verses that I'm going to read
to you are delightful and most of us could probably quote
them. They've been a blessing to us for many, many years as
God has revealed these great truths to us. We're going to
be talking about the shepherd and his sheep. the shepherd and
his sheep, such a delightful, wonderful subject to consider. Our Lord Jesus says in John 10,
27, my sheep, such tender words are
my great shepherd. My sheep hear my voice. And he says, and I know them
and they follow me. And I give unto them, I give
unto them, they don't earn it, they don't barter for it, I give
unto them eternal life. And here comes one of the most
powerful statements of our absolute security, in the Lord Jesus,
He says, and they shall never perish. I say that before I read the rest
of this, if any of His sheep should perish, then the Lord
Jesus would be found to be a liar. That's not going to happen. No
sheep can ever perish. In fact, He says, neither shall
any He knows the word man is italicized, but anybody, any
demon, any devil, any enemy, neither shall any pluck them
out of my hand. My father. He first of all speaks of his
sheep as my sheep, and now he says my father. He who has a
relationship to us has a relationship to God. He says, my Father, my
Father which gave them me is greater than all. And he says, no man, no demon,
no devil, no enemy is able to I took them out of
my Father's hand." And then he said, literally, I and the Father
are one. Well, let's ask God to have a
few things for us this evening. Maybe He'll again spread before
us the table of grace. And we come to the table with
an appetite and trust that God would feed us from the spiritual
food that He gives us. Our Father, Thou art the fount
of every blessing. All fullness dwells in Thee, and You have all the fullness
of all that we need. And so we come to You, Father,
through the Lord Jesus Christ. We come to Thee out of our emptiness, out of
our nothingness, knowing that Thou hast all mercy, all grace,
all forgiveness, all righteousness, all life. Lord, you have everything
we need, and we have nothing. We have nothing with which to
barter with you. We can't buy or work or labor
for that which we need. Lord, we're just charity cases. We're beggars. needing everything. And Lord, we fully believe, based
on Your Word, You have everything we need. You are everything we
need. And we're thankful that in Your
eternal purpose of grace, You have given to us a glorious Savior. And in the Lord Jesus dwells
the fullness of grace and truth. The grace that we need is found
in Christ. The very truth of your gospel,
of your word, is in the Lord Jesus. In fact, He is the truth
of God. And Father, therefore, we come
unto Thee through Christ Jesus. through His bloody death, through
His sacrifice that satisfied Your justice. And we believe Your Word that
all who come to God by Christ will be received. Thank God there
is a way to Thee. And that way is the new and the
living way of Christ Jesus and Him crucified. This is a glorious
Redeemer, a magnificent Savior. Oh, Father, He's just the one
we need. And as those sinners who've been
given an appetite for the gospel in our great soul hunger, we
come to Christ, the living bread, to feed on him. Lord, you've
given us a thirst, a thirst for righteousness, a thirst for the
gospel, a thirst for salvation. We come to Christ, who is himself
the water of life. And we feed on him and we drink
of him as we have been so blessed to do so many times before. And we shall do again tonight
by your will. Our dear father, thank you. Your
children, thank you for meeting with us by your spirit this past
weekend. We bless you for the messages
that were delivered. We know that you use these instruments
of flesh, but our brethren could not have delivered the word of
God with such authority and such liberty and such absolute clarity
were it not for your Holy Spirit. And so, Father, we give you the
glory and the thanksgiving. And even as the words that were
spoken are listened to on the internet as they're posted there
and on CDs and DVDs and that sort of thing, we know that your
word will always fulfill your purpose. And we're glad that
it does. We're thankful, oh God, this
great salvation is not dependent upon us, but it's dependent upon
our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus. And once again this evening,
we just fall into the arms of our beloved Redeemer. And may
we know and feel, as it were, loving caress of the shepherd
as those of us who are his sheep draw near to him again and a
hug up to his tender breast and find in him sweet consolation
for our poor souls. We bless you that Many of us
can say with honesty, by the enabling power of the Spirit
of God, we can say like David, the Lord is my shepherd. Therefore, I shall not want. We shall never lack for any good
thing because of who our shepherd is. And so believing that the
shepherd is always with the sheep, guiding the sheep, ministering
to the sheep, indeed teaching the sheep, Lord, then we will
attempt to go into this passage of Scripture. And if the words
of the preacher are weak and feeble, We know
that the Word of God is almighty and powerful to the bringing
down of strongholds. And so with your promise that
you'll be with us, we shall continue. For Jesus' sake, we ask these
things. Amen. John chapter number 10. We read in Galatians 4, in the
fullness of the time, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman,
made under the law to redeem them that were under the law
that we might receive the adoption of children in Christ Jesus. Two thousand years ago, the Son
of God came into this world, robed His deity with flesh, Think
about the, in the book of Exodus, think about the tabernacle in
