- Page number two, verse number four.
♪ This fountain so rich and poor so say today ♪
- Excellent singing, everybody.
This time we will have it now.
Welcome back, everyone.
The verse of the week is Romans 16 verse 17.
Romans 16 verse 17.
Now I beseech you, brethren,
mark them which cause divisions and offense
contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned
and avoid them.
Romans 16 verse 17.
All right, really good to see everyone here.
Uh, anyone here an hour early today?
No?
All right.
Well, if you haven't, remember clocks change
for whatever weird reason we do it,
but last night is the night that we do it.
So, all right, service times are 10.30 a.m.,
3.30 p.m., and 6.30 p.m. on Wednesday.
So many times we're 1.00 p.m. today.
Still out to hear if there's salvation.
I know we still have a group out there,
so hopefully it's fruitful.
I know Jason planned some really good seeds today.
So it was good.
Yesterday, three groups went out.
No salvations, but a soul warning.
But so far we know that there are 84 saved
for the year so far.
All right, upcoming events.
There's the homeschool group that will be,
I believe, not tomorrow, but a Monday after that,
if I remember.
Tuesday, sorry.
Tuesday, on Veterans Day,
that will be the next homeschool Crafts Games Day.
So just let Kylie know if you wish to attend.
On November 15th will be the next Soul Winning and Cheney.
Just let brother Ryan know and he'll make plans.
On November 23rd will be the first Kids Choir Practice.
So that'll be right after the morning service on Sunday.
So if you have kids that wish to participate,
just let Kylie know and just be there ready.
On November 30th will be the next Men's Preaching Night.
Just let brother Remy know
if you're planning on preaching.
And there's a Pie Social Night.
So just plan to bring a pie, share around,
and we'll just have a good fellowship.
I'm sure before, during, and after the services.
So kids, the memory verse for this week is Philippians 4.13,
which is, "I can do all things through Christ,
which strengthen me."
If you can memorize that, just let Miss Kylie know
and you will receive the reward of a piece of candy.
All right, if you would help me, we sung Josiah this morning,
but we have one from last month we missed.
So if you would help me sing to Alejandro,
oh, we'll get our pianist ready.
He's the turtle over there.
He's got his head in his shell.
Thank you all.
If you have any other questions, just let the Thompson know
and they will get it added to the prayer request.
But with that, so one salvation.
Hey, amen, let's go ahead and add that.
So that's a total of four.
That's our first for November and 85 for the year.
So praise God.
And with that highlight, let's turn to the Lord in prayer.
Heavenly Father, thank you so much.
- All right, if you wanna take your Bibles,
we'll go ahead and turn to Psalm 150.
Psalm 150.
Psalm number 150, praise ye the Lord.
Sing it out on the first.
♪ Praise ye the Lord, the sanctuary ♪
♪ Praise him and praise him for his mighty acts ♪
♪ Praise him according to his symbol ♪
♪ And praise him with stringed instrument symbols ♪
- Let's sing everybody.
Brother Paul, would you please pray for the offering?
- Okay, Father, thank you so much for what you have.
Let us remember both from the mouth and the seed,
but it's the work that you can do with it.
Father, let us always trust.
And we will as much when it's placed in your hand.
Jesus' name, amen.
- Amen.
- Sure Foundation Baptist Church,
if you could go ahead and take your Bibles
and turn to Isaiah 43.
Isaiah 43, and here at Sure Foundation Baptist Church,
we read the entire chapter before the preaching.
Isaiah chapter 43, the Bible reads,
"But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob,
"and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not,
"for I have redeemed thee, called thee by thy name,
"thou art mine.
"When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee,
"and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee.
"When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned,
"neither shall the flame kindle upon thee,
"for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior.
"I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia, and Siba for thee.
"Since thou was precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable,
"and I have loved thee.
"Therefore will I give men for thee and people for thy life.
"Fear not, for I am with thee.
"I will bring thy seed from the east
"and gather thee from the west.
"I will say to the north, give up,
"and to the south, keep not back.
"Bring my sons from far
"and my daughters from the ends of the earth,
"even everyone that is called by my name,
"for I have created him for my glory.
"I have formed him, yea, I have made him.
"Bring forth the blind people that have eyes
"and the deaf that have ears.
"Let all the nations be gathered together
"and let the people be assembled.
"Who among them can declare this and show us former things?
"Let them bring forth their witnesses
"that they may be justified,
"or let them hear and say it is truth.
"Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord,
"and my servant whom I have chosen,
"that ye may know and believe me
"and understand that I am He.
"Before me there was no God formed,
"neither shall there be after me.
"I, even I am the Lord,
"and beside me there is no Savior.
"I have declared and have saved,
"and I have showed when there was no strange God among you.
"Therefore you are my witnesses,
"saith the Lord, that I am God.
"Yea, before the day was I, yea, before the day was I am He,
"and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
"I will work, and who shall let it?
"Thus saith the Lord, your Redeemer,
"the Holy One of Israel.
"For your sake I have sent to Babylon,
"and have brought down all their nobles,
"and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.
