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Practical Firsts From Jesus – Aaron Cozort – July 12, 2026
Good afternoon.
This afternoon I wanted to spend some time in the book of Matthew, so I encourage you if
you will to open your Bibles to the book of Matthew.
Sometimes when you listen to someone, they will give you insight, they will give you
wisdom, they will give you knowledge that they have gathered and that they have
understood.
And at times when you observe what they say, you will find that they they more than tell
you what to do, but they also tell you how to prioritize.
what you do.
They tell you in what order to do certain things.
Think of raising children and and at times the the occasions where Eddie would give
instruction to one of the boys to do something.
And she wouldn’t just tell them what to do, she’d say, do this, then do this, then do
this.
Establishing both an order and a priority.
Now, there are also times when you would observe that they would do things, but they
wouldn’t do them in the order that they were instructed.
And as a result, things didn’t quite turn out the way that they would have had they
followed the instructions to the letter.
I imagine there may be one or more represented here who perhaps have tried to assemble the
Christmas gift the night before and didn’t follow the instructions and found the found out
the importance of of doing things in the right order.
But Jesus, as he is teaching those who are in his presence, those who are before him, will
at times both teach them but prioritize for them.
The order in which certain things should occur.
And he does that a number of times in the book of Matthew, and we’re going to notice a few
of those practical firsts from Jesus.
We begin in Matthew chapter 5.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus, as he is speaking to his disciples and also to the
crowds, the multitudes that were gathered around.
We’ll say to them beginning in verse twenty one, you have heard that it was said to those
of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.
But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be in danger
of the judgment, and whoever says to his brother Reka shall be in danger of the council,
but whoever says you fool shall be in danger of hell fire.
Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has
something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way, first be
reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
Agree with your adversary quickly while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary
deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer.
And you be thrown into prison.
Assuredly, I just say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the
last penny.
Jesus, as he is dealing with interpersonal matters, and specifically dealing with matters
pertaining to the law, will give the instruction concerning the individual who comes and
he has his offering.
And he’s going to bring his offering to God.
That means he was coming to worship, or he was coming to make a sacrifice in the Old
Testament ordinances and and instructions concerning some offense that he has performed.
Specifically in this context, Jesus is saying that the person who is offering the worship,
the person who is offering the sacrifice is the one who is knowingly the person who
offended or did wrong.
It doesn’t mean that they hurt somebody’s feelings.
It means they did wrong to their brother.
And Jesus is here telling the Jews and those who are present when you realize that you
have done wrong to your brother, it is important for you to offer the sacrifice.
That’s true.
It is important for you to offer the atonement for that uh that sin that you committed.
That’s true.
But he says, before you come to the Lord to deal with it, go to your brother who you
sinned against and deal with it with him first.
Jesus teaches the importance, the significance of going first and dealing with the earthly
matters before the heavenly one.
We pause for a moment and say, well, wait a minute.
Which one is is g more important in the grand scheme of things?
I mean, isn’t it more important that we’re reconciled with God, that we’re in a right
relationship with God, so that we can you know and go to heaven when this life is over, so
that we can be in fellowship with God?
Isn’t that more important than our brother?
But that’s where the order comes in.
That’s where the significance of the events and the order in which they transpire comes
in.
Because what Jesus is teaching is that God is making it clear: if you don’t first deal
with your brother, I’m not going to accept your sacrifice.
It is not acceptable for us to live in a position or live under a mentality that all I’ve
got to do is be right with God.
I don’t not I do not have to be right with my fellow man.
God is making it clear you need to deal with your fellow man first before I’m going to
accept your sacrifice.
It is not sufficient for us to only correct our wrongs between us and the Lord.
When we have sinned against someone else, when we have done harm to someone else, when we
have done that which is against someone else, when we have owed someone and we have not
paid, when we have defrauded someone in some sort of way, whether knowingly or
unknowingly.
God teaches that we must resolve that first with our brother, before God will forgive us
from heaven.
But then consider another example.
In Matthew chapter six, just one chapter over, as Jesus speaks concerning earthly
possessions.
He begins in verse 19 and says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where
moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal.
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, where
thieves do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The lamp of the body is the eye, if therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be
full of light.
But if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness, if therefore the light
that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness?
No one can serve two masters, for either he will hold to the one and love the other, or
else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other, you cannot serve God and mammon.
Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life what you will eat or what you will
drink, nor about your body what you will put on, is not life more than food and the body
more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, yet your
heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not of more value than they?
Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
So why do you worry about clothing?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin, and yet I say
to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Now, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into
the uh into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Therefore do not worry, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall
we wear?
For after all these things the Gentiles seek, for your Heavenly Father knows that you need
all these things, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these
things shall be added to you.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.
Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Here in this passage, Jesus teaches a number of principles concerning our possessions.
But if you really pay attention, Jesus is teaching us more about our mindset than our
possessions.
He is teaching us more about our priorities than our possessions.
He is teaching us more about our eternal motivations.
Than our possessions.
And yet the possessions are a clear application to those things.
As Jesus here is instructing the Jews, he is setting a contrast between the Jews and their
historical relationship to God and the Gentiles.
He’s making it clear that there are those who have no
Historical relationship with God.
They have no historical promise from God.
They do not have the Abrahamic promise that went down from generation to generation to
generation among the Israelite nation.
And as a result of that, they continue to worry about these things.
And yet Jesus is telling these Israelites.
He’s telling his disciples, he’s telling the Jews, you be far more worried about what God
is doing.
than what you’re going to wear, than what you’re going to eat, than what you’re going to
drink, than what you’re going to where you’re going to stay.
You be worried about what God has in mind in regards to the kingdom.
As we consider Jesus’ instruction to seek
First, the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
He is not saying labor is unnecessary and work is unimportant and being able to earn a
living is just simply something that should only be concerned of by people who are
non-spiritual in their entirety.
That’s not his point.
His point is priority.
For what do we work?
Do we work to have abundance?
Do we work to have an abundant number of possessions?
Do we work for gold or silver?
Do we work for things that we can accumulate in this world?
Or do we work to accomplish the ends of God?
Jesus is focusing the attention and the mindset of those who would listen on the fact that
they are to be laboring to accomplish God’s ends.
And that when they labor to accomplish the will of God, the work of God, the kingdom of
God, God has the ability to supply the things that they need.
One of the things that is true is that when you work and when you labor and when you focus
on doing the things that pertain to God and above the things that pertain to this world,
the flesh, the things that the world s finds significant, you’ll often be surprised where
God provides you from.
And yet he provides.
Number three.
In chapter seven, Jesus, as he is further teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, will speak
to these Israelites, beginning in chapter seven and verse one, and say, Judge not that you
be not judged.
For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with what measure you use it
will be measured back to you.
And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the
plank in your own eye?
Or how can you say to your brother, Let me remove the speck that from your eye, and look,
a plank is in your own eye?
Hypocrite.
First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the
speck from your brother’s eye.
Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine.
Lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you in pieces.
Jesus brings forward this concept of judging, this concept of measuring.
And he says, judge not that you be not judged.
Too many times, as I believe we may have even mentioned this morning, too many times
people say, well, that means you can’t judge me.
No, that’s not what Jesus is saying.
Jesus is rather instructing us to judge according to God’s standard.
But as we judge, he says, you need to judge yourself according to God’s standard.
You need to judge yourself before you judge someone else.
When we were discussing this morning from 1 Corinthians chapter 5, Paul made mention in 1
Corinthians chapter 5 that he had already judged in the matter concerning the man who had
his father’s wife.
Now, how could Paul judge when Jesus said not to judge?
And the answer is because God had judged.
Paul was simply enunciating the judgment of God, he was simply drawing forward what God
had already declared.
He wasn’t judging of himself.
He wasn’t placing himself as the arbitrary judge and judging by his own personal standard,
this individual or the congregation at Corinth.
But rather, Jesus is pointing out that in whatever way we judge others, we will be judged
in return.
And then he establishes the importance of the order in which we judge.
He says, you judge yourself first.
When you look at your brother and your brother has a speck in his eye, well, how
comfortable, if I can get my words out, how comfortable is it for a person to go around
and have something in their eye?
It’s not comfortable at all.
Quite all quite often it’s it’s very painful.
It’s not good.
You could help your brother out if you would help him get the speck out of his eye.
But if you’re walking around and the the idea here when he uses the term plank is is is a
log.
If you’re walking around and you’ve got a log jutting out of your eye and you’re worried
about the speck in your brother’s eye.
He says, tend to yourself first.
Take care of your own eye first.
Now, a couple of things that I want us to understand from this.
There’s first the evaluation that we should judge others.
You say, wait a minute.
It says judge not.
No, no, no.
It says judge not that you be not judged, because you’re going to be judged in accordance
with your judgment, but that requires that you judge.
It requires that you judge others in accordance with God’s word, but you must judge
others.
Otherwise, how would you be able to determine the difference between the speck and the
eye?
If you don’t judge, you can’t determine which one’s which.
You have to determine that there’s something that needs to be removed from your brother’s
eye if you’re going to help your brother.
Imagine you go into the doctor.
And the doctor says, well, it’s good to see you.
Glad you came today.
You say, well, doctor, uh, I’m in a bit of a pickle.
Uh I have a log in my eye.
And the doctor says, well, I noticed that shape was a little odd, but I don’t judge.
Well, doctor, I would love to get this log out of my eye.
Well, I understand that, but you see, I don’t judge.
But doctor, the log is not good, the log j doesn’t belong there.
I want the log out of my eye yes, but I can’t judge between the eye and the log which one
should stay and which one should go.
We find that ludicrous.
For it is the role of the physician to judge.
Jesus is simply establishing that before we judge others, we are to judge ourselves.
But notice something else that he says.
As he says, first remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to
remove the speck from your brother’s eye, he’s pointing out that when you don’t first care
for yourself.
you inhibit your ability to care for others.
In many times and circumstances, some beyond our control and some within our control.
We find individuals who love others, who give to others, who are benevolent towards
others, who are industrious in providing for and caring for others, spending so much time
caring for others that they fail to care for themselves.
And Jesus says that’s not good.
It is not that we need to be selfish.
It is not that we need to be self-focused.
But if we do not first care for ourselves, we inhibit our ability to care for others.
And it’s true not only in physical means and physical uh aspects, but also in spiritual
ones.
Remember, oftentimes on a plane, you get on the plane and they’ll give you the instruction
if there’s ever a loss of cabin pressure.
The masks are gonna fall down from up above you when the masks fall down.
If you’re caring for someone or if you’re traveling with a child, put your own mask on
before you put theirs on.
There’s a reason they give that instruction.
It’s because it’s really hard for you to put the mask on somebody else if you’re passed
out.
If you don’t care for yourself first, you’d cause an inadequacy in your ability to care
for someone else.
But Jesus further points out, do not give what is holy to the dogs.
Now, if it is true that you cannot judge, how are you going to judge the difference
between what is holy and who is a dog?
Jesus is using a terminology here that is similar to do not cast your pearls before swine.
This is a proverbial statement, but it’s one that distinguishes here is someone who will
not value your teaching, your instruction, your knowledge concerning God and what is holy.
And so do not waste your time with someone who is bound and determined to continue in
unrighteousness.
They are bound and determined to continue in that which is evil, and Jesus says, do not
take what is good.
valuable what is holy and cast it to the dogs for they will not value it.
He points out rather that they having uh taken it they will come and trample you as well.
Take care for yourself.
Judge yourself and judge others.
But judge yourself first.
But then in Matthew chapter twenty-five, sorry, chapter twenty-three, verse twenty-five.
Jesus as he speaks concerning the Pharisees.
And as he pronounces a series of woes against them, we’ll call them blind guides.
Verse 24.
He calls them blind guides who strain out at anat and swallow a camel.
He says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you cleanse the outside of the
cup and dish.
But inside they are full of extortion and self indulgence.
Blind Pharisee.
First cleanse the inside of the cup and dish that the outside of them may be clean also.
Jesus emphasizes the necessity to first cleanse the inside.
He uses the illustration of the one who has the articles there for the offerings.
He has the articles for the feast day.
