All right, if you take your Bibles
and turn with me to Matthew chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25, be looking
31 through 46 this morning. Matthew chapter 25, verses 31
to 46. Now I've got the title of the
message is Five Marks of Christ's Sheep. Five Marks of Christ's
Sheep. And the scripture here says,
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 divided, listen, his sheep from
the goats, his sheep from the goats. And he shall set his sheep
on his right hand but the goats on his left. Then the king shall
say unto them on his right hand, to the sheep, he shall say, come
you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world. Four, I was an hungered and you
gave me meat. I was thirsty, you gave me drink.
I was a stranger and you took me in. Naked and you clothed
me. I was sick and you visited. I
was in prison and you came unto me. Then shall the righteous,"
know that, he just called the sheep righteous. He said, then
shall my sheep, the righteous, answer him saying, Lord, when
saw we thee and hungered and fed thee, thirsty and gave thee
drink? When saw we thee a stranger and took thee in? Or naked and
clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick and
in prison and came unto thee? And the king answered and said
unto them, truly. I say unto you, in so much as
you have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren,
you've done it unto me. Now he turns to the left and
then he shall say unto them on his left hand, the goats, he
shall say, depart from me. You cursed into everlasting fire
prepared for the devil and his angels for When I was a hungered,
you gave me no meat. I was thirsty. You gave me no
drink. I was a stranger and you took
me not in. Naked and you clothed me not. Sick and in prison and you visited
me not. Then shall they answer unto him
saying, Lord, when saw we thee in hunger or thirst or stranger
or naked or sick or in prison? Listen, and did not minister. See these guys, they thought
they did those things. He said, when did we not do those
things for you? We always did those things for
you. And he answered them saying,
verily I say unto you, in so much as you did it not to one
of the least of these, you did it not to me. And these shall
go into everlasting punishment, but the righteous, the sheep
shall go into eternal life. Five marks of the sheep. Now
I'm going to give you these five marks. I'm going to give you
these five marks. up front, and that way you can
have them for yours. First of all, these sheep, these
marks of the sheep, first of all, I'm going to tell you that
they're blessed. He said, come you blessed of my father. They're
blessed of the father. Secondly, these sheep are heirs. Here's another mark. They have
a kingdom. He says this, come you blessed
of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. Thirdly, we see that these sheep
are righteous. He says in verse 40, I'm sorry,
in verse 37, then shall the righteous say unto them, he calls them
righteous. Fourth, they serve Jesus Christ. He said, when they were hung,
when he was a hunger and thirst and sick and in prison, they
served him. And fifth, I'm sorry, fourth
is still is that they serve Christ and they love the brethren. And
the fifth is they confess their sin. They said, when did we ever
do these things? They long to do these things,
but they confess that they have never. And the only thing they
have ever done these things is this, when Christ did them in
their stead. Now, This parable comes in a
long list of parables. There are actually two parables
that precede this one. There's the parable to 10 virgins,
which picture all religious men. There are five wise and five
foolish. And you remember that the five wise, they had the oil
and they waited on the Lord and they endured until the bridegroom
came. But the five foolish had not
the oil. That's a picture of all religious
men. There's religious men who have
the spirit of God. These are the wise virgins. They
have sufficient grace to endure until Christ comes, but those
who are foolish only have the oil of their works and the oil
of their religion that doesn't endure. And the second parable
was the talents, the parable of the servants. You remember
the one the Lord gave five talents, the second servant he gave two
talents, and the third he gave one. The first two are pictures
of God's people. They're given the graces of God.
And what these men did with these talents was they multiplied them.
And this is what happens when God gives grace to his people,
is that these graces are multiplied. And when Christ the master comes,
like those servants, they give all the talents to the master. And so when Christ comes, all
of his people, all of the work, all of the labor, all of the
graces, we give back to him. We give all glory to him. And
then there's that other guy. He had one talent. Every man
has one talent. You know what that is? They know
God's just. They know he's coming in judgment.
