Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the Gospel according to John
chapter 10 and reading for our text verse 16. Gospel according
to John chapter 10 and verse 16. And other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall
hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. John chapter 10 and verse 16. There are several aspects that
weigh upon my spirit concerning this word that is before us. The first is this, that the Lord
is saying that he has other sheep. Other sheep. We might be feeling
at the moment, we are not one of the Lord's sheep. We are not
part of his fold. Maybe think the Lord's passed
right over us, forgotten us. But the Lord says, other sheep
I have. He speaks also of the must. I must bring these other sheep
something the Lord must do, something laid upon Him, His work to do. And then we're told how He shall
do that. They shall hear my voice and
there shall be one fold and one shepherd, a picture of the one
true Church of God. Now the immediate application
here, the Lord is speaking to the Jews, this fold, his own
people, his ancient people, he came unto his own. But there
is another fold, And that is the Gentiles. The whole of this
chapter is under the parable, the type of a shepherd with the
flocks, with the foals. And the Lord here is using that
illustration to illustrate here are the Jews, and here are the
Gentiles, and he must bring them as well. They won't be just two
separate folds, they shall be one. The barrier taken down,
one fold. Moreover, they shall have one
shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is spoken of as the Good Shepherd. In verse 11, I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. You would remember that the Jews
to whom he is speaking these things, this would have sounded
very strange teaching. They were under, and even the
apostles later on, still the darkness as to what the Lord
had in view and planned for the whole world, the Gentile nations. We would wonder at it because
of what is written in the prophets, what was said of the angels when
our Lord was born. But all of these things were,
as it were, under a shade. They weren't clearly known. And
the Lord here is opening up Himself in His own teaching. What now
in the preaching of the Gospel is very clear. Paul made very
clear when he wrote to the Ephesians and the breaking down of the
middle wall of petition between us. that those that were once
afar off are now made nigh by the blood of Jesus Christ and
His speaking of the Gentiles. How necessary it is through the
Word of God, Old Testament and new, that every nation and kindred
and tongue may know that right from the very beginning God's
plan was that the Word should go forth into all the world and
to every nation. and every people. And so that
is the special way that this verse is meaning. Other sheep
I have, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring,
and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and
one shepherd. And in these gospel days, we
know that the Christian faith The faith of God's elect, the
faith that is set forth in the Scriptures of truth, once delivered
unto the saints, says Jude, is that which goes forth into all
the world. One King, one Shepherd, one Redeemer,
one Saviour, one way of salvation, and one true Church of God. Another thought Our text says, other sheep I
have which have not of this fold. We can think of folds in a gospel
day as being individual churches, as being perhaps a denomination,
those where we might say, well, this is a fold, this is a group,
unidentifiable group, whether it be a church under a pastor
or a group of churches even as our denomination. And it's good
for us always to remember this, other sheep I have. The Lord
never condones that narrow thought or a thought that we are the
people. There's none other but us, none
other but our a church or congregation, none other but our denomination,
the Lord says, other sheep I have. And this is taught in many parts
of the Word of God. And we know that throughout the
world, there is the Lord's dear people in many, many different
denominations, you might say, many different gatherings. by the One Spirit and they will
see eye to eye on the essential matters of salvation, redemption
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And so it's good
for us to remember that and to look for the people of God, remember
when the Gentiles were brought in That which sealed it with
Peter was he saw the same blessing upon them. He saw God's work,
he saw the Spirit's work, he recognised it. He said, who was
I to forbid water when the same Spirit, the same blessing fell
upon them as on us at the beginning. And that's what united him to
them, them to him, and that's what May the other disciples
realize and say, then hath God also granted unto the Gentiles
repentance unto life. And it is those important, vital,
central truths that grant a repentance unto life, a true believer in
the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to then look, with the
Lord's help, and break up the words of our text. Firstly, them,
also others to be brought in. And then secondly, the I must
bring that our Lord says in our text. Other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring. And then thirdly,
the one true church, that one fold, one shepherd. But firstly, the words of our
Lord, them also. Other sheep I have, them also. You know, this is a great encouragement
to those that feel to be without. Those that feel shut out, or
not part of the Lord's fold as yet. What would it be if we were
told, well the Lord has already gathered in those that are His? Remember once we a Jehovah's
Witness has come to the door. The young chaps they were, and
I said to them, well I said, there's no hope of heaven for
you, is there? They said, what do you mean?
