while he was being baptized and the chariot took him away rejoicing.

Why?

Notice the thread.

You go back into the Old Testament and you find a Pharaoh who rejected the word of God.

said, why do I have to obey the command of the Lord?

He rejected the word of God and his chariot became his destruction.

You go forward, backward in time to the next one and you find Joseph, who’s promoted and

paraded around in a chariot all through Egypt to declare him to be second in charge.

And yet, Joseph simply admitted, I am just speaking the word of God.

He honored the word of God.

You have Solomon who gains riches.

through the wisdom of God, but turns it into something in opposition to God.

And Isaiah comes along and says, you’re going to destroy your nation because you trust in

military power instead of the Lord.

And so you no longer respect the word of God.

And you come forward to the eunuch and the eunuch, sorry, skipped one.

You go forward to the days of Elisha, and Elisha, as he trusted the Lord, tells his

servant to look again, and he sees the deliverance, not deliverance through military

might, not deliverance through destruction, but deliverance through an opportunity at

redemption, an opportunity to do good instead of evil.

And then you go forward to the days of the unification.

And as they’re traveling in a chariot, Philip preaches the Word of God.

And the eunuch doesn’t say, you know what, I’ve got all the money I need.

I’ve got all the riches of the entire nation available to me.

I can do whatever I want.

I don’t need your salvation.

No, that’s not what the eunuch says.

The eunuch humbly looks as he sits in his chariot and says, here’s water.

What hinders me from obeying the gospel of Jesus Christ?

See, chariots may be a place of power and prominence.

They may be a place of promotion.

They may be a false sense of security when it comes to military might in ancient days, but

this is one thing they’re not.

They’re not a way to be saved.

The only thing that can save a person is obedience to the will of God, having believed the

Word of God.

So the eunuch says, here’s water.

What hinders?

me from obeying God.

What’s Philip’s response?

If you believe, you may.

They both go down in the water and Philip is Philip immerses the eunuch for the remission

of his sins.

And when he comes up out of the water, not by the way, when he believes, not when he

prays, but when he comes up out of the water, he goes on his way rejoicing.

If you’re here this morning and you’re not a member of the body of Christ, if you’re not

in the place where salvation is found, if you’re still wondering where

Hope is in this life.

Let me assure you, it is not in military might.

It is not in power.

It is not even in just wisdom.

It is in the submission to the Word of God.

If you have need of the invitation this morning to put Christ on in baptism, to rise to

walk in newness of life, to go on your way rejoicing the same way the eunuch did, you can

do that this morning.

There is water.

But if you’re here and you’re a member of the body of Christ and you’ve turned away from

God, know this, it didn’t work out so well for Solomon.

And it didn’t work out so well for Israel.

You need to submit to the wisdom and the Word of God.

If you have need of the invitation this morning, why not come now as we stand?