You will turn back with me now
to John chapter 10. I'm going to try to concentrate
on verses 30 through 38, but I want to also make comments
on this chapter. While you're turning, let me
say this. The faith of God's elect rests in the person and
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This was the issue before these
unbelieving Jews. Who is this man? That's the issue. The issue is not how you feel
about yourself or whether or not you're willing. Those are
not the issues. Those are all things God will
put in its proper place in its time. But the real issue is the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's the issue. And our faith
rests in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. If
you'll recall in our studies in the gospels, I told you at
the outset when I began the book of Matthew, that each gospel
narrative sets forth our Lord and Savior in a different character.
Matthew presents him as the king of glory. He's the king. Mark, the gospel that we're studying
right now, sets him forth as Jehovah's servant. In Luke, he's
set forth as the son of man. He is the savior and the redeemer
of men. And John sets him forth as the
son of God. And it is my hope as we go through
these several verses this morning that you'll see and rejoice in
God our Savior. This is what our Lord's telling
these people. And if I should be pushed to
get a certain verse from my text, it would be this. I and my Father
are one. We're one. He's God our Savior. And the Lord our God is one God. That's how He's set forth in
the Word. He's one God. Now He's set forth in the Scriptures
in the Trinity of His persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
But in 1 John 5, 7 it says there are three that bear record in
heaven, the Father and the Word. That's the Son and the Holy Ghost. Now listen, and these three are
one. They're one. They're one in character,
they're one in purpose, they're one in power, and they're one
in the eternal counsel and will of God. They're all one. There's
no schism in the Godhead. Religion tends to want to make
the father, he's angry and upset and he wants to kill every son
of Adam. They're sinners. I don't love them. I don't want
them. I want to destroy them. And then
it sets forth the son pleading with the father to change his
mind. But you're not going to find that in the scriptures.
You're not going to find that in the scriptures. No schism
in the Godhead. The Lord our God is one God.
And the only way to know the true and living God is through
the Son. In John 1, 18, it says, no man
has seen God at any time. Boy, that puts a lot of men,
exposes them as liars. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. Everything
that we know about God, we know by the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot know God apart from
Christ. He's God come into the flesh.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among
us. And John said, we beheld his
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. People who claim to know God
through the Spirit. The Spirit of God showed me this. I was just a kid playing with
my toys and I heard a voice and I saw this image and He told
me who He was. People who claim to know God
through the Spirit and through private revelations are liars. They're liars. Our Lord said,
when the Spirit has come, he will not speak of himself. Not gonna speak of himself. He's
not gonna come to you, Russell, and say, I'm the Spirit of God.
No, he won't. Everything you're gonna learn
about the Spirit, the Spirit's gonna reveal Christ to you. That's
what he's gonna do. He's gonna take of the things
of mine, and he's gonna show them to you. And the same thing in John chapter
six. Somebody threw this up my face
one day after hearing me make that same statement that I told
you about the Father. They shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father. See there, they learned
of the Father. Now listen to what it says next.
Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God,
he hath seen the Father, that's the Son. The Holy Scripture set
forth a saving knowledge of God in a person and work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. God's love, His goodness, His
long-suffering, His kindness, His mercy, and His grace, and
God's righteousness, His justice, and His holy wrath, it's all
revealed in the Son. And that's what John chapter
10 is all about. He begins with a shocking statement. He said, he that entereth not
by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way. The same is a thief and robber. I'm gonna show you several things
here, and throughout this, I'm gonna talk about God's divinity. I'm gonna talk about God. There is a divinity of purpose
in the salvation of God's elect. God has a people he chose in
Christ before the foundation of the world. God had a purpose
in the salvation of sinners before there was ever a sinner. Before
ever a man set foot on this earth, before God took the clay and
formed a man and breathed life into him, before there was ever
a sinner. Who knows how long? Eternity. but before the foundation of
the world. And he made provision for them
and loved them. There's a divinity of purpose.
It's God's purpose. They have God up in heaven looking
down on man, and man's fallen, and man's been led astray, and
man doing this, so God felt sorry for him. And he sent him his
prophets, and they wouldn't hear them. So as a last result, he
sent his son. Now, he's got purpose from the
beginning to send his son. There's a divinity of purpose
in the salvation of sinners. God has a people he chose in
Christ before the foundation of the world, and God loved them.
