John chapter 10. The title of the message is bringing
in the sheep or particular redemption. He says, I gave my life, I give
my life for the sheep. particular language for a particular
people. Our Lord tells us in the portion
of this chapter that we are going to look at that He is the Good
Shepherd. He says, I am the Good Shepherd.
He is using a definite article here, meaning, This, there is
no other. There is no other. You know,
our Lord said that He's the light. He's the bread that came down
from heaven. He's the way. He's the truth. He's the life. He's a good shepherd. He is exclusively these and there
are no other. I AM. And we can say this, the
great I AM, as God identified Himself back in Genesis to Moses,
I AM that I AM. The great I AM is our Shepherd,
the Good Shepherd. Now in the previous verses that
we looked at Thursday night, The contrast was between the
shepherd and the thief. The thief cometh not but for
to kill, to steal, to rob. That's all the thief does. That's all he's out for. But here, the contrast is between
the hireling and the shepherd. and the relationship of the shepherd
to the father and to the sheep. Now he says in verse 11, I am the good shepherd, the good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. He cares for the sheep constantly
before they ever knew him. He cared for them. Remember,
Gomer thought that it was her lovers who left her her corn
and her wine, while all along it was Hosea who was leaving
it at her door to take care of her. The shepherd has watched
over his sheep from birth. from the time you and I were
born, you and I who believe the gospel, from the time we were
born, our Shepherd has guided us, He has kept us, and He has
brought us to this place. And He will safely lead us home. He will safely bring us home.
He must bring them in. He said, I must bring them. He cares for the sheep constantly. That's what He says over in verse
3 and 4. He says, To him the porter openeth, and the sheep
hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name.
He leads them out. And when He puts forth His own
sheep, He goes before them. As I told you Thursday night,
there's nowhere that He will take you that He's not already
there. He goes before them. as opposed
to the bad shepherds who care not for the well-being of the
sheep, but only for the well-being of himself. You know, listen, our Lord did
nothing when He was on this earth, when He walked on this earth
in the flesh. He did nothing for Himself. When He was in the
wilderness, For 40 days and 40 nights, Satan said, If you're
the Son of God, turn these stones into bread, because it says he
was hungry. He was a real man. Our shepherd,
who's God, became a real man. A very real man. And he was hungry. And Satan
said, Turn these stones into bread. And he wouldn't do it. He never did anything to relieve
himself of hunger, of thirst, of suffering, in any way. Everything
he did, listen, everything he did, he did for the sheep. He
healed the blind, gave hearing to the deaf, the lame walked,
raised the dead. But he did nothing for himself.
Everything he did, he did for us. Everything. He's our shepherd. But the bad shepherds, they do
everything for themselves. They fleece the sheep. That's
what they do. They fleece the sheep. The good shepherd sacrifices
his life for the sheep. He puts himself in harm's way.
Remember, David being a type of Christ. You remember, when
he was watching his father's flock, he took on the bear and
the lion. He dealt with them. Our Lord, took on Satan and defeated
him. He took on the powers of darkness
and defeated the powers of darkness. He led captivity captive. He
overcame all principalities and powers. And He led us, who were
captives, He led us away from that captivity. Our Shepherd
did that. He led us out. The Good Shepherd
gives His life for the redemption of His sheep. You notice all
the way through here, He calls them His sheep. He never calls
them goats. They are His sheep. They were
His sheep in eternity past. They are His sheep now and they
are His sheep forever. He said He came to save His sheep,
to lay down His life for His sheep. That's what He did. He
gives his life for the redemption of his sheep. But the hireling,
look there in verse, in the hireling, he comes not for but to kill
and to steal and to cause harm. The hireling, and also here in
verse 13, the hireling, he flees because he's a hireling and he
cares not for the sheep. See, the hireling has no interest
in the sheep. It's a job to him. This is not a job to me. It's
a calling. There's a difference. This is
not a job. I have people that I know, and they're lost, as
lost can be, and they'll talk to me about this, what I do here,
and they talk to me about it as a job. When you gonna retire?
When I die. or I can't stand here no more."
