I want to talk to you this morning about the purpose of the gospel ministry, the purpose of this local church, the reason why we exist, the reason we do what we do, the basic purpose of everything we do as a church. The title of my message is Seeking the Lord's Sheep.

Now, this is why we do what we do. This is the reason why I go somewhere almost every week up and down the length and breadth of this country preaching the gospel of God's grace. This is the reason we give our money and our efforts to support the preaching of the gospel with missionaries, evangelists, pastors, other churches literally around the world. This is why we send out thousands upon thousands of tapes, tracts, books and literature every year, books, other things. are seeking the Lord's sheep. It's just that simple. We're seeking his sheep.

I know that the things we believe and preach place us in direct conflict with, and in direct opposition to, the religious world around us. We're, by virtue of what we believe and preach, constantly in conflict with family and friends with the, who are so engrossed in the religious world around us. But that shouldn't surprise us. When our Lord Jesus preached plainly those things that I am about to preach to you this morning, after he got done, in fact before he got done, the Jews started grabbing up rocks. And they weren't fishing to grab up rocks to get them across the lake. They were fishing to kill him. They were fishing stone into death. They were mad. They were enraged. He saw red and became violent and bled to death because he preached the gospel of God's free grace.

Now, here are four things which place us in direct opposition to and in conflict with the whole religious world. They are not deep, profound things, not at all. Just plain, simple, revealed facts in the gospel. What we believe about God is totally foreign to this world. Totally foreign to this world. We believe, according to the scriptures, that our God is in the heavens. And he really has. He always has. He always does. He always will do whatsoever he pleases. Now, we really believe that. We really do. Our God's in the heavens. He has done whatsoever he has to. In heaven, in earth, in the sea, and in all deep places, God has his way. Always. Always.

I get a little concerned when I think about what's going on over in Yugoslavia and in Washington. I wonder what's going to happen. But I know exactly what's going to happen. Exactly what our God has purposed. accordance with his holy character and his gracious intent for his people. That's exactly what's going on everywhere.

What we believe about man places us in direct conflict with the whole world around us, particularly the religious world, because we believe, as the scriptures assert, that man is essentially evil, not good. Man is spiritually dead, not weak. Man is utterly depraved and deprived of all spiritual light, good, righteousness, and uprightness at his very core being in his heart. The heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked. Man without Christ is an abomination. Man without Christ always acts on principles of self-interest and selfishness in rebellion to God Almighty. Always. Not occasionally, not in any. Always. Always. It's impossible for him to do otherwise.

So vile, so depraved, so dead, so helpless, our lost sinners, that you who are without Christ, cannot change your nature. Can't do it. You can't do it. When a, when these wilting can change his skin, or a leopard can change his spots, you can change your heart, but otherwise you can't. That's what the book says.

Well, but psychologists don't believe that. I know psychologists are nuts. Never saw one didn't look new like he belonged in a loony bin. I mean none. None of them. But the educators, educators don't know God. But the philosophers, try reading a little bit of history behind the feathers who wrote philosophy. You think that something's wrong with, I think, my soul, most perverse human beings that ever lived.

But what does the scripture say? Man's dead. Man's dead. You can change your habits. A drunk can go to Alcoholics Anonymous and quit drinking. You don't have to get religious to do that. If you're a dopehead and you want to get off dope, just find somebody who's got the right stuff and they can get you off of it. Find somebody that'll lock you up and put you through what it's got to go through, they'll get you off of it. A man who has spent his life as an adulterer and a fornicator, he didn't quit that. He realized, man, this costs me too much. And he quit. He doesn't need Christ to do that.

But what about his nature? That's another story. You can't change your nature. Your mom and daddy can't change your nature. This church can't change your nature. This preacher can't change your nature. The only person who can change your nature, the only person who can give you a new heart, the only person who can make you love righteousness and hate iniquity. The only one who can make you willing to bow to the Son of God, the only person who can hold you to turn to Christ in faith, is God Almighty.

