Open our Bibles this evening
to John chapter 10. John chapter 10, reading verses
1 through 21. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth
up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he
that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
To him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice, and
he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when
he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the
sheep follow him, for they know his voice. And a stranger will
they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the
voice of strangers. This parable spake Jesus unto
them, but they understood not what things they were which he
spake unto them. Then said Jesus unto them again,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All
that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the
sheep did not hear them. I am the door. By me, if any
man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find
pasture. The thief cometh not but for
to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have
life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the
good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
But he that is in harling and not the shepherd who's on the
sheep or not, seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep
and fleeth. And the wolf catcheth them and
scattereth the sheep. The harling fleeth because he
is in harling and careth not. for the sheep. I am the good
shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the
Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down
my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall
hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Therefore doth my father love
me because I lay down my life that I might take it again. No
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power
to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment
have I received of my father. There was a division therefore
again among the Jews for these sayings, and many of them said,
he hath the devil and is mad, Why hear ye him? Others said,
These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil
open the eyes of the blind? This is the third Sunday evening
that I've brought a message to us from this passage of Scripture.
The first time we looked especially at the parable which the Lord
gave in the first five verses, there were five things I brought
out to us from that parable. And we also looked at the fact
that the Lord Jesus Christ pictures himself as the door into the
sheepfold. And then last time, we looked
at the Lord Jesus Christ because two times in these verses he
declared himself to be the good shepherd. And we saw that he's
not only the good shepherd, but he is the chief shepherd, the
great shepherd, the wise shepherd, and the living shepherd. Remember
last time in looking at the scripture which speak of him as the great
shepherd, we saw that there are under shepherds. There are under
shepherds, they're pastors of local congregations, but there's
one chief shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now tonight, I
want us to look at our Lord's words in verse 16. Verse 16,
and other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also
I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall
be one fold and one shepherd. And we will just take that verse
apart and look at it in these four parts. First, the Lord says,
sheep I have. Sheep I have. Notice that. Other sheep I have. Now there
are several ways that a person can legitimately own a sheep. And I want to mention four of
them to us tonight. First of all, a person may have
sheep by having them given to him. So the Lord Jesus Christ,
when He says, Sheep I have, we recognize that His sheep are
His because they were given unto Him by the Father. If you look down to verse 29,
this is what He says. We didn't read this far down
in the chapter, but notice in verse 29, He says, My Father
which gave them Me is greater than all. When the Father gave
the sheep to the Lord Jesus Christ. Gave Him to be the shepherd and
they to be His sheep. He put them into His hands. All of the sheep were put into
the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. And by that, I mean that He became
their surety. He became their surety. He became
responsible for them. He became responsible for each
and every one of the sheep which the Father gave unto Him. And you notice in our text, He
says, other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also
I must bring. I must bring. Now when the Lord
Jesus Christ tells us there's something that He must do, we
better pay attention. There's something that He was
given to do. He said He was given a commandment
by the Father both to lay down His life and to take His life.
I was speaking with a man after the service this morning about
the death of Christ, the miracle the miracle of his death. No one took his life from him. He laid down his life. He dismissed
his spirit. This is what the scriptures tell
us. His very death was a miracle that God-man could die. A miracle. But he tells us in this verse
that his father had given him his sheep and he must bring them. If you look back to John chapter
3, just a moment, when he was speaking to Nicodemus about the new birth and about
the fact that he would give his life for his people in John chapter
3 and verse 14. He told Nicodemus, and as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must, must
the Son of Man be lifted up. There was a necessity, a must
laid upon Him. And we see this picture to us
in the Old Testament. There are two passages of Scripture,
one in the Old Testament, one in the New Testament. that especially
speak to us about the ministry of a surety. A surety. We don't know much about that.
