The words to which I would like
to direct your attention this morning are to be found in the
10th chapter of the Gospel according to John and the 27th verse. The Gospel according to John,
chapter 10 and verse 27. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them and they follow me. The Gospel according to John,
chapter 10, verse 27. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them and they follow me. As we noticed when we read, this
chapter really follows on directly from the previous chapter. And
in that ninth chapter, we have that familiar account of the
healing of that man that was born blind. You'll notice at
the beginning of chapter 9, Jesus is passing through. there in
Jerusalem and he sees a man which was blind from his birth and
his disciples ask him that question. They say, Master, who did sin,
this man or his parents, that he was born blind? They made
the mistake that we can often make. They saw a man who was,
it seemed to them, being punished in some way. And they said to
Jesus, well, whose fault is it that this man was born blind?
Is it because he's committed some terrible sin that God foresaw,
or is it because of the sin of his parents? They misinterpreted
and Jesus corrects them. In verse three, Jesus answered,
neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, but that the
works of God should be made manifest in him. And I'm sure we're familiar
with the account of the healing of that blind man and what happened
subsequently. The Pharisees become aware that
he's been healed and they question him and then they question his
parents. Then they bring him back again and They're obviously
shaken by this miracle that Jesus has performed. And they try to
convince the blind man that Jesus is a sinner because he's healed
him on the Sabbath day. And we have that very memorable
answer of the blind man there in the 25th verse, where he says,
whether he be a sinner or no, I know not. One thing I know,
that whereas I was blind, now I see. And this really was a
challenge, wasn't it, to the authority of the Pharisees, how
they objected to this man, Jesus, who didn't fall under their authority,
but spoke to them his own mind, spoke to them the truth, which
they were not used to. And they objected also to the
blind man. And we know that eventually they
excommunicated him. They cast him out from the synagogue.
They cut him off from his own people. This act of Jesus and the teaching
of Jesus, it called into question their authority and their role,
which really was to be shepherds to the people. They were to lead
the people. That was what they should have
been doing, leading them to the truth, leading them in the truth.
But when they encounter this man, Jesus and his miracles,
it shakes them, and they object to it. They say to him, we know
that God spake unto Moses, as for this fellow, this Jesus,
they say, we know not from whence he is. And how the blind man,
or the man that had been blind, answers them. And he says, if this man were
not of God, he could do nothing. And you see immediately the enmity
and the objection of the Pharisees. They see themselves as the leaders
of the people. They see themselves as those
who are wise, those who have arrived at a position of truth,
whereas this man who has just been healed, they see him really
as nothing. Oh, they say to him, thou wast
altogether born in sin, and dost thou teach us? And they cast
him out. You see the same thing earlier
on in the Gospel of John. You remember the occasion when
Jesus is there teaching in the temple, and the chief priests
and the Pharisees, they send officers to take him. But the
officers that they send are so impressed with the words of Jesus
that they come back empty-handed. And the chief priests and the
Pharisees, this is in the seventh chapter of John, at verse 45,
they say unto them, Why have ye not brought him? The officers
answered, Never man spake like this man. And you see the same spirit in
the Pharisees. Are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers or the
Pharisees believed on him? Or they say, we are the ones
that you should look to. We haven't believed on him. You
can rely on us. We are the teachers. We are the
shepherds. We'll lead you in the right way. Look to us. Or
they say, this people who knoweth not the law, these ignorant people,
these people who know not the law are cursed. They say, we
are wise, and that's why we haven't believed. But these ignorant
people, they have believed on him because they are ignorant,
and they know not the law. Really, it's a fulfillment of
what we read in the book of Proverbs, isn't it? You remember how we
read of those in the book of Proverbs, and it's there in the
26th chapter. at verse 12, seest thou a man
wise in his own conceit. That's a very good description
of the Pharisees and of the chief priests. They were wise in their
own conceit. They had an inflated opinion
of their own wisdom, of their own intellectual ability. And they were wise in themselves.
