Let me say that Vicki and I do
appreciate and thank you for the generous gift that you've
given to us. You know, everywhere I go, and
I wrote this in a bulletin, everywhere I go to preach, everybody says,
they love you there. They do. I hear that everywhere.
They love you. And I always say, they prove
it. They prove it by the way they
take care of us. We've never wanted for anything since we've
been here. And that's grace. That's grace. Turn back to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. The good shepherd.
The good shepherd. In these verses we have the good
shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the hireling. The evil
shepherd is what they are. We have the wolf. We have the father who owns the
sheep. He's the one who gave them to
the son to bring home. And we have in this, these verses,
how he saves the sheep. Now he's going to save them.
He's going to lay down his life. You're going to lay down his
life for it. There's a lot said in these verses.
Our Lord tells us in verse 11, that he is the good shepherd. You know, our Lord said in one
place. To that rich young man, he said, call him good master.
He said, well, I call a style made good. There's none good,
but God. He's the good shepherd because he's God. God is our
shepherd. Could we have any better shepherd
than God? God's our shepherd. And by saying
I am. See, that's God. I am that I
am I am the Good Shepherd he's using a definite article meaning
there is no other that's what that means there is no other
the Lord Jesus Christ is exclusively the light there is no other I
am the light without me you walk in darkness you live in darkness
and you would die in darkness and you'll spend eternity in
darkness He's the bread. He said, I am the bread. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. I am the good shepherd. There's
no other. There's no rival. We cannot speak of anything else
on the same level that we speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
above all. He's above all. Now in the previous
verses, the contrast was between the shepherd and the thief. And
here it's between the hireling and the Good Shepherd. He speaks
of the hireling. Those Pharisees were hirelings.
They were in it for the money. That's what they were in it for. What they could fleece out of
the sheep, that's what they were in it for. Now in verse 11, we
have the character and conduct of the Good Shepherd. This separates
him from all others. We see his love for the sheep. Because he says, he giveth his
life for the sheep. Having loved his own, he loved
them to the end. To the end. The good shepherd
lived for the sheep. Before I heard the gospel, I
sat under an Armenian preacher. And I never heard, I cannot remember
ever hearing of the 33 years of Christ living for me. That's my righteousness. Those
33 years of His obedience, His perfect obedience, is my righteousness. It's your righteousness. I never
heard that. All I heard was that Jesus Christ
died on the cross for sinners. Won't you accept Him? I mean,
that was basically the message all the time. But I never heard
of Him living for me. The Good Shepherd lived for me.
He lived for you. He lived for every, those of
you who believe, He lived for every one of His sheep. He's
living for them. He's walking for them. He's keeping
every jot and tittle of the law for them. He's doing it for them. He did nothing for Himself. Jesus Christ did not do one thing
for Himself. He did it all for His sheep,
all of them. He suffered and died for the
sheep. The Good Shepherd suffered the penalty of God's wrath and
God's law and he died, he literally died for the sheep, for the sheep. He did not die to make salvation
possible, make it a possibility, to give us an opportunity. He
died for the sheep. The scriptures is so plain on
that. It's so plain. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. It says in Romans 4. He was delivered
unto death, but He was raised again for our justification.
We are justified in Christ and our Good Shepherd, we're justified.
He now sits at the Father's right hand interceding for the sheep.
What did He say in John 17? I pray not for the world. I pray for them the sheep the
Lord Jesus Christ praying for me and for you who believe he
prayed he intercedes for us Peter Satan has desired you to sift
you as wheat but I have prayed for you I have
interceded for you Here's what I pray for you, that
your faith fail not. You know, every time you and
I go through a trial, our Lord intercedes for us that our faith
fail not. I pray that their faith fails
not. Going through this difficult
trial. Because if he didn't, we would fail. We would collapse
in a heartbeat under every trial. But he pray, he intercedes that
our faith fail not. That's why our faith fails not.
He prays for us. And then the Good Shepherd is
coming for us. He's coming for us. My Lord's coming for me.
He's coming for every one of his sheep, and he's going to
take them home. You see, the Good Shepherd went back to glory
to prepare a place for them. And if he's prepared a place
for them, he's going to come and get them. You know when the
Lord, it's sad and it's a sorrowful time when the Lord reaches into
the congregation and takes one of his sheep here and one of
his sheep there. That's a sad time, that's a sorrowful time.
