The love of God is greater far
than tongue or pen can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest star
and reaches to the lowest hell. No wandering child is reconciled. By God's beloved Son, The aching
soul again made whole, And priceless pardon won. When ancient time shall pass
away, And human thrones and kingdoms fall, When those who hear refuse
to pray, On rocks and hills and mountains call. God's love so
sure shall still endure, All measureless and strong. Grace will resound the whole
world round, the Satan angel song. Could we with ink the ocean
fill? And were the skies of parsley
clay? Were every stalk on earth a quill? And every one a scribe by trade? To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry, Nor could the scroll contain the
whole, Though stretched from sky to sky. O love of God, how rich and pure,
How measureless and strong, It shall forevermore endure, The
Satan angel song. If you will, let's turn in our
Bibles today to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. My text will be verses 27 and
28. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. I suppose that most everyone
knows that the Bible refers and pictures God's people as sheep,
refers to believers as sheep. Most all the world is familiar
with Psalm 23 where David began, the Lord is my shepherd. He pictures
himself as a sheep and the Lord as his shepherd. The Lord Jesus
himself in prophecy was spoken of under the symbol or emblem
of a sheep. In Isaiah 53 and verse 7, the
scripture says, he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and
as a sheep before her shears is dumb, so he opened not his
mouth. Now in this chapter, John chapter
10, the Lord Jesus is speaking and he tells us several things
about himself as a shepherd and about his people. as his sheep. It's interesting, and I would
remind us that when you read the Word of God, always, first
of all, pay attention to who's speaking. Secondly, to whom he
is speaking. And it's interesting, our text
this morning, once again, verse 27, my sheep hear my voice, and
I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand." Of course, we know immediately it is the Lord
Jesus Christ who is speaking, the Good Shepherd who gives his
life for his sheep. But I want you to notice to whom
He spoke these words. In the text before, verse 27
and verse 26, he said, but you believe not. He spoke these words
to unbelievers. But you believe not because you
are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. So these words that
we're looking at today were at first spoken to unbelievers,
And not only were they unbelievers, but they were those who hated,
as all men do by nature, hate God. These men hated the Lord
Jesus Christ. And if you look down to verse
31, immediately following our text, we see that these people
took up stones again to kill him, to stone him. So we say,
who's speaking? The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking,
and to whom he's speaking? Unbelievers and men who immediately,
upon hearing these words, upon hearing our text, if you please,
and the Lord Jesus Christ, showing that he was one with the Father,
that they take up stones to stone him, to kill him. Now, my message
this morning, I have two divisions. And first, my first division,
I want to give us four marks of Christ's sheep. Four marks
of Christ's sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. I sure want to be one of his
sheep. Don't you? I sure do. I sure want to be,
and I sure want to know. when I leave this service this
morning, that I am one of his sheep. Well, I have four marks,
four marks of identification of his sheep that we see here.
First, the first mark I would point out to us is the similarities
between sheep and believers, between sheep and Christians. There's a reason. There's a reason
that the Lord Jesus Christ chose this animal, that is the sheep,
to be a type, to be a picture of his people, of his children. The first thing that I mentioned
about sheep is sheep are harmless animals. No one is afraid of
a sheep or a lamb. If there's any animal among all
the animals of God's creation that could be called an humble
animal, surely a sheep would be one. The Lord Jesus Christ,
you know, he invites weary people, sinful people, not just poor
people that are poor materially, but people who are poor spiritually. bowed down with a weight of sin. He invites them, come unto me
all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me for I am meek and lowly in heart. His sheep are humble
people. His people are humble people. He would never have chosen a
peacock Not a peacock, especially a male peacock, right? You see,
a male peacock just opens up those tail feathers and struts. He's so proud of himself. That could never picture one
of God's people. No, the haughtiness and pride
with which all men are born, God strips. God strips his people
in saving them of that awful sin of pride. When our children
were young, we have a brother-in-law that was, he had a dairy. In
fact, where Lake Conroe is, that was part of his dairy. And I
remember when we would come to visit and our children were young,
my boys, they may not remember this, But my brother-in-law would
always warn them, at least once he did, you can go anywhere on
the farm here and you can mix with any of the animals, but
don't get in that pen where the bull is. You don't get in there. Because he was a mean critter. Never choose a bull, never choose
a wolf. a devouring wolf or a lion or
anything like that to be an emblem, a picture of God's people? No. Now they may have been, most
of us were, like lions. You know, the scripture speaks
of the lion laying down with the lamb. Paul, the apostle Paul,
soul of Tarsus, he was like a lion breathing out threatenings against
God's people. But oh, when he met the Lord,
he's no longer like a lion, he's now like a lamb, worshiping the
Lord Jesus Christ and preaching the gospel. You know, believers are given peace, therefore being
justified by faith, we have peace with God. And once a sinner,
is brought to have peace with God, he has peace with himself
then, and he loves to live in peace with everyone else. And
that's the way, that's the way sheep are, our desire. They're harmless animals, but
thinking of them as being harmless, they're also fearful animals. A sheep can, A flock of sheep
can be easily disturbed and scared. In fact, I've read before, you
know, in the Psalm, Psalm 23, David said, he leadeth me beside
still waters, that sheep are so fearful that they won't even
drink from a running water, that they're afraid of it. And God's
people are many times fearful. Fearful lest we've made a mistake. Fearful lest in the end we be
found that we were hypocrites all along. Fearful that we're
not true believers, that we're not really following the Lord
Jesus Christ. God's people have fears and troubles. Well, sheep are fearful animals.
