John chapter 10. I titled the message, The Gospel
That Divides. Verse 19, there was a division, therefore
again, every time our Lord spoke, There was a division. The gospel
divides. It divides the sheep from the
goats. It divides truth from error. A gospel that does not divide
is not the gospel of God. And the gospel that divides is
not the follow of the gospel. It's not the follow of the gospel.
The gospel is good news. It's the fault of the hearer. Our Lord was telling the truth.
I am the door. They didn't like it. He made known to them He's the
Son of God. The Son of God wouldn't look
like that. We have our image of what somebody
is supposed to look like. And the Messiah, the Son of God,
He's not to look like a peasant. He's not to look poor or common. You know, our Lord said this
in Matthew 10.34. These are the Scriptures that brings out the
animosity that's in human nature. He said He came not to send peace
on earth, but to divide. He said a son and daughter, the
parents would be against them, they'll be against their parents.
The gospel would divide a household. It will, it'll divide a household. There are many religious people
who want their children saved, but when God actually saves one,
they're like, I wish that hadn't happened. You let a Jewish person believe
this gospel and they separate them from the home. They excommunicate
them. It will divide. Simeon said this in Luke 2.34,
Simeon said, when he looked into the face of the Lord Jesus Christ,
he said, is set for the fall and rising
of many in Israel. He's set for the fall and rising
of many in Israel. He's called in the Scriptures,
a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. That's what He's
called. And His words, now listen, His
words are what they hated. They hated his words, because
his words are what? Words of truth. He never spoke
anything but the truth. Everything that came out of his
mouth, listen, it was not just true, though it was, it was truth. Truth. He spoke the truth. He said that I am the bread of
life that came down from heaven. It made Him mad. He said, I'm
the door. I'm the door into the presence
of God. Not the ceremonies. Not the rituals they were going
through. Not all those lambs and the blood that those lambs
that they shed when they cut the throats of those lambs. Those
lambs in and of themselves, they were not the door into heaven.
They were not the door into the presence of God. Jesus Christ
whom they represented is. He said, I am the door. By me
if any man enter in, he shall go in and out and find pasture.
By me. Not by the church. We don't enter
heaven by the church. We don't enter heaven by joining
the church. We do not enter heaven by being
baptized. We enter into the Holy of Holies
in the presence of God by Jesus Christ Himself. And no other
way. No other way and no other person.
He's our Mediator. He's our High Priest. He's our
Representative. Nobody else. And they hated that. They hated it. His claim to deity,
they hated. They knew. Listen. They knew
what he was saying. They hated what he was saying.
They knew it. They heard what he was saying. You know, the scripture says
that God's gonna send them a strong delusion that they may be damned.
And you know why? Here's why. Because they receive
not the love of the truth. You love the truth. There are
those of you here that love the truth. You love what I just read. You love it. You love the fact
that God made you a sheep. You love that. They didn't. They didn't love the fact of
the truth that the Gentiles were a part of the kingdom of God
as well as the Jews. They didn't love that. It upset
them. They called us dogs. It's like
letting the dogs in the house. My dad never let a dog in the
house. He didn't like dogs. We do. Our dogs are in the house
all the time. We bring them in. We watch TV
with them. They don't actually watch TV,
but we watch TV with them. Sometimes I think Gus does, though.
I mean, he'd sit there and just look at it. I'm thinking, is
he really watching this? They didn't like the fact God
let the dogs in the house. They didn't see that themselves,
they too were dogs. You know, they would run themselves
back, they would run their ancestry back to Abraham, but not back
to Adam. And Adam, it says, all died,
including the Jews as well as the Gentiles. We all died in
Adam spiritually. And then physically we all died. And many of them said, in verse 20 there, many of them
said, he has a devil and he's mad, he's out of his
mind, he's babbling out of his mind. Why do you listen to him? Why do you come here each Sunday
and listen to this? Why would you do that? how depraved
religious people are without Christ, and how hard they are without
Christ. You know, when we think of depravity,
we think of the drunks and the harlots and, you know, I want
to tell you something, the most moral person alive is still wretched
in heart. Not to believe God? What's the
greatest sin of all? I mean, if you go out here on
the street, I know you know, but if I go out here on the street
and I say, what's the greatest sin of all? You won't get one
answer from this world of unbelief. That's the root of every sin
that's known to man. Unbelief. It's the very root
sin of all sin. We don't believe God. By nature,
we don't believe God. Christ said, let another come
in His name and what will happen? He said, you'll believe Him.
