In Christ's Hands | Sermon 07/23/2023

Apologia Utah

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Gospel according to John chapter 10. We're going to be in verses 22 through 29.

00:10

You know, I thought about finishing out chapter 10 today, but I just couldn't do it because it seems like next week's going to be so important to go over the fact that Jesus quotes from Psalm 82, and Jesus says here, you are gods, he quotes from Psalm 82, the you are gods psalm, and we know that's the basis of many people's false understanding of something called theosis and being able to become a god and things like that.

00:40

So next week, we'll get into the rest of that, but for now, verses 22 through 29.

00:46

Church, the title of this sermon today is, In Christ's Hands. In Christ's Hands.

00:57

So starting in verse 22 of the gospel according to John chapter 10, hear now the magnificent and glorious word of the living and true

01:05

God. At that time, the feast of the dedication took place at Jerusalem.

01:12

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,

01:23

How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.

01:29

Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my

01:36

Father's name, these testify of me. But you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep.

01:43

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.

01:54

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

02:01

Father's hand. Thus, ending the reading of God's holy, inspired word, let's pray, church.

02:09

God, I ask that you would bless this time. Lord, illuminate the scriptures for the sake of your people by your

02:16

Spirit, the same Spirit who gave these scriptures to us. Lord, help us to grasp this,

02:27

God, that these aren't just words on a paper from 2 ,000 years ago, that these mean something for us.

02:36

So many of us are struggling with assurance of salvation. So many of us are struggling to remember the

02:45

Gospel. God, let this go down to the very fabric of our beings.

02:53

Let the Holy Spirit within us show us, Lord, this truth, that no one will snatch us out of your hands.

03:04

None of us will perish, Lord. Please, God, help me now, as the preacher, to speak in a way that is faithful and truthful and clear for the sake of your people and the glory of your name.

03:18

Amen. You know, we have been seeing

03:24

Jesus make these astounding promises concerning His sheep.

03:31

He has spoken with this level of authority and certainty about the eternal well -being of His followers.

03:41

And so when we sit here and read things like that, that's one thing. But it's another to be able to call upon these verses, to call upon these promises, and hold fast to them in the fiery ordeal, is it not?

03:59

That can be hard sometimes. Who has a lot up here, but sometimes forgets for it to go everywhere else?

04:07

I do, sometimes. We know it, but our heart, everything needs to know it.

04:16

Well, in the book of Daniel, as I introduce this sermon, I want to bring up this story from the book of Daniel.

04:23

During the Jewish exile, when King Nebuchadnezzar had a golden image made, he mandated that all people worship the image at the sound of the instruments.

04:36

So he made a big golden idol, and no matter where you were in Babylon, in the city or whatever, if you heard instruments, you were to bow down and worship this statue.

04:48

Okay? Well, three young Hebrew men who took very seriously their faith and devotion to the one true

04:58

God, Yahweh, they could not go against their conscience. They could not go against their beliefs and worship the image.

05:07

And their names were this. Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

05:14

Now, we all know them for their pagan names that were given to them by Nebuchadnezzar. What are they?

05:21

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He named them those pagan names.

05:27

And these young men were in leadership and administration positions for the king.

05:33

They were actually high up in the kingdom. They reported, though, some sort of police or authorities reported to Nebuchadnezzar that these three young men did not worship the image.

05:47

When the music came, the men would not fall down and worship the golden statue. And so, in a rage, the king called the three men to him.

05:58

Okay? Let me read this to you. In Daniel 3 .14 -18, it states, Nebuchadnezzar responded and said to them,

06:06

Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up?

06:16

Now, if you're ready, he's saying, I'm going to give you a chance. If you're ready, at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, and bagpipe, and all kinds of music,

06:28

I'm going to give you a chance. When we hear it, I'm going to watch. I'm going to stand here. And at that moment, you will fall down and worship the image that I have made, and all will be well, he says.

06:38

But, here's the catch, if you do not worship, you will be immediately cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire.

06:51

And he says this challenge, and what God is there that could deliver you out of my hands?

07:00

So in that statement, he's like, I'm more powerful than any God you worship. What God can rescue you from my hands, from the fiery furnace?

07:09

And so these three young men, they reply to the king, oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we don't even need to answer you concerning this matter.

07:17

That's what they start out with. Just straight bosses. We don't even need to answer you. But then they go ahead and they continue.

07:25

They say, if it be so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire, and He will deliver us out of your hand,

07:39

O king. And then they say this, but even if God does not, let it be known to you,

07:45

O king, that we are never going to serve your gods or worship the image that you have set up.

07:52

You see that? Their faith, their assurance of God's promises and power caused them to believe.

08:02

Not even like surface level. They truly believed God was able to take them out of that fiery furnace, rescue them from this situation, but they're like, even if He doesn't, they won't tempt the

08:15

Lord their God. They won't tempt God. God, even if you don't, we're not going to worship this image.

08:23

Okay? They are more concerned about their eternal situation than their temporal situation.

08:32

So, verses 19 -26 then state, Nebuchadnezzar was filled with wrath.

08:40

Wrath. And his facial expression was altered toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

08:47

He then answered by giving orders to heat the furnace seven times more than what it was usually heated.

08:56

He commanded certain valiant warriors who were in his army to tie and bound up the three men and to cast them into the furnace of blazing fire.

09:07

These men were then tied up, the young men, their trousers, their coats, their caps, and their clothes, everything that was on them as they were, and they were cast into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire.

09:24

It says this, for this reason, because the king's command was urgent and the furnace had been made extremely, extremely hot, the actual flame of the furnace killed the men who were escorting

09:39

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego up. They're escorting them, and these three young men come to the furnace and they fall in, and then these three men fall back, and they're just instantly dead from the fire.

