Turning again then to John chapter
10, and I'll read verses 26 through 28 for our text. John 10, reading from verse 26
through 28. But ye believe not, because ye
are not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hands." I want to say something
then with the Lord's help with regards to the marks of Christ's
sheep. Clearly here a distinction is
being made between those who are the sheep of Christ and those
who are not. And remember how at the end we
have that great division that will come about when the Lord
returns in power and glory and makes that final judgment separating
the sheep on the one hand from the goats on the other. We have
those solemn words in Matthew, and there in chapter 25 and verses
31 through to 33. When the Son of Man shall come
in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He
sit upon the throne of His glory. And before Him shall be gathered
all nations, and He shall separate them one from another. as a shepherd divided his sheep
from the goats and he shall set the sheep on his right hand but
the goats on the left. That's final day then of separation
and yet as we see as we read through the Gospels that even
in the day of grace how discriminating and how dividing is the ministry
of the Lord Jesus, how often times the Jews were offended. We are told here at verse 19
that there was a division, therefore again among the Jews for these
sayings. or the ministry of the Lord Jesus.
And so even as we come together this morning, in this Day of
Grace, we need to be aware that through the preaching of the
Word of Truth, God does make a difference between one and
another. There are those who are His sheep,
and they will be evidenced in due time, and there are those
who are the goats. And so I want us to try to understand
something of what the distinguishing marks of faith are. The marks of those who are the
sheep of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here in particular in verse
27 there are some three marks of faith. And so as we come together
we have to examine ourselves, we have to prove ourselves, we
have to know ourselves. and we have to come to this touchstone
of the Word of God. What are the three marks then
that we see here, in particular in this 27th verse? Christ says,
My sheep, hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow
Me. First of all, there is this mark
of hearing. Quite clear in what the Lord
says, My sheep hear My voice. If we go back to the beginning
of the chapter, what does the Lord say there at verse 3? Now the sheep hear His voice,
and He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.
And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them,
and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. And then it goes on in verse
5 to say they know not the voice of strangers. Here is a very
striking marking of those who know the voice of the Lord Jesus.
And how do they know that voice? Because they are hearing. They
are hearing all that the Lord is saying. The sheep hear His
voice, it says. They can distinguish that voice
from other voices, one of the marks of the sheep. And again,
when we come to the very last book of Scripture, in the book
of the Revelation, remember what we're told there, concerning
the seven churches, spoken of in chapters 2 and 3, and those
letters that John is to convey to the messengers of the churches,
the angels of the churches, the ministers, we might say. And
in each of those seven letters, we have that particular word,
He that hath an ear, let him hear. what the Spirit says unto
the churches. The churches are made up of those
then who are hearing. They're hearing the message,
that message that is conveyed by and through the ministry of
the Holy Spirit. How important. then is his mark. If we are those who are the Lord's
sheep, we are such as have heard his voice and are still hearing
his voice. But what sort of hearers are
we? We read of that woman who wanted
to encourage her children to be good readers. And she speaks
to her daughter, a little girl, and she asks her, what is that
that you're reading? And the little girl looks up
and says, I don't know, mummy. But the mother says to her, but
you were reading aloud, my dear. And then the little girl says,
yes, I was reading, but I wasn't hearing. Out of the mouths of
babes and sucklings, you see. She was reading but she wasn't
hearing and so many times do we not have to confess that we
come to God's Word and we read God's Word but we don't really
hear what God is saying to us. And as soon as we put the Word
of God to one side we've forgotten the very portion that we've been
reading. Doubtless each of us has read a portion this morning
in our own devotions but can we actually recall the things
that we were reading? And were we those who in that
reading were seeking to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd
addressing us and speaking to us? How important is this hearing? It is a striking mark of those
who are the Lord's sheep. My sheep, hear my voice, says
the Lord. How does faith come? Faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, for the importance
of the hearing of the Word of God, and to that end, of course,
what has the Lord ordained? He has appointed the ministry
of the Word, the preaching of the Word of Truth, the proclamation
of the Gospel of the grace of God. He pleased God. He pleases
God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And what is the foolishness of
preaching? Well, primarily I would say it's the content of the message. It's that that's being proclaimed
that men consider to be foolish, but it's also the very act. The
people should come and gather together to hear a sermon, to
listen to God's Word being read in the public place, and then
opened up and expounded in the ministry of the Word. It is the
Lord Jesus Christ, of course, who here, in the Word, is set
before us as the blessed object of faith. Faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God. And, of course, as what we have
in the Bible is the Word in Scripture, so here we learn that The Christ
is the incarnate Son of God, the Word made flesh that dwelt
among us, says John, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father. Well, in the preaching of the
Word of Truth, then, there is that setting forth of Christ
as that One who is the great subject matter of all true preaching. Paul says, we preach Christ crucified. And to go into those Corinthians
he says, I determine not to know anything among you, say Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. That is the person. The person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That one who is God. And yet
that one who is also man. Oh, the glorious God-man. the great mystery of godliness,
God's manifest in the flesh. In all that he does he is God,
and yet in all that he does he is man. And he is that one who
is the mediator of the new covenant. He comes as that one who is the
covenant head of all his people. And in all that blessed work
that he accomplished We preach Christ and him crucified, his
obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. This is what
the apostles preached, the person, the work, the doing, and the
dying, and the rising again of the Lord Jesus. This is to be
the subject matter. This is what we're to seek to
hear when we come together and God's Word is open before us.
