Our work was rated, the scripture
reading is where I want to look at, look with, in John 10, 28. John 10, 28, it says, well in 10, 27 it says, my sheep
hear my voice, and I know them, and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. And my Father which gave them
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. So our Lord Jesus Christ says
His sheep, whoever they be, His sheep, His elect, His loved ones,
His chosen, God's chosen in Christ. They are His sheep and they'll
come to faith in Him in God's time. And He says these people
shall never purge. And they're the only ones that
won't perish, really, ain't they? God's sheep. The sheep of God.
Not because of Himself, as I said, but because of Him. And that's
what we want to look at. They shall never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them out of My hand. This is a divine
gift. The gift of God. The gift of
God. I give unto them, He said, eternal
life. A divine gift. And this gift
is a divine promise. The promise of God in Christ
is eternal life to the hearts of His people. Nothing but eternal
life. Eternal life. That's what we
have in Christ by God's grace to us and power. We have eternal
life in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the promise of eternal life
is they shall never perish. They'll never, never perish.
That's a divine security. It's of God. This is God's security
to His people. This is God's gift to His people,
eternal life in the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is God's security
to them. They shall never perish. So this
is what our Lord Jesus Christ is saying concerning His sheep. My sheep shall never perish.
That's what He's saying. They hear my voice and I know
them. I reveal myself to them. They have eternal life. I give
unto them eternal life. And they shall never, never,
never perish. They're His. They're His. It's
because of Him. They're His sheep. And He preserves
and protects them. And He brings them to glory.
And they shall never, never perish. They're saved in the Lord Jesus
Christ. In John 6, verse 39, it says, This is the Father's
will which hath sent me, of all which he hath given me I should
lose nothing, nothing. All of which God hath given Christ
in the covenant of grace before the foundation of the world.
He's not going to lose one of them. All which he hath given
me I should lose none or nothing, nothing. That's just the way
it is. I should lose nothing. So He's able to secure them. We're secure in Christ and He's
able to see us into glory and bring us to glory. And we'll
never perish. We're safe and secure in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. We're in His hand. He's not in our hand. And that's
like the rock I was talking about. We're on that rock. He supports
us. You see that? We don't support
Him. He supports us. He holds us up. And He's got
us in the palm of His hands. And He's got us enclosed in His
hands. We're safe and secure in Him only. His people, they'll
never perish. They are His chosen, God's chosen
before the foundation of the world. Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places, according
as He has chosen us. We would have never chosen Him
except He chose us in revealing Himself to us, right? He chose
us in Christ according to His chosenness in Him before the
foundation of the world, you see. And we'll never purge that
we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Be holy. We're not holy of it
in ourselves, but in the Lord Jesus Christ, we're holy and
we'll be like Him. in eternity in God's promise
and purpose, won't we? Be just like Christ in God's
power. According as He's chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame. And
the reason we're without blame is because He took all of our
blame. He's been punished for it. He died in our own stead
as our substitute. And He redeemed us, you see.
We're redeemed by His blood. Nehemiah 1, 10 says, Now these
are thy servants by Thy great power. And we can look today
at that. We're His servants by His power.
We had nothing to do with it. It had to do with us. So we're
His servants by His great power that we should be holy. That
we should be holy. We'll be with Him and like Him
forever and honor and glory to Him together, won't we? We will
be holy. He will receive us into glory
in His perfection. And I can't imagine that, can
you? I can't imagine that. And we'll
still glorify Him. He's all. But we'll be in His
perfection in a state that we can without any hindrance of
His own flesh. That would be wonderful, wouldn't
it? To glorify our Lord in perfection and be perfect with Him in glory
forever. Thou hast redeemed by Thy great
power and by Thy strong hand, you see, that we should be holy
without blame before Him. We are His servants, and He's
redeemed by His prayer and strong hand. And 1 John 1 says, if we
walk in the light, it's His in the light. We have fellowship
one with another in the blood of Jesus Christ. His Son cleanses
us from all unrighteousness. We walk in the light, it's His
in the light. The light shines in darkness and the darkness
comprehends it not. Oh, but the love of God and the
grace and power of God is shined in our hearts by His Holy Spirit
to reveal Christ unto us, ain't it? And we comprehend Him by
God's grace, don't we? And we see Him. We see Jesus
who was made a little Lord and an angel to be our substitute,
to represent us, to die for us, to pay our sin debt once and
for all by the sacrifice of Himself. And by his own blood, he entered
in once into the holy place. Not the holy place made with
hands, as the old high priest did, but into the holiest of
all, into heaven itself, there to appear in the presence of
God for us. That was just pictures, wasn't
it? That just pointed to the time
that one would come, that all these high priests represented
in 42, wasn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ. They all
pointed to him. There's only one high priest,
you see, ain't there? One high priest before God, and that's
for Jesus Christ, and we're seated with and in Him. Not even by
the blood of the bulls and goats, but by His blood. He's entered
in. He sat down at the right hand
of God. He's entered into the holy place, not made with hands,
starting to appear in the presence of God. For me, for you, for
us. Appearing there for us. We can't
comprehend that, can we? For us. We're seated with, as
I said, and in Him. So here is the divine gift. The gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord, ain't it? Eternal life through
and in Christ and by Christ. So this is a matter of God's
grace to the hearts of these people. You'll not receive eternal
life any other way. When God shows you who you are
and who Christ is, your Savior, you'll gladly bow to Christ and
rest in Him, won't you? Gladly. We're nothings and nobodies,
and we're sinners inside out, through and through, from top
to bottom. Nothing about us is not sin by nature. It's only
by the grace of God that we come to a knowledge of Christ, and
a heart to Christ's hands, to know Him. So it's the gift of
God, His eternal life through Jesus Christ's hands, our Lord.
