Our Lord is speaking here. He's speaking to some of these
Pharisees, and he says, "'Barely, barely, I say unto you, he that
entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up
some other way, the same as a thief and a robber.'" But he that entereth
in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter
openeth, and the sheep hear his voice. And he calleth his own
sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth
his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him. They know his voice. And a stranger
will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know
not the voice of strangers. Now this parable spake Jesus
unto them, but they understood not what things they were which
he spoke unto them. Then said Jesus unto them again,
Verily, verily, or truly, truly, I say unto you, I am the door
of the sheep. All that ever came before me
are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them,
and I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. But a thief cometh not, but for
to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But I am come, that
they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life to the sheep. But he that is in hireling, and
not the shepherd whose own the sheep are not, he seeth the wolf
coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeeth. And the wolf catcheth
them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeeth, because
he is in hireling, and careth not the sheep. But I am the good
shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the
Father knoweth me, even so, know I the father, and I lay down
my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which
are not of this foe, them also I must bring, and they shall
hear my voice, and there shall be one foe and one shepherd. Therefore doth my father love
me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No
man taketh it from me. But I lay it down of myself.
I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it again.
This commandment, this authority, have I received in my father.
And there was a division, therefore, again among the Jews for these
sayings, for what he said. And many of them said, He'd have
a devil. He's 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 at Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews round about
him and said unto him, How long dost thou make us doubt? If thou
be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you.
See if this doesn't sound familiar to what we studied last Sunday
night. I told you, and you believe not. Didn't believe his word. The
works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. But you don't believe. You believe
not because you are not of my sheep. As I said unto you, My
sheep hear my voice, and 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. My Father which
gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck
them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one, one
and the same." Now, to the agnostic, the unbeliever, and the mere
nominal professor of religion, the Bible is just a point of
contention. It's just an object of debate,
of intellectual debate, this book called the Bible. And to the average religious
enthusiast, it is merely a proof text, or that is something to
refer to, to support all manner of ridiculous beliefs and notions
and practices. But to the true child of God
and follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, this book is their source
of comfort and hope and encouragement. and peace, and it's the only
thing that they can turn to for answers, real answers, for instructions. And they consider it, God's people,
much more than just a history book. They consider it to be,
and know it to be, the very word of the Most High God, that God
Almighty wrote this book with his very finger. And the fact about this book
is that most of it was written to believers. And it's not to
be debated, to be argued, and I don't care to do so, and that's
not my intention this evening, to debate or argue a particular
point of doctrine. That's not my intention at all.
The promise is to seekers. promise goes, seek and you'll
find. The promise is for those that
are truly seeking truth, they'll find it. Not those who are trying
to debate or trying to question God's word, but who are listening
for the truth. He said, you'll find it. So the
scripture says, let the potsherds of the earth strive with the
potsherds of the earth, but let God's people take comfort in
God's Word, and this glorious truth which we're going to look
at tonight, that God's people are eternally saved, eternally
saved, and there's no possibility of them ever falling away. No possibility. Once in grace,
always in grace, always. People despise this, and it just
boggles my mind why anybody would despise this blessed truth. My
comfort, Henry, my only comfort and hope is that what God does
is forever, forever. So look at verse 27 with me,
begin with verse 27. This is the text here in verse
28, actually, but look at verse 27. Christ said, My sheep hear
my voice. Christ goes out and by the preaching
of the gospel through his word, he calls his people, calls them
by name. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them. I came on a specific mission
from the Father to find a particular people, a peculiar people, a
chosen people. I know who they are, and I'm
looking for them, and I'm going to find them. They're my sheep,
and they follow me. When I find them, when I call
them, they get right behind me, and they follow me forever. You've heard this many, many
times. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Never. Neither shall any man
pluck them out of my hand. The three points of this message. First of all, it's very simple.
First of all, God's gift. Secondly, God's promise. And thirdly, God's grasp. Very simple. Very simple. God's
gift. Look at it again. Verse twenty-eight.
He says, I give unto them eternal life. I give. Salvation is the
gift of God. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
His and His alone to give, and He gives it freely to whom He
will. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right, and shall not he do with his own what he will? He'll
save whom he will, and he'll pass by whom he will. It's his
to do. It's here. Salvation is of the
Lord. Now, salvation involves a few
things. Salvation involves repentance.