A preacher, if what you're saying is so, then I'm shut up to God. Oh, I hope you hear that. You are shut up to God. Shut up to His grace. Shut up to His Son. Shut up to His Spirit. If God has mercy, you will live. If God doesn't have mercy on you, you'll perish just like you are.

I recognize in constant opposition to the religious world around us, because we believe and teach what the scriptures teach and reveal concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is God incarnate. He came here on a mission. He didn't come here hoping the Jews would let him pretty please sit on their little throne over that little peanut kingdom. That's not why he came. He didn't come here hoping to establish a millennial kingdom. The Lord Jesus Christ came here on an errand of mercy to redeem his people by satisfying the justice of God and thus to secure forever their everlasting salvation. And yes he did. Jesus Christ the son of God has redeemed the people to himself. He has put away somebody's sins. He has secured somebody's salvation. He has once and for all accomplished eternal redemption and obtained it by the merit of his blood for somebody. That's what he came here to do and he did what he came to do.

And we are in opposition constantly to the religious world around us because we believe exactly what the scriptures teach about salvation. in its entirety, salvation is of the Lord. It's all together by God's grace. It's all together the work of Jesus Christ, God's Son, God the Father, our Heavenly Father, and God the Holy Spirit. God planned it, God purchased it, God performs it, God preserves it, God protects it, God will have the praise of it. Salvation is God's work.

Well, but you mean, Pastor, that he makes the first step? No, he takes all the steps. But you mean, if we'll turn to him, then he'll turn to us? No, if he turns to you, you'll turn to him. That's language of Scripture. But, Pastor, you mean the Lord, he puts us in grace, but we have to preserve ourselves and keep ourselves and sanctify ourselves and make ourselves more and more acceptable to him and at last if we get to heaven we will inherit heaven's glory measured on our goodness and obedience here. No, no, I'm not talking about the foolishness of that. No, no, the Lord God puts you in his grace and puts his grace in you and keeps it that way and brings you to glory. on the merit of his son, and only on the merit of his son, and gives you everlasting glory because of his free grace and love toward you. That's God's salvation.

I know that men object to these things. I know preachers everywhere deny them. I know that proud men are offended by them. But you see, I'm not running for political office. I can tell you the truth. I'm not trying to get elected or anything. I don't have to lie to you. I'm here to tell you, with the authority of God's word, you are eternally bound, men and women, for the glory of God, that which I have heard and learned of the Father. And I'm going to declare it to you. I must be true to God, true to Scripture, and true to your souls.

Now, I'm here seeking the Lord Jesus, but we're trying to get everybody to say we love everybody. That ain't so. That ain't so. Folks who tell it are lying. as we've talked about here with, oh I just love everybody so much. That's not so. That's just not so. But there are some people for whom I am concerned. There are some people whose souls I seek. There are some people for whose eternal welfare I am devoted. I am committed to all things for the elect's sake. I'm seeking the Lord's sheep. Those thought preachers that my lord describes in this chapter as hirelings, and thieves, and robbers. Those aren't my words, they're his. They're just hirelings, they work for what they can get. They're thieves, they're robbers. If you think you can trust one, trust him. They're wolves who come in sheep's clothing, not to seek the sheep, but to devour and destroy the sheep. That's the intent of the religious leaders of our age.

Either it is Merle Hart, or the son of God is a liar. What it says right here is exactly what it says. We read it earlier, John chapter 10. These religious leaders of the world have told three religious lies, fables, so often so persistently, so unanimously, that the whole world universally receives them, and says this is the truth of God, and just presumes it is. Just presumes it is. I get letters every week. I get one almost every day at least. When somebody read something I wrote, or heard something I preached, and they, these are things I said, but how can you say that? God loves everybody. Christ died for everybody. God wants the same thing for us. And you know everybody believes that. Just ask them. Just ask them. Everybody believes that. From the littlest, littlest kids we're taught Jesus loves little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, they're precious in his eyes. Ain't so. Just ain't so. Just ain't so.

