Okay. Well, we're all gathering. Egloff
is supposed to come this morning and I'm always always amazed
when he gets here and I'm always conscious of the drive that he's
gone on so I haven't heard from him. He always lets me know when
he's not going to make it so I trust his will and appreciate
the the journey that he makes to worship God, it's good for
you, if you ever need to go to Canberra, it's good for you to
go via Nearigga, and then you might appreciate Egloff's journey
to us. He's not with us, so I'm not
sure what's happened. But you are. And we're here because we
have a great and awesome and absolutely sovereign God. And
we read last week that He opened the heart of Lydia. He opened
her heart. opening of the heart in the scriptures
that I just want to spend a few seconds to gather our thoughts
that we might think about the glory and the graciousness of
our God. You might recall in Hosea that
Hosea was asked to go and marry a woman from the place of Hordam. And she came to him and she had
some children. She was very young. She had some
children with him. Then she returns back to her
place of whoredom and all of that time when she's living with
her lovers, she's thanking her lovers for feeding her and caring
for her. But in fact it was Hosea. And
he's told, Hosea is told in chapter 3, to go back and love a woman. Beloved her friend, yet an adulteress,
according to the love of God toward the children of Israel. Who look to other gods and love
flagons of wine. But there's a lovely description
of the Lord's activity. We've been looking at Lydia's
heart being open. We've been looking at the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ going throughout this world, gathering
his people to himself. And it says he's going to visit
her in chapter 2 verse 13, he visits her. And then in verse
14 of chapter 2 of Hosea, he has this remarkable statement
about the way he draws his people to himself. He says, therefore
behold, I will allure her. I will come to her and I'll reveal
myself to her and I'll persuade her and I'll bring her into the
wilderness and speak comfortably unto her. He'll allure you. He draws his people with cords
of love. He draws his people because he
causes himself to be revealed to his people as unbelievably
attractive and glorious in all of his attributes. And he speaks
comfortably. That's what Isaiah says. The job of the pastor is you
speak comfortably to my people. Tell them their warfare is over.
to speak comfortably to them, it's to speak in a friendly way,
but it's to speak to the hearts of people. I can't speak to your
hearts and I don't pretend that I know your hearts, but I have
a God. I have a God who promises to
speak to your hearts. I have a God who promises, even
in the midst of your rebellion, that he will allure you. He will
allure you and bring you, bring her into the wilderness. He'll
cause this world to be a wilderness and you'll speak comfortably
under her. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that
with the cause of your infinite and eternal and electing and
gracious love, you would draw us to yourself, that you would
cause your dear and precious son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to
be high and lifted up, that we might see him as glorious, we
might see him on that throne of grace, we might find ourselves,
Heavenly Father, coming to him in our hour of need, knowing
that he cares for us. Heavenly Father, the Gospel alone
speaks comfort to the hearts of your people, and we pray,
Heavenly Father, that you would speak to us through your Son,
who is the Gospel preacher. Heavenly Father, may He be exalted
in our midst and may the beauties of His holiness draw us to Himself
yet again. Heavenly Father, we wander, we
spend our lives wandering. Please make this world a wilderness
for us. and make him a garden, a garden
of fountains, a garden shut up and a garden enclosed. Feed us,
Heavenly Father, with the bread of heaven that our souls may
live this morning. For we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to sing, my hope
is built on nothing less. In Jesus' blood and righteousness,
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus'
name. ? And Jesus' love and righteousness
? ? I dare not trust the Spirit's way ? ? But only in Jesus' name
? ? Come Christ, the solid rock I stand ? ? Oh, how the ground
is tippy-tand ? ? Oh, how the ground is tippy-tand ? In every high Estonian hill,
high in the holes within the hill, on crusts of solid rock
or stone, o'er all other land of East, East and West. in his hand. His Lord is come,
and his blood supports me in the knowing blood. Where or how my soul is laid,
he lays, O my hope and strength. On Christ, the Son of God's hand,
O Lord, ? Around his kingdom stand ? ?
