It is good to be here. Turn with
me please to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. Now there's
two sections here I'd like to read, Lord willing. And we'll start with verse 14.
Lord Jesus Christ is speaking. And Christ says, I am the good
shepherd and know my sheep. and am known of mine. As the
father knoweth me, even so know I the father, and I lay down
my life for the sheep. 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. Please move to verse 25. And
Jesus saith unto him, I told you and you believe not. The
works that I do in my father's name, they bear witness of me.
But you believe not because you're not of my sheep, as I said unto
you. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me. And I give unto this sheep them
eternal life, and they shall never perish. And should now
any man pluck them out of my hand, my father which gave them
to 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. Please bear with me. I was thinking
about this. Many years ago, there was a gospel
preacher who was a missionary in Spain. And gospel preachers
from the states would come over there and preach for them. They'd
go from town to town. And he said, I remember one time
we were going to a town, we crested a mountain, and I looked down,
I seen something I'd never seen in my life. The whole pasture
was covered with animals. I said, what is that? And he
said, well, those are sheep. There was thousands and thousands
of them. And he asked, he said, is that one man sheep? He said,
no, that's many different shepherd sheep. They put them together
at night so they can protect them and care for them. He said, well, how do they decide
who's who's in the morning? He said, oh, that's simple. One
shepherd gets out there and he calls out, whoo. And he said,
you'll see his sheep come out of the fold. Another one does
the same. I said, why is that he calls
those sheep? No, they're shepherd's voice. And they'll follow him and only
him. No extra ones come out, none
are left behind. That's the comfort we have. Our
shepherd, when he calls, we're going to come out. And for those
who are yet to be the lost sheep, they're going to come into the
fold before this is wrapped up. And the challenge I have and
the challenge to you this morning is, when we leave here today,
whose voice did we hear? Did we hear the voice of man
or did we hear the voice of God? I pray, I entrust that I know
will. Christ will be declared this
morning, but it's God speaking through a man. Please join me
in prayer. Lord, we are so thankful that
you provided this opportunity to come this morning. And we
pray for your servant, Brother Greg, and your other gospel preachers
that you would send your spirit to them. Give them the ability
to declare Christ and him crucified, to do it simply, boldly, truthfully,
not holding anything back. And we pray for your people that
you would send your spirit to us and give us the ability to
not only to hear but to believe, to love your gospel, and a willingness
to defend it when lies are told about it. And we especially pray
this morning for those lost sheep. Oh, that today might be the day,
Lord, when you bring them to yourself. And we pray that you
give us the ability to give you all the glory. Amen. Let's all stand together again.
We'll sing the hymn that's on the back of your bulletin, the
hymn on the back of the bulletin. O Lamb of God, still keep me
near to Thy wounded side. Tis only there in safety and
peace I can abide. What clothes and snares surround
me, what loss and fears within? The grace that sought and found
me, alone can keep me clean. It is only in Thee, hiding, I
know my life secure. Only in Thee, abiding, I steadfast
shall endure. Thine arm the victory gaineth
for every hurtful foe. The love my heart sustaineth
in all its care and love. Soon shall my eyes behold thee
with rapture face to face. ? The half hath not been told
me ? ? Of all thy power and grace ? ? Thy beauty, Lord, and glory
? ? The wonders of thy love ? ? Shall be the endless story ? ? Of all
thy saints above ? Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me to 1 Samuel chapter 31. 1 Samuel 31. We are coming this morning to
the end of King Saul's life. Many gospel types and pictures
we've seen now over the last several months as Saul and David represent for us such glorious
pictures of our Lord. As tragic and faithless as Saul's
life and death were, the Lord has given us, in the death of
Saul, one last picture of Christ. Revelation chapter 19, the scripture
speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ as being faithful and true. Faithful and true, that's the
title of this message, faithful and true. I wanna be faithful,
but I know that in my heart there's so much unbelief and faithlessness. I wanna be true and truthful. But again, I know in my heart
that every man's a liar and how easy it is for me to present
things in such a way as to make myself look better. We need an
advocate with the Father who is full of faith. He is faithful. As Psalm 15 says,
to his own hurt. A man who is faithful to his
own hurt. Have you ever, maybe you're gonna
sell something and you make a verbal agreement with someone to sell
it for a certain price, but before you close the deal, someone offers
you a much, much better price. What do you do? Faithfulness is faithful to its
own hurt. And keep your word. May God give us that kind of
faithfulness. But that's what this verse says
in Psalm 15, that the Lord Jesus Christ was faithful. He was faithful to his Father.
