Well, you've probably already
gathered the subject and title of the message is The Shepherd
of the Sheep. If you've paid attention to the Psalms and Scripture
reading, I'm sure you're well aware of that. I hope the Lord
will bless it to our hearts. Our Lord's continuing His conversation
with the Pharisees. He's talking to the Pharisees
here. And He's told them He's the Shepherd
of the Sheep. All that ever came before Him
were thieves and robbers. And they're the ones who are
the thieves and the robbers. They're the ones that Ezekiel
wrote about who are shepherds who are feeding themselves, not
taking care of the sheep. And our Lord continues this conversation
in verse 10. He says, the thief cometh not
before to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they
might have life, that they might have it more abundantly. False
prophets always steal, always. They rob God of His glory and
try to give some of it to men. They steal. They steal from God
and they steal from the sheep. They steal the joy that people
should have in our Lord Jesus Christ. They steal the peace
that sinners can have with God by making it dependent, that
peace dependent upon them, not upon Christ. They steal their
peace with each other. They preach law and they make
people legal and judgmental. They rob men of their peace with
each other. And they do it by not preaching
Christ. If we start to preach the law, people will have no
joy, no comfort, no assurance. There can't be any joy in the
law that says, Thou shalt not, when that's all we do. When the
law says, Thou shalt, and we can't do it, There's no joy there.
You can't have any comfort, any assurance of salvation there.
Well, if we try to soften the law, we won't preach strictly
the law. We'll just preach morality. There's no joy there. There's
no comfort. There's no assurance there. Because
in your heart, you know you're not moral. There's no good thing
in us. Well, if we try to soften that a little bit, we'll preach
Christ plus something else. There's no joy there. There's
no assurance. There's no comfort there. If you preach Christ plus
anything that you do, you've taken the joy from it. You've
taken the assurance and the comfort from it because there's no goodness
in us. There's nothing to add. We've got nothing to add. We're
all zeros. We've got nothing to add. If
it's dependent upon us adding something to what Christ has
done, you've stolen the joy and assurance of salvation from men.
False prophets steal and they come to kill. Now, they can't
kill the sheep, can they? Spiritually, they cannot kill
the sheep. They can't steal your salvation. They can't kill that
new man and take your salvation from you. But they have physically
killed sheep in the past, haven't they? All the martyrs, they're
sheep that they physically put to death. And they'd still do
it today if they thought they'd get away with it. But what they
do is they kill people. They don't kill sheep. They kill
people. And here's how they do it. They
preach a false doctrine. They don't preach the central
truths. They get away from the central ground truths of the
gospel. And you know what that does? It'll eat at a man's soul
like cancer. And unless it becomes treated
by the great physician, it'll kill him. They'll die in unbelief
and be damned for it. Because of that false gospel,
they kill men. They kill them by giving them
poison. Now, I know the flesh wants poison. The flesh will
pay for the poison. They'll support these men that
spew It's poison out to them. Because the flesh wants it. And
the false prophet won't give them the remedy. Now, there is
a remedy, but they don't want it. It's just like your children.
You ever try to give them medicine that tastes bad? They don't want
it. You make them not take it? Of
course, if you love them, you make them take it. That medicine's
good for you. The gospel tastes bad to the
flesh. The man loves you preaching to you anyway. Because it's the
only remedy for your sin. But this false prophet, he's
going to keep giving them the poison. Because he's in the ministry
for what he can get for people. If it kills them, that's okay.
He'll replace them with another one. They're killing men. And they destroy. They destroy
the harmony and peace of God's people. And they destroy the
foundation of the church by making themselves the issue instead
of making Christ the issue. The moment you take somebody's
eyes off of Christ, you've destroyed the foundation of the church.
You've destroyed the foundation of faith. Christ is the only
foundation. You get the sheep thinking about
themselves instead of Christ. You've destroyed the foundation.
And they don't care. Because they don't care about
sheep. They don't care about the well-being of sheep. They
just care about themselves. All the sheep are to them is
a means to an end. They're not people to be loved.
and taken care of and comforted and edified by the preaching
of Christ. And the Pharisees just got done proving our Lord's
point. They cast this healed blind man
out. They're not good shepherds. They didn't take care of him.
