Jesus Chooses His Own People

John 10 and the Justice of God

This evening, the Lord helping us, our text will be found literally throughout the book of John. A number of places, but we'll be looking specifically at John chapter 10. John chapter 10. But before we look to God's word, let us ask him to bless our time together.

Our gracious Heavenly Father, as once again we handle your truth and consider your word, we would ask that you would be with us. By your spirit, you would lift us up, that you would give us understanding.

Lord, that we would not be like those who so swiftly forget. But we have seen the perfect law of liberty. May we remember. May you write upon our hearts your truth. We pray in Christ's name. This morning, we began looking at some questions, some challenging questions, in regards to the justice and holiness of God, specifically in reference to the fact that as most of you are here this morning, we mentioned I had an opportunity a few days ago, literally, to engage in a dialogue with a young man who has written a book called Young, Restless, and No Longer Reformed.

I forgot to mention this morning that there was a rather well-known book called Young, Restless, and Reformed. There is a great deal of discussion about the YRRs, the Young, Restless, and Reformed, out there.

I confess that I've never really fully understood that particular phraseology. In response to the author, Mr. Fisher, Austin Fisher, I pointed out that I am old, satisfied, and still reformed. I never understood the restless part, to be honest with you, but that seems to be the terminology that's being used.

It was a takeoff from that, Young, Restless, and No Longer Reformed. As I mentioned this morning, I guess it's inevitable, if you're truly going to be young to write this book, that you couldn't have been reformed for a very long period of time, but I think it would have been somewhat more helpful had the author been reformed more than about a year and a half or two years, and only in the late teen years and about 20 years of age.

What that means is, Mr. Fisher was never a Reformed theologian. I don't believe that he was a part of a thoroughly Reformed church, involved in ministry, in a Reformed ministry or things like that, but the fact remains that the objections that he raised to the Reformed faith are objections that are worthy of our analysis.

This morning, we looked at, in essence, his accusation that, I'll read it again, God's desire to glorify himself had not only subsumed but consumed all his other desires. The only thing I understood about God was that he would glorify himself.

Love, justice, and goodness had been warped beyond recognition as they were sucked into the black hole of glory. We began looking at that subject, and we did so the only way that you can. These objections can only be addressed from a biblical perspective.

We can only open the Word of God, and we have to ask ourselves the question, has God addressed this issue? I'm not certain, to be honest with you any longer, whether Mr. Fisher could honestly answer the question.

Yes, God does intend to answer these questions, and to answer them directly from the direct teaching of the Word of God. I'm not sure how he would answer that any longer. I did not find the book to be exegetically compelling on any level, nor was it Mr. Fisher's attempt, I think, really to do so.

But be that as it may, we looked at 1 Peter, and we looked at chapter 2, and we looked at that statement that is made in God's Word that clearly distinguishes between those who receive God's mercy and grace and those who are appointed by God to stumble at the Word.

And we addressed the issue of purpose, that God has a purpose, that we have to consider what God's ultimate purpose is, and we have to ask ourselves the question, if God actually answers the question, if God actually gives us, from his perspective, what is a sufficient reason for why he has created in the way that he has created, will that be enough?

Will that be enough? I would submit to you that for many people it is not. For many people, they will not bow to the ultimate authority of the Word of God. And as such, even though there are ultimate answers given, I have always felt that probably the ultimate answer that is given is found in Ephesians chapter 1.

It's all the praise of his glorious grace. That's going to be the end result. We may not see how that is now. That is from an eternal perspective. But what God has done in the single self-glorifying act of redemption, the single act where we see the triune God active, Father, Son, and Spirit taking different roles, but they cannot be separated from one another in bringing about this glorious act of redemption, it's all to the praise of his glorious grace.

Obviously, there is a work of the Spirit that is required to cause any one of us to feel that it is sufficient that God's intention, that his glorious grace is to be praised in eternity, is sufficient reason for what goes on in this world.

