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I barely, barely I send to you he that endureth not by the door of the sheepfold that climbeth up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the Porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth him out. And when he put us forth his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him.
For they know his voice, and a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him.
For they know not the voice of strangers. This parable spake Jesus unto them.
But they understood not what things they were, which he spake unto them, Then said Jesus unto them again.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep, all that ever came before me.
Are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find a pasture. The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep, but he that is in hireling, and not the shepherd whose own the sheep are not. See if the wolf coming, and leave us the sheep.
And flares, and the wolf catches them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he isn't hireling, and careth not to the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and have known of mine as the Father. Knoweth me Even so know I the Father.
And I lay down my life for the sheep, and other sheep I have which are not of this fold them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice. And there shall be 1 flock and one shepherd. Therefore doth my father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received my father.
There was a division, therefore again among the Jews for these Saints, and many of them said.
He hath the devil, and is mad. Why hear ye him? Others said. These are not the words of him that hath the devil.
Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?
And it was at Jerusalem, the feast of the Dedication, and it was winter.
And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ? Tell us plainly, Jesus answered them, I told you, And ye believed not the works that I do in my father's name. They bear witness of me, But she believed not, because you're not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life.
And they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My father, which gave them me as greater than all. And no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. I and my father are one.
Find that this chapter is very personal. The Lord himself is speaking.
And that's characteristic of the Gospel of John.
The Lord is alone with souls.
He's not seen as much publicly with his disciples as he is in the other gospels.
Now we have here.
He's an entereth, not by the door in the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way. The same as a thief in the robber, but he that entered by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
So we have the subject of the shepherd here.
But it's more the Good Shepherd who giveth his life for the sheep.
He's seen in other ways, in other places, like.
As a Chief Shepherd to give rewards and so on. But here he's the he's the Good Shepherd and.
We find that.
There are those who would enter, but they don't enter by the door.
There we have the one, the Lord Jesus, who enters by the door.
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To see, when the Lord Jesus came down here as man, he came down to do God's will. He came as a servant, the servant son of God. And so he's down here serving the Father and doing only what the Father wants him to do and what the Spirit would direct.
So here.
The Porter, the Spirit of God.
To him, the Porter opener.
And the sheep hear his voice, and he called his own sheep by name, and they did them out.
I remember a story that brother.
Elder brother, Pilkington told.
He was in one of the southern countries, South American countries.
Or island. And he said someone was accused of stealing a sheep.
And.
When it came before the judge.
The.
Real honor of the sheep is there and the man who stole it.
And so he just asked the.
Each one to call the sheep, and you know the what the result was. The sheep heard the voice of the one who was the master and immediately went in that direction. Now that's what we have here, the Lord Jesus.
Calls his own sheep, and they know him.
And it's beautiful to see how the spirit of God has brought this chapter.
And this book before us, the Gospel of John because.
It brings it down personal to us each one, and we have to decide whether or not we are one of the sheep or not. Have we heard his voice?
Wouldn't you say that?
This chapter, the part we have read is.
Teaching based upon the action of Chapter 9.
Where the Lord had gone there amongst those Jews, and he found this one man who was blamed from birth. That's the natural man blame.
And he opens his eyes.
And the result is that he is cast out, and then he finds the Lord. So the Lord here comes in by the door of the Old Testament Scriptures with the Spirit of God had written.
And presents himself as the Good Shepherd to take.
Those blind Jews in the beginning of the chapter opened their eyes.
And lead them out of the blandness of the law into the liberty of race. And then he goes on down the chapter and says, other sheep I have which are not of this fold, so that we have the Gentiles in view too in this chapter. And the picture and the teaching fit so beautifully in the age in which we find ourselves when the great house.
Christendom has run over the borders of the foundation and gone out and mixed up the old order of things, The law, ceremony, ritual, regulations, and systematize these things and souls are caught in them, and the Lord would come in grace and open eyes and lead out of ******* into the full liberty of grace today.
That chapter is sort of a pattern, the 9th chapter of how a sheep is brought in. And so he finally the Lord says, dost thou believe in the Son of God? He said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe? There we have the one sheep brought in, and the way he was brought in, directly speaking with the Lord himself in regard to who the Lord loves.
He was the shepherd.
Man was the sheep, and so this chapter follows.
When he says Lord, I believe he becomes a worshiper and that's where our worship starts.
