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Simplify in the back of the book and #5 in the appendix.
G does not mean when a stranger wandering from the fold of God, he to rescue me from danger.
Interpose this precious blood and give #5 in the bottom.
Umm.
81 days and she's a guy and I'll come back and I'll have to go on.
All right.
Thank you.
Kim thinks that so many of us have been.
Found but I saw the shepherd and wheat uh, do we look forward now with being fed by me as well? The asking for the appropriate food for each one in the room, the freedom to die spirit for work in each of our hearts and for each one of us to come to know the better as a result of the next hour together. We just ask it my name or she said.
We continue in John 10.
Should we start?
10, 14.
I have a new separate and know my sheep, and am known of mine as the Father knoweth me. Even so know thy Father. And I lay down my life with the sheep, another sheep. I have to turn out of this fold, and also I must bring the faith. We shall, may, shall hear my voice. There shall be one cold and one shepherd. Therefore doesn't my Father love me because I lay down my life, and then I might take it again?
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And I'm taking it from me, but I'll add that to myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again.
Commandment have I received with my father. It was a division, therefore, among the Jews for these things. Many of them said the affidavil is bad. Well, I hear you then. Others said these are not the words of him, that half the devil and the devil open the eyes of the blind.
And it was a Jerusalem, the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him.
How long does thou make us in doubt? Thou be the Christ. Tell us plainly. Jesus answered them. I told you, and you believe not the work that I do in my Father's name. They bear witness of Me, and ye believe not, because you're not of my keys, 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. They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
My father, which gave them meat, is greater than all.
And no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hands. I and my father are one.
Then once you look up stones again to stone him, Jesus answered them. Any good works have I showed you from my Father, Or which of those works do you sow me? Jesus answered him, saying, for a good work We suddenly knocked, but for blasphemy. Because thou being a man, maketh thyself God, Jesus, Amen. Is it not written in your law? I said, You are God. He called them gods, with whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken.
Say, E of M whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, not blasphemous, because I said, I am the Son of God.
If I do not work for my father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the words that you may know, and believe that the Father is in me, behind him.
Therefore they sought again to take him.
He escaped out of their hands and run away again the on board into the place where John at first baptized, and there he abode. And many resorted unto him, and said John did no miracle, all things that John's pick of this man were true, and many believed on him there.
Deaths with benefits that those that were here yesterday. We just have a quick summary of what we talked about Chapter 10. We talked about how the 1St 5 verses of this chapter speaks about sheep and there were many characteristics, words that we talked about in this chapter. I'll just mention it briefly without going into details. Verse one there we spoke about the door, we spoke about the sheep pole, we spoke about the thief and proper in verse 2.
Uh, how only the, the chakra machine coming in through the door. Verse three, the Porter, uh, how the sheep hear his voice and he lead them and not hurting them and, and how does she follow his voice? Verse 5 where strangers and so on. So that's the curturistic about the sheepfold. And then from verse six on to perhaps verse 16, which part of it we will go over.
In in regard to the Good Shepherd, so we know the Good Shepherd is the one who look after the sheep and talk. We talk about the seeds that come up, we talk about the wool and we brought out the characteristics that the world in this case comes by. They only scatter the sheep. It does not kill, which is not character or wolves. They normally kill the sheep. So here is through that that the Lord is Speaking of his own, because he told them that he give unto them to turn on light. They shall never perish. So eternal life is assured.
Though in that a wolf can come in and only scatter.
So now we're on to verse 14, where we are the Lord in the South Bend. I am the Good Shepherd and know my sheep and am know of mine.
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Beautiful parallel in the 14th and 15th 1St.
I know mine sheep. There's a metallic I know mine.
None of mine. And the Father knows me, and I know the Father.
We are brought into a relationship with the Father now as our Father, our God, and our Father through the Lord Jesus. So you have a parallel between the knowledge of the Lord of his own and his no knowing Him, the Father knowing him, and he knowing the Father. And now he's brought us to know the Father ourselves, and being known of the Father, of course.
There's a story from the late 1800s in Syria where our traveler was going along and he observed, uh, huge sheepfold. It was kind of at a crossing of the way. It's a lot of shepherds were passing through and they keep their sheep there for the night. And he estimated there were over 10,000 sheep in that fold. And the person he was traveling with was the shepherd. And in the morning, there's just a sea and confusion of sheep voices and the fold and other shepherds that were there. And he wondered how in the world this man was going to get his under her. So sheep out of that giant sheepfold.
And he did exactly what you might expect. He called each one by name and they came out. They could hear his voice somehow. Whate I don't know if he called them with a a word name or whether he had a special call for each one. But however he did it, he extracted those hundred seats and they went off in their own direction. There's a cacophony of voices in the world today. There's all kinds of ideas and thoughts of men about God, but the Good Shepherd has come down.