09:52

Okay? It's incredible. Then, it says, Nebuchadnezzar, looking on, he looks and was astounded.

10:02

He stood up in haste. He said to his officials, was it not three men who were cast into the furnace?

10:10

How is it that there are four? He said, look, I see four men loosed, walking about in the midst of the fire without harm.

10:20

Nothing's wrong with them. And the appearance of the fourth, this is it, and the appearance of the fourth is like the sons of God.

10:28

That is sometimes a term used for angelic presences and even possibly something else.

10:35

I'll get to that. It says, then Nebuchadnezzar came near the door, and he called out to them, and he's like,

10:43

Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, come out of there. And he had to actually call them out.

10:49

They're doing so fine. It's like, get out of there, man. I'm sure it feels okay to you. It's time to come out.

10:56

And so they came out. God supernaturally protected these young men.

11:02

They were unscathed. They were unsinged. It said that not even their trousers or their hair, nothing on them was burnt.

11:11

And what's amazing is the Bible records that there wasn't even the smell of smoke on them.

11:16

No smell of fire on them. Now, everyone wonders who the fourth person was.

11:24

There's a lot of speculation. I happen to believe that this was possibly a

11:30

Christophany. That literally means an appearance of Christ, the pre -incarnate

11:36

Jesus Christ. Now you might be thinking,

11:42

Pastor Wade, yeah, we love this story. We've read it before. But what does it have to do with John 10 .20

11:51

-29? Well, Jesus is making promises about eternal security.

11:59

The eternal security of His sheep. He's speaking of our very positions in the

12:05

Lord Jesus Christ. No perishing. Never snatched away. No death.

12:11

And so, if that was the presence of God, what do you think

12:16

He was telling the three men in that fiery furnace? You see, they're crowded and possibly the pre -incarnate

12:25

Christ is there and He's assuring them, I love you. You'll never be snatched out of My hand.

12:33

You'll not perish. And they believed Him. They believed these things.

12:40

This is what's crazy. They believed these things even before they got in and saw

12:45

God in there. They believed them even before they went in. And so, my prayer for you today is that you can know these promises more than just intellectually.

13:02

That they would be in you. That's my prayer. So go to verses 22 and 23 in your text.

13:11

It says, "...at that time, the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon."

13:22

So now remember, John 7 and John 8 covered the Feast of Tabernacles. It covered the water libation ceremony where Jesus said,

13:31

I'll give you living water. It covered the torch lighting ceremony and Jesus stands up and says,

13:37

I'm the light of the world. And those ended, and Jesus stayed in Jerusalem, and then

13:45

He healed a man who was born blind by the pool of Siloam. There we saw the

13:51

Pharisees question the man. They questioned his parents. And then the man born blind who was then healed became face to face with his healer for the first time.

14:03

He didn't see what Jesus looked like before, but he saw what Jesus looked like for the first time.

14:10

Jesus declared who He was to this man. And this man, what? He believed and he worshipped.

14:17

He believed and he worshipped Jesus as the Christ. So John 10 has continued on from that same vein.

14:28

We saw that last week. And he has now spoken about the wicked spiritual leaders of Israel, a .k

14:36

.a. false shepherds. False shepherds. And he showed that he is what?

14:42

He is the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd. The long prophesied

14:48

One to come. He is the Lord. You remember from Ezekiel, He is the

14:53

Lord. He is Yahweh. He says He is the I Am. The One who promised to come and shepherd

15:00

His people Himself because men couldn't do it right. Jesus is the One who came.

15:08

He's here. And now all of that, the Feast of Tabernacles, the healing.

15:15

The Feast of Tabernacles is September, October. Maybe some time has gone by now.

15:21

And at this point, it's winter. Winter. He's still in Jerusalem.

15:27

And now it's the Feast of the Dedication. Winter. And so,

15:34

I had to look this up according to one article. The Feast of Dedication, which was once also called the

15:41

Feast of the Maccabees, was an eight -day winter festival celebrated by the

15:47

Jews in the month of December or sometimes late November depending on the lunar calendar of the

15:53

Jews. Today, we know this festival as to be called what?

15:59

Hanukkah. Hanukkah. Or the Festival of Lights. The history of the

16:05

Feast of Dedication goes back though to the intertestamental period. That is the period in between the

16:11

Old Testament and the couple hundred years leading up to the New. In between that time, there was what's called the

16:19

Maccabean Revolt in 165 B .C. You see, after the

16:28

Seleucid king who was named Antiochus Epiphanes profaned the

16:34

Jewish temple by sacrificing a pig on the altar, and then he forced the

16:40

Jews to abandon their own sacrifices of lambs and sheep, and he made them participate in the pagan rituals that he was a part of.

16:52

And so what happened was the majority of the people had to do this, but a group of sort of zealots or freedom fighters stood up.

17:01

They couldn't take it anymore. They couldn't take the Seleucids and that king profaning the temple.

17:08

And these fighters were led by a man named Judas the Hammer. Judas the

17:13

Hammer Maccabeus. He's a Maccabee. And it was a point where they overthrew the

17:21

Seleucids. It actually happened. And so after they fought and expelled them out of Jerusalem, the temple was then rededicated to God.

17:33

And ever since that rededication, the Feast of Dedication or Hanukkah has been celebrated to commemorate this meaningful moment in Jewish history.

17:47

Now, what's interesting, this is according to rabbinic tradition, is that the whole temple has been profaned and there's a whole process of purifying it and consecrating it and performing certain sacrifices to consecrate it.

18:03

But when they expelled the Seleucids out, the men walked into the temple and they found one unopened jar of olive oil that was dedicated to offerings for God.