The Scripture says the goodness of God leads thee to repentance.
Why is it that anybody calls upon God? Why is it that anybody,
the Scriptures come to anybody and convicts them of sin and
pierces their heart and shows them what they are, shows them
who God is and shows them what they are? Why? Because God determines
in power to do so. He sends that word at a particular
time to pierce somebody's heart, to show them who God is and who
they are. Repentance is the gift of God.
And then the gift of faith. He shows them the Lord Jesus
Christ. By grace you say through faith, and that's not of yourself.
We know that because we try to drum it up, don't we? And no
matter how hard we try to drum it up, we can't. It's the gift
of God. And only He can make it grow.
We can't even make it grow one ounce. He has to do it. And faith
is involved in this thing of salvation, faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, looking to Him, trusting Him alone, seeing Him
as our only hope and our only righteousness. And God must give
that faith, that heartfelt being convinced and persuaded of the
sufficiency of Christ as Savior. And Christ is the gift. He had to send Christ. He was
the gift of God, the unspeakable gift. of God, unspeakable, can
speak. A man's a fool to even stand
up and try, a fool or a preacher. A gift of God, Christ is that
unspeakable gift that the Father sent down here for the express
purpose of saving his sheep, of finding his sheep and saving
them, giving unto them eternal life. Now gift, a gift has nothing
to do with reward or work. Now, if it's by grace, it's not
works. If it's by works, it's not grace.
It can't be both. It's got to be one or the other.
But the Scriptures say it's by grace, and you say, by grace,
the gift of God. That's another word for gift,
unmerited gift, grace, reward, and it's a gift of this magnitude
is always bestowed upon the unworthy. Secondly, God's gifts are eternal. I just quoted that a moment ago. Whatever God does is forever. Whatever he gives, he never takes
it back. Unlike us, you know, we put conditions
sometimes. You were talking about that the
other night, somebody giving you something and said, now,
I may want that back later on. We do that sometimes. My soul,
the gifts and calling of God without repentance. He's not
going to take them back. Uh-uh. not going to take him back. He's
not in God's nature to take back a gift. God's not going to raise
a man. He's got too much invested in
the man that he raises up out of that pit of corruption, sends
his son down to shed his precious blood, to impute his perfection
to and shed his precious blood on behalf of that condemned man's
soul and die for that man. and raise that man up to the
place of the Son of God. God's not going to, after He
does all that for him, just finally cast him back down into that
pit. No way. No way. To give eternal life. Do you see what it said there? It's very clear and very plain
what it says there in it. I give unto them eternal life. Eternal life. Now to give eternal
life. Eternal life. It's to give a
life that is beyond the effects of this life. Eternal life. It's eternal. It's eternal. How could life be eternal if
it comes to end? It can't be. It's not. It's not. When Christ says eternal, he
means eternal. It means forever. What God says,
he means. What we say, we don't know, we're
not sure what we mean. But God does. He said eternal
right here, and he meant it. Eternal. Eternal. Now, not only
is eternal life the duration of it, the duration that is eternal
has no end, but, and really in Christ it had no beginning, because
we were in him from the beginning. But not only is eternal life
the duration of it, but it's also the quality of life which
Christ gives. It will conquer all difficulties,
it will ripen to maturity to a true believer, and make a man
just like Jesus Christ, who is the eternal God. This life that
he plants in, that he puts in somebody, will make us, in the
end, just like Jesus Christ. And he can't die, can he? That's
the reason we're safer than we would have been if we'd had the
life of Adam, that perfect life that he had in the beginning.
