On the Trail of His Sheep

If you'll take your Bibles and
turn with me to the 10th chapter of John, I'm going to bring you
a message on the subject, on the trail of God's sheep. On the trail of God's sheep.
Our text will be John 10, 16, in which the Master, this is
the Savior speaking, our Lord Jesus Christ, he says, Other
sheep I have which are not of this foal. them also I must bring,
and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one foe and
one shepherd." Now, I realize that what I'm going to preach
to you today is in conflict with 90 percent of today's religion. I realize that what I'm going
to preach to you today is not believed and not preached by
most of today's religious leaders. I realize that what I'm going
to preach to you today contradicts what the average person thinks
about God, about man, about salvation, about soul winning, and about
the cross. But let's go to school together.
What do you say? We're not here to please men.
No prophet of God ever was sent into the world to please men.
Paul said, if I please men, he was very deliberate about this,
if I please men, I am not the servant of Jesus Christ. And we're not sent by God to
preach what men think. And we're not sent by God to
preach what men want to hear. We're sent by God Almighty into
this world to preach what he has written. In fact, he said,
if they speak not according to the word of God, it's because
there's no truth in them, no light in them. And Paul said
to young Timothy, preach the word. Be instant, in season,
out of season. There's no season for preaching
any particular part of the word of God. All scripture is given
by inspiration of God, and all of the word of God is profitable
for doctrine, for proof, for instruction, correction. that
the man of God, the person in Christ, might be mature in the
Savior. So let's go to school together.
First of all, in John 10, we learn this. This is an established
truth, right here in the 10th chapter of John. Reading verse
16, our Lord said, Other sheep I have. And then he said in verse 14,
I know my sheep. And he said, I lay down my life
for my sheep. So this is clear from these verses
that our Lord has a people, an elect people, whom he calls his
sheep. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me, and other sheep I have which are not of this foal, and
them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice and they
shall be one foal and one shepherd. Now the question comes, where
did he get these sheep? Our Lord has a people, an elect
people whom he calls his sheep. All the way through the scripture
he refers to them as my sheep, my sheep, my sheep. Where did
he get them? Well, the Father gave them to him. Look at verse
29, John 10, 29. My Father which gave them to
me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out
of my Father's hand. In John chapter 6, verse 37,
turn over there and read it. In John 6.37, the scripture says
this, this is the Master speaking, "'All that the Father giveth
me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I'll in no
wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. This is
my Father's will, that of all he hath given me I'll lose nothing.'
but raise it up again at the last day. Those three verses,
John 6, 37, 38, 39, twice the Lord refers to his people as
having been given to him by the Father. Then in John 17, if you
read the 17th chapter of John, in these 24 verses of our Lord's
priestly prayer, and this is holy ground, this is the prayer
of the Master, this is the prayer he prayed prior to the cross.
He's talking to the Father here, he's pleading for his people,
he's praying for his people. And six times in this prayer,
in verse 2, in verse 6, in verse 9, in verse 11, in verse 12,
in verse 24, he refers to these people as those whom the Father
hath given me. Six times. As he prays for his
own, as the great High Priest goes before the throne of God,
the Father, and prays for his people, he keeps referring to
them in this way. Thou hast given me power over
all flesh, that I should give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given me. Verse 9, I pray not for the world,
but I pray for them which thou hast given me. Thine they are,
and thou gavest them me. Our Lord prayed for his own,
and this is the way he identified them, those whom the Father hath
given to me. Our Lord has a people. They are
called his sheep, and they were given to him by the Father. That's what the word of God teaches. Secondly, our Lord died for these
sheep, and he redeemed them. Look at verse 11. The good shepherd
giveth his life for the sheep. Then read verse 15. I lay down
my life for the sheep." Now, our Lord's death was not an offer,
it was an atonement. Our Lord's death was not an effort.
Christ didn't come down here to make an effort to do anything.
He came down here to accomplish a task given him by the Father.