I certainly understand that there are individuals who looking at their lives, looking at that small, tiny area that their knowledge encompasses, would say, that's not enough for me. My child's sickness, the death of a loved one, tragedies on a grand scale.

That's not enough for me. At the same time, I think it requires the work of the Spirit of God for us to realize how small we really are. Oh, we've talked about before the brevity of man's life. He is but a vapor, then he passes away.

But there's also the reality that we inhabit such a tiny little portion, even of time itself, as God has created it. And we know so pitifully little of the knowledge there is to be known, even of what man knows.

None of us know very much of even that. And what man knows is infinitesimal in comparison to what God knows. And yet on the basis of that tiny period of time and the fact that we know only a small number of events in a small area of this world, we still think that's enough to judge God, to judge His purposes.

There is, very clearly in Reformed theology, an element that destroys, once it's understood properly, destroys human pride and hubris. It tells us who we are. It tells us how small we are. It tells us that it's an amazing thing that God deals with us.

And in fact, it makes the Incarnation all the more amazing when you realize that the second person of the Trinity has entered into His own creation to redeem us. It certainly leaves no foundation for pride and arrogance and gives us no foundation for standing up and judging God.

But we looked at that this morning and hopefully laid at least a foundation in saying, well, the Scriptures do teach this. They do teach that this is what God is doing, that God has chosen to extend His grace to some and to others.

He justly passes over. And they actually are quite happy about that. They don't want to bow the knee before God. And we looked at that issue of belief and disbelief. And so it's there in Scripture. But this evening, briefly, I wanted to look at the second element of Mr. Fisher's argument.

And that is, from his perspective, he abandoned Reformed theology and basically what he was saying was there's a better way. And the better way is to look at Jesus. He said the nucleus of everything that Christian theology says about God is to be found in the crucified Jesus.

In the crucified Jesus, we learned that the God who pours out wrath is the God whose hands are nailed to the cross. The God who punishes sin is the God who takes punishment. The God who judges is the God who looks upon those crucifying Him and says, forgive them.

I found the crucified God very difficult to square with the God of Calvinism. Now this I could not begin to understand. I could understand it if Mr. Fisher has a completely deficient understanding of any Reformed theology.

But elsewhere, he demonstrated that he certainly had read. He's not a stupid person by any stretch of the imagination. So this I could not begin to understand. This is where the disconnect really was very strong for me.

And I raised this issue with Mr. Fisher. Again, for those of you who weren't here this morning, this discussion is available if you want to listen to the entirety of it. It's online already. But I raised with Mr. Fisher right here, and he did not really come back on this.

And unfortunately, the interview moved on, and we didn't get to expand upon this. But I felt it was one of the strongest responses to his perspective. When we look at Jesus, do we get something other than what we find in old 1 Peter 2, John 6, Ephesians 1?

Jesus the Shepherd Who Chooses His Sheep

No. In fact, look with me at just a few texts. This is going to be somewhat of a run-through, I'm afraid. But let's start with one. I'm not sure I'm going to get to all of them this evening. Maybe just list some of them very quickly.

But here in John chapter 10, beginning in verse 22. At that time, the Feast of Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter. And Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon. The Jews then gathered around him and were saying to him, How long will you keep us in suspense?

If you are the Christ, the Messiah, tell us plainly. And Jesus answered them, I told you and you do not believe the works I do in my Father's name. These testify of me, but you do not believe because you are not of my sheep.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

I and the Father, we are one. I have the word we there, but it's there in the original language. It's a plural form, and therefore, even in that text, Jesus does not confuse himself with the Father. But notice Jesus' response to these Jews.

They surround him, and who are you? And Jesus says, I've already told you. Look at the works that I've done. And then, just as in John chapter 6, where Jesus says, but you are not believing. Jesus knows who believes and who does not.

He says, but you do not believe because you are not of my sheep. Now, from most evangelicals' perspective, and evidently from Mr. Fisher's perspective, this is a mistranslation. Maybe it's a textual variance.

