worried about it and that's good when they're not too worried about it. And I'm glad I didn't do a biopsy. I always worry about when they stick needles in you and punch holes in things, you know what I mean? Also, I remember the Dawson-Muller family and the Snead family and Ronald James, Malcolm's brother. I haven't heard anything about his foot yet. Foot, Judy Husky-Bird. Judy Husky-Bird? Yeah, that's my first cousin. B-Y-R-D? B-I-R-D. B-I-R-D? B-I-R-D. What's her deal? What's wrong? Oh, she's got cancer in her stomach. Oh, that's not good. How old is she? She caught, uh, she must be close to 70, or older than I mean. That's not good. That's one of the bad kind of cancers.

Okay, let's begin our worship service tonight with hymn number 129, The Cross. Alas, and did my Saviour bleed? And did my Saviour die? Would He be worthy For such a worm as I At the cross, at the cross Where I first saw the light And the burden of my heart gone away It was there, I think, time to see my sight And count my happy old days While sitting in a branch that I had planted, we groaned among the tree.

Amazingly, grace unknown, and love beyond imagination. and the burden of my heart go away. It was there, my grace, I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day. Well, by the sun in darkness' height, and shut his glory's gate, When Christ is the mighty Maker died, O man, love me just a little! At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, Then the burden of my heart rolled away, It was there by grace I received ♪ I ain't happy all the day ♪ ♪ But God's a weak and weary thing ♪ ♪ But in the love I owe ♪ ♪ Here, Lord, I give myself away ♪ ♪ Here's all that I can do ♪ 39.

This is my father's word. This is my father's world And to my listening ears All nature sings and man agrees The music of God's Spirit This is my ♪ The birch and arrows facing ♪ ♪ The morning light of any fight ♪ ♪ To Jeremiah's praise ♪ ♪ This is my Father's world ♪ ♪ He shines in all that's fair ♪ The rest I hear as music to me everywhere. This is my Father's Word, O let me bear it. you. Jesus.

As the father knoweth me, even so know I the father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this foal, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one foal and one shepherd. Therefore doth my father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received from my Father.

Father, we pray. Our Father, we come in the blessed name of Jesus Christ the Lord, who is our blessed Savior, who indeed must gather all his sheep until he ends this thing called time. And he will gather them. And there is a guarantee that as the gospel is preached from those whom you sent, his voice will be heard in the ears of the elect. The sheep will hear his voice. We are thankful that such a guarantee, such a promise is set before us.

Were anything in this matter of salvation, changing a person's heart or their mind, if it were left to us, we would be, of all men, most miserable. And those who hear us would hear nothing but that when your word is preached and the gospel is set forth clearly, that your sheep hear and they come to Christ. Help us, Lord, to remember each other in prayer. Call each other's names out to heaven.

Father, we pray for those who are sick, those who are going through trials and lost loved ones, these who have been addicted to prayerless We ask, Lord, your help for this lady who has stomach cancer, this bird. We ask your blessing upon her. Help her, Lord, in these hard times to look to Jesus Christ.

Help us, Lord, tonight as we gather here that you might give us true worship as we consider the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, how wonderful, plain, and profitable they are. Help us to bow down in the dust where we belong and consider indeed that you have indeed laid down your life for such worms as we are. We stand amazed that we are thankful. Help us to praise you in our hearts and minds this hour. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. You were listening as I read along as a theological master class.

Our Lord declares so many things that his hearers will never grasp, the things that are the bread and butter of the believer. He's established that his relationship with his sheep is intimate, even to the same degree of his intimate relationship with his father. The Pharisees have believed that they are the sheep of God's pasture. The Jews believe that. They read Psalm 100. We are the sheep of his pasture. And they believe that they are the sheep.

But he said, if you don't believe me, you're not my sheep. You're a thief and a robber, and you come in another way and not come in by the door. But they still believe that they are God's sheep. But this Nazarene, whom they despise, is asserting that they're not God's sheep at all. This is proven by the fact that they do not believe on Him. It's proven by the fact that they want to kill Him. And also that they do not know Him. But He said in verse 14, My sheep know Me, and I know them even as I know My Father.

And the last phrase of verse 15 sets up the remarks of what He says in verses 16 through 18. Laying down His life is understood by His hearers, death because it set forth innumerous sacrifices and offerings commanded under the law of Sinai. Read the book of Leviticus, you'll find all those sacrifices. You'll find them mentioned in the book of Exodus and illuminated in the book of Leviticus.