I said, well the teaching of your church is that it was for
144,000, and that's already made up, so no heaven for you. And they didn't know how to answer. But what would it be said if
it was that, well, the churches are full? The last baptising,
that was the last one. There's not going to be any more.
There's not going to be any more converted. And if you were not
converted, if I was not converted, if I was not in the fold, that
would leave us in despair. But when the Lord says, other
sheep, them also, And he says, I'm other sheep I have. He has
them already. They are his, chosen in him from
the foundation of the world. They already belong to him. But he says them also. As I was meditating upon this
word, I went through the scriptures in my mind, And some of those
them also's. You think of Rahab. There is Rahab in Jericho, and
the children of Israel are coming through. She remembers, and they
did in Jericho, what God had done for them in bringing them
through the Red Sea. And she said to the spies that
their hearts were failing them for fear, They would have failed
a lot more when they saw the River Jordan stopped up the same
way, to know the power was still the same, God was still with
them after 40 years. We're told in Hebrews that it
was by faith, Rahab, she hid the spies. It was by faith that
she was separated, her and her house, from those in Jericho,
all those that were brought into her house, sheltered there, the
skylit line put in the window, God's protection over them. Now they're on the wall and yet
with Jericho the walls fell down flat, not that part of the wall
dead. The Lord honoured that promise
that the spies gave her. Them also, Rahab was one of the
people of God. One of those that was, you might
say, completely outside of Israel. What right had she to Israel,
to the people of God? And yet God brought her in, and
not only that, she is in the line to Christ. Then Mama went to Ruth. There
she is in Moab. And the Moabites were not allowed
to come into the tabernacle of the Lord for 10 generations.
They were, as it were, a cursed people. But in the providence
of God, God overruling, Nehemiah, Elimelech, going into Moab in
the time of famine. And there, two boys marrying
those two girls, Orpah and Ruth. And Ruth, she cleaves to Naomi. Naomi loses her husband by death. Ruth loses hers, all for hers. And the Lord so ordered it, that
Ruth is brought out of Moab, and brought into Bethlehem, and
then brought to be married to Boaz, and again, in the line
to Christ, them also. You might say, how far outside,
if you look at and surveyed Israel and surveyed the countries round,
and there is that one soul in Moab, and she is amongst the,
them also, of the Lord. We think of the mad Gadarene
in our Lord's day, when our Lord had to go over the sea to that
man. No man could tame him, them also. The woman of Samaria, he must
needs go through Samaria. You say, of course he did. If
you look at the map and you see where Samaria is and where the
Lord was traveling, then he must go through Samaria because his
route must have gone through that. But there's another reason, and
that is because there was the Samaritans there, particularly
the woman that came to the well to crawl water. How the Lord
revealed himself to her, began to speak to her, and to bring
out from her that desire for living water. And then when she
desired it, he said, go call thy husband, and come hither,
and she says, I have no husband. And the Lord said, thou sayest
well that thou hast no husband, for thou hast had five husbands,
and he whom thou hast is not thy husband. In that thou sayest
truly. And she says, I perceive that
thou art a prophet. Now Lord, eventually he told
her very clearly that he was the Christ. The one thing she
knew of the coming Messiah that was when he came, he would tell
them all things. And the Lord said, I that speak
unto thee am he. And so then she comes to her
people and says, come see a man that told me all things that
ever I did. Is not this the Christ? She doesn't
tell them directly. This man has said that he is
the Christ, but she puts before them what he said to her, and
they go out and hear him as well. Many of them were brought to
believe. Them also. Samaritans, the Jews. She said, the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans. What are you talking to me for? And yet those then, you might