18:17

One single jar that was not desecrated. And as the story goes, they took that oil and they lit these torches, this menorah, this candle, and the amount of oil that they had left was only supposed to last less than 24 hours.

18:37

And the miracle was, with that small amount of oil, it lasted for eight days.

18:42

That's why you have the eight days of Hanukkah. It's the light carried on for eight days.

18:48

Enough time to get more oil to be ready. So, there's a little history for you.

18:55

I know some people are like, why do you do the history? I'm like, I love the history. That's amazing. Is it not?

19:02

So, this is what's interesting is Antiochus Epiphanes literally means, in that language in Greek, God manifest.

19:13

God manifest. He considered himself deity. Epiphanes considered himself

19:19

God. And yet through it all, he was put to shame by the one true sovereign

19:26

God that against all human probabilities, this shouldn't have happened. They shouldn't have been able to take over and revolt, but they did through the power of God.

19:36

God brought deliverance for His people, and He took them from this darkness. And so, you may have noticed throughout the

19:46

Gospel according to John, John has mentioned the Feast of Tabernacles, he's mentioned the Passover, now the

19:51

Feast of Dedication. John doesn't mention things for no reason. Does that make sense?

19:58

And so he's setting the stage in a way by mentioning what feast was happening here.

20:08

You see, Jesus is God manifest. Not Epiphanes.

20:14

Jesus. He is God manifest. Jesus is the true hero and the light that shines not just for eight days,

20:24

Jesus is the light that shines for all eternity. That's the amazing thing about Hanukkah.

20:29

That would point to the Christ. Jesus is better than Judas Maccabeus as Jesus was sent by God to vanquish the foes of sin and death forever.

20:43

That it wouldn't come back once and for all. In Christ is not just a new, rededicated sort of altar, but a new temple.

20:55

He is the new and final sacrifice that the people ought to commemorate every day. Not just once a year.

21:03

And so, it's at this time in Jerusalem that Jesus is walking when people were in darkness.

21:13

When people were walking in persecution. That's the mindset. They're remembering what happened.

21:19

I mean, we're talking 165 B .C. That means some of these people knew their grandfather was part of the revolt.

21:27

That's how fresh it was. They remember the desecration of the temple.

21:32

They remember that darkness. But that light came. They would sing during Hanukkah, Psalm 30.

21:41

And verse 5 says, weeping may last for the night. There's the darkness. Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.

21:54

Remember. There are prophecies of Jesus' coming.

21:59

What does it say? Though the people walk in darkness, they will see a great light.

22:05

That's Jesus. Jesus is the light. He's the light of the world. He makes the blind to see. He makes the spiritually blind to see.

22:17

And you know, a shepherd is kind of like that in a way. A shepherd's kind of like a light, because what does a light do?

22:24

A light leads us. A light guides us. A light shows our way. In the darkest of nights, sometimes a fire protects us.

22:33

Light protects us. These things, lights and shepherds, they're linked together in Christ.

22:41

And so while synagogues and houses had menorahs lit all over,

22:46

Jesus is walking in the temple and all around Him, every night you're seeing these menorahs lit up, and Jesus is walking in the temple at the portico of Solomon, and those things are about Him.

23:00

That's what's incredible. The menorahs, they're trying to remember the salvation of God, and literally the salvation of God is walking in the flesh in the temple that they rededicated to Him.

23:13

He's in it. Amazing. So go to verse 24. Then the

23:21

Jews gathered around Jesus, and were saying to Him, how long will You keep us in suspense?

23:27

If You are the Christ, tell us plainly. The word here for gathered around Him is actually encircled.

23:37

These men, and typically when John says the Jews, he means Jewish leaders in the

23:43

Gospel according to John. So these Jewish leaders, one by one, they encircle Jesus.

23:48

They come around Him, and they start to look a little bit like a trap. They encircle

23:54

Him, and they say, how long are You going to hold us in suspense? In the original language, it literally means, how long will

24:05

You lift up our souls? How long will You lift up our souls? It's a saying, or an idiom possibly, an expression that's used to express anticipation, or excitement, a response to receive something.

24:22

But I don't think that was an honest way to use that. I don't think they used it in the honest sort of, don't hold us in suspense,

24:30

Jesus. We're waiting to hear that You're the Christ. That's not the way that they were using it. I think they were mocking

24:37

Him. I think they were sarcastic. How long are You going to lift up our souls? If You're the

24:42

Christ, tell us plainly. Annoyance, sarcasm, hostility is brewing.

24:49

And I think they simply want a straightforward answer from Jesus saying from His own mouth, yeah,

24:58

I'm the Christ. That's what they want. What's Jesus' own self -perception?

25:03

Why? Because they've been hearing Him all along. He's been saying that He's the Christ. Not in the way that they want.

25:09

They want Him to say from His own mouth, yes, I am the Christ of God. Tell us plainly.

25:18

And actually, that's an imperative command in the Greek. Tell us plainly. They are forceful here.

25:26

I also think that maybe tell us plainly is telling Jesus, will

25:31

You please stop using metaphors and parables? Will You just tell us if You're the Christ? Just say what

25:37

You mean, Jesus of Nazareth. Maybe they want to know these men were always conspiring.

25:46

These Jewish leaders were always scheming. Maybe they want to know, whose side are you going to be on?

25:52

Are you going to be on the Sadducee side? Pharisee side? What's your religious political strategy here?

25:59

Who are you going to be with? On the day when many remember

26:04

Judas the hammer, the question is who is Jesus the shepherd? In public,

26:14

He has yet to explicitly, explicitly announce that He is the Messiah, especially in a context when there's

26:21

Jewish opposition. He won't give them the time of day. But over and over and over again, we've seen it.