They had confidence in their own minds. And the proverb says
there is more hope of a fool than of him. And that's true,
isn't it? A man who is convinced that he
is right is never ready to listen to the contrary opinion. Well,
may we be kept from that spirit of the Pharisees, because the
spirit of the Pharisees didn't die out with the Pharisees, did
it? And we can all fall into this error whereby we think ourselves
to be so far on in the Christian faith and so settled and established
in the truth that we're not ready to listen to anyone else. And
we can fall into this same trap of looking down on people. And
we almost, if not in word, in spirit, we say what the Pharisees
said. Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach
us? Well, may we be ready to listen as the Pharisees were
not ready And Jesus condemns the Pharisees, doesn't he, right
at the end of the ninth chapter. He says to them, if you were
blind, you should have no sin. He says, if you confessed your
ignorance and acknowledged your inability to see these things
correctly, you should have had no sin. But now ye say, we see.
They said, we see, we are wise, we are the ones who know. And Jesus says, therefore, your
sin remaineth. And then the 10th chapter follows
on, it seems, from that. And it begins with that parable
that Jesus spoke in the first five verses, which we read together. In the
sixth verse, this parable, it says, spake Jesus unto them. And we might, at first glance,
think it's a rather simple parable to understand. I'm sure we've
often read it. But I must admit, as I was reading
it earlier in the week, the more I read it, the harder it seemed
to understand. Just to notice a few things.
Where is Christ in the parable? We have he that entereth not
by the door, who's described as a thief and robber. And we
have him that entereth in by the door. And then we have the
porter. And we have the sheep. Well,
as we read on in the chapter, if you come to verse 7, Jesus
said to the scribes and the Pharisees, I am the door of the sheep. So,
in the parable, he seems to say that the door, the door of the
sheepfold, represents Christ. And later on, in verse 11, Jesus
describes himself as the good shepherd. So, it seems that in
the parable, the shepherd, this true shepherd of the sheep, also
represents Christ in some way. And then we have this porter.
Who is the porter? Who is represented by the porter? As I say, at first
glance, it seems a very simple parable. It's very short. And,
of course, we have the benefit of being able to read it over
and over. And yet, even so, as I say, we find it hard to understand.
So it's not surprising, is it, that the Pharisees, having only
heard it once, they understood not, it says in verse 6, what
things they were which he spake unto them. We tend to think of
the parables as intending to help us to illustrate the truth.
But really, there is a concealing of the truth in the parables,
isn't there? Not just a revealing of the truth, but the truth is
concealed there. And as in many other places,
the Pharisees here, they understood not. They failed to understand
what things they were which he spake unto them. And so from
verse 7 onwards Jesus elaborates further and goes on to explain
what the parable represents. And really he comes to the pinnacle
of his teaching there at the end of his discussion in verse
16 and 17 and 18. And how does he end? And this was what so divided
the Jews and offended the Pharisees In verse 17 he says, therefore
doth my father love me because I lay down my life that I might
take it again. In verse 18 he says, I have power
to lay it down and I have power to take it again. No wonder there
was a division among the Jews for these sayings. It would be
the same if we came across someone who'd made these claims in our
day, wouldn't it? It runs completely counter to
our experience and to everything we've known. For a man to come
and to say that he has power to lay down his own life and
to take it up again, well, we know that is just not true, don't
we? We know that that doesn't happen. And so were we to have
been there in the days when Christ taught this, we no doubt, unless
taught by the Spirit, would have made the same mistake that the
Jews made. Many of them, they said, he hath
a devil and is mad. As I say, we can understand it.
A man who claims to have power to lay down his own life and
to take it again, it runs counter to everything we've ever seen,
everything we've known. And they concluded, therefore,
well, he must be mad to talk like that. But there were others. And they said, these are not
the words of him that hath a devil. They were impressed by his words.
