On The Trail of His Sheep

Now, I'd like for you to turn
to the tenth chapter of John. Just lay your Bibles there in
your lap and ask God, the Holy Spirit,
to give us a message tonight. Now, I realize that what I'm
going to preach tonight and what I preached this morning is in direct conflict on a collision
course with 90% of today's religion. And that's not an enviable position
to be in. What I'm preaching tonight is
opposed to all that the natural man and that the religious person
believes. It contradicts what the average
person believes about God It contradicts what the average
person believes about man. It contradicts what the average
person believes about salvation. It will absolutely destroy what
we call modern soul winning. But I personally in my heart
am fully persuaded beyond a shadow of a doubt that what I'm going
to preach to you tonight is in keeping with the character of
God as it is revealed in the Scripture, that it's in keeping
with the character of our Lord as He revealed Himself on this
earth and in the Scriptures, that what I'm going to preach
tonight is in keeping with what the Bible teaches about redemption,
regeneration, salvation, the atonement, that it is God's Word. I believe that I can sincerely,
honestly say to the people who make up my audience and congregation that while I delight in your
fellowship and in your friendship, I love you. I think I've convinced
many of you of that. If I haven't, I'd like to be
able to. But I do not conduct my ministry to keep your friendship. And if I have to preach what
I do not believe, if I have to proclaim from this pulpit what
God has not shown me to keep your friendship, I say it affectionately, I don't want your friendships.
That's the way I feel about it. In the pulpit, I am the God's
servant, and I feel that so strongly. that when I'm here preaching,
as much as I love my wife, she is not my wife when I'm in this
pulpit. My sons, my daughter, my son-in-law,
my grandchildren, my friends, we preach as those who must give
an account. And if the elders of this church
do not like my preaching, it matters little to me, honestly,
very little. If the deacons of this church
do not like what I preach, I could care less, honestly. If they
dislike me, that bothers me. But what I preach, honestly,
and if you visiting here tonight, you don't like the message from
this Word, I love you, I'd like to see you come to know Christ,
but not at the expense of the gospel. And that's how emphatic
I am about it. I'm not trying to build anything.
And I think any preacher, that any man who stands in the pulpit, who has as his object, as his
goal, anything, anything in this world, I care not if it be fellowship,
friendship, money, position, recognition, fame, the glad hand,
I don't care what it is, the approval of his family, If he's
got anything in his mind, then telling the people what God says,
he'd be better off doing something else. That's so. We don't want
to be hard. We want to be tender. And we
want to love people as Christ loved them. But you don't love
a man by lying to him, compromising the gospel. That's not love.
That's deception. So here go. If it's offensive,
so be it. If it's contrary to what you
believe, so be it. But it's God's Word. Our Lord
Jesus has an elect people whom he calls his sheep. Now that's
so, that's taught throughout this Bible. He has an elect people. And don't be troubled about words,
especially when they're in the Scripture. He has an elect people
called his sheep. He says here, look at verse 14,
I'm the good shepherd, I know my sheep. I know my sheep. He said in verse 16, other sheep
I have which are not of this foal, them I must bring. I have
them, they're mine. Our Lord has some sheep. He's
not looking for people, He has a people. That's what he's saying.
He's not looking for people. He's not out here beating the
bushes with evangelistic meetings and revival meetings and protracted
meetings and missionaries beating the bushes, hunting the people.
He's got a people. Our Lord is not out calling for
a people. He's calling out a people. They're
His. They belong to Him. Our Lord's
not looking for volunteers for the kingdom. No, sir. Our Lord
is not trying to persuade sheep to join His foe. He's finding
His lost sheep. Now that's so. Where did He get these sheep?
Well, He tells us here in this 10th chapter of John, verse 29,
My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all, and no man
is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand. The Father
gave Him these sheep. Now here, He got them from the
Father. the Father gave them to him.
If you'll turn to John 17 with me and look at verse 2. Now here
is the prayer of our Lord for his people. Here's what we call
the Lord's Prayer. Here is the holy ground of Scripture. Here is the Savior, the Redeemer,
praying for his people. And six times in this one prayer,
He refers to them as those whom thou hast given me. In verse
2 he said, as thou hast given him, talking about himself, power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. He says in verse 6, I have manifested
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world, thine
they were, thou gavest them me. Verse 9, I pray for them, I pray
not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me. Verse
11, And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world.