He came down here to redeem a people from their sins. When the angel
announced his birth, the angel said, Thou shalt call his name
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. The angel
didn't say that he'd make a way for them to be saved. The angel
didn't say he'd fix it so they could save themselves. The angel
didn't say he'd make a down payment on the debt and let them finish
making the installment payment. The angel said he shall save
his people from their sin. And Isaiah said, by his stripes
we are healed. It's done, the great transaction's
done. I am my Lord's and he is mine. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us. cleanseth us, not makes us cleansable,
but cleanses us from all sin. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owe. Sin left a crimson stain. He
washed it white as snow. He said, I laid down my life
for the sheep. The Good Shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. If our Lord died for my sins,
then I'm not going to die for Because God Almighty's justice
will not demand twice the same payment for the same sin. Even
our justice won't permit that. We don't put a man in jail, he
serves his time, we let him go, go out and arrest him again,
put him back in jail for the same crime. Why, he'd say, what's
wrong with you? I paid that debt, that debt is
over. And when Christ died for the sins of the sheep, he paid
their debts, all of them. Well, you say, he paid for our
past sins. Now, wait a minute. When Christ
died, all my sins were future sins. I wasn't born then, that
was 1900 years ago. And when he died for my sins,
they were all future. If Jesus Christ died for me,
I shall not die. That's what the word of God teaches. He is the Savior. Faith is not
the Savior. Baptism is not the Savior. Decision
is not the Savior. Christ is the Savior. Salvation
is not something I do for God. Salvation is something God does
for me. God doesn't need me, I need him. He cleanses me. He chose me, he sought me, he
found me, he called me, he gave me faith, he keeps me. We're
kept by the power of God. Salvation is of the Lord in its
planning, in its execution. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. In its application, he called
us. In its sustaining power, we're kept by his power. And
in its ultimate perfection, he that hath begun a good work in
you, he started it, he's the author and finisher of our faith.
He'll finish it. So that's clear from this scripture.
Our Lord said, I've got some sheep. He's not out looking for
volunteers, he's out looking for lost sheep. Our Lord's not
out looking for people to join his kingdom, he's got a kingdom.
He's out bringing those, he's calling out a people for his
name. He knows who they are. The scripture says he knew from
the beginning who would believe on him and who would betray him.
When he was washing the disciples' feet, he said, now you're clean,
but not all of you, because Judas wasn't clean. I speak not of
all of you," he said. That's in John 13. So that's
clear, our Lord died for the sheep. Now, thirdly, this is
clear. Our Lord will bring his sheep
to himself. He said, Other sheep I have,
my Father gave them to me, my Father gave them to me, and I
lay down my life for my sheep. The Good Shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of
this fold, them also I must bring them, I must bring them, and
they shall hear my voice, and they shall be one foe and one
shepherd." Now look at verse 24. And then these religionists
came around. He was teaching on Solomon's
porch. It was winter and he was at the
temple. He was out on Solomon's porch.
And this is when he was given this story, this teaching of
the good shepherd and the sheep. And these religious people came
round about him and they said in verse 24, If you are the Christ,
if you are the Redeemer, the Messiah, the Anointed, the one
for whom we look, why don't you tell us plainly? I listened to
what the Lord said. I told you, verse 26, I told
you, and you didn't believe me. You didn't believe me because
you're not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life.
You don't hear because you don't have ears to hear, and you don't
see because you don't have eyes to see. One day our Master said
to the disciples, whom do men say that I am? What are they
saying out there in the marketplace and down by the seashore and
down by the wharfs and the fishing places? What are they saying?
Whom do they say that I am? Well, the disciples said, some
of them say you're John the Baptist, and some of them say you're Elijah,
and some of them say you're one of the prophets. They've got
a lot of ideas about you. He said, whom do you say that
I am? Who am I, Peter? And Peter looked at him and said,
Thou art the Christ, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. And you know what Christ said to him? Peter, flesh and
blood didn't reveal that to you. The natural man can't see that.
