We'll be in John chapter 10. Our message this morning, John
chapter 10. You know, I keep pointing out the importance
of the fact that we're not under the law because I keep going
on these websites and I keep looking for some churches to
fellowship with in this area. And I find the statement of faith
in many of them, I'd stand up and preach it. In fact, I stand
up and preach it almost every time I stand in the pulpit. Then
I listen to the messages. And I don't hear what they say
in their statement of faith. And I hear the law being preached. And I know men have all different
excuses for why they preach these things, but there is no excuse,
really. And our text here today, the
Pharisees were in the worst sin of all. They were in the worst
sin of all. And the Lord dealt with them
in the way that He instructs His messengers to deal with everyone
who's in sin. And a lot of times our thoughts
are, if somebody's in sin, We want to take the law and instruct
them out of the law and somehow correct them with the law. And
the law is very important to teach us our sin. No doubt about
that. But what the Pharisees were doing
and the sin that they were guilty of was of preaching the law. That's what they were preaching
was the law. To get men to be good, godly
folks. That's why they were preaching
the law. And Christ stood up before them and He said in John
chapter 10, He said, Verily verily verse 1 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 You see they were
teaching men not to steal They were teaching men that the law
says thou shalt not steal. I But Christ said, by teaching
men that, and teaching them that they're somehow more accepted
of God by that, you're a thief and a robber. You're attempting
to rob me of my glory, Christ said. That's the sin. That's the sin that keeps sinners
from Christ, our righteousnesses. And I want to just look here
with you today down at verse 27 We'll look at some all of
this as we go, but I want to my text this morning is verse
27 my sheep hear my voice and 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 and My Father
which gave them Me is greater than all, and no man is able
to pluck them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one." The title of the message is,
The Shepherd and His Sheep. The Shepherd and His Sheep. The Lord begins here in verse
27 and He says, My Sheep. God distinguishes between sinners. He makes a distinction between
sinners. He says here, My sheep, and there
in verse 26, He said, But you believe not, because ye are not
My sheep, as I said unto you. That's pretty clear. We read
over in Romans 9.16, it says, Salvation is not of him that
willeth. That's all we can do by the law.
nor of him that runneth." That's all we can do by the law. But
salvation's of God who shows mercy. He shows mercy on whom
He'll show mercy. Hebrews 2 and verse 16 tells
us that the Lord Jesus Christ came to save sinners. He didn't take upon Him the form
of angels. So there's some angels that fell
that aren't God's elect angels, and He didn't come for them.
He didn't come for them. His mercy is distinguishing mercy. You know, we used to go to a
sale barn. I don't know if you have those
up here. It's where you go buy cattle.
And everybody takes their cattle to this barn. And I used to love
to go when I was about y'all's age, I'd go with my grandfather,
my dad, and we'd go out before we went into the auction. And
you'd go walking down this long way down through there that was
up above all of the cattle. And you'd walk down through there
to look at all the cattle. And I took Emma and Will to one
in Tennessee, and they had a bunch of sheep there. And those sheep
would come in, and they'd bring them into the little arena there
where they'd auction off these sheep. And they'd just come in,
and they're dumb. Sheep are dumb. They're real
dumb. And they stink, too. And there's nothing about a sheep
that is a very flattering term, other than Christ saying, they're
my sheep. But when we would pick out what we were going to auction
off, take home with us. When you picked them out and
you bought them and paid for them, and you loaded them up
and took them with you, they're your sheep. They're your sheep. Christ said, they're my sheep.
