So we come back to John's Gospel,
and we're in chapter 10 this morning. And the more you look
at these words of John's Gospel, how deeply profound. I know the
whole scripture is, but you know how I probably preached on this
three or four times during the time I've been preaching. But
every time you plumb deeper and deeper depths and just amaze
at it. This is such riches, this really
is such riches. This world has got nothing to
offer compared with the truth and the blessing that is in these
words of the Lord Jesus Christ recorded here. The world all
around, of which we're a part, that we're born into, that we
live our lives in the flesh in this world, it strives for its
fulfillment, for its happiness, for its kicks, if you like, in
material things. And if not material things, then
human relationships, or politics, or business, or whatever it might
be. But all of it, all of it is frustrated by sin, by corruption. All of it, all of it is frustrated
by the sin that is in the heart of man. You see, the best attempts
of the world's leaders to do things together, as we've just
done in this huge, great extravaganza in Glasgow the last couple of
weeks, And at the end of it all, it is just hypocritical sin,
all of it, sin and corruption. And all of it, all of it, be
in no doubt, be in no doubt, all of it ends in death. As much
as they strive that no one should ever die, it all ends in death. For God said, in the day that
you sin, you shall surely die. And we've been dying ever since.
But our business as the people of God, as believers, as those
who know the truth, of those who know the Lord Jesus Christ,
our business is to proclaim true life. We're not having a debate
with anybody, we're proclaiming, we're declaring that which God
has given us to declare. True life, eternal life. Eternal life. Jesus said, he
that believeth in me shall not see death. He has abolished death,
wrote Paul to Timothy. This is the life of God in his
people. As Jesus himself prayed in John
17 verse 3, this is life eternal. What is life eternal? How is
it obtained, how is it apprehended, how is it enjoyed, that they
might know, the people, the people of God, that they might know
Thee, the only true God, God the Father, that they might know
Thee, the only true God, and how do we know? and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent, because we only know him through Jesus
Christ whom he sent, for he alone is the way, the truth and the
life, and nobody comes to the Father but by him. You see, he
who is God was sent by God as a man to satisfy divine justice
for the multitude of people that he chose in grace before time
began. He God was sent by God. What do you mean, He, God, was
sent by God? Listen to Hebrews 1 verse 8. This is speaking of
God the Father, God the unknowable God, God the Spirit, speaking
unto His Son. Unto the Son of God, God the
Father says, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever, a scepter
of righteousness. The Father calls the Son God.
Thy throne, O God. He who is God was sent by God
as a man. You say, I don't understand that.
Neither do I. But the Scripture declares it. So that he might
satisfy offended divine justice. for the multitude that was chosen
in Christ before the beginning of time. He didn't do it for
all without exception. This is the message of Scripture.
This is why Christ was so hated, because his gospel was a gospel
of particular redemption, of limited atonement, of effectual
salvation, because he died for a multitude, a specific multitude,
a number which the Father knows to the very last one, a multitude
that are fitted for citizenship of heaven, qualified for heaven. free from sin. You see, God has
said that nothing will enter his heaven that it defiles in
any way. There will be no sin there, for
God is a God of holiness who cannot abide sin. So it will
be free from sin, but he has made his people the righteousness
of God in the Lord Jesus Christ by what Christ has accomplished,
that his people might be qualified for heaven. And as Jesus, the
God-man, he walked this earth 2,000 years ago, and he proclaimed
God's truth of salvation from the curse of sin. That was his
message. He came preaching what? The kingdom
of God. The kingdom of God, that kingdom
of righteousness, and the qualification for that kingdom which is in
him. He says later in this passage, I lay down my life for the sheep,
And I lay it down and I take it up again. It is that that
qualifies the sheep. of God, for inheritance with
Christ in the kingdom of God. As the shepherd of God's sheep,
his purpose is to call and protect his sheep, to feed his sheep,
to bring them safely into his eternal kingdom. And ever since
he left the world, 2,000 years ago, he has provided under-shepherds
to speak with his voice to his sheep, but in evil intent Satan
has raised up many who appear as shepherds, but are in fact
wolves. They're wolves in sheep's clothing.
