Turn with me this morning, if
you would, to Luke 19. We'll be looking at several verses
probably this morning, if the Lord wills. Luke chapter 19 is where we'll
begin this morning. It's kind of where my thoughts
started this morning, at least. Luke 19 and verse 10. I want to start reading in verse
9. This is found in the account
where Jesus went to visit Zacchaeus. Does everybody know who Zacchaeus
is? He is a wee little man. And a wee little man was he. This is in the account where
Jesus had went to the house And it says in verse nine, Jesus
said unto him, this day salvation come to this house for so much
as he also is a son of Abraham. Now, again, remember when Jesus
says that he is the son of Abraham, he's not saying that he's the
son of Abraham in the flesh. Salvation didn't come to Zacchaeus
because he was the son of Abraham in the flesh. Even though he
was the son of Abraham in the flesh, he was an Israelite, child
of Israel, child of Jacob. He came from Abraham, fleshly
his seed. Jesus here is speaking in spiritual
terms, and we always have to kind of remember that. We need
to look past the physical and see what the Spirit is teaching
us in the spiritual, if He'd be so kind to teach us. We're
looking here at the spiritual son of Abraham. Zacchaeus was
a spiritual son of Abraham. And if you remember the story
of Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus was going to look to see, because he heard
Jesus was coming through, and he went to see and couldn't see.
Climbed up in that tree and to get a glimpse of Jesus. Jesus
came there specifically and out of all the people that was there,
spied out Zacchaeus. Said, come now, I'm going to
your house today. Jesus went there by divine appointment.
It wasn't just accident that Zacchaeus happened to climb up
in that tree. It wasn't by accident or chance
that Jesus happened to be walking by when Zacchaeus was climbing
a tree. It was a predestinated time The
Lord came by exactly as was purposed by God. And he came by because
Zacchaeus was a son of Abraham. And being a son of Abraham, Jesus
came to him to preach to him the gospel so that that son of
Abraham could be delivered from false thinking to correct thinking
about Christ. He was come so that he might
deliver this son of Abraham from being lost to being found. Look at the next verse. For the
Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. He came to save that which was
lost. Now that's a phrase that we use
a lot and that's the phrase that I kind of was pondering on this
morning. as I was getting ready that kind
of stuck in my head that obviously by God's divine appointment he
put there because this is not anything that he had brought
to my mind this week. We often use the term, we need to go preach to the lost.
We need to go out and evangelize the lost. I grew up saying that
phrase, you know, that person's just lost. They're not saved,
they're lost. We use those terms to try to
differentiate the difference between a person who has been
saved and a person who has not been saved. Someone who has accepted
Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and allowed Jesus to come
into their heart and now is serving and working for Jesus. versus
the person who's still out there living under their own dictates,
wanting to do their own thing, not even having anything to do
with Jesus. That was the mentality. That
was what I was preaching of. That's the difference, the lost
and the saved. They were two different people
and everybody is lost until you are saved. And then once you
are saved, you are not lost. But is that what the Bible teaches?
Is that how the Bible teaches us about saved and lost? Is that what the Bible teaches
us about who is the lost? Matter of fact, I will say that
the Bible is very clear, and I hope to maybe bring that out
today if the Lord gives me ability. I would say that the only ones
that are lost are the ones who are saved. The ones that are
lost are the ones that are saved. And I mean that by the fact that
to be saved is not a timely thing in which men, at the moment of
their birthing, as some would say, are saved. Or the minute
that they believe in Jesus, they're now saved. Or the fact that they
now have changed from free will thinking, free choice thinking,
Arminianism to believing sovereign grace. Now they're saved. Now,
in a temporal sense, I would guess that would be being saved
from wrong thinking. God has, at that point in time,
granted them repentance and thus saved them from continuing in
error about the gospel and the work and salvation of Jesus Christ.
So in that sense, I would say yes, that would be a salvation. But whenever we are talking about
in terms of the legal salvation, the justification before God,
why men are saved, why men are not under God's wrath, why men
are not going to be cast into hell, why men are counted as
just before God, is not by anything that they do in time. That is
accomplished by them. So therefore, whenever we speak
of the difference between the lost and the saved, we cannot
separate the two because the lost and the saved in scripture
are the same people. Those who are saved were the
lost sons of Abraham, the lost sheep of Christ who were found. To be saved means to be no longer
lost. Jesus saved us by His death. He says right here, for the Son
of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. We are His sheep that was lost. We were lost into sin and death. We were lost in Adam. Yet in Christ we have been found. Jesus said here, for the Son
of Man is come, the purpose of Christ. The reason Jesus came
is to seek and to save that which was lost. Now, brethren, I'm
telling you, Whenever Jesus makes a statement like that, whenever
God in flesh makes a statement that says, the purpose for me
coming, the reason that I am here is to seek and to save that
which was lost, we can be assured by the Holy Spirit of God and
the words of scripture, which are not lies, we can be assured
that Jesus accomplished everything that he was sent and was given
to do. He said, I have come, I am come,
or excuse me, the Son of Man is come, the purpose of me being
here, the reason that I have taken on flesh, The reason I've
been made liken unto my brethren is so that for my brethren I
might seek and save them which are lost. My brethren, my sheep,
the ones who have been entrusted to me, the ones who I am a surety
for. Remember again that illustration
has kind of came up quite a bit here lately. Whenever Benjamin
was to be taken to Joseph and his brother said, I will be a
surety for him If I do not go and bring him back, then let
his blood be my fault. Let me be the one to blame. That's
the purpose of the surety. The surety was to go and to stand
instead and to make sure that the person who was being charged
with the crimes, that they show up back in front of the judge. Well, brethren, we are showing
back up in front of the judge, and we're not being brought back
to the judge under condemnation. We were lost, but now we are
found. We are being brought back by
our surety. He has come to seek and save and he will be successful. So my question is, is who is
the lost and will there be any lost in hell? We talked about
that all the lost is going to be cast into hell. That's what
I used to preach. But will there be any lost in
hell? Not in the sense of this biblical
term here that Jesus is using, to save them which was lost.
