I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of John chapter 10. John chapter 10. Let's ask our Lord's blessing
on the service tonight. Our Father, how we thank and
praise you for your goodness and your mercy. We ask you this
evening, Lord, bless the word, bless it to our heart and understanding. Cause us to be able to worship. Thank you for your presence.
These things we ask in Christ's name. Amen. There's times when a scripture,
a very familiar scripture, is brought back to our mind and
our heart by the Spirit of God, and it's brought back in power. It's brought back in assurance. It's brought back with an instantaneous
display of God's grace and you see it for a moment and for just
seems like a moment how you wish I could continually read and
hear and see like that. This morning I was reading and
I came across this passage, a passage of scripture that is so familiar. We've heard it so many times. But it's always such a blessing. It's verses 27 and 28 of John
chapter 10. I'd like for us to look for just
a moment at those two verses of scriptures and it's concerning
the eternal salvation and security of God's sheep. The Lord Jesus
Christ had told some Pharisees that when they questioned him,
they asked him, they said, why don't you be straight up with
us? Why don't you tell us the truth? Look at verse 24, 25, 26, then came the Jews round about
him and said unto him, how long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us
plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you,
and ye 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 of my sheep, as I said unto you." Now, I'll read that
passage of scripture, and I think, how horrible. would it be for a believer? A
believer is the only one who's going to understand it. But how
horrible that thought of hearing the Lord Himself say, and this
is a situation that's not going to change. This will never change. Sheep are sheep and they've always
been sheep. They're eternally sheep. And
for Him to say to them, are not of my sheep. And then he goes on and he's
going to describe the character. He's going to tell them how or
what you will notice about God's sheep. They say it. Tell us plainly. We don't understand what you
say. You're causing us to doubt. He said, I told you. and you don't believe, but you
believe not because you're not mine. He said in verse 27, now here
is that passage of scripture, two verses, 27, 28. Listen to
the words of our Lord. He said, my sheep, oh, the sweet reminder of electing
grace. How did they become sheep? He's got a sheep. He's got a
sheep fold. He's got a bride. He's got a
church. They are His beloved. They've
always been known by Him. The Father chose before the foundation
of the world a people for the Lord Jesus Christ, the husband. He gave him a bride. They are the sheep and he gave
them unto Christ as the surety. And here was the work that the
father gave unto the son. unto the surety himself, that
he should, by his own work, his power, his obedience, all power
was given unto him, that he should give eternal life to as many
as the Father had given him. And it was his duty, his work,
and he said, my meat, That which I feast upon is to do the will
of Him that sent me and to finish the work. He said at Calvary,
it is finished. What did He do? He redeemed. He paid the price. He paid the debt that was owed. He redeemed God's sheep. walked before God in absolute
obedience, never one time, word, thought, deed, disobeyed God
and God knew. And said, this is my beloved
Son in whom I'm well pleased. You hear Him, you hear Him. The
Lord told those Pharisees, He said, you don't hear, you don't
believe because you're not my sheep, my sheep, my sheep, my
sheep. Those that Christ eternally has
stood for. According to that everlasting
covenant of grace. Sheep! Those are the most helpless,
they're the weakest, they're the most foolish, and most liable
creatures to go astray. Sheep. They're just ignorant
creatures. They're ignorant creatures. And
that's the terminology. of God's people. He who has made
sin for them and answered for them. He said, My sheep, they
are His property. The Father gave them by gift. They're His by purchase and redemption
by His own blood. And there's something that's
very peculiar about these sheep. It's something that's amazingly
wonderful. They, the Lord says, hear my
voice. They possess a distinct quality
about them that it's unique only to the sheep. Only the sheep
can do this. They hear. They hear the voice
of the shepherd. They hear the voice of the master.
When he speaks, we read these scriptures. And there's people
all over this world that read these scriptures. Now, I've done
this. I've done this. I've read these
scriptures years, years, years ago. before the Lord was pleased
to call me out of darkness. I read these scriptures and all
I saw in these scriptures was my work, my free will, my ability,
my duty, my responsibility to do whatever was needful for me
to please God and to be saved. I could read that, I could read
that, and I could find that. in there and distort those scriptures
and make them say what I wanted them to say. But when the Lord
was pleased to call me out of darkness and unbelief and reveal
Christ in me, something changed. He in sovereign grace and mercy
was everywhere in those scriptures. The whole book took on a different
meaning to me. And I could hear the voice of
the shepherd. The Spirit of God in regenerating
grace gives something that is referred to as a hearing ear. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. Proverbs 20, the hearing ear
and the seeing eye. The Lord hath made even both
of them. Now what about these Pharisees? What about those that still are
sitting and listening to a message that gives honor all to man and
his free will his ability and brags on him and stuff. What
about that? Well, listen to Psalm 135, 17.
