The Eternal Destiny of… – Aaron Cozort – Feb. 01, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, departing, faith, false teacher, innocent, judgment, Keywords eternal destiny, obedient, penitent, perfect, Salvation by Aaron Cozort

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Good morning.

You notice at times in life as certain things change, for instance, a routine that…

uh

There are some things that you notice about that routine and about the things that you

normally do and the way your brain expects things to happen that uh just don’t work the

same way.

So I can tell you it’s very normal for me to expect to be teaching a Bible class first and

then preaching a sermon.

And it feels very odd to be preaching a sermon first and no Bible class.

But I appreciate your willingness to be here for two hours while I combine the two into

one.

Now we are grateful for your ability to be out this morning.

uh James, I’m gonna ask you if you would to go plug the screen in since you knew that it

wasn’t working so that I can see what’s up there.

This morning we’re going to be dealing with the eternal destiny of blank.

Many things in life so far this year have

brought to the forefront for many of us the brevity of life, the fragileness of our

existence, the difficulties that we face in this life, and the reality that there is a

day, as the Hebrew writer tells us in Hebrews chapter 9.

where for all of us, no matter where we are in position, no matter where we are in

prominence, no matter where we are in prosperity, we will come to an end of this life.

And the text tells us there in Hebrews chapter nine, after that, the judgment.

When you turn to Matthew chapter 25, you’ll find that Jesus will speak to those who are

present about a judgment day.

About a day where the king will determine those who will be on the right hand side, those

who will be found acceptable before him, and those who will be pushed to the left hand

side, those who had not been acceptable to him.

And as we consider these thoughts, as we consider the brevity of life and the reality of

life, we find that it really would help us to know which side we’re going to be on.

To know before we reach the end, before this life is over, before we breathe our last

breath, where am I in that separation?

And while the text is not written so as for you to find your name as you’re scrolling down

through the text and say, Aaron Kozort, dash saved or lost.

That’s not the way the text of Scripture is written.

Rather, we have in Scripture example and instruction, example and instruction, example and

instruction on what we can do so as to know.

Am I saved or am I lost?

And when I breathe the last breath of this life, where will I go?

So I want us to notice some examples and some instructions this morning.

First, to the perfect.

What is the eternal destiny of the perfect?

In Hebrews chapter four,

We’ll notice that the Hebrew writer, as he lays forward the argument and the conclusion

that Christ is better above everything else, above every alternative, will speak

concerning the rest of God in earlier on in chapter 4.

He will speak concerning the fact that Israel failed to enter God’s rest because of

rebellion.

But in chapter 4 and in verse 14 of the book of Hebrews we read, then that we have a great

high priest who has passed through the heavens.

Notice the location.

Notice the destination.

Notice that when Christ left this earth, he did not proceed to hell.

He did not proceed to a place of torment.

Rather, he passed through the heavens.

And notice what the text says, who passed through the heavens.

Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was at all

points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find

grace to help in time of need.

The text makes it clear that when Christ ascended from this earth, having lived the only

perfect life,

of anyone who has ever lived on this earth, who has reached an age of accountability, who

knew no sin, who was without guile, the text tells us, who was one who was tempted in all

points like as we are yet without sin, standing as a stark contrast to all of humanity

from Adam and Eve all the way forward, we find the eternal destiny of the perfect one who

was Jesus Christ.

to be at the right hand of the throne of God, to serve as a mediator and a high priest and

an intercessor between everyone else who was not perfect.

and God.

Because without Christ, we would not have grace, we would not have mercy, we would not

have salvation before God.

So we’re incredibly grateful and it’s incredibly important for us to realize that for the

perfect one, his eternal destiny was heaven with the Father.

But then consider for the innocent.

This is a struggle for some mostly because of the false doctrines that have been pervasive

throughout the last seven or eight centuries where individuals have taught that

that all individuals who are born, all humans who are born, are born in sin.

They’re born and conceived and they bear the sin of Adam from the day that they enter into

this world.

Now we’re not going to go through all of the texts, maybe not even all of them that we

have here, but all the texts that speak to the fact that God judges individuals based upon

their own actions.

Ezekiel chapter 18 makes it incredibly clear that God does not judge the Son for the sin

of the Father, that God does not give righteousness to the Son because of the

righteousness of the Father.

that God judges individually those who are obedient to Him and those who are rebellious

against Him and the sinner who sins, he shall die.

But in 2 Samuel chapter 12.

we’re provided an example, testified to by a prophet of God, spoken by one who was

inspired by the Holy Spirit at times in his life to write scripture.

that the destiny of a child who is innocent.

is a location that those who are righteous will also go to.

David, having committed the sin with Bathsheba that he did, having been confronted by the

Lord, having declared to him the consequences of the sin which he has committed, that the

child born of Bathsheba will die, will know of the situation with the child, of the health

of the child will

fast, will not get up, will not do anything while the child is sick and while the child is

in this state and eventually his servants come to him and tell him though they’re afraid

to do so, the child has died.

And the text tells us that his servants are astounded when David gets up, he cleans

himself up, he goes and he eats, and they’re wondering, why?

After all the grief, after all the mourning, after all of the experience that they

witnessed over the days proceeding, why is it that now that you’ve heard that he has died,

you go back to normal?

David will tell those who are present, I can’t bring the child back to myself, but I can

go to where he is.

David as one who is knowledgeable concerning Scripture, knowledgeable concerning that

which God has said knows that there is a dwelling place for the innocent.

You’ll notice that David didn’t spend those intervening moments between the child’s birth

and the child’s death trying to get the sin of Adam washed away from the child.

No, he was seeking the continued life of the child.

And yet once the child died, David was in complete peace as to the location and the

eternal destiny of the child.

Matthew chapter 19, Jesus, as He speaks to His disciples concerning the kingdom, will

declare that the kingdom of heaven is that which has been allocated to those who will

receive the Word of God and be obedient to it as little children.

even the figure of those who are righteous described by Jesus multiple times in his

ministry is to be pictured as little children.

Those who are innocent and obedient to God.

In James chapter 4, James will point out in verse 17, to the one who knows to do good and

does not do it to him it is sin.

You say, Aaron, what does that have to do with a little child?

What does that have to do with a baby?

There’s an important emphasis there in that text, which is found elsewhere, but it’s right

here visible in James 4 verse 17 that the

the fulcrum of the decision as to whether or not this action is righteous or unrighteous,

whether it is lawful or whether it is a transgression of the law, is that the person who

is doing it knows the difference between good and evil.

The person who is taking the action is cognizant of good and evil.

They are of an age and of a mindset and of a maturity so as to discern the difference

between good and evil.

and for any individual who does not meet that criteria.

They are not accountable for their actions.

This shouldn’t seem strange to us.

Our entire legal structure is built on the assumption that there is someone who is of an

age that they might commit an action that results in a catastrophic event and not be held

accountable for it because they do not understand the difference.

between taking that action and getting up and getting out of bed.

In Genesis chapter 3, we really don’t have to go any further than the opening pages of

Scripture to find God making this point incredibly clear.

For God will tell Adam and Eve as they’re there in the garden that there are two trees in

the midst of the garden.

One of those trees is the knowledge of good and evil.

And God tells Adam and Eve, now these individuals are adults, they’re not little babies.

They’re not crawling around wondering which direction to go.

These are mature, knowledgeable, intelligent men, a man and a woman.

But God tells them because of how He has made them, do not eat of the tree of the

knowledge of good and evil for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die.

And yet, in Genesis chapter 3,

when the serpent questions Eve.

Verse 2, the woman said to the serpent, may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden,

but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall

not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.

So my question is, well see, she clearly knows the difference between right and wrong.

She can rehearse the instruction.

But we all also realize there’s a difference between someone who can rehearse an

instruction and can even perceive a consequence and someone who knows the difference

between right and wrong.

The four-year-old who has been told, don’t put your hand on the hot stove, can rehearse

the instruction.

They can even perceive the consequence of the instruction.

They can even reiterate what will happen if they do that which they’ve been instructed not

to do.

That does not mean the four-year-old knows the difference between good and evil.

Eve is aware of the instruction.

Eve is aware of the consequence.

Eve is aware of the scenario that God has placed in front of her.

That does not mean Eve understands the difference between good and evil.

But notice what happens in the text.

The serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die.

For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like

God.

knowing good and evil.

Even the serpent makes it very clear that the acknowledgement of the instruction is not

the same as discerning the difference between good and evil.

So the woman saw the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree

desirable to make one wise.

She took of its fruit and ate.

She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

Then both of them, the eyes of both of them were open, and they knew that they were naked,

and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves coverings.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and

Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the

garden.

Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, Where are you?

So he said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I

hid myself.

And he said, Who told you that you were naked?

Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded that you should not eat?

the moment that Adam and Eve ate of the fruit.

They went from knowing what they had been told to do and not to do.

knowing the difference between good and evil.

They immediately experienced shame.

They immediately recognized that their state was improper.

They immediately became aware of a number of things and they immediately feared the very

presence of God.

Something changed.

because they now knew the difference between good and evil, not just the acknowledgement

of an instruction and a command.

But what do we get out of this?

We get out of this that God has been consistent from the very beginning that there is a

state of innocence prior to the knowledge of good and evil, whereby those who are in an

innocent state are not accountable for their actions under the law and their eternal

destiny is secure.

all through scripture, from the beginning all the way to the end, we read about those who

cannot know the difference between good and evil, who are not of an age to discern the

difference between good and evil.

All of these things are important for us to realize that God has been clear about their

destiny, the destiny of those who are innocent.

In Romans chapter four.

Beginning in verse we read, the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to

Abraham, or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of no

effect.

Because the law brings about wrath, for where there is no law, there is no transgression.

for the one who is not capable mentally or because of their age to be able to discern the

law.

God says, don’t hold you accountable for that which you cannot know, for that which you

cannot understand.

But then consider the obedient.

The eternal state, the eternal destiny of the obedient is also laid out in scripture.

In Hebrews chapter 10, the Hebrew writer as…

He is reaching the end of his writing to these Jewish Christians.

We’ll speak to them about where they were, what had been done for them, the salvation that

had been provided for them, and the eternal glory that they had been provided through that

salvation.

And in Hebrews chapter 10 and in verse 13 we read,

from that time waiting till his enemies are made his foes, speaking concerning Christ.

For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” As the

Hebrew writer points out that Christ did not go continually day after day after day to

sacrifice himself again and again and again.

He rather through his blood having been sacrificed one time

has made those who come to him perfect.” Now remember, what is the state of the perfect?

Those who are perfect have an eternal destiny with the Father and the blood of Christ

having cleansed someone has put them in a state whereby they are perfect.

Not of their own righteousness.

Not of their own perfection, but basically covered in His perfection.

And the Hebrew writer says that for the one who is made perfect, they are made perfect

forever having been sanctified.

Now, when you come to this text, you should be careful not to rip it right out of the

context and say, see, when a person is saved, they’re always saved and they can never be

lost.

They’ve been made perfect and they’re perfect forever.

That would be correctly stating the words of the text, but manipulating the text to not

mean what the text says.

because the Hebrew writer is going to continue to discuss those who have been made

perfect, who are now departing from the perfection.

The point of the discussion about forever in the text is not about the possibility of

being lost or saved after you are converted.

It is a discussion about the potency and the power of the blood of Christ.

It doesn’t wear off.

It doesn’t diminish.

overtime.

The Hebrew writer having discussed in the text the fact that every single year the

Israelites were to come before the Seat of Atonement, they were to come before the very

mercy seat of God and offer their sacrifices again.

to again bring to reminder their sins.

The Hebrew writer says, not the blood of Christ.

That blood doesn’t wear off.

That blood doesn’t diminish in power.

That blood doesn’t diminish in potency.

That blood does not decay, nor does it affect, or nor does it affects.

Get my words out in a minute.

But rather, he says, this man, verse 12, after he had offered one sacrifice,

Four sins forever.

There’s his point.

There’s where the text and the discussion of forever resides in this passage.

That is, the sacrifice was made once, forever.

Well, you go back down to verse 14, he says, for by one offering he has perfected forever

those who are being sanctified, but the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us

For after he has said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those

days, says the Lord.

I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.

Then he adds, their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.

Now where there is remission of these, remission of what?

Remission of the sins that are under discussion.

There is no longer an offering for sin.

He says, when you have had the offering and the blood of Christ atone for your sins, you

don’t go looking for another sacrifice.

You don’t go searching for another additional atoning sacrifice.

there’s no longer an offering for sin.

He says, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus.

Now notice, because we’re discussing what’s the eternal destiny of the obedient.

The Hebrew writer tells us right here in the text, the eternal destiny of the obedient is

access to the very presence of God.

He says, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living

way which he consecrated for us through the veil, that is his flesh.

Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts

sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised his

faith.

the Hebrew writer as he draws their attention to the eternal atoning value of the blood of

Christ.

that that sacrifice and that blood does not decay, it does not diminish over time.

He says this gives you boldness to enter the very presence of God.

And he says that promise doesn’t diminish either.

You can hold fast to that promise because the one who promised is faithful.

But then he says, verse 24, and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and

good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some,

but exhorting one another in so much the more as you see the day approaching.

As a hero writer says, the blood of Christ will not diminish, the blood of Christ and its

potency will not diminish, the blood of Christ will never fail, the blood of Christ will

never be replaced, the blood of Christ will have no new atonement or new offering needed

to replace it.

He says at the same time, you as obedient people must make sure you maintain your

obedience.

You turn over to 1 John chapter 1.

John takes this discussion further and he says, we say that we have fellowship with Him,

verse 6, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and

the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.

John writes to the Christians and he says, cannot depart from God, depart from His

commandments, depart from His fellowship, and keep the blood.

But if you walk in the light as he is in the light…

There’s not a sin that you can commit that God cannot forgive you of so long as you are

willing to repent of it.

You say, Aaron, I don’t see repentance anywhere in the text.

Wait a minute.

Verse 8, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us

from all unrighteousness.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His Word is not in us.

My little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin.

And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous.

It’s important to realize that an advocate’s role is to be an intercessor between two

parties who have been separated because of some law circumstance.

The advocate is the lawyer who’s petitioning on behalf of the one who’s done wrong.

John makes it clear, not only must we be willing to confess that we have sinned, we must

utilize our access to the Advocate to correct the problem.

What is that?

That’s repentance.

But then consider as well, he says, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the

righteous.

And he himself is the provitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the

whole world.

Now by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments.

He who says, know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in

him.

He who says he abides in him ought himself also to walk just as he walks.

John makes it clear that the eternal state of the obedient is fellowship with Christ and

with the Father.

Not to say that we’ll be sinlessly perfect.

As a matter of fact, if we try to claim we’re sinlessly perfect, John says, you’re a liar

and the truth is not in you.

but rather that as we continue to walk at times making mistakes, at times sinning against

God, at times violating the commandments, at times failing to keep the commandments, then

when we realize it, we confess that to the Father that Jesus Christ is faithful and just

to use His blood to continue to cleanse us from our sin.

to the obedient.

Their eternal state is described in that hope of the Hebrews writer in which he describes

a new way to reach the living God.

But before we depart from this discussion, let’s consider what do the obedient do?

Not enough to just academically say, you’re obedient to God, you’re saved.

How then can I become obedient?

And notice, if you go through these texts, which we don’t have all of the time to do all

of these as we notice them, but if you look through these texts, if you’re a righteous

good person, sorry, religious good person, here we find Cornelius as an example of one who

is religious.

He’s praying, He’s giving alms, He’s a good person and it’s testified that He is by

multiple people within the text.

Yet we find in Acts chapter 10 that he is a good person who is lost.

He is someone who is kind, is someone who is thoughtful, he is someone who desires to be

obedient to God, he is someone who is acknowledging of God’s power and his will, he also

recognizes he is lost.

So he sends for Peter because he was instructed to do so, that he might learn what to do

in order to be saved.

Peter will tell him, in that very hour, he and all his household will be baptized for the

remission of their sins.

You go to another text and you find the condemned murderer.

As matter of fact, you find a whole crowd of condemned murderers.

In Acts chapter 2 and in verse 36, Peter will testify to that crowd on the day of

Pentecost that they with wicked hands have slain the very Son of God.

And in verse 37 of Acts chapter 2, that crowd, someone in that crowd will cry out, men and

brethren, what shall we do?

to which Peter replies to them, repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins.

He says, you’re covered in sin.

You’re covered in this thing which will condemn you and cause you to be lost and separated

from God eternally.

And they knew that.

They knew Isaiah 59, 1 and 2.

And yet Peter says it is possible to have those sins washed away.

and he commands them to repent and be baptized for the remission of their sins.

For the person who’s the condemned murderer, there’s a path to being coming obedient.

