Latest / Admonition Podcast / Mark 16 (Lesson 3) - Aaron Cozort - June 24, 2026
Transcript
- 0:01Good evening.
- 0:02Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to the book of Mark.
- 0:05We're going to be closing out our study of the Book of Mark this evening.
- 0:23I am open to suggestions on what we might study next on our Wednesday in our Wednesday night Bible class.
- 0:33and uh if you have thoughts or suggestions, I don't promise to do what you suggest, but I do I am open to suggestions.
- 0:43And we we'll take a look at that uh by way of consideration.
- 0:47Um but uh I'm kind of feeling like uh so we we were in Timothy, then we did Mark, uh feeling like it might be a good opportunity to jump back to the Old Testament and grab an
- 1:00old testament book for a little while.
- 1:02But anyway, I'll leave that to your to your thoughts and and perusals uh this weekend.
- 1:09And if you do want to send me a text or uh have send me a suggestion be
- 1:13Happy to to receive that.
- 1:15Let's begin with a word of prayer and then we'll get into our class.
- 1:19Gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for this day, for its blessings, for all that you do for us on a daily basis.
- 1:28We're grateful for the Richardsons being able to be with us and the safety in their travel, and we pray for safety for all those who are traveling to the area for
- 1:38foundations.
- 1:39Pray that the week the week of camp will go well, and that uh many will be taught and edified and encouraged during that week and be
- 1:50More prepared to serve in your kingdom as they grow up and as they move away from home.
- 1:56Lord, we pray that you be with us as we go through uh this period of study.
- 2:02May the things that we say and do be in accordance with your will and right in your sight.
- 2:07Lord, we pray for our nation and we pray for the nations throughout the world.
- 2:11May they make choices and may they pre im implement policies that are beneficial for peace
- 2:19And for the furtherance of your kingdom.
- 2:22Lord, may we always have a boldness to speak the truth and never be afraid, no matter what a government may say, about teaching the truth and preaching the gospel in sincerity and
- 2:33in its simplicity.
- 2:35Lord, we pray for those who are seeking the truth and pray that they might find that for which they're seeking.
- 2:42All this we pray and ask in Jesus' name.
- 2:45Amen.
- 2:49As we close out the book of Mark, uh we are in Mark chapter 16, and verse 14 says, Later he appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table, and he rebuked their unbelief and
- 3:06hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen him after he had risen.
- 3:13The apostles
- 3:17Have much of the same difficulties that sometimes you and I have.
- 3:23And that is that as Christians, there's a difference between knowing intellectually, knowing the truth, and operating our lives based upon it.
- 3:36They knew everything that Jesus had taught.
- 3:40Now I understand that at this point in time, at this moment in time, they did they were not receiving the miraculous reminder through the work of the Holy Spirit concerning the
- 3:50things that Jesus taught, but they were present.
- 3:52They lived the things that Jesus taught.
- 3:57They had been part of those discussions.
- 3:59They had been hearing for months now that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem and was going to be betrayed and was going to die at the hands of their enemies.
- 4:12And yet.
- 4:15In spite of everything that they knew, in spite of everything that he had said, in spite of everything that they had been told, they're operating in their life as if they don't
- 4:28know any of those things.
- 4:30That they're they're not implementing the truth of the belief that they had.
- 4:37And it's not just that they lacked knowledge or they lacked understanding it because Jesus does not fault them for their lack of knowledge.
- 4:50He faults them for their failure to believe.
- 4:55They knew intellectually the truth.
- 5:00They were not operating in their lives upon.
- 5:05The truth that they knew.
- 5:09And that's a challenge to each and every one of us.
- 5:12Because we we have this book.
- 5:15We have the knowledge right in front of us.
- 5:18Now, first, we are accountable to study the book.
- 5:22Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
- 5:27But there's two aspects to that statement that Paul makes study, that is, give diligence.
- 5:35But there's also the workman part of the message.
- 5:40You're supposed to add knowledge to your understanding of the Word of God so that you can do something with it.
- 5:54Uh
- 5:58Eric knows this about me.
- 6:00I have a tendency to buy tools.
- 6:05We've done a number of projects through years, and if there's a tool that we need, just buy it.
- 6:09Let's go.