They have ears, but they hear not. Neither is there any breath,
any life in their mouth. Out of the abundance of a man's
heart, his mouth speaks. And the Lord said, those that
don't have ears to hear, there's no life, there's no breath. out
of their heart. There's nothing there. All but
for those given an ear to hear. An ear to hear God's grace. You listen. You listen. I had
a man call me today from Pennsylvania. And he wants to try to come down. I hope that he can. I know he wants to. He told me,
he said, I got your name from somebody else. And he said, I
wanted to call you and just talk to you. So we just talked for
just 15, 20 minutes. And he was saying that what has
been happening is, he said, I'm talking to preachers that are
telling me that it's my responsibility with my works to progressively He said, sanctification, better. And he said, it's just eating
me up. I told him, I said, listen, let
me tell you something. Sanctification is holiness before
God. Tell me how you're going to become
more holy from holy. As holy as God? How are you going
to get better? How are you going to justify
not by works of righteousness that we've done? We talked for
a few minutes and he told me, he said, I just have just had
the best time just being able to talk to somebody that just
has told me that I don't have to work my way to the Lord. He said, can I call you once
a week? I said, call me anytime you want to. Be glad to. Come when you can. My sheep hears
my voice. They hear the voice of the shepherd
who calls them and calls them by name. They know him because
he knew them first. They love him because he loved
them first. They come to him willingly with
a new heart because he came to them first. They didn't initiate
it. He did. They hear his voice. They hear him say, and they believe
this. You that know him, you know this.
You hear this. He said, I'll never leave you.
I'll never forsake you. Now, you know, I didn't come
up with those words. I'm just a repeater. I'm just
repeating. what the Lord has said. They hear His voice, they
attend to His voice, they consider what He says, they comprehend
the language of the shepherd. It's a language of mercy and
compassion. And they hear His voice when
He bids them believe. They believe! When he bids them
come, come unto me, all you that labor, heavy laden, I'll give
you rest. And they come, they come. They
said, Lord, I'm one of those. I'm labored, I'm heavy laden.
Lord, I've got some stuff, I got stuff. I got cares. They hear him, Lord, cast all
your care upon him. And I tell you what a believer
wants to do, he wants to do that, he wants to do that. He wishes
that he just leave it alone when he does it. That's what he wants.
That's my problem right there. I read that scripture. I want
to cast and I want to leave it there. I don't. I want to pick
it back up. My sheep hear my voice and then
he says, and I know them. I know them. You know what I
love considering knowing scripture like that? He knows that I am
dust. He knows that I am weak, that
I'm frightened. He knows, I know them. He knows us in the sense that
he has that perfect Peculiar, loving interest in them. I know them. Jeremiah, before
I formed you in the belly, I knew you. I know Jeremiah. I know Abraham. I know Carl Bourne. I know. I know Him in mercy and
grace. Listen, here's what the scripture
says that He knows concerning His people. Deuteronomy 7, 6,
For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. Lord, you're talking about us?
Yeah. Looked upon in His Son eternally,
eternally, eternally. How long? Has Almighty God saved
them? Always, always. Who has saved
us and called us. What came first? Salvation or
calling? Salvation. Who saved us and called
us with a holy calling. I know you. How is it that He
could look upon us being saved eternally, justified eternally? He saw the blood of the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world and trusted in Him.
It's done. It's done. Done from the beginning. All the mighty works of God.
Always. Always. I know them. Thou art
a holy people unto the Lord thy God, for the Lord thy God hath
chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people
that are upon the face of the earth. My sheep hear my voice,
and I know them. I know them in mercy. And listen
to this, and they follow me. God's regenerated sheep obey. They trust, they walk after Christ
by faith. They see in themselves, that
is in their flesh, there dwells no good thing. But I tell you,
those seeing in themselves that there is no good thing, they
follow Him. They do. They believe Him. They
follow Him as He leads providentially, admitting that in the midst of
all the trials and tribulations that the Lord has graciously
sent. That's something that I need
to be reminded of. That when I go through the things
that I go through, who's ordering these things? Who worketh all
things after the counsel of His own will? Who rules in the army of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth? Who is that? That's the shepherd. All power
has been given to him. And here's what a believer does.