For the person who is a woman, you say, Aaron, why are you singling out women?

because there are places all over this planet where as far as certain religions are

concerned women have no status with God separated from a man.

That women have no path to God separated from a husband.

And that’s simply not what the text of scriptures teaches.

And you find there in Acts chapter 16 that as Paul is preaching, he finds a group of women

there by the river and they’re praying.

And when Paul teaches them, he doesn’t say, go find your husband.

As a matter of fact, there’s an example of a woman who by all indications the text has no

husband, and yet she will become obedient to the command of Paul.

to be saved.

A woman’s path to salvation is not through a husband, it is through obedience to the Word

of God.

But then consider as well, Acts chapter 16, a little later in that text, after some events

occur there in Philippi, Paul and Silas are thrown in prison.

And in the midst of the night as they are praising God in midnight,

The earth begins to shake and the doors are open.

And the jailer having awoken realizes that the doors are open and comes to the assumption

that all the prisoners have escaped and his life is now forfeit and he’s about to take his

own life.

And Paul cries out from the midst of the prison, do yourself no harm, we’re all still

here.

So he calls for a light, he goes into the midst of the prison, and he inquires of Paul and

Silas, what must I do?

to which Paul subscribes him to a three-month correspondence course so that at the end of

three months he might know how to be said.

No!

Paul and Silas will teach that Philippian jailer and his household.

And that same hour of the night, the Philippian jailer will go and wash their stripes, and

they will baptize him and his household in water for the remission of sins.

You say, it possible for a person who’s ignorant of the Word of God to come to a knowledge

of the Word of God, to come to a realization of their sins, to be taught, and to be saved

in one night?

Yes.

It is possible for someone who is ignorant of all of scripture to become saved in one

night.

to know enough to become obedient to God.

Then consider the religious zealot.

Here’s an individual who believes they know God, they believe they’re keeping God’s

commandments, as a matter of fact, they are actively pursuing everything they know about

God’s commandments so as to maintain the purity of God’s people.

So they’re going about persecuting those who are blasphemous in their eyes toward God.

And Saul is going to recount these events later on as he stands there on trial as the

Apostle Paul, and he will make clear that when he was on the road to Damascus, he was

there and he saw a light and he had a conversation with Jesus Christ.

and he walked out of that conversation, actually he was led out of that conversation

because he was then blind.

He was led out of that conversation a believer and still in his sins.

Many will say an obedient person is just simply one who believes that Jesus Christ is Son

of God and then they admit that Jesus Christ is Son of God and then they’re saved.

And yet Paul testifies of his own conversion.

That’s not what happened.

Having witnessed the very presence of Christ, having talked with Christ, having come to a

knowledge of who Christ was, having come to a realization that He was the very Son of God,

having come to a realization that He was persecuting the very church that belonged to God.

He then spent three days in prayer and fasting, waiting for someone to come and to tell

him what he must do in order to be saved.

And three days later, Ananias shows up and tells this individual, Saul of Tarsus, Saul,

Saul, why tarryest thou?

What are you waiting for?

Arise and be baptized and wash away your sin, calling on the name of the Lord.

Ananias didn’t come and say, soon as the Holy Spirit falls on you, you’ll be saved.

He doesn’t say, say the sinner’s prayer and you’ll be saved.

Saul had been praying for three days.

If prayer was all that was necessary combined with a believing heart, Saul would have been

saved already.

And some might say, you know what, that’s this, no, no, no, I read and he believed and he

was saved there on the road to Damascus.

Paul says, no, I wasn’t.

I was in Damascus for three days, still in my sins.

waiting for someone to tell me what to do and how to get rid of them.

What does the obedient person do?

They do this.

They hear the word of God and believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

They repent of their sins, a change of mind that brings about a change of action.

Paul didn’t say, well, can I still go and arrest the Christians?

He had a change of mind that brought about a change of action.

Confessed in the name of Christ and they are immersed in water for the remission of their

sins.

Rising to walk in newness of life, Paul will teach the exact same thing that Paul did as

he writes to the Romans in Romans chapter six and says, this is exactly what you did.

But then consider the departing.

What is the eternal state of the departing?

Turn back to Hebrews chapter 10.

In Hebrews chapter 10

We find there in verse 25, the Hebrew writer says, not forsaking the assembling of

ourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another in so much the more

as you see the day approaching.

The term for forsaking here means to turn back and no longer do this thing.

And the Hebrew writer is saying there are some among you, there are some Christians who

were once faithful

to God’s commandments, who were once abiding in His hope, who were once continuing in His

commandments, and now they have forsaken the assembly of those who are righteous.

And notice what else He says.

He says, for if we sin willfully, after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there

no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.

You remember, just earlier in the text, He said there is no other sacrifice besides

Christ.

He says when you depart from Christ, you’re going look for another sacrifice.

You’re not going to find one.

He says, verse 27, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation

which will devour the adversaries.

What is the state of the person who having become knowledgeable of the Word of God, having

to become saved by the blood of Christ, then departs and forsakes the assembly of those

who are righteous?

He says they have a certain

fearful indignation of the judgment of God.

He says, anyone who rejects Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three

witnesses.

Of how much worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy?

Who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he

was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

And again the Lord will judge his people.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of living God.

What is the state?

What is the eternal destiny of the one who has departed and forsaken the salvation that is

in Christ?

certain judgment.

The Hebrew writer in chapter 2 verses 1 through 4 will ask the question of the Hebrew

brethren.

How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

He says, we’ve had the witnesses.

We know their testimony.

We know what they’ve told us as directed to speak to us from God, and if we ignore it,

where are we going to find salvation?

The eternal destiny of the departing, the forsaking, is fiery judgment.

But consider the eternal destiny of the false teacher.

The person who becomes obedient to the Word of God.

The person who determines to be faithful to God but then determines later to teach their

own false doctrine.

To teach their own doctrine and to draw away people after themselves.

To teach that which brings about a destiny that they desire on this earth, but what is

their eternal state?

Peter will write in 2 Peter chapter 2 and in verse 18, for when they speak great swelling

words of emptiness, they allure themselves through the lust of the flesh, through

lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error.

The target of the false teacher isn’t the world, he says.

The target of the false teacher who was once a faithful Christian is their own brethren

who have actually escaped the world.

Now they’re drawing them back in.

He says, while they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption.

For by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.

For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter

end is worse for them than the beginning.

For it would have been better for them to have not known the way of righteousness,

than having known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.

But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, a dog returns to his own vomit

and a sow having washed who are wallowing in the mire.

Peter makes it clear that the eternal destiny of the one who has once become a Christian,

who has once been obedient to Christ, who has once put on the faith of Christ and taught

the truth, but then has departed and begun to teach a different doctrine.

is a state worse than if they had never been safe.

But what about the pendant?

What about the person who having heard the truth, obeys the truth, and then gets caught up

in that which is false?

They get caught up in sin.

They get caught up in false doctrine.

They get caught up in something.

Are they now without hope?

No.

Jude, the half-brother of Jesus, will write concerning these individuals in verse 17 of

Jude,

But you, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus

Christ.

How they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to

their own ungodly lusts.

These are sensual persons who have caused divisions not having the Spirit.

But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith,

praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of

our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

And on some have compassion making a distinction, but others with fear pulling them out of

the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.

Jude as he writes to these Christians urging them to contend for the faith, to contend

earnestly for the faith, will tell them that you will encounter some as you have

maintained your faithfulness, as you have maintained your Christianity, you will encounter

some who have been swept away by these false teachers.

He says, some of them you’re going to distinguish that you can gently lead them back to

the truth.

and caused them to be penitent and caused them to be restored back to their saved state.

And he said, some you will encounter that you’re going to have to grab them and you’re

going to have to snatch them out of the fire.

But what’s He saying?

He’s saying for those who have drifted away into false teaching, those who have drifted

away into false doctrine, those who have set aside their Christianity and their hope and

their salvation for that which is false, He says they have hope and it’s faithful

Christians who will pull them.

and restore them to the truth.

I want us to close in verse 24 and 25 of Jude.

Because what we all, no matter the state we find ourselves in, need to realize is this.

that there is coming a day when this life will be over.

where we will face the judgment.

and we need to understand who we’re facing.

Verse 24, Jude writes, now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present

you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.

To God our Savior, who alone is wise.

Be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever.

Amen.

Jude says, know how you can be saved.

I know how you can be assured of your salvation.

I know how you can have no doubts whatsoever about your eternal destiny because I know how

you can have fellowship with the one in whose power and control is the decision.

obey His commandments, walk in the light as John would write, have fellowship with Christ

and the Father, and as Paul would write as he reached the end of his life, be faithful

unto death.

Fight the fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life.

You might say Aaron.

How do I know if I’m ready?

because you don’t know when your time will come.

My answer is go look in the book.

Go find the example of your life.

Go see what you’ve done and what you haven’t done and come to a determination as to

whether or not you’re saved or lost.

And if you’re lost, do what the book says to be safe.

And if you were once faithful and you’ve departed either through false doctrine or through

allowing sin to once again corrupt your life, do what the text says to be restored.

I then be faithful unto death.

Because you don’t need to step into eternity questioning your eternal destiny.

The text is too clear on the state.

of saved and the destiny of the lost.

If you have need of the invitation of Christ for any reason, why not come forward now as

we stand and as

Matthew Chapter 4 – Justin Evergarden – Jan. 21, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, authority, baptism, Bible Study, Jesus, keywords Matthew, Ministry, repentance, temptation by Aaron Cozort

image

Thank you all for coming.

Always great to see everybody tonight.

Every time.

We’ll go ahead and start the before class period with a word of prayer.

So if you’ll bow with me.

Divine Master in Heaven, our Father.

our glorious Savior.

Thank you so very much for all that you’ve given us, specifically this time that we can

come to worship and serve you and learn more about your glorious Word.

May we take what’s learned in the class this evening and the devotional later on and apply

it to our daily lives.

We pray that we grow stronger with each and every lesson so that we can become better and

more faithful Christians unto thee, so that one day we can have a home in heaven with you.

And so we pray to thee in Jesus’ amen.

So when we last left off, we were going through Matthew chapter 3.

So if you want to turn your Bibles over there, we’re going to continue with the outline uh

that we had done before to give you guys ah some of my personal notes that I had taken

throughout the study of Matthew.

Last time we were talking about ah John’s clothing and his direct relationship with the ah

diet that he was put on as well, the locusts.

wild honey and we had finished up section one.

uh If you recall section we had separated everything into different sections trying to

jump back up here and uh we had I believe four sections.

Yes, we had the Messenger in the wilderness, verses 1 through 6, the message of repentance

in verses 7 through 10, the message of authority, verses 11 through 12, and a message from

the Father, verses 13 through 17.

So now we’re in section 2, meaning we’ll start in Matthew chapter 3, verses 7 through 10.

So we’ll go ahead and read that now.

oh

warned you to flee from the wrath to come.

Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance.

And think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham our father.

For I say to you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

And now also is the axe laid unto the root of the trees.

Therefore, every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the

fire.

So this starts the section we’re going to call A Call to Repentance.

ah In verse 7, we see the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Sadducees being exposed.

ah We see lots of them coming to be baptized.

These would have been the group’s religious leaders with influence and authority as well.

John does not flatter them.

He calls them a generation of vipers, which back then would have been quite the offensive

term.

I believe so even today.

oh

behind their teeth instead of in the venom-packed soaked fangs that its actual viper would

have.

The language again exposes the hypocrisy because religion without repentance is dangerous.

Then we move on to verses eight through nine, where we read about fruit instead of

heritage.

John demands them to bring forth, therefore fruits meet for repentance, he shows.

uh What he’s talking about is real change.

Repentance goes far beyond a simple I’m sorry, but it’s an actual change in direction, a

change in viewpoint action from then on out.

He also warns them not to rely on their heritage.

We see them and make the statement, we have Abraham our father.

ah Let me ask, spiritual ancestry replace personal obedience?

No, it has no effect whatsoever on personal obedience to God’s Word.

And just because your ancestor is so-and-so, uh it’s an argument, it’s a fallacy of

argument to uh make an argument from a position of authority like that, just based on your

lineage.

It’s kind of like getting an argument with a teenage boy and he says, well, my dad owns

the bank.

You know, that’s not going to hold any more true for his argument.

God looks to fruit, that being the works that we produce in our lives,

not family trees.

And then in verse 10 we read about urgency.

We see the image of an axe at the root of a tree and this would show an urgency.

Typically, if you’re going to fell a tree, you would want to have your axe close by.

Now, the symbolism here of the axe being at the root of the tree is essentially telling

them that judgment is near, and it was, it was coming up soon, and repentance must be

genuine before the axe is actually laid to the tree or the judgment is applied to them in

this scenario.

God is not impressed with outward appearances.

He wants to see inward change, and He examines even the roots of our lives, doesn’t He?

So we see the…

uh

I want to use the word syllogism, but that’s not right.

The illustration used there.

So which brings us to section three, the coming king and his authority.

If we can get someone to read the next two verses, verses 11 and 12.

Alright, so it’s clear, and John makes it adamantly clear that he is not the Messiah.

He says that he’s not even worthy to loose the

belts of his sandals, essentially.

He baptizes with water, but the one coming after him will baptize with the Holy Spirit and

with fire.

John understands his role.

In fact, he’s stepping aside because he wants Christ to be elevated, not himself.

He knows exactly where he needs to be.

True servants of God always point peel to pull to Christ, don’t they?

That’s what we should do as Christians.

We don’t point them specifically to a man-made creed or anything like that.

We want to point them to Christ individually, which is why we as Christians, when we’ve

been trained on this evangelism program, we try to put them into the Word of God, right?

Because all authority comes from that book, from God himself.

It’s not from us.

Then we see separation and judgment.

The imagery shifts in verse 12 over to a harvest type image.

The wheat is gathered and the chaff is burned.

uh

is typically that stuff that ah you would gather up.

Let’s say that you have corn.

This is the way that I visualize it anyway.

You have the corn.

What do you have to do the corn before you can boil the corn and eat the corn?

You get to shuck it, right?

You got to take the shuck off and then you’re left with those like little strands of

things.

That would be comparable to the chaff with the wheat.

They would rub the wheat together so they get the wheat seeds, whatever they use to ground

down into the flour.

And then whatever’s left would need to be burned in a fire.

It’s useless for any other use.

This teaches that Christ is going to save the repentant and he’s going to judge the

unrepented as well.

So the arrival of the King brings both grace, love, and accountability.

accountability all at the same time.

Now let’s go ahead and read verses 13 through 17.

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.

And John tried to prevent him, saying, I need to be baptized by you, and you are coming to

me.

But Jesus answered and said to him, permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us

to fulfill all righteousness.

Then he allowed him.

When he had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water, and behold, the

heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and

alighting upon him.

Suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

All right.

So this is the last section.

We see the baptism of Jesus unfolding and we see a surprising request.

Jesus, who, you know, John had been teaching baptism under repentance, came to him and

said, I have need to be baptized.

Now this is not of any sin that Jesus did, but Jesus comes to John to be baptized and John

is shocked.

He resists knowing that Jesus is sinless.

He knows that he’s the son of God.

That’s the whole reason for him coming down.

um Unfortunately, uh in our country today, and you may have heard of it, there is a book

by Katherine Sully.

This book is a children’s book called The Baptism of Jesus.

And I ran across this a few months ago, maybe a year ago, and it is nothing but…

foul play, to put it very kindly.

Her Baptism of Jesus book uh takes Scripture completely out of context.

This is a children’s book that I think we should all be aware exists out there, and I

personally would not read anything from Catherine Sully after finding out that on the

pages of his baptism, uh it quotes Jesus, quotes in heavy quotation marks there because it

doesn’t.

It claims to quote Jesus, and it says, I have need to be baptized for the remission of my

sins.

Now that’s not blasphemy against our God.

I don’t know what is, but I figured it would be a good note to add in here for you guys,

especially anyone with children or grandchildren to keep your eye out for that author

specifically.

oh

But moving forward, we have verse 15, which is to fulfill all righteousness.

uh Jesus was not baptized to be sinned.

He was baptized to do several things.

To fulfill all righteousness means He can identify with sinners as far as the practice

goes.

He’s going through the same things that we’re going to.

We notice that Jesus never asks us to do anything that He Himself is not willing to do.

Being baptized, in this preacher’s opinion, is nothing that hard to do.

He’s also obeying the Father, which is something he asks all Christians to do.

It affirms God’s plan, and after this we see him begin his public ministry.

But mainly what Jesus is showing here is that he, even himself, being the very Son of God,

willingly submits to the will of the Father.

Even something as baptism, he does as an example for us to follow.

He wants us to follow in his footsteps.