They were impressed by his works, his opening of the eyes of that
blind man. Can a devil, they said, open
the eyes of the blind? This was a division among the
Jews. We read about that so often, especially in this book of John,
how the Jews were divided, how the people were divided. And
that division remains today, doesn't it? Between those who
believe that Jesus is able to lay down his own life and take
it again, and those who cannot believe it. Those who say it
is unscientific, illogical, to believe that a man is able to
do this. Well, they said the same things, no doubt, in the
days that we're reading of here in this chapter. Then it seems
we have some interval of time, and in verse 22 we read, it was
at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication. Now if you go back
a few chapters, you'll read of another feast. In chapter 7 and
verse 2, it says the Jews feast of Tabernacles was at hand. Now
the Feast of Tabernacles usually fell in around late September
to late October, whereas this Feast, this Feast of the Dedication,
it falls around the middle of December this year, and this
Feast is still celebrated by the Jews. it falls from the 6th
to the 14th. So just in a few weeks' time,
the Jews again will be celebrating this same festival, as it were. And those who know your history,
you will know the account of how this feast came to be celebrated. You'll find no mention of it
in the Old Testament, and that's because it was not established
until that period between the two. And around 200 years before
Christ was born, Jerusalem was invaded and the temple was really
desecrated. And it was only three years later
that it was recaptured by the Jews and they restarted the temple
worship. And that's what they remember
at the Feast of the Dedication today. It's generally called
Hanukkah. It's a festival of light when they remember how
the temple was cleansed and how the temple worship was restarted. This is the Feast of the Dedication
that's spoken of here. And then in the same verse we're
told that it was winter. Well, as I say, the feast of
the dedication always falls in winter, so what's the point of
these additional words? Well, really the word winter
is not so much a reference to the time of year, it is a reference
to the weather. It was the Feast of the Dedication
and it was winter. It was wintry weather. The same
word appears later on in the Book of Acts. You remember the
account of Paul and how he's aboard that boat and there's
a great tempest. And somewhere in that account
we're told that there was no small tempest upon the boat.
And the word tempest is the same word. It's a storm. It's a stormy
weather. And perhaps, as some have supposed,
this was why Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. He went into the temple, he was
walking in the porch to keep out of the storm. And he, as we read, he was surrounded
by the Jews again. The Jews came round about him
and they asked him that question, how long dost thou make us to
doubt? If they'll be the Christ, tell
us plainly. It's not the only time that they came with this
request, is it? How often they appealed to Christ
to give them some sign, some additional sign. Well, we all
know that Christ did sign after sign, miracle after miracle,
to demonstrate the fact that he was the Son of God. And yet
these signs, they were not sufficient to convince the Jews. And they
were always asking for one more sign. And it's obvious that if
Christ had performed some miracle, they would have found some other
excuse, wouldn't they? They didn't believe, and why
did they not believe? Well, I'm sure they would have been able
to give you many reasons. They were offended by many things
that Jesus did and said, how he ate with publicans and sinners,
and how he, as they saw it, desecrated the Sabbath day by healing. and
especially how he prophesied of himself as dying on a cross. These things made it impossible
for them to accept him as the Messiah. These are the kind of
things they would have said to you if you had said to them,
why do you not believe that Jesus is the Messiah? These are the
kind of things that they would have told you, the kind of excuses
and reasons that they would have come out with. But as we see
from the words of Jesus, that was not really the reason, was
it? Jesus tells them in verse 25, he says to them, I told you,
I told you that I'm the Christ. The works that I do, they bear
witness of me. And then he gives them, and he
gives us the real reason why they did not believe. He says
to them, ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep. He's
referring back, no doubt, to the parable and to the teaching
that he's given to them in the earlier part of the chapter,
when he's been talking about shepherds and sheep. And he says
to them, well, ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep,
as I said unto you. Of course, this is a very difficult
verse for those who hold that a man holds in his own power
the ability to decide to believe or not believe. And they have to interpret this
verse in a very peculiar way. And they tend to say, well, what
Christ is saying is that they didn't believe because they weren't
teachable. They hadn't made the decision
to be teachable, and so they weren't really able to be described
as sheep. Well, really, that is to say
that Christ was saying that you believe not because you believe
not. It doesn't make any sense. The meaning of Christ is quite
clear, isn't it? Ye believe not because ye are
not of my sheep. They weren't among those who
he describes earlier in the chapter. I lay down my life for the sheep,
are the sheep I have. He's constantly dividing the
people, isn't he, and the entirety of the world into those who are
his sheep and those who are not his sheep. And he says to the
Jews, to the scribes and the Pharisees, he says, ye believe
not, because ye are not of my sheep. And then in verse 27 we
have these words, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and
they follow me. And really there are just four
things to notice from this verse. The first is this, why is it
that Jesus describes his people as sheep? Why use that animal
to describe them? There are many others that he
could have used, but he deliberately uses this word sheep. Well, why
is that? There's the first thing. And
then secondly, looking at the verse more particularly, what
are the characteristics of these sheep? Well, there's three of
them here, aren't there? My sheep hear my voice. There's the first
description. The second is this, I know them.