He made provision for them in his son. He made his son their
eternal head and representative. He put them, according to His
own purpose and grace, into a holy union with His Son, making them
one. Then He calls them all through
this chapter, My sheep, My own sheep. Oh, there's no mistake
in that, is there? My sheep. And these sheep, His
elect, He made provision for by God's prevenient grace. What's that mean? That means
grace before that effectual grace that saved your soul. Grace working
from all eternity to save your soul. Prevenient grace. Grace in your creation. And grace
in your lineage. Grace in His providence, in His
provision. When you think of all the millions
that have died from the beginning of time, if the wrong person
anywhere had died, you wouldn't be here. Is that right? That's absolutely right. And
when our Lord gives His own genealogy, He shows them This has been God's
purpose from the beginning. That's why this name was preserved,
and this name was preserved, and this name was preserved.
All down through time. And then He was born. Isn't that
something? My sheep, my sheep. These sheep, His elect, He made
provision for with God's provenient grace. Grace in our creation
and in our lineage and in His providence and in His provisions. And then here in this chapter,
He calls this the sheepfold. The sheepfold. There were predators
around, Satan, false prophets, fallen men. A great fall in Adam. By one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned. But God's sheep were made provision
for, and they kept by the porter in the sheepfold. Wolves all
around, predators all around, thieves and robbers all around,
but none of them could touch the sheep. The sheep are safe
in the sheepfold, and the porter's watching over them. But to get these sheep out, the
shepherd, whose sheep they are, must come to the door. Isn't
that what he said? Gotta come to the door. He's
the door. He's not only shepherd, he's
the door. And the porter, then, will let
him call out his sheep. The only way you can do it, though,
is come to the door. That porter will only recognize one, and
that's the Lord Jesus Christ. If he comes, he can call out
his sheep. He must come to the door of God's
righteousness and the door of God's justice and the door of
God's satisfaction and the door of God's eternal counsel. He must come to that door. Any
other way manifests a thief and a robber. The thieves and the
robbers can't come to the door because he don't have the price
demanded. And he won't come to the door
because he has no righteousness. And he won't come to the door
because he's not the shepherd. The purpose of God in the salvation
of sinners is to show the glory of His person. And as he manifested
the light to shine out of darkness in the beginning, so he has shined
in our hearts, Paul said, to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. There's one
who can come before that sheepfold and call out his sheep. There's a divinity of purpose
in the salvation of God's elect. Paul said he saved us, Timothy.
He didn't say he is saving us, although that was true, but he
said God has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And then
secondly, I see in our text a divinity of doctrine. Now listen to me, the doctrine
of Christ is the doctrine of God. Not just so. The gospel itself is the doctrine
of God. If you don't have Christ in your
doctrine, you don't have theology. You don't have theology. You
don't have anything. The Jews said to him in verse
24, how long you gonna make us to doubt? If you be the Christ,
tell us plainly. He said, I told you. I told you. I quoted the prophets to you. You sit right here and watch
me do the works of my Father. The works that these prophets
have written of from the beginning. You've been standing right there,
eyewitnesses to it. I told you and you believed not.
The works that I do in my father's name, they bear witness of me,
but you believe not because you're not my sheep. I didn't call your
name. You're not my sheep. As I said
unto you, my sheep hear my voice. There's one mark of a sheep.
He hears the voice of God. He hears the doctrine of God. He hears the preaching of the
gospel. He hears it. And it goes home
to his heart. And he understands what it's
saying. And he rejoices in it. He recognizes the evil of his
ways. He recognizes the ignorance of
his past life. And he turns from it. He hears. My sheep hear my voice. And I
know Boy, he knows us more than we do. I know a little bit. He knows
it all. He knows it all. I know them. And they follow me. They're not gonna follow the
hireling. They follow me. The gospel is about the person
and work of Jesus Christ who was sent into the world by the
Father. And now from his throne in glory,
he comforts his people through the revelation of his gospel
by the Spirit of the living God and through the preaching of
the gospel. And he's talking about himself, his appointments,
his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension. It pleased the
Father that in him should all fullness dwell. There's a divinity of doctrine
in the Gospel of Christ. He said, I came down from heaven
not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is the will of my Father which has sent me. that of all
which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up
again at the last day. And I love this. Peter said,
he verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world,
but was manifested in these last times for you. Now listen to
this. Who by him do believe in God
that raised him up from the dead. and gave him glory that your
faith and hope might be in God. If Jesus Christ were not God,
you couldn't hope in him. You couldn't hope in him. You'd
have no hope. Your hope wouldn't be any different
than if you believed in me. But this is God our Savior. With man it's impossible, but
with God all things are possible. This is God our Savior. There's a divinity of doctrine
in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the gospel's not about man
helping God to save his soul or even being willing to let
God save his soul. The gospel is altogether the
work of God through the person of the Son and it lacks nothing.