say God's people, They can't be saved. They're beyond it. They can't be redeemed. The Lord
says, no, them also. What encouragement we have of
those that seem to be so outside. We think of the trial that the
Lord gave the woman, the Syrophoenician woman, the woman of Canaan. She
came worshipping Him, saying, Lord, help me. You know, at first
He never answered her at all. Then the disciples, they said,
send her away. She crieth after us. They couldn't
help her. And He says that He's not sent,
but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In other words,
you are not of this fault. I'm only sent to the Jews. And she comes, he says, it's
not meant to take the children's bread and to give it unto dogs. She's still not put off. She
says, yea, Lord, truth, Lord, the dogs eat of the crumbs that
fall from the master's table. And the Lord then said, woman,
great is thy faith, be it unto thee as thou will. She sought
healing for her daughter, but she was seeking to the Lord and
she wanted that blessing. The Lord gave her faith, He tried
her faith, and it's a real example to all that would feel out of
the secret, separated from the people of God, not a child of
God, not one of His people, to keep pressing, and to keep coming,
and to keep pleading, and to give not way to any no, but oppressed
the case, shows forth the reality of our need. You know, Peter
says, and the Lord said, will you also go away? He said, to
whom can we go? And I believe these that we mentioned,
they had no other to go. And if you and I have no other
to go and are convinced to know that the Lord is the Christ,
the Son of the living God, there is no other. author of eternal
life, no other one we can come to but Him, then we will not
be easily put off. May this then be an encouragement
not to despair, not to give up, not to think that, well, there's
no hope for me. Especially if you realize you
are without. Realize, like Ruth said, actually,
when she who is brought back, and with talking to Boaz, she
says, Why? Why takeest thou knowledge of
me, seeing I am a stranger, and that I am not like one of thine
handmaidens? She realized the difference.
And if you and I realize that we are different than the Lord's
people, that we are, as it were, an outsider, We are not party
to the secret of the Lord. We're shut out. Then this is
an encouraging word. The them also. We could include
Saul of Tarsus in that way. The pricks that he had. The Lord
meeting him on the Damascus road. Even the one that was persecuting
the people of God. He's numbered amongst the them
also. that are brought into the fold,
into amongst God's people, not destroyed, not separated, but
brought in. Well, he might say then, that
them also I must bring. The must of the bringing. There's
two things that I desire to bring before you in this Second point,
and that is the must and then in the bringing, how are they
brought? The first is this, other sheep
I have 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. You know, it's set before us
as something the Lord must do. The Lord must perform. It's not only that they must
be brought and brought into the fold, but who must do it? It's not put in this way, them
also must get themselves into the fold. And that's set forth
in that way. Then also I must bring a work
of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. Why must He do it? Well, one
reason is they were given Him by the Father to redeem. They were chosen in Christ from
the foundation of the world. Another reason is that He has
bought them. He says very clearly that He
lays down His life for the sheep. Not just of one fold, but of
the other folds, and those other sheep, all of the sheep. And
so that is why they must be brought into the folds. There is a reserved place in
heaven for them. I go to prepare a place for you,
and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. That's another reason why they
must be brought. In Jeremiah we read, Yea, I have
loved thee with an everlasting love, and therefore with loving
kindness have I drawn thee. Because of the love of the Lord
to his people, he must bring them. Because of his name, his
name, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins. And bringing into the fold is
saving from their sins, to bring them in to the church of God,
setting them amongst the children, and redeeming their souls, bring
