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The gas going on the 10th chapter of John the 14th, 1St.
I am a Good Shepherd and know my sheep and I know all of mine.
As a father knoweth me, he even showed no either father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Sheep I have which are part of this whole them all. So I must pray, and they shall hear my voice. And there should be 1 Cold and one shepherd.
Therefore does my father love me because I lay down my life, but I might take it again.
No man take it to front me, but I lay it down with myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment that I received of my father.
There is a division, therefore, again amongst the Jews for these things.
Many of them said he had the devil in his mouth. Why hearing him?
Others said they did not the words of him than at the devil, and the devil opened 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 South Florida.
Then came the huge round without him, and said unto him, How long do thou make us doubt, if thou be the Christ telleth plainly.
Jesus answered them, I told you, and he believed not.
Works that I do in my father's name, they bear witness of me, but ye believe 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 is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck him out of my Father's ham. I and my Father are wild. Then the Jew took up the stones against Estonia. Jesus answered them. Many good words have I showed you from my Father.
For what your load works for you told me, the Jews answered in saying, for a good work we stole thee not, but we're blasphemy, and because of thou being a man, make us thyself God.
Dealers answered them, Is it not written in your law? I said to your God? We call that God, unto whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken. See of him who the Father has sanctified and sent into the world. Now blasphemy, because I said, I am the Son of God.
If I do not, the works of my father believe me not. But if I do, though you believe not me.
To leave the work, that you may know and believe of the fathers in me, and I am him. Therefore they sought again to take him, but he escaped out of their hands, and went away again beyond Jordan into the place for John first baptized, and there he abode. Many resorted on the hip, and said, John does no miracle. Of all things that John spake of this manner of truth many believed on him there.
Nothing that warms the heart like the consciousness of this truth that the Lord Jesus came personally into this world as a man.
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And here is the Good Shepherd, and he's coming again, personally to take his own home.
And how we need to be occupied not just with doctrine as we speak of it, but the truth that we have in this verse.
The person himself and what he is, who he is.
That the Spirit of God would set before us in connection with the subject of life as we have it in John.
And let's forget that.
It was in the beginning.
That the goodness of God was doubted.
That's what led to the fall doubting the goodness of God.
In connection with the temptation in the garden, when he was tempted and she was made to understand by the devil that God was keeping something back from her, He wasn't put to her.
Well, there was the doubting of the goodness of God then, and ever since, there's been the doubting of the goodness of God.
And when God sends a gift into the world, sends the Savior.
The Son of God.
He comes as the Good Shepherd.
This is to emphasize the goodness of God, that God is still good.
Even though man has been doubting it for centuries, he is the Good Shepherd.
Now we get two thoughts in that 14th verse. I am the Good Shepherd and know my feet and that know of mine.
The most precious of the two thoughts. And 5th, that he knows us.
Thank God we know Him as our Shepherd, as our Savior, but more marvelous the thought that He knows us in all our shortcomings.
All our failures He knows us and the way He knows us is brought before us and lacked first.
As the Father knows me, Even so know I the Father.
We can just ask ourselves a question, How well did the Father know the Son in all his pathway through this sea? It is I was ever upon him.
Delight in heaven. It was never a moment when the Father wasn't occupied with him. Well, the same way.
That the Father knew the Son in his pathway is the way the shepherd knows his sheep and their pathway to the sea. It couldn't be more wonderful, it couldn't be more precious to think of a deep, tender affection.
That is ever engaged with those that he calls his sheep, and that he knows where the love that never changes, that never forgets. And although we have failed so sadly and dreamed off time his heart, yet he has never been disappointed with us, for he knew what we were when he picked us up.
And that love goes on.
All the way through the journey as we go on through this sea. As we mentioned in the 13th of John yesterday, having loved his own Witcher in the world, he loved them unto the end. That love goes on and his knowledge of his own goes on all the pathway here below.
Then he says, I lay down my life for the sheep. That's.
Doors, the depths of the love that goes on with us in the pathway here through this sea.
That's giving up everything. He lays down his life.
Where is she?
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The life is in the blood. He lays it down.
Forfeits this life for the sheep.
And he was the only one who had a right to this life. Every other one.
The condemnation of death is upon us, but he had a right to life that he forfeits it.
As you will find more fully brought out and should go on into this chapter.
You notice between the bringing in the other sheep, which you get in the 16th verse, you get his laying down his wife.
There's a reason for that, because the Lord had his Jewish sheep when he was here.
They heard his voice, and he had called his own chief by name, and he had let them out.
Enjoy falls and had formed a flock around himself.
Now he is about to.
Introduce the subject of the other sheep.
Which I'm sure we all.
Agree speaks of the Gentiles who were yet to be brought into the end of the blessing of the and into the into the flock.
But before he gathers in those other sheep, he lays down his life.
Oars up on tie, sends the Holy Spirit down, and when Israel rejects their Messiah. And finally stone Stephen who was testifying on seeing Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
Apostle Paul is called out and sent to carry the gospel to the Gentiles.
And that brings in those other sheep which are not of this.