That's not in the book of God. The scriptures do not teach that God loves everybody. He doesn't. He said, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. There's somebody in this world, some class of people, some group of people who are the objects of God's love, and another class of people of whom God gives no consideration. Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

God's angry with the wicked every day. You've got no reason to presume that God looks your way graciously until you believe on his side. Until that, the wrath of God abides on you.

But Jesus died for everybody. No, Jesus Christ did not die for everybody. He did not lay down his life for everybody. If Jesus Christ died for everybody, then that awful necessity must be following that Jesus Christ died in vain for somebody, either that or all men are saved. Now there's just no, there's no alternative, there's just no alternative.

If Christ died for all men, either all men must be saved, or Jesus Christ died in vain for somebody, and that's utter blasphemy. More than that, the scriptures don't teach it.

The word of God, no word suggested, but God the Holy Spirit, he wants to save everybody. I wish folks would just stop and think what to say. Just stop and think about it.

You know, I'm getting to the age where I'm beginning to have to acknowledge that there are some things that I would like to do that I just can't do. Now I'm going to tell you what, when I was 20 years old, you couldn't have paid enough money to get those words out of my mouth. Because I wanted everybody to think I could do anything, whatever I wanted to do. I was ashamed to admit weakness, ashamed to admit frustration, ashamed to admit failure.

And I'm going to tell you what, I would be ashamed to call anything God that must admit weakness. frustration and pain. God wants to do what God does. And he doesn't want to do anything else. God tries to do what he does. He doesn't try to do anything he does. God wills what he brings to pass. He doesn't will anything else. He says I will do all my pleasure.

So that's Bible language isn't it Rod? That's Bible language. God says, I will do all my pleasure. This is what I'm saying. The triune God is concerned for, seeks, and accomplishes the salvation of his sheep, only his sheep. To say otherwise is to make the holy God a pathetic, frustrated failure.

Now, let's look here at John 10 and see if this is not the language of our Savior. Look in verse 11. Folks tell me all the time, well, but you know, there's a sense in which God loves everybody. Doesn't make any sense to me. If God loves everybody, he's got a strange way of showing it.

Noah's out on the ark, looking across the horizon. Folks sinking for the last time, gurgling, getting their last breath. Put the banner out on the buffer of his ship. He says, now God loves you, has a wonderful plan for your life. Isn't that absurd? Yet the religion of this world is absurd. It's beyond absurd, it's blasphemous. It's beyond blasphemy, it's an abomination to God.

No sir. The Lord Jesus says here in verse 11, I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives us his life. Look at it. Undisclosed. Put a star beside it for the sheep. Look at verse 14. I'm the good shepherd and know my sheep. Must be something special about that. He knows everything, doesn't he? Yeah, but not like he knows his sheep. And them don't him mine.

As the father knows 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 second."

You know, I'm getting suspicious. I'm getting suspicious. Looks to me like he's concerned for the sheep. Maybe it is. Looks to me like his interest is for the sheep. Looks to me like his heart is set on the sheep. Looks to me like he came here to save his sheep.

All right, look at verse 27. In verse 26, the Jew said, we don't like what you say, we'll kill you, bud. He said, you believe not, because you're not of my sheep, just like I told you. Now look at verse 27, but my sheep, my sheep, hear my voice. I know them, they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life. They shall never perish, neither shall any man part them out of my hand.

Now in preaching the gospel, We're not trying to convert the world. We're not trying to get everybody to say that's not our purpose, that's not our aim, that's not our goal. We're seeking the Lord's sheep. I don't know who they are. Neither does anyone else. So we preach to everybody just like the Lord commanded us. We preach the gospel to every creature. Some I know will not believe. Some of you perhaps. who have been the objects of my love, concern, prayer, and labor for 19 years, and may perish under the wrath of God and not be laid. I know that. But blessed be God, some will be laid. And I know who they are. They're his sheep. They're his sheep.