26:28

He has inferred and implicitly stated His Messiahship. I mean, it's just been abundant, right?

26:35

It's been over and over again since chapter 1. In fact, some have even directly asked

26:41

Him. And He's confirmed His identity as the Christ. We see that in John 4. The woman at the well, things like that.

26:51

Carson states that at the time of the first century, the titles Messiah or Christ carried too many political and military overtones that Jesus, at least at this time, would have been seeking to avoid.

27:06

It's not that Jesus didn't come to wage war, but He didn't come to wage war on men.

27:12

He came to wage war on sin and death. The question is, would it even matter if He stated it more plainly?

27:22

Would they believe? If He said, yeah, I'm the Christ, would they even believe?

27:30

By now, how much has Jesus done? How much has He performed? How much has

27:36

He spoken the truth? He says in verse 25, look, He says, I told you.

27:43

I told you, and you do not believe. It's not that Jesus has not spoken clearly to who

27:51

He is. It's that they refuse to believe it. That's the reality. He's demonstrated who

27:58

He is, but they refuse to believe it. His mouth, their ears, those things function fine, but it's their unbelief.

28:07

Their unbelief. And we see here He says, in the

28:13

Father's name, His works testify of Himself. The works He does in the Father's name.

28:19

Have you noticed? He doesn't separate Himself and His works from the Father. Jesus is so bound with the

28:26

Father. The Jews have witnessed acts of the

28:31

Trinitarian God and their questions then accuse themselves. Because His works bear witness to His identity.

28:41

All the power that He's exhibited, all His miracles, all of His revelatory capabilities, all of His Father and Son statements, they all speak resoundingly to His true identity.

28:54

The fact that they're even asking shows they don't even know it. They don't know.

29:01

And it's not one single work or just some signs or wonders that speak to this, but cumulatively, everything that Jesus has done in His earthly ministry thus far, everything

29:16

He's done points to His Messiahship. It points to the fact that He's the Savior. But they don't believe.

29:25

And Jesus explains precisely why they don't believe. Do you see this? Verse 26, they don't even have the capacity for it.

29:34

You don't believe because you are not of My sheep. You are not of My sheep.

29:42

He has come for His flock and He will gather them as the Good Shepherd. That's His mission.

29:48

And the phrase, you don't believe because you are not of My sheep, straight up shows the sovereignty of God, the power of God over everything.

30:00

And clearly this sovereignty doesn't excuse them, it accuses them.

30:06

It doesn't matter. They are not His sheep and they don't believe. That's both.

30:14

They're not His sheep and at the same time they don't believe. It's on them and God's sovereign.

30:21

By the way, this is not that they can't believe in some sort of suffering

30:26

Messiah opposed to a Judas the Hammer, a warrior type Messiah.

30:32

That's not what's happening here. It's that there's a spiritual problem. It's not like the

30:38

Jews understand the nature of God, but are confused about Jesus. You get what

30:45

I'm trying to say? It's not that they reject Jesus, but they know the Father and love the Father so well.

30:50

It's actually precisely the fact that they reject the living God as is that they don't accept

30:57

His Son. You see, they're not double -minded in like we worship

31:03

God in truth, in love. No, they don't. That's the reality. If they did, if they knew

31:09

God, if they loved God, they would love His Son, worship His Son. But they don't. They reject

31:16

Him. Jesus gives parables to that. When the vineyard owner sent his only son, they killed him, right?

31:28

That's the reality. They don't know

31:33

God. Just as Jesus belongs to the Father and the sheep belong to the

31:39

Father and the Son, the unbelieving have no belonging with those three for rejecting the Son.

31:44

There is no other way to God. He says He is the door. There is no other door.

31:49

There is no other way. If they reject the Son, they reject all else.

31:55

Okay? So He's told them the truth, but it's as if they can't hear it.

32:02

He says in verse 27, you see that? My sheep hear My voice. The sheep know

32:09

His voice. They're familiar with Him. And He knows them.

32:16

We went over that the past two weeks. There is no mutual recognition or mutual intimacy here for these unbelieving

32:24

Jews, however. They can't hear His voice. They don't recognize it. And they don't know

32:30

Him despite Him telling them. His sheep follow Him.

32:36

And this isn't just the basic meaning that one person follow closely after another.

32:42

This term follow is used when the apostles have left everything to follow after Christ.

32:50

In this case, His sheep hear His voice. They leave their old shepherds. They leave their old flocks.

32:56

And they go after the Good Shepherd. They leave all else for the

33:01

Good Shepherd. And so, if you can imagine, this sort of following of Jesus has faith and belief built into it.

33:11

The sheep trust Him in everything. Now we're going to start seeing a shift in the narrative, and it's really going to come to a point towards the end of our section here.

33:22

But there's a shift happening in the narrative in chapter 10. They do not know

33:31

Him. I'm sorry, here is the narrative change.

33:42

What's going to happen is John's going to put more weight to knowing Jesus and Him knowing

33:49

His sheep. That is to say, mutual recognition.

33:55

We know Him and He knows us. And on the other side, we could say that we're going to start seeing that unbelief is the mutual rejection or mutual estrangement.

34:07

They don't know Him and He doesn't know them. Because remember, at the end of the

34:12

Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says what to all these people who said they did things in His name? He'll say what?

34:18

I never knew you. I never knew you. And so that's the shift that's going to be happening here.

34:25

Let's take a look now at one of the most amazing promises of Jesus Christ.

34:31

Verse 28 needs to be one of the verses you remember, guys. It is, I think, should be part of the basis of your assurance of salvation.

34:41

Verse 28, I give eternal life to them and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand.

