Admonition Podcast

Aaron Cozort (00:00)
Good morning.

As Eddie and I were traveling this week, we were spending a few days in Louisville at an Airbnb because of meeting up with the board of Truth FM and having our annual board meeting. And the very first night we were sitting on the porch of this location and sitting on the porch, lights off on the porch, but

you know, city and everything in front of us. Looked up in the corner of the porch and there was a light on up there and shining out towards the street. And in front of the light was a spider's web.

And as I was looking at that spider's web, it occurred to me that there are some lessons from nature that we ought to learn.

Different times in Scripture, God will speak of different creatures and and draw lessons from their actions, their activities. Jesus would speak as he was dealing with the issue of money and specifically anxiety about the things that we have, and would indicate that God provides for even the birds of the air.

And for the sake of those who don't like creepy crawly things, I didn't do a PowerPoint this morning.

I have a sister in law that would have wormed her way all the way out of the auditorium if I'd put a picture of a spider up during the whole lesson.

But I want us to consider some lessons from the spider. You begin first by thinking about spiders, and and I think one of the very first things that comes to my mind is perhaps because of childhood, and that would be that movie Charlotte's Webb

Almost everyone has probably seen that movie, whether the newer versions or the old classic version from Disney. But the the idea was here was Charlotte and she was industrious.

The character that made up Charlotte in Charlotte's web was always doing something. She was always active. She was doing something to benefit others. She was industrious.

And when you think about spiders, truly they are. You see the webs that they build. You walk out of your house one morning and the where there was no spider's web the night before, right in your path, getting in your hair, there now is one. Overnight.

Many of us have probably seen spider webs where we looked at it and we thought, how in the world did a spider get from there all the way out to build this giant web?

They're industrious. Proverbs chapter thirty says.

The Proverbs writer Solomon will write in Proverbs chapter 30, beginning in verse 24 There are four things which are little on the earth. But they are exceedingly wise. The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their food in the summer. The rock badgers are a feeble folk, yet they make their homes in the crags, the locusts have no king.

Yet they all advance in ranks, the spider skilfully grasps with its hands, and it is in kings palaces.

There's some question in the translation is in some translations it's spider, others it's it's ⁓ essentially lizards. But the premise, especially in ancient days, is true either way. They climb to places no one else would otherwise get to, and they build their homes in the most opulent of buildings and the most deserted.

They're industrious creatures.

Because God made them that way.

And we need to learn the value of being industrious.

When God made Adam and Eve, God placed them in the garden and as God concluded that creation and said it was very good.

He did not say to Adam and Eve, All right, leave lean back, lay back, enjoy your time. You have nothing to do, no responsibilities. This is vacation forever.

No, God put Adam and Eve to work in the garden. They had a responsibility to tend and to keep the garden. Even the paradise of God had work that needed to be done.

God did not put us here to sit back, kick back, relax, and take it easy. And in the kingdom of God, God certainly didn't place us in the kingdom to sit back, relax, and just wait for heaven. God has instructed us to be busy in his kingdom. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

Paul, as he's writing concerning the resurrection, as he's spoken through these words to the Corinthians about the hope of the resurrection, the assurance of the resurrection, the victory of the resurrection, he does not say, and here you need to just wait until it shows up. No, he says, Therefore, verse 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

He says, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Paul will further write, as he writes to the brethren in Thessalonica, if a man will not work, neither should he eat.

Paul makes it clear that as Christians, we are to be industrious in the kingdom of God. As people, we are to be industrious in our lives. God made us that way. Just like the spider. Proverbs chapter 24 says.

We read in Proverbs twenty four and in vers six stin.

For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity. One of the things that the spider does if you watch them for day after day is they're constantly in a state of repairing their net, their web. You might take it down one day, they'll have built it back the next night.

They might have caught something or something may have passed through it and torn part of the web. It'll be back.

They're constantly repairing that which is broken. In Isaiah chapter 58, Isaiah will make this comment Isaiah chapter 58, verse 10 if you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday.

The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your soul in drought and strengthen your bones. You shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. Those from among you shall build the old waste places. You shall raise up the foundations of many generations, and you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.

As Isaiah is picturing the state of Israel, their neglect of God, their rebellion against God, the judgment that was coming, and ultimately the restoration of the nation back to the place in Jerusalem where they once inhabited, and back to a right relationship with God, and then looks past that point to the Christ, the Messiah, and the kingdom. He says part of what we do is we rebuild what is.

Broken.

We repair what has been torn down. Sin tears down someone.

Rebellion and rejection of God leaves people in a destitute, defiled, and destructive cycle.

But the word of God rebuilds. The word of God lays a foundation upon which that which is built can sustain a person through the difficulties of life and build them into something even better.

As Christians, we are to be industrious, we are to be laborers, we are to be repairers of what sin has broken down.

But then consider number two, another lesson that we learn from spiders, is that they are both strong and flexible.

You watch a spider work and it gets fr from places to places in ways you would be like, not a chance in the world.