They cast him out to a place they thought would kill him.
They thought, if we excommunicate him, he can't come back to the
priest, he can't come back to the sacrifices, he can't come
back to the temple. Or cast him out to a place that'll
kill him. What kind of shepherd's that? They just proved their
point. And they did it because they
wanted to protect their status in the community. They cared
more about themselves and that poor man. But Christ the shepherd,
now he's not like that at all. Not at all. And his under shepherds
aren't either. We read about that in Ezekiel
34. Christ didn't come to condemn
the world. He came to give his people life. He came to give
life to his sheep. And it's abundant life. Our Savior
doesn't come, He'll just give you barely enough life so you
barely, you know, scrape by and enter Heaven by the skin of your
teeth. He gives abundant life. Our Shepherd never does the bare
minimum. See, that's what this thief and robber and false prophet
does. What's the minimum I can do to
get away with? What's the minimum? Christ never
did the minimum. Ever. He gave abundant life to
His people. We'll talk more about that abundant
life in a minute. Here in the rest of our text, there's seven
characteristics of Christ, the shepherd of the sheep. And every
one of these characteristics make us loving, admiring, and
following. That's what I hope the Lord will
do for us this morning. And here's the first characteristic. Christ,
the shepherd of the sheep, is good. Look at verse 11. I am
the good shepherd. The good shepherd. Now, we have
several examples of shepherds in the Old Testament. And each
one of them, in his own way, the type of Christ. Abel was
a shepherd. What do you know about Abel?
He brought the blood of the Lamb for sacrifice. That's the type
of Christ. Jacob was a shepherd. What do
you know about Jacob when he was keeping Laban's flock? That
flock grew and prospered mightily under his care. Type of Christ. Joseph was a shepherd. The favorite
son was a shepherd. He fed the flock of his father
Jacob. The type of Christ feeding his
flock. Moses was a shepherd. He grew up in Pharaoh's house,
wasn't he? But he had to go across the desert, and he was a shepherd
for 40 years when God found him. And what did he do? He went down
there and delivered Israel from Egypt, from bondage in Egypt,
through the Red Sea. The type of Christ. King David. What was he for? He was a king.
And he killed a lion and a bear to protect his father's flock.
Not just anybody's flock, his father's flock. Type of Christ. All those men are types of Christ,
but only Christ is the shepherd of the sheep. Hebrews 8, Christ
is described as the great shepherd. Peter describes Christ as the
chief shepherd, the shepherd and bishop of our souls. Christ
is the shepherd of the sheep, and only Christ is good. Now don't just pass over this
short little phrase, I'm the good shepherd. The sheep enjoy
security if our shepherd's the good shepherd. If our shepherd
is the good shepherd, our shepherd's God, right? There's none good
but one, that's God. If our shepherd's the good shepherd,
he's God. Jacob was dying, he's blessing
his sons. He spoke to them of God who shepherded
him all the days of his life. Our shepherd's God. Now, what
security is there in that? Our shepherd's God. Psalm 23
says, The Lord is my shepherd. When our Lord said, I'm the good
shepherd, those Pharisees knew exactly what he's saying. He's
saying, I'm God. Our shepherd is God. And he's
so good, he provides green pastures for his sheep to feed in. They're
not feeding them bare ground and rocks and in green pastures. He keeps giving them to his sheep.
He provides still waters for His sheep to drink. But more
than that, more precious than that, Christ is the green pastures
that His sheep eat. He is the still waters that His
sheep come to drink. Christ is the shepherd. He is
the pasture. He is the water. He's the good
shepherd. Christ the Shepherd is so good,
He protects His sheep from every enemy. Not one enemy can touch
them. Not one enemy can harm them. He heals all their spiritual
diseases. Their wounds and bruises and
putrefying sores. We talked about Wednesday night.
