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Timothy chapter 4, Paul wrote this epistle to young Timothy instructing him on some of the problems he would have to face and overcome as he pastored the church at Ephesus. And here Paul warns Timothy that in these last times, which is this entire church age, there are going to be great difficulties that he'll have to address.
And then he also gives instruction about how to conduct the church of God. And in this passage we have Paul telling Timothy that in the church you ought to have public reading of the Word of God. And so what we do, read the Old Testament, now Jason's going to read the New Testament, is really a fulfillment of the command of the Word of God that we have here in 1st Timothy 4.
Jason, please.
1st Timothy chapter 4. Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times, some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the Word of God and prayer. If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed.
Have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths. Rather, train yourselves for godliness. For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is a value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive because we have our hopes set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.
Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct and love and faith and purity. Until I come, devote yourselves to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.
Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things. Immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress.
Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we indeed are in the later times where many have departed from the faith.
And Lord, we thank you that you preserve us. We thank you that we are secure in your hand. We thank you that the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we belong to you, that it is Christ who is our advocate.
Lord, we have so many tremendous blessings that are found in Christ Jesus. Help us, Lord, to remember these blessings. When difficulty comes, when suffering comes, when things are happening where we don't quite understand why, Lord, I pray that we would trust in you, that we would trust in your sovereign, providential hand that is guiding and leading us.
Lord, we thank you that you are a merciful God. We thank you that you are the Savior of all people, that in your mercy and in your grace you withhold judgment on sinners. But Lord, you are especially the Savior of the elect.
And Lord, we rejoice in that. So Lord, as we open up your Word and as we continue to study about the Good Shepherd, Christ Jesus, help us, Lord, to hear these words. We pray that the Spirit would take these words from our ear to our heart, would teach us how to apply them, and in the power of the Spirit we would do so.
Thank you, Lord, for this morning, for this time, and we pray that you would bless the rest of our worship service. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well, let's turn in our Bibles to John chapter 10 once again. We're getting a little earlier start today, which I'm very happy about, because this is a passage that is very rich. And I hope that, you know, I know that sometimes it's kind of a prolonged time on Sunday morning, but, you know, I hope that we get into the Word and get so focused that the time passes pretty quickly.
It certainly does for me, but I know it does for some of you as well. But this is a rich passage. Let's remember, you know, these are the days a lot of people are traveling. Remember to pray for Mike and Teresa.
They're out in Washington State. Be gone, I think, until next weekend. And so others on the road. All right, so John 10, and today we want to give attention to verses 22 through 30. I was hoping to go a little farther, but discovered that would not happen in the time that we have.
Now, in these verses, verses 22 actually through the end of the chapter, we have the seventh and last dialogue of Jesus that is set forth in the Gospel of John. Now, seven, of course, is a significant number for the Gospel of John.
It seems like there's seven of everything. You have seven dialogues of Jesus. You also have seven signs or miracles that are recounted in John's Gospel. And you have seven formal I am statements where Jesus was making the claim of deity that he is God.
Now, in this chapter of John's Gospel, we have been considering our Lord's presentation of himself as the Good Shepherd of Israel. And so on the one hand, in doing so, Jesus is the Good Shepherd in that he is God himself who leads his people.
God in the Old Testament is the Shepherd of Israel. And when Jesus declared, I am the Good Shepherd, he was declaring that he was the God of the Old Testament. The hope of the Old Testament shepherding Israel.
But in another sense, of course, Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, the Good Shepherd, the one whom the prophets had declared would come and gather and save his people, his sheep. And so the idea of him being the Good Shepherd speaks of his deity.
But also of his office and work as the Messiah. Now, Jesus spoke of his own role as the shepherd of the sheep. And his sheep represented the people who belong to him, of course. He's the shepherd, those whom God had chosen from eternity and had given to his son to redeem from their sin.
And so Jesus contrasted himself as the shepherd or owner of the sheep with a hireling. We saw this last week. A hireling would simply be a workman hired to care for the flock of sheep. But the hireling only cared for, well, not only cared, but he cared for himself over his concern for the sheep.
And Jesus had spoken, of course, about the identity and nature of his sheep, how vulnerable they were. His sheep is very clearly a reference to his elect. You don't become one of the Lord's sheep when you're converted to Christ.
You're one of his sheep and therefore you become converted. You were a wandering sheep and he called you and he brought you back to himself. Jesus made reference to a wolf. When a wolf comes to threaten the sheep, the hireling runs in order to save himself.
But the Good Shepherd does not flee. But rather the Good Shepherd lays down his life in order to save his sheep. Are we losing a little of this mic? Fourth mark, I think. We might be losing it. You might have to go to the pulpit, Mike.
Okay, thank you. Now as we said last week, it may be that the wolf in verse 12 may refer to false teachers who would ravage the Lord's sheep if the shepherd failed to intervene. And as I was considering this this week, I was reminded of the word that Charles Spurgeon once said.
He was so clever in the way he'd express himself. And he once wrote about the conflict of those who were opposing his ministry in London there in the 19th century. And he actually said it was much easier to deal with those outside the church attacking you non-Christians than it was to deal with Christians in the church attacking you.
And he said it this way, that I would rather be attacked by wolves rather than sheep. And sometimes the fight among sheep is the worst kind of attack. Now in the passage before us, the Lord continues to speak of his sheep.
And so there is a continuation of the idea of Jesus as the good shepherd. However, we need to recognize that the time and setting of his words before us, beginning with verse 22, is significantly different than the context we were considering earlier up through verse 21.