Surely, Christ is to be that one who is preeminent in the
preached words. How can it be the preaching of
the gospel if there's no speaking of Christ and His glories? He
says, "...search the Scriptures. In them you think that you have
eternal life, and these are they that testify of mine." Lord,
we have to come then as those who would hear. hear what the
Spirit is saying unto the churches. And is he not that one who is
very much the Spirit of Christ? For Christ says when he has come
he will testify of me. He'll take of mine. He'll show
it unto you. Though the Holy Ghost is God,
he is the third person in the Blessed Trinity, and yet his
ministry in this day of grace is so self-effacing. He doesn't
come to reject himself, he comes to make known that One who is
the only Saviour of sinners, even the Son of God, manifest
in the flesh. The hearing then, the hearing
of His voice, and how faith comes by that hearing. But then in
order for there to be true faith, there must of course be that
new life also. Incline your ear unto me, he
says. Hear and your soul shall live. Hear and your soul shall live. Oh, there's life. There's life. It's more than really hearing
of Christ. It is that. It is that. There's the hearing about Christ. That's the great subject matter
of the ministry of the Gospel. But it's not just the hearing
about Him, hearing of Him. It's actually hearing Him. That's the important thing. He
says quite clearly in the text, My sheep hear My voice. Not the voice of a preacher.
They hear, He says, My voice. And what does He go on to say?
I give unto them eternal life. and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." Oh, you see,
where the voice of a king is, there is power, there is something
effected by that voice that is being heard under the preaching.
There is the communication of spiritual life to those who in
their own natures are dead in trespasses and in sins. Here and your soul shall live
is the language of the prophet back in Isaiah 55. And there's
that striking verse that we have in the 10th of Romans. There in Romans 10 14. How then
shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard,
and how shall they hear without a preacher?" It is a most significant
verse really with regards to this subject that we're trying
to address. Out of this particular mark of
Christ's sheep they hear his voice. But there the Apostle
puts the questions. How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without
a preacher? clearly it speaks of the office
of the preaching but it's that middle course in that particular
verse that is so important and really there's a little word
there that is quite superfluous because what it literally says
doesn't really require that word of it literally reads how shall
they believe in him whom they have not heard it's not so much
hearing him hearing Believing in him of whom they have not
heard, but believing in the one whom they have heard. It's his
voice. It's his voice that is so paramount. And as I've said
many a time, we see it quite clearly in what Paul says when
he addresses the Ephesians. The Lord Jesus had never been
in Ephesus. Ephesus there in Asia Minor or
Turkey, as we would say now, That was where the Apostle went
during his missionary journeys, and there was the preaching of
the Word of God, the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
there were those who came to saving faith. How was it? Well,
Paul reminds them, there in Ephesians 4.20, Ye have not so learned
Christ, if so be ye have heard Him, and been taught of Him. As the truth is in Jesus, they
heard Him. They didn't just hear the voice
of Paul. And in all preaching, there must be that hearing of
Him, hearing the voice of the Lord Jesus, my sheep, hear my
voice. And so, I would emphasize again,
here is such a significant and most important mark of the sheep
of Christ. We examine ourselves, have we
ever really heard the voice? Has the Lord so spoken to us? as we sat and heard the reading
of the Word, or read the Word for ourselves, or as He spoke
and as we've heard the expounding of the Word and the preaching
of the Gospel, we've seen beyond the preacher, because the Lord Jesus has been
there in His own Word, speaking to us, communing with us. Here
is a mark, then, there is hearing. And then, what does he go on
to say? My sheep hear my voice and I
know them. There is a knowing here. Christ
knows them. I know them. Now, how does the
Lord know his sheep? Well, he has known them from
all eternity. He has known them from all eternity
in terms of the covenants, that covenant with his father did
not the father give him a people? he says, doesn't he, behold I
am the children which God has given me or they were given to
him from all eternity and so he has known them from all eternity
when Peter addresses himself to those scattered believers
in the opening verses of his first general epistle. He immediately reminds them,
doesn't he, that they are elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father. Who has known them, and He has
known them in that He has set His love upon them and set them
apart for salvation. And we're all familiar with the
great golden chain of Romans chapter 8. Whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of
his Son. And whom he did predestinate, him he also called. And whom
he called, him he also justified, and whom he justified, him he
also glorified. A chain that reaches from eternity
to eternity. They were predestinated because
he knew them. He didn't just foreknow what
they were going to do, He knew them in an intimate way. He set
His love upon them. He delighted in them. And so
He chose them to salvation. All the wonder, you see, the
Lord knows His people. The Lord Jesus Himself says here
in chapter 13 and verse 18, I know whom I have chosen. He's speaking,
of course, there in particular of his apostles. And he knew
Judas Iscariot who would betray him. He knew all those things.
