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And turn to Isaiah chapter 43 in your Bibles. Isaiah chapter number 43. And tonight the title of my sermon is there is only one God. Turn to Isaiah chapter 43. There's only one God. No one has the status of being called a God legitimately because there is only one God. There are no other gods or lesser gods or inferior gods. Now the word gods plural is found in the Bible 244 times. But if you look up those 244 times you'll see that when the Bible uses the word gods plural it's talking about false gods or strange gods or thou shalt have no other gods before me or the gods of the heathen or vanity and so forth. So there are false gods that are referred to in the Bible but there exists only one true God. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 2 5, For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. James 2 19 says, Thou believeth that there is one God. Thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble. Mark 12 32, And the scribe said unto him, Well, master, thou hast said the truth, for there is one God and there is none other but he. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 4. There's one body and one spirit even as you're called and one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all. Look down at your Bible there in Isaiah 43 verse 10. Ye are my witnesses sayeth the Lord and my servant whom I've chosen that you 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. Flip over to Isaiah chapter 44 verse 6. Of course, that's a great scripture on the deity of Christ. I mean, there are hundreds of scriptures we could point to to prove that Jesus is God. But right here, the Lord says beside me, there is no savior. And we know Jesus is the savior, of course. But the Bible is really clear. There was no God before him. There's never going to be another God formed in the future. There's just one God for all time, past, present and future. 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. By the way, who said that in the New Testament? Jesus. I'm the first and I'm the last. And beside me, there is no God. Verse 8. 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 a God beside me? Yea, there is no God. I know not any. There's no God beside him. Look at chapter 45 verse 5. I'm the Lord and there is none else. There is no God beside me. I girded thee, though thou hast not known me. Look at verse 20. Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together ye that are escaped of the nations. They have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image. And pray unto a God that cannot save. Tell ye and bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel together. Who had declared this from ancient time? Who had told it from that time? Have not I, the Lord, and there is no God else beside me? A just God and a savior. There is none beside me. Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth. For I am God and there's none else. I've sworn by myself the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return. Then unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Of course it's the name of Jesus to whom every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess someday that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And so the Bible couldn't be any clearer, could it? I mean, it's crystal clear. He says there's one God. And just in case you misunderstood me, I'm saying there was never any other gods in the past. There's never going to be another God in the future. There's just no other God. Now flip over to Psalm 86. Psalm 86. As I said, the word God's plural occurs in the Bible 244 times. 99% of the time it's really obvious what it's about because it's referring to strange gods, false gods, the gods of the Philistines, the gods of the heathen, no other gods before me, things like that. But there are some verses in the Bible that kind of throw people for a loop that can be a little confusing for people. So I want to go over some of these just to show what the Bible means when it says gods. Okay. What are we talking about? First of all, look at Psalm 86 verse eight. It says in Psalm 86 verse eight, among the gods, there is none like unto thee, O Lord, neither are there any works like unto thy works. All nations whom thou has made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify thy name for thou are great and do its wondrous things. But look at this last phrase. Thou art God alone, meaning nobody else is God, just you. Now you can see how somebody though could misread this when they read verse eight where it says, well, among the gods, there's none like unto thee, O Lord. And they might look at that and say, well, that makes it sound like there are other gods out there and God's just the best one or that he's unique among the gods. Right. You can see how someone would come to that conclusion, but let me show you why that's false. Okay. First go to Psalm 96. Look at Psalm 96 verse four. The Bible reads for the Lord is great. 96 for for the Lord is great and greatly to be praised. He's to be feared above all gods. So again, you could read that and misunderstand that and think, oh, there's other gods out there, but look what it says next for all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. So in the passage in Psalm 86, he said, well, among the gods, there's none like unto thee. And then a few verses later, he said, look, thou art God alone. You're the only one here. He makes it clear that the gods quote unquote of the nations are idols, meaning that they're not real. Now go if you would to first Corinthians chapter number 10, first Corinthians chapter number 10. And it's important to address this subject because like I said, you know, the Bible uses that word quite a bit to refer to false gods, idols, strange gods and so forth. And so if we see that word 244 times, we don't want to get the wrong idea or get confused on our doctrine that there actually are other gods out there like lesser gods or something like that. So look at first Corinthians chapter number 10 verse 19, and we'll get a really clear explanation on this from the New Testament. The Bible says at first Corinthians 10 19. 