To Take. To Give

Q: What does the Bible say about the Good Shepherd?

The Good Shepherd, as described in John 10:11, gives His life for the sheep, contrasting with thieves who come to steal and destroy. In John 10, Jesus refers to Himself as the Good Shepherd, emphasizing His sacrificial role in the redemption of His people. Unlike the thieves who come to steal, kill, and destroy, Jesus comes to give abundant life to His followers. This concept is rooted in the understanding that, throughout Scripture, a shepherd protects and cares for their flock, and the ultimate example of this care is Jesus' willingness to lay down His life for His sheep. This not only illustrates His love but also fulfills the requirements of the law regarding atonement for sin, as seen in various Old Testament sacrifices that symbolize the ultimate sacrifice of Christ.

Q: How do we know that Jesus gives us eternal life?

Jesus promises in John 10:10 that He came so that His followers may have life and have it more abundantly, indicating His role in granting eternal life. The assurance of eternal life given by Jesus is profoundly tied to His identity as the Good Shepherd. In John 10:10, He declares that His purpose is to provide life abundantly. This life encompasses both the present joy of salvation and the eternal security that comes from being part of His flock. The New Testament continually reinforces the promise of eternal life through faith in Christ, who bore the penalty for sin and rose again, ensuring that all who believe in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. This promise is affirmed in the letters of the apostles, who emphasize that true life is found in Christ alone.

Q: Why is the sacrifice of Jesus significant for Christians?

The sacrifice of Jesus is significant because it atones for sin and grants believers redemption and salvation, as emphasized in Hebrews 10:12. The significance of Jesus' sacrifice lies in its unique and all-sufficient nature. Unlike the repeated animal sacrifices of the Old Testament, which could only cover sin momentarily, Jesus' sacrifice, as outlined in Hebrews 10:12, is described as once for all, perfecting those who are being sanctified. This means that through Christ's death and resurrection, believers are granted complete forgiveness and a restored relationship with God. The doctrine of substitutionary atonement is central to the Christian faith, underscoring how Jesus took upon Himself the wrath of God that we deserved, allowing us to stand righteous before God. Furthermore, His sacrifice serves as the foundation for the believers' hope of resurrection and eternal life.

Well, hello, folks, good to see you out this evening. Remember those who requested prayer, whoever's got to go to the doctor more about her eyes, remember her. She's had a cataract, she's had difficulty with her eyes ever since. Remember her in your prayers, I hope these doctors will be able to find some way to give her some relief. Also remember the Mary Sue Casey family and this Harlow baby, I don't know, I think it was Arlene that told me about it.

The child is an infant. I think it's not even a month old yet. But they're going to have to do a heart transplant. That's serious business. So remember that family, the Harlow family, in your prayers. You will. Stephen goes to Duke sometime. He don't know when yet.

All right. Kathy Rollins. Kathy Rollins. Well, Kathy Rollins, and she's Now having, she just went through her first radiation treatment for liver, for cancer's on the liver. They're small. She's had him, she's been fighting him, what, 10, 12 years, I guess. But remember her and her parents also, she was Kathy Robinson. Speaking of our worship service, we're heading up to 354. What a friendly heaven, Jesus. What a friend in heaven Jesus!

All our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! Oh, the peace we offer for her pain Oh, the meaningless pain we bear Oh, because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer We should never be discouraged. Jesus knows I'm Are we weak and heavy laden?

Come back with a load of care Take it to the Lord in prayer In His arms, He'll take you sheerly Thou who wilt find the solace there Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise! The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace! honor's honor's honor's honor's honor's honor's honor's honor's He breaks the power of cancer still He sets the prisoner free His blood can make a violence clean His blood availed for me Hear Him, ye dead, this praise ye done, hear, listen, tongues employed! Be glad, behold, your Saviour come, and lead me, lame, for joy! If you have your Bibles, turn with me to John chapter 10. Only two verses of Scripture tonight. Look at verse 10 and 11. The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. 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.

Let us pray. Our Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, who is our King and our Master, our elder brother, our dearest friend, our Savior. It is in that blessed name that we ask of thee, that you would be merciful to those who are on the prayer list, especially those who have lost loved ones. For this young child and their family as they face terrible decisions, fearful decisions. Pray for our congregation. Father, you might be a lighthouse, a hospital for sinners. place where people can come and hear the truth about God and about themselves.

Pray for our sister Loretta. She goes to get her eyes checked tomorrow. We pray the doctors will be able to help her out. Continue to pray for Steve as he awaits some news on going down to Duke. Pray for Rain French and the others who requested prayer.