And he speaks individually to each one to take them out, to follow after himself.
And we have that privilege of knowing him in that personal way and being known just as was.
Pointed out the parallel between that and the 15th verse. Just as that beautiful relationship of the Son and the Father that the Son came to reveal, He brings us into that same kind of relationship. Not a cold, distant, unknown God, but rather a personal one. Come close with an individual name and voice for each one with His own.
Interesting to see. If you want to know someone, you should know their name.
Often we struggle with that, don't worry. We think we know some alignment. We look at someone and say, I can't remember your name, really, we don't know that what? I'll do it. We know them well. We know them by being so we find the Lord that you know the sheep by name. Interesting enough in this world when things get complicated. So if you're dealing with a large corporation, you'll find that they don't know you by name, your customer numbers, such and such. That's how the world look at you.
They can look at you as a number, the Lord look at you.
As a person, that's the one he loved, which he mentioned earlier on that he knows his own. He knows you as an individual, he loves you as an individual, and he care for you.
A Diversion. Psalm 147.
Connection with that brother. Psalm 147.
Lucas, 3:00 and 4:00.
We heal it a broken in heart.
And binded up their wounds.
We tell it the number of the stars and call it them all by their names, like that parallel of the shipping called by name and the stars being called by name. And you know everyone that's the sheep of the Lord, He's gonna be in glory and have a body of glory like the stars. And we find from 2nd Corinthians 4 that there is a measure of glory connected with the suffering down here. And so these two verses kind of make that in parallel. He heals the broken in heart and binding up their wounds.
We tell it the number of stars, they call it them all by their names. And it's good for us to remember that if they're suffering and trials down here, there's an internal answer and glory to that. And that's for their sheep, his sheep that he calls by name. And so when he made the stars, I believe that when God made the universe, he had eternity in, in mind and he made the universe such a way to resemble and to give pictures of that which is eternal and connected with the word, uh, the work of his Son.
And the following glory.
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The Lord Jesus knew all his followers by name.
And this whole chapter speaks about it, and there was a long time.
And that he was among them.
And yet.
They they made one big mistake.
They did not ask him where they would meet him after his resurrection.
And that came right out.
Ask, say he was raised from among the dead because they went out to the supper girl and they were looking for him in the suburger. Now they would have asked him, Lord, where should we meet the after your resurrection? They wouldn't have gone to the supper and look, look for him in the supper curve where they laid him and take, uh, the staff and, and, and ointment with him and, and, and.
Made all these extra work. He knew them, but they they.
Seemed like they forgot.
Where he they were gonna look for him? Not in the supper, though he had told him many times during his life as a man, this earth, that he was gonna be raised from among the dead.
And there was a great privilege that he did that, that he stayed 40 days after his resurrection. And he showed himself to many, sometimes to a a great number of them, like 500, but most of the time, most more intimately, he showed himself to them.
Whom he had been with the most.
For David remarked yesterday on the 16th verse.
The word has changed at the end there. It does say in the contained one fold, but it is one flock, another sheep I have which are not of this fold. It's a Jewish fold. Them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and they shall be one lock and one shepherd.
And so we mentioned at the fold, you can have the fold in French, it's, it's really the place where the sheets are kept. And it's either a, a barn or a place where it's fenced in. And so the fence is what keeps the sheep together. But in the fold, as our brother Steven mentioned, they, they hear the shepherd's voice, that's where they go. And there's a flock over there or it's over there, it's over there, depending where the shepherd is and where he's calling them. So in the Jewish system, there was restrictions, there were laws that would keep them abiding together and going here and going there.
But here it's a person, and following that person will have you be with the flaw.
So in the previous verse that really tied our 60 to it is that the Lord tells us that he's a Good Shepherd. Well, how do we know he's a Good Shepherd? What does a Good Shepherd really do for the sheep? Well, he said his in verse 15, he said I lay down my life for the sheep. And that's a very important fact, isn't it? And that he laid down his life. So now John is building this fact here of why he lay down his life, how he laid down his life and why he laid down his life. And then he goes on and gives us a little hint of it where the whole that we spoke of earlier on is a Jewish world.
Now he said he has other foes that he wants to bring them all into as one flock. That's why he lay down his life for all. So the Jewish vote as if it were, and the Gentile vote is just for lack of better word, we all will be brought in at that one clock. That's why he's going to lay down his life. We find in Scripture that Israel is the heart and object of the Lord right through the Old Testament.
