The title of the message is Perfect Obedience. Perfect Obedience. Our text is John 10, verses 17
and 18. The Lord Jesus Christ says, Therefore
doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might
take it again. No man taketh it from me, but
I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down and
I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
from my Father." Now the Lord has been declaring that He is
the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd. And He tells
us here in verse 1 of chapter 10, verily, verily, this is very,
very important, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door
into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same as
a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the
door is the shepherd of the sheep." Our Lord declares here that there
are two folds. He declares here that verse 3,
the porter to him, to this one that is the shepherd of the sheep,
the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice. They're inside
the fold. And he calleth his own sheep
by name and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his
own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for
they know his voice. And a stranger will they not
follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of
strangers. And he spoke to Israelites, to true natural Jews, and they
didn't understand what he was saying. And then verse 7, he
says, 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'm the door. 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. I am the good shepherd." Now
he said he's the door. And he said he's the shepherd
that enters into the door and calls his sheep out of the fold. I'm the good shepherd. The good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that's a hireling
and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the
wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the wolf
catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth,
because he's not a hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
I'm the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
As the father knoweth me, even so I know the father, and I lay
down my life for the sheep. Now he's in He's entered into
one fold and he's speaking. And he says, and other sheep
I have which are not of this fold. Them also I must bring and they
shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Gonna be a new fold. Now, the sheep of God are those
the Father gave to the Son. before the world began in the
everlasting covenant. Some of the sheep were among
the nation of Israel. That was one of the foal. But
not all of the nation of Israel were his sheep. Look at verse
24. The Jews came round about him
and said unto him, How longest thou make us to doubt? If thou
be the Christ, tell us plainly. He's speaking in parables and
they don't understand him. 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, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give
unto them eternal life, and they never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of My hand." And He said there in verse 16
that there were other sheep scattered among the Gentiles so that they
were not there in Jerusalem to whom he was speaking. He said,
other sheep I have which are not of this foal. And in order
to bring all his sheep into his foal, it must be perfect to be
accepted of God. God is holy. God is holy. And every child of God must have
perfectly obeyed the Father to be accepted of God. You have
to have perfect obedience. Our Lord Jesus Christ declares
plainly here that His death at Calvary was the free, voluntary
act of His own obedience to His Father's will for which His Father
loves Him. This is the interesting thing. Some were sheep in Israel. Some were sheep among the Gentiles. But this is true about all His
sheep. Look at Isaiah 53 verse 6. And I want you to hold your place
in Isaiah 53 because we'll come back here. This is true of all His sheep.
All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to His
own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth.
He's brought as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep before
her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth. You see this One
who is the door. This One who enters in by the
door. this one who is himself the door,
this one who is the good shepherd who comes in and lays down his
life for the sheep, in order to make his sheep absolutely
perfect, became the sheep. Became the sheep. Therefore he says does my father
love me and our text because I lay down my life that I might
take it again No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of
myself. I have power to lay it down I have power to take it
again this commandment. I've received of my father Now
our Lord is speaking here as the good shepherd, the mediator,
the righteous, faithful son of man, the surety of his people,
the one by whose obedience many shall be made righteous." Now,
I want to look at this three ways. Look at the Father's commandment. I want to look at the Son's obedience
and the Father's love to the Son. The Father's commandment. He said, this commandment have
I received of my Father. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
this earth and laid down His life because it was the eternal
will of His Father. It was the eternal, everlasting
purpose of His Father. It was the will of His Father.
