I suspect I better break this
up into two messages. So this evening we'll talk about
bad shepherds. And God willing, next Wednesday
we'll talk about the good shepherd. The good shepherd. Our Lord is
delivering a message. He began it in the first verse. It goes down through John chapter
10 and verse 19. This immediately It follows that
when our Lord healed the man who was born blind, and in his
message he does basically two things. First of all, he does
set forth these bad shepherds. They're the Pharisees, they're
the scribes, they're the false teachers. In Israel, these are
the men who taught salvation by works, who did not believe
the message of grace. And after he did that, and even
as he deals with that subject of bad shepherds, he then began
to set forth his own fidelity, his own faithfulness, and his
own great concern for the sheep. And he sets himself forth as
being the good shepherd. the good shepherd of the sheep.
So this evening we'll talk about bad shepherds and I want to use,
I'll set forth these four words that our Lord used in setting forth, describing these
teachers of false religion. First of all, he said they're
thieves. They're thieves. In the very first verse, he says,
the same is a thief and a robber. And you drop down to verse number
10, he talks about the thief again. What is a thief? Our Lord, remember, he is describing
false, bad shepherds. What is a thief? Well, a thief
is that person that takes what is not his property. Takes something
that is not his own. It belongs to somebody else.
Well, that sets forth these self-appointed shepherds of Israel because they
sought to take, to steal God's sheep. The Lord's sheep. Take them and keep them. They
didn't belong to Him. They didn't belong to these fellows.
The Lord's sheep belonged to the Lord. In fact, they've always
been His, ever since He made the world. These guys would take
someone else's property. And this man that our Lord healed
back in John chapter 9, he is the property of the Lord Jesus.
Ever since God the Father gave Him to the Savior in covenant
mercy and in grace, He's been the property of the everlasting
Son of God. He is a sheep. He's one of God's
sheep. And this is what these false
teachers were trying to do, steal a sheep. Take a sheep. But this sheep didn't belong
to them. This sheep belonged to the Savior. He's been a sheep
always. But, he was a lost sheep just
like you. You who believe, you're God's
sheep, but there was a time you were a lost sheep. You were a
sheep that wondered. You were a sheep like this man
was a sheep who had been uncalled. He was an ignorant sheep. He was a sheep whose physical
eyesight wasn't with him. He was blind. He couldn't see. That depicted his spiritual condition. He was spiritually blind to the
demands of God, spiritually blind to his own lack of righteousness. He was spiritually blind to his
own depravity. He was blind to the glories of
the one who healed him. He didn't know who Jesus of Nazareth
was. He didn't know he was the Son
of God. The reason he didn't know is because he was blind.
He was blind spiritually. Oh, he got his physical eyesight. He was still blind spiritually. He was a sheep, but he was a
blind sheep. and he had to be given sight.
He didn't understand, he didn't see the glories of Christ Jesus,
the necessity of a blood sacrifice in order to remove his sins.
He didn't see that he needed perfect righteousness before
the Lord God would accept him. He is a blind man, but he was
still the Lord's sheep. And here these Pharisees and
scribes and they tried to steal One of Christ's sheep. He's not
going to let that happen. He won't let it happen. These
guys are thieves. This man was given to the Good
Shepherd by the Father. Look over further into chapter
10 of John. Look at verse 27. He says in verse 27, my sheep,
He said they're mine. And we've already connected chapter
9 to 10. This man is one of the Lord's
sheep. He said, my sheep, my sheep,
they hear my voice. This man heard His voice. Go
back here to John chapter 9, see if that isn't true. Look
in John chapter 9, look at verse 35. When Jesus heard that they
cast him out, that is, they had excommunicated him from Judaism,
and when he had found him, which he does find his sheep. This
man is a lost sheep, but he is now a found sheep. He said unto
him, here's the good shepherd speaking, Dost thou believe on
the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is
he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him,
Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And then he said, Lord, I believe. He recognized the voice of the
shepherd. So the Lord Jesus says in chapter
10 and verse 27, My sheep, they hear my voice. And I'll have a little bit more
to say about that later. And I know them. That is, I love
them. These false shepherds, these
bad shepherds, they didn't love His sheep. They didn't care about
the sheep. But I tell you what, He says,
I know them. That means I love them. He says, I've always loved
them. You know, in Matthew chapter
7, that day of judgment that is going to be on us before you
know it, the Savior said, many will say to me in that day, Lord,
Lord, haven't we done all these things in your name? And he'll
say unto them, you just depart from me. I never knew you. But there's some people He knows.
