chapter of the book of John. Our Lord said in the seventh
verse, And then said Jesus unto them,
Again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the All that ever came before me
were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door, and by me, if
any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out
and find pasture. The thief cometh not but for
to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I am come that they
might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Let me talk to you a little bit
here this evening about this verse. in the tenth chapter of the book
of John that says, I am the Good Shepherd, and know my sheep,
and am known of mine. Now, think about it. He said, the Lord's Christ said, I am
the Good Shepherd. I read to you where it says in
verse 11, I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd giveth
his life for the sheep. And the opposite of a good shepherd
is one that's a hireling, but he that is a hireling, he works
for wages, and not the shepherd who's owned the sheep or not. The sheep doesn't belong to him. seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth
the sheep, and runs away. And the wolf catcheth them, and
scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because
he is a hireling, no interest in the sheep, and careth not
for the sheep. But the Lord said, I am the good
shepherd. and know my sheep, and am known
of mine." Well, these verses that I've read,
and some here that I haven't read, but maybe I will read,
tell us, for one thing, the great reason for which the Good Shepherd
came into this world. It tells us why he came. He did
not come to be only a teacher of a new morality. That was not
his reason for coming. That was not his purpose for
coming. He did not come to be an example
of holiness and self-denial. That was not the reason. He did
not come as a founder of new rules and
ceremonies. That was not the reason for the
Good Shepherd in coming into this world. Now, he left heaven
and walked upon this earth for approximately 33 years for a far higher end than any
of these things that I have thus far mentioned. He came here to establish a righteousness
for his people whereby they might be saved, the good shepherds. He came to live for his people,
the people that the Father gave him. He came determined to save
them from their sins. Our Lord Jesus came to give of
himself all that he was, God and man in one person, and fulfill
the divine law of God, every precept of that law, every jot
and every tittle of that law, and bear the curse of that broken
law, and die a criminal's death, and be buried in the earth for
three days, and rise again and go back to his Father in glory. And in doing so, by the shedding
of his blood, by his suffering and by the paying
of our debts, satisfying every charge against us, establishing a righteousness
that would gain us favor with God forever and forever. That's why he came. And that's
the reason why he's called the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd said he knew
his sheep and was known of his sheep. So this Good Shepherd
came to procure eternal life for his people. And to procure
this life for his people, he must meet the price And the price,
the demand of holy justice and law was his own vicarious death. Now, Moses came and he brought
laws and rules and ordinances and ceremonies. Now, we must not think, though,
here at the outset of this we must not think that eternal
life was entirely unknown until Jesus came. That would not be
a fact of truth if we arrived at that conclusion, because David
and Moses and Abraham knew by type and shadow that there
would be one who would come, a Messiah. And it would be a
man, and he would die the sinner's death, and pay the sinner's debt,
and save the sinner. They understood that. and knew
that. So the way of life by faith in
a Savior was a way well known unto Abraham and to Moses and
to David. A redeemer and a sacrifice was
the hope in those days of all God's children, from Abel down
to John the Baptist. But their vision was not entirely
clear and certainly was not perfect. They saw afar off. They saw these
things in outline and not completely. The Savior, the Lord Jesus, was
that which made all things clear. That is, when he came, he cleared,
he gave light and more vision of what they had in the Old Bible
or the Old Testament through the sacrifices and the tithes. So the coming of our Lord Jesus,
the Good Shepherd, was to make all things plain and cause the
shadows to flee away and to reveal the Good Shepherd who said, I
am the way and the truth and the life and no man comes unto
the Father except by me. Now, life and immortality was
brought into the full life by and through the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ. and nowhere else, nowhere else
confined to the gospel. So he says here, who is the gospel? He said, I'm the good shepherd.