Up until the cross, but yet we find actually that we as Gentiles are hinted at throughout the history of the word of God is not something that all of a sudden we Gentile appears in his thoughts. We were thought of so in other places. We finally said we were predestinated. We were elected to be his even though we are Gentiles. So we go through the Old Testament, we find that too. We find that we know of the story of Ruth. She was a Gentile, wasn't she?
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Brought into the blessing of the genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ. We, we have Ruth, we have, and we even have the 12 tribes of the two tribes. We have, uh, a Manasseh, an Ephraim who are half Gentiles. So we see that throughout the word of God, we've been thought of. So now he said he's gonna lay down his life. This is the only way. There is no other way. That's why he said he is the door. There is only.
We can only be saved. So in verse nine we go back to it says I am the door by me.
If any man enter in, he shall be saved no other way but that way. Now for him to do the door is that you will have to lay down his life. He's a Good Shepherd.
In this chapter we have the relationship of the shepherd from the sheep. And I was thinking as they were reading the verses from chapter 14 to the end, and everyone here in this room is here because of a relationship. In many cases it's a relationship of children or friends or spouses, or maybe there's a relative that's here that you wouldn't see maybe once a year except at a Bible conference there's a relationship. And a brother many years ago said the root of all of our failures and unbelief is unbelief in the goodness that is in the heart of God.
Towards us there is much unbelief of the goodness that is in the heart of God towards us. So as we read these verses, verse 14, it says I know my sheep and have known of mine. Verse 15, I lay down my life for the sheep and others also on the spring they shall hear my voice. So there's a relationship established, a shepherd and the sheep. I'm sure some of this will be repetition, but we know that in the Gospels we have a revelation of Christ in Matthew as the king and Mark as the servants, and Luke as the Son of hands, and John is the Son of God.
And so for a very quick recap of leading up to chapter 10, we have Jesus as the Son of God. God the Baptist spoken chapter one and verse 16 and others fullness have all received in grace for grace. But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared him. So Jesus declared the heart.
Of God to his people. So in this gospel of John that relationship is established. God is declaring through Jesus his heart. So in chapter one we have Jesus speaking to Peter and to Nathaniel. In chapter 2 it says the way in. In Jesus speaks in chapter 3 it's Nicodemus in chapter 4. In the Gospel last night we had the woman at the well in chapter 5 who speaks to the Jews. In chapter six he speaks to his disciples.
In Chapter 7 he has more teaching and in chapter 8, umm, he speaks to the woman who is caught adultery. Chapter 9 to the man who is blind from birth. Jesus as a man, as the Son of God, reveals you the heart of God. And if those who are here, someone who brought you, brought you maybe in a comfortable car and brought some food along and maybe had something to keep you entertained or occupied on the trip. There was communication, there was a relationship.
There was something which made the trip happier, pleasant, because some came three, four, 500 miles to be here in this room today. And so Jesus is the Good Shepherd and the Good Shepherd giveth his life to the sheep. If someone gave their life, put their life on the line for you, there would be a respect, there would be an appreciation. That relationship would be strengthened as time went on and the more we see.
The character of God revealed through the person of Jesus speaking in here in chapter 10. It should warm our hearts, should touch us in that unbelief which might turn us away. We can see the goodness of God. And if you know someone loves you, who cares about you when you do anything to protect you, what would be our response? Are we gonna straight from the fold and get near the edge of the Cliff? No, we're gonna stay in the pool.
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So as we read these, as we meditate, as we speak of these verses, maybe reflect on that relationship between God and man, that relationship between the shepherd and the sheep. He laid down his life for us.
I'm thinking of the 23rd song, you know?
It says there the Lord is my shepherd, the Old Testament.
You know the reality of the Good Shepherd.
And some might say the Lord is the Good Shepherd.
My Good Shepherd, that's when we receive what he has done for ourselves and he becomes our shepherd. And then in the Psalm we find that the shepherd takes care of the sheep. He leads them and he takes care of them. He brings them by still waters and green pastures. But then also in the end of verse 4, Psalm 23, it says, Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. It's one of the things that the shepherd does as he watches over his sheep sometimes.
Some sheep are stubborn as we are. And, uh, somebody was recalling the history of a, of a shepherd. I'm not sure it was in Scotland or whatever, the details aren't important, but where this little sheep was going astray all the time. And, uh, one of the times that the Shepard founded in a thicket and he was, uh, you know, whatever. And, uh, he picked him up and he used his stick and he broke one of the sheep's legs.
A woman saw that and she said, this is cruelty to animals and I have to report you and then this and that, you know, they don't treat animals like that. And after she simmered down a bit, he, uh, he told her, uh, listen, uh, lady, that, uh, this little sheep now, uh, he has a broken leg as I broke his leg, but he can't go to water. I have to go and water him myself. And I, he can't go for food. I have to bring him food myself. When we move around, he can't walk. I have to carry him myself. And this is really, you see, the heart of a Good Shepherd.
