Good evening. We'll begin turning
to John chapter 10. We're so thankful to have Cheryl
and Audrey Evans with us this week. They happened to bring
Fred with them. And we're glad to have them. Will and Fred will be preaching
here Sunday and then this coming week from today Wednesday as
well while they're in town. He's going to work some and So
as you remember him, ask the Lord to give him a message for
your heart and bless him with it first. We're thankful to have
him. Here in John chapter 10, we've
been looking at this for a while now. The Lord healed a blind
man in John chapter 9. He did a work in that man and
some things happened in him. He kept professing Christ and
he kept getting more simple and more simple and more simple and
he said, All I know is I was blind. Now I can see. And he's
God Almighty that did it. He hadn't seen about 15, 20 people
his whole life. He'd heard everything. And some
man came up in this group that he'd heard talking and put mud
in his eyes. He never spoke the whole time.
Lord found him after they kicked him out of religion. Boy, what
price that comes with. You can't get buried there. You
can't come to no bar mitzvahs. You can't do nothing. Your whole
family's out. It's over. You can't live mom
and dad no more. And the Lord found him, and he
said, you believe the Lord? He said, who is he? I may worship
him. I know it's one of y'all's voices. I remember that. He said, it's me that's talking
to you. And he bowed down and he worshiped the Lord. And we
don't hear another peep out of him. And he's been there this
whole time. We've been going through John 9 and John 10. And
our Lord, they ask him, they say, how? That's what they're
asking that blind man. How did he get his sight? How
did he get his sight? Not why. Not, how could this be just?
Can I get sight? Can we praise the one that gave
him sight? There weren't no technicalities,
didn't it? There wasn't no doctrine of it. It's a shame. And they asked
him why, and our Lord said, I'll tell you. Severely, I'll say
unto you. And he gave them the illustration of the sheepfold.
He said, you're all thieves and robbers. Everyone that comes
after me is thieves and robbers. He said, but I'm the door. I'm
the one that they gotta go through. I'm it, I'm the way, is what
he's telling them. And they said, we have no idea what you're talking
about. They didn't get it. And so patiently, tenderly, kindly,
leaving all men without excuse, our Lord explained it to them.
He explained this parable. And he said, I'm the door of
the sheep. Everybody else is thieves and robbers. He said,
I'm the door. If any man shall enter in, he
shall be saved and he shall go in and out and find pleasure
or peace in me. And he said, I'm the good shepherd. I give my life for the sheep.
Those hirelings, they'll run at the drop of a hat. They'll
find something else more important, and they'll leave. I won't. He's
the good shepherd. He's the great shepherd, the
chief shepherd. That's who he is. He said, that's
me. They know exactly what he's talking
about. They understood this physical parable of all the sheep will
go into this corral in the evenings, and then the shepherds will go,
say, come on. They'd call them by name. They'd come out, and they'd
follow them. And he said, I'm the shepherd. I'm gonna lay down
my life in the sheep. And they're still kind of on
board, because they believe in election. They thought they were
it from birth, physical birth. They hadn't got bad yet. They
just didn't know where he was going. And he looked them dead
in the eye and he said, oh, the sheep I have that are not of
this fold, them I must bring. I got some Gentiles out there.
He started gritting. We're special. He's telling us
we ain't special. He's saying he's a special one.
I didn't like that. Well, we get down to verse 19.
John 10, 19. There was a division, therefore,
again. Again. It's already happened
a couple of times, isn't it? There's a division, therefore, again
among the Jews for these sayings. Everything the Lord said. And
many of them said, many of them, he hath a devil and is mad. Why
do you hear him? Who are they speaking to? The
blind man's still standing there. His disciples are still with
him. And they look to his very sheep that he came to lay down
his life for, and they say, why are you listening to him? He's
evil. Evil? He's a devil. Are you mad? You're the mad one. They attacked
the Lord's sheep right in front of the shepherd. Others said,
these are not the words of him that hath the devil. Can a devil
open the eyes of the blind? The Lord may have saved some
of those. I don't know. But inside the camp of the Jews,
of the religious folks standing there around him, they started
talking to each other. There was discussion, there was
debate, there was division. Not dedication, not devotion,
not bowing down and worshiping God Almighty and standing right
in front of him. There was a division. People don't talk about that
much, do they? Over Matthew 10, our Lord said, think not that
I'm coming to send peace on earth. He is to his people. But for
the broad spectrum of this, earth that we're in. Think not I come
to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace but
a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his
father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law and a man's foes shall be those of
his own household. If he saves somebody, there's
going to be some fighting. Everybody ain't going to be hunky-dory.