We've got the life of God in Christ. And it's a new life in
a man that changes the man's whole constitution. It's a well,
the scripture says, a well of water springing up unto everlasting
life. Now, that which is born of the
flesh is what? Flesh. Flesh. That means it is
subject to decay. All manner of flesh, whether
it be insects or animals or men, decays. It decays and it's going
to end. It's going to die. Some of us,
all of us, are seeing the effects of this fleshly decay. But not so with spiritual life.
spiritual life. That's what Adam lost in the
beginning, and that's what Christ has to restore, spiritual life. He had the life, if I can get
this straight, all animals have something of
a soul. Now listen to me. A soul is that
quality of life. in animals that say is not in
minerals and so forth. A dog, you know, sleeps and has
emotions and so forth. There's some kind of an entity
or some kind of something within animal life that plant life and
mineral life doesn't have, a soul. But a spirit, God is a spirit,
and only God can give spiritual life, the life of God. the life
of God. And that which is born of spirit
is spirit, and it's eternal. It's eternal. It's incapable
of destruction. Why? Well, if you trace the new
birth back to the beginning, where did it start with? The
birth that we have, the birth that we were involved in, the
birth of our children, the human birth, We can trace back to our
father's seed, right? Well, the spiritual life that
we enjoy can be traced back to incorruptible seed. The seed of a man is corruptible.
I don't know how many thousands, even millions of these cells
go to try to impregnate the egg, but many of them fall away and
die. Sometimes it never becomes impregnated. not God's Word. It's incorruptible
seed. Once he sends it by the power
of his Holy Spirit in somebody, it brings forth birth. Every
time. Every time. It's holy seed. It
cannot... John speaks of it in 1 John that
it's seed that bears fruit that cannot sin. It's born of God.
It's the life of God. Born of God. That which is born
of God is without sin. And there's a We've been studying
this, this marriage, this birth, this salvation that involves
this speed, this spiritual intercourse to them that are pure. All things
are pure, but this spiritual binding of Christ and his Spirit
and the believer coming forth in this is an inseparable connection. And it's a connection to Christ.
Christ said, because I live, you shall live also. We're one
with Christ, the scripture said. Christ in you, the hope of glory. We saw that beautiful picture
in the picture of marriage. But this is a marriage, a marriage
that God makes between Christ and his bride that is truly born
or made in heaven. This is a marriage made in heaven. That's the only one that it can
be right. Let's say it about a marriage made in... Divorce
is out of the question. Totally out of the question.
It's not even in the vocabulary. Oh no. Never! Never. Never. Don't talk about it. Don't
bring it up. Don't bring it up. Moreover,
the eternal life of the believer is sustained by the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit. We're called the temple of God,
the temple of the Holy Spirit. And because God's Holy Spirit
abides in us and leads us and guides us into all truth and
causes us to grow up in Christ in all things. He said, I'll
never leave you. What he means, he means. What
he says, he means. Not like us. He means it. Never,
never growing up in him. in all things, growing up in
Him and like Him. So, there's great comfort here. There's great comfort, peace,
and if I only read what I've got down on paper here, if you
listen, you'll get something. There's great comfort, peace,
and consolation in knowing that God has given unto us eternal
life, and it'll never end. Never, ever. Everlasting and
ever growing unto perfection. That's the divine gift, or the
gift of God. Secondly, here's the promise
of God, God's promise. Look at it in verse twenty-eight
again. He says, I give unto them eternal life. It's mine to give,
and I alone can give it. And I give it unto them, and
it'll never end. It's eternal life, and it's the
quality of life that is in God. I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish." Never perish. This is God's promise,
Christ's promise, the promise of the Father, and the Son, and
the Holy Spirit. They join together to make this promise. They, he
says, they. Who's they? Who are they? Huh? Yeah, the sheep. Who are the sheep? sinners is the only other word
you can come up with, but I've used this illustration before,
and I'll use it a hundred thousand times again. But if my name was
written in this book, if it says right here, I give unto Paul
Mahan eternal life, and Paul Mahan shall never perish, neither
shall any pluck Paul Mahan out of my hand. I wouldn't be any safer on those
grounds than I am right here, where he says he is, because
there could be another Paul Mahan. I'm certain there is, more than
one. So it could be meaning somebody
else. If he said every Paul Mahan, yes. Well, this is enough. This is enough. They, the sheep,
and the sheep are spoken of as just sinners, those that come
unto God by Christ. They, who's the they? Young and
old, rich and poor, black and white, red, yellow, weak, strong,
learned, ignorant, they. Are you in any of those categories?
Any of them? Any of them? Whosoever it is
that comes. We don't take those words out
of the Bible. Whosoever will take of the water
of life freely, let him take it. We don't take those words
out of the Bible, that whosoever it is that comes to Christ will
be saved eternally by the power of God's Spirit. They shall never
perish. Listen to this. Shall never. Young believers. I don't see
too many real young believers, but young believers. I'll include
those that are under, say, thirty-five. Thirty-five. Young believers.
