Other Sheep I Have

Mr. Spurgeon said one time, I was preaching a message as
a minister of the gospel, and I wasn't getting much accomplished. And he said I realized in the
middle of the message that that's the way I was preaching the message,
as a minister of the gospel. It occurred to me that I was
a sinner, that I was a dying man, as Baxter said, preaching
to dying men. And I quit preaching as a minister
of the gospel, and I began to preach as a sinner saved by grace
to sinners needing God's grace. And from then on, he said, God
honored the message and blessed the words. I wonder if our witnessing would
become more effective if we would stop witnessing down to people. We would quit instructing people. We would quit being teachers
and preachers and authorities and begin to speak to our friends
and our loved ones and our congregations as one of them. objects of his
mercy, objects of his love, objects of his grace. If we could find
out what Paul meant when he said, I'm not worthy to be an apostle.
I am less than the least of all the saints. And Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. We cease to
be authorities and become seekers. It may be that God would possibly,
for his glory, make us a blessing to somebody. Cease to try to
be, trying to be leaders and become ourselves followers of
the Lamb. Our text tonight, verse 16, this
is deep water. This is a message of our Lord
we're trying to talk about, preach from. But there's some things
about it of which I'm confident. In our text tonight, I've chosen
verse 16, entitled the message, Other Sheep. And I notice that
my text is supported before and behind by two powerful statements. First of all, in verse 15, Our
Lord said the last line, I lay down my life for the sheep. This is the foundation and rock
of my assurance, of my hope. Christ laid down his life for
me. I once was lost but now I'm found
and by God's grace I'm heaven bound but my only hope, my only
plea is that when he died, he died for me. That's my hope. I lay down my life, he said,
for the sheep. His love is proved by his death. Greater love hath no man than
this, that he lay down his life for his friends. So if Christ
laid down his life for these sheep, it's evident he loved
them. It's evident. I need not expect
God's love. I don't deserve God's love. God
Almighty doesn't have to love me. He has to love somebody because
God is love, but it doesn't have to be me. I don't necessarily
have to be an object of His affection. I know I'm the most important
person in the world to me, but not necessarily to God. Not necessarily
to God. But this I know. Christ loved
His sheep, and He proved it because He laid down His life for His
sheep. And then His purpose. His sheep will be redeemed. His
purpose will be accomplished. He's going to redeem somebody
because the price is paid. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. He's going to get what he paid
for. It cannot be altered. He said it's finished. Shall
he not have what he purchased? Why, you'd raise all kind of
cane if you went down and purchased an object and the fellow said
you couldn't have it. You'd go to the Better Business
Bureau, you'd go to the Small Claims Court, you'd put up all
kind of objection if you bought something and they wouldn't let
you have it. So I know this, our Lord's purpose in redemption
is going to be accomplished because He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. He loved them, and His purpose
for them is going to be done. I lay down my life for the sheep.
It's not silver and gold, but the precious blood of the Lamb
of God we're talking about here. We're talking about not our Lord
paying a ransom of material value, but paying a ransom of infinite
value, His blood, His life. He died for His sheep. And their
sins are going to be pardoned. Turn to Romans chapter 8 and
listen to this. The Apostle Paul says in Romans
8, verse 32, he that spared not his own son, but delivered him
up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us
all things? If he died for it, he's going
to have it. Shall the father deny the son that for which he
gave his life? It shall not be that the Son
of God laid down his life in vain. I lay down my life for
the sheep, therefore the sheep will be redeemed. Their sins
will be pardoned. If he paid for my sins, I paid
for them. If he bore them, I bear them
not. If he justified me, I'm justified. If his blood was put on the mercy
seat of glory in my behalf, then the law is satisfied, justice
is satisfied, God's righteousness is honored. It's done. The great
transactions do it. I am my Lord's and He is mine.
If He redeemed me, I'm redeemed. If He paid the ransom, it's paid.
It's not going to be paid again. Now that's what He says. That's
my hope. That's the foundation. Somebody said to Abraham Lincoln
one time, came into his office back during the Civil War, a
group of church people, you know, and he always had time for people. They came in, they talked a while,
and just before they left, one of the pious gentlemen looked
at Lincoln and he said, Well, I sure hope God's on our side,
don't you? He said, No. It shocked the daylights
out of him, you know. And he saw that he shocked him
and he continued, he said, I'm not nearly so much interested
in God being on my side as I am finding out if I'm on God's side.
Now that's where the issue is. This is what I'm interested in
finding out. It's not my laying claim to Christ, but his laying
claim to me. Now that's pretty important.