34:53

That's huge. I give eternal life to them. They will never perish.

35:02

No one will snatch them out of My hands. That's the Son of God saying that.

35:09

He gives eternal life to them. Jesus thus far in John has called eternal life, what?

35:16

He's called it water. He's called it bread. He's called it pasture. He's called it life abundant. He gives us something we don't possess inherently.

35:26

He gives us something that is outside of ourselves, something that we cannot attain. It's something our first father and mother,

35:34

Adam and Eve, possessed in some capacity and lost. Paul then said that all of us were dead in trespasses and sin.

35:44

And we saw Jesus say that we became slaves to sin. You know, there are some powerful people in the world.

35:55

Powerful. They can get things they want that most people cannot with a word, with some money.

36:06

Sure. But despite man's efforts, no one for thousands of years has been able to acquire on their own eternal life.

36:16

Not a single person. Not one. The Eternal One must grant it.

36:24

He must give it. We also see in this verse that there is no merit to this eternal life.

36:33

He must give it. He gives it under His own conditions and on no conditions regarding us.

36:40

You see that? Jesus makes it clear that it's all His promise. It's all

36:46

His gift. It's all His grace. And not of ourselves. It's Him.

36:52

I see us only being recipients here. The sheep are recipients. He is the initiator.

37:02

And that makes sense, since we're, as Scripture says, dead apart from Him. Like those who've come back to life in the

37:10

Bible, so we too have now been given life and then life eternal.

37:16

And so you have all this giving. Giving of Himself. Laying down His own life.

37:23

And in the giving of this eternal life, two things are promised. When He gives eternal life to His sheep, two things, we've already said it, they will not perish, they will never perish, and none will be snatched out of His hand.

37:42

And that word perish is apollumi, that is destruction.

37:48

Being destroyed. Destruction is not the future of Christ's sheep.

37:53

No destruction. Perishing was to be our conclusion, but not anymore in Christ.

38:00

No longer. Those who believe in Christ today will never be destroyed.

38:07

No matter how close someone gets. No matter how close you think you're getting to destruction, you'll never be destroyed.

38:17

In the way that Jesus says it. You will never perish. No matter how much you suffer in this life, you'll never perish.

38:27

Yeah, this old body dies, but we live on in eternal life. And it says there's going to be a final resurrection.

38:34

And we'll have our bodies back in perfection and glorification.

38:40

But never be destroyed. You know, I was thinking about we were watching

38:48

Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade a couple weeks ago. I just don't dare to pollute my eyes to see the new one.

38:57

So to make myself feel better, I watched The Last Crusade. And, you know, there's these final scenes in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade where they're there in the cave.

39:13

They're trying to look for the Holy Grail. And if you remember, Indy's father, who is

39:20

Sean Connery, right? He gets shot in the gut by the bad guy.

39:27

And they're in the middle of the desert and he's going to bleed out. It's a fatal wound for sure.

39:34

And so the only way that Indiana can save his father is to press on through the obstacles and the traps that are ahead to get to the

39:46

Holy Grail. The Holy Grail is his only hope. So if you remember, they enter the room with all the cups and the old knight is there.

39:56

He's so old and wrinkly and he tries to swing his sword and he's like, oh, you know, he has no power anymore.

40:03

And there's all these golden goblets and cups and all these things and jewels, magnificent looking stuff.

40:10

And so the bad guy realizes that he got into the room for the

40:16

Holy Grail. And so the bad guy comes in and the bad guy thinks, oh, the cup of Christ.

40:21

It's got to be the most magnificent cup in the world. And so he grabs what he thinks is the most beautiful, glorious, jeweled cup.

40:30

And there's a well of water there and he takes that water and he drinks it. And, you know, it's just this old school, what is that, late 80s, early 90s, like CGI face melt.

40:41

And it's a, you know, if you're going to watch it, be careful of that with your kids. But he just turns into a

40:47

Hershey kiss in a car just done. But essentially, so the bad guy's gone, right?

40:57

And so Indy, he takes what he thinks is the cup of Christ, the modest cup of a carpenter.

41:03

It's a wooden cup. And so he takes it, fills the water, and he brings it back to his father. Then all of a sudden, the gunshot wound is healed and everything like that.

41:13

You know, if that was a real thing and not just a goofy movie, you know how many people would go nuts for that?

41:21

If that was actually a true thing in this world, people would go crazy for that. They would travel from all over the world to taste of that cup and to take down water for healing or eternal life or whatever.

41:37

You see, Christ has already spoken and said, I will give you eternal life and you will never perish.

41:43

That's the promise we saw here. But loads of people would pay tons of money to get a sip from that cup.

41:50

Even if you could have personal access to this so -called Holy Grail all day long, it's still not as promising as the words of Jesus Christ here.

42:02

You see that? You see what I'm getting at? The words of Jesus are far more promising than a cup that could possibly be so holy so as to heal.

42:12

The gift that Jesus gives, as John Calvin said, is invincible.

42:19

The gift that Jesus gives to his sheep, eternal life, they will never perish and they will never be snatched out of my hands, that's invincible.

42:29

Why? Because he's invincible. So the Invincible One gave the promise it can never be destroyed, it can never be taken away.

42:39

And by the way, if you know the Greek, this phrase, never be destroyed, is in the emphatic, negative, subjunctive form in the

42:52

Greek, which is to say that is the strongest way to negate something in the Greek.

42:58

Strongest way to negate something in the Greek. Never destroyed.

43:05

Never destroyed. That is to say, the gift Jesus gives to his sheep is one that is distinctly impossible to kill or steal.