We think of a cosigner, but a surety was much more than a cosigner. A surety. We have this example
in the Old Testament when Judah, he was a surety for his brother
Benjamin. And this is what he said. This
is what he said unto his father Jacob when he agreed to be a
surety, when he offered himself to be a surety for Benjamin. He said, If I bring him not unto
thee, then I shall bear the blame forever. He was given his sheep
and he must bring them or he would bear the blame forever. And you know that's not going
to happen. So that's the first way. A person may legitimately
own a sheep by having a sheep given unto him. So Christ says, sheep I have. And he has his sheep because
first of all, they were given to him. Now the second way, you
can buy a sheep. A man can buy a sheep and he
legitimately owns that sheep. So the Lord Jesus Christ owns
his sheep by purchasing his sheep. I want you to turn to 1 Corinthians
6. 1 Corinthians 6. A person may have sheep by buying
sheep. So the Lord Jesus Christ, He
has His sheep. First, they were given to Him,
but second, by purchasing each and every one. In 1 Corinthians
6 and verse 18, the Apostle said, Flee fornication. Every sin that
a man doeth is without the body, but he that committeth fornication
sinneth against his own body. What? Know you not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which
you have of God? And you are not your own. Why? Why are you not your own? Because you, for you are bought
with a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's. Isn't it amazing? As I looked at that passage there,
those three verses that we've just read this past week, I thought
to myself, isn't it amazing that the apostle, when he wants to
exhort, and he does exhort believers, God's children, concerning their
conduct Well, that's what he's talking about. Their conduct
as we go through this world. He doesn't go to the law. He
doesn't go to the law to talk to these believers about their
conduct. He goes to the cross. He goes
to the cross. And that's the way it must be.
You are bought with a price. The price being the precious
blood of Christ. Therefore, you notice that? He
says, you are bought with a price, therefore, because you're bought
with a price. Not because the law says, do
not do this, do not do this, do not do this. No, because you're
bought with a price. The precious blood of Jesus Christ. That's our motive. Love, out
of love to Him who loved us so much that He laid down the price
for our redemption, which was his precious blood. You say, well, if he bought us,
who did he buy us from? Well, his sheep, we were given unto
him from the beginning, but we fell in our father Adam, and
we came under bondage. Bondage not to Satan, not really,
bondage to God's law and God's justice. God's law demanded perfection. God's justice demanded satisfaction. And he laid down the price, his
blood, his life, to redeem, to purchase his sheep. A third way
a person may own sheep or have sheep is by inheritance. You could inherit a sheep or
sheep and they would be yours. Did you know that God's people,
Christ's sheep, they are His portion. They are His inheritance. Let me show you that back in
Psalm 28. In Psalms Chapter 28, verse 7. The Lord is my strength
and my shield, my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth,
and with my song will I praise Him. The Lord is their strength,
And he is the saving strength of his anointed. Save thy people
and bless thine inheritance. Save thy people. Who's he talking
about? The sheep, right? Save thy people
and bless thine inheritance. Feed them also and lift them
up forever. We are His portion. That is,
His sheep are His portion. His inheritance. And you see,
He feeds them. That's what we have here in this
passage of Scripture. He feeds His sheep and He lifts
them up. He lifted us up out of a cesspool,
didn't He? Out of a cesspool of sin. Out
of the mire. the dirt and the mire into which
we had fallen. He lifted us up and he set our
feet upon a solid rock of the Lord Jesus Christ. He established
our goings. He put a new song in our heart,
didn't he? Even praise unto our God. And one day he's going to lift
us up to the Father's presence. There's a fourth way. A person
may have sheep by finding them. You might find a sheep and it
become yours. In the Gospels we have two parables. The Lord Jesus Christ gave these
two parables about a shepherd finding one of his lost sheep. And in those parables, you are
familiar with this, even though he had ninety and nine safely
in the fold, there was one that was lost. Are they not enough
for thee, the ninety and nine? Are they not enough for thee?
