Gospel according to Matthew chapter
10. Matthew chapter 10. I'd like
to begin reading with verse 5 and read through verse 20. Matthew
10 verse 5. These 12 Jesus sent
forth. and commanded them saying, go
not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city of the Samaritans
enter you not. But go rather to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach saying,
the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers,
raise the dead, cast out devils freely you have received freely
give. Provide neither gold, nor silver,
nor brass in your purses, nor script for your journey, neither
two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves, for the workman is
worthy of his meat. And into whatsoever city or town
you shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and there abide
till you go thence. And when you come into an house,
salute it. And if the house be worthy, let
your peace come upon it. But if it be not worthy, let
your peace return to you. And whosoever shall not receive
you nor hear your words, when you depart out of that house
or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto
you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah
in the day of judgment than for that city. Behold, I send you
forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise
as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will
deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in
their synagogues. And you shall be brought before
governors and kings for my sake, for testimony against them and
the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up,
take no thought how or what you shall speak, for it shall be
given you in that same hour what you shall speak. For it is not
ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh
in you. I've been especially blessed
recently in reading a book in which the author points out 49
different New Testament names for believers. 49 New Testament
names, 49 different descriptive names of the people of God which
are given in the New Testament. Some of them, like the first
one, may refer to the origin of the people of God And the
name he used there is, ye are a chosen generation. Some of
these titles or names refer to relationships, characters, privileges,
or the prospects of the people of God. But one of them is found
in the words of our Lord here in sending out these 12 apostles
to minister. And it is something I would have
never thought of as a descriptive name of the people of God, of
you, of you and of me. It's found in verse 16. Sheep
in the midst of wolves. Sheep in the midst of wolves. Now this describes the people
of God in every generation. Sheep among wolves. We're wrong
if we think that these words only apply to the 12 apostles
and them going out preaching the gospel and the persecution
that they met from the Jews and from other pagans in that day
in which they lived. Because this has been true of
the people of God in every generation, whenever and wherever God's people
have lived, They have lived, we have lived, I should say,
as sheep among wolves. Sheep among wolves. And I have
four lessons for us tonight, those of us who know Christ as
our Lord and Savior, that we may take from this title, just
thinking about the title, Sheep Among Wolves, God's People, Sheep
Among Wolves. The first, God's children must
expect hostility in this world. We must expect hostility in this
world. Now, as I said, this was true
in the days of the apostles and it hasn't changed. What do we
mean by the world? When we talk about the world,
the three enemies that every child of God has, the flesh,
which is part of us, the old nature, Satan, who goes about
as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And the world. The world. What do we mean by
the world? I believe it means the governing
principles by which most people live. The governing principles
by which most people in this world live. The philosophy of
this world. The world will never help us
in our relationship to God, no more than wolves would ever help
sheep living among them. I mean, that's just not going
to happen. Wolves are not going to help the sheep. If anything,
they're going to destroy the sheep. So sheep may expect hostility
from wolves living among wolves. That's very easy to see. So God's
people, we must expect hostility in this world. And I would just
remind us of what the Apostle James wrote in his letter. He
said, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? The friendship of the world is
enmity with God. Whosoever, he said, whosoever
therefore will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God. Sheep among wolves. We live in
a world and we must expect that we are going to experience hostility
in this world. We're like sheep among wolves. The world has never been a friend
to grace. The world has never been a friend
to the message of grace. And it never will be because
the world is enmity with God. The carnal mind is enmity with
God. In our Lord's high priestly prayer,
we call it that in John chapter 17, one of the requests that
he made is, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the
world. It would be simple, wouldn't it? Sometimes people have asked
that question. Why doesn't the Lord just take
us home to heaven as soon as a person is saved? Why doesn't
He immediately just take us into heaven? He could, and He has
done that. We know that. You know, some
people teach that there's a process that we've got to go through.
I've heard them refer to it like corn. Corn on the cob, you know,
it grows until That stock just gets so heavy, the corn's all
filled out, and it bows over. Well, the thief on the cross
that the Lord saved, he went to heaven that very day. That
very day. Everything that we need, just
as soon as the Lord saves us, we have. We have everything when
we have Christ as our Savior, as our Lord. People say, well,
wonder why the Lord doesn't just take us on to heaven immediately. Well, he has his reasons, we
know that. And we know in the end, when
everything is finished and done, all of God's people are going
to say the same thing, and that is, he hath done all things well. All things well. All of his providences
in our lives. world has never been a friend
of grace. And our Lord prayed, I pray not
that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou
shouldest keep them from the evil. Many people believe that
that means the evil one, especially keep them from the evil one,
that is from Satan. Now this must be my expectation
in this world. hostility. When we experience
the hostility of this world, we're not to reciprocate. That's
a difference. One of the differences, of course,
between God's people and the world. Our Lord told us that
when people curse us, we are to bless them. When people persecute
us, we are to bless. We're to love those who hate
us. Now, when I talk about the world, the world will never live. I'm talking about the majority
of the people in this world. The philosophy by which they
live will never be what has come to be called the golden rule.
You know that verse of our Lord's words in Matthew chapter seven.
Therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do
to you, do you even so to them. The world's never lived by that
rule and never will live by that rule. But believers are to. Believers are to live by that
rule. But we know as long as we're
in this world, we're like sheep. He said, send you forth as sheep
among wolves. We expect hostility rather. And how could that better be
expressed? Think about hostility. How could it better be pictured
to us? If you just imagine in your mind
a field of wolves and one sheep. one sheep among all those wolves. Doesn't that picture the hostility
that God's people are going to experience in this world, that
we are going to experience, that we experience in this world?
The second thing that comes to my mind is God's children must
be watchful in this world. The danger that believers experience
in this world, it could not be expressed more forcibly than
by picturing us as sheep among wolves. How we must be watchful. Sheep may be one of the most
defenseless animals in God's creation. one of them, maybe
not the most defenseless, but certainly one of the most defenseless
animals of all of God's created beings. And yet the Lord chose
sheep to picture his people. Now I know sheep picture his
people in other ways as well as not as being defenseless. For instance, sheep, we know
or picture the people of God because they're the most docile
animal I guess you could ever come up against, or know, or
have anything to do with. You know, they have these petting
zoos for the little children, and almost always you're gonna
find a lamb. You're gonna find a lamb, and
maybe a goat. But children are not afraid of
a lamb. It's an animal that even a larger
sheep or ewe lamb, people are not afraid of a lamb because
they're a very gentle animal to begin with. And sheep picture
the Lord's people like that. Some of God's people before the
Lord saved them have been such cantankerous, mean-spirited people
in the world. And then the Lord works a work
of grace in their hearts, and they become gentle people and
kind. And that's the work of the Holy
Spirit. I understand that. But another
way that sheep picture the Lord's people, sheep have to be led.
You don't drive sheep. I remember In Chiapas, Mexico,
where Brother Milton Hart was a missionary for many years,
they raised sheep and they raised goats there. He had some visitors
one time, he told me this, and they were driving along, and
one of them asked him, said, how can you tell the difference
between a sheep and a goat? Because there were some goats
that looked like sheep. They raised them for their wool,
their hair. And he said, this is the way
you can see them. If there's a man behind them
throwing rocks at them, driving them, they're not sheep. They're
goats. If the man is in front of them,
leading them, you know they're sheep, because sheep must be
led. And sheep wander off. You know,
sheep get lost on their own. You've all heard that saying,
grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Well,
that's the way sheep look at grazing. They just start wandering
off and getting farther and farther away from their shepherd. They
need a shepherd, must have a shepherd, must have a pastor. But also, they're pretty much
defenseless animals. On the other hand, on the other
hand, wolves, may be one of the most horrifying, ferocious animals
in the wild. I like to watch programs sometimes
on the History Channel where they take people out and set
them out on a loan. Whoever lasts the longest wins
$500,000 or something like that. And usually they're in bear country,
but sometimes there's wolves. And this is what I've noticed,
the people are more afraid of wolves than they are bears or
other animals that are out there in the wild. And you say, well,
why? Because a bear usually travels
alone. That's the way I look at it.
If you have to fight a bear, you're only fighting one. But
wolves, they travel in packs. And it's hard to fight off several
of them, you know. You start trying to defend yourself
From one, here comes another one, and another one. Wolves
are ferocious-type animals, even more so than lions. Now, lions,
when they hunt, they usually hunt very wisely. You've seen pictures of documentaries
of lions hunting, and they're ferocious. There's no doubt about
that, but I don't think there's anything, any animal our Lord
could have used that shows the caution, the watchfulness that
we must have in this world by picturing us as sheep among wolves,
among wolves. The Lord several times exhorted
his sheep to watch, watch and pray that you enter not into
temptation. You say temptation to what? Well,
temptation to deny Christ. Peter was tempted, wasn't he?
He was tempted to deny Christ, and we know he was snared in
that temptation. And who can forget Demas? You
know, at one time, Demas was a companion of the Apostle Paul,
just like Timothy and Silas and Barnabas. And yet, in one of
his letters, he said, Demas hath forsaken us, having loved this
present evil world. What about Lot? Lot was a man
of God. Scripture speaks of him, his
righteous soul being vexed with the conversation of those people
who lived in Sodom and Gomorrah. But he ended up in awful, awful
sin, didn't he? Committing incest. Yes. What about Abraham, the father
of the faithful? Two times, not just once, but
two times, He told or asked his wife, Sarah, to tell the king
where they were traveling there that she was his sister. And
I know technically she was his sister, but that's not the reason
that he wanted her to say she was his sister. He was afraid. He was afraid If they found out
she was his wife, they'd do away with him and take her to be their
wife. So we've got example after example. What about David? What about
David? You know, when people, lost people,
I think for the most part, but many times they'll bring up David.
