going through the gospel of John,
but I want to preach out of John this morning, but I'd like to go over into chapter 10 of John
and look at a passage of Scripture. I started thinking the other
day about And I've entitled this message, What Does It Mean to
Follow Christ? John 10, verse 27, says this,
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. Let's pray together. Our Father, it's so good to be
able to pray. Lord, the blessing of the grace
of faith to believe You. Lord, believe that You hear and
that You care, that You know, that You've given us this time
to be able to be at this place and to worship. Lord, help us. We are needy people. And we realize
that we can't even hear, spiritually hear, unless you teach us. Lord,
grant us faith today to believe. Faith for today. We thank you for the scriptures.
Bless them to our hearts, we ask for Christ's sake. Amen. In this passage of Scripture,
the Lord makes four references. Four times He makes reference
to Himself. It's what He says, My sheep. hear My voice and I know
them and they follow Me. If the message is not concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ, His honor, His glory, His praise, If the
message is not concerning the glory of Christ, it's not the
gospel. Our Lord is going to reveal something
about what it is to follow Him. I read that the other day and
I got to thinking, We hear these things. How many times do you
hear things like, well, you know, the sheep follow Christ? And
everybody says, well, that's right, that's right. What does
that mean? They follow Christ. My sheep hear my voice. What
does it mean to follow Christ? To follow Him? Well, before I
consider that last part of that one verse, that's what we're
going to look at, one verse in this first service. Before I
consider what it is to follow Christ, I'd like to consider three other
points concerning those that follow
Him. Number one, Those that follow
Him are, according to our Lord's
words, His sheep. Those that follow Christ in regenerating
grace. Now, I realize before they're
regenerated, they don't follow. They're children of wrath just
like others. That doesn't mean that God's
wrath is on them. God's wrath has never been on
the elect. Never. It means that they have
an attitude of wrath toward Him. They're children of wrath, even
as others. They're objects of God's affection.
Those that He's everlastingly loved. They are His sheep. Now, I know this. I know that
there are some that are born into this world that are not
the sheep of God. If you look at verse 26, it says
the Lord is speaking to some Jews and He told them, but ye
believe not because you are not of My sheep as I fed unto you. When did He tell them that before?
He just said He told them before. When did He tell them? Well,
turn back to John 8. John 8, verse 42. Jesus said unto them, If God
were your Father, you would love Me. For I proceeded forth and
came from God, neither came I of Myself, But he sent me. Why do
you not understand my speech? Even because you cannot hear
my word. You can't hear it. Why? Well, they don't have ears to
hear. I know that. I know they're dead
in trespasses and sins. But he told them, explained it. Over in chapter 10, verse 26,
he said, concerning those that he told him, he said, You cannot
believe. And the reason he did that, he said, because you're
not a machine. I'm going to tell you something. Almighty God is sovereign. He does as he will. with whom
He will, when He will, how He will. And we don't have any right
to question Him. Can the thing formed say to Him
that formed it, why have you made me thus? Those that God Almighty never
gives grace, to believe Him. Those that die in unbelief were
never His sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow. All God's sheep will die following
Christ. They will. Now the truth of the
Lord Jesus having a sheep having a people is taught throughout
the Scriptures. There are many references. I picked out some. I know they're referred to as
His people. Psalm 110.3, Thy people shall be willing in the
day of Thy power. Have you ever noticed how emphatic
God's Word is? This is not iffy. This is not
hope. It's not the Lord is going to
have a people and then one of these days, glory, there's just
going to be a lot of empty spaces there. I wish they'd have come. No. All that He's everlastingly
loved are going to be there. Thy people shall be willing. They're referred to as the elect,
Romans 8.33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge God's elect. People by nature, they hate that
truth of God's sovereignty. But God has a people. He has
an elect. How about this one? The Beloved.
2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, But we are bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. Because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Just people. The elect. The beloved. How about this one? Psalm 89.3.
I have made a covenant with my Chosen. I have sworn unto David
my servant. Spiritual David. The Lord Jesus
Christ. God Almighty has a people. They're His sheep. Everlastingly
loved, chosen in Christ, given to the Lord Jesus Christ in electing
grace. And He, as their surety, has
eternally stood for them and answered for them. They're His
sheep. My sheep. Here's the second thing
I know about those that follow Christ. They're sensitive to
His communication. He said, My sheep hear My voice. The world will always try to
put a carnal twist on Scripture. Always try to make it a carnal
thing. Hear the voice of God. Now, I'll
tell you this, there's times in Scripture when men did hear
The voice of God, a voice from heaven spoke, this is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. Saul! Saul, why persecutest thou
me? There has been. But I'll tell
you this. These Scriptures reveal right
here that God's people hear His voice. And I know men will mock
and they'll say, well, you know, I've never heard the voice."