Natural eye hath not seen, the natural ear hath not heard, neither
hath it entered the heart of natural man, the things that
God has prepared for them that love him. But he hath revealed
them unto us by his Spirit. Peter, flesh and blood didn't
reveal that to you. but my Father which is in heaven.
Thank God. Our Lord Jesus Christ has sheep,
and he gave his life for those sheep. He died for them. He paid
their sin debt. He counseled all charges against
them. He wrote off all condemnation.
And he's out looking for them. They're lost sheep, but they're
sheep. And our Lord said, I must bring them, I must bring them,
and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one foal,
and there shall be one shepherd. Now, Chandra, somewhere in this
world, in every tribe and kindred and nation and tongue and people
under heaven, our Lord's got some sheep. There's a Saul of
Tarsus wrapped up in religious rags, wrapped up in custom and
tradition. But our Lord will find him. He's
mine. He's mine. Our Lord will find
him. He didn't find him down there
on the Damascus Road. He found him. He stopped him.
He said, Saul, why have you persecuted me? Well, who are you, Lord?
I'm Jesus of Nazareth. Well, Lord, what will you have
me do? You go to a certain place and I'll send word what you ought
to do." He found his sheep. And then there's a Zacchaeus,
all wrapped up in politics. He was a tax collector. Everybody
hated him. The folks he collected taxes from and the folks he collected
taxes for, I expect he hated himself pretty much, too. He
was no good. But he won our Lord's sheep,
and our Lord found him up a tree one day. And he called him down,
and he said, Zacchaeus, today salvation has come to your house,
for he also, he also is the son of Abraham. And then there is
a harlot out there on the street, our Lord found her, she is his
sheep. And there is Mary Magdalene, filled with seven devils, but
one of his sheep. And there is a Philippian jailer,
and there is a seller of purple called Lydia, and there is an
Onesimus, there is a runaway slave out there, running from
his master. and he's running to Rome to find refuge. Well,
he found a real refuge, because he ran right into the arms of
the Savior. He's one of his sheep. That's
right, he's one of his sheep. He said, They are my sheep, and
I have them, and I must bring them, and they shall hear my
voice, and they shall be one foe. In 1 Thessalonians 1 verse
4, Paul talking to the church at Thessalonica, he said, I know
your God's Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God."
How do you know that, Paul? Well, I know it because our gospel
came not to you in word only, but it came in power, in the
power of the Holy Spirit and in much assurance. Now, let me
illustrate our Lord's teaching with a true story. Our Lord says
in John 10, I've got a people, they're my sheep, and I lay down
my life for my sheep. and other sheep I have which
I chunder, they are not of this fold. I must bring them, and
they are going to hear my voice, and they are going to follow
me, because I know them and I love them, and I came to save them."
In John 4, one day our Lord, with his disciples, was going
from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he went through Samaria and sat
down on a well. He told his disciples to go into
town and get something to eat, and left him there alone. high
noon, twelve o'clock, a woman came to that well. Now that wasn't
the time to draw water, but this woman was quite notorious. She was well known in the town
of Samaria. She was a very sinful woman,
and she came to draw water at that time of day to keep from
eating anybody. Other women wouldn't be at the well. They came in
early sunrise or sunset, in the cool of the day, not in the heat
of that oriental summer. But she came at noon, and there
she met Satan. And our Lord looked at her, and
he said, Give me a drink. And she said, What are you, a
Jew, doing asking me, a Samaritan, for water? Don't you know that
Jews don't have anything to do with the Samaritans? And he said,
Woman, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that saith
to thee, Give me the drink, you'd ask of me, and I'd give you living
water, I'd give you living water. She said, You don't have anything
to draw with. Are you greater than our father Jacob? He said,
You drink water from this well, you'll thirst again. You drink
the water I'll give you, you'll never thirst." He said, Lord,
give me some of that water. And he said, Go call your husband.
She said, I don't have a husband. He said, Well, you've well spoken.
You've had five husbands, and the man you're living with now
is not your husband. And you've well said, you have no husband.