As soon as we believe in the Lord, we've got everything to praise him for.
00:10:16
And the prophet Zephaniah.
Where?
Judgment is pronounced on.
Nation.
Prophet speaks of judging the Princess, and of judging those who leap over the threshold to bring corruption and violence into their masters houses. Zephaniah 189 So we have that contrast here of those who come in by some other way. Take their character after the enemy who is a thief and a robber, and they will certainly come under the judgment of the true shepherd, in contrast to the false shepherd or the herald.
The sheepfold is, of course, Israel.
And.
There was a proper way of entrance into the sheepfold called the door. He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, which climbeth up in other ways, the same as a thief and a robber. We read of two of them in Acts chapter 5.
I'll read from verse 34, then stood there up one in the council. A Pharisee named Gamaliel, a doctor of the Law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space.
And said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men.
For before these days Rosa Pudis, boasting himself to be somebody to whom a number of men, about 400, joined themselves, who was slain, and all as many as obeyed him, were scattered and brought to nod. After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him, he also perished, and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed.
And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone for if this.
Counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naughty, but if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest happily ye be found even to fight against God. And to him they agreed. So that was good counsel from Gamaliel and these two men that he names that had come in and LED away a number of.
Jews they were.
Thieves and robbers. They were not the shepherd of the sheep.
The true shepherd had to enter through the door, that is, he had to enter according to the Scriptures of the Old Testament, Behold, a virgin shall conceive bear a son.
Micah 5 speaks of Bethlehem. Ephrata of thee shall come forth him who is to be ruler. He was to be born at Bethlehem.
They knew this. There were many, many scriptures that connected with the Lord's first coming. He had to enter by the door. He had to come in the proper way of entry into Israel as the true shepherd of the sheep. And he did that. And the Porter, the Spirit of God, opened to him. There's a beautiful touch if you'll just allow a moment in Revelation chapter 3.
Umm, the address to Philadelphia, which is so Christ, like it says in verse 7 to the Angel of the church in Philadelphia, right? These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth and shutteth, and no man openeth. I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee, and opened it ought to read.
Not an open door. It's not that he points out to Philadelphia. There's an open door, and I'll use it, but he opens the door to the Philadelphia, just like the spirit of God opened the door to the true shepherd when he came in amongst the children of Israel. So it's the same character that you have in Philadelphia that you have here in the Lord Jesus.
Beautiful to see that says.
00:15:02
He that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the Porter openeth, And though the Lord Jesus met with more opposition in his blessed pathway, just like true Philadelphia meets with opposition from the established religious systems of men, just like the Lord Jesus met with it. Invite you, the Pharisees, especially in the Sadducees, the religious leaders of the day, they opposed him.
In spite of all the system, the power of the system, that they had to oppose Him, the Porter opened, and they could not stop, that the same was true of Philadelphia. The Lord opened the door, and the truth was made known well. So it was in the blessed pathway of the Lord Jesus.
Though they could say of him, how knoweth this man letters having never learned who is he, just the carpenters son. They spoke against him, and in every way possible sought to intimidate him, sought to.
Turn him aside and to stop his ministry. The Porter opened, and the ministry enlarged. It could not be stopped by all the systems of men, by all the organized religion of men. They could not stop. When the true shepherd entered, he was going to lead his sheep out of Judaism into the liberty of Christianity. And that's what we have in these verses.
Last year at the conference there was here there was a question asked about the father's house.
It's to me remarkable that there is a mention made twice in the Gospel of John of the Father's house. The first one is in the second chapter, and I believe that if we without turning to it or making. But it is appropriate in case with the 10th chapter. Starting at the second chapter, there is where there is mention made of a father's house on earth. I believe that.
Without too much.
Imagination. Certainly. I hope none.
That we can trace the Lord's footsteps, especially starting with his healing of the man on the Sabbath day in the 5th chapter.
There is a dialogue between the Lord and the Jews, and certainly not on his part, but they're part of battle that we we see that he comes to the the 10th chapter and dealings with the Jew is over because now he leads them out. And in the fourth verse it says it really should read and when he put us forth all his own and so we've started the second chapter with an earthly house, we end up in the 14th chapter.
With the Father's house in heaven and the crucial chapter in making the distinction between.
Dealing with an earthly house and a heavenly house really is in this 10th chapter. Because now.