This flock, that is, they were outside the covenant of Israel. If you get in Ephesians 2 without God and without hope in the world.
We were far off, while Israel can.
Position. They were in the place of nearness.
They knew the true God, They had the Tabernacle of God and the wilderness, and they had the priesthood, and they had the oracles of God.
Question as to whether they believe them and we're really trusting in the true God of another matter. But as to their outward relationship, they have a place near us that the Gentiles.
Never were given.
So now the Lord is going to call in the other sheep, and they were to hear his voice. Too little beloved, hollow, precious thought for our hearts to think that we who had no claim while ever on the on the love of God have heard the shepherd's voice, and we have been called.
Into this place of.
Mirrorless blessing, and among the sheep of Christ all that he can say here.
And there shall be one.
Aretha not full, but one flock. Those who understand the feet tell us that it's another word altogether.
Of the word full, it's all one flock and one shepherd.
I was thinking, Brother Barry, what we have in here, 12Th chapter of the same gospel.
Where the Greeks came up in Jerusalem to worship, they said we would see Jesus.
Well, the Lord can't receive the priests at that time.
So it brings in his death, said the corner. We voted to the ground and die and divide it alone. But if they die and bringeth forth much fruit.
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Marla, Donald, same chapter. He says, I, if I've been lifted up, will draw all unto me.
After his death and all conjuncture. So you're speaking about the Ephesians?
Where the middle wall of petition is broken down.
How the Hall have the privilege of coming.
And they're all being committed together. That what flock.
We've been reminded of distinction between the words bold and far, and I'm reminded of an illustration that I saw brother give at a conference in Montreal when I was a teenager.
Illustrating that difference, and I thought it was very helpful. He had a large card and on one side of the card he had a sketch of a fold, an actual enclosure. And in that enclosure there were numerous dots representing the sheep that were gathered in that hole. And he pointed to the boundaries of that hole which God himself has instituted, that which.
Enclosed is the love people and kept them separate by God-given ordinances.
Thou shalt and thou shalt not. Then he turned the cart over, and on the other side he had in the center of it a prominent dots and scattered around, some quite close and some rather far away, numerous other thoughts, he said. This, I believe, represents not a full, but a flock. The center of that flock is the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Shepherd who gave his life.
And the thought now is not where are the boundaries, what are the limits, what are the God-given restraints, but rather how close may I be to the Shepherd Himself, who loved us and gave Himself for us, and has gathered us to Himself? To me it seemed very helpful, and perhaps was a little distinction was it between the flock and the whole?
And another thing.
Connection with that illustration is the closer those dots would be to the center, the closer they would be together.
There's a very important thing to remember. The closer we are to Christ, the closer we'll be together. You take all of those dots and move them toward the center. There will be quite a cluster there. They'll all be close together and so.
If we move close to Christ, we will be all close together. Well, that's what the Lord wants. All close to himself and all close together. And surely not the opposite of that is the reason why ruin has come in. We get away from the Lord and so we get away from one another. We become estranged to one another and divisions come in.
May God help us to stay close to the Lord Jesus Christ, our center.
There is a book that.
Of it is land in the book is written years ago, before the nation of Israel.
Came on the scene.
In the days when the shepherd's life was much the same as when the Lord was here, and this writer describes the.
The Shepherds.
Palestine and their care of the sheep.
And among other things, he mentioned that they were worldly sheep among his flock that were always at the fringe trying to get into.
Places where he wasn't feeding them and getting grass or something outside of the master that he was fighting for them.
And we hope they made them so much trouble. He said he saw him even take a rock and throw at one of these whirly sheep that was getting over near a precipice in a dangerous place.
And if I remember all that he told about these worldly sheep, one got so unmanageable that he had to break his leg and carry it around with him, and someone asked him.
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About why the sheep had an overlay, to the astonishment.
Of the one he was talking to, he said I broke that sheep's leg myself. Said it was always wandering off and I couldn't get it to stay with the flock. Finally said I broke its leg and then he bandaged it most carefully and carried it around with him. And he said that when that link was he also the sheep could walk again.
That it would be the most valuable sheep he had in his flock, because it would follow him so closely. It became so fond of the shepherd during the time of its lameness that it would be always keeping near to it. And he said that as he walked along the.
The sheep that were nearest to him, he said he would be pulling my tender bunches of grass, giving to these sheep that were keeping a step with those that were.
Nearest to the Shepherd.
Well, I'm afraid the Lord has many squirrely sheep himself.
They will be careful after not among those that we are not.
Lead in that way.
With always the danger to the speaker as well as yours to allow the attractions of this world, we'll get into our hearts and to get occupied with present passing things and neglect the things of Christ.
The pastor that he has most tender portions from his word and getting the dabbling with the things this world is offering for the amusement and the pleasure of those who are in this.
That lost world and lose our appetite for the thing with a Good Shepherd. Oh delight to provide for his flock.
Brother, who had to have written me a letter to the cat chief, told me that he believed the reason it said in the 23rd Psalm lead me beside still waters.
Is because the mouth and nose of the sheep is so constructed that it cannot drink in troubled waters.
And he applied it to the assembly that we should be careful that the waters not be troubled.