And it was necessary to consecrate those things, to prepare those things, to wash those
things, to use them in a
holy manner and to have them ready for a feast day.
And here he describes you take the cup and you take the things and you wash the outside,
but you never bother to wash the inside.
And he says concerning the Pharisees that they are as those who have washed the outside.
They have the appearance of being clean.
They have the appearance of being holy.
They have the appearance of being righteous.
They have the appearance of being what God would have them to be.
They have the appearance of being in a right relationship with Him.
But when you look at the inside,
It’s whole different matter.
For they’re living lives of unrighteousness, they’re living lives of sin, they’re living
lives of ex of extortion and self indulgence.
And Jesus tells the Pharisees, Wash the inside first.
Don’t leave the outside dirty, but wash the inside first.
We need to be mindful that how we live and how we behave and how we function in this life
has an impact on others.
It has an impact because it determines whether or not we are reconciled with God.
How can we save someone?
How can we help them be reconciled to God if we’re not first reconciled?
To God.
How can we lead an example of someone who should be holy before God when we will not first
go and be reconciled with our brother when we have done wrong?
Jesus points out that if we’re going to be an example to the world, if we’re going to be
those who seek to reconcile people to God, but we will not first prioritize God’s matters
above our own.
How are we going to be reconciled to God?
How are we going to teach others to be reconciled to God if we will not prioritize that
which belongs to God?
He also points out that if we are going to try and reconcile others to God, we have to
first be able to discern those who need reconciliation, and we have to begin with
ourselves.
We have to first judge ourselves before we can ever begin to judge someone else so that
they might be right with God.
But if we’re going to help others be reconciled to God, we’re going to have to first wash
the inside.
We can’t just make ourselves look righteous if we are not actually righteous.
We must be those who set about to reconcile our hearts first, our lives, our actions.
And our relationships and our motives to God.
If you’re here this afternoon and you have need of the invitation of our Lord to put
Christ on in baptism to be added to the body of Christ or to be reconciled to Him as a
member of the body of Christ, we encourage you to do that.
That opportunity is available now, that opportunity is available any hour of the day.
But know this, there are things that must come first.
Just the same way Jesus pointed out, if you want God to accept the sacrifice, you might
need to go deal with your brother first.
If you want God to accept your worship, you might need to fix your heart first.
If you want God to accept worship
Your motivation and your actions and your will in this life, you better set his first.
And if you want to approach him with righteousness, Jesus would make it clear there in the
book of Matthew that except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and
Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
First.
Order matters.
And these are some of those practical firsts from our Lord.
If you have need of the invitation, why not come now as we stand?
And as we sit.
A Final Admonition (1 Corinthians 16: 13-14) – Aaron Cozort – July 12, 2026
Good morning.
Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to First Corinthians.
Paul would visit the church at Corinth, the city of Corinth, where the church would become
established through the work and the labor that he was involved in.
Paul will remain in Corinth for 18 months.
He will work with the church that is burgeoning there in that city as it is growing.
He will teach many.
He will convert many, though we’ll point out in chapter one that he physically didn’t
baptize many of them.
Many of them were baptized by others that he as he taught them, but physically only
baptized Crispus and Gaius and the people of their house.
But he was their father in the faith.
He was the one who had brought them to the gospel and brought the gospel to them.
He had instructed them on how to live, how to operate and function within the body of
Christ, though many of them did not adhere very significantly to what they had been
taught.
So Paul is going to have to write to them because of the word that has come to him from
the household of those who are present in Corinth.
Concerning the problems that they have.
Paul opens up this letter as he writes to the church at Corinth, and he writes to them
Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes, our
brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ
Jesus, called to be saints.
With all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and
ours, grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, as he writes
to these brethren, as he writes to these young, immature as he will deter as he will call
them in chapter three, carnal individuals.
They are struggling to lay aside the things of their former lives.
The Jews are struggling to lay aside Judaism.
The Gentiles are struggling to lay aside paganism.
They’re struggling to set themselves apart from their former way of life.
And at the same time they’re grappling with a desire for the miraculous gifts that had
turned the gifts into a contest of who was the greatest.
Paul’s going to write to them and he’s going to correct many of the things that were going
on.
But where I want us to focus our time this morning is in chapter sixteen.
As Paul finally rounds out the instructions and the corrections and the the explanations
of many matters, having corrected their understanding of the resurrection, having imparted
to them the instruction concerning the offering that was to be collected on the first day
of every week as he had given instruction to the churches of Galatia.
Paul leaves this congregation that had great, was a congregation of which he had great
care for them with a final admonition.
In chapter sixteen and in verse thirteen, Paul gives five imperatives for living the
Christian life as he closes this letter.
He writes, Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.
Let all that you do done with love.
In quick succession, Paul gives these five imperatives, these five commands, and he tells
these Corinthian brethren, You must do this.
This isn’t a suggestion.
This isn’t something that is optional for them.
These were commands.
He begins with the idea that they must watch.
Some things about which they must watch, if you were to consider some of the remainder of
the book, is that which he mentions beginning in verse 10 of chapter 1.
Going all the way back to the beginning of the letter that he has written to them, he
writes, Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all
speak the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly
joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of the household of
Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
Now I say this.
That each of you says, I am of Paul, or I am of Apollos, or I am of Cephas, or I am of
Christ.
Is Christ divided?
Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
Paul tells them that they’re going to have to watch out for divisions that come from
leaders drawing away people after themselves.
Instead of pointing people to Christ.
Paul is going to be clear that the problem exists because there are individuals who are
following men instead of following Christ.
They are following the one for whom that person did not die for them.
Paul will point out that when he was in their presence, he determined not to know anything
among them except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
Now, when Paul says that, as he says to that to them there in the beginning of chapter
two, he’s not saying, I didn’t preach anything but the crucifixion, I never taught you
anything about morals.
I didn’t teach you anything about living.
I didn’t teach you anything about work ethic.
I didn’t teach you anything about the resurrection.
I didn’t teach you anything about what Jesus did while he was alive.
I only just talked about the crucifixion all the time.
That’s not what Paul means.
Paul established their salvation not in him.
But in a crucified Savior who was resurrected.
One who had died for them.
And as a result, one who had established the church, one in whose name they were immersed
for the remission of their sins.
And the one who they should follow.
So many times today, as it was in the days of the Corinthians, individuals want to follow
whoever they enjoy listening to the most.
Who they agree with, who they like what they say, they like how they say it.
They like the temperament with which the message is presented.
But those things were not the determining factors that Paul establishes for whether or not
to follow someone.
Rather, Paul makes it clear you follow Christ and him alone.
Now, if you turn over to First Corinthians chapter eleven.
Paul does not contradict himself when he says to them in chapter eleven and in verse one,
Imitate me.
Just as I also imitate Christ.
Paul’s not saying you can’t have a good example in front of you.
Paul’s not saying when you look at your brethren, you don’t say, you know what?
That is exactly the way Christ would have done it, and that’s how I’m going to do it.
Paul is not saying that there are not those with wisdom and insight and knowledge and
experience and the things which they that you ought to listen to.
As a matter of fact, he’s going to talk in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and 13 and 14
concerning the teaching that should happen in the assembly.
Paul is in no way implying that when that teacher gets up within the assembly of the body
of Christ in Corinth, don’t listen to him.
You might be tempted to follow after him instead of Christ.
Oh.
Paul’s making it clear the moment you start dividing yourself to follow a man instead of
following Christ, you have a problem.
Paul’s going to tell them as he closes out this letter, you watch.
You be aware and on guard.
Number one against division.
But number two, against immorality.
If you turn to First Corinthians chapter five chapter five.
Paul will write to them and say it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality
among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles that a man
has his father’s wife, and you are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he who has
done this deed might be taken away from among you.
For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged as though I
were present him who has done this deed.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together along with the spir
along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan
for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord
Jesus.
Not glorying, or sorry, your glorying is not good.
Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
Paul, as he warns them to be on guard, will tell them earlier concerning this sin
individual situation that they have to correct and the steps that they have to take in
order to proceed with it.
But he is warning them to be on guard against immorality.
That immorality and sin taking part in the body of Christ will fester and it will destroy
the entire body.
Verse 9, he writes, I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral
people, yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or
with the covetous or extortioners or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the
world.
Paul says there is a limit to our fellowship.
But as he discusses the idea of being together with someone, he says, I want you to
understand I’m talking about within the body of Christ.
I’m not telling you you gotta separate yourselves wholesale entirely from the sinners in
the world.
Otherwise, if I did, I’d have to tell you how to get off the planet.
Rather, what I’m telling you is within the body of Christ, if you find someone who is
living in an immoral way, you do not fellowship them.
You do not take part in that with them.
You do not join yourself to them.
You do not condone what they’re doing.
As a matter of fact, you withdraw your fellowship from them and you deliver them back to
the hand of Satan because they have decided to follow him instead of God.
He says, What do I have to do with judging those who are on the outside?
Do you not judge those who are on the inside?
Many in the world.
Will how hold the position, and sadly, many in the church will hold the position.
You can’t judge me.
Well, Paul’s understanding was far closer to Jesus’ understanding than theirs.
Matter of fact, his lined up with Jesus’ spot on.
Because Paul said, I’m going to judge you, and I don’t even have to be there to do it.
I’m gonna judge you before I even show up.
I’m gonna judge of this matter and I’m not even gonna be present.
Because if a person is living this sort of life, they’re judged.
And this is how you are to proceed.
He says, But I’m not worried about you going around judging everybody in the world.
They’re already judged.
They’re judged by not serving Christ.
They’re judged by by not being obedient to the Father.
They’re judged and condemned by their own actions, by their own unwillingness to submit to
God.
But if you’ve got somebody in the body of Christ who’s claiming to submit to God, but
they’re living like this.
No.
No, them you have to judge.
He says guard against division, guard against immorality.
And we’re going to tie this later on to the last admonition, but if you turn to John
chapter thirteen.
Jesus will tell his disciples.
In John chapter 13 and verse 34, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another
as I have loved you, and that you also love one another.
By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.
Paul will
encourage, will instruct, will command the Corinthians to be on guard that they love one
another.
In chapter thirteen of First Corinthians, Paul will write, though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels, and have not love, I have become a sounding brass and clanging
symbol.
And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and
though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am
nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,
but I have not love, it profits me nothing.
Paul says, be on guard.
that you do not replace the love of God with the things that confirm you’re obedient to
God.
Because you cannot serve God faithfully unless you do it first from the heart.
We do not carry out a list of wrote commandments that when we have completed that
commandment, that commandment, that commandment, that commandment, that commandment, then
we know if we’ve done this, this, this, this, and this, we’re saved.
Oh, all of those things are applicable, and all of those things are required, but if our
heart is not right, we can do the commandments all we want, and we will have failed in the
singular and greatest commandment, which is thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself.
Paul is going to make it clear, you can do all the list of the little things, but you
leave out the primary one, and all the little things are nothing.
But as Jesus would say, you ought to have done the the the greater things and not left the
little things undone.
Paul will tell them to be on guard against a failure of love, to be on guard against
division, to be on guard against immorality.
But he doesn’t just say watch.
He doesn’t just command them to be on guard.
He says, stand firm.
Paul tells them to stand firm, to not waver from the direction they had already set set
for their lives.
Turn to second Timothy chapter four.
In 2 Timothy chapter 4, Paul, as he is nearing the end of his life, will write, I have
fought the good fight.
I have finished the race.
I have kept the faith.
Paul is not
Blowing his own horn, as it might be said.
Paul is not announcing his greatness.
Paul is making a simple statement concerning the things he had determined to do and from
which he had never wavered.
No matter what it costs.
No matter the price he paid, no matter the days he spent in jail, or the times that he was
beaten, or the times that he was shipwrecked, or the times that he was desperately in need
of food and hungry, or the times that he was afflicted by those whom he even he taught.
No matter what came, Paul never changed direction.
He stood firm.
Jude would write as he opens his brief letter to the Christians.
Jude verse 3, beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common
salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the
faith which was once for all delivered for the saints.
For certain men have crept in unnoticed who long ago were marked out for this
condemnation, ungodly men.