And it's a blessed word here that He says, my sheep. They're
His sheep by purpose. His sheep by purchase. His sheep
by divine calling. This is true. Paul told Timothy, the Lord has
saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. where he is
by purchase. He said there in John 10 verse
15, As the Father knoweth me, even so I know the Father. The
Father knew him, righteous through and through, a fit, spotless
sacrifice. And he said, And I laid down
my life for the sheep. And thereby, brethren, it says
God purchased us with His own blood. through Christ's offering. He is laying down His life. And
we're His by divine call. We're all God's sheep born into
this earth spiritually deaf. We can't hear Him. Can't understand
Him. The Pharisees were sitting here. The reason the Lord's saying
this is the Pharisees opposed Him. They opposed everything
He said. And scripture says here, it says, Verse 6, This parable spake Jesus
unto them, but they understood not what things they were which
He spake unto them. They couldn't hear Him. Audibly they could hear Him,
but they couldn't hear Him in the heart. They didn't have any idea what
He was saying. But our Lord calls, and we hear His voice. We hear
Him in His Word. We hear Him through His pastors.
We hear Him through our brethren. because we hear His voice. He
calls His sheep by name, leads them out of darkness into light.
He brings them out of bondage into liberty, out of death into
life. That's what the Lord's teaching here. He's teaching
the Pharisees, you're not going to bring a man out of bondage
the way you fellows are trying to bring him out of bondage.
He said, I'm the door. I'm the shepherd. I have some
sheep and they gonna hear my voice. If we're gonna speak to
his sheep, we gotta speak the sheep's language. We gotta speak
that which he said. When he told Peter, feed my sheep, Peter stood up on the day of
Pentecost and he brought forth some sheep food to feed the sheep. And Christ spoke through him,
and his sheep heard his voice. They heard him. And that's what
he says here. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me. These are they that follow the
Lamb, whithersoever he goeth. Sheep recognize the false shepherds
from the true. And it's for this reason, over
in 1 John 2.27, It says, The anointing which
you have received of Him abideth in you. This is a heart language. The anointing which you have
received of Him abideth in you. 1 John 2.27. And you need not
that any man teach you. But as the same anointing teacheth
you of all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it
hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." This is hearing His
voice. Now, let me give you a little
background here, what the Pharisees were saying. The Pharisees opposed
Christ, and here's some of the reasons why. Well, here's what
they had done. They set themselves up as the
shepherds in God's church among his people. They set themselves
up as shepherds. And since the Lord Jesus Christ
came and he didn't receive any authority from them, since he
wasn't brought up under Dr. Gamaliel and didn't receive authority
from him to be teaching in their temple, they wouldn't hear him. But they went further than that.
They didn't want anybody else hearing him either. There's a
natural enmity. There's a natural hatred in us
by nature. We're born in Adam. There's a
natural hatred in us. And I'll tell you how you can
tell it. Because if somebody out there is saying a lie, I'm going to warn you what lies
are when we're sitting here. But I don't have to yoke you
to keep you from going there, wherever they're going. But the
Pharisees wanted to stop this message of Christ from being
preached at all. They did not want God's sovereign,
free, distinguishing grace, His particular redemption. They didn't
want it preached at all. Not at all. Because it was going
to interfere with their authority. It was going to interfere with
their self-appointment. It was going to interfere with
their power over the people. And so they brought up accusations
against the Lord. And when they had no accusation,
they made up accusations against Him. And they tightened their
grip on the people. and oppressed the people. And
they told the people, you'll be cast out of the synagogue
if you go this way. When they brought that, it was
such a tight grip. You remember when the Lord healed
the blind man? And they brought him into the
synagogue before the chief rulers and the priests and all of them.
And they brought his parents in there. And they asked his
parents, they said, who healed him? And this grip was so tight
and so oppressive and this yoke was so binding on them that they
were fearful of losing everything, his parents were, all their rights
even as citizens. And they said, he's of age, let
him answer for himself. This grip was so tight, they
would sooner turn away from their own son and deny their own son
and Christ Jesus the Lord Himself, then give up their position in
the church. And that was the same thing happening with the
Pharisees. And when the Lord ascended back to the Father,
they attempted to mingle the law with Christ. This thing began, it's always
been around, when they couldn't just out and out reject Christ
and stop Peter and John and others in an early church, then Judaizers
came into the church of Galatia and started saying, well, if
we can't beat them, let's just tell them it's okay to believe
on Christ, but now you're still under the law. You're still under
the law. You've got to obey the law now. Why would they do that? Why would
they do that? I want to stick with our text
here, but I want to show you a couple of things to understand
why I preach Christ and Him crucified.
