Amen. Take your Bibles, if you will,
and turn with me to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. If I would have a title for my
message this morning, it's in the form of a question. For whom
did Christ die? Now, to the believer, to us that
know Christ, that's an answer that we know, that's an answer
that we love. We know for whom Christ died.
But that's also, the opposite of that is a prominent doctrine. I hate to call it a doctrine,
really. Really, I believe I could say that it's heresy, that Christ
loves everybody, or that He died for everybody, which is what
our subject is, for whom Christ died, that Christ died for everyone. And I think I said something
to our pastor one time, you know, that seemingly if folks would
be honest with the Word of God, that they would see this. But
you know, He told me, and I know it's right, that they really
believe with all their heart what they're saying, that that's
what it really is. So that tells me that God must
open one's eyes even to this fact, to know that this is what
the Scripture really teaches. and not what the majority of
the church world, the religious world is teaching us today, that
Jesus Christ died for everyone, because He did not. He did not,
did He? He's a God that changes not,
so He could not have said that He loved and changed His love
and said that He died. For that man, and that man still
perish, wouldn't that bring a reproach upon the Lord Jesus Christ? And
that's not going to happen, is it? It's not going to happen.
Not going to happen. And I think that this question,
for whom Christ died, I think it's a fair question to ask.
I really do. In light of the Word of God,
and in this age that we live. Free will religion is preached
in most of all of our churches today. You cannot hardly go anywhere
that free will is not preached. Man has a free will. He can choose
or reject. Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ,
God wants to do something for you, they tell him, if you let
Him. If I've got to let Him, then
that tells me that I have His hands tied unless I let go and
let Him do. He can't do. But that's not according
to the Scriptures, is it? In Daniel 4.35, Obediah says,
it tells us that, "...all the inhabitants of the earth are
reputed as nothing. And He doeth according to His
will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stay His hand. And if that be true, and
it is, isn't it? Then no man can resist God's
will. No man stays the hand of God. God works according to His will. And I'm glad it's that way. And
I thought that for years. You know, many of us, maybe not
all of us, but many of us were in I was in free will religion
for years. Believed it, believed it, that
I had to let God do something. He couldn't do nothing for me
if I refused. I found out one day that that just wasn't true.
I found out that God does as He pleases. If He hadn't of worked
that way with me, I would still be lost. I would be religious,
but I would be lost. None of us, and I know we don't,
those who know Christ, none of us can boast that we or you or
I made the difference. We do not. Do not. We do not. If I have a good hope in the
Lord Jesus Christ, It is because that He made the difference and
not me. Made the difference. In John
5.40 it tells us the Lord Jesus said, You will not come to me.
You want your free will? Right there it is. You will not. You will not come to me that
you might have life. And not only that, in John 6.44
He said, No man can. No man has the ability to come
to me. No man. No man. That includes everybody,
doesn't it? It means they can't do it. They
can't do it. And if we won't come, and the Scripture says
we won't, and if we can't come, and the Scripture says we can't,
then if we get to Christ, Someone, if I could call the Holy Spirit
that, has got to come and get us, hasn't he? That's the Holy
Spirit's job, to take a man and arrest him and bring him to the
Lord Jesus Christ. My question, for whom did Christ
die? Many believe that He died for
all of that exception. But I don't find that. I do not
find that in the Holy Scriptures. I think it's pretty plain, and
I hope you'll see that when we get through here this morning.
Look at me here in John 10 and verse 11. Here's what the Lord
said here. John chapter 10 and verse 11.
I am the Good Shepherd. That tells me, Christ said that
He is the good shepherd. Then he goes on to say, so there
must be some bad shepherds out there, aren't there? And I think
they are. He calls them hirelings here. They're hirelings. They
don't care for the sheep. The good shepherd cares for the
sheep, don't he? He said, I am the good shepherd. And the good
shepherd, what does he do? He gives his life for the sheep. For the sheep. For the sheep.
And then look down in verse 15. As the Father knoweth me, even
so I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. He gave his life for the sheep. Those sheep are not literal sheep
now. One of my nephews, I think it
is, he didn't even know, and he claims to be a preacher. He
didn't even know that the word sheep was in the Scripture, didn't
even know what it even meant. Isn't that awful? That's where
some of the preachers that's saying they're preaching the
Word, that's awful to not know that, to not know for whom Christ
died. How do you know He died for you
then, you know? Jesus Christ said, I laid down
my life, And if He's mentioning sheep here, He's talking about
a particular people. He's not talking about just everybody
in general, is He? He's talking about a particular
people. And they are called, My sheep, He said. In John 10, 27, the Lord said,
My sheep. They hear My voice. My sheep. He calls them His sheep. How
can you call them His sheep? Well, we see that in verse 29.