He knows us in covenant love. He knows us in covenant grace.
He doesn't just know about us. He knows about everybody. There's
nothing hid from His eyes. This is talking about a knowledge
of affection. I know them and they follow me. Watch it. And I give unto them
eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man
pluck them out of my hand. My Father, this is what I'm getting
at, which gave them me." My Father which gave them me is greater
than all. And this man back over here in
John chapter 9, oh, he's born blind. Everybody pitied him. I tell you what. You wouldn't
pity him if you made to realize he's one of the Lord's sheep.
He was loved from old eternity. In fact, this good shepherd,
he came into the world to do what? Lay down his life for this
sheep and all of his sheep. All of his sheep. This man belongs
to the Savior. Now here's what the Pharisees
wanted to do. Steal him. Our Lord said, they're
thieves. They're thieves. They're trying
to take somebody else's property. And you know whose property this
man was and is? The Lord's. He's the Lord's property. So they would steal one of his
sheep. And I'll tell you more than that, or in addition to
that, they're also monetary thieves. Go over to Matthew chapter 21.
And it's not just sheep thieves. There are also monetary thieves. Look at Matthew chapter 21. Our
Lord Jesus, He goes into the temple of God. Matthew chapter
21 and verse number 12. Matthew 21 and verse number 12. And Jesus went into the temple
of God. He cast out all them that sold
and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the money
changers and the seats of them that sold doves. He said unto
them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer,
but you've made it a den of thieves." Our Lord had a name for these
people. He said, you're thieves. And
here's the house of God. Here's the temple of God. What
was the reason for the temple of God? Why did it exist? That's somewhere people worshiped
God. Why, this is where God met man
and man met God. This is where the offerings were
offered to the Lord. This is where the blood was shed.
This is where an animal died in the stead of the guilty. This
is where substitution, propitiation, all of these things were pictured.
This is a house of worship. And here's what these men did.
Number one, they stole the money of the people. They're thieves.
Oh, they charged awful prices. People came in and said, I want
to buy a lamb. to offer to God, and they just,
oh, they just charged them something awful in order to make a big,
sizable profit. So they were monetary thieves,
but more serious than that, they were thieves who would rob God
of His glory, of the worship that's due Him. Like I said,
here's the reason that temple existed, as a house of worship. But he said, you've made it a
den, you've made it a place where like wild animals, wild animals
live in a den. Wild animals gang up. They gang
up together. They all huddle together in a
den. He said, here's what you've made
the temple. It's to be the house of worship. You've made it a
den of thieves. That's all you are. He said,
you're just a den of thieves. You seek God's glory. You would
steal from God the worship that is due Him. Make sure you understand this,
when men and women gather together in a religious setting, and God isn't magnified, God
isn't glorified, Christ Jesus is not exalted, the message of
redemption isn't declared, instead of preaching the righteousness
of Jesus Christ, the blood of the blessed Savior, man is lifted
up, man is told you need to do this, you need to live right,
you need to be a good good citizen, you need to love everybody, and
everybody goes out and says, well, I've got to do some more
so God will be pleased with me. Here's what's happened. God's
been robbed of that worship that is due Him. That's the reason
we have these church buildings. It's not just so people will
gather together in a religious atmosphere and just kind of exchange
ideas and have somebody to give us a few words about how we need
to be better people. This is the real reason churches
ought to exist. And I mean by churches, I speak
in a broad, generic sense. This is the real reason buildings
of worship exist to worship God. To exalt God. And those who do
not do that, they are thieves. They are thieves. Because they
would take away from God that which rightfully belongs to Him. But go back to John chapter 10. So he says, these are thieves.
He made it a den of thieves. Instead of the temple being a
house of worship, instead of it being a house of prayer, it's
a den. It's a den. It's a safe haven
for thieves. That's what it was, a safe haven
for thieves. But more than being thieves,
secondly, they're robbers. Robbers. Look down in verse 10,
the first part of it. The thief cometh not, but for
to steal, to kill, and to destroy. And actually, that's the same
word as robber. The robber comes. You see, a thief, he comes in. He comes to steal, but he's not
coming to do any harm. to an individual, so he kind
of comes in the quiet of the night. He sneaks in and he wants
to take what doesn't belong to him. And these Pharisees were
like that. They kind of were sneaking around. They acted like they were all
holy and pious, but our Lord Jesus knew what they were up
to. He said, you're thieves. That's what you are. You're thieves.