After all, why do we call ourselves Christians?

That signifies us being Christ-like.

That’s our entire prerogative in life.

That’s our job description.

uh

And then the verses 16 through 17, we see God’s approval in Jesus’ He’s baptized, and the

Spirit descends, and note the wording there, like a dove.

We see depictions all the time of a dove flying down, and it’s a nice illustration to be

able to see that, but we notice the word like a dove.

So we don’t know exactly what form this would have taken, but it would have been like a

dove.

It could have been something even unseen, soft, kind,

you think of doves to be, you know, something peaceful.

But it says like a dove, not as a dove.

The Father then speaks from heaven.

see, is my beloved Son, and who I am well pleased.

So God publicly identifies Jesus and affirms His Son’s own obedience publicly to everyone

around.

So major lessons that we find from Matthew chapter three, and I know I’m going back ah to

before because we didn’t get through the last three sections of Matthew chapter three, but

we see God preparing hearts for the arrival of His Son.

We see that repentance is necessary, not optional.

Religious appearance can never replace genuine change.

There many in the world that need to learn that lesson.

And that humility matters in serving God as well.

Jesus had all things put under His feet.

He had command over everything, and yet He still humbly served His Father.

Jesus identifies with the sinners while remaining sinless, and obedience brings the

Father’s approval.

And it can do the same for us if we’re obedient.

Now, I had several discussion questions here, but most of them are based on the last class

we had, which was several weeks ago.

So we’re going to skip over to there, and we’re going to go into Matthew chapter 4 now.

So Matthew chapter 4, I’m going to go ahead and give you the uh roadmap as I did last

time.

We have a key verse in several different sections broken down.

uh Matthew chapter 4 follows immediately after the baptism of Jesus, and uh we’re going to

have four different sections again.

So section 1, if you’re taking notes, is going to be the devil defeated.

This is verses 1 through 11.

Then we have the light scene, verses 12 through 17.

the disciples called, verses 18-20, and the fame that grew in verses 23-25.

So in section 1, verses 1 through 11, we see Jesus is tempted in the wilderness,

overcoming Satan.

Then we see the public ministry in Galilee.

The call for the disciples to follow Him in section 3.

And finally, in section 4, verses 23 through 25, at the end of the chapter, we see the

ministry expanding as crowds start to gather around Jesus.

And uh each section shows a progression.

We see from victory over temptation all the way to the spread of the kingdom throughout

Matthew chapter 4.

So, let’s go ahead and start by reading Matthew chapter 4 verses 1 through 11.

I’ll go ahead and get that because I know it’s kind of a longer passage.

4th, 1 through 11, then Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of

the devil.

And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward and hungered.

And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command these stones

to be made bread.

And he

answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word

that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and seteth him on a pinnacle of the

temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down.

For it is written, ah He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands

shall they bear thee up, lest at any time thou shall dash thy foot against a stone.

Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Again the devil taketh him up into an exceedingly high mountain, and showeth him all the

kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and saith unto him, All these things will I

give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

Then Jesus said unto him, Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the

Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

the devil left him and behold angels came and ministered unto him.” So Matthew begins with

a surprising statement.

The beginning statement we see, then Jesus, after the previous, after the baptism, was led

up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

We can note here that this temptation is not accidental.

This was planned.

This was something Jesus had to go through.

And Jesus is led by the Spirit.

This teaches us that temptation itself is not sinful, even though God’s Spirit may allow

or lead us into testing for growth and victory.

But the wilderness we mentioned here would have been most likely near the Sinai region.

This is the same general region, if you remember back in the Old Testament, where Moses

fasted for 40 days.

The master lawgiver fasted there.

And then we also have Elijah fasting for 40 days as the great reformer.

Now these are two other things where we see them in the the in the region of Sinai.

Now again, I’m not saying this specifically, but based on his location where we last saw

in the last couple chapters, it should be somewhere near Sinai.

So we can assume fairly safely that it was the wilderness of Sinai.

So Jesus now fasts for 40 days, same as the other two.

And we see combat before conquest, don’t we?

Can we have conquest before combat?

You have to go into battle before you can have a victory over your enemy, right?

So here we have him getting ready.

The phrase crucial here is to be tempted.

It shows victory requires opposition.

To be tempted.

Right?

Because if we’re tempted, we’re in a spiritual battle.

Sorry, I know the thinking’s kind of off, but I’m trying to lead you guys through the way

my thinking has been.

m

Let me ask this, does faith require testing?

Yeah, right?

We can only call it faith because faith is what?

Belief in action?

It’s the same thing.

So the action is to overcome something.

That proves your faith.

Likewise, free will requires choice.

Similar to how Adam and Eve were given a choice.

Unfortunately, they chose wrongly, bringing sin into the world.

But Jesus now faces a choice as well.

But where Adam failed, Christ is going to succeed.

Now, I had seen a…

uh while doing this study, I came across, and I can’t remember the name of the diagram.

It’s a foolish diagram trying to disprove the reality of or the existence of our God.

And this diagram made the argument that…

and it had the different steps, if God is all-powerful, then A.

If He’s not all-powerful, then B.

And the entire argument circled around the idea of free will.

The problem with this diagram is, I don’t think

think the person that wrote the diagram actually understood the meaning or definition of

free will.

You have to in any argument be able to define the terms that you’re given in said

argument.

And so to define free will, how would you define free will?

You get to choose.

It’s a choice, right?

So let’s say, and we’ll follow the diagram.

I know I don’t have it up right now, but the diagram says, Jesus is all powerful, could he

make a world without sin?

Yes.

Yes, of course he can.

He’s all powerful.

In fact, he did, didn’t he?

And then it says, well, ah then basically the, and I can’t remember the entire thing off

the top of my head.

I don’t have it, unfortunately, but.

the argument essentially goes this route.

It says that if God was able to make a world without sin, why didn’t He?

And still give us free will?

Well, the premise is wrong there.

The fact is, you can’t have free will if you don’t have a choice.

If your only choice is pure stark obedience and there is no temptation and it’s not there,

how do we have free will?

It’s the lack of choice.

So the entire diagram winds up circling around.

If you’re, you know, sharp enough to look at it at an underlying level, they redefine the

term free will thinking that it can just be redefined.

And that’s simply not the case.

But here we see also uh the first mention of the devil in the New Testament.

This shows him as an active personal adversary for Christ in this situation.

So verses 2 through 3, the first temptation.

ah Let’s go ahead and read that again, verses two through three.

is when he fasted 40 days and nights, he was afterward and hungered.

When you go up against someone in battle, what condition do you want them to be in?

You want to go as strong or as weak as possible?

You want them to be weak.

We want to be strong.

We want to be well fed, well rested, well prepared, the best armaments, bigger guns,

right?

So here we have the devil showing why he’s a viper, why he’s a serpent, right?

Why he acts like this because contextually we know that, you know, we attribute the

thinking of slyness, deceivingness to snakes.

The devil’s being the same way here.

He thinks he’s being sly.

So he’s trying to find Christ in a very weak moment.

He would have been hungry, he would have been tired, and so he comes and he says, if thou

be the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread.

He’s appealing to what is effectively the lust of the flesh in this situation.

Yes.

He does.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

And it was a whole lot easier for Eve because he simply said, thou shalt not die.

Repeated the entire commandment, but just added in the word not.

Yeah, absolutely.

No, he’s either trying to get him to doubt or he’s agging him on.

It’s kind of like pulling attention from Christ and putting it on himself.

Well, if you say you’re the son of God, make these turn into stone.

Prove me wrong.

He’s agging him he’s poking the bear as it were, right?

And so here he is, the detail is critical.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

He always attacks when we’re tired.

He loves to attack when we’re hungry.

He definitely attacks when we’re stressed, right?

And does he attack when we’re isolated?

Yeah.

Strength in numbers, right?

We were talking about the three-fold cord not too long ago.

If you have a rope with many, braids in it, it’s going to be much stronger than one piece

of twine used for sewing, which is probably why my hems and my pants come undone so often.

But this is good battle strategy.

Satan’s a skilled enemy.

Please don’t think that he’s not.

He’s very skilled.

He’s very smart.

But the first temptation appeals to the lust of the flesh.

This parallels the first sin in the Garden of Eden, as we said before.

Both temptation involve hunger and disobedience.

To Adam and Eve, they looked at the tree and saw that it was good to eat, and it looked

pleasing to the eye.

Now, I don’t know about you, but if I had to not eat for 40 days, just about anything

would look pleasing.

especially when you have the ability to simply command stones to turn into bread.

Locust and honey would be a treat at that point, yes, absolutely.

But verse four, we see the response.

Jesus always responds with scripture, and he says, it is written, man shall not live by

bread alone.

Now this quotation comes from Deuteronomy 8.3, so if someone will go ahead and get that

for me.

We’ll actually read the direct quote there in Deuteronomy chapter eight, verse three.

So this is directly referring to the manna that they were being fed in the wilderness.

God had it appear for them.

He wanted to show them dependence on His power because that’s all we need.

In fact, that’s all we have.

Whether you like it or not, this entire world is upheld by God’s power.

And so we have a direct quote from Deuteronomy referring to the manna.

Who benefited from the manna?

Was it God or God’s people?

God’s people, absolutely.

Jesus reminds Satan, and he should remind us, that physical provision is not enough, a

life sustained by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Now we were talking a moment ago of not eating for 40 days.

Locusts and honey would be a welcome thing.

If we think that that’s detrimental and how much weight you would lose uh at a physical

standpoint, can we apply that same principle to studying God’s Word from a spiritual

standpoint?

If we think we’re physically starving for physical needs in 40 days, what happens when we

go 40 days without even looking into God’s Word, without studying it, without reading it?

Are you spiritually starving?

You may not know it, but you are.

We need to always feed ourselves daily with God’s Word.

But notice the tense.

I did notice this and it really stuck out to me.

Notice that Jesus says it is written, not it was written.

If it was written, a law, is it in any effect now?

But if it is written, is the law still applicable to us today?

Yes.

oh

And so he was telling Satan the same thing.

God’s Word is very much still written, it’s still active, it’s still binding, and it’s

very much still powerful.

We have the same weapon today.

If someone will please read Romans 1 and verse 16.

This should remind us of something very critical.

Romans 1, 16.

for the power of God unto salvation, which also means if it’s the power of God unto

salvation, does every word matter?

Every word matters, absolutely.

Every word has meaning, none are disposable, which is why when we study, we try to get

deep sometimes.

Yes, you can wade as deep in the water as you want, you can stay at a surface level, but

let me tell you, you can study it your whole life and that water is just gonna get deeper

and deeper and deeper.

We can always learn more.

Moving on to verses five through six, we see the second temptation.

We’re gonna label this one the pride of life.

Satan fails once, but do we know Satan to be a quitter?

No, he didn’t.

He could have quit in the Garden of Eden, but he didn’t.

He kept going and kept going.

He’s going to keep going until he’s finally laid to rest.

He takes Jesus to the holy city, Jerusalem, or it could have been Jerusalem.

He just says, a holy city.

But we notice that this is a city.

Would this have been a place where people would have resided?

Yeah, absolutely.

So it teaches us that no place is exempt from temptation.

Even around others, temptation is still present.

There are private sins and there are also public sins.

Even religious places, unfortunately, from time to time, can become places of temptation.

Cities are filled with people and where there are people, there are temptations.

But Satan places Jesus at the pinnacle of the temple.

The Greek word here could also mean spire or like a high visible point.

You think of like a tower.

So I know some of the church buildings have the really tall steeple.

Back in the day, you could have walked upstairs and gotten up there.

know, like old cathedrals and things would have the bells up there, but you’d have the

bell ringer.

It would be something similar to this.

I’m not sure the exact context, but it would have been a high visible area.

We also notice Satan does not push Jesus.

He tempts him.

to jump, rather.

Then Satan quotes Scripture.

So we see Satan lose the first time because he has to eat the words of God.

It is written.

You can almost see the devil’s attitude going, oh, okay, you want to use Scripture?

All right, let’s use Scripture.

And so he does.

He turns around and he quotes Psalm 91 verses 11 through 12.

So let’s go ahead and get that one.

Psalm chapter 91.

Verse 11 through 12.

deeply and all.

are barely up.

Alright, so there we see Satan quoting scripture.

Now if Satan is quoting scripture, what does he have to know?

Scripture!

Is it a shame for us if the devil knows scripture better than we do?

I guarantee he does for most of us, probably all of us, including me.

He may even believe it more than we do.

You ever think about that?

I think he knows.

He’s seen it firsthand.

I think he does.

But he uses it in a distorted way.

He corrupts God’s Word and able to bend it as almost like, you know, there are tribes.

I think it’s South Africa, where they take their arrows, but instead of using pure, clean

arrows, they dip them in the poison from the poison dart frog, and they’ll fire them that

way.

Is that arrow corrupted with poison?

Yeah, it’s the same thing.

He takes something that he knows is powerful, something that can affect you all the way to

your heart and soul, and he tries to corrupt it for his own weapon.

But this temptation appeals to the pride of life.

Satan wants Jesus to abuse his power for self-glory.

And so we see Jesus’ retort by using Scripture correctly.

He responds again, shifting the attention away from himself and back to the Father.

Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Jesus is refusing to test God’s faithfulness.

He knows God is going to be faithful.

It’s going be hard what he asks him to do, but he knows he will be faithful.

Scripture constantly condemns testing God.

So let’s get a few verses that prove that fact.

If someone will get Numbers 14 and verse 22, and then we’ll have Psalm 78 and 18.

So again, the first one is Numbers 14 and verse 22, and then someone else will get Psalm

78 and 18.

who have seen my glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and the wilderness have put me

to the test now these ten times and have not heeded my voice.

Alright, so there we have them trying to tempt the Lord.

Alright, Psalm 78 and 18.

and they tempted God in their heart by asking for their lust.

All right.

Using scripture wrongly, does it make an action righteous?

No.

So we’ll go back to Matthew chapter four and we’ll move on to verse eight.

We have the third temptation.

We label this one the lust of the eyes.

In verse eight, Satan changes tactics again.

He learns from past mistakes.

He is always changing, always evolving, and yet he’s always losing, isn’t he?

In verse eight, Satan changes.

He says the temple was not high enough, so he takes Jesus to an even higher place.

This could have been a mountain with a sweeping view, but Matthew tells us Satan shows

Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them.

Does anyone remember a Disney movie with something like that?

Of the Lion King?

Simba, everything the light touches, I just can’t get that out of my head every time I

read this.

oh Everything the light touches, Simba, it’ll be yours, just not the Shadowlands.

But in this instance, the devil essentially is playing the bad guy and saying, you’ll even

get that.

You get it all.

Do we see something similar in Genesis 3 and verse 6, when Eve saw that the fruit was

pleasing to the eyes?

He thinks he’s changing tactics, but the pattern stays the same.

He tries to evolve, tries to change.

If one thing doesn’t work, he’ll try it again.

So we’ve had the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life.

Satan’s goal here is not power.

He’s wanting misdirected worship, right?

In fact, he wants the creation to steal the honor that belongs only to God.

Are we warned in the Bible not to allow the creation to be worshipped rather than the

Creator?

This is something that I’ve actually come in contact with in Japan.

Some of the people that wake up in the morning will greet the morning sun and bow to it

and thank the sun for its sunlight and for growing the crops.

And so one of the things that we’re working for over there is trying to redirect their

thinking, asking them, well, do you know of the God that made the sun?

Well, yeah, I guess so.

Well, would it be not more appropriate to thank the person who made the sun?

So now they don’t have to change their culture.

They can keep waking up in the morning and bowing towards the sun, but now they’re

thinking that creates

and not the creation.

Satan’s always desired worship, hasn’t he?

Seems so.

At this moment, he exposes his true objective.

So in verse 9, Satan says, all these things I will give thee, if thou wilt fall down and

worship me.

Tell me, is this a lie on multiple levels?

I think so.

First off, Satan’s offering something that was not his to give to begin with, right?

Who does the creation belong to?

To whom?

To God.

The kingdoms of the world ultimately belong to God, and we read that in Psalm 24 and verse

1.

Satan may influence worldly systems, but they do not belong to him.

He is not the owner.

Second, Satan offers Jesus a shortcut to the throne.

Is he offering Jesus authority without ah

without suffering?

He’s trying to.

He’s trying to offer a shortcut.

Glory without the cross.

Sounds like a good deal on the surface, but when you look deeper…

He’s tempting Jesus to bypass the suffering that was coming in the future.

But third, Satan implies that this would only need to happen once.

The verb tense here that we read in the Greek signifies a single act of worship.

You can almost imagine him going, man, just do me this one solid.

I will give you everything that I have.

Just worship me once.

Just do it once.

Because then he’d get to gloat.