Your passions are strong. Your understanding and your judgment
are weak. You have very little knowledge,
really. And very little experience in the spiritual life. Five,
six, seven years, ten years at the most. Very little. Spiritually
speaking, very little. But, you'll never perish. I don't care how strong your
passions are. what they drive you to do with things. Never,
never perish. There's comfort here. Never,
never to perish. Lambs are as safe as big sheep,
aren't they? Lambs are. You know, if anything,
lambs are safer. The shepherd takes those in his
arms and dopes over them. over them and takes special care
of them and nurtures them and nurses them and feeds them personally. So little lambs are just as safe
as sheep. How about adult believers, middle
age? Where am I going to start at
that age? Middle age, let's say fifty down to thirty-five. Fifty
down, adult believers. That youthful zeal that you once
felt concerning this gospel, and that love, enthusiasm you
once felt when you heard the message, it's waning a little
bit, perhaps. It seems to be waning. Worldliness
begins, as the passions go down, the worldliness crops up, but
worldliness bombard you. Trials and temptations seem to
be getting the best of you. And you feel like you're in this
kind of a lull, spiritual lull, you know. You had once before,
when you were young, you had this strong youthful zeal for
Christ. Every message seemed to touch
your heart. But in this middle age, fifty and below, or fifty-one,
this love and youthful zeal seems to be waning in the tribals. And the temptations seem to be
getting the best of you. He says, never, never. Not to worry, never, never going
to perish, safe and quiet. Okay, how about old believers?
How about old believers? Let's say 79 and three quarters
and down. Old believers, your mind and
your faculties are leaving you, your body. You're dull of hearing,
you're dull of feeling, and everything seems to be fading rapidly. seems to be just about gone. No, you're just about to live
like you've never lived before. Never perish. Never. Never. They're safe in Christ
just as well as that little land. He says you'll never perish.
Now, he doesn't say, he doesn't say you'll never fall away. He does say you'll never finally
and ultimately fall away to destruction. That's what perish means. But
he doesn't say that you'll never leave him. He doesn't say that. The prodigal did, didn't he? And it could be somebody right
now, somebody in here right now, is far away, has left him for
whatever reason. They seem to have left him. But
he does say this, he says, I'll never leave you. And that's your
comfort. Yeah, that's where your hope's
at. The promise, too, is not to some, but to all. They, they, they, all believing
sheep of Christ. And even if you're the most obscure
member of the family, the most obscure, the black sheep
of the family. Even if you're that one, don't
worry. And though no one may know your
name, nobody pays attention to you, you feel alone, you feel
weak, you feel feeble, you're stumbling along this road, never
perish. Never. God is word on it. Why? Here's the reason. Look
back at verse 14. Why will the sheep never perish?
Why? Verse 14 says, I'm a good shepherd. I'm a good shepherd. This is
where our safety lies entirely, not in our ability to keep up
with the shepherd. Oh, no, we're stumbling. We're
following the shepherd, but we're stumbling, crawling on our faces,
skin up, And every now and then we see a little patch of something
a little greener on the other side, you know, and we head for
it. He turns around and comes back and grabs us and puts us
in. Come on now, keep following. Why will we never perish? He's
the good shepherd. He's the good shepherd. He's
the best shepherd. He's the only shepherd. He's the true shepherd. He's the faithful shepherd, the
good shepherd. And look at verse, he said, I
know my sheep. I know them. I've known them
of mine. He knows me. I've got influence
in high places, you see. I know the Father knows me, and
even so know I the Father, and here's the second reason they'll
never perish. I lay down my life for them. I lay down my life for the sheep. The reason they'll never perish,
like I said to begin with, because God's got too much invested in
them. He's got the precious blood of his Son. Brother Danny Blair
wrote an article in his bulletin, and in it he said that his son
fell down and cut his head, and it wasn't very serious. Nevertheless,
it was the blood of his son. He said he wiped it up with a
towel, and later on he went back and looked at that towel soaked
in that blood, and he thought of how precious that lifeblood
of His Son is. Well, God's Son is the precious
Son of God, the well-beloved, only begotten Son of God, and
the blood of His Son is precious. This is the reason, Henry. We just repeat what the Word
says, that God's not going to spill the blood of His Son uselessly,
but every drop of it is going to effectually accomplish the
redemption of everybody that it's applied to. Every drop of
it. It's too precious. It's precious
ointment. Every drop of it is going to
be poured upon the head of God's people, of Christ's sheep. He
paid their debt with it. It's another way. He paid their
debt. Why did he come down to pay their debt? And when he paid,
it's paid. It took a lot. It took his blood
at an infinite cost, but he had it until he paid it. That means
it's gone, doesn't it? It's paid. There's nothing left
to pay. I don't have anything to pay.
