Latest / Admonition Podcast / The Only God - Aaron Cozort - 06-01-2025
Transcript
- 0:01Good morning.
- 0:05bring greetings from the Oakey Boulevard Church of Christ in Las Vegas.
- 0:11where Brandon Green, was a graduate from the Memphis School of Preaching, is the preacher there, and he was familiar with Collierville during his time in school, and he said that
- 0:22he always had good recollections and good memories of Collierville, so your name goes before you even to Nevada.
- 0:29ah But the congregation there uh has a Hispanic congregation and an English congregation, both in the same building, so during the Bible class for the English
- 0:41congregation, they'd have that in the fellowship hall while the Hispanic congregation had their worship in the auditorium and then they'd flip spots.
- 0:49But it was good to get to meet them while I was out in Nevada and get to spend time in fellowship with them.
- 0:57This morning, a brief departure from our evangelism training and continuation, which we'll be back to next week.
- 1:07I want to spend some time this morning talking about...
- 1:11the only God.
- 1:17when you step back and consider that there are some things in life there's only one of.
- 1:28you as an individual.
- 1:31There may be a lot of people like you.
- 1:33There may be some ancestors that you derive a lot of characteristic from.
- 1:39And there may be some descendants that you share a lot of characteristics with.
- 1:44But there's only one of you.
- 1:50I think a few thankful prayers have gone up that there's only one of me.
- 1:59Mostly from my brothers.
- 2:04But when you consider...
- 2:08that Scripture is incredibly clear that there is only one God.
- 2:19We're going to begin in Acts chapter 17.
- 2:22Paul is, is in Athens.
- 2:27is moved, the text tells us.
- 2:32As he goes through that city and he observes all of the idols, it was said of Athens that there were more idols in the city than there were people.
- 2:49And in Acts chapter 17, we read beginning in verse 16, Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to
- 3:07idols.
- 3:09Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.
- 3:20Verse 22, and then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious, for as I was passing through and
- 3:31considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with the inscription, To the unknown God.
- 3:40Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing, him I proclaim to you.
- 3:52Paul.
- 3:55as he is moved by witnessing the actions and the attitudes of those in Athens to worship everything under the sun.
- 4:12and many things that were nothing more than imaginary.
- 4:18He found that they even had an altar to a god in case there was one they didn't know about.
- 4:31And Paul says, actually, there is one you don't know about.
- 4:36I'm going to declare to you the God that you worship who you don't know.
- 4:44And as you consider what Paul presents in that text, he presents a number of things that we need to understand about the only God.
- 4:58We're actually going to see the majority of those through other texts of Scripture, yet Paul presents them here as well.
- 5:06First thing that you need to know about the only God.
- 5:10is that they're his only one.
- 5:14not dealing in this lesson with the nature of God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, rather with the fact that in contrast to the beliefs of men, there is only one
- 5:30God.
- 5:32And the scripture does not leave any room for argument.
- 5:38Turn to Mark chapter 12.
- 5:42We quite often will discuss Jesus' answer to the question concerning the greatest commandment in the law.
- 5:51And yet as we discuss that, there are times where we will kind of skip over the beginning of his answer.
- 6:00In Mark chapter 12, beginning in verse 28, notice what we read, then one of the scribes came and having heard them reasoning together, perceived that he had answered them well,
- 6:13asked him which is the first commandment of all.
- 6:17The scribe is not asking in the chronological order of the Old Testament text which commandment was given first.
- 6:28That's not what the scribe is asking.
- 6:31The scribe is not asking about time order, he's asking about priority.
- 6:38Which is the first and greatest commandment of all?
- 6:44Jesus answered him, the first of all the commandments is here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
- 7:03And we usually begin at the end.
- 7:07we often begin it, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and you shall love your neighbors
- 7:16yourself, and we leave off that Jesus didn't start there.
- 7:23Jesus started with there's only one.
- 7:35and in order for the law to be understood.
- 7:41in order for the Jews to worship God acceptably.
- 7:48They needed to be crystal clear.
- 7:53There's only one God.
- 7:57There's only one Lord.
- 8:00And everything else flows forward from that.
- 8:08If look at Ephesians chapter four, Paul as he's writing to the church at Ephesus, a city like Athens that was pervasive with its idolatry.
- 8:22Paul was actually driven out of Ephesus because of the impact that he had made in their idol worship and the impact that it was having on the marketplace and the people who made
- 8:36the idols.