There's nothing of and in about us to commend us to God, but
we're commended to God in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the perfect
one. Accepted in the Beloved. Not
shall be. We are accepted in the Beloved,
aren't we? So, we didn't prepare ourselves or
get our hearts into a shape where God could deal with us. No. It was God that bowed us to Him. You see that? It was God that
showed us who we are. It is God that brought up by
His power and spirit to the Lord Jesus Christ to believe on and
to rest in Him and rejoice and look to Him for all things before
God. The heart by nature is deceitful
of all things and desperately wicked. Oh, but the heart by
grace, the heart by grace is the heart of God and God has
created in us. A new spirit. Christ in us. A
hope of glory. I can't imagine. I can't understand
it. But I know it. I can feel it.
Can't you? And I can understand something about it by the power
and grace of God in His revelation. I can't rest anywhere else but
in the Lord Jesus Christ. God loved me in Christ. He loved
me everlastingly. He loved me before the foundation
of the world. And He always loved me. And He
still loves me. And He always continued to love me. And there
was never a time that He didn't love me. Now, there was that
I didn't love Him, but He surely brought His love in my heart.
You say, well, the man that came to God is God that came to me
and brought me to Him. That's what it is, ain't it? We can't claim anything of it
in ourselves. We're nothing but sinners. And
we're deserving of eternal condemnation. All but that was Christ to suffer
that on our behalf. So the love of God in Christ,
it's unimaginable. And how God can love such a worm
is this. He loved me in Christ. Why did
he love me and not someone else? And he's God. And besides him,
there's none other. That's him. That's God's way. That's God's
will. That's God's grace. And it says in Jeremiah 31.3,
it says, The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, I have
loved thee with everlasting love. Therefore, or because I loved
you, I drove you. I drove you to me. You didn't
come to me on your own. I drew you. I drew you to Christ.
Did you see that? I drew to Him, and Him revealed
to us. So in light of who we are, and
by the knowledge of God, and in light of who Christ is, we
came to Him by God's prayer and grace, didn't we? Nothing else
but the love of God in Christ toward us. So loving, His loving
kindness bestowed upon us, didn't He? The gift of life. It's the
gift of life. The gift is not something that
you deserve or something you work for. The gift is something
that God gives undeserving creatures, undeserving sinners. It's the
gift of life. But that gift of life is eternal
life in Christ Jesus. The gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. And we did not... caused Him to love us, did we? No. And we can't cause Him not
to love us. You see what I'm saying? He loved
us with an everlasting love. And He called us by His grace.
And He continues to love us. And He'll always love us. Eternally. It's an everlasting love. That's what everlasting love
is. Eternal love. The eternal love of God in Christ
to His people. If God loves me, who can separate
me from the love of God? It's the love of God. It's not
my love to God, but it's God's love to me. It's God that works
in you. It's God that loves you. Who
can separate us from the love of God that you send to Christ
Jesus? Shall tribulation, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness,
or pearl, or sword, or any other creature separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ? Nothing shall be able to separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. You might
say, well, what about my love to Him? I don't know what happened
there, but I know He'll cause you to love Him. You might not
feel that certain times you love Him as much as you should, and
you don't. And you might not feel that you
love Him as much one time as you do another. But God will
cause you to love Him. But God loves you. And God will,
by His love, bring you to glory through Christ, won't He? By
His love. He loved us with what? An everlasting
love. Eternal love. All the love of
God in the Lord Jesus Christ. Who shall separate us from Christ? Nothing. Nothing in this world
shall separate us from Christ. As I said, He holds us. We're
in Him. We're kept by the power of God
through grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Kept by the power of
God. Neither death nor height nor any other creature. Nothing
shall separate us from God's love to us. It's everlasting. And the love of God toward us
in Christ Jesus, the love of God which is in Christ. God loves
us in Christ eternally. And God loves us in Christ eternally.