"I am the Lord, your Holy One,
"the Creator of Israel, your King.
"Thus saith the Lord, which maketh a way in the sea
"and path in the mighty waters,
"which bringeth forth the chariot and horse,
"the army and the power.
"They shall lie down together, they shall not rise.
"They are extinct, they are quenched as toe.
"Remember ye not the former things,
"neither consider the things of old.
"Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth.
"Shall ye not know it?
"I will even make a way in the wilderness
"and rivers in the desert.
"The beasts of the field shall honor me,
"the dragons and the owls, because I give waters
"in the wilderness and rivers in the desert
"to give drink to my people, my chosen.
"This people have I formed for myself.
"They shall show forth my praise,
"but thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob,
"but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.
"Thou hast not brought me the small cattle
"of thy burnt offerings, neither hast thou honored me
"with thy sacrifices.
"I have not caused thee to serve with an offering,
"nor wearied thee with incense.
"Thou hast brought me no sweet cane with money,
"neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices,
"but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins.
"Thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities.
"I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions
"for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.
"Put me in remembrance.
"Let us plead together.
"Declare thou that thou mayest be justified.
"Thy first father hath sinned,
"and thy teachers have transgressed against me.
"Therefore, I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary,
"and have given Jacob to the curse,
"and Israel to reproaches."
Brother Kyle, could you please pray for the service?
- Amen, all right, so we're in Isaiah chapter number 43.
We're gonna come back to that here in a little bit.
And I wanted to read for you 1 Timothy 2, 5,
says, "For there is one God and one mediator
"between God and man, the man Christ Jesus."
And the title of my sermon tonight
is "There is Only One God."
And this is something that's brought up
quite a few different times in the Bible,
the fact that there's only one God.
And throughout history, there's been many different religions
that have purported to say
that there's actually a multitude of gods.
We think of like Zeus and Aries
and these different kind of like Greek gods
or these different Roman gods
where they have like a pantheon of gods.
Or if we think of more of our modern day,
we think of like Hinduism
because the Roman religion has kind of went by the wayside.
The Greek religion kind of went by the wayside.
There's not too many people that really believe that anymore.
But there are a ton of people that believe in Hinduism today.
And they believe that there's a huge multiplicity of gods.
There's various different religions in the world
that have a multiplicity of gods, multiple gods.
How about Mormonism, right?
Apparently, they believe that there's many particles
as there are in the universe.
There's just as many gods.
It's like, OK, does that mean like every particle is a god?
Or what are we talking about?
It's complete insanity, which tells us, by the way,
that the Mormons don't believe the Bible whatsoever, right?
Because the Bible is just so clear.
But let's just go through a few verses
that talks about the fact that there's only one God.
I mean, we saw there in Isaiah 43.
We'll get to that here in a minute.
But go ahead and turn to Mark chapter number 12.
I'm going to read for you James 2.19.
It says, "Thou believest there is one God, thou doest well.
The devils also believe in trouble."
So there's a statement right there that says,
hey, there is one God.
You're doing good if you believe there's one God.
Now, why would somebody be doing good
if they believe there's one God?
'Cause that's the truth.
The truth is that there is only one God.
Mark chapter number 12, verse number 32 says,
"And the scribes said unto him,
"'Well, master, thou hast said the truth,
"'for there is one God, and there is none other but he.'"
Ephesians 4:4 says, "There is one body, one spirit,
"even as ye are called in one hope of your calling,
"one Lord, one faith, one baptism."
So just like there's only one baptism,
there's only one faith, you know,
there's only one body, there's only one spirit,
it's the same that there's only one God, right?
One Lord.
Isaiah 43 verse number 10, it says,
"Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord,
"and my servant, whom I have chosen,
"that ye may know and believe me,
"and understand that I am he.
"Before me there was no God formed,
"neither shall there be after me.
"I, even I, am the Lord, and besides me there is no,"
notice this, "savior," right?
So the Bible says, hey, there's only one God,
and by the way, there's also only one savior.
Now this verse absolutely, 100% proves
that Jesus Christ is God.
Because who is the savior?
The savior is Jesus Christ, my friend.
Jesus Christ is the one that came,
was born of the Virgin Mary,
lived a perfect, sinless life,
was put on the cross, died,
was buried for three days and three nights,
and rose again for our salvation,
to be our savior, right?
So Jesus is the savior.
And just point blank says right here
that, hey, you know, there was no God formed,
neither shall there be any after me,
meaning who this is is God.
And it says, even I, I am the Lord,
and besides me, there's no savior.
So this is quite clearly proving
that Jesus Christ is God.
And of course, you know, we understand as Baptists,
we understand the Trinity and the fact
that there's three persons in one.
You know, you have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
But we're not really gonna dwell too much on that
this evening, we've had many different sermons about that.
But we're just concentrating on the fact
that there's one God,
and the Bible makes this, you know, unequivocally clear.
It says in Isaiah, chapter number 44, verse number six,
it says, "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."
So there's no God besides the God of the Bible,
says verse number seven, it says,
"And who, excuse me, and who as I shall call
and shall declare it, and set it in order for me,
since I appointed at the ascent people,
and the things that are coming and shall come,
let him show unto them.