And then the third description, they follow me. And I want to
look at each of those individually. But first of all, why is it that
Christ describes his people as sheep? And it's not just here
in this chapter, is it? It's fairly common that the church
and Christians are described as sheep. Well, the first thing
that we might think when we consider sheep is that they're generally
harmless, aren't they? If we're walking through fields
and we come across a field of cows, we can be anxious, can't
we? I know I can. Sometimes it can be a little
bit worrying when you have to walk through a field of cows,
but very few people would worry about walking through a field
of sheep. Generally speaking, they're not dangerous creatures.
How do we have it in Matthew, there in chapter 7? What do we read? It says in chapter
7 and verse 15, Jesus says to his disciples,
beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing,
but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Well, clearly the contrast
is being made between wolves and sheep. And what Jesus is
saying is beware of these false prophets because they won't always
look like false prophets. Sometimes they'll look like sheep,
they'll look harmless. But inwardly, he says, they are
ravening wolves. Well, the picture that's given
to us is the sheep as a safe animal, a harmless animal. We think of sheep and lambs especially
as innocent, don't we? As guileless. You remember the
description of that man, Nathanael, who Jesus called to himself.
And when Nathanael comes, Jesus says, behold, an Israelite indeed,
in whom is no guile. Well, that's characteristic of
a sheep, isn't it? They're not malicious creatures. They're
not dangerous creatures. And that's how we ought to be.
That's how the church and how Christians ought to behave. Paul
gives that description of himself. There in the first epistle to
the Corinthians in chapter four, talking about his own experience,
he says that he laboured, working with our own hands, he says,
being reviled, we bless. You see the same picture given
of someone who is harmless, someone who is not malicious, someone
who is not always looking to get their own back. No, he says,
when we're reviled, we don't revile again, we bless. Being
persecuted, he says, we suffer it. Of course, we all come very
far short of this, don't we? Even those of us who are Christians.
We are told to love our enemies. Well, that's very difficult to
do, isn't it? We're told to forgive those who offend us. That's not
easy. You remember how the disciples responded when Jesus taught that.
They said, Lord, increase our faith. Well, they said, this
is hard to do. It's hard to forgive people when
they're unkind to us, when they're malicious to us. And so we do
come short, and that's why Peter gives us the exhortation there
in the first epistle of Peter. How does he speak? He exhorts
the Christians to whom he's writing. He says to them, in chapter two,
verse one, wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and
hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, he's essentially
telling them to become more sheep-like. laying aside all malice and all
guile. Well, as we said, sheep are harmless, they are innocent
creatures, they're not malicious, they're not vicious creatures. We do come short, and so we need
the exhortation. But that's how we ought to be,
that's how Christians ought to behave. Sheep also, and really it's related,
sheep also are defenseless, aren't they? That's why they need a
shepherd. We read, didn't we, how the Lord Jesus illustrated
the difference between a highling and the shepherd. The highling
sees the wolf and he runs away, and so the wolf catches the sheep
and scatters them. The sheep have no defense in
themselves against the wolf, do they? They need the shepherd
to defend them. And so Jesus says that his people,
his sheep, those who believe on him, they also are defenseless
without him. They need him to protect them,
to guide them, to lead them to where they can find food. He
says in a spiritual way, this is true of Christians, as it's
true of sheep in a natural way. They're harmless, they're defenseless.
And the other thing that we think of when we think of sheep is
they're very foolish, aren't they? We know that if a sheep
escapes from a field, it can't find its own way back. And generally
speaking, the rest of the sheep will follow. Well, we can be
like that, can't we? We can quite easily get out of
the right way. And when we get out, it's very
difficult to get back in again. They get out of the way, they
get lost. You remember the parable that Jesus told about the man
with a hundred sheep, how there was one sheep that wandered off,
and the man didn't say, well, it'll probably come back. He
knew it wouldn't. He said, well, I must go and find it. That woman
with the ten coins, when she lost the coin, she had to look
for it. And so the sheep, once they're lost, they need to be
found by someone else. They can't recover themselves.
