I've just been so thankful that
I've been able to share verses with Rob and Kay out of this
chapter of scripture so that in some sense we might find that
they're back rejoicing in the Lord with us. Okay, let's start
in verse 22 of John chapter 10. And it was at Jerusalem, the
Feast of the Dedication, and it was winter, and Jesus walked
in the temple in Solomon's porch, or Solomon's portico. So here
we are now three months later than the previous part of John
chapter 10. The Feast of Dedication was in
the first week of December and the Jews are still celebrating
and they call it Hanukkah today. You might have heard of the Jewish
festival of Hanukkah. It wasn't a prescribed festival.
It seems from what John tells us, the Lord Jesus came to Jerusalem
to have this conversation and then he left again. and then
came back to Bethany. And so he went on this special
journey so that he could have this special conversation, so
he could tell us these extraordinarily special words. So the Feast of
Dedication wasn't one of the prescribed feasts. It was the
feast that celebrated the fact that the temple had been restored
after the Maccabean revolt. And there was an enemy of God,
an enemy of all the people of God, and he actually set up a
statue of Zeus in the temple and he sacrificed pigs on the
altar. And a man called Jacob Maccabeus formed a revolution
against him, a guerrilla warfare against him, and they ended up
winning. And then this particular festival celebrates the rededication
of the temple. It's called the Feast of Dedication,
but also it's called the Festival of Lights. That's what you'll
find will happen with the Jews on Hanukkah. And the reason was,
that when they made the lamps and they purified everything
they could only find one one bottle of the pure oil to light
the lamps and so they pulled out the oil into the lamps and
the lamps stayed alight for eight days until they could make more
pure oil so the story goes It's just remarkable, isn't it, that
so many people, tens of millions of people around the world are
celebrating these festivals, and they have no idea that the
light of the world was there at that particular festival. They have no idea of what true
light is at all in their light. They just have darkness. So they
call it the Festival of Lights. And Jesus walked in the temple
in Solomon's porch, and it was wintertime, so it was It was the season for rain. And
the Jews come about him, don't they? Verse 24. They come around
about him, they surround him. There he is just walking. It
didn't seem as if he had any particular purpose, but the Jews
come to him and ask him these questions. And why were they
asking a question? Why were they asking question?
Listen to what their question is. How long If thou be the Christ, tell us
plainly. When ever has the Lord Jesus
Christ ever caused anyone to doubt? So why are people asking questions
of the Lord? Are they asking questions to get
something, some information from him to alleviate their ignorance so that they can justify their
unbelief and justify their rejection of Him. is possibly, like so many today,
they're looking for physical evidence of spiritual realities.
But also the Christ that they were expecting wasn't the Christ
of the scriptures. They were expecting a Christ
who was coming as a conquering warrior. But possibly and most
likely I would suggest that they asked this for malicious reasons
because they knew that if he declared himself to be the Christ,
the Christ is king and therefore A king, a rival king is a threat
to Rome and the puppet that the Romans have put there called
Herod. But I told you, says the Lord, listen to what he says,
I told you, I told you, I've told you plainly, I told you,
I told you and you believed not. The works that I do in my father's
name, they bear witness to me. Just listen to some of the I
told you's, some of the reasons, the evidence they had before
them. Don't forget they were watching him like a hawk. They
were pursuing him everywhere, every conversation that he had,
everything he did. That's why Paul could say, this
wasn't done in a corner. Everything that was done was
done openly. He said, I've spoken openly to you. So at the beginning
of John's gospel, we have this declaration from John, behold
the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God, and the
Lord Jesus Christ was there and he acknowledged that he was the
Lamb of God. He didn't rebuke John for that. Behold the Lamb
of God who takes away the sin of the world. Christ is God the
Lamb. He is the Lamb of God's providing. He is the Lamb. Is the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world? Revelation 13 verse 8. That's
such a significant verse brothers and sisters. It's good to spend
a lot of time contemplating it. The more I contemplate it, the
more significant it is. The Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. He declares, and don't forget,
all these conversations, all these activities, as much as
they might have been private from the Jews, they would have
been searching out every single thing they could do, looking
for some reason to accuse him. When he meets Philip under the
fig tree, he says, I saw you under the fig tree. He's declaring
the fact that he sees everything. He sees right now what you're
thinking. and everyone else on this planet,
doesn't he? There is nothing hidden from God. The knowledge
of God, according to the scriptures, is infinite knowledge. I don't
know about you, but I like it that way. I like it that way. It means that I can come to him
and say, here I am. You know everything about me.
