06-16-2019 – Keith Cozort – A Marked Man – (PM Sermon)

Certainly good to have you out and to be with us this evening. And certainly it is a great a blessing. The sister, Bonnie is able to be with us tonight. We have missed her terribly, but understand concerning the problems that she’s had at glance. She is able to be out now evening. I want us to think about a marked man,

a marked man. What does it mean to be a marked man? And who can you think of in scripture that could be described as a marked man? I have one particular individual in mind, but maybe, yeah, you have heard at various times of someone being described as being a marked man, it couldn’t mean that such a person would bear a stigma of reproach and I have to be end up bearing it for the rest of his life for one reason or another.

When I think concerning a marked man, I go back and remember a TV program that I used to watch. When I was a kid, Brandon, Chuck Connors played the lead and he played Jason McCord. Jason McCord was supposed to be a captain in the Calvary. And yet the program begins. You see him being court-martialed. He was court-martialed because it’s,

it was stated he was accused of being a D a disaster. And the theme song that goes through, you hear all, but one man died. They’re at bitter Creek and they believed that he ran away. Of course go through and watch the program. You find out he didn’t run away. In fact, he did fight during that battle, but he was knocked unconscious and therefore the enemy of supposed that he was dead when in fact he was not.

But when you think concerning a marked man, sometimes they end up having to carry that burden. The rest of their life. That’s the way it supposedly was with Jason McCord. He was branded as a trader. He was branded as a dessert after, and yet for the rest of his life, he would have to try to prove to others that he was a man.

Again, as the theme song says, there was a man in the new Testament who was also a marked man. We know him as the apostle Paul. And when you turn to Galatians chapter six and in verse 17 there, the apostle Paul makes a statement in that particular verse next to the last verse in the book he says from henceforth, let no man trouble me for,

I bear in my body, the marks of the Lord, Jesus. I bear in my body, the marks of the Lord, Jesus, the word that translated marks. There is the Greek word stigma to, from which we get our word stigma. And it meant to brand, to brand someone’s name the name of the master into the slave so that it would be known as to who his master was and who he belonged to and prove that in fact,

he was a slave and the property of that particular master, Paul uses that word to describe himself there. When he says, I bear in my body, the marks of the Lord, Jesus. He is acknowledging the fact that he is a slave. And yet he is a willing slave. When you turn to first Corinthians chapter six, verses 19 and 20,

the last two verses of that chapter, Paul says, what? No, ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy ghost, which is in you, which he have of God. And you’re not your own for a year bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. And so here,

Paul speaks concerning the fact that our body, which is to be the temple of the Holy spirit, belongs to God. It has been purchased by God and therefore our body and our spirit are his. They are not our own. And so, again, speaking concerning the idea of us belonging to somebody else that we belong to God. And so these marks that Paul talked about are marks that he bore gladly.

He was happy to bear those marks and such should also be the case with us. Paul speaks concerning his wounds, his scars in the flesh and compared those to Jesus’s scars as well. You remember in Luke chapter 24, verses 39 and 40 with Jesus appeared to the apostles in the upper room. After his resurrection on that first day of the week, Jesus said to the,

the apostles behold, my hands and my feet, they could see, he even would allow them to touch if they so desired his hands and his feet. But by those marks that he bore, it was such that he demonstrated that it was truly him. He was there in the flesh. He had TRIBE really raised himself from the dead. Paul will compare his scars as being like those of Jesus.

And when you turn to second Corinthians chapter four in verses eight through 11 there, the apostle Paul says we are troubled on every side yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body, the dying of the Lord, Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body for we,

which live are always delivered under death for Jesus’s sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh, such was certainly true concerning the apostle Paul. And he was not ashamed at all concerning being in this situation and having these kinds of scars or marks in his body. But when you think about a marked man, in what ways was he a marked man?

Well, I would suggest to you that he was a marked man as a servant of Christ, a servant of Christ. Paul is not ashamed to call himself a servant of Jesus Christ, Romans chapter one, verse one. That’s the way he introduces himself in the Roman letter in Philippians chapter one, verse one, he and Timothy, he describes as being servants of Jesus Christ in the book of Titus chapter one,

there, Paul says he is a servant of God. And yet in all three instances, and in many other places, he uses the word servant to describe himself. He will also go on and speak concerning fact that he is in the parcel of Jesus Christ, but he describes himself as being a servant. There are two main words in the Greek language that are translated as servant in our new Testament.

