Ye, are God's

I remind you that I invite you to join me in this series, Using them for their own wealth and their own riches. We've also been looking at how the word of God, as Jesus is speaking, is dividing the sheep, the true sheep, from the goats. And down in verse number 27, He says, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them.

And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. This idea of My sheep, we spent some time talking about who are the Lord's sheep. And I want to just review just a little bit because maybe I didn't come across as clear as I would have liked last time.

This idea of foreknowledge, and it's mentioned in Romans and other places, Titus chapter 1, elect according to the foreknowledge of God. Foreknowledge is this idea that God knows the future. I like this thought that don't fret about tomorrow, the Lord already lives there.

He's already there. So, the Lord already knows the future. And so, we understand that God already knows everything to come, everything that is coming.

As a matter of fact, a lot of the Bible is an example of His foreknowledge. The book of Revelation is simply all in the future, pretty much. I mean, we read that book and we don't think about it, but God is telling us everything is going to happen in the future.

The Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke talk about the future for us. And in some of the chapters. And so, God already knows and He's very detailed.

He tells us exactly what is coming in the future. You go back to the Old Testament and all the prophecies of Jesus that He fulfilled. Those were written 3,000, 4,000 years before Jesus even lived.

And so, somebody has to know the future in order to record it. And so, much of the Bible is foreknowledge. It is God telling us about the future.

You can go back to the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve fell and the Lord told them then that the woman's seed would crush the head of the serpent. How did God even know to say that? Because He has foreknowledge. He already knows the end from the beginning.

And so, this idea of foreknowledge. God knows your choices. He knows the choices you're going to make tomorrow.

He knows the choices you're going to make in 10 years. And so, He has this foreknowledge. He does not, and I want to emphasize this, He does not force your choices.

There is free will. So, the Bible represents the free will of God. But the Lord does know your choices.

That's what a prophet is. A prophet is someone like Agabus who comes and tells you ahead of time what's going to happen. Paul, you're going to go to Jerusalem, you're going to be bound in chains.

There's a great dearth, a great famine coming to this region. This is what the book of Acts, the prophets were telling about the future. And so, understanding foreknowledge and how foreknowledge and the free will of man come together.

Let me give you an illustration. Some of you have heard me tell this. It's very simple, but I think it's a good way to explain.

We as a church are going to have a banquet, much like the Lord's preparing a banquet for His sheep. And we decide to go out and invite everyone in Martinsburg to this banquet we're having right here in this building. This may be 150 people that live, 200 people that live in Martinsburg.

And so, we go to every door and we make sure everyone has an invitation to come to this banquet. And we're talking about how we're going to seat 200, how we're going to feed 200, and all the details of this banquet that we're having as a church for the community here in Martinsburg. And while we're trying to think through all this, someone knocks at the door and it's an Agabus.

It's a prophet. And that prophet comes in and says to us, I have some foreknowledge for you. I can see into the future.

God has given me the ability to see the future and to prophesy for you all. And I want you to know that you're having a banquet and there's going to be five people from Martinsburg come to the banquet. And here are the names of the five people.

So we say, thank you. That makes things a lot simpler. And so we prepare a table, a small table with five plates, settings, and five name tags.

And those people on the day of the banquet walk into this building and they come and they look at that table and they see even their names are already on the table and the place setting. We've only got enough food for five people. And then they say, did you only invite five? That's the obvious question.

And we say, no, no, no, we invited the whole town. Well then, how did you ordain and prepare this table in advance? How did you do that? And we would say we knew ahead of time. We had foreknowledge.

We understood ahead of time who would respond and who would come. And everyone had a choice. Everyone had a free will in Martinsburg to come, but we had foreknowledge.

And therefore we knew. You could have spoken to the Lord Jesus in the Garden of Paradise before the fall of man and He'd have told you every name. We talked about this last week.

That was written in the Book of Life. It was a book that was written from the foundation of the world. And so if you're a child of God, if you're a sheep, a true sheep, your name was there thousands of years before you were ever born.

It's already there. How? Did God say, well, I'm going to make this person and force them into salvation? No. He foreknew.

He has foreknowledge. So let me just illustrate this for you here on the board. These red dots represent God's sheep.

And I know there's probably hundreds, well, millions of sheep throughout history. But those dots are representative of God's sheep. And then there's some of these dots that come in here that are representative of those who maybe make a profession of faith, and maybe they get baptized and they appear to be sheep.