When he shall come with trumpets sound ? ? O may our believing
be found ? ? Blest in his righteousness alone ? ? For us to stand before
the throne ? ? Rock Christ the solid rock of sound ? I love you. It goes on in that passage in
Hosea chapter 2 verse 15, he says, I will give her vineyards
from thence and the valley of Achor for a door of hope, and
she shall sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the
day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. There is a door. There's a door opened. There's
a door opened in heaven. There's a door of hope opened
to God's people. And that's the door that Paul
describes on his journey in 2 Corinthians. He says, when I came to Troas
to preach Christ's gospel, a door was opened unto me of the Lord. A door was opened. The Lord opens. He calls the
door the door of faith in Acts 14.27. It's the door of faith
that was opened up to the Gentiles. The Gentiles had been granted
repentance unto life. See, a door is an entrance into
something and a door shuts things out. It's a door. It's a door. You might recall
some of the doors in scriptures. There is a door, that door in
Revelation is a door that the Lord opens and no man can shut.
Isn't that wonderful? No man can shut it. You can't
shut it. I can't shut it. Your sin can't
shut it. There's a door opened. And there's
a door open that he closes, and that door that he closes is a
door that when he closes is closed for all times. There is that
door of the ark, that door in the ark. The door that Noah was
to build, but who shut them in? Who shut the Lord's people in?
How did you get that great door after all those animals went
inside and Noah and his family get inside? How do you close
the door? The Lord closed the door and
the Lord shuts them in. They are then sealed, aren't
they? They're sealed away from this world. Which is why the
Lord said in Matthew 6 that when you pray, you go into your closet
and you shut the door. You shut the world out. And you
speak to your Father which is in secret. He's hidden from the
world. And he shall reward you openly. When the Lord's work is finished
on this earth, And it's finished on this earth for everyone who
leaves this world, isn't it? But there's a door shut at the
wedding feast. A door shut to shut people, God's
bride, into the wedding feast. And a door shut to shut all those
out on the outside. It's wonderful, isn't it, that
the door is opened. A door is opened. Isaiah calls
it a door of hope. It's called a door of faith. It is a door. that's an entrance
to man's heart, isn't it? That's how Paul saw his journey
to these Gentile churches throughout this place. The Lord opened a
door, and we saw last week that he shut the door for a while
to Mysia, and he shut the door for a while to Asia, and he shuts
the door and he hedges Paul in, and he says, you're going down
to this particular place, Troas, and there's a door of hope, and
you're not going to stay there, you're going across the sea,
and you're going there to one particular place. person, you're
going there to a certain woman. You're going there to that woman
that I love from before the foundation of the world. You're going to
that woman that I'm going to allure to myself through that
door of hope. I'm going to that particular
woman, and the door of faith is opened to her, the door of
her heart. And we know what the doors of
our heart are like. Our hearts are stone. Insensitive, unmovable,
as dead as a rock is what God is saying. Then he comes. When
he comes and opens that door, he takes out that heart of stone
and he gives a heart of flesh, a heart that can feel, a heart
that can move and be moved to him. The door separates God's people
from this world. You might recall in Sodom, the
angels were there in Sodom, and those angels wanted to have homosexual
sex. Not the angels, the men of that
city wanted to have homosexual sex with those angels of God. And what did they do? A lot went
out and said, you can have my daughters, but don't do this
horrible thing to these people. Then the angels reach out and
they grab Lot and they bring him in and they shut the door
and they blind the people on the outside. The door separates. The door is a picture, of course,
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord passes over the door,
he says. in Ezekiel, in Exodus I mean. The doorposts and the lintels
were marked with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and the
Lord said, when I see the blood, when I see the blood on the doorposts,
I will pass over you. The door is a picture of our
Lord Jesus Christ. At the tabernacle, that door
of the tabernacle was woven with that remarkable tapestry, that
huge tapestry that was in the temple. And the one in the tabernacle
was similar to it. And it was made of those beautiful
colors, wasn't it? Blue, the blue of heaven. Red,
the red of the scalp of the Lord Jesus Christ, all mixed together
and they were purple. And Lydia was a seller of purple. The sacrifices were killed at
the door of the tabernacle. The cloudy pillar of God stood
at the door of the tabernacle. The altar of that offering was
at the door of the tabernacle. And you, the Israelites, were
to write the words of God upon the doorposts of their house.
