Good morning. If you would, open
your Bibles to the book of John. John 10. John 10. I bring good tidings from Kingsport,
and many people told me to say hello. And every time I get up
and repeat that, I think people are thinking, why does he say
that? I know next time I'm at church, someone's going to come
up to me and say, did you tell him I said hi? And I can't go back
saying I didn't tell him. but we think of you all often.
John 10, verse 1. We'll read the first 14 verses
of John 10. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth
up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. But he
that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
To him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice, and
he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when
he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the
sheep follow him, for they know his voice. And a stranger will
they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the
voice of strangers. This parable spake Jesus unto
them, but they understood not what things they were which he
spake unto them. Then said Jesus unto them again,
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.
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. But he that is an 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 an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good
shepherd and know my sheep and have known of mine." The title
of my message is, Am I One of the Lord's Sheep? Am I One of
the Lord's Sheep? I was given advice when I first
started preaching to try to stay away from the word I, to be inclusive,
to talk to people in a way that You are talking with them because
you believe the gospel and I'm Lord willing preaching it and
things are we and us. But I'm going to break that this
morning because this question is one that must we must ask
ourselves. We must ask, am I one of the
Lord's sheep? And I want everyone to ask themselves
that no matter what age we are, we have to ask ourselves this
question. Am I one of the Lord's sheep?
Another way of saying this is, am I saved? But using these verses,
I'm going to stick with, am I one of the Lord's sheep? Now, for
the better part of 40 years, I have asked myself that question
at many different times. And I've had a few different
answers. I have had times in my life where my answer to that
question, am I one of the Lord's sheep, has been no. Look at me. No, that's an easy answer. It's
no. I've had other times where I've asked myself that question
and I've said yes. Whether that's by faith or confidence
or more likely arrogance, I've said yes a few times. But more
often than not, my answer is somewhere in between those two.
Something along the lines of, I don't know, I have my doubts. I have my doubts because I'm
not worthy. I look at myself and I think,
I'm not worthy to be one of his sheep. I have my doubts because
of my ability. I don't have an ability to make
myself one of his sheep. I see things that we read there
and I think, I can't do that stuff. I have my doubts because
of my lack of faith. I have my doubts because of my
unbelief. I have doubts for a lot of reasons.
All of these reasons, all of these things are problems that
I have. They're my own problems. They're
I problems, me problems. They are all doubts with me. They are not doubts with the
Lord. Let me give you an illustration of how much I have struggled
with this. At some point, 15 or so years ago, when I lived
in Lexington, I decided one evening that I wanted to ask the pastor,
Todd Nybert, if I could be baptized. I had heard throughout my life
men say things about, if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
you should be baptized. So I decided the next day I was
going to go over and ask him to be baptized. Well, I left
and drove to go see him, and I didn't make it there. So at
some point a little later on, I don't know if it was days or
weeks, I made the decision to go again. So I drove over there,
but I didn't make it there again. And then I decided to go over
there, and I got to the parking lot, pulled in, backed out, and
went back the other direction I came. And this went on for
quite a while, over a year. There were times I got into the
parking lot and I couldn't put the car in park. There were times
I got in the parking lot and just couldn't open the door to
go in. There was one time I got enough confidence that I walked
inside, walked in to talk to Todd, and after a couple moments
of pleasantries, he said, so what brings you here? To which
I panicked and said, I just wanted to talk to you about Kentucky
basketball. I kept doing that because I kept going back to
the same thing. I'm not worthy. I don't believe. I don't have faith. I kept looking
at myself. And what at some point, finally,
I heard in someone preaching a message, I realized that my
doubts were with me. That when I thought to myself
about me not being worthy, I thought, but he's a worthy sacrifice.
I thought about, I don't have the ability to save myself, but
He is able to save to the uttermost. I thought, I don't have any faith.
He is faithful to the end. Once I thought of these things,
I realized that our focus is always on the wrong part of the
question. When I ask, am I one of the Lord's sheep? I look at,
am I one of the Lord's sheep? The focus needs to be on Him,
on the Lord. We see, when we look at I, we
look at what we can do, how we're involved, what part we play.