He was full of faith. And in the death of Saul, we
see a picture of that. You have your Bibles open with
me to 1 Samuel chapter 31. Now the Philistines fought against
Israel, verse 1, and the men of Israel fled from before the
Philistines and fell down slain in Mount Gilboa. And the Philistines
followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons and the Philistines
slew Jonathan. That's a sad word right there,
Jonathan. What a blessed man he was. What
a beautiful picture of Christ he was and the church he was
and his relationship with David. He dies at the hands of the enemy. and Abinadab and Malchishua,
Saul's sons. And the battle went sore against
Saul and the archers of the Philistines hit him. An arrow found King
Saul. He's mortally wounded. He doesn't want the Philistines
to make sport of him. He doesn't want them to glory
in his death. And so being mortally wounded,
he says, unto his armor-bearer, draw thy
sword and thrust me through therewith, lest these uncircumcised come
and thrust me through and abuse me." The word there is mock me. He was more concerned about the
glory that they would take in having slain the King of Israel
than the physical torture of his death. The mocking is what
he wanted to avoid, but his armor bearer would not, for he was
sore afraid. Therefore, Saul took a sword
and fell upon it. Put the handle of his sword to
the ground and turned the blade toward himself and fell on his
own sword. A fitting testimony of a life
of faithlessness and tragedy and yet a glorious picture of
what the Lord Jesus Christ did in his death The sword in the
Bible is clearly time and time again representative of the Word
of God. The sword of the Spirit is the
Word of God. The first mention of sword that
we have in the Bible is found in Genesis chapter 3. when after
Adam and Eve were cast from the garden, God sent a cherubim with
a flaming sword at the east gate to the garden. Now east in the
Bible has to do with entrance just as the sun rises in the
east. And what was that flaming sword
there to protect? The scripture says that it turned
every way to keep the tree of life. The tree of life clearly
a picture of Christ. He's that tree of life. In the
book of Revelation we find him as the tree of life on both sides
of the river. You and I still have to pass
through the Jordan River, the river of death. But the tree
of life is on both sides of the river. It's on this side of the
river It bears fruit in its due season and it's on the other
side of the river where its leaf never withers and we eat of its
fruit 12 months out of the year. And the sword, the flaming sword,
was to keep the tree of life. Same thing's true today. God
sends his angels with a flaming sword, turning every which way
to give access from the east of the garden to the tree of
life. There's no coming to Christ apart
from the revelation that God has given to us by his word. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. God uses the foolishness of preaching
by his messengers to give access to the tree of life. How necessary
God's word is, how important it is that we find ourselves
like Mary sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, choosing
that one thing that's needful. the word of God. That's what
the sword is in Revelation 19 where the scripture says that
his name is called faithful and true. The Bible says that the
word that his, it also says in that chapter that his name is
called the word of God and out of his mouth goes a sharp sword. His word. And it is word. Hebrews chapter
four speaks of the word of God being sharper than any two edged
sword dividing asunder the thoughts and the intents of the heart.
