I hope and pray that today's a good day for you. People don't like evenings when we have a church meeting, and that's too bad. So for those of you that have stayed home, okay. But what we're going to do is we're gonna get started. We're gonna be finishing up John 10. I did not foresee having to split this into three Sunday nights, but there is so much in this chapter. And I'm looking forward to this. The title of the message is, They Declared Him Guilty. and you will see what I mean. And I'm going to mention verbatim something that I mentioned this morning. You'll see what I mean in just a little bit. But first of all, we're going to pray, then I'm going to read the passage where we're going to be at, then we will get into our notes in this. So let's pray and let's ask the Lord to give us ears to hear and a heart to understand and eyes to see. Heavenly Father, Lord, we are so thankful for the Savior that we serve. Lord, I pray that you would quiet our hearts now, help us to be attentive to your spirit. Lord, we are so glad we have the hope of heaven as believing in Christ, placing our trust in him. There's a lot going on in our nation and even in individuals' lives that give us cause for concern, but Lord, you are large and in charge, and we rejoice over that, that while you meet with us in this place, the universe is under your control. That is stunning to us, but we take it by faith, and so, I pray that you would guide in this time. And we pray this in our Savior's name. Amen. So quickly, let's read the final 12 verses that we're gonna be looking at tonight in John 10, starting with verse 30. The Lord makes a declaration. 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? The Jews answered him saying, for a good work we stone thee not. but for blasphemy, and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. 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 ye believe not in me, believe the works. Now, notice what the Lord is emphasizing. It's interesting here. 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 went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized, and there he abode. And many resorted unto him and said, John did no miracle, but all things that John spake of this man were true. And many believed on him there. Let's take up a little bit, first of all, what the Lord said here. I and my Father are one. He was talking about their essence. Now listen up, pay attention. The statement springs directly from the claim just made by Jesus to equality of power with the Father. My hand, my Father's hand. The Lord knows exactly what he's doing to answer these people. Infinite power. He's speaking of infinite power, which is God, thus claimed by Jesus. as being an attribute of God and his attribute. Now, this is the finale, the climax of the Lord's claim to oneness with the Father. He quotes this, verse 18, 25, 28, 29. But let's pay attention a little bit to what he says here. I think you caught what we need to be listening in on His answer was more than what they desired. He was not just the Christ of expectation when it comes to Messiah. He claimed identity. He claimed substance with God. Now you have to understand these men that he's speaking to, they are absolutely entrenched in really a temporal world where they desired power. When it came from God, they wanted a God that was going to give them more power to cast off Rome and they could set up their own kingdom. That is not going to happen. This was his answer to their question. I and my father are one. Now, you know, we're looking at all kinds of things going on in the world today where people are arguing, contending, they have opinions all over the place. Many of them are false. They're not based in truth. Why? Satan, he excels at that. Here is a place of contention, right here, where Satan never gives up. We know this. When we come here, when we come to church, we pass a kingdom hall. They specialize in equating Jesus with something other than God the Father, taking away his deity. means taking away his power to save us. In a multitude of ways, the devil and his minions battle for this constantly. You see him, he's either lowered or somebody else is brought to his same level. The Catholic church has statues where Mary is on one side of the cross and Jesus on the other. That is blasphemy. But I mentioned this morning, about what the Pope said as far as other religions and they all worship the same God. Well, actually I was wrong in something I said this morning. The fact of the matter is they do because they don't worship the Christ that we worship. This is what happened. There was a youth inter-religious gathering in Singapore. And at that place, Pope Francis said, all religions lead to God. This is a quote. If you start to fight, my religion is more important than yours, mine is true and yours isn't, where will that lead us? There's only one God, and each of us has a language to arrive at God. Some are sheik, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, and they are different paths to God. They are like different languages in order to arrive at God, but God is God for all. Since God is God for all, then we are all children of God. September 13th. this year, the Pope just negated the work and person of Christ because these other religions do not see Christ as who he really is. Therefore, they do not see God as he really is, the one who sent the Savior to die for all mankind and be risen again This man who claims to be the vicar of Christ just negated him. He made similar remarks in Kazakhstan in 2022. There's nothing new here though. This article that I'm reading, they go back to 1987 where Pope John Paul II He led an inter-religious prayer meeting in Assisi, consisting of representatives of 32 Christian quote-unquote denominations, plus representatives from, again, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, African and North American animists, Japanese Shintos, fire-worshiping Zoroastrians, and Baha'i, the Baha'i faith. Though Pope John Paul did not specifically say that all religions are paths to God, it is obvious that he believed that to be true by inviting all religions to pray for world peace. And really this has been going on big time in the Catholic Church since the 1960s. There's more that I could read about that. But I think we get the point. This is what is taking place. In some ways, it's exciting. I don't want, it's not exciting to think, oh boy, boy, the time is coming when millions and literally billions will die in just a matter of several years. But to understand and see What is happening that our God said would happen? We look at people and we think there's no way they could say this kind of thing. I mean, just even, you know, if you've got enough knowledge of the Bible, you're not going to say this about other religions and you're not gonna say this about Christ. They do, they did. And that's sad. Look at verse 31, which brings us to this. