Latest / Admonition Podcast / The Eye (Part 1) - Aaron Cozort - May 31, 2026
Transcript
- 0:01Good morning.
- 0:03It's good to have all of you with us.
- 0:05It's good to have our visitors with us.
- 0:07We're grateful for your presence, and we hope that you will come back and see us again soon at your next available opportunity.
- 0:15Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to the book of Proverbs.
- 0:22Proverbs chapter 20.
- 0:27We read in verse 12 where the Proverbs writer says,
- 0:42This Sunday and two Sundays from now, I want us to spend a few moments considering the eye.
- 0:51The eye which God made.
- 0:54Now we're not going to uh delve into all of the scientific looking uh at or explanation of the eye, though it is an incredible creation.
- 1:08and certainly declares the glory of God, but rather we're going to look at it from a biblical perspective.
- 1:16Beginning first with our eyes, or the eyes of the righteous.
- 1:23Turn to the 121st Psalm.
- 1:27In Psalm 121, the psalmist writer begins with these words.
- 1:36Psalm 121 and in verse 1, I will lift up my eyes to the hills.
- 1:43From whence comes my help?
- 1:46He asks the question, I'm going to look, I'm going to gaze around, I'm going to decipher and try to understand from where my help comes.
- 2:00But then he writes verse two, my help comes from the Lord.
- 2:06who made heaven and earth.
- 2:09He will not allow your foot to be moved.
- 2:13He who keeps you will not slumber.
- 2:16Behold, he who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
- 2:22The Lord is your keeper.
- 2:24The Lord is your shade at your right hand.
- 2:27The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
- 2:32The Lord shall preserve you from all evil.
- 2:35He shall preserve your soul.
- 2:37The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth and even forevermore.
- 2:47as the psalmist writer considers where his help comes from.
- 2:54He looks around.
- 2:57He looks to the hills.
- 2:59You know, there was uh a king who once thought as he went into the land of Israel and did battle with the people in Israel and was defeated in the hills, you know what?
- 3:12That's the problem.
- 3:13We did battle with them in the hills.
- 3:15Let's do battle with them in the flatlands because their God must be a God of the hills.
- 3:21So if we do battle with them in the flatlands, we'll win because their God will be powerless there.
- 3:29The king had a false concept of God.
- 3:33He didn't understand Jehovah who made heaven and earth.
- 3:39God says, I'll defeat you in the hills.
- 3:41I'll defeat you in the flatlands.
- 3:42I'll send you to your grave.
- 3:46The point is the psalmist writer uses his eyes and he looks ultimately to the Lord for deliverance.
- 3:59God's people use their eyes to look to the Lord and rely on him.
- 4:11As we consider additionally, if we turn
- 4:15back just a few pages in your Bible to Psalm 119.
- 4:22In Psalm 119 and in verse 18, we learn that the righteous have their eyes taught by God.
- 4:34In Psalm 119 and in verse 18, we read, Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from your law.
- 4:48The prayer
- 4:49and the request of the psalmist writer here is that God educate his eyes, that God teach him what the law would have him to know, that he be caused to see the wonders of what God
- 5:09had done and was doing.
- 5:12The psalmist writer here is an asking
- 5:15for some miraculous knowledge to be placed in his heart and his mind, he's asking for his eyes to be taught by the Word of God.
- 5:25Matter of fact, the whole 119th Psalm in all of its verses is dedicated to glorifying and magnifying and recognizing the value of the Word of God.
- 5:40And here the Psalmist writer, Ash, opened my eyes.
- 5:45that I may see.
- 5:48As we consider the eyes of the righteous, we should understand that they are educated by God.
- 6:02They are taught to understand the things which the world does not perceive, does not understand, does not conceptualize, because the thing they're missing is divine
- 6:14revelation.
- 6:15from God in the form of His Word.
- 6:22as the righteous we are to have our eyes taught by God.
- 6:25Psalm 19
- 6:29The psalmist writer in the 19th Psalm speaks concerning the revelation of God.
- 6:35He begins by pointing out that God has revealed Himself through the firmament, through His handiwork.
- 6:42He reveals Himself every day.
- 6:45Day unto day He utters speech.
- 6:46Night unto night He shows knowledge.
- 6:50There's no language or speech in which their voice is not heard.
- 6:54The line has gone out through all the earth.
- 6:56and all the words to the end of the world.