It ain't going to happen. But what if I was all alone on a
deserted island and the Lord sent a preacher to save me and
that preacher lived? Just like Rachel, If it be so,
why am I thus? If I have life in me, why am
I warring? There's a man that lives inside
of me, the guy you're looking at right now, that wakes up in
the morning and says, there ain't no way in the world to that man
in the mirror that you're a child of God. I know what you think. I know what you feel. I know
how you look at this world. I know how you look at others.
I know how you look at yourself. And I get prettier every day.
I think so. I'm aging well. I'm an arrogant, arrogant man. And that foe's in my own household
looking me in the mirror. But whenever life comes, just
like with Rachel, there wasn't a problem until life put in him.
There wasn't a problem until life put in him. Everything's
fine. These men were fine until the Lord showed up. They said,
Christ is coming. They still believe that. Messiah's
gonna come. He's gonna fulfill the law. They
was fine with that until he showed up. There's a king, and he has
some subjects. That's fine until the king shows
up, because we're running ourselves. We're governing ourselves. We
do what we want. We make our own decisions. Now he's going
to come down the road, but for right now, I'm the boss. I'm
the boss of me, isn't I? Natural man hates the king, and
he hates the king's people because of who the king is. That's why
I said in Matthew 10, 22, and ye shall be hated of all men.
Speaking to his people, to his sheep, his subjects, you're going
to be hated of all men for my name's sake. Because of me. Because you're mine. You're going
to be hated. You're going to be hated. You'll take sides with
God against yourself, too. What was this division over?
Why did some want to kill him? Why did some want to kill us?
But it's always truly over. Anytime there's a division, it's
because of him. because of him. Now, it might
be excused on something else or accused on something else.
Well, we don't like the way they preach, or we don't like the
way they do the Lord's table, or their hat ain't the size of
hat we want to wear, or whatever. No. If the gospel's being preached
and there's a division, there's a separation because of it, debating
and discussing and the constant yapping instead of bowing, it's
because of him. Because of him, for his name's
sake. person and the work of Christ, the King and His people
He came to save, those that He laid down His life for. Who and
what? Who He is, what He did. The King
eternal. That's why they crucified Him.
Do you know that? Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged Him,
and the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns and put it on His head,
and they put Him in a purple robe and said, They mocked him, and they smote
him with their hands. Almighty God. They put him on
a Roman cross, because they said, he's the king of the Jews. He
thinks he's going to run a kingdom here. They had no idea. With wicked hands, they slew
him. All the foreknowledge of God in him. Turn over to Luke
19. I was reading this, and this morning made me think of it.
Luke 19. The Lord had called Zacchaeus
down from that tree and said, I'm going to come to your house
today, buddy. Today's salvation has come to your house. He says
in Luke 19 verse 11, And as they heard these things, while they
were sitting there in Zacchaeus' house, he added and spake a parable,
because he was nine to Jerusalem, because they thought that the
kingdom of God should immediately appear. They thought this kingdom
of Christ was going to take over, it was going to be here on earth.
The apostles thought that for a long time. And he said, therefore,
verse 12, a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive
for himself a kingdom and to return. Our nobleman, Christ
our nobleman, came a long way down to this country, didn't
he? To redeem his people, and he returned. He's sitting on
his throne right now. And he called his 10 servants
and delivered them 10 pounds and said to them, occupy till
I come. But his citizens hated him. and
sent a message after him saying, we will not have this man reign
over us. They sent a letter after him.
You know what that means? They all sat down and they debated
and they discussed and they had divisions among themselves and
they finally put it down in writing. They talked it over thoroughly.