Normally does he give his life for us and brings us into good pastures you might say, and still waters. He still takes care of us in our wayward ways and it's good for us to have a concern for others that we would take our example on the Lord Jesus, how he cares especially in a special way. I could say not cares anymore, but cares in a special way to the failing ones and those that have fallen by the side have gotten into trouble.
We can have a very uh.
What we find godly attitude towards uh, those that have fallen into sin and rejecting them. But I think if we are really serious with ourselves, we should realize that we could be the one that has fallen by the way ourselves and be ready to receive of the Lord direction to help in the restoration of such an one.
I know for from experience, but there are occasions where just the opposite happens, where one needs really special care for restoration. We add to His burden by not being shepherd like with them and being judgmental. And so may the Lord help us to take the model that He gives us the example that He gives us. Normally they give His life for the sheep, but He cares for them and goes out of His way to help them along.
That protein Earth there that.
I'll never forget that.
I had a practical.
Meeting there one with one of our relatives.
Uh, they, they were in the Lutheran Church. That's where they belong to.
And he came right out and he said that 14th verse, I am the Good Shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine. Who are these people? He said. I said, that's really we belong to him, we know him, He said, Oh no, no, I, no, no, not me. I belong to such and such a a surge in Toronto, Canada.
That's where I belong to. I said, yeah, but we belong to the Lord Jesus.
That was the end of our conversation. He just left with his wife to grow his to Florida where he was gonna go and enjoy himself.
But.
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This is a very wonderful verse, this 14th verse.
First of all, he knows his sheep.
And his sheep know him. That says it all.
The most important thing is that He got to know us out of His grace and love and compassion, and we know Him because we accept Him as our Savior.
That says it all.
Beautiful verses there after verse 60, verse 17. Therefore, that my father loved me.
Additional reason.
For the Father to love the Son, there's perfect love there, but there's additional reason given by the Son of the Father's love that he would lay down his life so the Father could have children, so the name of God would be glorified. All the aspects connected with the fact that He came to be a man and to lay down in his life. Take it up again, an additional motive.
For the Father's love. Then he goes on in verse 18, No man take it from me, but I lay it down of myself.
I have power to lay it down and have power to take it up again. Here's the Lord Jesus. He wasn't mortal. If I could do that word, nobody could take his life. But he became a man so he could give his life. He partook of flesh and blood so he could die. And he says he has power to lay his life down and to take it up again.
And then the end of the verse says it doesn't say this power have I received that my father? He says this commandment have I received of my father so beautiful because this is the son of God, God himself in person, a person of the Son has all power. He's God. There's there's fullness of deity there. There's no there's no restriction, but he's become a man and he has come in the position of a servant and before he does anything.
We had the commandment from the Father. He has the power to lay down and take it up again, but he's not going to do it in any way unless He has a commandment from the Father. Just a beautiful meditation for us. The glory of the Lord Jesus in the fullness of who He is and what He made himself to be is becoming a man, obedient man. You know, many use the Scriptures and they use verses to lower the person of the Son of God. No, it's the Son of God in manhood. He took that position to be here and to appear as a man and to behave as a man in obedience and give us an example. So this commandment.
Of our receiver. My father has power to do it. He's only going to do it.
Under the instruction of this father.
This is evidence with the father and the son would close it together. Isn't it Father and the Son so he which is the verse 17 begins by saying therefore that my father loved me. This is the work of the of the of the Father along with the Son. The death and the resurrection is to prove of the love the father have for the Son. Therefore that my father love you because I lay down my life.
That I might take it again, we know the Lord Jesus himself is in full control, but he also knew what has to be done. So we find another passage is that he was obedient, obedient unto death, even the death of the frost. We know Scripture have foretold us about the cross through and through we find and even in the New Testament we're reminded of how the Old Testament reminded us of the cross. So perhaps even what we learned John 316 well known verse. But if we were to go back a verse or two.
There we find it that as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of man be lifted up. So God has this plan, and the only way is that the Son of God must die. So here the Father loves him. We as men have no power. So we find that throughout the gospel we'll find the Word, the phrase, the hour is not yet come, and then just becau before the cross, then he said, the hour has come.
So we know that he was in control. Man did not put him to death. They were just instrument through the hands of God. Man would claim responsibility or deny responsibility, but it's still of God. I remember there was a Jewish girl that worked with us one year and she said to me, we as you didn't put him to death. It was the Romans that did it. Well, we can pass that on. We as men, we can we are really truly have one accord.