Because if Jesus came to seek them which were lost, then there
will be no lost in hell. You say, well, what about all
the people that will be in hell? What do you consider them to
be? Well, they were never his to begin with. See, the reason
that we are lost, if we are His, is because we have always been
His. We were given to Him before the
foundation of the world. All that was the Father's was given to Christ. And all
that is Christ, He says, I will come and seek and to save them.
I will return them. They will not be lost forever.
So will there be any lost in heaven? No, because Christ has
come to seek and save us. He said in 2 Peter, I will that
none should perish, but that all come to repentance. That verse isn't talking about
everybody in the world. That verse is specifically talking
about the brethren that is in the context of that verse. The
brethren. He said, I will have you, brethren,
that you not be ignorant of these very things, that a day is like
a thousand years, a thousand years like a day, that God is
not slack, that Christ is going to be coming back. He is not
willing that any should perish, but that all come to repentance.
Why is it that Jesus hasn't come back and the eternal state and
judgment taking place? Because not all has come to repentance.
He is still bringing his sheep that are lost He's still finding
them. He's bringing them together.
The harvest is coming in. The harvest is being brought
in. And all those who are being brought in, whenever they have
been brought in, then that time will be up. All have come to
repentance. Zacchaeus was one of these who
was lost. And Christ came and found him.
And if you know the story, he was brought in. Now, let's look at a few other
verses in the scripture and see is this the truth of the scripture
or is this just the harebrained scheme of a crummy preacher that
is uneducated and don't know how to speak correctly. Let's
look in John chapter 6. Let's go there first. I've jotted
down a few scriptures that came to my mind this morning. in thinking
about this subject. I don't know if all these will
be in order or not as far as, you know, a nice, cohesive, thought-out
outline of scriptures, but it's the scriptures nonetheless. We'll
just go as the Spirit leads us on then. But John chapter 6 came
to my mind at first. And I already kind of quoted
some of this, but let's look at these familiar verses started
in verse 37. This is in Jesus's great discourse
on the bread, which is from heaven, which we spoke about just recently. But look at verse 37, it says,
all that the father giveth me shall come to me and him that
cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Now, how many is going
to be cast out? None, right? Why? Because he
just said, all let the Father give it to you. Now, you remember
a few weeks ago we talked about, we talked about a quantifier.
Remember me talking about a quantifier? What was a quantifier? Y'all
remember? Y'all slept since then. I've had lack of sleep since
then. Quantifier is something that
differentiates a group of people or a certain number. So if I
said, all that was here this morning sang a hymn. Now whenever I use that word
all, does that mean everybody in the world? No. What's the
quantifier? Those that were here. That quantifies
the all. So now all doesn't have the meaning
of everybody that exists, but the word all is now defined with
all within the group that was gathered here together in context
of the one singing the hymns, right? That's a quantifier. So
whenever Jesus is speaking about the ones who are not going to
be cast out, the ones who are going to be saved, the ones who
are going to be drawn and raised up at the last day, that word
all here The quantifier is that the Father
giveth me. Those are the only ones. Nobody
else. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Who's going to come to Jesus
Christ? All that the Father giveth me. That's the quantifier. That's
how we know the success of the Gospel. When Jesus said, I have
come to seek and to save that which was lost, not only do we
know that to be true because Jesus said it and He's God and
cannot lie, but we also know that Jesus has also said that
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. We know that
they are coming. We don't have to worry about
people being out there somewhere scattered in the four corners
or, you know, through the four corners of the world and Somebody
not hearing the Gospel and missing Heaven because somebody didn't
speak the Gospel to them. Somebody didn't preach the Gospel
to them. Somebody didn't get a Bible into their hands. Somebody
didn't get an evangelist to come and preach a revival. Now, not
one is going to be lost. Not one is going to be lost because
the one who said, I have come to seek and to save is the one
who is out looking for them. It's not the evangelist out looking
for them. It's not the preacher out looking
for them. It's not the missionary boards. It's not the seminaries. It's not the schools of thought,
of theology that's out there. That is not who is seeking and
saving that which is lost. The one who is seeking and saving
that which is lost is the Lord Jesus Christ. They're His sheep,
and He is the one that is responsible for them. If the Bible speaks
anything of responsibility and accountability, it speaks of
it in the person of Jesus Christ. We talk about being accountable
and responsible. Brethren, listen, the sovereign
God of this universe, of any universe, if there be any other
universes, this is the only one that we actually know of according
to Scripture, but if there be any other universes, He's the
God of that too. And that God has predestinated
everything. And that God has set one above
all others, the Lord Jesus, and that person, that man, is in
control of all life. He is in control of everything.