But he said, more than that, you're robbers. Because a robber
is one, he also takes from people what doesn't belong to him. He
steals other people's property, but he'll do anything to do it,
even do great bodily harm to people, even kill. These robbers, these who came
to steal, to kill and destroy, They endeavored to destroy the
Savior. You see, when you think of a
robber, think of somebody who's violent. That's the idea of a
robber. Somebody who's violent. Somebody
will do whatever is necessary to get what he wants, even take
a life. Well, these men, they exhibited
this kind of characteristic What did they do to the Savior? They
took His life. They took His life. Now, we know
they took His life according to God's eternal purpose. This
wasn't left up to them. They're not independent of God. Nobody ever acts independent
of God. Ever. Because God's sovereign
will is always accomplished. But these men nevertheless are
absolutely guilty of being robbers. Our Lord Jesus died according
to the purpose of God to save His people from their sins, but
that doesn't let these guys off the hook. And it doesn't let
us off the hook. We're responsible. We're responsible. And our Lord Jesus says they're
robbers. They're robbers. and they would seek to kill. How did they do bodily harm or
how did they do any harm to people? Well, they denied people the
only message that can do them any good. That's a robber. The most dangerous man you can
listen to is a man who does not exalt the grace of God in Jesus
Christ, who doesn't set forth redemption by the blood, who
doesn't set forth reconciliation by the sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's really a violent man because
he's doing you great harm. In denying you the only message,
in denying not only you but your family and your friends, in denying
you and taking away from you, keeping from you the only gospel
that will do you any good, the gospel of God. Robbers. Robbers. Go to look at Matthew chapter
23. Matthew chapter 23. You see, these false teachers,
these bad, bad shepherds, they didn't want anything to
do with Christ Jesus. They didn't believe the gospel
of grace. They didn't believe in salvation by substitution. We preach salvation by substitution
and satisfaction. They didn't believe that. They
denied the only message that could ever do people any good. And they didn't believe it, and
they didn't want anybody else to believe it either. They didn't
have a, well, let's just agree to live and let live. Oh no! They said, we don't believe this
message and we don't want anybody else to believe that message
either. So they did everything they could to put Jesus of Nazareth
out of business. Look at Matthew 23, our Lord's
in the temple. He's surrounded by multitudes
of people. And with all of those people
around Him, He took that opportunity to denounce in a very public
way Self-appointed shepherds. That's what they were. Self-appointed
shepherds in Israel. And he begins to expose them.
And he exposes them to the multitudes. Matthew 23 verse 1. Then spake
Jesus to the multitude and to his disciples. This is what it
said. The scribes and the Pharisees
sat in Moses' seat. Then he goes down, and I don't
have time to read all of this, but these are scathing words
directed toward these bad shepherds. And he does this in a very public
way. He doesn't say, I need to talk
to you fellows over here in private. Let's have a secret meeting.
I've got something I want to tell you. Oh no, no. He waited till the multitudes
were gathered. Then he exposed these guys for
the robbers that they were. Thieves and robbers. You say, well, he shouldn't have
done that. Don't you get sick of this stuff? Politically correct.
That's the way people look. That's not politically correct.
He should have just pulled them over to the side and said, now, You shouldn't preach this way.
You shouldn't believe this way. Why did he have to embarrass
them before the multitudes? I bet there were some people
back in Elijah's day when he told all those prophets of Baal,
he said, meet me up on Mount Carmel. But he said to all of Israel,
I want all of y'all there. I tell you, if it was some of
these politically correct people, they'd have said, now Elijah.