And that will was made known to His Son, to the Son of God. And the Son of God was foreordained
before the world began. to come and accomplish that will
of His Father. Peter told us that, verily He
was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest,
came forth in these last times for you, so that you can see
something, and this is part of the reason that God's will was
to send Him forth, His Son, in the form of a man. In the form
of a man. Look over at Hebrews 2.10. It
pleased the Father to bruise him. The Father hath put him
to grief. Hebrews 2.10 says, For it became him, for
whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many
sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect
through sufferings. In the perfection of the Savior's
obedience, get this now, in the perfection of His obedience,
the nature of God, the character of God is manifest, is set forth
before the eyes of His sheep. The character of God, how God
may be known, the holiness of God, the wisdom of God, the goodness
of God, the love of God, the justice of God, the grace of
God, the mercy of God, all that God is, God was willing to make known
in this man, Christ Jesus, whose willful obedience unto death,
That obedience on the cross, that unparalleled suffering,
that Him being made a curse for His people. The curse that His
people were under, He was made. And that willingness and that
manifestation of Him doing this is the manifestation of God's
own character, God's own nature. Everything there is to know about
God, we can see right there on the cross. And this was the will
of God. It was becoming to Him to make
the captain of our salvation perfect through what He suffered. Now brethren, that's wisdom and
it's love. It's height. It's great depth. It's width, it's length, it's
breadth, it's unspeakable. It's wisdom that is beyond our
little brains of what God did. It was His will to do this. It
was God the Father's will and He gave this commission to His
Son. Now, let's see the Son's obedience. John 10 17 I want you to stay
there in Hebrews Hebrews in fact go to Hebrews 10 and John 17
He said I laid down my life that I might take it again He said
no man takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have
power to lay it down. I And I have power to take it
again. This commandment have I received
of my father. The Lord Jesus Christ laid down
his own life voluntarily as an act of free obedience to the
Father. Not forced to do anything by
man. Not at all. That which it appears
to the natural understanding that men were forcing him to
be done, he was bringing to pass himself. He told his apostles
in the Garden of Gethsemane, now's the time. And he went forth
to those that came looking for him. They couldn't tell Christ
from the rest of his apostles. That's a good lesson for us,
isn't it? They couldn't tell him from the others. He wasn't
trying to exalt himself over anybody or make himself anybody.
They couldn't tell him from Peter or John or anybody. But he went forth and asked them,
who is it you're seeking? He delivered himself into their
hands. God the Father didn't force him
to do this. He was doing what he did to bear
the sin of his people in his own body on the tree. What he
was going into was a death. Nobody has ever died. The sun
has never refused to shine for anybody else that laid down their
lives. The temple, the veil in the temple never did split in
two at the completion of his victorious cry when he said it's
finished. But that one time when this man
suffered what he suffered. This death he was facing, this
death he was going into was going to be a soul suffering. He's a man of sorrows, acquainted
with our grief. It's true that from the cradle,
all the way through his life, he was a man of sorrows. The
curse is the reason for the sorrow. In the garden, when Adam sinned
against God, and God pronounced the curse, He said, Cursed is
the ground for thy sake. And the first thing God said
was, is in sorrow, you're going to eat it all the days of your
life. It's going to bring forth thorns and thistles under you,
and you're going to eat of that ground in the sweat of your face
until the day you return right back to the dust of that ground,
because all you are is dust. Well, he faced that sorrow and
was acquainted with that grief, sickness, new, touched with the
feeling of our infirmities. From the cradle he was. tried in every manner, tried
of Satan. But brethren, when he went to
the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, now is my soul troubled. He said, now I'm exceedingly
sorrowful. I'm exceedingly sorrowful, even
unto death. It was a sorrow of soul so severe
that it caused him to sweat as it were great drops of blood. And the thing that made this
suffering something that's so incomprehensible to you, let
me ask you something. You brethren, you beloved here
that believe the Lord, what is the one thing that gives you
more sorrow and grief than anything in this world? Is it not sin
against your God? Is it not Is it not those times
when He lets you see what you are and how lightly you've taken
these great blessings that He's given you and how your soul just
trembles? So much so that you can't speak
what it is you'd like to speak. You just can groan about it. If you're a believer, you know
what I'm talking about. But brethren, you and I have
tasted that, and yet we've never known anything but sin. Now you
think about this. This one knew no sin. This one knew perfection. He is perfection, this one. He knew no sin, and he was coming
into the sorrows and the shame of having the sins of all of
His sheep from Adam to the last sinner that should be saved by
His mercy. He was about to have all of that
curse and shame and sin of what they are, meet on Him. And He knew what it was. to always
delight to do the Father's will. He knew what it was to be ever
present with the Father. He knew what it was to be ever
the delight of His Father. And yet, in that body God prepared
Him, in that flesh God made for Him, He was about to bear our
sin in His own body on the tree so that He would be... The Hebrew
writer said He despised the shame. And He was going to bear in His
own body divine vengeance. Our Savior, coming into this exceeding soul
trouble voluntarily by His own free will,
laid down His life. His is the free will. Now, laying down his life willingly
is the perfection. He's going there to bear that
divine vengeance and that divine wrath to satisfy absolutely,
perfectly the justice of God. And at the same time, the voluntary,
perfect, willing obedience by which he went into those jaws
of death is at the same time absolute perfection of obedience
to God. Now, that's what I mean by wisdom.