The Bible talks about many will start out, and because of the difficulty of the way, they'll depart. They'll leave the faith. The Bible talks about in the last days there'll be a great falling away.

Galatians talks about some falling away from the faith. But there will be many like that in the midst of the sheep. Even John chapter 6 said, many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him.

You see, here's the problem we face. We, looking at the sheep, we see this picture right here. We don't know who are His sheep and who are not His sheep.

We have many people professing to be sheep. But when God looks at His sheep, when He talks about My sheep, all He sees are these sheep right here. And the reason why is because He already knows those who are going to depart.

He already knows those who are going to fall away. He already knows that. And He knew it from the foundation of the world.

The Bible says in John 6 that Jesus knew from the beginning who would depart and who would betray Him. He knew Judas would betray Him. And so as God looks upon even us as a congregation, He knows already who are His sheep.

He also knows those who will depart. Well, we look in verse number 28, it says, And I give unto them eternal life. Who is He talking to? His sheep.

His sheep. I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. His sheep are those who believe on the Lord Jesus, who embrace the cross, who endure to the end.

Those are the sheep that will never perish. And not only that, He says, No man can pluck them out of My hand. You know, there's no way that if you have faith in Jesus Christ, you'll ever be taken out of His hand.

That's security right there. No one's going to come in and pluck you out. We don't have to sit and think, Well, if I trust Jesus and if I hold to the Gospel to the day I die, maybe I'll get stolen out of God's hand some way.

Never happen. That's the promise. Well, we talked about that last time.

Verse number 30, I'm kind of walking down here to prepare us for our message this morning. Verse 30, I and my Father are one. Here the Lord claims to be deity, He and His Father being one.

Well, the Jews respond in verse 31, Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. And Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you for My Father. For which of these works do you stone Me? The Jews answered Him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.

Now, here's the problem that the Jews are having with Jesus. You who are a man, we're looking at you. You have flesh and bones.

You who are a man are making yourself God. How can a man claim to be God? Back in John chapter 4, we talked about this. Jesus said that God is a spirit, right? God is a spirit, and the Jews understood God to be the eternal spirit.

How can you, a human being, a man, we can touch you. How can you claim to be God? Well, one thing they missed, and John talks about this a lot, but they missed the incarnation. They missed, and what's the word incarnate mean? In the flesh.

To be incarnate. That God would come as the eternal spirit, and He would manifest Himself in the flesh. John chapter 1 verse 14 says this, And the Word was made what? Flesh.

The Word was made flesh. That which is from the beginning. The Word of God was made flesh, and we beheld in a human body the glory of the Lord.

That's the incarnation. Now, the Jews had a struggle with that. How can you be God? You're a man.

And so they missed the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me read a verse in the book of Hebrews, and then we'll get into our message this morning. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 14.

It says this, For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same. We are His children. He then took part of the same flesh and blood, that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

And then verse 16 of Hebrews 2 says this, For truly He took not on Him the nature of angels, but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. God did not take upon Himself as the eternal spirit the nature of an angel. Now, the nature of an angel is different than the nature of a human being.

He could have taken on the nature of Michael, or Gabriel, or any of the angelic beings. They have a different nature. But He, the eternal spirit, took upon Himself the nature of Abraham, meaning human nature.

And so the Jews are struggling here with this idea of Jesus claiming to be God. And it brings us here now to verse number 34 because this is a very difficult passage, and I believe there is a lesson in here, and I think that the Lord is trying to communicate a lesson to the Jewish leaders here. But I want to read down through this passage, and we'll come back, and we'll discuss it here briefly this morning.

Verse 34, 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 has sanctified and sent into the world, thou blasphemous, 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 not Me, 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 and went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized, and there He abode. And many resorted unto Him and said, John did no miracle, but all things that John spake of this man were true, and many believed on Him there. Well, I'd like to look at this passage this morning, and it's somewhat of a difficult passage.

When Jesus says here in verse 34, Is it not written in your law, I said, ye are gods. What does that mean? I've been oftentimes on campuses, especially down here at Columbus State, maybe some of you have been with me at the time I've been down there, and on some of the campuses, the Jehovah's Witnesses are out, there's some Mormons out, and they set up a stand, and they have their information, there's probably a lady and a man standing there a number of hours while we're there preaching, and I oftentimes will go over and just start up a conversation with them. You know, you've had conversations with Jehovah's Witnesses, and one of the things that we deal with with them is the deity issue, and they're pretty slick in how they discuss things and how they reason, but I know this, that one of the things they turn to often, and I've approached them on this, about Jesus claiming to be God, and they will run to this passage.