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, 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 the Bible says that when people worship idols, they're actually worshiping devils or what we would call demons. The Bible used the word devils in our modern vernacular. We use the word demon more to mean the exact same thing. But go to first Corinthians chapter eight, just back a couple pages. First Corinthians eight verse four 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. Look, there is none other God but one. And the idol is actually nothing in the world, meaning that it is an inanimate object. It has no spirit. There is no breath at all in the midst of it. It's just a piece of wood. It's just a piece of metal. Look at the next verse. For though there be that are called gods. And this is the key thing that you need to understand. In the Bible, there are those who are called gods. It says, though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, as there be 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 Christ by whom are all things and we by him. Now, why is this important? We need to understand, before we go into some of the more difficult passages, we need to lay a foundation here. Number one, there's only one God. Nothing could be clearer in the Bible. Very clear. Number two, we need to understand that there are many that are called gods, but they're not really gods, are they? Because there's only one God. We know that there's only one God, but there be those who are called gods. Why? They are actually false gods. They are strange gods. They're not really God, but they are masquerading as gods. People think that they're gods, right? We might refer to the Hindu gods or we might refer to gods in Buddhism, even though the Buddhists don't believe in a creator god, they do have different deities and things in Buddhist tradition. So you could have the gods of paganism, the gods of the Scandinavian pagans, the gods of Chinese folk religion, but we know that those aren't real gods. But the one thing that we need to understand is that those entities do exist. They're demons. So it's not that they're just worshiping nothing or no one. The Bible did not say that when they heathen offer sacrifices unto idols, they're actually just worshiping nothing. No, no, no. He said they're actually worshiping devils. So there are wicked entities out there, fallen angels, unclean spirits, followers of the devil himself, demons, and those demons are worshiped as gods. Are they really gods though? No, because the word gods in its, in its literal meaning doesn't make any sense because there's only one God. It really can't exist. So whenever the Bible used the word gods, it's talking about those who are called gods. That's what it says right here in first Corinthians chapter eight. Okay. They are actually what though? Demons. They're devils. So here's why that's important. You have 244 times that this word is coming up. And the vast majority of the time, what we're referring to is devils or demons that people are worshiping as gods. So let's look at some of the passages that kind of confuse people a little bit. Go to Exodus 22, Exodus chapter 22. And we'll with, with that knowledge going into it, these scriptures will make more sense. Now, this should warn us about a couple of things. Number one, this should show us the seriousness of idolatry. When we realize that there are demons associated with those idols, even though the idol is nothing in the world, and you just think, come on, I'm not superstitious. It's just a piece of wood. It's just a piece of metal, but we have to realize that there's a demon there. There's a devil there that you're invoking. When you set up these objects of worship, what am I talking? I'm talking about the Buddha statue that a lot of people will have in their home. They're not even Buddhist or Hindu gods, just because they think it's a cool decoration or something. They'll set up all these molten images or graven images of whatever deities or whatever tiki mask that they brought home on some island vacation. You got to be careful with this kind of stuff because it's evil. It's demonic. And God said, I don't want you to have fellowship with devils. And he said, don't eat things sacrificed unto devils, because, you know, you don't want to be fellowshipping with the Lord and fellowshipping with devils. You want to have nothing to do with idolatry. Flee idolatry. The Bible says, you know, just get away from it. Stay away from it. Don't bring those kind of weird objects into your home. Pagan objects, objects of false religion, objects of Hinduism, Buddha. I mean, you know, Obama, he carried all of it around in his pocket. Every idol under the sun. He had a crucifix, a Hindu God, a Buddha. You know why? Because politicians want to please everybody, number one. And number two, we're being prepared for an all inclusive world religion known as the New World Order, where basically everyone will worship together and will join hands with the Hindus and the Buddhists and the Catholic and the Orthodox and the Muslim. And we'll all join together. That one world religion is pushed by people like Barack Obama. That's why he carried around his pocket, literally, you know, emblems of every religion he's pulling out because he's