He loved, he always loved. His love is pronounced in fast
tense always, ain't it, Henry? He loves, he loves. That means
it's continuous. It's always. If he ever loved,
he always loved. So if He ever loved me, He always
loves me. I'm loved in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm accepted in the Beloved.
He has loved us with an everlasting love. And the Lord has given
us eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And calls us
by His grace to Him. And calls us by faith to look
and rest in Him alone. For we are all one. Christ is
all. Christ is all. Hebrews 13, 5
says, Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be
content with such things as you have. For He has said, I will
never leave thee, nor forsake thee. He never leaves His people
nor forsakes them. We might blunder and do a lot
of things, but He never leaves us. He'll never forsake us. He's
with us always. Always. A-W-A-Y. He didn't say always. That's
singular. He pronounced that always. That's
just the way it is. It's always. Always is if we do something
today and do something else tomorrow, you know. But He always, it's
always the same. You see what I mean? He loves
us always in the Lord Jesus Christ. He'll never leave us nor forsake
us. He'll go with us all the way
to the ends of the earth only. He'll go with us into eternal
glory. He said, Lo, I am with you always, teaching them to
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and Lo,
I am with you always, even to the ends of the earth. Amen. That's still a good seal, huh?
He's with us always. If He's ever in us and with us,
He's always with us, even to the ends of the earth. So we
know that this gift of God is what? It's always. It's eternal
life through Christ Jesus, our Lord. The wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life. Christ suffered our death. He paid our wages. We're safe
in Him and secure in Him. Amen. In the Lord Jesus Christ. We can no way earn our salvation. We don't dare even think about
it. We, by God's grace, rest in Christ on our substitute.
We look to Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. There is
none good by nature, nothing in us or nothing about us that
causes us to come to Christ. But everything is the opposite,
ain't it? Everything is the opposite. But God in His grace visited
us in Christ and through Christ and receives us in Christ, don't
He? Gives us faith and receives us.
And in Ecclesiastes 3.14 it says, I know that whatsoever God doeth,
It shall be forever. If God has done a work in you,
He'll perform that work. Whatever He does is forever.
You can't put anything to it or take anything away from it.
That's just the way it is. God done it. It's done. What
God says is done, you see. It's done. All the promises of
God are sure in Christ. God said it. It's done. We haven't
entered in, have we? But it's done in the mind and
purpose of God. We shall be with Him in glory.
We have eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord. This
is a divine promise, eternal life in it. That's the promise
of God. He's the only one that can promise that. Christ is the
only place that we can have that in it. He has eternal life. Our
glory and honor and praise is unto Him through Christ in it,
in Christ. And this takes into consideration
of all times, all circumstances, all things, all possibilities. He says this concerning all of
his sheep. My sheep, hear my voice, I know
them. And I say, follow me. I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish. This is all the sheep. And when
he was here on this earth, he said, he said, other sheep I
have now, which are not of this present fold, them also I must
bring, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. That shepherd
is Christ. You see that? That one fold. All of his sheep makes up that
one fold. We're one in Christ's family. And we shall be with
him forever. They shall never perish. So he
says that concerning all of his sheep, don't he? All of his sheep.
And no doubt he's still got sheep here. He hasn't come back yet. He's still got sheep here. There's
some he isn't going to call out. One time or another, he's going
to call them out in his specific time, ain't he? But they are
his sheep. They're his sheep. And they're
His sheep because He said, what? I give unto them eternal life.
They're my sheep. I give it to them. They're not furries. They're
mine. I'll see to it. They're His sheep. Corinthians 3.1, Paul said, and
everyone who could not speak unto you as a spiritual, talks
about even the babes in Christ. They're His sheep. The first
thing that we ever know in Christ, when God calls us by His grace
to Christ, We're His sheep, ain't we? We're His sheep. We grow
in grace and knowledge, don't we? We don't grow in Christ,
don't we? We're His sheep in Christ. We shall be with Him
forever. They shall never perish. They
shall never perish. They're His sheep. And old men, what if they're
old men and they grow old and they forget? They forget. I'm
doing that now. I forget. And I can't remember
things. I have problems and all these
things, but I'm His sheep. And what was it, the old woman
that was dying one time, she couldn't hardly remember anything
the way it was understood. And she went out saying, I believe
Jesus, Jesus. She knew Jesus, her Savior, didn't
she? Her substitute. We're His sheep. And we'll go out into glory in
a moment. His sheep will go out into glory.