So that when they went into their house and when they came out
of their house, they were reminded of the word of God. And for the
true children of God, they were reminded of the word made flesh. And when the Lord comes, he opens,
he opens that door, doesn't he? He walks through that door of
faith and he comes. with his gospel in the hands
of his servants, and he walks through a door, and he shut that
door to everyone else, and he's opened that door to his servants. Song of Solomon in chapter 5,
it speaks of that lady, that rebellious lady, that lady who
was loved of him like Hosea's wife, Gamah, was loved of Hosea. And she'd had the most remarkable
experiences of the grace and the glory of God. Then in chapter
five, she says, I'm in my house. I'm happy, thank you very much.
I don't need you now. But what did he do? What did
our savior do when we shut him out? He says, He put his hand
by the hole of the door. And she says, my heart was moved
for him. My bowels were moved for him.
And he left, he left his smell. The smell of his murder. The
smell of his sacrifice at the door there. And what did she
do? She went out through that door and she went searching and
searching and searching and she couldn't find him. She couldn't
find him. But then she finds him. Where
does she find him? In exactly the same place she
knew she'd find him. She'd found him in his church
with his people where he's always going to be. It's like us, isn't
it? We go searching and searching
and searching in all sorts of places. And he's going to be
found, as he was found with Lydia, he's going to be found when that
door is opened. That door is opened. It's opened
on that great day, on that great resurrection morning. That tomb
was shut. The great stone has a door over
it and an angel came and there was a great earthquake and that
door was opened. They came and said, who's going
to open the door for us? You see, you can't open the door
for yourself. An angel opened the door, a messenger of God
opened the door. God speaks through his messengers. The angels opened the door. They
opened the door to let Peter out. God opened this door of
faith. There's a great door. Paul describes
the opportunities for gospel preaching as a great door and
effectual is open unto me. And where the great door is opened,
as we've seen all the way through Acts, and there's many adversaries,
Satan is stirred up when the door is opened and the Lord's
people are brought in. And he came to Troas to preach
God's Christ gospel, the door was opened unto me of the Lord. And his prayer for his people
is that God would open unto us the door of utterance, that there
would be an opportunity to speak. Yet again, would there be an
opportunity for us to speak glorious things about our Saviour. He wants the door of utterance
opened. He wants the Colossians to pray for him, that a door
of utterance would be opened, that he might speak the mystery
of Christ. The mystery of Christ. See, it's
hidden from the world. It's hidden from the natural
world. Man can create all sorts of religion. But the real religion, the real
heart work of God, is a mystery. It's a mystery to you, is it
not, brothers and sisters? You can't explain it, can you?
You can't. Look at the journey that Lydia
took. There she was, a wealthy woman in Tharatara. There she
was, seemingly without a husband, which may have been a tragedy
in that world if he had died, and maybe even a greater tragedy
if she'd never married. But there's no mention of her
husband at all, but the Lord drew her out of Thyatira. Do
you know what Thyatira means? Odour of affliction. Lydia's name means travail. So God's people in this world
have travail, and God's people in this world bear the odour
of affliction. We carry about in our bodies
both the odour of affliction from our sin in our father Adam,
and the Lord's people carry about the odour of affliction of the
Lord Jesus Christ. A door is opened. My hope is
built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. It's
a mystery. It's a mystery. We're going to
sing together the church's one foundation, number nine. Church's one foundation is Jesus
Christ the Lord. He is His new creation, bright
water and new earth. ? For the life he died ? ? He lived
from every nation ? ? Yet for all the earth ? ? The charter
of salvation ? ? One Lord, one faith, one birth ? ? One holy
name she verses ? And to our home she presents
With every present due. O give us thoughtful wonder,
And see the sorrow present. Christ is our strength of splendor,
Our Heavenly Father. ? Yet saints they watch shall keep
? ? Their cradles of Calv'ry ? ? And soon the night of weeping
? ? Shall be the dawn of song ? ? With good tribulation ? ?
And true love shall perform ? ? She waves her consternation of peace
forevermore ? ? Till with the vision glorious, her lonely eyes
are blest ? ? And the great church victorious shall hear her cheer
? Let's be honored and union with
God the three in one. And this things sweet communion
with those whose rest is won. All that he wants and more. I didn't choose the songs, but
the Lord did this morning, as He always does. That's exactly
what we're talking about, isn't it? Yet she on earth has union
with God, the three in one, and mystic, sweet communion with
those whose rest is one. As you ponder what we have looked
at in Acts, it's just remarkable, isn't it, how the fingerprints
of the Lord Jesus Christ are on all of his works, and yet
you can't chart a path that man could ever chart, could you?
