I'm going to read the first 18
verses. John 10, verses 1-18. Christ is speaking. He says, 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 opens, and
the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name
and leads 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 he shall go in and out and
find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for
to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But I am come, that
they might live, and that they might have it more abundantly.
I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd gives his life
for the sheep. But he that is not a hireling,
and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeeth the
wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees. And the wolf catches
them, and scatters the sheep. The hireling flees, because he
is a hireling, and cares not for the sheep. I am the good
shepherd. I know my sheep, and am known
of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even
so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. Other
sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring,
and they shall hear my voice, and they shall be one fold and
one shepherd. Therefore does my Father love
me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No
man takes 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." Now, this message I may have
preached about a year ago. I can't remember. I am very much
taken by the concept of the shepherd and the sheep. I just love the
illustration. It's kind of like the potter
and the clay, but the clay is an inanimate object, and the
sheep are not. But I just love the concept of
the shepherd and the sheep. And so we're going to look at
Christ, our Good Shepherd. We're going to look at Him in
this capacity. And like I say, on several occasions
we've looked at this Good Shepherd. We looked at Christ's unflinching
love and care of the sheep. Well, let's look once more at
it. And to exemplify or to highlight just how good a shepherd Christ
is, I want us to note, consider the sheep in three aspects. In order to consider, to highlight,
and exemplify His goodness towards us, if we are His people, let's
look at the sheep in three aspects. The sheep in their natural state,
the sheep in their restored state, and the sheep in their final
state. and see if this does not apply
to you and I. First of all, Christ. Let's look
at His goodness as it appears to the sheep in their natural
state. His great goodness to us in our
fallen state, our guilty state, our vile condition. This is what
I'm talking about in their natural state. We're born in sin. Yeah,
David said, in sin my mother did conceive me, and that's every
man. Every man, woman, boy and girl,
when they're born, fall short of the glory of God. What happened in Adam and the
garden, and Eve, they plummeted, the whole human race, will, mind,
body, soul, fell to poverty. But Christ, He unreservedly undertook
the sheep's cause. He undertook the danger and their
nature regardless of the cost to Himself, regardless of the
requirement or the fatal judgment of God against sin for His sheep. None constrained Christ to become
the sheep's surety, substitute, or propitiation. This he did
willingly, freely, and with the forethought as the very ancient
of days. He knew what he was getting into.
You know, a lot of times we get into stuff we don't know what
we're getting into. And by the time we get into it, we're like,
I didn't see this. I don't have the wisdom to handle
this. But Christ, nothing, not one thing ever caught Him off
guard. Man didn't fall and say, oh, now I've got to come up with
a scheme of salvation. No. Before the foundation of
the world, His love for His sheep in their natural state, He underwent
all this for them. Christ, He completely understood
what this would do to Him by way of suffering, bleeding, and
death. He understood very well. Turn
to Isaiah 53, which is what this chapter is about, the success
of Christ in saving and redeeming His people. Isaiah 53, starting in verse 3, He, that
is the Shepherd, Christ is despised and rejected of men, a man of
sorrows was he and acquainted with grief. And we, the sheep,
hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. In our natural state, we did
not esteem him. But, but he was wounded for our
transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him and with his stripes. We are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We have turned everyone his own
way. And the Lord, but the Lord hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all." Who's us all? You've got
to keep it in context. That's the sheep. This is how
good he was to us in our natural fallen estate. Goodness? I'd say maximum goodness. But
furthermore, Christ, this He did and did not complain. Didn't complain once. Bearing
all the shame and rudeness the cross could produce. And more
than this, He would have to go after His lost sheep. For they
seek not the shepherd, He would seek them, find them, and carry
them to safety evermore." Luke chapter 15. I love this. Luke
chapter 15. Verse 3 through 6. Luke chapter
15. Starting in verse 3. And Christ
spake this parable unto them, And what man of you, having a
hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, does not leave the ninety
and nine in the wilderness and go after..." What goodness! "...go after that which is lost
until he finds it. And when he finds it, he lays
it on his shoulders. And when he comes home, he calls
together his friends and neighbors and says unto them, Rejoice with
me, for I have found my sheep which was lost." That's our natural
condition. lost. That's where we start. And that's as far as by ourselves
we can go. We cannot find our way out of
this web of sin and depravity and
filth. And more, all this was by His
predetermined counsel and the goodwill of Him towards those
most undeserving lambs, but nonetheless they were His lambs, and He's
their Shepherd." Goodness? Absolutely. Before we even spoke,
communed, or knew Him, He was good to us. That's sovereign
grace. That's free, electing sovereign
grace. But secondly, let's view God's
goodness in Christ towards His sheep in their restored state. So now He's brought us to a saving
knowledge of Himself. Here we note such kindness and
goodness and much grace for providing ample and rich provision to us. He could have just saved us and
left us alone. But He didn't do that. He provides
us ample and rich provision. Justice must be met, the law
must be honored, and grace must be abounding. And yes, yes it
is, through our Good Shepherd. We shall not want, says the Scriptures,
He makes us to lie down in green pastures, feeding and caring
and loving and keeping them all the day long. Has He not? You look back. It's been rough. It's been rougher at times. Think
about the Bible class. It's been difficult. But that's
the life of the believer. It's the life of humans because
of the fall. Some more, some less. But we
have a Good Shepherd. We have a Good Shepherd and we're
restored now. He protects us and gives us rest. and make sure that our food,
the Word of God, is growth worthy. He makes us to lie down beside
still waters. Truly our cup overflows. You
say, well, I don't have much. If you have Christ, you have
all. Turn to Psalms 107. Couldn't this be us in a nutshell?
