Infallible knowledge of future

(new article this evening)

“John is the gospel that looks beyond the physical things to the spiritual movements and heart that’s driving the program.

"Jesus says in John 7:7: [7] The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.

“Compare that with Genesis 37, because John 7:7 is sort of a hat tip back to where you have Joseph," says Richard Jordan.

“There are seven great men of the faith listed in the Book of Genesis in Hebrews 11. Abel is an example of worship; he had the more excellent sacrifice. Enoch walked with God by faith. Noah had the witness.

"Abraham is a great picture of election; God choosing out. Isaac is the great illustration of sonship; here’s the son and the status. Jacob is the great illustration of service and the conflict in service. Joseph is the great picture of the heir of all things.

“In Joseph you see first the suffering and then the glory. When you look at Genesis, of those seven guys, Joseph gets more coverage than anybody else and the reason for that is that Joseph, in his life, is the most extensive type of Christ in the Bible.

“Arthur Pink has a book on Genesis and he’s got over 150 particulars he lists about Joseph being a type of Christ. Nobody else has that many things and almost everything you read in Genesis 37, 39, 40, 41, 42 demonstrates Joseph as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“This is one of the things about the Bible that is just so mind-boggling to me. When you read these passages back here there’s no rational explanation for how Moses could have written down, and it happened in the life of Joseph, thing after thing after thing after thing that really give a foreshadow of the life of somebody who isn’t going to be on the earth for another 1,500 years.

“You see, the one who was writing Genesis and controlling the life of Joseph had to have had an infallible knowledge of the future and know it.

“How is it that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John constructed their books on the pattern of the life of Joseph? Well, they didn’t consciously do that. I mean, that didn’t happen in John 7 so that John could say, ‘Okay, that’s Genesis 37.’ There are parallels to see.

“You remember Jesus said to them in John 5: [46] For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.

“What you have in John 7 is this heavenly Joseph who’s going to suffer the slings and sarcasm of His brethren and the attack of His brethren--their bitter sarcastic instruction and tirade against Him.

Genesis 37:2: [2] These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.

"By the way, Joseph has two names. In Genesis 41:45 Pharoah gave him a name a sentence long: [45] And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnath-paaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.

"The key to that is what it means. It means ‘the revealer of secrets.’ You remember how Joseph did that. He was somebody who could shed light on the subject. That’s exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ does. He’s the Light. John 1. He said, ‘I’m the light of the world.’

"He says in John 7:7, ‘I testify of the world. I shed light on the world and when I do it, it demonstrates the world’s evil.’

"The verse in Luke 11:13, and this verse floors me because listen to the way He says it: [13] If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

"Look how He says that: 'If you being evil give good gifts.' You see, He just assumes that people were evil. He didn’t try to make the case. He just said, ‘Since we all know you’re evil and you can give a good gift, why would you think a good God wouldn’t give good gifts?’ I mean, it’s one of those little back-handed kind of whaps and that’s why people don’t like the Bible and the preaching of the Cross.

"That’s why people don’t really like the Lord because He’s light and it demonstrates the works of darkness. The name Joseph means to add, and that’s what the Lord Jesus Christ does. He’s the Second Adam who put back what man’s lost.

"Who feeds the flock? A shepherd. Jesus said, ‘I’m the good shepherd.’ He’s dwelling with his brethren 'and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.'

"There’s that thing in John 7:7. He’s not saying he’s a tale-bearer. Joseph just spoke the truth; just what Christ was doing over there. Christ said, ‘If I hadn’t come and done what nobody else could do, living a perfect, sinless, righteous life of no mistakes, everybody would have had an excuse, but I took away their excuse.’

"Now, Israel loved Joseph more than all his children. He’s beloved of the father. You remember the verses on that: ‘This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased.’

"John 3 says He gave him the spirit above all of his brethren; loved him more than all of his children. Because he was the son of his old age. He’s the old man’s boy. You remember Micah 5 when it says He’s from old, from everlasting?"

Planet of renown

(new article tomorrow)

Ezekiel 34: [29] And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more.

[30] Thus shall they know that I the LORD their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord GOD.

"When I read that verse 29, 'I will raise up for them a plant of renown,' that's one of those verses that really demonstrates . . . You know, it's a figure of speech; it's a symbol. It's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, Messiah, and He's a plant of renown," explains Richard Jordan.

"In the Bible He's called 'the lily of the valley.' He's called the 'rose of Sharon.' The 'balm of Gilead.' Those titles are used to describe the impact. If you're renowned that means you're a celebrity. You're distinct. You're like nothing else; there's not another plant like you. You're beautiful.

"You provide shelter; you provide nurture. He's going to do all those things and He's going to be the hero of the world. Everybody is going to see Him and know, 'That's Israel's God; He's Israel's king and the house of Israel belongs to Him.'

"You see in verse 31: [31] And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord GOD.

"It's obvious that shepherds and sheep, referring to the leaders of Israel and the nation, are figures of speech."

*****

Ezekiel 34: [14] I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel.

[15] I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD.