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Now, when we were in Israel, you can get an idea that, well, you know, it's there at the temple and it's dirt. And you know, there's just, I mean, just little stuff, you know, here and there, you can go and grab a stone. No, that's not. I mean, you're on marble. You're on stone. And when it comes to rocks, you have to bring them deliberately. Now, there were places of construction possibly nearby. But when it says they took up stones, they didn't take up just rocks. This means you take up large stones. They had them pre-placed. They had them pre-placed. They were there. This was planned. It was their desire to stone Christ. They knew what he had said before. They were going to push him. He was going to go, we've already talked about this. He's gonna go one way or the other. He's either gonna help them establish their kingdom with God's help, of course, or he's finished. Well, they decided he's finished. Now to them, they were justified. You need not turn to it, but in Leviticus 24, 16, The scriptures say, and he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death. And all the congregation shall certainly stone him as well the stranger as he that is born in the land. When he blasphemeth the name of the Lord shall be put to death. But it's not gonna happen. His time was not yet come. but there are lessons that are going to be learned here. Look at verse 32. Jesus answered them, hey, many good works have I showed you from my father. For which of those works do you stone me? Now you look back in the scripture, in the gospels before this time, And you can almost sense he could have taken it like this. Do you stone me because I took a man that was born blind and made it so he can see? How about I healed a man at the pool of Bethesda who had been ill for 38 years. Is that what you're going to stone me for? Now extrapolate this a little bit out of this. Do you stone me because I cleansed lepers? Think of the good that Christ has done. Are you gonna stone me because I raised the dead? They had actually thought about killing Lazarus. Cast out evil spirits, are you gonna stone me for that? Are you gonna stone me because I fed multitudes, your multitudes? Is that why you're gonna stone me? Now, it's worth it to push this. He pointed to his good works, and rightly so. They showed supernatural power from God. They were not the ones that were listening to Scripture. Proverbs 17, 13. Whoso rewardeth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house. They were going to take a man who had done good and they were going to reward him by killing him. Proverbs 15, 1. The Lord responded according to his word. A soft answer. Turneth away wrath. These men were angry. He responded with a soft answer, but grievous words stir up anger. He didn't do it. And you get this understanding that here is something, remember what we were talking about this morning, that we need to take the word of God and let it work in our lives to change us. If I'm not careful, And maybe there might be one or two people here that can do the same. If I'm not careful, I mean, I can be extremely eloquent at coming back with a fierce tongue. Nobody else in here, you know, just like that. You know, our God helps us. Proverbs 16, one. The preparations of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. Colossians 4, six. Let your speech be all way with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. Now, I haven't always been good at this. I'm glad that God instructs us. Look, you've gotta just put the brakes on. The fast way to answer is not always the right way. You've gotta pause. In fact, thinking these things through, Peter said in 1 Peter 3.15, but sanctify. In a special place, take the Lord God. Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Now, the Lord was not fearful, but he had an answer. People say, okay, well, he was God, of course, but there is an extent that we can recognize if I take an approach with certain people, it's gonna go down the wrong road. I've got to be careful. Now, when it came to Christ, Jesus had already told them he was God. They rejected it. They were ready to judge him for it. The works, forget it, doesn't matter. But look at verse 33, just to take it to the point. The Jews answered him saying, for a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy and because that thou being a man makest thyself God. To them, the only way Christ could be God is if he was in full agreement with their program. They had to realize something. God has a program, and it is much more important than theirs. So Christ responded. Look at verse 34. He takes them back to the Old Testament. Jesus answered them, is it not written in your law? I said, you're gods. And if he called them gods unto whom the word of God came, and oh, by the way, the scripture cannot be broken, Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified? He said, I am God. The Father who has set apart, that's me, and sent into the world, thou blasphemous? Because I said, I am the Son of God. If you wanna make a little note of this, the passage is Psalm 82.6 that the Lord is referring to. That verse says, I have said, ye are gods and all of you are children of the Most High. Now in the context, that was a warning to unjust judges to cease from their unjust ways and instead to defend the poor. The judge is commissioned by God to be like God to men, even today. When we have judges in our courts, we expect them, or at least we ought to be, it used to be, that they would stand for the right thing, they would stand for that which was biblical. In that respect, they were standing like God before men. The judge had the power of life or death. back during the time of Israel, back to Old Testament. They could put a man to death. Why? Because they were able to judge what he had done. God gave them that power. So judges were called little g gods, not because they were divine, but because they represented God when they judged people. So Jesus was asking this, if God called human unjust judges, gods, and that wasn't blasphemy, then why do you object to this term when it refers to me? In other words, he was nailing them in their hypocrisy. You know, Asaph, And Psalm 82, could