We added to the prayer list the angel Kirby. This Sunday is the last Sunday of the month, so we'll be having a large table and no afternoon service. We'll eat dinner as if we changed it from any other dinner we had. The somewhat bigger dinner. Speaking of our worship service, hymn number 226, My Savior.

I am not skilled to understand what God hath willed or what God hath planned I only know that He is my Head, He is born who is my Savior! His Word indeed, Christ died for sinners with this I read, For in my heart I find the need of Him to be my Savior. That He should be His place on high, And come for simple man to die, We will count His praise And oh, that He who fills me, may see the travail of His soul in me, and with His Word continue me, as I with my dear Savior. Come we that love the Lord and let our joys be known.

We're marching. But children of the heavenly King We speak their joys abroad. We're marching to Zion. Beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion. The beautiful city of God. Oh, beautiful city of god our songs abound and every tear we cry we're marching through Emmanuel's crown we're marching through Emmanuel's crown to Pharaoh world's on high to Pharaoh world's on high we're marching to Zion Beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion. The beautiful city of God.

Turn in your Bibles to John chapter 10. We'll look at verses 33 through 39 tonight. John 10, verse 33, the Jews answered him, saying, for a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy. And Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law? I said, You are gods. If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken, say ye of him whom the Father sanctified and sent unto the world, Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God. If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though you believe me not, Believe the works that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in him.

Therefore they sought again to take him, but he escaped out of their hand. Our Father, we come in the blessed name and perfect righteousness of him who loved us and gave himself for us, who died in the womb instead of his people, who finished their salvation and redemption And all that is waited upon is the day when the Lord will send someone to tell them the truth of the gospel. And their hearts will be filled with joy when they hear that their salvation is accomplished and complete and nothing is left for them to do. It's all been done.

What a great transaction was made that day on Calvary and and offered himself to God the Father and God the Judge as the perfect sacrifice for sin. And having undergone the punishment for our sin in those three hours of darkness, gave up his life so that the law might be fully and completely satisfied. For the law saith in the soul that sinneth that shall die. And though our Savior was sinless and spotless, He, Father, took our sins upon Himself and offered Himself as the perfect sin sacrifice.

Father, we thank You that we can believe such things, that You've given us faith to rest in that glorious work. We pray for those who are sick and going through trials and tribulations. Pray for these new ones that have been added to the prayer list. We ask the Lord for your blessings upon them. We ask the Lord for ourselves tonight as we gather here that you'd open up the word to us.

Don't leave me here by myself. Cause me to say right things concerning me. Undergird your servant with the power of the spirit. Enable me to preach the gospel. Help me, Lord, I pray in Christ's name. him to death, to put an end to him, to be rid of this Nazarene.

They are enraged, as they have been since he used his miracles to reveal how blind and lame they were. They are full of religion, but are spiritually a vacuum. He's not been kind, and though they approved of his miracles, they hate him for what he said. They hate him for his words. which in truth is the very Word of God. Their self-righteous indignation is their response to His words in verse 30 when He said, I and the Father are one.

And they count His words a blasphemy and according to the law, a capital offense. Look over at Leviticus chapter 24. The Biblical chapter 24 and verse 16 says this, and he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord shall be put to death, and all the congregations shall certainly stone him, as well as the stranger as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord shall be put to death.

So when they accused him of blasphemy, they were saying, you are worthy, what you're doing is worthy of death. So they said in verse 33 of our text, The Jews answered him saying, for a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy. And because thou hast being a man, make us thyself God. They admitted that they did not want to kill him for the works that he did, but for the words that he said.

And that's true today. That's true today. People love the Lord who does miracles, and they pray to him for miracles. But when you tell them the truth of the word of God, their prayers are that you might be killed yourself. They despised that, but that's the case. They loved the fact that he did miracles. They were astonished. They gathered around him. They followed him places.

They went to see what next thing he was going to do. Was he going to turn water into wine again? Was he going to feed thousands with a few fishes and a few loaves of bread? Was he going to raise a blind man, a man who'd been lame all his life, and tell him to take up his bed and walk home? make a blind man who was blind from his birth to see.

These were things that were astonishing to them. So they liked that part about him. And then he opened his mouth and told them who he was and they wanted to take up stones and kill him. The miracles that he performed declared that he had the power of God. That could not be denied.

He even said that, I have power. What kind of power did he have? He had the power to lay down his life, to stop living. We don't have that power. Death has power over us, but he had power over death. He could stop living. He said, I have power, and I have power to take my life up again. So he had power while he was a dead man in the grave. His power was not diminished. He raised himself from the dead.

And he told them he had power, and he often referred them to the works that he did as evidence that he was sent from God. We see that throughout this book thus far. Had they understood the value of his works, they would have believed his words, but they only desired to be rid of him when he spoke. Now his answer to their statement in verse 33 is an interesting statement in verse 34.

The Lord says, is it not written in your law? Remember, he said, this is what we're going to kill you for. You save your God. You save your God. And he says to them, is it not written in your law? I said, ye are gods? Interesting. Phraseology says this to the Pharisees, isn't it written in your law that you are God's?