Let another come in His name and you'll believe Him. But Christ,
when He spoke, they didn't believe Him. They didn't believe Him. But I want you to notice here
the subtlety of Satan. Those who are of the devil called
Him who is of God A devil. Oh, the subtlety of Satan. Joe
Terrell said one time, he said, the spirit of Antichrist is leading
the search for Antichrist. Because it keeps you from looking
to Christ. It always keeps you... I remember
when I was 18, 19 years old, There was this thing that went
through the place I worked, and they was talking about the antichrist,
the mark of the beast, the Armageddon. I mean, people tore up, and this
man was taking them to his pastor's house. They was coming back saved.
That didn't last long, because those guys just went right back.
That was just too restrictive to them. But it was all about
that. None of it was about Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. None of it. Satan is subtle. He's subtle. He'll call him a devil who's
of God and they're devils. Christ said, you're of your father
the devil. That's what He said. And others
said, these are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can
a devil open the eyes of the blind? You see, some hear a different
voice. My sheep hear my voice. You hear
a different voice in the message. You don't just hear mine, you
hear the Lord's voice speaking in your heart. You said, these
are not the words of a devil. A devil wouldn't talk like this. Listen, a devil wouldn't speak of grace,
not a pure sovereign grace, he wouldn't do that. They'd add
works to it. You've got to salt it with works.
is what that would do. But there were some in that crowd
that recognized these words are not the words of someone possessed
of the devil. The vast majority of religion
will reject Christ and his gospel, but there are some who are going
to believe. Did you notice at the end of
that chapter, and many believed on him there? After they got
away from the crowd, After they got away from the satanic voices
saying, He's a devil, this is not right, this is wrong. After
they got away from that and they heard Him, they sat down and
they listened to Him. Many of them, it says, believed. This matter
of salvation is not in human hands. This is what our Lord
is telling us here. It's not in human hands. It's
in the hands of God incarnate. It's in the hands of Jesus Christ. Everything's been delivered unto
me of my Father. The sheep were given to him from
the Father. They were given to him in the
covenant of grace. They were given to him to take
care of. They were given to him to be the surety, to pay their
debt. You know, Solomon said this,
he said this to his son, if you have struck hands to be a surety
for somebody, basically, don't give yourself any rest until
you get clear of that, because he that is surety for another,
Solomon said, will smart for it. Jesus Christ became our surety
and he smarted for it. He was tormented for our transgressions,
bruised for our iniquities. God the Father gave us to him
before creation and he stood as our surety, came into this
world and paid the debt that you and I could not pay. You
know, the surety ship that we have, like here, we sign our
signature, we'll be security for a note. If this guy doesn't
pay it, well, we can't pay it. That's not the way it works in
spiritual matters. We can't pay it. You know, if
I sign my name on a note, I hope you pay it. I hope you don't
fail. But that's not how he put his
name on it. We already failed. We had already failed. And he
came to be the surety and pay that debt. They said, these are not the
words of a devil. No devil ever spoke so graciously
and kindly to sinners. No devil ever set the captive
free. You'll never find Satan setting
the captive free. He keeps them in bondage. He
never gives them liberty. He keeps them in prison. Christ
and His messengers are known by their message. It's a message
of grace, of mercy, of love. And when this happened, He says
it was at Jerusalem, the Feast of the Dedication, and it was
wintertime. This is interesting, and you
know, when you read that, you're just reading of a time frame.
It was December, in December. You're reading of a time frame
when this happened. But here's what's interesting.
This is a little history lesson here. This feast, it was instituted
by a man named Judas Maccabeus. This is where the Maccabees,
I guess, came from. But this feast was observed at
Jerusalem in memorial of purification of the temple after it had been
polluted by Antiochus. He put a statue of Zeus in the
temple and they offered swine to that. And the Jews rose up
and they cleared that out, and just to make a long story short,
they got rid of all that and they purified the temple. And
they made much of that. They had an eight-day feast to
honor that day. But here stands the temple of
God in front of them. Remember Christ said, destroy
this temple? Does it not say that in Christ dwells all the
fullness of God? And here is the true temple of
God, and they make nothing of it. They make nothing of Him
at all. That's interesting. When you
really search these things out, you see the spiritual implication
of it. He stood right in their midst
and they made nothing of Him, but they made everything of that
temple made of stone. Don't we make a lot of brick
houses and we go to, you know, we go to Biltmore and it's just
like, whew, man, what a house. It's going to burn up. God's
going to burn it up. Everything on this earth made
by man, made to honor man, is going to be burnt to the ground.