them to be called by His grace, born again of His Spirit, to
be brought. And who does this? I must bring,
because by nature they are dead, dead in trespasses and sins,
incapable of bringing themselves. Who would think of a shepherd,
that was supposed to be a good shepherd, that if he had one
of his sheep that got stuck in the ditch or got tipped upside
down and couldn't right itself, that said, well, if that sheep
can't help itself and can't get itself up and can't get back
into the fold, then I'm not going to do it. The whole work of the shepherd
is to go out and find the one that is lost, and to bring it
in. And the more wounded, the more unable to do it for themselves,
the more needed for that shepherd to do it. The Lord is able to
save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by him. And it
is the Lord that saves His people. The crown is to be placed on
His head. He shall save His people. He
shall bring them. He shall be bringing them as
those of His trophies of grace, as the evidence of His work. Behold, I am the children whom
Thou hast given name. the certainties of redemption,
particular redemption, a particular people, a people that are saved
by the almighty power and grace and mercy of God. I must bring, He must do it. If He does not do it, then no
one else can do it. No one else could have tamed
the mad Gadarene. No one else could have wrought
those works for Rahab or Ruth. It is the crown that is on the
head of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. No man is able to redeem, to
save his own soul. and the Lord always is first
in salvation. In one of the beautiful musts
of the Word of God, that which is bound upon the Lord Jesus
Christ to do, there shall not be one left behind of his dear
people, chosen in him and loved from everlasting, and there shall
not be one got in that was not chosen and was not called by
Him come up some other way, no. All have come through the one
way and through the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Some would
say, well, the work of our Lord was done upon the cross and now
it's up to us and that we must do the next part ourselves. And the Lord stands helplessly
by until we ask Him to do it for us, and then He cannot do
anything until we do that. But here is a certainty, a certainty
of salvation. And I would say this especially
to those for whom this verse is to be a real encouragement.
are those who know the worth of their own souls, or the souls
of their loved ones, and those that feel themselves outside
the fold, those who feel the pull of their old nature, the
pull of the world, their need of being brought amongst
the people of God, their need to have the blessing of this
spirit bearing witness with their spirit that they are a child
of God. Those who cannot say, well, what
will be, will be. If I'm saved, I'm saved. If I'm
lost, I'm lost. If you can have that attitude,
you know knowledge of your soul's need at all. But if you are concerned,
I believe this, the Lord is already bringing. The Lord is already
working. The Lord already has brought
a concern. The Lord already has opened ears. I want to think how, how the
Lord does bring. And he must be right from the
very start. Bring from death, bring from
far off from him. We sang in our first hymn, how
we are by nature, at peace with hell, with God at war. In sin's dark maze, he wandered
far. And I've said many times that
when I was in my unregeneracy, and we learned that hymn as children,
And I questioned with my mother that it was wrong. It should
be not at peace with hell, but at peace with God, with hell
at war. I had no idea of my own wicked, evil heart. No idea of
how hostile I was to the Lord. Well, I was. And those that are
still dead in sin, they do not realize how sinful they are How
alienated they are from the Lord. How that in their own works,
in their own righteousness, they cannot stand before God. They
don't realize it. But when the Lord begins to work,
then they do. Then he shines his light in their
darkness. And so the first bringing is
a ring to spiritual life. I give unto them eternal life. They shall never perish. Neither
shall any man pluck them out of mine hand. That blessing of
life from the Lord is absolutely vital. Was in the natural creation. Could the world give itself life? Could man give himself life?