Psalms 107. Psalms 107 and verse 4, in our restored state, could
this not be said of every one of us? Psalms 107 and verse 4,
they, us, the sheep, wandered in the wilderness in a solitary
way. They found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul
fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses. Time and time and time again
we cry, we are as helpless as a newborn
indeed. He chastises us. He recalls us
when we go astray as we often do. He chastises us so that we
know without a doubt and feel His undying love for them. And
you children, and you'll realize this one day, maybe not now,
but when you get older and you realize your mom scolded you
or your dad scolded you or they put you in a time out or they
spanked you, but as you get older, you'll realize, you know, they
were doing that because they loved me. It didn't seem like
they did. They're trying to get you, no,
no, they did it because they loved you. And so we, as we look
back, As we get older and we look back at all the things He's
brought us through, we must say, He's a good Shepherd. He's a
good Shepherd. He will not only chasten us,
He will recall us when we go astray, but He will fly to our
defense. We just read it in this passage,
He's not like the hireling who flees. We lay hold on Him. I'm not going
to leave until you bless me. I've got nowhere else to go.
Nowhere else to turn. Often misunderstood by the brethren. We often misunderstand. We often
have what seems like a careless attitude, but not Him. Not the
Good Shepherd. Never. Never. Turn to Isaiah
40. Isaiah 40. Verse 11, speaking of our verse
10, the Lord God, which we know Christ is God. Verse 11, He shall
feed His flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
His arms and carry them in His bosom and shall gently lead those
that are with young. Goodness? Definitely. Lastly, let us view our Lord's
goodness to His sheep in their final state. Our final state. We're not going to be here forever,
and that's a good thing. He has laid up for us His great
promises, and they'll not fail. He says, one day we will be with
Him in glory, and we shall. That His promise is this word,
There's no error here. There's no fault here. We're
the ones that are wayward. But if He says it, the Good Shepherd
says it to His sheep, it shall be done. It was He that found
us. It was He that died for us. It
was He that will keep us. And therefore, we shall endure unto the end,
sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. gives us the Holy Spirit,
and reveals the things of Christ to him. I often wondered, and Bruce and
I have talked years, will we endure to the end? Because we
like that Scripture. He that endures to the end shall
be saved. Am I going to be saved? We'll get to that in the closing
comments. But why doubt His goodness? Why doubt His goodness? 1 John 3. This says it well. 1 John 3, verses 1 and 2. This says it well. Behold, what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should
be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knows us
not, because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, of his pastor. And it does not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know this, that when he shall appear, we
shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." Why? Because he's the good shepherd
who lays down his life for the sheep. There's a better country prepared
where no more trials, no more sorrow, no more pain, and no
more tears, but total joy in our Sovereign Redeemer. And He
will be glorified in them, and the sheep will abide forever
with the great and good Shepherd." Revelation chapter 7. This is the foretaste of what
we're looking at. Revelation chapter 7 and verse
17. Verse 16, they'll hunger no more,
they'll thirst no more, shall the sun light on them, nor the
heat, because the sun is the sun, Christ is the sun, for the
Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them,
and shall lead them into living fountains of water, and God shall
wipe away all tears from their eyes. He's the Good Shepherd. Good Shepherd indeed. There's
a great gulf that lies between us and we will have to pass it. This is called death. Fearful. One man said he didn't
fear dying so much as the process of dying. But he will be by our side to
carry us over and into the kingdom prepared for us. He says He will not leave us
nor forsake us. He's the Good Shepherd. So I ask you, and I have two
thoughts here, if you know Him, if you know Him as the Good Shepherd,
let us love Him, let us honor Him, let us serve Him, and let
us walk by faith with Him. Loving one another and encouraging
one another. confident in Him and in His unerring Word. This is what He's left us. A more sure word of prophecy than the apostles had, than the
Old Testament brethren had. But I close with this, how are we to know if we are
one of His sheep? That would be something to think
about. How do I know if I'm one of his sheep? There's two marks in our text. Two marks. Every sheep. The ear and the foot. My sheep, hear my voice and follow me. Have you heard about the Good
Shepherd. Have you heard the gospel of
the free grace of God? Have you heard that you are nothing
and less than nothing and vile and contemptible in and of yourself?
Have you heard that He says, look and live? Come unto Me,
all you that labor, and I will give you rest. Have you heard
that? If you've heard that, My sheep hear My voice and follow
Me. They follow Me where I'm at,
where I've preached, because He's not preached everywhere,
as a matter of fact, not a whole lot of places. They follow Him
in the ordinances, they follow where He follows, they follow
where His people, they hear His voice pricked in the heart and
follow Christ. And we all are following Him
at different capacities. It doesn't mean that if I follow
Him this way, you've got to follow Him exactly. You'll follow Him
the way prescribed in the Scriptures. But we will all follow Him. It's
like I told this illustration because I heard it from Henry.
Somebody says, well, the Mississippi flows south. Not always. Sometimes it goes east. Sometimes
it goes west. But it's heading down to the Gulf. And that's
where we're heading. Different fruits, different personalities,
but all have heard the Gospel, not a mimic, not from the hireling. They've heard the Gospel, the
grace of God, and they want to follow Him. To God be the honor. Bruce, would
you close us?