I come to thee, Holy Father, keep through thine own name those
whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. Verse
12, While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy
name. Those that thou gavest me, I kept, and none of them
is lost but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled."
That's Judas. Verse 24, "...Father, I will
that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am,
that they may behold my glory." Where did he get them? The Father
gave them to him. And in John 6, if you'll turn
back there with me just a moment, looking at verse 39, Verse 37,
in John 6, he said, "...all that the Father giveth me shall come
to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will
of him that sent me, and this is the Father's will which hath
sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing,
but raise it up again at the last day." Now, your mama don't
believe that, and your daddy don't believe that, and your
brother don't believe that, and your sister don't believe that, and
your preacher friend don't believe that, and the folks you work
with don't believe that, and very few people do believe that,
but that's God's Word, whether they believe it or not. As I
said, I realize that 90% of today's religion is opposed to what I'm
teaching, but it's so. It's what God said. Are we going
to go by his Word, or are we going to follow tradition blindly,
madly? Just believe what's been handed
down. It's in keeping with the character of God who's sovereign.
He has a people. Our God does everything according
to purpose, according to plan. And salvation is His greatest
work. Shall our Lord follow a definite
plan through creation and a definite plan through providence and then
turn the reins of salvation over to anybody? Jesus knew from the beginning
who would believe and who would not. Whom he foreknew, he predestinated. Whom he predestinated, he called.
Whom he called, he justified. Whom he justified, he glorified.
What shall we say to these things? Well, there's a whole lot of
folks got a whole lot to say about it. They gnash their teeth. They grit their teeth. They spit.
They sputter. They fume. They hate it. And these folks here hated it
too, for he said in verse 30, I and my father won, and they
took up stones to stone him. And in Luke chapter 4, when he
went down to Nazareth, there was that religious crowd gathered
before him, and he told them how that there were many lepers
in Israel in the days of Elijah, but God healed none of them but
a Gentile, a Syrian by the name of Naaman. In the days of Elijah
in Israel, there were many leper widows, but God fed none of them
but a Gentile. And they rose up in anger and
took him to the brow of the hill and would have cast him off.
Why? He said salvation was of the Lord. That's what he was
teaching. So I know that. Our Lord has a people. He has
an elect people somewhere. all over this world, in every
tribe, kindred, nation, tongue, people unto heaven. He's got
a people. His sheep. The Father gave them to Him.
I don't know who they are, but I know He's got them. The second
thing I know is this. Our Lord redeemed those sheep.
In John 10, verse 11, look at verse 11, I'm the good shepherd,
the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Look at verse 15. As the Father
knoweth me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down my life
for the sheep." Our Lord's death, just like his
life and just like his mediatorial work, is not an offering. It's an atonement. Our Lord's death Our Lord's obedience,
our Lord's righteousness, our Lord's representation, our Lord's
intercession, our Lord's sacrifice was not an effort. It was an
atonement. It was a redemption which he
accomplished, which he fulfilled, which he effectually worked out.
By his strife, we are healed. That's what Scripture says. The
blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us, cleanseth
us from all sin. I'll be perfectly frank with
you. If I didn't even believe in the doctrine of election,
if I didn't even believe in the doctrine of what we call invincible
grace, if I did not believe in the doctrine of effectual calling,
if I did not believe in those doctrines, I'd still have to
rest in, believe in, and preach what we call particular redemption. Our Lord did not die for people
who inhaled. You can't in any shape, form,
or fashion or way convince me that his blood was shed in vain.