And this is false religion's greatest ruse, their greatest
trick. Make salvation about our favorite
topic, ourselves. Give us a decision. Tell us to
make a choice. Do anything to take our eyes
off Christ. If you go to any conference on
sales or read a book or anything, everything all comes to the same
thing. You find what that person wants, and then you sell that
to them. You find out what they need.
So religion just realizes we want to be able to do it ourselves.
So they tell us we can do it. Or we want to not be sinners,
so they just tell us we're not that bad. And if we realize we
are sinners, they tell us, well, if you do good now, everything
will be fine. They will do anything, or we do anything, to take our
eyes off Christ. The key to this question, as
with any question, is the Lord. So, if you were asking this question,
am I one of the Lord's sheep? Think about if you went to the
hospital, to the nursery, to all the newborn babies. Do you
go up to one of those babies, one of those infants, and ask
them who their father is? No, you go to the father and
ask them which one is theirs. And the father is the one who
is looking over them. Their father is the one who loves
them, the one who takes care of them, the one who spends every
moment thinking about that child. We must go to the Lord to see
if we're one of his sheep. We must go to him to see if we're
one of his children. Now, let's look a few more verses
in this passage and look at our Lord, our Savior. Look at verse
14 with me. It says, I am the good shepherd
and know my sheep and am known of mine. We get stuck or I get
stuck in these verses at the things that say the sheep follow
the shepherd. The sheep knows the shepherd.
The sheep won't follow someone else. The sheep knows the shepherd's
voice. And we keep thinking to ourselves,
I don't follow him. I don't listen to his voice. But what we don't realize is
all those things it says that the sheep do, there's a precursor
to that. Look at verse 14. The end says,
the sheep are known of him. Look at this. It says, I am the
good shepherd and know my sheep. He knows his sheep. That's why
his sheep know him. He knows his sheep. He leadeth
them. I must bring. It says, I must
bring. It's they shall bring. Look at verse 15. As the Father
knoweth me, even so know I the Father. It says we know him because
he knows us. There's always what he did comes
before what we do. The evidence of being saved is
in what the Lord has done for us. So we do it. The sheep follow
the shepherd. The sheep follow the shepherd
because he has the authority and they know who he is. He has
made himself known of them. The sheep don't learn him. They
don't know him because of something they did. It's because he knows
them and it says and I lay down my life for the sheep." Our Lord
is faithful. He did what was required for
His sheep. He lays down His life for them.
His sacrifice on the cross. He did what His sheep needed
to be saved. Look at verse 16. 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. Our shepherd is faithful to the
end for every last sheep." Turn over to Luke 15. Luke 15. Look
at verse 4 of Luke 15 or verse 3. And the Lord spake this parable
unto them, saying, What man of you, having an hundred sheep,
if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine
in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he
find it? I don't know if I was the only
person, as a child especially, that heard that. That if you
had 100 sheep and you lost one, who's not going to leave the
99 and go get the one? I don't know if I was the only
one as a kid who thought to myself, I'm not leaving the 99 and going
and getting one. Why would I do that? I've got
99 still. I thought if I go get that one,
I'm going to come back and I've got 90. Our Lord is able to do these
things. Our Lord leaves the ninety and
nine. And the reason he leaves them is because they're already
secure. He has them. He's taking care of them. Look
at verse five. And when he hath found it, he layeth on his shoulders
rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth
together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with
me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. I say unto you,
that likewise, joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth,
more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance. To think that when we wander,
our Lord comes to get us, puts us on His back, and comes back
celebrating us. That's what He does. That's how
much He loves us. In an example of this, it says,
in heaven, likewise, there's celebration and joy over one
sinner that repenteth. Go back to our text. Look at
verse 17. Therefore, doth my father love
me because I lay down my life that I might take it again. Our
Lord loves us, so he laid down his life. But this was not an
ordinary sacrifice. This is not a sacrifice in the
way that we think of the word. If I were to sacrifice myself
for something, I am giving myself and I can't come back from that.