He'll see them through. All His promises are sure in
Christ. They shall never perish. Never
perish. Never perish. No man or nothing
can pluck them out of the Father's hand. So this is the mercy of
God to all of God's sheep and all believers, all the elect,
all of His loved ones. You are a believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ because he brought you in faith through knowledge
and in heart and showed you Christ. He that believeth on the Son,
he's going to bring all of his sheep to the knowledge of Christ. Some knowledge ain't handy. And
they're going to believe on the Son. And they're going to rest
in Christ and trust Christ. And in Him, He is their life. They won't trust anyone else
or anything else. Trust Christ alone. You see that?
And live to Christ alone. No matter how young or how old
or what may happen to us in life, how our minds might get or whatever,
we're his sheep. We're his sheep. Amen. His sheep. And we shall never perish. We're
safe and secure in God, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. We shall
never perish. He that believeth on the Son,
He'll bring you to faith. If you're His sheep, He'll bring
you to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He that believeth on
the Son, He'll give you knowledge and cause you to believe. Give
you faith and you'll believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and rest in Christ. If you trust Christ, trust Christ.
What is it to trust Christ? To trust Him is to trust Him
as your all in Him. to rest in Him alone for you
all, right? To look to Christ. And those
who look, don't look as a reward of something they are done, do
they? Oh, they look out of His grace, and they look out of love,
don't they? And they look out of joy. Oh,
they trust Christ. They rest in Christ. Their glory
and their joy is in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Hebrews 12,
2, Paul said, looking, looking. We don't look one time, we're
continuously looking. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Faith began with him, he placed
it in us, and he'll keep it in us. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. And faith is back towards him.
We look to him for our love and rest in him for all. Looking
unto Jesus, the offer of our favor, who for the joy that was
set before him endured the cross. Enduring that cross, there was
no joy in that, as our substitute was there. The joy in it was
that he was delivering his people. He was dying for his people.
He endured the cross, despising the shame. You see that? And
he sat down at the right hand of God. He died one time, didn't
he? All those old priests, they died,
and then another high priest, and then another high priest,
and then another. But this one high priest, that they pointed
to, died one time, didn't he? Once and for all, by the sacrifice
of himself. And he rose to justification
and glory. He justified his people and himself, and were accepted
in the Beloved. So he that hath the Son hath
life. He that hath not the Son hath not life. It's in the signs. We rejoice in Him. Will the circumcision
which worship God in spirit, regenerate, what that means,
in spirit, in rejoicing in Christ Jesus, and have a little confidence
in the Father? No. Have no confidence in the
Father. Our confidence is in the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ. We look to Him. He loved us in
Christ with an everlasting love. We're preserved and protected
in Christ. Nothing can harm us in Christ.
Nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus, our Lord. We're kept by the power of God
through faith, readily revealed in the last days. Kept by the
power of God through the faith that He gives us. He gives us
faith, and He sustains our faith, don't He? And we keep looking,
and resting, and looking, and resting, don't we? Following,
trusting, always looking, looking, looking to Christ. No worries.
And Jude 1.5 says, to the only wise God, our Savior. He's the
one we can look to, isn't He? The only wise God, our Savior?
He is the only sufficient one to look to on our behalf as our
substitute. And we rest in Him. To Him be
glory and majesty, prayer and dominion both now and forever.
To Him alone. You see that? To Him. Not to
anyone or anybody or anything else. But to Christ be all the
glory. Jesus paid it all, all to him
alone. Sinner let the crimson stain.
He washed it quite as snow. In Matthew 28, it says, Teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and, lo,
I am with you always, always, even to the ends of the earth. I am with them. Where I am, you see, he has entered
into glory. And he said, where I am, where
he is now, He's prepared a place for us, ain't He? In glory. And
that place that He prepared, He says His people will be with
Him forever. See that? That everlasting love
of God in and through and by the Lord Jesus Christ is eternal. They shall be with Him forever.
So this blessed gospel, this blessed doctrine of the grace
of God in Christ, the love of God through Christ and by Christ
and to Christ, this blessed gospel of God's freedom, sovereign grace
in Christ, it's all in and through Him by Him. There's nothing to
presume or anything like that out there. Our rebellion is all
in Him, you see. We trust in Him. We love Him. We love Him. Because He first
loved us. And He has brought His love in
our hearts. Or else we wouldn't love Him. All the love of God
toward His people is in and through and by the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm there behind that. And we look to Him. God's only
begotten Son. And rest only in Him. And we
seek to glorify Him. We do it in very poor ways at
times. I feel failures at all times,
but my desire is to honor Him, to lift Him up, to glorify Him,
because He's all I need. He's all. And by God's grace,
I rest in Him, trust Him, look to Him. Love Him because He first
loved me and He shed abroad that love in my heart of the power
of the Holy Ghost. And I continue to look to Him.
May God bless His Word.