I got one over on Christ.

I only won once, but I won.

So it’s doable again.

m

Christ doesn’t fall for it.

Just once will absolutely hurt.

Let’s have somebody get Romans chapter 1 and we’ll read 24 through 25.

Romans chapter 1, 24 through 25.

Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts, to

dishonor their own bodies between themselves, to change the truth of God into a lie and

worship and serve and create the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever.

Amen.

So at the end of the day, idolatry is always at the heart of sin.

You’re exchanging God’s truth for a lie.

And as it says in the verse there, they’re worshiping the creation and not the creator.

Satan’s offering Jesus an easier path, but obviously this is a false path.

God’s plan has no shortcuts.

When God does something, does he do it the right way the first time?

Always.

And he does so perfectly.

Verse 10.

we see the command in the Scripture.

This is actually our key verse for the entire chapter.

Here Jesus responds differently than before.

He actually exercises his authority.

He says, get thee hence, Satan.

This time Jesus does not merely quote Scripture.

Again, he’s issuing that command.

He follows the command with Scripture though.

So he gives them the command, get away from here.

For it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”

And again, he’s quoting Deuteronomy back in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 13.

This is the climax of the temptation narrative.

Jesus demonstrates that Scripture is not only defensive, can it also be authoritative?

Is the Word of God a double-edged sword piercing unto the soul?

Right?

Absolutely.

The word is God is not something to debate with Satan, it’s something to stand on.

So verse 11, have we ever seen Jesus or God himself issue a command and it’s not obeyed?

In terms of angels and Satan and things like that.

He gives us a choice because he wants to give us free choice, right?

He commands us to obey, but humankind always disobeys.

But in this case,

Does Satan have to obey a direct command?

Yeah, absolutely.

What did Jesus happen whenever he saw the man possessed by Legion?

He said, get out.

Now they were going to the full time, but they said, please send us over here instead.

We’ll leave.

We’re still going to obey.

But they ultimately give in to the authority that comes from Christ.

Matthew says, then the devil leaveeth him.

This is critical.

Satan must obey the command given to him.

He doesn’t leave voluntarily, but he leaves because he’s commanded to.

The image is one of those of him being in complete defeat.

The enemy retreats, humiliated, powerless, exposed.

You can almost see him like a dog with his tail between his legs running away.

But Matthew adds, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him after the temptation.

Now the word ministered here,

if we were to do a more literal translation of the word, it means to tend to the needs of,

to serve, right?

So after 40 days and fasting and an intense spiritual battle, can we reasonably assume

that the angels attended to Jesus’s physical needs?

oh

Seems likely.

I’m not going to say verbatim yes or no because the scripture doesn’t tell us, but this

could have included his hunger.

And the victory is followed by provision.

God never abandons his servants after obedience, does he?

No, he stands with us all the time.

Now there’s a time-light note here.

I actually wouldn’t have known about this if it wasn’t for my instructors that pointed it

out to me.

We actually have a timeline jump between verses 11 and verse 12.

And this is actually between Matthew, I’m sorry, these events would have been recorded in

John chapters one through five.

So in the Gospel of John, we get a little bit more.

Now we’re sticking to Matthew for this study so that I’m not bouncing around all over the

place.

But the accounts, uh roughly account for one year of ministry, which is condensed into

oh 136 verses, but we do see a time skip here and I’m running out of time.

Matthew is selective about this.

He’s not writing in a biography.

He’s wanting to make sure that he presents the King the way that he is.

So Matthew chapter 12 through 17, we’re going to get to the light scene and the ministry

begins.

I’ll go ahead and read that 12 through 17 of Matthew.

Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee.

And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast and in

the borders of Zebulon and Nephtalem.

that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah as the prophet, saying, the land of

Zebulun and the land of Nephtali, by the way of the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the

Gentiles.

The people which sat in darkness saw great light, and to them which sat in the region and

shadow of death, light has sprung up.

From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent, for the kingdom of God is at

hand.

So Jesus leaves Nazareth and he starts to dwell in Capernaum.

This would have been a very strategic location for his ministry.

It was the village of Nahum.

It was also Matthew’s hometown.

We know that Peter had a house there and Jesus had friends there.

So this would have been a good place for him to set up shop.

And the word dwell there would have implied more of a permanent dwelling.

This was kind of his base of operations, if it were.

So Capernaum becomes the center of Jesus’ Galilean ministry.

Now verses 14 through 16, we actually see the fulfillment of prophecy that we see back in

Isaiah chapter 9, verses 1 through 2.

In fact, Matthew tells us, whenever you see Ezeas right there, it’s just Isaiah.

It’s a different translation of the name, same person, same name.

But this is Isaiah, specifically referencing chapter nine.

When Isaiah first spoke these words, the area was primarily Jewish.

If you notice down there, uh it said, of the Gentiles.

Galilee of the Gentiles.

So when Isaiah would have first spoken these words, the area would have been more

primarily Jewish in culture.

But by the time Jesus arrives, we see the population kind of shift over into more

Gentiles.

This would be the change of words there between Isaiah’s account in chapter nine and

Matthew’s account in chapter four.

So the Gentile population has significantly, explaining the shift in language.

But light is now shining in a place once marked by darkness.

God’s salvation is

in essence expanding forward, outward.

It’s always growing.

So verse 17, we see the first recorded sermon of Jesus, or at least the first words

recorded.

Matthew records them saying, repent.

You notice that that’s the same message that John preached?

Well, who was John paving the way for?

Would it make sense for him to preach the same message?

Absolutely.

So, our King continues the call to repentance.

But we notice that the Gospel does not begin with comfort.

It could have.

It could have been telling them there’s a better way, a better place, but instead the

Gospel begins with change.

And that’s where we’ll leave it tonight because I believe I am running out of time.

And next time we’ll start in Matthew chapter 4 verse 18 for when we see the disciples

called.

oh

Mark 12 (Lesson 3) – Aaron Cozort – Jan. 14, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, authority, David, hypocrisy, keywords Jesus, Mark 12, Messiah, scribes, spiritual leader, teaching, widows by Aaron Cozort

image

Alright, let’s begin with a word of prayer and then we’ll get into our text.

A gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day that you

blessed us with.

We’re grateful for all that you have done for us.

We’re thankful for the uh mercies that you have showered upon Sister Frances in the

surgery and coming through it successfully.

We pray for her to have a speedy recovery and renewed strength and ability to get around.

Lord, we are grateful for all of the blessings that exist through the modern medicines and

surgeries and procedures that we have today.

We’re also grateful and recognize that every good and perfect gift comes from You.

Lord, we pray that You will be with those who are traveling, those who are on the road or

will be later this week.

Pray that You give them safety and allow them to reach their destination safely.

We thank You for Your Word.

for your revelation.

And we thank you most especially for your Son who came and died on the cross for our sins

and didn’t just die for us but taught us both how to live and how to serve you in a way

that is acceptable and set an example for us that as we see Christ, we see you.

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

Mark chapter 12.

We got down to verse 35.

Verse 35 says, then Jesus answered and said while he taught in the temple, how is it that

the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?

For David himself said by the Holy Spirit, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand

till I make your enemies your footstool.

Therefore David himself calls him Lord, how then is he his son?

And the common people heard him gladly.” Now, as we’ve been going through chapter 12, what

has happened time and time again?

All right?

The scribes, the Pharisees, the Herodians, the lawyers are coming to Jesus and they’re

testing Him with questions.

They’re trying to find some reason, some statement, some uh teaching or doctrine that they

can use to discredit Him amongst the people.

And they have failed and failed and failed.

and failed.

Matter of fact, every single time they come trying to test him, it’s themselves that are

getting discredited along the way.

And so now it’s time for Jesus to ask a question.

So his question is, how is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David?

If you were to look at that question, what would be your first thought?

Okay, wasn’t the Messiah to be the son of David?

Yes, he was.

All right, turn back to Samuel.

2 Samuel chapter 7

beginning in verse eight, Now therefore, thus shall you say to my servant David, thus says

the Lord of hosts, I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler

over my people over Israel.

And I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from

before you, and have made you a great name, like the name of the great men who are on the

earth.

Moreover, I will appoint a place for my people Israel.

and will plant them that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more, nor

shall the sons of wickedness oppress them any more as previously.

Since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel and have caused you to

rest from all your enemies, also the Lord tells you that he will make you a house.

When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after

you.

who will come from your body and I will establish his kingdom.

He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

I will be his father and he shall be my son.

If he commits uh iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of

the son of men.

But my mercy shall not depart from him as I took it from Saul whom I removed from before

you.

and your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you, your throne shall

be established forever.” Now, here this text and in other occasions, other places, the

prophecy is made of a coming son of David.

Now, there’s two aspects to this one.

One of them is Solomon and his direct

sonship of David and the building of the temple by Solomon.

But there’s further a statement concerning the kingdom reign and a son who would dwell on

the king’s throne forever and that his kingdom would be established forever pointing

towards the Messiah.

As you consider this, there’s this passage and like we mentioned, there’s others that

point to

the Messiah being from the offspring or a son of David.

Why then does Jesus question why the scribes have taught that Christ is the son of David?

What is the problem with the scribes’ teaching?

Okay, well, there’s the thousand years between the time David reigns and the time Christ

comes, but even if they just mean descendant of, I mean, the statement is accurate.

So if the statement is accurate, then what does that mean is wrong about the teaching?

Not the statement itself, but what they taught from the statement, the application of the

statement, their intention of saying,

the son of David is that the son is by nature inferior to the father.

So they’re looking for a Messiah, but he’s going to be the Messiah sitting on David’s

throne.

Well, if you were to think of someone sitting on someone else’s throne, which one would

you assume was greater, the one who’s throne it was or the one who’s sitting on it?

the one whose name’s on it.

There’s a reason why Trump likes to put his name on everything.

He wants to be the notice of the one who’s greater than the other people using it.

So here you have the scribes teaching, reiterating, emphasizing, it seems to be Jesus’s

point, always bringing up that this is going to be a son of David.

What Jesus points out is

what they’re not teaching, what they have neglected to teach, what they have left out of

the promise of the Messiah.

For what they’re looking for is a descendant, a king, a ruler, a military man.

Why is it that David was not allowed to build the temple of God?

uh God said, are a bloody man, you will not build my temple.

Rather your son Solomon will be a king of peace and he will build my temple.

Well they were looking for a son of David.

They wanted a warrior back on the throne to get them out from under the thumb of the

rulers who were over them.

They no longer wanted to be a subjugated nation.

They wanted to set their own destiny and have their own control and not have the Roman

Empire over them.

And so they were looking for a son of David, a warrior king to sit on the throne and give

them their kingdom back.

but what they missed, what they failed to teach is what Jesus emphasizes afterwards.

He says, for David himself said by the Holy Spirit, we’ll come back to that thought in a

moment, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your

footstool.

Turn to Psalm 110.

Verse one.

Psalm 110 verse 1, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies

your footstool.

The Lord shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion, rule in the midst of your

enemies.

Your people shall be volunteers in the days of your power, in the beauties of holiness

from the womb of the morning.

You have the dew of your youth.

The Lord has sworn and will not relent.

You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

The Lord is at your right hand.

He shall execute kings in the day of his wrath.

He shall judge among the nations.

He shall fill the places with dead bodies.

He shall execute the heads of many countries.

He shall drink of the brook by the wayside.

Therefore, he shall lift up the head.

Now David writes this Psalm and Jesus says that he writes it by the power of whom?

the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is making it clear when David writes this Psalm, when David writes this prophecy,

he’s not writing it of his own interpretation.

He’s not writing his own opinion.

He’s not writing his own thoughts and his own studied education on the matter.

He is writing this by the Holy Spirit.

So why weren’t the scribes teaching it?

Why were the scribes talking about a son of David, but not describing the Son as the Lord

of David?

And it all comes back to, it didn’t fit their narrative.

It didn’t fit what they were looking for.

It didn’t fit what they had in mind.

And so Jesus points out what David says concerning the Messiah.

Therefore David himself calls him Lord, how is he then his son?

When you go through the previous occurrences of the scribes, the Pharisees, and others

coming to Jesus, if Jesus asked them a question, did they have an answer for it?

No.

Even if they wanted to give an answer to it, they wouldn’t because they knew it would make

them look bad.

Now Jesus asks a question.

Jesus turns it around on them, asks them.

to answer these things.

And there is, of course, there’s no recorded answer of what they said in reply, but the

people received the teaching gladly.

Now.

The point that Jesus is making is that the Messiah would not be subservient to David.

The Messiah would not be inferior to David.

Rather, David had made it clear that the Messiah would be the Lord of David.

Now, if the people had come to the conclusion that Jesus was going to be the Messiah, what

did that mean about who they should be following?

Should they be following the Pharisees still?

The Sadducees?

The Herodians?

The chief priests?

The council,

Or should they be following the one who was the Lord of David?

And ultimately, Jesus is establishing the same thing that will predicate Peter’s sermon in

Acts chapter 2.

Turn over to Acts chapter 2.

Verse 22, men of Israel, hear these words.

Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God

did through him in your midst as you yourselves also know.

First thing Peter is going to establish is there is no denying the facts of the situation.

There is no denying the signs, the miracles, and the deeds that established that Christ

was from God.

And none of them there could deny it.

You go all the way back to John chapter three in Nicodemus, one of the 70, one of the

council comes to Jesus and says, we know you are a teacher come from God.

for no one could do the things which you do except God be with him.” Now that’s all the

way in year one of Jesus’ ministry.

Here we are three years into Jesus’ ministry and well three and a half years after his

death and resurrection Peter says there’s no question about it.

There’s no argument about it.

Every single one of you are aware of the situation.

But then he points out this, him being delivered by the determined purpose and

foreknowledge of God.

you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death, whom God raised up,

having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by

it.

For David says concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is at my

right hand that I may not be shaken.

Therefore my heart rejoiced and my tongue was made glad.

Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope.

For you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will you allow your Holy One to see

corruption.

You have made known to me the ways of life.

You will make me full of joy in your presence.” Now, Peter comments on what David wrote.

He says, men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is

both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

Peter makes it clear David’s not writing about himself.

If David was writing about himself, his tomb wouldn’t be right over there.

But it is.

So he must be writing about someone else.

And yet he’s describing this as the Lord.

Peter goes on, he says, therefore being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an

oath to him

that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit

on his throne.” Now what does Peter say about whether or not Jesus was a son of David?

He said he was.

See, Jesus isn’t arguing that the Messiah is not going to be the son of David.

Jesus is pointing out that that’s all the scribes would teach about the Messiah, is that

he was the son of David.

But they wouldn’t teach the truth of the matter, that he was the Lord of David.

Now notice what Peter says.

That he would, according to the flesh, raise up Christ to sit on his throne.

He, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ.

that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.

This Jesus God has raised up of which we are all witnesses, therefore being exalted to the

right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He

poured out this which you now see and hear.

For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, The Lord said to my Lord,

sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool.

Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you

crucified both Lord and Christ.” Peter takes the exact same prophecy of David that Jesus

is commenting on.

Jesus is establishing that the one that David spoke of is going to be the Lord.

It’s not going to be someone inferior to David.

subservient to David, just a descendant of David, he is going to be the one that David

said was his very Lord.

And Peter says, this same Jesus who you crucified, God has now fulfilled this passage and

made him both Lord and Messiah.

That’s what Christ means.

The Greek word is Christos.

for the word Messiah.

So Jesus is going to question them.

Therefore David himself calls him Lord, how is he then his son?

And the common people heard him gladly.

Then he said to them in his teaching, beware of the scribes who desire to go around in

long robes.

love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues and the best places

at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers, these will

receive greater condemnation.” As Jesus brings to bear the discussion that has occurred

concerning the authority of the Christ,

He establishes that the Christ who is coming, the Christ who is prophesied, the Christ who

David spoke of, was going to be the Lord of David.

but his application is about the actions and the pretenses of the scribes.

The reason, if you were to reason through the passage, the reason why the scribes were not

teaching the proper thing concerning the Messiah is it would have denied their own

authority.

It would have made them subservient to the one who was coming.

It would have decreased their position in the eyes of the people.

And so they didn’t teach about who the Messiah was.

They didn’t teach that the Messiah was the Lord of David.

It’s interesting to point out that this comes in a text immediately following a discussion

of what is the greatest commandment in law.

And what is it that Jesus said was the greatest commandment in the law?

All right, I shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy strength, all

thy mind.

But what did he say before that?

In Mark’s record, Jesus gives the entire quotation from Deuteronomy, where He says, oh

And then Jesus has a discussion before the end of the context about the fact that David

said, one who was coming was the Lord.

but they, the scribes, were denying His authority.

They were denying His authority to substitute their own.

