Let's begin our second service
by standing and singing 106. Tell me the story of Jesus, 106. Tell me the story of Jesus, write
on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Tell how the angels in chorus
sang as they welcomed his birth. ? Glory to God in the highest
? Peace and good tidings to earth ? Tell me the story of Jesus
? Right on my heart every word ? Tell me the story most precious
? Sweetest that ever was heard Pasting alone in the desert,
tell of the days that are past. How for our sins he was tempted,
yet was triumphant at last. Tell of his years of his labor,
tell of the sorrow he bore. He was despised and afflicted,
homeless, rejected, and poor. Tell me the story of Jesus, write
on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Tell of the cross where they
nailed him, writhing in anguish and pain. Tell of the grave where
they laid him. Tell how he liveth again. Love in that story so tender,
clearer than ever I see. Say, let me weep while you whisper,
Love paid the ransom for me. Tell me the story of Jesus, write
on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Thank you. Turn with me to Psalms 16. Psalm
16. Preserve me, O God, for in thee
do I put my trust. O my soul, thou hast said unto
the Lord, Thou art my Lord, my goodness extendeth not to thee,
but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent,
in whom is all my delight. Their sorrows shall be multiplied.
that hasten after another God, their drink-offerings of blood
will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips. The
Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup, thou maintainest
my lot. The lines are fallen unto me
in pleasant places, Yea, I have a goodly heritage. I will bless
the Lord who hath given me counsel. My reigns also instruct me in
the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before
me, because he is at my right hand. I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and
my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope.
For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer
thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of
life in thy presence. His fullness of joy at the right
hand, there are pleasures forevermore. Let's pray. Father, we come to you this morning.
We ask that you allow us to put our trust in you alone. Father,
not to let us trust in anything that we do or don't do, or trust
in a doctrine. Father, let us trust in you and
believe you and that your son came to save a people and not
just a people, but us personally. Father, please give us the assurance
and the ability to trust that. Father, we ask that you watch
over our pastor as he brings the message. And Father, we ask
that you open our hearts and our eyes and ears in minds this
morning as the message is brought. And Father, we just ask that
you watch over and care for us in Christ's name. As you remain sitting, let's
sing 282, Hiding in Thee, 282. Who's safe to the rock that is
higher than I? My soul in its conflicts and
sorrows would fly. So sinful, so weary, thine, thine
would I be. Thou blest rock of ages, I'm
hiding in thee. Hiding in thee, hiding in thee,
Thou blessed rock of ages, I'm hiding in thee. In the calm of the noontide,
in sorrows low now, In times when temptation casts o'er me
its power, In the tempest of life, on its wide-heaving sea,
Thou blessed rock of ages, I'm hiding in thee. Hiding in thee. Hiding in thee. Thou blessed rock of ages, I'm
hiding in thee. How often the conflict when pressed
by the foe, I fled to my refuge and breathed out my woe. How often when trials like sea
billows roll, Have I hidden in thee, O thou rock of my soul? Hiding in thee, hiding in thee,
Thou blessed rock of ages, I'm hiding in thee. Good morning. Let's turn to John
chapter 10. John 10 and I want to look at
the first six verses with you this morning. This chapter and
what our Lord says here is very closely connected. It comes right
on the back of what happened in John chapter 9. That's where
our Lord healed a man who was born blind and this man testified
of Christ. He bore witness to what Christ
had done. And because he didn't disown Christ and call him a
sinner and side with the Pharisees, they excommunicated him out of
their Jewish community, out of their worship and what they did,
the practitioners of Judaism. And what Christ is saying here
in these first six verses is he is the great shepherd. He is the teacher and the leader
of his people. He personally is the great shepherd
of his sheep, and he's the one who goes into the sheepfold and
takes them out and in of the sheepfold of his choosing. Now a sheepfold, just so you
know, was very popular there in Palestine in that day. And what it was, was they would
build, they would construct a large area surrounded by a wall. a high wall and there was one
large door where the sheep could come in and out and what a shepherd
would do when he was in that area, he could bring those sheep
to go into the sheepfold safely at night and then he could trust
that they would be there safely, and then he would go off and
find lodging for himself. And then the next morning, he'd
come back, and the porter would open the door to him, and he'd
call his sheep. Hey, sheep, you know, whatever
it was. But they knew his voice, and that's how they would separate
themselves, and only his sheep would follow him and no one else's,
and so on. his sheep wouldn't follow anyone
else either. So Christ is the great shepherd and what he's
revealing here is that he has the authority of God to do the
things that he's doing and say the things that he's saying because
he was chosen of God for this work. He was appointed to this
work of salvation and so he goes into the sheepfold and he takes
his sheep out. He takes his sheep out, for example,
out of dead-letter religion. And our Lord has been declaring
this. This is a very strong teaching,
a strong theme in the Gospel of John. If you remember in chapter
8, verse 12, then spake Jesus again unto those Jews that were
with him, saying, I am the light of the world. I'm the light of
the world, he's saying. I'm the truth. I'm the one who's
drawing all my people to myself. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. He's the teacher. He's the great shepherd. And
he's reaffirming this again to these Jews who thought they were
something. I've titled this message, The Great Shepherd Enters by
Authority. The Great Shepherd enters by
authority. Now these Pharisees at the end
of John chapter 9, they had just asked him this question, are
we blind also? Are you saying that we're blind?