There shall be 1 flock and one shepherd. And so as we get to the 14th chapter, we find the Father's house. We find the people that are suited for that house, brought out and joined by the other sheep. Beautiful, beautiful.
And so the truth of what is the 14th chapter? You know, it's a lot like that verse in Peter. No scripture is of its own private interpretation. So we go back to the second chapter. We find the father's house on earth. We find the the antagonism of the Jew through these chapters, the 5th, the 6th, the 7th, the 8th, the 9th. And so it's his, his person and his work and his words are rejected. The blessing of the 9th chapter. Then the 10th chapter.
He leads all his own out.
And up to that time, it would have been inappropriate. It would have been.
Contrary to the mind of God, for one Jew to not continue with that system, but from now on this is the chapter. He leads all his own out, and there shall be 1 flock, and one shepherd, And then the development in the other chapters, and we get to the upper room. And then he introduces that one clock, if you will, though there are no Gentiles that have been brought in.
But in spirit, it's the one flock that are introduced to now. Not the Father's house that they were so familiar with in the second chapter, but now an entirely new sphere of blessing and and the outpouring of God's heart in my Father's house, or many mansions of the 14th chapter.
Sheep hear his voice the 5th chapter.
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The hour is coming. Now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that here shall live so that it is by hearing the voice of the Son of God that one becomes a sheep, and he keeps that character. And the shepherd and true shepherd comes. They recognize his voice.
It doesn't say that he pushes them out or drives them out. He leads them out. He himself had been rejected and.
Leaves that place, and now he's on the outside of Judaism.
And he leads others.
Out and it says they know his voice as yet not having seen him, but they know the voice like.
Rhoda knew the voice of that man on the other side of the door, the gate.
Without seeing him. So you and I know the voice of that Good Shepherd.
But you know, we learn him like that. Blind man we hadn't.
Yet learned who it was that had opened his eyes, and the Lord comes to him and manifests himself, says it is he that talketh with thee. He was hearing his voice and then he says, Lord, I believe, and he worshipped him. So we go on down in our chapter and there's real progress in the.
14th verse He says, I am the Good Shepherd and know my sheep. And then he says and am known of mine. You know, it's a much greater thing in a way to know him than to be known by him. We could illustrate it this way. I suppose every one of us here would know President Reagan. If we haven't seen him, we've seen his picture.
And we'd know the man. And if you walked into the room, how many of us would he know? I don't know. He'd know anybody. But suppose there was one here who didn't know. Reagan and I talked with him. None. He came in and said, Hello, John, Hello, Mary.
We would be astonished, wouldn't we? Here, here's the here's the president knows this person.
And that person knows the president well. Think about that in relation to the Lord.
He knows everyone of us now. Do we know him? We've heard his voice.
And we're going to learn of him, I hope, every day of our life, in his moral beauties and glories, particularly in the Gospels, but all through the book.
One day we're going to see him.
And we expect knowing him.
A little technical.
Thing, but the punctuation and the authorized vision does not tell the whole story, as in.
Verse 14 And am known of those that are mine, as the Father knows me and I know the Father.
And the counsel of God the Lord Jesus Christ is really?
Introducing us into that same intimacy of life and relationship that the Father and the Son enjoy.
We have that brought out especially in the 10th in the 20th chapter, in the resurrection, I ascended to my Father and your Father. But it isn't that same intimacy of life, divine life, that we are known. And we know Him. We do know Him throwing Grayson in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we know Him as the Father knows the Son, and as a Father the Son knows the Father. I would hardly call that a technicality, not as far as he left. The structure is concerned. Well, but I mean the truth that it brings out is is very, very significant.
Very nice.
It really we lead this into some of the teaching of John in the 17th chapter.
That thou has loved them as thou has loved me to think of it. How can it be possible, you know, if it wasn't there? If you had just quoted to me, and I was younger, and I hadn't heard that verse before, I think I would sort of say, oh, haven't you gone too far? But then and obviously it is that I wouldn't have gone far enough. But has loved them as thou hast loved me, Martin, the light that we have been given in Christ.
00:25:04
The first characteristic mentioned of the sheep in verse 4 is.
They follow him.
And the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. So that's really what a Christian means, a follower of Christ. To follow him, following his steps, following his pathway, was a pathway of rejection, pathway of suffering, and to follow him will bring us into the same.