Jesus warned us of them. He warned us of these who are
false shepherds. They're false shepherds. He warns
throughout the scripture about it. He warns in Ezekiel. Where
is it? Ezekiel 34, I think it is. He
warns about the false shepherds. Yes, Ezekiel 34, two to four.
He warns about the false shepherds then, hundreds of years before
Christ came. He warns about them, that they're
wolves in sheep's clothing. Don't believe them. They look
so soft and cuddly and harmless, but they're actually ravening
wolves. And in John chapters 6 to 10
particularly, Jesus faced the false shepherds of his day. False shepherds. The false shepherds,
the Pharisees, the scribes, the priests. and he spoke directly
to them. In John chapter 10, he spoke
directly to them. Look at it. In verse 1, verily,
verily, I say unto you. Unto who? Who's he speaking to? He's speaking to the Pharisees,
because look at the last two or three verses. The Pharisees
heard him talking about making a difference, that those that
see not might see, and that those which see or think they see might
be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which
were with him heard these words and said to him, Are you saying
that we're blind? Are you? This was the attitude. Are you saying that we are blind?
Who do you think you are? was their attitude. Jesus said
unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin. But now
ye say, We see. Therefore your sin remaineth.
In effect, what he's saying is, if you know yourselves to be
in spiritual darkness, in need of God's grace, in need of forgiveness,
you would be saved, for you would seek it in the right place. But
you self-righteously, arrogantly boast that you don't need any
of this, and therefore your sin remains unforgiven. Verily, verily,
I say unto you Pharisees. He's speaking to the Pharisees.
He's speaking to them. Now, let's just read again. I
know Peter read it for us earlier, but I think the force of these
words, you need to let it sink in. Verily, verily. We'll read
the first 14 verses. Verily, verily, I say unto you.
He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth
up some of the way, the same is a thief and a robber. But
he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
To him the porter, the doorkeeper, 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, and 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 in
hiling 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 hiling fleeth,
because he is in hiling, and careth not for the sheep. I am
the Good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. Here is the message of eternal
life for the sheep of God. Let's just think about it simply
to start with. It isn't an easy passage to understand. It really isn't. If you're trying
to fit together the jigsaw puzzle of who fits what, it's not as
easy as you might think superficially to start with. But I'm going
to give it a simple simple explanation to begin with, and then we'll
come back towards the end and think about what else is in here.
So, the sheepfold and its door, let's think about that. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into
the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a
thief and a robber. The sheepfold is a place of safety
for sheep. That's what it was in that Eastern
culture. In this land even now you will
find sheep folds as you walk the hills of North Wales and
the Lake District and other places, you will find sheep folds. But
that's to protect the sheep from the weather, not from wolves
and bears, because there aren't any roaming freely in this country.
But there were then, when Jesus was speaking in Palestine, there
were then, and they had very, very high walled sheep folds
to keep the sheep safe at night, a place of safety for the sheep.
it symbolizes, if nothing else, it symbolizes the Kingdom of
God. The Kingdom of God, but you know,
the Kingdom of God is manifested in different ways on earth, in
different epochs of time. The Kingdom of God is manifested,
you know, it was the Israel nation, it's now the Church of God. the
Christian Church of God. But it's manifested in different
ways. There's the whole Church of God, you know, throughout
eternity, the elect of God, all called out, some in heaven now,
some still on earth, but we'll all be together there. But then
there are the local manifestations of it. And there are different
manifestations on earth and its final fulfillment in heaven.
The, for example, if we think about that, you go back to the
early chapters of Genesis and you read about the sons of God,
and that's, a manifestation of the kingdom of God on earth,
in this fallen earth. But there were those then, Seth
and Enoch and Noah, and they were the sons of God. They knew
the truth of God. They'd had it revealed to them.