And Jesus says in the last verse, if ye were blind, ye should have
no sin. But now ye say, we see. Therefore, your sin remaineth. And what's so astounding is that
those that see, those that claim to have a knowledge and to know
the things of God and to be teachers of men, leading men to God, they're
the ones that are stumbling over the stumbling stone. Men with
religion, men who have knowledge and authority and see, God, according
to their understanding, they stumble over Christ. They're
the ones who stumble over Christ, and yet the blind, they don't
stumble over Christ. They're taught of Christ and
led of Him, and they don't walk in darkness anymore, but they
have the light of life. They follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, here our Lord tells them,
He speaks a parable. He speaks a parable now. John
10, verse 1. verily, which you know is truly,
truly, and actually these words are amen, amen, amen, amen, so
that he who is the amen, The great amen, the amen of God,
the word of life, testifies saying, this is my word, this is truth.
He's setting his seal of truth to this word. 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. A thief and a robber and the
picture there is a thief steals from you in private. They take
when no one else is around. They sneak in and no one sees
and they take from you. That's what a thief does. A robber
comes to you in broad daylight and threatens you with physical
violence and to give you what he's asking for. That's a robber.
just does it publicly out in the open. So a thief and a robber. Some are very subtle in their
deception and others just come right out and say don't believe
Christ. Some are very subtle and some
are not. Now Christ's focus here in these
six verses is to declare himself The light of the world. He is
the shepherd of the sheep. There is no other salvation.
Christ is the salvation sent of God. He's appointed of God
to save God's chosen people. Just as the Lord God said, hear
him. You listen to this one. This
is salvation. Don't go to anywhere else, and
to other fields. Don't go to other religions.
They're false. They're idolatry. They're not
declaring the truth. And those, beware, they're thieves
and robbers. They're not coming through the
door. They don't have the authority, is what he's saying. They don't
have the authority to say the things that Christ says. They
don't have the authority to do what Christ does for his people.
Now, these Pharisees, they knew a lot. They knew a lot of doctrine,
a lot of things that we might even agree with. And there's
a lot of people. that say a lot of good things
and know a lot of doctrine and say things that we would agree
with. But these Pharisees didn't know
Christ. And that tells us that just because
I can know doctrine and know a lot of truths doesn't mean
that I know the light of life, that I know Jesus Christ, that
I've come to Him as my personal Savior. And as a needy sinner
who has no other hope of salvation, I may very well be trusting in
my knowledge, my wisdom, my doctrine that I see and think and be stumbling
right over Christ. never coming to him, never looking
to him. Lord, have mercy on me, a needy
sinner. And so they didn't know Christ.
That's what they were. They were stumbling over Christ
for all their knowledge. They didn't see Jesus and Jesus.
They didn't see Christ in Christ. They didn't look to him and say,
Lord, you're the truth. You're the salvation of Israel.
You're the one that we've looked for all these years. They never
saw Christ. Instead, they said back in John
825, who art thou? And when I read that, I hear
a Northeastern person saying, who do you think you are? Who
are you to talk to me like that? You're not the boss of me. You
can't tell me. You don't know something I don't know. You can't
tell me what I should think. Don't talk to me like that. That's
how they're talking to them. Who are you to speak to me like
that? All because Christ told them
the truth when he said, if you do not believe that I am, if
you don't believe that I'm salvation, you will die in your sins. He told them the truth, and this
flesh hates to come into the light. This flesh doesn't want
light shone on them. They don't want to hear the truth.