My claim in Christ doesn't make it so, but his claiming me makes
it so. You see what I'm saying? He said,
I laid down my life for my sheep, and he's going to have what he
bought. He says, I know my sheep. He
said to those people in Matthew 7, I never knew you, but we knew
you, but I never knew you. And what we'd better find out
is not so much what we claim and what we decide, And what
we accept, we better find out what He claims and what He decided
and whom He accepted. Now there's the issue. I know
my sheep. I laid down my life for my sheep. I want to get in right there.
That's what I want to find out. Did Christ die for me? Did Christ
die, He died for somebody. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. For the sheep. And that's my
foundation. That's my hope. If I can get
in there, then I have no troubles. The wrath of God is satisfied. The justice of God is satisfied. The law of God is honored. What
Christ bought, Christ gets. What Christ did is finished.
And then it's supported on the other side with another statement,
verse 17. Watch this now. Therefore doth
my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take
it again. He not only died, but he arose. You say, is that important? My
dear friends, that is very important. He that died to redeem his people
lives. He lives that he might see that
they are redeemed. and that his will and covenant
is carried out. He lives as their mediator. He
died as their substitute. He lives as their priest. He
died as their redeemer. He lives as their mediator. He
lives to carry out his covenant of mercy. Now, you might make
a will out tonight, go down to a lawyer tomorrow, and get it
all signed, sealed, and delivered. But you see, you're going to
die. And when we take you out to Rose Hill and lower your body
in the grave and put the top on that vault and put the dirt
in, that's all you can do about that will. It's in somebody else's
hands. And he may mess it up, he may gum it up, he may foul
it up, it may not be carried out at all like you decreed or
like you decided or like you purposed because you got no more,
nothing else to say and nothing else you can do but lie there
in the grave. But now not the Lord. Our Lord
made a last will and testament, and our Lord died. And the testament
is of no value without the death of the testator. But he didn't
put it in the hands of somebody else to apply it, he does it
himself. He arose. He arose. And in the risen glory of our
Lord Jesus Christ, our assurance is doubly sure, for it says,
look at Romans chapter 8, if you will, again. Romans 8 chapter
and verse 34. Now listen to this again. That's the reason Paul waxed
bold. He says, who is he that condemneth? Who is he that layeth
any charge to God's elect? I recognize no charge and no
condemnation from any quarter, heaven, earth, or hell, because
he said, verse 34, Christ died. Yea, watch this, rather, equally
important, yea, rather, he is risen again, who is even, and
he waxes eloquent, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also calls my name, makes intercession. You see how important it is then,
how important it is that I get in on what Christ did. Not what
I did, but what he did, and what he has done, and what he is doing. Because that's where it all is.
It's in Christ. It's not in my decisions. It's
not in my works. It's not by works of righteousness
which I've done, but according to his mercy. It's not all the
efforts that I put forth because there's not a man living that
won't put forth some kind of religious effort and some kind
of works of charity and some kind of deeds and acts of flesh
to get in on this valuable benefit. But it's what Christ has done.
I lay down my life for the sheep and I lay it down and I take
it up again. And if you've been filled with
any doubts or fears because of your present circumstances regarding
your eternal glory, then lift up your heart with joy, because
if Christ died for you, he lives for you. Turn to Revelation chapter 1,
and let me show you that. Revelation, the first chapter,
verse 17. And here on the isle of Patmos,
our Lord, the crucified, risen Redeemer, appeared to his disciple
John. And it says in verse 17 of Revelation
1, and when I saw him, John said, I fell at his feet. That's dead. Oh, that's a whole lot different
from the attitude of the modern religionist where Jesus Christ
is concerned. Here this beloved disciple, here
this one of the inner circle, Peter, James, and John, here
this one who was with him in his transfiguration and with
him in Gethsemane, and the one to whom he committed the care
of the woman that called him her son, John. And yet when this
disciple, so intimately and personally acquainted with the Lord of glory,
when he saw him, he didn't talk about me and Jesus got a good
thing going, did he? He didn't wear some silly little
button proclaiming it's fun being saved. He didn't speak with a
familiarity with the Holy God. He didn't talk about the superstar,
the man upstairs, somebody up there, the good Lord. He fell
at his feet as a dead man. He said, what do you think of
this fleshly familiarity with the living God of the present
day? It's of Satan, that's what it is. That's all in the world
it is. All of this modern religion with
all of its rock beat music and all of its fleshly familiarity
with God and all of its silly little clichÃ©s is right out of
hell, Cecil. That's where it came from. And
it's deceiving multitudes. You go through your Bible and
you'll find it men who knew God. in an intimate, personal way,
who walked with God, walked in fear and trembling. Men who knew God, men who walked
with God, Enoch, Abraham, David, Isaiah, Job. I hate myself, he said. John
fell on his face, prostrate, like a dead man, stiff with fear
in the presence of the living God. And he laid his hand on
me, and he said to me, Don't be afraid. Brother, he was afraid. If you don't fear God, you don't
know God. Be not afraid. Be not afraid. I'm the first and the last. Don't
be afraid. I'm he that liveth. I was dead,
but I'm alive. And behold, I'm alive evermore.