Fear ye not, neither be afraid,
have not I told thee from that time,
and have declared it, ye are even my witnesses,
is there any God besides me?
Yea, there is no God, I know not any.
So the Bible, once again, is clear,
this is a statement from the Lord that he says,
hey, I don't know any other gods, there's no other gods.
Says in Isaiah 45, five, it says, I am the Lord,
and there is none else, there is no God besides me,
I girded thee, though thou hast not known me.
So, you know, just over and over and over again,
we have the Bible telling us that, you know,
that there's no other God besides the Lord.
But there's, you know, a lot of these ideologies out there,
a lot of these false religions say
that there's like a multiplicity of gods,
meaning, you know, like in the pagan Roman religion,
you'd have like Zeus or Jupiter, you know,
they have like the different planets or whatever.
They'd say, well, you have like the main,
kind of the main god, which would be like Zeus
and then the Greek religion.
But then you have like all these other lesser gods,
you know, and then all these lesser gods
are like kind of fighting one another
and all these things are happening and, you know,
then they kind of intervene in the world.
You know, but, or there'll be like certain gods
for certain things, right?
You know, you have the god of rain,
you have the god of the ocean, like Poseidon or whatever.
And then you have the, you know,
you have the god of love and the god of, you know,
the harvest or, you know,
all these different gods for different things.
And of course, you know, in order to,
in order to get certain blessings, you would, you know,
if you wanted to have a great harvest of fishes,
I guess you would pray to Poseidon.
And if you wanted to have a great harvest,
you'd pray to, you know, I don't know which God
you would pray to for that.
But you know, if you wanted to fall in love,
maybe you'd like pray to Cupid or something.
And he'd, you know, shoot his little love arrows around.
But you know, the Bible's making it clear
that this is not how the world works, right?
This is not what's going on.
The Bible's making it clear that there's only one God,
and there aren't any other gods at all.
There's no lesser gods.
You don't have the God of, you know,
like the Philistines thought,
"Hey, well, there's the God of Valley,
and there's the God of the hills."
So we got to fight in the hills,
so the God of the hills can be on our side
because their God is the God of the valleys.
So I had this false idea that there's these different gods
that are reigning over these different areas,
like you have different geographies
for the different gods.
But the Bible makes, again,
it makes it 100% abundantly clear
that there is no other gods.
You don't have the God of the valleys
and the God of the hills, which are like different gods.
There's only one God, okay?
You know, this is the point of the sermon,
there's only one God.
Isaiah 45 verse number 20 says,
"Assemble yourselves and come drawn near together.
"Ye that are escaped of the nations,
"they have no knowledge that set up wood
"of their graven images and pray unto a God
"that cannot save.
"Tell ye and bring them near,
"ye let them take counsel together.
"Who hath declared this from ancient times?
"Who hath told it from that time?
"Have not I the Lord,
"and there is no God else besides me?
"A just God and a Savior,
"there is none besides me.
"Look unto me and be ye saved,
"all the ends of the earth,
"for I am God and there is none else.
"I have sworn by myself,
"the world is gone out of my mouth
"in righteousness and shall not return,
"that unto me every knee shall bow
"and every tongue shall swear."
And again, this is another proof right here
that Jesus Christ is God,
because who does it say that about in the New Testament?
Jesus Christ, right?
And also, verse number 22 also proves
that salvation is, salvation's easy.
This is like an easy believism type verse here.
It says, "Look unto me and be saved."
And is looking to somebody for your salvation,
is that really a hard thing to do?
Do you have to turn from a bunch of sins
and repent of your sins and be an awesome person
and become a monk and pray without ceasing
literally forever?
No, all you have to do is look,
look unto me and be saved, right?
I mean, just like when they were in the wilderness
and Moses was commanded to make the brazen serpent, right?
Look, look and live, as the Bible says.
Look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth.
And by the way, this means that salvation
was never just for like the Jews or it was never just
for the nation of Israel.
The Bible says, look unto me and be saved
all the ends of the earth, all the planet earth,
anybody on planet earth, if they want to,
they can just look under the savior and be saved.
Okay, that's all it takes.
Look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth.
For I am God and there is none else.
You know, there's no other God out there
that's gonna be saving anybody.
And this verse, you know, it talks about the idea
of these other gods out there, right?
It says, hey, you know, they've got these graven images
and they pray unto a God,
notice it, they cannot save, right?
So none of these other entities
that these people are worshiping,
none of them can save anybody.
Why?
Well, because they're not God,
because they don't have the ability to.
And so, you know, throughout the Bible,
I think I've made it very clear
that there's, according to the Bible,
there's only one God.
But, you know, if you've gone through the Bible,
you've read verses
that seemingly kind of like acknowledge other gods.
And a good example of this would be Psalm number 86,
verse number eight, it says,
"Among the gods, there is none like unto thee, O Lord,
"and neither are there any works like unto thy works."
And so you'll see various places in the Bible
where you'll see a phrase like that, right?
Where you'll see like, hey, it says, "Among the gods."