But what do they do with it? They bury it. They bury it. And when he comes, You know what
happens to that man? He's cast out, that presumptuous
man. He's cast out into everlasting
darkness. Now we come to this parable,
which is really not a parable. It's really a true history. It's a true history looking at
it from the future. These first two parables are
looking at it from the present time toward the future. But this
parable is taking place in the future. This true story, it's
true history that's taking place in our text. It's taking place
when the Lord Jesus Christ comes. And when he comes, he is going
to divide all men into two distinct groups. He's going to divide
them according to what they are, not what they appear to be, but
what they are. He says, these on my right hand,
he calls sheep. And on his left hand, those are
goats. That's who they are. And you
know what he says of his sheep? He separates his sheep because
they are blessed. He said, come you blessed of
my father. He separates the sheep because
they have an inheritance prepared for them before the foundation
of the world. He separates the sheep because
they are righteous. He separates the sheep because
they love the brethren. And then you take the goats and
he separates these goats on his left hand because they're cursed. He said in verse 41, I said to
them on his left, apart from me, you cursed. Now, how are
they cursed? What does the scripture say?
Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things written in
the book of the law to do them. They're cursed because they're
wicked. They're cursed because they would
not believe. They're cursed because they're
vile. And they shall be eternally damned. It says that in verse 46, this
is what's going to happen when he comes back, he's gonna divide
and then he's going to separate for eternity. He said, those
that were on his left, they're gonna go away into eternal punishment,
eternal punishment. And the righteous, his sheep
shall go into eternal life, eternal life. Now, the first thing that
I want you to see before we get into the blessings, I want you
to see the surety of this. Christ is coming. Christ is coming. The scripture says in verse 31,
not if, but when the son of man, when the son of man shall come
in his glory, and all his holy angels with him, then shall he
sit upon the throne of his glory." When Christ returns, it's not
a matter of if, it is just a matter of when. He is coming. That date is set. It is a day
of great glory. It is a day of great praise to
those who are his sheep. It is an anticipated day. One day He's coming, and that
what the hymn says, oh, glorious day, glorious day, when He's
going to set everything right. You know that He's gonna set
everything right when He comes. And when He comes this time,
I want you to know this, He will not come as He did the first
time. He came the first time in humility,
in humanity only, and disrobed of His glory, He came. He will
not come as a peasant. He will not come to save. He
will not come to call men to salvation. He did that already. He came
as the only mediator and high priest of God for man. This in
his humanity, he obeyed the law of God. He in humility was made
sin for us. Upon him, all the sins of God's
people were laid and in humiliation, he endured the wrath of God. And by him, by his one offering,
we know this, the justice of God was forever satisfied. Scripture
says, he shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. What happened at the cross was
this, God saw the travail of his soul for the sins of his
people and God was satisfied. God was satisfied. Therefore
on the cross, when Christ was finished, he said, it is finished. Salvation accomplished. There
is no more need for Christ to be humiliated. There is no more
need for Christ to be abased. Christ was abased under the justice
of God once, and after that, God saw no sin left and raised
him from the dead, giving him a name that is above every name. And at the name of Jesus Christ,
every knee shall bow and tongue confess that he is Lord. When he comes, he will come as
king, he will come as Lord. Now make no mistake, he is now
king. He is now seated on the throne
of his glory. John saw him. He saw the Lamb
seated on the throne of God. You see, Christ is right now
performing His will. If you're a sheep, this should
comfort you greatly. He is now performing His will. Everybody's all upset. Everybody's
all anxious, your pastor included. November 3rd is coming up. Oh
no, we got to maybe deal with another president, a president
you don't like. Who cares? It's God's will. He's putting whoever He will
in that place. What is that to you? What is
that to me? Bow down. It's His will. And know this, He is not doing
it for the destruction of His church. Oh, He's going to destroy
the church. Oh, these people are going to
shut the church. So what? They've done it before. They've
never put out the light. They ain't going to put out this
light. The gospel is going to shine brighter in the darkness
than it does in the light. It will shine brighter. And I
know this is His will to give eternal life to His sheep. That's what he's doing with his
will, as king. He said, father, I've finished
the work you've given me to do. You give me power over all flesh
for this purpose, that, that I should give eternal life to
as many as you've given me. Give eternal life to his sheep. You can be sure that's gonna
be done. You can be sure that's done. Jesus said, all that the
Father giveth me, you listen to this, shall come to me. I
don't care what religion says. I don't care what providence
you face. Doesn't matter what things appear to be. This word
will go out in power and demonstration of God's spirit and he will get
his people. He will call them and they all
shall believe. Why? Because Christ is King. Christ is King, He's King, and
He is doing His will. And you know what? He's not gonna
lose one of us. This is it. If you're His sheep already,
you get this. He ain't losing one of you, not one. Of all that
the Father had given me, He should lose nothing. nothing and raised
it up again. I don't care what religion says.