They were denying His position to aggrandize themselves.

He brings home the discussion about their perspective on what they taught.

in their actions because he says, beware of them because they go around in long robes.

In the first century synagogues we’re told that in order for someone to get up and speak

publicly in the synagogue, you had to meet certain criteria.

First of all, you had to be a male.

You had to be a Jew.

But you also had to be dressed a certain way.

You had to have a robe on that went down to your ankles.

You couldn’t show up in a regular laborer’s garments.

Jesus, by the way, we have an idea on exactly what his garments looked like because guess

what?

He got up and spoke in the synagogue.

His dress and his apparel was appropriate for being a speaker or a rabbi in the synagogue.

So Jesus’ garment, which we read about at His crucifixion, which was woven from the inside

out from top to bottom, would have been all the way down to His ankles.

But the scribes would go about in the marketplace and they’d go about in public in their

long robes.

Do you think they did that because that was the only garment they had?

No.

You think they did that because, well, you know, it might be a little chilly outside?

No.

Why did they do that?

Oh, there goes a teacher.

They could be identified.

They could be seen by the people.

Now,

What else do we learn about Jesus’s garment?

If Jesus wore that in the marketplace, were they able to say, well, wait a minute, I saw

you in the marketplace just yesterday.

You had on the same robe we do.

How many robes did Jesus have?

By all indications of the text, he was wearing everything he had.

but they were doing this out of pretense.

They were doing this to be seen.

It is interesting that there are times you take a, sit down with some of the commentators,

especially those from a number of years ago and especially those from a denominational

background, and you’ll find sections in scripture where denominational commentators are,

moaning and groaning back in the 1800s about the fact that preachers are moving away from

the robes and the apparels of the priests and of the position of a minister.

And still today, there’s many who, when they get up to preach, they’re in a collar and

they’re in these garments that are the garments of a…

minister.

Jesus said, you’re wearing that to be seen by men…

You have a problem.

And he goes on to point out that they’re not just doing it to be seen, but to be greeted.

They want the adoration.

They want the recognition.

They want to be seen.

And then when they go to the synagogue, they expect to be seated in the best position.

And then when they go to the feast, they expect to be seated in an honorable position.

And then they turn around and do what to widows?

take everything they have.

Now, do you…

let’s talk about language here.

Do you assume that everything you read in the Bible is literal?

Well, you should assume that everything you read in the Bible is literal unless the

context indicates that there is some sort of figurative speech being used.

Because the text is not indicating that it was the practice of the scribes to come and eat

the homes of widows.

But if you were to take the term devour in a literal sense, you would have to come to the

conclusion that it was the practice of the scribes to go about eating the houses of

widows.

Don’t think that’s what Jesus meant.

But Jesus rather is pointing out what the outcome is.

If you have something that consumes your house, what do you have afterwards?

Nothing.

Now what was it that God said to Israel they were to be careful about in regards to the

fatherless and widows?

They were to be careful to provide for them.

They were to be careful to make sure that they were protected and that they were treated

properly because God was the widow and the orphan’s representative.

Because God made it clear, I will recompense those who do and who act unjustly towards the

fatherless and the widow.

You go back to this passage back here in Psalm 110 and notice what David writes one more

time.

The LORD said to my LORD, Sit at my right hand, Till I make your enemies your footstool.

The LORD shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion.

Rule in the midst of your what?

enemies.

I don’t think it’s coincidence that Jesus quotes this passage and then starts making

application to the scribes.

and draws forward the fact that their actions demonstrated through their actions towards

widows that they were the enemies of God.

It was a clear, definitive example by which Jesus could establish these people who are

your teachers are not the friends of God.

Here’s one example and it’s all you need.

Look at what they do to widows.

Now you can go over to Matthew chapter 23 and you can read.

the series of woes that Jesus gives in the same week of Jesus’ life, though Mark doesn’t

record it, you can read the list of woes that Jesus gives against the Pharisees, and he

attributes the same type of accusation against the Pharisees.

The picture here is that all of the leadership in Israel was either complacent or involved

in the taking of that which belonged to the widows.

Taking the very last possession they had.

Now watch this.

Go back to Mark chapter 12.

Verse 41, now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the

treasury and many who were rich put in much.

Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites which make a quadrants.

So he called his disciples to himself and said,

Assuredly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given

to the treasury.

For they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she

had, her whole livelihood.”

Have you ever thought about that text in view of the fact that Jesus has just condemned

the scribes for devouring the houses of widows?

We often look at this text and think about it in terms of giving.

We often come here and look at it in view of the point Jesus makes at the end and not the

point that He made at the beginning.

Jesus!

commends the giving heart of the widow and condemns the actions of the people who were

insisting that a widow give everything she has so that they can have what they want.

Isn’t that interesting?

That in the same act, one of a heart willing to give.

There is a commendable action, and in the same pretext before it, there is a condemnation

because of how they were using their power and influence among the people.

To take that which a widow couldn’t afford to give.

We should be careful when we come to a text like this.

We should be careful to understand that the command of God, the correct understanding of

what God has taught us is not that we should impoverish ourselves or even and especially

someone who is already sitting in an impoverished state.

Well, just give everything you have.

It’s not the instruction of God.

The instruction of God is clearly seen in another passage which we can go look at.

Let’s do that.

First Corinthians chapter 16.

Paul writes to the church, says, concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given

order to the churches of Galatia, so must, so you must do also.

On the first day of the week, let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he

may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.

Paul, as he looks at the first century church and the Corinthians,

promise and commitment to give to the needs of the Judean churches, which were at this

present time enduring much affliction and hardship due to a famine, he says, here’s how

you give.

As you have been prospered.

If the widow had prospered nothing according to the command, what should she have given?

Nothing.

Why?

because she hadn’t prospered anything.

The goal and the mission of the command to give is not the erasing of all the little bit

that someone who has nothing and is gaining nothing has.

And Jesus, by the way, is pointing this out.

Go back to the text in Mark chapter 12, he says, for they all put in out of their what?

Abundance.

Here come individual after individual.

They come into the temple.

Jesus is standing there at the door.

He’s watching this as they go by the treasury and they take out of their abundance.

Now the text doesn’t say it specifically, but the way I picture it is they don’t even

count it out.

As if they were to put their hand into a bag filled with coins and just whatever came out,

what went in?

That’s just the way my brain envisions it.

Out of abundance, little care for how much went in because they had an abundance.

But here comes this widow, and if she were to put her hand in her purse…

what was in there.

Two pennies.

And when she pulled it out, what’d she pull out?

everything.

and yet she was fully aware of what she put in.

It was out of her motivation and her heart that she gave what she gave.

But what the scribes were doing was pressuring those who had nothing, who gained nothing,

who prospered nothing to still give until they could no longer even sustain their own

lives.

Eddie.

assume from the text, and I think rightly so, that if she had abundance like what they

did…

she still would have been very purposeful in what she did.

And it just draws to mind the fact that we are to be purposeful in our giving, whether

it’s our contribution giving or the giving and helping of others, that God that demands of

us and expects us to be purposeful.

She was a good steward of what she had while they were just tossing it carelessly.

Absolutely.

So.

It’s one of those things that when you look at a passage and you only think of the passage

from one frame of mind, you get one perspective.

But sometimes when you read the verses before it, you read the verses after it, you draw

back, you pull back out and go, wait a minute, there’s more here.

And the more that’s here,

is the fact that Mark positions this so as for us to understand that this is connected to

Jesus’ teaching about the abuse of authority by the scribes.

had what she had because the scribes had quote devoured her and what she had.

There’s a possibility that her scenario was the situation that it was because of the

actions of the scribes, but it could also be a perspective based upon their actions in

their teaching.

the way that they taught, the way that they encouraged people to give even if they had

nothing to give.

Because by the way, where did the funds go?

You know, there’s an old adage in our society, follow the money.

And where did all of this come from?

Where did all the discussion and the continual testing of Jesus originate?

Go back in the text and notice where we started this whole discussion.

Chapter 11, verse 15.

So they came to Jerusalem.

Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple

and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves and

he would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple.

Then he taught, saying to them, It is written, house shall be called a house of prayer for

all nations, but you have made it a den of thieves.

And the scribes…

uh

and the chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy him.”

They used their power.

They used their position as teachers and preachers.

And those who were before the people, they used it to get recognition.

They used it to get prominence.

They used it to get position.

And they used it to get profit.

and it didn’t matter to them what it cost somebody else.

It only mattered what they got out of it.

You know, Ava, I was trying not to go there.

Yeah.

I was going to say, when we stop and think about some of the um false teachers that exist

today.

Teaching false doctrines when it’s really all about the money and the lifestyle that they

live and they really don’t care if you’ve sent your last $5 into them, you know, when they

ask and plead for you to, I’ll give you a blessing or you’ll have this or that.

Send your check in and your debts will go away and the tax collector will stop calling and

you’ll be great while they’re living in a mansion.

Yep.

It is appropriate to always step back and question about stewardship, to question whether

or not not just the giver is benefiting, but that the thing being given toward is being

done.

You go back into the Old Testament and you find the occasion where the temple is in

shambles and in disrepair and the king directs the funds but he directs them only to

someone who is of a good heart and who is of a good stewardship mindset because he knows

the money has been going all along.

The problem is the priests, the Levites, and the others have been stealing.

instead of doing what should have been done with the funds.

You also go back, at least my mind does, to Ezekiel’s prophecy concerning the stewards and

the shepherds in Israel.

And that prophetic statement concerning the Son who was going to come, the Good Shepherd

who was going to come, and He was going to bring judgment against these other shepherds,

these evil shepherds, because instead of guarding the flock, they were allowing the flock

to be stolen.

Instead of helping the flock, they were allowing the flock to be hurt.

Instead of feeding the flock, they were consuming the flock and eating them themselves.

And Ezekiel is looking forward to a time true in his day and equally true in Jesus’ day

that this would be the condition of the teachers of God’s people when he came.

So I want to wrap this up with pointing this out.

someone who gives.

is blessed as a giver.

and they are not primarily responsible for what happens with the gift that they give.

But God holds to a greater condemnation and a greater judgment the one who receives the

gift and then uses it improperly, which is what the accusation is against the scribes.

and the others is that they were abusing that which was given.

In other words, they were stealing from God.

So as we wrap the whole text up, you remember that God said, the Lord said to my Lord, sit

at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool.

Jesus accuses the scribes of being the enemies of God and therefore the enemies of the

Messiah.

Peter attributes the exact same statement to the fact that they were the enemies of God

because they were only interested in themselves.

Evangelism, Technology… | Jan 14, 2026 013

In Admonition Podcast, Church, communication, community, faith, keywords evangelism, Ministry, outreach, resources, Scripture, technology by Aaron Cozort

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Good afternoon.

This afternoon is going to be a little bit different from uh our typical sermon because

it’s going to be kind of a combination of things.

It’s going to be a combination of evangelism training, a combination of kind of what you

might think of as a mission report, and a combination of some insight into some of the

things we’ve been doing and some of the results that we’ve had here at Collierville that

will expand into a vision of

some of the things that I’ve been involved in and the congregation has been involved in

for quite some time.

But I want us to cement all of that together with Scripture.

So we’re really going to discuss evangelism, technology, and the Word of God.

And what role, what part do they have to play with one another?

What does God have to say about

them and what we should be doing or not doing with them.

One of the things that’s important is to realize as we go through life that every

seemingly good idea of man is not a good idea in the eyes of God and is certainly not

approved of in the eyes of God.

Hence many of the things that

Men have come along and thought were great ideas, they were great things that would help

more people be more faithful or more spiritual end up being the exact opposite.

So we should always test everything we do, everything we say by the Word of God.

Paul teaches us that.

In Colossians chapter 3 verse 16, says, you do in word or deed, do all

by the authority or in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Paul is making it clear if you don’t have the authority of Christ behind you, the thing

you’re saying, the thing you’re doing should be put away.

And so when we do anything, when we evaluate anything, when we begin to practice

something, we should first ask, is this approved of by God?

Another point that we need to understand is that God has set an expectation.

before his church and before Christians that we are to utilize his resources.

My favorite passage in all of scripture is Ephesians chapter three, verses 20 and 21.

Not because of the breadth of the doctrinal deepness that’s there, but because God tells

us what we’re capable of,

if we’ll simply trust Him.

In Ephesians chapter 3 verses 20 and 21, Paul writes to the church at Ephesus and he says,

now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly, now the Him there is God.

He says, To God who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think

according to the power that works in us,

to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever amen.

Paul, as he writes these words to the church at Ephesus, he instills within the message

that Ephesus is to learn that they are to stop limiting their expectations by their

abilities.

They are to stop limiting their expectations by their resources.

They are to cease limiting their expectations by their knowledge and insight and wisdom.

And they are to start measuring all of those things by God’s.

And then He tells them and He’s going to do it through you.

So many times as we evaluate what we as a congregation, what we as an individual, what we

as a family might do, can do, we often fail to ask, what is God capable of doing with us?

If we would stop evaluating what we’re capable of and start evaluating what He is capable

of.

but then consider not only God expects us to use his resources, but God has used

technology from the very beginning.

In Genesis chapter 3, when you open up the text of Genesis chapter 3, which we discussed

this morning, you’ll remember that Adam and Eve sinned and that God puts them out of the

garden.

But one of the things that God tells Adam is that he is going to spend his days in toil

and the sweat of his brow.

that he is going to have to plant and he is going to have to take care of those things

that he plants.

He’s going to have to do so in the midst of all of the struggles that will come in life.

And yet as God presents this picture of someone who’s going to have to endure the

difficulties of life, the expectation is if you’re going to be, for instance, a shepherd

or you’re going to be a person who has a field,

you’re going to have to do something other than use your hands to keep the sheep and use

your hands to plow the field.

I don’t think when Adam walked out of the garden, Adam thought, well, I gotta do it all by

hand.

Can’t use any of those newfangled inventions, because there weren’t any.

except you might picture that the same person who could name every animal also could

figure out how to make a tool to plow the ground.

And so Adam would begin in the very earliest of history farming.

We know that because his son is going to be a farmer.

He’s also going to be one who will keep flocks and herds.

We know that because he has another son who, by the way, keeps flocks and herds.

No indication anywhere in that that God disapproves of the use of the technology they

would have created to accomplish those.

But then let’s go a step further, Genesis chapter 6.

God tells Noah that all of humanity has only participated in every thought of their heart

being evil continually and as a result of that God says I’m going to destroy the world

with a flood.

And then he gives Noah the instruction to build a boat.

not a little boat, a great big massive boat.

He says you’re going to build it to this dimension, you’re going to build it to this

dimension, you’re going to build it to this dimension, but you can’t use any tools, no

technology allowed, certainly not any measuring tools.

No, God didn’t do that.

As a matter of fact, there’s every expectation that both

Noah and his sons and his family all utilized tools available to them to build the ark.

Why?

Because God gave them a command what to do and it was their responsibility to use the

resources they had to do it.

Then you consider Babel.

Over in Genesis chapter 11 when God looks down on the situation amongst the people and

they have created this vision of themselves and their grand abilities and they’re going to

build a uh tower up to heaven and they’re going to certainly show God exactly how great

humanity is.

God is going to take language and God is going to disperse humanity.

Now it’s interesting to point out that God

approved of the use of technology, but not every use of technology.

For when humanity used technology to accelerate themselves into a position where humanity

thought they were equal with God.

God said, actually, let me convince you you’re not.

Tomorrow, you won’t be able to understand a word said by the person next to you.

So beginning in Genesis chapter 11, you find that in spite of all the technology they had,

in spite of all the learning and education they had accumulated, now one person couldn’t

talk to another person, effectively limiting the production output of all of humanity.

forever in the future through language.

But then consider as well that God used technology throughout his communication.

There was a day in time when Moses stood before God on Mount Sinai and God had Moses bring

two tablets of stone and God wrote on those two tablets of stone.

What is that?

Well, that would be technology.

That would be taking a form of rock

and writing on it so that you could have written communication.

And God inscribed on those two tablets of stone the Ten Commandments.

And then Moses carried those two tablets of stone and as a result of sin, dashed those two

tablets of stone into pieces.

The next time Moses came up onto the mountain, he again had two tablets of stone except

this time he had to do the writing.

We consider as well that in out of Egypt came the new technology of papyrus.

The Egyptians had figured out how to take these papyrus plants and to be able to dry them

in such a way as to write on them.

And so when Paul will describe in Timothy as he’s writing to Timothy as he is sitting

there in a Roman prison, he’ll say to Timothy, bring with you the books and the

Parchments.

Now if the utilization of new technology, like new forms of writing material, was wrong in

the eyes of God, Paul would have been in trouble because Paul would have been using

something evil to do his own study.