Let me show you five things in this tenth chapter of John, and I'll wrap this up. First, we see in this passage that the Lord Jesus has a people in this world called his sheep. God has chosen for himself a people. He calls them his sheep, again according to the election of grace, whom he's determined to save.

I was saying a little bit ago that him, Ron, very properly changed the word The Lord Jesus bled and died for Adam's separate race? That's not so. If he did Adam's separate race, then glory. He bled and died for his chosen race, for his sheep.

But the Bible talks about all being justified. Yeah, all within the all. The Bible talks about God's love in the world. Yeah, the world within the world. But the Bible talks about the whole race of mankind, the race within the race.

You see, when the scripture talks about God so loved the world, it's not talking about everybody in the world. If language means anything, it means world. In Luke chapter 2, Augustus Caesar sent out a decree saying all the world should be taxed. Let's see. Yeah. By Wednesday, everybody better pay their taxes. Everybody. The whole world. No, no, no, no, no. Only five U.S. citizens. That's all. And when Caesar Augustus sent out a decree that all the world should be taxed, it didn't have a blooming thing to do with me. I wasn't included in that world. That was a very limited world. It was the world under the realm and reign of Caesar Augustus.

And when the Lord God declares to us that God so loved the world, he's not talking about the whole world indiscriminately, but rather he's talking about his elect scattered throughout all the world. He loved the world of his elect.

Christ Jesus shall make many righteous, the many who are in him. He shall make all whom he represents to be just before God, and that's exactly the language of scripture. The Lord God has his sheep here in the midst of goats. Some of Adam's fallen race are sheep, and some are goats. The sheep are chosen, the sheep are redeemed, the sheep must be called the goats. He just leaves them alone.

You might say, well, you believe in election and necessity follows that you must believe that God refuses to save the reprobate. No, no, no, no. What necessarily follows in your keen-up brain doesn't necessarily follow in this book. Our Lord says you believe not because you're not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep hear my voice. You don't believe? Because I didn't leave you sane. I didn't left you alone. I left you alone. Oh, I pray God won't leave you alone. Oh, I pray God won't leave you alone. If God leaves you alone, you're gone. You'll never believe.

They hear my voice. I know them. They follow me and I will be tunneled out. God's elect forgiven the Christ as his sheep before the world began. My father which gave them me, he said, is greater than all. No man can pluck them out of my father's hand.

God's elect in this world are compared to sinning, helpless, dirty, lost, straying, fallen sheep. But the Lord Jesus says, I know my sheep. I mean, Bobby, he knows you like he doesn't know family, neighbors, friends. But he knows everything. Yeah, but he knows you, Bob Thompson. He knows you. He knows everything about his sheep. He knows what they need. He knows what God requires of them. He knows what he's given them. He knows what he'll do for them. He knows where they are. He knows what they did. He knows what they've done. He knows what he'll make of them. He knows how they'll look when he presents them thoughtless before the presence of God's glory. He knows when you'll call them. I know my sheep.

All right, here's the second thing. The Good Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ, laid down his life for the sheep. Verse 11, I am 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 lay down my life for the sheep.

Now I want you to get this, and I want you to get it, and I want you to understand it, and I want you to correct me if you find any place where the word of God speaks contrary to this. men, women, or children, you correct me, you find any place where the Word of God speaks contrary to this, and I will renounce what I said publicly right here just as soon as you show me. All right? Nowhere in this book, when the Word of God talks about, and explains, and teaches the regressive work of Jesus Christ, or describes the intent and purpose of God Almighty in the sacrifice of his son, nowhere in this book is there the slightest implication that Jesus Christ laid down his life for anybody except his sheep. Not the slightest implication, but it's that he died to save anybody except his elect. Some years ago I had a young missionary, been raised on mission field, his father was a missionary, sitting in our living room, and you know, he's a nice enough fellow, I reckon, But he'd been around for a couple of days, and we'd been talking, talking some scriptures, talking particularly about particular redemption.