Nothing is happening apart from Him. The Bible says that everything
in this world, by Him, it consists, or is held together. Jesus is
the one in control. He's the one that is doing everything,
controlling everything, bringing about all the purpose of God.
I think back again, and I may be wrong in this symbolism, but
that's how the Lord's given me to think on it, at least as of
now, unless corrected. But whenever Jesus was the Lamb
seated upon the throne in Revelation, and He was given a scroll, and
that scroll was given with all those seals, and He was the only
one worthy to open that, That was the very purpose and predestination
of God that was from the beginning. That the Bible says that all
known unto God are all His works, the end from the beginning, was
all contained in that scroll. The full purpose of God was in
that scroll and Jesus Christ was the only one worthy to open
it up and to bring forth and bring to fruition and to cause
by providence everything that was found in that scroll. He
is the one fulfilling all of the things. That's why the Bible
says all the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus.
It's because it's His accountability. It's His responsibility. If there
is any accountability and responsibility when it comes to the child of
grace, it is placed upon their substitute. He is the one who
is accountable for us. He is the one who is sent to
seek and to save that which is lost. If there is any responsibility
for the child of grace, that responsibility lies upon His
substitute. Jesus is the one who is responsible
to pay for our sins and to also be the one to preserve us in
this life. He is the one who is to work
in us to will and to do His good pleasure. So we are being given
faith to trust in Him not only for His substitutionary work
for us, but His ever interceding for us on our behalf. He has
come to save fully to the utmost, the Bible says, those who are
lost. He came to do that for us. Jesus
Christ is the one who has the accountability, the responsibility,
and the children of God is given faith to trust that He is accomplishing
everything that He was sent to do. And He says here, All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to
me I will no wise cast out, for I came down from heaven. not
to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this
is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which He
hath given me, I shall lose nothing." So will there be any lost in
hell? No, because Jesus came down to do the will of the Father. This makes me think of Well,
look, while we're there, not to overlook this, but look, but
should raise it up at the last day, all that was given in the
Father will be raised up at the last day. They will experience
the resurrection. They will experience that day
whenever this mortal flesh will be put down. And if it's already
been dead and in the ground, that there will be a time whenever
that will be raised up, which is His, and be given an eternal
body, a spiritual body, one like their Savior, one like Christ,
but it will be raised up. He says, And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone would see the Son and believeth on
Him, and they have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up
at the last day." There's not going to be one found in hell,
brethren. They're all going to be saved. The lost is those who
are Christ's, and those who are Christ's that are lost will be Turn with me, if you would, to
Matthew chapter 10. Some will probably say, well, preacher,
I thought we were supposed to go into all the world and preach
the gospel to everybody. I thought that, you know, Jesus
has called all men to repentance. Again, this word all has to be
kept in context to what the Bible speaks. The quantifier determines
what the all means, right? Repentance is only given to his
people. Repentance isn't given to everybody.
Repentance isn't something that we can do on our own. It isn't
something that we work up in our own spirit. It isn't something
that we do by our own mental faculties. Repentance is granted. The Bible says that God has granted
unto them repentance. That repentance is a work of
God. The Bible says it is the work
of God that you believe. If we quit believing in our self-righteousness
and believe upon Christ and His righteousness, that belief wasn't
something that we just changed from our desire to look at this
and then now we're going to believe on this, it wasn't something
that we did in and of ourselves. It was something that was given
to us. It was the work of God. All the works of God that are
done in us are done by God, not by us. Our flesh doesn't do anything
good. Therefore, if we are believing,
if we are His, if we are the ones who have believed on Him,
we have done so, because we are his sheep. So people don't just
repent of their own. They repent because they've been
granted repentance. They've been given repentance.
They've been given that because they've been given life by Christ. And due to that life, they now
can hear the gospel, they can believe the gospel, and they
can turn from false gospels. That's all by the work of God
in them. Look at Matthew chapter 10. As
I began to say a minute ago, we say, well, aren't we supposed
to go out and preach this to everybody? God's called everybody
to repentance and that word to be evangelizing all these people
out there and everything. Well, let's look what Jesus said
here in Matthew 10, whenever he sent out the 12. In verse
5 it says, These twelve Jesus sent forth and commanded them
saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city
of the Samaritans, enter ye not. Now the reason for that is because
the time of the gospel was not to be taken to the Gentiles.