43:18

And Jesus, the Son of God, is the one who makes sure of that. Now to bolster that promise,

43:24

Jesus says, no one will snatch them out of my hand. He leaves no room for worry. It's not like we can say, okay, so he gives me eternal life and I'll never perish, but what if before I get there, what if someone snatches me away from Jesus?

43:41

What if I'm taken away from Jesus? Then I could be destroyed. Right? Nope.

43:48

Nope. It's not the case. This word means to take something by force.

43:54

It means to coercively remove and overpower someone and take what they have.

44:00

So in other words, you my friends, the sheep of God, no one can remove you from the cosmic hands of Jesus Christ.

44:11

No one. He is bringing you to life everlasting and nothing and no one can take you away from that.

44:20

Who can thwart the Almighty, church? Who can thwart the Almighty? No one. Thieves and wolves could never undo what

44:29

Christ has done. We've got to believe this more. We've got to believe this.

44:37

Some have erroneously said you may be a believer today, but next week you may be an apostate.

44:47

You may be a believer today, but you don't know in a few years you could be an unbeliever.

44:53

You could be back to where you started. But that's not the case for a true believer.

44:58

That's not the case for a true sheep. You see, Jesus gives eternal life now.

45:04

It speaks of a now and not yet reality. He says I give eternal life now.

45:10

So what does eternal mean? Eternal means without end. If Jesus says

45:17

I will give you eternal life now, then how could you next week lose that when

45:25

He says it will be without end? You get what I'm saying? See, you either have it or you don't.

45:33

You're either a true sheep or you're not. There is no gaining and losing many times over and over in a lifetime.

45:41

I know because before the Lord saved me, I spent about three years going to dozens of different churches, raising my hand a hundred times, and walking down an altar hundreds of times.

45:56

And still I was living like a demon. I felt really good on Sunday and the music was awesome, but then

46:04

I'd live like a devil on Monday. So, you see, there's no in -between.

46:12

The Scriptures make it clear. There's no in -between. There are actually apostates. Yes, that's a true thing.

46:18

The Scriptures speak of that. And actually, John the Apostle, the one who's recording this down for us in the

46:26

Gospel according to John, he'll write later in one of his epistles regarding an apostate, he says what are they?

46:32

They went out from us to show that they were never truly of us. That's the reality of people who don't continue on in their belief in Christ.

46:44

And yet, we can still struggle. Can we not?

46:49

We can still struggle. These promises, we can't remember them sometimes.

46:58

So many of us say, well, yes, I believe if I'm His sheep,

47:04

I will never perish, and no one and nothing will take me out from His hands. Yes, okay,

47:10

I see what you're saying, Pastor Wade. I see it in the text. And yes, I believe that.

47:16

But what if I'm not a real sheep? What if I'm not really His sheep? That's the question, right? What if I'm not a sheep?

47:22

Well, let's take a look at it. We already know behind the scenes the work of salvation is

47:29

Christ alone. Amen? Christ alone. He said it is Him laying down His life for the sheep.

47:35

And it's the Father giving the sheep to Him. We saw that in John 6. Giving us to Him.

47:43

But He gives us indications of what that will look like, okay? What that will look like.

47:48

That's the key word. How that manifests outwardly. And what we will see in ourselves when we are

47:57

His sheep. Okay? And what it says here in John 10 is that you will believe in Him.

48:05

You will believe. If you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is real and true and is

48:12

Lord and Messiah, that gives substantial indication to being

48:19

His sheep. That's what it says. If you believe in Him. Next, in this text, we saw a true sheep hears

48:28

His voice. Hears His voice. You see, do you love, seek, obey, and have a capacity to understand and hear the

48:38

Shepherd's voice? Do the words of Jesus have great bearing and weight on how you live?

48:47

On how you hope? On how you fear? On how you think about the next pandemic or the next goofy thing?

48:57

Has His words changed you? Did they used to mean nothing to you and now they mean everything to you?

49:04

Are you sensitive to His words? Are you convicted by His voice? That's what

49:10

He says. Believe in Him. Hear His voice. And the last thing He says in John 10 here,

49:16

He says, and they follow Me. They follow Me. A true sheep follows

49:23

Jesus. They follow until the end. They don't stop. They follow into eternity.

49:30

They may trip sometimes, but they get back up. They follow. Where He goes, they go.

49:38

What He says, they do. They leave all other shepherds for Him.

49:44

They repent from the old ways and the old life, and they turn to Him. And remember, what we have been speaking about here is not this is what you do to be

49:58

His sheep. You get that? Make that clear in your minds. The belief, the hear His voice, the follow

50:04

Him, those aren't instructions on how to become His sheep. Those are details of those who are already sheep.

50:16

Already sheep do these things. There's a clear distinction. Categorically different.

50:23

Because we continue to see time and time again that those who think they can work for, those who think they can earn or merit or obey the law of Moses or be a very good person, those people who think they can do that to become a sheep, they're wrong.

50:45

Sheep are already given to the Son by the Father. They're already

50:53

His. You see, for the woman at the well who had many husbands and was currently sleeping with a man who was not her own husband, she had the sin necessary for a

51:06

Savior, but not the righteousness for salvation. Therefore, the

51:12

Savior must give it to her by way of blood transaction and atonement. She had a need, and she sought the only

51:20

One who could remedy that need. The key difference?

51:26

She recognized her own sin. She recognized the Savior. That's huge.

51:34

You see, we've seen the Pharisees have acknowledged no sin in themselves.

51:39

That's a huge difference. I would say that's even another indication. I remember before I was saved,

51:46

I thought I was like the best guy. Such a hard -working sort of guy.

51:54

Kind of lazy here or there. Such a great guy, but sometimes blacking out drunk or doing drugs.

52:02

Such a good guy. I was such a good guy. At least I wasn't doing this, this, and this, and the comparison game comes out.