And that kind of by itself would make it seem like,
okay, well, he's saying that God
is just kind of like a God among gods,
and he's like the greatest God,
but then there's these other gods.
But in reality, that's not really true.
And there's several different,
well, there's lots of different places
that are like this example,
but there's some other examples
that I'm gonna go to here in a little bit.
But examples like this, if you just keep on reading,
you know, it becomes very clear.
It says, verse number nine, it says,
"All nation whom thou hast made
"shall come and worship before thee, O Lord,
"and shall glorify thy name, for thou art great,
"and doest wondrous things, thou art God alone."
Right, so the Bible, again, even in these verses,
making it clear that God is the only God.
Now, why, you know, why does it say,
in verse number eight, it says, among the gods?
Well, the thing is, is that there's these other entities
that people are worshiping, right?
There's, I mean, back in that time,
what is, it's basically, we would just call it paganism today
where they worship, you know, Zeus
and, you know, all these different gods.
But, you know, they were worshiping like Astaroth,
you know, and Moloch and all these different, you know,
gods in that, in that kind of region, right?
So basically, what the Bible is doing when it says,
you know, among the gods, basically, it's just saying like,
hey, like, there's all these fake gods
that all these other nations are worshiping.
You know, God is, like, even what they think
that they're worshiping or whatever,
God is greater than that, right?
God is greater than, I mean, whatever any of these names,
whatever the Greeks think about Zeus,
like, God is, like, greater than that.
You know, whatever is in their imagination
or what they think about Zeus or their most powerful God,
you know, God is above those gods.
You know, God is even greater than those gods.
And I mean, this should just be plainly true,
'cause if you think about it, like, you know,
even in paganism, do they believe
that Zeus created everything?
Do they believe that he created, like, you know,
the Milky Way galaxy and every known galaxy out there,
and that he, you know, stretched out the heavens?
And, you know, no, they don't believe that.
And, like, even in Hinduism, you know,
I don't know what their belief on creationism or whatever is.
Like, I don't, you know, but I'm pretty sure
they don't, like, have a God
that's just like the God that created everything.
You know, I'm pretty sure that doesn't really exist.
You know, most of the time they'll,
it's like the universe just kind of already exists,
and then the gods just kind of exist within the universe.
But the God that we worship, He made the universe, right?
He created the universe.
And without Him, there is no universe.
There's nothing, right?
And so, I mean, just plainly, our God is better than their gods, right?
The gods that they're worshiping are inferior gods, just apparently, right?
And so that's kind of what the Bible is saying here.
It says, "Among the gods, there is none like unto thee," right?
It's just kind of like, hey, you know, these gods, you know, all these nations,
they think they're worshiping a god or whatever,
but our God is better than their God, right?
Go ahead and turn to Psalm number 96.
So whenever the Bible refers to these other gods,
it's not there to give them legitimacy as gods.
It's just, you have to call them...
I mean, there's these things that these people are worshiping in these different cultures,
and the Bible has to call them something, right?
And everyone's calling them gods, and so that's basically what the Bible calls them, right?
But the Bible tells us what they are.
In Psalm 96, verse number 4, it says, "The Lord is great and greatly to be praised.
He is to be feared above all gods."
Okay, so we have kind of another phrase like this, where it's like, okay, well, you know,
He's to be feared above all gods, so it's like making it seem like there's these other gods out there.
But if we continue reading, it says, "For all the gods of the nations are..."
Are they actually real gods?
No, are idols.
"But the Lord made the heavens."
And again, just to illustrate that point, these other religions, they're not saying
that their gods made the heavens.
Their gods kind of just exist within the already made universe.
But our God made the heavens.
He made the heaven and the earth.
But here in verse number five, it tells us what it is these other gods are.
And so whenever you come across that phrase in the Bible, the gods, the multiple gods
or a false god or whatever, or a strange god, basically from verse number five, we can understand
the fact that these are just talking about basically idols, right?
And we would just call them false gods, right?
Because why?
Well, because they're not real.
Go ahead and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter number 10.
And if I could get a glass of water, that would be fantastic.
You know, doing all that huge amount of singing before the service really, you know, makes
it hard on the throat.
But let's see here.
I've never had to do that before, you know, it's just so shocking.
But anyway, we're in 1 Corinthians chapter number 10.
If you want to look at verse number 19, it says, "What say I then that the idol is anything
or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything, but I say that the things which
the Gentiles sacrifice."
Notice this, "They sacrifice to devils and not to God, and I would not that you should
have fellowship with devils.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils.
You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of devils."
So, you know, the Bible is making it clear here that, hey, whenever you have these idols
that people are worshiping, these idols that people are sacrificing to, it's not just the
fact that they're merely idols, but in fact, they're devils, right?
And we would, in our modern vernacular, we would say, hey, these are demons, right?
So they're basically demon worshippers, you know, they're basically they're worshiping
Satan.
Now, here's the thing, you know, these demons, these devils, they're not God.
They're not gods.
What are they?
Well, biblically, we know that they're basically just fallen angels, right, because, you know,
we find out in the Book of Revelation that you had one third of the angels basically
take Lucifer's side and rebel against God, you know, and they fell from heaven.