I don't care religion is sitting over there worried, well, man,
you could be lost tomorrow. Not if you're saved by him, you
can't be lost. If you're saved by you, yes,
you can be lost tomorrow. If you are saved by him, you
can't be lost ever. He saves his people. He don't
lose any of them. And one day Christ will come
for his people. He said that I will raise them
up at the last, I should lose nothing, but raise them up at
the last day. Now listen to this, when that
last soul, when that last soul is brought in, you can be sure
that Christ will come. Isn't that amazing that there
is one person out there that's the last? There's somebody out
there that's his sheep is the last sheep that he's going to
save. And when that last sheep is brought
into the fold, guess what? He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. Jesus said, marvel not at this
for the hour is coming in which all the grave shall be hear his
voice and shall come forth them that have done good to the resurrection
of life and them that have done evil to resurrection of damnation.
And so then that's what's in our text isn't it? Isn't that
what it says? When the son of man shall come in what his glory. You know what? No one's going
to escape. Men are running around trying to escape. They want to
do away with God. They want to do, isn't this just
silly? They think that if they can just take this Bible, rip
it up and burn it, that they'll do away with God. What are you? You're an idiot. You're an idiot. One day you will face God. You're
like that presumptuous servant trying to hide his talent in
the earth. He tried to bury God. You can't bury that. Why do you
think men are so mad at Christians? Christians, we're not here to
hurt anyone. Matter of fact, all people should
be the most honest people, the most trustworthy people, the
most loving people. And yet, why do men hate us?
They hate us because it shows their sin. because we confess
who we are. We confess our need of Christ
and we say, you need Christ. They say, I don't need Christ.
Don't worry, you'll see it. I don't believe in God. Don't
worry, you will. You will. There is not one atheist
in hell. You hear me? There's not one.
They all believe now. But that's too late. That's too
late. Christ is going to come and he
is going to separate all men. He is going to separate all men.
He's going to summon all men and they're going to appear before
this judgment seat of Christ. When he comes, who will you be? You will either be his sheep
or you will be a goat. Now listen to this, sheep are
always sheep. I wasn't once a goat and became
a sheep. I was always a sheep, just didn't
know it. I was with the goats. Couldn't tell me different from
me from the goats. I was acting just like a goat,
but I was always a sheep. I just didn't know it. You see, the sheep will be received
into everlasting life, but those who are goats, They will be received into everlasting
damnation. You can try to run and hide from
God all you want to, but eventually He's going to find you and you
will appear before Christ. You will appear before this judgment
seat. And that day there will be no longer, the goats will
no longer be able to hide from his holiness, but they will be
cast out into everlasting flames of destruction. Therefore, this
is what God sends men for, to compel you to come in, to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And I know this, everyone that
believes on Christ, you're a sheep. You didn't become a sheep, you
were a sheep and God called you. and you heard his voice. Jesus
said, my sheep do what? What do they do? Hear my voice. And I give unto them eternal
life and they shall never perish. Why? They're my sheep. They're
mine. I'll call them. And so then this is the bright
hope of his coming is that there will be some who are his sheep. There will be some who are his
sheep, who will enter into everlasting righteousness and be accepted
of God. Now, who are they? That's what
I want to know. That is important. If Christ
is coming to judge men and divide men, I want to know where I stand,
don't you? You know, I don't have any interest
in this at all. Just so. Ghosts have no interest
in this. They don't have any interest
in this. His sheep do. And so I've gotten these five
marks. Here in our text, our Lord Jesus
Christ gives us these marks of his sheep, by which we may know
if we are his or not. Here it is, the first mark of
his sheep. They're blessed. He said that
to them. The first thing he said is this,
in verse 34, come you blessed of my father. They are blessed
of the father. How are these sheep blessed? What is the blessing of the father
that is upon these sheep? First of all, it is the blessing
of sovereign election. They are blessed in this fact
that his sheep are chosen. Chosen sheep. Go to Ephesians
chapter one. Ephesians chapter one. You're gonna see this. These
sheep are blessed because they are chosen and purposed of God
to be saved. Paul says this in Ephesians one
and verse three, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Listen, who have blessed us. Well, how has he blessed us?