Now there are more that are translated that way, but these are the two main ones. The first one is the word diakonos, which means means a servant in relationship to one’s work. But the other one is the word doulos one who is in servitude in subjection to a master, a bond servant, or a bond slave. That’s the word that Paul uses most often to describe himself.

He is one who is a in servitude and subjection to his master. Now, many of the great men of the old Testament were those who were described as being servants of God, Joshua, for example, Abraham, Moses, David, most of the profits are described that way. And so when Paul uses that word servant, he is saying, I am like they were being an apostle being one who is a slave to God and being a willing slave to God.

A servant was one who belonged to someone else. As we would think of as a slave, he was one that is characterized by humility in the scriptures, as well as he is one who is in subjection to his masters will whatever that will may be. And he labors constantly on behalf of his master because he is not his own. He belongs to someone else.

That is exactly the way that we should look upon ourselves. We do not belong to ourselves. We belong into God. We belong into Christ as being a bond, servant, a willing servant for him and with him. When Paul uses this, we know that he doesn’t use it in such a way that he is discouraged by such or embarrassed by it.

When you look at what he says in first Timothy chapter one, and in verse 12, there, Paul makes the statement. I think Christ Jesus, our Lord who have enabled me for that, he counted me faithful putting me into the ministry. It was not a burden for him. It was that which he gladly accepted and was thankful that he was allowed to be in this particular situation.

His service to the Lord was such that it was to be endured. Yes, but it was a privilege as well. He had joy that he was able to do this. And he was always concerned about pleasing his master. What about you and I, are we ones that are always concerned about pleasing our master? Are we ones who are marked in this particular way as the apostle Paul was,

we should be, but that has to be up to us as to whether or not that’s going to be the case. Paul was a marked man. He was marked as a servant of Christ. But secondly, let me suggest to you that he was marked as a soldier of Christ. There is no doubt that the apostle Paul was a soldier in the Ward’s army.

When you look at Philippians chapter two, the apostle Paul, as he writes to the Philippian brethren says in verse 25, yet I supposed it necessary to send to you a path for ditis my brother and companion and labor and fellow soldier, but your messenger. And he that ministered to my warrants, notice how that Paul describes the path for ditis as a fellow soldier.

So by implication, Paul is saying, I am a soldier as well. And he would emphasize that when Paul would write to Timothy in second Timothy chapter two, there in verses two and three, Paul says, and the things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

Paul is encouraging Timothy to recognize the fact that he is a soldier of Jesus Christ, and to be willing to endure the things that need to be endured. The hardness that needs to be endured as being descriptive of a soldier of Jesus Christ. Paul would not tell Timothy he needs the something that Paul himself was not. Certainly Paul recognizes and States concerning the fact that he is a soldier and here he encourages Timothy to be a good soldier,

not just a soldier, but a good one who fights under the command of someone else as a soldier. He was, and also bear in his body. The scars of battle. I don’t know about you, but whenever I think concerning that, I automatically go to second Corinthians chapter 11 because they’re in second Corinthians, chapter 11, the apostle Paul gives us a listing of many of those cars that he bore being a soldier in the Lord’s army,

being an apostle of Jesus Christ. He says, they’re beginning with verse 23. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more in labors, more abundant in stripes above measure in prisons, more frequent in deaths off of the Jews. Five times received I 40 stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods? Once was I stoned thrice?

I shepherd suffered shipwreck a night in a day. I have been in the deep in journeys, off in perils of waters in perils of robbers in perils of mine, own countrymen in perils, by the heathen in perils, in the city, in perils, in the wilderness, in perils, in the sea, in perils, among the false brethren in and painfulness in watchings,

often in hunger and thirst in fastings, often in cold and nakedness beside those things that are without that, which come with upon me daily, the care of all the churches, yes. Paul could say, look, these, these are all things that I had to endure and I did such willingly and he would continue to do such willingly. It is imperative that we understand when Paul writes this in sec,

second Corinthians concerning all these different things that he is endured yet. He is not in prison at this time. He is not at the point of death. At this time, he is going to have to endure many more things before death will finally come to him because it’s going to be another several years before he ends up dying for the cause of Christ.