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We set away with Him, crucified him.
But then at the end here we knew that it's a Lord himself who laid down his life. But then we know too, He can take it up again. And surely He did He take it up again. And he tells us that our brother explained the commandment, or in the new translation, the authority he has is of his father.
Versus 17 and 18 give that wonderful uniqueness of the shepherd, the wonderful uniqueness of the person of the Lord Jesus, and just one aspect of it. God is love. And so when he flows out love to any Sinner, there's not a motive in that. There's not a reason in that center that causes God to love them. When you and I were lost in our sins, there was nothing in US that created, if you could say it that way, the love and God part. It was God as love flowing out toward us.
But verse 17 is different, Speaking of Father.
But it says, therefore, as is already emphasized, just my Father loved me in the Lord Jesus, as was already mentioned, but just to emphasize it, in contrast with love Florida in the Lord Jesus, there was something that would draw out the love of the Father. And so there's the uniqueness of his person in that sense in verse 17. And then in verse 18, there's a uniqueness of his life and of his power over it.
And so it says, as was already mentioned, I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. That's not something that any mere human can do or has the right to do. Some people, as the expression goes, take their own life, but not in this sense. They don't have even there, they don't really have the power to lay it down and certainly don't have the power to take it again. Only if God and His sovereignty allows it to be. And then as was already mentioned at the end of verse 18.
This commandment, if I received in my father, or was this perfect dependence as the sun here on the earth to do everything in full communion with the Father. So verses 17 and 18 established the absolute uniqueness of this person who is our shepherd. And it's very clear from the verses that follow that the Jews understood what he was saying. He wasn't just presenting himself as a shepherd, He was presenting himself as a unique one. That was the shepherd.
The Foundation. The Good Shepherd.
That gave his life for the seed.
And one more thing on it just extends beyond this chapter. This chapter is the foundation of that relationship, but we've already hinted at it. It's a Good Shepherd is the foundation in Hebrews 13. He's the great shepherd to continue with us once we become his chief all the way until we get the glory and then arriving home and delivering us the areas the chief shepherd in first Peter 5. So he's the shepherd from beginning to end doesn't abandoned the sheep part way through. So it's a strong contrast with the hireling that we had yesterday in the portion.
Just word on on power and authority.
You can delegate authority. You can't delegate power. Somebody has that the power to lift 300 kilograms. You know, you can say you go ahead, Michelle, I'll give you the authority to do it. I'm in trouble. Let me tell you so power. You can't delegate power. And a verse here says I have power. You didn't receive the power. He has the power. Beautiful to see.
I want to raise this.
To the younger ones, when they say younger, all right, that term is quite relative. So I'll let you define what I meant by that. So we are only 18 or 22. I think you're still under that category. Sometimes a meeting like this is difficult to follow through. And I don't blame you because I have trouble following Q2 for the hour and a half. But sometimes it's nice to memorize some verses and I would say these two verses that we have before our first 17 and 18.
It's very nice verse to remember. So even if you're 18 or 20 or perhaps only six or seven, see if we can memorize these two verses. Let's be practical about it. And in fact, if you want to, come see me afterward and tell me you learned it.
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That 15th word is also very precious.
When he says as the father knows me, if so know I is the father.
That opens for us the way to heaven.
Because the Father is in heaven, and the Lord Jesus came from heaven, and no says that he knows the Father and the Father knows me.
So the next thing would be to ask somebody who says.
He is safe to ask. And do you go to heaven?
And TH that leaves a question open for them to answer.
Either I go to heaven or, I don't know, go to heaven. If I know the Father as the Lord Jesus knows the Father, I will also go to heaven.
That is a very simple conclusion and we should never forget to ask that question because as many people they say, well, I don't know yet, I'm gonna find out when I get there. I hear that sometimes said in connection with where? How are we connected to God's Father?
Well, there, there was only a few people that could see the Lord Jesus with their eyes in, in the flesh. He was actually there another 40 days where they could see him and, and could answer all their questions. And, and they did where the two, uh, disciples that went with him to Emeril's, they heard it all.
From the beginning.
Of creation to the very end. He explained what the scriptures said about him and that included the whole scripture. So it's good for us if we know the scriptures.
If somebody asks us a question and we have a good answer from the scripture.
That is sufficient.
That's the word of God. You don't need, uh, make many explanations and, and, and histories and what have you. We just say we know the Father as the Lord. Jesus knows the Father and that puts us into heaven because he came from heaven and he went back to heaven. So he knew that.
There's more words I'd like to note here in this chapter 10. It all starts with the same letter, the letter S, and I think they apply to every one of us here in this room. There's the word follow, the word flee or flea, the word fold, and the word father. And every one of us in our choices, every day in our home, at work, in our community, we choose what to follow, what to observe.
