Good evening. If you would open
your Bibles back to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. This evening, I have a question. I have a question that is of
the utmost importance. A question that I struggle to
express how important this question is. So I'll just say that the
question is a matter of life or death. There is not a more
important question that we can ask. And normally, I like to
use inclusive pronouns such as we and us and speak together. But tonight, I'm gonna use the
word I in the question. And in doing so, when I ask this
question, when I say it out loud, I want you to say this question
to yourself. It comes from verse 14 of John
10. This verse says, I am the good
shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine. The question
is, am I one of the Lord's sheep? Am I one of the Lord's sheep? I want us all to consider that
question. I want everyone who's heard that
question so many times, who's been hearing this gospel and
reading this book for decade after decade, to those in this
room right now that have been listening for less than a year. We must ask the question, am
I one of the Lord's sheep? Let me give you a few answers
that I have answered with this question over the last 30 or
so years. When I ask myself, am I one of
the Lord's sheep? I have answered that at times,
no. There is no way I am one of the
Lord's sheep. At other times, I've answered
that question and I've said yes. Maybe by faith. Often I believe
I've answered yes out of arrogance or pride. But most of the time
when I ask the question, am I one of the Lord's sheep, I'm somewhere
in between the two answers. Oftentimes I fall in the vague
area of maybe or so often my answer is I have my doubts. Now,
why do I have my doubts that I'm one of the Lord's sheep?
Well, I can start with my worthiness to be one of his sheep. I am
positive that I am not worthy to be a sheep of the true shepherd. Positive. No doubt about it.
I have my doubts because I don't have any ability to be one of
his sheep. I can't do anything. I can't
present anything. I can't hang my hat on something
to say that is why I could be one of his sheep. I doubt often
that I'm one of his sheep because of my faith or lack thereof. I often doubt because of my unbelief
in him. I could go on and on and give
reasons of why I have my doubts and why I can't confidently answer
that question, am I one of the Lord's sheep? And everything
I've just said here, all of these are problems that I have with
myself. They're all problems that I think
most of you would probably agree. These are all doubts that I have
with me. Now, many years ago, I decided,
when I lived in Lexington and attended church there at Todd's
Road Grace Church, and the pastor was Todd Nibert, I decided one
evening that I wanted to go to him and ask him to be baptized.
So I determined I'm going to go tomorrow and ask him. So at
some point the next day, I got in my car and decided to drive
over and ask him if I could be baptized. Well, I never made
it to the church, and at some point A few days or whenever
it was later, I said, I've got to go over there and ask him.
And I didn't make it over to the church. And that happened
a few times until finally one day I told myself, I'm going
to go ask to be baptized. And I got to the church and pulled
into the parking lot, backed out and drove away. That progressed
as, at some point, I made it into the parking lot. At some
point, I got there and even opened my door and started to get out
and shut the door and left. And this went on for over a year. At one point, I got as far as
I went into the church, into Todd's study, talked for a second,
and he then said to me, what brings you over here this afternoon?
To which, in my panic, I said, I just wanted to talk about Kentucky
basketball with you. I did all of that because I kept
making the same mistake. When trying to figure out if
I wanted to be baptized or if I needed to be baptized or however
you want to phrase that, I kept having so many doubts about myself. And at one point, I don't know
how it happened, I realized that all of my doubts are about me
and not about Him. I believe that the Lord Jesus
Christ, the shepherd, is a worthy sacrifice. I believe that the
Lord Jesus Christ is able to save to the uttermost. I believe
the Lord Jesus Christ is faithful to the end. I believe the Lord
Jesus Christ loves his sheep. And when I look at it that way,
it's totally different. Our focus is on the wrong part
of this question. When I said, I want you to think
about, am I one of the Lord's sheep? We focus on the I in that
question. We see what we can do, how we
are involved, what part we play. And this is false religion's
great ruse, their great trick. Make salvation about our favorite
topic, ourselves. Make salvation about us. If you
want to make me happy when you see me, talk about me. That's
what I love. And false religion has realized
this. So they like to give us the decision. They like to tell
us that we get to make a choice. They do anything to take our
eyes off Christ, take our eyes off the shepherd. The key to
this question, as with anything, is the Lord. Am I one of the
Lord's sheep? I told you to ask the question,
but I didn't say to ask yourself the question. Would you go to
the hospital, to the newborn nursery, and would you go into
the nursery and ask one of those newborn babies, who's your father?