You cannot in any way, shape, form, or fashion convince me
that Almighty God's justice is satisfied in the death of
his son, and he turns around and sends a man to hell for whom
Christ died? I don't believe that. The Word of God teaches me that
the blood of Christ cleanses, cleanses, ultimately, effectually,
totally, completely cleanses. Nothing can be taken from it,
nothing needs to be added to it, it's an effectual work. By his stripes he was wounded
for my transgression, and therefore I won't be wounded. He was bruised
for my iniquity, therefore I won't be bruised. The chastisement
of my peace was laid upon him, and therefore it will not be
laid upon me. And that's the only reason why
it won't, because he bore it all. I don't believe he bore
part of it, some of it, a little of it. He paid the full price. And payment God's justice cannot
twice demand, first at my bleeding surety's hand and then again
at mine. Even man's justice won't let
a man pay twice for the same crime. I know God's justice is
more holy than man's justice. Turn to John 13. Let me show
you. Christ said the same thing in John chapter 13 when he was
washing the disciples' feet. He said in verse 10, Jesus said
to him, he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but
he's clean everywhere. And you're clean, you're clean,
but not all of you. Now hold, don't look at the next
verse. You know what he means by that? You're clean, but not all
of you. We'll read the next verse and
see. He knew who would betray him, therefore he said, you're
not all clean. Judas is not clean. This washing of the disciples'
feet, we're such children, we're such babies, we get a hold of
things and we play with them, we make it a church ordinance,
and we sit around and wash each other's feet, and we lose the
whole significance. Of course it's to show humility,
but Christ's showing them a whole lot more now. The things I do
now, he said, you don't understand, but you will someday. Well, they
understood humility, they could see that he was the master. Peter
said, you the master? Wash my feet? Uh-uh. They saw
that, but he's talking about something else. When he died
on that cross, we were cleansed, we were redeemed, our sins were
washed and put away. We need daily his intercession
because walking through this world, we get our feet dirty.
A man can go in and take a bath, a shower, he's totally clean.
But if he wore sandals and walked out on a dusty road, what's he
going to have to do? He leaves home, he's going down
to your house, going right over to see you. And he washes, takes
a shower, and he comes over to your house, what's the first
thing you do when you open the door? You wash his feet, because he's got
them dirty coming over there. But he doesn't need to take another
shower, he's clean! But his feet need to be washed.
And that's what Christ is saying to the disciples here. You walk
through this world, you need daily mediatorial work, a daily
intercession, you need Christ daily to atone for, you need
daily confession and daily forgiveness, but you don't need but one sacrifice. You don't need but one Calvary
shower. And he said, all of you are clean,
not all of you. One of you is not. Look at verse
17. He said, if you know these things, happy are you, John 13,
17, if you do them. I speak not of you all. I know
whom I have chosen. But that the scripture might
be fulfilled, he that is bred hath lifted up his heel against
me. Our Lord redeemed his people. He redeemed them. The third thing. Our Lord will bring those sheep
to himself. He said in verse 16 of John 10,
look at our text again, he says, the Father gave me some sheep,
I know them, I lay down my life for them, look at verse 16, and
other sheep I have which are not of this foal, them also I
must, I must bring. They shall, look at it, they
shall hear my voice, and they shall be one foal. What's he
saying? Out yonder in this world, in
every nation, tribe, under heaven, our Lord has a people. I like to think that he's got
a people here in Ashland, tri-state area. They were given him by
the Father. The gospel is preached in the
power of the Holy Spirit, and these sheep are going to hear
it. They're going to hear it. They're going to hear it, and
Christ said they're going to believe it. And he says they're
going to bow to me as their shepherd and their Lord, and they're going
to follow me. Those sheep are going to hear my voice, whether
it's preached on the television or whether it's preached on the
radio or whether it's preached by listening to a tape. I had
a man write me from up in West Virginia. He said, every Sunday
morning, I sat at home and I listened to a certain preacher. And he
said, one Sunday morning, at 11 o'clock, I got ready to listen
to my preacher, and lo and behold, you came on. I had it on the
wrong channel. Now, you think he had that on
the wrong channel by accident? It was an accident to him, but
what an accident and glory. And he said, you started preaching.
I went up there to change the channel, you know, to get my
favorite preacher. And he said, I started to change the channel,
and you said something. And I backed off. And he said, I backed off
and I sat down. And he said, I started listening.
And I heard the gospel. I heard the gospel for the first
time. You think that's an accident?