All those sacrifices, they all pointed to one thing. In order to approach God, in order for God to accept you, and you're the one that needs to be accepted. He doesn't need to be accepted. In order for Him to accept you, there must be a death. There must be a blood sacrifice.

Just as He delivered Egypt with the blood upon the doorpost and the lentils, the first thing He did when Adam and Eve sinned against God, He slew beasts. He killed them. He shed blood and took the coats of the beasts and made coverings for them The first sacrifice mentioned in scripture was a blood sacrifice offered at the east of Eden by Abel. Cain brought the fruits of his labors, and he was rejected, but Abel brought the blood of the Lamb.

Because this is how God is approached, and if you approach Him today, the only way you're going to approach Him is through the blood of the sacrificial Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. No other way. God has to see a death on your account before you'll ever be accepted, and the only death that counts is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So they understood this concept of death being necessary, of blood being necessary, of sacrifice being necessary. When he said, I lay down my life, they didn't understand what he was saying. We know Caiaphas got a hint of what he was saying. We read that last week in Romans, John chapter 11. But they had a concept of this matter of death approaching God, but him saying, I lay down my life for the sheep was what stumped them. This is the doctrine of substitution. And the gospel is not preached where substitution is not preached.

As I said, it began at Eden, but under the law, when those offerings were made, that was never a propitiation. means to appease or to satisfy. Four times in scripture our Lord is said to be the propitiation, the satisfaction offered to God. The Old Testament offering of sacrifice ended in what's called atonement. Atonement was a covering. That's what the word atone means. It means to cover.

So those Old Testament sacrifices covered sin. In other words, shielded God's eyes from the sin, but they did not put sin away. So the greatest of those sacrifices, the Day of Atonement, was offered every year because there was a remembrance of sin every year. God didn't forget the sin. He covered it for a year and then required the blood to be shed again, but never took away any sin. Daily sacrifices were made. And the annual day of atonement was repeated without ever putting away sin.

That's what Paul was teaching in Romans and Hebrews chapter 10. Remember, he's teaching Jews. This letter or this epistle was written to the Hebrew children. And he's teaching Jews who counted on that thing. That priest going in that temple once a year to the Holy of Holies and offering blood, they counted on that. And our Lord said this through Paul the Apostle to the Hebrew children in chapter 10 in verse 1.

He says, for the law having a shadow of good things to come, but not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices, those sacrifices of all the sheep, goats, turtle doves, lambs, kids, bullocks, All those sacrifices were slain, and even the Lamb of the Day of Atonement, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually, could never take the comers there unto perfect.

Now that was what was necessary. What was necessary for the comers to actually come to God and be accepted perfect before a holy God. And all those sacrifices, though they were ordered by God, and they were told how to do it by God, down to the letter of how to do it, they never took away sin. They never made anybody perfect. So it says, for then, had anybody been made perfect, for then would they not have ceased to be offered, if a person was actually perfected by the sacrifice? because that the worshippers once purged of sin, sin put away, should have no more conscience of sin. But in those sacrifices, there was a remembrance, again, made of sins every year. So that sacrifice is not only atonement, it reminded them continually that the sin was still with them, the sin still existed, the sin had not been forgiven. That's why in the latter part of this same chapter, it says, Jesus Christ, not by many sacrifices, but by one offering, perfected. Oh, there's, that's how the comers there and do it, perfected. Perfected forever, them that are sanctified.

And before our Lord finishes his words, he will tell of a permanent, eternal propitiation, wherein the sheep for whom he will lay down his life will live eternally. That's coming in the next weeks. that we'll look. But for now, he explains the facts that surround this matter of his death or his laying down his life. That's what he deals with in verses 16 through 18. Verse 16, he first asserts the fact that he's been, a fact that has been declared through the Old Testament that the elect of God, now remember who the Jews said, we're the elect of God.

And they were. They were an elect nation. It was a carnal and a temporal election, but it was nonetheless an election. They were chosen out of all the other nations. Election doesn't always mean salvation. Cyrus the Great, the great Persian who delivered Israel from Babylon, was called the elect of God, but he died a pagan. But he was chosen. He was chosen.

When we talk about an election unto salvation, That's what our Lord is talking about in this passage of Scripture when he talks about sheep, his sheep. But at that, the election in the Old Testament, when God talked about his people and who he was going to save, when Jesus Christ came, when the Messiah came, who he was going to save, that encompasses not only the Jews but also the Gentiles. It's Old Testament teaching. And that's why he said this, other sheep have I, which are not of this fold. This fold was the Jews. The gospel came to the Jews first.