You'd be there forever. That baby doesn't even know who
its father is. Instead, you go to the father
and you ask him who their child is. They are happy to talk about
their child. They are the one who is standing
over their child. They're watching over their child.
They love their child. We must go to the Lord to see
if we are one of his sheep, to see if we're one of his children.
And I understand that sounds, that sounds odd. And I get that
the Lord doesn't answer us audibly with those things. I get that
every time I pray to Him, every time I ask something, I don't
just get this obvious answer. But we must ask this question.
We must go to Him and ask Him this question. Look with me here
in verse 3. I talked about how I have my
doubts. This passage is a very popular one. And for some reason,
some of the things that stick out are these. In verse 3, it
says that his sheep hear his voice. In verse 4, it says the
sheep follow him. In verse 5, it says a stranger
will they not follow, but they will flee from that stranger.
And then in verse 14, it says, the sheep know the shepherd.
I have doubts because I don't feel like that's me. I don't
feel like I hear his voice. Now, it's easy to say that, but
I try to think with my children when they say, I heard you. Well,
the evidence of you hearing me is doing what I say. Well, I
don't do what the Lord says, so how can I say I hear him?
When it says, the sheep follow him, I don't follow him. There is so much advice, so much
in this book that tells me what to do, and I don't do any of
it. When it says a stranger will they not follow, they'll flee
from them. I sure don't flee from the things
of this world. I just follow right with it.
But the key to this, again, is looking at what the Lord has
done. Look in verse three with me real quick here. And I said
out loud that the sheep hear his voice, but in verse three
it says, to him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice,
and he calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. The sheep hear his voice because
he calls them. You can't hear someone unless
they have called you. The call comes before the hearing.
Look in verse 4. And when he putteth forth his
own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him. The
sheep follow because he putteth them forth. He goeth before them. Verse 5, it says, And a stranger
will they not follow but flee from him, for they know not the
voice of strangers. Everything it says, the Lord
has done before. All these things we want to doubt
about, we don't hear, we don't follow, all that, that's because
He has done the thing first. We don't do something and then
He does it. He calls us and that's when we hear. He leads us, He
takes us, that's why we follow. Now, I want to take a couple
minutes and just go through a few more verses here and look at
this passage. Look at verse 14 with me. I'm the good shepherd and know
my sheep and am known of mine. Looking through these verses,
we'll see the things that make it so wonderful about our shepherd. It says here in verse 14, I am
the good shepherd. It is so amazing that our God
is good. He is obviously all powerful. He can do anything he wants,
but that he is also good to his sheep is such a comfort. There
are so many with power. If your absolute power absolutely
corrupts. Anyone who gets power, we abuse
it. We were never good. But our God
is the good shepherd. He is worthy to be our shepherd. Verse 15 says, As the father
knoweth me, even so know I the father, and I lay down my life
for the sheep. This is what a true shepherd
is, that he lays down his life for the sheep. A shepherd is
often thought of, of someone who just takes care of the sheep.