Now they took the 10 pounds, didn't they? They didn't send
10 pounds back with a letter. Here's your stuff, take it. Mankind
right now debates God, they discuss God, these open forums about
God all over the place, but they're still breathing His air. We're
still eating His food, we're still drinking His water. Still
getting soaking up His sunshine, don't we? Verse 15, And it came
to pass that when He had returned, having received the kingdom,
then He commanded these servants to be called unto Him, to whom
He had given the money. that he might know how much every
man had gained by trading. He just gave this parable to
these Pharisees. They asked the blind man. He
gave them a good message, I think. That's a good, honest gospel
message. He said, you want to be his disciple too? They said,
you get out of here. We're Moses' disciples, no kidding.
And he preached to them. Then the Lord came to them. He
gave them this parable. And then he gave it to them again
because they didn't understand. Then he spoke to them again.
He keeps coming to them, don't he? every opportunity. But it came to pass, verse 10
to 15, when he returned, he'd received the kingdom. He commanded
these servants to be called to him, to whom he had given the
money, that he might know how much every man had gained by
trading. What'd you learn from what he told them? Every man's
accountable, aren't we? Then came the first, saying,
Lord, thy pound. Called him Lord, said, thy pound.
It ain't nothing but your pound, you gave it to me. It's gained
10 pounds. And he bowed down and said, look,
this is yours, Lord, every bit of it, the first pound and the
10th pound. And he said unto him, well, thou good servant,
because thou hast been faithful to little, you'll be over 10
cities. Verse 18, the second came and said, Lord, thy pound,
this is your pound, you gave it. Here's five pounds, it's
gained five pounds. And he said, you'll be over five
cities. Down in verse 20, it says, there came another, Another
came, saying, Lord, behold, here's thy pound, which I've kept laid
up in a napkin, for I feared thee, because thou art an austere
man. Sounds good, kinda, doesn't it?
Like, well, is there some respect there? No, no, he explains it. Thou takest up where thou layest
not down, and thou reapest what thou didst not sow. You should
have left me alone. What do you think you're doing?
On whose authority do you think you've come here? Here's your
pound back. That's not bowing, is it? Is that worshiping? Lord,
you were so generous. You gave us a pound, and I just
did what you told me. And here's 10. Here's right back
to you. Everything I have is yours. You
gave it, and you gave the increase. They said, you're an austere
man. You reap where you don't sow. And he saith unto him, out
of thine own mouth will I judge thee. Is that what you got to
say? I'll stand you by that, you wicked servant. Thou knewest
I was an austere man. Is that what you thought? Taking
up thou lay down not, and reaping what I didn't sow. You knew so
much, you debated so much, you had this all figured out, didn't
you? Wherefore then thou gavest not my money to the bank, that at my coming I might have
required mine own with usury. You could at least drew a little
bit of interest on it, couldn't you? You could at least been a little
bit profitable with it. Just use good common sense. And he
said unto them that stood by, take from him the pound, and
give it to them that have ten pounds. And they said unto him,
Lord, he hath ten pounds. For I say unto you, that unto
every one which hath shall be given, and from him that hath
not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him. But those
mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them,
bring hither and slay them before me. Who does that make happy? When
you hear this, he dealt harshly with those that wouldn't have
him reign over them, that willfully didn't want anything to do with
him. But those that know the king, those that know that he
elects his own, he protects his own, he provides for his own,
he preserves his own for his kingdom, he owns them, he regulates
everything, he administrates, he's the administrator of everything,
the potentate, the only authority there is. And he's able to do
all that. That's not austere. That's holiness. That's good. On this earth, there's
totalitarian dictatorships, and those men are mean. They're evil. This king rules and reigns everything,
and he's holy and good and kind and delights to show mercy. That's
good news. Don't go against him. Lay down
your shotgun, don't fight him, you're gonna lose. He's a good
king and a powerful king. That's not bad news, that's good
news. In Luke 19 verse 5, Jesus came
to the place, he looked up and saw him and said to him, Zacchaeus,
make haste and come down, for today I must abide in thy house.