- 6:12You know, there are a lot of tools that may sit for a couple of years.
- 6:18Haven't touched the tool.
- 6:20There's a difference between owning a tool and being a workman.
- 6:25There's a difference between having the ability and actually doing it.
- 6:30Here are the disciples, and they know.
- 6:34Everything they've been taught, they've lived through it, but in the circumstances they found themselves in, they're no longer operating on their faith.
- 6:45They're no longer living out in their daily lives the trust that they should have had in God.
- 6:54If you had asked them a week before.
- 7:00Will Jesus reign in his kingdom?
- 7:07Their answer would have probably been the exact same thing that Peter's was in Matthew chapter 16.
- 7:14That you are the Son of God.
- 7:16And Jesus said that he came in order to establish his kingdom, and he was going to give them the keys of the kingdom, and the gates of Hades would not prevail against it.
- 7:25And yet are they operating at this moment in time a base?
- 7:30about sorry, uh upon that exact same understanding?
- 7:36A week ago if you had asked me they said, Jesus is gonna rain.
- 7:39A week later, Jesus is dead.
- 7:46It is not when things are going well, and as we expect, and as we had planned, that we are challenged to make our actions be equal with our understanding and our faith.
- 8:09It is when nothing is going well, and nothing is going as we expected, and nothing is going as planned.
- 8:15That we are now challenged to operate based not upon what we see, but what we know to be true.
- 8:26Turn to Hebrews chapter eleven.
- 8:34Hebrews chapter eleven.
- 8:40The Hebrew writer begins with, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
- 8:49In other words, it is the the substance th there the the Greek idea is it is the substrate, it is it is the support system.
- 9:00if you were to think about those ancient buildings in Roman times and the Colosseums where they had those.
- 9:07Massive stone pillars that held up the the ceiling and the roof.
- 9:12Without those stone pillars, what would happen to the to the ceiling and the roof?
- 9:17They'd come crashing down.
- 9:20So in the the picture here is faith is the support that holds up that which we hope for, but that we have not yet seen.
- 9:38Now he then goes through a list when he begins down here in verse four by faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness
- 9:52that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and through it he being dead still speaks.
- 10:01The Hebrew writer says, First example, look at Abel.
- 10:07We don't know much about Abel.
- 10:09What do we know about Abel?
- 10:14We know Cain killed him.
- 10:16What did he do for a living?
- 10:20He's a keeper of sheep.
- 10:22Okay.
- 10:23We know that he offered his sheep as a sacrifice to God.
- 10:29Those are basically the three things we know about Abel.
- 10:32Other than he's the son of Adam and Eve.
- 10:36So we don't know much.
- 10:39But the Hebrew writer draws in on this.
- 10:43We know that he offered an acceptable.
- 10:49Sacrifice to God.
- 10:52Because he offered it in accordance with God's commandment out of faith.
- 10:59By faith.
- 11:00And by the way, you say, well, wait a minute.
- 11:02I I don't I don't read in in the Old Testament, I don't read where God told them what to offer.
- 11:11Well, if you were to go through the book of Hebrews, you will find out that you cannot do something by faith unless there has first been an instruction or a statement by God.
- 11:22The Hebrew writer does not mean by faith as in I hope or I believe.
- 11:28No, he means by the instruction of God, someone obeyed.
- 11:36That's what faith is understood to be in the book of Hebrews.
- 11:39So
- 11:40In order for Abel to have offered his sacrifice by faith, there had to have been a command.
- 11:45There had to have been an instruction by God.
- 11:47Go down the rest of the list and you will find that over and over and over and over again.
- 11:55So Abel, by faith, offers a sacrifice, trusting that when he does what God says, God will do what he said.
- 12:07Enoch.
- 12:07By faith, Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found because God had taken him.
- 12:14For before he was taken, he had this testimony that he pleased God.
- 12:20Can you be pleasing to God if you don't know anything about how God expects you to act or live?
- 12:27oh So was there instruction, was there was there communication from the Lord in order for Enoch to be pleasing to God?
- 12:34Yes.
- 12:37By faith.
- 12:39Noah, verse 7, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world, and
- 12:49became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
- 12:54Here Noah is presented as an example, being warned by God of a coming destruction of the world.
