usually calls me if there's any
change. Inez is having good days and bad days, right? So remember her in your prayers. Tracy Wright, Bobby Wright's
daughter, had to go to the hospital again to get another two liters
drained out of her lung. She's going in next week for
a complete hysterectomy. And also they found something
on her stomach, a lump or something. They're going to look at that.
So remember her and her family in prayer. Donna Sue Wolf and
the Geiger family. Remember these folks. They've
been added to the prayer list. Seek the Lord's help for them.
I'm still working on our Sunday afternoon Bible studies for what's
coming up next. So we won't have a study this
evening and we won't have next week because it's the Lord's
table. So, week after next, we'll start, I believe, debut one out,
we're gonna do Jeremiah, so. Yes. That's the Arkansas family? Okay. Write that down. There it is. Add that to the prayer list,
the Arkansas family. How old was she? She was awfully
young, wasn't she? Bless her heart. Okey-doke, let's begin our worship
service this morning. Hymn number 42, All Hail the
Power of Jesus' Name. All hail the power of Jesus'
name. Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem. ♪ And crown Him Lord of all ♪
Bring forth the royal knight of Him ♪ And crown Him Lord of
all ♪ The chosen seed of Israel's race ♪ Be ransomed from the floor
Tell Him who saved you by His grace and crown Him Lord of all. Tell Him who saved you by His
grace and crown Him Lord of all. To Him all majesty ascribe and
crown Him Lord of all. To Him all majesty ascribe and
crown Him Lord of all. Oh, that with yonder sacred throng
we at His feet may fall. We'll join the everlasting song
and crown Him Lord. After scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing hymn number 474, Only a Sinner Saved by Grace. If you have your Bibles, turn
to the Gospel according to John. chapter 10 read one verse of scripture verse
11 I am the Good Shepherd the Good
Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep our father We come
in the name and precious righteousness of Jesus Christ, the Lord, who
loved us and gave himself for us, who died in the room instead
of his people and secured their salvation. We are thankful, Father,
that we are your people, that you have given us faith to believe
the truth. We thank you for your kindness
and mercy that is renewed every morning to us. We will remember
those who've requested prayer, those who've been added to the
prayer list. Remember especially Brother D. Parks and Tracy Wright
as she's facing these operations. We ask the Lord you'd be with
her and be with those doctors that would give them great skill
in finding out what her ailment is. We pray also for the Geiger
family and for the others who've requested prayer, Arkansas's
family. I know it's every situation and
only you can be a comfort and a healer. We beseech you on behalf
of these folks in the name of Jesus Christ to show mercy and
grace as we know you will. You are the God of all the earth,
the judge of all the earth and you always do what's right and
we thank you for that. Father, we pray for ourselves
this morning as we gather here that you might be pleased to
open up your word to us and teach us what our Lord was speaking
of and to whom he was speaking when he said these words. Help
us to remember that we're nothing but sinners. And our only hope
in this world is that you show us grace and mercy. Let us take
up our headquarters in the dust where we belong. And if you'd
be pleased to lift our eyes to see him who's altogether lovely,
worthy of all praise and honor as he sits enthroned at thy right
hand, having purged our sins. Thank you, Father, for great
mercy for great sinners. In Christ's name, amen. Hymn
number 474, Only a Sinner Saved by Grace. Not have I gotten, but what I
received. Grace hath bestowed it, and I
have believed. Boasting excluded, pride I abase. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner. Only a sinner saved by grace. This is the story to God be the
glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Once I was foolish and sin ruled
my heart. causing my footsteps from God
to depart. Jesus had found me, had be my
case. I now am a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner This is my story, to God be the
glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Tears unavailing, no merit had
I. Mercy had saved me, or else I
must die. Sin had alarmed me, fearing God's
face. But now I'm a sinner, saved by
grace. Only a sinner, saved by grace. Only a sinner. What's more, to tell it, would
I be embarrassed? Only a sinner saved by grace
Only a sinner saved by grace I'll ask Stan and Steve to receive
the offering, please. Let us pray. Father, again we
approach in the name of Jesus Christ, our most merciful and
gracious Savior, who saved us by His grace and mercy when He
died in the room instead of His people. You have given Him to
your people and with Him freely given them all things. We have
nothing this side of perdition that we have earned save our
just punishment. But you, Father, showed us grace
and mercy and gave us all things that pertain to godliness and
life in Jesus Christ. Thank you, Father, for the unspeakable
gift, and thank you for all that you do for us and have done for
us. Let our giving reflect our understanding of what you've
done for us. In Christ's name, amen. so so you you Our Lord's words here are part
