The Lord God speaks of us as
his sheep. Not a very complimentary term,
sheep. They're weak, helpless, defenseless,
dirty creatures. Sheep have no strength to withstand
their enemies. If they're lost, they can't find
their way home again. If they're sick, they can't fight
off disease. If they're threatened, they can't
run fast enough to escape. If they're attacked, they can't
defend themselves. They're just sheep. They're sheep. The only security the sheep have
is the shepherd. If the shepherd is wise and strong
and good, all is well with the sheep. But if the shepherd is
not wise and strong and good, then the sheep have no security
at all. The safety, the security, the
life of the sheep is altogether the responsibility of the shepherd.
The sheep are committed to his trust, to his care. If anything
happens to the sheep, it's not their fault. It's his fault. They shall not bear the blame.
He shall bear the blame. They're not responsible. He's
responsible. Having said that, let's turn
together to John chapter 10, verse 27. John 10, 27 through
30. And let me declare to you what
our Lord Jesus declares here in John chapter 10 with regard
to his sheep. They shall never perish. They shall never perish. Now, let me add a word to that.
I'm not adding to the scriptures. By adding my word to that, I'm
simply telling you what that means. They shall never perish, no matter
what. They shall never perish. Listen to what the shepherd says,
John 10, 27. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them. and they follow me. And I give
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them
me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out
of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. We who believe are Christ's sheep. Weak, helpless, defenseless creatures. And the Lord Jesus Christ, God's
darling son, is our shepherd. The one shepherd raised up over
God's sheep, whom he calls his servant David. This royal shepherd
to whom the Lord God has entrusted his sheep. He's wise and good
and strong. And because he's our shepherd,
he says they shall never perish. The sheep are always safe, always
secure. They dwell safely upon the high
hills of Zion, and the beast cannot harm them, let alone devour
them. I realize that there are many
who pervert the doctrine we preach, the doctrine of Holy Scripture
concerning the eternal, absolute security of God's elect. The
preservation of God's saints in Christ. Standing in Him. Standing in Him. That's where
we are. Standing in Him we stand. Stand firm. Having our feet fixed
upon the rock, we stand not on a slippery slope, not in some
slippery place, but firm upon the rock, Christ Jesus. They
say, well, such a doctrine as this can be twisted into an excuse
for ungodliness. And there are some who hide behind
a pretense of believing in the everlasting security of God's
elect and live like hell and still pretend that they know
and worship God. Others, much the same way, would
turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness by asserting boldly,
and it's constantly said, it's constantly asserted. If you preach
what Fortner preaches, that opens the floodgates to licentiousness
and sin. That'll open the floodgates to
every kind of evil in this world. And thus they turn the grace
of our God into lasciviousness. Make the gospel of God's grace
to be a lascivious doctrine. Well, I'm sorry for that. I wish
it weren't so, but I'm not going to hold back God's truth because
some fool perverts it. And I'm not going to hold back
sweet morsels of the bread of life from your souls because
some people would make it a poisonous thing. The Lord Jesus, uh, when
he walked on this earth, preached the fulfillment of the law and
his enemy said he was an enemy of the law. Our blessed Savior
preached election, and they took up stones to kill him. He preached
the free forgiveness of sin, and they said he's the friend
of publicans and sinners, and sinners a promoter of licentiousness. And then our Lord Jesus preached
freedom, the blessed freedom and liberty that's ours by his
free grace. And his enemy said he's a glutton
and a winebibber. But the accusations of men didn't
stop him. Aren't you glad? Men trying to
twist what he said into something perverse didn't keep him from
declaring it right on and following his example I intend to proclaim
to you in the clearest terms possible Just as fully as God
will allow me just as widely as I can stretch it that which
is here declared by our Savior Concerning his sheep. They shall
never perish and if God will let you hear it It will be sweet
bread for your soul and consolation for the rest of your days. I
recognize the Word of God teaches the perseverance of the Saints.
He that endureth to the end shall be saved. But don't ever imagine,
as most people who talk about perseverance would teach, don't
ever imagine that our perseverance, our persevering in faith, somehow
is accomplished by our labor and our effort and our strength.
We have a greater measure of faith, a greater measure of grace
than somebody else. And so we persevere and they
don't. Don't ever imagine such nonsense. Our perseverance in
the faith, is because we are kept by the power of God. We persevere because we are preserved
in Christ Jesus, kept in Christ Jesus, preserved in Christ Jesus,
and called by God's grace. And the only reason we persevere
is because He keeps us in His mighty hand. We are preserved
by Christ and preserved in Christ. Jesus is our God and Savior,
guide and counselor and friend. He will never, never leave us,
nor will let us quite leave him. But let me show you four things
and I'll show them to you briefly. In this passage of scripture,
we have a divine distinction. Our Savior speaks of somebody
as my sheep. And then a divine gift. He says,
I give unto them eternal life. And third, a divine promise.