It's going to be destroyed. The only thing that's going to
stand is that which honors Jesus Christ. That's what's going to
stand. And Jesus walked in the temple
in Solomon's porch. He made Himself accessible. He knew they hated Him. He knew
they wanted to kill Him. But what does He do? He walks
out there on the porch and makes Himself accessible. How many
times do you say, Mine hour has not yet come? They couldn't touch
Him. Remember, they tried to stone Him. They tried to get
a hold of Him, and He passed right through them. It's like
they couldn't see him. All of a sudden, they couldn't
recognize him. But I'll tell you who did recognize
him. His sheep. They recognized him as he passed
through, but the others couldn't recognize him. The sheep recognize
him. You know the Master's voice when
you hear it. You know it when you hear it, don't you? Then came the Jews round about
him, and they said to him, How long dost thou make us to doubt?
How long dost thou hold us in suspense? If thou be the Christ,
tell us plainly. How long do you make us to doubt? I don't think that's his problem.
That's not his problem. That's our problem. Here's why
you doubt. Here's why you doubt. Unbelief. You don't believe all the miracles.
You realize what they saw. I've never seen physically, I've
never physically seen anybody raised from the dead. I have
never seen physically anybody stand up that was crippled and
walk. We took care of a man for four years that was crippled
in a wheelchair. I never one time saw him get
out of that wheelchair. And he believed the gospel too. John
believed the gospel. He made it evident. And when you're
around John, You weren't around him very long before you knew
what he believed, or who he believed. I never saw him walk. These people
saw that. They saw his work. He turned
water into wine. And I mean real wine. It wasn't
grape juice either. It wasn't grape juice. It was
self-righteous people. It was actual wine. You could
drink it, and you'd get drunk on it if you drank too much of
it. It was wine. He made it. They saw it. They saw these miracles
and they didn't believe. Seeing a miracle has never saved
anyone. God doing a miracle in your heart
is salvation. God doing a miraculous work in
you, that is salvation. Seeing something is not. physically,
with these eyes. You go away just as lost as ever. They came around about him. They
circled him, the dogs, the flesh merchants. They circled him.
Paul called them flesh merchants over the Philippians 3. They
circled him. And they said, how long you make
us to die to hold us in suspense? The world, you know, the world
has many proofs of God's being. You walk out every morning, well,
the fact you look in the mirror. I mean, you don't have to get
past the mirror to understand that God is. You and I didn't come from a
monkey. We might act like a bunch of apes sometimes, but we didn't
come from one. You know, I said this one time, I said, the reason
evolution The reason evolution ever took a hold, here's why
it really took a hold, is because it's easier to look at a monkey
and say, oh, how far I've come, than to look at God and say,
oh, how far I have fallen. It's easier to say, oh, oh, it's
easier to say, oh, glorious man that I have become, than oh,
wretched man that I am. That's why evolution got a foothold. It's easier to go that direction
on human nature than it is to look at God and say, oh, how
far I've fallen. The world has many proofs of
God's being, yet they don't believe Him. God has not only told us plainly,
but He has made it plain by the things we see that He is. And those Jews, they tried to
charge him for his doubting, for their doubting. You know,
like Adam said, the woman you gave me, that's the problem. Actually blaming God, the woman
you gave me, it's your fault. Repentance is when you quit blaming
anybody else. and you take responsibility for
all that you are and all that you've done. That's repentance. Then Jesus answered them, I told
you, I told you and you believe not. The works that I do in my
Father's name, they bear witness of me. All these things that I have
done bear witness that I'm the Son of God. He told them He was
the Son of Man, that the Father gave Him authority to execute
judgment. He told them He's the Bread of
Life. He told them that Abraham rejoiced to see his day. He told
them that Moses wrote of Him. And yet, they say, how long do
you cause us to doubt? Well, he says, if you don't believe
what I say, believe the works. You can't deny the works. You
can't deny what you've seen. Every man and woman on this earth
is without excuse for not believing God. But you believe not because you're
not of my sheep, as I said unto you. And this is a very solemn
statement. You're not of my sheep." He's talking here about God's
sovereignty and salvation. God saves whom He will. Now what
Scripture says? He saves whom He will, and whom
He will, He hardens. Whom He will, He passes by. Spurgeon
said that's His royal prerogative. The believer sees God as a God
of grace that He didn't pass Him by. The world sees it as
hard and mean and cruel and unfair. No, that's who you are. You're
trying to project what you are onto Him. Remember that servant? There were three that were given
talents. One was given ten talents and
five talents and one talent. Well, the one with ten doubled
it, the one with five doubled it, and the one with one, he
hid it. And you know what he said? He
said, I knew you were a hard, austere master. That's the way he saw him. That's
the way unbelievers see God. Well, it goes both ways. Some
see Him as hard and austere, then there's others see Him as
this lovey-dovey, mushy thing that can't do anything. He's neither. He's God Almighty,
perfect in all His attributes, perfect in His very being. But most people project God to
be, I mean, people who are lost, they project God to be like they
imagine Him to be. And usually that imagination
has a lot to do with the way they see themselves. You thought
I was altogether, he said, such a one as yourselves. However
you think yourselves to be, that's how you're going to whittle out
of God in your imagination. But God is who He is. He's the
sovereign. He's the sovereign. You and I
are at His mercy. He's not at ours. But here's two important statements.