So that's the first. point I'd make. The first point on the similarities
between sheep and God's people is sheep are harmless. My second
similarity is sheep are useful animals. You know, there's some
animals you just wonder what they're good for. I mean, I'm
sure they have a use in God's economy. They serve His purpose
in some way. But sheep are animals that, first
of all, they give milk. They give milk, especially in
the Bible days. I don't know so much today. I'm
sure in some countries they still use sheep for milk. but they give milk, they give
wool for clothes, they give their meat for food. They're a very
useful animal. Christians are useful. Believers,
God's children are useful. They're useful in this world. You know, Paul wrote to the church
at Corinth. And he said this about those
believers and what he said is true of all believers. He said,
there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which
worketh all in all. In other words, the same Holy
Spirit works in every believer, every child of God, but we do
not all have the same gifts. You know, some believers are
very bold and they're very useful in defending the faith. I mean,
they're out there on the battle line defending the faith of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Others are not so bold maybe,
but they're useful in other ways. Some people, some believers are
useful in demonstrating to the world the patience that God is
able to give a person. Some have suffered physically,
some of God's people. And you wonder why would God
allow someone he loves so much that he gave his son to die for,
why would he allow that person to suffer sometimes for years
and years? Well, They're useful in their
way. They show to the world, the patient,
they show to other believers how that God's grace is sufficient. It is sufficient as the word
of God tells us. All of God's people, Paul says,
are useful in some way, but not everyone in the same way. Not
everyone is called to preach the gospel with our voices, but
every child of God preaches with our life, our conduct as we live
in this world. We preach and sometimes people
want to see what you believe by how you live more than what
you say, how you live, how and Difficulties come, how you confront
those or they confront you. Sheep are useful animals. And
you know, in every country, Christians are the best citizens
in every country. The best citizens in the United
States of America are those who believe the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, why? Because, first
of all, they obey the laws. They're not lawbreakers, not
God's people. They thank God for the authority
that God has placed here. And the scripture tells us that
all authority is of God, and we thank God, don't we, for for
the policemen and the military and those who protect us and
keep some semblance of order in this society. We're thankful. And believers obey the law. Christians obey the law. They're
useful. They obey the law. They pay their taxes. They're
not trying to cheat the government. They may not agree. They may
not agree, but they pay their taxes. And I'll tell you something
else they do. They pray for their leaders.
God's people pray for those who are put over us, for our president,
for the Congress, for the governors and those that are put over us.
And did you know they're ministers of God? That's what the scripture
says. Romans chapter 13, the policemen,
they're ministers of God. And those who do right should
not have any fear of the officers and those who are in charge.
Sheep are useful animals and God's people are useful in so
many different ways. A third similarity is sheep are
animals that flock together. They flock together. You don't
see sheep, one living here and one over here and one out there
somewhere, no. Sheep flock together. And what
a picture this is of believers. God's people love to come together. They love to come together. And
those who are not believers, they can't understand. Why is
it, why do you, you don't, why is it that you like to go And
joined together with God's people there, lost people can't understand
it. They just can't. That's the most
boring hour of the week. I remember years ago, it's been
quite a few years ago, there was a lady in our congregation,
her husband, she's since gone, gone to be with the Lord. But
one time, one of her sisters came here. I think it was her
only sister. And she was overheard saying
to her daughter, I had forgotten how boring these services were. Well, her sister, she was where
she wanted to be. You know, there's a mystic union
between the Lord Jesus Christ and every one of his children.
There's a mystic union between you and your Savior if you are
one of His children. And there's a mystic union also
between believers. You've experienced this, I'm
sure. You may have been in a doctor's office or somewhere and someone
came in and You got to talking and before long, there was just
a communion, a fellowship there. Why? Because they worship the
same God. They trust in the same Lord.