And the words he used, the word used in verse 30, and the word they use in verse 33, and the word he uses in verse 31, for God's is the same word in the Greek. It's the word theos, and we get our word like theology, which means the study of God, and theocracy, which means God governs. It's used in the word of God mostly, almost all references, refers to the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit, but it can be also used, and is used in the Scripture, for judges, and magistrates, and even princes. It was this use that the Lord used and employed to describe these Pharisees as judges, and magistrates, and princes.

But the Lord is quoting Psalm 82. If you want to turn there. Psalm 82 in verse 6. It says, I have said ye are gods. Now, the Lord is speaking to the rulers of his people. I have said ye are gods. You notice it's not an uppercase G for gods, it's a lowercase. And all of you are children of the most high. That sounds pretty good, but if you read the whole text, which we'll read in a minute, you'll see it's not such a good statement at all. He's saying, I've said you're gods, but I'm gonna put you out of business.

He's going to destroy them for their evil ways and their impotence. And He's going to do it in contrast to Himself as the Lord of Glory. Look back at the text, or rather in Psalm 82. It begins, God standeth in the congregation of the mighty. He judgeth among the gods. Now He's talking about the mighty and the gods. He's talking about the congregation of those rulers, Pharisees, men who rule in Israel.

How long will you judge unjustly?" So he's accusing them already. They're princes and magistrates and judges and mighty men, and yet they're judging unjustly and accept the persons of the wicked. See law. Think about that. Defend the poor and the fondless. Do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and the needy. Rid them out of the hand of the wicked.

They know not, neither will they understand. They walk in darkness. All the foundations of earth are out of course. I have said, ye are gods. Ye are gods. And all of your children are lost now. But ye shall die like men and fall like one of the princes. Arise, O God. Judge the earth for thou shalt inherit all nations."

So when he said, ye are gods, he was not uplifting them. But he said, the Bible says, ye are gods. He uses the word written in your law. He says, written in your law, I said, ye are gods, when he quoted the psalm. So he uses that phrase. What does that mean? He's not talking about the Ten Commandments.

The use of the law does not refer to the Sinai covenant at all, but the entire Old Testament, this book from Genesis to Malachi, at the time of our Lord's teaching, was all the Bible they had. None of the epistles or the gospels had been written. The first epistle was written about 50 AD, the gospels were written about 100 AD. So that time span has not even taken place yet.

But he's talking about the whole law. It's the same thing when our Lord said, I'll make a new covenant with you in Jeremiah 31 and repeated in Hebrews chapter 10 when he said, I'll write my laws in your heart. He's not talking about the Ten Commandments, he's talking about this book. Writing the laws in your heart. So that's what he's talking about when he says it's written in your law.

There's little doubt that these Pharisees act as if they're gods. There's no doubt about that. their descriptions throughout Scripture. They want glory for themselves. They do what they do to be seen of men. They seek the higher places so men will applaud them for what they are. Glory belongs to God. And it says in Psalm 29 that all the congregation of God, all God's people, give glory to His name without question. He's the one who deserves glory. But these Pharisees, they want glory for themselves.

They think themselves righteous and despise others. That's how the Pharisees described in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican. They think themselves righteous and despise others. And most people have an idea about God like that. Most religious people do. He loves good people and the bad people he gonna put in hell. They think that.

And that's what these Pharisees thought also. They thought themselves qualified to decide who belongs in the kingdom and who does not. For it says they stand at the gate of the kingdom and refuse men and won't let them in. So these are things that they have said of themselves that they are self-deifying. They are saying we are God. So even though he's saying that, we are God, they are actually liking that. All these things make for a good study. Not the reason at all.

He's doing what he's done before with these Pharisees. When they accused him of something, then he used their words right back on. When they accused him of healing that man on a Sabbath day, they said, we're going to put you to death. He said, well, you do. You break the law on a Sabbath day. So he took it right back to them. And this is what he's doing right here. When they said they would kill him for healing a man on a Sabbath, he showed them many ways they broke the law of the Sabbath. He is simply using their own words against them. He's employing the turning of a phrase. That's what we would cause it in this day. He says, I blaspheme, yet you say I blaspheme by saying I'm one with God. Are you accusing God of blasphemy for saying you're God's? That's the gist of this.

Our Lord used the language And he used sarcasm many times when he talked to people. You see, words are his power. The gospel is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believes. Words. That's what we have. That's what the child of God has.

He doesn't have any other evidence than the fact that God has given him faith to believe His words. We can't see Christ. We've never seen Him. We can't feel Him. We can't touch Him. Well, how do we know we know Him? God has given us faith to believe His Word. That's the only thing.

Faith is the evidence of things hoped for and the substance of things not seen. He said, you say I blaspheme by saying I'm one with God. Are you accusing God of blasphemy for saying ye are God's? He has magnified His Word above His name. His words, He said in John 6, are spirit. and they are life. His words are spirit and they are life. Peter said, thou hast the words of eternal life. And when he quoted the psalm, he was quoting what he inspired David to write. He's the author of this book, the Psalms in all Psalms are, and all the rest of the book is about him. He inspired it.