- 8:39We read in Ephesians chapter 4, Paul says, there is one body, verse 4, and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling.
- 8:54And he says this, there's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all.
- 9:09and through all and in you all." Paul says there's no this God and this God.
- 9:23There is no God Jehovah and God somebody else.
- 9:32There is no competition for who is God.
- 9:37There is no question about who is God.
- 9:45many in this world.
- 9:48would love to hold and do.
- 9:53that there is no God except themselves, that they are accountable only to themselves.
- 10:06that what they want is what is right.
- 10:14And while I enjoyed the opportunity to be at the conference and to work with the people that I worked with over the last week, being in the city of Las Vegas is one of those
- 10:28experiences like Paul being in Athens.
- 10:32There's just nowhere you can go where you're not thrown in the, where it's not thrown in your face that people
- 10:42are living entirely for what they want.
- 10:49Had a conversation with a guy yesterday who had been at the conference who was not from there, he's from Massachusetts.
- 10:55Spends half of his year uh in Chile and half his year in Massachusetts, depending on the weather.
- 11:04a uh guy about my age.
- 11:07And he said, you know, I've looked at this city and I kind of feel like I'm on a movie set, like none of it's Because everything is just designed.
- 11:21and it doesn't feel real at all.
- 11:24Yes, it's designed, it's designed to take your money.
- 11:30the God that that city worships is fleshly desire and money.
- 11:40And yet, as you examine people's lives, consider that the majority of the people participating in that city aren't from there.
- 11:53There's a marked difference between some parts of that city and the rest of the city.
- 12:01people participating are the people who are going there.
- 12:05from everywhere else.
- 12:09from every different country.
- 12:11I saw people from the Middle East, I saw people from Asia, I people from America, all indulging their desires.
- 12:25and there to just worship themselves.
- 12:31And as you think about that...
- 12:36We should appreciate and realize that that's not new or unique in the world.
- 12:48And yet Paul says, there's only one God.
- 12:53And Jesus says, there's only one God.
- 12:56You go back to Deuteronomy chapter 6, as Moses presents the law to the second generation in Israel.
- 13:08Moses says, now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which
- 13:23you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear the Lord your God to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I command you, you and your sons and your grandson all
- 13:33the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.
- 13:36Therefore, hero Israel.
- 13:38and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you a land flowing with milk and
- 13:52honey.
- 13:53Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one."
- 13:59You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.
- 14:14Moses, as he stands before Israel, says, it is not enough for you to mentally acknowledge that there is one God.
- 14:27Rather, it must be the driving force in your heart that drives your life and your son's life and your grandson's life.
- 14:39that everything you do stems from, there is one God.
- 14:49Then consider as well that the only God does not share His glory with any other.
- 15:02you go look at Exodus.
- 15:07You see from Exodus chapter 3 forward through Exodus chapter 12 a demonstration of God, His power, His nature, and His character, and an emphasis in Egypt to the Egyptians that
- 15:25there is no other God besides Jehovah.
- 15:31as Moses and Aaron arrive to Pharaoh to tell Pharaoh, God has said, let my people go.
- 15:43Pharaoh's reply is, who is Jehovah that I should listen to him?
- 15:50And Jehovah is going to explain by way of demonstration through ten plagues who Jehovah is and why Pharaoh should listen to him.
- 16:03But as Israel arrives there at Mount Sinai and God begins to give the commandments from the mountain as the mountain is burning and smoking with fire and thunder comes from the
- 16:17very heavens as God speaks to Israel.
- 16:20We read in chapter 20 and verse 1, God spoke all the words saying, I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage.
- 16:32You shall have no other gods before me.
- 16:41You shall not worship self.
- 16:44You shall not worship other gods.
- 16:48You shall not put me on the same level with other gods.
- 16:52You shall have no other god.
- 16:56before me." But he doesn't stop there.
- 16:58says, verse 4, "'You shall not make for yourselves a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water
- 17:07under the earth.
- 17:07You shall not bow down to them nor serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations
- 17:19of those who hate me.'"
- 17:23God says, want to demonstrate to me that you hate me?
- 17:27Start making idols out of the things you see.
- 17:30Start worshiping the things that are around you.
- 17:35There's a reason why.
- 17:39Paul, over in Colossians, will tell you that covetousness, the desire of what others have that you desire to take for yourself, is idolatry.
- 17:57God says, don't see the things around you and make them your God.
- 18:02You don't see the things that exist in this world, all the things that are great, all the things that are magnificent, and worship them.