"Now, the one who's going to feed them is the good shepherd, the Lord Jesus. You know Psalm 23:

[1] The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
[2] He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
[3] He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

[4] Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 

"That's not a psalm designed to be quoted at funerals, although the application can be comforting if you make application that way.

"It's about what's going on in Ezekiel 34. I told you last week, when He said, 'I'll cause them to lie down,' it's, 'I'm going to feed them, and after I feed them they're going to lay down.' What do you do after you've had a big BBQ? You go lay in the sun.

"If you get a big meal, you're satisfied; you're full. You want to go lay down and rest and digest it.

"In Mark 7, when Jesus addresses the Syrophenician woman, He says, 'Let the children first be filled.'

"Mark 7 is a verse that's almost always misquoted. When the woman comes to Christ and wants Him to heal her daughter and He says, 'I'm not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,' she responds to Him.

[27] But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.

"Let the children first be what? Not fed; filled. That's an important thing. You're not just preaching it to Israel so that Israel gets it; you're preaching it to them so they're FILLED with it.

"That verse is often quoted that the children must first be FED but it doesn't say that. It's says be filled. In other words, Israel must be redeemed. Be filled, restored. That's what He's talking about."

Fear of losing

"The Pharisees minded what God spoke, but not what he intended. They were busy in the outward work of the hand, but incurious of the affections and choice of the heart. So God was served in the letter; they did not much inquire His purpose; and therefore they were curious to wash their hands, but cared not to purify their hearts."--quote online

*****

John 12:42-43: [42] Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: [43] For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.

The chief rulers were among the elect of the Jews, probably members of the Sanhedrin. At this point in Christ's ministry, the gospel was having inroads even among the leaders. But because of the Pharisees the leaders would not confess Christ, knowing it would mean expulsion from their religious circle, they were afraid of being ostracized and shunned.

“Being put out of the synagogue was a fearful thing for these Jews. In Luke 9, when Jesus began to tell His apostles about His going to the Cross, one of the things He says is He’s going to be rejected of the elders," explains Richard Jordan.

“That’s saying, ‘You’re not a part of Israel.’ When you did that to a Jew you completely cut off his whole hope; his whole identity. All of his connection with his family and his heritage; you cut it away. I mean, that favored nation held together. They struggled together; they stayed together. They were going to put these guys out.

“Then He says, ‘Not only will they put you out of the synagogue, thinking they are doing God’s service (‘We’re serving God by putting you out’), they’re going to kill you!’

“That’s not just hatred and rejection; that’s a physical attack that winds up in your death, and before they get you dead, they do all the things necessary to get you dead. They didn’t come up and shoot people because they didn’t have guns back then. They stoned them.

“It takes a little bit of time to stone somebody to death. I was reading an article the other day about how difficult it is to kill somebody by strangling them. You can shoot or knife somebody, but to strangle them isn’t just that you have to physically overpower them, which you do, but you literally have to hold them until their very life ebbs out of them.

“It takes more than physical strength; it takes a psychological toughness, meanness, hatred, anger, passion, whatever it is, because you have to hold them to the point where they don’t breathe anymore. In your hands you literally feel it and you literally feel it go away.

“You see, killing people is not…modern American Gentiles have made killing so easy. We send an airplane at seven miles up into the air and drop a bomb on somebody. Where the bomb lands is terrible but the dude that dropped the bomb goes back home and eats supper and goes to bed and never thinks about it.

“If that same guy had to put his hands around the neck of the woman that his bomb destroyed and squeezed the life out of, well there’d be a different kind of situation I bet.

“One of the things the Gentiles do is they constantly become better and better at killing people. We’re talking about modern science and the improvement of things, and you know what, every modern advancement and technology has been used, not just for the good of mankind, but to make it easier to kill people.

"You name it! In fact, most of the technological advancements that trickle down to you and me in life comes from military advancements where they were trying to stay a step ahead of the other guy so, ‘He can’t kill me; I can kill him first!’

*****

“But these guys are doing this because they thinking they’re serving God; this murderous rage where they’re going to kill you. You’ll see it in the Book of Acts.

Acts 5: [26] Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned.

[27] And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them,
[28] Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us.
[29] Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.
[30] The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.

“Because Peter and John had healed that man at the temple in Acts 3 they got called before the religious leaders and told, ‘Don’t do that again; you filled the city with this man’s doctrine,’ and because they kept preaching about the Lord Jesus Christ, they get called in again.

“If the rulers tell you not to do something God says to do, and you go ahead and obey God, that means the rulers might come down on you. You’re not doing it to be rebellious against rulers; you’re doing it to be faithful to God. Duties don’t conflict. And when God tells you to do something, you do what God tells you.

"But boy, when you break the religious rules of people . . . There’s no hatred like religious hatred, and be it a pope or a Protestant or an Imam, there’s no hatred, no persecution so fierce as that fired by a zeal for God and a zeal for ‘what’s right’ as you want it to be, as your religion says.”

Doubting/denying the resurrection

"The resurrection is not merely important to the historic Christian faith; without it, there would be no Christianity. It is the singular doctrine that elevates Christianity above all other world religions."