Not that the Gentiles were not included in Christ's redemptive
work. The Gentiles were in the redemptive
work of Christ. The Bible says that He is a people
out of every language, nation, tribe, and tongue. It's not just
Jew or Gentile, that in Christ Jesus there is no Jew nor Gentile. There were one in Christ Jesus.
However, in the dispensation of the Gospel, in the proceeding of the Gospel to go
forth, The Bible says that it was first in Jerusalem, then
Judea, then into the other parts of the world, right? Whenever
Jesus gave this command, the command was that the gospel was
to be to the Jew first, then to the Greek. It came to the
Jew first, and then to the Greek. Okay? And so at this point, Jesus
is commanding these people, but go rather to the lost sheep of
the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying,
the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So Jesus here is saying, whenever
you go, don't go over here to preach. Go here to preach the
gospel. Go preach the kingdom is at hand
here. To the, what does it say? The
lost house of Israel. Okay, so Israel is the quantifier
on who they were to go preach to. but specifically the lost
sheep of Israel. See he was telling them to go
preach to those who were the believing people in Israel, among
Israel. Because they were to preach to
Israel first and then after Christ's resurrection the gospel was then
spread to every language, tribe, and tongue. But here we see that
it's to the lost sheep of Israel. You say, well, wait a minute,
wasn't all of Israel lost? Well, again, what does the Bible
say? Jesus came to seek and to save
that which was lost. If all of Israel, all the people
who were Israelites, were part of those sheep, then all of them
will be saved. But we know that Jesus just got
done saying in where we was at in John that there were some
that believed and some that didn't believe. Why? Because they were
the children of Satan. There were some of Israel who
did not believe because they were not Christ's sheep. And Jesus even made it very clear.
He said, you believe not because ye are not my sheep. And he was
talking to Israelites. So whenever we look at this in
the context of the Bible again, and not by our theologies that
are floating around out there from schools of thought, We see
that He is talking about, go to those who are believing and
to share the gospel with them. Listen, is it wrong for us to
talk about the gospel to anybody that's out there? No, it's not.
No, it's not. But if there's a person that
isn't being receptive of the gospel, then we just continue
to go about our way. If God gives them repentance,
He grants them repentance in due time, hey, some have planted,
some have watered, It is God that giveth the increase. But
brethren, listen. We go and our message of the
gospel is for those who have ears to hear. That's why Jesus
will say that all the time. Let he who has ears to hear,
let him hear what the Spirit says. The reason is, is because
the only one that's going to be receptive of that word, the
only one that it was intended to be good news for, are for
the sheep. Jesus said, going out to the
lost sheep of Israel. Look in Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15. Jesus said in verse 24, excuse me, Let's back up to verse 21 and
kind of know what's going on here. It said, Then Jesus went
to the fence and departed into the coast of Tyre and Sidon.
And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and
cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son
of David. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil, but he answered her not a word. And his disciples
came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth
after us. But he answered and said, I am
not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then
came she and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered
and said, it is not meat to take the children's bread and to cast
it to dogs. And she said, truth, Lord, yet
the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table.
Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy
faith. Be it unto thee even as thou
wilt, and her daughter was made whole from that very hour. Now,
did that woman's faith actually heal her daughter? No. He said, O woman, great is thy
faith, but be it unto thee even as thou wilt. Jesus said, I'm
going to grant you your desire. Why? Because Jesus had already
purposed to do that to begin with. It's not by chance. It's
not by accident. And this was not an event that
was outside of God's purpose and predestination that Jesus
didn't know about, hadn't planned on doing it, it wasn't in his
works to do it, and then decided, hey, well, I'll go ahead and
do this because her faith was so great, I'm gonna change my
mind. I will go to those who are outside of the house of Israel.
Is that the case? No. What made her the child of
Israel? The fact that she had faith,
right? She had been given faith. She
had not had that faith on her own. She had faith because it
had been given to her. Jesus is not doing this as a
surprise to him. Oh, wow, great is your faith.
Okay, well, let me give that to you. No, Jesus did this as
an illustration, especially to those that were with him and
around him, giving an illustration of The reason this is going forth
and I'm doing this is because I am sent to the lost sheep of
Israel. And this woman, by her showing
of faith, shows that she is in that number. Like Rahab and all
those other Gentiles who in the past were by faith shown to be
children of God. That's why Jesus spoke to her.
That's why Jesus granted her her request, not because she
requested it, but to show forth his work and to accomplish that
which he had been sent to do. OK, so we see it was to the lost
house of Israel, the lost sheep of Israel. Now, whenever I think
of that, the reason that Jesus did this, the reason that Jesus
has going to keep all those that are given to Him is because,
and turn with me to John, back to John again, is because Jesus, in simple terms,
is the Good Shepherd. See, the reason Jesus is accomplishing
this is He's a Good Shepherd. I'm not a Good Shepherd. No preacher, no pastor that's
ever given, even though God calls these men, gifts these men, they're
called to the office to be a pastor, an elder within the church, deacons
that are called to serve within the church, to serve the church.