Only God could purpose something whereby He manifests what His
whole character is, what every word He's spoken has been saying
to us throughout the history of this world in His Word. Everything
that He's written in the Law and the Prophets has been pointing
and teaching us little shadows and little glimpses and giving
us little flickers of light. And now He's come forth in the
noonday of this world to manifest how it is God can be just and
justify a hell-deserving sinner, and at the very same time, how
God can provide this one who, as a man, is the absolute, perfect,
faithful, holy one who is the righteous obedience of all his
people. That's... I can't get over that
wisdom. I just... I cannot get over that. I know I've preached this to
you. I know I've looked at this. I know I've said this over and
over. And when I was studying this, I'm telling you, it was
like I had never seen it before. I was sitting here listening,
looking, and just thinking, this is absolutely everything to me. Everything to me. When the scripture
says he's the end of the law for righteousness, brethren,
it declares he is the absolute perfect justification and sanctification
of his people. Justification, let me be very
simple. Justification is that He paid
the penalty, the debt that was owed for His sheep to God Almighty
by His death. The wages of sin is death and
He paid it. He paid it. And sanctification,
holiness is got to be perfectly obedient in thought, word, and
deed to the Father in your very soul, in your very nature, always. And the pinnacle of this perfect
righteous justification, but especially this perfect obedience
is manifest in His willingly in the face of such sorrow and
suffering voluntarily going forth by God's own commission. No man is warranted in this life
to lay down his life. to take his own life. But he was not only commissioned
to do it. He says, I do it absolutely,
totally voluntary by the commandment of my father. Now look at Hebrews 10 verse
5. I want you to see something here. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he saith, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldst not,
but a body hast thou prepared me. And burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come, In the
volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God. Now the sacrifices of animals
involved no moral act of the will of man whatsoever. They were animals. They weren't
man. Their slaughter was an unmoral,
mere physical slaying. It was not an act of the will. But the sheep being slain, those
animals being slain, have a two-fold significance, a two-fold picture.
God's elect are sheep. I read that passage to you in
Isaiah 53, 6. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. But Christ is the willing sheep,
whose perfect willful obedience makes all God's elect, all God's
disobedient sheep absolutely to have fulfilled the will of
God. He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
yet He opened not His mouth. He could have spoke and God would
have sent legions of angels. Twelve legions of angels, He
said. When He said, when they came forth and He said, who is
it you're seeking? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am. And they fell
backwards on their backs. This one could have done that
at any time. And everybody around that cross
would have hit the dust, groveling in the dust. But he would not
have fulfilled the will of his father. And the will of his father
was that he go to that cross and lay down His life. And so He opened not His mouth. We want to talk about our obedience.
We can't keep our mouth shut. And He never opened His. We're quick to let everybody
know that we know something and we are somebody and you are technology. And this one is somebody. He's God's darling. And in the
face, in the hands of tormentors who pluck out the hair of his
beard, who spit in his face, who mock him and slap him and
then drag him up to a hill and nail spikes in his hands and
in his feet. only then to bear separation
from his father. This one who could have stopped
it at any minute, opened not his mouth. He opened not his
mouth. As a lamb is brought to the slaughter, as a sheep before her shearers,
cutting off all the wool, set stare without saying anything.
So he openeth not his mouth. And Christ laying down his own
life is the man the representative of all his sheep, fulfilling
the moral act of willing obedience, which is the perfect fulfillment
of the law of God and the perfect manifestation of who God is. It's not possible. It's not possible. that you and I can do what he
did by any of our so-called righteousness, trying to walk by the law. There's
no possible way you and I can do it. We came from our mother's
womb, sinners by nature. And it's our nature not to do
anything pleasing to God. That's why he had to send his
son. But this one did what only he could do in perfect nature,
in perfect willingness, in perfect obedience. On the one hand now,
listen to this, it was complete surrender of self-will to the
Father. This is the thing I kept thinking
about. He said, no man takes my life. I lay it down on myself. This was on one hand a complete
submission of His own self-will to another. Doing that which
was the will of His Father. But at the same time, it was
His will in Himself to do only the will of the Father. Think about that. It was a resignation of self-will. And at the same time, the will
of himself was always in perfect accordance with the Father. He said this, John 14.30. Look it there with me, John 14.30.
