Admonition Podcast

Aaron Cozort (00:00)
Good morning. It is good to have each and every one of you here. It's good to have our visitors with us. We appreciate your presence and we're great we're greatly value we greatly value your presence with us. We hope that you will come back at every opportunity that you have.

Take your Bibles, if you will.

I'll get to the right page here in a moment.

That's what happens when you put the marker in the wrong spot.

There it is. All right. On the right page now. Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to Romans chapter six.

Romans chapter 6, Paul is writing to a congregation that he's never met in person. There are those within the church at Rome, like Aquila and Priscilla and others, who he does know personally, but he has never been to Rome as he writes this letter. Now he will go, he will eventually make it to Rome, though he will go at the expense of the Roman government. But as he goes

To Rome in chains, he will go there and be in a different scenario than he imagined, as he would write to this congregation, telling them that he desired and had long desired to come and to be with them. But as he s writes to the church at Rome, he's going to write to them dealing with a few of the issues that they have there, as he would in many of the other letters which Paul will write, inspired by the Holy Spirit.

And one of the issues that he deals with in this text is those who argued there in Rome, coming out of paganism, coming out of the doctrines that the Gentiles taught, that the more you sin, the more grace you receive from God. So if you desire to have this

Beautiful gift of grace. If you desire to have this beautiful thing that God offers you in the form of salvation made available through Jesus Christ, then you should sin more so you receive more grace. Now in Romans chapter 6 and verse 1, Paul says, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not.

May it never be so is the idea of that phrase. The King James translates it God forbid, though the word Theos or God is not actually in the text. But may it never be so.

But let us consider, as we understand that to be true, that we should not, as Christians, continue in sin, that we should not continue in the ways of the world, that we should not be those who live a life that is ungodly and unrighteous. That we should also understand.

That when an individual is first being converted, when they are coming out of the world, we do not anticipate, we do not wait, we do not teach them to correct their lives and fix their lives before they become a Christian.

Rather, as we will sing in a few moments, if you were to turn and look at the invitation song that was announced, the song begins with the words, just as I am.

As we open scripture, we realize that God calls sinners to repentance. God calls sinners to salvation not to correct their lives before salvation, but to correct their lives through salvation. That he calls them in the state that they are in to be obedient to God.

To change their lives, to conform their lives, to correct their lives, but not apart from God, so they're worthy of salvation, rather through salvation. I want to spend a moment in an Old Testament passage as we get into our lesson this morning. Take your Bible, if you will, and go to the book of Joshua. In Joshua chapter 2, we have.

This principle established for us in the Old Testament. We're going to see a New Testament example as well. But a the principle is established for us here in the Old Testament in the book of Joshua. That God calls sinners where they are to be obedient to Him. In Joshua chapter 2, beginning in verse 1, we read: Now Joshua the son of Nun sent out two men from Acacia.

from the Acacia grove, to spy secretly saying, Go view the land, especially Jericho. So they went and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab, and lodged there. And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, men have come here tonight from the country of Israel to seek to search out the country. So the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house

For they have come to search out all the country. Then the woman took the two men and hid them. So she said, Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. And it happened as the gate was being shut when it was dark that the men went out. Where the men went, I do not know. Pursue them quickly, you may overtake them. But she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stacks of flax.

Which she had laid in the order on the roof. Then the men pursued by the road of the Jordan to the fords, and as soon as those who pursued them had gone out, they shut the gate. Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are faint hearted because of you.

For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the king of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things our hearts melted, neither did there remain any more courage in any one because of you, for the Lord your God he is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. Now therefore I beg you.

Swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father's house and give me a true token. And spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death. Now notice something about Rahab. The text does not whitewash her life.

The text does not paint a picture inaccurately of who she was. She was a harlot. The text makes it clear she was a harlot. She was a harlot, and she was, by demonstrating in the text, one who lied. She was one who was a sinner. But she was a sinner who recognized there is a God.