And you know, now they're they're basically they're demons, you know, roaming about, you
know, in the world.
And the thing about this is that, you know, the Bible does not give us a whole lot of
clear scriptures about, you know, what you call like demonology, right?
You know, so we the Bible doesn't talk a lot about it.
I mean, we know it's there.
The Bible does talk some about it.
It gives us, you know, descriptions of what it's like when people are demon possessed,
right?
You have various occasions where Jesus cast out demons and devils, you know, and it describes,
you know, how they were acting when they were demon possessed.
But the Bible doesn't go into great detail about the spiritual realm, right?
But we just do need to take the Bible at its word when it says, "Hey, when the heathen,
when the Gentiles are sacrificing unto idols, it's not that it's just an idol, it's that
it's a devil."
There are sacrifices.
So these other gods, like Zeus and Hermes, and what's the guy with the feet on his heels?
Is that Hermes?
Okay.
Well, Hermes, I thought it was, what's this tendon called?
Achilles.
It's Achilles.
You guys are trying to, I mean, that's why he has the wings on his heels.
That's Achilles.
What are you guys talking about?
You know what, maybe I need to go do a deep dive into my Roman gods and figure out who
is who.
I mean, I didn't Apollo like bring fire to man or something like that with his, well,
He did it with his winged heels.
Okay, well, I don't know, whatever.
All right, anyways.
I'm getting schooled on my demons up here.
Where was I?
Where was I going with that?
Does anybody even know?
Pagans.
Yeah, well, something about pagans.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, you know, Apollo, you know,
I mean, I thought that's how we got to the moon,
but you know, we got Apollo, Hermes, and Zeus.
You know, those aren't just like, you know, necessarily,
they're not just figments of the Greeks' imaginations.
But what they were is that they were demons.
They were devils, right?
They're deceiving the nations into believing
in all these, you know, different false religions.
And so, you know, the Bible's clear
that these are not gods that they're dealing with,
is that they're demons and devils.
Go ahead and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter number eight,
1 Corinthians chapter number eight.
So whenever the Bible is talking about,
basically, these false gods, these strange gods,
or just, you know, uses gods plural.
Basically, what the Bible is talking about
at the end of the day, if we compare scripture to scripture,
is that these are actually demons
that the Bible's referring to, right?
But in 1 Corinthians chapter number eight,
verse number four, it says, "As concerning, therefore,
"the eating of those things that are offered
"in sacrifice unto idols,
"we know that an idol is nothing in the world,
"and that there is none other god but one,
"for though there be that are called gods,
"whether in heaven or in earth,
"as there be gods many, and lords many,
"but unto us is but one God, the Father,
"of whom are all things, and we in him,
"and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things,
"and we by him."
So, you know, notice once again, it says,
hey, you know, these demons, they're not really gods.
They're just called gods.
Now, who is calling them gods?
Well, you know, basically these pagan Gentiles
that are worshiping these demons and worshiping these devils,
that is who is calling them gods.
And so, you know, that's why the Bible refers to them,
you know, as gods, is because you have this huge group
of people that are calling them gods.
And so the Bible is trying to communicate in a way
that people are gonna be able to understand, right?
And so, you know, that's why the Bible will refer
to them as gods.
But, you know, there's some other verses in the Bible
that are very interesting and that are kind of perplexing.
I don't know if anybody else has come across these verses
and were kind of perplexed.
You're like, you know, 'cause there's just all these verses
that are really clear, right?
I mean, we went through a whole bunch of them,
that there's only one God.
But, you know, you might come across a verse
that's kind of perplexing.
It's like, "This doesn't seem to match the rest of the Bible.
Why is this here?"
And an example of that is Exodus 22.
If you want to go ahead and go to Exodus chapter number 22.
Exodus chapter number 22,
if you want to go ahead and look down at verse number 28,
it says, "Thou," if everyone's looking here,
it says, "Thou shalt not revile the gods,
nor curse the ruler of thy people."
Now, I've read this verse, you know, several times,
and it's kind of perplexed me every single time I've read it,
because it's like, "Well, you know, why is it?"
Because it seems like God is kind of like saying,
"Hey, like, don't mess with the gods.
Like, that's not a good thing to do."
And it seems like the Bible's kind of given credence
to them here in this verse.
So it's like, "Okay, but, you know, the Bible is so clear
about the fact that there is only one God.
So why would the Bible be kind of saying,
seems like it's saying that there are these other gods
and we shouldn't be reviling them?
Like, you know, like, what's up with that?"
Well, here's the thing.
Go ahead and turn to Jude, chapter number one,
Jude, chapter number one,
and, you know, Brother Remy went over this verse this morning.
But if we understand that biblically that gods,
you know, the plural gods in the Bible
is always going to be referring to entities
that are not gods, but are actually devils,
you know, we understand that there are certain things
that we shouldn't be, you know, delving into and dealing with
and, you know, just making accusations
or whatever about devils, right?
It says in Jude 1.9, it says,
"Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil,"
you know, and this is, you know, the devil, right,
the big one, "with the devil, he disputed about the body
of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation,
but said, 'The Lord rebuke thee.'"