The most unlikely person of all of the Jews to be converted on
the Damascus Road is that man Saul of Tarsus, and yet the Lord
said, this is my servant. I've set him apart from before
the foundation of the world. As he was slaying my people,
I gave him the breath to do so. You look at the pictures of salvation
in the book of Acts and you're just amazed again and again,
aren't you? That the Ethiopian eunuch had
been to religion. He'd been to religion and he'd
taken the book of God home with him and he didn't have a clue. He was no better off when he
left Jerusalem than when he came from Ethiopia. And yet, and yet,
the Lord had ordained that Ethiopian eunuch would be reading the book
of God in Isaiah chapter 53, and that Philip would be there.
And that Ethiopian eunuch, who had all the reason to be as proud
as Lucifer, was actually humbled and said, how can I understand
this unless someone teaches me? You think of the Lord's work
in drawing Cornelius and that household to himself. You think
of the Lord's work in drawing all these others in Antioch and
places. Everywhere we see these fingerprints
of our great Redeemer. He draws his people to himself,
he allures his people to himself. And he holds them and protects
them and keeps them and he preserves them in all the trials of this
world and all their rebellion and all of the opposition against
them. And he just keeps them. He keeps them. And people think
that we have to do all these earthly things to get people
to be believers. We have to concoct all of these
schemes and all of these methods. The early church just had one
task appointed by God. You just preach the gospel. You
just preach the gospel. You preach the gospel wherever
you can, to whomever you can. When the door is opened, you
walk through and you preach the gospel. And then you wait, and
you wait to see a sovereign hand of God. Paul had no idea, I'm
sure, when he set out from Antioch that he was going to be stopped
from going to all those places that he thought would have been.
He had so much success in all those other places and so much
opposition. And here he is, he was shepherded by God to Troas,
and he was shepherded by God across there to Philippi, and
he was shepherded in Philippi to that particular place, to
that certain woman, at that certain time, on that certain occasion,
and he preached a simple, certain message of the Lord Jesus Christ. The door is opened. A door is opened. When God opens
a door, no one can shut that door. When God opens a door and
brings his people in and seals them in, nothing is going to
happen to them. The ark is just such a beautiful
picture, isn't it? He shut Noah and those other
six people in that ark, and the infinite, eternal wrath of God
fell upon that ark. It fell upon them. It fell upon
them. All the rain that killed all
the rest of the world fell upon that arch, just as all the other
turbulence that went on at that time fell upon them. What was their safety? Because
no one was a better boat builder than someone else. They were safe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. They were in him. That was the
pitch that was on the inside of that ark. I love the fact
that it was on the inside and it was on the outside. It was
sealed. That pitch, that pitch is that
sin-absorbing, wrath-absorbing sacrifice. It's atonement. It's
propitiation. And the Lord works in the hearts
of His people. No doubt, as you were thinking
about this door that's opened that we've been looking at in
Acts, you were probably saying, well, why don't we go to John
Chapter 10? So let's go to John Chapter 10 and let's just read.
I don't want to read all of John Chapter 10, but I want you to
listen. I want you to listen to the promises
of my Saviour. I want you to listen to what
He says about Himself and what He says about His sheep and His
hand of protection upon them. And He begins this chapter, chapter
10, with Amen, Amen, verily, verily. So when the Lord speaks
twice, this is serious. He is the Amen. You can read
it in Revelation. He is the Amen. He's declaring
Himself to be the Amen. And He's declaring that His Amen
is the Amen that matters of all. He says, I say unto you, truly,
truly, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not
by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way. And what a great description
of man-made religion. Climbing up to God on steps,
isn't it? Climbing up to God. Climbing
in. They see that there's a sheepfold.
They see that there's a heaven. They see that there is a God.
They see that there is a hell. But they climb up. They climb
up. The same is a thief and a robber. a thief and a robber. They're stealing God's glory
from him. If you think that you can approach
God on the basis of something that you do, some climbing that
you do, progressive sanctification is people climbing their way
up, isn't it? Here I am, I'm a little bit more holy than I
was a few years ago, and I am certainly more holy than that
person over there that I can see. It's a thief and a robber. Those
thoughts are thieves and robbers. But he that entereth in by the
door is the shepherd of the sheep. I don't know if you ever get
a chance, but if you get a chance to read something of the commentators
and something of the history of shepherding in the ancient
world, which has continued on very much to this day in various
parts of the world, it's just the most remarkable picture.