They don't want you pointing out a truth about them, that
we're all sinners, dead in trespasses and sins, that we cannot save
ourselves, and that's coming into the light. And these Jews,
with all their knowledge, they didn't want to be brought into
the light. Who are you to talk to me like that? You don't have
any authority. to speak like that to me. You
can't say those things. And so they didn't hear the voice
of the great shepherd of the sheep. They did not believe that
he was the Christ Son of God. They didn't want to believe it,
and they didn't believe it. Instead, though, they thought
very high of themselves. They thought they were teachers
of Israel and leaders of the blind. They thought that they
knew what was needed to be known and that they could lead the
people. And in reality, they knew nothing. Why did they know
nothing? With all their doctrine, why
did they know nothing? Because they didn't know Christ. They
didn't look to Him. If we don't look to Christ, if
Christ isn't our Savior, if He's not our God, our Lord, our Savior,
our all, we know nothing. We're nothing apart from Him.
We have no fellowship with God apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. And anyone who pretends to be
a man of God and claims to be able to lead men to God If he does not speak according
to this word, if he does not declare and exalt the Lord Jesus
Christ as salvation and all, then he has no light in him. He's not speaking according to
the light of the world. And instead, our Lord says he's
a thief and a robber. He's either doing it subtly,
stealing the glory of God and turning you from the truth, or
he's doing it blatantly, just taking glory to himself and telling
you don't trust the Lord, that there's something else you need
to do. And so Isaiah in 820 said, to the law and to the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word, it is because there
is no light in them. And men will think, oh, well,
I speak according to the law. I tell people what's morally
good and right and don't do bad things and don't do evil things.
Stop doing this and start doing that. They tell people how they're
to live. And the false shepherd, they'll
say things like, we can please God by repenting from our evil
works so that God will take notice of us. And they'll say things
like, we've got to show God that we're worthy of his forgiveness. What? When have we ever done
anything that is worthy of God's notice, of His kindness and grace
and mercy toward us? Who of us has done anything worthy
of God's forgiveness? The whole reason for the Lord
Jesus Christ coming, the Son of God taking upon Him flesh,
is because we're not worthy and can't do anything worthy of God's
forgiveness, of God's mercy, of God's life with Him. We don't
do anything worthy except we do things that are worthy of
death and hell and eternal separation from the true and living God.
That's what we're worthy of. But Christ is worthy. His blood
is worthy. His blood is precious to the
Father. And all who come through the
blood of Christ are received by the Father. And so look at
Romans 10. Paul speaks of those of us that
boast in our righteousness, our works. Romans 10, look at verse
2. We'll read from 2 to 4. Paul says, I bear them record
that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. They have a knowledge, a fleshly
knowledge, of man's ideas and man's ways, but not the true
and living God. not true knowledge, not spiritual
knowledge, which is taught to us by the Spirit of God, for
they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about
to establish their own righteousness, haven't submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God." A picture of what man is doing
in his works and in religion, even so-called Christian religion,
a picture of what man is doing is an example would be Nimrod,
what Nimrod did in the Tower of Babel. and the Tower of Babel
where he organized the people as one to create a tower up to
the heavens to bring themselves near to God. That's exactly what
man is doing in his religious works, to try and create a righteousness
for himself, is to work his way up to godliness and to be received
and recognized by God. one like God. They've not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. I just saw an article
the other day where it shows this river in India and floating
on top are these, they look like little icebergs, and the article
said that's not ice, that's frothy foam of pollution, of harmful
poisonous substances to man. And yet, there in India, the
Hindus go down into that river because they think the Ganges
River is holy and that it'll purify them. And they go right
in that slime and that filth and that feces of, it's just
sewage is what it is. And that's a great visual for
what man does in his attempt to please God and to bring forth
works that are pleasing to God. We're actually coming in human
waste and filth, which is disgusting and repulsive. That's how God
receives it. If someone came to you that way,
you'd be repulsed by them, but that's how man thinks he comes
to the true and living God, who's righteous and holy and perfect
in all his ways. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And so we don't
make ourselves righteous, brethren. We're not here because we've
made ourselves good and righteous and acceptable unto God. We've
done nothing of the sort. Christ has gathered his people,
Christ gathers them, and he's made his people righteous and
acceptable unto the Father. He's the Savior. He's the Great
Shepherd. He's the one with the authority
to save His people. If it's not Jesus Christ and
His righteousness, then all it is is vain fleshly works. It's filthy, rag righteousness. It's just vanity of the flesh
that cannot save. And, you know, true repentance,
what the Lord does for His people, Religion says, well, repentance
is you stopping the sin and never going back to it. That's repentance. That's true repentance. Well,
no. True repentance is the Lord turning
us from our dead, filthy works, from our righteousness and our
works, thinking that this was our acceptance with God, he turns
us from that unto the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Great
Shepherd of the Sheep. That's repentance. Turn from
these dead works and look to Christ, look to the Savior whom
God has provided for His people. Christ is the Messiah. Christ Jesus is the Savior whom
God promised in the beginning, chose Him before the foundation
of the world when He chose a people for Himself and gave them to
Christ to redeem them with His own precious blood. The Son of
God laid aside His glory and took flesh unto Him, and He was
born under the law. and fulfilled the law, honored
the law, kept it perfectly, honored his father, loved God with all
his heart, mind, soul, body, and loved his neighbor as himself
perfectly, that he would be the perfect fit sacrifice for the
people. He came as the high priest of
his people and offered himself to the Father. for a sin offering,
to atone for the sins of his people, to put them away that
we, through Jesus Christ, would be received and accepted by the
Father, that we would have life and fellowship with him and an
inheritance, an eternal inheritance in the Lord Jesus Christ. So
knowing doctrine doesn't save a sinner. Doctrine is important.