He hears the master that follows him and he says this, I don't
have any other place to go. I have no other place. You, Lord,
have the words of eternal life. But that truth of them following
Him, we do follow. We do. We continue to believe
Him. We believe Him. But that truth of following Christ
has to do with duration also. Duration. They follow Him. God's
sheep, by the power and grace of God, because they're kept.
they endure to the end. If it was left up to them, they
wouldn't. The Lord said in Matthew 10, 22, you should be hated of
all men for my name's sake, but he that endureth to the end shall
be saved. Now let me ask you something.
Enduring to the end. Enduring to the end, believing
God, trusting Him. Does that mean that God's sheep
Never stumble. No, I'm so thankful that the
Spirit of God and wisdom put in these scriptures examples
of men, women, that the scriptures bears out. We're believers. You think about Noah. What happened as soon as Noah
got out of the ark? After he had been in that ark,
after it had rained 40 days and 40 nights, what happened? He
got drunk. Abraham, twice he denied that
Sarah was his wife because he was afraid. They would kill him for his wife. He denied twice. Moses. Moses was told by the Lord when
the children of Israel wanted water and they were complaining,
bickering. He said strike the rock. He struck
the rock and the water came out. What did the Lord tell him to
do the next time? Speak to the rock this time.
You don't strike it twice. Moses in his anger, mad at the
people because of their rebellion, he struck that rock again. And
the Lord said, you're not going into the promised land. David. Now this is a man, scripture
says, after God's own heart. He took another man's wife, committed
adultery, Then he murdered her husband. Solomon, David's son. The scripture said in his old
age, his heart was turned to other gods by his wives. Peter, one of the apostles, denied
the Lord three times. But let me tell you about all
these that I've mentioned right here. There's no record that
any of these ever perished. These were believers. Can a believer
stumble? Oh, my. Will they smart for it
for the rest of their lives? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. But let me
tell you. The Scripture says, Proverbs
24, 16, For a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again,
but the wicked shall fall into mischief. Those who are said
to follow the Lord, that follow Him, that hear His voice, they're
sinners. We don't justify any man's sin. We never do. Never. Shall we sin that grace may abound?
Paul said, God forbid. God forbid. We follow Him, though,
knowing something of our frailty. We know something of the tendency
of our own heart that tells us to leave. We got an old heart
that says, let's just leave. Let's go. They also know something
of the desire to be where the Lord is. Be where He's been pleased
to lead and follow. Why? They need Him. They need
Him. What did Job say? Though He slay me, yet will I
trust Him. But what if there's some that
are found to leave the place where the truth is being preached
and never return? Some that Don't continue. And die in that state. Die never
returning. I remember what Henry said. I've
told you this so many times. He said, never, never, never
forget the prodigal son. Never, never. When that boy came
back, his daddy saw him. Saw him afar off. And he ran
to him and kissed him. He said, you bring a robe. Get some shoes on this boy. Kill
the fatty cat. Put a ring. That's my boy. That's my boy right there. Which one of your kids would
you throw away if they came back broken? Just broken. I'm not even worthy to be called
your son, your daughter. I'm not worthy of that. Just
make me one of the hired help. I'd just be here. That's all
I want to do. Which one would you throw away?
You wouldn't throw any of them away. Keep them. Why? They're yours. They're yours.
My sheep, they hear my voice. I know them. And they follow
me. But if there's some that appear
for a while to be faithful, and they leave, and they never return,
and you never know, never know as long as there's life in their
lungs, as long as they're breathing. What if they do come back? You
say, oh, they left. I tell you, I don't give them
any hope. Well, who are you to judge another man's servant?
Who am I? What if they do come back? Wouldn't
it be wonderful if the Lord would save your kids, mine, my grandchildren? What if they don't come back?
Well, John said, it's because they were never of us. And that's
all we can say. That's all we know. hear my voice, I know them. They follow me. They follow me.
Martin Luther said this, the sheep, though the most simple
creature is superior to all animals in this, that as soon as they
hear the shepherd's voice, they'll follow no other. A sheep is clever
enough, Luther said, to hang entirely on his shepherd. He
may not be able to find a pasture. He won't be able to guard himself
against wolves, and he depends totally, solely on the help and
the voice of the shepherd. That's a quality that every believer
says, that's me. Not smart enough to get out of
the rain. Oh, the Lord may allow one to
stumble. Teach him, teach him through it. But I'll tell you
what he won't do. He'll never leave him to perish.