"Christianity is in its very essence a resurrection religion. The concept of resurrection lies at its heart. If you remove it, Christianity is destroyed."

"The resurrection is a fact better attested than any event recorded in any history, whether ancient or modern."--Charles Spurgeon

*****

"Why don’t we want to believe in the Resurrection? What is it about this doctrine in particular that we find so unsettling? Why have so many modern theologians made careers for themselves by interpreting the resurrection as something other than what the New Testament manifestly teaches it was — namely a dead man coming back to life? (The actual Greek phrase in the New Testament — anastasis ton nekron — literally means 'a corpse standing up.')"--online article.

*****

Jimmy Carter, in his 1996 book Living Faith, says that while he was raised from a baby in church, and was only three when he began memorizing Bible verses in Sunday School, “By the time I was 12 or 13 years old, my anxiety about (doubting Christ’s resurrection) became so intense that at the end of every prayer, until after I was an adult, before ‘Amen’ I added the words ‘And, God, please help me believe in the resurrection.’ ”

“You’ll never meet an honest person who spent 15 hours looking at the actual evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ not come to the conclusion: ‘He came out of the grave,’ " says Richard Jordan. “Now, you might not like what the resurrection means, but you can’t look at the evidence with an unprejudiced heart and mind and not recognize the historical reality that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.”

*****

From multiple passages in the Gospels, we know that after Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples she had just seen Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead, an emergency closed-door meeting was arranged for that evening.

During the gathering, the resurrected Christ miraculously appeared before them, saying, “Peace be unto you,” and showing them His pierced hands and side.

The immediate response was the men “were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit,” according to Luke 24. Jesus asked, “Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.”

Christ’s next question was, “Have ye here any meat?”, upon which they gave him “a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb,” and He proceeded to eat in front of them.

“What you learn in John 20 is they were in a room they’d locked down and they thought it was secure and, all of a sudden, Christ appears in their midst—literally just came through the walls,” says Jordan.  “That’s a passage that details the veracity and authenticity of the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“They see Him; they see He has a body that has flesh and bones. It’s a real literal body that’s obviously also a supernatural body because it just came into a locked-down room.

“But when it literally materialized in front of them they could touch Him and even see Him sit there in the fellowship of consuming a meal with them. It was a real manifestation of someone they knew so they wouldn’t think He was a spirit, a ghost, or some kind of ethereal hallucination.

“The fascinating thing is what the passage tells us about the resurrection of the body because we’re going to ‘have a body made like unto his body.’ The capacity that His body has to function, you and I are going to have!”

*****

In I Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul takes on the skeptics of the resurrection with the admonishment: “Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.

[35] But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
[36] Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:
[37] And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:
[38] But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.”

“Those questions came because people were denying the resurrection. They were asking, ‘How is it the dead are raised and is it a real, physical, literal body, or is it just they live on in our memories, or is there reincarnation?’

“You remember in Acts 17 when Paul spoke of the resurrection in Athens, the great intellectual center of the ancient world? It’s still a center from which you and I are influenced today. It’s really the intellectual center of western civilization.

“In Acts 17:30, when Paul began to speak of the resurrection, they said about him, ‘Just a babbler. Let him babble on,’ and Paul simply turned away from them.

The passage reads, “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

[31] Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
[32] And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.
[33] So Paul departed from among them.”

*****

In trying to reason with the unbelieving Corinthians, Paul writes, “Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?

[13] But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
[14] And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
[15] Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
[16] For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
[17] And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
[18] Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
[19] If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”

“If you look at verse 14, Paul defines what that means when he says ‘if you believed in vain.’ What is vain faith? It’s to believe something that isn’t true. If Christ isn’t raised from the dead, then your faith in His burial resurrection is dead. Why? Because you’re believing a lie! So what he’s doing is demonstrating how the resurrection isn’t a lie; it’s truth.

*****

“Did you ever hear about Pasquale’s Wager? Pasquale was a French philosopher who became a Christian and his wager was, ‘If it turns out when I die that there’s no God, that the gospel isn’t true, I would have still lived the better life.’

“But you see that isn’t what those verses (in I Corinthians 15) say. Now, it is true that if there’s no heaven, no hell, no God, and Christ wasn’t raised from the dead—if you live in obedience to the truth of the Word of God you will live a better life; a higher life.

“If you live in pursuit of, ‘Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another,’ you’re going to make a better life; have a better world about you. But you’re also going to be vexed like Lot was who lived in Sodom with the filthy conversation of the wicked.

“What Paul says is, ‘Hey, if this stuff isn’t real, the Book of Ecclesiastes . . . what Solomon said—let’s just ‘eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die!’ So Pasquale’s Wager isn’t really well-founded. At least it isn’t what Paul thought—the resurrection’s that important. 

“In verse 36, notice how Paul answers: ‘Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die.’ He’s saying, ‘Are you nuts?! You don’t believe in the resurrection?! I mean, don’t you realize that every Spring you witness resurrection (in nature)?! You see it so often you don’t even think anything about it and you’re questioning?!! . . .  Nah, you’re nuts!' "

Discovering human viewpoint is zilch

 Acts 17: [16] Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.

[17] Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him.
[18] Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.