Why Paul said, I was told the Corinthians, I was determined
to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
And why everything Paul said to the Corinthians was that there
be no distraction among them from worshiping Christ and Him
crucified. And I want to show you a few
things here. And this is what the Lord is saying to them. He's
saying there's nobody going to be made obedient to God. There's nobody going to be made
honest before God. They're not going to be good
citizens before in the community by this thing. It's going to
have to take the Spirit of Grace working in their heart. But here's
what they were I want to show you a couple of things first.
I asked this question earlier. I want to say this here before
we go any further. The law includes the whole law
given by God in Mount Sinai. This has become real apparent
to me recently, real clear to me. There's things I've been
hearing and trying to look at this and see what's being taught
to people. Over in 2 Chronicles 33a, Manasseh
was He didn't walk in the ways of
his father. He was an evil ruler. But I want you to see there in
2 Chronicles. Go home tonight and read this
because what he did was he built up idols and what have you. And the Lord told him, he said,
look here with me. It says verse 3, He built again
the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down. He
reared up altars for Balaam and made groves and worshipped all
the hosts of heaven and served them. Now what's the first commandment? I shall have no other gods before
me. Now if you'll look down here
with me at verse 8, This is what the Lord said. Verse 7, He said, Before
all the tribes of Israel will I put my name forever. Verse
8, He says, Neither will I anymore remove the foot of Israel from
out of the land which I have appointed for your fathers, so
that they will take heed to do all that I have commanded. All
that I have commanded. them according to the whole law
and the statutes and the ordinances. And he commanded them by the
hand of Moses. This was the law of Sinai. Now
over in Galatians 5.3, when Paul told the Galatians, I testify
again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the
whole law. The argument men will say there
is, they'll say, well that's talking about ceremonial law.
That's not talking about moral law. They divide it. Say it's talking about ceremonial
law, not moral law. When they were under the law,
Paul referred to them as circumcision and the Gentiles as uncircumcision.
But he says here, if a man is circumcised, that actual sign
of circumcision, if he's circumcised, if he goes to the law at all,
he's a debtor to do the whole law. The whole law spoken of
there is the same whole law spoken of back there in 2 Chronicles.
It's the whole law given by God from Mount Sinai. Now, if Christ
put an end to the ceremonies, Did he not fulfill what men call
the moral law too? Yes, he did. He fulfilled them
both. But I'll tell you why men divide
the two. I'll tell you why they divide
the two. Because everybody knows in our day that we're not under
the ceremonial law. In the early church, the Pharisees
tried their dead level best to have people to observe the ceremonial
law because it hadn't been fully abolished yet until the Lord
abolished it in 70 AD. But now in our day, you'd run
me out of here on a rail if I came in here and said, now, Scott,
you better get you some lambs and start sacrificing those lambs
because you know I'm not under ceremonial law. But now if I
tell you, That's the ceremonial law they're talking about, that
when it says we're not under the law in Galatia, that's talking
about ceremonial law now. You're under the moral law. You're
under it. Then, now I can preach the law
to you. Now I've justified my rebellion
in which the Pharisees were doing and the Lord was rebuking them
for, now I can justify it and I can stand up here and preach
the law to you. Because I've made a distinction between the
two. And if a man stands up and says, we're not under the law,
we're under grace. I say, oh no, no, no, no. You're confusing
the ceremonial law with the moral law. We're under the moral law. Well, let me give you a few reasons
Scripture says men will do this. Carnal men preach the law because
they refuse to hear the law. A man that preaches, thou shalt
not steal. Paul said, do you steal? Do you
not hear what the law says about you stealing? When you judge
another and preach that message, you're condemning your own self
because you're a thief and a robber, the Lord said. Now, instead,
and they won't confess they're guilty, Won't confess they're
guilty. And carnal men hate the Holy
One, Jesus Christ. If you look at Isaiah 30 in verse
9, this is speaking of mankind. That's who this is speaking of
in Isaiah 30 in verse 9. This is a rebellious people. Lying children. Children that
will not hear the law of the Lord. Which say to the seers
to the to the prophet to the preachers see not To the prophets
prophesied not unto us right things speak unto us smooth things
prophesied deceits Get you out of the way turn aside out of
the path cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us
and Wherefore, thus saith the Holy One of Israel, because you
despise this word, and trust in oppression, fraud, and perverseness,
and stay thereon, therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a
breach, ready to fall, swelling out, and a high wall whose breaking
cometh suddenly at an instant. Look down at verse 15. For thus
saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning...