Man was formed to the dust of the ground and God breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life. We need that saying. Breath of
life. Thou hast said, Peter, the words
of eternal life. And so in bringing to spiritual
life, which in other parts, in chapter three of John, the Lord
speaks of it as the new birth. He must. It's another one of
those times when the Lord is putting the must. He must be
born again. How is that birth brought? Born
again of the Spirit. for it is like the wind. They
hear us, the sound, they know us not, whence it, whither it
cometh or whither it goeth, so is every one that is born of
the Spirit. So gently, so distilling, so
quietly, that that soul is quickened unto life. They are given feeling,
they are given ears, they are given a concern, they are given
desires, they are given to see, and so to Realize where they
are spiritually, and what the condition of their soul is. Old things are passed away, all
things become new. You know, I believe this, that
once a soul is quickened into life, though it may perhaps try
to smother it, yet that life will always break through. It
will always bear a testimony and a witness that that which
has been shown them is true and is real. Reading Ezekiel, turn
again. Thou son of man, thou shalt see
greater abominations than these. And it is the work of the Lord
to show our need of salvation. Show how low we are, how far
off from the Lord we are. The Apostle Paul says how it
was in his case that the Commandment came and sin revived and I died. That which was ordained unto
life I found to be unto death. The first work of the Lord in
bringing His sheep is to bring down fuss, to convince of sin
and to bring to have a need. And so He uses in that way, He
uses the Word of God. That's why in this passage. The Lord gives again and again
this evidence of His sheep. My sheep, they hear my voice. In other words, we would say
this, those that are not my sheep do not hear my voice. Those that
are not my sheep, they do not hear the Word of God, they do
not hear the Bible, they do not have it applying to their soul,
their case, their situation, their life is always someone
else or they just read it and it just goes right over their
head and they don't realise the import of it at all. I've used
this illustration before here. If we were planning a journey
and, well, if the Lord will, I hope to go and preach down
the West Country this week. We're planning that journey,
we hear the weather reports, and reports of possible snow,
or someone might tell us those things, and we say, oh yeah,
that's fine, that's going to happen. And then they turn around
to us and say, did you hear what I said? I said that there's going
to be snow down in the West Country. And you say, yeah, I hear. But do you really hear it? Do
you know what that means to you? You're planning a trip down there.
That's going to affect you. And so we can hear something
and yet fail to connect it with what we're doing, fail to connect
it with our plans or our own situation. We can hear of hell
and we don't connect it to ourselves. We can hear of judgment to come
and we don't connect it to ourselves. We can hear of those that are
dead in sin, just subconsciously, that's not us. And we can hear
the way of salvation, the work of the Spirit. You say, yeah,
I've heard that many, many times. But wait a minute, you've got
a soul, and you need the Spirit's work. And we can hear, but not really
realize that that applies to us. That we're not only just
standing as a bystander and commenting on the race, we are running the
race that is set before us. So when it is that the Lord gives
life, then that word is first start to be heard. And heard
is applying to us. Because he says, my sheep, they
don't just hear my voice, they follow me. It has an effect. It doesn't just leave them where
they are. That which the Lord has done
at Calvary, the paying the debt, the suffering of the wrath of
God in the place of His people. That which He has done means
that He can most sovereignly give eternal life to His people
and He can loose them from the pains of hell and the pains of
death. He can open their eyes and open
their ears And the promise is that all thy children shall be
taught of the Lord, great shall be the peace of thy children. And the most central thing in
what the Lord does in his bringing of his people is through the
Word of God. That is why that charge is given
to us in the ministry, preach the Word. It hath pleased God
through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. The
Lord Jesus Christ thanks that word, an effectual word. It was
to the Thessalonians, the gift of the Holy Spirit, I pray the
Father, he shall give you another spirit, tarry at Jerusalem, till
he be endued with power from on high. The Thessalonians, the
word came, not unto them in word only, but in demonstration of
the spirit and of power. So that is the first way the
Lord brings, the most important way, central way, is through
the Word of God. But it is also through a path
of experience. We read this, if we go back to
the prophecy of Isaiah, in Isaiah 42, and we read there, the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ, in verse 6, I, the Lord, have called
thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand, will keep thee
and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light to
the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes. This is the other flock
and this is the prophecies concerning it as well. To bring out the
prisoners from the prison and then that sit in darkness out
of the prison house. I am the Lord, that is my name. My glory will I not give to another,
neither my praise to graven images. No other person to open blind
eyes. No other one to bring prisoners
out of the prison house. No other one to bring us out
of darkness. We're in darkness. That work