He said here in our text, He said that, therefore doth my
Father love me. Look at John 14.30. He said, Hereafter I will not
talk much with you, for the Prince of this world
cometh and hath nothing in me, but that the world may know that
I love the Father. that the world may know that
I love the Father. And as the Father gave me commandment,
even so I do. Arise and let us go hence. Christ's obedience in laying
down his life is the perfection of obedience, the perfect oneness
of the will of God with the will of man. There's only one man Only one
man in the history of this world whose will was in complete, absolute
agreement with the triune God of glory. Only one. And this
is the one. This is the one. So that his
perfect moral act of obedience is the believer's perfect holiness. He said, I came to do your will,
Father. He said, your will is in my heart. And in Hebrews 10.10 it says,
By the which will? By that will. By that free, voluntary
will of Christ Jesus the Lord. We are sanctified. through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once. That one offering did it. For
by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. He laid down His life that He
might take it again. It didn't stop with Him laying
down His life. There was a two-part to this.
He laid down His life that He might take it again. You remember
what Romans chapter 1 says? What did that declare that He
had the power to lay it down and the power to take it again?
What did that declare to us? Romans 1 verse 3 says, Concerning
his son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of
David according to the flesh, he was a real man. And in that
flesh, in that body, he laid down his life willingly. And
he was declared to be the Son of God with power according to
the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. He
said, I have the power to lay down my life and I have the power
to take it again. Here we have the perfect man
who has done everything he's done upon the altar of his divinity,
offered himself without spot through the eternal Spirit to
God. while at the same time being
made the curse of his people so that God remains just and
justifier of him that believeth. And in both of this, in each
of this, in one giving efficacy to the other, in the man him
being able to suffer and in the being God him giving making this
an effectual accomplishment. It's manifest in that He had
the power to lay down His life and He had the power to raise
His life up again. He's the Son of God, the God-Man. And He's Lord over all. He's
Lord over all. To this end He died and He rose
and He revived that He might be Lord of the dead and the living. Whether you know it or not, whether
you want it to be so or not, You're not going to make Him
Lord. He's Lord. He's Lord. This is the One who's
Lord. Now, let's briefly look at the
Father's love for His Son. John 10, 17, He says, Therefore
doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life. Therefore
doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life. Have you
ever been able to say that because of something you did, the Father
loves you? This is the only one who could
ever say as the surety and mediator, as the representative of His
people, as the holy and faithful one, He's the only man who could
ever say that He of Himself, by Himself, merited the love
of the Father. Hmm and because of this great
act of love which is the complete I Don't even know how to say
that the fulfillment of the law. It's everything the law saying
everything the law saying This great act of love for his father
and for his sheep, but the father has given his son Everything
He's given this man Christ Jesus, His Son, everything. He pleased the Lord. He made
satisfaction so the Father smiles upon Christ Jesus with divine
delight. The pleasure of the Lord, that
which pleased the Lord, prospered. Not in my hand, not in your hand,
and never will in our hand. Our hand will only be fit for
His use only when we really put our hand to the plow and not
look back and truly follow after Him with a heart to do His will,
to walk in truth and holiness before Him with a desire to do
His will. The only time we will do that
by our hand is when we behold that it's by His hand, in His
hand, that that which pleased the Father was prosperous. It means He did everything. He said, It is finished. I've done it. I've done it. And He saw the travail of His
soul and He's satisfied and it's by His knowledge. This is what
I'm talking about when I say of God is Christ made unto us
wisdom. Do you see the wisdom of God
in the wisdom of Christ? Could you do this? We can't even
figure out that we can't do this. By our wisdom, we can't come
to that understanding. These men sat here and He spoke
to them face to face, giving just simple, clear, earthly illustrations,
that you can sit here by His power and His grace in your heart,
and you sit and rejoice in it and believe it, and they heard
Him say it, and all they could say was, wish you'd quit trying
to make us doubt and tell us plainly. How much more plain
can you get than, I am the door, I am the shepherd, Nobody is
gonna come to the Father but by me. And the best, wisest,
studious men in the world said, wait, we can't understand that. Oh, how we often, get this brethren,
get this. We always, I run into people,
I can't reason that out, I can't reconcile that and understand
that. You remember He said, except
you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you
have no life in you. And they said, that's a hard
saying. And so they lifted up their reason
way up here and said, now this is the standard. You're going
to have to make us to where we're going to stand here. And they
turned around and went away from Him because they said, that don't
even make any sense. And plain and simply He was saying,
if you've got life, it's because I'm the life in you. Christ, the Son of God coming
in human flesh? I don't know. I don't know. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. I don't know. He went to the cross and was
made sin? I don't know. Scripture says
He's going to return without sin. Made a curse? And at the same
time, the perfect manifestation of righteous obedience. It all makes sense to me. I just
believe God. I believe Him. And I realize
that we'll be eternity just saying, Wow! Wow! As the old saying is, we're going
to put the ocean in a thimble? Let me try to put everything,
all the wisdom of God into this little fickle, fumbling reason
we got. Oh, by His knowledge, His righteous
servant justified many. He willingly poured His soul
out unto death. And because in everything He
highly exalted the Father when He did that, Philippians 2 says,
wherefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which
is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, everything
above and below, that means everybody and everything. It's going to
do one thing. It's going to bow down. Satan
and his legion, Satan and his army, Satan and every sinner
in hell, it's going to bow down. And every sinner that God saved
is all going to bow down. And they're going to say, this
is the Holy and Just One. You want to know what the name
is above every name? The Holy One. The Holy One. As good as God. The Holy One. Well, I want to give you a few
things here real quick. Two things. To every sinner here
that has not trusted, cast your care on Christ and believed on
Him, kiss the Son. Get down on your hands and knees
like a dog that comes just right up to the master and just licks his feet and licks
his feet because you're just thankful, thankful that he'll
give you a crumb, just a crumb. Can you come that way? Can you
come that way? He said, I'm the door. If any
man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find
pasture. You tired? You want pasture?