- 18:12Because I alone am God, and I am a jealous God.
- 18:22Now the term jealous here is not the idea that we have sometimes where here's a boy who's got a girlfriend and another boy is acting a certain way and this boy's jealous of the way
- 18:33that he's acting towards his girlfriend.
- 18:35No, no, no, that's not it.
- 18:38Because that girlfriend doesn't belong to either one of those boys.
- 18:44God is jealous in the use of the term that says, am and you belong to me and you don't belong to anybody else.
- 18:57And I'm not going to share you with anyone else.
- 19:07as you consider the fact that God does not share his glory.
- 19:12You might be reminded that Jesus was once tempted by Satan.
- 19:20In Matthew chapter four, as we read some of the records of some of the temptations that Jesus experienced in his life in this particular scenario,
- 19:34We find in beginning in verse 8, the devil took him, Jesus, up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
- 19:51America has a lot of glory in it.
- 19:59and other nations around the world have a lot of glory in them.
- 20:05Satan takes Jesus to exceeding high mountains, shows him all the nations and all the glory.
- 20:14And he said to him, All these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.
- 20:24Jesus said to him, await with you, Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.
- 20:38as Jesus reached back into the Old Testament and pulls forward that quote from the law in Deuteronomy.
- 20:50He makes it clear to Satan, no, I won't serve you.
- 20:54I won't bow my knee to you.
- 20:57Not for anything you could give me.
- 21:01Because there is only one God.
- 21:08Over in First Thessalonians.
- 21:11Paul as he is writing to the church at Thessalonica.
- 21:19emphasizes this very critical point to these brethren.
- 21:261 Thessalonians chapter 1 and in verse 8, for from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth as he commends these brethren on their labor, on their work, on their influence in
- 21:40the region around them, because when they became Christians, they didn't keep it to themselves.
- 21:46When they were obedient to the gospel, they didn't just say, hey great, I'm saved, and move on with life.
- 21:55He says, word is sounded forth not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place.
- 22:02Your faith toward God has gone out so that we do not need to say anything.
- 22:07For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.
- 22:27Are there Buddhists who are sincere in their belief concerning their religion and the deities that they serve?
- 22:35Yes.
- 22:38Are there Hindus that are sincere in their belief and their religion and their understanding of who they serve?
- 22:47Yes.
- 22:50Are there atheists who are sincere in their belief and their religion that there is no God?
- 22:56Yes.
- 22:59Are there Christians who claim to be Christians and yet don't follow God and Jehovah?
- 23:06Yes.
- 23:11Are there those who serve nothing greater than themselves?
- 23:16Yes.
- 23:19but there's only one.
- 23:23I love this statement that Paul makes and the way he makes it.
- 23:28True and living God.
- 23:36There were sincere worshipers of a God who once stood on a mountain in Israel.
- 23:47And in their sincere worship of their God, they cried out to God, they screamed out to God, they prayed to their God, they cut themselves before their God, trying to get their
- 24:00God to send fire down from heaven to light their altar.
- 24:07And all morning went by as they tried to get their God to simply light their altar.
- 24:16Nothing happened.
- 24:24there on that mountain.
- 24:28Elijah demonstrated quite clearly there's one God who's not only a true God, he's actually alive.
- 24:41He actually exists.
- 24:46and he actually has power in this world.
- 24:55and he doesn't share his glory with anyone.
- 25:00But then consider as well that the only God is the Creator and the Sustainer.
- 25:10As Paul opened the words of the message that he presented there on the Areopagus there in Athens in Acts chapter 17, he begins with the God who created heavens and earth.
- 25:28It should be no wonder to us that the book that we hold as scripture begins with, the beginning, God created.
- 25:43because there's only one who's creator.
- 25:49there's only one who has the power to create.
- 25:54One of the things we know by way of science is that in this universe, to the extent of our knowledge and understanding, you can neither create nor destroy energy.
- 26:11You can change its form.
- 26:14It can go from passive energy to active energy, but you can't destroy it.
- 26:21and you can't create it.
- 26:25And yet there was one.
- 26:30who spoke it into existence.
- 26:38In Isaiah chapter 43, Isaiah presents a number of prophecies to Israel.
- 26:48Chapter 43, chapter 44, chapter 45, chapter 46, the point that is central to each one of these prophecies.
- 27:02is that there is one creator.
- 27:07and there is no one else like him.