I don't. I think that's one of God's sheep. One of God's sheep. Out yonder, out there, he's got
a people. And he said, my sheep will hear
my voice. Look back here, he says, they
will not, verse 5, and a stranger they will not follow. They'll
flee from him. They know. They know not the
voice of a stranger. They know my voice. And they're
going to hear it. Our Lord said in Matthew 16,
the disciples, He said, Whom do you say that I am? Who am
I? And Peter said, Thou art the Christ. We know who you are.
You're the Anointed. You're the Christ. You're the
Redeemer. You're the Messiah. You're the Son of God. He said,
Peter, flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, but my Father
which is in heaven. Blessed are your eyes, they see,
and your ears, they hear. Oh, blessed are your eyes. And
Paul said over here in 1 Thessalonians 1, this is one of my favorite
passages of Scripture. I guess I'll quote it or read
it. more often than any other. But Paul's talking about this
congregation to whom he was preaching. He said, Brethren, I know, brethren,
beloved, your election of God. I know you want to God's sheep.
Because, he said, our gospel didn't come to you in word only,
but it came to you in power. It came to you in the Holy Ghost.
It came to you in assurance. Out yonder is Zacchaeus. Our
Lord said of him, he also is a son of Abraham. And Zacchaeus,
he's going to meet the Savior. Christ said he is. He said, I've
got a sheep. My father gave them to me. I
lay down my life for them. I'm going to bring them. They
shall hear my voice. Now John does a Saul of Tarsus,
deep in religion. Zacchaeus, he wasn't in religion,
he was in politics. He was a tax collector. But he
won our Lord's sheep, and our Lord found him. Out yonder is
Saul of Tarsus. He's a big wig in the church.
He was religious. He was bound by all the customs
and traditions of his forefathers. He was astute of the Scriptures.
He didn't know Christ, but Christ knew him. And one day our Lord
found him. Out there is a jailer. Out yonder
is a lady, a seller of purple. Out yonder's an Ethiopian eunuch,
out yonder's an Onesimus, running from his master, running to his
master where he was going, running into the arms of Christ. They
shall hear my voice. They shall follow me. They shall
be one fold. They shall never perish. Let
me illustrate this. Let's turn to John 4. In John
chapter 4, this is a beautiful picture. I want to show you four
things. I'll let you go. But our Lord Jesus Christ left
Judea, verse 3, John 4, and departed again into Galilee. He must need
to go through some area. Now watch this. Let me tell you
the story. We won't read it all. But he came to Jacob's well. His disciples were with him.
He sat down on the well. Middle of the day, noon. He said,
you go into town and get something to eat. And they left him sitting
there alone. After a while, a woman came walking
up, a woman of Samaria. Women didn't draw water at noon.
They drew water in the early morning or late evening. Too
hot to draw water at noon. This woman was embarrassed to
come at noon because she was a notorious, sinful woman. Everybody knew her. She didn't
want to face the other women. They liked to yak about her,
you know. So she came by herself. Nobody was there but the master.
And she came and he said, give me a drink. Well, she said, you're
a Jew and I'm a Samaritan. Jews don't have anything to do
with Samaritans. But he said, if you knew the gift of God,
who it is that's talking to you, you'd ask me and I'd give you
living water and you'd never thirst again. She said, you're
greater than our father Jacob who dug this well. You don't
have anything to draw with. He said, the water that I shall
give you is living water. She said, give me that water.
He said, go call your husband. Well, she said, I don't have
a husband. He said, you have well said you don't have a husband.
You've had five, and the man you're living with now is not
your husband. In that you spoke the truth. She said, I perceive
you're a prophet. She said, our fathers worshiped
in this mountain. You Jews say that Jerusalem's
the place to worship. Our Lord said, the day's coming.