But he knows whom he has chosen. They are known from eternity. They're in Christ from eternity. But then, the Lord knows his
people in another sense. He knows them experimentally,
by his incarnation. by his coming into this world.
He ever and always was the eternal son of the eternal father. But
in the fullness of time, he becomes a son of man. For as much then as the children
were partakers of flesh and blood, he likewise took part of the
same. For he comes, you see, to identify
with his people. Verily, says Paul, he took not
upon him the nature of angels, he took upon him the seed of
Abraham. He doesn't identify with the
angels. He's made a little lower than
the angels for the suffering of death. There was never any
provision made for fallen angels, but God in His great purpose
of grace made provision for the fallen sinners of mankind and
so in the fullness of the time God sends forth His Son made
of a woman. Oh, He's a real man. He has a
real human nature. As the angel says to Mary, that
holy thing that shall be born of thee, that that human body,
that human soul conceived by the Holy Ghost in the great mystery
of the Incarnation, the miracle of the virgin births. He becomes
a man. And so you see, he has the experiences
of a man. Isn't that what Paul says of
him? We have not an High Priest which cannot be touched, with
the feeling of our infirmities, but was tempted in all points
like as we are, yet without sin. The language is so emphatic with
that double negative, we have not an high priest which cannot
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He is very much
touched. There's nothing of sinful infirmity,
but there are those sinless infirmities of his human nature. he must
need to go through some area, it's a long journey and he becomes
weavied in his journey and he sits at the well there at Saika
and he meets that Samaritan woman and he speaks with her and she
soon recognizes the wonder of this man who is this man? he told me all things that never
I did because this is the God-man but how real is his human nature?
he knows you see He knows us because He's as human as any
of us are. He is a real man. A man there
is. A real man, says Joseph Hart
in the hymn. Oh, the wonder of it. We read
of Him in the days of His flesh, don't we? Offering supplication
and prayer with tears unto him that was able to save him from
death and was heard in that he feared and though he were a son
yet learned the obedience by the things that he suffered oh
he is always the eternal son of God and yet he becomes a son
of man and though he learns experimentally all about our human nature he knows He says here in the text, I know
them. And he knows them in his own
experiences, he understands them. All the wonder of it, he needed
not that any should testify of man. He knew what was in the
hearts of men. Because he's a man. We're not just to think of him
knowing what's in the hearts of men because is God it's more
than that it's empathy he can sympathize with me and
how he ministers so tenderly even when he's dealing with that
woman there in chapter 4 when she tells her fellow citizens
this is the man who has told me all things that ever I did
he's not this the Christ she says You know, it was said of
Martin Luther that he could preach as if he had been in the heart
of a man. He knew man, you see. He had such a remarkable depth
of experience in his own soul. He knew how to preach to the
people. Well, if that was true of a man
like Luther, how much more? How much more is that true of
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself? He knows us. in a very real sense. Is he not that one who is spoken
of in Hebrews 4 as the Word of God? Remember that verse, the
Word of God, quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing him to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and
of the joints and marrow, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. We often quote that verse, and
we quote it in reference to the Scriptures, and there is a truth
in that. God's words The Holy Bible, when we read it, does
it not bring conviction to the soul of the sinner? Is there
a ministry of the Lord of God? And God's Lord is here in His
Word, of course. And the Lord brings that conviction
into the soul of the sinner. That's the ministry of the Lord.