Returning to who? To Him. In returning and rest. Resting where? In Christ our
rest. In returning and rest shall you
be saved in quietness and in confidence. In who? In Christ. That shall be your strength.
And you would not. You would not. You wouldn't hear
the law. You said preach smooth things to us. Tell us how we
ought to be reforming the world. Going out and providing for the
poor and the needy and all those these things brethren. That's
great But don't think for a minute that's gonna make you righteous
Don't think for a minute that's gonna justify you before God
and don't entertain the thought for a minute that that's gonna
make you any more Holy before God any more accepted of God
at all Period that clear period That's what the Pharisees were
saying, carnal men. Turn, if you will, to Galatians
2. Carnal men preach the law in
order to bind sinners to do what they want them to do. In Galatians
2. Paul said these are false brethren,
unawares brought in, brought in unaware, who came in privileged,
very carefully to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ
Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage. Because if they
can bring us into bondage and bind us in bondage, they get
us to do what they want us to do. to keep their power and their
authority. And Paul says, to whom we gave
place by subjection, know not for an hour that the truth of
the gospel might continue in you. There in Galatians 6, carnal
men preach the law because to preach Christ And Him crucified
as being the full finished work of redemption is going to bring
persecution from those who hate Christ and His finished work
and want to hear about their own works. He says here, verse 12, there
in the middle of that verse, He says, They want to preach
the law only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross
of Christ. Look here and stay right there. Carnal men preach the law because
in getting sinners to obey the law, the carnal mind, even the
man who gets you to do it, the preacher who gets you to do it,
and the folks who are sitting there who are doing the same
thing to everybody else in the congregation, they're not doing
the law either. But if they can get you to do
it, they can glory in your flesh. Think they can come before God
and He'll accept them more because didn't we do many one for it?
Look at all these people we got following you and obeying you.
Verse 12 there. As many as desire to make a fair
show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised. For neither
they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have
you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh. So you see,
when the Lord's speaking here, the reason the Pharisees didn't
like it was because to take away the law is to take away their
righteousness and expose their folly. To take away the law is
to take away their power over men, over sinners. To take away
the law is to take away the only gospel they knew because they
didn't hear what the law said. To take away the law is to say
that salvation is in Christ alone and that means a sinner has to
bow and confess Him to be Lord. And a man can't make himself
do that. And therefore men hate this message. But Paul said,
God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto
the world. Is that not plain? Is that not
simple and clear? Well, let's look here. Now, let
me say this to you. Paul told the Corinthians that
he was not without law to God, but under the law to Christ.
He said, if you be led of the Spirit, you're not under the
law. But we're under the law to Christ. What's that mean?
That means The perfect law of liberty is that Christ has perfectly
fulfilled the law on my behalf. I am perfectly justified before
the law. I'm perfectly righteous before
the law. I've been made the very holiness of God. And I'm not
going back to the law to use that to try to yoke you to do
anything, drive you to do anything. I'm not using that law to try
to condemn or make myself more righteous before God. We use the law to show Christ
from it. We use the law to show our sinfulness
from it. But we don't ever use the law.