They have God the Holy Spirit living in them. And God's people
like sheep. They love to flock together. A fourth thing, sheep. Now here's
something, pay attention here. Sheep are animals that stray. They stray. It's not unusual
for sheep just to wander away. That's the reason the shepherd
had that club. The rod and the staff, they comfort
me. Now, a shepherd didn't just have
a rod and staff to have something to carry in his hands. They were
useful. And sometimes he would have to
use that rod on one of his sheep because sheep just naturally
stray away. You've all heard the story, the
grass is greener on the other side of the fence. You've seen
a cow maybe on barbed wire fence, you know, about four strings
of barbed wire, and that cow's got his neck through the fence. Same grass where he's standing,
but for some reason, it looks better over on the other side
of the fence. And that's the way sheep are.
They just get grazing and they stray away. And you know, God's
people stray. All of us do at different times
in our lives. We're not proud of it. Sometimes
people think, well, Christians, they're perfect, they're sinless
to be a believer. No, no, they're not. I was thinking
about my message this morning earlier and I was thinking in
the word of God, think of the various men. There's very few
men that are well known in the scriptures that at one point
did not stray away in some way. Think about Moses. Moses probably
was maybe the most full type of the Lord Jesus Christ in the
Old Testament. And you know what the Bible says
about Moses? He was the meekest man. But one
time, what happened? One time, he lost his temper,
didn't he? And when God said, speak to that
rock, Moses struck that rock and said, you bunch of rebels.
I mean, yes, we all know about David. I was thinking about Hezekiah,
was a good king. Remember when the prophet went
into him and told him, set your house in order for you're going
to die. And he turned his face to the
wall and prayed. And God, before the prophet ever
got out of the palace, sent him back. Told him to tell the king,
add in 15 years to your life. But you know what Hezekiah did
after that in pride? He opened up his treasuries to
the Babylonians, you know. And God tried him in that. And that's just one or two examples,
but sheep stray. They stray. And it'd be unlikely
that none of us have ever strayed away. And I don't mean that people
just, that believers turn back and they're out in the hog pen.
They might be, but just a cold heart, just an indifferent spirit
to the things of God. These are things that believers
are sometimes guilty of. Well, here's a second mark. They're
his sheep. You notice in our text, the Lord
Jesus Christ said, my sheep, my sheep. They're his sheep in
these three ways. There's a number of ways they
are his sheep. Number of ways that you are one
of his sheep, if you are a believer today. But first of all, you
are one of his sheep by divine choice. He chose you. The Father chose you in eternal
election and chose you in Christ, the scripture says. Gave you
to him. And there's a second way that
his sheep were his sheep by purchase. He purchased his sheep. And the
purchase price was his blood, wasn't it? Peter says, we're
not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold,
but with the precious blood of Christ. We're his sheep by purchase. I asked someone the other day,
can you remember the first thing that you bought? I'm not talking
about your parents giving you a quarter or something like that
and you go in the store and buy it. a piece of candy. I mean
the first thing that you actually worked, you had a job, you earned
a little money and you bought something. I can remember the
first thing in my mind that I bought in that way. They used to have
what they called a layaway. You could go in a store and you
could get something and You lay it away, you pay something down,
and every week or two you come back and pay some more. You know,
that's the first thing I remember ever buying myself. I worked
and I earned the money, and I'd go every so often, I guess, and
make a payment. Finally, it was paid off. And
you know what I expected? I expected them to hand that
over to me. It was mine! I bought it. Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? He bought his people. They're
his. We're his. And he bought us with
his blood. Yes. My sheep, he said, hear
my voice. They're his by election, divine
election. They're his by purchase. And they're his by conquest. By conquest. I mentioned this, I believe it
was Wednesday night in the service. The Bible speaks of a lost man
like a wild ass's colt. A wild ass's colt. Never been bridled, never been
ridden. Snuffs at the wind. You can just
see an animal, one of those donkeys up there in a mountain somewhere. You try to catch him, you got
a job on your hands. And that's the way all of us
were, by nature. Rebels, running. We didn't come
into this world desiring to be saved. No, it was just the opposite. And He, by His Spirit and His
Word, He had to conquer us. He said, my people shall be willing
in the day of my power. By nature, men are unwilling
to come to Christ, to trust in Christ, to renounce all hope
of salvation in anything that we can do or experience or say
and trust fully and wholly in Jesus Christ. But he has to conquer
us, doesn't he? And bring us to that place. And
he does. He says, my sheep, my sheep. The third mark, they hear his
voice. That's what he said here in the
text, isn't it? They hear his voice. My sheep hear my voice. Now, you know he's not saying
that we hear some audible voice. I was in an Uber this past week,
and I was talking to the driver, and he asked me this question,
and I could tell by the way he asked that, coming from a religious
background, he'd already spoken. He said, have you ever seen Jesus? And I said, not with these eyes
here. I've never seen him. But I have seen him. with the
eye of faith. And the same thing about hearing
his voice. I've never heard his voice speaking
with these ears here, but I've heard his voice speaking with
the ear of my heart. And you know where I hear his
word? From his written word. I'm not talking about seeing
signs. This man that I mentioned, he was talking about visions
and things like that. And I reminded him of what Abraham
told that rich man in hell, if they won't believe Moses and
the prophets, they won't believe if someone rises from the dead.