Don't embarrass these preachers. Can't you just have a private
talk with them? They need to be exposed for what
they are. They are thieves. They are robbers. Our Lord is not going to cut
them any slack. None whatsoever. And so in Matthew
chapter 23, he begins to expose them. And he reserved the harshest
language for these bad shepherds. In fact, eight times in this
chapter, he says something like this, Woe unto you! Woe is a denouncing word. A denouncing word which foreshadows
divine wrath. In fact, seven times, seven times,
which is the number of perfection I remind you, seven times he
calls them hypocrites. Two times he calls them fools
and blind. And finally he says this in verse
33. Matthew 23, 33. Ye serpents,
ye generation of vipers, How can you escape the damnation
of hell? And multitudes are listening. He's exposing them. He's setting
them forth. He's taking that mask off. He's
taking that masquerade away. Oh, they act like they're sheep. He pulls that mask off and reveals
they're really wolves. That's who they are. They're
wolves. They're bad shepherds. And our Lord exposes them before
all the multitudes. All the multitudes. Ye serpents,
ye generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation
of hell? Oh, their deceitfulness. Oh,
their subtlety. Oh, their inward poison. Oh,
the venomous nature of these bad shepherds. They're like the
old serpent, their father, the devil. Because that's what our
Lord, that's how He characterized them in John chapter 8. Well, you say, why didn't he
use political correctness? Why was this such a very, very
public denouncement? Why such a condemnation? Why this blistering language? Couldn't he have done the same
thing in a more polite, civil, more acceptable tone? Well, he could have, but it wasn't
his intention to be civil with these bad shepherds or to be
politically correct with them or acceptable to them. It was
his intention that all of these multitudes understand exactly
what he was saying. Why did he use such severe language
in referring to these bad shepherds? I'll give you three reasons.
Number one, because of the glory of God. They didn't seek God's glory.
You know whose glory they sought? Their own glory. It was all about
them. More followers, more money. Didn't the Apostle Paul write
about folks like this? He said, whose God is their belly?
Covetous men? Our Lord exposed them because
of the glory of God. You say, Jim, I wish you wouldn't
say, and I don't think any of y'all would ever say this, but
sometimes people come to me and they'll say this, I don't know
why y'all have to say things about other religions. Just stick
to your religion. Well, I tell you, I'm very interested
in the glory of God. And it just bothers me to no
end when somebody tries to rape God's glory. That bothers me. Doesn't that bother you when
somebody preaches a false gospel? Man, God's to be glorified. That's
why we're here. Whatsoever you do in word, deed,
or thought, do all for the glory of God. But they weren't doing
anything for the glory of God. That's doing things for the glory
of self. Our Lord exposed them. I'll tell you something else,
because of the very truth of God. The truth of God is at stake. What is the truth? Does truth
matter? You know, it seems anymore with
most people, and you know this is true, at least in religion,
truth doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what the Word
of God says. That's the reason most of these
so-called churches don't even open the Word of God anymore.
And if they do, it's just for kind of sentimental reasons. Nobody pays any attention to
the Word. That old book? Why my grandma used to read that? That's outdated. You'll be judged
by this book, I tell you. This is the Word of God. This
is the very truth of God. There's all the difference in
the world between the truth of God and a lie that comes forth
from the lips of these bad shepherds. That's why we tell the truth.
And people may love the truth. They may despise the truth. But
we aim to set forth the truth and then let God do what He will
with it. He'll either teach you the truth
or leave you in your error. That's his business. I try to
mind my own business. It's not up to me who the truth
is applied to. It's only my business to be sure
and I tell the truth. Tell the truth. Why did he use severe language?
Because of the glory of God, because of the truth of God.
Number three, because of the spiritual welfare of the people. I gotta tell you the truth because
you need to hear the truth. Because if it's only the truth
of God, it'll set you free. That's why you gotta hear the
truth of God. You know, even our Lord's disciples on occasion
felt like the Lord Jesus had been too critical, too severe
in His words toward the scribes and the Pharisees. Even they
got caught up in that. Well, you need to back off a
little bit. Look back at Matthew 15. Let
me show you this. Look at Matthew 15. The Pharisees were upset with
the Lord because He had accused them in Matthew 15 transgressing
the Word of God and preferring their religious traditions over
the Scriptures. He said their worship was vain. He said your worship is vain.
That means it's empty. It's empty worship. It's useless
worship. There's nothing to your worship.