It is God's word that he uses to speak truth to the hearts
of his people and to divide them from the rest of the world and
to divide them to themselves, to show them by the authority
of God's word that left to themselves the thoughts and intents of their
hearts are only evil and that continually and that the word
of God must must speak truth to our hearts to give us faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ who himself is the one who is faithful
and true. Over and over again in Revelation
chapter two when Our Lord is rebuking the church at Pergamos
for tolerating false preachers in their church. He says to them,
I will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. In other words, he's saying to
the angel of that church, you preach the gospel. And it will
be effectual in fighting against those who are bringing in false
doctrine into the church. Had a group of people, matter
of fact, Sarah Lenore leaving this week to go back to Pennsylvania.
The group they were part of, I met Sarah 20 years ago, almost,
and maybe not quite that many, but close to it. First time I
went up there and met with that group, they had just come out
of a legalistic reform group that was cracking the whip of
church discipline on everybody and keeping everybody under the
law and putting the fear of the elders in everybody's heart.
And it was interesting to me. The very first question they
asked me when I got up there and met them, they said, how
do you all practice church discipline? your church?" And I said, well,
we practice it every time we come together. Boy, their eyes
got big and they all thought, boy, this is a really super spiritual
group of people. They practice church discipline. He said, how do you do it? I
said, well, I get up and I preach the gospel and God's children
are corrected and the unbelievers eventually leave. And that's what the Lord said
to the church at Pergamos, I will rebuke them with the sword of
my mouth. Oh, the word of God, how precious
it is, how perfect it is, how powerful it is. It gives faith, it rebukes, it
corrects, It cuts away. The Lord Jesus said, I did not
come to bring peace. I came to bring a sword, to divide
families, mothers from daughters and Husbands from what? It's the Word of God that does
that, isn't it? When God speaks His Word to the
hearts of His people, they believe it. They rejoice in it. They
delight in it. That Word becomes their life. They don't separate the written
Word from the living Word. It reveals to them the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in who they believe and what
they believe, There's a sword. There is a division. And the Lord said, by your words,
you shall be justified. And by your words, you shall
be condemned. And that's not just speaking
of every idle word that proceeds out of our mouths. How many idle
words we all speak every day? If God held us in judgment for
that, then none of us would have any hope. He's talking about
what we say about Christ. Who he is and whose son he is. And what he accomplished in the
salvation of his people. That he's the living word of
God that became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory
as the glory of the only begotten of the Father. The one who himself
is full of grace and full of truth. What do we say about Christ? And an example of that in the
life of David and Saul would have been Goliath. Goliath was
blaspheming against the God of Israel. And David, as a representative
of all of Israel and a picture of Christ, went against this
giant and slew him with a rock. Well, David, the scripture says,
stood on this giant's body and took the giant's own sword and
cut off Goliath's head with his own sword. By your words, by
what proceeds out of your mouth, by what comes out of the heart,
the mouth speaketh. What say ye about Christ? Those who deny Christ his glory
in salvation, By their words they'll be condemned. By their
own sword will they be judged. May God put his word in our mouth
and cause us to agree with him about Christ, about ourselves. Scripture says in 1 John 1 verse
9, if we confess our sin, what is it to confess our sin? Is
it to make a list of all the sins in our hearts? There's no
time nor ability to do that. You don't know all the sins of
your heart. And the ones you do know, you don't have time
to write them all out. That word confess in 1st John
1.9 means to speak the same thing. To speak the same thing. In other
words, to use your tongue to just repeat what God's tongue
has said. What? Lord, everything about
me is sinful. And if you confess your sin,
He is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and cleanse
you of all of your unrighteousness. And so faith just agrees with
God. It speaks the same thing that
God speaks about ourselves, about God, about Christ, about salvation,
and by your words you shall be justified. Awake. O sword, against my shepherd,
smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall scatter." The Lord Jesus Christ, in His
faithful obedience to His Father, and in the faithfulness of his
covenant promises. Before time ever was, the Lord
Jesus Christ entered into a covenant relationship with his father
and promised his father to become the surety of his people. That
was before the fall. That was before the creation
of angels. That was before time. That was in eternity past. What
happened on Calvary's cross? The Lord Jesus Christ, no man
took his life from him. He laid down his life. Can we
not see how that the Lord Jesus Christ fell on his own sword? To keep his promise to his father,
to keep all the promises of his word. He suffered to his own
hurt, that which was required if he was to remain faithful.