Lord, we ask your help for them. We know what transpires in this world, the troubles that men face are common to all of us. But we are thankful that when our troubles come, we have an anchor, steadfast and sure in the Lord Jesus Christ that we can follow in him. Father, we pray tonight as we gather here that you might open up your word Teach us to walk in Thy statutes. Cause us to worship You in spirit and in truth. Fix our hearts and minds on things worthwhile, even the Lord Jesus Christ, who sits now at Thy right hand, having accomplished the salvation of His people. Help us now, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.

Our Lord has established a parable that the Pharisees were thieves and robbers that endeavored to enter the flock by any other means than the door of the sheep. He has also declared that they were not his sheep by that parable, though they did not understand. He proceeds to reveal their intent here in this passage of Scripture, why they desire to invade the flock and what is the intent for the flock and with him Intent is a sovereign purpose that was sure to be accomplished. However, their intent will never be accomplished. The Pharisees' state is summed up in a singular truth. They do not believe the Lord Jesus is the Christ, and they are not trusting in Him. But every one of the sheep do believe that He is the Christ, and they are trusting in Him. Having established these things, he reveals the crimes of these religious men.

He says in verse 10, the thief, and they're speaking of the Pharisees, the thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. That's all he comes to do. They steal and destroy by turning men's hearts away from God, or that's their design, and Absalom turned the heart of David's men against his father. But they will never succeed in their criminality, even with even one of the sheep. But they will try and keep trying until they perish, until Babylon in the last days is destroyed. They will be doing these things.

In Matthew 23 and verses 14 and 15, their thievery is described in terms of property and souls. Look over at Matthew chapter 23. Matthew chapter 23, verse 14 says, for woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. For you devour widows' houses for a pretense. Make long prayers, therefore you shall receive a greater damnation. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites, for you compass sea and land to make one proselyte. And when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than he was before, than yourselves. Their theory is described in the matter of souls and the matter of property.

They rob widows' houses. A thief comes in a clandestine manner. You don't know he's coming to your house until he's already stole your stuff and left. But a robber is different. A robber is going to come to you face to face and by whatever means he's going to steal you.

These Pharisees came to the widows' houses and making long pretense of prayer and religious influence. They robbed widows' They pray on the very wands that the law and the scriptures and deficiency require them to protect and defend over and over again in the Old Testament. Our Lord Jesus Christ told men to care for widows and to care for children. In the Old Testament, the only testament these men had, the testament that they studied, these Pharisees, they searched the scriptures, we know that. Time and time again, the Lord said, take care of the widows and the fatherless. Take care of them. Take care of them. That was sacrosanct.

And in the New Testament, in James chapter 1 and verse 27, these religious icons are told to what pure religion is. James chapter 1 and verse 27. Pure religion, according to that, is undefiled. That means it's holy before God. And the Father is this. This is what pure religion before the Holy Father is. It's undefiled before God. To visit the fatherless and the widows and their affliction. This is pure religion, he said. Pure religion. And to keep yourselves unspotted from the world.

These robbed widows' houses. They robbed widows' houses. These religious icons proved themselves to be impure and defiled before the law that they said they loved and obeyed. The law said take care of the widows all the way through the Old Testament. They said they loved the law, but they didn't take care of widows. They went in religiously and robbed widows' houses. They robbed widows' houses. In Colossians they are said to steal men's freedoms by shaming them As lawbreakers, look over Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2, verse 1 and verse 8 it says, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, empty lies. Philosophy is two Greek words, philio and sopher. And that means love of the truth. That's what it means. But philosophy supposedly is love of the truth. That's what the Greeks said it was.

Through philosophy and vain deceit, and they do it after elements of the world and not after the Lord Jesus Christ. Beware of such. It's not about Christ. It's about how you live and how you view things and your perspective on this world, which they call some kind of spiritual thing, you know. Avoid them, the Lord said. And these are the Pharisees. The Colossians of Galatia were written to the Judaizers, which came into the church and tried to seduce people away from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Over in verse 16, chapter 2, it says, let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of a holy day. or of a new moon or of the Sabbath day. So what these men were doing, they were saying to the believers who did what they wanted to do on the Sabbath day, but they worshiped God on the first day of the week, which was Sunday. Saturday, they didn't do anything except what they wanted to do.

And the Jews said, no, you've got to keep the Sabbath. There are men today in so-called Christianity who say that. They're Sabbatarians. I've had them come to me and say, oh, the Sabbath, you've got to keep the Sabbath. And I told them, I said, do you do it on Saturday? Because that is what the Sabbath is if you're going to make it a day.