They said, “What will this babbler say?” You know, it's, “He’s just run off at the mouth; we don’t know what he says,” and that’s the way people are, explains Richard Jordan.

Verse 21: [21] (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)

People throw off on the Athenians because they’re always trying to hear and tell something new, but that’s like that verse in II Timothy 3: [7] Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

You see, if you’re always looking for something new it means what you got didn’t satisfy you.

Epicureans were named after a guy by the name of Epicurus. The Stoics were followers of a guy basically by the name of Zeno. They had two different philosophies and the two philosophies represent those two things.

For the Epicureans the supreme good was pleasure. They were total materialists. All that you had is what you see, feel, touch, hear, smell. All philosophers, especially of the ancient world, are looking for the supreme good—the summum bonum. For them, pleasure was the top deal. That’s the thing that’s of the greatest good.

Now the Stoics were on the other side. Stoicism is about grinning and bearing it. It’s a philosophy founded in self-sufficiency and the idea of mind over matter. Their concept is you put the ideas and concepts and mind and thinking, and regardless of what’s going on in your heart, you’ve got a mindset that gives you the capacity to endure. You have a thinking process; you’re focused on ideas.

Those two philosophies sort of ran the ancient world and were kind of the driving forces of Paul’s day. But they still are today.

It’s important to understand when you’re thinking about wisdom and philosophy that everybody has a philosophy. Everybody has an approach to life and a paradigm that you think out of. Some are good and some are bad.

James 3:15: [15] This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

Verse 17: [17] But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

There are two different kinds of wisdom. There’s a wisdom that descendeth not from above and then there’s a wisdom that is from above.  One is the wisdom of this world and then there’s one that’s the wisdom that comes from God.

I Corinthians 1:19: [19] For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
[20] Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
[21] For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
[22] For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
[23] But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;

Knowledge is to know the facts; the collection of facts. That’s what science is; the word means knowledge. Wisdom is to know how to use the knowledge. Take the knowledge and make use of it. Understanding is to know that wisdom and knowledge is not enough. But you have to grasp the relationship between wisdom and knowledge; the relationship between that and God and His works. You have to have the divine picture.

I Corinthians 2:6: [6] Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
[7] But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

There’s a human viewpoint and there’s a satanic viewpoint and Satan’s attempt is to have man follow his thinking paradigm.

By the way, if you took the great philosophers of the world—Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Euripides, Homogenes, etc.—what you will discover is they all had in front of them the wisdom literature of the Scripture and you’ll discover that every branch of philosophy known to man is found in the books of Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.

The wisest man who ever lived, Solomon, wrote a book about the pursuit of wisdom that he had, Ecclesiastes, and his conclusion is that human viewpoint is zilch. Every way you look for the good life, Solomon did it in spades.

It’s a fascinating thing that every philosophy—go get an encyclopedia and it will list them—originates with men who had all this information on the table in front of them. None of the philosophers of this world in history have added ONE piece of information that isn’t already in Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.

What that tells you is all these big brains that everybody thinks is so great are a bunch of plagiarists because they never gave God credit for any of it. They never source-referenced their information and the reason for that is they reject divine revelation and only want to go on their own human viewpoint.

If you want to know what real wisdom and understanding is, go to the oldest book in the Bible, Job. Job 28:28: [28] And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.

Here’s wisdom: “Fear the Lord.” Proverbs says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” You want wisdom? You fear the Lord.

To depart from evil. If you don’t know what the fear of the Lord is, you’ll never depart from evil. If you don’t know what evil is, how would you depart from it? Well, you couldn’t. If you don’t depart from evil, you don’t have any understanding. You can have a lot of knowledge and even some wisdom, but if you don’t depart . . .

What I want you to see there is wisdom is to have some information. It’s more than just a collection of facts. You know how to use the facts, but understanding how it all relates to what God says and apply it in a way that you grasp the relationship between the facts and God Himself.

Isaiah 5 says, [20] Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
[21] Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

If you’re not wise enough to depart from evil, to distinguish between good and evil, how could depart from evil? What do you do? You use your wisdom to look for an alibi to continue to do the evil that you want to do. That’s the thing in Proverbs 18: [1] Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.
[2] A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.

Watch Solomon do this. In Ecclesiastes 2 Solomon starts out his explanation of his journey by dealing with the two fundamental philosophies—naturalism and idealism.

He writes, “I said in my heart.” He didn’t say, ‘God’s Word is where I went to find this.” Solomon, who wrote Proverbs, says, “Through desire a man separates himself.”

That’s exactly what Solomon is going to do. He’s going to desire to discover his own heart so he dedicates himself to it.

He says in Ecclesiastes 2: [15] Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that this also is vanity.
[16] For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool.
[17] Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

So he’s pursuing the sunnum bonum; the good. He said, “I’m going to pursue it in mirth, pleasure, laughter, folly, and I sought in my heart . . .” He’s not looking to God’s Word—you know, every one of those things God’s Word would tell him what the answer was. But he says, “I’m looking to myself.”