And yet he is a marked man. He is marked as a soldier of Jesus Christ. Thirdly, let me suggest to you that he is marked as a sufferer for Christ. And some will say, well, we’ve already talked about that. Well, yes we have. And yet Paul was really one who suffered for Christ and did such willingly. When you look at second Timothy chapter three,

as Paul is writing his last letter to Timothy there in verse 12, he says, yay. And all that will live godly in Christ. Jesus shall suffer persecution. And so the persecution, the suffering that is endured there is that which all Christians are going to endure, especially all of those who are living godly in Christ. Jesus Paul says, and therefore it’s going to come.

And we should not be surprised when it comes. We should be surprised if it doesn’t come, because that says more about us than it does about the offering. All of that, that live godly in Christ. Jesus Paul says, shall suffer persecution that doesn’t leave anybody. And how far, how well Paul knew concerning this particular truth, what it meant to suffer for Christ.

He would be a living demonstration of the fact that one who will live godly in Christ, Jesus will suffer persecution, just look at his life. As we read there from second Corinthians chapter 11, but some might say he could become a living commentary concerning suffering for Christ. And certainly that would be true. He’s a living example of someone who suffered for the cause of,

but this didn’t deter him. And the task was before him. He would continue to accept and encourage others to be willing, to accept as well. He would not falter. He would not quit because it got to be too hard. He would continue to be that, which he was supposed to be and that which God and him to be in acts chapter 20,

when Paul is in the city of my elitists meeting with the elders, from the church at Ephesus in verse 24, he says, but none of these things move me. Neither count I, my life, dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

Paul was not one who was discouraged. And yet he’s going to go on and say to these brethren, you will not see my face anymore. He knows that he’s not going to be able to come back to the city of Ephesus or even the city of my latest, as far as that is concerned in order to meet with the elders at Ephesus. And yet that does not discourage him.

That does not cause him to step back and to say, well, I don’t know that I’d want to do that. I don’t know that I want that to be descriptive of my life, but rather he will willingly go on to do whatever it is. The master has determined that he should do and must do. He was unmoved by the obstacles and he would press on no matter what the price might be.

Even if it means dying for the cause of Christ, which we know eventually that’s going to take place. The indication is he is going to be in prison in the city of Cesarea for two years before he is going to make his appeal to Caesar. And he goes to Rome and there he will be imprisoned for two more years. And then from all indications,

he’s going to be released for a short period of time, maybe as much as five years. And he will be rearrested and put in prison again. And this time Nero Caesar will have him put to death. He will literally give his life for the cause of Christ. He was a marked man as a sufferer of Christ. Finally, let me suggest to you that because of the way that Paul has lived and the way that he conducts himself and the attitude that he has,

the apostle Paul is going to be a marked man for eternity. Because even as just right now, we are continuing to read about, to discuss concerning the fact of the life of the apostle Paul and therefore he lives on not only in memory, not only because he is recorded in scripture, because in fact the soul does not die just as everyone else who has ever lived is going to live on the turtles.

The only question is where yet the apostle Paul is one who is a marked man for eternity because that’s the life that God expected of his servants, of his slave, his bond servant, that which he was willing to do no matter what the price. And so we asked tonight, are you a marked man, or are you a marked woman for Christ?

Are you one who is marked as a servant of Christ? Are you one who can carry around the Mark of being a soldier of Christ? Are you one that could be described as being a sufferer for Christ? Are you one that can be described as being marked for eternity? If not changes need to be made. If you’re outside of the body of Christ this evening,

then you’re not a marked man or a marked woman because you’ve not obeyed the gospel. You are in Satan’s camp. If you’ve reached an age of accountability, being able to know the difference between right and wrong, you are in Satan’s camp. And therefore you are in need of obedience to the gospel in order to be saved from your sins. Having heard the word,

you must believe it. You must be willing to repent and to confess your faith in Christ, and you must be willing to be baptized, to be immersed in water so that you can receive the forgiveness of your sins. There is no other way that that can take place. If you were one, who’s already a member of the body of Christ, and yet you’ve gone back into the world.

We plead with you to come back and repentance, praying to God for forgiveness. And to begin again, walking in the way of righteousness. And if we can help you in any way, we encourage you to come as together, we stand and as we sing.