Well, that's because he never spoke to you. God's people, not
carnally, not with a carnal, corporal ear. I'm not, I'm talking,
but I'm telling you that God's sheep, based on the authority
of the Lord Jesus Christ's Word, He said, they hear my voice. Listen to this Scripture. in
the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 5.24, Behold, the Lord our God
has showed us His glory and His greatness. We've heard His voice
out of the midst of the fire, and we've seen this day that
God doth talk with men, and He liveth. Now therefore, why should
we die? God Almighty, He speaks. and the sheep hear His voice."
Now, hearing the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ means that
a man or a woman is alive spiritually. They are not dead anymore. The hearing ear, the seeing eye,
the Lord hath made even both of them. So to be able to hear
His voice means that He's quickened us to life. He's got to make us alive first
because we couldn't hear. You have to be quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sin. Now, here's the question. How
do they hear? Now, you know they hear. He says
they do. My sheep hear my voice. They hear His voice in the preaching
of the Gospel. Now, this is a spiritual hearing. It's a spiritual understanding. Providentially, they hear His
voice in His dealings with them. The Lord has dealt well with
me, David's sin. They hear. They hear in their
heart. They perceive. Many of them heard
with a corporal ear while the Lord was walking and never heard
Him. You can't hear my words. That's
what He said. They heard what He... I mean,
they heard words. It wasn't that they didn't hear. Men hear words
right now and don't hear the voice of the
Master. It's that still, small voice
that's heard by faith. And I'll tell you how you know
when you're hearing the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. What
you hear preached or spoken is consistent with this. If it doesn't
line up with these words right here, it's not the voice of the
Master. What sayeth the Scriptures? Hear my voice." There's the written
voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you hear the actual speaking
of His Word, and the Spirit of God tells you, that's so. That's
so right there. If you hear me say something
and you know that it is inconsistent with the Scriptures, you're thinking,
that's not the voice of the Master. The voice of the Master is going
to be heard because He's going to send a preacher. And that preacher is going to
stand before God's people, a frail creature in Himself, and He's
going to say what God Almighty has said. People say, well, I'll tell you
this, Marvin, you're just too hard. You're just too narrow. If I am any more narrow or any
less narrow than this Scripture, may God have mercy on me. We don't have time. We don't
have time to fool around. The day is far spent. The night
cometh when no man works. That's what the Lord said of
Himself. They hear His voice. They discern the truth as the
Spirit of God bears to them the voice of Him. And I'll tell you,
the sheep discern the difference between the voice of the Master
and the voice of those that are strangers and hirelings. Men
will stand up and they'll have everything else to talk about
and it's all religious foolishness. We've got about
9.30 in the morning until 11 o'clock in the morning here on
a Sunday morning. We don't have time for foolishness. What does the voice of the Master
say? Tell me what God Almighty has to say. So I know this, that
those that follow Him, They're His sheep and they hear His voice. And here's the third thing I
know about them. The Lord says, I know them. I know them. He knows His sheep because, number
one, they are the gift from His Father. The Father gave them. The Father chose them. The Father chose the people before
the foundation of the world and gave them to the Lord Jesus Christ as the Father's gifts. The Lord
said, I know them. John 17, 6, I have manifested
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. He knows them as the Father's
gifts. He knows them as objects of His redemption. As the Father
knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life
for the sheep. I know them. I know who they
are. I know them by name. And I'll tell you this, He knows
them by personal surrender that they have to Him. Now, you can write this down. No one
comes to the Lord Jesus Christ unless the Father draws them.
No man can come except the Father which has sent me drawn. No one
comes unless Almighty God makes them willing in the day of His
power. But I will tell you this, all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me." They come. He knows them by personal surrender. My sheep hear My voice. I know them. And here's that
part I want to make a few statements on that will be done. And they
follow Me. Five truths. that distinguish
the sheep that follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Five truths. What
does it mean to follow Him? Well, I'll tell you the first
thing I know it means. In following the Lord Jesus Christ,
it means that the sheep love Him. They love Him. Do you know the one that you'll
follow after is the one you love? We love Him because He first
loved us. We follow after Him because the
love of God constrains us. Here are some of God's elect. Here are God's people. And you're
thinking, what does it mean to follow after Christ? You're here. Why? Because it's just you didn't
have anything else to do? God Almighty Who knows? He may be pleased to call out
one of His own. He may be pleased to bless His
Word today. But for those that God has called
out of darkness, you know why you're here? Following Him. Following
Him. Here's the ordained assembly,
the first day of the week. We've assembled ourselves together.