is the Lord's. This is the gospel. This is the
good news of the gospel, that what the law could not do and
that it was weak through the flesh, God, God has done in His
beloved Son. He works that salvation in our
hearts and forms a people, says the hymn writer, for His praise. When we feel ourselves so blind
and such prisoners, to sin and in darkness. What a message of
hope this is in the Gospel. Then we read later on in verse
16 of that same chapter. And I will bring the blind by
a way that they knew not. I will lead them in paths that
they have not known. I'll make darkness light before
them and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them
and not forsake them. This is the gospel, what the
Lord will do. I will bring, I will lead, I
will make darkness light before them. These things will I do
unto them and not forsake them. They looked unto Him, their faces
were lightened. For every sin-sick soul, for
everyone in bondage and darkness and sin, I point you to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is able to save unto the uttermost. He is able, and He will, He must,
for His own honour and glory, turn the captivity of His people
and bless them, And this is the hope, them also. What if it was put the other
way? It's all in your hand, your power, your mind. What if we
were to come to someone that was very sick, and instead of
pointing them to a good physician and a good surgeon, say, you
must, you must do it. You must perform it. When the
Lord gives light, when he gives a hearing ear, what that ear
hears is where there is salvation and where there is hope. You
know, when Paul spoke to those in Romans 10, they were going
about to establish their own righteousness, they weren't listening
to the gospel. They didn't have need of it. They thought they could do it
themselves. The hymn writer says, sinners
can say, and none but they, how precious is the Saviour. In the following chapter in Isaiah
43, in verse 8, we have here, Behold, bring forth the blind
people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears. Let all the nations be gathered
together and let the people be assembled, who among them can
declare this and show us former things. Let them bring forth
their witnesses, that they may be justified, or let them hear
and say, it is truth. I, even I, am the Lord, and beside
me there is no saviour. This is the work of the Lord
in salvation. This is how the Lord brings his
dear people. On to look then in the third
place of this one true church, one fold. Our text says, They
shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. There is only one true church. A people, an innumerable people,
that were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world,
they are the same people that when the world shall be no more,
they are the innumerable people in heaven. In between times,
They have been born into this world at a time appointed by
the Lord, all of them dead in sin. They have been born in different
countries. They have been quickened and
called in different ways and by different means, but all through
the Word of God and brought to a saving knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ and to trust in Him and Him alone, shelter beneath
His precious blood, have no other plea but Him. And He has gathered
them into local churches, gatherings of His people scattered throughout
the earth. And though they are local churches,
they're all, as it were, self-governing, one little type of the one true
church. And it is in that way the Lord
does gather them, gathering them by profession of faith, by baptism,
gathering them round the Lord's table. And those little flocks that's
gathered right throughout this world are part of that one true
redeemed church. It is called the Church Militant,
it is called the Bride of Christ, that which he speaks of in Paul's
epistle to the Ephesians, the church likened to a husband and
a wife. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Notice
he's spoken of one church, not just one gathering, but the church
that he might sanctify. Again, it's the Lord's work.
that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water,
how? By the word. Again, there's the
word. That he might present it to himself,
a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish. This is that
same church that John saw in vision coming out from God in
Revelation chapter 21. I saw a new heaven and new earth,
first heaven and the first earth were passed away, there's no
more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city,
new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as
a bride adorned for her husband. The church of God, the one fold,
the one true church, What a blessing, as the Lord gathers his people
through death and brings them to glory, and at last that church
shall be complete in heaven. Gathered from all quarters, we
sigh, but what a blessing to be amongst them. Psalm 84 says,
he shall give and what the Lord works in his
people. No good things shall he withhold
from them that walk uprightly, walking uprightly according to
the gospel, putting the crown upon the Lord's head alone, walking
in the fear of the Lord, walking in the hope of the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Whom shall we go? Thou hast the
words of eternal life. Jonah said, as he cried to the
Lord out of the whale's belly just before he was delivered,
Salvation is of the Lord. May we be persuaded of that as
well, gathered into the folds, gathered into the one fold, and
to be under that one Shepherd, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. And other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring, And they shall
hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. The Lord grant us to be part
of that one fold. The Lord be our shepherd. To
say with David, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.