But a true shepherd is one that sacrifices his life for the sheep. He does what is necessary for
the sheep to have life. Verse 16, and other sheep I have
which are not of this fold, them also I must bring and they shall
hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Our Lord is faithful to the end,
every last sheep. We read in the Bible of the man
who, the shepherd who, when he loses one of a hundred and he
goes to save that one and he celebrates that one. I don't
know if I'm the only one. When I was a kid and I heard
the story of a shepherd had a hundred sheep and when one left, he left
the 99 and went after the one. I don't know if I'm the only
one, but the first thing I thought was, I wouldn't do that. I'm gonna
go get the one and when I come back, I've got 90. I can't keep,
how can I take care of the other 99? Our Lord takes care of his
sheep, all of them at all times. Just because it says in that,
that the shepherd goes after the one, he still has the other
99. Our Lord through time will save
every single one of the sheep that has been called, every single
one. Verse 17, therefore doth my father
love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again. That is true love that he lays
down his life for his sheep. His sacrifice for his sheep. The sheep was going to die. The
sheep deserved eternal death, but the shepherd stepped in and
laid down his life for the sheep. And then, to show who he is,
he laid down his life that I might take it again. Not just that
he gave his life for his sheep, but that in his power, his authority,
and his success, his conquer over sin, he took it again. Look at verse 18. And no man
taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. The Lord Jesus
Christ's sacrifice on the cross was something that he did himself. He laid down his life, and it
had to be that way. This was not something that he
was taken and he was killed. The Lord Jesus Christ laid down
his life for his sheep. He was a willing sacrifice. It's not just that he was able
to do it, but he was willing to do it. He wanted to do it
because he loved his sheep. He loved them. No man taketh
it from me, but I lay it down myself. I have power to lay it
down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have
I received of my father. He did it because of what his
father commanded him to do. Look at verse 19. There was a
division, therefore, again among the Jews for these sayings. And
many of them said, He hath a devil and is mad. Why hear ye him? Others said, These are not the
words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of
the blind? And it was at Jerusalem, the
feast of the dedication, and it was winter. And Jesus walked
in the temple of Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews round about
him and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly." After all that we've read, their
question comes, If you're the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus
answered in verse 25, I told you and you believed not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye
are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice,
and I know them, and they follow me. I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand." The Lord Jesus Christ chose a people. The shepherd chose his sheep. And those are the ones that hear
him. They didn't hear because they weren't of his flock. They
weren't of his sheep. Verse 28. And I give unto them
eternal life. What a reward. Because we did
absolutely nothing right. We did nothing but sin. Our reward
because of our good shepherd is eternal life. thing. Neither shall any man
pluck them out of my hand. It is so amazing to read that
the Lord gives his sheep eternal life. But it is also so comforting
that he immediately follows that with neither shall any pluck
them out of my hand. I've been given a lot of things
in my life and I haven't been able to hold on to them. the
statement that no one can take us out of his hands. He gave
his sheep eternal life. He gave them protection. He gave
them everything they needed, and no one can take that from
them. Once it's given, it is forever. Verse 29, my father which gave
them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them
out of my father's hands. I and my father are one. All of this, and look what the
response was in verse 31. Then the Jews took up stones
again to stone him. That is our response by nature. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the shepherd that takes care of my sheep. I will watch over
them. I will protect them. I will die
for them. I will save them. I will give
them eternal life. And that's forever. No one can
change that. And the response is, we have
to kill this man. That's the response from anyone
who has not heard his voice. That is the response of anyone
that doesn't follow him. But let me say this. You can't
hear his voice if he didn't call you. You can't follow him unless
he leads you, unless he takes you. We can't get any credit
for any of that. We get lost on the wrong thing. We see the sheep, hear his voice,
the sheep follow him, but that's not it. There's a song, Be Thou My Vision,
that I heard someone sing a special not that long ago. And in that
song, it says, He's the only thing in my heart. And later
it says, heart of my heart, whatever befall. One day. The only thing that will be in
our heart is the Lord Jesus Christ. After reading all of this. And thinking of the question,
am I one of the Lord's sheep? If I'm one of his sheep. Could
there possibly be anything else worthy of my love? Worthy of
a thought in my mind? One day, when we're not in this
body of sin, the Lord Jesus Christ will be the only thing we see. We won't see anything else apart
from Him. Everything we do will be with
Him. And that's because He is worthy of our praise. He is due
our love. He is faithful no matter what.
The gospel is the truth, no matter what. Now, when I asked that
question earlier, and I gave you a few answers, when I said,
am I one of the Lord's sheep, and I told you that I said no,
I doubt it, maybe yes, all those things, it would seem on the
surface that those answers would be in a linear pattern, meaning
that when I was young, The answer was no. And as I learned a little
bit, I thought, I don't know. And I got a little older and
went to church a few more times, and then I started to say, maybe.