Rejection and and sufferings from the world that wouldn't have him. They won't have us either.
To walk as he walked down here will be met with the same opposition.
That they heaped upon the Blessed Lord. But it's to be in company with him. And that's worth it all, isn't it?
Carry that one step further. That pathway following him leads also to the glory.
There was a brother who had.
Bought a large number of sheep and I happened to be at his home at the time.
And.
There was a man drove up in a truck.
And there were no shape when I first came. But the moment the truck came up, why, you could see the sheep coming over the hill.
Well, I found out the man in the truck was the former owner of the sheep. They heard his voice and probably knew his car too.
They immediately came to where he was. Well, that's what we have here.
The sheep know the master's voice, and now the question is.
For us, do we know him? That is, are we learning about him?
Because we are the sheep. He is the shepherd, that is.
If we have salvation for put our trust in Him, we are the sheep.
What you are saying, brother Jacobson? I was thinking of the 11Th chapter.
What was said there by the high priest?
In the 49th verse.
And one of them named Caiaphas.
Being the high priest that same year said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man.
Should die for the people, not the whole nation carries not.
And this spake he not of himself of being a high priest. That year he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation.
And not for that nation only.
But that he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.
Now I believe that's in view of Pentecost. The Lord, when he was here, was.
Gathering the children of God, beginning with Israel, beginning with the shape of Israel, so that a Pentecost, the church was formed, and you know, it was formed of all, all of Jews at the first. But there were Gentiles brought in later, as we heard this afternoon.
But the Jews here are the ones, the forests, especially in the gospel, because the gospel written to the Jews but today.
We use this expression for the gentiles because the gentiles also are sheep.
That gathering together you've referred to is so beautifully expressed in Isaiah 49. We might read a few verses there because the prophet opens up what was coming all ahead of time. Even the work of the Messiah who had come was to come at that time, and the feelings of Jesus come out in the prophecy, perhaps more.
Dramatically than they do, even in the Gospels, although they come out there too. So just.
Reading a few verses in Isaiah 49.
Melissa know Isles unto me, and hearken ye people from farm. It's a call to pay attention. The Lord hath called me from the womb. Who is that? Well, that's the man of Matthew 1 The Emmanuel Jesus from the bowels of my mother. As he made mention of my name, he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword.
00:30:16
In the shadow of his hand as he hid me, made me a polished shaft. In his quiver hath he hid me and said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I shall be glorified.
And I'm taking that as Prince with God. That is Jesus the planning and what Jacob never was quite and going out for these sheep. Now what does he say in verse 4?
Then I said, I have labored in vain. I have spent my.
Strength for not an in vain yet surely my judgment is with the Lord and my work with my God. Now here is expressed the feelings of the Messiah come to the Jews, and they were not.
Gathered, he says, as he wept over Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, How often would I have gathered thy children together as a hand gathers her chicks under him wings? And ye would not. Oh yeah, he felt it. I have labored and spent my strength in vain and for naughty. But he gets an answer from Jehovah the Lord God, verse 5 And now saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant. What for? To bring Jacob.
That old natural man.
Again to him.
He's going to bring them.
Though Israel be not gathered, they weren't gathered when they came the first time. Yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord.
And my God shall be my strength. His confidence is in the Lord God. And in a time when he's going to take up that people in power and they will be gathered. But then he says, verse six, It is a light thing that thou should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob. He's going to get all 12 of them and restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give thee for a late to the Gentiles.
That thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth to America too.
It began in the land of Zebulun and Nephilim. The people that sat in darkness saw great light.
It's overspread the borders and reach to the gentile. So now.
That's in this chapter, a preparation for the Gathering of the Gentile.
It's a preparation for the Church even to call today now of the Judaistic system that Krishna has developed into.
To leave it, to follow the Lord, and to have the doors.
Of grace opened up in full liberty to us to be to His glory, now a gathered people, now expecting and knowing that Israel will be gathered in the Millennial day.
Christianity, what should we think in terms of they will not stranger, they will not hear, have not strangers that many astray. What do you think about that?
I think it ought to be an exercise for every one of us about what we do here, where they're paying attention to pure true doctrine, or whether we have the discernment, which is a state of soul, to recognize the stranger's voice and to turn away from it. It reminds us of a illustration of.
A rather elderly.