But those words, really, in Hebrews 4.12 are more specifically to
be understood in terms of the Lord Jesus. It goes on, does
it, in the next verse, "...neither is there any creature that is
not manifest in his sight. All things are naked and open
unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." And there the
pronouns are all masculine pronouns. He's not speaking of the Word
in Scripture, he's speaking of the Word incarnate. in the previous verse. That Word of God, quick, powerful,
sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder
of soul and spirit, joint and marrows, a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart, that's the ministry of the Lord Jesus.
He knows. And you see, whom the Lord knows,
He makes them to know themselves. That's part of his ministry.
The Lord knows them that are his. And he will have his people
know something of themselves. David says it, doesn't he? In
the 139th Psalm. Thou a searchman, a known man,
thou knowest my down-sitting, and mine uprising, and understandest
my thoughts afar off. No, I know, I recognize the fact
that that's true of course that the Lord God knows everything
about everybody about the goats as well as the sheep He's the
omniscient one, the all-knowing one but we're thinking here of the
Lord Jesus we're thinking of God manifest in the flesh and
how he knows how he knows his people and how he makes his people
to know themselves When John sees the glorified Christ there
on the Isle of Patmos, what a description we have of what John beholds. His eyes, John says, his eyes
were as a flame of fire. Oh, how significant is that?
Those eyes, those burning eyes, those all-seeing,
those all-searching eyes. That's what John is speaking
of. We relate to this, we have the
letters to the churches here in Revelation 2.23. All the churches,
all the churches shall know that I am He which searches the reins
and the heart. That's the mark of the church.
All the church knows that he searches, he searches the reins
that refers to the innermost parts of course, the kidneys
he searches the reins and the hearts everything naked and open to
his view and his people are brought to realize that and to know that
he deals with them in such a way, such a personal way We read back
in verse 3, He calleth His own sheep by name. You see how the
Lord deals with them, you see He knows them and they've got
to come to a knowledge of Him. How will they come to a knowledge
of Him? They come to that knowledge of Him as He begins to search
them and to sift them and to deal with them, to show them
what they are. He hasn't come to call the righteous,
he's come to call sinners to repentance. And so they have
to know something of what they are as sinners. And we dealt
with that man Saul of Tarsus. Doesn't he address him by name?
He knoweth his own sheep by name. He knew him when he was Saul.
And He addresses him there at Damascus, at the very gate of
Damascus, in Acts 9, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Who
art thou, Lord? I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. You see, the Lord's dealing with
him, the pricks of conscience, goads, goads. He's under conviction
of sin, this man. He was there, wasn't he, at the
martyrdom of Stephen. They lay all their garments at
Saul's feet as they went and stowed, dear Stephen. But he was under conviction of
sin. He's kicking. He's kicking against the pricks.
The Lord is pricking his conscience. He's under conviction of sin.
And the Lord knows him. This is how he deals with his
people. He says, I give unto them eternal life. Here at the beginning of verse
28, He gives life. There's a communication of life.
It's another one of those paradoxes, isn't it? We were looking at
the paradoxes recently, there in 1 Corinthians 6 and verses
9 and 10. Those blessed paradoxes of the
life of faith. Well, what a paradox is this? He gives eternal life, And what
does that person who has that communication of spiritual life
feel? They feel their spiritual death.
They have eternal life, and yet what they feel in their souls
is nothing but spiritual death. That's the way the Lord deals
with his people. He brings them to learn experimentally the truth
concerning their condition. that awful doctrine of total
depravity. They feel it. They are so utterly
impotent. What can they do? They can do
nothing to save themselves. Again, think of John there on
the Isle of Patmos. I know John, of course, was already
the beloved apostle. But when he sees the glorified
Christ, when I saw him, I fell at his feet as death. all the
Lord knows you see and those whom the Lord knows he brings
to that place they fall at his feet as dead and what does he say? well he
lays his hand upon John and says fear not I am the first and the
last I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive
forevermore and have the keys of hell and of death that's how
the Lord addresses his people he knows them And so, by these
various dealings of the Lord, they come to know Him. So this is another mark of the
sheep. The Lord knows them, but they have to know Him. And they
have to know Him as that while He was a complete Saviour. And
isn't that what He is revealing here? These great I Am statements
that we have throughout this Gospel. the name of the Lord
God himself, I am that I am. And remember how the Lord speaks
later in, or previously I should say, in chapter 8. And there
at verse 28 he says, If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall perish
in your sins. And we know that the little word
he, the pronoun there is in italics, it literally says, If ye believe
not that I am. If you believe not that I am,
you shall perish in your sins. And he goes on to say at the
end of that 8th chapter, before Abraham was, I am. He is the
great Jehovah. He is Jehovah Jesus. And there
he speaks of himself here. Verse 9, I am the door. I am the door. By me if any man
enter in, he shall be saved. and shall go in and out and find
pasture." Oh, what a glorious statement is this. And he continues,
verse 11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. Verse 14, I am the good shepherd
and know my sheep and am known of mine. It continually makes
these statements, these I am statements. In chapter 11, I
am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believeth thou this? Who is the
resurrection? I am the resurrection. Is the
life I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by Me. And you see the sheep know Him.