the wilderness that Moses received instructions from God to make. It's called the tabernacle of
the congregation, literally meaning that's the place of meeting. That's where God met with men
and men met with God. That's our Lord Jesus. And indeed,
God in the flesh came to do the work of redemption. And when
he entered into this world, his people were delighted, his people
were thrilled. He's the desire of all nations,
not that all people of all nations desired him, But there was a
people, as there is a people now throughout the nations, who
desire Him, want Him, love Him, believe Him, are drawn to Him
by effectual grace. And when the blessed Redeemer
entered into the world, there were some people who were waiting
for Him. They'd looked for Him for so
long. Oh, so long. I think of there in Luke chapter
2, dear old man by the name of Simeon. He had been waiting for
the, Scripture says, waiting for the consolation of Israel. Waiting to get that comfort in
his soul. That all is well with God because
the Redeemer had actually entered into the world. Boy, he got to
hold in His arms the Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture says he was a just
man and devout. He was justified by grace. He
was already justified by the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was a devout man. Things of
God meant a lot to him. He was very serious about the
things of spiritual matters, the things of the Lord. And he
held the Lord Jesus in his arms, the one he had been waiting for.
And he said, Lord, I'm ready to die now. Mine eyes have seen
thy salvation. That's what he said. He's happy
that he came. And then there was somebody else
in the temple. She is most happy that he came,
too. That was Anna. And I tell you,
she saw her brother in the Lord, Simeon, holding that infant,
and then she spoke to everybody who was looking for him there,
because there were other people looking for him too. There were
other people who desired him. And she talked to them. She said, the Redeemer has come. The Redeemer has come. What good
news. All the people of God were thankful
that He came. Not everybody was thankful, not
everybody was happy about him coming. Immediately upon his birth, he
met with opposition. And you know from studying the
New Testament, from studying the scriptures, that all through
our Lord's earthly journey, he met opposition after opposition. when he began his ministry, public
ministry, especially when he went into Galilee. The first
year of his ministry was in Judea. The second year of his ministry,
he went into Galilee, Luke chapter 4, until he just stirred up a
hornet's nest. They weren't happy with him because
he preached sovereign grace. And they were ready to do away
with him. And then he met lots of opposition,
of course, from the religious leaders. In fact, that's really
what we've been dealing with the last several weeks in the
Gospel of John. In John chapter 5, he met opposition
at the feast in Jerusalem. In John chapter 6, he met opposition
at the feast of the Passover. And then beginning in John chapter
7, the first verse, going all the way down to John chapter,
this very chapter we're in, John chapter 10 and verse 21, he met
opposition at the Feast of the Tabernacles. And then beginning with the next
verse, the 22nd verse, he meets opposition at the Feast of the
Dedication. This finishes out John chapter
10. You get into John chapter 11,
he meets opposition in Bethany. And that goes on into John chapter
number 12. And in John chapter 12, through
the end of the chapter, more opposition in Jerusalem. All of that opposition, all of
that alienation from Jesus of Nazareth, all of that malice
directed toward Him, doesn't that make a really powerful statement
about man's sinfulness and depravity? He's the Lord of glory. He comes
into the world. Even one of the recognized authorities
of the Pharisees. Nicodemus, he was a ruler of
the Jews. He said, no man can do the things
that thou doest except God be with him. And all of these miracles
that he did, and he never met a disease he couldn't heal. He
never met an illness that he didn't do away with it. I mean,
he healed people who believed him. He healed people who didn't
believe him. And yet these religious rulers,
these religious leaders despised him. They despised him. Why, back in John chapter 6,
there when their opposition at Passover, he fed many of them,
thousands of people, and they witnessed as he broke the bread. And He multiplied the fish. And they all ate to their full. You want any more? I can't eat anymore. Well, He
said, take up the baskets full. Twelve baskets full left over.
Who can do that but God alone? Surely, this is the Messiah. And all of these other miracles,
all of the healings, He cured the blind. He gave hearing to
the deaf. The lame walked. The dead lived. And all of these things in direct
fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. And people said,
surely this is the Son of God. This is God's Christ. This is
the one we've been waiting for. And the religious leaders said,
no. No. He's an imposter. He's a fake. He's a fraud. He's a liar. He's a blasphemer. He says he's
God. He can't be God. He's just a
man. We know his mother. We know his
daddy. We know his brothers. We know
his sisters. We don't believe him. That's
man's depravity. Faced with all of this undeniable
evidence, they just shut their eyes and say, No! Well, what are you going to do
with him? We're going to kill him. That's what we're going
to do. And here in John chapter 10,
they'll try to kill him again. And then again, they'll try to
kill him. Finally, at the end of the Gospel
of John, they're successful. But he died by God's appointment.