He heals them all. He finds His lost sheep and carries
them home. He stops His sheep from going
astray. He's never lost one lamb. Not one. I'm telling you, Good
Shepherd. Secondly, Christ the Shepherd
is both willing and he's able to pay the ransom price for his
sheep. Verse 11, I'm the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth
his life for the sheep. Now, shepherds, they protect
the flock from predators, right? That's their job. Just like David,
he killed that lion, he killed that bear, because he's protecting
his flock. But now the normal human being
Sometimes you'll see a fight. Yeah, man, that's just not worth
fighting. If you're a shepherd, maybe you
came around the corner and you saw the lion, but it's too late. There's no saving that lamb.
It's too late. Or maybe you came around the corner and the whole
pride of lions is they're hunting this little lamb. Well, now,
if you get in the middle of them, you're going to get killed. And
you just say, I'm just going to back off. You got sheep. The
cost of doing business is just losing one once in a while. When
I was in the convenience store business, we discounted it at
the cost of doing business. People are going to steal stuff.
It's just the cost of doing business. You've just got to write it off
and go on. And that shepherd's going to look at that situation
and say, there's no saving this lamb. I can't save him. If I
put myself in that situation, I'm going to get killed. And
I'm more valuable than that lamb. I'll just let that lamb go, preserve
myself, so I can save all the rest. Makes sense, and you're
absolutely right. Of course you're right. is more
valuable than the life of an animal. How much more valuable is the
life of God's Son than our life? The hell it can't be told. I
mean, the difference in that value can't be told. We're worth
less than nothing. He's worth everything. The difference
can't be told. And that's what makes the death
of Christ able to redeem his sheep from sin. Now a shepherd
is the strong protecting the weak. He's the wise protecting
the ignorant. And Christ does that for his
sheep, right? We're weak, we're ignorant, he protects us. But
now watch this. Christ does more than defend
his sheep from the predators. He does more than beat off the
predators. Christ gives his life for the
sheep, for his sheep. He gives his life for his sheep. in the stead of his sheep. He
gives his life as a substitute for his sheep. When our Lord
says he giveth his life for the sheep, he's saying his sheep
are sinners. They deserve to die because of
their sin. But Christ died for them as their
substitute. He suffered their punishment
so they'll have eternal life. Now, see what that says? The
good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. Well, that can't
be more plain. Christ didn't die for everybody.
He died for his sheep. Christ didn't die to give everyone
a chance to be saved. He died for his sheep so they'd
have eternal life. Christ died for his sheep as
a substitute for his sheep. He died for the sins of his sheep
and only his sheep. Christ became guilty of the sin
of his sheep, of his people, and he died to put that sin away. blotted out forever. Now, the
only reason anybody dies is sin. Isn't that right? If you don't
have sin, you'll never die. Christ is the good shepherd. He never sinned. Never. He had
lived a life of absolute perfect holiness. Well, then why did
he die? Why did he give his life for
a sheep? Because Christ was made guilty. God made him guilty of
all the sin of his people, and his sheep live because Christ
died for them. He suffered all their punishment
for them as their substitute. He died the death that they deserved.
So now his sheep are free from all guilt. Christ took all their
sin away. Then they can never die. They
have life because Christ took their sin away. Now this word,
giveth, translated giveth here, It's the same word that's translated
lay down in verses 15 and 17. And it means to place. The Lord Jesus Christ placed
his perfect life on the altar of God's justice for his sheep. He laid it down. He placed his
life on the altar as payment for the sins of his people. But
it also means to lay down in a specific way. Like you lay
down your money on the counter when you buy something. I know
that loses something today, because today you swipe your card, right?
But there was a day, if you're going to buy something at the
store, you laid your money down. Jan and I used to always write
a check, you know, and Holly would make fun of us saying,
go back to the Stone Age. Why don't you just chisel out
an IOU or something? So we quit doing it. You quit
even laying down the check. She goes, OK, we swipe our debit
card, right? Christ laid down the payment
on the counter. Payment in full. his life, himself. He laid it down so the debts
paid. But this word also means to fix
or to establish. Christ gave his life for his
people. He fixed it. He established perfect
righteousness that he would impute to his people. And just as surely
now as Christ was made to be sin for his people, just as surely
as that, his people are made to be the righteousness of God
in him. Christ literally and actually
was made to be sin. I don't understand that. I can't explain that. But I know
it's so because God's word said it. Christ was made to be sin.