- 6:58He's speaking about natural revelation.
- 7:00He's speaking about the thing which we see around us, the universe that we exist in, this physical world which declares the glory of God.
- 7:12But he goes on to write in beginning in verse seven, he says, the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul.
- 7:24The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
- 7:30The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.
- 7:34The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
- 7:44There was a time which historians have termed the time of the enlightenment, a time in history where there was much discussion and cultural discussion and religious discussion
- 8:00about God and about the creation and the world around us.
- 8:04Much discovery was being made about the world and the universe around us and the way that things were made and exist.
- 8:13And yet,
- 8:18God makes it clear as the psalmist writer brings forth that it is the commandment of the Lord that enlightens, brings light to the eyes.
- 8:36Most of us at some point, I imagine, have walked through a dark room.
- 8:42We had a friend back in North Carolina that she was in their house, the house they had lived in for years, and she was walking with the lights off.
- 8:54and there just happened to be a wall where she didn't think there was a wall.
- 8:59And her toe ran into it and she hit her toe so hard she fell the floor passed out.
- 9:08in a house she had lived in for years.
- 9:11You know that wall had been there the entire time.
- 9:15from the time that they moved into that house.
- 9:18That wall hadn't moved.
- 9:21So why is it that she ran into the wall?
- 9:25It wasn't because it hadn't moved.
- 9:26It wasn't because it was new.
- 9:28It was because there was no light.
- 9:36Imagine living in a world day in, day out, week in, week out, year in, year out, without any light from the revelation of the commandments of God on how to live, on how to be in
- 9:58this life prepared for the next.
- 10:06in Ephesians, Paul, as he writes to the church at Ephesus, the church which he had spent so much time with and had such deep, deep care for, will write in Ephesians chapter 1,
- 10:27Verse 15, therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my
- 10:41prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
- 10:51The eyes of your understanding being enlightened,
- 10:56that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who
- 11:07believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at the right hand in heavenly places, far above
- 11:18all principality in power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come."
- 11:26He put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
- 11:37as Paul writes to these Christians.
- 11:42He expresses in this prayer on their behalf that they be granted eyes of understanding.
- 11:54that they looked to God's Word.
- 11:58They looked to the revelation and the knowledge that God has given them.
- 12:02Now in the first century, He gave it to them through the form of the miraculous gifts, through the form of those who had inspired knowledge and revelation like the apostles, and
- 12:13they gave that knowledge and information to the church, and the church was supposed to learn from it.
- 12:20You go over to Ephesians chapter 4, and you will find Paul mentioning,
- 12:24the work of evangelists and elders and teachers and preachers and their function to educate the church to maturity so that they wouldn't be blown about by every wind of
- 12:38doctrine that they encountered.
- 12:41And Paul is praying on behalf of the Ephesian brethren that their eyes be opened to what God had been doing and was continuing to do.
- 12:53But he points out, he says, you need to see the work that Christ is doing.
- 13:04You need to see his position in heaven.
- 13:09You need to see his authority over principalities and powers in heavenly places.
- 13:16Now question, how can you see that?
- 13:22for everything that he's describing is something that isn't visible to the physical eye.
- 13:30Well, if you turn over to Hebrews chapter 11, the Hebrew writer explains how you can see it.
- 13:40He says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
- 13:52You ask, how can I see what is unseeable?
- 13:59And in the entire chapter of Hebrews 11, the answer is, by trusting God's Word.
- 14:10So example after example after example in Hebrews chapter 11 begin by using these words, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith.
- 14:24Now that's not a hope in the dark.
- 14:28That's not walking through the dark room and hoping you end up in the right place.
- 14:33That is God saying, let me shine a light in the room so you can see where you're going and I'll tell you what I'm doing.
- 14:46And so in Hebrews chapter 12.
- 14:53The Hebrew writer writes, therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and
- 15:05let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus.
- 15:17The Hebrew writer says, here's how you do in the Christian age what the Old Testament examples did in their age.
- 15:32You set your eyes on Christ.
- 15:37You look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of
- 15:49the throne of God.
- 15:50For consider him.
- 15:53Put your mind's eye on him.
- 16:00Stop worrying about what your
- 16:02physical eye can see.
- 16:05And start allowing your eyes to be educated by God to see what the mind can know through faith, through the Word of God, through the evidence that God gives and the testimony He
- 16:18gives, and consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself lest you become weary and discouraged in your soul.