It lacks nothing. And it's consistent with his
word, it's in harmony with his character, and it's in conjunction
with the means that he's ordained. There's a divinity of doctrine
in the gospel. And then thirdly, I see in our
text a divinity of affection. A divinity in the affection that
he expresses. Therefore doth my father love
me. because I lay down my life that
I may take it up again. I'm laying down my life for the
sheep. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. And I'm
going to lay it down. God loves me for that reason. He loves me. The hireling fleeth because he's
a hireling. He doesn't care anything for
the sheep. In 1 John 4, listen to this.
And this was manifested, the love of God toward us, because
God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might
live through Him. 1 John 4, 9. Beloved, let us love
one another, for love is of God. Everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God. Did our Savior love us? Absolutely
He loved us. Scripture said he loved us and
gave himself for us. But the father loves us as he
does his own son. That's what it says in John 17.
He loves us as he loved his own son. And he manifests that love by
sending his own son into the world to die for chosen sinners. The hymn writer closed that great
old hymn at the cross with these words. He said, oh, the love
that drew salvation's plan. And oh, the grace that brought
it down to man. Oh, the mighty gulf that God
did span at Calvary. The doctrine of the cross is
filled with the love of God. You cannot look at the cross
with spiritual eyes and not see the love of God. That's why he
tells us, he that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. And how did we learn anything
about God? In Christ. If we've learned anything from
Christ, we've learned the love of God. There's no other reason
for him to be on that cross. He loved us. He loved us. We rejoice to know that God is
love and that love is of God and comes from God and expressed
by God. But brethren, never, never, the
Bible never speaks of the love of God outside of Christ. He tells us in Romans 8, nothing
shall be able to separate us from the love of God. Now listen,
which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. That's where the love of
God is. In Psalm 149.9, it says the Lord
is good to all. And His tender mercies are over
all His works. And because He's a good and merciful
God, He sends his reign on the just and the unjust. He feeds
the raven, he clothes the lilies, he sustains the beast of the
field, and he's even kind to thankless rebels. He puts food
on their table, too. But the love of God is in Christ,
and it's reserved for his elect. Jacob have I loved. Now that's
significant, that's just not singling out two people here.
Jacob is significant because he's symbolic of all the elect
of God. They're called, they're called,
he's called Israel, the sons of Jacob. The sons of Jacob,
all of them. He's symbolic for all His elect. I'm the Lord, I change not, therefore
ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. And Esau's symbolic of all those
who have heard of the covenant of grace and the love of God
and sold it out for whatever their hearts desired more. Everything God loves, He put
into the hands of our surety, His mediator. And there is without
question a divinity of affection. This is the love of God. This
is not like our pitiful love that's more passion than love. So fickle. But not God's love. God's love is pure. Nothing can
separate you from His love. If He ever loved you, I don't
care what's transpired. He'll love you to the end. Nothing
gonna separate you. from the love of God. And then
fourthly, there's a divinity even in the objects of God's
salvation. He said, they're in my hand.
They're in my hand. God put them in my hand before
the foundation of the world. He trusted them to me. He put
me into union with them. They're in my hand and nobody's
gonna pluck them out of my hand. And even if they could, I and
they are in the hands of my Father. And He's greater than all, and
no man gonna pluck them out of His hand, and I and the Father
are one. We're one. Oh, beloved, God's children are
one with the Son. And they are, as in union with
Him even now, seated with Him in glory. And if you're a believer,
you're in the palm of omnipotence. I can't even imagine. I'm in
an omnipotent hand. Nothing can hurt you or touch
you or affect you in any way. except by his permission. Nothing. The Lord said, there you go.
Yeah, but he said, you got him hedged about. I can't do nothing
to him. I can't touch him. Is that true or not? And then the Lord gave him permission. He gave him permission and he
touched him. But till he does, can't nothing touch you. Nothing. And while I wouldn't have you
to stand out in front of a fast train, tempt God with your ignorance,
neither would I have you crawl in a hole every time the clouds
cover the sky. There's nothing that God has
left to chance concerning the salvation of his elect. In Christ,
he said, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you
are complete in him who is the head of all principality and
power. I and the Father are one. Oh, I tell you, we believe that
the way we ought to. We'd never have a care in the
world. Not a care in the world. I and the Father are one. Why would anybody want to change
that? Why would anybody want to take
away from Christ anything that has to do with his character?
I can't understand it for the life of me. Why would you want
to change that? My soul, that's the security
of the believer. That little old Jesus boy that
they talk about, I wouldn't trust my dog to him, but the sovereign,
electing, loving Christ, all my soul. You can trust him. You can trust him. Thank you.