He said, You worship, but you're ignorant. You don't know who
you worship. The day is coming when you shall neither in this
mountain nor in Jerusalem worship God. God's a spirit, and they
that worship Him worship Him in spirit and in truth. Well,
she said, I'll tell you, one of these days the Messiah is
coming, and when He comes, He's going to tell us all we need
to know. And our Lord looked at her and
He said, I'm He. I'm He. I have four things that
I see in this story. She's one of His sheep. She is
one of His sheep. And the first thing that has
to happen, our Lord said, I've got a sheep. My Father gave them
to me. And I came down here and laid
down my life for my sheep. And they will hear my voice,
and they will follow me, and they will be one fold, and I
will bring them. And they shall never perish,
and no man can pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave
them is greater than all, and no man is going to pluck them
out of his hand either." Alright, the first thing, if she's one
of his sheep, the first thing, he crossed her path. He crossed
her path. In verse 4 it says, "...he must,
needs go through Samaria." He must. He must. Why must he? Because he's got
to encounter one of his sheep. In order for his sheep to hear
his voice, he's got to speak. In order for his sheep to believe
on him, he's got to reveal himself. In order for his sheep to follow
him, he's got to make known himself. Paul said, "...whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." But how are
they going to call on him in whom they've not believed? And
how are they going to believe in Him of whom they've not heard?
And how are they going to hear unless God speaks to them by
preaching? See what I'm saying? Oh, you can get the fools of
this world who say, well, if you believe in election, you're
going to believe man's going to be saved whether he ever hears
the gospel or not. There's one thing a dishonest
man will always do when he wants to argue. He'll build a straw
man and beat the daylights out of it. He'll lie on his opponent. He'll make him say what he's
not saying. An honest man will let him say what he's saying. I'm saying that no man can call
on Christ if he hasn't believed on Him. No man can believe on
Christ if he hasn't heard of Him. No man can hear of Christ
until he speaks. See what I'm saying? Christ said,
My sheep hear My voice. His voice has got to be heard.
Paul is one of His sheep, isn't he? Christ met him on the road
to Damascus. and spoke to him. He said, Who
are you? I'm Jesus of Nazareth. Lord,
what will you have me do? The master met the sheep, and
the sheep heard his voice. Bartimaeus met him on the road
to Jericho. Lydia met him down by the river.
The jailer met him in prison. And I'm saying this to you, if
you're one of his sheep, If your mama or daddy is one of his sheep,
if your brother is one of his sheep, if your neighbor is one
of his sheep, somewhere, sometime, he's going to cross your path.
He must. He must. In truth, in the gospel, turn
to Acts 18, verse 10. It has to be that woman, that
sinful woman is his sheep. And sin doesn't bar you from
Christ, self-righteousness does. He died for sinners. He's the
friend of sinners. He came to seek and to save sinners,
the lost. Acts 18, Paul. Oh, he's having
a time. They were searching the houses
trying to kill him and the Lord in Acts 18, verse 9. Acts 18, 9. Then spake the Lord
to Paul in the night by vision and said, Paul, don't be afraid.
Speak. Hold not your peace. I'm with you. And no man shall
set on you to hurt you. I've got much people in this
city. I've got some people. Paul, you've got to speak. You've
got to speak. Speak. Preach. We are ambassadors
for Christ as God did by us, as God did beseech you by us.
You see what I'm saying? The sheep will hear him speak
through his messenger, through his minister. Turn to 2 Timothy
2, verse 10. 2 Timothy 2, 10. And that's the church at Corinth.
Paul stayed down there another year and a half. Boy, it looked
like he wasn't going to make it through that first week. They
were trying to kill him. And God said, you just stay there.
I've got some people in this city. And you're going to have
to preach to them. They're going to have to encounter
Christ, encounter the gospel, encounter the message. In order
for them to believe it, they've got to hear it. In order for
them to follow it, they've got to hear it. 2 Timothy 2, verse
10. Listen to this. In verse 9, he
said, I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even into bonds. He
can put me in jail, but the Word of God is not in jail. Therefore
I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain
the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. I've got to preach, he said,
because that's the only way they're going to hear. We preach the
gospel for a threefold purpose. Number one, for the glory of
God. Whether the Lord's pleased to call out anybody where we
preach, we preach for His glory. Because really, we're the saver
of life unto life and death unto death. Secondly, we preach the
gospel that the redeemed might be edified and strengthened.
There's nothing they love more than to hear the gospel. And
then thirdly, we preach the gospel that the Holy Spirit might call
out our Lord's sheep. All right? Now John 4, let's
go back there briefly again. He crossed her path. This is
one of his sheep, and he's got to speak to her. He's got to
cross her path, and he did. Secondly, he created an interest.