And now as I'm old and mature, the answer is yes. But that's
not it. That's not how those answers
work. There are times When I ask myself, am I one of the Lord's
sheep? In a certain moment through his faith, I think to myself,
yes, I am. And it is amazing. But in that
very next moment, I'm back to the thought of there's no way.
There's no way. I look to myself and I think
there's just no way I'm one of his sheep. So I have asked you that question
over and over again, and I hope you've given it thought. Now,
I remember being asked that question or hearing that question. Another
way to say it is, when I say, am I one of the Lord's sheep,
another way to say it is, am I saved? And I remember hearing that question
as a young person. And you know that sometimes my
response was, I don't care. I don't want to think about it.
We have to think about it. We have to ask that question.
It's that important. We must ask it. But I've just
told you that We can't answer the question. We must ask Him.
And not only can we not answer it, nobody else can answer it
for you. My parents can't tell me. My
grandparents can't tell me. My wife can't tell me. My pastor
can't tell me. Nobody can answer that question.
We don't have a clue. How often have we been wrong?
A couple quick examples. Did anybody think when they would
do the first time read the story of all the followers following
the Lord, and then he talked to them and preached to them
and they thought, this is tough. I don't want to hear this. And
everybody left, but 12, 12 people stayed and they said, we don't
have anywhere else to go. We want to be with you. Did you immediately
think to yourself, I bet one of them doesn't really believe.
What about when the Lord was being crucified and there's two
thieves on His side railing on Him, yelling at Him, making fun
of Him? Did you first think to yourself, I bet one of those
is saved? We have no idea. We can't answer that question
for anyone else and we can't answer it for ourselves. But
let me give you a different question and I want you to turn with me
to John 21. John chapter 21. This is after the Lord has risen
and the Lord has come to Peter. Now, the last thing that happened
with Peter, with our Lord, was he told Peter, you're going to
deny me three times. Peter then denied him three times. Just more aggressive each time,
denying the Lord. I don't know who he is. I'm not
with him. All those kind of things. And in this verse 15 of John
21, let's look at the interaction. So when they had dined, Jesus
saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me
more than these? He said unto him, Yea, Lord,
thou knowest that I love thee. And the Lord said unto him, Feed
my lambs. Then again he said to him the second time, Simon,
son of Jonas, lovest thou me? And Peter answered, Yea, Lord,
thou knowest that I love thee. And the Lord said unto him, Feed
my sheep. And the Lord said unto him the
third time, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved
because he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou
knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee.
And Jesus said unto him, feed my sheep. Peter here is a great
example of us. And the reason this is so applicable,
when I say it in a second, is because all these doubts we talk
about, all these things I've said about not being worthy,
not being able, all those things, Peter just established he fit
all of that. Peter just denied the Lord and
did all those things, all the things I was talking about earlier. Am I worthy to be one of his
sheep? Do I have the ability? Do I have faith? Do I have belief?
All those things Peter established, no, absolutely not. He doesn't
have those things. The Lord came to him and asked
him one question. He said, do you love me? Do you
love me? From this, we have to ask ourselves,
not ask ourselves, we have to think upon that question. Do
I love the Lord Jesus Christ? In this question, at the end,
Peter finally said, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest
that I love thee. When we think, and I'm almost
done here, when we think for a moment, do I love the Lord
Jesus Christ? That is a very tough question
to answer. When I look at myself and struggle
with all these same questions, I have always struggled to say
the phrase, I love the Lord. And not in the way of telling
you or saying that phrase, but to say it to myself in my own
mind to say, I love you, Lord, because that's a hard statement
to say. I don't have the tangible, I can't see him with my eyes,
I can't talk with him, I can't hear him in all the ways that
we relate to a relationship, to someone loving us. It's the
way they look at us, it's the way they talk to us, the way
they act in front of us, all those things we see. In a way,
I had always thought of it almost in this odd way of someone saying,
at like a family reunion, you didn't know, that comes up and
says, I love you. And you can see that they mean
it, but you don't really, you've never met them in person. And
it's really hard to look back at them and say, I love you and
mean it. If you ask that question, if
you just walked out on the street in the middle of the day and
you walked up to strangers and you just said, do you love the
Lord? I would say you're gonna get a very high percentage of
people who are gonna say yes. And let me use, we've been going
through Daniel, let me use Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego as an example
for this in the order from Nebuchadnezzar of once the music plays, everyone
bows down. There are a lot of people who
bow down because that's what they thought they should do.