And he made haste and came down and received him joyfully. I've heard that preached two
different ways. And I love it both ways. Zacchaeus came down
and he received the Lord Jesus Christ joyfully. You bet he did. But that king
received Zacchaeus joyfully too. There was no division among them.
They were united. There was unity. There was no
debating. He said, well now I'm gonna come down, but I got some
leaves I'm gonna have to shake out first. No, he came down.
There was no debate and there was no division. Just loving
devotion. loving devotion. That's what Jude wrote about.
He said, Now unto him that's able to keep you from falling
and present you faultless before the presence of his glory with
exceeding joy. I can't get over that. To the
only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power
both now and ever. Amen. That's able, praise him. Glory goes to him. Amen. But there must be heresies among
There must be divisions. There must be fighting and backbiting
and stealing and robbing and everything else. It's got to
be. It's got to be. Tares must be sowed with the
wheat. Paul wrote to Corinth. He's about to instruct them on
the Lord's table. And he said, for first of all, when you come
together in church, I hear that there'll be divisions among you.
You're all debating and arguing and discussing everything underneath
the sun. That's what I'm hearing from
you. He said, I partly believe it. For there must be heresies
among you, that they which are approved may be manifest among
you." Now, was that just in Coriath? Because that is kind of bad off,
wasn't it? Was that just during that time period? John said the
same thing. He said, little children. That's when he's speaking tenderly,
isn't it? grunt and swing at a little child,
and you speak kindly to little children. He said, little children,
it's the last time, and you've heard that the Antichrist shall
come, even now there are many Antichrists. You've heard about
this stuff people's talking about? It's worse than you think it
is. Whereby we know that this is the last time. We know that's
going on. Old Joe Terrell said that one
time. He said, one of the chief attributes of the Antichrist
is going to round everybody up and get them to go look for the
Antichrist. Get them to go looking somewhere other than bowing to
Christ himself. Look anywhere but Christ. Get
tied up in dates and times and signs and wonders and whatever.
They went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had
been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. No doubt.
But they went out, that they but be made manifest, that they
were not all of us. Hey, does that terrify me? Oh,
I'm prone to wonder. This great, kind, generous king
that came and laid down his life for me, I'll be the first one
that wasn't outside of his hand of providence to spit on him
and run as fast as I could. But John said, but ye, ye, the
ones there, the ones reading who he wrote this to, but you
have an unction from the Holy One and you know all things.
I know I'd run. Like Rachel, I know I got that
old man in me. I didn't know that before. I
thought I was a pretty good fella. I thought I had some knowledge. wrangle you down with doctrine.
I found out what a rich I was. I'm back in our text from John
10. Only those outside of Christ
are divided on these things. There's confusion. The Lord's
not the author's confusion, it's the man is. It says in John 10,
19, there was a division therefore again among the Jews for these
sayings. The blind man wasn't divided,
he worshiped. The disciples stand there with
him, they weren't divided, they just rejoiced. They said, Amen.
The shepherd and the sheep, this king and his subjects, they rejoiced
and worshiped him for it. For him being king of all, for
him being lord of all. There's no division. I got a
letter from a lady, I got a pen pal. I've known her for a long
time, know her family. And she wrote me and she said,
my great grandson, Only 27 years old, we had a death in the family
a week ago. My great-grandson was only 27 years old and he
died. And he did not know the Lord
Jesus. But God does all things well. We can trust him fully for all
things. How could a woman that just lost
her great-grandson know that he didn't know the Lord? Be that
honest with herself. and know that God's holy and
just and right and awful. There ain't nothing austere about
him. That's right. I don't understand it, and I
grieve, but we can trust him in A-double-L all things. How could she do that? She has
a king. She knows the king. And not just
there's one that rules and reigns. She understands his character.
There's a holy God that rules and reigns. I always mention
that. You think about sitting underneath
Hosea. She marries Gomer. That's illegal.
You can't do that. And then they have some children
and she runs off right back. We told you, I told you so. Why'd
you do that? When the boys, I'm going to need
y'all to go out and work a little harder. I'm going to buy some corn and
wine for her. You're going to do what with the church's money?