They were the patriarchs that followed, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
and their families. There was Moses with Israel in
the Exodus. There was Israel in the promised
land in Canaan when they'd come in there, triumphantly into that
land. There was Judea, And there are
the New Testament churches. These are different manifestations
of the kingdom of God. They're not all true people of
God. Paul writes about Israel, they're
not all Israel which are of Israel, but they do contain the true
Israel. They certainly contain the true.
For assurance of heavenly hope. Do I have a good hope of heaven? You need to be in the fold of
God's sheep. But you know, there's only one
legitimate door. There's only one legitimate way
in to that haven of God's kingdom. There's only one legitimate way
in. There's only one qualification
that is accepted. There's only one payment that
is worthwhile. The world in its false ideas
of Christian religion portrays that you go to the gates of heaven
and there's Peter the Apostle, Saint Peter they call him, checking
your life whether you've done enough good or not to get into
the gates of heaven. What a complete fallacy. There
is nothing that says anything remotely like that in the scripture
at all. No, look at verse 7. Jesus said
unto them again, verily, verily, when the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is God, says verily, verily, you need to listen, truly, truly. This is the God who made all
things, who even now upholds all things by the word of His
power, and He says to us, I am the door of the sheep. How do
you enter into the sheepfold? The kingdom of God through the
door. Who is the door? The Lord Jesus Christ, Him and
Him alone. Verse 9, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved. In other words, if you don't
enter in by him, you've come in some false way. You're not
in. That's not the legitimate way to come in. You are not saved.
You have no assurance of eternal life. You are not able to go
in and out and find pasture. He is the door. What is it to
enter by Jesus Christ, the door? It is to be granted access to
the kingdom of God, because the entry fee of redemption from
the law's curse for sin has been paid by the life of Christ, that
life which is in His blood. He has shed His precious blood
as the substitute for His sinful people. He has shed His precious
blood to pay the sin debt of their sin, that they might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. Look at verse 11. In
verse 11, We read, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth
his life for the sheep. Christ has given his life that
his sheep might be qualified. His sheep, his people that have
a right to come into the kingdom of God. He has given his life
for those sheep. Verse 15, as the father knoweth
me, even so know I the father, and I lay down my life for the
sheep. This is how you enter in. It's
belief of the truth. Him in laying down His life in
the place of His sheep, the multitude that the Father gave to Him before
the beginning of time, has paid the entry price for His sheep
through the door into the kingdom of God. How do you know that
you've entered by the door? Verse 3, the porter openeth,
the doorkeeper openeth. Who is this? The Holy Spirit. in its simplest interpretation,
the Holy Spirit calls with irresistible grace. He gives faith to believe
the Gospel. And what does Paul write to the
Thessalonians? How does he know that they're
beloved of God, that they're chosen before the beginning of
time? How does he know that? Through sanctification of the
Spirit and their belief of the truth. what manner of entry we
had when we came and preached the gospel. The Holy Spirit,
as he did with Lydia at Philippi by that riverside, opened Lydia's
heart that she received the truth from the words that the Apostle
Paul and others with him preached there by that riverside. Those
Thessalonians believed the truth. This showed that they were the
ones that had come through the door into the kingdom of God.