He had to be. He never could have died if he
wasn't made guilty of sin. Well, then just as literally,
just as actually, just as surely, his people are made righteousness.
And it's by this life he established, the righteousness he established
that he would give to his sheep. Now that's abundant life. I told
you that abundant life, we get back to that from verse 10. This
life that Christ gives is abundant life. I hear these preachers,
these false preachers talking about live the abundant life,
live the abundant life. And what they're talking about
is physical life. Live an abundant physical life. Nice cars, big
houses, lots of money, nice furniture, big vacations. That's to them. That's as abundant as it gets.
I don't care how abundant that is. You're going to lose it.
That life is going to end. It will die because of sin. This
life our Lord is talking about is more abundant than even the
life Adam had in the garden. Now he had life, but he could
lose it. And he did. And he died. This
life that Christ gives, this abundant life, is so abundant,
it's eternal. You can never lose it. It's abundant
in its richness. It's His life. It's His life. Well, how abundant is that? Perfect
righteousness, perfect holiness, perfect communion with the Father.
That's abundant. That's the life He's given to
His people. Christ is our life. Now you're not going to find
a false prophet doing that. You're not going to find him
sacrificing for the good of the sheep. He's not going to put
himself at risk. The Lord not only put himself
at risk, he gave his life for his people. You'll never see
a false prophet do that. Look at verse 12. But he that
is a hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not,
when he sees the wolf coming, he leaves the sheep, and he flees.
And the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling
flees because he's a hireling and cares not for the sheep.
The hireling does what he does because that's what he is. He's
a hireling. And it's so sad. That hireling
is not going to expose himself to any danger. He's not going
to put himself out to any degree for the good of the sheep. Because
he's in it for the money. He's in it for himself. He's
not in it for the good of the sheep. In the Revolutionary War,
I've read this, so I'm going to assume that this is true.
It makes a good point. The British hired mercenaries
from Germany. Now, these fellows were well-trained
soldiers. They were experienced soldiers.
But normally, the Patriots whipped them. And you know why? The Patriots
weren't as well-trained. They weren't nearly as experienced.
But those Patriots had a heart for the fight a mercenary can
never have. That's what a false prophet is.
He's a mercenary. Now, we should support pastors
and things, you know, so they can study and preach and, you
know, the scripture teaches that. But paying a man's salary is
not what makes him a hireling. A man's a hireling when he loves
the wages more than the work. A man's a hireling when he loves
the wages more than he loves God and more than he loves God's
sheep. Then he's a hireling. And I'll
give you a perfect example. You know, a hireling, he'll quit
as soon as paychecks stop. He'll quit as soon as the praise
and adoration stop. He'll quit. As soon as hard time
comes, he's going to quit because he's a hireling. And the perfect
example is you mothers. Every mother in this room knows
exactly what I'm talking about. You don't do what you do because
you're a hireling. A good mother can't be a hireling.
Can't be. Why do you do what you do? You
mothers, why do you? Jan was telling me this morning
about a mother, a friend of ours. She's exhausted. Her kid's up
all night. She's sleep deprived. She feels
horrible. Tonight, when that kid's up sick
all night, guess who's going to be with him? His mother. Why
is she going to be? She can't be compensated for
that. She can't pay anybody any amount of money for that. Why
is she going to be with him? Love. A heart of love. Mother's heart, mother's love
can't be equaled, humanly speaking. Sometimes, you mothers, your
children are ungrateful. You'd wring their neck, couldn't
you? And that husband of yours, oh my goodness, he does no help. Sometimes he's ungrateful. Why
do you keep doing it? Love. Why do you keep feeding
them? Why do you keep giving them that medicine? Why do you
keep making sure they've got what they need for school? Love. God's servants are exactly the
same way. It's out of love. And the good
shepherd, the great shepherd, the shepherd and bishop of our
souls does what he does for his people out of eternal love that
you can't measure for his people. Christ came as a man. I mean, that's how he humbled
himself to become a man. And as a man, he did all of the
work that's necessary to redeem his people from their sins. He
established a righteousness. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted
with grief. He endured the hatred of men,
the ridicule of men. He went to the cross and endured
it. Why? Because He loved His people. They can't live any other way.