- 13:04Now, where in Noah's
- 13:06History in the 500 years that he had been alive till that point, did Noah have experience with worldwide destruction?
- 13:19Nowhere.
- 13:21There's no indication that Noah had even witnessed it rain before.
- 13:28And yet God says, This is what I'm going to do and this is how I'm going to do it.
- 13:34And because of the testimony and the instruction of God, together with Noah's trust that God would do what he said, Noah operated his life.
- 13:47You find Abraham.
- 13:49Verse 8, by faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he would receive as an inheritance, and went out, and here the Hebrew writer even draws it out, not
- 14:00knowing where he was going.
- 14:06It is not when everything is going as planned, as expected, as we desire for it to do, that our faith is going to be challenged to operate.
- 14:19It is when it is not.
- 14:22Now that is combined with an understanding of we need to be watchful when everything is going right.
- 14:31Because as we talked about, I believe it was Sunday or recently at least in Deuteronomy chapter 6, Moses doesn't warn the people that in the hardship, in the hard times, they
- 14:44need to remember the Lord.
- 14:45He warns the people in the good times when you're fat and when you've eaten and you're full.
- 14:51Now you need to remember the Lord.
- 14:53Be careful that you do not forget the Lord.
- 14:56Okay?
- 14:56So we need to be careful, we need to be watchful that our faith is being lived out when things are hard and when things are easy.
- 15:08But then he says, verse 15 of Mark chapter 16 Go into all the world.
- 15:18And preach the gospel to every creature.
- 15:25What is the gospel?
- 15:27What does the word mean in the Greek?
- 15:29Good news.
- 15:31Jesus says to them, Go preach the good news.
- 15:39So Paul in First Corinthians will tell those Corinthians, when I was present with you.
- 15:48I determined not to know anything but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
- 15:53He says, I wasn't going to preach to you the wisdom of men.
- 15:56I wasn't going to preach to you the wisdom of the Jews.
- 15:59I wasn't going to preach to you the wisdom of the eloquent individuals.
- 16:04I preached a stumbling block to the Jews.
- 16:09I preached foolishness to the Gentiles because I preached a risen Savior.
- 16:18One who had died, one who had been crucified, and yet had done that for your salvation.
- 16:27When Jesus sends forth Peter, he tells him to preach the gospel.
- 16:34When Jesus sends forth Paul, he tells him to preach the gospel.
- 16:41Did they preach the same gospel?
- 16:45Yes they did.
- 16:48They preached the same gospel.
- 16:50They preached the same method whereby someone accepts and obeys the gospel.
- 16:57Yet there are many today who will argue that the gospel of Peter is different than the gospel of Paul.
- 17:03That the gospel of Peter was one of keeping works and the gospel of Paul is one of grace and faith.
- 17:09Nonsense.
- 17:13All you have to do is go through the book of Acts and look at what Paul commands people to do, and go to the same book of Acts and look at what Peter commands people to do, and
- 17:25guess what?
- 17:26It is the exact same thing.
- 17:31They preached not Paul's gospel, not Peter's gospel, but Christ's gospel.
- 17:43Who is to be a recipient of the gospel?
- 17:51Everyone.
- 17:53Doesn't matter what historical background they come from, what country they come from, what nationality they come from, what uh religious background they do or do not have, what
- 18:09their current belief system is, whether or not they're currently living in sin or in iniquity, because if they haven't been obedient to the gospel, they are.
- 18:23Jesus commands the apostles to go and preach the gospel to every creature.
- 18:29Now, are the apostles going to understand the full extent and depth of that command the moment it's given?
- 18:41How do we know?
- 18:49All right.
- 18:50Number one is they still think Jesus is here to provide an earthly kingdom.
- 18:54Number two, who do they take the gospel to for the first eight chapters of the book of Acts?
- 19:01The Jews.
- 19:05And it is not until Acts chapter 10 where the Holy Spirit will communicate and tell Peter, go to this man's house.
- 19:17And he goes to the house of Cornelius, and there, through the uh through the work of the Holy Spirit, the house of Cornelius begins speaking in tongues to identify that they as
- 19:28well should receive the gospel.
- 19:30That's not Aaron's interpretation, by the way.