He died because God purposed that he die. That he lay down
his life for his sheep. And so, here in John chapter
10, he's already confronted these reprobates. And he made this statement to
them, and back up to verse 26. He said, ye believe not. Ye believe
not. Why didn't they believe? Was
it lack of evidence? No, they had lots of evidence. Why didn't they believe? Did
he say, I'm not going to allow you to believe? No. Why didn't
they believe? That unbelief is to be found
in their own dead hearts and that's their problem. They're
responsible to believe. Every man ought to believe the
gospel. Every man ought to believe on Christ Jesus. Every man, woman,
boy and girl ought to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's a
glorious Savior. He's a wonderful friend of sinners. He's the one who came to reconcile
men and women and young people to God. He's full of mercy. He's full of grace. He's full
of truth. He is God's salvation. He's the
way to God. He's the life of God. He's the
truth of God. Come to Christ Jesus! And yet,
such is our depravity. We won't come unless He comes
after us and draws us with everlasting effectual grace. If He leaves us to ourselves,
we'll be just exactly like these people here. And we won't believe. I know men argue for the free
agency of man. They say, man, you know, he's
a free moral agent. Well, I say man's not free. He's
in bondage. And he's not moral. Man's immoral. And man's not an agent. He needs
an agent. He needs a mediator. This is
absolute, absolute definite proof of man's depravity. However, though there are many
who will not believe, there are some who do believe. And the
only difference between those who do not believe and those
who do believe is the sovereign grace of God Himself. If you have embraced Christ Jesus,
it's not due to who you are or to your studies or to your pursuit
of the living God. If you believe the Lord Jesus
Christ, that's due to God choosing you in Christ Jesus before the
world began. And the Lord Jesus has paid your
sin debt, and therefore the Spirit of God, as it were, comes on
the very heels of redemption and reconciliation, and He draws
you, He drags you, He pulls you to Christ Jesus the Lord. You
see these Pharisees, our Lord says of them, you don't believe
because you're not of My sheep. If they're not of His sheep,
that means they're ghosts. Now, He could see their hearts. See, all mankind, the Bible divides
men. It sometimes says the righteous
and the wicked. Matthew 13, the Lord said there
are wheat and hares, and here, sheep and goats. more specifically set forth his
sheep and goats in Matthew chapter 25. And we won't take the time
to go there, but our Lord there in Matthew chapter 25 talks about
the day is going to come when the Son of Man shall set over
all the nations, all the people of the world. Before him will
be gathered all of mankind, and he'll divide them as a shepherd
divides the sheep from the goat. The sheep on the right hand,
the goats on the left hand. To the sheep he'll say, come
ye blessed of my Father, From old eternity, the kingdom of
God is yours. And to the goats he'll say, depart
from me, I never knew you. The wheat will be gathered into
his garden. The tares will be bound together
in bundles and burned. It's what it says in Matthew
chapter 13. You see, there are just two groups of people. That's
really all there are. And our Lord Jesus knew exactly
who was a sheep and who was a goat. But you know something? We don't.
We don't. I often refer to false religion
and the places where false religion meets is goat pastures. That isn't to say that everybody
who goes there is a goat. I don't know that. I can't see
anybody's heart. Had we been living back in the
day when Saul of Tarsus roamed the villages and the cities in
search of those who despised salvation by works and who believe
Jesus Christ is the only Redeemer and Savior, believe salvation
by grace. If we had been living back in
those days and we heard Saul of Tarsus was coming to town,
we'd say, you better hide, you better lock the doors. Here comes
a goat. But you know what? He wasn't
a goat. He was a lost sheep. What I'm
endeavoring to say is that only the Lord Himself knows who the
sheep and the goats are. Don't you ever draw some kind
of conclusion that you know, well, I know that's a goat over
there. No, you don't know that's a goat. Because you can't read
anybody's heart. It may be the Lord's sheep. And
if they are the Lord's sheep, One of these days, at His appointing,
they'll hear His voice. He's not going to take a goat
and make him into a sheep, because a goat is always a goat. Romans 9, vessels of wrath fitted
to destruction. A sheep is always a sheep, a
vessel of mercy, according to the purpose of God. But like
Saul of Tarsus, he was a lost sheep. And he had to be found. Just like you were a lost sheep.