Oh, what a faithful savior we have. Turn with me to Ephesians
chapter one. Ephesians chapter one. Verse 7. In whom? In Christ. We have redemption. Through his blood. The forgiveness
of sins. According. To the riches. Of his grace. It was the sword of the spirit. The Word of God. That was sheathed
into the heart of the Son of God in order to shed precious
blood. The Lord didn't allow those Roman
soldiers to put him to death, to take credit for having slain
him. When they got to the Lord, they
saw that He was already dead. They didn't have to break his
legs like they did the other two thieves on the cross, that
they might not be able to hold up the weight of their bodies
and expand their lungs to grasp for that final breath of life.
They broke their legs and they were forced to collapse and to
suffer painful suffocation. To the contrary, the Lord Jesus
Christ cried with a loud voice." Now, if you've been at the death,
at the bedside of a dying person, you'll know that you have to
put your ear to their mouth to hear the faint words that they
might want to speak to you as they're departing this world.
They have no strength. They have no power in themselves.
They can barely express themselves. The Lord Jesus Christ in a loud
voice, the Bible said, cried from the cross, it is finished. Father into thy hands, I commend
my spirit. And he gave up the ghost. He would not let these Philistines
take his life. He fell upon his own sword. He
kept his promises to his father and he died a perfect death. accomplishing the salvation of
his people. Look at verse eight, wherein
he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having
made known unto us the mystery of his will according to the
good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself. It was his purpose
to die. No man took his life from him.
He came into this world to die, to testify to the truth and to
conquer the grave and to defeat Satan. That was his purpose. When he was on the Mount of Transfiguration
with Peter, James, and John and Moses, the Law, and Elijah, the
prophets appeared unto him, and his countenance was as the noonday
sun. The radiance of his deity shined
forth, so that Peter, James, and John were forced to bury
their faces in the dirt. And he spake the Lord Jesus with
Moses, the law, and with Elijah, the prophet, those things which
he should accomplish in his death at Jerusalem. His death was an accomplishment. It was a purpose that he purposed
in himself. He purposed it by his word and
he died a perfect death, faithful, faithful to his father, confident
that he had done everything that he promised to do. He fulfilled
all righteousness. He said, I did not come to destroy
the law, Moses, I came to fulfill it. And he was obedient unto
God, even unto death. And so his death was a fulfillment
of the law. All the precious promises from
all the prophets of God pointing to Christ, he accomplished. Oh, what a glorious death he
died. Putting a mangled body of the
Lord Jesus on a cross and calling it a crucifix and getting men
to feel sorry for him is not why he died. He did not die for
your pity or for my pity. Matter of fact, when he was bearing
the cross to Mount Calvary, there were some women that were weeping.
He stopped. He had already been beaten. He
had been up all night. He was a bloody mess. His visage
was not even that of a man. They had ripped his beard out.
He had a crown of thorns. And they wept for him. And he
stopped and he said, weep not for me. Weep for yourselves and
for your children. Don't feel sorry for me. I'm
not doing this for your pity. This is my purpose. This is what
I came to do because I pitied you. That's why I'm dying. Oh, what a glorious death. He
fell on his own sword. And he makes known unto us the mystery
of his will. Verse 10. Ephesians 1, that in
the dispensation of the fullness of times, that's the cross. Everything from eternity past,
not just from Adam and Eve, but from eternity past to eternity
future. Eternity future, no end in heaven,
everything points to the fullness of the dispensation of time. The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ
is the purpose for everything. People wonder, what's the world
all about? What's really all about? What's
my life all about? There's your answer. It's about
the cross. It's about what the Lord Jesus
accomplished at the cross and the saving of his people. and
everything else is a drop in the bucket. The nations are not
fit to be burned, the scripture says. It's all about Christ and
Him crucified. It's all about His faithfulness. It's all about His death. And the reward that He earned as a result of his faithfulness
in his death, the spoils of war, his church, and the evidence
of that success being his resurrection. Oh, what a glorious Savior. You see, in all the shame and
sorrow of Saul's unfaithful life and death. God has given us one
more picture of our Lord and what he did to keep his word,
to be faithful to his Father. In the dispensation of the fullness
of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ,
both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him."