But the Lord's coming for his sheep. It's time to bring them
home. The Good Shepherd's coming to
get them. And not one of them will ever
come back. Not one of them will ever come back. Everything our good shepherd
did and is doing, doing right now, and shall do tomorrow, however
long we live, however long this earth will stand, he's doing
it for the sheep. He's doing it for the sheep. And then he
gives us the character and conduct of the hireling. See, there's
going to be a contrast here. The hireling is just that. They're
in 12 and 13. He's just that. He's a hireling. He's hired. We all know what
that, you know, most of you here work for somebody or you have
worked for somebody. If they stop paying you, you
ain't staying. You're leaving. You know why?
You're a hireling. If you own it, it's not so easy
to leave. You can't just walk off, you own it. I can tell you
that from experience. But if you're a hireling, you're
going someplace else. And that's what the hireling
is. He has no interest in the sheep. He has no investment in
the sheep at all, zero. To him, they are not worth risking
his life for. They are not worth dying for.
They're not worth suffering for. And when he sees the wolf, the
wolf here is trouble. It's trouble, trouble, trouble,
trouble. When he sees, he don't even have
to wait till trouble comes, he just sees it coming. When he
sees the wolf trouble coming, he leaves the sheep and the wolf
catches them, it says. The wolf catches them and the
sheep are scattered. You'll notice it doesn't say
the wolf devours them. That can't happen. You're the
Lord's sheep. It ain't gonna let that happen.
The wolf is not gonna, trouble is not gonna devour you. Trials
and hard times not gonna devour you. It's not gonna happen. But the hireling, he says, I
didn't sign up for the wolf part. I didn't sign up for this. And
he leaves, he leaves. He leaves the sheep because he's
a hireling. And the sheep are scattered,
but the Lord knows where they are. He knows where they are. He said, I know my sheep. I know
them. I know where they are. I know
exactly where they are. Some are here this morning. Some
are in other congregations. Some are still in Arminianism.
He knows where they are, and he's going to bring them out.
The shepherd, he's going about gathering his sheep. He knows
where they are. And then in verse 14, once again,
our Lord identifies Himself as the Good Shepherd. But what He does here in verse
14, He gives a fuller, a more complete revelation of Himself
as the Good Shepherd, and of His Father, and of His work of
redemption, of His work of bringing the sheep home. You see, a price
has to be paid for the sheep. The law has them. He's got to
lay down his life for the sheep. He's not going to just pull out
his wallet and pay for it. He's got to lay down his life.
He's got to die for the sheep before the sheep can be brought
home. He's got to do this. And so he gives a more complete
revelation of himself as the Good Shepherd and how he's going
to bring the sheep home. I am the good shepherd, and know
my sheep, and am known of mine. He's the good shepherd, good
in all his attributes. He's good because, as I said, he's God.
This, our shepherd, is God. And he shows us his knowledge
here. He's all-knowing. He's all-knowing. He knows his
sheep. You know, earlier he said he
calls them by name. How many of you reckon will be
saved. You know, heaven speaks of it
as innumerable. It speaks of it as innumerable. You know,
I know not many, I don't meet many adult people that believe
the gospel. But how many children, infants, mentally handicapped
have died? I have no doubt they've been
redeemed by the blood of Christ. I have no doubt. As someone said,
this Bible's written to morally responsible people. How many of you reckon this makes
up the, you know, heaven is spoken of as a country. Hell is spoken
of as a place. Heaven is spoken of as a city.
Innumerable, innumerable. He knows every one of them by
name. I go to these conferences and
I've met these people over the years. I can't tell you how many
times I've preached in these places and I still can't remember
most of their names. I still can't do it. But the
Lord knows their names. Myriads of them, redeemed. He knows them all by name. He's
the one who gave them their name, and He knows them. He knows all
His children. Now I have to say, I have no
trouble knowing the names of my two sons. It wouldn't matter
if I had 14, I believe I'd know their names. I know I would.
My mother and father had seven. They knew our names. They never forgot our names. He said, I know, I know, I know
them. He knows who they are. He knows
where they are. He knows what condition they
are in. He knows. And here's their knowledge,
the knowledge of the sheep. They know him. I know them and
they know me. They know him by the revelation
of the spirit. They know him as their Lord and
Savior. They know him as Lord. I have
a lord. I have a king. We have a king.
We have a lord. We have a president in this country
and it's voted on, but we don't vote on him. Nobody votes on
him. We bow to him. The father set
him up and we're glad of it. They know Him. They know Him
as their Lord and Savior. They know Him as their Redeemer.