Well, they'll say, look at verse 34, Is it not written in your law, I said, ye are gods. And so they find refuge in that to try to prove that, hey, Jesus is not God, because even Jesus said all of us are gods in that sense. And so it's a hard passage to really address some of those who, like Jehovah's Witnesses, believe that Jesus is not God.

And so I'd like to just consider this passage and it's actually a quote from Psalm 82. And so I'd like to go and look at Psalm 82 to understand the context of what the Lord is saying here, and I believe there is a message, not only for the Jews, but I think we can get a message out of this for ourselves here this morning on this somewhat difficult passage. Psalm 82.

And I want you to look here, it's a short psalm, just eight verses, but there's some good information, I think, here for us. And Psalm 82, down in verse number six, this is the verse that Jesus quotes, I have said, ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High. So here is where Jesus draws on.

When He's talking to the Jews, He goes back and He says, does it not written in your law, Psalm 82, verse six, He didn't say that. Psalm 82, verse six, that you are gods. Well, what does that mean? Well, I've been looking here at Psalm 82 and trying to come up with what the Lord is saying.

And let's go back and start in verse number one and go down through this psalm here this morning. Psalm 82, verse one says, God standeth in the congregation of the mighty, He judges among the gods. Now let's start off with that.

God, capital G, singular God, God standeth in the congregation of the mighty, He judges among the gods. And you notice here that when the Lord talks about ye are gods, or here He quotes this, it's always in the plural. Whenever we talk about God Almighty, it's always in the singular.

And here it says, God is standing in the congregation of the mighty, He judges amongst the gods. Now is there more than one God? Well, we know the Bible teaches there is not any more than one God. One of my favorite passages.

I might have read this last week, but I'd like to read it again for you. This is what the Lord says in Isaiah 44, verse 6, Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel and His Redeemer the Lord of hosts, I am the first and I am the last, and besides Me there is no God. Now if anyone ought to know whether there's a God beside Him, it ought to be Him who has all knowledge, right? He says there is no God.

Fear ye not, neither be afraid. Have not I told thee from that time and have declared it? You even are My witnesses. Is there a God beside Me? Yea, there is no God.

I know not any. So there's a declaration. You can go throughout the Bible and you'll see declarations that the Lord says I'm the only one.

So the Lord is in heaven. He's looking around. Is there a God beside Me? And God says I'm looking around and I find nobody.

There are no other gods but Me. So the idea that there is multiple gods, that's what the Lord is talking about here, is not an option. Now there's another passage in the New Testament.

As my mind went to different things, just listen as I read this one. Maybe you've thought about this. In 1 Corinthians chapter 8, Paul is writing to the church.

He says this, As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered and sacrificed unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other god but one. There's a declaration. There is none other god but one.

For though there be that are called gods, plural, whether in heaven or in earth, as there are gods many and lords many, but to us there is but one God, the Father of whom are all things, and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus, by whom are all things, and we by Him. So there is just one. One God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Though there be those who are called gods, there are gods many and there are lords many. So back here in Psalm 82, let's get the context or what the Lord is trying to teach in the Psalm. Chapter 82, verse 1. God standeth in the congregation of the mighty.

He judges among the gods. God says here that He judges the gods. He is over the gods and He judges the gods.

He is going to go on down here and He is going to begin to judge these individuals who are called gods. He talks about in verse 1, He stands in the congregation of the mighty. And this word mighty means those who are in authority.

Those who are strong. The mighty. Those who are in authority.

Those who are lifted up in men's eyes. Those who are given authority. He says God judges or stands in the congregation of the mighty.

He judges amongst the gods. Now I'm going to represent here, and you're going to see this as we go down through the Psalm, that the gods here represent those who are in authority, those who are highly esteemed among men. Those who are in a position of authority.

You'll see that. He's actually talking about the Jewish leaders here throughout the rest of the Psalm. The gods.

Romans 13.1 says, All authorities that be are ordained of God. You know, sometimes authorities in life are actually called names that are associated with God. Can you think of one or two in particular? How about this one? Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him what? Lord.