It's one or the other. This is not a job, this is a
calling. It's a calling of God. You see, the hireling has no
interest in the sheep. He has no vested interest in
them. To him, they are not worth risking his life for. They are
not worth losing a paycheck over. They're not worth it, let alone
to die on purpose for them. They're not worth dying for on
purpose. He's a hireling. He's a hireling. You know, here's
the difference between a hireling and the owner. And here's an example. I was in the hospital, I've been
in the hospital a couple of times over a surgery, and the nurse
would come in and take care of me. And I have to say that the
two times I've been in the hospital, I never had a bad nurse. They
took care of me. We just talked back, but then
four o'clock rolled around, another one came in and took care of
me. And then they just kept switching. I made Vicky go home. I had to
make her go home. I said, no, you go home. Go home
and rest. I said, they'll take care of
me. They will take care of my mother to this day. When dad
goes in the hospital, you can't make her go home. I mean, you
have to take a chain and drag her out of that place. She will
not go home. And although those nurses do
what they do and they do have some care, they punch a clock
and they go home. Boy, but I tell you what, that
mother, that father sits there by that bed by their child. They
don't want to go home. Our shepherd, our shepherd loves
the sheep. He's not going to leave the sheep.
He's going to take care of his sheep. He said, I laid down my
life for the sheep. He knew, listen, he knew who
He was dying for. He knew them by name. He said,
I know them all by name. That's what He said here in the
earlier part. I call them by name. Every generation that comes
and goes, the Lord calls sheep out by name in every generation. He calls them to Himself. He
redeemed them. He died for them. But when the hireling, he sees
the wolf coming, When he sees a wolf coming, that is, when
he sees trouble, real trouble coming, he leaves the sheep. And the wolf scatters the sheep. You know that verse where the
Lord said that he had a hundred sheep and one of them went into
the wilderness, strayed and was lost, and he said the shepherd
left the ninety-nine and went into the wilderness? Well, the
bad shepherd keeps the ninety-nine. He says, well, that one, that's
less than 1%. So that's all right. But the
good shepherd says, no, that's not all right. I came with $100.
I'm leaving with $100. But the hireling says, I didn't
sign up for the wolf part. I signed up for the paycheck.
I signed up to conduct services. But I didn't sign up for the
wolf part. And so he leaves, he flees. He leaves the sheep and they
scatter. But here in verse 14 we find that the Good Shepherd
doesn't do that. I am the Good Shepherd and know my sheep. I know them. Before God created
the heavens and the earth, the Lord knew every one of His sheep,
however many that is. But the Scripture says it's a
number which no man can number. But He can number them. Not only did He number them,
He named every one of them. I'm the Good Shepherd. Once again,
He identifies Himself as the Good Shepherd. And what He's
going to do from this point on, He's going to give us a fuller
revelation of Himself and of His Father and of His connection
to the sheep and their redemption. He says, I am the good shepherd,
and I know my sheep, and in known of mine. He's good because he's
God. Remember that young man came
to him, he said, good master? He said, why do you call me good? There's none good but God. There's
none good but God. But I know some good people.
No, you don't. Not on the level that God defines
good. When God says it's good, He's
talking about perfection. And God said it must be perfect
to be accepted. So if He is the Good Shepherd,
if Christ can call Himself the Good Shepherd, it's not because
He does some good things or did some good things. It's because
He's God. He's God in human flesh. That's who Jesus Christ is. He's
God. And then He's good because He
knew no sin. As a man, He knew no sin. As God, He's holy. As God, He's
righteous, just, and holy. And as a man, He knew no sin. There was no sin in His birth.
There was no sin in his actions, no sin in his words, no sin in
his thoughts. He never had a sinful thought.
Never. When he was reviled, he reviled
not. What do you and I do when we
are reviled? We can't say it like he said it.
He reviled not. He didn't even have a glimmer
of a thought of retaliation. Not even a thought of it. He knew no sin. He's good in
all His attributes. You know, every attribute of
our Lord was perfect. Perfect. In every way. He's the Good Shepherd and He
knows His sheep. He knows who they are. He knows
where they are. You were not born into the family
that you were born into by accident. It wasn't just by chance. You
don't live in the country that you live in by accident or by
chance. God puts you here. God puts you
where He puts you that He may cross your path and bring you
to Christ, to the Shepherd, your Shepherd. He knows His sheep. He knows where they are. He knows
who they are. He knows what condition they
are in. And He knows them intimately.
In fact, He knows every hair on your head. That's not an exaggeration. That's what He says in the Scriptures.