of a parable. In verse 6 of chapter 10 it says,
This parable spake Jesus unto them, but they understood not
what things they were which he spake unto them. So he spoke
to a multitude that did not understand. Now a parable, as you know, is
a comparative story to teach a singular truth. One man said
a parable cannot stand on three legs. It stands on four legs
and it teaches one simple truth. This parable is found in verses
one through six and illuminated in verse seven through 18. And
the reason that our Lord spoke in parables was twofold. He has
two reasons why he did this. The first was to teach the truth
to the elect, to those chosen by God. The second was to confuse,
confound the non-elect. Our Lord's disciples asked him
once, why do you speak to us and them in parables? And he
said, because it's given unto you to know the secrets of the
kingdom of God, the mysteries of the kingdom. It's not given
to them. So he spoke to parables for two
reasons, to illuminate his people, to show them what the Word said. Proverbs 25 and verse 2 says
it's the glory of the Lord to conceal a thing, to hide it from
Him. Our Lord thanked God in Matthew
chapter 11. He said, I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from
the wise and the prudent. and reveal them unto babe, for
even so it seemed good in your sight to hide these things from
the wise and the prudent. The word of God, the gospel,
is for the eternal benefit of those made spiritually alive
by it, and at the same time it is the demise of those who remain
in their unbelief. He said it's given to you, and
it's not given to them. It's not given to them. Now being
a comparative story, the truth that is set forth is a truth
of distinction. It is a comparative story. Then
it must set forth a truth that is a distinctive truth or distinguishing
truth with the design that the true is distinguished from the
false. This is how every parable works. And we see this in verses
19 through 21 when he says this, There was a division, therefore,
again among the Jews for these things, and many of them said,
He hath a devil, and is mad. Who will hear him? And others
said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can
a devil open the eyes of the blind? He's talking about what
happened in chapter 9 of John. when the blind man who was blind
from birth, the Lord opened his eyes to see. And then in verse
24 through 26 we see this parable setting forth another division
here. Then came the Jews round about him and said, How long
dost thou make us to doubt, if thou be the Christ? Tell us plainly.
Now he said he is the Christ plainly to them. And Jesus said,
I told you and you believed not the works that I do in my Father's
name. They bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye
are not my sheep, as I said unto you." Now the text of this passage
of scripture that I read is verse 11 when he said, I am the good
shepherd, and the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
Now it is important to know who to whom Christ is speaking to
and what brings about this parable. The translators of the King James
Version made a chapter division between verse 41 of chapter 9
and verse 1 of chapter 10. However, chapter 10 is the CLOSING
of the CONVERSATION that began in chapter 9 and verse 39. You'll
turn back there, and this is after the blind man has been
received of Christ, he's believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
now he's dealing with the Pharisees who have cast this blind man
out of the synagogue. or this formerly blind man out
of the synagogue. Then in chapter 39, our Lord
says, and Jesus says, For judgment I am coming to this world, that
they which see not might see, and they which see might be made
blind. And what He's saying is, to these
fellows, you say that you see and know and understand the Scriptures.
He says, But what I say to you will blind you, and those who
know nothing will be made to see. Now some of the Pharisees,
and that's who He's talking to all the way through chapter 10,
which we just read, some of the Pharisees which were with Him
heard these things and said, Are we blind also? And Jesus
said, If you were blind, you should have no sin. But now you
say, We see. Therefore your sin remaineth."
This is who he's talking to. He's talking to the Pharisees.
These same men who had cast out the blind man because when they
asked him who healed him, he said, well, I don't know, but
I tell you what, a man, nobody but a man from God could do this.
He said, I don't know his name. I don't know his name. They say, well, you're just one
of his gang. You're one of his group. You're
one of his little cult. We'll throw you out of the synagogue.
And they did. And that's who he's talking to.
He addresses those who claim to see but are blind and remain
in their sin. He's just saying. He speaks to
them in a parable because He said in Matthew 13, They seeing
see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
And we just read in verse 6 of this that He spoke to them in
a parable and they did not understand. They did not understand. And
in this parable He makes dogmatic distinctions that further teach
that these he speaks to are NOT the people of God. They claim
to be. They are very religious folks. They are the thieves and robbers
spoken of in chapter 10 and verse 1. Thieves and robbers. They
are not children of God. They are not the sheep of God.