I don't have to make any pretense in his presence. He's the omniscient
Christ. I saw you under the fig tree.
In John chapter 3, you can look at some of these with me. In
John chapter 3, he says to those Jews in verse 11, he says, I am both here as the
son of man speaking to you, John 3, 11. He says, verily, verily, verse
11, I say unto you, we speak in that what we do know, and
testify that which we have seen, and you receive not our witness.
If I have told you of earthly things and you believe not, how
shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? No man has
ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even
the Son of Man, which is in heaven, you try and explain that in natural
ways. He's there speaking to them and
he's in heaven at the same time. He's God, brothers and sisters. He's God Almighty. He's omnipresent. He knows all things. He's everywhere.
In John 4, you know the story, he declared openly to the Samaritan
woman, he says, I am the Christ. I am the Christ. I am that promised
Messiah. And then when he spent those
two days in that Samaritan village, the Samaritans had no problem
about who he was, didn't they? If you're going to tell us plainly,
he's told the Samaritans plainly, the Jews. The Samaritans said,
this is the Christ, the Saviour of the world. In John 5, verse
17, he says, my Father and my work are as one. And the Jews
knew exactly what he was saying, and listen to what the Jews said
in verse 18. The Jews that knew that he was
making himself equal with God, they sought the more to kill
him, because not only had he broken the Sabbath, but he had
also said that God was his father, making himself equal with God. Did he tell them plainly? Did
they have any reason for their unbelief other than the wicked
evil of their hearts? In John 5.39 he declares that
all the scriptures are about me. If you want to know anything
about what the scriptures mean, the scriptures are all about
me. Every single last one of them. Genesis 1.1 right through
to the end of Revelation, they're all about him. The scriptures
speak of me. What an extraordinary claim to
make. that all of what you have read promised in the Old Testament,
all of what you read about the Messiah, all of what you read
about God, here it is. Here it is. I told you plainly. He said Moses wrote of me. Chapter 6 verse 63 says his words
are spirit and their words are life. And in chapter 7 after
trying to kill him again they sent They sent a troop of soldiers
to arrest him, and they came back and said, no man ever spoke
like this man. No man. We can't arrest him.
And they were highly trained soldiers. No man. His words were
enough to put them away. In John chapter 8, he declares,
as plainly as you could ever wish to hear it, doesn't You
are from beneath, verse 23, I am from above, you are of this world,
I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you that
you shall die in your sins, for if you believe not that I am,
the he is in italics, if you believe not that I am God Almighty,
the God who met Moses, the God of the Exodus, the God of all
of the Old Testament, the God of creation, the God of redemption,
If you don't believe that I am, you'll die in your sins. If you
don't believe that I'm God Almighty, you'll die in your sins. Couldn't
be plainer. Abraham, at the end of chapter
eight, he says, Abraham saw my day. Abraham saw my day and he
rejoiced. He rejoiced. Before Abraham was,
I am. I am God Almighty. He was declaring
himself as plain as possible. The blind man, In the previous
chapter 9, believed and worshipped. It's remarkable isn't it? Unbelief has absolutely no excuse. There is no excuse for unbelief,
evidence is not the issue. It is all about a new birth.