trying to show that, hey, we can believe in all of this stuff. We can respect all of this. We can include all of these things. When in reality, Christ has no part with Belial. You know, he that believeth has no part with the infidel and the temple of God has no agreement with idols because idols are demonic. They are devilish. We need to watch out for those things. Number one. But number two, another thing that's scary about this, not for us, of course, because we don't participate in this, but it's scary for those who do. You know, the Jehovah's Witnesses Bible, because they've rewritten their own Bible. They don't use the normal Bible. They have their own New World Translation, it's called, and the New World Translation. It isn't even a translation. Okay. No one outside of their religion uses it. No one. I mean, that should tell you. I mean, if it's a good translation, other people would pick up on it and say, well, hey, I'm not a Jehovah's Witness, but this is a pretty good translation, pretty good Bible. No one. It's a laughing stock amongst anybody who's not a Jehovah's Witness to actually consider it a valid Bible translation because they just make changes and just at their Caprice, they doctor that thing up because they have an agenda of a false religion. So because their cult doesn't line up with the Bible, they came out with their own Bible that only they use. Nobody else uses it with readings that were unheard of before 100 years ago. So I guess they expect us to believe that everybody was wrong 200 years ago. Everybody was wrong 300 years ago until this cult came along and fixed everything and came out with their New World Translation. And make no mistake, the Jehovah's Witnesses are a cult. Okay. They falsely predicted the second coming of Christ six different times. They followed this guy, Charles Taze Russell, and a few other guys that started this cult. You know, it's similar to the Seventh-day Adventist. It's similar to the Mormons. They all have different things in common. But in the Jehovah's False Witness Bible, in John 1-1, which is a pretty key verse, it says in your Bible, the real Bible, every other English Bible under the sun says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That's a pretty key verse, right? John 1-1, one of the most famous verses. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then, of course, it goes on to say that the Word became flesh and dwelled among us and would be held as glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Well, in the Jehovah's False Witness Bible, it says, In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was a God. So instead of saying that the Word was God, it says the Word was a God. Well, here's the problem with that. You know what a God is, according to the Bible? A demon. A devil. That's what I'm trying to say. If we're not talking about big G God, singular big G, just one God, whenever we have this plural gods, that's never a good thing, folks. It's negative because it's demons. So basically what they're saying is that Jesus is a demon because he's just a God. Well, we know that anybody who's called a God, according to the Bible, yeah, there are many that are called gods. Devils. That's what 1 Corinthians taught. So that's a pretty scary thing about the Jehovah's False Witnesses in their Bible. Now look at this verse. Exodus chapter 22, verse 28. This is one, and like I said, 99% of the times when the Bible says gods, plural, there's no confusion because he's saying false God, God of the heathen or whatever. But there are a few places where people could get a little confused. So that's what we're going to talk about tonight. We're doing a little Bible study tonight on this. So Exodus 22, 28. Thou shalt not revile the gods nor curse the ruler of thy people. Now, if we look at that right there, that's kind of a strange verse on the surface when we first glance at that. Like, don't revile the gods nor curse the ruler of thy people because our first thought would be, well, wait a minute, there is only one God. So based on what we've been studying in the Bible so far tonight and looked at, who are we talking about here when we're talking about gods? We're talking about false gods, strange gods. We're actually talking about demons or devils. Okay, now keep your finger in Exodus 22 and go to the book of Jude. Second to last book, second to last book in the Bible. Go to Jude verse eight. And let's see if it makes sense to define gods there as false gods or demons or devils that are worshiped by the heathen. Look what the Bible says in Jude verse eight. Likewise, also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not, means that he dared not, he dared not, he durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said the Lord rebuke thee. But these speak evil of those things which they know not, but what they know naturally as brute beasts and those things they corrupt themselves. So in this scripture right here, the Bible is teaching that we should not bring a railing accusation even against the devil himself. So that actually goes hand in hand with what we see in Exodus where he said, do not revile the gods. Don't blow off your mouth about things that you don't really understand by cursing the gods. It's better just to not even name the names of false gods on our lips. Don't even invoke their names. Don't even name their names. Let their names be forgotten and blotted out and do not, you know, curse them. And what do I mean by this? Well, I've been in churches before where they'll blame things on the devil and you're not really sure if the devil really had anything to do with it. And it's sort of a railing accusation at that point, right? When somebody just said, Oh, the devil didn't want