Listen, I want you to get this. We do not believe in order to
become sheep. We believe because we are sheep.
Listen, faith does not make you a sheep. It reveals you are a
sheep. God said, if the Lord leaves
you alone, you're going to go away lost forever. But faith
doesn't make me one, it just reveals I am one. And my sheep
hear my voice. I know them and they follow me.
You know, let me say this, the Lord God has never, ever, ever
kept anyone from believing. You know, He's never kept anybody
from believing. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. But I'll tell you what He has
done. He has enabled a multitude to believe, to believe Him. My sheep hear my voice and they follow me. You see,
there's others said, this is not the one who has the voice.
This is not the voice of a devil. This devil wouldn't talk. There's
something different here. There's others are wanting to
throw stones. They're wanting to kill him. Two different people
here. You got two different people.
You have sheep and you have goats. And the very thing that divides
them is the gospel. It's the gospel. And He says, "...and I give unto
them eternal life." Now He's not talking about, I give to
them... They're going to live forever. Everybody's going to
live forever. Everybody, as soon as they are conceived, they're
forever. They're living forever. Here
He's talking about the life of God. He's talking about the life of
God. I give unto you eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand." Now listen,
here is the doctrine of eternal security right here. This clears
it up. I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish. I'm not, you know, the old way
I used to go, once saved, always saved. And the idea of that was
once I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior, I'd never be lost again.
Once I did it. Eternal security is this, I give
them eternal life and they'll never perish. That's eternal
security. It's not me accepting, it's Him
giving. I give them eternal life. If I am His, I can never be eternally
lost. Christ died for me, Christ came
into this world, lived for me, died for me, rose for me, satisfied
justice for me, lives to intercede for me, and is coming for me. That's eternal security. I am
His and He is mine. He has satisfied justice. There's
nothing against me. There's nothing on the books
against me. It's all gone. All my sins are
gone. They've been put away. They've
been put away. They've been dealt with. And
now God can be a just God and save a wretch like me. I tell
you what though, it takes God to get me to the point to call
myself a wretch. Because I always find somebody
else that's worse than me. I can always find somebody in
the neighborhood that's worse than me. He says here, no one can pluck
them out of my hand. My Father which gave then me,
He's greater than all. And no man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand. You can't pluck me out of Christ's
hand. You can't pluck me out of the Father's hand. You cannot
pluck me out of the Holy Spirit's hand. I mean, I am hedged in. The believer is hedged in by
God. God himself is my wall. God himself
is my armor. David said, God has become my
salvation. That's eternal security. God
has become my salvation. My Father, which gave them to
me. You know, when our Lord came
here, it was not a rescue attempt. I'm telling you, it was not a
rescue attempt. Because if it was, He failed. Because there's
a lot of people who perished. The attempt failed. He came here
on business. I must be about my father's business.
He came here to redeem. Did he redeem? Well, the fact
that he's seated at God's right hand is evidence he redeemed.
He got the job done. He got the job done. And he said, my sheep hear my
voice and they follow me. Did you hear his voice this morning?
Can you hear this message, read this portion of Scripture and
rejoice in it? Can you say, that's the truth,
that's the truth, I hear it. There's a man that worked for
me, every time I'd say something that was serious or something
that he connected with, he'd say, I hear you. He would all
the time, I hear you. And I knew what he was saying,
he got it. I hear you, Lord, I hear you. Come, you're a sheep. You're
a sheep. And that just so, that thrills
my soul. That thrills my soul. That all
my salvation is on his shoulders to bring home. You know, when
that shepherd went out and looked for that lost sheep, what did
he do? He put it on his shoulders and
carried it home. That's what the Lord's doing.
He's carrying me home. It's not me cooperating. It's not a cooperation between
me and Him. The Shepherd has picked me up, and I love this
thought. This thought gives me great comfort.
He is responsible for me. God the Father made Him responsible
for me. And he willingly took that responsibility. And I'm going to go home.