And you had to be found. And in the day of grace, he found
you. Ezekiel chapter 16, the Lord
says it was a time of love. And he passed by your way and
he saw you. He saw you in your pollution.
He saw you in your ugliness. He saw you naked, unwrapped,
unwashed. He saw you. It's a time of love. And He washed you. And He roped
you. He decked you out. And I tell
you, as Brother Gary preached to us three times, You're made
the righteousness of God in Him. Think of that. The righteousness
of God in Him. And here's our Lord Jesus here
in John chapter 10. After speaking with these reprobates,
saying that they believe not because you're not of my sheep
as I said unto you. He then, still speaking to these
people, says to them, number one, those
who come to me, they're divinely owned. He says they're my sheep. Here's divine ownership. I like
one translation says, the sheep that are my own. These are my own sheep. Divine
ownership. These sheep are not without an
owner. They're not without a shepherd.
They're not without one to care for them. They're His sheep. Brother Joe read to us. They're
in John chapter 6 and verse 37. All that the Father giveth me. They're my sheep. Where did he
get his sheep? He got his sheep from the Father
in the covenant of grace. He said they're my sheep. Where
did he get his sheep? He got his sheep by buying them.
He bought us. We're bought and paid for. He
didn't buy heaven for us. He didn't buy salvation for us.
He didn't buy mercy for us. He didn't buy grace for us. He
bought us. for His grace and according to
His love and for our great inheritance. We're His by gift. We're His
by purchase. We're His because He effectually
called us unto Himself. We have an owner. Our owner is the Shepherd, the
Lord Jesus. That's divine ownership. And
I see secondly, here's the divine voice. They hear my voice. We hear His voice in creation.
The heavens declare Thy glory. I hear that voice, don't you?
I go out there to look. We were gathering yesterday morning,
getting ready to go over and eat breakfast out here. And Ron
said, look up at that sky, isn't that beautiful? I hear that voice,
don't you? I hear the voice of the greatness
of our God, His creative glory. I hear His voice. My sheep hear
my voice. We hear His voice in creation.
We hear His voice in providence. That's the reason we say all
things work together for good. I hear His voice in providence
when these things happen in life, pleasant and unpleasant. It's
the Lord. Let Him do what seemeth Him good.
I hear His voice in providence. And I hear His voice in salvation.
I hear His voice. I hear Him say, Come unto Me,
all you that labor and are heavy laden. I'll give you rest. And
I say, Lord, here I come. I hear your voice. I hear your
voice because you gave me the ability to hear. I didn't have
the ability before. I didn't have any kind of capacity
to hear the voice of God. But I hear now. I'm not deaf
anymore. I hear him. It's a sweet voice. Oh, what tenderness. I hear his
voice. Over in Acts chapter 22, Paul
the Apostle is talking about his conversion experience. He said, Anna and I said to me,
the God of our fathers hath chosen thee that thou should know His
will and that you should see that just one and that you should
hear the voice of His mouth. He said, I've chosen to hear
the voice of His mouth. Pharisees didn't hear the voice
of His mouth. And we don't want to hear what
you've got to say. But the sheep here, the sheep here, we hear
His voice. As it says back in verse 5, we
don't know the voice of strangers. We're not going to listen to
another voice. There's a voice, there's a voice that's won my
heart. There's a voice that I understand. There's a voice I recognize.
And every other voice is the voice of a stranger. I recognize
the voice of the shepherd. And you do too. You listen to
preaching. You turn on the television. Oh, okay, there's a religious
station. Let me see what that guy's got to say. Man, I'm not
going to listen to that. I know, because you won't listen
to the voice of strangers. Then you go on the internet or
somewhere and you start listening to a preacher of the gospel.
You say, oh, I know that voice. And I'm not talking about the
voice of the man either. I'm talking about the voice of
the shepherd speaking through the man because the man is exalting
Christ Jesus. Here's the divine voice. I hear
His voice in His Word. Don't you? I hear His voice through
His preachers. I hear His voice through His
promises. I hear His voice. And then here
is divine affection. He says, and I know them. I know
them. The Lord knoweth them that are
His. This is a knowledge of affection. This is everlasting love. This is divine foreknowledge. To those in Matthew 7, He said,
I'll profess to them, I never knew you. But it says in 2 Timothy, the
Lord knoweth them that are His. He knows us. It's a knowledge
of love. And then here's divine power.