That's what everyone else was doing. That's the common thing
to do. In the way that people say, yes, I love the Lord because
that's what they think they should say. Some people bow down at
the music because of the benefits of the reward of being associated
and agreeing with the king. People say they love the Lord
because of what they think they might get if they say that. Then
other people, when the music was played, bowed down because
of the power, the authority, and the judgment that King Nebuchadnezzar
had. There have been a lot of people
over the years who have bowed to a king they hated because
they were scared of him. Many people say they love the
Lord or give this response because they think or know that he has
the judgment in his hands. that he can condemn and he can
save. But those people that bowed down,
they didn't even know who the true king was. They were bowing
to Nebuchadnezzar because they didn't know the true king. People
say, and I hope it's not me, that I love the Lord and I'm
talking about someone else, that I don't know him. Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego bow down to the Lord Jesus Christ and not to
the king. They did that because the Lord
had made himself known to them. They were no different than the
other people apart from the call that they had received, apart
from the Lord speaking to them, apart from him leading him. That's
where it comes from. So let me give just a couple
quick things about how we can answer, do I love the Lord Jesus
Christ? First and foremost, Do we love it that the Lord Jesus
Christ gets all the glory? Are we okay with when the topic
of salvation comes up, we're totally taken out of it? that
when we say salvation is of the Lord, we mean it's all of the
Lord. In the choosing, in the executing,
in the fulfillment, all of it, it is Him. And He gets the glory. Are we okay with thinking that
we will get no attention for the rest, we will get no glory
for the rest of our lives, for all of eternity? Are we okay
that He gets all the glory? That says that we love Him. Are
we okay that the Lord is just in all His ways? Do we believe
that whatever happens is okay? That whatever His will is, that's
what's right? Are we okay, I'm using that wrong,
I'm reusing that wrong. Do we believe and do we love,
do we rest in the fact that if the Lord Jesus Christ saved me,
I will be saved? And if he didn't, that's okay
because he's God and he, I wouldn't be saved otherwise. I'm totally
dependent upon him choosing me and saving me. And is he the
only hope for salvation? When I think of these topics,
when I think of am I one of the Lord's sheep, when I think of
eternal life, is the only hope that I have one person? Is it all in the Lord Jesus Christ?
Is everything in Him? I don't think of anything else.
When I ask the question, am I saved? It all comes back to only if
He saved me, if it's all of Him. And let me close with one So
important fact, something that I hope is evident. And it goes
along with all the things that we saw in John 14 of we follow
him because he leads us. We know his voice because he
called us all those things. The only reason that anyone could
love the Lord Jesus Christ is because he loved them first.
When we're asking, do we love the Lord? It's the same thing
of, am I one of the Lord's sheep? It's not. The I, it's the Lord,
it's him. Only way I love him is because
he loved me. We so often try to find evidence,
earthly evidence of things that would be a reason or evidence
that we are saved. But that just doesn't exist. The only evidence of a person
being saved is what the Lord has done. He is everything. We
often think of how often I go to church. Church attendance
has no bearing on salvation. But if you love the Lord Jesus
Christ, you're desperate to go hear about it. Baptism is something
that so many people rest in, but baptism has nothing to do
with salvation. But if you love the Lord Jesus
Christ and he is your only hope for salvation, you want to be
baptized so that everyone knows that's what you believe. All
of those things, everything is all because the Lord Jesus Christ
first loved me. And I need to end this, but I
feel like I need to just say it one more time. Ask the Lord to save you. Ask the Lord, use the word I. I need the Lord to save me. If
I'm gonna love him, it's because I need him to love me. We love
him because he first loved us.