All about him. In whom also we have obtained an
inheritance. Nothing can be added to what
he did. He fulfilled the word of God
when he fell on his own sword. being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory. I want you to notice the last
phrase of verse 12, who first trusted in Christ. And as Paul's saying to the church
at Ephesus, we trusted in Christ before you did. We brought you
the gospel. That's true. But who is it that
first trusted in Christ? Was it not his father? Was it not the surety that the
Lord Jesus made to his father when he said, hold it to my charge
if I bring them back not unto thee. And the Lord Jesus was faithful. He was faithful to his father
who first trusted in him. The Lord Jesus chose the time,
the means and the method of his own death. And in his perfect
time, He gave up the ghost. He's the only one that could
die like this. You and I are not going to die
like this. What is our hope in death? That
his death is my death. His perfect death is my perfect
death. and as imperfect as my death
in this world might be, I have the hope of knowing that God
Almighty reckons His death as my death. He was faithful to His Word,
falling upon His own sword. His life had served its perfect
purpose. His death accomplished the perfect
will of God, the salvation of his people. His work was finished. He could not and need not add
another breath to what he had done. It was time. The fullness of time had come.
And he cried, Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit. The Bible says, who can find
a faithful man? Now, who doesn't want to be called
faithful? We want to be faithful to our
promises, faithful to our relationships. But think about that word with
me for just a minute. Faithful. If something's full, there's
room for nothing other than what's there. Our faith is so incomplete. Our
faith is so imperfect. We bear in our bodies so much
unbelief. When we would do good, evil is
ever present with us. The Lord Jesus Christ had nothing
but faith. Who can find a faithful man? There's only one. There's only
one. The only one who kept every word
that he ever spoke, every purpose he ever purposed,
he accomplished it perfectly. The Bible says it is required
of a steward that he be found faithful. Now all the children of God are
stewards, we've been given a precious treasure in an earthen
vessel that the glory and the power might be of God and not
of us. I want to be a faithful steward. If I am, it'll be by
God's grace. It'll be by God's power. Because
if I have to depend upon this earthen vessel for my faithfulness,
it's not going to happen. The Lord Jesus Christ was faithful. He came as a steward of his father,
the purpose of saving his people, and he was full of faith. You
and I must cry, oh Lord, help thou mine unbelief. He never
had to cry that. Never was there a thought of
unbelief in his heart. He was faithful. Turn with me to Revelation 19.
Look with me at verse 10. John encounters an
angel. And this angel is so magnificent
and so glorious that John falls at this angel's feet to worship
the angel. And I fell, verse 10, at his
feet to worship him. And he said unto me, see thou
do it not. I am thy fellow servant and of
thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God for the
testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. In the volume of the book it
is written of me. It's all about Christ and his
faithfulness. And in his death, He was faithful
to his word. And I saw heaven open and behold
a white horse. And he that sat upon him was
called faithful and true. Oh, and in righteousness he doth
judge and make war. In righteousness He offered himself
to his father on Calvary's cross. He made a sacrifice of himself
for sin and he satisfied all righteousness and the father
was pleased with what he offered. In his eyes was a flame of fire
and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that
no man knew but to himself. And he was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood. And his name is called the word
of God. Here's that word. Here's that
flaming sword. And the armies which were in
heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen,
white and clean, and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, and
with it that he should smite the nations, and he would rule
them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of
the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on
his vesture and on his thigh a name written King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. And I saw an angel standing in
the sun and cried with a loud voice saying to all the fowls
that fly in the midst of heaven, come and gather yourself together
unto the supper of the great God. Faithful. Oh, how faithful he was. and
true. Truth is often hard to figure out in this world. There's different opinions and
even nuances to so many things like politics and economy finance and education. The Lord Jesus Christ, when you hear the truth about
Him, you just know it's true. When you saw what God said about
the sword of the Spirit being the Word of God and see what
Saul did and what the Lord Jesus did, that's so true. That's so glorious. Yes. Yes,
He's faithful. how simple the truth is to ears
that are able to hear the truth. You know, this world is full
of relativism. You know, whatever you think
is true. You know, one man's got a different truth than another
man's got. That didn't start with our generation.