- 27:10In Isaiah chapter 43 and in verse 10, we read, are my witnesses, says the Lord, and my servant, whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am, is
- 27:27what the text says.
- 27:31Before me there was no God formed.
- 27:36nor shall there be after me.
- 27:40I, even I, am the Lord, and besides me there is no Savior."
- 27:52God, through Isaiah, makes it clear to Israel, there wasn't a God that preceded me.
- 28:01Raise your hand if you came from parents.
- 28:07Raise your hand if you didn't.
- 28:09All right, just checking.
- 28:12You came from somewhere.
- 28:15You came from someone.
- 28:18You share their characteristics and they preceded you.
- 28:24Not so with God.
- 28:27Not only does Isaiah make it clear that there was no one who preceded God, there's no one who will secede God.
- 28:40one of the greatest attributes of this country.
- 28:45of all the things that our founding fathers decided to do.
- 28:52was make sure that a president was in power for only a limited amount of time.
- 28:59That's probably saved our country more times than we can count.
- 29:06because some of these individuals who have held that position are really, really not good people.
- 29:17but at least they're only there for so long.
- 29:21That's part of the reason why there's a good argument going for why all of the positions in power in Congress, et cetera, should be term limited.
- 29:33and gone after a period of time.
- 29:37But consider...
- 29:42that when this world is over, when this universe is consumed as God said it will be, God's not going away.
- 29:55and no one is going to secede him.
- 30:00There will not be a change of power.
- 30:04There's not going to be an expectation, if I just live long enough, I'll get a new judge.
- 30:12It's not going to happen.
- 30:15Chapter 44 of Isaiah.
- 30:19We read, thus says the LORD, verse 6, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first and I am the last.
- 30:33Besides me there is no God.
- 30:39Some will say, I believe in God.
- 30:42I'm just hedging my bets, and so I'm going to worship all of them.
- 30:49And God says no.
- 30:53because the only one who actually exists isn't going to accept that.
- 31:00Chapter 45, Isaiah writes, verse 5, I am the Lord and there is no other.
- 31:09There is no God besides me.
- 31:11I will gird you through you though you have not known me, that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides me.
- 31:23I am the Lord and there is no other.
- 31:28only one, the only God.
- 31:32Chapter 46 and verse 9.
- 31:38He says, verse 8, remember this and show yourselves men.
- 31:42Recall the mind, O you transgressors.
- 31:45Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other.
- 31:50I am God and there is none like me.
- 31:56calls upon Israel to think back, to go all the way back in their mind to when their nation was birthed out of Egypt.
- 32:07and God's point that He made to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians, go ahead, find another one like
- 32:15because you can.
- 32:18Nehemiah will write.
- 32:22there in Nehemiah chapter 9 as he is.
- 32:29dealing with the circumstances in Jerusalem.
- 32:34as he prays before God.
- 32:37He says, verse 5, stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever.
- 32:43Bless be your glorious name which is exalted above all, blessing and praise.
- 32:48You alone are the Lord.
- 32:50You have made heaven the heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all.
- 33:05hosts of heaven worship you.
- 33:10There's a reason why atheists and skeptics...
- 33:15argue so diligently to get rid of Genesis chapters 1 through 11.
- 33:21why individuals who are willing to allow the world to teach them about things the world cannot prove and could never demonstrate concerning the origin of this universe and have
- 33:40demonstrated over and over and over again that they are wrong about because they keep changing their theory.
- 33:52why there are Christians that will allow the world to convince them.
- 33:58that the only one who exists who had the power to create heaven and earth and had the audacity to come in the flesh and walk this earth in the flesh and die so that we might be
- 34:15saved couldn't accurately describe what he did when he created the world.
- 34:28every single section of every part of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation demands and insists and repeats the creation story.
- 34:51as if it was true, because it is.
- 34:57And the reason why the skeptic and the atheist tries to dismantle the creation story is because they're at least honest enough to know and to realize that if they get rid of
- 35:10that, the rest of it falls too.
- 35:15And yet there are Christians who will try and say, well, we evolved.
- 35:23time and chance got us to where we are.
- 35:27And they'll repeat such things as the reptilian brain that we have.
- 35:34What a load of nonsense.
- 35:40in all honesty.
- 35:44Anyone you know who believes in evolution, ask them one question.
- 35:55So explain to me how, in your theory of evolution, you deal with this one thing.
- 36:05We'll ignore all of the process of evolution all the way up until the point that you claim apes became men.
- 36:14I'll grant you all of it till that point, but let me ask you one thing.