He said that in John 5, 39. You who search the Scriptures for there, they which testify of me. And you will not come unto me that you might have life. Over in the book of Luke, verse 24, to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. In verse 27, he says this, In beginning at Moses, and all the promise, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Then if you look down at verse 44, he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses, that's the first five books of the Bible, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms. concerning me, concerning me. He used his words to reveal that their accusation needs some serious consideration because after he said that, back in our text in verse 33, or verse 34, he said, verse 35, if he called them gods, if he called them gods unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken. The scripture cannot be broken. Again, he refers to the works that he's done as proof of the veracity of the words he has spoken.

This was the intent of the miracles. Why don't we see men doing miracles today? I know they had these clowns get on TV and say they had miracles and heal the sick and things like that. If they really had power to heal the sick and they were God's person, they'd be in every hospital walking along. Walking over and touching somebody and making them better if they had that gift. That gift isn't chicanery. It's tomfoolery. It's religious trickery. That's all it is. They just do that to get money out of people. My daddy was a cop back in the 50s. And he used to work for extra money. They would hire him to do for rodeos and things like that. He was hired for one of Oral Roberts' crusades one time.

They would preach for about five minutes, and they'd do a little healing, and then they'd pass around the collection plate. But it wasn't a collection plate. It was a bushel basket. He said they'd do that three or four times during the service, and every time that thing would come back full of bills. And bushel baskets would come back full of bills.

It was for the money. And they were making a lot of money fooling people. The miracles that the Lord did had an intent. And he's made that clear as he's taught these things in scripture. This was the intent, to give veracity to the words that were spoken. They were done to give credence to what was preached until the word was completed and faith replaced sight altogether.

The apostles had these gifts too. And they did it and they had these miracles because they went out into the world with something brand new. When they left at Pentecost and spread out in the world, they began to preach Christ and Him crucified. And men were astonished at what they were saying. So when they spoke, men heard them in their own language.

And sometimes they spoke in another language, in another language that people could understand. They were given that gift. They had the gift of healing. Simon Peter's cloth that he wore, the napkin he wore was used to heal a person one time. They had power to do that. Why? To give authenticity to the message they preached. They would see the miracle and say, God saved many people that way.

But this is what our Lord is telling these men, these miracles that He did have to do with the work. They looked at the miracles and said, we don't get you for the miracles, we get you for the words that you speak. But then in verse 36, He says, say ye of him, do you say this about him whom the Father hath sanctified, that he's a blasphemer, and sin into the world? Thou blasphemest, because I said I'm the Son of God, do you say I'm blaspheming?

I'm the one God sent into the world. I'm the one God set apart to do this work. I'm the one God sanctified. I am the Christ, the anointed and appointed one. He says that their accusation of blasphemy was against the very one that the Father has sanctified and sent into the world. And he's again told them who he was. And to do so, how does he tell them who he was again? Now, he said he's who he was over and over again, but how does he do it?

He points to those works. He points to those works. Look at verse 37. If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. He refers to the works as the proof of who he is and the fact that they do not believe. If the works don't reveal that the Father had sent him, and he said, don't believe me. He said, nobody can do these works. You Pharisees, you can't do them. You rulers of Israel, you can't do them. You priests, you can't do them. Nobody can do them. I'm the only one that's doing them. Pay attention, don't believe me for the works. He does the works and they believe him not. The reason for the works is that men might know and believe. Isn't that what he said? Verse 38, but if I do, though you believe me not, if I do the works, though you believe me not, believe the works. Believe the works that ye may know, and believe that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father."

If you read John 17, our Lord said part of the glory that God gave him to glorify God was to reveal the Father. He said, well, they talked about the Father in the Old Testament. Isaiah 64, when Isaiah said, now all our works are filth and rags, and we all know fate is illegal. He said, but thou art our father. So what does he mean when he says, I reveal the father? When he said, I came to declare the father, he said, he's got a son. He's got a son, and that son is me.

If you've seen the works, he said, believe the works. Believe the works. They reveal who I am. The works that I do reveal who I am. This again declares the reason for the miracles He performed. And unbelief is manifested in one way. In one way, if it can get by with it. The root of unbelief is murderous. It's murderous. At the heart is the desire to get rid of God. Boy, knock the back door. Don't want anything to do with God. This is the nature of unbelief. The first thing that the Holy Spirit convicts a man of, according to John 16, is unbelief. Because it's the mother of all sin.

The people said, we will not have this man reign over us. That's what they were saying. He saved you, the Son of God. I ain't believing it, because he ain't going to reign over me. He ain't going to reign over me. Unbelief is true blasphemy. Unbelief is worthy of death.

Turn over to Luke 19 and I'll let you go on. Verse 27 says, But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring them hither and slay them before me." I think it was old Baxter said, you read the Bible, here's one of the two things you're going to do. You're going to bow or you're going to burn. Father bless us to understand and pray