The Shepherd Knows His Sheep

Once again, we will be returning to the 10th chapter of the Gospel of John, chapter 10.

John, chapter 10. Let's ask the Lord to bless us.

Once again, our Heavenly Father, we ask that you would be with us, that you would bless our time together.

Indeed, as we consider some of the most famous words of the ministry of our emergencies, though they are familiar to us, may we once again wonder at the graciousness of His speech, and the words of life that He delivered to us.

We ask that by His Spirit you would help us to understand Him in Christ. I don't know about you, but it was rather exciting this morning to look out and see a rather full room of people.

I understand the parking lot was completely full. People were having to park down the streets. That's a good thing for us.

I think that's wonderful. Hopefully you all were here because we are sort of picking up where we were this morning.

We looked at John, chapter 10, verses 1 through 18, and Jesus' discussion of Himself as the

Good Shepherd. His presentation of the fact that there is a relationship that exists between Himself and His sheep.

He knows His sheep, and His sheep know Him. They hear His voice, and they follow

Him. They will not follow after a stranger. Those who have come before Him are thieves and robbers.

He is the Good Shepherd. He lays down His life for the sheep. He finished rather hurriedly,

I might note, the tremendous words of verses 17 and 18, where Jesus not only prophesies

His coming death, but also His resurrection. He emphasizes there something that is extremely important.

That is, Jesus says in verse 18 that no one takes His life from Him. He lays it down of His own accord.

It is His choice to do this. He has authority to lay it down, and He has authority to take it up again.

This commandment He has received from His Father. Once again, the unity of the Father and the Son together in the accomplishment of salvation, which is about to be the key emphasis of verse 30 of the most famous verses in the

Gospel of John, when Jesus says, I and the Father, we are one. Those are words uttered in the context of their oneness ingrained about salvation.

So, the Lord has presented these truths to the people. And I don't know about you, but if they didn't understand the first five verses, then

I'm not overly surprised that they likewise did not understand what came after this. Because you will notice that a schism, literally, a division arose amongst the

Jews because of these words, verse 19. Therefore, many of them were saying, concerning Jesus, that He's demonized.

He has a demon, and He's insane. Why do you listen to Him? And yet others were saying, seemingly the smaller group, these are not the words of one who is demonized.

A person who has a demon is not able to open the eyes of the blind. You see, a rhetorical question.

But we see in these first few verses, verses 19 to 21, the fact that the proclamation of the

Gospel, and especially the proclamation of Jesus' centrality, the fact that He is the

One who accomplishes His purpose perfectly. He has the power to save.

He has the authority to lay down His life. He has the authority to take His life again.

When Jesus preaches concerning what God is doing in Him, there's always a result.

We don't run into the neutral party. We don't run into a whole lot of post -moderns in the

New Testament account, do we? People who just sit back in a false sense of wisdom, maybe stroke the goatee and say, well,

I'll think some more about this. Jesus' proclamation causes people to take sides.

It doesn't leave people wondering what He's saying. It does seem to me that when the

Gospel is proclaimed with clarity, mankind responds.

The only way you can get the kind of apathetic response that so much of what's called

Gospel preaching today results in is if you're basically watering down the message to a point where it's little more than milk toast.

It no longer contains the strong assertions of the

Lord Jesus. Jesus has been talking about the fact that there are some people who are

His sheep and some people who are not. Some people who will have eternal life and some who are not.

Remember, John 10 comes after the strong battles of John 5.

In John 8, where the Jews are picking up stones to stone Him, they know who He's referring to.

They recognize that Jesus is, by His teaching, demonstrating that they are not true teachers.

And so, when He says these words, there's going to be a response. And the response of the many is,

He's insane. He makes no sense. Why are you listening to Him?

Literally, though, remember this is the Gospel of John. Remember that John is using words in a specific way.

He weaves many different themes together. How many times have we seen, as we've worked through John, the idea of hearing?