What? Lord taught him to do this, didn't he? Our problem is not
seeing Hosea as Rome. Our problem is not seeing us
as Gomer. We have a kind, wonderful king. Oh, he's great. After our
great preacher gave his words, Lord in human flesh, those that
had ears to hear, they heard, and they bowed down and they
worshiped. And those that did not hear, they argued and yapped
and butted. You ever listen to a message
that's just, oh, Lord speaks right to your heart. And all
you can do is just, and you're grinning and crying at the same
time. He's just nodding. Amen. That's right. That's right. Verse 22 says, and it was at
Jerusalem at the feast of the dedication that was winter. And
Jesus walked into the temple of Solomon's porch. We'll look at that next time.
Verse 24, and then they came to 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. Fred, I get frustrated sometimes.
I think, who's believed our report? If they didn't get that, why
on earth am I listening? I'll just preach and go home.
I'll preach and leave folks alone. They said, Why you make us to
doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. They didn't
believe him. They didn't want to hear it one
more time. They just wanted added proof so they could report to
Rome and have him killed and get out of the way. Then go back
to doing what they wanted. Throughout the years, I've heard
several people ask or demand. I've heard it both ways, gentle
and rough. They've asked or demanded of
God's preachers to bring a certain message or to say a particular
thing or to stop saying a particular thing. I want you preaching on
this. Why don't you bring a message off of that? Not once have I
seen it happen. I ain't seen it happen. Those that enter into those debates
and arguments and stuff, sometimes the Lord's man, his preacher,
they might take the bait for a moment, but not in the preaching.
There's been some times I thought, I ought not answer the phone
call, but I'm going to. And I regret it ain't worked
out good once for me. But they baited the Lord, saying,
He's tempted at all points like I am, yet, without sin. They said, you're going to tell
us something, tell us plainly. That's what we want you to preach on.
Why? Why did he do this? Why does
his messengers, those that he sent, how do they sustain? They're
after his own heart. What was our Lord's response?
Verse 25. He said, I told you and you believe not. The works
that I do in my father's name, they bear witness of me. I've
told you, you've heard me and you saw the miracles and you
still don't believe. What's that? You can see all
the miracles you want. You can hear all the words and
all the good preaching you want. You can be in the right place
at the right time and the right uniform and hear that you're
accurate. This guy's accurate. He's the
right one. God still must say. Our experiences and our location
has nothing to do on his work of salvation in the heart. It's
his. He has a means. He has means. It's going to be through the
preaching of the gospel. And there's gonna be some miracles.
I've seen them. I've seen Lord save folks. I've
seen people grow in grace. I've seen mean people get kinder.
I've seen stingy people have an open hand. It's happened. But seeing those things and hearing
it ain't gonna do you no good. God must save. That's gonna be
through those means. That's gonna be His doing. Turn
over to Jeremiah 32. I know we've read this often
and I just, I like reading it often. Makes me happy. Jeremiah 32. That's one of those things, you
read Jeremiah 32 and 15, 20 times, you say, you know what,
I got it. Let's go to the water cooler and we can dive into some
deep doctrine and discuss the heavy thing. No, no. Those that haven't heard anything
that's not impressed by the king would do such a thing. The Lord's
people said, can you read that one more time to me? Look here
at Jeremiah 32 verse 37. Behold, I will gather them out
of all countries, whether I have driven them in mine anger and
in my fury and with great wrath, I will bring them again unto
this place and I will cause them to dwell safely. And they shall
be my people and I will be their God. and I will give them one
heart and one way." What did the Lord tell these Pharisees?
They knew this. He said, there's gonna be one fold and one shepherd.
It's my people and I'm the shepherd. There's one way. I'm the door.
Get that? I will give them one heart and
one way that they may fear me forever. They're gonna honor
me forever for the good of them. for their good. This ain't just
some legal obligation. Well, I have to maintain my holiness.
I guess I ought to check this block. No, I see that and I agree. This is for my good. This is
for the good of his people. I don't like the trials that
come. I don't like to chase them when it happens. I moan, Lord,
let this cup pass from me, but I know the end. It's for my good
and his glory. I know it. for the good of them
and of their children. Amen. Any offspring we have spiritually,
it's going to be for their good, and He's going to be doing it.