And before breakfast one morning, he was sitting in the living room, we lived over in Junction City, Shabbaaz in the kitchen scurrying around getting stuff ready, he and his wife sitting on the couch. He said to me, he said, you know, Brother Thornton, he said, I would believe in limited atonement if it wasn't for just one or two scriptures giving each other. He should have waited until after breakfast. I said, that's why I called him by name, I won't do that now. I said, you're lying. He said, what? I said, you're lying. Lying to me, lying to yourself, lying to God.

Now tell me something, can you find one or two verses in the scripture somewhere that gives you any trouble with the doctrine of the Trinity? If you can't, I can throw a key your way. But the preponderance of Scripture, in the universal testimony of Scripture, declaring the person of God, makes the doctrine of the Trinity so plainly, so clearly, that it's impossible for a man to be honest with this book and deny it. Is that right? Absolutely that's right.

And I'm telling you that the universal testimony of Scripture, the preponderance The scriptures everywhere in explaining the redemptive work of Christ declare that Jesus Christ died specifically for his elect, and accomplished the redemption of his elect, and there's no possibility otherwise. That's what the book teaches. I lay down my life for the sheep. All right?

Thirdly, the Good Shepherd will save all his sheep. Look at verse 27. My sheep hear my voice. I know them. They follow me. I give unto them eternal life. They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

Up in chapter 10, verse 3, the Good Shepherd calls his sheep one by one with an almighty, irresistible effectual call. In verse 2, he enters in by the door. That is, if you want to know who Christ is, just find the one that fits this book. He that enters in by the door of this book, that's the shepherd. Anyone who doesn't fit everything required of the shepherd in this book, he's not the shepherd. He's a false Christ, he's a thief and robber.

To him, the port of the Holy Spirit opens. The gospel is preached, and the Holy Spirit opens your heart and opens the book, and that's it. He's the one. The sheep is his boss. He calls his own sheep. And you know what else when he calls them? He calls them by name. That doesn't mean he says, Larry, come to me. That means he speaks directly to Larry. And when he does, Larry knows him. Harold, I know if the Lord speaks to me, oh, you'll know. You won't need some ten cent preacher to tell you the Lord's given you salvation. Oh no, you'll know. You'll know.

And he leads them out. out of godlessness into light, out of bondage into liberty, out of the religion of this world into the religion of free grace. And his sheep follow us. They just, they follow him. Follow his word, follow his spirit, follow his will. They follow him. Glad they follow him. And he's God's given eternal life. And they'll never perish. They'll never perish.

More than that, he says a stranger will they not follow. They'll flee from the stranger. Because the sheep, they like sheep's food. And they hear the shepherd's voice. They're sheep. We're not the smartest things in the world. We're not the most brilliant, most well-educated, most refined, most cultured things in the world. But we know the shepherd's voice. And you can't pour free will over on one of them. You can't pour works over on one of them. They know my boy. They won't follow strangers.

So I know some of the sheep who follow strangers. No, you don't. Those folks are goats. They just look like sheep. And they try to act like sheep. But every time you mention free grace, they start burping like goats. The sheep won't follow a stranger.

Look at this fourth statement. The good shepherd says they shall never fail. He gives them eternal life. And he keeps them in eternal life. He stays and he stays forever. And one last thing, when he gets done with all that he came here to do, he's going to bring all of his sheep into his heavenly fold in the perfection of salvation and eternal glory. Because he's the great shepherd. I'm just seeking his sheep.

Some of you are not his sheep, probably. Some of you are. I wonder if you are. Do you hear his voice? Has he called you? Has he given you eternal life? Do you follow him? Those are his sheep. Those are his sheep. They're not me! Well, I've got no reason to suspect you're his sheep. Oh, but if you hear his voice, if he gives you eternal life, if you follow him, that's called you.