Our Lord didn't go to the Gentiles. Most of the time, our Lord, his ministry was in the temple and in the synagogues. He wasn't much of a street preacher, but he did go on the side of a mountain to teach people on the Mount of Olives. But our Lord was a person who stayed in this Jewish area, in this Jewish area.

He came to his own, it says in John chapter 1, but his own received him not. He came into the world, but the world knew him not. But he came to his own first, and that's how it's said over and over again in the scripture when the gospel is preached. But others ye have I which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice. and there shall be one foe and one shepherd.

Look over to Isaiah chapter 11. When he talks about the seed of Jesse, he's not talking about David or the root of Jesse in verse 10 of chapter 11. He said, in that day, that day is the day of redemption, in that day there shall be a root of Jesse. Christ was of the tribe of David, of the tribe of Judah, or the lineage of David, the tribe of Judah. shall be the root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign to the people."

An ensign is the person who carries the flag for a squadron. I was what was called a guidon when I was in tech school in the Air Force. I carried the flag. I marched out in front of everybody. I didn't march in the squadron. I carried the flag out in front. They followed that flag. When they would call cadence for me to turn left or turn right, I would turn left and they followed that flag. They looked at that flag the whole time. And when we stopped, we got to where we was going, I would plant the flag and the troops would gather around me because they gathered around the flag.

That's what an ensign is. Jesus Christ is the ensign where the people gather. Stand for an ensign to the people, and to it shall the Gentiles seek. And his rest, that is the rest he accomplished, shall be glorious. Then down in verse 12, he says, and she shall set up an ensign for the nations, the word nations in the Old Testament. Do not speak of Israel. Israel was the people of God. It was the elect. Everybody else was the nations.

This is the promise of the Old Testament. If you look over Isaiah chapter 49. In verse 6, and I'm just looking at Isaiah, but you can find it in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Nobodah, and so forth, all the way through the Old Testament, this truth. Verse 6, he said, It is a like thing that thou should be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore and preserve of Israel. I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles. that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends of the earth." The light of the Gentiles. How is Jesus described in John chapter 1? He's the light of the world. He's the light of the world.

Then we'll go with chapter 16 of Isaiah. In verse 3, it says, "...and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and the kings and the brightness of thy rising." So that's talking about Jesus Christ, and who's coming to Him? Isaiah was written to the Jews, who were full of idolatry, and our Lord was setting them straight. But several times in Isaiah, and several more times in Isaiah, actually, I just picked these three, the Gentiles are said to come, and to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. That's how Paul described the power of God unto salvation in Romans chapter one, in verse 16. It's also spoken the same way in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and in verse 16 it says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek, that's the Gentile. To the Jew first, you could also be to the religious and the irreligious.

By the time that our Lord speaks these words, The Jews have utterly discounted the Gentiles. They're dogs. They're nothing to them. They're mangy curves, and that's what the Jews feel about the Gentiles. But our Lord is saying, other sheep have I. But you're not of this folk. I'm going to bring them to you. I'm going to bring them to you. He was talking about the Gentiles. The Lord declares that other flock will be Gentiles and wonder of wonders. The wonder of God's grace. When God calls Jews and Gentiles alike, they will be one. They will be one.

Paul says over in Ephesians chapter 2, Ephesians chapter 2 verse 11, He says, wherefore remember that ye being in times past with Gentiles in the flesh, what are they now? They're true Israel, the Israel of God, the church of the living God. Wherefore remember that you being in times past with Gentiles in the flesh, you were called uncircumcision by the circumcision, what is called circumcision, the flesh made with hands. At that time you were without Christ, being aliens of the commonwealth of Israel. Strangers from the covenants of promise, all these things were given to Israel, having no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who are sometimes far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

For he is our peace, who hath made both one, Jew and Gentile, and hath made broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in the ordinance, for to make of himself entwined, the Jew and the Gentile, one new man. So making peace. So making peace. That's what happens when the gospel is preached to the Jew and the Gentile, they become one.

If they're God's chosen unto salvation. And unlike the Pharisees he now addresses, these elect Gentiles will hear his voice. That's what he says, other sheep have I, which are not of fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice. They shall hear my voice. He must bring them because they have been ordained unto salvation by his death. An example of that is found in Acts chapter 13, verse 48. When Paul preaches to the Jews first, and the Jews reject his gospel and say, we don't have anything to do with it. Well, the Gentiles said, come and preach to us. And so he does. And they glorified the word of God when he preached. And Jesus had said, and as many as were ordained to life, believe. They heard his voice. They believed. He must bring them. And they will come. They will believe.