And what I hear is, is men being left with an impression. Because
if Christ is not the, if He's not the message, and if the message
is not telling, shutting men up to Christ alone. Then a sinner
will leave that congregation, leave here in that message with
the thought that this is how I'm made righteous, or more sanctified
by my works. That's not true. That's not true. And I tell you why these fellows,
they do it because they want that position. It's the same
reason the Pharisees right here. They wouldn't bow and they didn't
want to let go. It just comes down to each of
us. It comes down to what we are by nature. When Christ is
dealing with each of us, we don't want to let go of it because
We're thieves and robbers by nature. We want to come up some
other way. We want to enter in some other way. And that way
we want to enter in is through the law. But our ignorance and
our depravity, our backwardness in sin is that God gave that
law. He gave that law for the purpose
of revealing our sin and giving us the knowledge of sin that
it'd be our schoolmaster to drive us to Christ. And yet, we're
so backwards in sin that we think that we can fool God? We think
we can deceive God with His own law? That's just utter ignorance,
isn't it? But that's how we think. Until Christ comes and does what
He did right here and reveals, I'm the door. I'm the shepherd. Let me move along here, but look
what the Lord answered them here in verse 1. He said, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into
the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a
thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the
door is the shepherd of the sheep. He is the door and he is the
shepherd. To him the porter openeth. And
the sheep hear his voice, 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 flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers.
These are all, this is will, this is shall, this is not maybe. This is how it is brethren. He's not saying he's going to
drive them. That's what you do with the law.
You drive men with the law. That word schoolmaster over there
in Galatians is a strict taskmaster. That's what the law is. It whips
men. He said, I call them by name,
and I lead them, and they follow me. You know, sheep will follow
a shepherd, and you can take down all the fences, you can
take down all the hedges, you can just have an open field with
no restraints on them, and they'll just follow their shepherd. They're just following. But you
know, my grandfather, my great uncle, I'm sorry, had some goats.
And he had fences around those goats. And every day those goats
would get hung up in that fence because they wanted to get out
of that fence. Every day trying to get through that fence. That's
the law. Is that binding that yoke and
they want to break it break it break it and get out of it? She
just hear the voice of the master the shepherd and follow him That's
what i'm saying. That's why that's why I insist
that we have to preach the gospel of christ in him crucified because
if that's how he speaks to us And that's how He causes us to
follow Him. And if anything else is preached
that makes you do something that appears to be righteous before
men, it's hypocrisy. Because you ain't been changed
in your heart. You don't believe God in your heart. It's just
a fair show in the flesh is all it is. And folks, but men say,
well, how in the world, if you preach that message, that's going
to lead to all kind of lawlessness. For a goat, it will. The fence can't hedge in a goat.
He's going to try to get out of that. This gospel being preached
is going to make a goat go, well, let's sin that grace may abound
that much more. But not the sheep. The sheep
are going to hear the voice of the shepherd and follow him.
And that carnal religion can't understand that because they
don't hear the voice of the shepherd. Never heard it. Never seen the
delight in Christ Jesus the Lord. And if you stand up and preach
it, afraid folks won't come. And they won't. They'll leave.
But if they better for folks to be offended and leave and
go someplace else and you be seated at the feet of Christ
Worshipping him therefore you stand up and lead men straight
to hell by works I Mean which which is better let God be true
and ever been a liar. That's that's what we got to
preach I The Lord said, I know them. He said, I've engraven
them on the palms of my hands. And I know them. He calleth His
own sheep by name and He leadeth them out. And look here, it says,
verse 28, and He gives them eternal life and they shall never perish. Never perish. You know, that
word, give, that word is a great word because that means you're
You're eternally secure because salvation is a gift. Eternally
secure. Follow me on that. If it's a
gift, it's free. When you all gather together
for somebody's birthday, you make that person's hand a birthday,
do you make them buy the gift you brought them? You buy it
for them and you bring it and give it to them, don't you? It's
free. And if it's free, that means
it can't be worked for. You're not going to take any
work for it. You're not going to take any price. It's free.