But we understand that God utilizes technology all throughout history.

You begin in the book of Genesis and you find in the history of the Israelite nation, God

is going to use the Hebrew language.

He’s going to communicate to them in the language that they know that they understand

coming away from the Tower of Babel.

And so God will speak to them in Hebrew and yet when you get over into the book of Daniel

and some of the later prophets you’re going to find that the text of the Old Testament was

written in Aramaic.

Why?

Because the people began to learn Aramaic under the Babylonian captivity.

And so God would speak to them in one language and then God would speak to them in another

language and then we get over into the New Testament and guess what?

another newfangled technology has come along in the form of language and that is the

Grecian language, specifically the Koine Greek as we refer to it, common Greek, and

Alexander’s mission in not only conquering the world was also to take the Greek language

around the world so that there would be a single unified language for commerce and for

productivity.

And so when Jesus comes on the scene in Matthew chapter 1,

Jesus is going to grow up in a nation of Israel that predominantly spoke Greek because it

was the trade language of the world.

We could further discuss other things that we learn about, things that we learn about uh

from history.

We know that the Romans would build roads.

Now, did God put roads on the planet when He made it?

No.

So who thought of the idea to use technology to build roads?

Well, many people throughout history, but the Romans were very good at it because they

wanted to get their military from this side of the empire to that side of the empire if

they needed to.

And yet, what did the first century church use when they began to be persecuted in

Jerusalem?

And the text tells us in the book of Acts that they went everywhere preaching the word.

They use those Roman roads.

to go to those places to take the gospel.

God has always used technology.

God has always approved of the using of technology appropriately to carry out his mission.

So when you think about travel, another area where technology has changed, there was a

time in the world where predominantly travel occurred via foot, and then travel occurred

via camel, and maybe via horse or donkey.

But then you come along further and chariots come along and travel occurs via chariots.

Do we have a God approved example of travel via chariots?

Well, certainly we do in Acts chapter eight.

Philip is brought to a man who is traveling from Jerusalem back home to Ethiopia and

Philip will join that eunuch in his chariot and teach him the gospel.

And Philip doesn’t tell the eunuch, now you need to get rid of this chariot, this is not a

God approved form of transportation God designed for us to walk on feet.

No, not at all.

Philip joined him in that chariot, taught him the gospel through the luxury of them being

able to read instead of walk.

He was able to be taught the gospel as they went along and was baptized and then when he

was baptized he rose, came up out of the water and got back in the chariot and went on his

way rejoicing.

Paul will numerous times find himself in a boat.

And as a matter of fact, there was a man named Jonah who was also commanded to take the

message of God somewhere.

He ended up in a boat, though God’s approved method of his transportation was a fish.

See, God uses technology.

And if we understand that God uses it, then we should too, appropriately, righteously,

correctly.

But then consider there is a difference between good technology and bad technology.

So let’s maybe evaluate what is good technology.

First, it is that which increases production.

Believe it or not, Paul could reach more people and teach more people if he wrote a letter

than if he only communicated by person-to-person vocal interaction.

When Paul wrote the letter to the church at Colossians, Paul informed the church at

Colossae that when they were done reading the letter that they were to pass it on to the

church at Laodicea, yet Paul wasn’t in Colossae, Paul wasn’t in Laodicea, yet his message

was…

because Paul used technology to increase production, to increase the amount of output for

the same amount of input.

It should be that if we’re using it properly, which fights devaluation.

We ought to use technology to make things better, not worse.

And sometimes we have a hard time distinguishing between the two.

We should use technology that is appropriate.

There are often discussions about whether or not this building is an appropriate use of

technology for the meeting of the church, whether or not a PA is appropriate use of

technology for the church, whether or not a pitch pipe to properly pitch a song would be

appropriate use of technology for the church, and the answer for all three of those is

yes.

For instance, we have a God-approved example of Christians meeting in a building.

We find when Paul assembled with the Christians in Acts chapter 20 that they assembled in

an upper room where there were lights.

So not only did they have approval to meet in a building, they had approval to meet in a

building where there were lights because they met at night.

Unfortunately for one young man who it was quite warm in the upper room where they were

meeting at night, he fell asleep at a window and fell out of the window and died.

So be careful with your use of technology, might kill you.

especially with lights, electricity, not good.

All right, so we should uphold biblical principles and commands.

We should never use technology to subvert the word of God.

For instance, turn to Ephesians chapter five.

In Ephesians chapter 5, Paul writes beginning in verse 15, And see then that you walk

circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil.

Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the LORD is.

Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,

speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody

in your heart to the LORD.

giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ

submitting to one another in the fear of God.

Paul as he writes to the church in Ephesus says, want you to be filled with the Spirit.

I want you to be filled with an understanding of the will of the Lord.

I want you to be filled with a circumspect walking as Christians and when you do that as

you assemble together I want you to teach one another.

uh

Paul, we’re gonna all take turns preaching a sermon?

No.

He says, I want you to speak to one another in Psalms, in hymns, in spiritual songs,

singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

And somebody comes along and says, well, that sounds great, but you know what would make

it sound better is if we just added a little banjo.

And somebody else says, well, I can’t really play the banjo, but I can bang on the drum.

And somebody else says, well, but I’m not

good with all the rhythm stuff, but I have a great skill with a harp.

See, what’s the problem with the use of the technology?

Is it subverting the command?

The command is to speak to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing

and making melody with one instrument, and that is the heart, not the harp, not the

guitar.

Not the banjo and not the drum.

You see, if we substitute technology for God’s command, we’re not using technology

properly.

But then consider that we should use technology that is either moral or amoral.

There are some technologies that are amoral.

You wanna know how I know?

We used plates during lunch today and those plates are amoral.

You can use a plate or you can pile all your food in your hand.

One of them is a little more convenient and a whole lot less mess, but it’s up to you.

You decide.

The technology and invention of a bowl or a plate is not something we need to argue about

whether or not it’s appropriate in our lives.

It is amoral.

It has no discussion on moral or immoral.

But in matters of morality, we better make sure that the technology we use is not

immoral technology.

And certainly there can be scenarios where technology is such.

But also we must never make technology an excuse for not obeying God.

some individuals have a mindset, well you know what, I’m just gonna spend some time with

the Bible and then I’m gonna go fishing on Sunday.

And I think it’s good, you know, because I get relaxation, which I need because I work

really hard all week, and I get God’s word, so you know, that’s good enough.

You see, we cannot use the availability of technology to substitute

or make an excuse for not obeying what God has told us to do.

God has given us commands and we are to follow those commands and we are never to say, you

know what, now that I’ve got this new technology I just don’t need any of that old-fangled

obedience.

So when you think about effective use, when you’re thinking about how to use technology,

when you’re thinking about using technology within religious matters and within ministry

or evangelism as we kind of fade a little bit into some of our instruction about

evangelism, we should be using technology but we should test it before committing to the

change.

Some technology is more disruptive than helpful.

I was just recently having a conversation with some good friends and they were talking

about a congregation that had done a major upgrade in their sound booth.

And now the sound booth controlled the presentation and a bunch of other things that it

had never done for them except the problem was they had problems with it every single

week.

And every single worship experience that the people had in the assembly was disrupted

because of the complexity of the sound booth.

You know, test before you make a change.

And if the change doesn’t work out, roll it back and get rid of the change because it

needs to be helpful, not harmful.

But also, do not sacrifice done for perfect.

We all realize when it comes to technology, it changes a lot, You you get used to one

thing on a phone or one thing on a computer and pretty soon the buttons change, it’s moved

to a new place.

Well, the reality is perfect is almost never achievable in terms of technology.

But done is.

So don’t trade done for perfect.

Then also measure the cost in your most scarce asset.

This is one of the ones that I really want us to

to emphasize as we go through here because your most scarce asset is never money.

Your most scarce asset is never the availability of a place to use the technology.

Your most scarce asset is time.

It’s the only thing you can’t get more of.

So if the technology is helping you with your most scarce asset be more effective in your

most important mission, then it’s a good use of technology.

because you only have so much time in this world.

It’s also important to learn from professionals when you can without trying to be one.

I learned a long time ago that I am never going to be the best in anything in technology.

I’ve always met somebody who’s better than me.

And I’ve always been okay with that too because I know it’s not my mission to be the best

technology professional.

It is my mission to be effective in ministry.

then also put people with time to work.

One of the things that you may have noticed is America has a little bit of an anomaly

happening in recent history.

It’s called the entire baby boom generation is retiring.

I don’t know if y’all noticed that, but the people are retiring and suddenly they have

time on their hands they never had before.

Now there’s a couple of things you can do when you have time on your hands.

You can sit and watch television forever.

Trust me, they will make another show you’ve never seen to put in front of you to keep you

sitting there.

But that may or may not be the best use of suddenly having time on your hands.

Too many of us have probably known somebody who got done working, retired, and was dead

within two years.

Because they didn’t have anything left to do.

Well, suddenly we have in the church

congregations filled with people who have time that they’ve never had before.

And quite often they have time and frankly, they’re not really in need of an income.

So technology is a way to help those individuals utilize their time for ministry, if we

think of it properly, and then trade teaching thousands of nominal hearers for teaching 12

committed disciples.

This is a principle from Christ.

Jesus, when he,

had fed the 5,000.

He’s the next day found on the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

And the crowds and the multitudes come around the sea and they find him where he is.

And Jesus there in John chapter six is going to discuss with them the concept of the bread

of life.

But Jesus through the course of his instructions concerning the bread of life and as well

concerning the Lord’s Supper that would later be instituted will declare to them teachings

which they will say, this is hard, who can accept it?

and many of them, the text says, will walk away and follow him no more.” Now Jesus had

pointed out to them that part of their problem was they didn’t come find him the next day

because they wanted to hear more teaching.

They came and found him the next day because they had eaten of the bread the day before.

And it is important for us as we figure out and as we evaluate how to do ministry,

evangelism, and utilize technology that we do not substitute sound, faithful, strong

Christians for lukewarm, disinterested people being entertained.

And too many congregations do that with technology.

Jesus said, I’d rather have 12 disciples that will follow me to death and carry out my

mission after my death than to have thousands of people following me wanting bread every

day.

We cannot substitute through technology faithfulness for mediocrity.

But then consider some of the things that we can use and that we do use.

Maybe if some of you are wondering why we use some of them here, these are the reasons

why.

We use the website here at Collierville.

We use live streaming, and it’s for a lot of reasons.

It’s because it’s a window for someone who’s never walked through those doors to

understand what they’re going to see when they walk through the doors, because we

understand this, people are generally more satisfied with an experience when they know

what they’re going to get before they walk through the doors.

One of the reasons why people go to Chick-fil-A,

That’s because when they go to Chick-fil-A, they get pretty much the same experience every

time, and it’s pretty good.

And the places they go to where they get a poor experience some days and an okay

experience other days and a really good experience once in a while, they quit going to.

They know what to expect when they go to Chick-fil-A.

They expect to leave and somebody to say, my pleasure, and the food to be hot.

We use podcasting.

We use internet radio through Truth FM.

I personally use a lot of AI in both research and brainstorming.

One of the things I love about AI technology, and it’s really machine learning, but Chat

gbt and other tools like that, is sometimes the AI, when I ask it about something in the

Bible, will come up with a passage I never would have thought of initially on my own.

And so I’ll ask it for a whole list of passages, give me 50 passages on this topic.

And suddenly I’m looking at a text that, you know what, I would not have remembered that

text buried in the book of Jeremiah, but the AI does.

And so I use those technologies as I’m formulating lessons and as I’m studying.

And sometimes I utilize them because my grammar when I write comes out like I talk.

And my wife will tell you that’s not always good reading.

So I’ve been using AI technology for years to fix the way I write so that people can read

it and not cringe.

It’s cut down on my use of my wife for editing for which she is grateful.

But then consider another text.

Turn to Nehemiah.

I wanna spend just a little bit of time in Nehemiah.

I wanna notice something.

And this is one of the reasons why I’ve been involved in something since 2015 that we

utilize here.

Some of you know it and probably most of you know it, but if you pay attention to the

announcements, you see it.

And it’s Truth FM.

Back in 2015, myself and another brother down in Alabama who’s now passed away, Bob

Strickland, and a brother in Virginia, Tom Hoover, started Truth FM as I was still working

with GBN and we started it to build internet radio stations, to take the concept of a

radio station and deliver it through the internet.

And then in 2017, I was at the Memphis School of Preaching Lectureship and I met a

preacher from Louisiana.

And he came up to me because I had the Truth FM booth there and he said, Aaron, I would

love for us to use Truth FM at our congregation, but we’re a small congregation and we’ve

just taken on supporting two additional missionaries and we just don’t have any budget for

it.

But I’ve got a missionary that I need you to talk to.

So as we get into the book of Nehemiah for just a few moments, I want you to think about

what it would have been like in Nehemiah’s day and the struggles that Nehemiah faced that

we read about in the text.

Let’s start in Nehemiah chapter one, verses one through three.

The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah.

It came to pass in the month of Shislev in the twentieth year as I was in Shushan the

Citadel that Hennani, one of my brethren, came with men from Judah, and I asked them

concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning

Jerusalem.

And they said to me, The survivors who are left from the captivity in the present, or in

the province, are there in great distress, and reproach the wall of Jerusalem is broken

down, and its gates are burned with fire.”

Nehemiah serves in the court of the king and Nehemiah inquires of his brother when his

brother returns from Jerusalem.

How is the situation in Jerusalem?

Now Israel had been in captivity for 70 years.

The time of the Babylonian Empire is over.

You’re in the time of the Medo-Persian Empire.

Nehemiah is serving underneath of Medo-Persian King and he finds out that Cyrus having

allowed Israel and some of the Israelites to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city, to

rebuild the temple.

things are not going well.

In verse 11, Nehemiah prays, Lord, I pray, please let your ear be attentive to the prayer

of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who desire to fear your name and let

your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.

For I was the king’s cupbearer.

Now I want us take some concepts that we’ve gathered.

throughout the lesson and string them together in the text of Nehemiah.

Number one, Nehemiah did not have the resources to solve the problem, but God did.

And Nehemiah happened to be in association with a man who had the resources of God at his

beck and call, and it was the king.

So as Nehemiah is faced with the scenario of the plight of Jerusalem and desiring to do

something about it, Nehemiah asks for God to be with him as he goes into the king because

the king has the beck and call of God’s resources.

And Nehemiah knows if he’s going to make an impact in the lives of the people in

Jerusalem, he’s going to need the king.

Then consider what else we read, chapter 2 verse 1, and it came to pass in the month of

Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when the wine was before him, that I took

the wine and gave it to the king.

Now I had never been sad in his presence before.

Therefore the king said to me, Why is your face sick, since you are not sick?

This is nothing but sorrow of heart, so I became dreadfully afraid, and said to the king,

May the king live forever.

I’ll get my words out here in a minute.

Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father’s tombs, lies waste

and its gates are burned with fire?

Then the king said to me, what do you request?

Notice the intelligence and the intuition of the king.

The problem’s been presented, the scenario of Nehemiah’s demeanor has never occurred in

his presence before, and the moment Nehemiah expresses what’s going on, the king says,

what do you need?

So I prayed to the God of heaven.

And I said to the king, if it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in

your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father’s tombs, that I may

rebuild it.

Then the king said to me, the queen also sitting beside him, how long will your journey

be?

And when will you return?

So it pleased the king to send me, and I sent him a time.

Furthermore, I said to the king, if it pleases the king, let letters be given to me for

the governors of the region beyond the river that they must permit me to pass through till

I come to Judah.

And a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he must give me timber to

make beams for the gates of the citadel which pertain to the temple for the city wall and

for the house that I will occupy.

And the king granted them to me according to the good hand of my God upon me.

Now notice what Nehemiah says.

Nehemiah says, knew I couldn’t do it by myself.

I knew I was going to need the king.

So what did he do?

He asked the king.

There’s a principle from the book of James.

where James tells the Christians, have not because you ask not.

And when you do ask, you ask to spend it upon your lusts.

Nehemiah wasn’t doing that.

Nehemiah asked for the king, the king gave him what he asked for.

And we don’t have time to go through all of the text, but I want us to go to chapter

seven.

In chapter seven of Nehemiah,

We find beginning in verse 70, as Nehemiah has arrived, the work is commencing.

We know some of the story and we’ve recently gone through the book of Nehemiah.

We read beginning in verse 70 of chapter 7, and some of the heads of the father’s houses

gave to the work.

Notice they didn’t just expect somebody on the outside to give the work.

Now once Nehemiah is there, the people begin to give to the work.

And the governor gave to the treasury 1,000 gold drachmas, 50 basins, 530 priestly

garments.