And that gives assurance of electing grace. I know, I know it is well
with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul we sometimes sing. How do I know? Because I believe
the truth. Not anything I've done, it's
not my holiness in believing, it's the fact that the Holy Spirit's
opened my eyes and the consequence of that is that I believe. And
that belief is the evidence of what Christ has done. You may
object, I've given a very simple interpretation of these first
few verses. You may object that what I've
said doesn't strictly accord with verses 1 to 6, and I agree,
we'll come back to it later. But the principle that I've stated
is exactly in accordance with the rest of Scripture, the fold
and its door. Let's think about the sheep then,
the sheep. The sheep. Do you like being
called a sheep? You know, sheep, if you've ever
done any farming, and I did when I was a young lad, up on the
hills in the north of England, you soon discover that sheep
are very, very weak, and vulnerable, and stupid. They do the most
bizarre things. They're very silly animals. Verse
2. He that entereth in by the door
is the shepherd of the sheep. Verse three, the porter openeth,
and the sheep hear his voice. Verse four, he putteth forth
his own sheep and go before them, and the sheep follow him. A stranger
they will not follow. Verse seven, then said Jesus
to them again, verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door
of the sheep. Verse eight, all that ever came before me are
thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. Verse
11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. Verse 13, the hireling fleeth, because
he is a hireling, and careth not for the sheep. Verse 14,
I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
Verse 15, as the Father knoweth me, even so I know the Father,
and I lay down my life for the sheep. Verse 26, ye believe not,
he says to these Pharisees later on, ye believe not, because ye
are not of my sheep. The sheep of God, Christ's sheep,
believe the truth of the Gospel of Grace. These Pharisees demonstrated
they were not of His sheep because they didn't believe. Verse 27,
my sheep, those who are truly my sheep, they hear my voice,
and I know them, and they follow me. They believe what I say,
and they follow me. What a vivid picture it is. Imagine 2,000 years ago, a very
agricultural economy. A vivid picture in that culture.
Typical. Sheep were typical. They were
a symbol, they were a sign, they were the actual reality of a
man's possessions. they were the thing which sustained
a prosperous life, agricultural possessions, they were the sustenance
of a prosperous life, and yet, these sheep are weak, they're
vulnerable, the wolf comes, they've got no defence, they can't fight
back, They're defenceless, but they are owned and protected.
And so they're a good picture of the people of God, who in
ourselves, we have no strength whatsoever, spiritually, none
whatsoever. The sheep are God's elect. The sheep speak of the innumerable
multitude chosen in Christ in sovereign grace, by which I mean
it was God alone who chose them, they didn't choose Him. In sovereign
grace before the world was made, this multitude was chosen. They're
born not of their own will, they're born not of the will of other
people, but they're born of God. Religion doesn't believe that,
but it's the truth. They're born of God. It's God's
sovereign grace. Why them? Only God knows. Really, only God knows. A restrictive
doctrine, you say? Let me give you an answer to
that. We rid of an innumerable multitude. A multitude, Revelation,
let me think, Revelation six, no, nine, Revelation nine. Having talked about the 144,000,
he then talks about an innumerable multitude, an innumerable multitude. In Revelation 19, John looked
and he saw much people in heaven. Talking about a lot, thousands
and thousands and thousands multiplied over. Let me give you another
reason why this is not a restrictive doctrine. We rid of whosoever
thirsts. We rid of whosoever comes, I
will in no wise cast out. Nobody can come except my Father
draw him, but whosoever comes, I will in no wise cast out. But
these are the ones, and these only, for whom the Lamb of God
stood surety, a substitute before the justice of God, he paid the
sin debt for his people by dying in their place. shedding his
precious blood, the soul that sins it shall die. That's what
the law demands. The Son of God came and stood
in the place of the people with whom he was united, betrothed
before the beginning of time, and he laid down his life for
the sheep. He gave his life to pay that
debt that the law requires, the soul that sins it shall die.
He made that sin that was theirs his, that they might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. And He accomplished redemption.
You say, we keep hearing this from you every week. Good, I'm
glad you're hearing it. I'm going to keep doing it because
it's the message you need to hear over and over and over again. For there is none other name
under heaven given by which we must be saved than that of the
Lord Jesus Christ and His death at Calvary. That is what accomplishes
redemption that is what guarantees eternal life that is what guarantees
glory that is what qualifies you if you're one of his people
it is that alone that qualifies you to lay you down in peace
and sleep knowing that you will go to heaven if God takes your
life from you today calm, peaceful about it. You know, it's true. You ask the true people of God,
they will tell you. This world is terrified of dying
through all their life, through fear of death, in bondage, and
yet you ask a true child of God. If God takes your life from you
today, what's your only concern? Those you're leaving behind.