Then in verse 17 is a statement of God's eternal love for his elect. Therefore does my father love me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again. It is expressed in God's willingness to give his beloved son as the means by which his loved ones are redeemed and saved.

We cannot know anything of this love. I dare say we might give our own life for someone we love, but I don't think we can give any of our children for someone we love. You couldn't make us do that. But God gave His only beloved Son. How much did He love us? How much did He love His elect from all eternity? He loved them enough to give His own Son. And this is the expression of the greatness of God's love.

We talk about God's love and we try to explain it, but we don't have a reference point. Our love is weak, it's frail, it's conditional, you know, it's not utterly free. But God's love is. God's love has nothing to do with anything about us. That's the wonder of it. That she would shed His precious blood for such a worm as I. We're worms, maggots of the dung. What is lovable about us? What would draw God to love us? Nothing!

He loved us because He did. That's the only way we can be stated. He loved us because He would. But He loved us with an everlasting love, and loved us so much that He willingly gave His Son for our sins. That's the declaration of Scripture. God commendeth His love toward us, Paul said in Romans 5. God commendeth His love toward us, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Look at Ephesians chapter 2. a very nice description, doesn't it? It's not something you'd want written as your resume if you were applying for a job or something. In Ephesians chapter 2, it says, and you had to equip them who were dead in trespasses and sin. That's who you made alive, those who were dead. Now, they are described in the first 14, or actually the whole chapter 1 of Ephesians, who were dead in trespasses, wherein in times past you walked according to the course of this world. However the world thought, whatever fad, whatever fancy the world was, that's how you, that's what you thought too. You went right along with it. Of course this world according to the prince of the power of the air, according to Satan's workings.

And that spirit now works in the children of disobedience, those who don't obey the gospel. Among them also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of our minds and were by nature, I'm so glad those two words are there, by nature the children of wrath. We weren't the children of wrath, we never were, we were the elect of God. But by nature, we were exactly the same as everybody else, not a hair's breadth's worth of difference. Look at the next line.

But God, who is rich in mercy, For His great love, wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sin, quickened us together in Christ, by grace your Saviour, and has raised us up to sit together, and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Jesus Christ, with His great love, wherewith He loved us.

John said, in 1 John 3, verse 16, Hereby We perceive the love of God. It's how we grasp it, it's how we understand it. It's the only way we really understand it. That's what our Lord is saying in John chapter 10. Hereby perceive we the love of God. How do we know God loves us? He laid down His life for us.

That's it. That's how we know. We don't know because we feel it. We don't know because we can logically apply some kind of science and figure it out. We don't know because we're intellectually above everybody else, or more sentimental, or more empathetic, or more sympathetic. We know those things. How do we know God loves us?

Two thousand years ago, you see, that son of a gun, I know he's dead. No greater love hath any man than he would lay down his life for his friend. Here also, our Lord speaks of his resurrection back in our text. First mention of that. He says, therefore does my father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it up again.

The resurrection. What would we be without the resurrection? We wouldn't have anything to preach. That's what Paul, read 1 Corinthians 15. I know what Paul says. He says, you know, faith wouldn't matter. Faith wouldn't count for anything. We wouldn't be saved. If Christ hadn't rose from the grave, he says, I take my life up again.

I lay it down and I take my life up again. That's the one thing that is tied to the full and complete success of the salvation of the elect is this matter that Jesus Christ died for our sins. He was buried. Our sins are buried with him. And on the third day, He gave Himself life again, and rose from the grave. And it says He was raised for our justification.

You want a good study? Get your concordance and look up the word raised up, or resurrected, or quickened, and see what God ties this matter of resurrection to. See the doctrines that God ties to. You'll be amazed at how Often he speaks of this raising Christ from the dead. And in verse 18, several of the foundations are set forth back in our text. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down on myself. I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it up again. Think about that.

Here's this guy, this shepherd guy, carpenter's son, this guy in a plain clothing, from Nazareth, and they will say in this book, there's nothing good coming from Nazareth. Kind of like they say in Bryson City, ain't nothing good coming from Cherokee. They don't know nothing, do they? But they said that about Christ. What? Ain't nothing good coming from Nazareth.