We know Christ through his doctrine, but that's not what saves us.
It's Christ who saves us. And Christ teaches us himself. He teaches us who he is and who
we are and our need. Him and so we come to him as
sinners in need of his blood redemption that he's the only
hope of our salvation Now one more point on this knowledge
that in seeing that religious men they stumble They claim to
have all this knowledge in this insight and this ability to see
and yet they stumble over Christ turn over to John chapter 3 John
3 and we're gonna pick up in verse 1 and and work down to verse three
together. Verse one says, there was a man
of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. He was a
teacher in Israel. And the same came to Jesus by
night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know. We know so much that
I'm sneaking out at night to come to you. That's how much
I know. We know that thou art a teacher come from God, for
no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be
with him. Nicodemus and some of his Pharisee
buddies, they knew some things, right? They had a knowledge of
who this Jesus of Nazareth was. But listen to Christ's answer
to him, what he says to him. He just bypasses all his flattery. And he says, verily, verily,
there he is, the amen, testifying to the truth of his word. I say
unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God. Nicodemus knew a lot of scripture.
Nicodemus knew a lot of doctrine. He knew what to look for to recognize
the Messiah, according to the scriptures, and he knew a lot
of things, but he didn't know Jesus Christ. He didn't see him
as the Savior. He was a teacher, he was a good
man, apparently, doing things that only God could do. He could only do them if God
was with him. And he had eyes, he had sight, but he was blind.
He was blind and he was ignorant to the things of God, because
he wasn't born again. He didn't see what he thought
he saw. He was stumbling over Christ. And then you contrast
that with what we just saw in John chapter 9, where the blind
man was healed. Nicodemus comes, we know, and
Christ says, but you don't see. You're blind, Nicodemus. You
haven't been born again. You don't have the spirit of
God. You're trusting in your knowledge. And then you look
at John 9.25. Go to John 9.25. Here's that healed blind man
who could now see. And he answered and said, whether
this Jesus of Nazareth be a sinner or no, I know not. I don't know. I don't know nothing about that.
One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see. Now I see. You see, Nicodemus
comes saying, we know. And Christ says, you don't see.
And this man says, I don't know nothing. All I know is that I
was blind, and now I see. And this man did it. Christ gave
me sight. Christ gave me sight. And so
the one who made the difference wasn't Nicodemus' knowledge. It's not our knowledge that saves
us, it's Jesus Christ. It's the person of Christ who
saves His people. And He's the Great Shepherd,
and He goes in and calls out whomsoever He wills, and He leads
them out, giving them light and life in Jesus Christ, who is
the Savior of His people. Christ made the difference. Men
can talk a lot about God and about godliness and you'll hear
them. They'll speak of the law and they'll speak of righteousness
and they'll speak of repentance and good works and bad things
and you gotta stop doing this and start doing that and read
your Bible and they will even speak of Jesus. And yet then
they go right into speaking of all these works that they need
to be doing, that man needs to be doing, and he's got to turn
things around. Because man, left to himself,
cannot see the Kingdom of God. He's stumbling over Christ with
all his knowledge. It's blinded him. It's blinded
him and he doesn't even know it. Christ said in verse one,
verily, verily, I say unto you, this is John 10 one, he that
entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up
some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. So don't listen
to anyone just because they speak, you know, just because they drop
the name Jesus and they use that here and there and pepper it
in their speech and then go on speaking of your works and what
you need to be doing and stop doing. We declare the Lord Jesus
Christ and Him crucified, that He is our righteousness. We are
saved by His blood sacrifice. We are saved by His mercy and
grace which is shed upon us through the blood of Christ. Verse two, he says, but he that
entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. Now I
know that the door has significance and the door is Christ and he
will speak of that as he goes on. But in this parable, what
Christ is speaking of there is he has the authority. He has every right, every authority
to enter into the sheepfold, and to lead out his sheep, to
call his sheep out, and to deliver them from the bondage and the
corruption of man, to give them life. Because that's his authority. He is the great shepherd. And he has the authority and
the commission of the father to do what he was sent to do. And no man's going to stop him.