And even then, you don't need to be concerned about that, because
God will care for his people, all of them. No, this is accomplished
redemption, which gives absolute assurance, qualified and made
meat for God's kingdom, wherein nothing shall enter that defiles. Therefore he must make his people
the righteousness of God in him. Do you have confidence that you
are numbered among this blessed multitude? If you believe the
Lord Jesus Christ, you can be certain. What is the work that
we must do to do the works of God? The Pharisees asked him
in John chapter 6. This is the work of God, that
you believe on him whom he has sent, the sheep then, that elect
multitude of God that he came to save. Don't tell me it's not
fair. You read the scriptures. You
see how often the door is wide open. If only you will believe
and see that if you refuse to believe, it's your own stubborn
heart that keeps you out. So let's think for a few moments
about the good shepherd. I've entitled this message, Is
Your Soul's Shepherd Good? Is he good? You need a good shepherd
for your soul, and there's only one. Shepherd is the same word
as pastor in the original, in the original language. Pastor.
He's the good pastor. Verse 11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. Christ is the good pastor of
his people's souls in a world full of false ones. We read Psalm
23 earlier on. The Lord is my shepherd. What
a blessed thing to be able to say. The Lord is my shepherd. If the Lord is your shepherd,
you are safe for eternity. You won't want for anything,
you won't be in any need. He will give you everything that
is necessary for eternal life and peace with God. He will make
you, as a sheep loves to lie down in green pastures for food,
and still waters for drink. He will provide all those things
for you, sustenance for your soul. He restores your soul from
its sinful state. He leads you in the paths of
righteousness. Why? For His own glory, for His
namesake. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, this world, all around us, with
its evil, I will fear no evil. For I know that as I walked through
the valley of the shadow of death, like Pilgrim in John Bunyan's
Pilgrim's Progress, the lions, the fierce beasts, were on chains
of a certain length, and they couldn't get to him, and that
chain was determined by God. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Thou preparest a table before me, a place of feasting and rejoicing,
in the presence of mine enemies, where I should really be terrified
and cowering away, but no, I'm there. Thou anointest my head
with oil, my cup runneth over, surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever." Those words were written 3,000 years
ago by David, 3,000 and more years ago, how rich,
you know, even the primary school I went to in the 1950s, we had
to learn that so that we knew it off by heart, by rote. We
all did. We all were able to say it without
reading the words. That was one of the passages
of scripture that we were taught at school. In those days before
this current evil generation has taught this society that
the true Christian religion is evil, that's all of Satan, isn't
it? But what care, and what protection, and what providential blessing,
what confidence of eternal security and bliss is in the Lord Jesus
Christ for those for whom He is the Good Shepherd? He speaks
to His sheep and they hear Him, doesn't He? He speaks! Verse
4, He says, When he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before
them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. They
know the Good Shepherd's voice. Are you one of Christ's sheep?
You can hear his voice, can't you? You can? I'll tell you why
in a minute. Where? Through his written word.
We have it open before us this morning. The Good Shepherd speaks
through his written word. What does he speak to? If you're
a child of God, if you believe the Lord Jesus Christ, he speaks
directly to your heart, to your soul, to your spiritual being. He speaks directly to it. But
he also speaks through his undershepherds. Look at Ephesians 4. You see,
when he returned to eternal glory, he left undershepherds. Look,
it says there in verse 11 of Ephesians 4, He gave, Christ
gave some apostles, which is messengers of the truth, apostles,
some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. Why? For the perfecting of the saints,
building them up, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying. strengthening, building the body
of Christ till we all come in unity of the faith and of the
knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man to the measure.