All of their rituals, all of their ceremonies, all of their
temple going, all of their Sabbath observances, all of the observances
of the law that they perform. He said it's all vain. It's useless. Useless religion. Isn't that
what you look around today? Isn't that what you see? Useless
religion. It doesn't glorify God. It's
not consistent with the Scriptures. And it doesn't do anybody any
good. That describes our day. That
fits our day to a T. Their religion was empty of salvation,
empty of usefulness, empty of everlasting life. These Pharisees, they said, you
know, what you take in your body, you better be careful what you
put in your body. That defiles you. Don't do this. Don't do that. Our Lord Jesus,
He just turned it right around. He said, it's not what you put
into your mouth that defiles you, it's what's coming out of
your mouth that's defiled. You're defiled already in other words.
Look at 15 verse 10. Once again, He called the multitude.
He called the multitude. I'll tell you, lots of witnesses
to these things. He said, hear and understand. Not that which goeth into the
mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of his mouth,
that defileth a man. Then came his disciples and said
unto him, knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after
they heard this saying? Well, Master, you've hurt their
feelings. Don't you know these are religious teachers? They
faithfully go to church. And Lord, you might owe them
some kind of apology. You've just been too severe. And he says, verse 13, then he
answered and said, every plant which my heavenly Father hath
not planted shall be rooted up. Leave them alone. They be blind
leaders of the blind, and if the blind lead the blind, both
shall fall into the ditch." Our Lord exposes the errors of the
Pharisees and condemned these bad shepherds because the glory
of God was at stake, the truth of God was being called into
question, and the people It needed to be correctly instructed and
that meant labeling these bad shepherds for what they were,
vile, dangerous thieves and robbers. And you're a fool if you listen
to them. And that which was so back then is so today. You're
a fool if you listen to them. You do it to the detriment of
your own salvation. Are you interested in your soul?
You better listen to the truth of God's Word. You better listen
to somebody who exalts God, somebody who brags on Christ Jesus, somebody
who preaches to you the blood of the sacrifice, the blood of
the Lamb of God, somebody who preaches the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't have any righteousness.
He is our righteousness. You better listen to somebody
who tells you the truth, somebody who magnifies God. Go back to Matthew 23. I'll show
you something else here real quick. Our Lord hated, and by
the way, He still hates and despises the religion of self-righteousness. And I need to add this too. Not
only did our Lord and does our Lord hate the religion of self-righteousness,
but we better hate it too. We had better despise it too.
Because the only righteousness that can save is the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So when a person tries to establish
their own righteousness, they put themselves in direct competition
with the Son of God. And you do that, God will put
you in hell. God will put you in hell for
competing with His Son. He is salvation. He is our righteousness. He is everlasting life. He's
all in all to God. And he better be all in all to
you or God's going to put you away where you won't ever be
heard from again. And that's the truth. These Pharisees lied to the people. Look, here's one verse I want
to show you, Matthew 23, 13. But woe unto you, 2313, but woe
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the
kingdom of heaven against men, for you neither go in yourselves,
neither suffer them that are entering to go in. In other words,
you don't want to hear the gospel, you don't want anybody else to
hear the gospel either. They were not interested in the person
and work of Jesus Christ. They weren't interested in salvation
by grace. And it wasn't enough for them
to not be interested in themselves. They didn't want anybody else
to be interested either. Now, let me say this. It is absolutely, absolutely
impossible for any man or any organization to literally and
actually shut up the Kingdom of God. Man can't do that. Christ said, I will build my
church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
That kingdom which God Almighty builds, no man can hinder. Yet many like these bad shepherds,
scribes and Pharisees, they do all they can to keep sinners
out of the kingdom. They'll try to persuade people. Don't you listen to that preacher
over there. Don't you go to 13th Street Baptist Church. Don't
you go hear those men that preach sovereign grace. That's dangerous
doctrine. You better stay away from that.
They don't want to go in and they don't want you to go in
either. But thank God they can't hinder His work. They can't hinder
His work. It might happen to them what
happened to Saul of Tarsus. He was traveling to Damascus.
He wanted to put all the Christ worshipers out of business. He
wanted to close the doors of every true house of worship. But God taught him a thing or
two. He brought him to the end of himself. These men are thieves,
and these men are robbers. But go back to John 10, because
I've got to go quickly. I bet you thought when I said
it was just four words, well that won't take long. Here's
the third word. Here's the third word. Strangers. That's what he called them. Thieves.
Robbers. Third word. Strangers. Look at
verse 5. He says, A stranger will the
sheep not follow. They'll run from him. They don't
know the voice of strangers. You know what a stranger is?