With what? All spiritual blessings. Everything
spiritual that God can give you. Spiritual is this, listen, it's
eternal. Whatever spiritual is eternal.
This stuff here is not eternal. This stuff, we've got a microphone
cable, right Scott? It's not eternal, is it? It went
out. That microphone cable, everything's gonna go out. Family, friends,
those are blessings, but they're not eternal blessing. What's
eternal is spiritual blessing. And God has bestowed upon us
spiritual blessings. And the hallmark, the first spiritual
blessing given to us is this, that we were put in Christ according
as he had chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
And this is his purpose, that we should be holy and without
blame before him. He had blessed us by sovereign
election. He had blessed his sheep with
all spiritual blessings in Christ. And we were blessed of our father,
when? Before the foundation of the
world. Look back at your text. Is that not exactly what it says?
That we were blessed with the kingdom prepared for us, when? When was this kingdom prepared
for us? The sheep before the foundation
of the world. That's when it was prepared.
This kingdom that he's prepared was by sovereign election. He purposed to give it to us,
his sheep. But this blessing in this kingdom
was prepared for his sheep, his elect by the father before the
world began, which is the same in, as we just read in Ephesians
one and verse four. That we were given this in Christ
Jesus before the world began. So then what is the source of
all these blessings? The source of the blessings is
Christ. He put us in Christ. This is the only way we could
receive any blessing is by being in union with the only one who
is blessed, Jesus Christ. Behold the blessing then of this
unity. Can you understand, can we grab
a hold of this? How blessed is a man that God
would put them in union with his son? that God put us in union with
His Son before the world was. And see, the elect were blessed
in the Father because of this. He loved us in love. Look at that, in love, having
predestinated us under the adoption of children. Not just love, but
love of children. He's made us sons. That's how
we were blessed of the Father. We were made sons of God. And this love, consider the blessing
of this love. How infinite is the love of God?
How immutable is the love of God? I know religion tells you
the love of God changes. False religion says, well, he
didn't love you and now he does love you. No. If God loved you,
you listen, he's always loved you. And if He's always loved you
in the past, He will always love you throughout eternity. You
are eternally loved. God said this, yea, I have loved
thee with an everlasting love. Yea, yes. Have you asked yourself
that, does God love me? You believe on Christ, you ask
yourself that, I know you do. Do you love me? And God says, Is that a positive message? That's
a positive answer, isn't it? Yay, yay. God said to me of old,
this is an old answer. It's not a new answer, it's an
old one. Yay, I have loved thee, how long?
With an everlasting love. This is the blessing of the Father
upon the sheep. Secondly, we are blessed in this,
that we were redeemed by Christ, that we were redeemed by Jesus
Christ. Now, how should the elect ever
enjoy or expect to enjoy heaven, except God make them fit for
it? You see, God had to, he chose
his people. He purposed that they should
be fit for heaven, holy and without blame, but he purposed how they
should be made fit. by Jesus Christ. See why you were put in Christ
is because Christ was to come and make you fit. You know, right
now, you who are believers in Christ, you are fit for heaven. You know why? Because you were
blessed in this, that Jesus made you fit. It's not a cooperative
effort. He made you fit. He made his sheep fit for heaven
that they should be holy without blame. The purpose is that the
sheep should be conformed to the image of his dear son. So God who ordained the end also
ordained the means by Jesus Christ. How did he do this? By giving
us to Christ. Listen, when Jesus said this
in John chapter 10, we're gonna go over it in just a minute,
but John chapter 10, he said this, my sheep hear my voice and I
know them and I've given them eternal life and they shall never
perish. Why? For the father which gave them
me. You see how blessed that is?