Lord. The idea of a Lord is one who is in a position of authority. Abraham was Lord, or authority over his wife.

And so throughout the Bible, you do see the word Lord used in a number of different situations where it was talking about a person who was in a place of God-ordained authority. Notice here as he goes on here about the judgment that he is giving these individuals. Verse 2, How long will you judge unjustly and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.

Defend the poor and fatherless. Do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy.

Rid them out of the hand of the wicked. They know not, neither will they understand They walk on in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are out of course.

Now notice here that whoever these people are, these gods, they are being judged and their judgment, and what the Lord is telling them is they are judging unjustly. They are accepting the persons of the wicked. They should be defending the poor and the fatherless.

They should be doing justice to the afflicted and needy. Delivering the poor and needy. And ridding them out of the hand of the wicked.

But they know not, verse 5, neither will they understand. They walk on in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are out of course.

So here the Lord is speaking to these individuals. He calls them here gods. And they are to be ruling and doing justly.

And even as the Scripture says here they are to be good shepherds. And I believe he's going to talk about, and one of the reasons why he brings this up, I think, is he hopes that these religious leaders he's talking to in John will go back and look at this passage. Because he says it's written in your law.

You are gods. And we'll see here some of the things I believe the Lord wants them to see about their own life. So, verse 6 is quoted by the Lord Jesus in John 10.

He says, I have said ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High. And I believe it's talking about the spiritual leaders here who he refers to as being gods. Think about this.

Those who stand in the place of God on the earth. Those who are lords over people. Those who are gods over people.

Those who are ordained of God as authorities. They may be kings. They may be pastors.

They may be elders. They may be husbands. They may be parents.

But those who God has ordained as leaders and authorities. Now there's a great example of this, and I'd like you to look in your Bible to this example. Turn back to Exodus chapter 7. And we always ought to let the Bible interpret itself here.

But in Exodus chapter 7, someone is actually called a god. Exodus chapter 7, in verse number 1. This is Moses. Moses is God's chosen authority.

He's God's chosen leader. And he's about to go to Pharaoh here in Exodus 7.1. And it says this, And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee... What's the next two words? A god. See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh.

Now that's God speaking. I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. Thou shalt speak all that I command thee.

Now this is important as we go on through here. Moses, I'm going to make you a god to Pharaoh. And it's important as you go, you go and speak all that I command you.

Don't speak what you want to speak. You speak what I command you. And Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh that he send the children of Israel out of his land.

And of course you know the story here of all that happened. But notice God is speaking to Moses and telling him, I'm going to make you a god. It's always a little g, little g. I'm going to make you a god.

Now did he think that Moses was going to be some deity? No. But he is going to make him an authority, a lord, a god over Egypt, over the Pharaoh. And God is going to speak directly to Pharaoh and to Egypt through Moses.

Now go back to Exodus chapter 4. Exodus chapter 4. And I'm going to jump in here. You know, the Lord is wanting to send Moses into Egypt and Moses is having a problem with going. He doesn't think he's a good speaker.

And we'll jump in here for the sake of time in verse 14. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well, and also behold, he cometh forth to meet thee. And when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart.

And thou shalt speak unto him and put words in his mouth, and I will be with thy mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do. Now the Lord was angry because Moses didn't want to go and speak. He wanted someone else to speak.

Verse 16, And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people, and he shall be even, he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God. Think about that one for a minute. He will be unto thee instead of or in place of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God.

And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs. And so, here you have the Lord making a mention of Moses, you're going to be in the place of me, to Aaron. I'm going to send you down to Pharaoh, and you're going to be a God to Pharaoh.

And so this is something that you see some in the Old Testament, this idea of being a God. And it's always referring to God placing someone in the place of authority over others. Someone to teach them, someone to lead them, someone to give direction to them.

And so Moses was in God's stead or in God's place as he ministered with Aaron and as he went to Pharaoh. Now here's something interesting. I thought through this in my own mind.

Jesus said this to the leaders in Matthew 23. Those who have been given responsibility over the nation of Israel, here's what He said to them. The scribes and the Pharisees sit in whose seat? Moses' seat.

They are sitting in Moses' seat. In other words, just like Moses was a God to Pharaoh, was a God to Aaron, so too the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe.