be judged blasphemous. Why do you revere these words if they're wrong? Why do you accuse me and not the scripture? Jesus tells them, listen, the scripture cannot be broken. And by the way, it can't. It is our desire and our opportunity to Take the scripture and let scripture interpret scripture. The message that God gave 40 authors, Moses, David, Paul, Peter, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Jude, others, was inspired by God. The scripture cannot be broken. These things You can't take them and chop them up and separate this and put this over there and negate that to make it fit what you desire. Like I was talking about this morning, Christ, the fulfilling of the law. Somebody can't come up and try to make the law work against you. Now I'm talking about biblical law that, hey, You know, we love the 10 commandments and what it shows mankind, his sin, but the commandments are fulfilled in Christ. I am now a new creature in Christ by the Spirit. I will obey the commandments. I'll live out Christ. So he says this, look at verse 37. if I do not the works of my Father. And this, I love this because he's trying to point out the supernatural acts that God has given him power to do. If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though you believe not me, believe the works that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in Him. Look at what the Father has given me, the Son, the power to do. One of the things I love about testimonies is somebody can speak of what God has done in them and for them. We all know people that were on drugs, people whose lives were shattered, and yet the Lord came and did marvelous works in their lives. Now, that doesn't supersede the scripture. That explains what the scripture has done in people. That's the thing that's exciting. And it hurts sometimes when you have people like we had this morning that were here that don't know Christ. And we have prayed for these people. And I continue to pray for them. What they could know that we know. Stop and consider this. We're in a time of fears. political pressure, especially right now. Now, think of what Peter said. I'm just going to read it to you. You need not turn to it. In 1 Peter 2, looking at verse 13, whether it be to the king as supreme or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men as free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness but as the servants of God. Now, listen to this. Did the response of the Lord bring a thoughtful peace to those there? No, not by a long shot. Can the same thing happen to us? Absolutely. We can obey, we can be good citizens, but there is still, there is still going to be anger for this fact. We worship Jesus Christ. He is our savior. I find it sad that Satan finds 1,001 ways to blind people to the gospel and to the God of the gospel. And so, verse 39, therefore, they sought again to take him, but he escaped out of their hand. And he went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized, and there he abode. I found this kind of interesting. You all know there's a couple of special places for us, my wife and I. One of them is Lodgepole. We love going to that campground. I mean, face it, on my desktop, on my computer, I've got pictures of the truck and the trailer sitting right there. I wanna crawl into that picture. It's just, it's a precious place. It's a great place. And quite honestly, there's a place where we live that I love. My chair is there. I look around. Also, you know, there's places that you just, you get to where you love. I love this auditorium. I do. I love that office back there. I also love the office that I have at home. There are just places, you ever feel like it's like, you know, you got places like that too. How many times, honey, have I said when we get in the car, and we leave on Sunday nights. We're going down Antelope and it's like, I'm just gonna follow my headlights. Got her in the car, we've got a full tank of gas. That's it, see ya. There's just places that are just kind of refreshing. I believe this was a special place for Christ. There's also things that we can go to in God's word. I should have brought my prayer journal out, but in this journey of cancer, I have made several pages, special pages. I've got some of these, a few of the verses in other places already, but I like thumbing through and reminding myself of the presence of God and trusting God. I'm telling you, it can be a blessing. There are times when you have read a verse 100, 200 times, and then the Holy Spirit just takes it and gives such comfort. I love that. My comfort is not found in Kaiser. my comfort is found in Christ. When my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus, and he will never leave me nor forsake me, and he doeth all things well, and all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose, and he knoweth the way that I take, When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. You know what? You can kind of trust him a little bit more. I don't like if-onlys and what-ifs. I hate them. You sit on them and they'll act like an acid to your heart. They'll just eat you alive. But if you take the scripture, like one of these places in our lives that we can think about, I can open up this Bible that I've had my soul close to 40 years now, and I can see notes. In this chapter 10, I've got notes here. What a joy. So the Lord got away. I can imagine what it was like when he got away. Those kind of people are not fun to be around. But there was still a group. They went with him. They saw where he was. Look at verse 41. And many resorted unto him. They weren't with the crowd of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. because of how they believed, and that's why they were so sad, you see. Oh, I had to tell that, I apologize. But when it came to the people that went with him, many resorted unto him and said, now, they're talking amongst themselves. They said, you know, John did no miracle, but all things that John spake of this man were true. He told us of him. And here's the works that he's done. And so the result, verse 42, and many believed on him there. Here were people that were so-called intelligent. They saw the works and they rejected them. Many common people, simply said, well, here's what John said, and this is what Christ did. And this is what Christ said. And this is what John pointed out about Christ. And they were able to do the simple math. It all adds up. I love reading the Bible through, getting to the end, and looking at the Bible and thinking, it all adds up. It's there. It's there. Let's pray.