She was a sinner who recognized there was judgment coming upon her city. She was a sinner who recognized the need for salvation, the need for salvation for herself, for her family, for her loved ones, for all that she knew. Because she knew of the judgment that was coming.

She was a sinner. And she behaved as we would expect a sinner to behave. But she makes it clear as she speaks to the two spies that she knows who Jehovah is. That she desires to follow Jehovah. That she desires to be saved from the judgment that was coming on Jericho. Notice as the text continues, verse 14.

So the men answered her, Our lives for yours. If none of you tell this business of ours, and it shall be, when the Lord has given us the land that we will deal kindly and truly with you. Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall, and she dwelt on the wall. And she said to them, Get to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you. Hide there three days until the pursuers have returned, afterward you may go your way.

So the men said to her, We will be blameless of this oath of yours, which you have made us swear, unless we come into the land, ⁓ unless when we come into the land you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down. And unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father's household into your own house. They tell her, There are conditions on your salvation.

You have caused us to agree to this, but understand you have not earned it. We do not owe you this. You must meet the conditions. The condition is you must be in this house. All those who you desire to be saved must be in this house. The cord that you let us down from this window must be in this window and no other.

And anyone who's outside of this house will die. As the text continues, we read, verse nineteen, so it shall be that whoever goes outside the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we will be guiltless, and whoever is with you in the house his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on him. And if you tell this business of ours, then we will be free from your oath which you have made us swear.

Then she said, According to your words, so be it. And she sent them away, and they departed, and she bound the scarlet cord in the window. They departed and went into the mountain and stayed there three days until the pursuers returned. The pursuers sought them along all along the way, but did not find them. So the two men returned, descended from the mountain, and crossed over, and they came to Joshua, the son of Nun, and told him all that had befallen them. And they said to Joshua

Truly the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands, for indeed all the inhabitants of the country are faint-hearted because of us.

Here is a woman who is a harlot. Here is a woman who is a liar. Here is a woman who is a pagan. Here is a woman whose family probably matches much the exact same description.

And the two spies don't tell her, you know what? If you had just been born an Israelite, we could help you. If you had just been able to correct your lives and left the city of Jericho and found us in the wilderness, we would have accepted you. If you had just been able to depart from all the wickedness that you had been involved in in all the past and just corrected your life beforehand, we could have offered you salvation.

But you're a sinner. We can't help you. They didn't say that. They didn't speak that way. Turn to Joshua chapter 6. In Joshua chapter 6, beginning in verse 12. Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priest took up the ark of the Lord. Then the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of the Lord went on continually and blew the trumpets.

And the armed men went before them, but the rear guard came after the ark of the Lord, while the priests continued blowing the trumpets. And the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. So they did six days. But it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early about the dawning of the day, and marched around the city seven times in the same manner. On that day only they marched around the city seven times. And the seventh time it happened, when the priest blew the trumpets, that Joshua said to the people,

Shout for the Lord has given you the city. Now the city had been doomed by the Lord to destruction. It and all who are in it, only Rahab the harlot, shall live. She and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. And you by all means abstain from the accursed thing, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed thing and make the camp of Israel accursed and trouble it.

But all the silver and gold and vessels of bronze and iron are consecrated to the Lord, they shall come into the treasury of the Lord. So the people shouted with the priest when the p priest blew the trumpets. And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, ol young and old.

Ox and sheep and donkey with the edge of the sword, but Joshua had said to the two men who spied out the country, Go into the harlot's house. From there bring out the woman and all that she has, as you swore to her. And the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers, and all that she had. So they brought out all her relatives, and they left them outside the camp of Israel. Now consider something.

We're told in the text that when the trumpets blew on that seventh day, and when the shout came up from the men of Israel as God had commanded them to shout, that the walls fell down flat.

Pause a moment and remember, where was Rahab's house?

For Rahab's house was built into the wall of Jericho.

If you were to imagine in your mind for a moment and place yourself there with those men, those soldiers of Israel, surrounding the city, preparing to shout, and you have before you a wall, and archaeologists and those historians tell us that the wall of Jericho was large enough, was thick enough to have run three chariots side by side across the top of it. And as they stood there,

facing a wall that they had no armaments to bring down, that they had no weapons of war that could pierce, and they shout the wall falls down flat everywhere in the city except one house.