In other words, He's talking here about the religious leaders of the day. Now let me throw this in because this is something I know people have shared and I just want to clarify. You're going to see this clarified as we finish the message here this morning.

Some people have taught that we should observe all of what the Pharisees spoke. Now the Pharisees had a lot of their own rules and regulations. And so some have thought, well, if the Pharisees said to do this and this, we ought to do that.

But notice this, that Moses when he went down to Pharaoh and he acted as a God to Pharaoh was only to speak the things that God had commanded him to speak. In other words, if Moses went down to Pharaoh and said, I'm a God to you, give me half of your kingdom. You think God would have backed that one up? No, He said, I'll use you as a God over Pharaoh, but I want you to speak the words that I give you to speak.

Moses, like the Pharisees, were told to speak God's Word and not their own. And so these Jewish leaders were not to make their own rules and regulations. That is why Jesus did not follow those rules and regulations.

He only followed that which was the Word of God. He only followed that which God had given them the right and authority to speak. And that's a principle that we understand here.

You've heard me tell this story, but it's a good example of this. When I was in Bible school, I was in the bus ministry. It was a huge ministry.

We ran probably 130, 140 school buses into Chicago and picked up children. There was a man that was over the bus ministry, the whole thing. His name was Ray Young.

And Ray Young was the leader and we bus captains. Each bus had a bus captain. There was like 130 bus captains, us young Bible school students, men.

And we had workers that helped us. But we were under Ray Young and Ray Young was like a God to us. I mean, we reverenced him and we honored him.

And whatever Ray Young said, we bus captains would jump to it. I mean, if Ray Young said, you know, Jerry, you need to clean that bus, sweep that bus out. I'd say, yes, sir.

Yes, sir. I'd get right at it. But Ray Young had a secretary whose name was Ms. Weir.

I think it was W-E-I-R. And Ms. Weir was a sweet young lady. She's probably 25 years old.

Meek and quiet. But Ms. Weir, she carried authority with her. And all she'd have to do is she got a direction from Ray Young and Ray would say, Ms. Weir, would you tell the bus captains or would you tell Jerry that he needs to do this, that, and the other thing.

And when Ms. Weir came to me and she said, Brother Ray Young wants you to do this. Guess what I did? I did it. Now, she had no authority in herself, but she was standing in the place of the one who did.

And so when she would come to us men, bus captains, and she would say, Ray Young, that was the secret word there, Ray Young wants you to do this, we would respond immediately. However, if Ms. Weir came and said, Hey Jerry, I'd like you to wash my car this week. Now, I should have been a nice guy and everything, you know, but I could have easily said, Nothing, do it.

You know why? Because there was no authority. There was no authority behind those words. And so she had authority as long as she spoke under authority.

And you and I have that same authority, and Jesus is going to show us this in just a minute, but you and I have the same authority. We, as we go out and we speak His words and do His will, we have all the authority of heaven behind us. But I guarantee you go out and do your own thing and try to accomplish your own purposes, you have no authority behind you.

Well, I know there's a few examples in the Bible that I could give you, but let's just give you one. Husbands, how much authority do you have over your wives? The Bible says that a wife has submitted herself under her husband, Ephesians says, in everything. In everything.

Does that mean that if you tell your wife to go out and steal something from the store that she's to submit in everything? Well, before it says in everything that two verses before in Ephesians, it says, Submit yourselves, wives, to your own husbands as it is fit or right in the Lord. In other words, there's a greater authority above your husband. Amen? I think we all agree with that.

And so if your husband commands you to do something and he says to you, you need to submit because I'm your authority, and he is asking you to do something that is contrary to the will of God, then as Peter says, you need to suffer the consequences of his anger and frustration at you because you are trying to obey a higher authority. And so all authority structure is that way. If you're under authority and your authority asks you to violate God's will, you ought to say, I cannot do that.

If they ask you to sin against God, I cannot do that. I remember working with a church up in Wellington, Ohio, and there was a young lady that came to me, and she was a godly young lady, and she asked a question to me, and she says, My husband wants me to go out and dress very immodestly in public. What should I do? Should I submit to him? The Bible says to submit to your husband.

Well, we encouraged her. You should submit to the Lord first and foremost. And that may cause you to have to suffer consequences from your husband.

But Peter says you should be thankful that you suffered for conscience sake towards God. And so I believe that religious leaders like the Pharisees have authority given to them by God over the people of Israel. I believe that shepherds have authority by God given over the people.