Decades ago there was an individual who was so enamored by the ability of spiders to get anywhere, he created a Marvel comic called Spider Man.

They are strong and they are flexible. Sto Proverbs twenty four

Proverbs twenty four.

Verse ten we read, If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.

Proverbs writer makes it clear, if if you give up every time something hard comes along, if you see the hardship coming and you just like, I'm gonna lay down, I'm gonna sit this one out.

So you're never going to grow in strength.

The spider is one that overcomes hardship. They deal with hardship on a constant basis. They deal with it from the elements. They deal with it from the the things and the creatures that live around them. They are constantly in a state of having to deal with changing environments.

And yet they don't lay down and give up.

So too in the lives of Christians, sometimes we find that individuals have laid down in the face of hardship. They have turned their back in the face of difficulty. And Galatians chapter six tells us, brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens. And so

Fulfill the law of Christ.

God tells us that we have to be watching for the hardships. We have to be observing our brethren for their things that may cause them to stumble, may cause them to be overtaken, may cause them to succumb to the world. And we have to help hold them up. We have to help repair what has been broken. Philippians chapter 4, Paul will write to the church at Philippi.

And he will write to them this congregation that had worked with him through so many different occasions, had supported him through a midst of different struggles. And he writes to them, verse 10, but I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again, though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am to be content.

I know how to be abased and I know how to abound everywhere in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Paul is writing to them from a Roman prison.

Paul is writing to them and telling them, I can be flexible.

With wherever the Lord puts me.

I'll just keep doing his will.

We need to learn from the spider to be both strong and flexible. For hard times will come, difficulties will arise, circumstances will change, external forces will tear down what we've built, and we'll have to build it again. But then consider as well, we also think concerning a spider, it is skilled at catching its prey.

As I was looking at that spider's web there in on the porch in Louisville, I was looking up and I noticed here's the light, here's the web. And you know what insects do with light, right?

straight at it all the time and I just sit there and watch, there's one insect, there's another insect, there's another insect. Caught in the web again and again and again and again.

The spider didn't just happen upon a location and just happen upon the ideal location. No, God made them to understand the ideal location.

And intelligently the spider built its web right in front of the thing that attracts the insect.

Proverbs chapter eleven.

Solomon is giving wisdom to his son.

In Proverbs chapter eleven and in verse thirty we read, The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.

Part of the goal and part of the mission, part of the work of the church is to win souls. It's to teach the truth. It is to declare the message. It is to help save a lost and dying world. It is to do what Peter was doing in Acts chapter 2, when with many words he convinced and exhorted a wicked generation to save itself.

from that wicked generation.

Solomon says if you're gonna win souls, you're gonna have to be wise.

You're going to have to understand them first so that you can teach them.

You're going to have to be where they are. Jesus would be confronted by the Pharisees and the Sadducees at times, and His disciples would be confronted at times, and they would question Jesus: why is your teacher eating with publicans and sinners?

And Jesus said, That's kind of like asking why a doctor spends time with sick people.

Because the sick people don't need the doctor, or the well people don't need the doctor. The sick people do. Can you imagine walking in to Methodist Hospital over here in Germantown? Walking up to the nurses, walking up to the doctors, walking up to the physicians, and saying, I have a question to ask you. Why do you spend time with so many sick people? Don't you know?

That this is not an ideal place to spend every one of your days? Aren't you worried about the germs? Aren't you worried about the contamination? Aren't you worried about what you're surrounding yourself with?

And they'd look at you like you had kinda lost it. They would say, We have the psych ward down this way. Let me guide you.

We're here because they need us.

So too are Christians who are to be skilled not at catching their prey to devour them, but of bringing life to those who are lost in the form of the Word of God.

Jesus never tricked anyone into receiving salvation.

But Jesus was incredibly wise about presenting the gospel in a way they'd hear it. Paul would say concerning his efforts to convert those, he said, to the Jew, I become as a Jew. To the Gentile, I'll become as a Gentile. To the one under law as under the law. He said, I'll do what I have to do to get the gospel in front of an open heart and an open mind willing to hear.

Paul was skilled at reaching people with the gospel. But then consider as well concerning spiders that they are vulnerable to anything larger than them.

They are a nuisance to those of us who build houses, those of us who have homes, those of us who don't want spider webs all over our homes because they get in everywhere. But one of the things that we can at least appreciate is they're not hard to kill.

You can get a thumb on one, they're done.

If you can get a little bit of poison on one, they're done. They're not hard to kill. They are vulnerable to everything larger than them.

But turn to Psalm eight.

David as he writes concerning humanity.

Will write, O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth. Who have set your glory above the heavens, out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, you have ordained strength because of your enemies that you may silence the enemy and the avenger. When I considered your heavens and the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him?

David, as he's writing, as he's pondering, as he's thinking concerning God's creation, he looks at everything God has made. He stares out into space and out into the stars and he says, God, I'm looking at humanity and going, we are so inconsequential. Why are you so concerned about us?

You know, many have said who have their priorities confused, you know, the best thing we could do for this planet is just get rid of the humans.