And they follow me. He read, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. We follow. John 6.44, no man
can come to Me except the Father which has sent Me. Draw him,
I'll raise him up at the last day. Why is it that any sinner
willingly and lovingly follows the Lord Jesus Christ, drawn
by irresistible, effectual grace? Matthew sat there collecting
taxes. The Son of God passed His way
and said two words, follow me. And boy, I guess He just gave
His books over to somebody else and said, I'm out of here boys.
Master called me. And I tell you, if you follow
in the Lord Jesus Christ, because you've heard His voice, and when
He came to you in an effectual way, All of a sudden, you got
real interested in His voice and what He had to say. You weren't
interested before, but the voice got you interested. And you follow
Him, because where the Word of the King is, there is power. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Revelation 14, these are they
that follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. We follow Him. We follow
Him in the waters of baptism. Did He go into the waters? Yes,
I follow Him willingly. What a delight to follow Him
into the waters of baptism. By His grace, I follow Him in
His Word, what He says, I believe. And by His effectual might and
grace and mercy, one of these days, I'll follow Him all the
way to heaven. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me." Where did He go? He went to heaven!
He said, they follow me! That's where we're going. As
sure as He's there, that's where we're going. As soon as the Lord
calls us home. And then here, here's a divine
gift, and I give unto them eternal life. I give it. Free. Free for nothing. It cost you anything. It cost
him everything. It cost him his life. But it
comes to us free. So what if somebody doesn't want
to accept the gift? He makes us willing to receive
Him. He gives us the gift of eternal life. This is not the reward of labor.
It's not a prize that's won by working for Him. It's a gift,
a given to them eternal life. This is one of the most powerful
statements about the absolute security of the elect of God. I know this, the blood of the
Lord Jesus will never lose its power. 1 John 1.7, the blood
of Christ Jesus goes on cleansing us from all sin. It don't quit. Throughout this life, it goes
on cleansing us. Will the blood ever cease to
be effectual? Well, I'll tell you, if the blood
of the Lord Jesus could cease to be effectual, then we would
perish. But that won't happen. It won't
happen. They shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand." The hand of the shepherd. I think of the
hands of our Lord Jesus Christ nailed to the cross. Where He
bore our sins in His own body on the tree. Where His soul was
made an offering for sin. Those wonderful hands. Somebody
said the nails didn't hold Him there with love for His people
and His purpose to fulfill God's eternal counsel held Him there.
Those same nail-scarred hands, they hold us. When your kids were little, teaching
them to walk, they hold Daddy's hand now. It wasn't their hold
on you. that was their security? You'se
holding them. I'll tell you what our security
is. It isn't our hold on Christ, although we do hold to Him, don't
we? I hold to Him with a tenacious
hold, but even holding Him tenaciously is weak. It's His hold on me. He's not
going to let us go. We're in the hands of the shepherd. Here's a divine relationship.
My father, my father, which gave them me is greater than all. Christ is one with the father
and the Holy Spirit. He's the second person of the
Godhead. In fact, there was this declaration
back in John chapter 5 at the feast in Jerusalem that really
got the Jews worked up against Him where He was claiming equality
with God. He said, My Father worketh hitherto
and I work. My Father. And I love that scripture
toward the end of John where He said, told His disciples,
I go to My Father and your Father. That's so sweet to me. That's
just so tender. His Father, by everlasting generation,
that's what the theologian says, whatever that means. But He's
my Father because I'm one of His adopted sons. And I've been
begotten again by the incorruptible seed of the Word of God. that
liveth and abideth forever. My Father which gave them Me
is greater than all." Oh, the greatness of our God. And no
man's able to pluck them, snatch them, rip them out of my Father's
hand. Colossians 3.3 says, our life
is hid with Christ in God. Oh, that security, security. Divine relationship. Here's divine
entrustment which gave them to me. The Father entrusted the
sheep to the hands of the shepherd. Here's this divine greatness.
He's greater than all. Who is a god like unto our God? With His divine assurance, no
man's able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. We're in
the hand of Christ who's in the hand of God. Kept safe by the
power of God. It's absolutely impossible for
a sheep to perish. And then here is finally divine
unity. Verse 30, I and my Father are
one. One in nature. One in essence,
one in perfection, one in power, one in purpose. The Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit are one. They're absolutely united. They're one in their everlasting
covenant of grace to save a chosen people through the merits, the
blood, and the righteousness. of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
security of the sheep, therefore, doesn't depend upon human effort.
It's grounded in the gracious, sovereign purpose and promise
and purchase and power of God. There's our security. So rejoice
in the Lord. Be comforted, saints of God. Here is the shepherd and his
sheep. Well, let's sing a closing song.
Get your songbook. Let's sing about the Savior Like
a Shepherd Lead Me, 294. Number 294. Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Me. And some of you men