You know, they'll bring up his sin with Bathsheba and having
her husband murdered. But what they don't see is the
repentance of David. They don't see that. But my point
is that as believers, we're like sheep among wolves. And God teaches us and tells
us to watch, to be on guard, because temptation can happen. And you never outgrow it. You
never outgrow it. You say, well, a person saved
when they're a teenager, they have a lot of temptations. A
person lives to be 80, they still have temptations. They still
have temptations. Yes. The Apostle Paul, remember,
he said, wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed
lest he fall. I've heard recently in the Dallas
area of four Four pastors of so-called mega churches who have
had to resign, and all of them fell into some kind of sin, temptation. You know, man at his best is
still a man, isn't he? That's true of all of us. It's
true of all of us. We're like sheep among wolves. We have to watch. The third thing,
God's children must recognize our weakness in this world. And
our Lord chose sheep to picture his people, and sheep among wolves
is intended to bring out our weakness. We, in our own strength,
could not overcome one temptation. One temptation. Maybe you're
tempted to fudge on the truth a little bit. You say, well,
I can overcome that. That's not going to be any problem.
With God's help, you can overcome that. With God's strength, you
can overcome that. But many of God's children have
been caught in that temptation. That's just one of many. How needful it is for us always
to be aware, to be cognizant of our weakness. I think sometimes
we don't realize how weak we really are. You know, that's
what Jacob said about his oldest son, wasn't it, Reuben? Weak
as water, weak as water. That's true of all of us, all
men by nature. Let me show you how weak we are.
Look, turn over to 2 Corinthians just a moment, 2 Corinthians
chapter three. 2 Corinthians 3, verse 5. Not that we are sufficient of
ourselves. Now let's let that sink in. This
is the Apostle Paul writing. Not that we are sufficient of
ourselves to think anything as of ourselves. But our sufficiency
is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New
Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter
killeth, but the spirit giveth life. What Paul is saying there
is we are not sufficient in ourselves even to think one right thought. I know he's talking about ministers
especially, but that's true of all of God's children. We must
recognize our weakness for this reason. You say, well, why do
we need to hear this? Why do we need to know and be
reminded of our weakness that we would look to Christ? That
we would realize that he is our strength. You know, Paul, the
Lord Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing. Nothing. And yet Paul said, I can do all
things. But he didn't stop there, did
he? Our Lord said, without me, you
can do nothing. I can do all things. But he didn't
put a period there. I can do all things through Christ,
which strengthened me. And only through Christ strengthening
us. Oh, that we might learn. And
I pray this prayer for myself, that we might learn. to see that
Christ is our strength, always is our strength. I like the way
that Psalmist David said that in that Psalm 27, the Lord is
my salvation, the Lord is the light of my life, the Lord is
my strength. He's my strength. One other thing, God's children, We must recognize
the hostility that we're in, in this world, being sheep among
wolves. We must recognize that we must
be watchful because we're like sheep among wolves. And we must
recognize our weakness because we're like sheep among wolves. But we must also have this confidence. this confidence. The Lord Jesus
Christ is our shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. He's a good shepherd who gave
his life to purchase us to be his own. We're bought with a
price, his precious blood. He declared my sheep shall never
perish. Well, even sheep among wolves,
yes, even sheep among wolves, not one of them shall ever perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Think tonight,
if this has impressed you in any way, these points about the
hostility of this world we live in, about our weakness, about
our need to be watchful, Think about how many people the Lord
has already carried home. How many of his sheep he's already
carried home? Don't you love that parable where
the man had a hundred sheep and one was lost and the shepherd
went out and he searched until he found that lost sheep. And
you know, it doesn't say that he put him on a leash and said,
follow me or anything like that. Like you'd lead a dog. No, no. He put it on his shoulders and
he carried it all the way home. He carried it. Charles Spurgeon,
illustrating that one time, said, if the Lord were to pick us up
and carry us all the way till we came to the gate of heaven
and there was one step, and he set us down and told us, now
you make that last step, we'd all be lost. We have a good shepherd,
a great shepherd, the chief shepherd, and he's never lost one of his
sheep. Think of it. David mentioned,
and I said I wanted to preach a message on heaven. Sometimes
when I'm thinking about heaven, I think about the brothers and
sisters that we've worshiped with here. I mentioned this morning,
47 years next Sunday. How many of our dear loved ones
have gone on home? And I think about them and what
they must be doing, even tonight. As we're here singing and praising
the Lord, we know what they're doing. They're singing and praising
the Lord also. They just anticipated us. They
just got there before we did. We look forward to that time
when all of God's sheep, and not one of them is going to be
lost. The great work of salvation, your salvation, if you're one
of His children tonight, your salvation, it's already accomplished. The work is already finished.
We don't add anything to that work. We've been reconciled unto
God. already by the blood of Jesus
Christ. We've been justified by God. We have fellowship with him already. It's already accomplished. So
yes, as this picture of sheep among wolves makes us realize
our need, But let's also be confident and realize that we have a shepherd
tonight who has never lost one of his sheep. You know, a doctor,
a medical doctor, when you're getting ready for
surgery, I remember recently we were speaking to a surgeon,
my wife and I, and he said, I've never lost one yet. Well, that's
a good record, isn't it? I mean, you'd want to be able
to say that if you were a surgeon or a medical doctor, that you've
always, every patient that you've had. Well, I doubt very many
doctors could really say that, but I know one who can. I know
the great physician, don't you? And he's never lost a case. And
he never will. Never will. Well, I pray the
Lord would bless these thoughts to us here this evening.