this to happen or the devil tried to stop us from this. And it's sometimes it's dumb stuff. And I'm thinking like, I don't even think the devil even cares about that. Like one time I was in this service and they were trying to play some touchy feely contemporary Christian song off a CD for us and the CD starts skipping and they're like, the devil doesn't want us to hear that song. The devil mess with our CD player and I'm thinking myself, you know, that's not, that's the kind of stuff God, God doesn't want us just blowing off our mouth about things that we don't really know what's going on in the spiritual realm. And I don't think that the devil took that CD and scratched it up and put it back in because honestly, CDs get scratched when you just look at them wrong. It's pretty hard to stop CDs from not getting scratched. And so the devil had nothing to do with it, but you'll have a lot of these charismatic type churches, Pentecostal type churches where they kind of yell at the devil and rail on the devil. And they'll even sometimes like have a fish fight with the devil and all kind of just crazy stuff. And that's what God's warning us. Like, look, you don't need to mouth off to the devil and make all these railing accusations toward the devil or the demons. And it's just kind of what he's saying is just stay out of things that are above your realm. Stick with what you know and understand. Don't just start talking about all these spirits and demons and entities and go too far with that. Go if you would to 2 Peter chapter 2. There's a parallel passage where we find something similar. It uses the word dignities here again. It says in verse number 10 of 2 Peter chapter 2, But chiefly them that walk after the flesh and the lust of uncleanness and despise government presumptuous are they self-willed. Watch this. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Whereas angels which are greater in power and might bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. So right there we're in the plural now because in Jude it said that Michael, he didn't bring a railing accusation against the devil. You know, the main Satan himself, the devil. But here it says them plural talking about these dignities or demons or principalities and powers. It says that these bad people are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Whereas angels which are greater in power and might than we are as human beings. It's saying in verse 11 they bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. But these is natural brute beast made to be taken and destroyed speak evil of things that they understand not and shall utterly perish in their own corruption. Okay, so here's the thing. We should not talk about things that we don't understand. And since the Bible doesn't really give us a lot of information about angels and demons, we shouldn't go too deep on that subject or talk too much about that subject because we don't want to talk about things that are over our head and just start making things up and railing accusations and delving into the spirit world or something like that. Now, you know, obviously we should preach against false religion. The Bible is filled with chapter after chapter after chapter speaking against false religion, telling us to speak against false religion and to call out the false prophets and expose them and try them which say they're apostles and are not find them to be liars. And, you know, there's plenty of places that the Bible teaches that, but that's because false religion is something that we can see and look at and understand and line it up with the Bible. But when we start talking about demons and the devil and all these spiritual matters, we should not just blow off our mouth with railing accusations. And, and, and speak evil of the things which we understand not. So that makes perfect sense with, with Exodus 22 saying, don't revile the gods, right? Don't blow off your mouth or revile or rail on the gods. So it's not saying that there are other gods. It's again, referring to demons, devils every time. Now, if you would go to, uh, John chapter 10, John chapter number 10. Go to John 10 and keep your finger in, put your finger in Psalm 82. We're going to, we're going to compare two scriptures here. John chapter 10 and Psalm 82. Okay. This is another scripture that people get confused on. Now, if you look at this verse by itself in Psalm 82, I can see where this false doctrine could come from, because when you take one verse out of context, it's, it's easy to get a false doctrine. If you don't get the full context sometimes. And if we don't compare it to everything else we've learned in the Bible. Now we should already go into this. If there's 244 mentions of this word, we should already go into it with an understanding of what this word is talking about when we see gods. Okay. That it can't be referring to real gods or that it can't be referring to anything good because every time it's used, it's always something bad because false gods are bad. Strange gods are bad. The gods of the heathen are bad. It's always negative every single time. But when we look at this one verse by itself, it appears that it could be positive. Look down at your Bible there. Psalm 82 six. We'll start there. We'll go to John 10 in a moment. Psalm 82 six. If we look at this by itself, I have said ye are gods and all of you are children of the most high. Now, if we took that verse by itself, that sounds like a positive mention. Hey, you're gods. You're all children of the most high. And I could walk away from that verse with a false doctrine that says, Oh, the children of God are gods. Right now, there are people out there who teach that false doctrine. In fact, um, uh, Joyce Meyer is famous for saying