These men are not infallible. They're fallible men. And they're
not good shepherds. Okay? Good shepherd. Look with me, if you would, at
John chapter 10, and let's look at verse 7. It says, Jesus said unto them,
Verily, verily, 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.
I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, He
shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. That
if is not a conditional phrase. It's not a possibility phrase. It's a statement of fact. I am
the door. By me, the sheep shall be saved. By me, they shall go in and out
and find pasture. But the description, the quantifier
is if any man enter in. Or excuse me, the quantifier
for that is those who come in by the door. Jesus is the door. All that came before me are thieves
and robbers. The sheep did not hear them.
I am the door, by me if any man enter in shall be saved and shall
go in and out. The thief cometh not but to steal
and to kill and destroy. I am come that they who, the
sheep that enters in by the door, 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 for the sheep. But he that is a hireling, and
not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf
coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the wolf catcheth
them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because
he is a hireling, and careth not for the sheep. 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. So here we see that Jesus is
the Good Shepherd and He knows His sheep. And His sheep know
Him. And He is the one that is the
door or the entrance into the fold, into the flock. They don't
come any other way. If they come any other way, what
does He say? They are liars and thieves. They
are robbers. They try to get in another way.
They don't come in the door. What is Jesus talking about there?
Whenever we come into this house, we come in through the door,
right? Why? Because this is our house. We come in through the
door. But if a thief or a robber is
trying to get in, are they going to come through that door? No,
they don't have a key to that door. They can't get in. What
are they going to do? They're going to try to find a window somewhere. They're
going to bust out a window and come in through a window. They're
going to find a window that's open and try to come through
a window or some other way that they might get into the house. But if the door is open to them,
Do we open the door to people that we don't know and ask them
to come in? No, whenever the UPS guy comes up here, do I say,
well, come on in, fella? No, I stand up the door and I
stay right there and I say, yeah, could I help you? Who are the
ones that are let in? Those who are our friends, those
who we know. See, Jesus is saying, I am the
door and they that come in by me, meaning that they have come
in because I have opened the door for them. I'm the one who
has invited them into the house, into the flock, into the sheep
pen. I'm the one who has opened the door. Nobody's going to get
through. And if anybody tries to get through, that's a thief
and a robber. Because the only way to come through is through
the door. You can't get in through the window. You can't get in
coming through under the basement and come back up through the
stairs. Okay? And he says here, I'm a good
shepherd and I know my sheep and have none of mine. As the
Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down
my life for the sheep. But look at verse 16, it says,
And other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also
I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall
be one fold and one shepherd. So we see here at the time his
focus was upon national Israel and the lost sheep of that particular
group of people. But he said, other sheep I have
that are not of this fold, with them must I also bring. And once
I bring them, they will come in and they will be of this one
fold. There is only one fold. There
is not two folds. There is not the Jew fold and
the Gentile fold. There is only one fold. The thing
is, is the sheep that were gathered into a fold began among the Jews. to the Jew first and then to
the Gentile. So among the Jews first, there
was a fold being made, but that fold was incomplete because Jesus
had sheep that were not just of Israel, but of every nation,
tribe, and tongue. And he says, them I must bring. And I think of those words right
there, I must bring. That means Jesus had a mission.
Jesus had a purpose. Jesus had a command of God, as
He said, I do everything, whatever the Father wills, I've done.
It was the Father's will that these people be brought. He said,
I must bring them. Again, I go back to what I said
earlier. If Jesus must bring them, then who's the one accountable
and responsible for the sheep to get in? Not just of the Jew,
but of the Gentile. The preaching of the Gospel throughout
the world, whose responsibility is that? the good shepherd. The good shepherd, he is the
one that is responsible. Then he says in verse 17, therefore
does my father love me because I lay down my life that I might
take it up again. No man taketh from me, but I
lay it down of myself, and I have power to lay it down, and I have
power to take it up. This commandment have I received
of my Father." It was God's command that Jesus Christ lose nothing,
but lay down His life, and in laying down His life, secure
salvation for His sheep, for them to be brought back. That
which was lost will be found. That which was lost will be saved. Will there be any in hell that
are lost? No. Why? Because the good shepherd
layeth down his life for the sheep. That's why John 3.16 says,
For God so loved the world, the world meaning who? The world
of God's people, the world of God's believers, that He makes
believers, the world of God's sheep. For God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth.
There's the quantifier. Jesus was sent for those who
would be the believers. Who are the ones who are believers?
The ones that the Lord has granted to believe. Right? The only ones who are believers
are those who are born of God. Who come to the Father, come
because of Him. No man cometh to the Father except
by Me. No one cometh to the Father. The Father has to drag them. The Bible says all that the Father
has given Me shall come to Me. That's guaranteed, but how did
they come? They come because they said, unless the Father
draws them. That word draw means to drag.