He talked to her in verse 10 about two things. He said, if
you knew the gift of God, you'd ask of me and I'd give you living
water. The gift of God and living water. Preachers today are trying to
interest people in one of two things, either getting out of
hell or getting into heaven. And our Lord didn't. He met his
sheep. He crossed her path. And he didn't talk to her about
religion. She had religion. She had religion. When she told him, said, why,
you're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan. Our father Jacob built this world,
this well. We worship here, you worship
there. He didn't talk to her about religion. She had that.
What did he talk to her about? Life. Eternal life. That's the gift of God. The gift
of God is what? Eternal life. The wages of sin
is death. The gift of God is eternal life.
This is the record God had given us, eternal life. Christ is talking
to this woman about life. He wasn't talking to her about
tradition. She had that. She said, our father Jacob built
this well. We go way back to Jacob, Israel. He didn't talk to her about form,
she had that. She said, we worship on this
mountain, we worship this day, you worship that day, we worship
this place, you worship that place, we worship this time,
you worship that time, we worship kneeling, you worship standing.
She had all that. But he talked to her about life,
about living water. Living water. He talked to her
about the presence of God. Our Lord stood one day and said,
If any man thirst, let him come to me, and out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. God dwelling in here. God living
in here. The presence of the living God
within the heart. Now, you know, turn to Jeremiah
2. Let me show you scripture here. In Jeremiah 2, here's our
problem. He said in Jeremiah 2, verse
13, my people have committed two evils. Number one, they have
forsaken me, the fountain of living water. He's our peace. He's our joy. He's our life. He's the source of all good.
And they have hewed out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold
no water. Religious people today have form
and orthodoxy, ceremonialism, legalism, ritualism, all kind
of isms. Our Lord's talking to this sheep
of his about two things, life and living water. The life of
God, the divine life of God, and that living water that comes
in here when Christ comes, that joy and peace that comes with
Christ. He is our joy. He is our peace. It's not just our names on a
church row. It's not just adopting a doctrine
and fundamentalism or orthodoxy. It's not just going to the right
church and practicing the right ordinances. It's not just believing
the right doctrines. It's walking with a living Lord. The joy of Christ, the life of
Christ, the peace of Christ, the knowledge of Christ, the
presence of Christ, that's living water. Well, John 4, she said, I'll
take some of that. I'll sure be much obliged if
you'll give me that. That led to the third thing.
And this happens with every one of his sheep. Every one of them,
I don't care where he finds them, he might find them in religion,
politics, business, sports, wherever he finds them, he's got to cross
their path with the true gospel, with Christ. Christ, they've
got to encounter Christ, and Christ is the gospel, right?
And then secondly, he creates an interest. They hear something
they never heard before. It ceases to be a heaven-hell proposition,
it ceases to be a do-and-don't proposition, it ceases to be
legalism and ritualism and dead orthodox and ceremonialism, and
there's an interest created in here, I want to know more than
just doctrine. I want to know Him, whom to know
is life eternal. I want Christ to live in my heart.
I want more than just going down to the church on Sunday and walking
right, living right, talking right, looking right. I want
Christ in here, His love and His joy and His peace, that living
water. That's an interest. All right? He posed a problem,
number three, and this problem always comes up. And that's the
problem of sin. He said, go call your husband.
Uh-oh. Uh-oh. All of her sins, when
he said that, all of her sins, past, present, and future, her
sinful nature, her sinful thoughts, her sinful attitude, her sinful
motives, all of them came up right here in front of her. There
was that living water. Man, I'd sure love to have that. Boom. We want eternal life, don't
we? We want the life of God in our
hearts. We want God to accept us and love us and walk with
us. Boom, sin. What I am, what I've done, what
I've said, what I know I will do, boom, sin. God cannot receive
us in our sins. Who shall stand in his presence?
He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. God must deal with
sin. God must punish sin. God is just. And that brings us to the question,
well, Lord, how can I, being what I am, have that gift? How can I? And this is going
to happen, and this is the thing about every true sheep of Christ. You're not going to pacify him
by saying, just walk the aisle. You're not going to reach his
heart by saying, just shake my hand. You're not going to read
him a few verses of scripture you memorized in a soul-winning
course and say to him, now you believe that, you believe that,
you believe that? Yes, well, you're saved. I don't know about that.