You listen to what he did when he first came to Jerusalem. The
very first thing he did, he goes to that temple and he says, if
you're going to worship God Almighty, you're going to worship him in
the way that I absolutely prescribe and in me and through me and
by me. And if you don't do that, you
cannot worship God. And don't kid yourself that you
are worshiping God. That's what he said to him. He
said, this is my father's house. Making himself equal with God
is what he's saying. This is my house is what he was
saying. And I make the rules in this temple and not you. Tell
us plainly. There is no excuse for unbelief.
It just reflects an evil heart, a dead heart, a heart that has
no life at all. All his works were done in his
father's name. All the miracles were done in
the glory of who he is and he came in his father's name. Verse
26. It's really important that people
understand what verse 26 says. It's so plain. It's so misunderstood. It's not believed amongst the
religious world in that day. They picked up stones from these
words. That was a result of these words,
wasn't it? Let's kill him again. You believe
not. You believe not, all unbelief
is rooted here, isn't it? You believe not because you are
not of my sheep. As I said unto you, he's told
them again and again, you believe not because you are not of my
sheep. Believing not, it means active
unbelief. They have to be busy in their
unbelief. Unbelievers are much busier than
believers in this world. They have to be active all the
time. They have to openly and continually deny the reality
of creation. They have to work hard at callousing
their consciences not to see sin as sin really is. They are
fully responsible for their sin. It reflects an evil heart of
unbelief. Here we have the Lord Jesus Christ
declaring in John 10.26 human responsibility writ large. You
believe not. You believe not. And you have
divine predestination writ large and writ so clearly, isn't it? You believe not because you are
not of my sheep. That word of denotes origin. You're not from above. You're
not from my father. You're not my father's gift to
me. At the end of Acts, after 30 years of preaching in Acts
28-24, some believed and some believed not. The some believed
is in the passive voice. If we are passive, who's active? To make our faith real. It's
the gift of God. Some believed and it's passive.
Some believed not and it was active. Unbelief is a choice. It's an active, ongoing, deliberate
choice. It's saying, I will not have
this God to rule over me. Because you are not of my sheep. Don't you love the possessive
pronouns that the Lord Jesus Christ uses regarding his sheep?
You're not of my sheep. My, what's mine is mine, isn't
it? It talks of possession, doesn't
it? It talks of ownership. It's speaking of the elect, verse
29. The elect, it's those to whom
the Lord Jesus Christ laid down his life for. I know my sheep
and I'm known to mine. I lay down my life for the sheep,
verse 15. I know them. Listen to what he goes on to
say. He tells them, he's told them this already. He is repeating
the conversation. If you go back to the early part
of John chapter 10, so much of this is repeated. They've already
been told and here they are being told again. We've already been
told and we've been told again. I like the repetitions. I like
to be reminded again and again and again. My sheep, verse 27, my sheep
hear my voice. My sheep hear my voice. My sheep, verse three, my sheep
hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and he leads
them out. The sheep didn't hear the false
shepherds, the sheep hear the voice of the shepherd. They hear
him calling them. Oh, my sheep hear my voice. What
a great promise from God. to us who bear witness to him
in this world. My sheep hear my voice. When
Paul was discouraged in Corinth, he was living in a city which
is depraved as the one we live in. And in Acts chapter 18, you
can read it there. And the Lord Jesus Christ says
to him, I have many people in this. You preach on brother Paul.
I have many people in this city. That's why the preaching of the
gospel successful all the time. It must
be perfectly successful. And that's why we don't want
to change the Gospel, we don't want to hinder the Gospel, we
don't want to dilute the Gospel, we want to make the Gospel as
plain and as clear as we possibly can. Because, listen to what
he says, My sheep, hear my voice, I know them. I know them. I know them and
they follow me. He's making categoric statements
to these people who have just beside them, they have the rocks
that they're going to pick up and throw at him. He knows them. He knows them because he foreknew
them. People love that Romans 8.28,
isn't it? All things work together. But
it's those whom he foreknew. Foreknowledge is a whom, not
a what. Of course he knows all things,
he rules all things and controls all things, but he knows. There's
a people in this world who he calls his sheep and he knows
them. It's knowing in a special love
relationship with him. They are, as we'll see, they
are the gift of His Father to Him. What a gift! Have you ever
thought of yourself as the Father's gift to the Son? What a remarkable thing! A gift
from God Almighty into the hands of His Son from before the foundation
of the world. would fall in Adam. He knew that
they'd come forth from their mother's womb speaking lies.
