Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles with today's message, I'll be preaching from John chapter
10, the gospel of John chapter 10. I have maybe one or two messages
out of this chapter concerning this subject, the shepherd and
his sheep, the shepherd and his sheep. You know, one of the most
beautiful and comforting types, pictures, illustrations in the
Bible is when the Lord Jesus Christ is presented as the shepherd
of his sheep. He is the good shepherd. There's
several aspects of this, and we'll see some in John chapter
10 when we get into those scriptures. But Christ is called the good
shepherd in John 10 and verse 11. He says this, he says, I
am the good shepherd, and how does he show himself to be the
good shepherd? He says, the good shepherd giveth
his life for the sheep. Now that settles who Christ is,
the good shepherd, and for whom he died. People today talk about
who did Christ die for, and many people say, well, he died for
everybody without exception. Well, he said otherwise. He said
he gave his life for the sheep. And he said he knows his sheep.
And we'll go through these scriptures and I'll show you what I mean.
But he gave his life for the sheep. And that refers to Christ's
work on the cross, God manifest in the flesh, dying for his sheep,
dying for the sins of his people. And the sheep here are believers. How do I know if I'm one of his
sheep? You know, the Bible talks about
there are goats and there are sheep. And the goats represent
those who live their lives in unbelief and die in that state. Christ told the Pharisees, He
said this, if you believe not that I am, that is, that He is
the Messiah, and that He is the one who bears away the sins of
His people all over the world, you'll die in your sins. Which
means you'll die in eternal death, eternal damnation. And so, He
gave His life for the sheep, and His sheep are His people
for whom He died, and He took their sins upon Himself. The sins of His sheep were imputed,
charged, accounted to Him, and as their surety and their substitute,
He died for their sins, shedding His blood unto death, and He
redeemed them, and He's going to have them. All His sheep will
come to Him. And he says that in these verses.
So that's just an, you know, there are many identifications
of Christ in the scripture. And this one is the shepherd,
obviously. He's the captain of our salvation. he's the high priest, he's the
media, all of these things describe the glorious aspects of the person
of Christ as God manifest in the flesh and the work that he
accomplished on Calvary to save his people from their sins. There
are also many names and illustrations, types, pictures of the church. which the word church means called
out ones. They're called out of the world
and into the sheepfold, you might say. And so there are many names
for them. They're called the elect of God.
They're called the church for which Christ shed his blood. He purchased with his own blood.
And so they're called spiritual Israel, the Israel of God. So we could go on and on about
that. But here he's talking about the shepherd of the sheep. Christ
is the good shepherd who gave his life for the sheep. Christ
is the chief shepherd who brings his sheep into the fold, and
he's the great shepherd who will bring them into glory ultimately.
Now, this shepherd motif, as you say, as we might say, you
know, it goes back, it reminds you of passages like Psalm 23,
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. All of that, see, because
Christ is the shepherd of his sheep, they don't lack anything
that God requires and that they need for salvation. And all that,
Psalm 23, you can remember that. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He restoreth my soul, all of
that. And so, that's the shepherd of
the sheep. And as His people being called
sheep, we start out, if you're one of His sheep, evidenced by
faith in Christ. Now that's how you know you're
one of His sheep. You believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your
only hope and ground of salvation. You submit to Him as the Lord
your righteousness. and you rest in Him, you repent
of dead works and idolatry. These are all gifts of God's
grace based upon His righteousness. Christ's righteousness imputed,
charged, accounted to His sheep. And so you know you're one of
His sheep when you come to faith in Christ. Even His sheep start
out in a state of sin and death, lost in their sins. Isaiah 53
says that all we like sheep have gone astray. And so, and the
Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all, that is all of His
sheep, not all without exception, not the goats, but His sheep.