You were given to Christ. If you are his sheep, this is
a mark, you're blessed. You were given to Christ. What
does that mean that you were given to Christ? Go to Isaiah chapter nine. This is what it means to be in
Christ. This is what it means to be blessed,
to be given to Christ, is found in Isaiah chapter nine and verse
six. This is how we should be made
holy, said, for unto us a child is born, speaking of the humanity
of Christ. Unto us a son is given, speaking
of the eternal deity of the Son of God. And this is his purpose. And the government shall be on
his shoulder. This kingdom of God, remember
these parables are all talking about the kingdom of God, his
kingdom. Now, I want you to understand
this. If you who are His sheep are blessed in this, you were
given to Christ for this specific purpose, that the responsibility
of your salvation should totally rest on Him. That's what that means. The government,
his kingdom, his people shall be on his shoulders. That means
he should be made surety for you. Surety. And when his people are called,
when his people believe, guess what they call him? His name
shall be called wonderful. Isn't that wonderful? When you
think of this, that he took all the responsibility for your salvation,
left none of it for you. What do you call it? Wonderful.
What is that? When you feel responsible, he
becomes what? Counselor. When all the world surrounds
you and caves in on you, what do you call him? The mighty God. The everlasting father, the Prince
of Peace. And listen, why do we call him
all these things? Because of his success. Not only
was he made responsible, but you're blessed in this. He was
successful. How do you know? Look at verse
seven, look at it. Of the increase of his government
and peace there shall be what? In other words, it will not fail. He shall sit upon the throne
of David and upon his kingdom to, listen, order it, to establish
it with justice and judgment henceforth forevermore. To order
it, what does that mean? That means to erect it. He's
gonna build it. You see, that's success. He said,
this is not an iffy situation. I've given my people to him.
They're blessed. And I'm going to build my kingdom
and I'm going to establish it. He's going to support it. He's
going to sustain it. He's going to keep it so that
none of it is lost. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. Isn't that what the scripture
says? Isaiah 42. He shall not fail. Jesus said, upon this rock, I
will build my church and what? The gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. Why? It's established according
to judgment and justice. When he pardons these sheep who
are blessed, he's going to do it out of strict justice. Out
of strict holiness, they're going to be pardoned. They're going
to be received. Why? They've been blessed. And thirdly, they've been blessed
in this. They've been given the new birth. They've been given
a new birth. Jesus said to Nicodemus, you
must be born again. That's not telling Nicodemus
he had to go do something. That's just stating a fact. Nicodemus,
you must be born again. Why? I'm going to do it. You're going to be born again
is what he was telling him. You must be born again. Why? Because the spirit of God's gonna
come and give you life. And he did, he gave Nicodemus
life. And that's what he does with
all his sheep. How blessed is this? that we were dead in our
trespasses and sins. We were just like every other
goat in the world, had no love for God, hatred for the gospel,
kicking at every providence of God. We hated God and didn't
care for Him. And then what? He came and gave
us life. Why? He does that for all His
sheep. He gives them life. Why? They're blessed. They're
blessed of the Father. He gives them eternal life. Jesus
said, other sheep I have, which are not of fold, them I also,
listen, must bring, and they shall hear my voice. This is
how he calls us, right? He calls us by his voice. Why? He's the good shepherd.
He's the good shepherd of the sheep. He laid down his life
for the sheep. And we know this, that all of
his sheep will hear his voice. All of his sheep will hear his
voice. because they're blessed. They're blessed by not merit. This blessing came not by the
merit of the sheep. It came by grace, free grace. They were blessed. God raised
us from the dead and gave us faith in Christ alone. Go to
John chapter 10. Look at this. John chapter 10. Look at verse 25, these Jews
were murmuring at Christ concerning these things. He said, they said,
you tell us, you tell us if your son of God said, I told you,
I told you who I am, what I came to do. I told you, but you believe
not. Now, why did they not believe?