Hearing. Why do you not hear me? Jesus asks. Now, sometimes we don't necessarily see that in our

English translations because frequently this word is translated as to listen, to hear, sometimes to understand.

And if the translation we're using uses a number of different words, we don't see what John's actually doing.

Literally, what they ask is, why are you hearing Him? Now, literally that would mean, yes, why are you listening?

Why do you take that time? But remember in John, already in John chapter 8, you would have the discussion of the fact that those who are of God hear the words of God.

The reason you cannot hear is because you do not belong to God. Here comes the same thing.

These people hear these words that to us are the very words of life. I am the good shepherd.

I give my life for the sheep. My sheep know me and I know them. I give my life in their place.

So those are the words of life. But let's face it. The majority of the people in our society, they hear that.

What is he talking about? Sheep? Life? Giving life? This is foolishness.

This doesn't make any sense. This is insane. The question is asked, why do you hear

Him? That is a good question. Why do we hear Him?

That's a question we have to ask all of our friends who, because of their traditions, assert that in reality, the reason we're here, the reason we're here, is because, well, we have a capacity that maybe others don't have.

Maybe we're just more sensitive. Maybe we're better. I know that most of our

Armenian friends don't use that kind of language. But it is the logical result of their assertions.

That the reason we're here is not because of the sovereign grace of God. God's grace goes out to everybody equally.

God gives 100 % effort with everybody. But you see, God can't actually turn it.

He can try real hard. But He's tried real hard enough. It's all up to you.

That's their understanding. But that would mean, why do you hear?

Well, because there was something better about you. There was something more insightful about you. Give you a reason to boast.

But that's not going to be Jesus' response to this. So, one group of people say,

It's crazy. You're wasting your time. Why do you hear this one? But there are some others.

And they're troubled. Maybe they're people that once the Spirit comes, and the

Gospel's proclaimed after Pentecost, I wonder, do you ever wonder if maybe some of these people, they were at Pentecost, they heard

Peter preaching, they were some of the thousands that were saved that day. We don't know. But it makes sense.

It wasn't that long after this. Some of them are troubled. And they say,

You know, we've seen some demonized people. And we, you know, remember the

Gadarene demoniac? He didn't speak like this. He didn't have this kind of understanding.

He didn't have this kind of control of the Scriptures. Besides that, and here's the connection again, back to chapter 9.

The connection that we find there. Besides that, He opened the eyes of the blind man.

That's never, ever happened before. It's never happened before.

Can a person who is demonized, open the eyes of the blind? And so there's a new vision, a new vision, a schism, because of what

Jesus teaches. Some people today would tell us, You know, you're a

Reformed Baptist, you cause so many divisions. Now we don't want divisions amongst ourselves.

And generally we're not too bad at avoiding that. I'm not sure of anyone other than maybe

Jim Renningan and Bob Salt and others who have preached in as many Reformed Baptist churches as I have.

In fact, we're already talking with Reformed Baptists in Sydney, Melbourne, and New Zealand about going back.

And you've really got to love Reformed Baptists to fly for 14 hours to meet a Reformed Baptist. I can tell you something really big.

But you know what? If you haven't had this opportunity, it is really exciting to get to go to other

Reformed Baptist churches and sing Amen at the end. You know how many times

I have really made a fool of myself in other churches, or Reformed Baptist churches? There's this one solo voice at the end.

Ah! It stops right there. Because I'm expecting that Amen. But we get to go to Reformed Baptist churches and we sing alike, and we preach the same message.

We may have our problems, but you know what? We're a pretty united group.

We really are. I'm not talking about that kind of division. You recognize the fact that when you preach the

Gospel and you insist upon what the New Testament insists upon, there are going to be people who don't like it.

In our day, you don't want to cause offense and you don't want to cause division.

You don't want to get anybody upset. Well, I just keep asking myself the question, who's our example?

Who's example are we supposed to follow? When Jesus preached,

He caused division. A schism. He didn't leave people in neutrality.

He didn't leave people wondering, did He mean this or did He mean that? He caused a schism because that's what the truth will do.

He forced them to make a response. Yes, part of their response was very strong.

To call someone demonized or a Samaritan, insane. Not respectful.

I wouldn't want to be these men of the Day of Judgment and answer to these words. But they did respond.

So, that sort of ends this portion of the chapter. But you'll notice, John is putting together a number of things here in light of a common theme.

The common theme being the healing of the blind man, leading to the discussion of false shepherds, and then this continues on into the presentation of Jesus as the shepherd of the sheep.

Now, there seems to be a period of time that elapses here because we are then told that Jesus is walking in the portico of Solomon in Jerusalem at the

Feast of Dedication. And it was winter. It was winter time, and so this would be a place that would provide some shelter from the cold and windy rain, just like we get that once in a while, so they do in Jerusalem as well.

And so Jesus is walking in the temple at the Feast of, literally, its rededication.

It was when the temple was rededicated after the Greeks had, in essence, blasphemed the temple.

And verse 24 says the Jews literally surrounded him. They did this purposefully.

It was like they split up into groups and, let's go get him, and they surrounded him. And they said to him, now some translations say, how long will you keep us in suspense?

It literally says, how long will you lift up our souls? But it's an idiomatic phrase, and some argue that it should be translated, how long will you torture us?

How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are Pakistos, the

Christ, the Messiah, Hamashiach, then tell us plainly and openly.

What are they doing here? It's rather obvious, especially if you know the backgrounds of the situation.

The Romans had already had to deal with a lot of people who had used this term,

Messiah, of themselves. And they did so without mercy. And they did so quickly.

And so what they want is not a demonstration based upon what

Christ has done. They don't want fulfillment of Old Testament scriptures. They just want a straight statement that they can run directly to Pilate with, or directly to the nearest centurion with, and say, remember the last

Messiah guy we had, and you had to bring in troops from outside and chase him around the wilderness, and you had battles, and soldiers died, and et cetera, et cetera.

Well, guess what? Right in the temple is a guy who just claimed to be the

Messiah. And they don't have to worry about the Romans caring about Old Testament prophecy, or anything the

Old Testament has to say, or what Jesus means by Messiah, or how he understands the

Word. Irrelevant to the Romans. Say the words, and here comes soldiers.

It's all words, too. This is a political move on their part. And so they've decided, look, we've sent people to try to trip them up.

We've had our spies following them around. We need to take care of this.

So they surround him. They do this purposefully. They encircle him and say, if you are the

Messiah, tell us openly. How does Jesus respond to this obvious political ploy?

I said to you, I spoke to you, I have answered you. Jesus answered them and said, I have spoken to you, and you are not believing.

I've told you, but you don't believe. The works which

I am doing, and they of my Father, they testify concerning me. Do you want testimony?

Do you want me to testify concerning myself? We're going back to John 5 and John 8 again. Jesus has already been through all of this.

Who testifies concerning me? The Father does. The works that I do, they testify.

Even if I were to testify, since I know where I'm from, from Heaven, my testimony would be true.

So you have multiple testifiers. Literally it's a term from which we get the word martyr.

You have multiple testifiers. The works which I do in the name of my

Father, they testify concerning me. But if you do not believe, if you are not believing, why?

Why do not? I love this text because it's one of those places we can use sort of as a tradition detector.

There are lots of verses in the Bible that we can use as tradition detectors. What do I mean by tradition detector?

Well, when you read certain verses to people, and they have a particular tradition, and then you ask them to paraphrase it back to you, often it will come back to you backwards because their tradition has caused them to not hear what's being said.

Remember Matthew 23, 37? Well, the big three that people use to try to deny an election, and how many people when they quote it, when

Jesus talks about Jerusalem, Jerusalem, and I'll send you the prophets and you kill them, how often would

I have gathered your children under my wings, but you would not.

And yet, I cannot tell you how many times I have heard people as they quoted that verse say, how often would

I have gathered you, but you would not. Because you see, they think the text is saying, oh,

I've been trying to save you, but I can't because you're more powerful than me. But that's not what

Jesus is saying. How often would I have gathered your children? He's speaking to Jewish leaders and he is condemning them for standing in the way of what

God was doing amongst the people of Israel. But you see, they have a tradition, and so certain words that don't fit just disappear.

The same way here. When you ask most people, why don't people believe?

Why are there people who've heard the gospel and they don't believe? It's because of the way we've proclaimed it to them.

It's all our fault. And that old way of preaching just doesn't work. No, no, no, we have to preach.

And if you don't have enough multimedia, there's nothing wrong with multimedia, but you depend upon it.

And maybe if we did it in liturgical dance, you know, the Anglican things, that sort of work, that way, disappearance anyways, some literal

Lutherans. Maybe if we had puppet shows that would simplify the message.

There are people doing this, I realize, not amongst us, but there are people out there that really do think this way.

It's all our fault. It's the way you presented it. The problem is,

Jesus is the one who presented the gospel to these folks. And they aren't listening to the incarnate Son of God.

Why are they not believing? Well, you know, it could be their upbringing, cultural issues, social issues, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

But Jesus is the answer. You're not believing because you're not a sheep.

Well, wait a minute, wait a minute. Don't we become His sheep by believing? Isn't that the mindset?

Just like this morning, you know, the sheep go along, I think I'll join your flock, I'll make you my shepherd.

Just as the shepherd chooses the sheep. Just as the shepherd that says, you are my sheep,

I bring you into my fold. The only way to understand these words is, the reason you don't believe is because you're not my sheep.

If my sheep hear my voice, you don't hear my voice. Thus, this isn't the first time that Jesus said this.

This goes back to John 8. Why do you not understand what I'm saying to you? Because you don't belong to God.

The reason you don't hear, you don't belong to God. Those who belong to God hear, those who don't, don't.

Now he's using the illustration of the sheep. You are not believing.

You see my words. Some of these very same people, in the next chapter,

John chapter 11, are going to see Lazarus come walking up to the end of the sepulcher that he was in, wrapped in his grave clothes, after being in there, until people say he's figured.

He is going to raise him from the dead. They are going to see this and what's their reaction going to be?

We've got to kill this guy. If he keeps doing this, he's going to bring the

Romans down upon all of us. And the high priest is even going to prophesy that Jesus is going to die for the people.

For all the children of God spread abroad. Not purposely prophesied, but God's going to use them that way.

And what's their response to seeing these miracles, these works of God?

You've got to kill them. You've got to kill them. You wonder why the strongest words of condemnation that I can find in all the

Gospels are not for the harlots, Republicans, tax collectors, traitors to Israel, or anything else.

The harshest words of condemnation are for the religiously blinded.

The people who because of their religious traditions call what's white, black, black, white, good, evil, and evil.

That's what Matthew 23 is all about. So here you have men and Jesus knows their hearts.

He says, you don't believe. It's not that the works haven't been clear enough. He's going to give them one more example.

If you can watch somebody say, Lazarus, come forth and here comes the dead, and as a result try to kill the guy for that, you are not a believer.

And all the words in the world are going to change that. You're not my sheep. My sheep, they hear my voice.

It's the same word, hear. They hear my voice. And I know them and they follow me.

And I give to them eternal life. And they will surely not perish.

The strongest form of denial in the Greek language found here in verse 28, they will never perish.

I give to them eternal life. Jesus had already said, anyone who believes in him has already passed out of death into life.

Possesses right now, it's eternal possession. Eternal life in John 5, John 11, he's repeating the same words in essence to Mary and Martha.

They're not going to quite get what he means, but he's going to say, anyone who believes in me has eternal life.

I give them eternal life. They will never, ever perish.

And that's amazing to me. That's amazing to me. People will come to this text, they'll never perish.

No one's able to snatch them out of my hand. The father who gave to me is greater than all. No one's able to snatch them out of my father's hand.

All that sounds wonderful, but there's been a problem. If that's true, if Jesus can actually give eternal life, not just sort of offer it and hope that we hold on well enough to keep it, but actually impart eternal life, and if he says they'll never perish, if he says no one can snatch them out of my hand, beautiful picture of the redeemed in the hand of Christ.

Is it the sheep that is in the hand of the shepherd? Maybe. But no one can do this.

And people come to this and they realize, well, if that's true, then salvation is completely in the water.

Where's man's role? We have to have a role for man here. And so what

I'll do, is I'll say, yeah, they shall never perish.

No one will snatch them out of his hand, but they can jump out. You can jump out.

And I've heard that. Have they also heard that? I've heard that, right? They come to this text, and they cannot let

Jesus be a perfect Savior. This can't do it. Their tradition won't allow them.

They do the same thing in John 6, when Jesus says, will the Father for me, of all that he's given me,

I lose how many? None. Raise them up on the last day, every single one of them. What does that mean?

Jesus is a perfect Savior. What does that mean? Salvation is of God. Oh, tradition in a way, you've got to find a way around this.

And yet, even if you try the, well, we can jump out routine, that only answers the last half, not the first half of the statement.

They shall never perish. You jump out of the

Savior's hand, is what's going to happen. If eternal life is only found in him, then you leave him, and you don't have life, therefore you will walk in prayer.

The promise of an asylum. And notice he's not, he's not committing any of their political ploys.

But he is answering their question. See, a lot of people look at this and go, that's not really an answer.

I wish there was a straight, I am the Christ. That would be the easy way to go, right? But what better way to answer this, than to say,

I give eternal life to the people of God.

What more could you ask for, than to identify the Messiah of God.

I give eternal life. They shall never perish. What a perfect answer it is.

Because the Romans can be sitting there going, what? Can you see these guys running off to the

Romans? He said he was the Messiah. Well, he said that? Well, yeah. And here's how he said it. He said that he would give eternal life to the sheep of God.

And the Romans are going, what? You see, he's answered perfectly.

But he's not given them anything to go to the Romans with. And in the process, they know it.

They know, because you're going to have to see it. They're going to pick up stones again. They know that he has answered the question, but he's done, so he's outsmarted them again.

I give to them eternal life. Never perish. No one is able to snatch them out of my hand.

My Father who has given me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my

Father's hand. There is true, and I'll use the term that's often abused, but eternal security.

That's why the saints persevere. It's not because of the strength of our hand that holds to the promise of eternal life.

It's the strength of the Father and the Son together that hold us.

Amen. What a horrible thing it is when this truth is not preached.

I remember my parents years ago, and I was very young, but this made a strong impression on me.

Actually, on both sides, my family, mother and father's side, we have members who are Seventh -day

Adventists. I was a fan of the Seventh -day Adventists. And I had one Seventh -day

Adventist aunt once who tried to convert me, and so I went out and bought a bunch of Seventh -day Adventist books and wrote her a big long letter.

It didn't end up in the bill, I guess, but anyway. But I remember my mom coming back from a funeral of someone in that sector of the family.

And she was talking with them, and how, as they sat around, they were there saying,

Oh, I sure hope that right before he passed, he didn't have any evil thoughts.

They were so concerned that he had kept himself faithful, kept himself clean to the end.

Because they don't have this kind of assurance. Their tradition, their teaching, has no grounding for this kind of perfect saving.

And it struck me, even as a young person, what kind of a life must it be?

To be living every day going, Boy, you've got to keep your nose clean.

You might say immediately, but what's the difference between that and our desire for holiness? I hope you see the difference.

I hope you see the difference between a desire to hate sin and to live in a holy way, out of love for what

Christ has done, that adds nothing to His work, and the servile kind of fear that comes from a gospel that says,

Jesus makes it possible for you to be saved, but it's really up to you. There is all the world of a difference between those two things.

So Jesus tells us that our security is found in the fact that we are in the hand of the

Son, which is in the hand of the Father. You have died, and your life has been hidden with Christ in God.

The same thought right here. That is the context of the last verse we'll look at this evening.

Verse 30. Verse 30 is often cited without context.

By good, orthodox men. I and the Father are one.

And all sorts of concepts are based upon that, and read into that.

My concern is that when you look at the context, you have to understand what the verse was saying in its original context first.

I'm not saying that this verse does not lead us to some incredibly high truths about Jesus. But you need to understand what it's saying first before you get to the application.

First, please note something it's not saying. Jesus did not say,

I am the Father. Jesus did not say, I and the

Father is one. The verb's plural. It could be perfectly, acceptably translated,

I and the Father, we are one. It's a plural verb.

We. Jesus never confuses himself with the Father. The Father sent the

Son. The Father is not the Son. So don't be confused about that.

A lot of people, many people, think that's what the text is saying.

Secondly, what is the actual assertion here? Jesus is saying, I and the Father are one in doing what?

In bringing about the salvation of God's people. He has just said no one can snatch

Him out of my hand. No one can snatch Him out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one in doing what?

In bringing salvation to the people of God. That is the first and primary application.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard Christians not thinking about that, use this text, and then some heretic, a

Jehovah's Witness or somebody, comes along and says, well look at the context. That's not what Jesus is talking about.

He's talking about salvation. And they're all going, ah, ah, ah. And it's because they're defending something they shouldn't have defended.

That is what it's about. Jesus and the Father are one in bringing about salvation to the people of God.

But then it's the application. What does that mean? What does it mean for anyone to say that God's elect people are in His hand?

That He is the source of their eternal life? What is it for anyone to say, I give eternal life to them, that eternal life comes from the

Father, I and the Father together provide them with salvation, I and the Father are one.

What mere human being, what prophet, what holy man of old could say these words?

None. They are the ones who are in the hand. They are the ones who depend upon God for eternal life.

God's the source of eternal life. And so you see, the great truth of the unity of the

Father and the Son is seen here, but it's only seen here when we first see it in its proper context.

That what Jesus is saying is, I and the Father, we are one, there is perfect harmony between us in providing eternal life and salvation to God's people.

That's the foundation. That's what Jesus is saying. So when we keep that in mind, we consider these words, and as we leave this building this evening, as we head out into another week of service and ministry, the foundation we can go out with is the recognition that our salvation is not going to be secured by anything we do.

Our salvation is not based upon our righteousness, our fulfillment of condition.

Instead, we have the assertion that the very unity of the

Godhead itself, the very harmony that must by definition exist between the

Father and the Son, and when we get to John 14 and 16, the Spirit, that perfect oneness, perfect unity that exists in the

Godhead is united in saying, we, the

Divine Trinity, will save the sheep to our Lord.

That's the foundation of your salvation. It's not in me. It is in the eternal decision of the

Triune God to glorify Himself in the eternal covenant of redemption and salvation of a specific people.

There's a promise. There is an unchanging foundation. I don't know why anybody would want to have any other foundation.

But thankfully, by God's grace, through His Word and His Spirit, we can claim that promise for ourselves.

Indeed, our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we do thank You for the

Word that You have given to us, the Gospel that has been accomplished, for the

Spirits making these things to come alive in our lives. May we rejoice this evening as we consider that no one can snatch us out of the

Son's hand. No one can snatch us out of the Father's hand. It is the

Spirit that dwells within us that has caused us to know these things. We thank

You for the Triune Gospel. We thank You for the Revelation of Scripture. We thank