And so we start out as lost sheep. Christ one time speaking to a
woman who talked about that he had come to save the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. At the judgment he will divide
the whole world, his sheep on the right and the goats on the
left. And those sheep are those who are saved by grace through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this is the shepherd and
the sheep. Well, here in chapter 10, the
Lord had just finished healing a blind man, whom the Pharisees,
when the blind man testified that he was healed by Jesus of
Nazareth, the Pharisees excommunicated him. And so, Christ begins in
verse one here of John chapter 10, speaking about false shepherds. And he says in verse one, now
listen to this, this is John 10 in verse one, he says, verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into
the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a
thief and a robber. Now who's he talking about? He's
talking about the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the lawyers, the
religious people who were encouraging people to seek salvation, to
seek acceptance with God, to seek God's favor and blessings
by their works, their efforts in trying to keep the law, to
seek righteousness. Now, the Bible is clear. that
salvation is not by our works. It's not by our efforts. It's
not by anything we do or anything we are enabled to do, even by
God. The salvation, the ground of
salvation, the assurance of salvation is totally, 100%, every bit of
it, based upon the obedience unto
death, the work, the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ
as the surety, the substitute and redeemer of His people. That's
how He is the Good Shepherd. Salvation is not based upon my
goodness because I don't have any goodness in God's sight.
We all talk about how good people and bad people, we're talking
about as they compare on this plane of this earth as we compare
to one another, but in God's sight, there's none good, no
not one. You see, God's standard of goodness
is way higher than our standard. Our standard is way low, we're
sinners. And we're born in sin. We're
ruined by the fall. Fell in Adam. And we're born
dead, spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. And we've lost all
sight of the perfection of righteousness and goodness that God requires. And so we think, well, if I try
to be a good person, which we ought to do, but we think if
I try to be a good person, then God will accept me and bless
me and I'll go to heaven. That's not what the gospel of
God's grace teaches. The gospel is the revelation
of the righteousness of God, not the righteousness of man.
Man has no righteousness. There's none righteous, no not
one. There's none good, no not one. And so how good must I be
to enter heaven's glory? I must be as perfect as God requires. I must be as perfect as Christ.
I quote this verse all the time on this program, Acts 17 31.
How God has appointed a day in the which he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained in that
he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised
him from the dead. Well, the Pharisees here are
those who, they didn't enter by the door. Now, what is the
door? Listen to it again, John 10.1.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door
into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is
a thief and a robber. That's what he was calling these
false shepherds, false preachers. The door is Christ. The door
is the one and only way to God. The one and only way to salvation. Christ said, I am the door. He
said that himself. And it's the way of God. It's the way of grace. It's the
way of the cross. It's the way of Christ's righteousness,
imputed, charged, accounted to me. It's not the way that I work
my way into. If you're preaching salvation,
conditioned on sinners in any way, to any degree, at any stage,
you're a thief and a robber, climbing up some other way. You're
not coming through the door, which is Christ. And look at
verse two now, John 10. He says, but he that entereth
in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. Christ actually
relates himself here as the door and as the shepherd. because
he's the one who made the way into the sheepfold. You understand
that? Christ said, I am the way, I
am the truth, I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. This religious pluralism that
is rampant today, people say, well, there's many ways to God
or many ways to Christ. No, there's one way. There's
one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
the God-man. And He is the way. Peter preached
it. He said, there's none other name given among men whereby
we must be saved. There's only one way, my friend,
and it's the way of Jesus Christ who is God manifest in the flesh
and who finished the work of salvation by putting away the
sins of his sheep on that cross, shedding his blood as the full
payment, satisfying the justice of God, and bringing forth an
everlasting righteousness whereby God can be just to justify the
ungodly. And he is that door. There's
no other doors into the sheepfold. If you try to get in either way,
you're a thief and a robber just trying to break in, trying to
climb up over the wall. And it says, and now read verse
two again. He that entereth in by the door
is the shepherd of the sheep. And verse three says, to him
the porter, the overseer, openeth. That's God the Father. If you
want access to the Father, you must come through the Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. If you want access to the Father,
you must come on the ground of His righteousness alone, His
blood alone. If you try to come to the Father
on your own merits, by your own works, by something you did or
decided, you will not be received. To Him, the porter openeth. The
door of salvation, the door of eternal life, the door of blessings
is open only through the shepherd. That door. And he says in verse
three, he says, to him the porter openeth and the sheep hear his
voice, his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth
them out. Leads them out of the world.