What’s the result of that? Verse 4: [4] I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards:

He’s got wealth, industry, accomplishment, entertainment. [11] Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

You know what vanity is? It’s just empty worthlessness. You know what it is to be vexed in you spirit? You’re troubled; stirred up. You’re confused. You’re bitter. No profit. He got to the end of that-- all that stuff piled up--and you know what he said: “It’s just a waste of time. Nothing.”

So if materialism isn’t going to work: [12] And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been already done.

He’s saying, “I mean, if I’m the king, I’m on the top of the heap, what can anybody do more than I’ve done because I’ve already done everything. I’ve been everywhere, man! I’ve breathed the mountain air; I’ve traveled and done my share.”

What do you do then? He said, “I know what.” [13] Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.

“Oh, I know what I need to do. I need to go into the world of IDEAS and thinking.” Now, this isn’t going to be divine viewpoint. He’s got wisdom, he’s got God’s Word but he’s going to do it his own himself.

Ecclesiastes 2: [14] The wise man's eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.
[15] Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that this also is vanity.

Uh-oh. Well, if a wise guy goes along and the same thing happens to him that happens to a dumb guy, what good was wisdom?

Conclusion: [17] Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

You ever see the bumper sticker on a fancy RV: “We’re spending our kids’ inheritance.”

You keep reading and you’ll see that the realism and pragmatism, and all the other branches of it, are the same. What they wind up doing—they’re vanity, vexation, no profit, “I hate my life.”

When you apply philosophy to science, what the two do is they make all of life meaningless—to the educated, the scholars and the elite. It’s of no value. The reason for all that is they discovered their heart and in their heart is vanity.

What happens when you reject God’s Word is that’s where you wind up. Now Solomon had a conclusion if you look at the end of Ecclesiastes.

Ecclesiastes 12:1: [1] Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

At the end of the book, you know what he said you need to do? Remember God. Remember your Creator. He’s not just saying to believe in God; he’s saying, “Remember that there’s a purpose the Creator has in His creation.” There’s a wisdom, knowledge and understanding that He put into His creation and that’s what you want to seek.

Verse 13: [13] Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

There’s the summum bonum right there; the purpose for man.

[14] For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

Now, you try that conclusion at the end of a philosophy class and watch what happens. There’s not a philosophy class in any university you ever been to that will let that be the conclusion, and when you see people pursuing philosophy, that’s the conclusion they won’t come to. But if they had the wisdom, an honesty of heart, to actually examine (not science falsely so-called but a real examination) that’s what they come to.

I’m old enough I guess I can say this kind of thing, but I honestly believe that the greatest minds of history are a bunch of stupid blockheads. They are just out stumbling over their own self-righteousness on the road to hell, frankly.

I consider the simplest Believers like intellectual geniuses alongside any of these guys from history who are considered the philosophers of the world, ancient or current. The reason is that Book.

Idol-worshippers make Paul's spirit go bonkers

Paul ends the Book of I Timothy with, [20] O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:

[21] Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.

The reason he uses the term Greeks in I Timothy is because if you go to Daniel 8 you discover that the kingdom that extends itself from the time of Daniel and the image he tells you about—the kingdom that’s still in effect here is the Greek empire. That kingdom starts back with Alexander and goes all the way to the Antichrist and the Antichrist comes out of the Greek empire, explains Richard Jordan.

As far as Scripture's concerned, the Greek influence was still . . .  when God looked at the Gentiles, He looked at them under that rubric of who’s controlling the Gentile world. "Greeks" is a term used for Gentiles.

The Greeks seek after wisdom; they want to have human viewpoint. They don’t have revelation from God. The Jews had the Word of God. You’ve got two sources to get your information. You’ve got God’s Word (God reveals it to you) or you’ve got human viewpoint. Those are the two currents that dominate the thinking of people.

It strikes me as interesting that when Paul ends the book, he focuses on those two things. Science falsely so-called is not true science. It’s not coming to understand information based upon demonstrable evidence that’s discovered and validated by examination.

When science becomes non-science, or falsely so-called science, it is when you add philosophy to it. You take the results of science and you add a philosophical thinking process to it. That’s when the science quits being science and becomes something that is science falsely so-called.

That’s the other great thing that Paul warned about. There are three great things Paul keeps warning about. The other one is in Colossians 2:8: [8] Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

The idea there with the use of the word "philosophy" is a lover of wisdom. The Greek word for that is “Sophia.” It’s not just wisdom, it’s to love, exalt and to have all of your thinking based in the issue of human viewpoint.

When you take the facts you get out of science and then you begin to interpret them based upon a philosophy, a way of thinking, that’s when science becomes falsely so-called. That’s when you politicize it; that’s when instead of it just being the facts of things—you know, you’re welcome to your own opinion but you can’t have your own facts.

When you add a philosophy into it, then you solidify it and say it’s got to be and then you begin to take the facts and roll them around the way you want them to be to come out with the thing you want it to come out as.

The world Paul lived in was a world dominated by two basic philosophies. Now, there are four basic categories or types of philosophies that are possible. First is what’s generally called rationalism, materialism. That’s the oldest thinking process and it says, “If you can’t perceive it, if you can’t know it with your five senses, then it isn’t real.”