And there's much more, I'm sure, that could be said as to why
Jesus describes his people as sheep. But coming on in more
detail to this verse, my sheep hear my voice, this is the first
thing, the first way in which Jesus describes his people. My
sheep hear my voice. Well, what does he mean? What
kind of hearing is he talking about? Well, clearly, he's not
talking about a natural hearing. The Pharisees heard Jesus' voice,
didn't they? He speaks to them many times,
this whole chapter. Much of it is Jesus talking to
the Pharisees, and the Pharisees heard, and the chief priests
heard, and the scribes heard, and all those who Jesus describes
as not of his sheep, they all heard his voice in an outward
way. And it's the same today, isn't
it? There are many that hear the voice of Christ when we read
the Word of God. And when we read the words of
the Lord Jesus Christ, we're hearing his voice, aren't we?
These are the things that he said, and we hear them. And we've
all heard them this morning. And many people, no doubt, throughout
the world will hear the words of Christ in this way today.
As they gather in churches and chapels, they all hear the words
of Christ in this outward, in this natural way. But this word,
hear, it means more than just to hear with the outward voice,
obviously. And we have a clue to that when we look in the first
epistle to the Corinthians. You remember how Paul, in the
first epistle to the Corinthians, he spends some time talking about
those who speak in tongues, those who are given the ability to
talk in a foreign language, a language that they were not previously
able to speak. And there in the first epistle
to the Corinthians, at the 14th chapter, we have these words. At verse 2, he that speaketh
in an unknown tongue, so a person who's talking a foreign language,
he speaketh not unto men, but unto God. And then it says this,
for no man understandeth him. Well, the word understandeth
that we have there is the same word that we have here, where
it's translated, my sheep hear my voice. So we could, without
any dishonesty, translate this verse as, my sheep understand
my voice. It goes beyond a hearing. It's
more than a hearing. They do hear it, yes, with the
outward ear, but it goes further than that. They don't just hear
it. They also understand it. And no doubt Jesus is referring
back to his parable. And what do we read there in
the third verse of this chapter? The sheep hear his voice. Well,
why do they hear? Well, he calleth them. It says
he calleth his own sheep by name. And the contrast is made, isn't
it, between those sheep who are his, who recognize his voice,
There at the end of verse four, they know his voice, it says.
But if there are other sheep that don't belong to this shepherd,
well, they'll hear it the same, won't they? They'll hear it just
the same as the sheep that are his. But they won't recognize
it, they won't understand it, they won't know that it's their
shepherd that's calling, because they don't know his voice. They
don't recognize his voice. They hear because they are his.
They hear in this way because they are his. It's not because
they hear that they become his. Surely that's shown to us in
the parable, isn't it? It's not that the shepherd goes
into the fold and just calls and then says, well, whichever
sheep come, they must be mine. No, he knows which ones are his.
He calls them by name and he leads them out. And if another
sheep comes out, he won't say, well, that must be mine too.
He'll say, well, no, that one needs to go back. That's not one of
my sheep. It's only the sheep that are
his that he leads out. And surely this is the point
that Jesus is making here. My sheep hear my voice, and only
my sheep hear my voice in this way, this way whereby they understand
it. And this is a continuous thing,
isn't it? It's not a once in a lifetime experience for a sheep
to hear the voice of the shepherd. There in verse four it says,
he goeth before them and the sheep follow him for they know
his voice. The picture that's being given to us is of a shepherd
that's constantly calling to his sheep as he leads them. He's constantly calling, they're
constantly hearing his voice. And so in a spiritual way, we
mustn't make the mistake of thinking that hearing Christ's voice in
this way is a once in a lifetime experience. There is a first
time, of course, when the newly converted Christian hears the
voice of Christ in this new way, in this way whereby they understand
it. But it would be a great mistake
for that Christian to think, well, now I've heard it, I've
no need to hear it anymore. No, it's a constant, an ongoing
thing that we need, day by day and moment by moment. We need
to hear the voice of Christ and we need to be led by the voice
of Christ. They hear because they are his.
They are not his because they hear. That's shown to us also
in verse 16, isn't it? Jesus says, other sheep I have,
which are not of this fold. He's talking about those who
are not Jews. He says, them also I must bring.
They're his, even though they have not yet heard his voice.