What to imitate we choose What to flee from?
Says in Timothy flee youthful luck here it says the hireling flea is because he is the hireling focused on money, not people. And there's a full and the fold was the where they were safe, where they were protected, where they were connected with those who are in the same relationship and there's the cost Jesus received.
The command from his father.
If I may say this, there's one of my daughters who told me once, when I'm in a good relationship with you, I usually choose much better boys than when I'm in a bad relationship with you. And I was kind of struck by that comment. I never thought of it that way. But each one of us, when we're in a good relationship with our Heavenly Father, we make better choices. We choose every day. What are we following?
What are we obsessed with? What are we focused on? What do we lead? What re makes us recoil? What is our goal? When you it's been said, you learn what a man is by what he does in his free time. All of us. We have school, we have jobs, we have obligations. It says in the book of Acts, being let go, they went unto their own company, they were sent out of prison and they proclaimed the name of Jesus, the name which is above every name at which every knee will bow.
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Precious name of Jesus, we choose to follow, we choose to flee, we choose the fold, and we have a relationship with our heavenly Father, our Good Shepherd. And it's a it's a solid thing, but it's an encouraging thing because God has given us instruction to help us in everything that we face in our daily lives.
It's precious to realize that William is we really don't have a a well in the well. We do have a will, but where it is and we're under his guidance. I was thinking of our brother's comment on verse 15 that he was commenting on that. I was thinking how verse 14 that we began this reading portion with tied together will reversed 15. In fact, if you look at the new translation, you'll find verse 14 ends with a comma, whereas in the King James it ends with a period and then in verse 14.
We have the the word saying and know my sheep, and if you look at the word sheep, it's an italic. So italic often means the word it's maybe we should be able to take it out. It would just put into emphasize the thought. So in the new translation, let me read that it's interesting. He says I am the Good Shepherd and I know those not mine. I think that put in a much stronger emphasis into it. The Lord said we are is he can say that they are fine.
And am known of those that are mine. They didn't use the word sheep in there because we are his. Then you go on. And as our brother already talked about verse 15, how you know us. He wants us and he's willing to die in order to bring us into that one fold.
Versus 19 verse 21 gives us a slightly different thought.
Is the division.
When crisis presented, we O often will get a diverse of opinion depending on who you're with you need you will get a different opinion and we need to understand scriptures. We need to learn to divide the word of God properly in order to know whose opinion is correct. Because on the surface often the argument sounds right, but is it according to the word of God?
And then we qualify that to not just opinions from a worldly that stands and you find opinions whether concerning Christ even among Christendom.
Something similar to the act, you know, the opinions of men that they think would be Apostle Paul and other servant there where they, they saw what was done. I think he was casting out an evil spirit. They wanted to offer sacrifices to them and they would make them gods. And a few verses later they want to stone them. Their opinions just change, you know, because it's not fate of the heart. It's what we think in our minds. And so this was what they were thinking in their minds of the Lord. And maybe you're thinking things in your mind about the Lord and it needs to get down in your heart.
And we'll get that later on because he says to them, you believe not. That's why they were not his sheep. They believe not.
That was 17.
That goes right together with.
Romans 10, verse 9.
That's our confession of faith, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine.
House that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt he saved.
That's pretty simple and and it's right off on the point. For with the heart man believers, and to righteousness, and with a mouse, confession is made unto salvation.
00:50:16
That's very clear and simple.
And that's when the Lord Jesus says in verse 17, Therefore, thus my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
These two portions fit very well together.
Death and resurrection always go together. So some Christians might say, well, we believe that Jesus died. Well, if that's all you believe is only half the truth. So here the verse of brother quoted about believing in him is thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart. What, that Jesus died for your sins. Well, that's good. That's a good start.
But here it reminds us that God has raised him from the dead. Do you believe in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ? Death and resurrection goes together. Here's the thought that God is satisfied with the work that the Lord Jesus has done is finished. It's done once and once for all. So because he has a power to lay it down, and now he has the power to take it up again, that's the proof that God loves his Son.
That's proof that work is finished.
So you may run into some Christian group that we're Christian, but we really believe we should go back and follow the Sabbath. Well then by saying so they have just denied that the work on the cross was completed. I don't pass it. I don't consider that consider that to be Christian at all because they deny the finished work on the cross. And you'll find a lot of people or a lot of so-called Christian group, they do not follow all of the word of God.
Death and resurrection goes together.
Verse 24 Our time is running out. We have a lot more to consider. And then came to Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? Hold us in suspense. It says in the margin, which is really the thought there, If thou be to Christ, tell us plainly.