Who turn the grace of God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus
Christ?
Jude is going to write to the Christians and he says, I I I’m I wanted to write to you
about our salvation.
As if to say Jude had in his mind how much he would have loved to have penned words from
the Holy Spirit about the salvation that is found in Christ, to write eloquently about the
things which Christ did for us, but instead there was a more pressing issue.
And the pressing issue at hand was that the church needed to stand up for the truth.
The church needed to stand firm for the revelation of God that had been delivered to them
and not waver from it.
Galatians chapter two.
Paul would write in the midst of the disagreements and disruption caused by the Judaizing
teachers, that he had gone back to Jerusalem to meet with the apostles and with the elders
at Jerusalem, as we read about in Acts chapter 15.
And as he rehearses those events, we read verse chapter 2, verse 1 of Galatians.
Then after 14 years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas.
And also took Titus with me.
I went up by revelation and communicated to them that gospel which I preached among the
Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I might run or
had run in vain.
Yet not even Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.
And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in, who came in by stealth to
spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus,
That they might bring us into bondage, to whom we did not yield submission even for an
hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.
Paul says, I’m going to place in your hands.
Freedom.
The gospel of Christ, which is able to free you from the bonds of sin.
But if you allow that gospel to be corrupted by those who would turn you away from the
freedom that is in Christ and bring you again into bondage, you will proclaim a message
that will leave people in just as much bondage as they started in.
And to that end, Paul writes to the Galatians in Galatians chapter one, in the prior
chapter, and writes, verse six, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who
called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another, but there
are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
But even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than that which we
have preached to you, let him be accursed.
As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you,
Then what you have received, let him be a curse.
Paul tells the church in Galatia as he tells the church in Corinth, you stand firm and you
don’t move.
God will tell Joshua that.
As Joshua takes over leadership from the nation of the nation of Israel from Moses, he
will tell Joshua, do not depart to the right hand or to the left.
Paul, as he writes to these Corinthians, gives them the imperative to watch.
He gives them the imperative to stand firm in the faith.
He gives them the imperative to be brave, to take courage.
Over in Second Timothy.
When writing to Timothy and Second Timothy chapter two
Paul will say to Timothy, You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ
Jesus.
And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful
men who will be able to teach others also.
You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Paul will tell Timothy, Y y you you didn’t sign up.
To be a regular ordinary person.
You didn’t put on Christ and adorn yourself so that you could stay home.
You didn’t conform yourself to the command of the gospel so that you could live like the
world.
You signed up to become a soldier of Jesus Christ.
You agreed the commission of carrying out the commands of your leader and of your king.
And as a result, you need bravery.
You need courage to carry those commands out.
Knowing that they’re not going to be easy.
Yes, Jesus said, Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest.
But he also said, Take my yoke upon you.
He said, My burden is light, but he didn’t say my burden is non existent.
Paul will tell these brethren, you need to be brave.
For there’s a war going on.
You’re going to have to
You’re going to have to stand against the principalities and the powers and heavenly
places.
You’re going to have to stand against false teachers.
You’re going to have to prepare the next generation.
You’re going to have to make sure and secure your freedom and your hope and your
foundation in Christ, and you’re going to have to make sure you don’t walk away from it.
And it’s not going to be easy.
as you get into second Corinthians, Paul will write to them in Second Corinthians as one
who
Had taught them, was their father in the faith, as one who had led an example of life
before them.
And yet because of complacency they had allowed themselves to be influenced to the point
where they were questioning whether or not Paul was even an apostle.
Paul will have to defend his very authority.
As their father in the faith,
To write these letters to them.
They needed to take courage to drive off the false teachers to hold fast to the truth.
But fourthly, Paul gives them the imperative to be strong.
He says, Be strong.
In James chapter four, James will write to the church.
He writes, verse six, but he gives more grace, speaking concerning God.
Therefore, he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Therefore, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you, cleanse your hands, you sinners, and
purify your hearts, you double-minded.
James calls upon the Christians to have strength enough.
In their heart, in their mind, in their conviction, in their humility to approach God and
depart from Satan.
To deny Satan the authority over their lives, the authority over their actions, the
authority over their circumstance, rather that he would flee from them when they
determined to be near God.
As a young person
I was always and still am thoroughly amused by magnets.
The curiosity of the strength at which they attract one another when properly aligned.
And the the strength at which they oppose one another when they’re not.
And James, if we could perhaps visualize it, is saying that about God and Satan.
You get close to God and you get aligned with God and you’re going to push Satan away, and
he will not be able to overcome that.
You draw near to God, you get butted right up to God, and guess what?
Satan doesn’t stand a chance.
Now, James has already warned them back in James chapter one.
James chapter one and verse 12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has
been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those that
love him.
Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God, for God does not tempt God cannot
be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone.
But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed, then when
desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin when it is full grown, brings forth
death.
James as he’s writing to the church is not leaving the implication that Satan has all
control.
He’s also not leaving the implication that the person’s own desires and lusts don’t play a
part.
Rather, James is saying in chapter four, you change your desire to be God.
You set your affection on God.
You draw near to God, and guess what?
Satan won’t have anywhere to attack you.
Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus in Ephesians chapter six.
And he writes in verse 10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of
his might.
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in
the heavenly places.
Therefore, take up the whole armor of God.
That you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.
Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of
righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace,
above all, taking the shield of faith.
With which you will be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one, and take the
helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always
with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all
perseverance and supplication for all the saints, and for me, that utterance may be given
to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which
I am an ambassador in chains.
That in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
Paul, as he writes to the church at Ephesus, another congregation he had spent
considerable time with, says, You be strong.
Don’t try and stand by yourself.
Don’t try and stand in your own strength.
Don’t try to equip yourself with your own tools and your own resources.
Rather, be strong and stand in the armor of God.
So that you can be prepared to defeat Satan.
But lastly, Paul writes to the church at Corinth, and he says, Let all you do be done with
love.
Understand that means that they needed to guard.
They needed to watch out of love.
When they watched for those who were causing division, it was out of love.
When they stood against those who were causing division, it was out of love.
When they watched for those who were taken in immorality, it was out of love.
When they guarded against those who would infect others with the perniciousness of sin, it
was out of love.
When they withdrew fellowship from the man who had his father’s wife, it was out of love.
Not that he be separated from God, but that he repent and be restored to a right
relationship with God.
And when in 2 Corinthians Paul will write to them instructing them to take him back and
again extend fellowship to him, it was out of love.
When Paul tells them to be strong in the faith, to be watchful, to stand firm, all of
those things they were not to do without love, but rather with love.
First John chapter four.
John will write.
The apostle whom Jesus loved, as we’re told in the text.
In 1 John chapter 4 and verse 7, he writes, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is
of God.
And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
In this the love of God was manifested toward us that God has sent his only begotten Son,
Jesus, into the world, that we might live through him.
In this is love.
Not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and he has sent his son to be the
propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Paul’s going to tell the church of Corinth.
You’re divided.
You’re struggling.
You’re carnal.
You’re not spiritually minded.
You’ve got pervasive problems.
Because you need to work on your love.
Your love for one another and your love for God above self.
Do all with love.
When you consider
these abiding imperatives, these five commands.
Truly the same five commands can be said to us today.
Paul would say to each and every one of us, watch, stand fast in the faith.
Be brave, be strong.
Let all that you do be done in love.
If you’re here this morning and you’re outside the body of Christ.
That admonition and that imperative is to a Christian.
In order for that to be first applied to you, you must become a Christian.
Paul taught those Corinthians how to become Christians.
He was their father in the faith.
He brought the gospel to them.
And he taught them concerning Jesus Christ, who had been crucified for them, who had died
for them, and they were baptized in the name of Christ.
And Christ is not divided.
Christ is not separated into little pieces.
Christ established his church.
And that was the church that Paul brought to Corinth.
Having put on Christ, though, they now had an obligation as soldiers of the cross.
To equip themselves and to stand as soldiers.
If you’re here this morning and you’re outside the body of Christ, you can enter into that
body the same way they did.
Nothing’s changed in the last 2,000 years.
You hear the word of God and believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
You repent of your sins and confess the name of Christ.
You are immersed in water for the remission of your sins, being baptized.
Paul said, I wasn’t sent to bury people in water.
I was sent to preach the gospel.
It was unimportant to me who put them in the water, only that they be immersed.
And so is true today.
If you were to choose this very day to be immersed in water for the remission of your
sins, it wouldn’t really matter who put you in the water.
Rather, it would matter the gospel which you were submitting to.
But if you’re a member of the body of Christ and you say, you know what, these five
imperatives don’t really sound like my life.
Maybe it’s time to examine your commission once again.
If you have need of the invitation, why not come now as we stand and as we stand?
Revelation 16 (Lesson 2) – Aaron Cozort – July 12, 2026
Good morning.
Take your Bibles if you will and open them to Revelation chapter sixteen.
Good to see everyone out this morning.
We’re in Revelation chapter sixteen and we’re going to be continuing with our study in
this chapter and then getting into chapter seventeen this morning, Lord willing.
But let’s begin with a word of prayer.
Gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day that you’ve
blessed us with, grateful for the life that you have given to us, the energy that you’ve
provided us, the health and the ability that we have to assemble together, being aware
that there are some who do not have that ability, and we pray that your blessings will be
upon them and that your strength will be upon them, and that they will be restored back to
their desired health and their desired abilities.
Lord, we know sometimes that is not possible.
And Lord, we pray for comfort and strength through the hardships that they face if that is
the case.
Lord, we pray for those who are dealing with treatments and with illnesses.
And Lord, we pray that you give them the strength to go through each and every day and
overcome the hardships that they face and the complexities and difficulties of it.
We pray.
Also pray your blessings be upon the doctors and the care providers that attend to them.
Pray that they might have the wisdom and the knowledge to make right decisions and to
prescribe right paths.
Lord, we pray for this congregation and we pray for its leadership, we pray for its
laborers, we pray for those who pray for it and who are thoughtful of its
situation and its growth and we pray that you will bless each and every one of them.
We pray for this nation, we pray for peace in its land.
We pray that we might always seek to be participants in leading this country by example in
how we ought to uh behave and how we ought to live.
Lord, we pray that when this nation
does not do what is right, that we will be willing to repent of it, we will be willing to
set things right and uphold justice and mercy and uprightness.
All this we pray and ask in Jesus’ name, amen.
We get into Revelation chapter sixteen, as we’ve already made mention and discussed last
week.
you have in chapter fifteen the handing out of the seven bowls.
The seven bowls that have the seven plagues of the wrath of God.
This is Old Testament imagery, as we’ve already discussed.
This is Exodus imagery.
This is as if God were to say, All right.
Here’s the last seven plagues.
Now, you’re not going to find John just listing off the last seven plagues.
As a matter of fact, two of the plagues correspond to the same type of plague in the Old
Testament, just in different scopes.
You have the second bowl, which is the water turned to blood in the seas, and then you
have the third bowl that takes the rivers and all the springheads and turns those to
blood.
As you look at
The text, what you should be reminded of is God’s message in Exodus.
Because the cornerstone behind this judgment is God’s message that he delivered to Egypt.
God’s message, which he delivered to Pharaoh, and interestingly, as we get into chapter 17
and the parallel, God’s message, which he delivered to
Nebuchadnezzar.
This is best understood in understanding what the Lord says in Exodus when he says that
there is none like Jehovah.
Because here in Revelation, what you have is you have a nation in the form of Rome telling
the people who are in the nation.
You have to worship Rome.
You have to worship Caesar.
You have to call Rome and Caesar God.
And if you do, everything’s going to be fine.
And if you don’t, then you’re going to be imprisoned.
You’re going to be beaten.
You’re going to be removed from the economy, and you’re going to be killed.
And yet the reality, the the stark contrast to the message from the government from Rome,
is God is telling the His people the polar opposite.
You do not bow the knee to Rome.
Now that’s not to say if the law in Rome says it would be improper for you to run a
business without registering your business with the government.
He’s not talking about cooperation in matters of indifference.