They can't have a righteousness any other way. So He did it all
for them. And I'm telling you, they're
ungrateful. They never asked for it. They never deserved it.
They weren't seeking Him. They were the exact opposite.
They were His enemies. But Christ did all the work that
was necessary for their salvation for this reason. He loved them. The shepherd loves his sheep. He gave his life for his sheep. Third, Christ the shepherd has
all knowledge. Verse 14, I'm the good shepherd
and I know my sheep and am known of mine. Now this word know,
it means to become one with. In union, like a husband and
a wife, you have union. You're one flesh. And when you're
one, you know everything there is to know about the other one.
Janet can almost never tell me a story about her past I don't
already know. Almost never. We're one flesh. You know everything
there is to know about the other one. Christ knows His sheep. He has union with them. Now get
a hold of your sheep. Christ the shepherd, you know
why he knows his sheep so well? The shepherd became one. The
shepherd of the sheep became one of the sheep. He became what
we are. He became where we are, but more
than that, he became what we are. And nobody knows a sheep
like another sheep. Nobody knows the nature of a
sheep. Nobody knows the trials and heartaches of a sheep like
another sheep. Christ the good shepherd became
one of the sheep. So he could redeem his sheep
from their sin. And he knows his sheep. He's
always known them. He knew his sheep when his father
gave them to him in divine election. He knew them. He knew his sheep
when he purchased them at Calvary. He knew exactly who he was purchasing. When he was laying down that
price, he wasn't just buying an unnamed mass of people. He was buying a specific people.
He knew their name. He knew who He was purchasing.
He knows His sheep. He knows their lost condition.
He knows where they are even when they don't. They're lost.
They have no clue where they are. But He does. And He goes
and finds them and brings them home to Himself. Christ knows
His sheep so well. He knows every one of their names.
He knows them by name. And the Lord says, I know my
sheep. Because I own them. They're my sheep. A hireling
doesn't own the sheep. He can take care of somebody
else's sheep. Christ, the Good Shepherd, he owns his sheep. Now that shows possession. I
own them. But that also shows identification.
You know, if someone says something about us that's true, we have
to say, Janet said last night, well, we have to own that. That
means, yeah, I own that. I identify with that. Andrew,
you own Dan, don't you? You own him. You identify with
him. You claim him. Christ claims his sheep. He's not owning them. He's not
ashamed to call them brethren. He owns them. And this word,
know, it also means to love. Christ knows every man, doesn't
he? He knows every man. He knows
everything because he's God. Christ knows who's the sheep. And who's the goats? Christ knows
the goats, but he doesn't know the goats. He didn't love the
goats. That's why he told them, I never
knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. I don't know you. Oh, yeah, he knows who they are.
He knows what they've done. But he didn't know them. He didn't
love them like he loves the sheep. Look in Exodus chapter 2. I'll
show you a perfect example of this. In Exodus chapter 2. Verse 25. Look at verse 24. God heard their
groaning and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac,
with Jacob. And God looked upon the children
of Israel and God had respect unto them. And that word, that
phrase, had respect is no. God looked upon them. He heard
their groaning. He looked upon them and He knew them. He knows
His people so that He heard them in love. Why did He hear them?
Because He knows them. And what did He do? He sent a
Deliverer to bring them out of captivity. Because He knows His
sheep. And you know what? Christ's sheep
know Him too. We own Him too. We identify with
Him. We identify with Him in believers'
baptism. We identify with Him in public
worship. Because we know Him. You can't help it. You know Him.