that we're all like little gods because we're the children of God. We're little gods ourselves, but here's the thing. If you just looked at that verse by itself, I can see how you could get that. But that's why we need to read the whole chapter. That's why we need to get this in context and understand what this is actually saying. Now, keep your finger there in Psalm 82. Flip over to John 10. This is where people will get confused because they'll see Jesus quote this. And then they think, well, wait a minute. Jesus quoted this. And then here it is in Psalm 82, even though it's kind of contradicting everything else the whole Bible says from cover to cover that there's only one God and that we're the, we're the children of God and we're supposed to be his humble servants. We're not supposed to aspire to be as gods, right? Because that was what the devil said to Eve in the garden of Eden, right? He said, if you eat the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you'll be as gods. So from Genesis all the way to the end, multiple gods, bad, you becoming as gods, bad. You need to humbly serve God and not aspire to that. That's wicked. It's wickedness. Okay. But then you see a verse like this. It could kind of throw you for a loop, but here's a, here's some good rules for studying the Bible. Number one, if you see one verse that seems to contradict a hundred other verses, which one do you think you're probably wrong about? You're probably wrong about the one you're probably not wrong about the 99. So always go with what most of the Bible is saying. If you see something that seems to be saying something different, think to yourself, you know what? I'm probably misunderstanding this because the majority of scripture is teaching something else. Okay. Now look at John chapter 10 and you'll see what I mean. In John chapter 10, it says in verse 30, I and my father are one. Then the Jews took up stones again 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? Now, right away, what you need to understand is that Jesus is messing with them. Jesus is being sarcastic here. Do you think Jesus really thinks he's being stoned for a good work? No, he's being sarcastic. He's messing with them. Why? Because when the Pharisees and wicked people and people that are trying to kill him, talk to Jesus, Jesus does not always give them clear, straightforward biblical teachings and biblical doctrine because they are unworthy of it. And the Bible says not to cast your pearls before swine, not to give that which is holy under the dogs. That's why when Jesus is teaching his disciples, he teaches them very clearly. But often when he speaks to the multitudes or to his enemies, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, he'll actually speak to them in parables and dark sayings. And the Bible doesn't use this word, but you could say he speaks to them in riddles even. That would be a modern way that we would say it. He speaks to them almost in a riddle, in a parable, in a dark saying, in a way where it's going to go over their head unless they really stop and think about what is he saying. Okay, now keep your finger in. Well, you got your finger in too many places, but I'll just read this for you. In Matthew chapter 13 verse 10, you stay in Psalm 82 and John chapter 10. In Matthew 13 10 it says, And the disciples came and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? They don't understand. Why is he talking to the outsiders in parables? Listen to what Jesus says. He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. He says in verse 13, Therefore speak I to them in parables, because they seeing see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive. Look, Jesus is saying, I'm speaking to them in that way because they're not intended to understand. They don't deserve to understand. Their ears are dull of hearing. This people's heart is waxed gross, he said elsewhere. He said, They draw nigh to me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. I speak to them in parables, but you are blessed to hear me speak clearly and expound unto you all things. So that's what Jesus does in the Bible. So let's go back to John chapter 10 where we were. Right away he's being sarcastic. He's messing with them. You've got to put yourself in Jesus' position. Jesus is standing there and people are picking up rocks about to kill him. So put yourself in that position. You're standing there and people are surrounding you. They're picking up stones to stone you. Okay, so what's Jesus doing here? Jesus is basically saying something to stop them from stoning him. Why? Because it was not his time yet. He needed to die on the cross to fulfill scripture. He needed to die a certain way at a certain time on the Passover. And, you know, it all had to fall into place a certain way. So there are many times when people attempt to kill Jesus before that and he escapes. He slips away. He says something to talk them down because his hour is not yet come. This is one of those situations. So he starts out by being sarcastic with them and he says, So, you know, many good works have I showed you from my father. For which of those works do you stone me? So what are you stoning me for? Which of the good deeds that I've done are you stoning me for? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, because thou and because that 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 and the scripture cannot be broken, say ye of him whom the father hath sanctified and sent into the world thou blasphemest. Because I said, I am the son of God. If I do not the works of my father, believe me not. But if I do, though you believe me not, believe the works that you may know and believe that the father is in me and I in him. Therefore they sought again to take him, but he escaped out of their hand. That was the goal. He escaped out of their hand. Now, what is he saying here? If we actually stop and look at what he said. Now, if you just read John Chapter 10 again, you're going to get confused. You got to go back to Psalm 82. And I find that one of the best Bible study methods is that when you're reading the New Testament and it quotes the Old Testament, it's always good to go back and look up that quote and then compare that with what you're reading in the New Testament. Put it together. Now, here's a key. When we look at this, Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law? Now look at the next two words I said. Okay. Now, if we're just reading John 10 by itself, we don't really know who the I is. I said your gods. We might think that that's God who said your gods or that Jesus said that they were gods. Right. But if we actually go back and look up the quote, we can actually see who we're talking about. Okay. So go back if you would to Psalm 82 and let's actually get the context of this passage. Now, like I said, 244 times it's mentioned the gods. They're bad. They're false gods. They're idols. They're wicked. It's always negative. Okay. Now, if we actually read the context here of Psalm 82, you will find that this is a very negative mention as well. Let's read from the beginning. God standeth in the congregation of the mighty. He judges among the gods. 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, I've said your gods and all of you are children of the most high, but you shall die like men and fall like one of the princes. Arise, oh God, judge the earth for thou shalt inherit all nations. So let me point out several things here. First thing I want to point out is that in verse seven, the thought continues with a conjunction, but so if we were to quote verse six all by itself, I've said your gods and all of you are children of the most high. It sounds positive, but if we read the whole thought, I've said your gods and all of you are children of the most high, but you shall die like men and fall like one of the princes. Now this is no longer a positive statement, is it? Now it's actually condemning whoever we're talking to here. It's condemnation. And in fact, this whole chapter is condemnation. Verse two is condemnation. Verse three and four, he's rebuking people for what they're not doing. Verse five is more condemnation. This is negative from start to finish. That's the first thing I want to point out, number one. But number two, I want to point out that God is not the one talking here in the, I have said, because actually in verse one, God is referred to in the third person. Look at that. God standeth in the congregation of the mighty. He judges among the gods. And then look at verse eight. God's still in the third person. Arise, oh God, judge the earth for thou shalt inherit all nations. So the person who's actually talking here in this Psalm is the Psalmist himself who is Asaph. And of course, everything in the book of Psalms is correct and right. It's all God's word. It's all inspired by the Holy ghost. Don't misunderstand me here. This is scripture. This is God's word. This is accurate. But what we need to understand though is the point of view of who's speaking. And that is the Psalmist Asaph. He is the one who said ye are gods, not the Lord. The Lord didn't pronounce that about anyone. Asaph says, I have said ye are gods and all of you are children of the most high, but you shall die like men and fall like one of the princes. Now, why would he say such a thing? And let me point out that in John chapter 10, Jesus was very careful to quote the, I said, where it says here, I've said you're good. He said, well, it's written in your law, referring to the book of Psalms. It's written in your law. I've said your gods and so forth. And we're going to go back to John 10 in a moment, but right now let's just understand this passage right here in Psalm 82. What is he saying here? What are we talking about here? Well, stop and think about this in the garden of Eden, the devil tempted man with you shall be as gods. What was the opposite of that? God said that what would happen if they ate the fruit? What's going to happen if you eat the fruit, according to God, you're going to die. What did the devil say is going to happen? You're as gods. So that makes perfect sense. Now we look at this passage of, Oh, I've said you're gods, but guess what? You're actually going to die. You will die like men. So you see the connection there with Genesis chapter three also in Exodus. I'm sorry, not Exodus, Ezekiel chapter 28, the King of Tyre. Okay. He actually thought of himself as God. He lifted himself up in his heart. And so he's compared to the devil in Ezekiel 28, because he lifted up his heart that he's God. And God tells him you're going to die. You're going to go to hell and then shall thou be a man and not a God. That's going to be the proof that you're not God, that you're just mad because you're going to die. Now, if this scripture were somehow referring to saved Christians, why is it so negative? And why is it such a condemnation? Number one, number two, we that are saved, the Bible says that we shall never die. Jesus said, whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. We have eternal life. We shall not perish. Sure. Our body will die, but that's just a shell here. You know, this is just a tabernacle that we dwell in for a short time. Our soul, our spirit is going to continue on, go straight to heaven. We will never die. We will continue on. We will live forever because we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. So this, I have said in verse six is a, it's a, it's a, it's a