- 19:32That's what Peter says.
- 19:34Having witnessed them speaking in tongues, he says, Can anyone deny them the gospel?
- 19:42And so he preaches to them the gospel and they are immersed in water that same hour.
- 19:49So as you look at it, he's going to give a command.
- 19:53They're going to understand the command as they framed it to begin with.
- 20:00But God is going to keep pushing the boundary of their understanding.
- 20:06God is going to slowly but surely get the apostles to where they needed to be.
- 20:14Now, is that because they were ignoring?
- 20:19God's commands, or was that God's plan?
- 20:28It was his plan.
- 20:30Go over to Acts chapter one.
- 20:45Acts chapter one, verse four, and being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Holy Spirit, which he
- 20:55said, You have heard from me.
- 20:57For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
- 21:03Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?
- 21:11And he said to them, It is not for you to know the times nor the seasons which the Father has put in his own authority.
- 21:17But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
- 21:32God had a plan for how the church was going to grow.
- 21:35God had a plan for how the gospel was going to proceed.
- 21:39God will
- 21:40cause them to enact the plan.
- 21:45How is God going to move them out of Jerusalem?
- 21:50Persecution.
- 21:53The the Book of Acts is one of those scenarios where we pause for a minute and go, you know what?
- 21:58Sometimes when things aren't going well for us, that oughta be an a time of examination.
- 22:04What am I not doing?
- 22:07What what not everything that is bad is a lesson to be learned.
- 22:14But there are times in which we should be taking the bad things that it we experience in life and going, This is a good opportunity for me to be doing some self examination.
- 22:28Because they didn't cause the persecution, did they?
- 22:34Did the church cause the persecution?
- 22:37That did they riot against the government?
- 22:40Cause the government to start cracking down on them?
- 22:42No.
- 22:43As a matter of fact, they were feeding the widows, they were caring for those who were being neglected, so much so that there were priests whose responsibility were the widows
- 22:54in the Jewish society who were being converted because of what the Christians were doing with the widows.
- 23:02They were going about doing good, and their popularity among the people was growing and growing and growing.
- 23:07And it was because of the good that they did that they suffered.
- 23:13But er there was still an opportunity for them to grow further in obedience to God's commandments.
- 23:23And so as they begin to be persecuted, they go everywhere preaching the word.
- 23:30It wasn't a lack of faith, it was a lack of understanding.
- 23:34It was a simple desire to be together, to not be separated from all the other Christians, but rather to be together with all the other Christians.
- 23:43You know, one of hardships that you find among missionaries is they've already accepted, but they don't get to stay in the same place.
- 23:54For many missionaries, they go from one location to another, to another, to another.
- 24:00Now, there are some missionaries that are in the same city in the same location for for years, and that's that's fine.
- 24:06But many who are missionaries, they're going from one place to the next place to the next place to the next place.
- 24:13continuing to do their work and they know part of the uh if we can use the modern vernacular part of the gig is they're gonna find a loving congregation that they want to
- 24:26spend the rest of their days with and they're not going to get to.
- 24:31They're going to be there for a period of time and then they're gonna get up and they're gonna leave again.
- 24:37And that's a challenge.
- 24:39That's what the church of Jerusalem didn't want to do.
- 24:41They were just right there, one city.
- 24:44We're not going anywhere.
- 24:46God said, Y'all got to get out of here.
- 24:49So the apostles remain, but Christians start going back home.
- 24:53They start going everywhere preaching the word.
- 24:56But then after the gospel goes to the Gentiles, you still see a bit of a stagnation, right?
- 25:04The gospel's
- 25:05Been allowed to go to the Gentiles, the Holy Spirit has authorized it.
- 25:09He's demonstrated that this is that which is in accordance with his will, but you don't see this flood of missionaries going out to the Gentiles until Jesus prompts Saul of
- 25:21Tarsus to go.
- 25:24So Holy Spirit will call forth Barnabas and Saul and send them out from Antioch.
- 25:31And they will go to the Gentile cities preaching the gospel.
- 25:38Yeah, go ahead.
- 25:47Well the the uh the apostles and elders, it seems as though the apostles were on board, but not not all the congreg not all the elders and not all the apostles were were fully
- 25:57understanding the situation.