Woman for much uneducated, that got saved, brightly saved.
And a few days later, one of the Colts came to her door.
And said, oh, I've got a book that's such a nice book. It tells you about Jesus and so on.
And without knowing anything about coats or those kind of things, she listened a little bit and said no thanks and closed the door. She heard enough from that stranger to know that it wasn't a shepherd's voice. And I think if you and I are sincere and acquainted with the shepherd's voice, we're not going to have to know all the other voices that are brought in Christendom.
00:35:02
The other evening I had a conversation with a brother. His name is anonymous to us, the purposes of this story, and we were discussing certain fine points of scripture, and it was a great deal of of emotional pressure on my heart. I brought up what I had known from a previous conversation with him, that he had pulled out a doctor's thesis from some theologic school, that this man's doctor's thesis on Revelation 2 and three.
Set completely aside the consecutive history of the church and I said, brother, I must bring it up to you at this time that that I do not think that is proper teaching, he says. Well, isn't this individual a gift to the church?
A stranger will they not follow? I'm not going to be LED into the the, the tangle of deciding who is a gift to the church and who isn't. I I'm thankful for every dear St. of God who preaches the gospel and ministers the truth. But I believe that rather than him telling me is he not a gift to the church, It would have been better that he had recognized the shepherd's voice and I said to him.
And very, very simple once you you know, once you try to force a picture, a little piece of a puzzle into the wrong place, then you've got other pieces that aren't going to fit.
And so I said, well, let's take Andrew Miller's book on church history. I said the whole basis on which he predicates his his thesis is the teaching of Revelation 2 and three. And he says, I know that. So I hope in fairness to his belief that he chucks out Miller's church history. And once you start chucking that out, then you've got to Chuck out a great deal more to think of of the of the consistency that we recognize in case of that second and third chapter.
In Revelation, that is hardly the time now because we're in John. But the shepherd's voice would have kept this brother from it. And I said, I want to go one step further. If I was ever in a reading meeting with you and you brought up this teaching, I have to admit to your brother, I I would feel obliged to, to interject, to interrupt and say, brother, brother, that is not the teaching of this passage. We do not want to hear that.
We're still friends.
But I believe that we need to be sure that it's the shepherd's voice in connection with the novelty of many presentations that are about us. The gifts were given to individuals, not to the church.
Before the church. Well, he probably said a gift for the church. I just missed quoting, but I still accept your point.
Stranger will they not follow? It's amazing. My heart is just as much a tendency as his, whoever he might be. I know you don't. But each of our hearts can be so easily LED away. And you know the the truth is the truth and we can be established. I like to think of it like a tetherball. You know that that ball may go round and around and that post is secure and and by God's grace maybe we be kept.
Secure, and not by every wind of doctrine.
One of the important important truths of this passage we're looking at is what we call dispensational truth.
The Lord enters into the sheepfold as the shepherd, and then He leads his sheep out. He had to enter through the door the proper way of entry to Israel and the fulfillment of all the scriptures, and then He leads them out. He's the door of exit for leaving Judaism.
The whole epistle to the Hebrews was written with that in view in the last chapter says, Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach, for here we have no continuing city. The apostle Paul, I believe, who wrote Hebrews, he was telling these Jewish Christians, abandoned Judaism for Christianity. Christ is outside of that system, and that's what we have here. The shepherd is leading his sheep out. Leading him his sheep out of what?
Out of Judaism. Into the liberty of grace, which is Christianity. Not ******* any longer. The ******* of the law. That's Judaism. An enclosure, A confinement. That was what the sheepfold was. And when he leads them out, there's no enclosure. There's a very great mistake in verse.
00:40:17
16.
Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, and also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one.
That ought to read Flock 1 Shepherd. He leads them out of the one fold, which is Judaism, the sheepfold, and they become one flock. Jews and Gentiles made one in Christ. Now they become one flock. It's no longer a fold, but a flock. I noticed when you read that, you read it correctly, because that's not a that's not a minor mistake.
Anyway, it's important that.
That we see the dispensational teaching of this chapter. The Lord enters into Judaism, into the.
Jewish among the people of Israel through the proper door, and then as the shepherd of the sheep, he leads them out of that into the the new thing that he was about to establish, founded upon his death and resurrection. Christianity.