52:09

At least I wasn't as bad as this person. But compare yourself to the living

52:15

God, you're going to come up wanting. That's without a doubt.

52:24

We've talked about those who say, I have no sin. Jesus talked about that. He says on the flip side, then the ones who say they have no sin have no salvation.

52:34

There's a recognition of sin. You see, the sheep believes, hears, and follows, but the sheep sometimes struggle with their faith.

52:46

Yes. Do they? Yes. Sure. But then the sheep sees the shepherd out in front of it, leading it, protecting it from predators, and faith is restored.

52:59

Do the sheep sometimes stumble in following the shepherd? Yes. Yes, I said that.

53:07

They stumble and they fall and they even get off the path sometimes, but then they see the shepherd in the distance and they get back up and they go along and they follow after.

53:18

Yes. Sometimes a sheep can be so focused on its current landscape and lose track of the shepherd's voice even.

53:30

See? The shepherd's calling and the sheep are looking around at things of the world, things of the culture, and then that may happen for a time, but then they snap out of it and they hear the shepherd's voice and nothing's going to take them away from that shepherd.

53:45

Yes. And I know you know because sometimes this has happened to you, right?

53:52

It's happened to me. But we get back up and we keep going. But those who are not

53:59

His sheep don't hear His voice.

54:06

Or maybe they pretend to comprehend but then follow after other shepherds or they become a master unto themselves and they don't follow.

54:15

They may look on and a false sheep sees a line of sheep following the good shepherd and they kind of get in line for a little bit and then when things become too arduous they step away and they go back to whatever they were doing.

54:29

Okay? That's what happens. Brothers and sisters, may our prayer be that those who need not worry no longer worry.

54:46

That's my prayer for you. Those who need not worry no longer worry. But, please

54:52

God, may those who need to worry be distraught. Please. And turn.

54:59

And turn as a result of that. You know, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, one who's called the

55:07

Prince of Preachers, he would say that when he was a child he would see holy and devout people around him.

55:17

He would go to church sometimes as a young man. He'd see these holy and devout people and then years later, he would see the same people and they were just lawless.

55:28

They were not the same people they were when he was a child. And he was contemplating as a new believer, he asked himself the question, is there not some means of being preserved from making a shipwreck of myself or my faith?

55:46

Is there not something that can hold me back from doing what these people have done too?

55:52

Because I don't want that to happen to me, he thought. And so he says when

56:00

I came to read the Bible, it seemed to me full of this doctrine. This is it.

56:06

He says if you trust Christ, He will save you from all evil. All evil.

56:12

He will keep you in a life of integrity and holiness while here and He will bring you safe to heaven at the last.

56:20

He says I saw that doctrine in the Word. He says I felt that I could not trust man. I could not trust man for I had seen some of the very best wandering far from the truth.

56:33

But if I trusted Christ, it was not a chance as to whether I would go to heaven, but a certainty.

56:43

If I trusted Christ, and I learned, he says, that if I rested all my weight upon Christ, He would keep me.

56:53

For I found it written, the righteous shall hold on to His way and He that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger.

57:00

He says I found the apostles saying, I am persuaded that He that hath begun a good work in me will carry it on to the day of Christ Jesus.

57:10

And such expressions I pondered. And so He reasoned, why

57:18

I have found in an insurance office and a good one too, I will insure my life in it.

57:23

I will go to Jesus as I am for He bids me. I will trust

57:28

Him, myself with Him. I will trust my life with Jesus alone.

57:35

And He says this, a very sharp preacher here, He says, If I had listened to the

57:42

Arminian theory, I should have never been converted, for it never had any charms for me.

57:49

A Savior who can cast away His people, a God who saves them, then leaves

57:54

His children to perish, was not worthy of my worship and a salvation which does not save outright but only gives a possibility to save is neither worth preaching nor listening to.

58:06

Hard truth. Very true. Go to our final verse. Verse 29.

58:15

He says, My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the

58:22

Father's hand. Now there's a small textual variant to this. There could have been an early manuscript edition.

58:31

I won't go over that today. Feel free to check your Bibles for that. It's very interesting. But I think the message is still the same.

58:39

We see here that the preservation of the sheep, of you and me, is not independent of the

58:45

Father. That's the key. Our Father, our Heavenly Father, stands behind this preservation.

58:53

Some may look wrongly upon Jesus. Some may look wrongly upon Jesus, see that He's fully divine and fully human, and they might look at Jesus and think,

59:06

He's not up to the task. How could Jesus keep me from perishing?

59:14

How could Jesus keep me from not being snatched away? And so the error would be thinking that Jesus does this apart from the

59:23

Father. He doesn't. Jesus is up to the task because He is one of the holy persons of the blessed

59:33

Trinity. He is God. The Father along with the Son and Spirit are ultimately behind all of this.

59:41

The one God will do this. What or who can steal from the hand of God?

59:49

And since the Father is greater than all beings, there is no force powerful enough to take a true believer from Jesus Christ.

59:56

There's nothing. There is no way to sever that relationship. And as Colossians 3 says, your life is now hidden in Christ.

01:00:08

Your life is now hidden in Christ. It's like when you have a safe in your home and you put your most precious valuables in that safe in a deep part of your house, and it's hidden in your home.

01:00:27

Your life, even better than a safe that men can break, even better, your life is hidden and secure and safe in Christ.

01:00:38

And no one can take that away from Christ and from you. This is ultimate security, brothers and sisters.

01:00:49

Ultimate security. But as I said, we're going to see a transition take place in the text.

01:00:55

What was about the preservation of the sheep now becomes about the authority and divinity of the Good Shepherd.