He says, they shall hear my voice. Well, clearly he's saying they
haven't heard it yet. but they're still his sheep and
so they will hear it and there shall be one fold and one shepherd
they hear because they are his they understand not just an outward
hearing but an inward hearing whereby they don't just hear
it and think well I've heard no they understand it it means
something to them they know his voice here is the first thing
well what is the second He says, my sheep hear my voice and I
know them. Well we might think, well surely
Jesus knows everything. As God we might imagine, well
he knows everything, doesn't he? So surely he knows everybody. Surely he doesn't just know his
sheep, he knows all men. Well that's true in a sense,
isn't it? How often we read how Jesus knew the thoughts of those
around him while he was here below. Somewhere it says he didn't
need anyone to tell him what they were thinking, he knew what
was going on. So it's quite true to say that Jesus knows all about
everybody. But of course there is a great
difference, isn't there, between knowing about somebody and knowing
them for yourself. This is a very intimate knowledge,
a very personal knowledge that Jesus is speaking of here. Not
just I know about my sheep, but I know them. The shepherd doesn't
just know about his sheep, does he? He knows them, he recognises
them. He knows which ones are his and
which ones are not his. And he can discern between his
sheep and those who are not his sheep. This is a knowledge that cannot
be taught, isn't it? You remember how we have it described
to us, this New Covenant, this Gospel day is referred to and
described in the eighth chapter of Hebrews and the writer there,
he refers back to the Old Testament and he quotes from the book of
Joel and he says, they shall not teach every man his neighbor
and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord, for all shall
know me from the least to the greatest. This is a knowledge that goes
both ways, isn't it? The sheep knows the shepherd
and the shepherd knows the sheep. We have that in verse 14. I am
the good shepherd and know my sheep. But it's not just that
he knows his sheep. No, he says, I am known of mine. He says, my sheep know me as
well. I know them and they know me.
And really, if we know someone in this personal way, really
it must go both ways, mustn't it? It's hard to imagine that
we could ever know someone in that close way, unless they also
knew us. And as I say, it's much more
than knowing about them. We can have someone describe
to us in very great detail, can't we? But it doesn't mean that
we know them. And you think perhaps of someone
who's a spy. Our intelligence services, they're
always gathering information about people, aren't they? And
a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to look back at some of the records
from the Second World War, where the intelligence services had
gathered a great deal of information on high-ranking officers in the
German military. And some of it was very personal,
very intimate knowledge. What they like, what they don't
like, what they think. what they feel. But the person
writing that report, they've gathered all that information,
but they didn't know the person that they were writing about,
did they? They were writing about them, but they didn't know them.
Surely this knowledge that we have spoken of here, it goes
further than just knowing about a person. When Jesus says, I
know them, he's not just saying, I know about them. And likewise,
when he says in verse 14 that his sheep know him, it's not
just that they know about him. We all know that we can know
a great deal about the Lord Jesus Christ. We can learn a great
deal about him from what we read of him in the Word of God, about
what he said, about what he felt. We could write books about him,
couldn't we? And many people have. But that's not the same
as knowing him. And so when we come to a verse
like this, surely the question is not so much, do we know about
the Lord Jesus Christ? Can we describe the circumstances
of his birth, the events of his life, and his death, and his
resurrection, and his ascension? Can we give an account of his
attributes, what he is like? We might be able to do that,
and it's good if we can, but we need to go beyond that, don't
we? We need this personal knowledge, this intimate knowledge, We have
the relationship here described as like that between a shepherd
and his sheep. Other places we have it described
as like the relationship between a husband and his wife. Well,
the husband knows more than just things about his wife. He knows
his wife. And it works the other way also.
There in the epistle of John, right at the end, John speaks
in this way. He says, we know that the Son
of God is come. and hath given us an understanding." Well, why
has he given us that understanding? Well, John says, it's that we
may know him, that we may know him that is true. This is the
emphasis of John's gospel and of his epistles. It's so that
those to whom he is writing might not just know about the Lord
Jesus Christ, but that they might come to know him for themselves. And as I say, this can't be taught.
We can teach each other about the Lord Jesus, but we can't
teach each other to know him. Just as I can describe people
to you that I know, and it doesn't make you know them, it makes
you know about them. And it's a crucial knowledge,
it's a very vital knowledge. You remember how Jesus speaks
there in the seventh chapter of Matthew? He's speaking about the end of
the world. He says, Not everyone that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but
he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many
will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils? and in
thy name done many wonderful works." These were impressive
Christians, we might say. They prophesied in his name.
They cast out devils in his name. They worked miracles in his name.