My Father gave them to Me. That's where He got them at,
didn't He? His sheep. My Father gave them Me. And then over in Matthew 20,
28, I won't have you turn there, I'll just, I got it down here,
I'll read it. Even as the Son of Man came not
to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life,
A ransom for all? No. No. He said He came to give
it for many. For many. Not all, but many.
And He's speaking of His sheep here. Speaking of His sheep. That's who He said He laid down
His life for, wasn't it? For whom did He die? For the
many. For the many. And we're so prone
And that's like Fred and I were talking. We're so prone to wonder
why people can't see that. I'd have to say a believer, because
that's who it happens to, when you're reading the Word of God,
and maybe you've read it time and time again, and the next
time you read it, it just seems like it jumps off the page at
you. You ever had that happen? That's what that does, isn't
it? That's what that does. There was a time when I didn't
see this truth. I didn't see it. And we say by that, that blind
people, blind people don't see, do they? Spiritually blind, they're
speaking. You can see that in John 9, verse
39. And in 2 Timothy 3.16, the Word
tells us that all Scripture is given by inspiration. In Matthew, you might turn here, Matthew chapter 16, Matthew chapter 16, down to verse
13. When the Lord here asked His
disciples, whom do men say that I am? And He was talking to His
disciples here now. And some were saying one thing
and some another. And that's exactly the way that
false preachers are doing today. They're telling us that God Christ
died for everybody, that God loves everybody, and that the
Holy Spirit is trying to save everybody. But they told the
Lord here when He asked them that question, He said, some
saying you're John the Baptist, some saying you're Elisha, others
Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But notice what the Lord said
here to them. He said unto them, But whom do
you say that I am? That's the question, isn't it?
Whom do you say? They're saying that I'm John
the Baptist, Elias, or Jeremiah the prophet. Whom do you say
that I am? And look here what Simon Peter
answered. Thou art the Christ. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. And you know, I looked at this
verse over in Acts 8.37, a couple more places I found I didn't
write down, where Philip preached to the eunuch, and they came
to this water, and the eunuch said, what hinders me from being
baptized? And Philip said, if you believe,
you may. If you believe with all your
heart, I think is the word he said. He said, I believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. That's our testimony, isn't it?
That's our testimony. Maybe not if someone don't ask
us a question. That's what the Lord done. These
two men here, Peter and the eunuch, they were directly asked this
question, weren't they? And I think if you and I were
directly asked this question, that would be our reply. Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. But notice what was
said next. Notice what he said, where does
one, and this is a profound truth, I think, to know who Christ is? Our Lord gives us the answer
in verse 17 of this chapter. He told Peter, flesh and blood. Flesh and blood does not reveal
the Son to you, but my Father, which is in heaven. It's a revelation, isn't it?
It's a revelation to know who the Son of God is. We just don't
wake up and find out who He is. We just don't find it in our
heart to know who He is. It's a revelation. It's a revelation. And this is why in 1 Corinthians
2.14 it tells us here, The natural man receiveth not the things
of God. Why? For they are foolishness
unto him. That's foolishness, they say. Neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. They must be revealed to the
heart, don't they? They must be revealed. In John
10, 24, here, the Lord asks, Some of these Jews here, or the
Jews ask Him, How long are You going to make us to doubt? If
Thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. In our terms, we might say, Quit
beating around the bush and tell us who You are. But what did
He say to them? I told you, but what happened? They believed not. I told you,
but you believed not. Then notice what he told him
in verse 26 here. You believe not. Here's the reason that a man
don't believe. If he ends up not ever believing, here's the
reason that he don't believe. He said, because you are not
my sheep. These Jews, that the Lord pronounced
that to. You're not of My sheep. These Jews were not ones for
whom the Lord Jesus Christ died. That saying there that He told
them that you don't believe because you're not of My sheep, that
ought to break a man's heart. But it didn't. He had just told them in verse
15 of this chapter here, that I laid down my life for the sheep,
and he told them that you don't believe because you're not of
my sheep. And then he told them something
else over in chapter 8 and verse 44 there, he said, you, and he's
talking to the Jews there, he said, you are of your father,
the devil. You have your father the devil.