It’s got to be something that’s material or else it doesn’t exist. So you’ve got no God, no heaven, no hell, no forgiveness, nothing supernatural.

The extreme other way is called idealism, which is a reaction that says only the ideals are real. Ultimate reality isn’t what’s physical; it’s the IDEAS that are expressed in the physical.

People say, “There’s something wrong with both of those,” so they develop a third philosophy that brings those two extremes together. You’ve got Hegel’s dialectic: Thesis, antithesis and then synthesis.

You synthesize them and bring them together into what’s called realism. That is, you treat reality not simply by what you observe and demonstrate and material facts, but also you recognize there’s some abstract ideas and some perceptions and some unseen forces in the world that are part of emotions and so forth that determine natural things and physical reactions.

Then you have a natural last one that you call pragmatism, which is simply a way of handling materialism, idealism and realism. That is, whatever works, that’s it. A pragmatist says, “Hey, I don’t care where it comes from, if it works . . .” You know, the definition of good is "what works" and the definition of evil is "what fails to work."

So, you get those different ways of categorizing reality and the two fundamental ones; there's the first two and the others are extrapolations of them . . . all of the various schools of philosophy, you can put them under one of those four headings.

Acts 17: [15] And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens: and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed, they departed.
[16] Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.

That’s a great verse because Paul sees all these idol-worshippers and his spirit just goes bonkers and he can’t stand what he’s seeing.

[17] Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him.
[18] Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.

That’s interesting what he preached. He wasn’t arguing philosophy; he was preaching the gospel. That should give you an idea about what you do when you meet the philosophers and the religious crowd of the world. You take the truth; you just take God’s Word and you preach it to them. The greatest apologetic is just to preach the gospel. Know it, understand it and share it with them.

Love of money is covetousness

 I Timothy 6:12: [12] Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

When Paul talks here about, “Fight the good fight of faith,” the point is not, “Fight to keep the doctrine straight.” That’s other passages. It’s, you fight the struggle to walk by faith in the doctrine; stay in the Word by faith regardless of what feelings come; it’s that constant battle and struggle to walk by faith and not by sight.

There’s the constant struggle that sight gives you. II Corinthians 4: [18] While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

You look at circumstances and the C&S Gang (circumstances and situations) comes along and beats on you and your attention is drawn to the earthly, fleshly, physical things. The struggle is to walk not by the sight, and the experience, and the feeling, but to walk by faith in the truth of God’s Word and not by the things you see.

We live from moment to moment in a world where the things that seem the most real to us are the things we can touch and feel. There’s an old saw you hear in religion that says, “A man with an experience is more powerful than a man with a message.”

Listen, you can tell people something all along but if you give them an experience, something to experience, they’ll go for that faster. That’s how you explain the seeming popularity of the so-called Pentecostal-Charismatic Movement.

There’s something they’re experiencing going along with it; that’s how you explain the seeming popularity of the formalism, of Romanism and the liturgical, sacramental, sacerdotal kind of system.

I had a Roman Catholic priest tell me once, “You know, pastor, what we’ve got that you don’t have is we have theater.” And they do; they have all this theater.

You know, if you watch movies and you have a religious figure it will either be a Catholic priest, because they’ve got things to do and you want action in movies, or it will be some, what they call a Bible-thumper, because he’s doing something. It won’t just be a message to believe.

So that issue of experience is always powerful. How do you fight to take the truth of God’s Word--that’s just doctrine and truth but life--and then apply it? There’s a struggle there to walk consistently by faith, and it’s the struggle OF faith just to stay in the Word and in regards to what happens, just let the power of the Word of God work on you.

I Timothy 6: [6] But godliness with contentment is great gain. Verse 8 says, [8] And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

That’s a great verse. Godliness is God-likeness. It’s thinking like God thinks and acting like God acts and working with God, delighting in what He does. With contentment means “that’s enough.” When you don’t need something else. Just be satisfied.

[7] For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

I’ve done two funerals in the last couple of weeks and you know how much both those people left? Everything. You come in with nothing and you go out with nothing. There’s people worried about their possessions but you’re going to leave them all behind anyway.

[9] But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

There’s the problem—they that WILL. It doesn’t say they that ARE rich; it’s people who have that incessant desire for more who fall into temptation and a snare, and many foolish and hurtful lusts.

[10] For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Now, people say that’s a bad translation. No, what is the love of money? “Which while some having coveted after.” That’s what the love of money is—it’s covetousness.

Colossians 3 says covetousness is idolatry. Idolatry is substituting something for God—that is the root of all evil. The fighting of the good fight of faith starts with fleeing these things. Don’t let sin rule your life.

Easter steeped in satanic Babylonian mysteries

In describing German pagan traditions, Jacob Grimm, one of the two Brothers Grimm, once wrote, “Bonfires were lit at Easter and water drawn on the Easter morning is, like that at Christmas, holy and healing - here also heathen notions seem to have grafted themselves on great Christian festivals. Maidens clothed in white, who at Easter, at the season of returning spring, show themselves in clefts of the rock and on mountains, are suggestive of the ancient goddess.”