And Rahab and her house and all that she had and her relatives were saved. And you say, Aaron, that's great, but that's a physical salvation. it is. But turn over to the book of Matthew.

For in Matthew chapter one.

We learned something about Rehab.

Joshua in the book of Joshua will tell us that Rahab and her family joined themselves to Israel.

They left the life of paganism. They left the association of the Canaanites. They left their history and their home and their lineage and their family and their associations from Jericho and from their former lives.

They've joined themselves to Israel. And we read in Matthew chapter one as Matthew recounts the lineage of Christ. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot Judah and his brothers, Judah begot Perez and Zirah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram.

Ram begot Aminadab, Aminadab begot Nashan, Nashon begat Salmon, Salmon begat Boaz by Rahab. Boaz begat Obed by Ruth. Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king.

Rahab once a harlot, once a Canaanite, once condemned with all her people in all her land.

Learn who the Lord was.

and departed from the iniquity of her people and joined herself to the Lord.

And she was not told, wait, wait, once you fixed your life, then we can offer you salvation. No, she was saved in the sinful state that she started in.

But now consider another example. Turn to John chapter four.

John chapter four.

We read of Jesus. And in verse four we read, but he needed to go through Samaria. So he came to the city of Samaria, which is called Sikar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied from his journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water, Jesus said to her, Give me a drink.

For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealing with Samaritans, Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God. And who it is that says to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water?

Are you greater than our Father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock? Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst again. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. Jesus offers her salvation.

Jesus offers her the fountain of the water of life that never causes anyone to thirst again. Jesus offers her eternal life, but who is this woman that he is offering this to? Notice the text says, the woman said to him, Sir, give me this water that ⁓ I may not thirst, nor come here to draw. Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband and come here.

The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said, You have well said, I have no husband. For you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband. In that you spoke truly. Consider the wife of this woman. She's a Samaritan following a doctrine that is not from God. She is a Samaritan who has.

Allowed herself together with her society to reinterpret God's commandments into their own personal preference. She is a Samaritan who lives an ungodly life as it involved in an adulterous relationship. And yet Jesus offers her the water of life.

He offers her the fountain of the water of life springing up into eternal life, and he doesn't begin by saying, Now woman, what you need to do is you need to go back to your home. You need to get out of that relationship that you're in. You need to

Show fruits, meat for repentance. You need to demonstrate over a period of years that you're no longer the sinful, wicked person that you are right now. You need to show that you have changed. And when you have changed, I will offer you salvation.

That's not what Jesus said.

Jesus said, Go call your husband and come here. She said, I have no husband. He says, You have said well said, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband, in that you spoke truly. The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither in the on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father.

You worship what you do not know, we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship him. God is a spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Did you catch that Jesus said to this woman who was an adulteress, to this woman who was worshiping in an ungodly way, to this woman who sought to defend her actions against what Jesus was saying and to demonstrate that she didn't need to be a Jew in order to love God?

Jesus made it clear that God was seeking her.

Pharisees would ask Jesus as Jesus sat at a meal with publicans and sinners.

Why? Why do you sit with publicans and sinners? Why do you commune with publicans and sinners?

Jesus would make it clear that those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick.

And that he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

One more example if you turn to the book of Acts

In Acts chapter seven.

As Stephen has preached.

To the Sanhedrin, to the council, to the seventy who would ultimately drag him into the street to kill him. We read in Acts chapter 7 and in verse 54 when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed at him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God and said, Look, I see the heavens open, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord, and they cast him out of the city and stoned him, and the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

We are introduced to Saul of Tarsus. We aren't introduced to a young man who had all of the things figured out. We are not introduced to a man who is behaving in a righteous way. ⁓ I imagine if you had stood up Saul of Tarsus's life against the commands of the law, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt die.