And he said, I know my sheep. Now, he knows all his believing
people. So if you and I here this evening,
are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior of sinners,
realizing and understanding that we are sinners and we will perish
without a Savior. But we believe the testimony
of God concerning His Son, that His name shall be called Jesus
and He shall save His people from their sins. So we have become
believers and followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. He knows all
of his believing people. He knows everyone here this evening
that names the name of Christ. He knows if you are a believer
or not. And if you are a believer, in
the Lord Jesus Christ, then He is your Good Shepherd. He knows
all of His believing people. He knows their names. He knows
their families. He knows where they live. He
knows their circumstances. He knows their background. He
knows their downtimes and their uptimes. He knows their history. He knows their experience and
experiences. He knows that. The Lord Jesus
Christ is perfectly acquainted with everything about you and
I. He knows our thoughts before
they become thoughts. There's not a thing about the
least or the lowest of his people that the Lord Jesus Christ does
not become familiar with. Our ups and our downs, our down
sittings and our uprisings are going to the left, are going
to the right, are going straight forward, and are going backwards. He knows all about it. He said,
I am the good shepherd and I know my sheep particularly and completely. I know my sheep. Now, if you
and I are believers, which most of us profess to be, that ought
to be a comfort and joy to our poor hearts to know that we have
a good shepherd that knows all about us, knows our weakness,
knows our strengths, knows every single solitary thing about us. There's not anything about us
that he does not know plainly, and he has known it throughout
eternity. And in spite of what we are,
yet he is our Good Shepherd. Ah, listen, the children of this
world may not know God's people, and certainly they cannot know
God's people as God knows His people, as Christ knows His people,
as the Good Shepherd. And the children of the world,
they may not know His people, and they, for the most part,
think that these who are believers in Christ and followers of Christ,
that it's just a whole lot of senseless foolishness and a waste
of time. But the Good Shepherd, He doesn't
think like that. He knows us thoroughly. He knows all about us. And He knows them, His people,
His sheep, and He loves them. And he does not despise them,
and he does not look strangely upon them. He knows them, and
he loves them. And the good shepherd lays down
his life for his sheep. And he cares for them when they
are brought into the flock. When they are brought into the
fold, he cares for them with tenderly care. and nourishes
them and keeps them. Oh, He provides all their needs
while they wander in this wilderness world here. Their food and their
drink and their clothing and protects them, just takes care
of them, the Good Shepherd. You got the Good Shepherd tonight,
the Lord Jesus. He's the Good Shepherd of the
sheep. takes care of the sheep. He leads
them by the right way into the city not made with hands. Their objective, their goal is
to be with Him in that glorious place that the Lord Jesus Christ
calls heaven, God's heaven, where the angels sing praises unto
the Lord Jesus. The angels worship Him, adore
Him, and that's the city that's not made with hands, and He's
leading us and guiding us every step of the way until we arrive
at home, the Good Shepherd. He's not going to leave any of
us behind, not like that. He's not going to lose one of
his sheep, all the sheep, all the sheep in his pasture, all
the sheep that belong to his flock. He's not going to leave
them behind. No, sir. He's not going to leave
them behind because sometimes they become wayward, sometimes
erring, sometimes sick, sometimes foot sore, sometimes lame. Oh no, he's not going to leave
them behind. He guards and protects them against
their enemies, just like old Jacob did in the Old Testament.
He defended the flock of his father-in-law Laban and was ready
to lay down his life. And our Lord Jesus Christ not
only defends his flock, but he does lay down his life for his
sheep. And he said, I know them, I know
them, and they know me. Well, those that the Father has
given him, the sheep that the Father has given him, by the
grace of God before the world ever was, before the foundation
of the world, Paul says, Those that the Father has given Him
will be found, every one of them. God's going to find every one
of them, wherever they're at, out of all nations, tribes, tongues. He's got them there and He's
going to find them. He's going to send Philip to
find the eunuch. He's going to send that jailer,
or He's going to send Paul and Silas to that jailer, and they're
going to find him. They're going to find him and
preach the gospel to him, and he's going to join the flock
of God and follow the Lord's Christ. God's not going to leave
any of his people behind. He's going to save every one
of them. And every one of them is going to follow him. Ah, listen. It's important. Over here in
the 15th chapter of the book of John, it says this. Greater
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends. That's what our Lord did. But
all of this is set before us in vain, and it will profit us
nothing at the last day that Jesus was a shepherd, and Jesus
was a good shepherd. If during our lifetime we never
heard his voice and never become one of his followers, just to
know he's a good shepherd doesn't mean anything. You've got to
hear the voice of the shepherd. You've got to be a follower of
the shepherd. You've got to join the flock
of the shepherd. You've got to become one of them.
Well, if you love the Lord Jesus, and you believe the Lord Jesus
is your savior and your redeemer and your righteousness and that
his blood was shed to forgive you of all of your sins of yesterday
and sins of today and sins of tomorrow. If you believe that
he has done this for you, Then I advise you to get on board
and to join the flock, because at the last day, just to know
that he's a shepherd will not be of any help to you. If you love eternal life and
the Lord Jesus, oh, the good shepherd laid down his life for
a sheep. He'll die before you lose one
of his sheep. I was reading here this evening
in the book of 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel, I believe it was. Chapter 17, about a shepherd. the responsibilities
of a shepherd and what the shepherd will do. And he's the type of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd. Well, there was a time of despair with the children
of Israel and the Philistines come upon them. The Philistine had a champion, and he was a giant, and he defied
Israel. And he was going to do them in. And they couldn't find anybody
to do battle for them. And they talked about it, and
here in this 17th chapter, in the 32nd verse, David, who was a shepherd boy
and a good shepherd, David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail
because of him. Thy servant will go and fight
with this Philistine. And Saul said to David, Thou
art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him,
for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. And David said unto Saul, Thy
servant kept his father's sheep. That is, David said, I kept my
father's sheep. He is a shepherd and a good shepherd. And he said, there was a time
that a lion and a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock.