And the relationship between the shepherds and the sheep is
just extraordinary. if you read, people have gone
there to try and fathom what happens to these sheep and how
the shepherd can know the sheep. So what happened is in those
places where there were plenty of wild animals and plenty of
wild people, you would build a corral of some sort and hedge
it in with stones and thorns and maybe some fires and other
things to keep all the wild animals out. And so all of the shepherds
would gather all of the sheep of that community into that corral. into that place of safety, and
a man would be on guard. And so there were maybe a dozen
or more flocks of sheep in this yard at night, and one man the
keeper at the door. Let's read on. that he that entereth in by the
door is the shepherd of the sheep. So the shepherd goes in through
the door. To him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice,
and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. So that's what would happen in
the morning. In the morning, the shepherds would turn up at
the sheepfold, and there might be hundreds of sheep in there.
And Shepherd Bell would speak to his sheep. And Shepherd Bell's
sheep would all go out, and all the others would stay there.
And Shepherd Norm would turn up, and Norm would call his sheep,
and his flock of sheep would go off. The remarkable thing
is that people tried to mimic it in all sorts of ways. They
would actually say, look, I'll pretend to be the shepherd. They
would find someone who looked exactly like the shepherd, and
dressed in the shepherd's clothes, looking exactly, smelling exactly
like the shepherd, and they'd send him down there and see if
you can get these sheep to come out. Absolutely no way in the
world. What were the sheep responding
to? Look at it in verse three. The sheep hear his voice. The
sheep hear his voice. And he calls his own sheep by
name. In fact, not only did they have
this particular group of sheep that would follow them out when
they heard that voice, the shepherd knew the names of his sheep. by the way they responded to
him. In fact, they blindfolded shepherds to see whether he could
tell, see whether he had some other way of knowing the names
of them, and a blindfolded shepherd could see his sheep. It's not
for nothing that we call sheep, brothers and sisters. Hopeless,
useless, defenceless critters. When I went to India, we left
our sheep behind. We had two sheep called Horace
and Lambie. Horace was my friend. Lambie
was a bit of a pain in the neck, but Horace was just the most
amazing old ram. And I was away for two years,
and Horace was in a pen behind a house, shut up there, and he
heard my voice before he could see me. And I got around to the
fence, and there was Horace. waiting for me at the fence,
and he hadn't heard my voice for two years. See, that's exactly
what it is with the Lord's sheep, isn't it? So they hear the voice
of the shepherd. There's one thing that we want,
brothers and sisters, isn't it, when we gather together? We want
to hear the shepherd's voice. I want to hear from the Lord
Jesus Christ. I want to hear from him. I want to hear from
him personally. I want to hear from him directly.
I want to hear him speak to my heart. I want to hear from him.
He calls his own sheep by name. and he leads them out. And that's
the way the shepherds did it. They didn't go behind them, pushing
them along. They actually lead them. The
shepherd goes and the sheep follow where the shepherds go. You know
that verse in John chapter 12 that I quote all the time? I
just love it. It's a remarkable picture of the absolute sovereignty
of God, isn't it? He says, if any man serve me,
let him follow me. And where I am, there shall also
my servant be. So where he is, his sheep, he
goes first, brother and sister. You can't take a step on this
earth without the Lord Jesus Christ being with you. Without
the Lord Jesus Christ going ahead, it's exactly what he's done.
Who moved Lydia to go all that way? The Lord Jesus Christ did
it in his absolute sovereignty. He leads them out, verse 4, and
when He puts forth His own sheep, He goes before them, and His
sheep follow Him. Why do they follow Him? Because,
4, they know His voice. And a stranger will they not
follow, but will flee from Him, for they know not the voice of
strangers. The one bit of advice to anyone
in a false church where the Lord Jesus Christ is not exalted is
right there in that verse, isn't it? The one bit of advice for
anyone who's in a place where the gospel is not being proclaimed,
faithfully and truly is there. It just says, flee. That's all
you have to do, flee. For they know not the voice of
the strangers. This parable spake Jesus unto them, but they understood
not what things They were which he spake unto them. Then Jesus
said unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am
the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me
are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
I am the door. By me, if any man enter in. If you're going to enter into
the Lord's sheepfold, it's going to be those two words, isn't
it? By me. Always by me. If you're going
to have faith, it's going to be by him. If you're going to
love him, it's because of by him. By me, if any man enter
in, he shall be saved. Not that he might possibly be
saved. He shall be saved. and shall
go in and out and find pasture. He'll go in and out of this sheepfold,
and the Lord will find and care for him in all those situations.