And here he is, he said, I have power, dunamis, dynamite, dynamic. I have the power to lay my life down I have the power to die, and I have the power to raise myself up again. What kind of power is that? My soul. The first thing he says, I'll lay down my life. That's a voluntary act.

Though the death of Christ, in scriptures, laid at the feet of men. In scriptures, they say things like he slew them, or he was slain by them, or he killed them. But that all has to do with intent. They murdered him in their hearts. They wanted him dead just like these men wanted him dead. But no man caused his death.

When God Almighty allowed himself to be handled by men, it was one time in human history. He allowed himself to be handled, and that's how it happened. Because they said, when they came to take him, they said, he said, who are you looking for? They said, Jesus and Adam. He just said, there you go, I am. His word, the power of his word knocked him down flat. And he said, well, whom do you seek? And they said, we seek Jesus and Adam. He said, well, that's me.

But if you take me, these have to go free. That's substitution. These had to go through. But he gave himself to them. They couldn't take him. All he had to do was speak another word if he wanted to. Say, I am again, the way he said it the first time, and they'd fall down again. Armies would fall down. Mountains would crumble. Seas would dry up with the words, I am.

I am. Take me, he said. And so he gave himself. This is a volunteer day. Even the wrath of God poured out on me. Those three hours of darkness, when God shut off the light, it poured His wrath out on God for our sin. Poured out His wrath. Language of Scripture, I drank the dregs dry. I drank the cup dry. I tread the winepress alone. This is the language that Christ used.

But the wrath of God didn't kill him. Man did his worst, and now he did plenty. pulled his beard out, beat him, scourged him with a Roman cat-of-nine-tails, plowed ferules through his flesh, pressed a crown down upon his head, hung him naked on a cross, drove nails in his hands and his feet. He was a bloody mess. He looked like a lamb slain. He was a lamb slain. That didn't kill him.

Then God shut down the lights. And we have just a glimpse of what went on there. In the Psalms it says, I am consumed with the blow of thy hand. I'm consumed with God beating me up for my sin. He said, Eloi, Eloi, lama selatanam, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And he said, I thirst.

They gave him some vinegar to drink, wine. And he said, it is finished, with a loud voice. Now here he is, a crumbled mess of humanity hanging on a tree. He lifted it with a loud voice. He cried, it is finished. voluntarily. He gave himself for our sins. Isaiah 53 said he was like a lamb before the slaughter. He opened not his mouth. He opened not his mouth.

His death was not a final try of God. You know, a lot of preachers say, well, they tried to He tried to, and me, and he tried with this covenant, and with that covenant, and with this covenant, and that, and tried with the flood, tried to do this judgment, all that. No, none of that, none of that was for saving anybody.

Jesus Christ came to save. He was the way of salvation. Men like to say, well, he could have done it other ways. No, he couldn't, because if God does it anyway, it's the right way, and the only way that it's to be done. He came for this purpose with joy in His heart.

He came, it says in Luke 9, He set His face like a flint toward Jerusalem. In Hebrews chapter 2 it says, Because the children were flesh and blood, He partook of the same, that He might save them from death. For the children In Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2, it says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, disregarded the shame, and is now set down on the right hand of the Father.

Next, he declares his sovereignty. Back in our text, he says, I have the power to lay it down. I have the power to take it up again. He alone has the power to simply cease to live. Think about that. We don't have power over death. Death has power over us. We can't stop death. We cannot prevent it, though we will. I've tried, whether I'll last breath or not to. But we'll die anyway.

He, when he appointed time, came when he had revealed what men really think of God, and after God had done his worst, he did what was necessary to pay for our sins, because that's why he came. To die. He gave up the ghost. How'd he do that? By power. By his sovereign power, he stopped living. Just dwell on that for a while. Just try to figure that out. by his sovereign power.

Then by the same power, after he lay in the grave for three days, he by his own power started living again. Raised himself from the dead. His power was not diminished, even in death. As he lay as a dead man, his power was not diminished. The old psalm said, death could not keep its prey. He tore the barns away.

And he says, this I have by my father's commandment. Verse 18, this commandment have I received from my father. This is what he came to do, what he was charged to do. That's what this word commandment means, charged to do. This was no mishap. The Pharisees and many around him would be confused and divided, as we'll see next time. But God's purpose in the creation of this world was to come into this world and to save a people for the glory of His grace. That's why He made it. Christ took that charge. He undertook that assignment and accomplished it without a hitch. In those few hours on the cross, Over 90 prophecies were fulfilled. Over 90 in just those few hours on the cross. He laid down his life.