Every hair of your head is numbered. That's how intimately He knows
you. You know, when you get to know
your children, when we get to know our children, or we get
to know people, And I could tell this at the
house, Vicky or the boys or my grandchildren, when they walk
in the house, I know something's going on. When something's going
on, I know. I'm telling you. I can tell it
by their demeanor. I can tell it by their countenance.
I can tell it by just their difference in their actions. And I can tell
the same thing with you. I've been here four years and
I can tell the same thing with you. I said, something's not
right. Something's a little off. Our Lord, now listen, our Lord
knows us perfectly. When we just have the slightest
feeling one way or the other, He knows it. He knows it. We have a high priest who is
our shepherd, who can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
He knows it. And listen, they know Him. Now
we don't know Him like He knows us. We will. And when we leave
this world, we're not capable of that now. But we do know Him. They know Him by the revelation
of the Spirit. He's made Himself known to you.
Paul speaks in Galatians, when God revealed His Son in me, Christ in you, the hope of glory.
You know Him in this way too. You know Him as your Lord and
Savior. That's very real to you who believe. That's very real. Jesus Christ
is very real to you right now. To the world, to the unbeliever,
He is a historical figure. like everybody else in history. But to you, He's not an historical
figure. He's your living Lord and Savior. He's very, very real to you.
He's your Redeemer. I have a Redeemer. He's my substitute. He's my prophet, priest, and
king. This is very real to me. They know Him. And verse 15 is
still connected with verse 14, "...as the Father knows me, even
so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep."
The Father and the Son know each other completely. He's showing
us here His oneness with the Father, and they know each other
completely. There's nothing about the Father
that Christ does not know. Nothing that He doesn't know.
They know each other completely. But He's also saying this, There's
a sense in which there is a mutual knowledge and union between Christ
and His sheep like there is between the Father and His Son. There's
a real mutual knowledge and union between Christ and His sheep,
the shepherd and His sheep, as there is between Christ and His
Father. I know them and they know me. They know me. And then he says here, and I
lay down my life for the sheep." This is particular redemption.
How everyone look at it. I lay down my life for the sheep.
He did not just lay down his life and then leave it up to
a bunch of God-hating rebels to do something with it. Really.
God is infinite wisdom, is He not? God is infinite wisdom. That would be absolutely stupid
for me to give my son to a bunch of people that hated me and then
see what they're gonna do with it. I tell you what they're gonna
do, they're gonna do exactly what they did to Jesus Christ. They
nailed him to a cross. But then, but then there's gonna be some
There's going to be some that He's going to woo them. He's
going to draw them because He loves them. He chose them. They're
His. They're mine. All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will no wise cast out. Listen, look over in Look in verse 24. Then came the
Jews round about the Lord, and they said to Him, How long dost
Thou make us to doubt, if Thou be the Christ? Just tell us plainly. And He has been. And all those
miracles He did, they witnessed it. They're saying, just tell
us plainly. And Jesus answers them, I told
you. I told you plainly. And you believe not. You don't
believe. I've told you that, that I'm
the Son of God. I told you that I'm the Messiah.
I've told you. And you believe not. The works
that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. healing
the blind, the deaf, the lame, raising the dead. These are the
works of the Father. He said, the works that I do
in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. But here's why
you don't believe. Here's why you don't believe,
because you're not of my sheep. As I've said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice, I know them and they follow me. And I give unto
them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand." He's showing here divine sovereignty. He's telling them that of divine
sovereignty, the divine right of God to choose whom He will. This is God's right. You know
what they did after this? They took up stones to stone.
They tried to kill Him because they hated the message of the
sovereignty of God and salvation. If God left us alone, if God
did not sovereignly choose, not a soul on this earth would be
saved. Are there any devils saved? When the Lord cast out devils,
the Gadarene, the man that was possessed of devils over in the
land of the Gadarenes, a legion, that's about 2,000. Okay, when
the Lord went over there, did any of those 2,000 ask Him for
mercy? Did any devil whom the Lord cast
out, did any of them ask for mercy? No. They didn't want it. God has to show mercy. He has
to bestow mercy. He has to bestow His sovereign
grace before any of us will ask Him for mercy. He has to. Because we don't want it. Christ
said to those Pharisees, You will not come to Me that you
might have life. You've got a will problem. And
your will is not to come. Darkness will not come to the
light. We are darkness by nature. We are darkness. We hate the
light. We hate that light that shines
in and shows us who we are. We love the works of darkness.