Now, these fools out here, they can pay all they want to. I'm
free from debt and free from condemnation. He bore my punishment
for me. He took my sins upon himself
on the cross, and now there's no condemnation, and now he stands
perfect in God's presence for me. Scripture says, Who is he
that condemneth? Christ died. The Good Shepherd
laid down his life. Nobody can condemn it now. Yeah,
rather, he's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God,
and also he's still pleading that blood. He's still got a
basin of it, spiritually speaking, a basin of his own precious blood,
showing it to the Father. Here it is. It's the price I
pay for that little rascal. That's it. Take him in. Well, he said he'd cast our eyes,
Terry, just a while ago, just to help him sit. Terry, where's
God's back? Terry said, somewhere between
the East and the West. Where's that? He said, I don't
know which I like best. He said, as far as the East is
from the West, or behind God's back. Let's just figure a speech
in it, because it's nowhere to be found. That's where my sin
is. If you can find God's back, you'll find my sin, but you can't. You can't. As far as the East
is from the West. And finally, and most gloriously,
The reason why they shall never perish, the reason why they shall
never perish is, I quoted it, this is the third time now, because
I know, if you know God, if you know the Good Shepherd, you know
where salvation comes from, then you know this too. I know that
whatsoever God does, It's forever. It's forever. It's the reason,
it's the reason that there's just no possibility, no possibility
of salvation being a finite thing, because what God does is forever.
He saved somebody. That's what the word means. It
means saved, doesn't it? It doesn't mean, well, it means
what it means, saved, saved. They shall never perish. Paul said this, I'm confident
of this very thing. That he which hath begun a good
work in you will finish it. It's all based upon him, his
power. He that hath begun a good work in you will finish it until
that final day, the day of Jesus Christ. And what God's divine
wisdom begins, it must finish. It must. We in ignorance, now
I've started a house over here. I sure hope God enabled me to
finish it or I'm going to look like a fool. You know, have you
ever seen these houses? You go down the road and you'll see
a foundation and maybe some walls up with some old plywood on it
that looks like it's been there for ten years. Somebody didn't
sit down and count the cost. They didn't have enough to finish
it. They started this house, built them a new house, and then
they don't finish it. And then they're made into laughing
stock. They're ridiculed by people. Up near Ashland, there's a big,
they were building a, how many square foot feet was it? It was,
oh, it was astronomical, something like 10 or 15,000 square feet,
this church building, so-called. It was a temple of something,
had about 12 names behind it. But they started up, going to
believe God to fill it up. There's only about, I think there's
only about 15 people starting this thing. And they started
up with it. Got it under the roof. Some guy gave about $75,000
down and never did finish it. Now it stands there as a monument
to their idiocy, their foolishness. But what God does, what He starts,
He finishes. He finishes. It can never be
said of God that He left anything unfinished. Uh-uh. Uh-uh. That's
what Christ said, didn't He? Didn't He say that? Hanging there
on that cross? What did He say? He's finished. He's finished. That means nothing
left to be done. It's not a thing. Not by you,
not by him, not by anybody. It's done. It's finished. Now
let's just sit down and rest. Rest. That's the reason he's
our Sabbath. He's our Sabbath. He's followed
the travail of his soul. He saw the travail of his soul.