I believe that husbands have authority and parents have authority and kings have authority. But that authority is only as we follow the will of God and submit ourselves to His will. So when we make laws here, the kings and presidents and Congress make laws here that violate God's law, we don't support them.

We don't follow them. Well, let's go back here to Psalm 82 and just look here before we go back to John. Psalm 82.

Maybe you can tuck this all away in your mind and maybe if you have that Jehovah's Witness try to convince you someday that Jesus said, well, you're gods, that you'll come back here to Psalm 82 and you'll share with them here what the Lord says. So, Psalm 82. In verse 6, I have said, you are gods and all of you are children of the Most High.

You are children of the Most High God under His authority. You are those who stand in His place and speak His words, do His will. I like the last words Jesus said before He ascended.

He said, all power and authority is given unto Me. Go ye therefore and teach all nations. I'm going to give you this authority and power to go in My name and to teach all nations.

Verse 7, but you shall die like men. Here's the judgment on these who are not doing right as gods. But you shall die like men and fall like one of the princes.

Arise, O God, judge the earth, for Thou shalt inherit all nations. Now, some of you in our Bible study on Saturday morning, we've seen how when God arises and judges the earth, that those authorities are the ones that are fleeing to the mountains. It says the kings.

That's an authority. The captains. That's an authority.

The slave, the bond slave, the masters. That's an authority. These authorities are running to the caves and the mountains and crying, fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne.

In other words, God has given them authority. He has expected them to use that authority wisely and to speak His words and do His will and they have abused it. Amen? And these great men, mighty men, rich men, captains, kings are going to be under judgment.

So certainly this was the case of the religious leaders of the day in Jesus' day who had corrupted their leadership. And I believe the Lord is speaking right into them. They should have come back here to Psalm 82 and probably some of them did.

Hey, let's go back and look at what it says there in the Old Testament about ye are gods. And then they find themselves right here not doing right as leaders of the people. In just a few months from what Jesus spoke here in John 10, in just a few months, the Lord is going to say to the leaders of Israel seven woes, right? Just before the Passover, He's going to say woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees.

You are who the leaders of the people. Seven times He will give them woes. Now let's make some application here today.

You know God gives authority to people? And let's just ask this question. Maybe some of you are gods. Oh boy, this is going to go really well, I can tell.

Brother Jerry is preaching that all of us are gods. But in light of this, as Jesus said, doesn't the Scripture say ye are all gods? Speaking to those Jewish leaders. But how many of you are doing right and doing well as a power, an authority that is ordained of God? How about elders in the church? I look at myself.

Am I speaking only what He wants to speak? And am I doing only what He wants me to do? How about a husband? I'm a husband. Am I speaking what He wants of the husband and doing what He wants? You know, I don't think it's a small thing for God to give you authority in people's lives. Would you agree with that? All authority is ordained of God.

God ordains authorities. And we can say it this way. He calls them gods.

He calls them lords. He places them in a place of authority. How about parents? Standing in the place of God for the people, for your children.

How do you treat them underneath your care? How do you treat them underneath your care? Is your care a selfish, self-centered care? I want you to do what I want to do. I want you to fulfill my desires, my lust. I want you to obey me because it satisfies me.

Or do you have a leadership? And are you a leader that lays your life down as the good shepherd does? And he is one who is willing to do the will of God and to sacrifice for those under him. Amen. How are we doing as elders, husbands, parents? You know, God has given you authority.

And people underneath you. Now, let's go back to John here because the Lord's going to address this whole thing in John 10. We'll look down and finish up here this morning.

In John 10, in verse 37, after talking about these things, he says in verse 37, and he shows here how he is the example of these things. Look at verse 37. If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.

If I am not as a shepherd, as a leader, if I am not under the authority of my Father, if I'm not doing His works... By the way, were the Pharisees doing His works? No, they weren't. According to Matthew 23, they were teaching and doing not. Right? And he is showing them I do the works of my Father.

Verse 38, but if I do though you believe not me, believe the works that you may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in Him. So his testimony to them is listen, look at my life. Look at my works.

I am under submission. I am an authority. I am claiming to be the Son of God.

I am claiming to be the Good Shepherd. Look at my life. I am under the authority of the Almighty.