We like the evil of darkness. We like what it does for the
flesh. It excites us. It's fun to the flesh. But God has to give us a new
nature. He has to create within us a new heart. We must be born
of God. Nicodemus said, well, how can
that happen if we'll be born again? Christ said, you must
be born again. Nicodemus goes, well, how in the world? What
are you talking about? Can we go back in our mother's
womb and come back out the second time? Well, if you went back
in your mother's womb 50 times, you'd come out just as bad. He
was talking about being born of God, being born of the Spirit. Because that old corrupt nature
will not have anything to do with God. And if God does not
show mercy to us, we will go on in our way and perish. I lay down my life for the sheep. Other sheep, he says in verse
16, other sheep I have. Listen to this. He does not say
other sheep I'm going to go after. I'm not going to see if the next
town over, if I can get somebody to accept me. Other sheep I have,
they're mine. And he's talking here about the
Gentiles. I'm looking at some of them. I'm looking at some
of those sheep that he's talking about right here in this verse. Other sheep I have which are
not of this fold, He's probably looking at His disciples there.
And there's other sheep besides those whom He saved from the
Jewish nation. The Gentiles, us. Them also. I what? I must offer them salvation? I must go to them and offer to
them so that I can be fair? God, that's not fair. God choosing the people, that's
not fair. Oh, yes, it is fair. If God does it, it's right. Now,
whatever God does is right, whether you and I can understand it or
not. My understanding doesn't make things right or wrong. It's
right because it's right. You know, here's the thing about,
I used to tell Vicki this sometimes,
I'd get up and I'm not feeling good. You know, I just feel bad,
you know, I'm just feeling bad. She, what's wrong? I said, my
feel-bad's broke. I said, my feel-bad's broke today.
Well, listen. We don't go upon feeling what's
right and what's wrong because our feel-bad is broke. What we feel to be right is broke.
What we go upon is the Word of God. What He says is right. What He says is wrong. That's
the way it is, no matter how I feel about it. My feelings
have nothing to do with it. It's right because He said it's
right. And it's wrong because He said it's wrong. How you feel
about it, it doesn't matter how you feel about it. It doesn't
matter. Because our feelings are broke
because of sin. Other sheep I have, they're mine,
which are not of this fold. Them also I must bring, and they
shall hear my voice." They shall hear my voice. Paul on the road
to Damascus. The Lord stopped him. He stopped
him. He was trying to wreak havoc
of the church. But Nero, God didn't stop Nero. Nero met God
in Jephthah. He said, I raised you up for
this same purpose, to show my power in you. But he stopped Paul, and if he
hadn't stopped Paul, Paul was not any different than Nero,
who burned the Christians, who burned them on stakes, fed them
to the beasts, beheaded them. There's not one ounce of difference
between Nero and Paul but the grace of God. That's the difference. That's the only difference. He said, I must bring them out
of darkness to light. He must bring them out of spiritual
death to life. He must bring them out from under
the bondage of Satan, from under the bondage of the law, to freedom,
liberty. I must bring them. I must go
to Samaria. Why are you going to Samaria?
Why is it so important you go to Samaria? There's a woman who's
going to be at the well at noon, and she's mine. She's mine. She's one of my sheep. And I'm
going to make myself known to her. Everything Jesus Christ did,
he must have done. He must do. He must do. Must do. He must bring them to
God spotless, because God's going to populate heaven with a people
just like his son. That's what he says. Therefore doth my Father love
me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again."
Christ is the object of the Father's love. He is the object of the Father's
love. And all that are in Christ, He
loves. He loves. He loves Him as His only begotten
Son. He loves Him as the Redeemer of the Father's sheep. He loves
Him as the Mediator. He loves Him. Therefore doth
my Father love me. You know, there's things about
your spouse. You say, I just love this about
her or him. Or if you have maybe a close
friend, there's just things you just love about him. The Father loved
His Son because He's His Son, but He loved His obedience. He
loved his attitude. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who thought not robbery to be equal
with God, but made himself of no reputation, but took upon
him the form of a servant. The Father loved that about him.
He loved that about him. But he says here, Therefore doth
my Father love me, because I lay down my life willingly I laid
down my life willingly. This is his attitude. He had
a willing attitude. My meat is to do the will of
Him that sent me. I know growing up, I did a lot
of things for my parents because I had to. It was like begrudgingly. You know, I had to hoe the garden.