He said, you believe not. The works I've done in my father's
name, they bear witness of me, but you believe not. Why? Look
at that. Because you are not of my, what? Sheep. You know what? The mark of the goat is this. They will never believe on Christ
alone. They will never believe. on Christ
alone. They believe not because they
were not of his sheep. As I said it to you, this is
a mark of his sheep. They hear my voice. I know them
and they follow me. I give to them eternal life and
they shall never perish. Listen to me. Have you heard
his voice? That's important. Have you heard his voice? You
can know all there is to know about election. You can know
everything there is to know about Christ's redemption. But if you
have not been called to faith in Christ alone, listen, you're
not his sheep. You have no evidence, nothing
to rest your soul on. Only those who believe on him
alone. Do you believe? Listen, you're
blessed. You're blessed because you were
chosen. You're blessed because you were redeemed. You're blessed
because you were called. And listen, if you have been
called, here's the second blessing. You are an heir of heaven. Look at that back of your text.
Go back to your text. And see this in verse, again, back in verse 34, come
you blessed to my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from before the foundation of the world. Those who are blessed to the
father in election and redemption and calling are heirs, heirs
of a kingdom prepared for them by God. See if these sheep are
blessed as to be heirs, the people are made heirs, listen, by a
will. I didn't say by their will, by
a will. When a man is living, he writes
his will, he writes a covenant, that's what it is, it's a covenant.
And he names people in this covenant as heirs. And when he dies, this
covenant, this will is read. And those named in the will receive
what the man has ordained for them, what the man has purposed
to give them. But how much greater is the will
of God, the covenant of God? God has made a covenant, a will
for his sheep. And the blood of Jesus Christ,
the death of Jesus Christ has ratified the will and made the
will open. Scott and I were talking about
this, the Old Testament. It speaks all of Christ, but
it was shrouded. And those people in the Old Testament,
they knew some things. They knew some things, but most
of it was really confusing. Most of it, they didn't know
everything. But now that Christ has come,
what? The will is open. Isn't that what happened when
Christ opened the seals? He opened the seals and loosed
the seals. He's made his will known. His will is known. And those who have been named
in this will, they believe and listen, they've been given an
earnest of this inheritance. Having the scripture says, you've
been given the earnest, the spirit is the earnest. What's an earnest?
It's a down payment. You have the spirit of God, you
believe, you have the spirit of God dwelling in you constantly,
keeping you in the faith. Why are you still here? Why are
you still believing? You've had many oppositions,
haven't you? You've had many obstacles, many trials, many
difficulties. We've seen many go away. Why
is it that you're still here? Because you have an earnest.
You are sealed. I like that. Sealed with the
spirit of promise. King's put his stamp on you.
Do not open until the reservation. It's not gonna be moved. Can't take you away. King's got
a seal on you, his spirit. And so you've received a down
payment, but listen, one day when Christ comes, you'll receive
the whole thing. Can you imagine what heaven is
like? I'm not even talking about the
heaven right now. I'm talking about when all of
the saints of God are in their bodies, soul, and spirit, glorifying
God. Well, there's no more change.
You know what, right now, if everything was remaining the
same, we would be bored to death, right? It'd be horrible for us.
I mean, if you didn't have any change in your life, if you didn't
have, why is that? Because we have sin in this nature.
We still don't understand. what perfection is. I'm talking
about a changeless, perfect place where there is no more sin, only
fullness of joy, only fullness of love, only fullness of peace. I can only imagine that, but
you know what? That's what you've inherited,
eternal joy. Eternal love. You've inherited
this. You've inherited God. He said,
I am the exceeding great reward. And thirdly, this, the sheep
are righteous and they love Christ. Our Lord calls his sheep, those
that are blessed of the father, He calls them righteous, giving
us a list of righteous service that has been done in love to
Christ while they were upon the earth. Look at this. He said,
you blessed my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from before the foundation of the world for you. I was in hunger,
you gave me meat. I was thirsty, you gave me drink.
I was a stranger, took me in. I was naked and you clothed me.
I was sick and you visited. I was in prison and you came
to me. Listen, then shall the righteous say, Lord, when did
we see these things? When did we do these things?
This is what the Lord proclaims. He said, you did it. You did
it. You were righteous. You served
me perfectly upon the earth. And the righteous will confess,
Lord, I do love you. I do desire to serve you here,
but when in the world did I ever do it where you can call me righteous? Our Lord confesses the great
love of his sheep for him and the great display of their love
to him by doing it to his own person. Now, true believers in Christ,
I know you love him. I know you want to serve him,
but you, you must confess that you've not done it right. How
then can he call you righteous? Listen, listen to this, only
because you have done it in him, in him. Only because he has made
you righteous. He has made you righteous. So
then our confession is this, we have sinned. This is another
mark of the sheep. The mark of the sheep is that
they are righteous. The mark of the sheep is that they love
God, that they serve God. Believer, do you not love Him?