Differences between the black bold. You can explain that a little details there. Well, the flock is composed of the Jewish sheep and the Gentile sheep, and the sheepfold is an enclosure.
It's it's what characterized the Old Testament. Israel was to be separate from all the other nations. They weren't to intermingle. They weren't to mix with them. They were to be a testimony to the true and living God. They were inside this enclosure. You don't read of any evangelists in the Old Testament. The Jews were not told to go out and evangelize the Gentiles. That's what characterizes Christianity. Christianity is a flock out there on the pastures.
Reaching out to bring others in to be a part of the flock, not to be a part of a a a system of religion, which is what Judaism was of do's and don'ts.
The law and ******* but the liberty of grace, and it's to be identified with the flock, which is all the sheep.
Enjoying the shepherd as he leads them from pasture to pasture.
And to enjoy himself an entirely different thought than the sheepfold, which is a confinement. And that's what Hebrews is about, to lead these Jewish disciples out of Judaism, out of that confinement into the liberty of grace. The real difference, Bob, you brought out yesterday in the fold, the people are the point of reference, and in the flock the shepherd is the point of reference.
That's what I think is so important to keep it for us in the flock. It's it's a center there. We're out on the hills. There's a lot of sheep in Bolivia, and I've often seen maybe as many as 2 to 300 there, and they're moving along to where there's pasture. But it's the point of reference is the shepherd. They follow the shepherd and the sheep are all gathered around the shepherd.
Whereas Judaism, as has been stated, as an enclosure beyond which the sheep could not go. I think that's an important distinction to understand. Judaism is one thing, Christianity is completely different.
Been said that Christianity is not an improvement on Judaism.
Christianity is an entirely different thing. It is not an enclosure. It is an attraction, you might say. Well, if you don't put up some.
Walls around the sheep might wander off, but if you have attraction to the person of Christ, there is no need for walls, Brendan.
In the 7th of John, when the Lord went up to the feast and the midst of the feast, he stood up and said, if any man thirst.
Let him come unto me and drink, And in that simple statement the Lord Jesus Christ dried up every resource for man other than himself.
And so the flock of the fold of Israel has been dissolved as far as having any refreshment or benefit to the people of God. And now the shepherd has gone out. He cast his own Ford, all of his own out, and becomes the center to which they are gathered.
00:45:10
It's one thing to keep the sheep together by putting a fence around them. It's another thing to keep the sheep together by setting.
And attractive object in their midst who holds them together.
Because of the attraction that he has for the sheep.
That's Christianity, isn't it? It's we're attracted to to the shepherd. The sheep are attracted to the shepherd. That's what keeps them together. Not because they're within a confinement. That's Judaism. So the Lord had already thought in the 6th chapter.
You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free, which the Lord's words teaching.
It's the truth that gives us liberty into which he has brought us in this.
Age and it goes a little further than the 6th chapter and he says if the son therefore.
Shall make you free, shall be free. Indeed, there is no liberty like looking at Jesus, seeing him, the one who has broken all the bonds of the law, or any other yoke that God ever put upon man, and and remove sin. And just to look at him, to hear his words, and to see him, and to rejoice in the liberty of the age in which we live.
Even now as set free and held together by him.
As the divine center, our brother JT Armet, who began.
Christian No, I mean the messages of love and Bible truth. Publishers stated that redemption is the ground.
Christ is the center, and the Spirit of the God is the power that gathers. And when the Spirit of God gathers, he always gathers to that person. And we might say conversely, there is no ******* like bringing the law into the Christian truth. No *******.
Like that.
Point here I think is important too. In verse four it's already been mentioned. The sheep follow him, that's the shepherd, for they know his voice. They follow him because they know his voice.
Verse 5A, stranger, will they not follow for they but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers to me. There's something there that comes home practically to my own.
Apart do we cultivate hearing his voice? Brother, is it a daily matter with us that we open the scriptures to let him speak to us? It's not merely getting into study, the word like sometimes we might say it is a question of letting his voice fall on our hearts to hear His voice. That's why the sheep follow him, because they hear.
His voice. And that's why they will not follow strangers, because they know the voice of a stranger. And it's a real serious thing to consider for those of us who are parents as well as our children go to school and they hear a lot of voices in school and in other areas of their contact with this world if they hear at home the voice of the shepherd.
If this is something that is a common practice in our home life.