Christ has the power to make dumb sheep like you and me. know
him. We don't know nothing. He makes
us know him and believe him and love him. We know Christ is our
Savior. We know that. And we know we
love him. Now, I know I don't love him
like I ought to. I don't love him like he deserves
to be loved. I don't love him like I wish
I did. I don't love him like I will someday. But Eric, I know
I love him. Lord, you know I love you. You
love him. And I know this is because he
first loved me. Every believer knows that. Every believer knows,
all the sheep know this, I know Christ is my righteousness. It's
just a no-brainer. And we know the gospel that describes
the shepherd when we hear it. Every time you hear it, you say,
I know it. And when you hear a false gospel, yeah, something
doesn't sound right. You may not even be able to put
your finger on it, but something doesn't sound right. Why's that? Because you know the shepherd.
You know the gospel that describes him. I told you this word no
means union. The sheep have union with Christ. That union is real and it's complete. Look at verse 15. As the Father
knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life
for the sheep. Now the union of Christ and his
people, it's so deep, it's so mysterious. That the only analogy
that he used to describe the union between Christ and His
people is the union between the Father and the Son. It's the
same union. Now, the Father and the Son,
they're one, right? The Trinity. God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. They're three, but they're one.
They're just one God. They're one. The Father and the
Son are one because they have the same nature. Went exactly
the same way Christ and his sheep are one. They got the same nature. Been made partakers of the divine
nature. He gave you his nature. The Father
and the Son are one in purpose. The purpose of the Godhead is
that Christ would save his people by himself through the sacrifice
of himself without help from anyone. And they did it that
way so that Christ will have all the glory and all the preeminence.
That's the purpose. of the Father and the Son, they're
one, that same purpose. That's the purpose of every believer,
too. Every believer has the exact same purpose as Christ. It's
my purpose. It's my delight. It is yours,
too, if you're a she, that Christ do all the saving without any
contribution from me. It's my purpose. It's my delight.
It's all my hope that Christ is all my salvation. It's my
purpose and my delight that Christ have all the credit for my salvation
and all the glory because he did it all. A sheep has the same
purpose as the Savior. Fourth, Christ the Shepherd is
the Savior of a world of sinners. 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. Now our Lord is talking about
the Gentiles here. And this word fold, or translated fold, is
there twice in our text, but it's two different words. The
first time our Lord says fold, it's a word that means house.
And he's talking about this Jewish house. I have sheep that are
not of this Jewish house. They're Gentiles. The second
time this word fold is translated, it's a word that means a flock
of sheep. Well, that time, our Lord, when this word translated
fold, he's talking exclusively about the sheep that belong to
him. The sheep who make up the body of Christ. Now Christ didn't
just die for the sins of the Jewish nation. That little teen
kind nation over there. Christ didn't die for just the
sins of that nation. He died for a world of sinners. Of every
tribe, tongue, nation. Sinners from every walk of life.
A whole world of sinners. I'm telling you, what a great
Savior. It's a remnant, but it's a remnant no man can number.
And that's good news. Every person in this room is
a Gentile. Every person in this room is not of that old, not
of that Jewish, Israeli house. Christ came to save sinners from
all over the world. He's a great Savior. And that's
good news. Great sinners need a great Savior.
We need a Savior who's saved from sin. Christ is a Savior
of sinners from the whole world. Fifth, Christ the Shepherd is
the successful Savior. Oh, we need a successful Savior.
Look at verse 16 again. Other sheep I have, they're not
of this fold. Them also I must bring, and they
shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Those sheep I give my life for,
they're saved. Now, their debt's paid, and I
must bring them into the fold. Now, if we can understand what
is going on here, we have to understand this Who did Christ
die for? And who did he say he died for?
He said he died for his sheep. Isn't that right? He died only
for his sheep. And that's important because
knowing who Christ died for gives meaning to his death. If we know
who Christ died for, we can know is he a success or is he a failure. If Christ died for every son
of Adam, if he died for the sins of every son of Adam, that they
have eternal life, that they have abundant life, that they
perish not. Well, then he's a failure. His death is a failure because
we know hell's full of people. We know that from Scripture.