He’s talking about matters where Rome says, if you don’t bow to honor me as God, then I’m
going to do this.
God says, no, no.
You’re not going to honor them as God.
You’re not going to hold them as all-powerful.
And I’m going to demonstrate to you what all-powerful looks like.
So in Exodus, God shows Egypt what all-powerful looks like, what uniqueness is seen in
Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And you find in chapter 16 and in verse 5, and I heard the angel of the water saying,
You are righteous, O Lord, the one, notice the singular there, the one who is and who was
and who is to be.
The message of the angel in looking at what has occurred, looking at the first three bowls
having been sent forth, looking at what has occurred is God, you have established.
There is no one beside you.
So maybe tell me what the first commandment in the ten commandments was.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
This message has been consistent from the earliest days of the Old Testament all the way
forward to the days of Exodus, all the way forward to the book of Revelation.
God hasn’t changed.
Matter of fact, that’s what Hebrews chapter thirteen points out about God when it speaks
concerning the fact that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
God hasn’t changed.
The declaration and the message is still the same.
Now, I want you to pause here for just a moment because I want to connect the, you know,
we we’ve said a lot about about Exodus, but I want to connect Daniel to this discussion
because as we’ve discussed before and and we’ll continue to remind ourselves, especially
in chapter 17, the background of Revelation.
Primarily is the book of Daniel.
Because the analogy of Rome is seen not described as Egypt, only spiritually as Egypt, but
as Babylon.
So in Daniel chapter four, you have Nebuchadnezzar’s second dream.
And we read Nebuchadnezzar, the king, to all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in
all the earth, peace be multiplied to you.
I thought it good to declare the signs and wonders that the most high God has worked for
me.
How great are his signs, and how mighty his wonders, his kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.
Nebuchadnezzar is going to set forth to write a declaration to the people of Babylon
because God has done something that has caused Nebuchadnezzar to bow the knee, to declare
Jehovah is not like anybody else.
Jehovah was around before Babylon had any authority.
Jehovah was around before Babylon had any power.
Jehovah was around before Nebuchadnezzar was born, came to the throne, had any thought or
insight concerning the things that he was going to do, and he’s going to be on the throne
long after I’m gone.
Notice what Nebuchadnezzar says.
I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in my house and flourishing in my palace.
I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts on the on on my bed and vision of my
head troubled me.
Therefore I issued a decree to bring to all bring in all the wise men of Babylon before
me, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream.
Then the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, the Southsayers came in, and I told
them the dream, but they did not make known to me its interpretation.
But at last Daniel came before me, his name Belteshazzar, according to the name of my God.
In him is the Spirit of the Holy God.
And I told the dream before him, saying, Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, because I
know that the Spirit of the Holy God is in you, and no secret troubles you.
Explain to me the visions of my dream that I have seen and its interpretation.
These were the visions of my head while on my bed.
I was looking and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great.
The tree grew and became strong, its height reached to the heavens.
And it could be seen to the ends of all the earth.
Its leaves were lovely, its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all the beasts of the
field, the f uh found shade under it, the birds of heaven dwelt in its branches, and all
flesh was fed from it.
Nebuchadnezzar sees in the vision a tree.
Now, just to where we can be reminded about how we deal with visions, when you see the
text describe a vision, are you supposed to see the vision, read concerning the vision and
say, That’s what he saw, and that’s what it meant?
Or are you supposed to say, That’s what he saw, now what does it mean?
What he saw was not the meaning.
What he saw was the picture to convey the meaning.
Because notice Nebuchadnezzar knows that because he can tell you what he saw.
What he can’t tell you is what it means.
That’s why he’s talking to Daniel to begin with.
So notice.
He says, This is what I saw.
I saw in the visions of my head while on my bed, and there was a watcher.
A holy one coming down from heaven.
He cried aloud and said thus, chop down the tree and cut off its branches, strip off its
leaves and scatter its fruit.
Let the beast get out from under it and the birds from its branches.
Now what does Nebuchadnezzar say he saw come down from heaven?
A holy one.
He doesn’t use the word angel the way the Greek would, but he says, this is one of God’s
messengers.
I saw a messenger from God come down from heaven, and the message was tear it down.
Take it apart.
Remove everything that makes it seem worthwhile.
And bring it to the ground.
This lovely tree, this this magnificent tree, this tree that provides for the beasts of
the field, this tree that provides for all the things of the earth to come and be fed, you
wait a minute, you’re gonna tear that down?
Yeah.
That’s what God says he’s gonna do.
Nevertheless he says, leave the stump, and roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron
and bronze in the tender grass of the field, let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let
him graze with the beasts.
Now notice what did we just find out in the text?
That the tree is a what?
It’s a him.
The text says, and let him graze on the grass, uh sorry, let him graze with the beast on
the grass of the earth, and let his heart be changed from that of a man, let him be given
the heart of a beast, and let seven times pass over him.
When you have the vision and he sees the vision, the tree could have been any number of
things.
Except before the vision’s done, it’s clear that the vision represents a man.
Now Nebuchadnezzar knows what he saw.
Nebuchadnezzar knows what he saw in the vision.
Nebuchadnezzar now wants to know what it means.
This decision is by the decree of the watchers, and the sentence by the word of the holy
ones, in order that the living may know watch this, that the Most High rules in the
kingdom of men.
Nebuchadnezzar already knows that whatever he saw was to make clear the lesson.
That God is in charge when it comes to this world.
And that he gives to whomever he will, and sets over it the lowest of men.
This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, have seen.
Now you, Belteshar, since its interpret declare its interpretation, since all the wise men
of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able, for
the Spirit of the Holy God is in you.
Then Daniel.
Whose name was Belteshazzar was astonished for a time, and his thoughts troubled him.
So the king spoke and said, Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or its interpretation
trouble you.
Belteshazzar answered and said, My lord, may the dream concern those who hate you and its
interpretation concern your enemies.
Have you ever thought as you’ve read this passage, ’cause I I imagine most of us have read
it before.
That Daniel sincerely can had concern for Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, who had
overthrown Daniel’s own nation?
This king who had come against Jerusalem three times.
Who had carted Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael off into captivity and bondage to a
land where by all indication of scripture they would never see their home ever again.
Who had threatened their lives on numerous occasions.
Who had put them in the position of having to stand up for themselves f on moral grounds
to not consume the things which he gave them and the provisions he gave them at the risk
of their own lives and the lives of others?
And here Daniel is told to come before Nebuchadnezzar.
Daniel is now all this is after chapter two.
Daniel’s already been elevated to the position of being the chief uh the the chief uh
interpreter of dreams, if you could utilize that idea.
He’s in this role.
All of the underlings, all the people below him can’t can’t give the king an answer.
And when Daniel hears what the vision says, what Nebuchadnezzar saw, Daniel says,
essentially, Nebuchadnezzar, I sure do hope this isn’t about you.
You remember when John was told to take the little book that the mighty angel had in his
hand and to eat it, and it was going to be sweet in his mouth, but it was going to be
bitter in his belly?
Daniel just heard a revelation from God given in the form of a vision to Nebuchadnezzar.
And when you have a revelation from God, if we use Psalm 19 to understand that concept,
Psalm 19 says that the word of God is as sweet as honey and as the honeycomb.
You have the word of God delivered through Nebuchadnezzar to Daniel.
He’s got the message from God, and because it belongs to God.
It’s sweet as honey.
But it’s bitter in his belly.
Because he would love for this to be about somebody other than Nebuchadnezzar.
But I want us to just pause for a moment and realize Daniel had developed an attachment to
Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadnezzar to Daniel.
The same way Cyrus, uh sorry, Darius in in the later chapters is going to be distraught
over what is going to occur to Daniel and having to put him in the lion’s den.
And it’s because of Daniel’s faithfulness that Daniel describes may may this be concerning
those who hate you and concerning your enemies.
The tree which you saw, which grew and became strong, whose height reached to the heavens,
which could be seen by all the earth, whose leaves were lovely and its fruit abundant, in
which was food for all, under which the beasts of the field dwelt, in whose branches the
birds of the heaven had their home, it is you, O King, who have become who have grown and
become strong, for your greatness has grown and reaches to the heavens, and your dominion
to the end of the earth.
And as
Inasmuch as the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven, and saying, Chop
down the tree and destroy it, but leave its stump and roots in the earth, bound with a
band of iron and bronze in the tender grass of the field, let it be wet with the dew of
heaven, and let him graze with the beasts of the field till seven times pass over him.
This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the most high, which has
come upon my Lord the King.
They shall drive you from men.
Your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field.
They shall make you eat grass like oxen, they shall wet you with the dew of heaven, and
seven times shall pass over you till you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of
men and gives it to whomever he chooses.
And inasmuch as they gave the command to leave the stump and the roots of the tree, your
kingdom shall be assured to you after you come to know that heaven rules.
God has delivered to Nebuchadnezzar
A warning judgment.
That’s what this is.
This is kind of like one of those partial judgments from the earlier chapters, where the
partial judgment is to correct their perspective, their belief that they are in charge,
that Rome rules, that Caesar is God, and that they can become impervious to what the Lord
of heaven will actually have to say concerning what they do.
Therefore, O King, verse twenty seven, let my advice be acceptable to you break off your
sins by being righteous, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor.
Perhaps there may be a lengthening of your prosperity.
Daniel interprets the dream.
And he tells Nebuchadnezzar, Your sins are your problems.
And your focus on you is your other problem.
All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar at the end of the twelve months he was walking
about the royal palace of Babylon, the king spoke, saying, It is it is not this great
Babylon that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my
majesty.
Nebuchadnezzar plumped himself up like a peacock, strutting around the palace.
Look what I have done.
While the word was still in the king’s mouth, a voice fell from heaven, King
Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken, the kingdom has departed from you.
And they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the
field, and they shall make you eat grass like oxen, and seven times shall pass over you
until you know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever he
chooses.
Have you noticed the point of the chapter?
That very hour the word was fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar, and he was driven from
men and ate grass like oxen, his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hair had
grown like eagle’s feathers, and his nails like the bird’s claws.
And at the end of the time I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes to heaven, and by
understanding returned to me, and I blessed the most high and praised and honored him who
lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from
generation to generation.
All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing.
He does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth.
No one can restrain his hand or say to him, What have you done?
Nebuchadnezzar in the first Babylon, the Old Testament Babylon.
is going to learn the lesson.
The successive generations, Nebuchadnezzar’s son, grandson, great grandson, are going to
lose the script.
They’re going to forget who the Lord is.
And Isaiah will have prophesied a hundred years before they ever came to power, Babylon is
fallen, is fallen.
In chapter sixteen, God sends forth a series of plagues in the form of the seven bowls in
Revelation, in the spiritual Babylon, the New Testament Babylon, the kingdom which
represents those four kingdoms that were revealed to Nebuchadnezzar, which began with
Babylon, c continued in the Medo-Persian Empire, continued in the Grecian Empire, and is
now fulfilled.
In the Roman Empire.
And the angel who pours out the third bowl
Sees the other angel come forth from the altar and says, This was appropriate.
This was righteous.
Verse 8 Chapter 16, then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was
given to him to scorch men with fire.
And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who had power
over these plagues, and they did not repent and give him glory.
Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast.
And his kingdom became full of darkness, and they gnawed their tongues for because of the
pain, they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and they
did not repent of their deeds.
Notice the contrast between what this nation does, what this people does, and what
Nebuchadnezzar did.
They don’t repent.
They don’t acknowledge God’s authority or God’s kingdom or God’s rule.
They blaspheme his name.
Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great Euphrates River, and its water was
dried up so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared.
And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming up out of the mouth of the dragon, out
of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
And they are the spirits of demons performing signs which go uh out to the kings of the
earth and the whole world to gather them to the battle the great day of God Almighty.
Behold, I am coming, is a thief.
Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he be walk naked, and they see his
shame.
And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew Armageddon.
Now we mentioned this as we close last week.
Armageddon is a reference to the valley of Meghetto.
uh Megedo is interpreted a small hill.
Because that’s what it was.
It was a small hill.
And it was in the northern part of Israel.