No, not for the good shepherd. He goes and he searches and he
finds that one lost sheep. So he has found us. And what
I love about that parable in Luke 15, when the shepherd finds
the sheep, what does he do? He puts him on his shoulders,
doesn't he? Strength puts him on his shoulders
and carries him all the way home. It doesn't take him most of the
way. I think I've read this. in a message years ago by Charles
Spurgeon. But he pointed out, if the Lord
brought us just one step out of heaven and put us down and
said, now you make it the rest of the way, we wouldn't make
it. We need a Savior, and thank God
we have one, who carries us all the way. All the way home. And not one is lost. Now let's
look back at our text tonight. So that's the first thing. The Lord says, Sheep I have.
He has sheep. Second, the Lord says, Other
sheep I have which are not of this fold. Now what does He mean
by sheep which are not of this fold? In the dispensation, or
the administration of the everlasting covenant, which ended, it ended
with the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Until that death, remember
when Christ died, the veil in the temple was torn from the
top to the bottom. And what that pictures to us
is that old dispensation had ended. It had ended with the
death of Christ and now the way into the most holy place. Only
a priest, a high priest could go into that most holy place
once a year. But now the way into the very
holiest of holies, the presence of God has been opened unto us
by the death of Jesus Christ. In that administration of that
covenant, that Old Testament, The fold had mostly been made
up of the physical descendants of Abraham. There's always a
remnant according to the election of grace in the nation of Israel. Always there was an election
of grace. And the fold was made up mainly
of those who were the natural descendants of Abraham. We would
refer to them today as Jews. When Paul wrote the letter of
Ephesians in the second chapter, and this letter is written to
a church that was made up basically, mainly, of Gentile believers. He reminded them that in time
past, in time past, before they came to know Christ, They had
been aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from
the covenants of promise. That was not true any longer.
They had been, that's what Paul, you have been aliens. But that's
not true any longer. There's a new dispensation, a
new administration, the same covenant. There's only one covenant
of grace. I notice in the Scripture Brother
Streeter pointed us to this morning in the lesson. It spoke about
the covenant of peace. That's the covenant. That's the
everlasting covenant, isn't it? The covenant of peace. The covenant
that was made between the three persons and the Godhead. We call
it an everlasting covenant. We call it a covenant of grace.
It's a covenant of peace. It's through that covenant. that
men are brought to have peace with God. David said, This is
all my salvation. He hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things, and sure. Now that covenant is
only one, but it was administered. There was an old dispensation,
but now there's a new dispensation. In that old dispensation, most
of the fold of God were natural descendants of Abraham. But that
all changed, didn't it, with the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. A new dispensation. And now it
is manifested that the Lord Jesus Christ has sheep among Gentiles
as well as among the natural descendants of Abraham. Look
back with me to Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10, I want
to read a few verses, two verses, and then I want us to look in
chapter 15 of Matthew also. In Matthew chapter 10, in verse
5 and 6, Our Lord sent out the apostles
the first time. It said, These twelve Jesus sent
forth and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles. You see, this was part of that
old dispensation. Our Lord told His apostles, Don't
go into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans. Don't enter. Don't go there. But go rather, now notice, go
rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. What I'm saying
is that until the Lord Jesus Christ died and this new dispensation
was put into place, most of the sheep came from the house of
Israel, from the natural descendants of Abraham. Look also in chapter
15 of Matthew. And verse 21, Then Jesus went thence, and departed
into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. He's right on the coast, right
on the borderland, so to speak, of Canaan, the land of Israel,
and the Gentile nations. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast, and cried unto him, saying, Have
mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David. My daughter is grievously
vexed with the devil. But he answered her, Not a word. And his disciples came and besought
him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us. But he answered
and said, I'm not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
here in the flesh, his ministry, his preaching ministry was to
the house of Israel. Not to Gentiles, but mainly to
the house of Israel. And this is what is so beautiful
here to me. Then came she, and worshipped
him, saying, Lord. I don't know how she came to
know this. I know it was by the Spirit of
God, what she had heard about Christ. But when she called him
Lord, when she worshipped him, she recognized that he was Lord
of all. He was Lord not only of the Jews,
but also of the Gentiles. And recognizing Him to be Lord,
He had the authority, even though He was sent to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel, because of who He is. He had the authority
to help her, even though she was a Gentile. Lord, help me. Help me. She wasn't the one vexed
with the devil, was she? It was her daughter. But she
joined herself to her daughter, didn't she? That's the way we
should pray for our loved ones who are lost without Christ.