There are people at this moment who are in hell. Well, if Christ
died for them, he's a failure. His death is meaningless. It's
a failure. But if Christ died for his sheep,
if he died only for his sheep, only for those that the Father
gave him, then he's the successful Savior. And every one of those
sheep must be brought to Christ. Well, how do you know they will?
The one with all the power is going to bring them. He said,
I must bring them. Well, he's going to do it, isn't
he? He always does everything he's determined to do. All his
will, he accomplishes. He said, I must bring them. He
will. You can just bank on it. He's going to do it. He's the
good shepherd. He's got the power to make his
sheep hear his voice. He's got the power to make his
sheep love his voice. They're going to follow Christ.
because they love the sound of His voice. They can never perish. Christ brings His sheep to Himself
by laying down His life for them. Nothing draws sinners to Christ
like Christ crucified. He laid down His life for sheep,
and that's what brings the sheep to Him. It's just like metal
to a magnet. It just draws His people to Him,
the death of Christ. And He sends the gospel to them
In power. The gospel that preaches Christ
crucified. And that's the effectual call
of the gospel. That's the call we're looking
at in our Bible class this morning. And not just here with these
ears. It's when he works effectually in you. And you hear with the
heart. You hear with the new ears that he gives you. The effectual
call of the gospel. They hear Christ. And they can't
help themselves. The sheep follow him. Because
they love him. They love the sound of his voice.
They come to him. And they never will get over
this. They keep coming to him. To whom coming, Peter said. Why
do you keep coming to him? He gave his life for me. He laid
down his life for me. I keep coming to him. How thankful
we are. He's a successful Savior. Six,
Christ is the shepherd who is loved of the Father. He's the
loved son. Verse 17, Therefore doth my Father
love me. Now Joseph, we mentioned him
earlier. He was a shepherd. He kept his father's flock. He
fed his father's flock. And you know Jacob. He loved
Joseph more than all those other sons. Loved him more. He's the
favorite son. The most loved son. The relationship
between Jacob and Joseph is a picture of the union between the father
and the son. It's a picture of the father's love for the son.
The father loves the son. How much do you love your sons?
How much do you love your children? That love just pales in comparison. It's not worthy to be compared
to the love that the Father has for the Son. The Father loves
the Son. Loves Him so much, He's given
the Son everything. And that love is tied to the
nature of Christ. Here's our seventh point. Christ
the Shepherd is the obedient Savior. Verse 17, Therefore doth
my Father love me, because I laid down my life that I might take
it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down on myself. I have power to lay it down,
and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my Father." Now, Christ is not just willing to die for his
sheep. He's got the power to die for his sheep. The Father
gave commandment to his Son, you go die for the sins of my
elect, and Christ obeyed. He said, yes, sir. He obeyed.
He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. The Lord
Jesus lived a life of perfect obedience. He was obedient to
his Father's will in every way. Every time the law said, thou
shalt, he did. Every time the law said, thou
shalt not, he didn't. He was perfectly obedient, inwardly
and outwardly. Perfect, spotless obedience.
And then Christ was obedient to be made sin for his people.
Now you and I are sinners. We've never known anything but
sin. So we don't understand how revolting this was to the Holy
Son of God to be made sin. But he was obedient. He obediently
gave himself to be made sin for his people. And this is important. The obedience of the shepherd
of the sheep is the obedience of the sheep of the shepherd.
Isn't it? His obedience is our only obedience. And Christ was
obedient. He was obedient in life. He was
obedient to be made sin. And he was obedient to die. To satisfy justice because the
law demands death for sin. Now, he had to be obedient to
die. Had to be. It's impossible for
the Son of God to die. Isn't it? He's life itself. How
can life die? No man could take his life from
him. I don't care how much they got together, Judas and that
mob and the Pharisees and all the Jews and Pilate and the Roman
soldiers. All of them together could never
take the life of our Lord away from him. They couldn't do it.
It was impossible for them to take life out of his body. It's
impossible for them to extinguish that life force that's in him.