But you know, twice, once in Ezekiel and in another, not Jeremiah, but Ezekiel and maybe Jonah, and I can't remember, the Sabbath is called a tithe. I'd never seen that before, saw it the other day. It's called a type. If you find the word type in the Old Testament, it's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is our Sabbath. We rest in Him. The Sabbath is the rest. Picture throughout, even when the Lord talked about the Sabbaths, and there's eight of them in the Old Testament that He talked about, He talked about the fact that these Sabbaths represented when God ceased from His work, having finished it. And that's what Christ is our Sabbath.

He sees from His work, having finished His work, and now sits at the right hand of the Father. What was His work? The salvation, redemption of His people. He's accomplished that. And so we rest in Him. There's no work for us to do. If we do work, it's because it's ordained of God that we should walk in the works that He ordained us to walk in.

But these say you must watch that Sabbath day. You must keep that holy day. You must keep that holy day. You must eat a certain type of meat or not eat a certain type of meat. There's some people today say you should never eat pork. Not only Muslims, but there are some folks who call themselves Christians and they don't eat no pork. Why? Because the Bible says in the Old Testament under the law not to eat pork.

That all changed in the book of Acts. Simon Peter was on the rooftop one day and got hung down a sheet in a vision, a big sheet. And on that sheet he had all manner of things, clean and unclean. And the Lord told Peter, take and eat. Wait a minute, I'm a Jew. I can't eat that stuff. Take and eat. He said, well, not so, Lord. And the Lord says, don't you call unclean what I've made clean, what I've made clean. Some men, but the Jews and the religious people told those Gentiles and those believers, you can't eat poor. You can't eat poor or drink. You can't have wine or beer or anything like that.

Strong drinks are raging, it says in the description. It also says take a little wine for the stomach's sake and wine makes the king's heart merry. But they say don't do that, or a holy day, or a new moon, that's a feast. That was a feast, or Sabbath days.

Then in verse 18 it says, let no man beguile you, beguile you, or judge against you. Beguile you of your reward in voluntary humility. You get to look a certain way and act a certain way, they say. And worshiping of angels, that's a big deal today. worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he had not seen, vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind. This is who our Lord is talking about in Rob's widow's houses.

In Galatians, their thievery is clandestine. It's secret. They're sneaks. Look over at Galatians chapter 2. In Galatians chapter 2 verse 4, it says that because of false brethren, now it doesn't say false people, it says they called themselves brethren. False brethren, unawares, that means you can't see them, you don't know they're in, brought in, who came in privately, a privilege to spy out what?

Our freedom. Our liberty, which we have in Jesus Christ. Why? So they could bring us back into bondage. And when Paul talks about bondage in Galatians, he's talking about one thing. Bringing a believer under the law. John, in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 12, he says that they do this to show themselves. To make themselves known. Galatians chapter 6 and verse 12 says, as many as desire to make us perishable in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.

Because the Jews said, unless you were circumcised, you wasn't a real Christian. You ever heard that phrase, a real Christian? I've heard that phrase many times in my life, what if he was a real Christian? And that's what the Jews said, if you's a real Christian, you'd be circumcised. Paul said circumcision or uncircumcision would availeth anything. But a new creature in Jesus Christ, in Matthew chapter 23, verse 4 through 7, it says, these men do what they do to be single men.

They love the uppermost seats in the temple, they love to be recognized in the marketplace. They like for people to say, Rabbi, Rabbi. They do what they do to be seen of men. This is how they are thieves. This is how they are thieves. They are thieves, and our Lord said these men sought to invade the flock. That's what they want. Because remember, He said, I'm the door of the sheep. Men are trying to get into this flock.

Over the wall, but anyway other than the door He says they are they sought to invade his people look over at Luke chapter 11 Verse 47 says Woe unto you, for you build the sepulchers of the prophets, and you killed, and your fathers killed them, to destroy and to kill, and to kill. Truly, ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers, for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchers. There's a holiday up in Ohio, a big feast holiday. I think schools are closed and churches go out.

It's called Spurgeon Day. Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ for the better part of his life. He was known for preaching the sovereignty of God and salvation. They go out there and they talk about Spurgeon. They brag on Spurgeon all day long. They have statues of him and none of them believe what he preaches. If he'd been alive today, they'd kill him.

Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles and some of them that you shall slay and persecute. Now he's talking to his people, our Lord is. That the blood of all the prophets which was shed upon the foundation from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation. For the blood of Abel, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharias which perished between the altar and the temple. Verily I say to you, it shall be required of this generation.