Some of the heads of the father’s houses gave to the treasury of the work 20,000 gold

drachmas and 2,200 silver minas.

And that which the rest of the people gave was 20,000 gold drachmas, 2,000 silver minas,

and 67 priestly garments.

So the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, and some of the people, the

neth and them, and all Israel dwelt in their cities.

So notice as Nehemiah arrives, the work commences, the people sacrifice of their

possessions to provide what’s needed for the work.

But then consider chapter 8.

When the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in their cities.

Now all the people gathered together as one man in the open square that was in front of

the water gate.

They told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law Moses which the Lord had commanded

Israel.

So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men and women and all who could

hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month.” Now notice this, they’re

going to read the law.

Ezra, as we’ve read before in the book of Ezra, was one who had prepared his heart to seek

the law of the Lord and to know and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.

This was the perfect man, but guess what?

He was going to need help.

Notice what the text says.

Verse 4,

So Ezra the scribe stood on a platform of wood which they had made for the purpose.

And beside him in his right hand stood Mattathiah, Shimeah, Ani, Uriah, Hilkiah, Messiah,

and at his left hand, Padaiah, Mishael, Malkudja, Hashem, Hash-Bedana, Zechariah, and

Meshalam.

And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the

people, and when he opened it all the people stood up.

And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God.

Then all the people answered, Amen, Amen, when lifting up their hands, and they bowed

their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

Also, Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkab, Shavathai, Hodaija, Masiach, Kalita, Azariah,

Jozebad, Hanan,

Piliah and the Levites helped the people understand the law and the people stood in their

places.

So notice verse 8, so they read distinctly from the book in the law of God and they gave

the sense and helped them to understand the reading.

Now back before I went to the school of preaching I would have read that and I wouldn’t

have an understanding at all of what that meant.

But our teacher in Nehemiah helped us understand what we read.

You see, what it’s telling you is, here’s a group of people who don’t understand what’s

being read.

Wait a minute, what do mean they don’t understand?

It’s just hard concepts, maybe they needed some teaching and it’s, no, no, no.

This is a group of people who had spent 70 years in captivity in Babylon, who came out of

Babylonian captivity speaking Aramaic.

And the laws written in Hebrew,

They don’t understand what’s being read.

Have you ever sat in an auditorium or sat in a room and had somebody speak French or

Spanish to you and you don’t speak French or Spanish?

How about Filipino?

Guess what?

You sit there and you go, I see them moving, their mouth moving.

I think they’re happy.

I don’t know what they’re saying.

The people are gathered around all day long to listen to Ezra teach and read from the law,

but the law is in Hebrew and they don’t speak Hebrew anymore!

So the priests are there translating.

They’re giving the sense and helping them to understand what the law was saying in their

own language.

Because they now don’t speak the language of the law.

But then consider this wasn’t just a scenario in the Old Testament.

In Acts chapter two of the day of Pentecost, what do you find?

When Peter and the other apostles get up to preach, what is it that the people hear?

Of the 17 languages that are present, they heard every one of them in their own tongue.

Why was that necessary?

Because all of them were Jews, but 17 nations were represented in that location on that

day.

Now I want you to notice something.

On day one,

the very first day of the opening of the doors of the church, as Jesus had handed to Peter

the keys of the kingdom and Peter begins to preach the very first gospel sermon, the very

first barrier to the gospel going out was that which originated at the Tower of Babel in

Genesis chapter 11.

They didn’t all speak the same language.

which leads us to one of the things that technology can help us with today in a way it

hasn’t been able to for years.

And that is that there is now technology to be able to allow people to teach in their

language and take it throughout the entire world.

But one of the problems you have is that I meet missionaries on a regular basis that can

teach in a language.

What they’re not are technology professionals.

So let go back to my story in 2017.

I was introduced to Curry Montague, who some people know, some people who are related to

him.

He lived in Somerville.

I didn’t know it at the time, because I was introduced to him by somebody in Louisiana.

But Curry was a missionary and is a missionary in Budapest.

So I got on the phone a few months later because of some family things that were going on

with Curry.

We waited a little while and then we got on the phone and he said, Aaron, I’ve been told

by this brother that you can help us.

He said, I don’t know how you’re going to help us, but here’s what we’re trying to do.

We’re trying to start a radio work here in Budapest, but we have a problem.

All of the radio stations in Budapest are owned by the Catholics and they won’t sell us

any airtime.

They won’t let us broadcast.

on the air in Budapest.

And it doesn’t matter how much we pay them, they won’t sell it to us because we’re going

to broadcast the truth.

And he said, so we’ve tried for six months to buy airtime and we can’t get any.

And he said, brother so and so told me that you can help.

He said, I don’t know how you can help, but I’m open to hearing it.

So in 2017, we started utilizing Truth FM, which we had already been running for two

years, to take

sermons and Bible classes that were recorded in Hungarian in the local congregation in

Budapest and put them on the air, on the internet, streaming 24 hours a day in Hungarian.

But we ran into a problem.

We can’t speak Hungarian.

We didn’t know what was being said.

So we’d get an audio file and it was audio only and it’s all in Hungarian.

So we needed Curry.

to translate it or at least to edit it.

So I spent months trying to teach Curry Montague how to edit audio.

And it was not a good experience.

He’s not technologically adept and I’m trying to teach him how to do something in a

language that I don’t even understand what’s being said.

Through the course of time, we’ve been able to advance a number of things and we’ve used

some new technology at Truth FM.

But one of the things we’re now doing

is we have a brother in Albania, his name is Altin.

He works with a small congregation of about 20 people and a large part of his ministry is

actually to a blind community there in fear.

He also happens to have been educated as a technology developer, he writes code, but he

has started working with technology that we have at Truth FM.

He is now recording his Bible classes and sermons in Albanian and through a

technology platform that we have, he uploads them, he edits them, he records them, a lot

of AI tools do a lot of the work, and then he publishes them in Albanian.

Just the other day, he published a video on YouTube and had a thousand views in an hour.

But it’s only possible because of the technology we’re bringing to the table and helping

him use it.

Here’s a problem we have in America.

99.9 % of all of the content and material published by the Churches of Christ is in

English, and 20 % of the world speaks English.

You see a discrepancy?

I do.

It means you can go listen to a live stream from a thousand congregations today if you

speak English, but if you speak Portuguese,

you may not be able to find one.

You can listen to sermon after sermon after sermon and watch video after video after video

if you speak English and you can learn the gospel in no time.

But if you speak one of the few thousand dialects in India and you don’t speak any of the

main languages in India, you may not be able to find the gospel in your language at all.

So what are we trying to do?

We’re trying to fix that.

Truth FM, we are trying to launch in the next two years 50 languages where the content and

the material is streaming 24 hours a day.

There’s podcasts or social media content in all 50 of those languages coming out every

single week.

And then in five years, we want it to be 150 languages.

And we want to keep pushing and keep pushing until the gospel can be heard in every

person’s language

anywhere in the world.

I want to play just a couple of things for you, but I want to leave you with this before I

do that.

Curry wrote, for 20 years I tried to reach my mother-in-law who didn’t speak English and

lives an hour and half away from me by train when I was preaching in Hungary.

We launched the internet radio station and she started listening.

She was converted by listening to the sermons in Hungarian from Brother Peters.

He says, I recommend Truth FM.

For 20 years, Curry had been preaching in Budapest, trying to reach his mother-in-law who

lived an hour and a half away and never could because she’d only come over by train on

occasion when the grandkids were there.

And so she was never converted.

But as soon as they started the Truth FM station, even though it wasn’t Curry preaching,

it was another man in the congregation that was recorded on there, she started listening.

and curry firmly believes that it’s because of the work they did with truth FM since 2017

and still ongoing today that she’s now a christian in hungary because she could hear in

her own language

Here’s an example.

stereo one and two on the, okay.

Now that may not mean much to you, because it’s in Hungarian.

But it means a lot to people all over Hungary.

who can hear the gospel in Hungarian, but not only do we take the audio material and

create audio streaming content, we also build websites in their languages so that somebody

can go to their church website who only speaks Hungarian, who can find the church, and now

they can not only hear the gospel be converted, but they can get connected to a local

congregation.

But then we also, this one will go next, have made it possible

to help them take the content that they do have and turn it into social media content,

just like we’re doing.

I gave the men a report that through the work that we’ve done with social media, hopefully

this one won’t play yet, through the work we’ve done with social media here at

Collierville, in 2024, we had had 237 views of videos

on our Facebook page.

Because we started posting the shorts and the reels because of the evangelism program,

because of the decision we made to emphasize evangelism this last year, in 2025, we’ve had

237,900 views of videos on our Facebook page.

237,000 in a year.

And a large part of those come from our direct community in the greater Memphis area.

But we’re also, through Truth FM, reaching and taking the gospel in the countries we can’t

get to, including Iran.

We have a brother in Greece who is Iranian, who was a refugee out of Iran, who is now

teaching and preaching after having been taught in a school of preaching in America.

He’s back in Greece and he’s reaching the nation of Iran with the gospel.

and we’re him.

uh That’s the language Farsi.

That is the language of Iran.

It’s not a predominant language anywhere else in the world.

But through the work being done through Truth FM and the use of the Gospel is now on the

air and available online 24 hours a day for those who speak the language of Iran.

See, God rebuilt the wall in Jerusalem with the king’s resources and the people’s

willingness to give.

God solved the language problem of the first century church with a miraculous gift.

Now, we don’t have that luxury today.

God told us to take the gospel to every creature.

When God told Noah to build a boat, he didn’t say, is what tool to use.

He said, build a boat and build it to my specification.

When Christ told us to go and all the world and take the gospel to every creature, He

didn’t give us all the hows.

He just told us to fulfill the command.

But in order to do that, we have to make sure they can hear it, that they can learn it in

their own language.

Paul writes, how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?

And how shall they believe in him in whom they have not heard?

And how shall they hear without a preacher?

And how shall they preach unless they be sent?

So, practical application as we close.

Aaron, that’s great.

The gospel’s going to all the world.

How can it help me?

Well, for one, as all of you notice, one of the struggles that we have is meeting with

someone, meeting someone in the community and getting them to walk through the door.

And when they walk through the door, getting them to come back a second time.

So one of the things that you can do is you can grab out your cell phone and you can

download the Truth FM app.

On the Truth FM app is the gospel streaming 24 hours a day.

365 days a year.

And when you meet someone in the store who you may only have five minutes with, if you can

find a way, help them to download the Truth FM app so they can start listening on their

own.

Help them to start studying on their own.

You find someone who says they love to listen to Christian radio and they love to listen

to K-Love and they love to listen to all this denominational nonsense.

Introduce them to the Truth FM app where they can listen to the truth 24 hours a day.

If you meet someone who speaks Spanish and you don’t speak Spanish, introduce them to the

Truth FM app, help them download it, and then connect them to the Spanish station that’s

broadcasting 24 hours a day.

And every language where you meet someone that speaks a language that we don’t yet have a

broadcast, come tell me and we’ll start finding a missionary who can start teaching in

that language.

but the use of technology is approved by God and we should be using it.

We’re trying.

And I encourage you, if you don’t do anything else, pray for our efforts, both here in

Collierville and around the world, that the gospel goes to every creature in the world in

our generation.

If you’re here this afternoon and you have need of the invitation, I appreciate your

patience throughout this lesson, but also I encourage you to remember.

Our work is to take the gospel.

Our work is to spread the seed.

Our work is to introduce people to the message and then to allow them to be willing to

accept it if their heart is open and they’re willing.

If you have need of the invitation of Christ, the invitation is open to you today.

Why not come as we stand and as we sing?

Mark 16 (Lesson 2) – Aaron Cozort – May 27, 2026

In Admonition Podcast, Bible Study, evangelism, Faith and Baptism, Gospel, Great Commission, keywords Resurrection, miracles, Obedience, Salvation, Scripture by Aaron Cozort

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aaron cozort (00:01)

It’s good to see everybody this evening. Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to the Book of Mark.

Mm.

Good to see everybody. We’ll begin with a word of prayer and then we’ll get into our study.

Gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for your many blessings, humbly bowing before you and recognizing how much we are in need of your love, your care, your providence. Lord, we pray that you will be with those who are ill. Pray that you will be with those who are struggling and having difficulties in their daily lives. Pray that you give them the strength that they need to endure.

Lord, we pray also that we will be an encouragement and help to them as they go through their daily lives and strive to do the things that they need to do. Lord, we pray that you be with those who are traveling, pray that they reach their destination safely and pray that you will be with them to return home safely as well. Lord, we are grateful for this opportunity to study your word, to open the scriptures and learn more what you would have us to do.

and how to live and how to understand what your son came here to accomplish. Lord, we pray that you will forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory. All this we pray and ask in Jesus’ name, amen.

We’re in Mark chapter 16 about to close out the ⁓ book and Mark’s account of the Gospels. So we’ll get into about verse 12 ⁓ of chapter 16 as we get started this evening. Reading verse 12, after that, appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. And they went and told it to the rest.

but they did not believe either. Later he appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table and he rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart because they did not believe those who had seen him after he had risen. As we’ve gone through the recent verses, we know that Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene. We know that Jesus appeared to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Now, ⁓ Paul will

tell us in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that Jesus also appeared to over 500 of His disciples during the intervening time between the time He was resurrected and the time He ascended back to the Father. But as He confronts the disciples here, this seems to be the first time that He is with them. He’s going to appear to them.

and then he’s going to appear to them again on ⁓ the next Sunday, the next first day of the week. But as he appears to them, they’re unbelieving at that point. They are not convinced from all the reports that they’ve heard that Jesus is actually resurrected from the dead, that he is alive, and that he is once again ⁓ walking this earth. And so,

He rebukes them for their unbelief and their hardness of heart. We talked about this just a little bit as we closed last week. What do you think was the cause of the hardness of heart that they had, the unbelief that they had?

All right, they were looking for a worldly king. They were looking for a victory over Roman power. They were looking for a return of a Davidic king sitting on a throne. They were looking for a lot of things that the Jews and the Jewish tradition had been telling them to look for.

And in spite of all of the things that Jesus had taught them about the church, about the kingdom, about what was coming, they were still looking for all of that. And so they did not understand when he went to the cross. They did not understand what was happening. Now, I want to take you over to Luke chapter 24 and point out one of the things that Jesus says to them as he is preparing to ascend back to the Father.

Luke chapter 24.

Beginning in verse 36, now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them and said, Peace be to you. But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And He said to them, Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your heart? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.

as Jesus appears to them, they’re still unconvinced. They’re still confused and unafraid as a result of this. Now, if you put all the passage together, you’ll find out that they were in a locked room when he appeared to them. So they’re startled and amazed state is understandable. But the point is Jesus says, why don’t you touch me and find out?

If you think I’m a spirit, if you think I’m a ghost, as it were, to use the term, then why don’t you put your hands on me and find out if I’m real or not? Jesus makes the point that He is both flesh and bones. He is mortal in the sense of He is fleshly and physical. He is not their imagination. He is not a vision. He is real. And so He then says, or we then read in verse 40,

when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. But while they still did not believe for joy and marveled, he said to them, have you any food here? So they gave him a piece of a boiled fish and some honeycomb, and he took it and ate in their presence.” So something else that ghosts don’t do is eat and digest food. ⁓ So they’re…

seeing this, they’re observing this, they’re still not understanding it, they’re still not fully comprehending it, now their hardness of heart has been replaced with joy, but they’re still trying to grasp what it is that is going on. Why do you think, and I know this is surmising, but I just want to spend a moment with it, why do you think they’re struggling to grasp His resurrection so much?

when they grasped ⁓ Lazarus’ resurrection, seemingly with no problem.

Correct. Okay. So I think that could be part of it. They know who called Lazarus forth from the grave. They know who spoke the seas and made them calm. But it seems as though there’s a mindset that says, well, you know what? Once you’re dead, you’re powerless, right? And the point that the scriptures are making is that Jesus was not powerless once he was dead.

As result of that, he was resurrected both by the power of God and by his own word. So then verse 44 we read, then he said to them, these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me. As Jesus confronts them with the reality of his resurrection,

Jesus points out that they had been told this was going to happen. He had already told them what was coming, but they didn’t understand it. They didn’t comprehend it. They didn’t store it up and they needed to be reminded. Jesus is going to point out that all the things that had occurred

were the fulfillment of the law and the prophets and the things that had been said concerning Him.