Lord, help me. Help me in helping them. But he answered and said, it's
not me to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs. And she said, truth, Lord. Lord, you have the authority
to let just a crumb fall from the children's table and it will
be sufficient. You see, what she was asking
for her was great, to have her daughter dispossessed
of a devil. But she knew that He was the
Lord. And what would be a small thing
for Him, just a crumb, He could grant. And our Lord, when she
said, Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall
from their master's table. I was reminded Friday, I was
talking to a pastor and I mentioned this. He said, you remember that
message Brother so-and-so preached, all dogs go to heaven? I said,
yeah, I vaguely remember that, all dogs go to heaven. Omephibosheth,
when he came before David, what did he say? I'm a dead dog. He's got mercy for dead dogs,
doesn't he? For dogs, I mean, when people
see themselves as needy, I don't think he's going to turn
anyone away. As Brother Ralph Barnard used
to say, he hasn't turned anyone away yet. Amen. Lord, truth, Lord, yet
the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table.
And Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou
wilt. and her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. Yes, he was sent to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel, but we see he was Lord, is Lord,
and could bless even a Gentile who would come like this woman
came, seeking for mercy, confessing her need. She was no doubt No
doubt in my mind this woman was one of the other sheep that we
read of in our text tonight. Other sheep I have which are
not of this fold. This woman, no doubt, was one
of those other sheep. She was a Gentile. From Pentecost till today, only
God knows, only God knows How many Gentiles have come as part
of his sheep? I don't know how many, but I
know many. Don't you? So many that John,
when he saw them in heaven, he said it was too many to number.
Now here's the third thing about our text. The Lord says, Sheep
I have, other sheep which are not of this fold, And third,
them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice. Now we've
already considered this, and all I want to say is His sheep
hear His voice in the gospel. His sheep hear His voice in the
gospel. We're not talking about an audible
voice. It's His sheep hear His voice
in the gospel. And I want to show you this in
1 Thessalonians, if you will. 1 Thessalonians, first in chapter
1 and then in chapter 2. In chapter 1 of the 1st epistle,
Paul said, to these believers, knowing, brethren, beloved of
God, your election. For our gospel came not unto
you in word only. Now it did come in word, but
not in word only. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. How shall they believe in him
of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? Yes, they had heard a preacher. Word had come to them, but not
in word only. but also in power, and in the
Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as you know what manner of man
we were among you for your sake." This assurance that it came in
was assurance that this is the gospel. This message is the gospel. You might hear other messages,
but His sheep hear His voice. They hear the gospel with much
assurance. This is it. I'm not going to
look anywhere else. This is it. The gospel of Jesus
Christ. And then notice in chapter 2
what Paul says to these same people. But I would not have
you... I'm sorry. Chapter 2 and verse
13. For this cause also thank we
God without ceasing, because when you received the word of
God, which you heard of us, you received it not as the word of
men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which worketh effectually
also in you that believe. Them also I must bring. and they
shall hear my voice. His sheep hear his voice in the
gospel. Now here's the last thing. The
Lord says there shall be one fold and one shepherd. His sheep from both dispensations,
both the old dispensation and the new dispensation, we all
make up one fold. In coming to Christ, we are come
to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written
in heaven. You remember our Lord told some
religious leaders when he was here in the flesh. He said, I
say unto you that many, many shall come from the east and
from the west and sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in
the kingdom of God. There's not going to be two folds.
There's one foal, and there's one shepherd. The good shepherd
who gave his life for the sheep. Well, I trust the Lord will bless
His word to all of us.