They shall never perish. And then a divine security. Neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hands. First then, we have
before us a divine distinction. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me. All who are his sheep have hearing
ears, and they are known of Him and know Him, they have believing
hearts, and they have following feet. All who are His sheep hear
His voice, they know Him, and they follow Him. They know Him
because they are known of Him, and they follow Him because He
leads them. Let men denounce it as they may,
let men denounce us for preaching it, if it gives them pleasure,
But God Almighty makes a distinction between men. God separates men. God parts the human race. He chooses some and not others. He calls some and not others. He saves some and not others. Mother of God, we ought not say
that so plainly. Folks get offended by it. People
get offended by God. And God's offended by those who
pretend to believe and preach the gospel and refuse to honor
Him. I will not begin ever, God helping
me, to soft pedal the gospel of God's grace so that I can
keep your friendship or attract others to come and listen to
me preach. Not gonna happen. God chooses whom he will and
has mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardens. And
that's exactly what it says. That's exactly what it says.
Grace is God's prerogative. He has mercy on whom he will
have mercy. The sheep are his by special
acts of his grace. We are his by a distinct sovereign
act of election. He chose his sheep. He says,
you've not chosen me, but I've chosen you. The Lord Jesus says,
I know them. And his knowledge of us is the
peculiar knowledge of his own electing, omniscient mercy, grace,
and love. I know my sheep. Know them distinctly
from all others. I know who they are where they
are and what they are I know what they've done I know when
I will call them and I know all that I will do with them and
all that I will do for them They're my sheep. I know them where he
is by a distinct purchase as well Look in John chapter 10
verse 11 John 10 verse 11 We believe in what we call limited
atonement limited atonement. What do you mean by that, Brother
Dodd? Christ died for, shed his blood for, and redeemed his elect
and nobody else. Well, why do you have to say
that? Because, Merle, if he died for, shed his blood for, or in
any way attempted to redeem all the world, then his death, his
blood, has nothing to do with salvation. Either that must be
so, or it must be declared that everybody's going to heaven.
No, no. Christ did not redeem all men.
He did not make atonement for all men. He did not make an effort
to redeem all men. He gave his life for the sheep. And the folks he's talking to
here in John 10 understood exactly what he said. I don't know why
people have so much trouble with it in our day, except that they
just refuse to bow to the word. Our Lord says in John 10 verse
11. I'm the Good Shepherd The Good Shepherd giveth his life
for the sheep Verse 15 as the father knoweth me even so know
I the father and I laid down my life for the sheep and the
goats That's not what it says is it? I lay down my life for
the sheep and some goats heard him verses 25 and 26 the Pharisee
said we don't like that and He said, I wasn't talking to you.
As I said, you believe not because you're not in my sheep. As I
said unto you, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and
they follow me. The Lord Jesus offered himself
as a voluntary sacrifice for sin. He died as a vicarious substitute,
suffering all the wrath of God for his sheep. He accomplished
redemption. By the victorious accomplishment
of redemption for us, he accomplished our redemption. He obtained eternal
redemption for his sheep. And we are his by a distinct
call. He calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. Isn't that wonderful? He calleth
his own sheep by name and leadeth him out. My sheep hear my voice
and they follow me. The call of God is a special,
distinct, irresistible call. It is a call which man cannot
resist. It's always effectual, causing
the chosen sheep, the redeemed sheep, at the appointed time
of love, to follow the shepherd. The good shepherd calls his own
sheep, we're told in verse three, and he calls them by name. What
does that mean? What does that mean? You remember
back in the book of Zechariah, how the Lord said, I will hiss
for them? You remember what that word hiss
means? It means whistle for them. Whistle for them. Now, I don't
have a dog. I haven't had one in a long,
long time. But all my life until about, oh, just a little after
a while after I moved here, I always had dogs. And in the mountains
in West Virginia, it was kind of like out here in the country,
everybody had dogs. And nobody had them on chains.
And nobody had them in cages. And heaven forbid, nobody kept
them in the house. Nobody did. But the dogs ran
wherever they wanted to. And when I'd go out to call my
German shepherd, do you know how I'd call that dog? I'd step
out on the porch and go, that's it. That's the word in Zechariah. I will hiss for them. I'll whistle
for them. I didn't even call the dog's name. I just whistled
for the dog. And the only dog on the mountain
that came to my door was that German shepherd. How come? That dog understood I was calling
her. I called her. When he says, I
called my own sheep by name, doesn't mean you're going to
come say, Bob Duff, you come follow me. If he called and did that,
you'd be guaranteed to think there's another Bob Duff in the
room. But when he calls, he calls in such a way that you have no
doubt he called you. And you find yourself believing
him. And you don't need me to tell
you he called you. You know he's called you by his
grace. And when he calls you, he leads you out of darkness
into light and out of bondage into liberty, out of death into
life. They follow me. These are they
which follow the lamb whithersoever he goeth. They won't follow a
stranger. You're not going to find them
at the goat barn. You're not going to find them
listening to some Arminian free will works preacher. A stranger
will they not follow but will flee from him for they know not
the voice of strangers. The sheep may or may not be learned
and articulate people. The sheep may or may not be men
and women who can stand and argue about the doctrines of grace
and defend their teachings, the teachings of scripture with regard
to election and predestination and so on. But they know the
difference. They know the difference. You
can't fool them. You preach works and they'll
turn and run. Preach free grace and they'll cuddle up to your
side. They know the difference. They won't follow the stranger.
They follow the shepherd. Now look at this next thing.
Here's a divine gift. I give unto them eternal life. This is one reason we believe
in the eternal security of God's elect. The Lord gives his sheep
eternal life. The gift of God is eternal life,
eternal life. It comes to men and women as
a matter of free grace. It is that which is bestowed
upon us by God's goodness. There was nothing in us, nothing
in our hearts, nothing in our conducts that calls God to bestow
eternal life on us. And there's nothing in the believer's
heart or conduct that can cause God to take it away. Turn to Psalm 89. If it should ever come to pass
that one sheep of Christ could fall away, my fickle, feeble
soul, alas, would fall a thousand times a day. No. No, they shall not fall away.
Psalm 89. Verse 30, if his children forsake
my law and walk not in my judgments. Now you can write that if just
as small as you want to. It's a huge if. Because there's never a time
when we don't. forsake his law and walk not
after his judgments. If they break my statutes, is
there anything, any commandment, any statute you haven't broken
this morning? If they keep not my commandments,
walking up the steps, you started breaking them again. Then will I visit their transgressions
with the rod and their iniquity was stripes. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. And with his stripes we were
healed. David, he visited our transgressions
on the shepherd. And though we forsake his word
and forsake his law and break his statutes and keep not his
commandments, not occasionally, incessantly. God forgive me,
it's so, and you know it's so. I love this word, nevertheless. If any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, and he's the propitiation
for our sins. Nevertheless, he says, my loving
kindness will I not utterly take from him. Aren't you thankful the way the
book is written? He's talking about my children. There's a
bunch of them. But he says they're all right because I won't ever
take my loving-kindness from him He's the representative of
all the children and all God's loving-kindness was given to
him for the children And God will never take it from him by
whose stripes we are healed Nor suffer my faithfulness to fail
My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that's gone
out of my lips. Once have I swore it in my holiness that I will
not lie unto Jesus Christ, my dear son. His seed shall endure
forever and his throne as the sun before me. R.L. Dabney wrote, God was not
induced to bestow his renewing grace in the first instance by
anything he saw meritorious and attractive in us. And therefore,
the subsequent absence of everything good will never induce him to
take away his grace. God's grace is free, absolutely
free and unconditional. It's contrary to the nature and
character of God to take away gifts so freely bestowed, for
the gifts and callings of God are without repentance. This
gift of eternal life freely bestowed is in no way dependent upon any
contingencies or anything in our own existence. It's God's
gift. If we acknowledge that eternal
life is entirely God's gift, in no way earned by or dependent
on us, We must recognize it's eternal. Whatsoever God doeth,
it shall be forever. Eternal life is eternal. Eternal. Now in our English language,
we use the words eternal and everlasting. And in our King
James translation scripture, the words are used interchangeably. The very same word that's here
translated eternal is elsewhere translated everlasting. Reckon
why the translators do that? They were honest men. Why'd they
do that? Because they didn't know which
way to translate it. We experience life and the life
of God that he drops into our souls, the life of God that is
bestowed upon us in the new birth is their own everlasting life. I received life from God. 43
years ago. And it's everlasting life. But
Larry, the life I received was eternal life. It had an existence
before I got in on it. And it was mine before I experienced
it. It's life that I had with Christ
from the beginning before ever the earth was when he stood as
our surety in Proverbs chapter 8. He speaks of himself as wisdom
standing before God and his delights were with the sons of men before
ever the earth was. This life then is life that is
brought to light in the experience of grace, but it's eternal life. eternal life given us in Christ,
so that the life we have, as I tried to show you last week,
is the life of God in your soul. It is being made partakers of
the divine nature. It is that which was from the
beginning, which we now have in Christ Jesus, that which is
born of God. The new nature created in us
by the power of God is that new life, that holiness, which God
requires in order for us to live before him. The gift of God is
eternal life. And this life must be eternal
because it is a life of union with Christ. Brother Allen and Walter Cody
and I try and talk about this Thursday night late sitting out
on the balcony motel. And it just gets bigger and bigger
all the time. I can't think of anything more
astounding to me than the union of our souls with Christ. We're
one with Him. Bone of His bone, flesh of His
flesh. We are members of His body. So really and truly so that Paul
says in Ephesians 1 23, we are the fullness of him that filleth
all in all so that every member of his body is absolutely essential
to the fullness of his body as really and truly one with him
as he is really and truly one with the father. Oh, that means
life eternal. Does Christ possess eternal life? Does He possess eternal life? Is He ever in any danger? Is there any possibility that
somehow the Father may throw Him off His throne and cast Him
into hell? I know, brother Don, that never
happened. Then it shall never happen to you if you're one of
His sheep in Him. He put away our sins. He earned
heaven's glory for us by His obedience unto death. And now,
with Christ having paid all our debt, there is no debt for us
to pay. We are preserved in this life
by the seal of the Spirit. Turn to Ephesians chapter 1 for
just a minute. Ephesians 1, verse 13. In whom ye also trusted, that
is, we who are those who were trusted to Christ, we also trusted
in Christ. As the Father trusted Christ
with our souls, we now, by the experience of God's grace, are
taught to trust Christ with our souls. In whom ye also trusted,
after that you heard the word of truth, the good news, the
gospel of your salvation, in whom also, after that you believed,
you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Now, there
are many who would make that to read that sometime after you
believed, then you had a second work of grace and you were sealed
with the Holy Spirit when you fell down somewhere and slobbered
and rolled around an aisle and experienced some kind of a foolish
thing like that. That's not what Paul's saying.
He's not talking about something like a second work of grace.
But rather, having believed, ye were sealed. Sealed with that
Holy Spirit of promise, watch this, which is the earnest, the
pledge, the damn payment of our inheritance until the redemption
of the purchased possession. The redemption of the purchased
possession is talking about the resurrection of the body unto
the praise of his glory. A seal is a mark of ownership. God, the Holy Spirit, is sent
of our Savior to seal his church, to seal his elect as his own,
to identify them as his own. A seal is that which keeps something
legally secure. Shelby had been for years, she
just realized the other night it expired, been a notary public,
and she has a seal. puts her seal something, it's
legally fixed, legally set. A seal has the suggestions of
permanent freshness. A seal means everything's okay. A seal marks ownership. A seal
marks legal security. A seal indicates freshness. A
seal means everything's okay. God the Holy Spirit has sealed
us in Christ and sealed Christ in us by his omnipotent grace. Now, a divine distinction, my
sheep. A divine gift I've given to them
eternal life. A divine promise I've given to
them eternal life and they shall never perish. That's a blanket promise. They shall never perish. That's an unconditional promise.
They shall never perish. It takes in every consideration
of time, all circumstances, all contingencies, all events, all
possibilities. Our Lord says concerning His
sheep, I have given to them eternal life and they shall never perish. Brother Don, what if there are
babes in Christ and their faith is weak? They shall never perish. But what if they sin? They shall
never perish. What if they sin again? They
shall never perish. What if they sin a thousand times
a day? They shall never perish. But
what if they fall? They will, and they shall never
perish. What if they fall again? They will, and they shall never
perish. What if they fall seven times
a day? The righteous man falleth, or
the same world, seven times a day, and the Lord raiseth him up.
They shall never perish. They shall never perish. They're
my sheep. I give them eternal life. And
they shall never perish. They can't possibly perish. Because the blood of Jesus Christ
has bought them. Because the purpose of God cannot
be frustrated. Because the seal of God's Spirit
cannot be broken. And here's their security. No man can pluck them out of
my hand. They're in my father's hand,
and no man shall be able to pluck them out of my father's hand.
They're in his hand. It'll bear repetition. I have
a friend out in Tempe, Arizona, Brother Jim Jimsick. He used
to be a professional golfer, and he was in an automobile accident
and lost his right arm. I've never met him. He makes
ping golf clubs. Every time I hear from him, been
a while now, been a while since I've heard from him, but every
time I hear from him, once or twice a year, I'll get a note
from him and this is how he signs it. In his grip. In his grip. That's where we are, Mark. in
his grip. And my sheep, our Savior says,
in the grip of my omnipotent grace shall never Real quick, take your psalms
in place for the sermon number 132.