She said, I perceive you're a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this
mountain, and you Jews say you're supposed to worship in Jerusalem.
He said, Woman, you know not what you worship. you worshiping
in ignorance. The time will come when you will
neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship God. God
is a spirit, and they that worship him, worship him in spirit and
in truth. For God seeketh such to worship
him. And he said to her, she said,
Well, I know this, I know when the Messiah comes he will tell
us everything that we need to know, he will make everything
clear to us, he will straighten out this mess. And our Lord said,
I that speak to thee am he." One of his sheep. Four things are clear to me in
this story, and this story, I believe, is given to reveal to us how
God deals with his sheep. There are four things I want
to give them so that you remember them. First of all, we know this
woman was one of his sheep, and he was seeking her out. First,
he crossed her path. And then secondly, he created
an interest. And then thirdly, he presented
a problem. And then fourthly, he presented the remedy. First
of all, he crossed her path. Look at verse 4, it says, He
must, must, needs go through Samaria. In our text today, I
read, Other sheep I have, them I must bring, and they shall
hear my voice. And right here in the 1st of
John 4, it says he must needs go through Samaria. Why? Because
one of his sheep's down there. One of his sheep's down there.
He's going down there to find them. and reveal himself to her,
to cross her path, that she might have a personal encounter with
the Redeemer. That's what Paul says in Romans
10, verse 13. He says, Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord, call out of a sinful heart, call out
of a needy heart, call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
shall be saved. But how are they going to call
on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they going
to believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how are they
going to hear without a preacher? How is this woman going to call
upon a Savior she doesn't know? his sheep got to hear his voice. And they've got to encounter
him in order to hear his voice. Our Lord met this woman at the
well and revealed himself to her, as he will meet you and
reveal himself to you if you want to hear sheep. You can't
trust an unrevealed Savior. You've got to hear of him. That's
the reason we preach. God has chosen by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. In Ethiopian Munich,
God sent Philip down there to preach the gospel to us. the
Philippian jailer. God put Paul in jail to preach
the gospel to his sheep down there who was the jailer. Lydia,
down by the riverside, God sent Paul down there by the riverside
to preach the gospel to her. In Acts 18, verse 10, Paul was
down there in Corinth, and they were giving him a hard time.
He thought they were going to kill him. He was making arrangements
to leave town. And the Lord came to him that
night and said, Paul, Acts 18, 10, they're not going to hurt
you, and you stay right there and Read this carefully, Acts
18.10.11, for I have much people in this city. You stay right
there, you are my ambassador, we are ambassadors of Christ,
as God did beseech you, we beseech you in Christ's stead, as though
Christ himself was preaching to you. As that woman stood there
by the well and the Master revealed to her the grace of God, that's
exactly what true preachers are doing, true ministers of Christ.
study to do this, and you've got to preach with sincerity,
and you've got to preach the whole counsel of God, you've
got to keep back nothing profitable to his sheep, you've got to tell
them the truth. You can't just stand and say, come down to the
isle, believe, make a decision, join my church and give us a
little money to keep on keeping on and sing a few songs. You've
got to instruct them. They've got to know who he is
and where he came from and what he did and why he did it and
where he is now. They've got to know the word of God. Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And Paul
said, I endure all things for the elect's sake. So Christ has
got to cross your path. And that's what he did with this
woman. He crossed her path. Secondly, he created an interest.
He said, Woman, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that's
talking to you, you'd ask of me and I'd give you living water.
Now, he didn't talk to her about religion. She had that. He stands
here arguing with him about him being a Jew and her being a Samaritan.
That sounds like a Baptist and a Methodist arguing, doesn't
it? You're a Methodist and I'm a Baptist, or you're a Presbyterian and
I'm a Church of Christ or Church of God or interdenominational
or something like that. That's what that sounds like.
Well, the Lord didn't talk to her about tradition. She had
that. She said, Our Father, Jacob. She was bragging about Jacob.