That goes all the way back to the fall. That goes all the way
back to the garden when when Satan said to Eve, did God really
say? You know, let's talk about it. There's some different nuances
to this thing. You know, this is open for interpretation. God was, that's why men love
political speech, because it gives everybody an opportunity
to make it mean what they want it to mean. But you speak simply
and clearly about something and men will hate you for it. Oh,
but the truth of the gospel. Men have always wanted to negotiate
the truth. When the Lord Jesus was standing
before Pilate and Pilate asked him, are you a king? We just
read he's king of kings and Lord of lords. And the Lord said, To this end
was I born and for this cause came I into the world to bear
witness unto the truth. And they that are of the truth
hear my voice and they follow me. The Lord had just called that
woman, that Gentile woman, a dog. And what'd she say? Truth, Lord. Truth, Lord. That's what I am. Could I just have some crumbs
from the master's table? You see, when God speaks, it
doesn't matter what he says. You just believe it. You know
it's true. And that That woman with the
issue of blood that had to crawl through the crowd in order to
get to the Lord's touch to him of his garment, she told him
all the truth. All the truth about her uncleanness
and all about her inability to help herself and how dependent
she was upon him and his mercy. All the truth. If you know the
truth, truth sets you free. You don't have to be a victim
to your own opinions or the opinions of the world or the, you know,
the whims of society. You know the truth, you know
Christ. And he is faithful and true. Faithful and true. Will you lead me also? Lord,
to whom shall we go? Thou alone hast the words of
eternal life, and we know and are sure that thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. You've shut us up to yourself.
We can't find the truth anywhere else, anywhere else but in thee. Proverbs chapter 23. Verse 23,
buy the truth and sell it not, and with it, get wisdom and instruction
and understanding. The Lord Jesus Christ is faithful, full of faith, and he himself
is the truth. Oh, what a glorious Savior. Where are we going to go? Where
else are we going to go? We've got no place else to go. Our Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you for the death, the
accomplished death of thy dear Son. Thank you for his victorious
death and resurrection. Thank you for the truth. Lord, we're so full of unfaithfulness
and we're so subject to lies. We pray that you would speak
truth to our hearts and cause us to hear thy voice and to follow
thee. We ask it in Christ's name. 18 in the spiral hymnal. Let's stand
together. Sorry. Sing the refrain as if it was
just verse two. God gave his holy inspired word
for only one great head. ? The prophets and apostles too
? Reveal the sinner's friend ? The Bible is a book of Christ
? It only speaks of him ? On every page it shows us Christ
? ? It only speaks of Him ? ? The prophecies of old record ? ?
God's wondrous mighty deeds ? ? Those deeds of power and of grace
? ? The full conceit ? ? The prophets
all reveal our Lord ? ? As prophet, priest, and king ? ? The tithes,
the great redemption show ? ? Christ blood and grace now bring ? ?
Behold the Lamb, the Baptist said ? ? The sin atoning one
? As it was promised long before,
God's Son as man has come. Our substitute obeyed the law,
then died and rose again. And in His word our Savior said,
Rejoice, I come again.