They hear his voice. Now how do we hear his voice?
In the preaching of the gospel, in the preaching of his word.
When you read the scripture, that's his voice. It's not a
dream or a vision or some audible voice that you think you might
hear. That can be a deception. But when I read his word, I can
tell you, well, do you want to know what the gospel is? Well,
go to Romans 1, for example, 16 and 17. For I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and the Greek
also. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. What
is the gospel? Go to 2 Corinthians 5.21 and
hear His voice. For God made Him, Christ, to
be sin for us, Christ who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. What is the gospel? Go to Galatians
6.14 and hear His voice. God forbid that I should glory
or boast or have confidence save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The preaching of the cross. That's
His voice. And the only way you're gonna
hear His voice is if by the power of the Spirit in the new birth,
He gives you ears to hear. Now you can hear my voice audibly. You can hear me read the scriptures
or quote the scriptures, but you're not gonna believe it until
He gives you ears to hear. That's why Christ said you must
be born again. And that's what He's saying here.
He calls His own sheep by name. He knows their name. The Bible
talks about those whose names were written in the Lamb's book
of life before the foundation of the world. God chose his people
before the foundation of the world. That's his elect, and
he knows them by name. The Lord knoweth them that are
his, Paul told Timothy. And he calls them by name. Back
in the Old Testament, the high priest that went into the holiest
of all one time a year on the Day of Atonement, he had the
names of the tribes of Israel on his breastplate and upon his
shoulders. And that's who he went into the
holy of holies representing. Not all without exception, but
just those particular names. And that's what Christ is saying
here. He knows his sheep by name. They say that back in the days
of the first church, the New Testament days, that shepherds
would come out and they were going to bring their sheep into
the city, for example, to sell them or sell their wool. And
all the shepherds come from different places and they would put their
sheep in one corral And they'd be mixed up together while they
were in that crowd, but each shepherd had a particular call
for which when he called, his particular sheep knew that call,
and they'd follow him. Now, I don't know if all that's
true, but that's what I've heard. Well, but it is true in God's
sheepfold. When Christ calls their name,
they hear his voice by the power of the Spirit. They believe the
gospel. They come to him by God-given faith, for by grace are you saved
through faith, that none of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works
lest any man should boast. And verse four, now John 10 and
verse four, and when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth
before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
When he finds his sheep, he goes before them. He's their captain,
he's their leader, he's their Lord. He doesn't follow them,
they follow him. You understand that? And it says,
they know his voice. They know when he speaks because
they have his word. How do I know if God is speaking
to me? In a dream or a vision? No, that
can be deception. I know it because I find it in
His word, the book of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy,
and go right on through into the New Testament and to Revelation.
Isaiah said it in Isaiah chapter 8 and verse 20, to the law and
to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, there's
no light in them. And that's how we know His voice.
Those who preach another gospel, of salvation conditioned on sinners. Salvation by any other way other
than the Good Shepherd giving His life for the sheep. They're
not preaching. They're not His voice. Like I
said, they're the thieves and the robbers trying to climb up
over the walls. And he says this in verse 5,
John 10, 5. And a stranger will they not
follow, but will flee from him, they'll flee from the stranger,
for they know not the voice of strangers. When I hear other
men or people preach, and if they're not preaching according
to this word, if they're preaching a salvation conditioned on sinners,
on the works or the wills of sinners, if they preach things
about God that aren't true according to the Bible, things about ourselves
as sinners that aren't true, things about Christ that aren't
true according to the Bible, I know that they're strangers.
I know that I need to flee from them because I know not their
voice. I know the shepherd's voice.