And so here in verse 22 we see the time and setting actually advancing well over 60 days. There's a 60 plus day period difference between the end of verse 21 and the beginning of verse 22. And so let's read these verses.
Now it was a feast of dedication in Jerusalem and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. And then the Jews surrounded him and said to him, How long do you keep us in doubt? If you're the Christ, tell us plainly.
And Jesus answered them, I told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. But you do not believe because you are not of my sheep. As I said to you, my sheep hear my voice, I know them, they follow me.
I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone 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 my Father's hand.
I and my Father are one. Let's consider first the setting of this account. Verse 22 and 23. We read of the place and time. This teaching session, this seventh dialogue of Jesus began. Now it was a feast of dedication in Jerusalem and it was winter.
And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. Now the setting of the dialogue in the earlier verses of this chapter was in Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles. That feast was the longest Jewish festival of the year set forth in the Hebrew Scriptures, our Old Testament.
And that feast of the Tabernacles lasted a period of seven days. It took place at the end of the Jewish lunar year, earlier in the fall, our time. It signaled the beginning of the new year for the Jews.
Now because of the difference between the Jewish lunar calendar and our own Gregorian calendar, the time of the feast varies from year to year for us. And so, for example, this year the Jewish people observe the Feast of Tabernacles, which is also known as the Feast of Booths or Sakoth, from October 14th until October 22nd.
That's this year. Our Lord had arrived at Jerusalem at the beginning of this festival, which is recorded in John 7, verse 1 and following. And so the events of John chapter 7, chapter 8, chapter 9, and through chapter 10, verse 21, transpired in just a handful of days during that Feast of Tabernacles.
But now we read in John 10, 22 that the time had advanced somewhat from the Feast of Tabernacles to the Feast of Dedication. The Feast of Dedication, which is an eight-day celebration, will be observed by the Jewish people this year from December 22nd until December 30th.
The onset of this Feast of Dedication takes place 75 days after Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which was at the onset of the Feast of Tabernacles. And so the time advances in our text between John 10, 21 and John 10, 22 by about 67 days or so.
Now the Feast of Dedication is more commonly recognized by the name Hanukkah or the Feast of Lights is what it's sometimes called. It's actually a feast that's not prescribed in the Old Testament for it was not established until after the Old Testament scriptures had been written.
The feast commemorates the rededication of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem that occurred in 165 BC. The Jewish people had long lived under oppression to the Seleucid Empire. That would have been in the region of Syria, ancient Syria.
And at that time in the 160s BC, the emperor was Antiochus Epiphanes IV. There were a number of them. But the Jewish people rose up to regain their independence, their rebellion, against impossible odds, humanly speaking, by the way.
But they were able to secure their independence, and they were to secure their religious liberty under the leadership of the family of Judas Maccabeus. And the account of that is actually recorded in one of the apocryphal books of 1 Maccabees.
It's a very historical book. And we know most of what we know between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament because of the history recorded in those non-biblical but historical books of the apocrypha.
Their period of independence, the Maccabean period, which is also called the Hasmonean period, lasted from 167 BC, when actual liberty was gained, until 63 BC, so a little over 100 years, at which time Rome came and conquered Palestine.
And so the Jews began to celebrate the onset of their political and religious liberty with the rededication of the temple that had been desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes IV. And you're probably familiar with the story.
He marched into Jerusalem and slaughtered a pig on the altar in the Temple of Jerusalem, defiling the temple. And the rededication that occurred in 165 BC was a great event, a restoration of Old Testament worship, and the Feast of Lights, Hanukkah, or the Feast of Dedication, commemorated that annually, and still does today, by the way.
And the highlight of this eight-day Feast of Hanukkah was the nightly lighting of the seven-branch menorah in the temple in Jerusalem, although menorahs were lit in homes and synagogues all across, probably all across the Roman world, in the synagogues.
As one wrote, the Feast of Dedication was the celebration of the memory that the sovereign God, against all human probabilities, it was an impossibility, humanly speaking, wrought deliverance for his people, brought them out of darkness, and enabled them to offer real worship.
And the Jewish people today see that as kind of like their, you know, their Declaration of Independence. It's when freedom was experienced and worship was restored. And so the time of this episode from John 10 .22 to the end of the chapter, John 10 .42, is in the winter months of Judea.
Two months had passed since our Lord's declaration in the temple that he was the Good Shepherd. Only about three or four months now remaining until our Lord's public ministry would come to an end and he would be crucified, arrested and crucified, at the Passover celebration in the spring.
But it was here, in John 10 .22 and following, that our Lord, again on the temple mount, in the area of Solomon's porch, which was right at the eastern entrance of the temple courtyard, here we read that the Jewish leadership challenged Jesus once again.
And it would seem that they took up where they left off just a couple months before. The same dialogue almost and the accusations were leveled. And so in verses 24 through 30 we have this interchange between the Jewish leaders and Jesus.
We first read of the challenge of the Jews in verse 24 and you notice I put the Jews in quotation marks. The Jews took this occasion to surround Jesus and confront him with the question that had long troubled them, verse 24.
Then the Jews surrounded him and said to him, How long do you keep us in doubt? If you're the Christ, tell us plainly. The ESV translates it a little differently. How long will you keep us in suspense?
If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. But the ESV says that the Jews gathered round him and said this to him. I think here in the New King James Version we probably have the better translation because it suggests or betrays the intent and hostility of these Jews toward Jesus.
Again, the New King James reads,. And then the Jews surrounded him. Or the Jews encircled him. It's like they were coming in and entrapped him and basically put him on the spot. Let us remember that in the Gospel of John, most of the time, not always, but most of the time when John makes reference to the Jews, it's a reference to the hostile Jewish leaders in Jerusalem and such is the case here.
The intention of the Jewish leaders was not to discover the truth regarding Jesus but to find fault with him, even a basis to accuse and condemn him. And so the language here in this verse suggests that the Jews are not seeking for clarity in order to worship him without restraint, rather they want to obtain from him an unambiguous statement that would provide an adequate basis for their attack.
Richard Lenski, who was a Lutheran commentator, I thought set the stage well. Here Jesus suddenly appears in their midst. He is alone except for his disciples. Now they can have it out with him. And by a concerted action they surround and enclose him, meaning that he shall not get away.
No friendly multitude is at hand to support him and to stay their hand. And Jesus is suddenly face to face with his bitter enemies who are now bound to force the issue. The moment is charged with the greatest potentialities.
And then Matthew Henry, and I'm going to quote him several times today. He's so good. Describe the setting this way. They came round about him to tease him. He was waiting to tease him as to elicit something from him, that old English word, tease.
He was waiting for an opportunity to do them a kindness. They took the opportunity to do him a mischief. Ill will for good will is no rare and uncommon return. He could not enjoy himself, no, not in the temple, his father's house without disturbance.
They came about him as it were to lay siege to him and encompassed him about like bees. These Jewish leaders posed a challenging question and then gave him a command, even an insistent demand. They confronted him, how long do you keep us in doubt?
There's the question and then the command. If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. They came in a sense pretending they were sincere, sincerely seeking the truth, not directly revealing their motives, but their countenance and their attitude must have betrayed their true desire.
It must have been apparent. They wanted him to tell them plainly. J .C. Ryle wrote, plainly here does not mean in plain language, easily understood, but openly, boldly, unreservedly and without mystery.
They were wanting something by which they could accuse him. That was their motivation. And so if our Lord answered them directly, they would have a basis to accuse him before the Roman authorities. Everyone knew that Christ would be a king.
So how long do you keep us in doubt? If you're the Christ, tell us. This would have certainly resulted in conflict had he made that open claim. They would have sought to discredit him but also destroy him, bringing him before Pontius Pilate, perhaps the Roman governor.
Well, the Lord responded by declaring that he had already told them. Verse 25, we read, Jesus answered them, I told you and you do not believe. Well, actually the Lord never did explicitly tell them that he was the Messiah.
He had done so to others. He told the woman of Samaria, she said to Jesus, I know the Messiah is coming who is called the Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he.
That was a direct claim statement. And Jesus also had declared just in the previous chapter, chapter 9, the man who had been born blind, that he was the Messiah. Remember Jesus asked the man who could now see, Jesus found him, and he asked the man, do you believe in the Son of God?
The man answered, who is he Lord, that I may believe in him. And then Jesus said to him, you've both seen him, it's he who is talking with you. There's an explicit statement that he was the Messiah. And then of course our Lord accepted the statement or the confession of the disciples that he was the Messiah.
But he actually had not overtly at this point declared he was the Messiah to these Jewish leaders. But though he had not overtly claimed to be the Messiah before these unbelieving Jewish leaders, he had given ample evidence before them of his true identity.
And so he had indeed told them, for he said, the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. Notice what he does here. He personified his works as if they were a personal verbal witness to his true identity.
They bear witness of me, who I am.
I already told you.
The works told you that I do. And so his miracles had testified or had borne witness that he was indeed the promised Messiah. D .A. Carson wrote, at the same time all of his ministry, both words and deeds, pointed in one direction.
In that sense he had told them, even his works done in the Father's name as the revelation of his Father's will and the embodiment of the Father's power taken cumulatively, testify that the Father has sent him.
But then Jesus added this conclusion in conjunction, I told you, but you do not believe. And so here we see the problem was not insufficient evidence to substantiate his true identity. The problem was their unbelief.
They had no faith. They had pretended that they only doubted, but Christ tells them that they did not believe. Skepticism in religion is no better than downright infidelity, downright unbelief. We should not be skeptical.
We might be skeptical about what we understand the Word teaches, but we shouldn't be skeptical about the Word itself. And so I told you, and you do not believe. The problem is they did not have faith.
Well, in verse 26, the Lord then stated the reason for their unbelief. Jesus declared to them, verse 26, but you do not believe because you are not of my sheep, as I said to you. The reason that he did not believe was because they were not of his sheep.
Had they been of his sheep, they would have believed. They were not of his sheep, so they did not believe. Here we may draw a conclusion that the sheep in John's Gospel is not a metaphor of converted people directly, but rather to the elect people of God, of all those God ordained to save from fallen humanity.
All the elect are God's sheep. God the Father sent his Son into the world to gather together his sheep, all the ones that he had purposed to save from their sin and secure them for eternal life. Now, by definition, how does the Word of God describe divine election of his people?
And so here's a definition that's consistent with the teaching of the Bible. God has chosen specific persons from fallen humanity to be recipients of his salvation, having chosen them before creation in Christ, not based on any foreseen condition or response of them, but solely due to his own good pleasure according to the purpose of his will.
The Bible teaches sovereign grace in salvation. An election was the free grace of God the Father choosing sinners out of humanity and he purposed to save them through his Son. Several words of clarification might be helpful.
First, election, of course, follows our understanding of man's total depravity or the total inability of man, fallen man, to come to God. Left on his own, even after being instructed, admonished, persuaded, and pleaded with, man would still choose to reject God's rule over him for he's spiritually dead, both incapable and unwilling to do the things God has commanded him.
That's what sin is, isn't it? Man's salvation, therefore, must originate from outside of himself. It originates in God's election. God then takes action to save the ones he chose to save. Second, there is no indication in the Scriptures of a reason that God chose the ones he chose, passing over others, other than it was good in his sight and it was in accord with his purpose to glorify himself in grace.
He chose them, purposing to love them with an everlasting love, not because they were more beautiful than anybody else, more willing than anybody else, less sinful than anybody else, more savable than anybody else.
He chose certain ones to glorify himself. I'm going to save them. And Paul reasons in 1 Corinthians that he genuinely chose the worst of us because he wanted to really glorify himself in showing what he could do.
Not many wise, not many smart, intelligent, informed, educated, as he's called the foolish things of the world, so that no flesh would glory in his presence. If God chose you because he saw ahead of time that you would of your own free will believe on him and that's why he chose you, that's what the Arminians teach, then you'd have a basis of boasting, wouldn't you?
You can tell the unconverted person, I was smarter than you. I was more willing than you. I was less sinful than you. I'm saved because ultimately it was because of me and my choice. And God doesn't save anybody in a way that they can take any glory for it whatsoever.
His election is a divine election, not based on anything that we do, could do, want to do, should have done. He chose us as sinners, purposing to glorify himself and saving us. And he certainly does that.
And then third, understand that election is unto salvation. Although certainly God's election of some means his passing over others, hence the decree of reprobation, nevertheless, election is always presented positively in the scriptures unto salvation.
God does not elect people to damnation. All the human race is damned. But he purposed, I'm not going to let the human race entirely be damned, I'm going to save a people out of them. And so God has chosen specific persons, he chose them in eternity before creation, and he purposed to save them.
The first Baptist confession, our confession of course, is the second Baptist confession, the Baptist confession of 1689, but the first Baptist confession of 1644 -46 was quite good itself. And it states this about God's election.
We affirm that as Jesus Christ never intended to give remission of sins and eternal life unto anybody's sheep, he died for sheep, so these sheep only have their sins washed away in the blood of Christ.
The vessels of wrath, as they are none of Christ's sheep, nor ever believe in him, so they have not the blood of Christ sprinkled upon them, neither are partakers of him, and therefore have all their sins remaining upon them, and are not saved by Christ from any of them, under any consideration whatsoever, but must lie under the intolerable burden of them eternally.
And the truth of this appears unto us by the light of these scriptures compared together, and then there's a number of passages that are cited. And then I was reminded of the New Hampshire Baptist confession this week, and it stated the matter in this article entitled, God's Purpose of Grapes.
By the way, I told the story to a couple of men I met from another Baptist church in the area. They were coming to this truth. And this was the statement that really puzzled me when I first read it back in December of 1979.
Forgive me if I just divert a little bit. I went into the minute. Mary and I began to serve the Lord in full-time ministry in 1974 in Texas. I was an associate pastor. But in December of 79, we started a church in Folsom, California.
We were there 11 years. And so I was going to be the pastor for the first time, and I thought to myself, what people are going to come and ask me doctrinal questions. I better bone up. And so I got the confession of faith that all of us independent, fundamental Baptist Armenian churches used.
They all had it. They never looked at it. And I pulled it out, and I said, I'm going to study this through. And as I read it, I said, we don't believe this. We don't teach this. And it was the New Hampshire Baptist confession of faith, which was reformed.
And all these Armenian Baptists claimed this was their confession. And so this was one of the articles I read that really stymied me. There's something wrong here in my thinking and my practice. Here it is, of God's purpose of grace.
We believe that election is the eternal purpose of God, according to which he graciously regenerates, that is, causes to be born again, sanctifies and saves sinners. That being perfectly consistent with the free agency of man, nobody comes to Christ unless they're willing.
But God gives us a new heart to make us willing, to enable us to be willing, or we never would have. It comprehends all the means in connection with the end, that it is the most glorious display of God's sovereign goodness, being infinitely free, wise, holy, unchangeable, that it utterly excludes boasting and promotes humility, that it facilitates love, prayer, praise, trust in God, and active imitation of his free mercy, that it encourages the use of means in the highest degree, we've got to preach the gospel or people won't get saved, that it may be ascertained by its effects in all who truly believe the gospel, and that it's the foundation of Christian assurance, that to ascertain it with regard to ourselves demands and deserves the utmost diligence.
He's quoting Peter there, give utmost diligence to make your calling and election certain to your experience,.
That you would know it.
And then fourth, to be precise in our speaking of these matters of God's election, we should distinguish between the doctrines of election and predestination. Although they are often popularly used synonymously, they are related but really distinct doctrines.
Predestination speaks of God's design for the ones he elected. He first elected those he purposed to love and save. They are only his beloved as no one else is. Although he's loving to all because he's a loving God, and then having elected them, he predestinated his elect ones, that they would be conformed to the image of his son, first.
Secondly, to become his adopted children. And third, that they would be to the praise of his glory. That's what predestination is. He chose us and then he predestined us that we're going to be saved. That's basically what he's asserting.
Now there are many passages of scripture that declare this doctrine of election that our Lord Jesus taught here in John 10. We saw it in John 6 also. Romans 9, 9 through 15, for this is a word of promise according to this season I will come.
This is God promising Abraham. And Sarah shall have a son. And not only so, but Rebecca also having conceived by one, even our father Isaac, for the children. There were twins. The children being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand.
Not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. Normally the younger would serve the elder. God reversed it to show that he's the one that makes the determination.
And it wasn't based on anything they did or would do. It was before they did anything good. It was in order to substantiate it's a matter of God's sovereign election, not because of anything in man. And so it was said to her, the elder shall serve the younger.
Even as it's written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Rhetorical question. Of course not. God forbid. For he said, God said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.
I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. Ephesians 1, 4. Even as he, that would be God the father, chose us in him, that would be in Jesus Christ, before the foundation of the world, before creation, that we should be holy.
That second portion, that we should be holy, that's the predestination. That we should be holy and without blemish before him in love. And 2 Timothy 1, 9. Who saved us, God saved us, called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, not because of what you've done, will do, could do, might do, want to do.
No, but according, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And then Acts 13, 48. As the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of God, and as many as were ordained to eternal life.
That would be elect, predestinated, they believed. And 1 Corinthians 1. Again, we alluded to this. You see your calling, brethren. The Corinthian church, they were characterized, the people were characterized by pride and division, exalting one another over others.
And he basically said, hey, look at yourselves. You know, God chose you not on the basis of anything in you. And so why are you going about boasting as if you're somebody? You see your calling, brethren, that not many wise, according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.
God has chosen, in other words elected, the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. God has chosen, or elected, the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty, the base things of the world, the things which are despised.
God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are. And here's the purpose clause, verse 29, so that no flesh should glory in his presence. If you're saved because of something you did, then you negate God's purpose.
He saved you in a way that you can take absolutely no credit for it. Now that renders you humble and grateful, doesn't it? He could have passed you over, left you in your sin, and damned you to eternal hell, and would have been just in doing so.
But he determined and declared, no, I'm going to glorify my mercy and my love and my wisdom and my power in saving you from your sin. And he had you on his heart, if you're a child of God, or if one day you become a child of God, he had you on his heart in eternity before he even created the heavens and the earth.
You came to know him when you believed on him, he foreknew you, he knew you as a person, as an individual, and loved you with an everlasting love even before he created the heavens and the earth. Now there's some assurance, some basis of assurance there, isn't there?
If you can be assured that you're numbered among the elect. And so only the elect of God believe, for God only works his grace in them, so as to regenerate them, to give them spiritual life. This new birth places within them the desire and ability to believe God's word, so as to believe on God's sons, so as to be saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, for salvation.
And so Christians owe all that they have from God to his sovereign grace that he had purposed from eternity. And if it were not for the reality that God had elected us unto salvation, we would have been as these Jewish leaders to whom Jesus declared, you do not believe because you are not of my sheep as I said to you.
And even in my Arminian days, back in the 70s, when I used to go around winning people to Christ left and right, I was hired as the staff's sole winner in my early 20s, from the age of 21 until 26 or 27.
And I got pretty good at it. I think I was pretty proud of it too. By the way, going around telling people, and I used to preach against what I'm preaching for today. You know, telling people they're saved because of their free will.
Christ made possible the salvation of anybody. You can make it worthwhile if you believe on him. And I believed that and taught that, but I always knew, even in my Arminian days, that's true of everybody else.
But with me, it had to have been sovereign grace. There's no way in the world I sought Christ, wanted to, desired to. He came and sought me, and I fought against him, and he defeated me. Thank God. And he did that for you too, didn't he?
Look what he had to overcome. Ignorance, error, resistance, rebellion, self-will. I'm the Lord. I'm the master of my life. I want to determine my destiny. He had to break that and remove that, didn't he?
It wasn't anything about us that moved him to save us. Donald Carson again wrote of this matter, what thing can explain the obtuseness of so many heroes? He's talking about these Jewish leaders. It is that they do not belong to Jesus' sheep.
It's not just that his own sheep do hear his voice, that he knows them and they follow him, but that those who are not his sheep do not hear his voice, that he does not know them, and therefore they do not follow him.
Neither does Jesus, nor John, means to reduce moral responsibility by the opponents of the slightest. This doesn't let them off the hook. That they are not of Jesus' sheep does not excuse them. It indicts them.
But the predestinarian note ensures that even their massive unbelief is not surprising. It's to be expected and falls under the umbrella of God's sovereignty. That's a good word. Well, in contrast to these unbelieving Jews who are not his sheep, Jesus then spoke of the responsiveness of his sheep.
Verse 27, My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. This speaks of the effectual call of God that's extended to his sheep when it's in his timing and purpose to bring them to faith in Jesus Christ.
The Lord calls his sheep and his sheep hear him calling them. They come to him and they begin to follow him. So this is speaking about their conversion. They're lost sheep. They hear his voice. They come to him.
They follow him. Calvin wrote it this way, Christ assigns a higher reason why they do not believe either in his miracles or in his doctrine. It's because they are reprobate. We must observe Christ's design for since they boasted of being the church of God, that would be the Jewish leaders, that their unbelief may detract nothing from the authority of the gospel, he affirms that gift of believing is a special gift.
And indeed, before that men know God, they must first be known by him, as Paul says. On the other hand, those to whom God does not look must always continue to look away from him. If anyone murmur at this, arguing that the cause of unbelief dwells in God, in other words, they blame God because they're not being saved, because he alone has power to make sheep, I reply, he, God, is free from all blame, for it is only by their voluntary malice that men reject grace.
God does all that is necessary to induce them to believe, but who shall tame wild beasts? This will never be done until the Spirit of God changes them into sheep. They who are wild will in vain attempt to throw on God the blame of their wildness, for it belongs to their own nature.
In short, Christ means that it is not wonderful if there are few who obey his Gospel, because all whom the Spirit of God does not subdue to the obedience of faith are wild and fierce beasts. So much the more unreasonable and absurd it is that the authority of the Gospel should depend on the belief of man.
But believers ought rather to consider that they are the more strongly bound to God because while others remain in a state of blindness, they are drawn to Christ by the illumination of the Spirit. Here too, the ministers of the Gospel have ground of consolation.
In other words, pastors, ministers, you don't see a lot of results, don't be discouraged because we have this, if their labor be not profitable to all. And then Arthur Pink wrote this, But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said to you.
To what is our Lord referring? When had he previously avowed that these Jews were not of God's elect? When had he formally classed them among the reprobates? And the answer is to be found in chapter 8 of this same Gospel.
There we find this same company, the Jews, verse 48, antagonizing him. And to them he says, Why do you not understand my speech? Even because you cannot hear my word. This is strictly parallel with ye believe not in John 10, 26.
Then in John 8 he explains why they could not hear his word. It was because they were of their father, the devil. Again, in the 47th verse of the same chapter, he said to the Jews, He that is of God hears God's words.
Ye therefore hear them not, because you are not of God. Strictly parallel is this with John 10, 26. They heard not, because they were not of God. They believed not, because they were not of his sheep.
Each instance he gives as the reason why they received him not, the solid fact that they belonged not to God's elect, they were numbered among the reprobates. Now, if you look at John 10, 27, actually, that verse alone sets forth three of the five doctrines of grace, which is at the heart of Reformed theology, historic Protestant understanding.
First, there's the doctrine of election conveyed by the words, my sheep. Secondly, there's the doctrine of effectual call, or irresistible grace, in the words, my sheep hear my voice. And then, lastly, the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints is declared in the words, they follow me.
And the idea is they continue to follow him. They don't stop following him.
Perseverance.
Now, in order for our Lord to convince these Jewish leaders, and remember, that's who he's addressing. In order for our Lord to convince these Jewish leaders they were not of his sheep, the Lord set forth distinguishing characteristics of his sheep.
In setting forth these characteristics and blessings of his sheep, his opposers could be certain of their spiritual condition and their terrible destiny. And so in our Lord setting forth these positive qualities of his sheep, he showed these Jewish leaders their lost condition.
So let's consider these a little more carefully. What characterizes the Lord's sheep? This is true of every Christian. Every true Christian. Jesus said that his sheep hear my voice. His people recognize his voice calling them.
They know Jesus Christ to be their shepherd, their savior, their provider, their protector, that he owns them. And they delight in hearing his voice and enjoy sitting at his feet and hearing him teach them and hear his words of promise and assurance to them.
They hear his voice. Of course they hear him for he would have them hear him. As the scriptures say, the hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made them both. And that's true of both physical hearing and spiritual hearing.
We hear him because he opened our spiritually deaf ears enabling us to hear his voice calling us by name. It's a personal call, isn't it? When we come to salvation. And these Jewish leaders knew nothing of this.
They did not hear his voice. Jesus secondly said of his sheep,. And I know them. The Lord distinguishes his sheep, his elect, from all others. Paul wrote,. Nevertheless a solid foundation of God stands having this seal.
The Lord knows those who are his. That's the elect. The Lord has his sheep on his heart. They're dear to him. Now again, God is loving to all because God is love. But he does not love all humanity. He doesn't have all humanity dear to his heart.
He has set his love upon his people, an everlasting love. He shows forth great patience upon all the human race. But with regard to those who are not his sheep, his long suffering toward them is aggravating the intensity of his wrath upon them, which he will unload on them on the day of judgment.
But of his own, his elect, God loved them with an everlasting love, for he regarded them from eternity to be in union with his Son, Jesus. So even when we were in the depths of our sin before we were Christians, even when we were in our ignorance and in our defiance toward him, he had compassion on us, even as his wrath lay upon us.
He loved his sheep with an everlasting love and therefore had pity upon them and their sin and purposed that he would do everything needful while remaining true to himself and his holy nature in order to redeem them from their sin, even to the infinite degree of love and sending his Son to endure his wrath that was upon them.
And so he loved us, his sheep, with an everlasting love. And therefore he moved to save us from our sin, as Jeremiah could say, so every one of us who know the Lord may confess of our God. The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love, and therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you, I say, called you to salvation.
But again, these Jewish leaders knew nothing of this. And then Jesus said thirdly of his sheep, They follow me. His sheep submit to his leading them, to his guidance and direction. They joyfully hear his voice and they most willingly desire to do his bidding.
Matthew, Henry, God bless them. The word of command has always been, Follow me. We must eye him as our leader and captain, tread in his steps, walk as he walked, follow the prescriptions of his word, the intimations of his providence and the directions of his spirit.
Follow the Lamb, whithersoever he goes, and in vain do we hear his voice if we do not follow him. His sheep follow him. He is their Lord. But again, the Jewish leaders knew nothing of this. Now in verse 28, we read that our Lord gives eternal life to his sheep, that is to his elect.
I give them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. Perhaps, we don't have full time to address this, but if we had time, we could answer the question, What is eternal life?
I need to summarize this. We can't go through all these notes because of the time, but I need to summarize this. We've alluded to this before, maybe even stated it, but I want to clarify it at this time.
When Jesus says in John 10 that I give to them eternal life, we need to understand that the nuance and meaning of eternal life in John's gospel is somewhat different than the idea of eternal life expressed in the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
They're both true, of course, but there is a difference in John's gospel compared to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And if I can just summarize, and if you have time, you can read through the notes to substantiate this.
If I can summarize it, it's this way. In the synoptic gospels, eternal life is primarily seen to be something inherited at the end of life. You'll inherit everlasting life. You'll inherit the kingdom.
And in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the synoptic gospels, eternal life is primarily linear or horizontal. It speaks about endless life that is yet to be inherited but is promised to those who believe on Jesus, disciples of Jesus.
But in John's gospel, the emphasis is not on duration or linear or horizontal, but in John's gospel, life is more vertical or spiritual. You presently have life. And so in the synoptics, where it speaks about the quantity of life unending, in John's gospel and his epistles, eternal life is more quality of life.
I gave you life, and you'll have it more abundantly. And so life is a quantitative thing. It speaks of the quality of existence we have. And he gives his children, he gives his sheep eternal life, and we have eternal life now, according to John's gospel and John's epistles.
And you can find that in the synoptics also. But the primary emphasis in John's gospel is this quality of life that we have with God through his son, Jesus Christ. And that's an important matter for us to understand.
What is this quality of life? I'm on page 9 now as we wrap things up. This quality of life. Well, first, John's gospel emphasizes that eternal life is eschatological in nature. And most of you are probably familiar with that word eschatological.
It's an adjective. And eschatological just speaks about the end times. And we mostly think of the second coming of Christ as eschatological, the end times. And in John's gospel, eternal life is presented as an eschatological theme.
What's different, of course, in the synoptics, eschatological is future, the second coming of Christ. But in John's gospel, there is a sense in which we've already entered the eschatological time. We've arrived at the age to come.
We've arrived at the promised age of the Old Testament. And so there's a realized eschatology that is set forth in John's gospel. Once again, what John presents and what Jesus presents is that we have eternal life now in all of its quality, in all of its blessedness, in all of its wonder.
And so we're living in the age to come even though there is a yet future realization when Jesus Christ comes. Also, another emphasis in the understanding of eternal life in John's gospel is the nature of knowing God through Jesus Christ.
There's a personal, intimate knowledge of God. And at the bottom of page 9, I just want to read George Ladd's comments who just wrote a wonderful chapter on this matter of eternal life in the gospels.
In John, knowledge is experiential relationship. An intimate, mutual relationship exists between the Father and the Son. Jesus in turn knows His disciples, and they know Him. And in knowing Him, they also know God.
I know my own, and my own know me, as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. The thing that sets apart Jesus' disciples from the world is the fact that they know Him while the world does not. Because of the intimate knowledge between the Father and the Son, He is able to mediate to His disciples the knowledge of God.
Knowledge of Jesus, in other words, how do we know Jesus? Here he says, knowledge of Jesus includes knowledge of the meaning of His mission. He is the one sent by God. And then he gives some verses in John.
He is the I Am who comes to speak the word of God. He and the Father mutually indwell each other, and yet the Son is completely dependent upon the Father. And so we know Christ in these things, and in knowing Christ in these things, we know the Father, because the Lord Jesus has mediated the Father to us.
And let's look at the promise, at the top of page 10, as to the matter of perishing. He said they'll never perish, His sheep will never perish. To perish does not mean to be annihilated, to experience annihilation.
That's what Seventh-day Adventists teach. That's what Jehovah's Witnesses teach. They do not believe in eternal hell. They think after the judgment that people who are damned will be extinguished, and they'll cease to exist completely as though they, just as they were before they were born.
But this is not the case. God created us as living, eternal souls. And every human being is going to exist forever, either with the Lord and eternal life in a new heavens and a new earth, or everlasting punishment in an eternal hell.
And nothing could be clearer in the Scriptures than this, as the Lord Jesus taught repeatedly. Again, Matthew Henry wrote of the escape from perdition that the Lord grants His sheep. They shall be saved from everlasting perdition, or damnation.
They shall by no means perish forever. And so the words are, as there is an eternal life, so there is an eternal destruction. And then He qualifies Himself here. The soul not annihilated, but ruined. That's what perishing means, to be ruined.
It's being continued, but it's comfort and happiness irrecoverably lost. All believers are saved from this. Whatever cross they may come under, they shall not come into condemnation. A man is never undone until he's in hell, and they shall not go down to that.
Shepherds that have flocks often lose some of the sheep and suffer them to perish. But Christ is engaged that none of His sheep shall perish, not one. What is meant by our Lord's words, neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
The Lord has put His name and power at stake with this firm promise. As our Good Shepherd, who is all-powerful, has committed Himself to see His promises for us fulfilled. No thing and no one can change His commitment to us.
No one can defeat or frustrate our Lord Jesus' power toward this end, the salvation of our souls. Again, Matthew and Henry, His own power is engaged for them. Neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.
A mighty contest is here supposed about these sheep. The Shepherd is so careful of their welfare that He's taken them not only within His fold, under His eye, but in His hand. Interested in His special love and taken under His special protection, all His saints are in Thy hand.
And yet their enemies are so daring that they attempt to pluck them out of His hand. His whose own they are, whose care they are, but they cannot, they shall not do it. Note those who are safe, who are in the hands of the Lord Jesus.
The saints are preserved in Christ Jesus. Their salvation is not in their own keeping, but in the keeping of a mediator. The Pharisees and rulers did all they could to frighten the disciples of Christ from following Him, reproving and threatening Him.
But Christ said that they shall not prevail. But if that were not enough, we have the words of Jesus in verse 29. And consider the context when He said these words. He said, My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.
Not only is the power of the Lord Jesus committed to their salvation, but God the Father is also committed to secure us in our eternal relationship to Him. He owns us. We are in the Father's hand. There could be no safer place in all of creation.
Perhaps His disciples who were present heard of Jesus' commitment to them. But the Lord Jesus appeared before them in His incarnation as one in His weakness. Can this Shepherd Jesus keep us? And so, in order for the Lord to affirm to them, He called upon God the Father also, declaring that He has secured them.
And so, the security for the true believer is also in the power of His Father who is committed to this end. The security of the true believer, even eternal security to the one who has truly fled to Jesus Christ, is the only city of refuge, place of refuge from the Avenger, God Himself.
Jesus Christ is committed to keeping you. God the Father is committed to keeping you. And nothing can wrest you out of His hand or thwart His purpose. I certainly want to cite the words of Calvin here.
I just came up with this this morning, and I felt like I had to include it. It is an inestimable fruit of faith that Christ bids us to be convinced of our security when we are brought by faith into this fold.
But we must also observe on what foundation this certainty rests. It is because He will be a faithful guardian of our salvation. For He testifies that our salvation is in His hand. And if this were not enough, He says that they will be safely guarded by the power of His Father.
This is a remarkable passage by which we are taught that the salvation of all the elect is not less certain that the power of God is invincible. Besides, Christ did not intend to throw this word foolishly into the air, but to give a promise which should remain deeply axed in their minds.
And therefore we infer that the statement of Christ is intended to show that the elect are absolutely certain of their salvation. We are surrounded indeed by powerful adversaries, and so great is our weakness that we are every moment in imminent danger of death.
But as He who keeps what we have committed to Him is greater and more powerful than all, we have no reason to tremble as if our life were in danger. And then he slaps the Roman Catholics, and rightly so.
Hence, too, we infer how mad is the confidence of the papists, which relies on free will, on their own virtue, and on the merits of their works, widely different as the manner in which Christ instructs His followers.
To remember that in this world they may be said to be in the midst of a forest, surrounded by innumerable robbers, and are not only unarmed and exposed as a prey, but are aware that the cause of death is contained in themselves.
So that relying on the guardianship of God alone, they may walk without alarm. In short, our salvation is certain, because it's in the hand of God. For our faith is weak, and we're too prone to waver.
But God, who has taken us under His protection, is sufficiently powerful to scatter with His breath alone all the forces of our adversaries. It is of great importance for us to turn our eye to this, that the fear of temptations may not dismay us.
For Christ even intended to point out the way in which sheep are made to live at ease in the midst of wolves. Well, there's certainty, isn't there? There's assurance there. There's peace and confidence.
And then the last declaration that Jesus gave to the Jewish leaders is found in verse 30. I and my Father are one. He's not talking about His deity here directly. He's simply saying that He and His Father were in agreement that they were going to keep His shape.
He was going to see to it that they were saved. They are joined together in their mutual intention and purpose to deliver His people unto their blessed state. His sheep would be safely brought into His fold where they are eternally secure.
Have patience, please. One last reading of Matthew and Henry and we'll pray. So our passage assures us that have heard His voice and followed Him and do follow Him that we are secure in our salvation.
No force on earth, no effort of demons or Satan, no faults or failures of our own will frustrate God's design for our everlasting life with one another in His presence. Praise God for His unspeakable gift in Jesus Christ.
If this be so, then none, neither man nor devil, is able to pluck them out of the Father's hand, not able to deprive them of the grace they have, nor to hinder them from the glory that is designed them, not able to put them out of God's protection, nor get them into their own power.
Christ had Himself experienced the power of His Father upholding and strengthening Him and therefore puts all His followers into His hand too. He that secured the glory of the redeemer will secure the glory of the redeemed.
And further, to corroborate the security that the sheep of Christ may have strong consolation, He asserts a union of these two undertakers. I and my Father are one and have jointly and severally undertaken for the protection of the saints and their perfection.
And this denotes more than the harmony, consent, and good understanding that were between the Father and the Son in the works of man's redemption. Every good man is so far one with God as to concur with Him.
And therefore it must be meant, the oneness of the nature of the Father and Son, that they are the same in substance, equal in power and glory, that we should all together hold our peace concerning the essence of the words, even the stones, which the Jews took up to cast at Him would speak it out.
For the Jews understood Him as thereby making Himself God, and He did not deny it. He proved that none could pluck them out of His hand, because they could not pluck them out of His Father's hand, which had not been a conclusive argument if the Son had the same almighty power with the Father, consequently been with Him in essence and operation.
The point is, our salvation is secure. It's a done deal. And we're just waiting until it's fully realized. Although it's realized in a wonderful measure even now, because we hear His voice. We've come to Him, and we follow Him.
Amen?
Let's pray. Thank You, Father, for the blessed promises of the Gospel that we have in Jesus Christ. We thank You, Lord, that it's totally outside of us, that we do not need to look to ourselves, but look to Christ.
And You command us to flee from our sin to Him, and we do so, our God. And we heard His voice, and we do follow Him. We pray, Lord, that You would settle the hearts of those that are disturbed about their soul's condition.
We pray that You would help them to embrace Christ as the only and the certain Savior who receives all sinners, that there is no sinner too great and too far afield that He will not welcome if they will come to Him in faith.
We pray that You would, Lord, strengthen us with a sound assurance of salvation, that we would have confidence, our God, and not look to the circumstances or events that transpire in our life for some kind of evidence or proof, but let us look to Jesus Christ, His life, His death, His resurrection, and His present enthronement for our confidence and our joy.
For it is in Jesus' name we pray,.
Amen.