Do you not serve Him? Every believer, Jesus said, if
any man come not after me and hate not his father and his mother
and his wife and his children and brethren and sister and his
own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Is it your desire to
serve Christ? Because that's a mark of the
sheep. They serve him. Jesus said, they hear my voice
and they do what? They follow me. Do you follow
him? Where did he go? Did he not go
to a cross? Where do you go? Do we not also
have a cross to bear? Yes. Yes, we serve him. I tell you this, we serve Him
not like we want to, but we do serve Him. But know this, that
no matter how much your service to Him, how good your service
is to Him, we never trust that for our righteousness. We only
trust Him for our righteousness. And so this leads me to the fourth
mark now of the sheep. Look at this in verse 40, I'm
sorry, in verse, Verse 37, then shall the righteous
answer him saying, Lord, when saw we thee and hungered and
fed thee, thirsty and gave thee drink, when saw we thee a stranger
and took thee in and clothed thee, or saw thee in sick or
in prison and came to me? What are they confessing? They're
confessing this, though they wanted to do these things, they
confess that they have never done these things to earn their
righteousness. We by nature who were rebels
and vile in our sins were rebellious against our Lord until he came
and touched our hearts and cleansed us from our filth, our leprosy. And then, and only then, we sought
to serve him and love him. But we're like Peter, aren't
we? When Peter, you know, he served the Lord. Those three
years he followed the Lord Jesus Christ. He served Him. He said,
have we not forsaken all and followed Thee? And Jesus didn't
rebuke that. He said, you're going to receive
a reward for that. I'm not going to, I understand
you've done that. But then what? In the end, he
denied Him. And our Lord asked him that simple
question, Peter, do you love me? And he said, Lord, you know,
I love you. Oh, not like I want to, but I
love you. I love you. And so do all of
his, his people love him, but we confess that our love is weak. We bow our heads in shame and
confess, Lord, when did we ever do these things? You know what?
I've never seen the Lord in the flesh. Have you? I've never seen
the Lord in the flesh. We've never been able to feed
him or go to visit him or any of these things. If our righteousness
were to ever come by our acts of love, then surely we would
be goats. Isn't that right? The sheep confess that, that's
a mark of the sheep. We confess, we know who we are.
We desire to serve him. We know our only righteousness
could come from him. And we still to this day confess
our sins before him. But see believer, you are called
righteous by the Lord, even because we are righteous before the Lord.
He's not pretending. When he said, then shall the
righteous say, he's not pretending they're righteous. They are righteous. I want you to get this believer.
If you're his sheep, you believe on him. I want you to know this,
you are You are. You're righteous because he made
you righteous. You know, the false church, they
say things, they, they, they take a little dip of water and
they throw it on people and make the sign of the cross. They say,
I pronounce you clean. You know what? You ain't clean.