And when you start looking at the location of it, and you start looking at the roads that
would have been used by every invading empire.
Babylon, Assyria, and every uh empire that came from the north, Medo-Persian Empire,
Grecian Empire, every single one of them would have come through the Valley of Ghetto.
Every single one of them would have passed through that area to come and attack Israel.
So the idea here, the mental image is hey, you know that place where every single army
that comes from the east comes through to attack God’s people?
Well, that’s there’s your picture.
You’ve seen it before.
It’s an old testament picture.
And so he says there’s going to be a great battle.
Then verse seventeen, the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice
came out of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying, It is done.
If we can borrow Isaiah’s terminology, the Lord declares the end from the beginning.
God says, here’s how it’s gonna happen, and here’s when I’m gonna tell you it’s finished.
He says, or we read verse na eighteen and there were noises and thunderings and lightnings
and there was a great earthquake and such as mighty and great earthquakes as had not
occurred since men were on earth.
Now hold on to verse eighteen for a minute, go back chapter six.
If you remember, we said that chapter 6 and the six seals that are opened in chapter 6 are
the forecast of what’s coming.
They’re there to tell you before it starts: here’s how it’s gonna go.
Chapter 6, beginning in verse 12, I looked and he opened the sixth seal, and behold, there
was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as cloth of hair.
And the moon became like blood, and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree
drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind, then the sky receded, and a scroll
uh as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of its
place, and the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty
men, every slave and every free man hid himself in the caves and in the rocks of the
mountains.
And said to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who
sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of his wrath is come
and who is able to stand?
Chapter six is the forecast of what’s coming.
Chapter sixteen is the declaration of its coming.
And the declaration, it’s done.
Now, as the Christians are reading it, as they get the letter from John and they go, look,
here’s a message from the elder apostle who’s in captivity, who’s in exile on Patmos, and
the letter arrives, and they open the scroll and they start reading, and they get to
chapter 16.
Has any of it happened yet?
As they’re reading the scroll.
But John didn’t say by the time you read this it’s gonna have happened already.
He said, when I write this unto you, the time is at hand.
And going to tell you what the Lord sent and signified to me so that these things can be
known because they are shortly to come to pass.
So they’re going to open it up and go, I know it’s going to turn out.
Back in the days of newspapers.
For those who enjoy sports.
The event would occur, the game would occur.
This back before, you know, you could stream every game and watch every game no matter
where it was.
You got to watch whatever game was on near you.
So you’d might watch, if you were growing up in eastern Kentucky, you might you probably
watch the Cincinnati Reds or the Atlanta Braves, even if you were an LA Dodgers fan.
You weren’t watching the Dodgers.
So you’d have to wait until the newspaper came out and turn to the sports section and see
how the game turned out.
Because you weren’t there.
You had to read about it afterwards.
There was a show, uh, I think it was on CBS when I was growing up.
It was called Early Edition.
And the premise of the show was the beginning of the show, this guy whose life’s not quite
together, is living in a hotel.
And one morning he comes out and there’s a cat that is sitting on his newspaper outside of
his door.
And he walks out and he gets the newspaper, and it’s tomorrow’s newspaper.
So every day the cat shows up and every day he gets tomorrow’s newspaper and he’s gonna
read about somebody, some some disaster, something that happens that he’s gotta he’s gotta
stop.
He’s gotta keep the bad thing from happening because he knew about it in advance.
This is God telling Israel in the form of his people, representative Israel, spiritual
Israel, the church.
Here’s what’s going to happen.
You know about it in advance.
So be ready for it.
Now the great city, verse 19, was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations
fell.
And great Babylon was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of the
fierceness of his wrath.
Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
You remember what did they call upon the mountains to do?
Fall on them and hide them from who?
Hide us from the wrath of the one who sits on the throne.
Hide us from the wrath of the lamb.
Protect us.
Get something that will stop God from doing this.
And they look around, can’t find the mountain anywhere.
Great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent.
Men blasphemed God because of the plague of hail, since that plague was exceedingly great.
So to figure out the exact moment in time where the fulfillment of this occurred, what you
need to do is scour all the ancient archives to find the moment in time where there was a
hailstorm with hail that was a talent and wait.
Right?
No.
Not any more than you were supposed to in the last verse assume that when they were
looking for a mountain, they couldn’t find a physical mountain.
Here’s the pouring out of the wrath of God on Rome.
The question that was asked by the Christians who were dying, who were standing under the
altar in the fifth seal was, Lord, how long are you going to let this go unchecked?
And the Lord said, you rest a little while and you wait and I’ll show you.
And then the sixth seal is opened, and there’s the forecast, and here comes the seven
bowls inside the seventh seal, inside the seventh trumpet, and God says, it’s done.
And when I’m finished.
It will be so completely done.
That the great city that they thought was so magnificent and untouchable and the seat of
their power and the center of their authority and that all the nations of the earth could
worship as God, I’m just gonna divide it up in three pieces.
I’m gonna tear it apart and I’m gonna make all their great cities go away.
When you read concerning the fall of the Roman Empire.
First of all, ask yourself this question.
Did it fall?
Yeah, it did.
It’s not still hanging around.
Its authority and its power is gone.
Number two, did it fall from the outside or the inside?
When you look at the history of Rome, the answer is both.
It fell from the pressures of the outside, from the advancement of the uh the the hordes
that came across from Asia.
And it fell primarily because of inner problems.
But it fell and it fell completely.
And God is reminding his people.
You know, back in the days of Nebuchadnezzar.
I sent a message to a king.
I sent a vision to him.
That I was the king who would set up a kingdom that would never be destroyed.
And I will rule from generation to generation forever.
And I was on the throne when Nebuchadnezzar was on the throne.
And I’m on the throne now.
You remember
When Jesus said to the Jews.
When they asked him, Are you greater than our father Abraham?
And Jesus’ reply was, before Abraham was, I am.
um
Long before Abraham ever left Ur of the Chaldees.
Interestingly, where is Ur of the Chaldees?
The same land that would eventually be known as Babylon.
Before Abraham ever left Ur of the Chaldees, God was.
Before Nebuchadnezzar was ever a twinkle in his mother’s eye, God was.
Before Nebuchadnezzar had a pa authority and rule and had the ability to go conquer nation
after nation after nation, God was.
Long after Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon were just simply the thing of history, God still
was.
And the same would be true about Rome.
Chapter 17, we’re going to read concerning the great harlot who rides the terrible beast
from the book of Daniel.
And it’s just another picture of Rome.
But it’s a picture that identifies when the book was written, who was on the throne when
the book was written.
the timeline of the events that were going to occur and how it was all going to turn out.
And it can all be summed up in the words of Isaiah.
Babylon, that great city, is fallen.
Is fallen.
Thank you for your attention.
Worship – It’s Background (Lesson 1) – Aaron Cozort – July 08, 2026
Good evening.
Well I mentioned, I know it is a deep subject, isn’t it?
I mentioned uh last week if there was anything that uh or uh whenever it was, I think it
was last week, if there was anything that that there was interest in studying that I was
open to uh thoughts and suggestions concerning those things, and I got a little bit of
feedback from a few people.
Uh yes.
Did you just raise your hand?
Is it too late?
Well I don’t know.
What’s what’s your thought or suggestion?
The book of Acts.
Mm.
Well I suspect we’re going to be there a little bit anyway, based upon what w what we are
looking at doing.
But the a couple of people gave me feedback and I’m gonna kinda combine uh the requests,
uh one of which was spending some time with kind of an in-depth look at worship.
What is worship?
Biblical
view of worship and the the background around worship and the other one was fundamental
concepts of Christian and godly living.
And so I thought you know what?
Two kind of core basic ideas, let’s let’s bring those together because as you uh as we’ve
talked about many times before, especially in the Old Testament prophets
If our worship is being offered to God, but our lives are not in alignment with God, then
our worship is worthless.
And if we are seeking to do right things and live in good ways, but we do not honor God
and worship Him as we ought, our actions and our life is worthless.
So we’re gonna kind of bring these ideas together.
Uh and as we get over into the New Testament, we’re certainly going to deal with the early
church and some of the things pertaining to that.
as well.
So we’re gonna begin tonight with the idea of worship.
And I I’m kind of, as most of y’all know, one of these people that if I’m gonna start on
something, I want to start at the beginning.
Uh and really understand it from a conceptual level and then build up to the activity
level as it were.
Because if we were to discuss worship and we were to begin with the acts of worship as
described in the New Testament, there’s a lot of foundation behind what we understand
worship to be that would simply be missing.
So I want us to begin really where the scriptures begin with the concept of worship, and
that is at creation.
Uh when you go throughout the scriptures and you look at why God in revelation uh or in in
the through the Holy Spirit given giving revelation to mankind, why God says that he, in
contrast to others, are worthy of worship, so many occasions you find one of the very
first reasons to be because he created everything that exists.
And therefore he is worthy of worship.
He is worthy of praise, because he is the creator.
So that’s where we’re going to begin this evening, and probably where we’ll spend most of
our time, if not uh a couple of weeks, is this idea of God as being worthy of worship, and
that worship is as old as creation.
Turn with me, if you will, to Psalm nineteen.
The nineteenth psalm.
Із one of these
Passages that is is a signal passage for revelation and how God speaks to mankind.
But in being such, it is also one of these passages that differentiates the nature of God
from everything else that mankind has tried to worship through the generations.
In Psalm nineteen and in verse one we read The heavens declare the glory of God, and the
firmament shows his handiwork.
Day unto day utter speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard, their line has gone out
through all the earth and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tabernacle for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his
chamber and rejoices like a strong man to run its race.
Its rising is from one end of heaven and its circuit to the other end, and there is
nothing hidden from its heat.
As the psalmist writer here begins to describe creation, he doesn’t begin with the
Makeup of creation in the sense of he doesn’t describe how things correlate to one
another.
Rather, he describes in a personification that all of creation is involved in a continual
activity.
And what is the continual activity?
that creation is involved in in view of this passage.
Speaking but speaking what, specifically, the very first line.
Declaring the glory of God.
So there’s two senses of worship that I want us to comprehend.
um One is generic, okay?
What and the way I’m going to term it is generic versus specific worship.
Generic worship is to recognize the glory and the
The worthiness of someone or something.
It is something that is done, sometimes from afar, something that is done by nature of the
activity that the person was involved in.
Example of that might be uh if you were to cons uh if you were to observe or to have stood
there in ancient times and looked at
The temple of Solomon, you would have been able to describe it just the way we did.
The Temple of Solomon, right?
The very nature of the fact that he was involved in the building of it, the designing of
it, the work of it, and finishing that work declared the wisdom and the insight and the
glory of Solomon.
But it’s also the temple of the Lord.
So in that sense, the Lord has the greater glory, but if you were to compare the temple of
the days of Zerubbabel or the temple of Herod to the temple of Solomon, you would have
clearly seen that the glory of Solomon’s temple was significantly more than the glory of
Zerubbabel or Herod’s temple.
Okay, so when we see the activity of someone, when we see what they’ve produced, then
There’s some glorying, there’s some recognition that comes with that.
The greater degree of that idea of recognition and glory is at the level of worship.
To give praise and honor to someone because they are worthy.
And creation here by the psalmist writer is spoken of as doing that every day.
That the heavens declare the glory of God.
And the firmament shows his handiwork.
And that creation is going about, personified here in this passage, as day in and day out.
Creation does nothing other than declare the glory of God.
We are constantly in our scientific world discovering something new that we did not know
about the world that has been around ever since we started studying it.
And there’s no indication we’re running out of things to study.
There’s no slowdown in discoveries.
There’s not a point at which scientists are going, you know what, I don’t think any of us
are gonna be employed uh a couple of years from now because we’re going to have figured it
all out by then.
The reality is when you look at the world, the universe that we live in, it is continually
involved in a generic concept from a biblical perspective of glorying God.
Now, when you put together what it is that Scripture says about it,
What you actually find is that God designed it to do that.
That God’s intent behind the universe that He created was to show and to reveal Himself to
mankind to describe His glory.
So look again at the passage.
Day unto day utter speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard, their line is gone out
through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.