She didn't know Jacob, God, but she was bragging about being
kin to Jacob. And we brag about our ancestors, Martin Luther
and John Calvin and Zwingli and Huss and John Owen. We don't
know their God, but we sure can pass their names around. And
our Lord didn't talk to her about form. She had all that. She worshiped
in the mountains. I worship God in nature. I worship
God at the cathedral. I worship God here or there.
He said, You don't know what you worship. He talked to this
woman about the gift of God. What is the gift of God? The
gift of God is eternal life. It's not religion, it's not form,
it's not doctrine, it's not tradition, it's eternal life. It's divine
life, it's the life of God in the soul, it's living water.
It's a well of living water. Christ said, He that cometh to
me out of his belly, not just keep flowing in him like the
old dead sea, but out of his belly shall flow the rivers of
living water, the joy of God and the love of God and the peace
of God, and walking with God and talking with God. Living
water. She said, I'll take him. I'll
take that gift of God eternal life, I'll take that living water.
Wait a minute, forward. He posed a problem. He said,
go call your husband. Uh-oh, uh-oh. She said, I don't
have a husband. And our Lord said, that's one
of your big problems. You've had half a dozen of them,
and the man you're living with now is not your husband. This
is a problem faced by every one of God's sheep who encounter
the Savior. When they meet him, when they
meet him, they also meet his law. They meet his law. When they meet him, they meet
his law, and they realize all its sin and come short of God's
glory. They realize that all we like sheep have gone astray,
we've turned everyone to his own way. They realize to offend
in one point of the law is to be guilty of the whole law. We
want eternal life, but we can't buy it, we've got nothing to
buy it with. We can't earn it, we can't deserve it. No way in
this world. We can't walk with God because
we're such great sinners. God won't accept us in our character
because it's so rotten. What are we going to do? What
are we going to do? And this woman was, I know, downcast. The Lord kept talking to her
about eternal life and the living water, and she said, Give it
to me. And he said, Call your husband. And that ruined it right
there. That ruined it. And finally she
said, Well, I know this. I know that when the Messiah
comes, he'll straighten this thing out. He'll tell us everything
that we need to know. He'll tell us how our sins can
be forgiven. He'll make it all clear to us.
The Messiah will come, that we might have life and have it more
abundantly. And bless your heart, that's when Christ said, And
he, and he. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, will put away that sin that separated you and your I don't
care how deep into the pit of sin you've gone, our Lord is
able to lift you. He's able to save to the uttermost
them that come to God by him. He says, though your sins be
as scarlet, I'll make them white as snow. I'll tell you why he
presented this problem and why he poses the problem to you,
and I'll tell you why every time you encounter the Savior, you
encounter your sins. You know why? God's going to
show you. that eternal life is not something that you merit
or you earn, it's something he gives by his grace through the
blood of his Son, and Christ is going to get all the glory.
He's going to get all the glory. There are seven compound names
for Jehovah in the Old Testament. Our Lord Jehovah, that's Savior,
Savior God. He's called Jehovah-Jahweh, the
Lord will provide, and Christ is our provision. He's called
Jehovah-Rapha, I'm the Lord that healeth thee. and our Lord healeth
all our diseases, by his stripes we are healed. He is called Jehovah
Nisa, the Lord our victor, and thanks be to God who always causes
us to triumph in Christ. He is called Jehovah Shalem,
the Lord our peace, therefore being justified by faith we have
peace with God in our Lord Jesus Christ. He is called Jehovah
Rea, the Lord our shepherd. He said, I am the good shepherd,
I give my life for the He's called Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our
righteousness. He is our righteousness. He's
called the Lord Shema, that is, the Lord is present. And he said,
Lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the earth. When
you come and cross his path, he creates an interest in life
and living water, and your sins face you, and you can't get around
them. Look for Calvary. There's the
Messiah, there's the Savior, there's the Redeemer. If you
want this message on tape recording, cassette tape, you write to me.
There will be a small charge. The address will be given to
you at the close of the program. Until next week, God bless you,
everyone.

On the Trail of His Sheep

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On the Trail of His Sheep

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