Why? God may say something to me today. God Almighty may be pleased to
talk to me. Who knows? We follow Him because we love
Him. Secondly, I'll tell you why we
follow Him, because we trust Him. Are you going to follow somebody
you don't trust? Get out there and get in the
middle of the woods or something like that. And somebody says,
well, let's go this way. Have you ever gone that way before?
No. Do you know where you're going? No. Well, how do I know
where you're going? Well, we've got to do something. But if I'm talking to somebody
and they say, listen, I'm going to tell you something. I've been
here. I know where I'm going. Now, you follow me. Well, I know
I don't know. And so the thing is, I follow
Him because I trust Him. He's never disappointed me before. Has He ever disappointed you?
I'm talking about the Lord. What has He ever done that has
disappointed you concerning His goodness and mercy, grace? David
said, Lord, You've dealt well with me. Listen to Job. Though he slay
me, yet will I trust him. Who else are you going to lay
your hope upon? By His grace, we see His mercy
in every trial. I read something last night.
I can't remember now if it was Mr. Hawker or Mr. Jay But he
was talking about, he said, if we see the hand of the Lord in
every trial, in every chastisement, in every trouble that we suffer,
if we can see His hand and know this, that He does all things
well, we'd settle down right there. Is the Lord going to draw His
own to Himself? Did He not say, Father, I will
that those You've given me, be with me where I am." Come what
may, what is the issue? The issue is the glory of Christ,
not mine or yours or my feelings, your feelings. Do we trust Him? We follow Him. We love Him. We
trust Him. Many of them didn't follow Him
anymore when He told them. No man can come except it were
given unto him of my Father." Many more. They said, I don't
think I can hang with that anymore. I can't handle that. And they followed him no more.
He asked his disciples. He said, Will you go away? Will
you leave? You remember what Peter said.
Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that
Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God." Where are
you going to go? Where are you going to go? We
follow Him because we love Him and we trust Him. The third thing
about following Christ is to obey Him. Obey. Obedience. begins in the heart. Obedience begins in the heart.
Romans 6, 17, But God bethanked that we were the servants of
sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine
which was delivered unto you. From the heart. We seek Him in
His Word. We strive after obedience. Not to establish a righteousness,
but as an evidence of our love and our trust. Listen to what
David said. Psalm 119, 105. Thy word is a
lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path. I heard Brother Henry Mahan say
something one time. I read it. He said this. He said,
if you have questions, He said, find a place where the gospel
of God's grace is faithfully preached and stay there. And he said, in time, all your
questions will be answered. The Scriptures deals with all
the necessities of this life. What are we supposed to do? The
Scriptures deals with it. Now, I'll tell you this. You
know and I know that no man, no woman is ever going to be
established in righteousness by what they do, because of what
they do. But I will tell you this, those
that God saves by grace, they walk and strive after obedience
to the Master. Is it right? Is it right that
we hear His gospel preached? Yes, sir. It's right. It's good. Do we feel as though
that we have established or maintain a righteousness because we do
it? Absolutely not. But we walk after Him. To follow
Him is to love Him, to trust Him, to obey Him. I'll tell you
the fourth thing about following after Christ. It's to believe
His Word. Believe His Word. Believe. Believe his gospel. Believe his
report. No one follows Christ that disbelieves
the gospel of God's free grace. Nobody follows Christ. John 5.24, Verily, verily, I
say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him
that sent me. Before I read the rest of that
scripture, Let me just stop right here and make one statement about
this. He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent
me. Did the father say that he had
chosen a people? Did the father say that he chose
a people? Yes, he did. He that believeth
on him that sent me. have everlasting life and shall
not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. We follow, believe, obey as needy
sinners and beggars." Oh, I think about that Syrophoenician
woman. This was the one that the Lord
said, Oh, great faith. She asked the Lord to come heal
her daughter. He said, It's not neat to take
the children's bread and cast it to dogs. But she said, Truth,
Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the master's
table. It's to believe Him. What is
it to follow Christ? Love Him. Trust Him. Obey Him. Believe Him. These
are all things. Really, you can't even separate
them. They go together. I mean, I have to break them
down because we break them down. But they're together. Why do
you trust Him? You trust Him because you love
Him. Why do you strive after reading His Word? Because you
love Him. Follow Him in your heart. We
follow after Christ. in our affection for Him. We
follow Him. Long after Him. Long to hear
of Him. And fifth, lastly, to follow
Him is to be consistent toward Him. Consistent. Believers are consistent, first
of all, in prayer. And when thou prayest, thou shalt