- 25:59Um That's right.
- 26:01Yeah.
- 26:01So Acts chapter fifteen draws out uh both what Peter says, what James, the half brother of Jesus, says, and what Paul sa says there at that gathering where they're pointing out,
- 26:14listen.
- 26:15We don't get a say in this.
- 26:16The Holy Spirit's already decided.
- 26:18Um, so verse fifteen, he says, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
- 26:24He who believes and is baptized will be saved.
- 26:29There is a promise there.
- 26:31There is a statement of fact there that he who believes and is baptized will be saved.
- 26:42It is important to realize.
- 26:46that when God makes a promise, he will keep it.
- 26:52That does not mean that there's not a requirement on the promise.
- 26:59When God told Israel, if you will go into the land and if you will do what I command you, then I will give you all of these things.
- 27:11Was his promise factual?
- 27:14Was it guaranteed?
- 27:15Hundred percent.
- 27:19They could operate.
- 27:20Out of faith and trust, knowing that God was going to do exactly what he had promised.
- 27:26But did God also say what would happen if they stopped doing what he said?
- 27:34absolutely.
- 27:36He said, if you stop doing what I tell you to do, if you stop keeping my commandment, if you stop keeping my covenant and my statutes and my testimonies,
- 27:47Then what I'm going to do is I'm going to run you out of the land.
- 27:54He who believes and is baptized will be saved.
- 27:57True statement.
- 27:59Can a person who is saved lose their salvation by failing to keep the covenant agreement they've made with God?
- 28:08Absolutely.
- 28:10You say, Aaron, uh wh where do you read that?
- 28:13Well, let's let's jump right over to the writings of Peter.
- 28:24Peter will point out
- 28:29In Second Peter chapter two.
- 28:34Verse 18, he says, For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lust of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from
- 28:48those who live in error.
- 28:50Who are the people who have escaped those who live in error?
- 28:54Christians.
- 28:56He says, Here are these false teachers, and they speak these great swelling words of emptiness.
- 29:07You ever watch a little kid use one of those wands and the soapy stuff and blow a bubble?
- 29:16How big can some of those bubbles get?
- 29:19Pretty big size.
- 29:21What do they got inside them?
- 29:25Not much anything.
- 29:28That's these false teachers.
- 29:32They look impressive.
- 29:35Inside, nothing.
- 29:39He says, but you have allured, you have enticed, you have seduced those who have escaped the living in error of the world.
- 29:57To now operate upon the lust of the flesh, to operate through lewdness.
- 30:01He says, While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption.
- 30:07For by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.
- 30:12For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome.
- 30:26The latter end is worse for them than the beginning.
- 30:33Peter makes it clear.
- 30:35Not only can you go from being lost to being saved, but you can go from being lost to being saved back to being lost.
- 30:45And that the end of that is worse than if you'd never heard the gospel.
- 30:54And yet there are those who will argue that once you're saved, you're always saved.
- 30:58That there's no possibility of ever being lost once you're saved.
- 31:02Therefore, they would argue, and I've even heard some within uh the body of Christ argue: well, we should understand that uh he who believes and is baptized should be saved.
- 31:17The King James translates it.
- 31:20That's not the statement.
- 31:22That's not what the Greek holds.
- 31:24This is an assurance.
- 31:28As much so as the book of Hebrews assures that if we will do what God said in accordance with how he said, and we will operate upon faith and obedience, God will deliver his
- 31:42promises.
- 31:44But God's promises are conditional.
- 31:48They are conditional upon faithful continuance.
- 31:52And they always have been.
- 31:56Were Adam and Eve's promises based upon faithful continuance?
- 32:00Yes, they were.
- 32:01Uh let's let's let's find out since that's you know that's Genesis, that's the beginning of the of the Bible.
- 32:07Let's find out if the end of the Bible holds up to that same ideal.
- 32:10Turn to Revelation chapter 22.
- 32:27Verse twelve And behold I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me to give to every one according to his work.
- 32:37I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the uh and the end, the first and the last.
- 32:42Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.
- 32:54Who does the book of Revelation tell us will have a right to the spiritual blessings afforded by God?
- 33:07The faithful who do His commandments.