A sacrifice is giving something you can't get back. Our Lord
is such a sacrifice that He laid down His life for His sheep that
He might take it again. That He was victorious over death. And it says, because He laid
down His life, He did it willing. To have a willing shepherd? This
is not something that He had to do because He felt like this
was his duty to them. He loved them and he must lay
down his life for them because of his love for them. Not only
that, but he did it because his father asked him to do it. He
was told to do so. That I might take it again. Look
in verse 18. No man taketh it from me, but
I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down and
I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my father. I worry about my ability to be
saved. But our Lord, His ability is
never in question. His power is never to be doubted.
Look at verse 19. We'll read a few verses here.
There was a division, therefore again, among the Jews for these
sayings. And many of them said, He hath
a devil and is mad. Why hear ye Him? Others said,
These are not the words of Him that hath a devil. Can a devil
open the eyes of the blind? And it was at Jerusalem the feast
of the dedication, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the
temple in Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews round about
him and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you,
and you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because you
are not of my sheep, as I said unto you." The only way that
any person can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is if that
He chose us to be His sheep. No one will ever believe on Him
unless He makes Himself known to us. He saved us. He chose us. He died for us.
He did all of those things. And because of that, He makes
us to know Him. He makes us to do that. Verse
26, But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, I said
unto you, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow
me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. I give unto them eternal life."
We don't earn it, it's a gift. He gave it to us. and they shall
never perish because He is the giver of eternal life. Nothing
can ever happen to one of His sheep. Nothing ever can happen
to them. Neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. There's
no one who can oppose our Lord. Verse 29, My Father, which gave
them Me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them
out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one. This passage shows us Our shepherd,
our Lord, has done everything. He has done every single part
of salvation. He has done everything for us.
There is no way that we can ever doubt Him in any regard. Yet,
verse 31, the natural response, then the Jews took up stones
again to stone Him. Our Lord said, I chose a people,
awful sinners who are totally unworthy, and I died for them. I save them, and I send it on
to a throne in glory for them, and they have eternal life because
of this. And man's natural response, and
this is us too, is, I want to kill him. In all his goodness, in his mercy,
in his grace, our response is, I will not have that man to reign
over me. Jesus answered them, many good
works have I showed you from my Father, For which of those
works do you stone me?" We so often get lost on the wrong thing. We see the sheep, hear His voice,
the sheep follow Him. But all of those things are things
that He has done for us. We do them because of what He
has done for us. There's a song that I love so
much, Be Thou My Vision. And in that song, there are a
few phrases such as, only thing in my heart, the heart of my
heart, whatever befall, That song tells us if only the Lord
could be the only thing we see. If every time we opened our eyes,
it was through a filter of the Lord Jesus Christ in everything,
every good thing, every bad thing, every neutral thing, everything.
If we could just see our Lord in everything, and that's something
we were just totally dependent upon him. Now I realize. That I asked the question at
the beginning of this that said, am I one of the Lord's sheep?
And then. I follow that up with saying
we have to ask ourselves that question. But I haven't really
given us any help on how to answer that. Because it would make sense
that when I said I had said no, I don't know, and yes to that
question, that it would be a linear thing. Because I think that's
the way most people feel about it. If I am saved, the first
thought is no. And then I learn a little bit
of maybe. And then at some point later in life, yes, I am. But
that's not how this works. I'm such an up and down of emotions
and everything that from moment to moment, day to day, my answer
to that question varies. In that moment, the Lord gives
me faith. I think to myself, yes, he saved me. And then just
moments later, I just thought there's no way I'm saved. Because
of this. No one. can answer this question
for themselves in that regard. But we have to ask it. And no
one can help us. I said the M.I. saved. My mom
can't answer. My grandparents can't answer.