They are those who hear the voice of strangers as he describes
them in this passage. And the use of the metaphor of
the door is particularly precise. He says this in verse 7, it verily
said, I am the door of the sheep. I am the door of the sheep. All
that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but sheep
did not hear them. I am the door, and by me if any
man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find
pasture. That's a very distinctive statement
he's made. See, the door of the sheepfold
was used, it was a gate-like, a very narrow gate that was used
at the time of tithing the sheep. Now, tithing had to do with stock,
with cattle, with sheep, with vegetables grown, with nuts that
you picked from trees and things like that. Tithing and scripture.
In the Old Testament, where it was, and it's not a New Testament
principle, tithing in the Old Testament never had to do with
money. When the things spoken of that
were tithed, they never had to do with money. Now money was
spoken of, people had money, and they could offer money to
help out the priests, they could make an offering, but that was
never part of the tithes, so it was never part of this, but
in tithing season, The door was shut in the sheep coat, and it
was so narrow that two lambs could not go through at the same
time. So when he's talking to these Pharisees about them not
being the sheep, he's saying, I'm the door, and I'm so narrow
that two sheep cannot enter at the same time. And this not only
refers to the straight and narrow way, but it's purely a statement
that the healed believing blind man was the singular one who
had entered in and found pastor while the multitude of the morally
religious celebrities of that day remained outside the fold.
Just one got through, this blind man. And the recipients of this
parable are in another place described as those who shut up
the kingdom of God against men and would not enter in and further
in and further would not suffer them to enter in. So they stand
in religion as men who judge men's souls and judge men's lives. I was in a meeting not long ago
where a fellow said he had a watch care program at his church and
it was six or seven weeks where you made a profession of faith
and you waited six or seven weeks before they'd baptize you and
accept you into the church because they had to watch your life.
Well, that's the Pharisee who stands at the door. of the temple
and says you can't enter in. I don't go in. The place is too
corrupt for me. I don't go in. I'm too holy.
But you can't go in because I've judged you to be a sinner. That's
the people he's talking to here. This is certainly revealed with
this crowd as it's seen in their treatment of the blind man who
was healed. They cast him out of the church.
They treated him horribly. Here was a man who hadn't seen
since birth. Born blind. and the Lord touched him and
opened his eyes. And what did they do? They got
mad. And they got religious and they got righteous and they throwed
him out. Because he wouldn't talk according to their narrative.
He wouldn't talk according to what they wanted him to say.
They wanted him to disown Jesus Christ. And he didn't even know
his name by then. It wasn't until the Lord came
up to him later and said, Do you believe on the Son of God?
He said, Well, who is he that I might believe on him? He said,
The guy that healed you, he's the Son of God. He said, I believe,
I believe. This parable was spoken to the
self-righteous to confound them and to indicate that they were
not the sheep of God. This whole thing is about this
one guy, this one blind man whom the Lord has healed and saved
and brought into the fold. and he's looking at all the rest,
and he's saying, This one's a sheep, this one's a child of God, and
y'all aren't. Y'all aren't, though you claim
to be. What is the truth that's declared in this parable? It's
the same truth that results in the same response from the Pharisees
of this day. When spoken, it ignites their
self-righteous indignation to the point that they would rather
murder Christ than to deal with Him, which they did, which they
wanted to do in verse 31. That truth is the truth of the
particular redemption of the elect, the sheep. Sometimes called in doctrinal
theological language as limited atonement. I prefer the term
particular redemption. The sheep and the sheep alone
are those for whom Christ died. Now, people might say, well,
you know, that's kind of a general statement. No, not according
to who he's talking to. He's talking to people who say
they are the sheep of God's pasture. And he's saying to them, you
are not the sheep. This blind man whom you've cast
out, he's the sheep. The sheep and the sheep alone
are those for whom Christ died. This is the declaration of our
text. In verse 11 it says this, I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD. THE GOOD
SHEPHERD GIVETH HIS LIFE FOR THE SHEEP. The Ethiopian version
of the Bible says, THE GOOD SHEPHERD GIVETH HIS LIFE FOR THE REDEMPTION
OF THE SHEEP. Remember that Christ is distinguishing
between this one sinner, saved by grace, and the religious multitude
who thought they saw the truth but were actually blind to it,
were indeed blinded by it. Remember, our Lord quoted from
Isaiah chapter 6 several times when He was dealing with these
Pharisees, saying what the Lord said to Isaiah, ìYou go and preach
to these people and make them fat and make them go to sleep
because I am not going to govern them.î they're going to perish in their
sin. I'm not going to convert them, but you go preach to them.