It's not something we see or hear with these ears, my friends,
but it is hearing the word of God preached, just like we're
doing here this morning, listening and the Lord speaking to his
people. speaking to his children. My
sheep, he said, hear my voice. I've never seen him with these
eyes, but I've seen him with the eye of faith. And I thought
about that hymn that goes something like this.
I've been to Calvary. I can say I've seen the Lord. I've been to Calvary through
the witness of his word. Each day at Calvary, what a thrill
of joy divine, just to know this Savior is mine. Yes, we hear
his voice. And it's amazing, isn't it, how
the preacher can stand up and read a passage of Scripture and
preach a message, bring a message from it. Here's somebody over
here, and their need is this particular need. Here's someone
back here, their need is completely different. Someone over here,
and all hear the same message, and yet God meet the needs of
his people with the same message in a different way. It's God's
word, isn't it? My sheep hear my voice. Well, before I go on to my second
division, and I'll be very brief, but we need to all ask ourselves
this question before we move on. Do we have these marks? Can we see these marks in ourselves? Do we see there's a similarity
between us and sheep? Do we hear his voice and his
word? Do we recognize that he has bought
us with his blood? Like I said about my purchase,
when I paid, I wanted it. It was mine. I bought it. And the Lord Jesus Christ, he
bought his sheep. And he wants his sheep. He wants
all of us, not just part of us. Well, I give the Lord an hour
on Sunday morning. No, that's not it. It's seven
days a week, 24 hours a day. We're his sheep. Let's move on. And as I said,
I'll be very brief on the second point, but I have four promises
of Christ to his sheep here. First of all, he said, I know
them. That's something very interesting about that word that is translated
no. When he said, I know them, it's
the same word used in Matthew 7, when our Lord was speaking
about the lost, when he said, I will say unto them, I never
knew you. Same word. I never knew you. He said, I know my sheep. I know
my sheep. It's the same word translated
foreknow. And Romans chapter 8 and verse
29, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. This word know has something
to do with love. I know them. I love them, his sheep. What a promise. I know them. And it doesn't just mean he knows
about us, although he does. He knows every one of his children's
names. He knows how many. You know,
John said he saw a multitude that no man could number, but
the Lord knows the number. I know my sheep. He knows the
number, he knows the names, and he knows everything about us.
And all their affliction, the scripture says, he was afflicted. Sometimes, you know, we hear
this, well, you just don't know. And you're right. I don't know. But I know one who does know.
I know one who does know. And if you're one of his, he
knows you. He knows everything about you.
He knows every trial, every difficulty, every disappointment that you
face in life. He knows you. Number two, he
said, I give them eternal life. What is eternal life? Well, it's
to know God and experience a perfect, never-ending happiness of both
body and soul. In thy presence is fullness of
joy, and at thy right hand are pleasures forevermore. I know them. I give unto them. I don't sell eternal life. When
the scripture says, buy of me, it's speaking of buy without
money, isn't it? Buy without money, yes. No, I
give unto them eternal life. And the third thing is, they
shall never perish. They shall never perish. Paul
was able to write believers that he had preached the gospel to
and had met in the church at Philippi, and he was able to
write to them and say, being confident of this very thing,
that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ. There used to be a phrase, I
don't hear it anymore, maybe you do. Once saved, always saved. I think they used to use that
against Baptists, you know, these denominations that believe you
can be saved and be loved. Once saved, always saved. Do
you believe that? Well, I always like to answer
if I'm asked that question. It depends on who does the saving.
If God saves a person, amen. Once saved, always saved. I sure
don't believe that the Lord gives a person eternal life and then
later he loses that. I don't see how that could be
eternal life, do you? It can't be eternal life if you
can have it today and lose it tomorrow. No, he said, I give
unto them eternal life. They shall never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand. It's amazing. Well, it's amazing how many different
ways Satan tries to to deny the word of God. I remember reading
one time this man's, his thought on this was, well, no man, no
man can pluck one of his sheep out of his hand, but this sheep
can kind of crawl through and fall out. Really? Is that eternal life? No. Aren't you thankful this
morning, if you know Christ, that you're one of his sheep?
Amen. Well, we're going to sing, hey,
I'm Jesus paid it all, number 125.