What's he doing? He's bringing them all in. Pulling
them all in. Look if you would at Hebrews
13 20. A couple more verses and I think we'll be done. Hebrews
chapter 13 Verse 20. It says, Now the God
of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the
great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal,
lasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His
will. Who's making you perfect? It's Christ. In every good work to do His
will, Working in you. Working in you. Not you working
out Him. But Him working in you. That which is well-pleasing in
His sight. Through Christ Jesus to whom
be glory forever. He is the Great Shepherd. He's
the Good Shepherd. He's the Great Shepherd. Look at 1 Peter. Chapter 5 and
verse 4. Start in verse 1. The elders
which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness
of the sufferings of Christ. Talking about Peter, he was an
elder in the church. Writing to other elders here.
He says, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also
a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock
of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by
constraint but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready
mind." He's speaking about the elders, those who have been called
of God to pastor the churches. He said, feed the flock of God. Whose flock is it? It's not the
pastor's flock. It's not the preacher's flock.
It's the flock of God. It's Christ's flock. It's His
sheep. It's His church. It's not the preacher's. taking the oversight thereof.
That doesn't say to be the boss. Taking the oversight means to
be the one who keeps the order. Okay? What is one of the duties
that I have as a pastor? Well, I'm the one who kind of
sets the order for how we conduct the services here. We come together
and we sing songs or hymns and we preach, we pray. fellowship
together. We set in order these things.
That's kind of what the, the, uh, if there's any discipline
that needs to be taken place, the pastor is the one who has
the oversight. He's the one who is to govern
over these proceedings and then as they are to be done and the
orderliness of them and how they are to be done, but he is not
in no way above anybody else in the church and he is not to
lord it over God's heritage. As the Bible says, he's not to
keep them by doing anything by constraint or by But as it says
here, he's not to do it for money. We're not to be pastors and preachers.
Boy, I tell you what, that's definitely the opposite of what
we see today out there. Everybody out in that world is
trying to be a preacher, and they gotta go preach, and they
gotta be paid a salary, and they're all about, you know, hey, I can
be a preacher over here. That's a lot bigger church, and
I'm gonna get a bigger salary out of it. Listen, I actually
know preachers who have told other churches that I can't come
preach for you unless you can give me this much money. Now
that right there is what Jesus was talking about a minute ago
as a hireling. He's working as a wage. He's
not working as a servant. He's working as a laborer for
wages. Not out of service for Christ.
Not because he was called by Christ. He's coming because of
his own desire for what it says here, filthy lucre or money.
He says not to lord over God's heritage, but being examples
to the flock. Look here in verse 4. And when
the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory
that fadeth not away. So here we see that Jesus is
the chief shepherd. Who is the one who is responsible
and accountable for the sheep? The chief shepherd. The great
shepherd. The good shepherd. The door of the sheep. He is
responsible. He is leading them in. Look at John chapter 17 finally. I think this will kind of come completely full circle here when
I receive this. If it doesn't, brethren, surely
know that it's my fault and my preparation of anything which
wasn't any preparation. It was just the thoughts the
Lord put on my heart. John chapter 17. I'm going to start reading
in verse 1. And I will point out exactly
what I intend to look at here in a minute. These words spake
Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven. This was whenever
Jesus was praying. whenever Jesus went into Gethsemane
and was praying, the Bible says that he was so overcome with
what was about to take place and Christ being rebuked of God,
as Psalms says, he was rebuked of God or whenever God's wrath
and judgment was to fall on him because of the sin that he was
taking on for his brethren. Jesus, the Bible says, whenever
he was praying, he was under such such a state that the Bible says
that he sweat as it were great drops of blood. But this is the
prayer he says, Father the hour has come, glorify thy son and
thy son that thy son also may glorify thee as thou hast given
him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life,
here it is the quantifier, to as many as thou hast given him.
Who's the only ones that's gonna have eternal life? who are going
to be saved, those whom the Father has given Him. And this is life
eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God. Who
are the ones who are going to know and believe on Jesus Christ?
Those who have been given eternal life. those who have been given
Him. It all goes back to those who
were given Him. It all goes back to that eternal
union before the foundation of the world. Salvation has nothing
to do with what we do in time conditioned by any response or
any kind of action that we do. It always, always goes back to
the predestinated purpose of God to glorify His Son through
the redemption of His people that God chose before the foundation
of the world, elected in Christ Jesus, and given unto Him blessed
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places and given
that beautiful, wonderful gift of union. We are in Christ. Our life is hid in Christ with
God. Our life is His life. Our life
is Christ. It is all about Christ and that
union, that salvation, that eternal union and everything that was
part of that That was outside of everything that we had done.
We weren't even existing at that time, nor was anybody or anything. There was not a molecule of this
created earth in existence whenever God did that. So therefore, salvation
is not in the hands of any man. Therefore, those that are lost and those that are saved are
all of one because Those who are lost belong to Jesus. And
Jesus being the good, great chief shepherd, loses none of his sheep. Because it was His responsibility
from the Father in His will to come and redeem, meaning to be
brought back. That's what redeem means. To
be brought back. Therefore, none will be lost.
Why? was put in charge to go do that. Not the pastor, not
the preacher, not the church, not your mama, not your daddy,
not your grandpa or grandma or aunt or uncle or best friend.