not be as the hypocrites are. They love to pray standing in
the synagogues and the corners of the streets. that they may
be seen of men, enter into thy closet, shut thy door, pray to
the Father which is in secret." Get in a place where it's quiet,
where it's alone. Turn TV off. Get someplace where
there's nobody there. I understand we come together
here and we assemble ourselves together I'll call on somebody
to pray in a closing prayer, opening prayer. That's hard. That's hard. It's hard to pray
openly and just be totally honest. There are some things I'll say
to the Lord that I'll be honest with you, I just wouldn't say
in front of you. I just wouldn't want to say them. There are just some things that
just burden me about myself that I just wouldn't want to share
with you. To get somewhere, get along with
Him, and pray in secret. And pray often. That's scriptural. Pray without ceasing. God's people
follow after Him. They want to talk to Him. Find a time. You've got to go
to work early. Get up a little earlier. This
is just stuff that all of us need to hear. Spend some time
with Him. Be consistent in prayer. Be consistent in hearing the
gospel. I've told you this before. I
so desperately need to hear what I preach. I need to hear this. This is not my message. It is. It is my message. Paul says our
gospel, but it's the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ given to
us. It's ours. It's ours. But we're not the
source of it. But this is a way in which God
speaks in a special way. There's something I've said before. I've got so many CDs and tapes
of you giving me. Brother Henry's, Brother Scott's,
different preachers. And I love popping in there. And sometimes I can listen to
it for five minutes. Sometimes the whole message just
depends on where I'm going. And I really enjoy being able
to listen. I really do. But I'm driving
down the road. And I need to watch what I'm
doing, you know. And there's cars passing me.
And there's things going on around me. And it's wonderful. It's
wonderful. To be able to have it. But I'm
telling you, there's something about the assembling of ourselves
together. He said, where two or three are
gathered together in my name, I'm in the midst of you. There
is something special. And it's all concerning Him. Be consistent in hearing the
gospel. To follow after Christ is to
be consistent. Consistent in prayer. Consistent
in the hearing of the gospel, not forsaking, Paul says in Hebrews
10, 25, the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some
is, but exhorting one another as so much the more as you see
the day approaching. And the day is approaching. The
day is approaching. We're closer to dying than we've
ever been before. Assemble yourself together. Make
sure that everything else revolves around the worship of God. Don't
let the worship of God revolve around everything else. Everything
else revolves, for a believer, around the worship of God. I've
said before, I understand. Look, I mean, we all, you know,
we take time off and take a vacation. Some of you, I know some of you
have got to work. I know that. I'm not talking
about that. I'm talking about when you can. When you can. Let everything else revolve around
the worship of God. Be consistent in prayer. Consistent
in hearing the gospel. Consistent in the study of scriptures.
We pray together. Take your Bible. Open your Bible. Look at the Word of God. Read
it. That's why a lot of times I'll
tell you, take this and I want your eyes to look at the scriptures. Read the Scriptures. And if I'm
saying something that I can't back up, be consistent in prayer. The Lord said, when you pray,
be consistent in hearing the gospel. The Spirit of God said
through Paul, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves. Consistent
in the study of Scripture. Here's the Scripture I picked,
Acts 17.11. These were more noble than those
in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness
of mind and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were
so." I'm not coming up with something that's off the top of my head. I'm telling you, I'm just setting
forth what we all need to hear concerning the Scriptures, prayer,
hearing the gospel. Believers follow Christ as they're
led by the Spirit of God. They follow Him in heart. They
follow Him in affection. David said in Psalm 119, 5, Oh,
that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes. Oh, that I
would. Lord, help me. I'll be honest
with you. I don't want to be inconsistent. Well, let me say it like this.
I see my inconsistency. And I hate it. I hate it. Oh, that the Lord would direct
me to walk consistently as His servant, as a needy beggar. Just, Lord, help me. You're the master. Where's your
sheep? I've heard people say, you know,
talking about sheep. by the most ignorant things you've
ever seen in your life. They're foolish. They just wander all over the
place. Just leave them alone. And I'm telling you, sheep, what
an affectionate term. I mean, the sheep of God. But when you look at what a sheep
really is, they're wayward. Just leave them alone. They'll
just wander off. Just keep wandering until the
shepherd goes and calls them. They hear His voice, recognize
His voice, and they come back. Isn't it wonderful to be able
to have a heart, an ear, to hear the voice of the Master? My sheep,
they hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Lord, speak to me. Help me. Help me for Christ's sake. Help
me for my good. Help me for Your honor. May the
Lord bless these words to our hearts for Christ's sake. Amen.