*****

"Easter offerings are derived from the tradition where the priests and priestesses would bring offerings to the pagan temples for Easter," according to an article online. "They brought freshly-cut Spring flowers and candies to place on the altar of the idol they worshipped.

"Another popular Easter offering were freshly made or purchased clothes! The priests would wear their best clothes, while the Vestal Virgins would wear newly-made white dresses. They would also wear headgear, like bonnets, while many would adorn themselves in garlands of Spring flowers. They would carry wicker baskets filled with foods and candies to offer to the pagan gods and goddesses.

"Easter Sunrise Services were originated by the priest serving the Babylonian Ishtar to symbolically hasten the reincarnation of Ishtar/Easter." 

"Easter is steeped in the Babylonian Mysteries, the single most evil idolatrous system ever invented by Satan!" writes Josh Toupos in an article online. "The Babylonian goddess, Ishtar, is the one for whom Easter is named; in reality, she was Semiramis, wife of Nimrod, and the real founder of the Satanic Babylonian Mysteries.

"After Nimrod died, Semiramis created the legend that he was really her Divine Son born to her in a Virgin Birth. She is considered to be the co-founder of all occult religions, along with Nimrod."

*****

“You see the word ‘east’ in that name Easter? The Anglo-Saxon name for the pagan goddess was Eostre, and that got brought into the English language. The Eostre is ‘the rising,’ and the sun comes up in the east,” explains Richard Jordan.

“Malachi 4, looking toward the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ when He comes to set up His kingdom on the earth, says:

[1] For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

[2] But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

"The S-U-N of righteousness, that’s His name. When the sun comes up, that’s the morning. The ‘east’ is the idea of the rising of the sun and that tells you the people who are worshipping the sun—you get reminded about them when you say ‘east.’ It’s also connected with the date of Easter.

“You ever wonder why the date of Easter changes all the time? It’s a moveable date because the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. decided that Easter would be celebrated the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox.

“It has to do with worshipping the sun and the moon; it has nothing to do with the Bible. It’s part of the vain religious system that gets caught in everything.”

******

Paul writes in Philippians 1: [20] According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.

[21] For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

"A guy told me once that it sounded like Paul had a suicide complex. He said he thought Paul got it in Acts 14," says Richard Jordan.

"In Acts 14, Paul goes into a town, he preaches, they don't like him, they drag him outside and stone him and leave him for dead. If you stone somebody and you leave them for dead, the probability is you check for a pulse and they're dead.

"The next verse says, 'But he rose up and went back into the same city and preached again and left the next day and went to preach somewhere else.'

"Up until that point in Acts 14, every time Paul had been in a city and they rejected him . . . in Acts 13 he shook the dust off his feet and went to the next city. The next city to reject him, he departed.

"Now the dude dies, he's resurrected and goes right back into the place where they killed him. You say, 'What's that about?' Then, in the next few verses, he goes back to the other places where they tried to kill him. It's like he had a suicide complex: 'I died, it went pretty good, let's go try and do it again.'

"In II Corinthians 12, Paul says, 'I knew a man 14 years ago.' That book was written in Acts 20 and if you backtrack to Acts 14, you find the period is about 14 years.

He said in chapter 12, [2] I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.

[3] And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
[4] How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

"Was he dead? I don't know. Seems like he was; maybe he wasn't. But he said what happened to him is he got caught up into the third heaven and saw things that were so wonderful, so magnificent, so inexplicable that he couldn't 'speak' them. He said, 'I can't tell you about it; I don't have the capacity.'

"It's like he's saying, 'Hey, man, to die is gain. It don't scare me because I get to go back up there and see Christ magnified in a way that I can't explain to you now.'

"Now, I don't think Paul had a suicide complex, but that's not a bad idea, understanding that to die is gain, and why he would think that way.

"What Paul's doing there, it's more than a suicide complex. Look at Philippians 1: 8-9: [8] For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.

[9] And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;

Light of the world = God in their midst

Jesus Christ talks about being the light in John 8 because He's just dealt with a bunch of people who are sitting in total darkness, blind to everything going on around them.

In fact, so treacherous is their blindness that they not only don’t recognize the Lord Jesus Christ, they’re seeking to entrap and accuse Him.

They were actually doing exactly what Satan was trying to do to God, by putting Him in that Isaiah 49:24 condition/conundrum of, "I’ve made Israel my lawful captive." But he wasn’t wise enough to figure how God demonstrated His wisdom, as we know now, explains Richard Jordan.

That wisdom is described over and over in the Bible as the Light. That’s why He says in John 3, "Except a man be born again he can’t see the kingdom of God."

John 8:12: [12] Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

The spiritual condition of the Pharisees was walking in darkness. They’re lost. You remember how Israel followed the cloud in the wilderness that led to Canaan? If they follow Christ, He’ll lead them to the kingdom, and if they do they’ll have the light of life.

*****

John 1: 4-5: [4] In him was life; and the life was the light of men. [5] And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

If God is light and Jesus said, "I am the light," who is Jesus saying He is? That’s a proclamation by the Lord Jesus Christ of His deity. What deity? His deity as the Messiah. As the one who’s going to be the Light—Emmanuel.