- 16:34Paul prayed that the Ephesian brethren have their eyes enlightened by God.
- 16:42How do you do that?
- 16:43It's not some miraculous thing.
- 16:46You put your eyes into the Word of God and you allow the Word of God to shine the light of God in your eyes.
- 16:59But when you don't...
- 17:03The Hebrew writer says when you take your eyes off of Christ, when you no longer are looking to the author and finisher of our faith, then you're going to become weary and
- 17:15discouraged.
- 17:19I have friends who have lived in Alaska.
- 17:25Some of my friends have previously lived in Alaska, and some do live in Alaska.
- 17:32But one of the things they would point out is how much of a struggle there is in the society of people who live in Alaska with drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and other things like
- 17:46that.
- 17:46And it is very much prominent during the six months where the sun doesn't shine.
- 17:56When it's dark for six months, the human perception of things gets a little off-kilter.
- 18:08It's not helped too much when it's bright for six months and the sun never goes down either.
- 18:12But the point is we are used to what God designed us to live in.
- 18:23And the Hebrew writer tells us, put your eyes on Christ.
- 18:27Stop allowing darkness to diminish your view of Christ.
- 18:36We are to be those as we consider the eyes of the righteous who look to God.
- 18:44Jesus would write or would say, as Matthew recorded it in his record of the gospel, Matthew chapter six.
- 19:03Matthew chapter 6 beginning in verse 19, he says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal.
- 19:15But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, where thieves do not break in and steal.
- 19:23For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
- 19:29The lamp of the body is the eye.
- 19:34As Jesus tells us, the light of your existence is determined by your eye.
- 19:47He's not talking about your physical eye.
- 19:52He's talking about where your heart is, what your heart dwells upon, what your mind focuses on.
- 20:04He says, the lamp of the body is the eye.
- 20:07If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.
- 20:13But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.
- 20:17If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that dark.
- 20:27Jesus says, set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
- 20:39So as we consider the eyes of the righteous, we consider that they are to look to the Lord.
- 20:44We consider that they are to be taught by God.
- 20:47They are to be given light by His word, and they are to look to God.
- 20:53but then consider the eyes of the wicked.
- 20:54If we turn to Isaiah chapter 6...
- 21:04Isaiah chapter 6.
- 21:14We read of the call of Isaiah.
- 21:18In Isaiah chapter six and verse one, we read, the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
- 21:31Above it stood Seraphim.
- 21:33Each one had six wings.
- 21:34With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, with two he flew.
- 21:39And one cried to another and said, holy.
- 21:41Holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
- 21:44The whole earth is full of his glory.
- 21:47And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out and the house was filled with smoke.
- 21:53So I said, woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
- 22:06As Isaiah sees this vision, he looks at himself and says, I don't belong here.
- 22:17because I am not righteous.
- 22:20I am not a person of unclean lips or a person of clean lips.
- 22:25I am a person of unclean lips and so are my people.
- 22:31Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth with it and said, Behold, this has
- 22:42touched your lips, your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is purged.
- 22:47And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?
- 22:51Then I said, Here am I, send me.
- 22:55The seraphim comes and he touches his mouth with...
- 22:58one of the coals from the altar and he says, I've purged your iniquity.
- 23:02I've taken your sin away.
- 23:06And then the question comes from the throne of God.
- 23:09Who are we going to send on our behalf?
- 23:11We need a messenger.
- 23:13Who's going to volunteer?
- 23:15And Isaiah says, here am I, send me.
- 23:18And he said, go and tell this people, keep on hearing, but do not understand.
- 23:27Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.
- 23:33Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts, and return
- 23:45and be healed.
- 23:50God says, I've got a message that needs to go forth to the people.
- 23:53Who's going to take it?
- 23:55Isaiah says, here am I, send me.
- 23:57I'll take the message.
- 23:59What's the message?
- 24:00God says, shut up the ears and the eyes and the hearts of this people.
- 24:10Wait a minute.
- 24:12I thought God wanted people to repent.
- 24:15I thought God was long suffering and desired for them to be saved.
- 24:20I thought God was one who was willing and gracious and desires for people to do what was right.
- 24:26Yes, he is.
- 24:31How is it that Isaiah is going to shut the ears and the eyes and the hearts of the people?
- 24:37The answer is he's going to declare to them the word of God.