Now verse six tells us that what Christ is doing here was speaking
in a parable. It says in verse six, this parable
spoke Jesus unto them, but they understood not what things they
were which he spoke unto them. Verse seven says, then said Jesus
unto them again, verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door
of the sheep. He's speaking of himself. Verse
eight, he says, all that ever came before me are thieves and
robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. He says in verse nine,
I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved. And he'll go in and out, wherever
he wanders, he's still saved. He'll go in and out and find
pasture. That is, he'll find the green grass of God's word. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He says in verse 10, the thief
cometh not, but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. But
he says, I am come that they might have life and that they
might have it more abundantly. What is the abundance of life?
It's all the benefits and all the blessings of eternal life
and glory that are freely and fully given to the sheep, sinners
saved by grace who don't deserve and have not earned any of these
benefits or blessings, but they're given to the sheep by the shepherd. And he says in verse 11, I am
the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. There's the ground of it all.
The ground of salvation, the cause of salvation. Think about
it this way. The cause of salvation is the
sovereign mercy and grace of God. He said, I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy, I'll be gracious to whom I will. It's
not of him that runneth, it's not by the works of man, it's
not of him that willeth, it's not by the will of man, but of
God that showeth mercy. And so the source of salvation
is the sovereign love and mercy and grace of God. The ground
of salvation is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
what is that? That's his obedience unto death,
shedding his blood, giving his life for the sheep. And he says
in verse 12, look at John 10 and verse 12, but he that is
in hireling, now that's speaking of a false shepherd who is a
hired worker. In other words, he's not working
for the Lord as far as preaching the gospel. He's working for
people and they wanna hear what they wanna hear. He tells them
what they wanna hear, not what they need to hear. He says, but
he that is in hireling and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep
are not, they don't belong to him, they belong to Christ. See
if the wolf coming, danger, and leaveth the sheep and fleeth
and the wolf catcheth them and scattereth the sheep. Now think
about that, scattered sheep. I think about that in the book
of Acts when the Lord, in that great outpouring of the Spirit
of God in the preaching of the gospel, Peter preaching at Pentecost,
3,000 were saved. Later on, 5,000 were saved. And
rather than staying together, here comes the persecution and
they were scattered throughout the world. Now we know God had
a purpose in that. This was not taking God by surprise. this scattering of the sheep.
This is what God intended to do to get the gospel out to the
world, out beyond the confines and oppositions of unbelieving
Jews and Judaism, but to get it out to the world. And that's
how the churches in the Gentile world began to spread and the
gospel began to spread. And it says in verse 13 of John
10, the hireling fleeth because he's an hireling and careth not
for the sheep. He's in it for himself. Verse
14, he says, I am the good shepherd. Remember the good shepherd, he
gave his life for the sheep. Here he says, I am the good shepherd,
and know my sheep, and am known of mine. He says, I know the
sheep, and am known of mine. Again, God the Father chose them
before the foundation of the world, and you know what he did?
He gave them to the Son. And the Son, the second person
of the Trinity, God the Son, agreed in that covenant of grace
to be their surety, to come and die for them, and to save them,
give them life from the dead, and to keep them. He voluntarily
agreed to that. And that's what he says in verse
14. I am the good shepherd, I know
my sheep. He said all that the father giveth me shall come to
me and him that cometh me I will in no wise cast out. He said
this is the will of him that calleth. This is the will of
him that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing. but raise it up again at the
last day. And listen to what he says here in verse 15. He
says, as the father knoweth me, even so know I the father, and
I lay down my life for thee, sheep. You see it? The father
and the son. Nobody knows the son but the
father. Nobody knows the father but the
son. If you're going to know God,
you must come through Christ. And he says, he lays down his
life for the sheep. But look at verse 16. He says,
and other sheep I have, which are not of this fold. Now, what
is the fold that he's talking about? He's talking about the
Jews. God has a people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue,
and nation. Not just you, the gospel is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the
Jew first, it came through them first, and to the Greek or the
Gentile also. God's elect spiritual Israel
is made up of sheep all over this world, every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation. It's not confined to one race
or one nation. I'll pick up there next week,
but I hope you enjoyed this program. Join us next week for another
message from God's word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia, 31707. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through
our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.