And John, you don't need to be afraid, because I got the keys
of hell and death, John, and I'm on your side. And you're
on my side. And we're one. And that's what
counts. I got the keys of hell and death.
You don't have them, John. Peter doesn't have them, and
the church doesn't have them, nobody else. I've got them. When
the fella's got the keys, he's in charge. Now you can always
figure that. That's what somebody said one
time years ago, if he's got the keys, he's in charge. That's
right. If I have the key to the safe,
then I'm in charge of the safe. And our Lord assures this generation
that things are not in their hands. Matters are not in their
hands. Matters are in the hands of Christ. Our Lord God of heaven
hath committed to him all things. He said, all authority is given
unto me in heaven and earth. I have all power over all flesh,
John. Don't be afraid. I'm he that
was dead, but I'm alive. And John, I've got the keys.
I've got the keys of hell and death in my hands. And right
in between that, He said, verse 16, Other sheep I have, which
are not of this foal, and them also I must bring. And they shall hear my voice,
and there shall be one foal. Now who are they? Notice our
Lord said, Other sheep I have. He didn't say, I shall have.
He said, I have them. He looked at his disciples here,
Peter, James, and John, Matthew, and all the rest of them, the
disciples about him, the believers in that day, and he said, these
are my sheep. I know them. But he said, I have
other sheep. Not I shall have, I might have,
I can have, I will have, I could have. If you do your job, I have
them. I have them. I'm sure it never
entered Peter's mind or James or John's mind that our Lord
had any sheep in pagan Rome, but he did, or Africa or the
islands of the sea, and they'd never heard of America. They
never heard of you and me. Their notion was that the Jewish
nation might recognize the Messiah and restore Israel to its power
and prestige, but our Lord said, I have other sheep. of every
tribe, kindred, nation, tongue unto heaven, I have some more
sheep." Who are they? Let's see if we can find out.
First of all, I suggest this, verse 29. These other sheep are
those that the Father gave him. Look at verse 29. He talks about
these sheep and he said, My Father which gave them Me is greater
than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's
hands. I got them from My Father. The
first title that our Lord has to the sheep. Now if something
belongs to a man, he's got a title to that property. And those sheep
belonged to him, first of all, because he received them as a
gift from his Father. That's so. Let me show you some
scripture on that. Turn back to John 6. And our
Lord frequently mentions this in John 6, verse 37. John 6, verse 37. He says, "...all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me." Where did he get
them? The Father gave them to him. All that the Father giveth
me shall come to me, and him that cometh I'll in no wise cast
out. Now look at verse 38. I came
down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him
that sent me. And this is his will which sent me, that of all
which he hath given me I should lose nothing. His sheep are his
because the Father gave them to him. That's where he got them.
Turn to John 17. John 17. And this is the Lord's prayer,
the priestly prayer of our Master there in Gethsemane's garden.
These are the words our Lord prayed for us, and six times
in this one chapter he mentions those that the Father gave me. He says it in verse 2, I have power over all flesh to
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. He says
it in verse 6, I manifested thy name unto the men which thou
gavest me. Verse 9, he says I pray for them, I pray not for the
world, but I pray for them which thou hast given me. He says it
in verse 11, in verse 12, and in verse 24, those that the Father
gave me. How many times did our Lord say
you must be born again? One time. And yet we hear sermons
on it every day. How many times did he talk about
those that the Father gave me? I've already read you eight or
ten times. How many sermons you heard on it lately? It's offensive
to the natural flesh. It's offensive to the pride of
man. It causes controversy. It did here. It always will.
Because men reject the sovereign God. They reject an omnipotent
Lord. They hate authority. Your natural
flesh hates authority. Children hate parental authority.
Wives hate husband's authority. Husbands hate authority where
they work. Children hate authority in the
school. People riding down the highway
hate authority of policemen. The whole jails are full of people
that hate authority. We're born hating authority.