My wife. No one can answer that question for us. Nobody can answer
it. So we need a different thought. I keep saying we need to focus
on the Lord. We need to ask the question that
comes. Look over here with me. Well,
actually, I just want to tell you this. In Peter, it tells
us or Peter goes through this example. When the Lord came to
Peter after he denied him three times. Peter had shown that he
was not worthy of anything. This is us. This is why this
story is so good for us. The Lord told Peter he's going
to deny him. And then Peter denied him and
Peter denied him and Peter denied him. And then the Lord came back
to Peter and he asked him one question. He asked him one thing. He said, Peter, do you love me? There is only one question we
must answer to find out if we're one of the Lord's sheep. Do I
love the Lord Jesus Christ? Now, that question is one that
if we ask everybody, Most people are going to say, yes, I love
him. But it's very important. that
we look at this in the exact same regard to the first question.
We can't focus on do I love the Lord, but let's focus on the
Lord. We can't say we love him because
that's what everybody else thinks, because we want everyone else
to think. If someone's asked this question in public, do you
love the Lord Jesus Christ? I have a feeling most people
would say yes, even if they could care less because they want other
people to think that answer. There are some people who say
they love the Lord because they are worried of what He can do
to them. They're scared that the king
has judgment. There have been a lot of people
over history who have vowed before a king that they hate because
they're scared of his power. Then another reason people say
they love the Lord is because they want the benefits. They
want the reward. But how do we know if we truly
love the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, the first thing is. We
love him. No matter what happens, we love
him whether he saved us or not. We love the Lord Jesus Christ
because he gets all the glory we love that when it comes to
salvation, no one gives me credit. We love that the Lord gets all
the credit. We love that He is just in all His ways. We love
that no matter what He does to us, for us, in us, it is His
right. He has the authority to do it.
We love Him because He is the only hope for salvation. When
the Lord Jesus Christ shows a person that they are completely dependent
upon Him for everything, that's the first step in realizing who
He is. If you understand and you think,
I have no hope for salvation but Him, what does that make
you do? That makes you look to Him, because
He has shown you this. He made Himself known unto you,
so you know the shepherd. So many people think that church
attendance is a big part of if someone's saved or not. Well,
it has no bearing on it. But if you love the Lord, you
want to hear His gospel preached every moment you can. So many
people think that I got baptized and that's all I need. Well,
that's irrelevant. But if you love the Lord Jesus
Christ and you want everyone to know that you love Him. that
you recognize that I died in Him, that I was buried in Him,
and that when He ascended on the throne, I'm in Him. When
we realize that, everything we need, everything we have is all
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We love Him because He is worthy
of our praise. He is due our love. He is faithful
no matter what. The gospel is the truth whether
He saved us or not. We can hear this message. We
can read this book and we can argue it. We can deny it. We
can pick it apart in any way we feel necessary. But it doesn't
matter because this is the truth, no matter what we believe. When
we're trying to answer the question, am I one of the Lord's sheep?
When we want to know, are we saved? The greatest evidence
is if we truly love the Lord Jesus Christ. But to end, let
me say this. I hope this has been evident,
but I need to say it to make sure we understand. We love Him
because He first loved us. There's nothing that we can do.
There's nothing from our text that we know Him, we follow Him,
all of those things that it says we do. Again, all of that is
because He did it first. He chose us. He became a man
and lived perfectly because we're sinners. He died for us. He paid the sin debt that we
couldn't pay. We have a death sentence. And
unless we're in Him, we died in Him, that's what we get. And
He was buried and then He arose victorious. This is repetitive,
but we have to understand that the Lord Jesus Christ did it
all. And we are completely dependent
upon Him. Am I one of the Lord's sheep?
More importantly, do I love the Lord Jesus Christ? I beg Him
that He gives us a love for Him. Now, one day, our love for Him
right now, it's as fickle as anything else. But one day, we
will love Him in a way that He's deserving of us. One day, we
will all at the same time, all be looking to the Lord, to our
shepherd, and love Him because we'll see what He actually did
for us. All right.