Seems they don't have the same view of humanity that God does.

As you look at the passage, he says, You have made him a little lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the sea. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all.

If you were spider.

And you could have one ally.

Don't you think you'd want it to be somebody much, much, much bigger than you?

Someone to defend you from the only thing that was really a threat, which is everything bigger than you.

Someone to stand guard around the web.

To keep the horse from running through it, to keep the the bird from coming down and swooping upon it, to keep the thing that can destroy you without a second thought.

From bringing injury and harm to you.

Psalm thirty three, the Psalmist writer.

We'll write, beginning in verse sixteen, no king is saved by the multitude of an army. A mighty man is not delivered by strength. A horse is a vain hope for safety. Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those.

who hope in his mercy.

God did not come to this earth to teach us to become self sufficient.

Christ came and showed us how to be sustained by God.

Jesus would say to his disciples, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

But there is a threat to your relationship to God. In Isaiah chapter 59, Isaiah will describe the threat to your relationship to God. In Isaiah chapter 59, verse 1, he writes, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor is ear heavy that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated you from your God.

As Isaiah writes to the nation of Israel.

He reminds them they had an ally. They had a savior. They had someone that would hear their cry, that heard it many generations ago when they were in Egypt and they cried out to the Lord for salvation, and he heard them. Exodus three.

But now, Isaiah says he's not listening. And it's not because he's grown old and is hard of hearing. Some of the wives in this auditorium say, Yeah, my husband can't hear anymore. I asked for help and he goes, I never heard you.

'Cause this year that d he can't hear anything and I was over there.

Isaiah says his his ears are working just fine.

And his his arm hasn't become shortened or weakened so that he can deliver you. The problem's not his hearing and the problem is not his ability.

Problem is your wickedness, your sin, your iniquity has separated you from him so that he will not.

He writes, but your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, your fingers with iniquity, your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perversity. No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies, they conceive evil and bring forth iniquity.

Izea seurblem is you.

Your problem is the lies you've been telling.

The deceit you've been weaving. As a matter of fact, he will go on to say they hatch vipers' eggs and weave the spider's web. He who eats of their eggs dies, and from that which is crushed a viper breaks out, their webs will not become garments.

Nor will they cover themselves with their works, their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands, their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, wasting and destruction are in their paths, the way of peace they have not known.

And there is no justice in their ways. They have made themselves crooked paths, whoever takes that way shall not know peace.

Jesus tells us.

That there's a broad way and there's a hard way. There's a way that seems easy, and many will go in thereat.

But there's a narrow and a difficult way that involves obedience to God.

But you can't allow your sin to separate you from God.

In Romans chapter six, as we conclude our thoughts this morning, Paul writes to the church at Rome.

And he writes to them about the life that they once lived, the life that they no longer live because they're Christians. He says, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

Isaiah says, Your sin and your iniquity that you will not remove yourself from, you will not wash yourself from, you will not absolve yourself from, has hidden God from you.

You are small, insignificant, and easily destroyed, and yet you have no defender because you have ruined the relationship through your sins.

And yet Paul writes to the Church of Romans says, Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who have died to sin live any longer therein?

See, wait a minute, wait, wait, wait, wait. If sin is what separates a person from God, and if the people that Paul's writing to had died to sin.

then they must have a right relationship with God. How'd they do it? Because if they could do it, I can do it.

Okay? So how'd they do it? We'll just keep reading. He says, or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus, we're baptized into his death?

Paul writes to these Christians in Rome, many of whom he had never met, and says, I know what you did. I know how you died to sin. How would how would could Paul know what they did? Because Paul taught the same gospel they heard.

He taught the same message Jesus preached.

Jesus said, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. End of discussion. Paul knew what they did.

He says, or 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. Isaiah says, you're dead to the Lord because of your sin. Paul says, you were, and now you're alive to Christ.

What did you do to go from being dead to alive? You were buried with him in baptism. And you were raised to walk in newness of life.

Paul wants them to be incredibly clear about one fact. That doesn't mean you get to go back to your sins. You don't get to say, All right, I've got the grace of God, I can live however I want to now. no. Paul goes on to say, he says, 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 was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of.

To sin.

One thing about spiders is they're going to do exactly what God made them to do.

They're bound by nature. They function in the way they're designed.

But you God gave a choice too.

God created you to be something glorious in his eyes.

sin may have separated you from the Lord. If you're here this morning and you look at your life and you go, I I don't I don't know my state with the Lord.

If you can't open up the word of God and say, here, let me show you exactly what I did, let me show you exactly how I did it, here's how I know I'm saved. You can't do that this morning.

Then I encourage you to talk to us.

Let us open the Word of God with you and make sure you know if you're saved or not. Not because we say so, but because you can read it for yourself.

Because wouldn't it be glorious to be able to say, like Paul, you know, the old man of sin, he's crucified. He's dead and he's gone. And I now live in newness of life. If you have need of an invitation or questions about anything, why not come forward now as we stand and as we sing the song of invitation?