- 33:18Many in the religious world will argue that the Church of Christ preaches a works based salvation.
- 33:28There are two senses of the term works in the New Testament.
- 33:34One of them is works of merit.
- 33:40Whereby when a person works, they earn something.
- 33:47The only works of merit involved in salvation are found in Romans chapter six, verse twenty-three.
- 33:59For the wages of sin is what?
- 34:03Death.
- 34:05When it comes to works of merit, what we deserve.
- 34:10is judgment from God.
- 34:13And there is never a point, the scripture is very clear of this, there is never a point in which you can obtain and do sufficient works of merit to which God owes you salvation.
- 34:29He owes you judgment.
- 34:31He owes you punishment.
- 34:34But there's another use of the term works, and it's the one used prevalently throughout James and Romans.
- 34:44And it is the works of obedience.
- 34:49It is not the work of merit.
- 34:51It is the work a person does because God told him to do it.
- 34:59And in Acts sorry, uh in in Genesis, God tells Adam and Eve, Tend the garden and keep it.
- 35:10Did Adam and Eve deserve the garden?
- 35:17No, the garden was there before they were.
- 35:21They were placed into the garden.
- 35:23They didn't earn it.
- 35:26But they were given conditions that they had to follow in order to keep access to it.
- 35:33So works of merit versus works of obedience.
- 35:37The operation of our faith.
- 35:38James says faith without what?
- 35:44Works is dead.
- 35:48Now, Revelation says blessed are those who do his commandments.
- 35:55It might remind us that Jesus said the one who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them.
- 36:05What does he liken that person to?
- 36:11Person who builds his house upon the sand.
- 36:14A person who judgment is coming for, because he hears and has no works that accord to obedience.
- 36:26What's the contrast there?
- 36:28The contrast is to the person who hears these sayings of mine and does them.
- 36:36He obeys out of faith.
- 36:40Now, in Revelation he says, But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and whoever loves and practices a lie.
- 36:50I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you of those things that are written in the uh those things in the churches.
- 36:56I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and the morning star, and the spirit and the bride say come, and let him who hears say come, and let him who thirst come,
- 37:05whoever desires let him take of the water of life freely.
- 37:12An invitation offered right here at the end of the book of Revelation.
- 37:17From the church, from the Spirit, saying, Salvation is available to you.
- 37:23All the blessings of this book are available to you.
- 37:27All of the good things that God promises are available to you.
- 37:31So when he talks about those who are outside, being dogs, sorcerers, sexually immoral, murderers, and idolaters, those are just all people who've never been obedient to the
- 37:40gospel, right?
- 37:44The answer is no.
- 37:46Rather, it is those who have never been obedient to the gospel and those who once were obedient and have turned back.
- 37:57Pay attention in the book of Revelation as we've been studying through it about all of the people and even whole congregations that Jesus confronts and says, If you don't repent,
- 38:08I'm going to make war with you.
- 38:13And you will have no part to the tree of life.
- 38:17You will have no part in the book of life.
- 38:20But then he says, This, verse 18, for I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book.
- 38:29If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book.
- 38:37And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take.
- 38:43What's that word?
- 38:45Away.
- 38:47God shall take away his part from the book of life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
- 39:03Genesis makes it very clear.
- 39:07If you do not continue obeying God, judgment awaits.
- 39:15And the scripture is clear from Genesis all the way to the end of the book of Revelation, where John will write not to the non-Christians about adding to or taking away from the
- 39:29Scripture.
- 39:30They have no part in the book of life.
- 39:32They have no part in the holy city.
- 39:35They have no part in the things that are written in this book.
- 39:37He's not warning the non-Christians, he's warning the Christians.
- 39:44He says, you add to this book, you take away from the things written in this book, and I will take your name out of the book of life.
- 39:53Can you lose your salvation yes, you can.
- 39:56Now, does that mean that we operate every single day being, oh, one moment I'm doing what's right, I'm saved.
- 40:03One moment, oh, I did something that was wrong, I'm lost.
- 40:06Going straight to hell now.
- 40:08Is that what the New Testament teaches by way of salvation?
- 40:12No.
- 40:14What's one passage somebody can think of that maybe explains what the New Testament teaches about the confidence of the saved?
- 40:25All right.