The thief cometh not, but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. It's a great picture of Satan
and all those who are his emissaries in this world. He's a liar and
a murderer. He lies to you so he can murder
you. He lies to you. All the time
He lies to you. And you have enough in your sinful
Adam flesh for Him to have enough ammunition to keep the lies flowing
in all sorts of ways. You can justify anything, brothers
and sisters. Such is the deceitfulness of
the heart of man. You can justify anything. And
you'll find an excuse for it. And you'll find a way to justify
yourself. unless the Lord comes along as
he did to Job when Job was justifying himself. And Job had to meet
the Lord again. And when he met the Lord again,
what was the first words that came out of his mouth? He'd been
justifying himself, Job. You read about it in Job chapter
32. He was justifying himself. He's
saying, I'm waiting for an opportunity to get to God so I can justify
myself, when he met him. He met him in the preaching of
the gospel when Elihu came and preached to him, brothers and
sisters, and the first words out of his mouth, behold, I am
vile. That's what it is to be a sinner.
A sinner has never ever got to a place where he's going to justify
himself, and when he does, the Lord will come along and strip
him naked yet again and make him to see what he is. I've come
that they might have life and they might have it more abundantly.
We famously know how that was misused some years ago in this
country when I was to tell people that you can come to Jesus and
have a party. You can't come to Jesus and have a party, brothers
and sisters. You come to the Lord Jesus Christ
and you're in like Lydia for travail and you'll have the odor
of affliction on you. There'll be an abundance in him,
but it's not gonna be the abundance this religious world thinks about.
He says, I am, verse 11, I am the good shepherd, and the good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. It couldn't be any
more clear, could it? He didn't give his life for the
goats, he didn't give his life for all humanity, he gave his
life for the sheep. The sheep follow him, they know
his voice, he leads them out, he dies for them. But he that
is an Highling, and not the Shepherd, whose own sheep are not, seeth
the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees. And the wolf
catches them, and scattereth the sheep. The Highling fleeth,
because he is a Highling. He's doing it for hire, the hire
of his own ego and the hire of the money of people giving, the
hire of the esteem of men. And he cares not for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd and I know my sheep. He knows absolutely
everything about his sheep all the time. He's a good shepherd. He's the great shepherd, and
am known of mine. He makes himself known to his
sheep. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father,
and I lay down my life for the sheep. Other sheep I have, which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring in. I love the musts
of the Lord Jesus Christ, our great God. He must bring them
in. And they shall hear my voice.
And there shall be one fold and one shepherd. There always has
been one fold and one shepherd. Therefore does my Father love
me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. Listen to this in verse 18 about
our sovereign Redeemer. No man taketh it from me, but
I lay it down of myself. I have the power to lay it down
and I have the power to take it again. This commandment have
I received from of my Father. On Calvary's tree, he gave up
the ghost. He didn't die as other men die
to have their life taken from them. He died as a voluntary
sovereign substitute for his people. He didn't die in a natural
way. I might skip down to verse 25,
they argued with him as they always do. If you be the Christ,
tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, 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 are not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice. I know them, and 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. That's the greatest security
this world can afford, brothers and sisters. It's in the greatest
hands, those hands that flung the stars into this universe.
If he holds you in his hand, brothers and sisters, no one's
ever going to touch you. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all. No man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand. My I and my Father are one. No one, not even you, brothers
and sisters, can pluck yourself out of the hands of this Saviour.
Then again the Jews took up stones again to stone Him, and Jesus
answered, Many good works have I showed you of my Father, for
which of those works do you stone Me? The Jews answered Him, saying,
For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, and because
thou, being a man, makest thyself God. The remarkable thing is that
they were completely wrong and completely right. He was a God
who made himself a man. He was God who made himself a
man. Okay.