01:01:01

It always comes back to Jesus. The connection of the sheep and the shepherd becomes eclipsed by the connection of the

01:01:09

Father and the Son. If you just look at verse 30, you'll see where we're going to start next week.

01:01:15

It's big. This is huge. It now becomes

01:01:20

Father and Son. And He says, we are one.

01:01:27

That's going to be huge next week. So let's wrap this up, church. I want to finish quickly by reconsidering two things.

01:01:41

First, I want to once again ponder they will never perish. You see, while kingdoms and cities decay and rise up again, we are secure.

01:01:56

Our existences will only flourish. Only flourish.

01:02:04

You're not looking for things to get worse, brothers and sisters. You're looking for things for you to get better in an eternal, weighty sort of way.

01:02:17

The passing of time loses its sting because it no longer brings us to death, but to further life.

01:02:25

And I want to tell you there's going to be an unfading, unfading feeling of excitement for what's ahead.

01:02:36

Because it's only going to get better. Heaven and the new creation will never be mundane.

01:02:43

It will never get old. And your best season here, the time that you think you walked with Christ the best, right?

01:02:55

Times that you looked back on and said, man, I had fruitful communion with my God then. The times that you think you obeyed

01:03:03

Him the most. The times that you think He blessed you the most. The time that you felt you had the highest faith on earth.

01:03:11

All those times that you had those things on earth is not even to come close with what it's going to be like in glory.

01:03:20

Not even close. Imagine. Imagine what happened to Adam.

01:03:28

He was living with the eternal God. He was in God's presence, but then he died.

01:03:37

How horrible would that be? To experience walking with God and then to die because God's eternal?

01:03:48

That would be a horrible fate. But in Christ's power, we live on.

01:03:57

Are you overcome at the thought of a thousand years? I was trying to wrap my mind around it. We live in a world where it's like now not even a million dollars is enough to retire on.

01:04:09

You need several million. We throw around these millions and billions. It's like, yeah, this guy's a billionaire.

01:04:15

We have no capacity for that. Can you even think what it would be like? Some of us have been on the earth here three years, four years.

01:04:24

Some of us in this room have maybe up to 55 or something like that, up to 60.

01:04:32

But can you wrap your mind around a thousand years? I cannot. That's unbelievable.

01:04:39

A thousand years. And it's going to... That's like a drop in the bucket to eternity.

01:04:45

A thousand years? It's a drop in the bucket. Never perish.

01:04:52

Never perish. In the very seasons of the year, what we see, grass and flowers fade and die.

01:05:03

We see leaves turn colors and die and crumble upon the ground. We see fruit fall off the tree and waste away and wither.

01:05:14

You know, they said this year the snow was so intense that all these uncovered skeletons of animals are now being seen because all these deer and rabbits and animals couldn't last through the winter with all the great snow that we had.

01:05:32

Death, toil, thorns, waste. With Christ?

01:05:40

No longer. With Christ? Never again. The second thing

01:05:46

I want to mention is this. He said no one can snatch us out of His hands.

01:05:52

We are in His hands. And that's a safe place to be. His hands are a haven.

01:06:00

His hands are a paradise. At the same time, His hands are a fortress. Fortress.

01:06:07

Wherever you go in this life, church, you're still in His hands. Get that.

01:06:13

He never lets go of you. You're always in His hands.

01:06:19

Always. And then it caused me to consider what does it mean to be in His hands?

01:06:25

What does it mean to be in the hand of Jesus? What He does with us and what

01:06:32

He does through us. I think we're like arrows in the hand of a warrior. I think that's us.

01:06:41

I think He sends us out to accomplish His will. I think in His hands we're like flowers.

01:06:48

Sometimes we're given to other people for encouragement and help. I think sometimes in His hands, we are like a soothing balm and medicine

01:06:58

God uses us for other people. He applies us to one another as we bear one another's burdens.

01:07:05

Counsel each other in His Word. I think we're like messages in the hand of Jesus. And we get sent and we herald the excellencies of Jesus Christ to the world.

01:07:19

And of course, I think in His hands, we're like ornaments and jewels because we're meant to bring

01:07:29

Him glory. We're meant to be ordained in such a way to showcase not our majesty, but the majesty of the

01:07:37

One who holds us in His hands. You see, you're in the hands of Jesus Christ.

01:07:44

Brothers and sisters, you are in His hands. Don't you see now?

01:07:51

You could go to the worst and hottest fiery furnace the world has to offer and still,

01:08:00

He will never lose you and you will never perish. So I urge you, don't forget these things when you enter the next fiery ordeal.

01:08:11

It's going to happen. He'll give you grace to get through it, but don't forget whose hands you're in.

01:08:18

And if you're feeling overwhelmed lately, if you're feeling overcome with what the world has to throw at you lately, just look around at the hands that hold you.

01:08:31

Look back at the hands. He's still there. The hands are still there.

01:08:37

Amen? What a promise. Let's pray.

01:08:47

Lord, thank You for the message that went out today. Pray that it brought You great glory. Lord, I pray that it encouraged

01:08:55

Your people that no matter what circumstance they're walking in in this life, they can trust that You're holding them and You're holding me and You'll hold us through all eternity.

01:09:17

And Lord, if there's people who are watching online or people here who don't know You, I pray that this penetrated their minds and their souls,

01:09:25

Lord, that they can be held in this life, that their sins can be forgiven forever, and that they in Christ will never perish.

01:09:36

And that this isn't just some bunch of weirdos in a building worshiping some figure in an ancient text.

01:09:44

This is true. This is real. God is true. And we're all going to face Him one day. And Lord, we thank

01:09:52

You for sending Your one and only Son to die for us, to rise again, and give us life everlasting.