You want green pasture? You want life? You want peace
of conscience? Sins not just in our acts. But
let me ask you this. Our young people sitting here.
Is there anything right now that you're keeping from your mom
and your daddy? Anything at all? Just anything at all? That you're
keeping from because if they found out, you'd be ashamed. Anything? That's what you are before God
the Father. Outside of Christ and you go
meet him. You're gonna come to him and
Everything's gonna be made manifest in the light It's gonna it's
happening. It's gonna happen and the fact
that you that you know, I Was your age once if you'd asked
me that question I'd have had a I'd have had a I'd had a list
of things I was hiding That's manifestation. If you're hiding
it from your earthly Father, you know you need a Savior before
your heavenly Father. You're going to stand before
Him. You're going to stand before Him. That perfect acceptance
is in this one Christ Jesus. That's right. And to have that
conscience purged, to have a desire now, not to hide anything, to
walk honorably and to even walk honorably before your earthly
mother, mother and father, and to come in and out with them
and be able to talk with them like you've never been able to
talk with them. You know what your earthly mother and father
would love? That they would love that and love to be able to.
I was just telling Melinda the other day, I just love I remember
I was thinking on the way home and everybody was talking and
everybody was having their own conversation and everybody talking
and nobody was listening to anybody. And it made me think about my
grandfather. He was my pastor. And I know now what it is to
long for the people that you seek a message for. And to desire,
to desire for them to know the truth of God. And I know now what he felt when
he would be riding home with somebody he was the pastor of,
and the grandfather of, and hear me, all I was concerned
about was, let's turn on the radio and listen to the countdown.
Y'all probably don't even know what that is now. And I think how precious it was
to Him and how thankful He was to God when God began to give
me a heart to sit down with him at lunch
on the way home and say, tell me what you meant about
that again. What you preached today, I got
something about that, but would you tell me that? You know, that's coming in and
out. I want that with you. And your mothers and fathers
that believe, they want that for you. And right now, just in temporal
things this way, you don't even have fellowship with him. Because you don't have the fellowship
of his sufferings and know that what he willingly did, he did
for you. I pray God makes you know that.
That you believe on him and kiss his feet. And then, brethren, to you who
know the Lord and walk after Him, we suffer in this world. We suffer and we need to suffer. Very much of what we suffer,
everything of what we suffer, I suppose, is God's chastening
hand correcting us. in some way or another, whether
we understand it or not. Know this, know this for you
who believe the Lord. Because He was made the curse,
the thorns and the thistles of the curse, the wrath of God is
not what's taking place. It's the love of God because
you've been perfumed in that fragrant rose of Sharon, Christ
Jesus the Lord. And God just won't let you go.
Isn't that what you read? Whom I love, I chasten. I chasten
you. So know that when you suffer,
brethren. And don't let a man come to you
like Job's friends and say, well, you must have, must be, God's
angry with you. Well, he's never pleased with
disobedience, but it's not in wrath that he corrects his children.
He does it in perfect love. Perfect love. Because the wrath's
gone. The wrath's been born away. Therefore, in the midst of this
world, this world that knows you not, you who believe, remember
this. You're not your own. You're bought
with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's. Amen.