Someone who belongs to another. That's what he's talking about.
Someone who belongs to another. The religious Pharisees, they
didn't belong to Christ. They were not of His fold. They
were not of his sheep. In fact, our Lord makes that
abundantly clear later on in the chapter when he says, what,
down there in verse 26, he says, I told you and you believe not
the works that I do in my Father's name. They bear witness of me,
John 10, 26. But you believe not because you're not of my
sheep, as I said unto you. You're not mine, he said. You're
not mine. He said back in John 8, you're
of your father, the devil. These guys, they're strangers.
Strangers. But you know, there's something
about the Lord's sheep. And God teaches them the gospel
when God is teaching, teaching them the gospel. They won't listen
to the voice of strangers. They'll listen to the voice of
God. Because there's something... You see, the voice of God is
the gospel. That's the voice of God. And
His voice gets our attention. I've had people ask me, do you
think Adam and Eve were saved? Yes, I do. Yes, I do. The Savior said, My sheep hear
My voice. They won't hear a stranger's
voice. They hear My voice. Do you think Adam and Eve were
saved? Go back to Genesis chapter 3. I surely do. Yes, I surely do. Because here's
how I know they're the Lord's sheep. Genesis chapter 3. And you know the fall has taken
place. Look at verse 8. They heard the
voice. Genesis chapter 3. They heard
the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of
the day. And verse 9 says the Lord God
called unto Adam. They heard His voice. They heard
His voice. A stranger's voice they won't
know. They won't listen to the voice of a stranger. They listen
to the voice of God. Oh, they listened to the voice
of the serpent to begin with. At least she did. But then came
another voice. And that's the voice of God Almighty.
That's the voice of effectual seeking grace. And God taught
them the Gospel. And God saved them. Well, back in John 10, let me
give you this last one. So they're strangers. They don't
belong to Christ. They belong to Satan, these bad
shepherds. Well, here's the last one, verses
12 and 13. They're a hirelings. That's what they are. They've
been hired. And this is their job. He says in verses 12 and
13, the hireling fleeth, because he is a hireling. He doesn't
care for the sheep. In fact, back up to verse 12. But he is a hireling, not the
shepherd who's owned the sheep or not. He sees a wolf coming,
he leaves his sheep and he runs. He flees. The wolf catches them
and scatters the sheep. The hireling fleeeth, because
he's a hireling and careth not for the sheep." In other words, it's just his
job. It's just his job. He has no... See, back then, there was the
owner of the sheep, and sometimes the owner of the sheep was also
the shepherd, but oft times he would hire an under-shepherd. Alright, here are my sheep. I
charge you with looking after my sheep. Okay, and I'll pay
you so many dollars or whatever they paid with a week. Okay. He sees a wolf coming. He says,
man alive, this is a dangerous job. I didn't realize it was
going to be so dangerous. There are wolves out here. Well,
I quit. And off he goes. Let me ask you,
what do you think happens to the sheep? when that man who
isn't a hireling, he quits and he runs. You know what happens? The sheep are destroyed. Oh yeah,
the sheep, they run. Some of them get wounded. Some
of them get mauled. Like he's talking about your
dogs, you're chasing a bear, get mauled. And boy, some of
them, the wolf just gets them and they're dead. They're dead. See, that's the way it was with
these Bad shepherds? They didn't care a thing about
the people. All they cared about was themselves. It's a job to
them. But wait, the good shepherd,
this is his life. This is his life. And we'll get
into this more next week, but after he says in verse 13, the
hireling fleeth because he's an hireling. He doesn't care
for the sheep. Here's what Christ said. I am
the good shepherd. I know my sheep. I'm known of
mine, and he says back in verse 11, I'm the good shepherd, the
good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. For these sheep
the Father entrusted to me, he says, I'll die for them. I'll
die for them. I'll die! Nothing's going to
happen to my sheep! I'll die for them! Guess what?
He did. And because he died for the sheep,
we're going to live forever. But he didn't stay dead. This
is not a dead shepherd. He's a living shepherd. He ever
lives to make intercession for us. Bad shepherds. Beware of bad shepherds. And
boy, listen up next week because I want to tell you about the
good shepherd in more length than I've been able to say tonight.
But that's all for now.