The psalmist writer says it doesn’t matter where you go on the planet, creation is going
to talk to you every day about the fact that God exists.
Creation is going to reveal to you that there is an intelligent creator, and you’re going
to actively have to lie to yourself to convince yourself it’s not true.
So turn to Genesis chapter one.
Genesis chapter one.
Moses’ law opens with the words, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the
Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Then God said, Let there be light, and there was light.
And God saw the light that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness, God
called the light day and the darkness he called night, so the evening and the morning were
the first day.
Some will come to this passage and they will attempt to argue the uh the gap theory.
They’ll argue that uh verse one and verse two are only separated, you know, when they
started making the argument, they were only separated by a few uh hundred million years.
You know, long enough for creation to or for evolution to have occurred.
Uh and then
you know, science kept flubbing the the timetable.
So now we’re up to 18 point something billion years between verse one and verse two.
There’s just a big gap in between.
Um yeah, inconsistent with the text to say the least.
But furthermore, you have in this passage a clear declaration from God
About the timetable of the passage.
Because as you open the reading, you vi you find that the Spirit of the Lord was hovering
over the face of the water.
Then God said, Let there be light, and there was light, and God saw the light, that it was
good, and God divided the light from the darkness, the darkness, or sorry, God called the
light day, and the darkness he called night.
So the evening and the morning were the first day.
Well, if you were to argue that
The universe that we live in is 18 something billion years old.
And if you were to argue that the sun in the solar system that we’re in is however many
billions of years old.
Then how long was the first day?
So some have come along and say, Well, actually what we have and what we need to
understand is that each of these days is a long eon of time.
There’s no way to make scientific sense of that, by the way.
reason number one.
What’s a long eon of time of sunlight with no darkness?
Uh the answer is the end of everything.
Because it all burns up.
What’s a eon of darkness with no sunlight?
The answer is the end of everything, because it stops growing.
You don’t get past day one with the day-age theory until you finally have to admit, well,
either God said darkness and light were a day, and there was one day, and then there was
the next day, and he said, This is day one, and this is what I did on day two, or all of
it’s just myth and folklore and nonsense.
But turn to Matthew chapter nineteen.
Because many for f in the
somewhat theological realm of things, and many in the uh scholarly realm of things and
many in the uh skeptical realm of things are more than willing to throw Moses under the
bus because most of the people that they interact with are Christians who don’t really
have a whole lot to do with Moses.
So they’re okay with that.
The problem is when you start throwing Jesus under the bus.
And when you start throwing Jesus under the bus, you’re going have a real problem.
So Matthew chapter 19, verse 1.
Now it came to pass when Jesus had finished these sayings that he departed from Galilee
and came to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan.
And great multitudes followed him, and he healed them there.
And the Pharisees also came to testing him, and saying to him, Is it lawful for a man to
divorce his wife for just any reason?
And he answered and said to them,
Have you not read that he who made them now what’s the next phrase?
At the beginning.
What was Moses’ opening phrase of Genesis?
In the beginning.
But you notice Moses didn’t begin in the beginning.
God made man on the planet that already existed and had just waited a few billion, you
know, umpteen billion years before he got around to doing it.
That’s not what he said.
Moses didn’t begin with.
Man.
Moses began with God.
And so in the beginning, God created.
Jesus says, Have you not read that he who made them at the beginning made them male and
female?
And said, For this reason, a man shall not leave his father or mother, and shall shall
leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?
So then they are no longer two but one flesh, therefore what God has joined together, let
not man separate.
It’s one thing in the minds of some to throw Moses’ statements out and just go, first ten
chapters of Genesis are just a myth.
Uh except Jesus said they were factually accurate.
And if Jesus says they’re factually accurate, then of the two people whose opinion I think
I’ll go with, any man and Jesus, I’m gonna go with the guy who was there when it happened.
Jesus said, Do you not know that he that made them at the beginning made them male and
female?
Furthermore, when you add into that both John chapter 1 and Hebrews chapter 1.
Which both testify to us that the second person in the Godhead was the person who did the
act of creating.
Jesus is actually stating in Matthew nineteen, Do you not know that when I made them at
the beginning, I made them male and female?
Because the second person in the Godhead is the one who is described as doing the creative
act, and the first person in the Godhead is the one who is spoken of as speaking.
So you have in creation a testimony to the glory of God.
But then consider as you go down through the text of Genesis 1, Genesis 1, verse 20, yeah,
verse 20.
Then God said, Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures.
And let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.
Now remember, just just a moment ago, we had great long eons of time in each day.
I’ve seen some birds that can fly a long time.
But I haven’t seen any of them that can fly for any yon.
In the midst of describing the day, God says, Here are the birds, and they’re flying.
And that’s the act of creating.
He says, So God created great sea creatures, and every living thing that moves, with which
the waters abounded according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind.
And God saw that it was good, and God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply and
fill the waters in the sea, and let the birds multiply on the earth.
So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
Then God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creatures according to its kind,
cattle and creeping thing, beast of the earth, each according to its kind, and it was so.
And God made the beast of the earth.
according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the
earth according to its kind, and God saw that it was good.
As the creation account is given to us, the first and unwavering principle of creation is
everything only produces after its kind.
And while many occasions will be found in archaeological evidence of changes inside of an
animal family.
resulting from breeding or catastrophe or dominant genes?
What is the thing that’s missing from all geograph geological and archaeological evidence?
Any animal changing from one kind to another.
There’s not one example of it.
There’s not one piece of evidence for it.
Many of the pieces of evidence that have been heralded for decades have long ago been
debunked, but the scientific books in schools will still print them.
And furthermore, when you look at the geological evidence and you look at the things that
have been uncovered by archaeologists, they will argue that something is a certain age
because of where it is in that historical descent down times uh view in that earth.
The problem is that they also date the earth based upon what fossils they find in it.
So if you date the earth based upon the a based upon which creatures are found in the
fossil record, and you date the fossils by the earth that they’re found in, what do you
have?
Circular reasoning.
How do we know this is this old?
Well, look at the fossils that are in it.
How do we know the fossils are that old?
Well, look at the Earth strata that it’s in.
Doesn’t work, folks.
Furthermore, many times there have been supposedly extinct animals that they are quite
certain only live during a certain period of Earth’s history, only to be found alive.
in a part of the planet that we up until that point had not discovered.
So when you keep having problems with a theory, you can adjust the theory, but there does
become a point at which you go, maybe the theory just needs to be chucked.
In contrast, when it comes to creation, you have had a not a theory, but a declaration
from God that has been proven to be accurate over and over and over and over and over and
over and over again.
Which is why in every single zoo everywhere there has never been an occasion where two of
the primates
mated and a lizard came out.
There has never been an occasion where two of the parakeets mated and a fish came out.
They weren’t like suddenly, go get the water.
This one’s gonna need to go into the aqua display.
It’s never happened.
You wanna know why?
Because it doesn’t happen.
Do you know why?
Because God said when He created everything that He created, it’s going to produce after
its
own kind.
So there’s never been a transition fossil.
There will never be a transition fossil.
There will not be an occasion of the dog transitioning to the fish.
You might get some dogs that you never had before.
You might get some really weird dogs.
And I’ve seen a few.
But you’re never going to get a fish instead of the dog.
When the mama dog gives birth.
When you pause and consider what the psalmist writer is saying.
That creation itself declares God’s glory.
And then you examine what Genesis says, and let’s notice verse 26.
Then God said, Let us make man in our image.
When creation is
described as revealed by the Holy Spirit to the prophet Moses, it is described accurately,
it is described factually in agreement with science, and it is described with a
description at the beginning and the very outset of Scripture concerning the nature of
God.
That God is not as many in the cultural world or the pagan world believe Him to be.
He is not as the Muslim world believes him to be.
He is not as the Jehovah’s Witness world believes him to be.
He is most certainly not as the Buddhist or uh other uh Far Eastern religions believe him
to be.
But rather that he is one.
and plural at the same time.
That he is God, singular, and Elohim, plural, and us at the same time.
That he is made up of a variety of natures all in complete agreement and unity with one
another.
This, unlike many philosophies of religion that have come around through the years, is one
thing that the Bible does different than all other quote unquote religious books.
And that is it is consistent.
From Genesis one to John one, if you turned over to John chapter one.
John, as he opens his record of the life of Christ, begins with the same three words that
Moses began with in the beginning.
But as John describes, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God.
And the word was God.
Many of the religious doctrines that have been promoted by false teachers through the
years have Jesus showing up sometime later.
Some will argue, because of their failure to understand context, that Jesus was the first
created being.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses went so far, or sorry, the Mormons went so far in their Bible and
their translation to change the text from was God to was a God.
He is deity light.
The oneness will come along and say, Well, there’s only one God.
And the explanation is almost too befuddling to explain.
But John says in the beginning, Christ was there.
John says Christ was with the Father.
that he was deity, that he was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him, the second person in the Godhead.
And without him, the second person in the Godhead, nothing was made that was made.
So
Genesis tells us God created.
John tells us the second person in the Godhead created.
Jesus tells us.
And Moses was accurate when he said it was in the beginning.
Consider Psalm twenty four.
Psalm twenty four opens the earth is the Lord’s.
If you watch children for very long, you will find invariably the moment in time where one
child picks up another child’s toy.
And they are quickly reminded.
That’s mine.
That’s mine.
Mom, that’s mine Especially when it’s a younger sibling.
Almost Ryder.
Doesn’t leave any doubt.
He says, the earth belongs to the Lord.
It is his possession.
He says, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded
it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.
Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who may stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart.
Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn sworn deceitfully, he shall receive
blessing from the Lord and the r and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face.
Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the King of
glory shall come in.
Who is the King of Glory?
The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, you O you gates, lift up you everlasting doors, the King of Glory
shall come in.
Who is the King of Glory?
The Lord of hosts, he is the King of Glory.
As a psalmist writer goes through this description of God and of those who are in
fellowship with him, of those who stand in his presence and those who are able to stand as
he describes them, he keeps using this phrase King of glory.
He’s saying that when you look at what God has made, when you look at everything that
exists, when you look at everything around you, you are going to come, if you are honest,
to one conclusion.
There is someone worthy of praise.
There is someone worthy of glory.
Turn to Revelation chapter four.
John in Revelation as he sees the vision that we’ve described so many times in our
Revelation class on Sunday.
uh
Immediately I was in the spirit and behold a throne set in heaven and one sat on the
throne, and he who sat there was like a jasper and a Sardis stone in appearance, and there
was a rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald.
Around the throne were twenty four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty four elders
sitting clothed in white robes, and they had crowns of gold on their heads, and the
thrones were
And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices, seven lamps of fire
were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God.
Before the throne there was a sea of glass like crystal, and in the midst of the throne,
and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back.
The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the
third living creature had the face of a man, and the fourth living creature was like a
flying eagle.
The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within, and
they do not rest day or night, saying Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty who was and is
and is to come.
As John’s revelation
Дискріб’свери презенс огод.
He describes something which for those of us who read scripture shouldn’t surprise us.
But to many in the world, rather a big surprise.
And I’m not talking about the vision.
I’m talking about the fact that God appears more worthy of glory the closer you get.
That he’s worthy of glory when you’re all the way out here with no verbal revelation, with
no inspired revelation from God, with nothing more than the world around you to see and to
observe, and you realize there is someone who is worthy of glory.
And the closer you get to God, the more apparent it is that he’s worthy of glory.
You know, sometimes in life you see things that look amazing until you get up close, until
you get a chance to inspect them.
Uh un until you see uh the nature of them and so that looked like a really nice house and
you get close to it and you’re like, and it is run down and in terrible condition.
Looked really good from afar when you couldn’t see all the cracks.
Except here are the beasts and the elders who are day after day before the throne of God
and what are they doing every day?
recognizing that God is worthy of glory.
In other words, you have this picture of God from afar, and when you see God from afar
through his works
You go Whoever can do this is worthy of glory.
And you get up close and you see God and you go, and He’s worthy of so much more glory
than I ever knew.
When we consider the idea of worship.
We need to understand.