It can't be earned. And if it can't be earned, that
means it's by grace alone. God's grace to give it to whomever
He's pleased. And if it's grace alone, if it's
God's showing mercy and grace to whomsoever he will, that means
it cannot be altered. It can't be changed because God
changes not. It can't be altered by our enemies.
It can't be altered by us. It can't be altered by our sin.
It can't be altered at all. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Right? The gifts and calling
of God are without repentance. Whatsoever God doeth, it shall
be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nothing
take from it, and God doeth it for this reason, that men should
fear before Him. Grace makes a man become a mercy-beggar. Has to. Because when God works
grace in the heart, we see what a God He is. And we cry out for
mercy. Well, he says, I give them eternal
life and they'll never perish. What if my mind goes? He says,
I know them. I know them. You folks that make the doctrine
of justification by faith to be all-encompassing upon your
active believing, well, what you gonna do when you lose your
mind and forget who he is? When your experience is gone, there's all your hope gone with
it. My hope is this. He said, I know them that are
mine. I lay down my life for my sheep. I'm rested now. I know that if I stray off or
straggle behind, the good shepherd's going to come and get me. He's
not going to let me go because he said, I bought you. You're
mine. You're mine. That's what he said in Psalm
89. I don't have time to go over there, but go over there and
read that too. Psalm 89, verses 30-37. Psalm 89, 30-37. And he says
there that if they sin... Well, let's turn over and read. We're just waiting on the Lord
to return. We've got plenty of time. Psalm 89. Psalm 89, verse 30. He says this. He's speaking of
the seed of David, the seed of Christ. He said, if his children
forsake my law and walk not in my judgments, if they break my
statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression
with the rod and their iniquity with stripes, just like you parents
chasing your children because you love them. But now read,
nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from
him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not
break, nor alter the thing that's gone out of my lips. Once have
I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. You can underscore
that and out by it right, my son. King Christ Jesus I will
not lie to him his seed shall endure forever in his throne
as the sun before me It shall be established forever as the
moon and as a faithful witness in heaven Sheila That's sure
That's certain. That's secure Now, one last thing
here. The Good Shepherd preserves all
His sheep. He says here, verse 28, John
10, 28, Neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father which gave them Me
is greater than all. No man is able to pluck them
out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one. You see, He told Moses. Moses got a little
sideways there one time, and he was all worried about how
things were going. As men tend to do, we think,
well, we've got to put our hand to it to fix it. We've got to
whip somebody. You know, get them in a headlock
and yank them back in line, you know. And here's what the Lord
told Moses. He said, Is the Lord's hand waxed
short? Thou shalt see now whether my
word shall come to pass unto thee or not. Just wait around
and see. Just wait around and see. He said, Here's how He said He's
going to give you what He's going to give you from His hand. He
said, Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. That's what I'm trying
to do to you today. Speak comfortably to you. And
say to her, cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquities pardoned. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. Everything we lost in Adam, the
Lord restored to us. Everything we lost in Adam, He
restored to His people. But more. More than what Adam
lost. Because He offered Himself through
the eternal Spirit. He obtained eternal redemption. We can't fall anymore. Can't
be lost. Can't fall. Because we are securing
Him. Securing Him. That's this hand,
this mighty hand. You can't pluck them out of His
hand. He'd have to deny His Son before you could pluck any out
of His hand. This shepherd would have to be proven to be a weak,
helpless failure before you could pluck any out of His hand. What
does He say here about those that are preaching a lie? Look here in verse 7 he tells
them John 10 7 he said I'm the door the sheep All that ever
came before me are thieves and robbers But the sheep didn't
hear them Sheep didn't hear them. I'm the door by me if any man
enter in he shall be saved We shall go in and out find pasture
the thief cometh not but for to steal You see that man who's
preaching don't steal the reason he's preaching that message is
Tell you it's because he doing his dead level best to steal
from you He wants you to fill his pockets full fill his belly
full Put him in a nice car put him in a nice house put him in
a in a good position And he's he want to rob God. He want to
rob you. He want to rob everybody he can
the Lord said everyone the thief cometh not but for to steal and
to kill and to destroy and He said, I've come that they might
have life and that they might have it more abundantly. He said, verse 12, He that is
a hireling and not the shepherd, Who's on the sheep or not? He
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 a hireling, and careth not for the sheep. But
he said, I'm the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and I'm known
of mine. And he said, I lay down my life
for them. I lay down my life for them. Well, here's the conclusion
of this thing. What's going to be the response?