Right, so the touch me not phrase has a couple of different translations that it could be. One of them in the way the New King James translates it is do not cling to me, okay? So the mental image and perhaps the best understanding is here is Mary, she knew he was going to be crucified, she was anticipating what was going to happen to him, she had been there at his

at the cross. She had been there the morning of His resurrection. She’s now seen Him, but He’s leaving again. And His return and His presence with her and with all of them is not permanent. And so it seems to me that’s probably the indication is not, hey, if you push too hard, I’m going to fall apart or, hey, I’m not fully back to flesh. I think the idea is

Do not hold on to me because my presence here is temporary. So I suspect, my own personal idea is that’s what the idea of there is. ⁓ Because he’s gonna say the same thing to Thomas. ⁓ When Thomas is there, at the next occasion, he’s gonna say, put your hand on my side and find out, okay?

Very much so, but, you know, as we get into the text, you’re getting ahead of me. ⁓ So, as Luke will point out, and we’ll get into miracles in just a moment, but as Luke will point out, he says, these are the things that were already spoken. This is what the prophecies of Moses, the law,

prophets, the Psalms, all said concerning me. And He opened their understanding, Luke chapter 24 verse 45, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.

The realization is that the information, the knowledge of what the scriptures had said had been with them the entire time. They had missed it. And it is honestly, it’s somewhat humbling and important for us to realize that we have to deal with the text of scripture and we cannot allow

modern mindset, teachers that we know, the people around us, to sway us away from actually understanding what the text actually says. Because that’s what had happened to them. The text had been there. The prophecies had been there. The information that they needed to understand it had been there. But they hadn’t comprehended it. They had not understood it properly.

or they had been misled in their understanding of it so as to achieve someone else’s goals and ends. That’s one of the points that, by the way, that ⁓ Ezekiel will point out and others will point out concerning the shepherds that the Good Shepherd is going to get rid of is that they were utilizing the word of God, not to the people’s benefit, but to their own.

When Jesus says Isaiah spoke concerning you in Mark chapter 7, he says Isaiah prophesied concerning you that you’re hypocrites because in vain you teach for doctrine the commandments of men. His point and the quotation from Isaiah is Isaiah saying you’re teaching people to fear God so that you are benefited by it. You’re teaching your commandments instead of

His commandments because then you remain in power. And that whole problem that they were dealing with had led to a Jewish nation that wasn’t looking for the right Messiah. They weren’t looking for a spiritual Messiah setting up a spiritual kingdom. They weren’t looking for a Messiah that was going to redeem and unify Jew and Gentile alike. They were looking for a warrior king.

So thus it was written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and arise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses 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.” As Jesus in Luke’s account here is reminding them

that this is what the Spirit had spoken through the prophets. This is what the Old Testament prophets had said concerning him, that everything had happened exactly the way God said it would. Now it’s time for the next step. It’s now time for what God has already said would also come. And that is going to be the institution of the church and the beginning of the kingdom. He says that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name.

to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. Now, Luke is gonna provide this basically bridge between the end of the book of Luke and the beginning of the book of Acts, because Luke is the writer of both Luke and Acts. And so Luke 24 corresponds to Acts chapter one, and Luke adds some additional commentary in Acts chapter one concerning the things Jesus said before he ascended back to the Father. But let’s jump back over to Mark.

In Mark’s account, Mark is going to record Jesus’s ⁓ great commission, if you want to give it that terminology, many have. Later, he appeared to the eleven verse fourteen again, and they sat as they sat at table and he rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart because they did not believe those who had seen him after he had risen. And he said to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Now over in Luke’s account, what did Luke

record Jesus said would be preached to all nations.

repentance and

another R, repentance and remission of sins. Okay, so Luke describes the gospel in the form of repentance, that is a change of mind that brings about a change of action to reconcile oneself to God and the remission of sins. Luke looks at it from the perspective of what’s separating a person from God.

their willingness to repent and their sins. Isaiah chapter 59 verses one and two. What does Isaiah tell us? That sin separates us from God. And Isaiah chapter one tells us as God confronts Israel, he says, come, know, reason with me. If you’re willing to repent, if you’re willing to wash your hands of your sins and turn away from them, I’m willing to forgive you. So.

Isaiah’s Old Testament prophecy leads forward to that picture of the Messiah and his declaration of repentance and remission of sins. But Mark is going to focus on the idea, number one, who is to be preached to.

into all the world and he further provides a reinforcement of that to every creature. Now, does Mark mean let’s go teach the puppy dogs, let’s go teach the praying mantises, no wait, they’re already good, they’re already praying, let’s go teach the zebras, is that what he means by every creature? No, all right, he’s talking about humanity.

He’s talking about specifically everyone made in the image of God in their creation, that is all humans, and it doesn’t matter what nation they come from. It’s important to realize that Jesus is laying the groundwork for the Jews and the Gentiles to receive the gospel. And yet, just like

The prophecies that came before this are the disciples or the apostles? Are they going to grasp that immediately just based upon the fact that he said all nations and every creature? Are they going to get that? No, it’s going to take all the way till Acts chapter 10 before they finally grasp that God is sending the gospel to not just the Jews, but to all nations.

So he says here, as Mark records it, go into all the world and preach the good news. That’s what the word gospel means. Preach the message, the good news to every preacher. When Paul is preaching in Corinth, in 1 Corinthians chapter one, Paul will talk about the things that he preached while he was in Corinth. And he preached according to what he said.

Christ and Him crucified. And he said he determined not to preach anything else except Christ and then crucified. Now, does that mean that Paul didn’t teach on moral issues, that Paul didn’t teach on doctrinal issues? We know that’s not the case because he mentioned some of the things he had already taught them. But the point was in first Corinthians chapter one, I didn’t preach you my opinion. I didn’t preach you the wisdom of men.

I didn’t preach you the things that the Gentiles and all of their scholars and all of their wise men would say, and I didn’t preach you the traditions of the Jews. I preached Christ and I preached him as a crucified Savior. That’s the message Jesus is saying needs to be preached to all the world. Now, did Jesus put a timeline on this as to when we need to stop?

preaching this to all the world? No. ⁓ As far as the commission goes, it is an ongoing commission. But then he says, he who believes and is baptized will be saved. As you come to this text, you’re going to find one of those texts that much of the religious world does not like to hear. They do not like to agree with it. They don’t want to admit that it says what it says.

Unfortunately, every time you read it, it forces you to admit that it says what it says. If we were to say, he who

turns left out of the parking lot and turns right up here on this street on Byhalia is going to end up at the stoplight. Do you think it would be sufficient to just turn left?

No, if you just turn left and you just keep going, you’re going to run into a fence. You’re not ever going to get to the stoplight. The point is the instruction from Jesus is clear, but let’s let’s examine this one. If you turn back over to Luke, Chapter 24.

If we were to go to verse 46 and read, 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. If we were to read that and say, you know what, I don’t know that repentance and remission of sins needs to be preached. Why don’t we just preach remission of sin?

Let’s leave the repentance part out. Would we be doing what he says? Would we be holding faithful to his authority and to his commandment? No. If we decide, you know what, I like the idea of repentance, I’m not so sure that we’ve got any sins to be remitted, so let’s just preach repentance. Are we going to be keeping his commandments? No.

If we go to any other passage that has a this and this equals this and we leave one of them out, the religious world at large would agree that, well, if it says that and that equals that, then you can’t get that without both of those. But the moment that baptism is included in the list, many in the religious world go, well, I know that’s what it says, but you just have to read the rest of the verse to know that’s not what it means.

I know that’s what it says, that’s not what it means. We need to be careful. He says, he who believes and is baptized will be saved. Then he sets a contrast, but he who does not believe will be condemned.

Jesus makes it clear, if you do not believe the message, you stand condemned.

Now, let’s spend a moment with that because this passage actually touches more of the religious world than we think. There are those who, they don’t want to hear the first part where it says believe and baptized will be saved, but there’s those who also don’t want to believe and, or sorry, don’t want to hold on to the do not believe and you will be condemned.

We have a world, and we especially here in America have a society that has been so inundated with a concept that there is no such thing as truth.

that their mindset says, you know what, I think everyone who’s never heard the gospel will be okay. And it’s always the deepest, darkest regions of Africa. I think the people who’ve never heard the gospel in the deepest, darkest regions of Africa, if they never hear the gospel, they’ll be okay.

You have to ask yourself a Do they believe that Jesus Christ is Son of God and that He died for their sins?

if they’ve never heard of Jesus Christ, do they believe? No. So what does the text tell us their current state is? Condemned. Turn over to 1 Thessalonians.

sorry second bestelonians

In 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and in verse 3, Paul writes, we are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly and the love of every one of you all abounds towards each other, so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure.

which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer. Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God,

and those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes in that day to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.”

Paul says, if you do not know God and if you have not obeyed the gospel, what is your state?

You’re lost.

But he didn’t just say that. He actually points out, if you notice again in verse 6, that it is a righteous thing with God.

One of the biggest problems we have in our society today is we don’t believe in truth. And because we don’t believe in truth, we don’t believe in righteousness. We don’t believe that God is righteous, that righteousness cannot ignore sin. We have a society that will welcome sin

that will tolerate sin will call for unlimited tolerance to sin.

The only thing it won’t tolerate is righteousness. And it will not tolerate a God who as wholly says, no, I will not forgive those who have not obeyed. Now, point to be made is that Paul did not just say those who believe, did he?

Over in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, as he wrote those words, he said, will give you rest with us, with the Lord Jesus as revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God and those who do not what? Obey the gospel.

If someone says, you know what, I obeyed half the gospel, I should be fine. Paul will say, no, you didn’t. If you didn’t obey all of it, you didn’t obey any of it. It is not sufficient, nor has it ever been sufficient with God to halfway obey him. And you know, in our own lives, we understand that. If you’ve got an employee who you give instruction, go do this and this. They come back.

I did that. ⁓ Waiting for the next part. You did this and this? No, I didn’t do both. Then you didn’t obey.

You didn’t do what you were told to do. You did not fulfill the command and I’m certainly not giving you a commendation for doing half the job.

The same thing is true with God. Jesus would point out in Matthew chapter 7 in the Sermon on the Mount that those who say unto me, Lord, but do not do the will of my Father in heaven will not be accepted in the kingdom.

When you look at this text, first, it mandates that we preach the gospel. It’s not just that it mandates the definition of obeying the gospel, but it also mandates that we preach the gospel. What if we were to arrive on judgment day and say, you know what, ⁓ Lord, I know you told us to take the gospel to all the world.

I know you told us to preach to every creature, but honestly, I’m a little biased. I kind of think only the people from my country needed to be saved. So I didn’t bother with the rest of the world. I didn’t think it was all that important to reach the rest of the world. After all, I converted my neighbors and that’s enough. You think he’s going to accept that? Not any more than he’s going to accept hearing and believing and not doing the rest of it.

God is setting an expectation and Christ is setting an expectation of exactly what His apostles were supposed to do, who they were supposed to preach to, and what they were supposed to preach. But He then says, who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. As Jesus informs the apostles,

that they are going to go out and preach, he’s going to tell them as Luke records it that you’re going to begin this in Jerusalem. You’re going to start declaring the gospel in Jerusalem. Turn over to Matthew chapter 28 and notice what he says here.

Verse 16 says, Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end.

of the age. Jesus will tell them, as Matthew records it, to go forth and preach the gospel. Who are they supposed to preach to? Everyone, all the nations. But He also points out that they are to do what to those who believe?

Now, how do you know that they’re only supposed to baptize those that believe?

Baptism is an indication of someone hearing the gospel and responding to it. If they heard the gospel and rejected it, you’re not going to baptize them.

But if we look at this text and go, a minute, some will argue, well, wait a minute, belief is the only thing, if you don’t do it, you’ll be condemned according to Mark chapter 16. Belief isn’t even mentioned here.

Over in Luke is belief mentioned, repentance and remission of sins is mentioned. In Matthew, teaching and baptizing is mentioned. And yet in Mark, individuals who want to claim faith only come to a passage and they say, because it says in the negative, if you don’t believe you’re condemned, that means that’s the only thing you have to do, which completely ignores Matthew and completely ignores Luke.

⁓ Well, they don’t get it out of the Bible, but sure. But one of the things to understand is everywhere that belief and baptism and the concept of salvation are all in the context. Anywhere, as a matter of fact, where baptism and salvation are in the same context, baptism always precedes salvation

every single time. So, if someone were to say, you know what, we’ve got this group of people who believe we’re going to have a baptism service seven days from now, then at what point are they saved? Even if they were taught right and were doing it right, they wouldn’t be saved until after they were baptized. So, you’d be telling someone, you know what, you just hold on, I don’t think it’s that important.

We’ll wait and save you later. Good luck. Come see me in seven days. So the point is that text does not uphold in any position, in any text, that a person can believe only. Add to that, most individuals who teach belief only don’t actually believe.

belief only.

You want to know how I know? Because they always add prayer to it.

If it’s faith only, then you don’t have to pray.

They’ve added prayer, which by the way is found nowhere in the New Testament as a condition for salvation. It is found as a condition for repentance for those who are already saved, Acts chapter eight with Simon the sorcerer. But prayer is never found anywhere in the New Testament as a condition for salvation. So you ask, where did they get it from? They didn’t get it out of the Bible.

Therefore, they got it somewhere else. Yes, Justin.

James 2 24.

You see then that a man ⁓ is justified by works and not by faith only. ⁓ So the only passage, valid point, the only passage in all of the ⁓ scriptures that mentions faith and only in the same sentence says you’re not saved by faith only. But the point is even the people who teach faith only don’t believe faith only. They believe faith in prayer.

You ask them, well, wait a minute, what happens to the person who believes but before they pray they die?

Well, I think they’re probably saved anyway. Then you don’t need prayer.

you push them real hard on it and eventually you find out that well they believe the people who haven’t heard yet are safe too.

So now you don’t need faith. As matter of you’re better off if you never hear the gospel. You don’t have to do any of it. You just end up in heaven.

we have moved, and this is the thing, and the reason why I’m spending the time on this, is as a society we have stopped discussing scripture as truth, and we have started discussing scripture as what makes me comfortable with what God said.

and to be polite and yet blunt, God doesn’t care whether you’re comfortable with what He said.

He commanded you to believe it and obey it. And as Jesus is preaching to the apostles and speaking to the apostles, He’s rebuking them for not understanding what God said and not believing what the scriptures told them.

So from the same text that Jesus condemns a lack of faith, unbelief, and a rejection of what the text says, people want to take part of what the text says and throw it out.

Now, spend all that time telling you about all the things that we do need to understand and we do need to believe and we do need to comprehend for salvation and now I’m going to get in trouble with the rest of the text.

He says, these signs will follow those who believe in my name. They will cast out demons. They will speak with new tongues. They will take up servant serpents. And if they drink anything deadly, they will by no means hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.

So, if we believe that the commission and the gospel has been continuous and ongoing and authoritative from the day that Jesus spoke it until now, then should we also understand that miracles have continued to be performed by Christians from that day forward until now.

One of the things that we have to be careful with is context.

There is a group of people he is speaking to about what will happen to them in the coming days and what they will do in the coming days and what they will preach in the coming days. And when you put all of these passages together, it is important for us to do that.

and understand the limitations of the context because we’re not going to limit the context. The context is going to limit itself. We just have to pay attention to what it actually says. In Matthew chapter 28, and we’ll probably continue this discussion next week, ⁓ we’ll just continue this discussion when I pick back up with ⁓ closing out Mark ⁓ because I’m not going to get done tonight and I’m going to be gone.

So Matthew 28, he says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always ⁓ even to the end of the age. Any limiting statement in that text?

No, it is an unlimited statement. This is what you’re going to do. This is who you’re going to preach to. This is how you’re going to do it. All right, let’s turn over to Luke.

Verse 45, opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Then He said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. And that repentance and remission of sins 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 endued with power from on high.

Are there any limiting statements in this text? Yes. Not in the limit of the gospel, for they were to preach the gospel to every nation, but rather to the people that Jesus was speaking to in that context and what would happen to them. Now, who is present in this context?

The 11, it’s not the 120, it’s not all the disciples, it’s not the 500 that he appeared to, it’s the 11. And the text is clear on that when you go evaluate all the text. But now go to Acts chapter one.

to Luke is going to provide this chapter 24 and chapter 1 as a bridge between his two books that he writes, his two letters that he writes. And so we read and we’ll close here, verse 4, and being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father which he said, have heard from me.

For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put in his own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

Is there a limitation in this context? The answer is yes. Again, Jesus promises that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is going to be poured out on the ones who are standing there. That’s the 11. That’s going to happen in Acts chapter 2. That’s going to be a fulfillment of what Joel prophesied.

and Peter’s going to tell them this is a fulfillment of what Joel prophesied. But that is not a promise to every person in every nation under heaven. That is a declaration by Jesus of what was coming for them not many days hence, as the text says. So the text,

the context limits itself. And then we have to evaluate how far that limit goes. We’ll do more of that the next time we discuss the Book of Mark. Thank you.