And they know Him in all these different capacities. He has
come, you see, to make God known. He has come to reveal the Great
I Am that I Am. He is the image of the Invisible
God. He is Jehovah. and He is Jehovah
Jesus, and they know Him. That's what He brings them to,
that knowledge of salvation. As He says in His great prayer
to the Father in chapter 17, this is life eternal that they
might know They, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom they
were sent. Oh friends, are we those who
bear this mark? We know. we know Him because He knows us and we love Him because He first
loved us and like Paul we can say that our one desire is to
be found in Him or to be found in Him not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law but that which is through the faith of
Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may
know Him, says Paul, and the power of His resurrection and
the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His
death. I ask you this morning, can you
honestly say, I know Him? I know Him. He knows me and He
knows everything about me. He knows all the worst things
about me. And yet, I know that he loves me and he died for me. All to be brought to such an
assurance as that. But I said three marks, three
marks in the text. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them and they follow me. Here's the third mark. They follow
him. Now what does this mean? Well
it indicates that to follow is to walk in his steps is to obey
his words to obey his commandments to live
by his truth that's what it means to follow him doesn't John say
be ye doers of the words and not hearers only deceiving your
own selves it's not enough to just hear his voice We have to be doers, doers of
the Word, the practical part of the Word, how important that
is. To obey is better than sacrifice,
and to hearken than the fat of rams. All the importance of obedience,
to obey Him. If a man love Me, Christ says,
he will keep My commandments. Do we say we love Him? Well,
here's the test. Are we keeping His commandments?
This is the love of God that we keep His commandments, and
His commandments are not grievous. You see, we can examine ourselves
with regards to how real our love for Christ is. If we love
Him, we will keep His commandments, and they won't be grievous, we'll
delight in His commandments. I'm sure we love to delight in
His promises, exceeding great and precious promises. And all
those promises, Yah and Amen, in the Lord Jesus Christ, All
we can live by those promises, but let us not be partial in
the Word of God. It's not all promise. There's
precept. There's precept. Do we love His
precepts? He says, this is the love of
God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not
grievous. We follow Him. Remember how in
the course of His ministry the Lord is calling His disciples
and he passes by the receipt of custom and he sees a man sitting
there Matthew and he says to that man follow me and he says
he arose and followed him there in in Matthew 9 verse 9 the Lord
says to Matthew follow me and he arose and followed him as
straight forward as that who are with those friends who who obey. As we hear the word
of God, we want to be those who are doers of the word of God.
There was a most gracious man who was the Bishop of Norwich
back in the 17th century, Joseph Hall. He was a good man,
a most gracious man. He wrote a sort of commentary
really on the scriptures, the contemplations. It's a wonderful
book, it's full of good matter, Joseph Hall's contemplations. And the tale is told how one
day he comes away from the church, and one of the neighbors says
to the bishop, what? Is the sermon done? What is the sermon done? As he
comes away, and the good bishop turns to him and says, Don, No,
we could say it is ended, but it's not so readily done. How
true are those words, it's ended, but it's not so readily done.
The preaching comes to an end, and I say this to myself as well
to you, the preaching comes to an end, it's finished, but do
we do the Word? Or do we do the Word? Be ye doers
of the Word, and not hearers Oh, remember the last words of
the Lord Jesus, here upon the earth, all power, He says, is
given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore to your
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to
the end. teaching all things or to observe all things that's
what the Lord says teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you and lo behold I am with you to the end of the
world the Lord is with us you see but we must be those who
are followers we are to follow Him Here are the marks, or some
of the marks, I'm sure we could find many more in Scripture,
but in this text, what does the Lord say? Verse
26, But ye believe not, because ye
are not of my sheep, as I said unto you, my sheep. All that
great division you see between the sheep and the goats, my sheep,
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand. Oh, the Lord bless to us
His Word. Amen. Let us conclude our worship this morning
as we sing hymn 345, the tune The Edmarta, number 77. My soul with joy attends while
Jesus' silence breaks. No angel's harp such music yields
as what my shepherd speaks. The hymn 345 and the tune 77.