- 36:20How is it that in your theory of evolution and time and chance...
- 36:27that you just happen to get an ape that was a male and an ape that was a female both evolving into a man that was a male and a human that was a female in the same time, in the
- 36:44same place, on the same part of the planet so they could have a child.
- 36:50And furthermore, my question to you is...
- 36:56Was it two apes that gave birth to a human child or was the ape walking through the woods and changed from being an ape to a man?
- 37:08Because guess what?
- 37:08The theory can't explain it.
- 37:11Not only can the theory not explain it, the theory can't demonstrate one time in all history and all known humanity and all verifiable wisdom that it could ever happen.
- 37:23And if you can't get the simple change in evolutionary terminology from an ape to a man, and by the way, a male ape and a female ape to a male man and a female woman in the same
- 37:39place and the same time, you can't have offspring and whatever that evolutionary change was died and resulted in no change at all.
- 37:50You see, when you replace revelation...
- 37:58with the stupid ideas of men.
- 38:03You come up with theories that don't even make any sense at all, yet people hold them religiously.
- 38:13Yet they cannot even explain the simple questions, let alone the hard ones.
- 38:20Hebrews chapter 1, the Hebrew writer makes it clear that God did not just create the universe.
- 38:27He did not just create the world.
- 38:31But as Nehemiah pointed out, he also sustains it.
- 38:35That without him, it would not continue to exist.
- 38:39If He did not allow it to continue to exist, if He did not enforce its continued existence, it would not continue.
- 38:46Hebrews chapter 1, God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed
- 38:56heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds, who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, upholding all things by the word of His power.
- 39:07when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high." Did you catch what Jesus does?
- 39:18He upholds all things by the word of His power.
- 39:24He is the creator of all things by the word that He spoke.
- 39:31And when he says it's done.
- 39:36It will be done without question.
- 39:41The only God is the Creator and the Sustainer of everything that exists.
- 39:51and that only God.
- 39:56who doesn't share his glory with anyone.
- 40:03of whom there is none like Him, none before Him, and none after Him.
- 40:12That only God.
- 40:17provided a path.
- 40:20but He only provided one.
- 40:30as Jesus says to His disciples that He is about to depart.
- 40:37and that if he goes and prepares a place for them, then they will join him.
- 40:45Thomas says to him in verse 5, Lord, we do not know where you are going and how can we know the way?
- 40:55And Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
- 41:03No man comes to the Father but by me.
- 41:15We're not all on different roads headed to the same place.
- 41:22Jesus said there's two options.
- 41:26There's a narrow way that's hard and difficult.
- 41:32that involves the path of obedience to God that He declared through His words and by His words you will be judged.
- 41:41But if you will walk that straight and that narrow path, it leads to life everlasting.
- 41:49But there's another way too.
- 41:52And it's broad and wide and easy.
- 41:57And if you walk that path, it leads to eternal destruction.
- 42:03And Jesus said, unfortunately, there will be few who find the narrow path.
- 42:11The world wants you to believe everybody's fine, everybody will be saved, everybody will be great.
- 42:19except we know, and even people who proclaim that know in their heart of hearts, that's not how life works.
- 42:27m
- 42:32There's only one path.
- 42:36There's only one God.
- 42:38Jesus said that one God is seeking worshippers to worship Him.
- 42:44John chapter 4, that God seeks those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.
- 42:54But that means they're going to have to realize, and they're going to have to live out in their life that there is only one God.
- 43:07And from that stems forward, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
- 43:26If you're going to be obedient to the one God,
- 43:29And you're going to accept and walk that one path.
- 43:33You're only going to get to that God through Jesus Christ.
- 43:37He's the only Savior.
- 43:38That's what Isaiah told us.
- 43:41And as the only Savior, He provides you salvation if you are willing to be obedient to Him.
- 43:46But if you are not, He is your only judge.
- 43:52You're here this morning and you're outside the body of Christ, the place where salvation is found, the place where the blood of Christ cleanses you from all sin.
- 44:00If you're outside the church, that Jesus shed His blood to purchase its redemption, its salvation, and its glory.
- 44:11then you're outside of hope.
- 44:14For there's only one hope, one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.
- 44:26If you're outside the body of Christ, why stay there?
- 44:30If you say, would like to know more about the one God, why not ask?
- 44:35And we'll help you.
- 44:36If you have need of the invitation for any reason,
- 44:41to come to God, why not come now as we stand and as we sing.