The voice of the Shepherd is given a place. Then as they go out, they will have a basis.
On which to discern What is the voice of the Shepherd? What is the voice of a stranger?
Bob mentioned the practical benefit of listening to the shepherds voice in Psalm 28.
Verse one.
Be not salient to me.
Lest if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down to the pit. If we do not hear regularly the voice of God speaking to us in the Word, we will degenerate in our souls and our life will become like those that go down to the pit. No difference. I'd like to tell a little story. It's a little bit out of school.
00:50:04
But my brother, our brother, Ron Reeves, I was in communication with him recently, and without me asking or knowing anything about it, he sent me a a the manuscript of just a few pages on an article that Gary Nielsen had asked him to write, apparently for some magazine that Gary edits. And this article was on Reading the Word of God. It was typically Ron Reeves, but it was typically very, very nice.
And I'm not sure that Ron would appreciate and mention that he wasn't sure just what Gary Nielsen would do with it. But I I felt so strongly and I didn't go ahead and do it, but I wanted to give everyone in the little meeting in Pittsburgh a copy, a Xerox copy. But if you can get a hold of it, it was very, very nice. And it said obviously it was more than what Bob just said because Bob only spoke just a a couple minutes on it. But it contained that. He says study of the scriptures is important and he went over it in connection with it and when I got through.
I had to call him. I called him on the phone and I said I want to add just my proverbial way of saying things. I said I want to add just one word to what you've said and I said I want to say Amen, Amen. It was lovely. Get a copy, young or old, and it'll do you good. You may edit it a little bit. Like you said, it's unedited, but but if you edit out any part that really reaches your heart or your conscience, you should put it right back in because it was very nice. It's wonderful for the.
Children and all to have the Word of God before them continually.
To learn the shepherd's voice. But we also have the thought here, which was expressed in the previous chapter, that the blind man.
Heard the Lord Jesus say, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
And he said, Yay, Lord, now that's personal.
That isn't the result of hearing the word over and over again, which should be.
Parents should seek that their children do hear the word of God.
But he heard it for the first time.
And.
That is, he had heard it when his eyes were healed. But I mean, when he was in the temple, the Lord found him again and he heard his voice and he believed and worshiped.
There was a meeting in Los Angeles like this conference.
Where they took up this chapter.
And a young man and his wife and children were invited to the meetings.
Had never been to any meetings like this before. Ever. He was a Mormon.
And.
After the meetings, he wrote me a letter.
He said. I've heard the shepherd's voice.
Now that can happen in this room today.
Someone who does not know the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior.
They may have been brought up even in a Christian home, but they have never heard that the shepherd's voice.
Today is the time to respond and take the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
Those of us, her parents, can encourage the reading of the scriptures in the home. Sometimes that I've seen parents who seem to be discouraged from doing it because perhaps they don't know how to explain the scriptures to their children. But it's not a matter of explaining it. The word of God says faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God doesn't say faith comes by understanding.
And understanding by the word of God, it's by hearing that faith comes so.
Sufficient it is to just read it, to let it be heard in our homes.
I received through the mail recently a copy of a publication that must have been translated from the Dutch on the subject of Jesus as the eternal Son of God. Well, I I hasten to assure you that that I didn't need the article. I believed it, but he was sent it to me to for my health and and cognizance of what is available. I think I'm going to write to the publisher and I'm going to and I'm not going and I'm going to be straightforward. I'm going to say I accept the teaching.
But his reasoning I think is a little bit fallacious. But when he mentioned the scriptures, I could say Amen to that. And so in case with Bob, sometimes, you know explanations. There's the famous story of the little child that said mommy, I understand it when you read it, but I don't understand it when you explain it.
00:55:18
What is the difference between the expression that we had early of the shepherd entering by the door and his changing the approach in the ninth verse to say I am the door?
Before we get to that, we should notice there's another use of the door in verse seven. Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. He was the door, the proper way of exit from Judaism.
As the as entering by the door he was, the proper way, was the proper way of entrance into the sheepfold. And now he speaks of himself as the door of the sheep, by which the true sheep, the Jewish sheep, would be brought out of Judaism into the into the pastures of the word and the enjoyment of the new order of things. Then in verse nine he says, I'm the door by me if any man enter in.