And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and I will
not turn away from them to do them good. But I'll put my fear
in their hearts, and they shall not depart from it. What hope
do I have that I won't leave the God that I love? He says,
I'm gonna put it in your heart and you will not. It's impossible
that you'll depart from me. Yea, I will rejoice over them
to do them good. Willingly, happily, he will rejoice
over them to do them good. And I will plant them in this
land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.
First off, he's able. He says everything he will do,
he's God, he's able. Second, is that austere? Is that
a mean king? No, it's not. Oh, that's a loving
king, and a powerful king, and an able king, and a king that's
worthy of all glory and honor. Back in our text. Why wouldn't
someone be just overjoyed at that? Why wouldn't they just
turn inside out and say, amen? Like that blind man. Lord, who
is he? I may worship him. And we just fall down. Why ain't
this place got 3.8 million people in this room? Just worshiping
God. Sing his praises. Verse 26. The Lord said, I told you these. You saw everything I've done.
You know this guy from his birth. He's seized now. Verse 26, John
10, 26. But you believe not because ye
are not of my sheep, as I said to you. You didn't hear me because
my sheep hear my voice, and you ain't part of my sheep. You believe
not because you're not of my sheep. Now, he didn't say you're
not of my sheep because you didn't believe. You didn't believe because
you're not of my sheep. I haven't gave you life yet.
You're not mine. I came to save my sheep. Where'd he get them
sheep? God gave them to him. He bought
them with his blood. And the Holy Spirit brings us
to his feet to see, to see Christ revealed in us and us worshiping.
Rightfully he is. Verse 27 says, My sheep, they
hear my voice and I know them. I love them. They love me. and
they followed me. They followed me. You can look
at it later, but in Leviticus 8, there's going to anoint Aaron
and his sons, and Moses was there, and they took a ram, a male sheep,
head sheep, our older brother, and they slew him, and they slew
the lamb, and Moses took the blood of it, and he put it three
places on him. He put it on their right ear,
and he put it on their right thumb, and he put it on their
right big toe. Why? When the Holy Spirit comes and
applies the blood of Jesus Christ to his people, our great shepherd's
blood, we hear him. He said, my sheep hear my voice.
And we said, I don't really, I can't explain all these things,
but that's right. That's right, amen. And I'll lose my job, my
family, whatever, but that's necessary. That's right. And
he anoints us on the hand. We serve him. Willingly. We serve his people. We have
an open hand. People say that, well, you gotta
give money. Money come and goes, it's His.
Now, all of a sudden, we give the hand of friendship. Now we
give mercy, we give forgiveness, because we've been forgiven.
We have an open hand to hug for the first time ever. And He anoints
our feet that we follow Him. We go where He is. That ain't
complicated. Man can make it as complicated
as they want. Well, if the Lord's in that room and we're in this
room, I love y'all, I'm gonna go in that room. I'm gonna go
where he is. Why? That's my shepherd. I'm
gonna follow him. That ain't rocket science, is
it? We follow him. We hear his voice. He knows us.
We know him. He says, and I give unto them
eternal life. Eternal life. That they shall
never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of hand. Eternal
life's not a quantity of the life. There's a sense we're all
gonna be coherent, alive forever, but it's life that he gives.
This is the quality of it. Those that the shepherd died
for, those that he gave sight to, they have life eternal. He
says in scriptures, I came to give them life more abundant.
And that's not just good times. Paul said, Christ, who is our
life? He said, I give you me. We're
going to have him. Well, people like Streets of
Gold and Mansons and Ferraris or something else. We're going
to have clouds and we're going to have a harp. I don't care
about all that. I want Him. I want to be with the King. We have Him eternally, my life
more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, we
say. What's the assurance of that? Of our shepherd, our great King.