We we wanna know. No, they don't wanna know. They had him. They heard him. They saw the miracles and he held them. I am the Christ, but they will not believe. He will not come unto me. The obstacle there is active will. The Lord says come unto me. Active will says no. Submissive will say you call me so I'm coming. And so this is what they were doing. They were charging him to tell us. You know we're ready to believe they were not, but they were saying that with their mom. Just answer them. I told you.
Well, I told you it that I was, and he believed not.
The prior two gestures they had already clearly rejected him fully in chapter 8 he had presented himself and toward the end of the chapter and kept John 8 verse 43, he says, why do you not understand my speech? Even because you cannot hear my word And then a little further down he says, umm, verse 47 he that is of God heareth God's word. He therefore hear them not.
Because you're not of God. So in the 8th chapter, they refuse to hear what he had to say. And at the end of this chapter, uh, the verse 59, they took up stones to cast at him. So in the 9th chapter, he goes and he shows his power and he heals the man that was blind. And then toward the end of that chapter, after the man who's blind and received his sight and he's beginning to see clearly spiritually as well, in verse 30, it says the man answered and said unto them.
Why herein is a marvelous thing that you know not from whence he is, and yet he has opened mine eyes. So he's referring to the work that the Lord had done and he said, how is it that you don't understand what's going on here? And verse 33. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. They answered and said unto him, notice that these are the religious leaders that had studied the law, etcetera. And here's their great answer to that. Thou was altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out. And so they rejected the works of the Lord Jesus in this chapter and.
The prior chapter they take up stones to cast at the Lord and here they cast the man out that would follow the Lord. And so in this chapter they repeat that that error when they come down and they say this was just read in the 24th verse. If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly, the difficulty was not the plainness of his speech. The difficulty was not the plainness of his actions. The difficulty was the unbelief of the heart and that same pattern reveals itself even for believers today. Each one of us, I think to admit, if if we were to pause and think about it, that there are things that the Lord shown to us.
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That we claim that are confusing, and they're confusing because buried underneath is not the lack of an intellectual ability to understand the words. There's a lack of belief and a willingness to obey. And that's really what blocks the hearing of the voice of God or the seeing of the hand of God.
Go back to those 22. Sometimes you skip things. Sometimes it's important, sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's of an interest. Here just little thing is verse 22 I talk about.
It was at Jerusalem, the Feast of dedication, and it was winter.
The first itself doesn't seem to be very significant.
Feast this.
Feast is not the feast. We often read off the Feast of Jehovah, especially the seven feasts. If you go through that, you'll find this is not one of the feasts.
There's no feast in winter and it was quite specific about that and it's kind of interesting that the Word of God will put this in there. Now you'll find options. The feast is mentioned and then sometimes it says this is the feast of the Jews. They have their own feast too, just like men have religious system that we come up with. Before I explain that, let me just go back to the 7th chapter. If you look at John 7 verse 37, he speaks of the feasts again. And by the way, I'm saying it, if anything, I would encourage you to study the Word of God.
Because sometimes when something sounds so similar but not all true, that's when we can easily get this this way or get a a misled. So John 737 in the last day, the Gray day of the feast.
Why? Here's another feast. If we see quite a few feasts mentioned here, this is This is a real feast. I believe this is the Feast of the Tabernacle.
I won't spend the time on it. And here we find Jesus would cry that would allow voice saying, give any man serve when we come down and to me and drink. Well, we can spend another half hour on why he says so and the meaning of that. But the point is this the feast that Jehovah has appointed them in, it was a seven day cease. That's why I can say the last day of the feast. Now let's go back to our chapter here, uh, in verse 22.
This piece.
This is what they call the heat of that dedication and and it makes it very interesting because it lets you go through the the word of God to sort of tie things in together during the 400 silent year. And I don't claim to know the history that well. There is this ruler, NNTO Antiochus. He came in and as you know, the Jews were under persecution by them and he he.
Made a mess of the holy place. We took Pete's blood and his father inside the temple to make it, uh, to these, uh, uh, uh, sanctify the place. So when Judas McAfee, the McAfee time, they rededicated the tempo. So this is their fees that they think because they were able to replenish the damn tempo and rededicated that. And it was in the winter months in the Mount Chesley.
Now you'll find a scripture that month is mentioned numerous times. You go to Nehemiah one, you go to Zachariah, I think 7th and 8th after that month is mentioned again, you, you can look into it. I, I say this to challenge you into reading the word of God. In fact, if you were to go back to Daniel chapters, in fact, let's turn to that and I will be very brief. I would rather have you study that. I think it's in the 8th chapter of Daniel that defilement was mentioned.
From way, way back from roughly 500 years before that.