They were killers. They were killers. In Acts chapter 7, they went out and killed Stephen. He was a deacon in the church, the early church. He was a preacher of the gospel. And he preached the gospel to them clearly, and they took him out and tied him to a stick and threw rocks and killed him. Then when he told them the truth about Jesus Christ, they gnashed their teeth, they covered their ears, they took off their jackets, And you know who they handed him to?

Saul of Tarsus. Paul the Apostle. He held the coats of those that killed students. I've often thought about Paul, when the Lord revealed the grace of God to do it, and showed him who he was, and saved his soul. I often wonder if he thought about the days he held those coats. I wonder if he thought about it on that day in Lystra, when they picked up stones and stoned him. I wonder if he thought of it that day. But he says, you steal, you kill, and you destroy. That's what you do.

Now, that's not quite a good resume for a religious person, is it? But these were the chief religious people of the world, and that was the resume that God gave them. According to what follows, the Lord declares that the target of their dirty deeds is the sheep of the foe. Listen to how he words it in verse 11 of our text. I am the good shepherd of the sheep. The Good Shepherd giveth his life, or excuse me, I'm sorry, the second phrase of verse 10, he says this, I am come, you are come, to kill, to thief, and destroy.

I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly, more abundantly. They came to take. Our Lord came to give. You see the difference? And he talks about you taking and killing, and he says, they. He's talking about you came to them. They came to take life. Christ came to give life, and the life he came to give is the life that the Pharisees know nothing about.

They believe they have life. Men believe that today. I keep hearing people say, won't you take Jesus into your life? You don't have a life. that can take Jesus into, won't you take him into your heart? Do you know anything about your heart? You know how dark and vile it is?

Dangerously wicked, desperately sick is how it's described in the scripture. But they think they have life. So when I was talking about I'm going to give them life, I'm going to give them life. And the life he gives is going to be abundant. Pharisees didn't understand it all. He's not offering this life. And it does not enter into their natural life. He came to give this life, and He will give it. He said, I will give my life to the sheep, this abundant life. It is spiritual life.

And no one but a person who is of the Spirit knows what that means. Nobody knows except those who have it. Old Spurgeon wrote one time, no one knows the love of God, but those who are loved by God. None but the loved ones know. And no one knows about spiritual life except those who have been raised from the dead and given life in Jesus Christ.

It is spiritual, it is magnificent, it is pressed down, it is running over with all things pertaining to life and to godliness. And this abundance includes all spiritual blessings according to Ephesians chapter 1. Forgiveness, justification, righteousness, sanctification, wisdom, and all things that work for our good.

And God said in Rome, in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 21, all things are yours. He said that to believers. He said it to a bunch of believers that was doing about everything that could be done wrong against doing wrong. 1 Corinthians. He said all things are yours and you are Christ's and Christ is God's. All things are yours.

In Ephesians chapter 3 verse 20 he describes the abundance, this abundance. He says, now unto him that is able to do exceedingly or exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think according to the power that worketh in us. What is that power? The Spirit of God. And our Lord, the next statement our Lord makes is extremely important. Back in verse 10 to verse 11.

I am the good shepherd. I am the good shepherd. What does that mean? The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Now he's talking about a whole different thing. You're talking about that abundant life, but now he's talking about his life. He's talking about giving his life.

And this, the Jews can relate to, the Pharisees can relate to, because this has been going on for a long time. They might look back to the sacrifice of Abel, when he offered the blood of a lamb on the altar at the east of Eden, and God accepted his sacrifice. You might be thinking about all the ceremonies that God put in the law, all the blood that was shed time after time throughout scripture, all the feasts that That blood was shed. They understood the concept of life.

When he said, I've given my life for the sheep, they had a grasp of what he was talking about. Now this is a profound doctrine. He said the Good Shepherd gives his life for the sheep. This does not mean that he spends his life in service of the sheep, though he does. He always intercedes for us. This means he dies for the sheep.

And they understood that. They understood that. The Jews understood that somebody had to die in order that sins be atoned for. Blood had to be shed. Old Book of Leviticus deals with that very thing. They know the meaning of the sacrifice of death. This probably was astounding to them what he was saying.

Every slain lamb and bullock and kid or turtle dove was slain to atone for sin and deliverance. for the praise of God. They were often called to remember that blood. Many times in scripture the Lord said, remember when you were slaves in Egypt, in bondage in Egypt, and I delivered you by my great power by the blood of the Lamb. They remember when the Lord came through Egypt that night to kill every firstborn in Egypt.