He knew that they would be sinners in thought and word and deed. They'd be sinners by commission.
They'd be sinners by omission. They'd be thorough sinners. With loving kindness does he
draw them. They follow him, is what he says. These are the promises of God
Almighty. They follow him. Not that they
might follow me. Not that they sometimes follow
me. They follow me. They follow me when he speaks.
They follow his voice. How powerful the voice of the
Good Shepherd. He spoke, and a universe was
created. He spoke, and the sun stood still. They follow. It's a result of
a divine command. They hear a voice and it is so
powerful that they don't have any choice in the matter. Unbelief
is a choice. Believing is just a picture and
the following, of course, is a picture of His sovereign rule.
It's a divine command. It's a picture of His absolute
sovereign rule over all people and all things. Also, it's just
the fruit of distinguishing and irresistible grace. They follow
me. They hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I do love Song of Solomon so
much and the church says, let me hear your voice. Let me hear
your voice because your voice is sweet. Song of Solomon 2.14. Your voice is sweet and thy countenance
is coming. a voice that calls us powerfully,
no one to the shore of the might said, draw me and we will run
after you. And she finishes that glorious
book of the Bible, she says, cause me to hear your voice.
What a great prayer that is, cause me to hear your voice. Verse 28, and I give unto them
eternal life and they shall never perish. neither shall any man
pluck them out of my hand. You want to know what John 3.16
means? Here's a great commentary from
the Lord Jesus Christ on John 3.16. I give unto them eternal
life, but love the multiplied mercies. The Lord spoke earlier,
didn't he, that they'll have life and they'll have it abundantly.
I love the fact that here he says, My sheep hear my voice,
and I know them, and they follow me, and. You would think the
first bit would be enough, but and. Blessings on top of blessings. This is mercies multiplied for
the sheep, brothers and sisters. And I give unto them eternal
life. Eternal life is not earned by
our obedience. Eternal life is earned by the
obedience of one. And if eternal life is not earned
by our obedience, it's not lost by our disobedience. Eternal
life is eternal life. Eternal life is a life that doesn't
begin. That's why he says, I come that
they might have life. This is what he's talking about.
This is the eternal life. It has no beginning and it has
no ending. I give unto them eternal life. Don't you love the giving of
the Lord Jesus Christ? Every time he gives, the recipient
receives the gift. Otherwise he doesn't give. That's
what it means for him to give. When he gives, he gives. And
the recipient receives the gift. And don't you love what Romans
9, 11 and 29 says? The gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. They're irrevocable. They cannot
be withdrawn. When he gives, It's a gift that's
forever. They cannot be withdrawn. Every
good, James says, every good gift and every perfect gift is
from above and cometh down from the Father of lights. And listen
to this description that James gives after all of that. What
about these gifts? With whom, this is talking about
God, there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. What a gift, what a gift. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his
creatures." Isn't it glorious that salvation is by grace and
salvation is a gift? Which means that works are absolutely
excluded completely. That's what he's saying to these
people, isn't it? It's not, but I did, I did, I prayed the sinner's
prayer, I walked the aisle, I came, I did, No! It's but God did it
all. All the glory goes to the giver.
Don't you love that? All the glory goes to the giver.