He gave ministry gifts to his church pastors and teachers whose
words correlate closely with the Good Shepherd's words. This
is how you know if a man's speaking the truth of God. Do the words
he speaks, it's not the power of the oratory, it's do they
accord with the good shepherd's voice? Do these pastors and teachers,
and we have access by the internet to a vast array that until 25
years ago, very, very few people had any access other than by
cassette tapes being sent around the world. Do they correlate,
the words of these under shepherds, do they correlate closely? with
the Good Shepherd's word. The true sheep instinctively
detect the voice of the Good Shepherd in his under-shepherds,
if they're true, and they follow. And these under-shepherds are
themselves, as verse 2 tells us, Verse 2 tells us, "...he
that entereth by the door is the shepherd of the sheep." Those
who are the under-shepherds of the sheep, in the Kingdom of
God, in its earthly manifestation, are those who themselves have
entered by the door, who is Christ and Him alone. Beware though. There are many close counterfeits. There are thieves and robbers,
verse 1. He that climbs up another way,
not by the door, the same is a thief and robber. He's speaking
to you, not you out there. The you he's speaking to in that
verse, as we saw earlier on, are the Pharisees. He's speaking
to the leaders, the shepherds, the pastors of Judaism, as it
was 2,000 years ago when he came. Judaism was a manifestation of
God's sheepfold on earth. Its shepherds at that time were
scribes and Pharisees and priests. In John chapter 9, as we saw
last week, they had cruelly excommunicated a beggar who was born blind because
they hated and envied Christ, who had healed him and given
him his sight. And they feared Christ would
come and take their place away from them. And they excommunicated,
cruelly, this poor beggar. These are supposed to be the
shepherds in a manifestation, the earthly manifestation of
the sheepfold, the kingdom of God at the time. And they asked
Jesus in chapter 9 and verse 40, are you saying that we are
blind? We're the leaders, we're the
shepherds. Are you saying that we are blind? Is that what you're
saying? And his reply was, as I've said,
if you knew yourselves to be in spiritual darkness, in need
of God's grace and forgiveness, you would be saved. but you don't. In your arrogant, self-righteous
blindness, you determinedly stick to rejecting the truth, and therefore
your sin remains unforgiven. Yes, you are false shepherds,
he says to them. You are false shepherds of God's
then earthly sheepfold, because they hadn't entered through the
door. The door was there before them. The long-promised Messiah,
the promised seed of the woman, the Christ of God was there in
their midst testifying without any shadow of a doubt to who
He was and they would not believe Him. They refused to enter through
the door, unlike others. We read of Simeon and of Anna
and many others who were true disciples, who were waiting for
the coming Messiah and gladly embraced Him. They were to God's
true sheep, these Pharisees, these pastors, they were, as
verse 5 says, they were strangers. They spoke with the voice of
strangers. They were from a line of false prophets. Again, I say
read Ezekiel 34, verses 2-4. Those were the pastors in Israel. that were so roundly condemned. Their intention was to do Satan's
work in shutting up the door of heaven. Verse 10, the thief
cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. Their
objective was to keep, which is Satan's objective, to keep
the true people of God out of the heaven of God. They were
hirelings, hirelings. You know, when you move into
a new house like we've done recently, you find that there's no end
of things to do. And one of the biggest problems in these days
in which we're living is it's so hard to find competent tradespeople
to do the work that you need to get done. So if you're like
me, you end up doing most of it yourself. Not too much good
for your physical health, but you know what a hireling is.
A hireling wants to get paid as quickly as possible for doing
as little work as possible and then clear off. They were hirelings,
verses 12 and 13, without care for the sheep and their offspring
abound today. We're running out of time, but
let me quickly just quote some scriptures to you. Matthew 24,
verse 24, there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and
shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible,
they shall deceive the very elect. Of course it isn't possible,
but that was a warning that Christ gave. Acts chapter 20 verse 30,
this is Paul warning the elders of Ephesus. Of your own selves,
the church at Ephesus, of your own selves shall men arise, speaking
perverse things to draw away disciples after them. 1 Timothy
4 verse 1, Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter
times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing
spirits and doctrines of devils. 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 1, There
shall be false teachers among you, who privilege shall bring
in damnable heresies. I could expound that for the
next hour without any trouble with examples from the scripture.