01:00:04
Umm.
Verse 11 Yee magnified himself even to the Prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was passed down, and and hose was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground, and it practiced and processed and prospered.
So.
It was for it was prophesied from way back in fact. Digress against 8th chapter of Daniel. You will want to learn more about those. Those, uh, silent years go through the 8th chapter of Daniel where a lot of people think it wasn't original because it was too accurate telling what's to come. So here it was the fees of the disease. So I thought I'll add that in the sidebar, especially for the younger ones.
We have some comforting verses there in the.
Sheep have its own 7th and 8th on my sheep and my voice, and I don't 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 is greater than all. And no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hands. I and my father are one. And the Jews look up stones again to stone him. The words of the Lord that he found very provoking.
He being one with the father, but it is certainly something we enjoy as.
Those that are we are the Lord see he gives us eternal life. We shall never perish, neither will we ever be plucked out of his hands. Some people say, what about if you jump out yourself? Well, you're part of the ones that cannot like out of the Lord's hand. And then he adds a beautiful verse 29, you know, you have two hands. God has two hands. He has a father's hand and a son's hand. And who can go against that power and security where the Lord has placed his sheep now in the hands of God the Father and the Son.
That is a great assurance, isn't it, that we'll never perish. No one can pluck us out from the fathers on his end or from the Father's end. That's an assurance. We have the word of God.
I some of you may have heard of this example. I used the Sunday school one time like if you remember I took out one of these remote what do you call it the car fork when you use it to lock the car doors and often if you watch people especially someone older like us.
You see them walk away from the car, a few feet away and they click it a year ago. Beep.
They'll take now watch your parents, they'll take another five more steps and they'll push the button again as if we need to lock it again to make sure it's locked properly. So we beep it again. And sometimes you see them do two or three times until they walk far enough away that it doesn't beep anymore. And if they're like me, sometimes I'll walk back a few feet to make sure it still works well. How much better loss is that car from the first piece? Does it lock any better once it's locked?
Isn't it? And that's like our salvation. Once we have it, we will never lose it. Now here's what we may lose. We may lose the enjoyment, the communion we have with the Lord when we turn our back away from it. But the Lord will never turn His back from us. As it was cool that someone asked one time, what if I turn my back in the sunshine of His love? Well then the sunshine of His love will be on your back.
One aspect of internal security, you know.
We often look at ourselves and.
Consider how we don't feel saved or we don't feel like that, but the re reflection is with the shepherd, isn't it? If the father is TR entrusted sheep to his shepherd, the Good Shepherd, and he comes back to the fold and he's missing his sheet, are you gonna blame the shepherd or the sheep? Sheep are very, uh, if I could use the word stupid creatures. They get lost and they get sidetracked. They're busy with other things and so you're gonna blame the shepherd. And if one of the Lord's sheep could ever be lost again, it'd be.
Something that would attack the glory of the shepherd as the Good Shepherd. He's not going to lose any, any of his sheep. And it's the parable of the lost sheep. There. He seek it out until he finds it. It's not a question he's going to give up. When he finds it, he puts it on his shoulders in the plural. He's going to govern the world with one shoulder, but the sheep are in his shoulders. There's perfect security with the shepherd.
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Brother mentioned the relationship between the father and the daughter or the son, and it's good to emphasize that because when we take our eyes away from the shepherd, away from our father, that's more difficult than after. The world knows that the cycle Cyc. I I remember years ago in psychology class, they tell you this when someone is in trouble, you'll find that the eyes are looking downwards.
Why is that? I think from our standpoint, it's our eyes should always be phasing upward.
The Father's house I do we. I really believe in the fact that we walk as strangers and pilgrims in this world, and that our home is from above. And we waited for the Lord's return and we're told to keep those thoughts within us, don't we? And in the meantime, we can sing in hymns and psalms and making melodies in our heart and be reminded of His love constantly.
Can we see him? 277 Surely they sleep, And wondrous love shall measure all our days thy.
Outer home above where dwells eternal praise in 277.
Umm.
33, 3597, 4-5.
01:10:35
Yes.
Oh my God.
Dear Lord Jesus, we we thank you for this portion you considered and we hear thy words coming to us. Learn of me by meek and lonely in heart. And so as we considered thee as a wonderful shepherd, the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd, we just thank thee for the security we find ourselves in that we can rejoice in what that has made us to be before thyself and thy Father and thy Father, all that prospect that's before us of glory with Thyself, and none of this we merit.
But it's all ours, we pray, as we reflect on a character that we might be more like thyself with one another and take care of one another, watch out for one another. So we pray and we thank you, Father, for this time. In the name of our Lord Jesus, our great Shepherd, Amen.