Right?
So, you know, Michael the archangel,
who is greater than power than us,
he was not bringing a railing accusation against the devil.
So if you compare that to Exodus chapter number 22,
it says, "Thou shalt not revile the gods."
Right?
And if we think about it, so, you know,
these, these, these gods, what are they?
Well, they're, they're simply demons.
They're simply devils.
You know, what would be the,
what would be the point of us going out and reviling them?
Like, is there any point in doing that?
And here's the thing,
we're going out and we're, you know, we're reviling the gods.
If we just, if we just like think about what that is,
I think that helps us understand and make sense of this verse.
Because, I mean, what would,
what would be reviling the gods, right?
What would be reviling the devil, right?
What, I mean, what would that be?
That'd be like, well, ha, you know,
this stupid devil, he did this to me.
Or the stupid gods, you know,
they, they did this and this happened.
Or, you know, it'd be like accusing them up
for something happening, right?
Or saying, oh, you know, they're just so,
they're just so dumb and they're just so evil.
And it's like, okay, well, what evidence do you have?
I mean, you're dealing with the spiritual realm, right?
You don't understand what's going on.
You don't know what effect or cause,
or if any that the demons are having on you
or your life or anything.
So, you know, in a way by reviling them,
you're almost giving them power
that they don't necessarily have.
I mean, the Bible is clear.
It says resist the devil and he will flee from you, right?
And so, you know, it's not a good thing
for us to just kind of like be blaming the devil
or blaming the demons or demon that did this
for stuff that happens in our life
when it's probably just our fault,
probably not a good thing to be doing, right?
And so, you know, if we're reviling the devil
or reviling the gods,
we're like, it's like we're giving them power over us.
And why would we be doing that?
There's no point in doing that.
And I don't think that's a good thing to be doing.
And so, we shouldn't just be like blaming demons
and blaming devils for maybe bad things
that are happening in our lives,
when we don't have any evidence of any of that happening.
Again, we're dealing with stuff
that we don't necessarily understand,
because look, the Bible doesn't give us
a whole lot of details about the spiritual realm.
It doesn't give us a ton of details
about the demons and the devils.
We just don't have a ton of information about that.
And at the end of the day,
we know that there's a reason why God made it that way.
I mean, God put every single word in the Bible for a reason,
and we have everything we need.
So everything we need to know about that realm
is already in the Bible.
We already know about that, okay?
And so, you know, we don't need to be just pontificating
about things that we don't necessarily understand, okay?
So I think that's why God put that in the Bible.
It's not saying that like, hey, you know,
don't revile the gods because, you know,
well, they are gods, you know, and you don't want to really,
you know, make them mad or anything
because then they're going to come down
and ruin your crops or make it so you can't, you know.
I don't think the Bible is saying that whatsoever.
I think it's just saying like, hey, you know,
don't be reviling stuff
that you don't even know what you're talking about.
Like you have no knowledge about the spiritual realm.
You've never seen it.
You don't know what they're doing.
You don't know what God's doing.
Because I mean, like, if something bad happens
in your life and you're like, you know, the devil did this to me or whatever.
You know, you could be basically saying that something that God, you're basically, you
know, you're saying that something that God allowed to happen is just, well, I'm just
going to blame the devil.
Right.
Because if we think about what happened with Job, you know, Job was the one that was doing
the work that actually went and got all his family killed and, you know, caused the boils
on him and caused all of his flocks and everything to die.
Right.
But the thing about it is that God allowed the devil to do that, right?
And you know, we don't see Job cursing the devil, do we?
Now we dead sure don't see Job cursing God, right?
You know, he didn't listen to his wife, his wife's like, "Hey, just curse God and die."
And you know, he's like, "Hey, you're as the foolish women, right?"
But we don't, you know, we dead sure don't see Job cursing God, but do we see him like
cursing the devil and reviling the gods?
No, we don't.
You know, he just dealt with the situation, you know, as he should have.
He's like, "Hey, you know, I don't think I've done anything wrong, you know, and this
is just a horrible thing that's happening to me, and I just wish you guys would just
have a little bit of compassion on me for a minute, you know, that would be great."
You know, he was just wishing for some compassion from his friends, a lot of Job, right?
And so, you know, we don't see him necessarily just going out and blaming the devil, right?
And this is something that's actually, you know, pretty common that we see out in the
world today, where like a lot of like Pentecostals and Charismatic type places, you know, anything
that goes wrong, they're just like blaming the devil.
Like, you know, like if the power just went out right now, we were, you know, we had no
power and it was dark, or maybe the little, you know, the ballast went out or whatever
and it got dark up here, they're like, "Oh, it's the devil doing this.
It's the devil that did that."
When in reality, it might just be the power grid that's made by human beings is not functioning
100%.
Or it could be the ballast in the light bulb that was made by a human being is not functioning
100%.
Or it was the Jew.
I mean, okay.
It would be way better to blame the Jews, okay?
It's very likely that your assumption is true.
I mean, I don't know, if he's threw a rock in a field and it hits a Jew, it's like, I
don't know.