No one's going to say to him, what doest thou? What are you
doing? You can't do that. Who are you? He's the Lord Jesus
Christ. He can do exactly what he was
sent to do. Turn over to Matthew 11, and we'll see where Christ
confirms this in Matthew 11, and we'll just look at verse
27 and 28. Our Lord there speaking at that
great day, that last day of the feast, He said, all things are
delivered unto me of my father. He's saying, I've been given
all authority by the father to say what I'm going to say right
now. No man knoweth the son. Man knows a lot of things, but
he doesn't know the son. But the father knows him. Neither
knoweth any man the father save the son, and he to whomsoever
the son will reveal him. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Jesus Christ has the authority
to say that. To you that are sinners, to you
that have no hope, no strength, nothing to give to God, Christ
says, come to me, you that are weary and heavy laden, I will
give you rest. He has the authority, that's
why we believe him. He's not just whipping that out
there. He has the authority to say that.
He is the Savior. He is the Great Shepherd. And
so as the Great Shepherd, he's the one who comes in and calls
his sheep by name and leads them out of the condemnation for our
sin. his people for their sin, he
calls them out of that condemnation, he calls them out of darkness,
out of the bondage of dead letter religion and works that cannot
save. Christ is the righteousness of
the law. Look to him, believe him, trust
him. be turned from the dead works
of religion. Man has no power or authority
to set another man free. He'll cut the flesh, right? He'll
get you to cut your flesh and carve you up and cut this out
and cut that out, thinking that he's got you to do something
that he can now turn around and go to God and boast about it.
Look what I got them to do, Lord. Look what I got them to do. Man
has no authority to do that, but Christ has life in himself
and the authority of God given to him to give life to whomsoever
he wills. He wills, and that's what he
does. Now, back in our text, in John 10, verse three. Here he says, to him, to the
great shepherd, the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice.
And he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. You know, the porter is never
explained in the text. Christ never says who the porter
is. We know that he's the great shepherd. We will know soon that
he's the door, as well, to whom we go in and out to find pasture. But he never explains who the
porter is. And as I read other men on it,
the best explanations were either God the Father or the Holy Spirit. And as I thought about it, I
just realized, I was like, this is actually, the porter is the
godhead. It's Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
because the Godhead and their eternal counsels opened the way
of salvation. They're the ones that made the
way for Christ to enter in, for the Son of God to come. The Godhead
is the porter. They're the ones who opened the
way of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ to save a people.
condemned, dead in trespasses and sins, that we would fall
in Adam, but that Christ would be our salvation, that He would
be our life. And so we see the Father who
gave the authority to the Son. We see the Father who sent the
Son, laying aside His glory and taking upon Him flesh. He sent
the Son and He spared Him not. And He gave all authority to
Christ to save His people. people whom the Father chose
and gave to the Christ committed gave to Christ committing them
to his care so that our whole salvation rests upon the Lord
Jesus Christ if he fails we fail but he didn't fail he cannot
fail he succeeded and and therefore we have life in him Christ said
thine they were Thou gavest them me. So Christ has all authority. And so the son was willing to
come and he came in the flesh where he honored the law, he
honored the father, he fulfilled everything necessary for his
people. And he went faithfully, willingly to the cross as our
sin offering to make an atonement for our sin. And he obtained
eternal redemption for his people that were given to him. He accomplished
that work. And then we see the Holy Ghost
who regenerates the people of God, who regenerates those for
whom Christ died. And he washes them in the blood
of Christ. And he opens our hearts. He opens the door that Christ
may enter in and sup with his people. That we may know him
and have fellowship with him and believe him and receive him
into our hearts. Christ dwells in our hearts by
faith, brethren. Ephesians 3, 17. Christ dwells
in our hearts by faith. Now, our Lord, back in our text,
John 10, verse 4, the great shepherd says, when he putteth forth his
own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for
they know his voice. And so this speaks of our deliverance. We're brought out of the inheritance
of the sheep in the Adam sheepfold. We have no part in that body
of sin. We're delivered from that. Christ takes us out of
that body of sin. We have no part in the death
of those in Adam, trusting in their own works. Our part is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so our Savior, he's bringing
us out of dead works, out from the punishment of sins which
those in that sheepfold have upon them. He delivers us from
the doctrines and the commandments of men. He takes us out of that
whole system, that whole system of dead works. And it says, he
goeth before them. And what a sweet picture of your
Lord who went before us to prepare a place by laying down his life,
that we might have life in him. He died our death to deliver
us from eternal punishment. And Christ entered into that
within the veil, whither the forerunner, he went before us,
whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made
an high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And so we in him died with him
and were buried with him in the hope and knowledge that we shall
be raised together with Christ our Lord. So he's gone before
us, brethren, to prepare a place, and he says the sheep follow
him. My sheep follow me. They hear my voice and they follow
me, he said. Verse five, and a stranger will they not follow,
but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers.