You'd be glad to hear that I'm not going to. that Jesus alone
is the Good Shepherd. Verses 2 and 3, Jesus the Good
Shepherd had come into the fold of Judaism, look what it says,
verses 2 and 3, he that entereth 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. Jesus the Good Shepherd had come into the fold of Judaism,
as it then was the manifestation of the Kingdom of God on earth.
How had he come? What was the door that he came
through? He came through the door of Scripture fulfillment,
didn't he? He is the Word of God, and he
fulfilled the Word of God when he came. Everything that the
Scripture had prophesied concerning Messiah, concerning the Christ,
he fulfilled it. He fulfilled it exactly. place
of his birth, the time of his birth, everything, he perfectly
met it. He came by the door. And if the
porter is the Holy Spirit, who at that time manifested his works
through John the Baptist in opening the way, you know, he prepared
the way of the Lord, he opened the door into that sheepfold
of Judaism, then Christ came in there, verse 3, he came into
that fold, to him the porter openeth and the sheep hear his
voice. He came to call his own sheep. He came to call those
who were the elect of God in that earthly manifestation of
Judaism, out of that religion, out from under the delusion of
those false prophets, and lead them out into the light of gospel
grace. And so it was, that example of
that blind man who was bound, and they excommunicated him.
Do you know what that really was? That was the Son of God,
the Good Shepherd. coming in to that sheepfold in
the right way, in the way that was prophesied, through the door
concerning Him, for the purpose of calling Him out into the light
and truth. And so it has always been down
the ages, and today there are manifestations of what likes
to think of itself as the Church of Christ on earth. There are
earthly sheepfolds of God's kingdom, so-called churches, which contain
some of God's true sheep, but many, if not most, are shepherded
by hirelings. those who are not true, who themselves
haven't come by the true door, which is Christ. They do not
preach the truth of Christ as it is in Scripture. They're basically,
as Christ calls them here, thieves and robbers, seeking only to
kill and to destroy. How can they be identified? John
tells us in his epistle, 1st epistle, chapter 4, verse 1,
try the spirits, whether they be of God. Test them, see whether
they're preaching the truth. Do they preach Christ? Do they
preach the Christ of sovereign grace and particular redemption,
the one foretold in the Old Testament? If not, they are anti-Christ. And what does the Good Shepherd
tell his true people to do? regarding those that are false,
regarding the churches which are false, he says, 2 Corinthians
6, 17, Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate,
saith the Lord. Now, I know I'm rushing this,
you might want to listen to the recording again, but there are
those around, and some I count as brethren and greatly admire,
but there are some who have a view that preaching on the internet
is fundamentally wrong and that you shouldn't do it because it's
keeping away people from churches and that really the only right
place to worship is in a church building. Doesn't matter too
much, don't be too fussy about what's being preached, you just
need to go to a place and by your presence there you kind
of dilute the heresy that's going on. No, no, no, absolutely not. John 4, Jesus says to the Samaritan
woman, it is in spirit and truth that we must worship God. The
place doesn't matter, not in this mountain, not in Jerusalem,
but in spirit and in truth. Whether it's in a house, or whether
you're on your own now listening to this, or others like it, later
today we'll listen to a brother who preaches faithfully on the
internet later on today. The important thing is not the
place, it's the truth of the message. It is the Good Shepherd
there. It isn't the building, it isn't
the outward form, none of that ultimately matters. It's the
message. Where you hear the truth of God,
even if it's at home on a Sunday morning, Via the internet, looking
at your computer screen, if there's nothing else nearby, then my
friends, do that. Do not go to these places where
there are hirelings preaching that which is not the truth of
God. That's what I think this passage teaches us. And so we'll
end it there. Amen.