Impossible. But now Christ has got to die.
If justice is going to be satisfied, Christ must die. Yet those Roman
soldiers and those Jews can't take his life from him. So in
obedience, he gave up the ghost. He gave it up. He had the power
to lay down his life. And he did. He obediently laid
that life down on the counter. as payment for the sins of his
people. Now that's power. And that's obedience. He had
the power to lay that life down. That's too glorious for us to
even be able to comprehend. They couldn't take his life.
He had to obediently lay it down. And he did. But then he had the
power to pick it back up again. And he did that. He raised himself
from the grave. Now Scripture talks about the
Father raising And the Spirit raised him. Here, our Lord said,
I raised myself. What does that tell us? That
resurrection is the work of the Trinity. They're one in purpose.
It was their purpose he died for the sins of his people. It
was their purpose he laid down his life. And it was their purpose
he take it again. That's the purpose of the Godhead.
He was declared to be the Son of God with power when he was
resurrected. And that death pleased the Father. He laid down his life. He gave
his life. And that death pleased the Father.
It pleased the Lord to bruise him. It never pleased me to spank
my children. Never did. You might not believe
that, but it never did. Ever. But it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. It pleased him. The death of
Christ pleased the justice of the Father. The death of the
Son satisfied the holiness of the Father. It satisfied Him.
The death of Christ satisfied the Father because that death
fulfilled His eternal will to save His people from their sins.
It pleased Him. Now, the Father loves the Son.
Oh, He loves the Son. But the Father also loves Christ
the Savior. Because his death fulfilled the
salvation, the will of his people, the people that he loves. So
the father's highly exalted him, giving him a name which is above
every name because he loves the son and he loves the Savior.
Now here's the power of the shepherd of the sheep. He's always been
in absolute control of the situation. He chose the people that he would
make his. He chose the sheep that he put
in his flock. He chose the hour that he would
come incarnate. He chose the tribe he would be
born in. Told us thousands of years before what tribe means.
Sure enough, he came to that tribe. He chose his own mother
to come out of there. He chose his mother. He chose
the moment that he would be born. He chose the moment that he would
give up the ghost. And he chose the moment he'd
take his life back up again. Reckon those sheep are secure?
If that's your shepherd, are you secure? Can anything arm
you? Can anything take you from him? Not a blessed thing. That's
the power of our good shepherd. I want you to look at Psalm 23.
I'm just going to read this in closing. With all this that we've
looked at, now let's read this blessed psalm. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. I won't want for anything, because
He's everything. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in paths of righteousness
for His name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil, for Thou art
with me. Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort
me. Thou preparest a table before
me. in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil,
my cup runneth over. Surely, goodness and mercy, surely,
if this is my shepherd, surely, goodness and mercy will follow
me all the days of my life, and I'll dwell in the house of the
Lord forever." Let's bow in prayer. How we thank thee for Christ,
the shepherd of the sheep. Oh, he's so good. We're thankful. Our shepherd
is God. There's no hope that his sheep
be lost. He knows his sheep. He has union
with his sheep. He feeds and guides and protects. And how thankful we are that
our good shepherd gave His life for His sheep. He gave His life
as a substitute for us. He gave His life as payment for
our sins. And our sins must be paid for.
The sins of His sheep are gone because Christ gave His life,
laid down His life. And how thankful we are He took
it again. He raised again for our justification
and we're thankful. for security and rest and forgiveness
of sins and righteousness and holiness and sanctification in
Christ, the Good Shepherd of the sheep. And Father, we know
you have other sheep which are not of this fold. There are other
sheep that haven't come to faith yet. There are other sheep that
haven't been born yet. And we pray that you'd keep this congregation
faithful to preach the gospel. That you'd keep us faithful to
worship the Lord. that this would be a place where
your lost sheep can be brought and hear the Savior, that they
come to follow Him. Father, we're thankful. I ask
that you continue to bless us for your great namesake. It's
the name of that great shepherd of the sheep, the shepherd and
bishop of our souls. We pray and give thanks.