- 40:25First John chapter one.
- 40:27Kinda had a feeling one of the preachers in the room was gonna come up with it.
- 40:33First John chapter 1, verse 5, this is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
- 40:41If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
- 40:46John says if you claim to know God and be in fellowship with God, and you walk in, continue in, operate in on a continual basis, darkness.
- 41:01He says, You're a liar.
- 41:04But then he says, if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
- 41:10But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin.
- 41:18If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
- 41:24He says, For the person walking in the light, if you have deceived and deluded yourself into thinking that you are sinlessly perfect.
- 41:33You are wrong.
- 41:38He says, Rather, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
- 41:52The Bible does not teach, nor does Christians teach.
- 41:59That a person who is a member of the body of Christ is in one moment, out one moment, in one moment, out one moment.
- 42:05You better hope that you die when you're in.
- 42:08Otherwise, you're going to miss heaven.
- 42:11That is not what the New Testament teaches.
- 42:14The New Testament teaches that we are to live by faith.
- 42:18Walking in the light, that our direction of life is to be in accordance with the word of God, and that as we operate in that way, we will sin, we will fall short, we will make
- 42:29mistakes, some of them knowingly, some of them unknowingly, and God will forgive us of those things.
- 42:36But if you turn around and go the other direction, if you say, I know what the Bible says, but I'm going to do it my way.
- 42:45If you operate in rebellion against God, notice what else John said.
- 42:54As he closed out chapter one of first John, first John chapter one verse ten, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.
- 43:09If we look at what the text of Scripture says and he says, I know that's what it says, but I'm telling you something different.
- 43:18John says, Word of God's not in you.
- 43:23Now, Jesus will say to them in verse 16, He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned.
- 43:33And these signs will follow those who believe.
- 43:37In my name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues, they will take up serpents, and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them.
- 43:48They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.
- 43:53So true or false.
- 43:54We should be looking for the signs that Jesus said would accompany those who preach the gospel, and we should be looking for people to perform miracles and be able to be saved
- 44:05from deadly serpents' bites.
- 44:07And that that's how we can uh know that they're speaking the truth now, right?
- 44:13No.
- 44:14Why not?
- 44:19All right.
- 44:21Because the things that are described here are assurances that God was doing what he said he was doing.
- 44:35And they were there to confirm the word.
- 44:40If we could use an Old Testament analogy, when Moses was on the mount and God spoke to him through the burning bush and said, You go to Pharaoh, did Moses ask for confirmation that
- 44:53he was supposed to do that?
- 44:57He did.
- 44:58And what did God do with Moses there on the mountain?
- 45:02He put his hand into his cloak and it came out and it had changed.
- 45:09Put it back, came out, it was back to the way it was.
- 45:15See, God offered signs to Moses to confirm the word.
- 45:23Did God continue to offer those signs to every generation of Israel all the way through their history?
- 45:30Or rather did He give them a written word to follow?
- 45:38He gave them a written word to follow throughout their history.
- 45:41And he gave it through Moses, who had received the signs.
- 45:47Same thing happens in the church.
- 45:50God performs those signs through the apostles and prophets of the first century church, and then he delivers through the work of the Holy Spirit written revelation whereby the
- 46:01church could continue to operate without the need of the miraculous signs.
- 46:18Absolutely.
- 46:19So he says, these are gonna be the signs to guarantee that the message you're preaching originates with God.
- 46:28And by the way, every single one of those signs you see you see historically uh referenced somewhere in the book of Acts or in the early church.
- 46:37Every single one of them.
- 46:39They occur at some point where God fulfills what he said was coming.
- 46:44But then we read verse 19 and 20.
- 46:47So then after the Lord had spoken to them, he was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.
- 46:55Mark references the uh the prophecy of Daniel in Daniel chapter seven.
- 47:02And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.
- 47:13Amen.
- 47:14So Mark concludes.
- 47:16His record of the life of Christ by introducing what the church did.
- 47:25He said, He told them to go, they went.
- 47:30He told them to go everywhere.
- 47:32That's where they went.
- 47:33He told them signs would accompany it.
- 47:36That's what happened.
- 47:38And now you know how it all started.
- 47:40Okay?
- 47:41Thank you for your attention.