They can pronounce all they want to. The only one that can make
such a pronouncement is Christ because he actually did it. He actually made you righteous. Remember this, we were made sinners
by what? You were made sinners by a representative,
weren't you? How you made righteous? by representative, by someone
to do the work for you. Not 99% of the work, all the
work, all your righteousness. Christ has made you righteous. Our righteousness was done by
his righteousness and by his blood and is in no measure Did
we ever participate in this righteousness? Why? For the Lord, our righteousness
has obtained by his redemption. The scripture says that by his
own blood, he hath obtained what? Eternal redemption. Eternal redemption. And because of his righteousness
that is imparted and imputed to us by the Holy Spirit, you
listen, you have his name. You have his name. The scripture declares that,
didn't it? The scripture says in Jeremiah 23, he shall be called
what? The Lord our righteousness. And
in Jeremiah 33, guess what his church is called? The Lord our
righteousness. I like that hymn, with his holy
garments on, I'm as holy as the holy one. Isn't that what he
just said? He shall say unto the righteous. Don't you see if you're a sheep,
if you believe you are righteous, you love him, you serve him,
not like you should, not like you want to, but your righteousness
is not dependent upon your service and love, but his service and
love. That's why you're righteous,
because of Him. Now listen, I know that you struggle. I told you what the Word of God
says. Listen, even the righteousness
of God, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and
upon all them that believe. You got that? Unto all and upon
all them that believe. What? The righteousness of God
obtained by the faith of Jesus Christ is imputed and imparted
to you. Now I say that, do you believe
that? Now listen, I know you struggle
with that. Why? Because sin still remains in
us. And so we're, like it says in
Song of Solomon, we are a company of two armies, always at odds
with one another, the flesh and the spirit constantly struggling. Often we ask like Newton tis
a point I long to know, am I his or am I not? If I am, why am
I thus? Yet the Lord's word is against
what you see. It's against what you feel. It
is against what we experience. The Lord says, then shall the
righteous say. What do the righteous say? They
confess their sins. They confess their sins and know
this, that they are only righteous by Him. Is that what you confessed
this morning? That's a mark of the sheep. They confess their
righteousness of Him. Now, the last mark is this. The
sheep not only love Him, Not only made righteous by him, not
only are they heirs of heaven, not only are they blessed of
God in election and redemption and calling. Listen, the sheep
love the brethren. Look what Jesus said to the sheep.
And the king shall answer them, verse 40, verily I say unto you,
insomuch as you have done it of the one of least of these,
my brethren, you have done it unto me." How many today cling to a false
hope of being a sheep and saying, oh, I love Jesus. Oh, how I love
Jesus and have no love for the brethren. We have Two commandments of our
Lord. The first commandment is this,
faith. This is the law of the believer,
faith in Jesus Christ. Isn't it? Without faith, impossible
to please God. You must believe on the son of
God, which is a gift of God. But there's a second commandment
in it. Love one another, even as I have loved you. John
said this in 1 John 3, he said, we know we've passed from death
to life because, listen, we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. Now, I don't need to expound
on that very much, do I? Do I need to add anything to
that? There's a bunch of people who,
They profess their love for Christ and their faith in Christ. They
know all the doctrines of grace, and yet they never darken a church. They never darken a place to
hear the word of God. They have no love for the word
of God. I'll tell you this, if you don't have a love for the
word of God, you don't have a love for the brethren. You know why?
Because it's an encouragement to the brethren to come and worship. That's what it is. It's an encouragement
to the brethren. And if you won't do that, you
don't love them. Don't tell me how much you love
Jesus if you hate your brother. If you will not give to your
brother, if you will not help your brother, don't tell me you
love Christ. Our Lord says, in so much as
you've done it to one of the least of these, you did it to
me. Anybody wanna serve Christ? Serve his brethren. Do good to them. Preach to them. Tell them, encourage them, strengthen
them with what? The word of God. We're not gonna
strengthen each other with our opinions, are we? We're gonna
strengthen each other with the word of God. Scott, look at me,
you're righteous. He made you right. Is that not
encouraging? It's just strengthening, I love you. I preach to you because
I love you. I want you to hear these things.
I want you to believe these things. I love these things. I want you to know these things. So then these are the marks of
his sheep. They're blessed to the father.
Are you blessed to the father? You've been chosen of the father.
You're his sheep, you've been chosen. What a blessing. You've
been redeemed by the blood of the son of God. What a blessing.
You are in union with the son of God. What a blessing. You've
been called by the spirit of God and you pay attention. You'll
be kept by the spirit of God in faith. What a blessing. You
have an inheritance waiting for you when he comes. When he comes,
he's going to give you everything. Why? Everything he purposed,
everything he planned and everything he purchased, he's giving it
to you. Everything. What a blessing. What an heir.
You're righteous. You're a sheep, you're righteous.
He made you righteous. You're a sheep, you serve him.
You follow him, you believe him. You confess your sin. You confess your sin and all
your hope is in him. And listen to this, you love
the brethren. Those are marks of his sheep. Are you his sheep? Now listen, if you've not believed,
I don't know, maybe you are his sheep. I know this, if you are,
he'll call you and you'll believe and you'll rejoice with us. I
pray He'll call you today in Jesus' name.