Look at you, religious rulers. Go back to Psalm 82. You are oppressing the needy.

You are not judging the fatherless. You are using your position to get things that you want from the people. There's a number of wonderful statements.

I used to enjoy these passages when I was in Bible school. I want to read them to you. It gives you a testimony of who this Good Shepherd is as He oversees or leads and rules in His place of authority.

I'll just give you three of them. John 5, verse 30. You don't have to turn there.

Just listen to these words. I can of mine own self do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which has sent me.

Can you imagine having a leader? Whether it's a scribe, Pharisee, elder, husband, parent whose heart was that. I can of mine own self do nothing. I look to God for everything.

There is no selfishness in me. Why wouldn't you like to be under somebody like that? John 5, verse 19. He makes another statement here.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do. For what things whoever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. Here's a leader, the Son of God, who is perfectly obedient to His authority.

I'll tell you what, you can find rest under an authority who is also under authority. Here is Jesus under authority. And those under Him can find a place of refuge and rest.

And then one more, and there's a lot of these in John 8, verse 28. Jesus says this, When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall you know that I am He and that I do nothing of Myself. But as My Father hath taught Me, I speak these things.

I remember I used to think about this when I was in Bible school. I don't want to say a single word or sentence or phrase that I know is not coming from the Lord. Amen.

Boy, that would be wonderful, wouldn't it? I tell you, those underneath your authority would sure appreciate that, wouldn't they? Nothing's coming out of My mouth that is not coming from the Good Shepherd or from My authority. And so God has given us all places of authority except for the children here. I think all of us have authority in life.

And God has ordained it, whether it's a husband, a father, a mother, an elder, a deacon. God has ordained these places kings. And we have responsibility to be under authority as we are in authority.

And like Miss Weir, we treat those under us only as Mr. Ray Young says. And so the Lord is addressing this here in John 10 with regards to the Pharisees. Now listen to this.

Verse 36, Say ye of Him whom the Father has sanctified, or My Father has set Me apart as His Son, and sent into the world thou blasphemous, because I said I am the Son of God. Think about this. Can it be blasphemy if I say I am the Son of God when I do always those things that please My Father? I speak His words.

I do His works. And you all whom He calls gods, you go your own way and live and speak your own words, and you call Me blasphemous? I'm doing My Father's will. I don't speak.

I don't do anything that is contrary to My Father's will. I am a good shepherd. That's a mark of a good shepherd.

Amen. And it's a mark of a good husband. Would you agree? It's a mark of a good daddy and mommy.

Let's keep reading. Verse 37, If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not. But if I do, though you believe not Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me and I in Him.

Think about it this way. Jesus came as a God. An authority.

An authority to speak on His Father's behalf and to do His Father's work. And those works and those words manifested before them as a testimony that He is coming from God. Now, here's something I think is a great privilege that we have and we're going to talk about it over here in John 14.

You can turn over there if you'd like. John 14. This verse has always been a great challenge to me, but I think we're lacking here.

I know I'm lacking. In John 14, verse 8, Philip is trying to understand all of this. The Lord's resurrection.

Philip saith unto Him, Lord, show us the Father and it suffices us. Jesus said unto them, Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. And how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? The words... Listen to this.

The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of Myself. But the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. In other words, My speech, My works, I'm under authority.

Everything I do, I'm getting from Heaven. I'm walking in the Spirit. Verse 11, Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the very work's sake.

He's appealing to them on the same basis. And then verse 12, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do because I go unto My Father. Do you know what that means? He's saying, listen, I'm here.

I'm under authority. I'm walking in obedience to My Father. And My Father is doing all these works and words.

He's speaking through Me. He's doing amazing miracles. But good news.

Think about this. You all get to be in the same place, right? Those who are under the authority of My Father who walk in the Spirit, you also shall do greater works than these because I'm going to go to My Father and I'm going to send the Holy Spirit of God. And as you walk under the authority of God's Spirit, you're going to have words and works in your life.

That's the way we ought to be living. By the way, if you go and read the book of Acts, that's how they were living. They went forth under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, the head of the church, and their words and their works had an incredible impact upon the world.

As a matter of fact, the Bible says they turned the world upside down. Sometimes I wonder as I go through this and I think about it in my life and in our life, that maybe many of us are not really walking under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Really walking in the Spirit.