He grew up on a farm. He had to go out and work all
day. Dad always gave us chores to do. He never missed giving
us something to do. And most of the time, I didn't
like doing it. But that cannot be said of our
Lord. He loved redeeming His people. He endured the cross. He despised the shame for the
glory that lay ahead. And the glory that lay ahead
is you with Him and the Father, us being one with God. Can you
imagine that, being one with God? That's what salvation is
about. It's not missing hell and going
to heaven. It's how a sinner like me can
be made one with God Almighty. How a just God can be just and
save a wretch like me. And he can do that through the
blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, my substitute. That's
how. He says here, "...that I lay
down my life, that I might take it again." He knew he wasn't
going to stay dead. There was no question as to whether
he was going to come out of that grave or not. He's coming out
of that grave. He knew he'd be successful in
Isaiah 42. Behold my servant, mine elect,
he shall not fail. Now if anybody ends up in hell,
for whom Jesus Christ died for, he failed. He absolutely failed. You cannot die under the wrath
of God. You cannot die under the curse
of the law and put that away and then the person for whom
you died and did that for winds up in hell. That's double jeopardy.
That's what that is. You can't do it. It can't be
done. He said he laid down his life
that he might take it again. Listen, verse 18, I'll wind this
up. No man takes my life from me. He didn't die out of weakness. He didn't die because the mob
took him and he couldn't do anything about it. No man taketh my life
from me. I lay it down of myself. He laid it down as a sacrifice. That's what He did. He took His
life and laid it down on the altar of His holiness, of His
deity. He sacrificed Himself on the
altar of His deity. I lay it down. Nobody takes it. I lay it down on myself. I have
power. I have power to lay it down. You don't have power to
lay your life down. You don't have power to lay it
down. All power comes from God. My
life belongs to God. He gave it to me. And He'll take
it. But the Lord Jesus Christ says,
I have the power, I have the authority, I have the right to
lay my life down as a sacrifice. I have that power. And I have
the power, listen, to take it again. Now, if we try to figure all
this out, we're going to blow a gasket. This is God. This is God. Very real man, and
yet very real God. He said, I have the power to
lay my life down, and I have the power, by my divine power,
being God, he was able to raise himself from the dead. Brought
that body back from the dead. Isn't that amazing? And I tell
you what, He has that same power to raise you and I from the dead.
He has the same power to raise us from the dead spiritually
right now. All He must do is say, live, and you'll live. You'll
believe the gospel. It's given unto them in behalf
of Christ, as we looked at in Bible class, it's given unto
you in behalf of Christ to believe. As many, as you read back there
while ago, as many as were ordained to eternal life, Believed. They believed. He has the power
to do that. And he has the power that when
all this is over, to raise our bodies out of the grave. A new
body, a new body without sin. Like his. Powerful body. Powerful minds. We have no concept
of the power of the mind and the body, that new mind and new
body. There's no concept of the power. Because it's going to
be like His. He laid down His life willingly.
He wasn't taken by force. He was not a martyr. Jesus Christ
was not a martyr. Jesus Christ was not a victim.
Jesus Christ was a divinely appointed substitute for a multitude of
sinners no man could number. And He calls them sheep. And
then He tells us here, No man takes it from Me, I lay
it down on Myself. I have power to lay it down and
I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of My Father." Our Lord said this often, I do not do these
things by Myself. I do nothing by Myself. Everything
I do is from the Father. He said, as I hear, I speak.
The words that I speak are not Mine, they're the Father's. And
this commandment to save the sheep, To save the sheep is the
Father's commandment, and I willingly submit to it. I willingly submit
to it. And I've received this authority. Nobody else has received it.
There is no other Savior but Jesus Christ. There is no other
name given under heaven whereby we must be saved. The only one who has been put
into authority to save is Jesus Christ. Thank God there is a
Savior. The devils don't have one. They
don't have one. We do. We have a Savior. And He's the Savior of sinners. That's particular redemption.
That's bringing in the sheep. That's the gospel. That's the
truth. You know, Scripture says Christ died for sinners. I find
my place right there. As the Bible describes a sinner,
He died for the ungodly, that fits me. When I read that, I'm
thinking, he's describing me. That's me. But you know what
the Pharisee said to him? We be not sinners. I know I'm
not perfect, but I'm not like that one. Well, it'd be a good day if the
Lord made you know you like that one. All right.