sarcastic. Your gods. So like, for example, let's say, come, come on up here. Since I always use you for every illustration. So if I said to him like, Oh, Hey, you're a real tough guy, huh? You're a real tough guy, but you know what? You're about to get your butt kicked. Okay. Now here's the thing. That's kind of like what this is saying. Like, yeah, you're gods, but guess what? You're going to die like men. It's sarcasm. Go ahead and have a seat. I'm not really going to kick your butt. I never would do such a thing. But anyway, does everybody see what I'm saying here? So upon closer inspection of Psalm 82, you'd never walk away thinking, Oh, this is talking about the special blessing of the fact that, you know, we're, we're gods because we're children of God. That's not what's being taught here. This is an angry condemnation of wicked people who think they're as gods. Who are actually going to die and be punished and condemned by God. Now go back to John chapter 10 with that in mind, John chapter 10. And this is a difficult passage. I know. I remember when I was a teenager, I read this and I was confused on it. I didn't know what it meant. You know, I just kind of scratched my head and moved on. And here's what I've learned over the years. When you come to something in the Bible that's confusing or you don't understand, don't get too hung up on it. Just keep reading because you can't expect to understand everything on your first time through the Bible. That's a little bit of an unrealistic expectation. The Bible is very deep. And so don't expect to just first time through and what a boring life it would be if the first time through the Bible, we understood everything. How boring. And there's nothing else to learn. I didn't understand it as a teenager. I just kept on reading. And then after reading and reading and seeing other scriptures, it started to click with me. Oh, wait a minute. Gods is what the devil's holding out to people. And gods are actually demons and devil. You know, it all kind of just fell into place. And then it made sense to me. I remember I went to my pastor at the time and I asked him, what does this mean? He said, I don't have it. I don't have a clue what that means. I'm like, okay. But you know, it didn't really bother me. It doesn't really bother me if I don't understand everything in the Bible. You know, one of the biggest mistakes people make is when they get hung up on every little thing. I mean, I've seen people start in Genesis. They can't even get out of like Genesis chapter 11. Like the first they get, they have so many questions about the first 10 chapters and they just don't get anywhere. Cause they just, I can't figure this out. I can't understand this. What's going, you know, worry about what you do understand and not what you don't understand. This is a big, long book with a lot of really easy truths. So if you read it through for the first time, there's going to be a lot of really cool stuff that you're going to learn and grasp and understand your first time through. But then there's going to be a lot of stuff that goes over your head that 10 years in, 15 years in, 20 years in is going to click and you're going to understand why it is the way it is. So a lot of Bible study tools tonight. Get the context, figure out who's talking. Is this God talking or is this some other guy talking, you know, and don't get hung up, keep reading, keep going and find the answer somewhere else. You know, reviling the gods might seem pretty weird until you get to second Peter and Jude. Then it makes perfect sense when you put it together with everything else you've learned. So John chapter 10, look what he says here. The Jews are claiming they're going to, uh, stone him because of blasphemy because that thou look at the end of verse 33, being a man, makest thyself God, John 10, 34, Jesus answered them. Is it not written in your law? I said, ye are gods. So he just quotes that one little part. He said, well, doesn't it say in the Bible, I said, ye are gods. So he just throws that out there, just totally out of context, just to kind of throw them for a loop, just to get them kind of like trying to figure out what that could mean or what he's talking about. And this gives him the opportunity to escape because he throws that out there, get some scratch in their heads, trying to figure out what he's talking about. And then he leaves. That's what he does. Cause he throws that out there just out of context. He just says, well, isn't it written in your law? I said, you're gods. And then he just cuts off the quote right there. And then he picks up in verse 35 as this. Well, if he called them gods under whom the word of God came and the scripture cannot be broken, say ye of him whom the father of sanctified and sent into the world, thou blasphemous because I said, I'm the son of God. Now, what's he actually saying there? If you look carefully at that, when he says he called them gods unto whom the word of God came, what he's saying there is that Psalms is the word of God. Whoever he's talking to in Psalms, what he's saying is he called somebody gods there. Uh, those unto whom the word of God came. Meaning that somebody, he told your gods ASAP that is. So if he called them gods, who's the, he it's not God. It's actually the Psalmist ASAP. If he called them gods unto whom the word of God came, meaning just whoever he's talking to in that scripture. Then he says, and the scripture can't be broken. Say ye of him whom the father of sanctified and sent into the world. Thou blasphemous because I said, I'm the son of God. Here's what he's saying. Look, the Psalmist told somebody your gods, you know, would you stone him also? Like if he said that was that blasphemous when he said that, because