They know Him as their Substitute. They know Him as their Prophet,
Priest, and King. They know Him. Not like He knows
them. But they know Him. They know
Him. And He says in verse 15, As the
Father knoweth. And that word knoweth here has
the meaning of absolutely. Absolutely. Only He can say that. The Father knows me absolutely
and I know the Father absolutely. They know each other completely,
completely. There's nothing, there's nothing
about the Father that Christ does not know. He knows Him completely. But
this verse is in connection with verse back there in verse 14
where he says, I'm the good shepherd and know my sheep and unknown
of mine and their father knoweth me and even so know I the father.
And what he's saying here is the sense of it is this, that
the mutual knowledge and union of Christ with his sheep is the
same as with his father that he has with his father. It's
the same reunion, same union, same knowledge, same knowing.
He knows us like he knows the father. that's more than knowing about
us that's knowing us knowing us and then he speaks here a
particular redemption in this verse 15 i lay down my life for
the sheep does it get any plainer than that it can't be more plain than that
this is why he came he came to lay down his life for the sheep
He died for them particularly. All whom he'll save. And I like
to think of it like this. When he was living, when he was
suffering, when he was dying, my name was on his heart. Just
like that priest that went into the Holy of Holies, the 12 tribes
of Israel was written on his breastplate. My name's written
on his heart. My name was, I mean, he wasn't
just thinking about a crowd out there. He just didn't look at
the crowd and say, I'm dying for this crowd. I mean, individually,
he was thinking of me. I was on his heart, the same
as you who believe. You were on his heart. I lay
down my life for the sheep, not the goats. We never read of Christ
dying for goats. He said sheep. other sheep he says in verse
16 other sheep i have they're mine given to me by the father
and the covenant of grace they are mine other sheep i have which
are not of this fold them also i must bring and there and they
shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold one shepherd
but i i have other sheep and i must bring them one day One day, when you didn't have
any interest in the gospel whatsoever, the Lord walked by, as I read
to you last week, and He said, follow me. And all of a sudden
you have this interest in Christ you never had before. I can't
make you interested in Christ. I cannot reveal Christ to you.
Only the Holy Spirit of God, who is God, can do that. Only
he can come by and say, follow me. And you hear his voice. You don't hear just me standing
up here every week. You finally hear his voice. You hear the
voice of the shepherd calling you. Calling you by name. Like he did Samuel. Samuel and
he went to Eli. Called him again, Samuel and
Samuel went to Eli. Samuel didn't know the Lord at
that time. But then the Lord called him. Eli said, next time
that happens, you say, speak Lord. And he did. And from that
time forth, Samuel knew the Lord. And the Lord made himself known
to Samuel. But up to that time, Samuel was in the temple working
with Eli, going about all the services. He didn't know God
at all. Just like you come here. Some
of you come here. And one time, all of you came
here at one time. You didn't know God at all. You
just came. You came, you came with your
parents. And one day God said, your name, called your name. And you began to have an interest
in Christ. And you began to follow Christ
in his word. You began to come here and follow
him in the preaching. And you have followed him ever
since. Because he is not gonna let his
sheep go. He's not gonna lose one of them, he said. Because
he said I lay down my life for the sheep. They're gonna be saved.
They are gonna be saved Other sheep I have and these other
sheep are Gentiles. That's us He's talking about
us in this in this verse He's talking about us Gentiles and
it says here must bring You know, he said the Son of Man must suffer
there was some there are some things that Jesus Christ must
do He must suffer, He must die,
He must bring the sheep, He must, they're given to Him, He's the
surety, He must bring them out of darkness to light, He must
bring them out of spiritual death to life, He must bring them out
from under the bondage of the law and the bondage of Satan
to liberty, He must bring them, He must. Whom the Son sets free is free
indeed, He must do it, And listen, he must bring them to God spotless. He must bring me, it's not me
cooperating with him. It's not a cooperative effort.
He must bring me to God spotless. That's on his shoulders. And
that's the best shoulders to be on. The government shall be
on his shoulders. Therefore does my father love
me because I lay down my life that I might take it again. He's
the object of the father's love and all who are in him are the
object of the father's love. And he says here that I lay down
my life, listen, that I might take it again. There's no question
as to whether Christ would rise from the dead. He said, I'm going
to take it again. I'm going to die and I'm going
to rise again. I'm going to rise again. It says in Isaiah 42,
my servant shall not fail. He shall not fail. Jesus Christ
did not die out of weakness. He did not die as a martyr. He
died on purpose. Ain't nobody in this room gonna
die on purpose. You get sick, you're gonna go
to the doctor and try to get well, and I am too. He died on purpose. He came on
purpose and died on purpose. He laid down his life that he
might take it again. The Lord Jesus Christ knew he'd
not stay dead, but he'd rise from the dead and die no more.