In Isaiah 59 is the Second Coming of Christ back to Israel to redeem it. The last two verses:

[20] And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.
[21] As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.

Now watch what happens in the next chapter when He’s come. Isaiah 60:

[1] Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.
[2] For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
[3] And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

When Christ comes there’s light because He’s the light. Isaiah 60:19-20, talking to the city of Jerusalem:

[19] The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.
[20] Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the LORD shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.

When Jesus says, "I am the light of the world," that’s another one of those statements in the Book of John reminding Israel and teaching them that He is Messiah, and as the Messiah, He’s not only the Passover lamb, and the atoning lamb, He’s the one who is God in their midst.

Jesus mocks blind Pharisees and they're mad about it

John 10: [7] Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.

[8] All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.
[9] I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
[10] The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
[11] I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

Jesus says to the Pharisees, “Verily, verily, I am the door. I’m the one who leads them out and brings them in,” explains Richard Jordan.

Verse 10 is what they’re doing: [10] The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

When He says in verse 11, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep,” go to Ezekiel 34. When these guys take up stones to kill Him, this is why they do it. They know what He’s doing.

Ezekiel 34:11: [11] For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.

Whose sheep are they? They’re the Lord God’s sheep. He’s the shepherd. Who does Jesus say He is? “I’m the shepherd.”

Well, He’s putting Himself in the God slot back in Ezekiel. He’s saying, “The Lord God that says that back in Ezekiel—that’s me! I’m Him.”

That’s why He says down in John 10:30: [30] I and my Father are one.

And they want to kill Him, because as verse 33 says: [33] 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.

They get what’s going on. God’s going to deliver the nation Israel from the bad shepherd and give them the good shepherd. God’s going to save His sheep; Christ is going to be the one to accomplish that.

So, when Ezekiel writes all that stuff and Christ comes in in passages like this, He’s reaching back to take verses and terminology and things in the Old Testament which are prophesying about what’s happening.

In other words, He’s fulfilling what these passages are talking about. He doesn’t directly quote them because He doesn’t need to.

If you’re talking to a Pharisee, they had all these verses in their mind. They had been drilled in the things. They just didn’t have the faith to see the truth that was involved in the verses they’re following.

*****

The context of the Book of John starts in John 7 and there’s a contention between Christ and the Pharisees and they argue.

John 9: [39] And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
[40] And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?

The Pharisees are like, “Are you talking about us?”

[41] Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

Now, after all the contention they’ve had, that’s just Him smacking them right in the chops. He’s speaking very plainly to them, got their attention, and they’re mad at Him. They’re arguing. They’ve rejected Him; they’re abusing the blind man, abusing the people, like in Ezekiel 34. Just making profit off of them.

John 10 begins: [1] Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
[2] But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
[3] To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.
[4] And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
[5] And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.

What Christ’s doing is referring back to something they should have known when He talks about the sheep going in, going out, hearing His voice. That’s an allusion back to Numbers 27 with Moses.

When Moses was preparing to die, he prayed and asked the Lord to give Israel another leader.

Number 27:12: [12] And the LORD said unto Moses, Get thee up into this mount Abarim, and see the land which I have given unto the children of Israel.

God says, “I’m going to let you see the land, but you ain’t going in.” So, as the passage continues:

[15] And Moses spake unto the LORD, saying,
[16] Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation,
[17] Which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in; that the congregation of the LORD be not as sheep which have no shepherd.

“I don’t want them to be sheep without a shepherd,” and that’s what Christ’s going to tell them they are.

[18] And the LORD said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay thine hand upon him;

[19] And set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation; and give him a charge in their sight.
[20] And thou shalt put some of thine honour upon him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient.
[21] And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim before the LORD: at his word shall they go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he, and all the children of Israel with him, even all the congregation.

So, the sheep that have a shepherd have someone who gives them God’s Word and at His Word they go out and they go in. The shepherd will lead them out and lead them in.

Verse 22: [22] And Moses did as the LORD commanded him: and he took Joshua, and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation:

Moses needs a successor and he says, “I want a shepherd who can take them out, take them in. That can give them the Word of the Lord to lead them.” And the people recognized Joshua.

By the way, you know what the word Joshua, a Hebrew name, means in Greek? Jesus. Both mean Jehovah Savior.

In John 10, Jesus is saying to them, “Look, your ancestors had sense enough to recognize Joshua was Moses’ successor.”

Verse 4: [4] And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
[5] And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.

Listen, they know His voice. They hear the Word; they know it’s God’s Word. These birds would have known that Jesus is mocking them with what Moses said.

Moses asked, God gave it to him and everybody recognized it. These guys are rebelling against it; they don’t recognize what God’s doing in their midst. They’re rejecting it; they want no part of it.

Verse 6: [6] This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them.

Well, that’s what the last verse in chapter 9 said:

I mean, they say, “We see it,” they don’t see it. Here comes God’s Word and the Word of His mouth and they can’t get it. Why? Because they’re blind.

As Jesus says in John 10:8, "All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them." That’s not calling them a good name.