He went through pain unlike you are going through or will go
through, and you ladies and the fat children. He went through
soul agonizing pain. But for the joy that was set
before him, knowing that he'd have a people, he endured it. Endured the cross, despised the
shame, and died for us. And in giving and in travail,
he saw the travail of his soul, and after it was all over, he
was satisfied. Satisfied. The baby wasn't stillborn. Oh, no. It wasn't blue. It was red, bright red, covered
in the blood. Covered in the blood. No abortion
in God's spiritual birth. Well, there's also Adoption involved
here. Adoption means security just
as well. Those who are saved, justified,
forgiven, are adopted by God Almighty and called by his own
name, sons of God, Christians. And you can't be a child today
and not tomorrow. It's just not the way God does
things. You and I may do things. No, no. You and I don't even
do things that way. Well, even the law says an adopted
child cannot, you can't put away an adopted child. You can't put
away a natural child. It's yours. It's yours forever. Besides, there's nobody in here
anyway to give up their child. You love it too much. Behold,
what manner of love has our Father bestowed upon us. Greater love
hath no man than this, than the love of the Father for us. And
although a child may play the prodigal, It will surely come
back to the Father, weeping and repentant, and find peace and
pardon. And thirdly, God's grasp. At God's gift, at God's promise,
now God's grasp. Very simple outline here, verse
28. It says, I give unto them eternal
life, and they'll never perish. They, who? Rich, poor, old, young. Black, white, they, sinners,
they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out
of my hand." He just keeps heaping promise on promise here, proof
upon proof here. Christ's grasp here, Christ's
grasp. He says, none shall pluck them
out of my hand. Listen to this song. He is our
God. And we're the people of his pasture
and the sheep of his hand. We're in his hand. That's how
big our shepherd is. The whole foal is in his hand.
Listen to this song. Though he fall, he shall not
be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. Every time that little girl falls
and I'm around, I'm going to go pick her up. Every time. every
time. I don't care how old she gets.
If she falls bad enough, I'm going to pick her up. I'm going
to go pick her up. Now, you wonder, if we're in his hand,
you wonder why we suffer trials and tribulations if we're in
God's hand. Well, it's because he's got his
pocketknife out. He's whittling. We're in his
hand. He's whittling stuff, like the
old Uh, you've heard this a million times, too. But, uh, like the
old fella that whittled, uh, hound dogs. And somebody said,
now, how do you do that? How do you take that block of
wood and whittle an old hound dog out of it? He said, I just
cut off everything that don't look like a hound dog. Well,
Christ has us. Oh, my. A rough-hewn piece of
flesh, isn't it? And he just cuts everything off
that don't look like Christ. Right? Makes us like Christ,
he's whittling us down. And it's enough to know and to
believe and to take comfort in the fact that we're in his hands,
in his hands. And though a believer stumbles
and seems to fall, it'll never be a complete fall. Listen to
this, jot this verse down, Proverbs 24, 16. Proverbs 24, 16, he says,
a just man falls seven times. and rises up again. Sometimes
the scripture uses numbers for the sake of just an infinite. When Peter said how many times
we're going to forgive our brother Christ said 70 times said 490
times that mean after you get to 490 you can quit. No that
means he just showed you how many times and he said seven
you fall seven times. He might have meant seven times
in the next sixty minutes, and you rise up again. But the wicked
shall fall into mischief, that is, eternally. Well, it says,
none shall pluck them out of my hand. None, nobody, not even
Satan himself, not even that high evil archangel. It can never be said. Satan's never going to be able
to say, uh-huh, uh-huh, I got this one, didn't I? Yeah, this was a weak one, a
weak one. You couldn't take care of him,
could you? He was weaker and all, but the rest of them were
able to help themselves and you helped him along. This one couldn't
do anything for him. Got him, he's my own man. Plucked
the jewel out of his crown. Uh-uh, no way. No way. Never. It can never be said that
Christ lost one of his sheep or else he'll go down in history
as the greatest failure that ever was. He can't call him Savior. Couldn't rightfully call him
Savior, could he? Or the Good Shepherd. He lost a sheep. He
lost a sheep. And to further secure the sheep
and to prove the promise, he says, verse 29, look at this.
He says, now they're not going to Nobody's going to pluck them
out of my hand," he says, my father. My father is the one
that gave them to me in the first place, and he's greater than
all, even me. And no man's able to pluck them
out of my father's hand. You see, we're in a double grasp.