Folks, hear this message. What's going to be the response? Well, look at verse 19. Verse 19. There was a division
therefore again among the Jews for these sayings. This is why
Pharisees didn't want to preach. Because God divides, He separates
the wheat from the chaff through this message. And they said,
and many of them said, he hath a devil and is mad. Why hear
ye him? I think I've probably been called
a devil and mad. Folks ask, why are you listening
to that fellow? That's okay. That's all right. Others said, these are not the
words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of
the blind? Listen here. That's that's always
the response. It's a saver under life under
life for some and it's a saver under death and others That's
that's the response Some gonna reject Christ by clinging to
the law like the Pharisees did and others gonna reject him by
saying well Let's just sin Let's just go on and if that's how
it is Then I can just send all the more if God's blessed if
he's glorified by my sin I'm just seeing more and more sign
glorifying more and more You know what both those people do?
Look here at verse 31. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone
him. That's what both parties do. Both in the same camp. Stone
him. Here's what the believer does.
Romans 11.33. Here's the heart of the believer. And this is by his grace. This
is when you hear his voice speak. This is what the two-fold response
of the believer is. He says, verse 33, All the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, That's what the believer, how
unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out.
For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Who hath been his counselor?
Who hath first given to him and it shall be recompensed unto
him again? For of him and through him and to him are all things
to whom be glory forever. Amen. And then go on there, Romans
12, 1. And here's the second response
of the believer. I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, by the very fact that our God's merciful,
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. You know what you do with a sacrifice?
You kill it. You kill it. What did Paul say
do with our body? Mortify the deeds of your body.
Treat your body like it's dead. Present your body, but it's alive,
it's living. It's alive under God. Holy, acceptable
under God. Present your bodies that way.
Present them as a living sacrifice. Don't give in to sin anymore.
Don't walk in sin anymore. But present your bodies as holy,
acceptable under God. Which is, that's our reasonable
service. It's reasonable. Anything unreasonable
about that? Be not conformed to this world
now brother. I'm gonna tell you something
that folks aren't telling you If you go into places where the
laws preached And you begin to run all over this world thinking
you're obeying God's law and And even if you say it's not
for righteousness you got that Good feeling, you know, I feel
good. I just, boy, we've been serving God. Feel good about
what we're doing. You conform to this world. That's
what the world does. The world doesn't do that. I
mean, God's people do not do that. But be transformed by the
renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and
acceptable and perfect will of God. What did the Lord Jesus
Christ say it was? He said, I'm the door. He said,
if any man entereth in by Me, he'll find pasture. He'll find
pasture. Well, in this world, you've got
to tell folks something that they need to be doing because
how else are they going to get through this life? My Shepherd, He leads me. Through the valley of the shadow
of death. That's what this is. That's what this world is. It's
a valley. It's not death for the believer,
it's just a shadow. Because he's given us eternal
life. But as we pass through it, he leads us through it. He
leads us through it. And that's what he said. My sheep
hear my voice and they follow me. They enter in through him
and follow him.