Well, you don't see in here. Yeah, but look at here. Yeah,
but look at here. And you don't see that record. I do. You don't
see that past. I do. What am I going to do about
that? Well, that don't matter about that. Yes, it does matter
about that. Yes, it does. You're not going
to satisfy one of God's sheep that way. He, like Job, is going
to be sitting around saying, well, how can God be just and
justify folks like me? That's what he wants answered
there. He's going to be saying, well, the sun, the moon, the
stars are not clean into his sight. How can I be clean? How
can God walk with me? I'm not talking about signing
an insurance agreement. I'm not talking about signing
a security form. I'm talking about God living
in me. How can that be, being what I
am? Is there any way that he can
be just and justify me? Is there any way that I can have
this living water being who I am and what I am? Is there anyone
who can bring me to God? All right, then next our Lord
presented a remedy. Finally the woman said, Well,
I know this. I know this. I know I'm a sinner. You're right. You're a prophet.
You told me all that I've ever done. You're right. And I know
I'm hopeless and helpless. I know I'm out in the cold. I
know my sins have separated me from God. But when the Messiah
comes, oh, that'll be the day. God's going to send a Messiah.
God's going to send a Christ. God's going to send a ransom.
God's going to send a Redeemer. God's going to send one who will
reconcile us to him. God's gonna send one to take
my place and bear my guilt and bear my shame and God's gonna
send one to give me a righteousness that I need. God's gonna send
one. He looked at him and he said, I'm he. I'm he. I that speak to thee am he. There's your remedy. I am Jehovah. Savior. Savior God. This name, Jehovah,
is always used in relation to his redemptive work. And this
is what makes the gospel good news. You see, when God lets
one of the sheep hear me preach, or one of his own servants preach,
I'm not talking about these little silly, sentimental, emotional,
religious sermons. Do good and God will bless you.
Give you tithe and God will prosper you. Drive a bargain with God Almighty.
I go forth and one of his sheep would cross his path. He started
talking about God in the life, and God in the heart, and living
water, and walking with the King, and perseverance, and security,
and the sheepfold, and the pleasures. joys and the grace and he said
boy I'd like to have that but I'm such a wretch I'm such a
miserable vile creature in the flesh I can't please God when
I would do good evils present with me a wretched man that I
am I know all that but praise God his servant can give him
a remedy and tell him the good news and it's not pressed down
the aisle and shake the preacher's hand and do this and do that
it's Christ has come Christ has come Now there's seven, I want
you to jot these scriptures down, I don't have time to turn to
all of them, read all of them, but there's seven compound names
of Jehovah God in the Old Testament. The first one is Jehovah Jireh.
Genesis 22, 13, 14, you look it up later. Jehovah Jireh. Jehovah. He said over there, I am Jehovah,
that is my name. Moses said, whom shall I say
has sent me? Tell them I am! I am Jehovah. I am what I've always been. I'm
now what I've always been. I'll always be what I've always
been. I am! Not I was or I shall be. I am
Jehovah. And he said to Abraham in Genesis
22, 13, 14, the Lord will provide himself a sacrifice, and he called
that place Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will provide. And Christ
is that provision. He said in John 10, I lay down
my life for the sheep and the stead of the sheep. In Exodus
15, 26, the name of Jehovah is Jehovah-Rapha. Exodus 15, 26. They stopped there at the rivers
of Mara, the bitter water. And God let Moses put that limb
in there and it turned sweet and he said, I am Jehovah-Rapha,
I am the Lord that healeth thee. Christ is our healer. by his
stripes we are healed. He bore our sins and our sorrows,
our sicknesses and our diseases, and we are healed. I'm healed. The third compound name of Jehovah
is found in Exodus 17, 8-15. Jehovah-nisa. Israel was fighting.
The Midianites, was it? And old Moses, God said, hold
your hands up, Moses. And when he'd hold up his hands,
the armies would be victorious. And his arms got so tight, he
dropped them, you know. And the other team started winning.