Maybe they'll find a manuscript someday that has it right, because the way it should read would be what? You do not believe. You're not my sheep because you don't believe. You could be. You could become one of my sheep if you'll just believe.

It should be, you are not of my sheep because you do not believe, but it's up to you if you choose to do so or not. But that's not what he says. He says, you are not believing. Why? Because you are not of my sheep.

My sheep hear my voice. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish. Well, who are these sheep? It's pretty obvious. Shepherds choose their sheep.

Sheep do not choose their shepherds. I've mentioned it before, but I think it's a perfectly valid analogy. I mean, what you have in most of evangelicalism today is Jesus as the shepherd desperate for sheep.

That's what you have. You have Jesus, and what people present is that Jesus is standing there and the sheep walk by. And Jesus looks at the sheep, and he smiles at the sheep. Maybe you might even have some people before Jesus, and they have signs saying, he's a really good shepherd, and he will treat you well, and maybe he'll give you health and wealth and things like that.

And then the sheep come up, and they look you over, and well, he might be a good shepherd. It's hard to tell. Maybe I'll take him, maybe I won't. That's how evangelicalism views Jesus. Isn't it what the painting says?

Isn't there a Jesus carrying a nice little lamb? Now, I guess he's not carrying a lamb when he's knocking on the noblest door, but I get the pictures mixed up sometimes, I'll be honest with you. In every one of them, Jesus is powerless.

If he's outside the door, there's no knob for Jesus. If he's carrying the little lamb, you know, I guess the little lamb chose him. That's not the Jesus of John chapter 10. You are not believing because you're not of my sheep.

My sheep hear my voice. They follow me. I know them. I give eternal life to them. No one ever snaps them out of my hand. The Father is given to me. I and the Father are one. We bring about the salvation of God's people.

There's all this language about the power of God and the power of Christ and the perfection of his work. There's nothing here about a Jesus that doesn't fit with the sovereign God as Mr. Fisher would like us to believe.

Now, if this was just one place, then someone could probably come up with another way of understanding it. They could probably come up with another way of saying, well, you know, Jesus maybe meant this or maybe he's just talking about the Jews here.

There's always a way around any text. But let's think about just some texts together and ask ourselves the question, is the crucified Jesus, the crucified God, did he teach contrary? Did he act contrary to what we saw in 1 Peter or what we see in Ephesians or Romans 9 or any of these other texts?

Well, I'd remind you, Jesus' very name, given by the angel. What did the angel say? He should call his name Jesus. Why? Because he will try really hard to save some people? Again, that would be an unusual textual variant.

I haven't found any manuscripts that say that. Matthew 1 .21 says his name should be called Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. Not make them savable. Not try his best. Not make salvation a possibility.

He will save his people from their sins. That's the Jesus who is crucified. That's the Jesus whose hands are upon that tree. That's the same Jesus in Matthew chapter 11 who says something very strange.

He says, all things have been handed over to me by my Father. And no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son. And then there's this strange textual variant again.

And anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal. Now, I think from Mr. Fisher's perspective, that's everybody. It's the Son's will to reveal the Father to every single human being. I don't see how an Armenian evangelical can avoid that, but that means it becomes a typology.

It doesn't mean anything. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son and everybody else. Because it's the Son's will to reveal the Father to everybody else. It loses all meaning. There is something specific in Jesus' words.

And it comes from what came before. Notice verse 25, at that time Jesus said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to the infants.

Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in your sight. Jesus thanked the Father that he hid things from certain people. And the means of revelation? The Son? And to whom does the Son will to reveal the Father?

We know the answer to that. We know the answer to that. So, there is a revelation, but there's hiddenness, and there's freedom on God's part as to who receives this revelation. This is the same Jesus voluntarily goes to the cross.

You know, a lot of people would say, Yeah, but what about John chapter 3? Well, I'd like to point something out to you. John chapter 3 has the very same specificity that you have anywhere else in the Gospel of John.