What a charge, what a charge to be laid against one. In verse 48, the Lord said, the
Jews said, when he had said this, they said, you've got a devil.
Thou hast a devil. And Christ told them, I don't
have a devil. And he went on to tell them that before Abraham
was, I am. And they said, now we're sure
you have a devil. You're not 50 years old yet and
you say you were before Abraham? And this is what happens to man
that don't know Christ. Then they took up stones there
in verse 59 of the chapter. They took up stones to stone
him. You think we'd be any different
apart from the grace of God? No. Some would say, if I'd have
been there, I wouldn't have done that. I would have stopped it
or something like that. No, you wouldn't have. You'd
have had stones in your hands yourself if it were not for the grace
of God. Christ is the one that makes
us to differ, folks. I cannot brag and say that I
would not do that. That I would believe on Christ
in and of myself. It will not happen. Don't be
deceived. Don't let men deceive you. It
won't happen. It won't happen. It's the work
of the Holy Spirit if a man ever gets to Christ. I'm hoping I'm not losing you
and still I'm on my question for whom did Christ die. Turn
to Matthew 25 if you will. The Lord gives us a little more
light here. 25 and verse 31. When the Son of Man shall come
in His glory, and all the holy angels with
Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory. And before
Him shall be gathered all nations, and He shall separate them one
from another, as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats. There's two kinds of people in
this world. There's goats, there's sheep, there's goats, there's
Jacob's, there's Esau's, and Christ did not lay down His life,
but both did. He's separating them right here.
He's separating the goats from the sheep, from the saved, separating
the saved, separating His people for whom He died from those that
He did not give His life for. He's not a failure, is He? He's
not a failure. He shall separate them, as a shepherd divides his sheep
from the goats, and He shall set the sheep on His right hand,
but the goats on the left. And notice what He said, To those
on his right hand, come. What a sweet word. What a sweet
word. Come from the Lord Jesus Christ. Come, you blessed of my Father,
and heard the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. That's to those for whom the
Lord laid down his life for. That's what he said to them.
Notice what he said to the others for whom he did not die. Depart. Go away. We might say, get out
of my sight. Depart from me. Not only depart, but you curse
it. You curse it. into everlasting
fire prepared for the devil and his angels. And then notice what he said
in verse 46, And these, talking about the goats, shall go away
into everlasting punishment. But the righteous, the sheep,
into life eternal. To those people, to those who believe
that Jesus Christ died for all men without exception, this I
say to you. To me, the Scriptures are plain
on whom Christ died for, and that is the sheep. That's exactly
the words He said, didn't He? I lay down my life for the sheep.
How could He get any plainer? And He did not die for the goats.
Nowhere, nowhere that I know, and if you know, please let me
know. Nowhere in Holy Scripture do
I find or read where Jesus Christ laid down His life for the goats.
It's just not there. Now that's pretty plain to us,
isn't it? But like I said, it takes a revelation from God for a man to see even this, that
Christ did not die for all men with that exception. There was
a particular people that Christ died for, and He called them
His sheep. He called them His sheep. And one does not believe this
truth because the same reason that the Lord told those Jews
that they didn't believe Him. It's because of unbelief in the
heart, isn't it? And there again, we can't boast
because that's not me here. The Lord is the one that makes
the difference, isn't it? And no one, Not anyone can ever
see this true except it be revealed. And I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful
that the Lord, I think, at least in part has opened my eyes to
who Christ is, to what I am, to what He's done for me. It
just humbles me at His feet, knowing that I could have been
a goat just as easy, couldn't I? Or the Lord had it done, just
leave us alone. He's the one that made the difference.
He's the one that made the difference. Well, I hope the Lord will bless
that to your heart. If you'll stand, we'll be dismissed in
a word of prayer. Our faithful Heavenly Father,
we bow before you again this day We bless you and praise you,
Lord, for the work that you've started in the hearts of your
people. And you'll be the one that continues it. We bless you
for it. Thank you, Lord, for calling
us to yourself, for revealing Christ to our hearts and, Lord,
in causing us to bow to him. Oh, we bless you and praise you
so much. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for loving us with
an everlasting love. You'll never stop loving us,
but you'll always love us. We thank you for that. Forgive
us of our sins, and cause us to look to You, and to trust
to You, and to lean upon You, and just hope in You with all
of our heart. Be with Your people, Lord. We
trust that these few words may comfort their hearts and encourage
their hearts in some way. We ask these things in our Savior's
blessed name.