Nobody is put in charge of bringing in the lost except the great
shepherd. He says, and this is like eternal
that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent." Who was the one sent? Christ. He says, I have glorified thee
on the earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou
me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before
the world was. I have manifested thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they
were, So that means we belong to God. Before we were given
to Christ, we belong to God. Okay? We are His. The Bible says that our names
were written down, engraved upon His hand, and by type of foreshadow,
engraved upon His chest. I have manifested thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they
were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all
things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given
unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received
them, and have known surely that I have come out from thee, and
they have believed that thou didst send me. Now, pay close
attention here. I prayed for them. Who's He talking
about? Those that the Lord has given
Him, right? Now, in specific context here, in this verse,
He's talking about the apostles. The twelve that was given to
Him. Out of the world to be His disciples. Those first group of men that
was given to Him there in this ministry. by extension, and we'll see this
to be true here in just a minute, that includes all his disciples
from everywhere, not just those 12, but everyone is included
in this. He says, I pray for them, I pray
not for the world. There was a distinction between
them and the world, in this case, the world not meaning the world
of the elect, but the world of Satan. the world of the reprobate,
those who were outside of Christ, not given to Christ. Everyone
who is not given to Christ, Christ doesn't pray for them. And if
Christ doesn't pray for them, then you have not been interceded
for. If you've not been interceded for, then you have not been mediated.
And there's only one mediator between God and man, and that's
the man, Jesus Christ. And only by that mediation can
man come before God. Only by that mediation can any
man come in through into the Holy of Holies and approach God.
The Bible says that the only way that they can go through
the veil, and that veil was Christ's body by His death. If Christ
did not die for you, you cannot approach unto God. Christ was
the mediator on your behalf by dying for your sins and living
for your obedience. Christ did all that as your mediator
and by that death on the cross, that allowed you to come through
the veil and to approach unto God. No man approaches unto God
without being holy. And the only reason that we're
holy is because we are in Christ Jesus who is holy. We've been
imputed His righteousness. The holiness of Christ is ours
because we are in Him, not because we act righteous or do obedience
to God. And therefore, we only can come
to Him if He's mediated for us. And if He's mediated for us,
all for whom He mediates comes through the veil, comes through
the door, as it were, and approaches the God. Why? Because he's the
surety. And he goes and makes sure that
they're redeemed and brought back to God. He says, I pray
for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou
hast given me, for they are mine. And all are mine, and thine are
mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world. And I come to thee, Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those whom thou hast... Who's going
to be kept? those whom thou hast given me." The ones who Christ
prayed for. What does that tell us there?
What does that tell us about Christ's sheep? It tells us that
all are going to come to Him. All are going to come to Him
by Jesus Christ. And all that do come by Jesus
Christ, they're going to be kept because the Holy Father is going
to keep them. God is going to keep them from
falling away, from going away. How does he do that? Because
he's the great shepherd of the sheep. And once he brings those
sheep into the flock and into the fold, they're not going to
wander off anymore. They're not going to go away.
Does that mean that they're perfect? No. Does that mean that they
don't sin? No. Does that mean that they don't
have other thoughts and in their mind begin to wander away? No.
But they're not going anywhere. They're part of the fold. They're
never going to be outside the fold. They're never going to
be lost. Therefore, if they're not lost,
they're found. If they're found, they are His. If they are His, then they are
never perished because the Bible says that I give unto them life
and they shall never perish. And it says right here, the Father
is going to keep them. How is it that they're going
to be kept? By law keeping? As the Judaizers to the Galatian
church was preaching? I know that we I know that we
are saved by grace and election and predestination and Christ's
imputation of righteousness to us. But brethren, we have a duty
and responsibility to keep these commands that God has given us.
Is that what keeps us? Didn't Paul say? Have you begun
in the Spirit? Are you now made perfect? By
the flesh? Are we made perfect by the flesh?
Are we continued? No, what was made perfect? We
just read it a while ago. Who made us perfect? Christ Jesus
made us perfect. How did he make us perfect? By
his shed blood. He says, And now I am no more
in the world, but these are in the world. Keep them through
thine own name, those whom thou hast given me, that they may
be one as we are. While I was with them in the
world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou hast given me,
I have kept, and none of them is lost." None of them is lost. Will there
be any lost in hell? No. Well, someone's going to
say, well, preacher, you didn't read the rest of that verse.
One of them was lost. Well, number one, let me just
say this. Are you calling Jesus a liar? Jesus said none would be lost.
All would come. Are you saying that there are
people that could have been saved, but wasn't saved? Well, if that's
the case, then the great shepherd ain't so great. Because the great
shepherd brings all his sheep in. He lost something and couldn't
retrieve it? He went away as their surety,
came back to God empty handed? Brethren, I don't think that
to be so. They may say, well look preacher,
it says right there, those that thou gavest me I have
kept and none of them is lost but the son of perdition that
the scripture might be fulfilled. Well, this is very simple. There
may be a more smart answer than what I'm about to give, but to
me, I just look at it in a simple way. If he was lost, speaking of Judas, this is who
this is talking about, right? Because out of the 12 that God gave Jesus,
Judas was the one who was lost. He's talking about Judas. I have
kept all those and none of them is lost. But it says, but the
son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled. He says, I have kept them and
none of them is lost. So that means none of them are
lost. But what about the son of perdition?