And our Lord, in dealing with these Pharisees at least three
times in the New Testament, used that text, saying, as Isaiah
said, the gospel is preached to you, but it makes you happy,
it makes you fat, it makes you comfortable, but it don't save
you, because you're not going to be saved. Our Lord made that
clear. In John chapter 8, speaking to
the same group of people, He said this in verse 45, And because
I tell you the truth, you believe me not. What is he saying? If
I lied to you, you'd believe me. But because I tell you the
truth, you believe not. Same group of people that he's
talking to in this passage. He was, with this parable, declaring
that he did not give his life for their redemption, but for
the singular formerly blind man. this outcast. To explain the
attributes of that single elect sinner, he uses the analogy of
the shepherd and the sheep. He speaks to those who are not
sheep concerning the one man who WAS a sheep. He speaks of
the nine and nine who needed no repentance in Luke 15, about
the one lost lamb who He will search for until He finds it
and brings it safely back into the fold. He speaks to the righteous
that He said, I did not come to save you, but to call sinners
to repentance. The sheep are described as those
whom the shepherd knows personally, for it says he calls them by
name, he knows them lovingly, and they are the ones who hear
his voice. Now verse 6 says these people
were listening to what Christ said, but they did not hear,
they did not understand. because it wasn't given to them
to understand. It was given to this one blind
man to understand the mysteries of the kingdom. You see, the
sheep will hear his voice. In verse 4 and 5 it says, When
he put forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep
follow him, and they know his voice. They know his voice. And a stranger will they not
follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of
strangers. These are his sheep. Then in verse 27, He said, My
sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. There, the sheep are those for
whom Christ died. He didn't die for the whole world.
He didn't pay the sin debt for the whole world. He said He died
for His sheep. If that were some general statement,
we'd say, Well, I want to be a sheep. I'm going to become
a sheep. You don't become a sheep. You either are a sheep or you
ain't. One or the other. If that were some general statement,
people might include themselves. But remember, text is defined
by context. And here he's speaking to some
who he says are not his sheep about the one who is his sheep. That's the distinction that's
being made. There is no separation here between Christ and His work.
Look at verse 15. As the Father knoweth me, even
so I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. That is what He is saying. Now
who is He talking to? Well, He is not talking to these
that do not understand. He is not talking to these who
said, You believe not because you are not My sheep. What is
He talking about? He is talking about His sheep.
He's talking about the one man who believed on Him. The defining
of the Good Shepherd is that He gives His life for His sheep.
This is not a generic thing. He does not give His life as
a martyr or as an example, as some empty declaration of the
unrequited love of the Father. He gives His life. He lays down
His life. He sheds His blood to deliver
His sheep from the thieves and from the robbers. from the blind
who say they see, from the hireling. He gives his life for the sheep
that they would be delivered from the ravening wolves of religion.
He gives his life for the sheep for the glory and honor of the
Father. He gives his life for the sheep because he must bring
them into the fold. He said, I must bring them. He gives his life for the sheep
because he alone has the power to die and live again. That's
the language he used. Verse 16 says, And other sheep
have I which are not of this fold, them also I must bring.
They shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one
shepherd. Therefore doth the Father love
me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it up again.
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have
power to lay it down I have power to take you up again. This commandment
have I received from my father. He lays down his life for his
sheep because he knows them because they've always been his sheep
and their destiny is absolutely secure. It always has been. Verses
28 and 29, he says those who follow him, his sheep, I give
unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them
me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. I and my Father are one. They have always been His sheep.
Always. Every one for whom Christ died,
every sheep for whom Christ died, will be brought into the fold.
Every one of them. He would not be the Good Shepherd
if He did not give His life for the sheep. If He gave His life
for those He had rejected and who rejected Him, He would not
be the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd gives His life
for the sheep. He gives His life for the sheep
because that is what the Good Shepherd does. I do not know
how to say it in many different ways. To assert that Christ's
death was a generic effort to save all men is to disqualify
Him as the Good Shepherd. because he said the good shepherd
gives his life for the sheep. He's saying to these Pharisees,
these religious folk, that he did not lay down his life for
them. That's what he's saying in very plain language. Try as men may to make this say
something else, it still says what it says and it still means
what it means. He spoke to those who despised
him, those who presumed to possess spiritual understanding, those
who said they saw and refused to acknowledge their own blindness.
He told them, point blank, they're not his sheep. And therefore, he did not die
for them. And therefore, they would receive
no benefit from his death. because his death was not for
them. It was for the one lost sheep. You might say, how do I know
I am a sheep? Well, as the old fella said,
you'll know, you'll know, you'll know. If you and you hear the word
of God preached, you hear the voice of Christ
in your heart calling you to trust Him, calling you to enter
into the fold. How do I know I'm a sheep? Because
God has given me faith to believe that I'm a sheep. What a thing. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen.