to the book of Ephesians chapter
1. Ephesians chapter 1. Let's begin reading with the
third verse. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us. Amen? Hath blessed us. with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will. to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in
whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of His grace, having made known
unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure,
which He purposed in Himself. that in the dispensation of the
fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even
in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being
predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all
things after the counsel of his own will, that we should be to
the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. Let's look,
beginning now with verse 17, skip up to there. That the God
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto
you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of
Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may
know what is the hope of His calling and what the riches of
the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the
exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe according
to the working of his mighty power. A couple of weeks ago, I began
a message and preached, I guess, maybe a third of it or a half
of it. And I'd gotten to the place where I was talking about
Psalm chapter 65 and verse 4 where David talked about blessed is
the man whom the Lord has chosen and calls to approach unto him. And I was talking about the blessedness
of our having been chosen of the Lord. Now why we got to that
point was because we had been talking about discussing the
impossibilities that we had to deal with as the people of God,
as the church of God, as the servants of God, as the preachers
of the gospel of God's grace. And we talked about how that
it was impossible for us to get anybody lost. That we could not
do that. That that was the work of the
Spirit of God. We talked about how that we could
not teach anybody savingly the gospel. We were unable to do
it. We could not do so. And then
we talked about how that even after a person made a perfection
of faith, that it was impossible for us ourselves to get them
to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. trusting him alone for
their salvation and for their assurance. Now, beloved, we know
that these things are true. We gave you many scriptures that
supported these propositions. Now, we read from different people
now and then that say good things. And there was a gentleman that
said men's hearts are spiritually hard. We believe that, that men's
hearts by nature are hard. The world can win a man's heart.
Gold can win a man's heart. Fame and popularity can win a
man's heart. But there's not a preacher living
on the face of this earth who can win a man's heart to God.
We can reach the eye, the ear, and the head, but not the heart. The poet said, O Lord, speak
with the voice that wakes the dead, and bid the sinner rise,
and make the guilty dread the death that never dies. And so,
beloved, we came to the place where we understood, I believe
in a measure, the fact that salvation, the salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord from the beginning to the end. And that the blessedness
that we have received, that the foundation, the very foundation
and the root of all of the past blessedness And the future blessedness
of the people of God, the chosen of the Lord, is the doctrine
of God's election. We believe that the doctrine
of God's elective grace is the foundation, the root, of all
the blessedness that we have. We were unable, we were dead.
We were lost, we were unable to do anything for ourselves.
I want you to hold your finger here in Ephesians chapter 1,
and I want you to turn over with me, if you will, to the book
of Luke chapter 10. And I'll give you an idea or
a picture here of man in his state. and in his natural state. And this will, of course, show
us exactly where we were when we were met by our God, when
our God came to us, and when he spoke deliverance to our souls
and met our spiritual need. In Luke chapter 10, beginning
with verse 30, Here we have the parable of the Good Samaritan,
and Jesus answering in verse 30 said, A certain man went down
from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves, which stripped
him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him
half dead. Now here is a picture of the
sinner. The picture here given is of the sinner being left half-dead. It's a picture of Adam in the
Garden of Eden after Satan had came and after he had been tempted
away and after he had rebelled against God and fallen into sin. We find that he was left half-dead. He was Spiritually dead, he was
still alive physically. So this is a picture of depravity,
that man may be alive physically, able to breathe, able to walk
about, able to do, able to go on in his sinful rebellion against
God, but he is not able to spiritually, not able to understand the gospel,
not able to receive the gospel, not able to come to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so he was left half dead,
and that's the state I was in when the Lord Jesus saved me.
I was dead in sin. And then it says, and by chance,
there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him,
he passed by on the other side. Now the priest here represents
religion, and so religion cannot do, it could not do us any good. Oh, you could get the most skilled
among the religious people, among the preachers of our day, and
they're not able to do anything in and of themselves to help
the sinner in his condition. The priest, the religion of this
world, cannot help you, my friend. You're lost. dead in sin, and
you cannot be helped by religion. Some people say, well, if I could
get religion, I'd just like to have a little religion. Well,
everybody, even your dog, has a little religion. But my friend,
religion is not going to help us. And likewise, in verse 32,
a Levite, which represents the law, When he was at that place,
came and looked on him and looked on him and passed by on the other
side. The law couldn't do anything
for him either. There was nothing that the law
could do. There's nothing that the law
could do for us except to curse us and damn our souls to hell. When you look at the holy law
of God, we know that the law of God kills everything that
it touches. No flesh shall be justified in
the sight of God by the law, by the doing of the law. Now
the deeds of the law, my friend, they will not deliver, they will
not save. And so Paul said, I do not frustrate
the grace of God. If righteousness come by the
law, then Christ died in vain. The law can't do anything for
you. Curse it is everyone who continue, if not in all things
of the book of the law, to do them. Oh, the law, whatever the
law says, it says to them who are under the law that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before
God. My friend, the law cannot deliver. It cannot save. It cannot reconcile
you unto God. You are lost. What does it mean
to be lost? It means that we have wandered
away. from that original position and
place that where God placed us. We were in Adam, and Adam wandered
away. He wandered far away into sin,
and all of us were in him when he did so. We are lost. and religion and the law, neither
can help us. They cannot bring us back. And
we're in such a state by nature that even though there has been
a way made back to where we can be reconciled unto God, where
we can come back and where we can have upon us the blessing
of God, we won't come. We will not come back. We will
not come. We've wandered so far away and
we're so entangled in sin and rebellion against God. We won't
come back. Jesus said to the Pharisees,
He will not come to me that you might have life. You won't come
that you might be reconciled unto God, that you might be restored
to that position that Adam had before he sinned and fell in
the garden. You won't come. You won't come. And that's an indictment against
every generation from the time of Adam that came from Adam's
loins, is that they will not come. No man can come to me,
Jesus said. except the Father which sent
me draw him, and then I'll raise him up at the last day. But no
man can come. He will not come to me. And so
I'm saying here, I'm talking about the helplessness of a man's
condition in a state of nature. And so then it says this in verse
33, but a certain Samaritan, and this certain Samaritan is
a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ here is setting forth
himself as being the one who has come on his journey and the
Son of Man, the Bible says in Luke chapter 19 and verse 10,
the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. The Son of Man has come. Now
don't misunderstand that verse. The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save the lost. Everybody that gets lost, they
get saved. And the Son of Man has come to
seek them out. And so He does so. But look at
verse 33 again. But certain Samaritans' journey
came where He was. Now that's what the Lord had
to do with me. He had to come where I was. I wasn't coming
where He was. He had to come where I was. Now
you see, beloved, we must have an encounter with the Lord Jesus
Christ. Some way or another, the Lord
Jesus Christ must come in contact with us. We're not going to be
saved just if some preacher comes up and pats us on the head. We're
not going to be saved if somebody comes along, some personal worker
comes along and pats us on the back and says, well, I hope everything's
going to be all right with you. Will you pray this little prayer
with me? No, no. We must have an encounter with
the Lord Jesus Christ. He must come where we are. He
must come right where we are. He must come to your cell. And
he must put the key in because the key's in his hand. You've
been told it's in yours, but it's not so. He must come where
you are and open your cell and visit your soul. You've got to
hear from God, my friend. All right, so he came where he
was, and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. He had
compassion on him. When the Lord saw me, he had
compassion on me. I remember the day. Don't tell
me that he didn't have. I know that he had compassion
on my soul. He's been in love with me ever
since the foundation of the world, before the foundation of the
world, and bless God, he came and he had compassion on me.
Now look here in verse 34. He went to him, He went to him. That's what he did. This is Christ. And he bound up his wounds. Yes,
he did. He bound up his wounds. Oh, what
can the great physician do? What can he do? He can bind up
your wounds, my friend. And he pours in oil and wine. And what does he do? He set him
on his own beast. And he brought him to an end.
And he took care of him. And the Lord's been doing that
with you ever since he saved you. He's been taking care of
you. Yes, He has. He's been looking
after you, and He's been taking care of you. And on the morrow
when He departed, He took out two pence and gave them to the
host and said to him, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest
more when I come again, I'll repay you. The Lord has, and
this is a picture here of the everlasting covenant of the grace
of God wherein provisions have been made to sustain the people
of God from the time that they come into existence until the
time they walk into the kingdom of God for eternal fellowship
with the Lord. The Lord has made provision by
the people of His choice. The Lord has made provision for
thee that all of your needs would be met, that all what you desired
and all which God required would be given to you, and you would
have all of this. And so the Lord said here, whatever
it costs, spend it, and when I come back, it'll be taken care
of. I'll repay you, says the Lord. And so my friend, that's the
picture of where I was when the Lord saved me. That's where I
was. He had to come to me. And I was
half dead. I was alive physically, but I
was dead in sin. Spiritually, I was dead. But
thanks be unto God for the Lord Jesus Christ and for the merciful
mission that he was upon. when He came and had compassion
on me. Now we get back to Ephesians
chapter 1 wherein or how is it manifested that the Lord has
purpose our salvation. None of that is an accident.
When the Lord saves a person, He saves him on purpose. And
one of the things I was pointing out to the young people last
Tuesday night was that they need to understand that the God of
the Bible is a God of purpose. A God of purpose. What He does,
He does on purpose. And He doesn't do it by accident.
He doesn't haphazardly do it. He does it on purpose. And He
had a purpose from the foundation of the world. Now in verse 3
of Ephesians 1, he blesses God, Paul does. He blesses God, the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well why not? Why not? Because
he hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings. In contrast to earthly
blessings, which was the seal of the old covenant, He has blessed
us with spiritual blessings in heavenly places in the Lord Jesus
Christ. In heavenly blessings, blessings
from heaven. Blessings that have to do with
the reconciliation of our souls unto the living God. Reconciliation
from God. Justification are being justified
through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Heavenly blessings that
have come down from God above. Inasmuch, look in verse 4, the
word according is, inasmuch, inasmuch as He hath chosen us
in Him or in reference to Christ before He laid the foundation
of the world which He had decreed to bring into existence that
we should be made holy and without blame before Him. Oh, it's before
Him, my friend, that we're concerned about being holy, are we not?
Before Him. Oh, I know they're hypocrites,
that they are only concerned about how they appear before
people in this world. But my friend, believers, true
believers, they're concerned about how they appear before
Him. Now, my friend, there are some
people that believe that if they look all right to people, that
they must look all right to God, but that's not the case. That's
not the case. God has an all-seeing eye. The
eye of God is upon you. All things are naked and open
unto his eye. And the poet said, and oh, since
I can hardly bear what in myself I see, how black and vile must
I appear, most holy God, to thee. How black and vile must I appear,
O holy God, to Thee, but since my Savior stands between, in
garments dyed in blood, tis He instead of me is seen when I
approach to God." Now isn't that blessed? Exactly, my friend. It's before Him in love that
we should be holy and without blame. That's a glorious and
wonderful position to be in. My friend, if you're holy and
without blame before Him, I mean if He with His all scrutinizing
eye can look upon you and pronounce you to be holy and without blame,
Then, my friend, you're in a blessed position. You're in a position
to receive all that God has for sinners. And praise God, we have
received what He has for sinners. Now, as we think upon this portion
of the Word of God, there are others that suggest themselves
to us. We discover here, of course,
that God has done this, that he has manifested himself unto
the helpless. He has come to save the chiefest
of sinners. This is God's absolute sovereign
work. The salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord. It's of the Lord from the beginning
to the end. Now, beloved, let me make a few
statements here that I believe that should be made at this time. Now, we're talking about God
intervening. We're talking about God having
a purpose. We're talking about the great
work of our God on our behalf. Now, listen to me. How do we
view the Lord? Well, we view Him as vested with
the character of a sovereign Lord. and as the sole, hear me
now, as the sole, S-O-L-E, proprietor of his own favors. Now can you
accept that? That God is the sole proprietor
of his own favors. Now that's what we read here
in Ephesians verse 3 and 4 of chapter 1, that God has done
this. Now, if therefore the question
be asked, why were any chosen to salvation when all deserve
to perish, and it is true that every one of us deserve to perish,
but God has chosen in Christ some before the foundation of
the world was laid, and the answer is, because our God is merciful. That's the reason. You want a
reason why God chose some? You want a reason why? And you
say, well, why didn't he choose all? Well, for reasons known
only to himself. He did not choose to do so. And
we'll have a word to say about that. But I'm telling you that
God is merciful. But God, for his great mercy,
wherefore he loved us, even when we were dead in sin, hath made
us alive in the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise his name. And that means
that we're going to live and live and live and live and live
and live on forever. We've been made alive in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Well, we all deserve to go to
hell, but some of us have been made to live. Now that's because
of God's mercy. But if it be further asked why
Paul, for instance, was chosen rather than Judas, the answer
is because He is Lord of all and has an indisputable right
to do what he will with his own. In election, therefore, we have
a striking display of divine grace in its utmost freeness
and of God's dominion in its highest sovereignty. Abraham
Booth. Now, beloved, I believe every
bit of that statement. I believe every bit of it. Election
displays the highest sovereignty of Almighty God, the freeness
of sovereign grace. When we say that God is sovereign,
A.W. Pink says, We affirm his right
to govern the universe, which he has made for his own glory,
just as he pleases. We affirm that his right is the
right of the potter over the clay, that he may mold that clay
into whatsoever form he chooses, fashioning out of the same lump
one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. We affirm that
he is under no rule, or law outside of his own will and nature, that
God is a law unto himself and that he is under no obligation
to give an account of his matters to any. Do you agree with that?
Amen. Now beloved, I read a long time
ago that if you don't quote others, nobody will ever quote you. And
so I feel like I'm in good company when I read or quote Abraham
Booth and A.W. Pink. I believe we're in good
company. Now, beloved, then we have seen
that God is absolutely sovereign in the choice of His people.
He can do what He will with His own. God has the right. God is
an absolute sovereign. And so He can choose. And all
we can do is bless God. Bless God for what He has done. Now, then, I want to show you
a further manifestation of this. I'm talking about election being
the root. and the foundation of all God's
favors. And I've established to you that
God is the sole proprietor of all of His favors. God is the
sole proprietor of all of his favors. Those things get a hold
of me and I can't let go of them. I just keep right on with them
because I believe it with all my heart and I've experienced
it in my own life and I don't take or count little of God's
favor toward me because he had every reason to abandon me and
pass me by and never look at me, never come where I was. He
had every reason. I was a rebel on my way to hell.
I was a rebel on my way to an early death. I was a rebel against
God. And God in his free sovereign
grace and mercy came to where I was. And I experienced deliverance. God worked a miracle in my life. I want you to turn with me to
John chapter 10. And I'm going to show you some
more things. I don't want to be hard. And I don't want to bother
anybody or disturb anybody. And I prayed like Paul prayed
in Ephesians 1 that God would give you the spirit of revelation
in the knowledge of Him. That God would teach you some
things, show you some things, reveal Himself to you, make His
power known unto you, give you a resurrection spiritually that
you would know these heavenly blessings. John chapter 10, there
are two verses here that I want us to look at a little bit. At
this time, and I can see right now, that there isn't any way
in this world I'm going to even get this message preached this
morning again. But anyway, we look here in John
chapter 10, verse 15 and 16. As the Father knoweth me, even
so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. 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 sh... You often hear me refer to this
portion of the Word of God and I will not tire as long as I
live. I will not grow weary of using
these verses because I believe they contain precious nuggets
of truth. that we need to understand, that
we need to be blessed with, and surely the Lord will bless us
as we look into these things. There are three questions that
I want to ask and answer very quickly from this text and from
the context. First question was, for whom
did the Lord Jesus Christ lay down His life? Inasmuch as He
hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
then for whom did Christ lay down His life? What was His purpose,
number two, in doing so? And number three, can we ever,
as long as we live in this world, come to know that we are indeed
Christ's sheep, those for whom the Lord Jesus Christ has laid
down His life. First of all then, for whom did
Christ lay down His life? Now the text and the context
here, I believe, are very clear on this point. They answer unmistakably
that it was for the sheep. Again, I want to reiterate to
you that the Lord Jesus came down here from heaven on a mission.
He came down here on purpose. God sent him down here and when
he came there was a specific reason for his coming. There
was a reason for it. God had chosen a people in reference
to him and he must come and redeem them. He must come and A life
had to be laid down and the only life that could satisfy divine
justice, the only life that could reconcile the sheep unto the
Father was the life of His only begotten beloved Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so the answer is He laid
down His life for the sheep. It's a fact that there are only
two kinds of people that are mentioned in the Word of God.
in this world, only two kinds of people. Now you may wonder
about that statement, but they're all, we are all, either sheep
or goats. Now we're either sheep or goats
designated to be so from eternity. Now, I want you to hear me. I
don't want anybody to mistake what I'm saying. I'm telling
you that the elect of God, those chosen of God, in reference to
Christ, that they are the sheep of Christ. And I'm telling you
that the goats have been passed by, and I think it's very clear,
listen to it, that it is not believing in Christ that makes
a man a sheep. It is not believing in Christ
that makes a man a sheep. For a sheep is a sheep before
he believes. And consequently, a goat must
be a goat to the end of the chapter. He must be a goat unto the end. A sheep can never be made into
a goat, nor a goat be made into a sheep. Well, how can you prove
that, preacher? Well, look at verse 16. And look
what it says. 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. And then I invite you over to
two verses later in the chapter, verse 26 and 27. But ye believe
not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you, my
sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Now then, what we're saying here
is, a sheep can never be made into a goat, nor a goat into
a sheep. Now here are positively, in verse 16, unbelieving people
that are called sheep. They've not yet believed the
gospel. They've not yet come to know the Lord. Christ is here
evidently speaking of certain people who had never yet heard
His voice, or His word. Yet he calls them his sheep. Mark it down. It is not believing
that makes a man his sheep. It is the doctrine of election. It is the truth of election.
It is God's choice of men from the foundation of the world that
makes men his sheep. Now many hold erroneous views
upon this point. In the religious world today
we can find many people that believes that a goat is a goat
while he is an unbelief. But as soon as he believes, then
he becomes a sheep. Well, beloved, that is not true.
That's a denial of what the Word of God teaches. A man is wrong
if he tells you that. That a man is a goat until he
believes, and after he believes he's a sheep. It's not true.
It's not true. A sheep of Christ is a sheep
before he believes and it is for him that Jesus Christ laid
down his life and it is through the operation, the sovereign
operation of his almighty grace that he comes to believe. It
is a gift of the grace of God that any man, woman, boy or girl
believes the gospel. Nobody believes apart from it
being given to them to believe the gospel. But someone says,
Though Christ declares that he laid down his life for the sheep,
he does not say he laid down his life only for the sheep,
so that he may have laid it down for others as well. Now this
is what the objector says. Well, I believe this is what
you would call contemptible quibbling, is what it is. For the same reasoning
it might be said, listen to me, Though it is written there is
one mediator between God and man, and that is the man Christ
Jesus, it does not follow that there is only one, there may
be others. Well, what would you think of
that? Well, surely you'd regard the individual that made the
statement like that as being a rank heretic guilty of blasphemy. We know that there's only one
mediator between God and man. There is no other that can reach
out and touch God and reach over and touch a poor sinner and reconcile
him to God. And we know that Jesus Christ
laid down his life only for the sheep. He laid it down for the
sheep. Now, in John 17, you remember
that Christ prayed for those. that the Father had given Him.
He prayed not for the world. He says, I pray not for the world.
I pray not for the world, but those that you have given me.
And is it not an incredible thing that He should have died for
those whom He did not pray? I tell you, He laid down His
life for the sheep. That's the point I'm making,
and I'm telling you that God had a right to send Christ to
represent His people, and that God is the sole proprietor. Don't
you forget that statement. of his own favors, the sole proprietor
of his own favors. So he laid down his life for
the sheep. In Acts chapter 20 and verse
28, Paul talks about how the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
was shed to buy the church. It was shed to buy the church,
that is all those who are regenerate. and those who come in to the
body of Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Well, number
two then, we've established who he laid his life down for. He
laid it down for the sheep. Well, what was the purpose of
his death? What a question that is, brother and sister. Now,
if we could but realize the greatness, now hear me, if we could but
realize the greatness and the dignity and the power and the
might and the majesty of this one Jesus Christ, we should be
sure every one of us will get a correct answer. Every one of
us. Who are we dealing with here?
Who are we dealing with? Trying to sell his wares to whoever
he can find? No! We're dealing heaven down here to deliver his
people to reconcile God's people unto himself. All power is given to me in heaven
and earth. We're dealing with that one of
the Godhead bodily. We're dealing with the God man. It could not have been a mere
experiment. that Jesus Christ was on in this
world. A mere experiment, not a mere
haphazard effort, which might... No, no, no, no, my friend. You
need to have an overhaul of your... that Jesus Christ was just down
here to experiment or My friend, it's not true. The
text inform us he laid down his life in the stead of his sheep. He died that he might undergo
their penalty and punishment. And when he died, he was experiencing
their penalty and punishment. The penalty of sin is death. And Christ died, my friend, in
our place. He died that His people, given
to Him by His Father from all eternity, might be rescued from
death, hell, and sin, and be glorified with Him in eternity. That they might have that inheritance
that our brother read about earlier. We were children of wrath, even
as others. We could not redeem ourselves. We could not. Neither sighs,
tears, prayers, or no sacrifice that a sinner can make can ever
can ever pay the debt that he owes to God. We could not, we
could not do that which God demanded of us, be perfect, absolutely
righteous. But our substitute was. A gulf
had been created between the sin of God's people, on account
of the sin of God's people and God's holiness, that neither
man nor angels could span. No man could span this gulf.
that was between us and God. No creature's doings could bridge
or diminish this chasm. Could not. The mighty God himself
in Christ Jesus had to do it and open a way for the sheep
to pass over into the glorious kingdom of heaven. Only Jesus
Christ could do that. None but the sheep, none but
the sheep can ever pass over that highway and none that sets
their foot upon it can ever miss walking right into the Kingdom
of God. They must because they're on
this highway that Jesus Christ has made. There is no perhaps.
There's no perventure about it. He laid down His life for the
sheep. I'm talking about the purpose of His laying down His
life. No, the sheep are put on this
highway and all they must go in defiance of all the opposition
that they will have in this life, and they'll have plenty of it,
from men and devils. They will persevere on. What
a sure word of revelation. A sure word. Laid down my life
for the sheep. Laid it down. And when I laid
it down, everything was made right. Everything was made right. I rendered them holy and without
blame. I paid their debt. Eternal death
has been satisfied by the death of the Infinite One, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, what a sure word of revelation. Oh, I hope you can receive it.
I hope you're able to, compared to the miserable, confused, and
garbled statements so commonly made about Christ's death and
the purpose of His work by the heretics of this religious world. Now my friend, it's important
for you to be able to distinguish that between what men are saying
and what the Word of God says. Now this draws out, I'm talking
about the fact that He laid down His life for us. I'm talking
about the words that came from the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I lay down my life for the sheep. I'm talking about those words.
This draws out the affections. This draws out the praise. This
draws out the love. This draws out the thankfulness.
And also, and moreover, it draws out our best service unto God
to hear those words. I laid down my life for the sheep. If we but think upon this fact,
we can lay our very lives at his feet. Lay our lives down. What hast thou given? Jesus said,
I give my all for thee. What hast thou given? We can
lay down our lives at his feet. He gave all, but all we can do
is lay down our lives. Lay it down. All we can do is
take the cup of salvation and drink deeply, and rejoice in
the Lord our God, and praise His name, and rejoice to know
that we'll see the King in His beauty one of these days, and
we're going to walk the streets of gold. Oh, sheep of the Lord
Jesus, look up. Look up! He said, I give unto
my sheep eternal life. I give it to them, and they'll
never perish. Neither can any pluck you out
of my hand. What more your Savior, I want
to say this, what is more is that your Savior knows you. He
knows you. You say, well I've been thinking
that He probably didn't know me. He probably didn't really
know who He was talking about when He was talking about that
He knows people. It's kind of like the woman who
had about 10 or 12 kids and her children were grown up and her
husband died. And he was in the casket up in front of the church,
and the preacher was up there eulogizing him, telling about
how great a fellow he was and all that. So finally the mother
punched the oldest boy and said, go up there and look to see if
that's your daddy he's talking about. But I want to tell you,
as I think upon this, the Savior knows you. He knows you. He said,
my sheep hear my voice, And what'd
he say? And I know him. I know them. I know them. That make you uncomfortable
that he knows you? Does that make you uncomfortable? He knows your name. He got that
written down in the Lamb's Book of Life. He knows you from all
the other Chris Garamond's there are in the world. I read in a
paper the other day where a John Mitchell died. He was 69 years
old. Obituary college. God knows us
from all the other people that have our very names. He knows
us. He knows your sorrows. He knows
your trials. He knows your temptations. He
knows your corruptions. He knows your wonderings. He
knows all about your tears, all your sighs, all your prayers,
all your wrestlings with sin and Satan, and He sympathizes
with you and suckers you, and He gives you eternal life. And
He gives you eternal life knowing you. Knowing you and knowing
me, He gives us eternal life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. John 11, verse 25 and 26. And
now I'll come quickly to the last point, and I'm going to
close here in just a little bit. Still haven't got finished, have
to try again sometime. And now we can get to know...
The question was this, can we ever
get to know in this world that we're born of Christ's sheep?
Can we ever get to know? Can we get to know that inasmuch
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we behold Him without blame before Him in love? Can we know?
Can we know? Well, unhesitatingly, I say yes. We can know. There are two things
that tend to keep God's people very unhappy in this world. One
is the ignorance of God's salvation, the plain teachings of the Word
of God as to the truths that we've been talking about here
this morning. And number two is the want of experiential knowledge
of that salvation. understanding and knowing that
God has indeed touched us and affected us. As long as we're
not clear upon the great design and the work of redemption, we're
carried about with every wind of doctrine consequently, we
must be unstable and we must be unhappy. But as long as we're
without some experiential knowledge of an interest in the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ, so long shall we be unhappy. I often
pray that the Lord will give you people an interest in the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, that you will
be able to say, I got a part in that. His death was my death. His death to sin, it was my death
to sin. And Him being alive now guarantees
I'm going to live forever. Even though they put me in a
grave, in a box, in the ground, I am going to live forever. He
that liveth and believeth in me will never die. Believest
thou this? Okay? Can it be plainer than
that? Now we read in the context, and
I read it to you a little bit ago, my sheep hear my voice,
and I know them, and they follow me. Well, the question is this
now. What does his voice proclaim,
and have you heard his voice? Have you heard Him? Now He said,
My sheep hear My voice. Jesus said, No man can come to
Me except the Father which sent Me draw him. I'll raise him up
to the last day. They shall be all taught of God.
And everyone that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh
unto Me. Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that
heareth My word and believeth on Him that sent Me hath everlasting life. Now I hear
people say my son or my daughter has heard the gospel over and
over and over again. Well let's see whether that's
true or not. Now Jesus said that they'll hear
my voice. In John 5 he said marvel not
at this the hour is coming when all that are in the graves shall
hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear The hour
is coming, and now is, they will hear the voice of the Son of
God, and they that hear shall what? Live! If your son or daughter
has heard the gospel, they're alive. If they've heard the gospel. Now I'm talking about a hearing
here, which maybe some of you don't understand. I'm talking
about a hearing of faith. Now Jesus said, they're going
to hear my voice. My sheep are going to hear my
voice. What does the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ? He said,
they're all going to be taught of God. And everyone that has
heard and learned of the Father does what? They come to Me. Well, they come to Me. If your
loved ones have heard the Gospel, they'll come to Christ. Or they've
already come. They've come to Him. Because
they've heard with the hearing of faith. They've heard that
God has given them the gift of faith, and they've come! They've
come to Christ. Have they? Well, if they've not
come to Christ, then they've not heard. They've not heard
the gospel. Well, what is it that the voice
of the Lord has proclaimed? What has He said? Listen to it now. This is what
He said. Now, you know, this would be
a little bit Maybe a little bit more comical. Some of you may
think of it as being comical, what we're doing here this morning.
If it wasn't so real, if it wasn't true, desperately true, you've got to hear the voice
of the Son of God. You've got to hear some other
voice than mine. You've got to hear the voice
of the Son of God in the Word of God before you're ever going
to be saved. before you're ever going to be
reconciled to God. Now what does the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ
say that you ought to hear? Well, I'll tell you what he said.
He said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God
sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that
the world through him might be saved, He that believeth is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Did you hear it? Did you hear it? He said, Come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. Did you
hear it? Did you hear it? Oh, your soul is like a... Well,
the Bible says that the wicked are like the troubled sea. Cast
up dirt and mire. Wicked are all in a state of
confusion. Guilt of sin. But Jesus said,
you come to me, all you that labor in the heavenly land. Now
if you've not come to Christ, then you haven't heard His voice.
You haven't heard it. This is serious business. Only
those that hear His voice come to Him. Come to Him and live. Okay, so then he has made other
statements. He said, except a man be born
again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. He said, except a man
be born of the water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom
of God. He said, if any man will come
after me, let him deny himself. Did you hear it? Did you hear
it? Whosoever confesseth me before
men, him will I confess before my Father which is in heaven.
Have you heard? Have you heard it? Not merely
with the hearing of the ear, but in faith. So as to follow
Christ. Because he said, they're going
to hear my voice. And he said, they follow me. Isn't that what
he said over there? Isn't that what he said there in verse 27?
My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me. They
follow me. They follow me. Now to follow Christ means to
look to him for all we want. in this life, and all we desire,
and all that God demands, and all that God wants, and all that
God desires from us. We follow Him. We follow Christ. Now if we can say that we follow
Christ, there's no doubt about it that we're His sheep. If we
can say we've heard His voice, and if we can say that we follow
Him. Now Jesus is King, and if He so manifested himself to you,
as we have talked about here this morning, and given you his
favors, of whom he is the sole proprietor, then, my friend,
I think that you ought to follow him. I think that you will follow
him, if he has thus manifested himself. Now, there are those
who have not, will not, identify themselves with the Lord Jesus
Christ. They will not. They said, well we like an interest
in His blood, we like an interest in His salvation, we like to
believe that He's given unto us eternal life, but now when
it comes to following Him, that's a different thing. That's a different
thing. Now my friend, listen to me.
When the Lord Jesus comes back, I'll tell you what I want. I
want to be found in Him. That's what I want to do. I want
to be found in Him when He comes back. I don't want to be ashamed
before Him at His coming. I want to be found in Him. And
another thing, that whenever the role is called as to those
who have identified themselves with Him, I mean in the day of
His, when His gospel was under attack, in the day when the doctrines,
the great doctrines of the Word of God, seriously being abandoned
by most religion, I want to be identified with the lowly Lord
Jesus Christ who will come back as exalted King. I want to be
identified with Him. And the best way and the only
way that I know scripturally for a man to identify himself
with the Lord Jesus Christ in His death, His burial and resurrection
is through baptism. I believe that every believer
ought to be baptized to identify themselves with Christ. Be identified
with Him Now, you say, well, I'm a believer. Well, I'll tell
you what, I think that Nicodemuses are suspicious people. I think
they leave room for people to doubt whether they're serious
or not. Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. He wouldn't come in the daytime.
He's afraid to come in the daytime. But what about you? Where do
you stand? Do you say, I believe what you preached here today,
preacher? Well, then you ought to identify yourself with Christ.
Identify yourself with Him. Submit yourself for baptism. Because we picture His death,
His burial, and His resurrection. And we're saying to everybody
that sees it, that was for me. And I believe with all my heart.
Here I am. I'm participating in it. Outwardly, as much as
I can. I'm participating in it. Well,
let's stand and we're going to have a song.