We need to grasp that the very most fundamental thing that we need to evaluate when we
consider worship.
Is that God is worthy of it.
That God’s glory and his acts and what he has done and the world that he has created and
the universe that we live in and the rules that he has established and the timetable on
which he performed all that he did are a testament to his worthiness when it comes to
worship.
There in Revelation chapter 4, I mentioned that this theme pervades the scriptures.
Verse 8 describes the saying of the four living creatures: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God
Almighty, who was and is and is to come.
Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the
throne, who lives forever and ever.
The twenty four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who
lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, You are worthy, O
Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things, and by your will
they exist and were created.
We don’t leave that picture, that visionary image of the throne room of God until someone
says God is worthy because he’s the creator.
And it is the reason
Knowing that the humanist, the skeptic, the atheist, the agnostic, the unbeliever, and
even the false teacher knows that they have to dethrone God before they can do anything
They have to make it clear that God is not as worthy as is.
so that they can appear to be something.
Some reading.
I’m gonna try I’m gonna hold me to this.
I’m gonna try and do this each each week.
As we get ready for the next class, I’m gonna give you something to spend some time
reading on between the classes.
My encouragement for you for this week into next week is Job thirty eight through the end
of the book.
That’s thirty eight through forty two, I believe.
Job thirty eight through forty two.
And as you read that, you’re gonna be reading a series of questions for the most part.
A series of questions where God’s asking Job, Job, where were you?
Read it in view of is God worthy of worship?
All right.
Thank you for your attention.
Imagine Pure Religion – Justin Evergarden – July 05, 2026
If you would please turn your Bibles over to James 1 and verse 27.
James 1 and verse 27.
Romeo Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?
These are words from the uh very well known poet Shakespeare.
It was during the balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet.
The same balcony scene where Shakespeare’s immortal words are engrafted on the minds of so
many people, where they say, Ah, a rose called by any other name would smell just as
sweet.
However, I disagree with Shakespeare.
If any of you have ever taken classes on argument, or even basic English classes, as many
of you probably have, we know that words have definitions, and those definitions must be
exact.
In the subject of argument in and of itself, the very first thing you have to do with any
argument that’s going to have any form of foundation is to define your terms.
So every word has a direct meaning.
And the meaning must be very specific.
Few words in modern culture produce as many different reactions as the word religion.
For some, religion may bring to mind faith, hope, and even the meaning of life.
For others, unfortunately, it brings to mind division, hypocrisy, conflict,
disappointment.
And even violence.
These reactions often come from personal experience rather than history or scripture.
And to be fair, not all of those negative reactions are without cause.
Throughout human history, terrible things have been done in the name of religion.
Specifically, false religions have done everything from human sacrifice to oppression to
exploitation.
In our history books, one such example we can see is the Catholic Crusades.
How many millions of people died during the Crusades?
If we look to Scripture, we can see the prophet Jeremiah condemning the worship of Molech,
where children were literally offered as sacrifices.
Back then, the image of Molech was a statue with his hands held out, a fire placed
underneath, and they would take the children and set them on top as sacrifices.
Jeremiah said that never never have such things ever been commanded by God.
Jeremiah in thirty-two, verse thirty-five says, And they built high places unto the places
of Baal, which are in the valley of Hinnum, to cause their sons and daughters to pass
through the fire unto Molech, which I commanded them not, neither it came into my mind
that they should do this abomination.
Because of such horrible things in history, many have concluded wrongly that religion is
the problem.
The idea was probably most famously expressed by one of our musicians, John Lennon.
He wrote a song named Imagine, granted, with a very catchy tune, beautiful melody to it.
But the wording, he imagined a world without heaven.
A world without hell, a world without nations, possessions, and specifically in his song
he says without religion.
His thought was that mankind might finally have peace if these things were removed
entirely from mankind.
Truthfully, I think these are some of the worst song lyrics to have ever been written,
because they are simply not true.
The song may be catchy, but the message is not.
Because his conclusion misses something very, very important.
The problem is not religion itself, the problem stems from man’s corruption of it.
Turn in your Bibles over to Ecclesiastes 7 and verse 29.
To save time tonight, I’ve put all the verses up on a PowerPoint because I’ve got a lot to
go through.
In writing to the Ecclesiastes, he says, Lo, this only have I found that God hath made man
upright, but they have sought out many inventions.
This is exactly what mankind has done with the word religion.
Men have altered it, they have abused it, they have politicized it, they have even in some
cases commercialized it.
But that’s not what it’s about.
They want to reshape it according to human desire.
But the abuse of something good does not prove that the thing itself is evil.
To condemn religion because some have abused it would be like condemning medicine because
some have misused it.
There’s a large difference between taking cough medicine to cure your cough and taking
cough medicine to overdose on it.
It does not make the medicine itself the problem.
And the same is true with religion.
The New Testament does not define true religion by worldly terms like pride or violence or
hypocrisy and specifically not man-made tradition.
God defines true religion by purity, by compassion, by holiness, by definition obedience.
So let’s look at what James says in James 1 and verse 27.
He says, and I quote: Pure religion, and undefiled before God, and the Father is this.
To visit the fatherless and the widows and their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted
from the world.
This one verse brings us back to God’s standard and the correct definition of what
religion is.
So imagine so instead of imagining a world with no religion this evening, we need to ask
ourselves a better question: What would the world look like if people actually practiced
the religion that God approves?
There’s a major shift there.
So we’re going to break down James 129 and we’re going to look at the characteristics of
pure religion.
He uses first off two words, pure and undefiled.
Pure religion, meaning religion that’s free from contamination.
It hasn’t been mixed with human tradition or philosophy or invention or human preference.
It remains what God intended it to be.
And that matters because God has because mankind has always been tempted to improve on
God’s design.
We’ve never been able to do it, but mankind is always tempted to try.
Men often assume human wisdom can make God’s way more appealing, more digestible, more
acceptable.
But Scripture warns us about trusting our own way above God’s way.
Proverbs 14 and verse 12 says, There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end
thereof are the ways of death.
Something may seem right and still be wrong.
It may feel sincere and still be unauthorized.
It can be popular and still be false.
Pure religion asks, what has God said about it?
In Colossians 3:17, we read, And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of
the Lord Jesus.
Now in the name of the Lord Jesus means by his authority.
When the police come and knock on your door, they say, Open up in the name of the law.
It’s not just the law named, it’s by the authority that’s given to us by the law of the
land.
This is what this verse means.
So pure religion does not begin with, do I like this?
Do I like this congregation that I’m going to?
It asks and begins with, has Christ authorized this?
This is why purity matters.
If a glass of water had a few drops of motor oil in it, no reasonable person on this
planet would say, well, it’s mostly water, I’ll drink it anyway.
The issue is not the amount of water.
The issue is the contamination of the water.
In the same way, a religious system may contain many elements of truth and yet still be
corrupted by doctrines and practices that God never authorized.
James also says that true religion is undefiled before God.
This is the second one.
This phrase reminds us that God is the judge of religion in and of itself, not culture,
not tradition.
In Japan, they have a problem of family history that defines their religion.
What defines it is God.
A practice may be ancient and may be still unauthorized.
A congregation may be large, but it’s still wrong.
How many times do we read in the Bible, and few there be that find it?
It’s not saying the larger the congregation, the safer you are.
There’s not safety in numbers here.
The standard is not what man accepts, it’s the standard which God approves of.
So Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 10.
Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Again, remember that’s by the authority of that ye all speak different things.
I’m sorry, I read that wrong, didn’t I?
He said, Speak the same thing.
That there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same
mind and in the same judgment.
We can reference this with Ephesians 4, verses 4 through 5, where he says, There’s one
body, one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith,
one baptism.
That’s not six different things.
I know I’m holding up all the fingers.
It’s just one.
One, one, one.
Six different times.
These verses do not describe religious confusion, they describe unity in truth.
Pure religion requires us to have much more than simply good intentions.
Some of the worst things that have ever happened on this planet have become because of
good intentions, gone about the wrong way.
But James does not stop with doctrine.
Pure religion is not merely something we believe in, it’s something we have to practice.
So we have the practice of pure religion.
James gives us two clear evidences of pure religion.
First, we see that pure religion cares for those who are suffering.
In James 1 27.
Second, he says pure religion remains unstained by the world.
These two pictures that we’re given give us a very good balanced view of what Christianity
should mean.
We must reach outward in compassion while at the same time guarding ourselves inwardly.
Now, for those of you that like to watch uh MMA or like the boxing, you always see them
with their hands up protecting the heads, the most vulnerable part.
When you go out to do the work, one arm is bat out while the other one stays back
protecting.
It’s the same imagery used here.
You have to be doing something while protecting yourself at the same time.
James says pure religion involves visiting the fatherless and the widows in their
affliction.
Now in the ancient world, widows and orphans were among the most vulnerable of the
population.
Many lacked financial support.
Back then they didn’t have legal protection.
they didn’t have very good social standing.
They were easily forgotten and unable to defend themselves.
Back then they did not have welfare, they did not have snap benefits, they did not have
all these things to care for them.
So many times they were simply left to just fend on their own, and they were forgotten.
But Psalm 68 and verse 5 says, A father of the fatherless and a judge of the widows is God
in his holy habitation.
Let’s look further into Psalms 146 and verse 9, where it says, The Lord preserveth the
strangers, he relieveth the fatherless and the widows.
He’s there for them.
And these verses reveal the heart of God, a God that cares, a God who loves the afflicted.
He notices that all the ones the society has forgotten.
Because pure religion is a religion that reflects the character of God, not one that’s
just lip service.
It must produce that same concept in its followers, in its people, in its Christians.
James is not saying widows and orphans are the only people Christians should help.
He’s using the examples of those who are vulnerable.
Those who are in need, those have afflicted by something.
Genuine faith is one that moves beyond words and into action.
First John three, verses seventeen through eighteen.
But whoso hath this world’s good and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his
bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
How how is it possible?
He’s being facetious here.
It’s not possible.
To shut yourself up from those in need and still claim to have God.
And then he has a kind remark.
He’s he’s appealing to the ones he loves.
He says, My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and
truth.
We read elsewhere in the Bible it says, They shall know you by your works, not by your lip
service.
This is practical Christianity.
Yeah, it’s easy to say we love people.
It’s easy to fly a flag all month long.
It’s easy to speak kindly about compassion.
But pure religion will ask is our love visible?
Is it actionable?
Are we helping?
Are we serving?
Are we noticing?
Are we making time for those that are hurting?
We need to make time.
Look at Galatians 6 and verse 10.
It says, as we have therefore opportunity, when opportunity presents itself, let us do
good unto some men.
No.
The men which we agree with.
No.
The ones we disagree with?
Yes.
Unto all men.
Doesn’t matter what their background is.
Doesn’t matter what their belief system is.
Doesn’t matter what their history is.
It says, do good unto all men, especially unto those that are of the household of faith.
It’s telling us that opportunity matters.
And when God places someone in front of us who’s hurting, who’s lonely, who’s discouraged,
who’s sick, who’s grieving, who’s recovering, who’s struggling, who’s spiritually weak,
who needs prayers.
Who’s broken down on the side of the road?
Who’s broke?
I could keep going on.
He is saying we have an opportunity there to practice pure religion.
The world likes to ask, What can others do for me?
God tells us to ask, What can we do for the world?
Who needs me?
And this is what we see in Christ.
Jesus noticed the people who others ignored.
He spoke with the outcast.
He touched the untouchable.
He comforted the grieving.
He showed compassion to those whose society often rejected.
Think back at the lepers.
Matthew nine and verse thirty-six says, But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with
compassion on them.
This is a Savior who had enough compassion to see hearts and souls in need.
In Luke 10, verses 25 through 37, which I don’t have on the slides, Jesus gives us the
parable of the Good Samaritan.
A man had been beaten, robbed, and left half for dead.
A priest passed by.
A Levite passed by.
Both were religious men, as the world would define religion.
Both knew the law, but neither stopped.
So then the Samaritan came.
He saw the wounded man, he showed him compassion, he treated his wounds, took him to an
inn, and even provided for his care, paid for it.