He said, my sheep follow me. They'll follow me. Then he said
in verse 28, and I give unto them eternal life. Life eternal is a present. It's a gift. It's a gift. It's
granted. I give unto them. eternal life. It is not something
that is earned by the sheep. No one born in Adam can earn
eternal life. I give unto them. I graciously, mercifully, compassionately
gift them pardon. I graciously give that which
they cannot have apart from me giving it to them. Not only in
this life, but in the life to come. I give unto them a life
that had no beginning. Eternal life. This was such a
blessing to me. I'm looking at the wording, the
definition here. A life that has no beginning. I give unto them eternal life.
It never started. And it certainly has no end.
It's always been and ever shall be, I give unto them eternal
life. We just happened to find out
about it when the Lord regenerated us and taught us and we heard
His voice. We heard the gospel and we realized what these scriptures
have been saying. But he said, I give that which
never started. The Lord has never changed, so
if he's looking at us now, satisfied in Christ, he's always been satisfied
in Christ. He's never saw his people any
other way, except in Christ. I give unto them eternal life,
and listen to this, and they shall never perish. Eternal life is that from which
no sinner, redeemed and regenerated by the grace of God, can fall. They cannot. They cannot. They'll never be cast away. Him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast him out. When He says they shall never
perish, When someone says you can fall from grace, they just
don't know what God says. You cannot be lost from Him who
has given life eternal. Perish here means to be destroyed,
to be punished in hell. That's what it means. And that's
not going to happen to the sheep. Why? Listen to the Lord, Matthew
18, 14. It is not the will of your Father, which is in heaven,
that one of these little ones should perish. It's not His will. And His counsel is going to be
done. And then He says, And neither shall any man pluck them out
of My hand. Eternal security, preservation
of the saints, is a scriptural truth. That's a truth. That first
song, Gary, that you sung just a while ago, just get ready,
just a minute, in closing, I'm going to ask you to sing that
again, that was such a good song, as he is. That is a truth, and there's
many enemies of the scriptures, I know, that will try to deny
this truth, and make man secure to be based on that man's work. It takes man's work to maintain
a life of faithfulness, but that's not what the Scripture says.
I give unto them eternal life. Sheep are known as those who
believe God. What is the work of God? What good work must we work that
we may have eternal life? This is the work of God. that you believe on him whom
God has sent. You believe him. That's it. That's it. And where
are you gonna get the faith to believe it? He gotta give it
to you. You don't even come up with that. We don't add anything
to salvation. They hear the voice of the master
who has declared unto the sheep that by sovereign electing grace,
they've been saved. They hear that. They know that.
You hear that voice, don't you? They're known by the Savior as
the ones who have everlastingly been loved and placed in His
care. The ones for whom He's died. They follow Him heartfully. And
though they stumble, you may never see the stumble of a believer. But I'll tell you what He does
in His heart. He knows it. He knows it. Lord, I thought
so disrespectfully of you. Lord, that which I failed, that
which I should have done, the sins of omission, not only commission,
but omission, what I should have done, what I should have said.
Lord, I'm so sorry. They stumbled, but I'll tell
you this, He said, they'll never, never perish. Neither shall any
man pluck them, neither shall any man draw them away out of
my hand." Oh, last scripture, there's no doubt, 1 Peter 1,
turn there with me. 1 Peter 1. No doubt, because
of the fiery darts of Satan and the taunts and the jeers of this
world, the world that will tell you that to believe this gospel,
you're foolish, you're foolish, you're foolish. I'm telling you. Though those taunts and even
the doubts of our old man cause us to wonder, are we really safe? But His Word is sure. 1 Peter
1 verse 1 to 5. I'll just read this in closing.
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers. scattered throughout
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Listen to
this sweet part. Elect, according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. I think the Father
says, when I see the blood, I can't see the blood on me. I believe
it so because I believe Him, but He sees it. Grace unto you
and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, has rebirthed us, birthed
us again unto a living confidence. by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, as God raised Him as the first fruits,
I believe He's going to raise me. A living confidence by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ to an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. My sheep, hear my voice. I know them. They follow me. And I give unto them eternal
life. And they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. Lord, bless these words to our
heart afresh. for Christ's sake and our good.
Amen.