Christ is in the hand of God, and we're in the hand of Christ,
and they both got us. They both got us in a double
grasp. Try to get them out. You know,
there's some men here that are hard workers, and I venture to
say if they had something in their hand, it'd take a team
of mules, you know, to pull them apart. See, some strong man. I used to know a man that, oh
my, he was so strong, and he had hands like iron, and you
just couldn't pull his grip apart. If he grabbed ahold of your hand,
you were hurting him. God's hand. Try to get out. Come on, Satan. He'll laugh at
it, won't he? Laugh at it. Try to pluck them
out. Well, here's some objections
to this doctrine. Once in grace. You see, once
in the grace of God, the gift of God, always in the grace of
God. That's what this means. That's exactly what this means. Gifts
and calling of God without repentance. The grace of God without turning
back. Once in the grace of God, you're always in the grace of
God. I'm not ashamed to say that. We'll refer to it as that. Once
in grace, always in grace. Well, people object like this.
Well, if this is true, then a man or a woman can live like they
want to. That's always the objection. But the Scripture
says how? How? How can We that are dead
to sin live no longer there, eh? Huh? I'm talking about live
now. Stay in it. Nancy, if you took
me down to, well, up to Roanoke, to the ghetto up there, and dropped
me off at twelve o'clock at midnight on Saturday night, dropped me
off in there in the midst of all that perversion and wherever
the worst part of town is, the red light district or whatever,
I'd have to get out there. Just as quick as I could, I had
to find a way out. You know, I used to be, well,
I might stay right there, go bar hopping or whatever. Not
now. I want out. Why? Dead to the enjoyment of
that sort of thing. I want out. How can we that are
dead to sin live? You might fall, lapse, have a
stumbling fall into something like that, but you're not staying
in it. How can we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Now, whosoever is born of God
doth not commit sin in Christ. For his seed, God's life, God's
seed remains in him. That's what that scripture means.
The seed of God's in that man. And he cannot, a spiritual new
person, cannot sin because he's born of God. And in this, the
children of God are made manifest. And he that is regenerated by
the Spirit of God in whom Christ is formed, he's a new creature
in Christ, he doesn't make sin his practice and does not live
in open sin, he's not free from sin entirely because the old
man is warring against him, warring with the new. But the new man
is created perfect in Christ and does not give in to sin nor
excuse it, won't allow the old man to have the upper hand. Sin
shall not have dominion over you. Why? Greater is he that
is in you. than he that is in the world.
And those that appear to fall into open sin, after having made
professions, and they went out from us, they were not of us. If they were of us, they no doubt
would have stayed with us. But they went out from us, and
it might be made manifest they were not of us. Because what
God does is forever. It's not yea and may. It's yes,
it's amen, and hence. And the fact is, a believer,
for the most part, does live pretty much like they want to.
Pretty much. But the want-tos have been changed.
They've been changed. He wants to be like Christ. And
men, and you can write this down, coin this phrase, men don't need
an excuse to sin, and believers aren't looking for one. Men don't
need an excuse to sin, and believers aren't looking for one. Well,
why, and I'll quit, why all the warnings to believers then? If
we're safe, if we're secure, we can't fall, no matter what,
why all the warnings in the Bible to believers? To strive, to seek,
to search, to press, and so forth. Why all the warnings? Because
we're morally responsible creatures. We're not zombies. We're morally
responsible creatures and free agents, not free wheels. free
agents to come and go. And God does not treat his people
as stones or blocks of wood, but he teaches them, instructs
them, admonishes them, and warns them, else we wouldn't be responsible
for our actions. God would. But we're responsible
for our actions. We're responsible for our sin.
God is responsible for getting rid of them, keeping them. After
all, salvation is just this, not to be saved in sin, but to
be saved from sin. free from sin, no happy condition. So that's the reason I began
this, by saying not for the sake of argument or debate, not to
prove a point of doctrine, but rather for the glory of God,
for the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and for the believers'
peace, joy, and comfort, we boldly preach that Christ's sheep, the
ones that he came down to save, are saved eternally, never perish,
neither shall any pluck them out of his hand, because he gives
them the gift of salvation. And nobody can pluck them out
of the Father's hand, because he's greater than all. Well, I hope that's a blessing
to you. You've heard it many times, and you'll hear it again.