- 24:41You see, God knows that his word has two effects.
- 24:48And it has two effects, and which effect it has is determined not by the word, but by the heart of the person who hears it.
- 25:00And so God is going to send Isaiah forth to speak his word.
- 25:05And the result of Israel as a wicked people is instead of having their ears opened to learn, instead of having their eyes opened to see, instead of having their hearts opened
- 25:20to be educated by God and repent, the word of God is going to be preached to them and it's going to have the opposite effect.
- 25:28Same message.
- 25:29different result.
- 25:32And it's because the eyes of the wicked are blind to the truth.
- 25:39They're not blind because it's impossible for them to understand it.
- 25:44They're blind because they have their heart set on this world.
- 25:53John would write in 1 John, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
- 26:01For the things that are in the world are passing away.
- 26:06But the wicked have their heart and their eyes and their mind locked in on this world.
- 26:16And anything that is about anything else, they're uninterested.
- 26:24So God sends Isaiah to make the eyes of the wicked blind, because they had blinded their eyes already.
- 26:32Turn to Mark chapter 8.
- 26:36Jesus will speak to His disciples after they had witnessed the things which He had done in feeding the 4,000.
- 26:48and he will speak to them about why they do not understand what he's doing.
- 26:54In Mark chapter eight and in verse 15, we read, then he charged them, take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.
- 27:06And the day the disciples, the apostles reasoned among themselves saying, is it because we have no bread?
- 27:14They were looking at their physical supplies and they heard the statement from Jesus, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod, and they're like, is he criticizing us
- 27:25because we kind of forgot provisions today?
- 27:29Is he faulting us because we don't have the supplies that we need?
- 27:36Jesus being aware of it said to them verse 17, why do you reason because you have no bread?
- 27:42Do you not yet perceive nor understand is your heart still hardened?
- 27:47Having eyes do you not see and having ears do you not hear and do you not remember when I broke the five loaves for the 5,000 how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?
- 28:00And they said to him 12.
- 28:02Also when I broke the seven
- 28:04For the 4,000, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?
- 28:08And they said seven.
- 28:10So he said to them, how is it you do not understand?
- 28:17Then he came to Bethsaida, and they brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him.
- 28:25So he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town.
- 28:29And when he had spit on his eyes and put his hands on him, he asked him if he saw anything.
- 28:34And he looked and said, I see men like trees walking.
- 28:38Then he put his hands on him again, on his eyes again and made him look up.
- 28:42and he was restored and saw everything clearly.
- 28:45Then he said to him, oh sent him away to his house saying, neither go into the town nor tell anyone in the town.
- 28:54Jesus has just confronted the apostles, the disciples about their blindness, their blindness of understanding, their blindness of lack of education, their blindness of a
- 29:09lack of perceiving what
- 29:11Christ was doing!
- 29:16Any questions?
- 29:17You have eyes.
- 29:19Why can't you see?
- 29:21You have ears.
- 29:22Why can't you hear?
- 29:25Why do you not understand?
- 29:32We are taught, we are to understand that the eyes of the wicked cannot understand what God is doing, not because it's impossible, but because they won't pay attention to what God is
- 29:47doing.
- 29:48They will not perceive what God is doing because they won't accept the testimony that comes from God.
- 29:59But then as we conclude, we've seen the eyes of the righteous, we've seen the eyes of the wicked, now consider the eyes of the Lord.
- 30:10Psalm 34.
- 30:16in the thirty-fourth Psalm.
- 30:23The Psalmist writer
- 30:27will write, beginning in verse 11, Come, you children, listen to me.
- 30:35I will teach you the fear of the LORD, who is the man who desires life and loves many days that he may see good.
- 30:45Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.
- 30:50Depart from evil and do good, seek peace, and pursue it.
- 30:56But then he writes,
- 30:58The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their cry.
- 31:05As you consider the eyes of the Lord, we're not talking about physical eyes.
- 31:10We're not talking about the eyes on this earth, the eyes that eventually become dim, the eyes that used to be able to see clearly and now they don't see quite so clearly anymore.
- 31:20The eyes that used to be able to focus long distances away and short distances away, and now they only focus one or the other?
- 31:29We're not talking about those kind of eyes, we're talking about the eyes of attention.
- 31:37God's attention is on the righteous.
- 31:42His ears are open to hear their prayer and their cry.
- 31:50The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous for the ability to deliver them from harm.