He knew that, and he knew you wouldn't either. He knew you
would rise with him, and you would die no more. He that believes
in me, he said, shall never die. He shall never die. Barnard said,
a dead Christ can't save anybody, but the living Lord can. He can't
stay dead. You know, the Catholics got him
on the cross. They either got him on the cross or in the grave. It's the one seated at God's
right hand that saves. Who died and rose again. A dead one that stays dead saves
no one. You know, all those sacrifices
in the Old Testament, all those lambs that were offered, they
all stayed dead. None of them came back. They
all stayed dead. But God's Lamb rose again. God's Lamb is seated
at God's right hand. My sacrifice, my atonement, my
righteousness is seated at God's right hand. John said when he
was taken to heaven, He was caught up there. He said,
I saw a lamb that stood in the midst of the throne. I saw it.
He said it stood in the midst of the throne. I saw a lamb as
it stood in the midst of the throne as it had been slain.
He saw him in his sacrificial character, but alive. Alive. You see, our sacrifice for sin
is alive. Pleading for us. Pleading for
us. However, that is. Just His presence
there pleads for us. No man takes my life from me.
No man takes it from me. I lay it down of myself. I have
power, I have the authority, the right to lay it down, and
I have power to take it again. You know, I don't have power
or the right to take my life. I don't have power or the right
to do that. I don't have the right to go commit suicide. I
don't have that right. But the Lord Jesus Christ, it's
not suicide, it's sacrifice. It's a sacrifice. He says, I have the power, I
have the right to lay down my life, and I have the power to
take it again. This commandment have I received
of my father. He laid down his life willingly,
that's what he said. No man takes it from me. He didn't
die out of weakness. He didn't die because he was
overpowered by Satan and men. He didn't die because of that.
He said, I can just call, I can call 12 legions of angels and
put this and end this right now. He didn't die as a martyr and
he did not die as a victim. He died as a divinely ordered
substitute. That's what he did. The Lamb
of God. Behold the Lamb of God which
taketh away the sin of the world. He died the appointed death at
the appointed time for the appointed people. That's what he did. And I close.
And by his divine power as God, now listen, as God, he's God,
he raised himself from the dead. I have power to let it down.
I have power to take it back up. As God, He raised Himself
back up. He raised up that body. He raised
it up and gave life back to it. This commandment have I received
in my Father. And this tells us of the Father's part in our
salvation. Someone told me one time, a few
years ago, and we were at odds over the new birth. And this
man said to me that, he wrote to me, he said that the work
of the Holy Spirit was not as important as the work of Christ. And I said, now wait a minute,
the Holy Spirit is God, Jesus Christ is God, and the Father
is God, there's only one God here, and whatever work they
do is vital, it's vital. If you're not born again, you're
in trouble. And that's the work of the Holy
Spirit, regeneration. If the Holy Spirit does not take
the things of Christ and show them to you, reveal them to you,
and apply them to you, you're in trouble. You're in trouble. The Father chose us, the Son
died for us and rose for us, and the Holy Spirit regenerates
us. Why do you think we are baptized in the name of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit? We're not baptized in the name
of one person. We're baptized in the name of
the whole Trinity because the whole Trinity is at work in saving
a sinner. But Christ, it's through Christ
though that it can be done justly. and righteously. It's through
Him that the Father can love me, the Father can have anything
to do with me, and the Holy Spirit can regenerate me. The blood
makes atonement. All of it comes through Jesus
Christ. But don't pit one against the other. Don't do that. This commandment have I received
of my Father, and this also shows His obedience to His Father. This commandment to what? To
lay my life down and to raise it up again. His resurrection
was out of obedience to his father. Raising himself again was out
of obedience. This commandment have I received
of my father, that I shall die and I'll raise again. I'll come
out of that grave. We have a good shepherd. We have
a good shepherd. And he's going to bring all the
sheep home. Aren't you glad for that? I told Vicki this morning
after I woke up and I was thinking about what I told you in Bible
class, but I was thinking about the Bible class and this sermon. And I woke up about four o'clock
and I told her, I said, I tried not to think of it because I
know I'm not going to go back to sleep. I said, I know I'm
not going. And I try not to think of the
messages just so I can go back to sleep. But it just doesn't
work. It just rolls over and over and
over my mind. What a shepherd we have. What a God we have. All right.