When we read that, a lesson becomes very clear.
Actions
mean more than words.
Religious activity alone is not the same thing as pure religion.
Attendance matters, yes, worship matters, doctrine absolutely matters, but outward
religion without compassion is not the religion James described.
Just read the all of chapter one.
Charity, love.
There’s multiple different types of love there.
Pure religion helps, it does not harm, and it seeks the good of others rather than
personal advantage.
Wherever people are suffering, Christians have not only the opportunity but
But we have the need to do good unto them.
The second evidence of pure religion we see is personal holiness.
He says, Remain unspotted from the world in James 1:27.
Compassion without holiness is incomplete.
Christians are called to serve the world, yes, but we are not called to become like the
world.
And we have to be very careful there.
Let me ask: if you have a rescue swimmer, you go to most public pools, I try to not go to
those places for other reasons.
But for sake of an illustration, you go to a public pool, they always have a lifeguard on
duty.
Can a lifeguard save someone if he himself does not know how to swim and he jumps in that
water?
No.
He can’t save someone when he himself is being overcome by the same amount of water.
This is the same thing.
Christians face a similar challenge.
We are called to go forth and teach all nations, help the world, love souls in the world.
But we must not adopt the values.
We must not adopt the attitudes.
We must not adopt the desires.
And we absolutely cannot adopt the practices of the world.
Romans 12 and verse 2.
It says, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind.
First John two fifteen.
We can cross reference.
He says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in it.
James uses the word unspotted.
It gives the picture of a very clean garment, a wedding dress.
You haven’t spilled ketchup on it yet.
Because you’re you’re not to that point.
You’re not eating at the end.
A small stain would be very easy to see against that clean of a background.
In the same way, sin can stain our souls, and the world is full of it.
It damages our influence and weakens our faith.
But most importantly, sin is what distance and separates us from God the Father.
Even a small sin is enough to distance us.
And the world constantly applies pressure to do just that to sin.
And sometimes, yes, that pressure is obvious.
It comes in the form of immorality, of lies, uh drunkenness, using profanity, greed.
Sometimes it’s even as as blatant as simple rebellion to God.
But sometimes it can be a lot more subtle, can’t it?
Pride?
Bitterness onto that anger?
Materialism.
Being so hooked that you just can’t let go of something.
Laziness is one.
Or it could be just the quiet acceptance of worldly values.
It’s the idea of, well, I’ll do me and you just do you.
That’s not love.
Is it love whenever you see your
We’ll say two or three-year-old child walk up and they’re gonna go put their hand on the
hot stove.
Do you intervene because you care?
Or do you say, you just do you, man?
Hopefully you’ll learn.
I mean they will learn.
But he’s gonna be punished because of it.
It’s gonna hurt, right?
We all know that.
That’s simple.
This is the same thing of why we try to teach the world.
We’re trying to keep them from that ultimate harm because we love them.
Love is not bailing your buddy out of jail.
Love is sitting there next to them saying, Yeah, I know you messed up, man, but I’m here
for you.
I’m gonna help you through this.
Modern technology has made this even more difficult.
Entertainment, social media, streaming platforms, digital content putting the thinking of
the world in front of us every single day.
And you don’t get a reprieve from the program just because the commercials come on.
They’ve infiltrated almost every single commercial out there.
Yes, technology can be used responsibly, but they can also shape our desires and dull our
senses in a spiritual manner.
Holiness does not happen by accident.
No one drifts into holiness.
No one accidentally becomes Christ-like.
We have to pursue that.
How?
Psalms 119 and 11 says, Thy word have I hidden mine heart that I might not sin against
thee.
Psalm 119 11 on the slides.
missing it.
There we go.
Alright, we’re gonna go to the next one.
First Peter 1, 15 through 16.
But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation,
because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy.
The world do not need Christians who blend in.
We’ve got to stick out from the world.
It needs Christians who show a different way of living.
As Jesus said in Matthew 5, 16, let your light so shine before men that they may see your
lip service.
Shake your heads like this.
No.
He says that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
They see our light reflected by his light.
Light is noticeable because it’s different from darkness.
If Christians ever became indistinguishable from the world, do you think our influence
would weaken?
Yeah.
When we live lives that are holy like his, our conduct becomes a testimony to the power of
the gospel of Jesus Christ working in us and through us.
Pure religion is not about merely avoiding obvious sins.
It’s cultivating an entire lifestyle for us, that’s why we call ourselves Christians, that
reflect the character of Christ.
When we understand James’ definition of pure religion, we can better understand why so
many people are disillusioned with the word religion.
Much of what they reject is not the religion described in Scripture.
They have not started by defining the terms they are using.
They are rejecting human religion, shaped by ambition.
And all the other things we listed before.
And rightly so, we should absolutely reject all of man’s religions all the time.
In the days of Jesus, many religious leaders elevated human tradition above God’s
commands.
Let’s look at Mark seven and verse seven.
How be it in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
It’s pretty scary statement.
They worshiped, but their worship was in vain.
God does not have to accept every form of worship.
They were religious, but their religion was corrupted.
Yes, the Pharisees prayed, they fasted, they followed many traditions, yet Jesus exposed
the difference between outward religion and genuine submission to God.
Shakespeare likes to say that we’re all just actors playing the part.
We’re all actors on a stage.
Again, I disagree.
You can become something.
You are not merely playing the part.
A Christian is a Christian, not pretending to be one.
We need to define our terms.
The same danger exists today.
A person can be sincere, very much so, and still be wrong.
Look at Saul when he was confronted on the road of Damascus.
He was very sincere in what he was doing, but he was wrong.
A group may be passionate and still be teaching an error.
A practice may be popular, but still be unauthorized.
Jesus said in Matthew 7 and verse 21, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall
enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of the Father which is in
heaven.
So what is he saying?
He’s saying religious claims are not enough.
You can say you’re spiritual till you’re blue in the face, it doesn’t mean anything.
Your actions are how God is going to judge us.
Jesus continues by describing people who would say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in
thy names?
And in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works.
But his response was, I never knew you.
Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
These people were deeply religious.
But they were rejected because they did not do the will of the Father.
They did their own will.
If we don’t learn anything else tonight, it’s that the answer to false religion is to
return to God’s will.
John 8 and verse 32, Jesus said, And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make
you free.
Truth matters, truth exists, truth can be known.
It is not a spectrum.
We do not get to pick our truth.
You do not get to have your truth.
There is the truth and there is the lie.
It’s that simple.
Jesus did not speak of many conflicting truths.
Contradictory doctrines cannot all be correct at the same time.
It’s simple logic.
Not hard to understand, but that creates a serious problem in a religious world filled
with division.
Many groups claim allegiance to Christ while teaching different doctrines concerning
salvation, concerning worship.
Concerning church organization, concerning morality, and Christian living.
But the New Testament calls us back to unity in truth.
I’ve said this before, once once before, maybe you remember there’s a difference in unity
and union.
Imagine two cats running away from a dog.
You have unity.
They are one in purpose.
Escape the dog.
If you take those two cats and you tie their tails together and you throw them over a
clothesline, they are in union.
I promise they will not be in unity.
They will be fighting each other.
There’s a massive difference.
First Corinthians one and verse ten says it all.
That ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you.
None.
Zero.
If I disagree with you on a topic, we need to open the word of God and see what God says
about it.
Because if he said it, that settles it.
Our opinions do not matter.
Ephesians 4 and verse 4 through 5 again one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one
faith, one baptism, one.
It is either total immersion or it is sprinkling.
What does the word of God say?
Immersion.
Second John 9 says, whoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath
not God.
The solution to religious division is not to ignore doctrine.
This solution is not imagine no religion.
The solution is to return.
To the doctrine of Christ.
So human religion will ask, What do I want?
Pure religion will ask, what does God want?
Human religion seeks convenience.
Pure religion should seek obedience.
Human religion follows the culture.
Pure religion follows Scripture.
Removing religion has never removed any of mankind’s deepest problems.
It hasn’t removed greed, selfishness, hatred, immorality, and many, many others.
People have tried time and time again.
If you Google search, there have been a couple cities where they outlawed religion.
They didn’t last too long.
Problems do not originate with pure religion.
They originate in the human heart.
Jeremiah seventeen and verse nine says, The heart is deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
God can.
So we need to look towards the greatest example of pure religion that we have.
That’s Christ.
It’s not found in a human system, it’s Christ.
Jesus perfectly demonstrated everything James described.
He cared for the vulnerable.
He remained perfectly unspotted from the world.
He lived in complete submission to the will of the Father, even when it came time for him
to die on a cross.
Remember the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane?
Lord, if there be any other way, however, not my will, but thine.
If there’s not, I will submit.
He was compassionate without compromise.
Hebrews 4 and verse 15 says that Christ was in all points tempted, like as we are, yet
without sin.
Jesus entered the world and faced sorrow.
He faced everything that we had to deal with.
And he remained pure.
There were no motor oil in that water.
Pure water.
John 1 14 says, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
He had the ability to remain distance.
He was God in heaven.
Further on in John chapter 1, you see where he made the world.
But he became just like us.
He understood how it felt to be sick, how it felt to be poor, how it felt to grieve.
One of the first Bible verses our little ones learn to memorize is Jesus wept.
He was definitely an outcast.
Matthew nine and verse thirty six says, But when he saw the multitude he was moved with
compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no
shepherds.
Where others may have seen interruptions, Christ would have saw souls.
Luke nineteen and verse ten says, For the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which
is lost.
He did not merely talk about love, he lived it.
He came down from heaven to prove it.
The greatest demonstration of pure religion was seen at the cross.
And you’ll never be able to convince me otherwise.
First Peter two, verses twenty one through twenty-two says, Christ also suffered for us,
leaving an example that we should follow in his steps, who did no sin, neither was found
gil f guile found in his mouth.
Tell me, was he reviled on that cross by the people there?
Yeah.
Did he revile them back?
No, he fully submitted himself, and he even said, Forgive them, they know not what they
do.
Romans 5 and verse 8 says, But God commended his love towards us, and that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us.
That’s the heart of the gospel, right?
The good news.
So when the world says, Imagine no religion, the Christian must answer.
No.
Imagine pure religion.
Just take a moment and imagine a people who actually followed Christ.
Let’s let’s take John Lennon’s song for a second.
I’m not going to go through all the lyrics.
But let’s just turn that upside down and imagine an entire world of people who care for
those who are suffering.
Not a single person does not care about those who are suffering and willing to put the
work in to stop the suffering.
Because you can care and do nothing about it, right?
Or say you care.
But again, pure religion is one that works.
How about an entire world who defend the helpless?
How about an entire world of people, no one left out, who teaches the truth?
How about an entire world of people who love God enough to obey Him and who love souls
enough to serve them?
This is the religion James described.
This is the religion Jesus lived.
This is the religion that God ordained.
And this is the religion every Christian in the world is called to practice.
The question is not whether or not the s the world has seen false religion.
It absolutely has.
The question is whether the world can see pure religion demonstrated when we leave this
building out those back doors.
Remember that James one verse twenty seven is God’s definition of religion.
So if we want that pure religion, we must come to God on his terms, right?
Yes.
Jesus said in John fourteen, verse six, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father but by me.
Acts four and verse twelve says, Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is
none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Christ has all authority.
Matthew 28:18, all power is given to me in heaven and in earth.
And since Christ has all authority, we have to obey his gospel.
We must believe because Hebrews 11:6 says, But without faith, it is impossible to please
him.
We must repent, because Luke 13:3 says, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
We must be willing to confess to Christ, because Romans 10 10 says, For with the man with
the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation.
And we must be baptized, because Mark 16 and verse 16 says, He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved.
And finally, we must live faithfully because Revelation 2.10 says, Be thou faithful unto
death, and I will give you a crown of life.
Pure religion should never be something we just discuss.
It has to be something we obey.
It has to be something we practice.
It has to be something to live, and it has to be something that I hope every one of us
loves.
Because there’s no downside to pure religion.
So tonight before we leave, I hope you ask yourself the simple question: Are we practicing
pure religion before God?
If not, now is the time to return to his standard as we stand and