As long as you read more than just one verse. But even that one verse contains it. John 3 .16. Now, most of the time we render the Greek here as whoever or whosoever. It's literally that all the believing ones.

The point is that there's a group. It's called the believing ones. And the construction says all of them. Whoever in this group, but it's still a group. It's still a group that has limitations. It has a border around it.

It's the believing ones in opposition to what? The non-believing ones. And so, this demonstration of the love of God, this giving of the Son of God has a purpose. The purpose is so that a specific group, the believing ones, all of them, the ones who believe in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.

For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Wow! In this same text, you've got belief, unbelief, judgment, not coming into judgment. Why? Because, as John chapter 5 will say, we've already been judged in Christ. A judgment has already taken place as we have eternal life.

But even in the citadel of those who deny Reformed theology, there is specificity. There is specificity. Now, as you know, red letters are not inspired. And there is some question as to exactly where in John chapter 3, Jesus stops speaking and John starts elucidating.

But the point is, right here in the Gospel, in the undoubtedly most widely memorized verse in the Bible, you have clearly a delimitation. Not in the sense of a lack of power in the work of Christ, but a specificity in the purpose of God.

He has a particular people. It's perfectly in line with Matthew 1 .21. He has a particular people that as we see in John 6, He gives to the Son. There is perfect harmony here. There is perfect harmony.

Whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. There are so many people who misunderstand. And they think that we can't proclaim that message. We can't go to the world and say, anyone who believes, anyone who turns and repents, will find Jesus Christ to be a perfect Savior.

That is our message to the whole world. Because we don't know who the elect are. And we don't have to know. Our command has not been, go find the elect. You'll find that nowhere in Scripture. Go search out the elect.

And once you've found them, proclaim the gospel to them. Not there. Not there. What's our command? Proclaim the gospel to all creatures. Command men everywhere to repent. It's not up to us to know. We are to be an instrument in His hand.

We proclaim the gospel promiscuously to all people. Think what Jesus says in John 5. Verse 22. For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.

He who does not honor the Son, does not honor the Father who sent Him. Truly, truly, I say to you, He who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but is passed out of death into life.

Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and now is, and the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father had life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son, all should have life in Himself.

And He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming, which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and will come forth. Those who did the good deeds, to a resurrection of life.

Those who committed the evil deeds, to a resurrection of judgment. Jesus, again, John chapter 5, I don't have time to develop it this evening, but Jesus is in perfect harmony with the Father. He's not off doing His own thing.

He's accomplishing the Father's will. He speaks the Father's words, etc., etc. And He has been given life within Himself. And He has been given the ability to judge. To judge with a just judgment. And those who hear His word, and believe in Him who sent Jesus, have right now eternal life, do not commit a judgment, but have passed out of death into life, and yet there are others.

These unbelievers, they don't experience this. They don't receive from Jesus life. This is the same crucified Jesus. There's nothing in here about trying. There's nothing here about making salvation a mere possibility.

If you'll just help me to be your Savior. There's so many passages that speak of the power of Christ. The ability of Christ. I don't understand why anyone who names the name of Christ would seek to in some way turn Jesus into a potential Savior, rather than a powerful Savior.

I don't understand. I do. Because if your desire is to establish for man a capacity to control the very grace of God, then you have to. You have to find a way to do it. If it's just by the almighty will of man, if it's by sacraments of a religious system, however it is, that's how you do it.

And man's found many ways of doing it. I'll only mention it briefly, but you all know the text in John 6. You all know what Jesus says there. In response to the observation that He's talking to unbelievers.

He's talking to unbelievers. It's verse 36. Yet you do not believe. You are not believing. What does He say to unbelievers? We've often been told, you shouldn't talk about this stuff to people. You know, it could confuse folks.

Well, Jesus did. Jesus did. And look at what the result was at the end of John 6. They walked away. They walked away. But Jesus says in John 6 .37, All that the Father gives me will come to me. And the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out.

For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me. That of all that He has given me, I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.