He shall go. He shall be saved. He should go in and out and find pasture. In for worship, out for service. But there he's the door of entrance into Christianity. First of all he enters by the door to the sheepfold. Then he's the door of the sheep for the sheep to come out of Judaism into the new thing. And then he's the door of entrance into the new thing, the door which is. We often quote verse 9 as a gospel verse, beautiful gospel verse. I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved. But for the Jew they had to leave something first.
In order to enter in to the New South, let us go forth therefore unto him outside the camp, leave the camp.
And enter in to the blessings of Christianity.
The thief and the hireling are the same, are they not?
Certain has the same effect.
You don't like to point your finger?
There's enough in the Old Testament to do the pointing, read Exodus 34.
But we're living in a Judaized Christendom.
Where are those?
We take a job for hire and we'll move from one place to another.
Because of better wages.
How simple it is to.
Look at that and see.
And that they're not.
True shepherds are serving themselves instead of serving the flock. It's a terrible condemnation, I suppose if you look at an illustration of it is when Naaman the leper was healed and.
What was Elisha's servant's name?
He looked at that, those changes, arraignment and other things.
And.
Went after them.
And then the leprosy was put upon him.
It's not a not a day for that. Now the gospel is free.
I had a man.
I guess there's a woman called me up one day and.
Asked me how much I charged to baptize somebody. I was surprised.
And she said that I never heard of such a thing, she said. Well, I know a man that baptized me for $200.
What kind of high price, isn't it? But at any rate, that's just the principle of the thing, you know, to be a hireling, to be set yourself up as looking out for the Church of God and doing it for money. Well, that's putting it kind of crude, of course, but I think it's all in here.
Not only is it a matter of hiring stuff out there are those who.
Make merchandise or retail the word of God and they will actually appeal.
01:00:02
That you send money and you get money. They really trading in the word of God in a most uncouth, ungodly way.
We mentioned the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is especially for the Jew.
The believing Jew to bring them out of the old order that they were clinging to.
But the Epistle to the Galatians, we should mention that too in connection with this passage, because it was written to to refute the error that was being foisted on the young church that the Gentiles needed to be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses so they couldn't be saved. Well, that's to make a fold out of Christianity. It's to put put Christianity into an enclosure in a box, so to speak. That was Judaism.
And that was a terrible, terrible error. And it's important to see the difference between the sheepfold, which is an enclosure, A confinement to keep the sheep together, and then the pastures that the sheep are on to wander and to enjoy around the shepherd, around the shepherd, He's the attractive object. And that's Christianity. Stand fast in the liberty where with Christ has made you free and been out entangled again with a yoke of *******. This is what Paul writes in Galatians 5 verse one.
The whole epistle we just recently at home, we sat down. We read the entire epistle through at one reading. I would recommend that it's kind of hard to do that with First Corinthians. It's pretty long, but short epistles like Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. You can sit down and you can read it through with one reading. And it really impressed itself upon my soul when we just did this recently before leaving for conference. That it really brings home to your to your soul the whole tenor of the epistle.
And oftentimes we read it in such short chunks that we lose the picture and the whole teaching of the epistle. So I would recommend that for you young brothers especially that you you read the word and read it for understanding. But don't don't get hung up on a particular verse, that may be difficult. Just read it, discipline yourself to read it through and the individual verses will come later. But get the whole picture, get the overall view and.
Then you will hear the shepherd's voice.
We're talking about the hireling, it says. In the last days there should be teachers having itching ears. It's not that the congregation that they're speaking to has itching ears, It's this hireling that has itching ears and the hireling has itching ears, wanting to know what the people want. Sometimes we're disappointed in our own meetings because we don't think all our our needs are met.
But are we if we would judge our hearts somewhat like them, wanting to have a teacher with each years and not be receptive to what the spirit of God was raised up for ministry for our souls?
I believe this is as an inference to.
What will happen to the Jewish people in the coming day and perhaps has a direct reference to the Antichrist who is a violent?
He's called the Idle Shepherd, isn't he? Yeah, that's from Zachariah.
It's a it's a warning even today for for a Jew, because this is what will happen to Israel, and the word of God, you know, may fit various dispensations as to the exercise of soul.
The day is coming when the Jewish people will come back.
They are already since the year 40. They are starting back to their land, and this is a warning for them, because some of them will take up with the higher length the mass will, but there will be always a remnant. All is a remnant who will heed this warning not to follow the hireling.
M238.