Really desiring to hear His voice, to understand His will, to do His work. And so in many ways in our life, we're like Miss Weir in our prayer life because He goes on to say here in verse 13, whatsoever you shall ask in My name, I will do it. We're like Miss Weir coming and saying, I want my car washed, right? And the Lord says, there's no authority for that.

There's no authority. And if we're going to live a life where there's authority, we have to live underneath the authority. And so while the Lord was living underneath His authority and doing everything His Father said, He says, I'm the Son of God.

Those who are listening to Him who were gods, He said, were not walking at all underneath their authority. They were living as Psalm 82 says, taking advantage of the poor, the needy, and not doing justly. So as gods, I mean, I think Jesus could look at us and say you're gods.

What does He mean by that? I've put you all in places of authority. Some of you husbands, I've put you in places of authority. Some of you parents, mothers, I've put you in places of authority.

Some of you who are masters and employers, I've put you in places of authority. Elders, I've put you in a place of authority. Are you under authority? Are you walking in the Spirit? Are you standing in the place of authority as the sons of God but I'm speaking His will and not your self-interest.

Speaking His words. I don't know, sometimes we read these verses and we think, boy, the Jews probably didn't understand that, but I think they did. Many of them are familiar with the psalm, and they probably thought about Psalm 82, and they went back and studied it, and they saw what you saw.

Yeah, that's right, we are gods, but look at what it says. We have authority, and we're not using our authority properly. So the question for us this morning is, God has made us authorities in some way or another.

Even the mothers here have authorities. Fathers have authorities. Husbands have authorities.

Elders have authorities. Masters have authorities. These are all ordained of God.

So how are we responding to those under us? Are we being a good shepherd? Well, I'm going to continue here and finish the chapter real quick. Verse 39 says, Therefore they sought again to take him. I think they understood exactly what he was saying, that you who are in authority, you who should be gods over the people and authorities, good shepherds are doing a bad job.

So they got angry. But he escaped out of their hands. I think if Cain killed his brother Abel because Abel's works were righteous and Cain's were not, sometimes people get angry at others because their hearts are not in a right place.

And the others are, and it angers them. Well, Jesus flees, and He flees. You know, there's coming a day here in about two months when they're going to come to get Him, and guess what He's going to do? He's not going to flee anymore.

He's going to stand there, and Judas is going to come and greet Him with a kiss, and He's going to willingly go with His captors. He's been fleeing them on a regular basis. They've been trying to stone Him.

He escapes. Here again, He escapes out of their hand. And the reason why He's escaping is because it's not time for Him to go yet.

It's not time for Him, Brother David, to take His cross. But in two months, we're going to see as we go on here, it's going to come to Passover, and it's going to be time. Remember what He told Judas? It's time, basically.

Or He told His disciples. What you do, do quickly. Well, let's keep reading.

Verse 40, And went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized, and there he aboded. And many resorted unto him and said, John did no miracle, but all things that John spake of this man were true. John did no miracle.

I won't spend time on that here this morning. John did no miracle. And you know why John did no miracle? Jesus said that they that are least in the kingdom of heaven, that's you right here and me, they that are least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist.

And John the Baptist had not the privilege you and I have of having an indwelling presence of God, living in a church of Jesus Christ in the kingdom of God. That's why greater works than these shall you do. So living in the kingdom of heaven is a great privilege.

And I just want to close with this, this idea of being a God. Do you remember what Satan said to Adam and Eve at the very beginning? Same thing Jesus said, you shall be as God. Isn't that interesting? But do you know what the difference was between Satan saying you shall be as God's and Jesus saying you are God's? Jesus had the authority, but when Jesus encouraged them to be God's, it was to be under the authority of the most high God.

When the devil was encouraging them, you shall be as God's, he was inviting them to come outside of that authority and do something in violation of God's commandment. Eat of the tree. You shall be as God's.

There's a lot of that in the world. I want to be God. I want to rule my own life.

I don't want to be under the authority of God's word, under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to be a God and do my own thing. There's a lot of that, isn't there? But that's idolatry.

And so, when you think of this passage, ye are God's, it's in reference to the idea that you're an authority ordained, a Lord, King over others. Psalm 82 tells you how you ought to treat those underneath your authority. Be a good shepherd.

Amen? Be a good shepherd. And of course, Jesus is an example of that. Alright, we'll close this morning.

We'll have a word of prayer.