They're everywhere.
I mean, obviously, you know, we shouldn't just be blaming the Jews for everything, just
most things, okay?
You know, the 99 make the 1% look bad, you know, it's just like, all right, okay, let's
move on.
I don't want to get accused of being anti-Semitic here, so all right, where were we?
Somebody said something about the Jews and the whole sermon just goes completely off
the rails.
All right.
Yeah, no railing accusations against demons or whatever.
Also no railing accusations against the Jews, you need to have some evidence, right?
Evidence is always good, even if we're talking about the Jews.
Okay, look, if we can have the standard of saying, "Hey, you can't just blame the Jews
without evidence," we can also have a standard of, "You can't blame the demons without evidence."
Amen?
Okay, I think that's pretty reasonable.
All right.
All right, so that's Exodus chapter number 22, but go ahead and turn to John chapter
number 10, and hopefully I kind of made it clear what I'm saying about Exodus chapter
number 22.
I know it's kind of an odd verse seemingly, but I think when you think about it in those
terms, it makes sense.
The Bible's not saying that, "Hey, there's these legitimate gods out there that you're
just not supposed to revile because that would be bad."
It's just saying, "Hey, don't revile what the nations are calling gods.
Don't revile them," because it's like, "Okay, they're not actually gods, so what's the point
in like, 'Oh, you know, Zeus, screw you, Zeus.'"
It's like, okay, well, that's like saying, "Screw you, Santa Claus," right?
And then what are you doing?
For one, you just look dumb when you do that, right?
"I'm just mad about Santa."
It's okay.
"I'm mad about Zeus," it's like, "He's not real."
I hope everybody understands what I'm saying about that, right?
John chapter number 10, it's a very interesting chapter.
Go ahead and look at verse number 30.
It says, "I and my father are one.
The Jews took up stones again to stone him," right?
So this is right after Jesus says, "Hey, and I give them an eternal life, and they
shall never perish.
Now there shall a man pluck them out of my hand.
My father which gave me them is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out
of my father's hand."
Then he says, "I and my father are one," and the Jews are like, "Oh, he's claiming
to be God.
Let's kill him."
Right?
So the Jews took up stones to stone him.
Jesus answered them, "Many good works have I showed you from my father.
For which of those works do you stone me?"
The Jews answered him saying, "For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy,
and because thou being a man makest thyself God."
Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law?
I said ye are gods.
If he called them gods unto whom the word of God came, the scripture cannot be broken.
Say ye of him whom the Father hath 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 do, though ye believe
not me, believe the works that ye 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 so, you know, these are some pretty interesting verses.
It's like, okay, well, what's going on here, right?
Because Jesus says, hey, you know, Jesus says to them, is it not written in your law?
I said ye are God's?
And it's like, this kind of throws you for a loop, doesn't it?
It's like, well, what is he saying here?
Because this seems to contradict just the huge amount of scriptures that say there's only
one God.
You know, it's like, okay, well, wait a minute, is this like Mormonism coming in here?
Like what's going on with this, right?
So you can see how somebody could be confused about these verses, but let's go back to where
the Bible, where, I mean, let's go see what he's quoting, right, to see what's going
on here.
And in Psalm 82, go ahead and turn to Psalm 82, Psalm chapter number 82, this is where
that quotation is found, and we're just going to, I believe this is the whole Psalm, I think
it's eight verses long, at least that's what I have in my notes.
We're just going to read the whole thing, it says, "God standeth in the congregation
of the mighty, he judges among the gods.
How long will you judge unjustly and accept the person of the wicked, Sila?
Defend the poor and the 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.
I have said, "Ye are gods and all your children of the most high, but ye shall die like men
and fall like one of the princes arise, O God, judge of the earth, for thou shall inherit
all nations."
So this is what he's quoting here.
So Jesus, he's quoting verse number six, it says, "I have said, 'Ye are gods and all
of your children of the most high, and all of you are children of the most high.'"
And so, you know, when he says, "I have said, 'Ye are gods," we have to notice, you know,
who is talking.
Now, is this God saying, "I have said, 'Ye are gods"?
No.
It's the psalmist talking right here.
In verse number six, it says, "I have said, 'Ye are gods and all of you are children of
the Most High.'"
But then in verse number seven, we get like a smackdown of verse number six.
It says, "But ye shall die like," who, like a god?
No.
It says they're going to die like men and fall like one of the princes, right?
And so, basically, this is kind of an accusatory song, right, because they're having all these
issues.
There's all this injustice.
They're not defending the poor or the paltelists, and they're not ridding them out of the hand
of the wicked.
There's this problem, and so it's an accusatory song, and apparently there's a lot of pride
going on, because there's various times in the Bible where somebody thinks they're puffed
up and they're become as like God, right?
And we think of even the sin that Satan had was the pride of wanting to be like the Most
High, right?
He wanted to be like a God, right?
And so, you know, verse number six, it says, you know, I have said you're God's, you know,
basically like pumping up their ego.
And all of you are the children of the Most High, you know, you guys, oh, you guys are
so awesome.
You guys are like, but guess what?
You think you guys are God's?