you're saying I'm blasphemous just for claiming to be the son of God. And here's the thing. These people don't know scripture anyway, because actually all of us know So Jesus saying I'm the son of God is not even a radical statement at all. Now, Jesus also made himself equal with God and said, I and my father are one. And if you've seen me, you've seen the father. Obviously we could not say those things, but we could all say I'm a son of God. Cause we are all sons of God because God has many sons. Behold, what manner of love the father bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. But Jesus here is just saying, I'm the son of God. That we should be called the sons of God. But Jesus here is just creating a diversion here with a confusing and obscure quote. And he hits them with it. And then he successfully escapes while they try to figure out and debate. Well, you know, I don't know what's he saying? Is this blasphemy or not? He gets out of there, but see, what's sad is when people will take a whole bunch of clear scripture and discard it and just latch on to something like this, where Jesus is in a situation where he's messing with the enemy, throwing some riddles and parables and dark sayings at them. And then they'll use that to somehow turn doctrine on its head. Look, bottom line is there's a mountain of scripture that teaches that there's only one God. There's a mountain of scripture that teaches that Jesus is equal with God, that Jesus is the creator, that Jesus was in the beginning with God and he was God. Why? Because there's the father, the son and the holy ghost. And these three are one. And so we need to base. We believe on those clear scriptures, not let things like this throw us for a loop. And the main takeaway from the sermon tonight is that we really need to study our Bibles and know the Bible in order not to be deceived. There's a lot of deception out there, whether it's coming from the Jehovah's witnesses or Joyce Meyer, or whether it's coming from, you know, false religions, the new age movement, Hinduism, Buddhism, these, these Eastern philosophies that creep in. We need to know our scripture and we need to know what we're talking about. And listen, if somebody comes at you with a verse to try to throw you for a loop, you know what you should always do first thing is say, well, let's see it in the Bible. Let's open the Bible and see it. Cause then if you open the Bible and read the whole Psalm, the whole chapter, the whole context, that's where you can see that their arguments falling apart. If they're teaching false doctrine by actually having a physical Bible in hand, whenever people try to talk to me about the Bible, I always say, Hey, we need to grab a Bible. Hey, let's grab a Bible. Cause I have people I've, I've literally had an argument with somebody for like 45 minutes where they're telling me, well, the Bible says this and I'm, and I'm arguing and arguing, arguing 45 minutes later, I actually take a Bible off the shelf and it didn't even say what they said, but I'm like, Whoa, I just spent the last 45 minutes arguing against a Phantom. You know what I mean? Something that's not even in the Bible, you know? Right. And then you feel kind of silly at that point. So whenever somebody comes at you with false doctrine, always say, Hey, let's look at the Bible, let's get the Bible off the shelf. Let's see it. Half the time. It won't even be there. What they said, well, doesn't the Bible say somewhere in Matthew? It's like, Oh, well, let's look at it. And then you look at it and it doesn't always pan out, does it? So it's always good to get a Bible out and look at it and look there. There are false teachers out there that will teach a multiplicity of gods and they hide it. You know, the Mormons, right? The Jehovah's Witnesses with their, a God and things of that nature. And what we need to understand the difference between the Bible and the Mormon scriptures. Okay. Is that sure. The Bible uses the word gods 244 times, always negative demons, false gods, et cetera. But if you look up the Mormon scriptures, like for example, the Pearl of great price, you can open up the Pearl of great price. And it has an account of the creation that says the gods created the heaven and the earth. And the gods said, let there be light. And there was light. And the gods saw the light and it was good. And they had a council of the gods and they decided that's pretty different than the Bible where it'll call people gods, but they're false gods. See, when we talk about the Hindu gods, it's like, Oh, you just said gods. You believe in more than one God. You know, it's per it's the perception that they're called gods, but we know that there is only one God. Period. End of story. Case closed. There's one God. That's it. Let's borrow. It's never word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the fact that we have the word here, the whole Bible Genesis through revelation, Lord, that we can study to show ourselves approved. Lord, help us to be aware of all the deceptions that are out there and Lord help us to study the Bible and be very careful when we read our Bible to make sure we understand what we're reading and compare scripture with scripture and to make sure we're getting the context and comparing scripture to make sure that everything all is in harmony and that there's no contradiction, Lord. And please help us to win as many Mormons and Hindus and Jehovah's witnesses unto you as we can. Lord, help us to get these people saved, Lord, because they're deceived by false religion. Lord, help us to lovingly help them to see the error of their, their, their doctrine, Lord, and help us to show them the true gospel of your son, Jesus Christ in Jesus name. We pray. Amen.