That's the reason we hate a holy, sovereign God. We will not have this man reign
over us. He can heal us. He can raise
us from the dead He can take us to heaven, but he's not gonna
reign over us That's what Adam said in the garden Satan said
you'll be God. Okay, that's what I want. Anyway,
I want to be God You don't expect the natural
man to receive the Word of God to him the Word of God's foolishness
I But our Lord plainly declares here that he got his sheep from
the Father. That's his first title. They
were a gift from the Father. What's his second title? Verse
15, he said, He bought them. I laid down my life for them.
I paid for them. John 10, verse 14, he said, I'm
the good shepherd, I know my sheep, I'm known of mine, even
as the Father knoweth me, I know the Father, I lay down my life
for the sheep. Verse 11, I'm the good shepherd,
the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Verse 18,
no man takes it away from me, I laid it down, I have the power
to lay it down, I have the power to take it up, I voluntarily
gave my life for my sheep. His second title is purchase.
I have no quarrel with the universal redemptionists. Believe what
you want to. That's your privilege. You believe
what you want to. But I do know this, I have the
words of my Lord himself, who plainly declared, I lay down
my life for the sheep. That's what he said. You say,
for whom did Christ die? I say, he said he died for the
sheep. He said he died for the church. He said Christ loved
the church and gave himself for it. There's no way that I can believe
that a man can perish for whom Christ died. I can't believe
that. Now if you want salvation, you're welcome to it. It's here
for you. He said the table's spread. Go
into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth
not shall be damned. If you want mercy, it's here.
It's in Christ. If you want grace, it's in Christ.
But don't be so foolish as to tell me on your way to hell,
Christ died for you. I don't believe that. I don't
believe that. I can't buy that. I don't believe
Christ died for people in heaven and people in hell, because that'd
make his death worthless, wouldn't it? Wouldn't that make his death
worthless? A fellow in heaven, why are you
here? Christ died for me. A man in hell said, well, he
died for me too. Fell on his head and said, well Christ paid
for my sins. Fell on his head and said, he paid for mine too. Fell on his head and said, well
he suffered on the cross for the sins of this sinner. And
the fellow down there said, well he suffered on the cross for
my sins too. Well why are you in heaven? Well I believed. Why
are you in hell? I didn't. Then Christ didn't have anything
to do with it. Not a thing. You see what I'm saying? So we
really saved ourselves. I don't believe that. I believe
men are saved because Christ died for them. And like I say, if you want to
stand up in glory and you want to sing with the redeemed of
all ages, unto him who loved us and washed us from our sins
in his own precious blood, to him be glory. He hath made us
kings and priests unto God. People in hell say the same thing.
He loved us. He washed us with his own precious
blood. It's not so, my friend. It's an error. It's a gross error.
It's a terrible error. It's an error that will destroy you. Now, you
just go on now, hanging on to these traditions of men, and
you can't praise Him unless you believe it in your heart. Who
are these and which came they? These are they that have washed
their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Not
in the baptismal pool, not in the altar, not in the decision,
not in doctrine, in the blood of the Lamb. The thief on the
cross never washed, he was nailed to that tree. He never worked,
he never walked, he never witnessed. How did he get to glory? Christ
died for him. The Apostle Paul wrote 13 books
of the New Testament, organized churches, preached all over the
world, was the first missionary. How'd he get to heaven? Christ
died for him. That's the only way. That's what he said. He
said, who is he that condemneth? Christ died. Peter! How'd you get here, Peter? He
said, we're redeemed not with corruptible things, but with
the precious blood of Christ. All right, he bought them, all
right. Now, who are these sheep? Other sheep. Well, he said God
the Father gave them to him. Secondly, he died for them. Thirdly,
he said, I know them. I know them. He knows them because
he's always known them. He said, elect according to the
foreknowledge of God. I know them. I know them. Look at John 10, verse 23. Listen
to this carefully. And as he walked in the temple
in Solomon's port, the Jews came round about him and said, Now,
how long are you going to keep us in the dark? How long are
you going to make us to doubt? Are you the Christ? Are you that
prophet Moses spake of? Are you that Redeemer? Are you
the Christ? Tell us plainly. He said, I told
you. And you didn't believe me. The
works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness to me,
not just what I say, but what I've done. Now listen to the
next verse. You believe not, because you're not of my sheep.