Verse 29 says, My Father, which gave them me, is greater than
all. and no man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand." The work of Christ in calling out
His sheep and providing for them and laying down His life for
them and preserving them for eternity, forever, to be in Him
and with Him and one with Him and His bride, it is sure. Dad
said, you can take it to the bank. It's sure, because no man
can pluck them out of my Father's hand. No man. Within the confines of the ability
God gives me, if someone came to pluck one of my children from
us, good luck. You will have to kill
me. Whatever your tax dollars has
trained me, it's still left over. It ain't gonna happen. I'm gonna
go down fighting. I'll take a rock and charge a
tank if I have to. It ain't gonna happen. And that's just me. Lord
said, you're evil, you know how to provide for your children.
They ask you for a fish, you don't give them a scorpion, and
you're evil. No man's able to pluck them out of the Father's
hand. It's an impossibility, it cannot happen. And you know
who's included in no man? This man. No man can lay charge
to God's elect, that's this one too. That's good news, isn't
it? God's able. Is there anything
too hard for the Lord? That's what he asked Abraham.
Anything too hard for him? Sarah's back there laughing.
Is there anything too hard for the Lord? No, there ain't. What's
so special about this shepherd? Verse 30, I and my Father are
one. This one that purposed all this,
that sent me to claim the sheep, it's his sheep he gave to me.
He's ordained everything. He's preserved them forever.
We're looking at him. Philip, you've seen me, you've
seen the Father. We're one. I try you and God manifest in
the human body. We don't have the Father as a
spirit, and it's manifest in Christ. We have a King we can
touch and see and hug and sit down at a table. He's going to
serve us. I want to be without sin entering that. He's going
to serve us and preach to us in the beginning God, and then
spend about 25,000 years explaining us what that means. Amen. Thank
you, Lord. We have a God-man as our king,
and he and the Father are one. The work of Christ and the person
of Christ. He's God. He's our eternal king,
and this is the very one that laid down his life for the sheep,
and he took his life back up. He's given power to the Father,
and he intercedes for the sheep, and he eternally secures their
eternal life that's in him. He and the Father are one. Our
good shepherd, our great shepherd, our chief shepherd that shall
appear He is none other than the Almighty God in human flesh.
Isn't that good news? This ain't a poker bet. This
ain't a scratch-off ticket down to the gas station. This is sure,
ordered in all things and sure. This is who it is that came to
lay down his life for the sheep. I heard him. I'm going to go
where he is by his power. That's good news. Verse 31, then the Jews took
up stones again to stone him. You ain't gonna straddle that
fence. If God gives you ears to hear, well, that's nice. Yeah, that's a side of the fence,
too. I like that. If I happen to have a chance,
I might go listen to that. That's a side of the fence. It's
either butting or bowing. You're either bowing down to
grab the stones to throw at him or you're bowing down to worship.
But every day he's going to bow. Every time he's going to confess
that he's Lord. I pray that he'd make his people hear him now.
Hear that voice now. Follow him now and worship him
now. I ask that every day. Every day. O'Cost, O'People, you promised.
You said you was going to do it. You're going to do every
bit of it. and I'm gonna inquire anyway. And he told me in his
word, he tells his plan. He said, I'll add to my church
daily as I see fit. And I said, amen, Lord. Will
you add some today? You bless somebody's heart today.
Let all your sheep hear your word today. I pray he does. All right. Father, we thank you
for this parable you've given and the explanation. in such
simple terms, Lord, of who Christ is and what he came to accomplish
and where he is now. Thank you. Thank you for saving
some undeserving sheep in this fold, in this generation. Thank you for coming for us Gentiles,
Lord, and calling us out, shedding your blood for your enemies. While we were yet in sin, while
we were in enmity, Your holy high command, you saved us. Lay
down your life for us, Lord. Give us a pure heart that worships. Let the mind of Christ be in
us to humble ourselves and be patient, tender, caring, long-suffering,
loving as you have been towards us. Thank you for your people
everywhere, Lord. Thank you for this generation
you've given us, our brethren in this day. We love them and
we're grateful for them, Lord. Call those you haven't called
yet. Give us a comforting word for them. Allow us to be wise
and ever pointing all men to Christ.
Forgive us for what we are. It's in his name that we ask,
amen.