- 31:58The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous because He's ready to hear what they need.
- 32:08quite often in raising children.
- 32:11My children will love and appreciate this.
- 32:15As you're speaking to them and you're trying to make a point, you say, look at me.
- 32:24Why?
- 32:25Because wherever your eyes are, most likely that's where your mind is.
- 32:32Well the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous.
- 32:36That tells you that the mind of the Lord is on the righteous.
- 32:44He cares about them.
- 32:51in Proverbs chapter 15.
- 32:56Proverbs chapter 15 and in verse 3.
- 33:01We read, the eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.
- 33:17if you were to say, you know what, I'm focusing on everything.
- 33:25Well, that'd be a little bit of uh a testimony about yourself and it would tell everyone else you're focusing on nothing.
- 33:34Because here's how we work as humans.
- 33:37The more things we focus on, the less focused we are.
- 33:42The more things our attention is on, the less attention we can give to anything.
- 33:48We have limited capacity.
- 33:52There is just only so much
- 33:55we can do at one time.
- 33:58My wife learned years ago when we were first married that I could focus on one thing, driving or where we were supposed to stop as we were driving.
- 34:08We would pull out of school, head back to the house, she would say, we need to stop at Dollar General.
- 34:14Dollar General was one mile down the road and we'd drive right by it.
- 34:23because my mind was already on home.
- 34:27And since that's where my focus was, there went Dollar General and she'd look at me, are we stopping or not?
- 34:38We have limited focus.
- 34:41We have limited attention.
- 34:44Not so with God.
- 34:47With God, see, the eyes of the Lord are in every place.
- 34:53The wicked wonder, the wicked surmise, you know what?
- 34:57We can get away with this.
- 34:59God won't see it.
- 35:02yes, he
- 35:05and the righteous.
- 35:09can have assurance that no matter their circumstance, God sees it.
- 35:18but he also, as he is keeping watch, does so.
- 35:24And I love the way, as we close, that Revelation chapter 1 presents the picture of Christ.
- 35:35For in Revelation chapter 1, as John is in...
- 35:45is on the Isle of Patmos on the Lord's Day.
- 35:48And as he is worshiping, he hears a voice behind him and he turns.
- 35:53And this is what John says he saw.
- 35:57Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me.
- 36:01And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the Son of Man,
- 36:09clothed with a garment down to the feet, and girded about the chest with a golden band.
- 36:14His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes like a flame of fire."
- 36:29John as he sees this vision of Christ.
- 36:38will see Christ manifested in the vision.
- 36:45as if his eyes were on.
- 36:53Christ knows what's going on.
- 36:57Christ knows what His people are about to come under.
- 37:02And He's And He's ready to deal with the wicked.
- 37:11It's interesting when you go through the book of Revelation, we'll do this a little bit more in two weeks as we continue this thought, you see eyes and eyes and eyes all over the
- 37:20place.
- 37:21You see Christ pictured with seven eyes.
- 37:24The picture of eyes all over the book.
- 37:30But all throughout the book, the book is telling us, God sees.
- 37:39If you're here this morning and you're outside the body of Christ, God sees you.
- 37:44God sees you separated from Him.
- 37:49at war, at enmity with Him.
- 37:53Not righteous, not at one with Him, not holy.
- 37:59God sees you in your sin.
- 38:06but God doesn't desire to see you that
- 38:10God desires you to be a part of His family.
- 38:13God desires to look upon you as a child of His.
- 38:19God desires to not see your sin, but rather see the righteous blood of His Son when He looks at you covering your sin.
- 38:29If you're outside the body of Christ, how can you change that?
- 38:32You can hear the Word of God.
- 38:34and believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God because Jesus said, except you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins.
- 38:41But Jesus also said, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.
- 38:45He that believeth not shall be damned.
- 38:47So you can hear the word of God.
- 38:49You can have your eyes enlightened and educated by the word of God.
- 38:53You can believe what God says and then you can obey what he says.
- 38:58And you can be immersed in water to have your sins washed away.
- 39:02and you can stand before God not with your sins as a testimony against you, but with His righteousness as a testimony for you.
- 39:13as a Christian, as a family member of God, dead to the world, alive to Christ.
- 39:24If you have need of that invitation this morning, it is open to you now and every moment of every day.
- 39:33If you have need of that invitation, why not come now as we stand and as we sing.