⁓ not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal. In many of those ways he would have been a shining example.

except for that first one. Thou shalt do no murder.

As we are introduced to Saul of Tarsus, we find in chapter 8 and verse 1, now Saul was consenting to his death.

At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria except the apostles, and devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him, as for Saul he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.

As you look at the text, as we are introduced to Saul of Tarsus, we find a man who thought he was righteous, who thought he was obedient to God. P Paul will later write of himself or state of himself in his own defense that he had not violated his conscience before God to that day.

And yet he was murdering the people of God. In Acts chapter nine, we read as the text opens in chapter nine, verse one, then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus.

So that if he found any who were of the way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. By the way, did you notice the very clear statement of Scripture? Saul still breathing out threats and murder.

he was in violation of the law. he was guilty. Guilty of the very Ten Commandments he thought he was upholding. He was guilty of murder. But then notice what the text says as he journeyed, he came near Damascus and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And he said, Who are you, Lord? Then the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads. So he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what do you want me to do? Then the Lord said to him, Arise, go into the city, and you will be told what you must do. The men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no one.

Then Saul arose from the ground, when his eyes were opened, he saw no one, but they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus, and he was there three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank. Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and to him the Lord said in a vision, Ananias, and he said, Here I am, Lord. So the Lord said, Arise and go to the street called straight, and inquire of the house of Judas, for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying.

And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him so that he might receive his sight. Then Ananias answered, said, Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem, and here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name. But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentile kings.

And the children of Israel, for I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake. You turn over to Acts chapter twenty-two, as Paul is recounting the events as he stands on trial. In Acts chapter twenty-two, we read in verse fourteen Then he said, The God of your fathers has chosen you that you should know his will.

And see the just one and hear the voice of his mouth, for you will be as witness to all men of all of what you have seen and heard. And now why are you waiting? Ananias asked. Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord. Now it happened when I was returned to Jerusalem that at and was praying in the temple, that I was in a trance and saw him saying to me, Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly.

For they will not receive your testimony concerning me. Paul, as he recounts how he ended up in Roman custody, he recounts that it started when he was seeking to kill the Christians. When he was seeking to persecute this way he now preached.

As he was seeking to murder those who were obedient to God.

And God confronted him just as he was.

And commanded him to repent.

To be immersed in water for the remission of his sins, to rise to walk in newness of life. Now go back to Romans chapter 6 with me. Because as Paul, the one who was once a murderer, the one who was once the persecutor of God's church, the one who was confronted by Jesus on the road to Damascus and said,

You're never gonna win this battle.

But you can join me.

And to whom Saul of Tarsus said, What will you have me to do? This same Paul writes to the church at Rome and says, verse 3, Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk.

In newness of life.

For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man

that our former person, that the person who we once were when we were a sinner, when we were in defiance against God, when we were unrighteous, when we once heard the gospel.

That our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

For he who has died has been freed from sin.

As we consider the invitation.

The text of the song that we're about to sing says just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come to thee. O Lamb of God, I come, just as I am, and waiting.

Not to rid my soul of one dark blot to thee whose blood can cleanse each spot. O Lamb of God, I come. Just as I am, thou wilt receive, wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse.

Relieve, because thy promise I believe. Jesus, O Lamb of God, I come. Just as I am, thy love unknown has broken every barrier down. Now to be thine, yes.

Thine alone, O Lamb of God, I come. If you have need of the redemption of Christ by being obedient to his qualifications,

When you hear the word of God and believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God as He commanded, repent of your sins as He commanded, confess the name of Christ as He commanded, and are immersed in water as He commanded, you deserve salvation no more than Rahab.

but you will have met the terms of the agreement.

Rahab was saved, not because she earned it, not because she deserved it, but because she met the terms of the agreement. And the salvation was a gift.

You can be saved the same way Saul of Tarsus was. When Ananias came to him and said, Saul, Saul, what are you waiting for? Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord. If you have need of the invitation, why not answer the invitation with, O Lamb of God, I come? Let us stand