Not a mature sheep, but a little you lamb that hardly could fend
for himself. The good shepherd knows his sheep
and looks after his sheep and protects his sheep. And this
lion and bear took a lamb out of the flock. And David said,
I went out after him, the good shepherd, defending the flock. I went out after him, he said,
and I delivered it out of his mouth. And when he rose against
me, he said, I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew
him. Thy servant, David was telling
Saul, slew both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised
Philistine, shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the
armies of the living God." This is the Good Shepherd. It's our
Good Shepherd. He's our protector. He's our
defender. He's our keeper. He's our light. He's our all and in all. And that's a comfort to my heart.
that I know that it's not my battle, it's His battle, and
He's able to take care of all of us from the cradle to the
grave and from the grave to glory. Are you joined His flock? Do you want
to be sheep? Our Lord implies, I've come to
do all this for my sheep, just as David did for his father's
flock. I've come to do this for you.
I'm the Good Shepherd and I know my sheep. When the Good Shepherd
died, he died of his own voluntary will. He said, I lay down my
life, Bob. No man takes my life from me. I lay it down freely, voluntarily. Oh, we must not think for a second
that our Good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, has no power to
prevent His sufferings, His crucifixion, the shedding of His blood on
that tree? Oh, no. We must not never come to the
place that we have any inkling or idea that He was delivered
up and crucified because He could not help Himself. Oh, the Good Shepherd is going
to lay down His He's going to give up his life freely for the
sheep. If it teaches anything in this
10th chapter, it teaches why the Lord Jesus Christ came to
this earth to save his sheep. And he could have defended himself
had he wanted to. Why, he said, thinkest not that
I could not I prayed to my father and he sent me twelve legions
of angels. It wasn't that he lacked power
to defend himself. There was this treachery of Judas
Iscariot who posed as one of his loyal subjects and disciples
and betrayed him for thirty pieces of silver. nor the treachery
of Judas, the armed band of the priests, the high priest servants
that took after the Lord Jesus Christ. And there was the enmity
of the Pharisees and the scribes. There was the injustice of Pontius
Pilate. There was the hands of the Roman
soldiers. There was the scourge and the
nails and the hammer and the crown of thorns, all of these
put together could not have harmed him unless he allowed them to
do it. The good shepherd of the sheep. He said, I lay my life down for
my sheep. My sheep. They're mine. They're mine by God's sovereign
choice. God gave them to me before the
world ever was, and I come to redeem them. And the prize of
redemption is the shedding of my blood and the establishing
of righteousness to enable God to be just and justifier. I'll have them. I'll have every
one of them. I'll not lose a one. Oh, he had
power. He had power. He submitted himself
to all these enemies and evil things. He knew that the shedding
of his blood and his death was the only way that atonement could
be made for the sins of his people. And this was the only way that
they could have a righteousness would be by the righteousness
that he established and was imputed unto them. He's a saving Savior,
a willing Savior, a loving Savior, and a just Savior. Oh, it's a
joy and comfort to my soul here tonight that amidst all that
has changed and will change. People worried to death because
of some bacterial germ, afraid to open their mail, afraid to
go around the corner, afraid of all this that's in the air.
I thank God, in spite of all this that has changed and will
change, That salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ has not, and
will not, never change. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. The Good Shepherd loveth his
sheep, knows his sheep, and is known of them, protects and keeps
and feeds and guides them. all along the way, from the cradle
to the grave, from the grave to the crown. Join his flock,
is what I say. Join that flock. Get in on that. I so did. Thank God. Thank God that he sent us a Savior.
Hadn't sent the Savior and he hadn't been willing to come.
No hope, no help. No hope, no help. Wrath of God. Wrath of God. Oh, that would be a terrible
thing. I couldn't even begin to describe. I don't know a thing
about it. There's no vengeance belonging
to the Lord. And I know God hates sin. And
the wrath of God is going to fall on us if we don't have a
cover. I don't have one to step up and say, I stand for him.
I stand for him. He's in me and I'm in him. I represent him. I find him surety. I provide all that the law demanded
and all that the law requires. I shed my blood. I die. I rose again. I have lived for
him. Let's stand and we'll go.