And he'd raise his hands up again. Finally, two fellas, one stood
on one side, one on the other. And they held his hands up. And
Israel, Israel was victorious. And they call that place Jehovah-Neesa. The Lord is our victory. The
Lord is our banner. Thanks be unto God who always
causes us to triumph in Christ. He's my victory. All right, the
fourth one is Judges 6.24, Jehovah's Shalom. Judges 6, 24, Jehovah Shalem,
S-H-A-L-O-M, the Lord our peace. He is our peace. Therefore being
justified by God, we have what? Peace through our Lord Jesus
Christ. The war is over between the sheep
and God. Christ made peace. Psalm 23. The Lord is my what? Shepherd. Jehovah-Raya. The Lord is my
shepherd. And Christ said that over and
over again in our text. I am the good shepherd. I'm the shepherd
of the sheep. Anybody else is a stranger, hire
them, but I'm the shepherd. They're mine. And then in Jeremiah
23.6, Jeremiah 23.6, the Lord is our what? Jehovah Sidkenu, T-S-I-D-K-N-E-U,
Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our righteousness. How can God do
business with me? Because I'm righteous, that's
how. Not in myself, but in Christ. God the Father looks upon me,
he looks upon me in his Son, who is our righteousness. that
I may be found in him, not having my own righteousness, but his."
And then the last one, over here in Ezekiel 48, it says, "...the
Lord is present." Ezekiel 48, 35. The Lord is present. That's Jehovah Shema, S-H-A-M-M-A-H. You'll find it in the marginal
reference in your Bible. The Lord is present. And our
Lord Jesus Christ said to them, Go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature, and lo, I'm with you always,
always, always, even to the end of the earth. Every one of his sheep, he's
going to cross their path. There's going to be an encounter.
To the sheep it may be accidental. He may go there. One man, I told
you about old, that missionary Williams, John Williams, George
Whitefield was preaching one night. And Williams came in to
see what time it was. They didn't have many clocks
in that community back in 1700. He came in to hear George, I
mean to see what time it was. And he's looking at the clock
and George Whitefield's preaching. He turned around and started
listening to Whitefield and God smote him. brought him to the
Savior, and made him one of the greatest missionaries that ever
preached. One man came to hear Whitefield one time with his
pockets full of rocks. He was going to rock the old
man. They hated Whitefield, and he had his pockets full of rocks.
And he came sneaking through the crowd to get a little closer
so he could throw a rock at Whitefield. And he heard the gospel about
safety. God's going to find his sheep, and he's going to create
an interest. And you're not going to create
an interest by preaching what I have to listen to on television
and other places. That wouldn't interest a puppy
dog, as far as I'm concerned. But you go talking about life
and living water and a saving relationship with God and justification,
that's going to interest his sheep. And then they're going
to realize a problem. They're going to realize a fallen
Adam. They're going to realize a fallen nature. They're going
to grieve over their sins and mourn over their sins. And like
David said, my sins are ever before me. And they're going
to say, somebody's got to do for me what I can't do for myself.
And that's when the Lord Jesus is going to say, like he said
to that woman, she said, well, I'm nothing but when the Messiah
comes. He's going to say, I'm He. The preacher's not He, the
church is not He, even the law is not He, even the Bible's not
He. I'm He. I'm He. And that's when you become
a witness. That's when that woman skedaddled
downtown and said, you fellas come out here. I want you to
hear a man that told me everything I ever did. He's not just the
Messiah. That's a witness. You come hear
him. You come hear him. Our Father,
we thank Thee for Thy Word. taught us a little bit about
thy word. Oh, how hungry we are to know
more, but most of all to know more of him, to be taken out
of ourselves, self-confidence, self-reliance, self-dependence,
and to look to Christ. Show us what we are. Never let
us forget what we are, what we are by nature and by choice and
by practice. But, O Lord, for ever look at
ourselves, give us ten looks at Christ. Show us who he is. What a joy, what a comfort to
find our refuge in him, our hope in him. Find your sheep. Let
us be the instrument of your grace to find your sheep. For
your glory and praise, in Christ's name, amen.

On The Trail of His Sheep

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On The Trail of His Sheep

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