But what does Jesus say? He says, then will I profess
unto them, I never knew you. Oh, he knew all about them. He
knew what they'd done. But he never knew them. He never
knew them in this personal way. this way that he speaks of here. This is life eternal, isn't it?
Jesus speaks in another place. This is life eternal, that they
might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou
hast sent. The Lord knoweth them that are
his, and those that are his, they know him. He knows his sheep,
and his sheep know him. There is the second thing, and
then in the third place, he says, my sheep hear my voice, they
understand my voice, I know them and they know me, and then this,
they follow me. Again, he's referring back to
the fourth verse in that parable, and he speaks of the true shepherd.
He putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the
sheep follow him. And why do they follow him? Because
it says, for they know his voice. You see the link that runs through
the entirety of this 27th verse. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me. Well, they follow because they
hear. They recognize his voice, they know his voice, and they
know him in this personal way that we were just speaking of.
This following is a result of hearing. They know his voice
and so they follow. And just as we said this hearing
of the voice is not a once-in-a-lifetime experience, so also this following
is a continuous following, something that goes on. we mustn't think that we have
finished following, that we've got to the point where we've
reached our destination and we need travel no further. Even the Apostle Paul, how does
he speak there in his epistle to the Philippians? Speaking
again of himself. At the twelfth verse, he says,
not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect,
Surely if anyone could say they had attained and were perfect,
it would be the Apostle Paul. But no, he says, that's not true
of me. He says, but I follow after.
Even at that stage in his life, when he'd encountered the Lord
Jesus Christ for himself and heard his voice there on the
Damascus road. even after all that time when
he'd been serving him and preaching him, he still says, no, I'm still
following after, if that I may apprehend that for which also
I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Why do they follow him? Why do
his people follow him? Why do the sheep follow the shepherd?
Well, they see in the shepherd all that they need, don't they?
The sheep follow the shepherd because they know that the shepherd
will lead them in a safe path. that he will lead them to the
grass that they need, to the water that they need to live.
And so the newly converted Christian, he follows the Lord Jesus Christ
because he sees an attraction in him. He sees him as that one, really
as that one thing needful, the one who will give them, give
him all that he needs. How often we have this in the
Psalms, don't we? As the Psalmist speaks of his
own experience in various of the Psalms, and especially in
the 63rd Psalm, how does the Psalmist speak? The Psalm of David, it says,
O God, Thou art my God, early will I seek Thee, my soul thirsteth
for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee, These are the words of
someone who is following. They desire to get closer to
him. And so they follow. We sung of it in our second hymn,
didn't we? Now subdued by sovereign grace, the hymn writer says,
my spirit longs for thy embrace. There again is a man who is following,
following because he sees an attraction. Now there are those
who follow him out of quite false motives, and there were even
when he was here on earth. You remember after that miracle
where Jesus fed 5,000 from those few loaves and fishes, and then
he crossed the sea and there were those that followed. But
Jesus said unto them, ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles,
but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled. So we
need to be careful. But we may think that we're following,
but why are we following? What are we looking for? There's
a great need, isn't there, of self-examination. We're not to
follow for the loaves and fishes, not to follow Christ because
of the things that Christ gives us. We're to follow him because
he is worth following. He is the altogether lovely one.
If you don't want to get closer to him, it can only be because
you haven't seen him properly. And even the man who's been a
Christian for many years and has been following for many years,
If he doesn't still want to follow, if he doesn't still have that
desire to get closer to the Lord Jesus Christ, well, we would
have to wonder whether such a man has ever really started following.