You're going to die like man, right?
So this isn't, this is not the Bible, like actually like declaring that people are God's.
I mean, this is, it's, this is the psalmist saying, I have said you're God's, but guess
what, you're not God's cause you're going to die like man, right?
And so, you know, you'll always want to go back and read what the old Testament has to
say whenever it's quoted into the, in the new Testament, right?
Because I mean, if you just read this Psalm, you're not really going to come away with
the idea that, well, you know, God is saying that, you know, that these people are actually
God's because I mean, right after he says that he says you're going to die like man,
right?
So what's going on in John chapter number 10, I believe is that basically Jesus is basically
giving them a really hard saying for them to just be like, whoa, what are you, what
is he?
What is he talking about?
What is he saying?
And so he quotes verse number six, he's, you know, he's just throwing that at them, right?
He's just like, hey, I have said you are God's and look, this is in the Bible.
And so what Jesus saying is correct, he says, doesn't say in your law that I have said you're
God's, right?
And then, and so basically in verse, and that's verse number 34 says he's answered is not
is it not written in your law?
I said you're God's and that's technically that's what it said in Psalm 82, right?
So he's just quoting Psalm 82, it says, if he called them gods unto whom the word of
God came and the scripture cannot be broken.
So notice if he called them gods, now who is he?
Is that God saying that?
No, that's the Psalmist saying that, so he says, hey, if he called them gods unto whom
the word of God came and the scripture cannot be broken, say ye of him of whom the father
have sanctified and send it into the world, thou blasphemest because I said I'm the son
of God.
And then comparing like, hey, you know, Psalm 82 said, ye are gods.
And so are you going to get mad at me for me claiming to be, you know, for me claiming
to be God or claiming to be the son of God?
You know, because it says in Psalm 82, hey, you know, all of your children are the sons
of God.
And then Jesus said, hey, I am the son of God.
And so basically, he's kind of giving them like a confusing riddle for them to figure
out.
And why?
Because he's about to be stoned, and it's not his time to die yet.
So he's like, all right, figure this one out.
Get this one through your thick skulls.
And then they're just like, oh, and then he escapes, right, when they when they when they
try to get him again.
And so I think that's so I don't think this is Jesus just declaring like, hey, God said
that you're God's.
Right?
I don't think that's what's going on here.
I think he's quoting Psalm 82.
When he said, you know, when it says the psalmist said that they're gods, right.
And so but he's giving it to him into the way that it's confusing for them.
And so they're going to have to sit there and think about it for a minute.
It's going to throw them for a loop.
You know, it's going to be kind of jarring for them because, you know, again, the Bible
is super clear just over and over and over again.
There's one God.
And so when, you know, when the Pharisees here, you know, Jesus is saying, hey, didn't
say in your law that you're God's, huh?
And that's going to throw there for a loop for a second while he basically gets away.
But the thing is, is that, you know, Jesus, obviously he's perfect and he is sinless.
And he didn't say anything in John chapter number 10 that is not true.
Okay.
Because it is true that it is written in the law and we just, you know, we just read the
verses.
It is true.
It says in the law.
Right?
I said you are God's.
But who is the I though is kind of an important question.
And it's the key is that it's not God that's making that statement.
It's the psalmist himself kind of like making fun of these people that, you know, that are
not acting right, that are not abiding by what God wants, not having mercy and not defending
the poor and not delivering the poor needy out of the hand of the wicked.
And so he's kind of like making fun of them and then saying, Hey, you're going to die
like man.
Right.
And so, you know, I believe that that's what's going on here with with John chapter number
10, you know, and, and, and, you know, these are some interesting and admittedly kind of
confusing verses, but, you know, hopefully, hopefully, you know, I made, I made what these
verses are trying to say understandable and kind of clear and, you know, and to illustrate
the fact that they drive with the rest of scripture, you know, because the fact that
all scripture has given my inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for proof,
for instruction in your righteousness, the man of God may be perfect, really furnished
unto every good work.
And so, you know, there's, you know, we don't have any contradictions in the Bible, right?
And so, so I don't know if anybody else has come across any of those verses and they're
like, what in the world is going on?
But hopefully, hopefully that kind of clears up any of those verses and hopefully helps
people understand those.
And hopefully we can all understand the fact that there's only one God, but let's go ahead
and bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
All right.
Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day, Lord.
I thank you for everything you've done for us, Lord.
We thank you that the Bible is so clear that there is only one God.
And Lord, I pray that you'd help us to understand any parts of the Bible that are unclear and
not as clear as the other parts of the Bible.
And we pray that you'd help us all to know and to rest in the fact that there is only
one God and that there's only one Savior and that all we have to do is look unto Him and
we will be saved.
In dear Jesus' name, amen.
All right.
For our last song, it will be song number 63, "What a Day That Will Be."
Song number 63, "What a Day That Will Be."
6-3, let's sing it together on the 1st.
There is come, shall come a sky, no more tea, shall see, shall see, to say.
Singing, Brother Ryan, could you close the water prayer?
As we go and everybody that's sick now, I pray God that you will help them to get well
soon and bring us back on Wednesday, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.