And it's not only that, not only the Egyptian firstborn, the firstborn of the Jewish house too. But the Jews were the elect nation. They treated them a little bit different. He got the firstborn of every Egyptian in Egypt that night. You think what wailing and sorrow went through that? Because people, even Egyptians loved the baby. You loved the firstborn.

The firstborn died that night. He said to the Jews, put the blood of the lamb on the doorpost and the lentils and go inside the house and don't come out. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Why? Because he got the blood of the firstborn too. He is the only begotten son of God. When I see the blood, I will pass over you.

They understood it. When he said, die, they understood that it meant deliverance, it meant salvation, it meant atonement. But they didn't quite get what he was saying, and they didn't for a long time. Over in chapter 11 of John, chapter 11, verse 49, we have the words of Caiaphas. Caiaphas is a priest, and you'll see how he understands what this means, or at least what death means. what giving your life for somebody means. You see it in chapter 11, verse 49, it says this, and one of them named Caiaphas, who was a high priest, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, you know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should perish not. But this spake he, not of himself, but being a high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation. And not for that nation only, but also he should be gathered together in one, the children of God that were scattered abroad, Jew and Gentile alike. So now he didn't believe on Christ, he slapped Christ, he wanted to put Christ on the cross.

But he understood the concept of someone giving their life for another. We understand that concept. We understand when a fireman goes in to save a person in a house and takes the person out and they die, we understand he gave his life for them. We understand when a soldier goes to war and dies in the battle, we know he died for his country. We understand that. We understand that concept, and they did too.

But they didn't know what the Lord was talking about except this. He just told them that they were thieves. They were robbers. They were killers. They were troublemakers. They were destroyers. But he gave his life for the sheep and the flock that they couldn't get into because he was the door. So what did they learn? He's the good shepherd and he's voluntary, violent, and barricaded by cares and victorious death. was for his sheep, and all of his sheep were redeemed. And what he was talking about had nothing to do with the men he was talking to. That is why he came. That's why they called his name Jesus. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, it says in Matthew 121. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. That's why he came. All those Old Testament types were just types. All that blood shed in the Old Testament is a veritable river of collagen that runs through the Bible.

All those sheep, all those kids, all those turtledoves, all of them were slain. Blood was shed. The Day of Atonement was spent every year since the Tabernacle was admitted there later for the Temple. Every year, one day a year, the Day of Atonement, the preacher went in and shed blood for that nation. Good blood for that nation. And in all of that, not one sin was forfeited. Not one sin was put away. It was forestalled, the wrath of God, for a year. That's what it says in the Word of God. Look over at Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10, beginning with verse 12.

But this man, now they're saying but, that's in comparison to all the other men that were priests, that worked in the tabernacle and all their work, they did all they did, they shed a whole lot of blood, but no sin, no sin was remitted. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for others, sat down on the right hand of God. The priests never sat down in the temple. They never sat down in the temple because they had work to do 24 hours a day. No sinners were permitted. They couldn't sit down.

From henceforth expecting or waiting till his enemies be made his footstool for about one offering. Not the multitude of offerings that were offered in the Old Testament. That's the word he used, taleo. He used that word on the cross. In fact, it's used three times in John chapter 19. Three times that word is used. One time it means accomplished, one time it's interpreted accomplished, one time it's interpreted fulfilled, and the next time it's interpreted with three words. set apart.

How are they sanctified? According to verse 10, they're sanctified through the offering of the body of the Jesus Christ. In other words, they're sanctified by the will of Almighty God. Sanctified. This is why they call Him. This is why He came. He came to die for the sheep. I laid down my life for the sheep. You Pharisees, you're not part of the flock. You won't come in the way the only way the people come into the flock. And that's through the door of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're not part of it.

But I give my life for the sheep. Therefore, the sheep have been redeemed. Their song will be, worthy is the lamb that was slain, that has redeemed us by his blood out of every kindred, nation, tongue, and people, and made us kings and priests unto our God. The sheep have been redeemed, every one of them, none Oh, the sheep will be loved because the King of Kings, the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd, the only true Shepherd, has given His life for them. None will be lost. He's the Good Shepherd. He gave His life for the sheep. Concerning the Pharisees, they take. Concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, He gives. God bless you. This word to our hearts, we pray in Christ Jesus.

To Take. To Give

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What does the Bible say about the Good Shepherd?

How do we know that Jesus gives us eternal life?

Why is the sacrifice of Jesus significant for Christians?

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To Take. To Give

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the Good Shepherd?

How do we know that Jesus gives us eternal life?

Why is the sacrifice of Jesus significant for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Tim James

Comments

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