All the glory, all thoughts of eternal life centre on the Lord
the giver. The sovereign giver, the gracious
giver, the promise-making giver, the covenant-keeping giver. Is
that good news? you're a sinner this is good
news when was it given when were they given Romans 9 11 for the children or evil, that the purpose of
God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him
that calleth. They shall never perish. The
sheep cannot be lost. The sheep can't do anything to
earn eternal life. The sheep can't do anything to
maintain eternal life. And the sheep can't do anything
to lose eternal life. That's the gospel, brothers and sisters.
It's all wrapped up in who our God is. It's a picture of who
he is, isn't it? Eternal life is not a life that
begins when he believes and goes on to eternity. Believing is
just bringing us into the experience of who he is, and believing brings
us into the experience of what this voice says. If you read
John 10 and you read the other chapters of John's Gospel, you
get this glorious picture of this sovereign, sacrificed his life for his sheep
and they cannot be lost. See if it can be lost, it wasn't
eternal. They were born from above. What did you have to do
with your first birth? It's exactly the same with your
second birth. They can never perish, neither shall anyone
pluck them out of my hand. in all of our backslidings, in
all of our rebellion against God, in all of our coldness and
hardness and, oh, we despair of ourselves, don't we? When
you end up, as I trust you never do, but will happen to so many
of us, we'll be in a situation where all of the things of life
are taken out of our hand and we'll be like Rob. No point telling someone in that
situation, you've got to be a doer. If you were to tell them about
what was done a long, long time ago, there's no comfort. They
shall never perish, neither shall anyone pluck them out of my hand.
He says later on, because I live, you also shall live. God's life
is eternal, therefore the sheep's life is eternal. No one shall ever pluck them
out of my hand. How do you get to that hand to
pluck the sheep out? How secure are the sheep, brothers
and sisters? I give, thank God for his unspeakable
gift. They shall never perish. Thank
God for his extraordinary and magnificent promise. It's preservation,
it's perseverance. Why do the saints all persevere
in this world? because they're preserved by
him and they're kept and he's made the promise. People denigrate
the gospel by saying you believe in once saved, always saved.
Have you ever heard of that statement? Once saved, always saved? Well it entirely depends on who
does the saving. If the saving has got any of
my fingerprints on it anywhere, I'm in very serious trouble.
But if the saving is God's work, then I'm very, very secure. Of
course I believe once saved always. So that's what he's saying here,
isn't it? They shall never perish. My Father, verse 29, which gave
them me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand. No one is able to pluck them
out of my father's hand. I have four children. No matter
what the circumstances of my life, or their life, they will
never cease to be my children. I'm going to see one of them
this afternoon. She's always been my child, hasn't she? Since
her birth, she's always been my child. And mercifully, parents and children. And you
know of stories of children who have done the most appalling
things to their parents and caused them the greatest grief you could
possibly imagine. But they're still their child.
If the parent has any sense at all they'll just love them all. No man is able to pluck them
out of my father's hand. No man is able to pluck them
out of my father's hand. I will, all that come to me,
I will in no wise cast out. I'll never, never, never leave
you nor forsake you. Quite simply, our prayer is,
let us hear your voice. Let us hear a voice. May God
grant you to hear a voice that calls you to follow him, that
calls you by name, that calls you personally and powerfully,
and particularly calls you out of this world, calls you away
from the walls and the highlands, and calls you into this glorious
fold. The great promise in Genesis
49 about the Lord Jesus Christ is, unto him shall the gathering
of the people be. He'll gather his people. He must,
he will, he has, and they're secure. Ultimately, they'll all
be saying, behold, I and the children which God has given
me. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, please bless
your words. us, Heavenly Father, again and again to hear a voice
that calls us sweetly back into the arms of our glorious and
sovereign Redeemer. Let us hear a voice, Heavenly
Father, that speaks of salvation as a gift, a glorious, gracious
gift, a blood-bought gift. Help us, Heavenly Father, to
hear that voice and respond in ways him and brings comfort to
us and our brothers and sisters. We pray.