As I said to you, I, my sheep, hear my voice, I know them. I
know my sheep, and they follow me. And third, fourthly, who are
these sheep? They're those given him by the
Father, redeemed by his blood, those whom he knows. He knows
these sheep. He said to those in the judgment,
I never knew you. The word know there is love you
in a complacent manner, in an affectionate manner. I never
knew you. Oh, he knew the day they were
born, the day they died. He knew every thought, every
word. He knew all about them, but he never knew them. I never
knew them. You were never one with me. And
then there are those who follow Him. Verse 27, My sheep hear
My voice, I know them, and they follow Me. Somebody said years
ago, the sheep of Christ have three brands on them. Who are
they? Well, here's the way He identified
them. He said, Well, My Father gave them to Me, and I bought
them on the cross, and I know them. I know who they are, and
they know me. And here are the three marks
of my sheep. Number one, they're branded on the ear. They hear
my voice. They hear my voice. When that
shepherd went down to the sheepfold in the morning to get his sheep,
there were a lot of sheep in there, and the porter opened
the door. Good morning, George. Good morning. And he walked in,
and he made a sound, whatever the sound was, and every one
of his sheep heard his voice. And when he turned and started
out, every one of them followed him. And nobody else's sheep
followed him. And his sheep didn't follow anybody
else. A stranger they will not follow. God's sheep are going to recognize
the gospel, I guarantee it. You can come to them talking
about, you're saved by doing this and saved by doing that
and saved by doing the other, or you can come to them offering
them recipes and plans of salvation and all these different things
that are going on in religious circles today, but they don't
want any part of it. They're disturbed and they're
disgusted with what they're hearing and they don't want to listen
to it. But you let somebody come preaching the gospel of God's
glory, the gospel of God's grace, the gospel of God's mercy, the
gospel of Christ crucified, the gospel of God's mercy to sinners. And they said, now that, that
rings a bell. That's what this script, that's
what I need. That's what God's saying. That's
salvation. And like one man sitting here
tonight in church, a certain church for years, and finally
went to his pastor and he said, I don't know what I'm not hearing,
but I know I'm not hearing something. He wasn't hearing the voice of
his Lord. And he came and listened to this gospel I'm trying to
preach. And one day, going out the door, he said, I see it.
I've heard the voice of my Lord. That's the difference. He said,
my sheep, they'll hear my voice. You needn't worry. He said, the
Antichrist, if it were possible, would deceive the elect. But
it's not possible. His sheep will not follow error. When people come to me and say,
so-and-so is now attending seven-day Adventism or Christian Science
or something like that, oh, that troubles me because I know his
sheep won't do that. That's right. No way. You're
not going to make one of his sheep follow error. You're not
going to make one of his sheep follow that which is not so. They will not do it. They don't
know everything, they don't claim to know everything, but their
spirit bears witness with their spirit. That's the truth. That's
the truth, and they recognize it. I'll tell you another mark.
He brands them on their hearts. They love him. They love him.
Now brother, I'll tell you this, some folks may not like what
I wrote on the back of that bulletin this morning, but I stand by
that. People who don't worship God
don't know God. people who do not worship the
Lord in his house on his day, and look forward to his gospel,
and look forward to fellowship with his people, and look forward
to this day, I'm sick of the flimsy excuses that everybody
has for not attending the house of God. Our Lord Jesus said,
The zeal of thy house hath consumed me. I was glad when they said
to me, let's go to the house of the Lord. And people who don't
look forward to going to the house of the Lord and hearing
the gospel of Christ, they don't love him. They love whatever
keeps them away. I don't care what it is. Whatever
keeps them away from Christ. If Christ is not Lord of all
your life, he's not Lord at all in your life. If he's not first,
I guarantee you he'll play second fiddle in nobody's band. He's
king. And I still say, men who do not
love his gospel do not love him who is the gospel. Men who do
not love his people do not love him who died for those people.
Men who do not love his word do not love him who gave it.
That's right. And I think it's time folks quit
professing to know Christ if they don't love him. Don't love
him. And then he puts his brand on
their ear, on their heart, and on their feet. He said, they
hear my voice, and they know me, they love me, and they follow
me. They follow me. They follow him
in paths of righteousness. They follow him in paths of holiness. They follow him in paths of beauty.
They follow him. What's he going to do for them?
Let's look at the text again, and I'll quit. He says here,
Other sheep I have which are not of this foal, them I must
bring, bring, bring, them I must bring. What do you mean by that? What will he do for them? I love
that story in Matthew 17, verse 17. That man had a lunatic son. That's not a good word, is it?