This is an ongoing thing. They follow me. and they always
follow. Now, I'm not saying that that
following is always perfect. Of course, we all come very far
short in how we follow. Peter's often criticised, isn't
he? You remember how he's spoken of thereafter the Lord Jesus
was arrested and taken to that place of judgment. Peter, it
says, followed afar off, and people criticise him for that. But he was much better than the
other disciples, wasn't he? They didn't follow at all. It
says they all forsook him and fled. Well, they all did, but
Peter, to some extent, he comes back and he's following. And
we all know that he denied him and that he denied him with oaths
and curses, but at least he was there. He was following, even
though it was a far off. And you may look at your own
following and you may say, well, it's so imperfect. Sometimes
I feel like I desire the Lord Jesus Christ, but at other times
I seem so taken up with other things, and He seems so distant,
and I hardly seem to be able to see any attraction in Him
at all. You may say my following is so imperfect. Surely there
can be nothing worth anything in my following. Well, even a
little following is better than no following. I'm not saying
we should be content to follow afar off. No, of course not. But it's better to follow afar
off than not to follow at all. I'm sure some of you have read
John Bunyan in his Pilgrim's Progress, and how that pilgrim,
his following was often imperfect, wasn't it? How he so often turned
aside and went the wrong way, or sat down to rest and fell
asleep, and there was no following there, was there? But as we look
at his life overall in that book, we see that following, it was
a continuous thing. That journey continued really
until his dying day, didn't it? As I say, it's not a once-in-a-lifetime
experience, this following. The hearing is not once-in-a-lifetime. And the following is not once-in-a-lifetime. And so when we come to a verse
like this, surely it's a very good verse to help us to examine
ourselves. Jesus describes the Pharisees.
He says, ye are not of my sheep. He describes those who are his
sheep. Well, if we're interested in knowing on which side we lie,
then this verse can be very helpful to us in determining that. My sheep, he says, hear my voice. Well, have you heard his voice?
If you're interested in knowing whether you're one of his sheep,
this is one of the tests that you can apply, one of the questions
that you can ask. Have you heard his voice? Again,
it's not just in an outward way. And again, it's an ongoing thing,
not a once-in-a-lifetime experience. There are those, and you speak
to them, and their entire hope seems to be built on some experience
a long time ago. Well, of course, it's right that
we look back and we remember with thankfulness and gratitude
those times when we have heard his voice. But if we haven't
continued hearing it, that should make us anxious. It should make
us concerned. If we have to look back 30, 40
years to a time when we heard his voice, and we haven't heard
it since, well, as I say, it should make us anxious. This
hearing is an ongoing hearing. It needs to be. The shepherd goes before his
sheep. Well, if he doesn't keep calling, they'll stop following. As I say, have you heard his
voice? Then the second question, he
says, I know them. And we saw the implication how that is a
two-way relationship. And so just as we can ask ourselves
whether we have heard his voice and whether we are hearing his
voice, we can ask ourselves also, do we know him? Not just do we know about him,
but do we know him? And then the third question,
are you following him? Are you following him in the
way that it describes here? The way that the sheep follow
the shepherd? Not for the loaves and the fishes,
but because they see in him all that they need. And we're going
to sing in a moment for our closing hymn, that hymn 345, and it's
put very well in that hymn. Because, you know, when we talk
about examining ourselves, it's very easy to give the impression
that we should look for things in ourselves that we can rely
on. But the hymn writer in that 345th
hymn, what is it that he is relying on? Not so much the fact that
he's heard Christ's voice, or that he knows him, or that he's
following him. No, we can't rely on those because
our hearing is so imperfect, and our knowledge is so imperfect,
and our following is so imperfect. The hymn writer here, in this
closing verse, he says, my heart can on this promise live. This
is the thing that he relies on. Not his own following, not his
own experience. When we examine ourselves, we
have to look for experiences, don't we? We have to look and
examine ourselves as to whether we've had the experience of hearing,
whether we've had the experience of knowing, whether we've had
the experience of following, and whether we continue to have
those experiences. But even if we find them, it's
very dangerous for us to rely upon them. No, the hymn writer,
he says, it's the promise that his heart lives on. My heart
can on this promise live, can on this promise die. Well, may
God grant us that self-examination, not to look for things in ourselves
that will commend us to God. But if we're exercised about
this question as to whether we're one of his sheep or not, then
we need to examine ourselves. And I say, these are three very
helpful questions. Have you heard his voice? Do
you hear it as you come to the house of God, when you take up
his word? Yes, it's imperfect, but do you
hear it from time to time? Do you know him? Yes, it's an
imperfect knowledge, but is there some knowledge of him? And you
may say, well, how can I know if I know him? Well, if you know
him, you'll follow him. If you're not following, it's
because you don't know. It's because you don't know him. You haven't
seen him. You haven't heard his voice.
Do you know him? The second question, and then
that third question, are you following? Imperfectly, yes,
of course. But an imperfect following is
a very good sign that a person is among those whom the Lord
Jesus describes here. My sheep, he says, hear my voice,
and I know them, and they follow me. May God bless his word to
us. Amen.