Once the porter opens a door, right, established in the covenant
of grace for you, brethren. Once the porter opens that door
and Christ enters in, nothing, nothing can separate you from
the love of God in Christ Jesus. Nothing can take you away. You
can't take you away. No enemy, no foe can enter in.
You are safe in the hand of Christ. You are safe in the hand of God
the Father. Nothing shall pluck you from
the hand of God. You are safe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Rejoice in him, you will not
follow the voice of strangers. You will not follow the voice
of strangers, you follow Christ. Verse six, this parable spake
Jesus unto them, but they, remember he's speaking to these Jews,
they understood not what things they were which he spake unto
them. So these self-righteous Pharisees,
who were angry with Christ, saying, are you saying we're blind also?
With all their knowledge and with all their sight, they stumbled
over the stumbling stone, while the blind sinner, the man born
blind, born spiritually dead, he knew nothing, yet he saw.
Christ and rejoiced in His day. So the Lord and Savior is declaring
here in this parable, in these six verses, which are ended here,
that He alone is the Savior. Have no trust or confidence in
man. Don't even trust yourself, because
this flesh is wicked and deceitful and leads astray. But trust the
Savior. Trust the Good Shepherd. Believe
Him. Look to Him. He Himself is life. He said, I am the light of the
world. He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall
have the light of life. If you would have life, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one that gives the sinner
life. He's the one that gives salvation
to whomsoever He wills. And He declares Himself willing
and able to save all that come to Him. And God's people will,
because they hear his voice and follow him. Amen. Let's close
in prayer, brethren. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your great mercy. We thank you for the clarity
that you reveal in Christ, that there is no other hope, and we
need no other hope. Lord, you've made us satisfied
with your Son. You've given us life and light
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we rejoice in him. Lord, help
those that struggle to believe your mercy and grace in Christ,
that you do indeed receive sinners and eat with them. Lord, we thank
you how you humbled yourself, how you stooped so low to be
merciful and gracious to us undeserving sinners. that we would know you
and rejoice in you. Thank you, Lord. Father, bless
the hearts of your people. Comfort our hearts. Make us to
hear that simple, clear voice of Jesus, our Lord and Savior,
the Christ of God. Lord, help me in my studies and
in preparation and in preaching your word that, Lord, by your
grace and by your power, we, from this pulpit, would faithfully
lift up and exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, and that you would honor
your word, where you say that if you be lifted up, we'll draw
all men unto you. Father, we ask you to do that,
that you would call out your people from the surrounding areas,
that you would bring them here, that you would feed your sheep
here, that you would enter the house and bless your people.
It's in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that
we pray this. And Lord, that we give you thanks
for all that you have done in keeping us and establishing us
and drawing the people here that you've gathered. Thank you, Lord.
It's in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we
pray. Amen. Okay, brother. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn, 291, Guide Me Thou O Great Jehovah, 291. Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,
pilgrim through this barren land. I am weak, but Thou art mighty. Hold me with Thy powerful hand. Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,
feed me till I want no more. Feed me till I want no more. Open now the crystal fountain,
whence the healing stream doth flow. Let the fire and cloudy
pillar lead me all my journey through. Strong deliverer, strong
deliverer, be thou still my strength and shield. Be thou still my
strength and shield. When I tread the verge of Jordan
Did my anxious fear subside? Care me through the swelling
current, land me safe on Canaan's side. Psalms of praises, psalms
of praises, I will ever give to thee. I will ever give to thee. Thank you.