But that's the translation. And he came to the Lord and he
said, my son, have mercy on my son. He said, I brought him to
you disciples and they couldn't do anything for him. And the
Lord Jesus said, listen, bring him to me. Bring him to me. This ought to be the object of
our preaching, worship, singing, everything, is to bring men to
Christ. Not just to the church. We send
out all these handbells and advertisements and all of these things to encourage
people to come so we can have 400 in Sunday school and all
of that Tommy Rot. We need to bring men to Christ,
not to a building, not to trying to convince a man that this doctrine
so or that doctrine so, bring him to a doctrine, he'll perish
in his doctrine, just like the Pharisees of old who were orthodox
but dead. Christ said, bring him to me.
That's where the sheep are going to be brought. They're going
to be brought to Christ. The fountain of life brought
to Christ. The bread of life brought to
Christ. The great physician brought to Christ. The great priest brought
to Christ. The mediator who does what? Who
brings us to God. Look at 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3,
verse 18. Listen to this. For Christ hath also hath once
suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that
he might bring us to God. Mary can't bring you to God,
but Christ can. That's right, Christ can. The
Church can't bring you to God, but Christ can. You see, God
was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Christ is our
righteousness, Christ is our sanctification, Christ is our
redemption, Christ is our wisdom, He's going to bring us to God. And then He's going to bring
forth fruit in our lives. He said, I'm going to, if that
branch that abideth in me, I'm going to purge it, that it might
bring forth fruit. And then turn to Hebrews 2, He's
going to bring us to glory. In Hebrews 2, it says here in
verse 10, Hebrews 2, 10, it became him, the Father, for whom are
all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons
to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
suffering. Through his sufferings, he hath
executed a perfect righteousness, and he's going to bring us to
glory. And then you know he said over there in 1 Thessalonians,
when he comes, he's going to bring us with him. He's going
to bring us with him. He says, Other sheep I have which
are not of this fold him I must bring. I must bring. I must bring them to God. I must
bring them forth fruit. I must bring them to glory. I
will bring them with me. My sheep. How are you going to
do it, Lord? All right, I close with this.
How are you going to do it? They're going to hear my voice.
You talk about the importance of the preaching of the gospel.
This is how God speaks to men now. He doesn't speak by visions
and dreams because the Word is complete. God spoke to our prophets,
our fathers, but the prophets. He hath in these last days spoken
to us by his Son. And he speaks through his word.
Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And
this is the way he speaks, the word of conviction. The law is
the schoolmaster that brings us to Christ. It smites us. It strips us. It slays us. It humbles us. It reveals our
guilt. It opens to us our need and our
sins. He speaks to us with a voice
of regeneration. The day cometh when they shall
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live." He speaks with a voice of peace. My peace I give unto
you. He speaks with a voice of commission.
You go preach the gospel to every creature. He speaks with a voice
of resurrection. Lazarus, come forth! And he speaks
with a voice of glory. Turn to Revelation 21, and let
me read you this. Revelation 21, verse 3. They'll
hear my voice. They'll hear my voice, the voice
of conviction, the voice of regeneration, the voice of peace and commission
and resurrection, and then someday I want to hear this. Revelation
21, verse 3, And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying,
Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell
with them, and they will be his people. And God himself shall
be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former
things are passed away. Our Father in Heaven, make thy word to go forth tonight
like the sharp two-edged sword that it is, reaching where our
voice cannot reach. We speak to men's ears, you speak
to their hearts. We appeal to their reason and
understanding. You appeal to their hearts. You
enter the broken heart, the contrite spirit. You heal the broken heart. You raise the dead. You heal
the wounded. O Lord, may it please Thee in
Thy power and Thy grace for Thy glory to make Thy word tonight
effectual. Not our words, but Thou hast
promised that Thy word shall not return unto Thee void, but
shall accomplish that whereunto Thou hast sent it, and that which
pleaseth Thee. Make it, make it as the rain
that bringeth forth seed for the sower. Fruit for the people,
to the glory of our Lord, and not the thorns and briars and
thistles of tradition, religion, custom. Religion without life. Lord, make the Word to be the
refreshing rain from heaven and the seed that falls upon good
ground and bring forth fruit for Thy glory and Thy praise.
Good fruit, spiritual fruit, eternal fruit. Lord, forgive
us of all of our foolishness. Forgive us of our vain show,
our so-called outward piety, our play in church. Bring us
down in the dust at Thy feet, in contrition, submission, surrender,
subjection to the living God. Lord, remember me when Thou comest
into Thy kingdom. Amen.

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