What about Judas? Wasn't he lost? No. That's why he used the phrase
son of perdition. He's differentiating. Although
God gave Judas to Jesus and the twelve, that's why I said in
particular whenever Jesus was praying that all that the Father
had given him, he prayed for them and not them only, but those
that are also of this fold that I must also bring. those in the
world that's outside of those within Israel right now, but
there's other flock out there, there's other sheep out there
that must be brought into the one flock. Whenever he was praying
for all those people, he wasn't praying for Judas because Judas
wasn't given to him in the sense that these other men were. He
was given to him in the sense that it was God's purpose through
Judas to betray Jesus that would lead to his crucifixion. Matter
of fact, the Bible, God predestinated, but the Bible prophesied that
back in the Old Testament, prophesied Judas and what his job would
be before he ever existed. Judas was the man that God chose
to be that, and therefore, that's why Jesus, whenever he prayed
this, he said, none have been lost but the son of perdition
was lost. Not lost in the sense that these
men are lost, my sheep that I've been bringing back to you, but
this man being a son of perdition. That word perdition, you know
what that means? What Jesus was calling this man?
The word perdition in the Greek there, it means a vessel of destruction. So Jesus was saying, none of
them is lost but the vessel of destruction that the Scripture
might be fulfilled. Why did Judas Why was Judas the
one that betrayed Jesus? Why? So that the scripture might
be fulfilled. So did God just say, well, I
wrote this scripture back here about a guy, so Judas, you're
going to have to be that guy. Somebody's got to fulfill this,
you know, because I said it. If somebody doesn't fulfill it,
then I said something wrong. Well, in a sense that's correct,
but let's get it in the order that the scripture puts it because
the Bible says, known from God are all his works, the end from
the beginning. God purposed it from the foundation of the world
that Judas would send this sin under condemnation and be the
son of perdition, the vessel of destruction. Therefore, that
is why in Romans, God has wrote down for us that he has made
some vessels for destruction, some vessels not for destruction.
Those who are vessels of destruction will carry out the works that
God has purposed for them in there being the vessels of dishonor
and destruction." That was the condemnation under which Judas
was created. Just as in Peter, we see that
the false teachers and the false preachers of the day were those
who God had predestinated before the foundation of the world unto
the condemnation of being a false prophet, a false teacher, so
that the children of God may be approved, so that the people
of God may be approved. It's not by chance, it's not
by accident, it's not by God having two separate wills, one
will and a permissive will. God didn't predestinate that,
that's all part of man's free will or free choice. No, it was
God's purpose. He was meant to be a lost vessel
of destruction. He wasn't meant to be a sheep. So therefore, His being lost
is a different lost Whenever the Bible speaks of being lost
and then being found, the only ones that are found are the sheep,
and all the sheep are found, so therefore there is no lost
person that Christ died for gonna be in hell. Because Jesus is
the great shepherd. All right, Brown, I think I'll
end there. Anybody have a question or have anything that you'd like
to add or comments? Good Shepherd. Thank you, Father,
for the salvation that we have in Him. We thank you for the
life that we have through Him. Father, we thank you for the
Word of God that declares His name. We thank you for the victory
that is sure through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Father, Lord, we surely
not boast upon anything that we can do. Our accountability,
our responsibility, Father, would always be in the negative. It
will always be irresponsibility and unaccountability because,
Father, our flesh can do no good. But we look to Christ Jesus,
our surety. We look to Christ Jesus, our
elder brother, who has promised to come and to bring us back. His blood was shed on our behalf.
And it was because of that shed blood that we have been made
perfect, that we have been given entrance through the veil and
acceptance with God. Father, it is not upon our own,
not upon our merit, not upon our worth, not upon our heritage,
but only by mercy and grace have we been given these things and
we thank you for them. Thank you for these brethren you've
gathered here today. We ask for that you would be with them this
week. We pray for others in this town, Lord, sheep that you may
have that have not yet been brought. We pray, Lord, that you would
bring them in as you're in your time. Lord, we pray, Lord, that
you just might add to the number here, not for our boasting, not
for our vain glory, Lord, but that they might find refuge,
that they might find a place to fellowship, to be fed of the
gospel, to enter into the service of the gospel. Lord, we thank
you so much for this place that you've given us to do that. And
we ask, Lord, that you might continue to bless us, to keep
us in the faith. Lord, I just pray today that
everything that has been said and done has been by your Spirit
and been truth. And anything that is not, Lord,
I surely know it is because of my frailty and carnality. I know it's because of my lack
of wisdom, not spiritual wisdom, but because of my fleshly wisdom. And so, Lord, I pray that any
of that that might have been done today, that you, by your
spirit, might teach your children, that you can teach them where
preachers cannot. And so I thank you that that
also is not dependent upon man. And so, Father, Lord, once again,
we give honor and praise to glory, if it be so. And we asked.