I wish I'd had time to ask Mr. Fisher, How do you hear Jesus here? He was so often saying, Well, you know, I'm just not comfortable with this. I just don't feel that. Well, how do you feel this text? What does it feel like to you?

Actually, I'll be perfectly honest with you, and this is why Calvinists are considered mean, crusty people. I don't care what you feel about this text. And you shouldn't care what I feel about this text.

The text says what the text says. And it says the same thing on days when I'm really happy. It says the same thing on days when I'm really low. It doesn't matter. It says the same thing whether the sun's win or lose.

It doesn't matter. Words have meaning for crying out loud. And so, when Jesus says, All the Father gives me will come to me. What comes first? It's the giving of the Father. The giving of the Father determines the coming of the Son.

And that's why He'll never cast them out because the Father and Son are one. One in purpose. I and the Father, we are one. I'm bringing about the salvation of God's people. Here it is again. Same theme.

Second verse. Well, it's probably about the fifth verse by this point. The one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out. Why not? Because I've come down out of heaven to do my Father's will. And this is the will of my Father that sent me.

That of all that He has given to me, they were His. He gave them to me. I lose nothing. The only way to understand this is either Reformed theology, that is that there is an elect people, or Universalism.

There is no way to fit some kind of synergistic Jesus makes salvation a possibility system into these words. It nowhere says, the Father's will for me is that I make salvation a real possibility for certain people.

That I make salvation a general possibility for all of humanity, even though for hundreds of years the Gospel is not going to get to all sorts of people all around the world. And so, you know, those Mayans over there, it's going to take a long time.

I mean, really, really a long time. They have 1 ,500 years more before I even bother sending anybody over there. But, I'm making salvation a possibility. How does that work? It doesn't make any sense to me at all.

And obviously, if the will of the Father for the Son is that He lose nothing but raise up on the last day, then what that means is Jesus is a perfect and powerful Savior and He is not dependent on the association, help, of anyone, including the sinner himself.

This is the same Jesus who was on the cross. Mr. Fisher says, I just can't put the two of them together. I don't see where the difference is. The quote-unquote God of Calvinism seems to be the one Jesus is talking about.

He's talking about a Father who has the right over people to give some to the Son, but not all. Hmm. Remember John 8? Verse 43 says this. John 8 says, Remember, these are the same Jews who a few minutes before had said they believed in Him.

And then when Jesus said, Well, if you continue my word and you're my disciples in deed, just know the truth, the truth shall set you free. As soon as you start talking to a sinner, an unrepentant, unregenerate sinner about the need to be set free, they're going to be offended.

And they were. By the end of the chapter, they're going to be picking up stones to stone Jesus. And Jesus looks at them and says, Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear my word.

Hmm. That's interesting. Why can't they hear His word? Why can't they hear His word? Well, that's explained in verse 47. He who is of God hears the words of God. For this reason, you do not hear them because you are not.

Now, what came first? The chicken or the egg? What comes first? Being able to hear the word of God or being able to choose to become of God. That's the whole point. The reason they cannot hear. Evangelicalism will say the reason that you do not hear them is because you do not choose to be of God.

But you see, unless you can hear the words of God, how could you choose to accept them in the first place? These words make no sense within the context of a synergistic system. But they make perfect sense if we allow the Scriptures to speak for themselves.

He who is of God hears the words of God. John chapter 10. My sheep hear my voice. But Jesus had just said to the Jews, you're not my sheep. Same concepts being fleshed out in different ways. Same concept being taught.

This is the Jesus who is on the cross. And then when Jesus finishes the public portion of His ministry before the private portion to His disciples in John chapter 12. Again, verse 36, we read, These things Jesus spoke and He went away and hid Himself from them.

This is after the Greeks came seeking Him. There were Greeks seeking after Him. And Jesus hid Himself from them. He would not meet with them. He hid Himself from them. But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him, this was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke.

Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed, for this reason they could not believe. For Isaiah said again, He has blinded their eyes and He hardened their hearts that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart and be converted and I heal them.

These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory and He spoke of Him. Quoting from Isaiah chapter 6, identifying Jesus as Yahweh in the context of Isaiah's temple vision. Isaiah is sent to proclaim what?

Judgment. Judgment. This is how John finishes Jesus' public ministry. He's done so many signs for them yet they were not believing. And does that mean God failed? Does that mean God sat back and said, Wow, I could have done that better.

Well, that's not what I wanted. Is that what it says? No, this was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet. The prophet said, this is the way it was going to be. That's the same Jesus who is on the cross that Mr. Fisher says.

He can't see how that's the Calvinist God. Now, in Sunday school, we've been looking at John chapter 17, so I'll be brief. We just looked at verse 6. I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world.

They were Yours and You gave them to Me and they have kept Your word. Now, the first application of this as we already noted was the disciples themselves. Because it's going to go on to say, I also pray for those who will believe because of them.

But the point is, God owns the people to whom Jesus will reveal Himself and He gives them to the Son. God has the right to do that. Well, why doesn't He do that with everybody? If this is what's necessary to bring about salvation, then why doesn't He do it with everybody?

And this was the very issue that Mr. Fisher said, black hole. Sucked me in. Conversations with the reprobate. Take it up with Jesus, Mr. Fisher, because He taught it. In His high priestly prayer, He's about to go to the cross.

He's about to go to the cross. And what's He talking about? Father, You have certain people. You've given them to Me. You have sovereignty over them. I have manifested Your name to them. Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You.

For the words which You gave Me I have given to them and they receive them and truly understood that I came forth from You and they believe that You sent Me. I ask on their behalf, look at verse 9, I do not ask on behalf of the world but of those whom You have given Me for they are Yours.

That's the crucified Jesus. Mr. Fisher says, we need to develop our theology based upon the crucified Jesus. Well, guess what? If we do, if we listen to all that He said and not filter out the parts we don't like, the theology that we will develop from the crucified Jesus is the theology we've already seen in Peter and Paul.

It's the theology that's consistent from beginning to end of a sovereign God who is accomplishing His purposes in this world and that He has a specific people who receive His mercy and His grace. But I think, and I didn't, unfortunately, I had it on my screen.

I don't think I got to this one. I don't know if anybody listened this afternoon. Remind me whether I did or didn't. But I had it on my screen at one point, but if you've ever done a radio interview, you know that you may want to get someplace, but then the interviewer looks at you and asks you a question about something that's 47 miles down the road and you never get back to it.

But it just struck me that especially in the context of talking about the crucified God, the crucified Christ, the one passage that just struck me and said, oh, how sadly ironic that here you have a young man who's walked away and said, I can't do that.

I can't believe that. That says we need to look to the crucified Jesus to create our theology. And where is one of the greatest visions of the crucified Jesus in all of Scripture? Where is it found? Revelation chapter 5.

Remember? In Revelation chapter 5, there's a lamb standing as if slain. The marks of the blood. You see, we, most of us, have never seen a sacrifice. If you want to see it, they've got them on YouTube, believe it or not.

They actually recreate the sacrifices on YouTube, including the slaughtering of the animal. For most of us, we're a little squeamish about those things. But anyone who had been to the temple, anybody who had seen sacrifices would know what a lamb looked like that it had its throat slit and its blood poured out.

And so it would have been something that would have been recognizable. And there is a lamb standing as if slain. You can tell, that lamb should not be standing. That lamb should be flat out. But it's standing.

As if slain. It's obviously been resurrected. And that lamb becomes the object at the end of chapter 5 of the worship of the entire universe. Every created thing. But before that happens, there is a song that is sung.

It's in verse 9. And they sang a new song saying, Worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals. For you were slain and purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

And you have made them to be a kingdom and priest to our God and they will reign upon the earth. Now, we don't have time to unpack it. It's a tremendous text. Notice, it's all God's power. It's not you made salvation possible and man cooperated.