But that they be quiet and that should be an exercise for us. Another has said, you know, that you don't have to shove the grass in the sheep's mouth, just lead him to the green pasture and he'll feed if he's healthy. And I believe that's something for us, too, that sometimes we may overdo these things. And if a sheep is healthy, you'll be.
Appreciating the grass.
Of 6 sheep was the the Nay 8 and he Nay gang with the rest of the flock.
The maximum with your comment sheet with the broken leg. It made me think of a lovely thought from the 23rd Psalm. Let's not turn to it. I'll just read it from my own Bible. And I'll make one mistake in reading it, and I hope you will detect that mistake without looking at your own Bible. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the path of righteousness for His namesake.
Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for he is with me. His rod and his staff may comfort me. I see quite a few already have detected the mistake. All of a sudden it changes from he to vow.
And when does it change? Not when the pastures are green and when the waters are still, but suddenly. Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for. And it's he no longer it's. Thou art with me. He has been speaking about the Shepherd. But now, when the times are difficult, and when the pattern is one of the valley of the shadow of death, it is a direct address.
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To the Shepherd power with me fire off I staff. And he never said he again in the rest of the Psalmist. Always thou if the Lord in his wisdom as that perfect Shepherd, brings any one of us into that which may well be to us the valley of the shadow of death. The purpose of His loving heart is that we might be found in the presence of a person whom we personally can address in that lovely way.
Is a Cadillac.
Writing on the 23rd Psalm. Perhaps you've seen it. It's written by one who is called Our Syrian Guest.
And he distinguishes between thy rob and thy stand. They comfort me.
Now the thought of this writer is that the rod is not for the punishment of the Jesus might be fought. But he said that the the rob was used for the protection of the sheep. He said that when the wolf got into the clock.
Shepherd carried out for his fall the rotting of the sheep. He said he had gone on the hill, and he gave a hole all at the sheep. Well knew when the poor sheep were running here and there so terribly frightened that they all came together in the solid phalanx, so that they they stay off times. He said that he had known a wolf in crushed to death by the sheep running together.
He holds his brother and the sheep come together in response to his voice and that is their protection. And the staff is really the crook I believe that the shepherd uses when he sees a sheep in a dangerous place. Perhaps he is fountain and the grass is eating right at the edge of a Cliff on a rock where there is.
Great danger is falling.
Thinks his truck and pulls the sheep back to a place of safety.
And thus the comfort of the sheep.
The protection from the enemy and protection from the carelessness and danger the sheep will place himself in.
His indifference and not having his eye on the Shepherd.
You had this morning where it was going in and out and.
The disconnection here. Here are the Good Shepherd in here. The child kept the car to lay down his life. Tell me it's pointed out as a Good Shepherd to give me the 22nd time. And I said British Shepherd is 23rd. But you were talking about his whole life the great Shepherd was here.
Shepherd give me his life for the Jesus God and what has enjoyed it when his third sound is the consequence of the 22nd. They come close together without 1/2 an hour. The right foot the chief chapter 224 stops.
In the book of Hebrews is that we have the Great Shepherd, is that it?
Yes, yes. Well, is there not a reason there that of the wilderness leading on to the rest of the the need for that greatness to take his people all the way through? Is that the thought the high priest industry while we're here.
We have one shepherd at the end of this verse.
One flock and one shepherd. It's nice to think of the truth of the one body and are being gathered to the person of the Lord Jesus. But this is true also in Israel. In the end of Ezekiel, the last expression in the chapter last chapter, the name of the city should be called the Lord is there.
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Now there's going to be 1 shepherd.
It's rather interesting to know there's one man every eye shall see. The purpose of Scripture is to glorify the person and the work of Christ set him before our souls. And so the Spirit of God leads us into that which would exalt the Lord Jesus here as the the one Shepherd, both for Israel and for his people now.
The truth of the one party doesn't come out here, so he doesn't give us.
The truth of the of the church, although we see the way the church that was gathered in the 20th chapter where the Lord appears in the midst of those in that upper room where the doors were shut here of the Jews.
And the Lord is recurring His own for that which would to be brought in.
That was to take the place of Judaism, Brother Brown said yesterday. The buddies of Christianity.
But the principle of of.
What we find in connection with the church is brought in here, isn't it?
One Fox 1 Shepherd.
Brother Long had an expression that I will remember that.
The effective man is a circumference without a center. An Assembly of God is a center without a circumference. And that is a very important principle to lay hold of as soon as you bring in sectarianism.
Immediately you're bringing in the principles of Judaism.
That is, rules and regulations, church membership, and so on.
Carly means that a certain group are held together.
Well, the way the Assembly of God according to the mind of the Lord is held together.
As Christ the center, He the attraction that holds us together.
You perhaps heard about a conversation that Mister Darby had on board a ship one time when he was crossing the Atlantic. Some preachers got around and they asked him three questions. They said, Mr. Darby, we understand that you wouldn't be a magistrate.
No, he said. You wouldn't have always been what they said.
Always said you wouldn't have me because if you brought a man up to be tried and Hitler hit another man in the on the cheek.
You turn around and let him hit you on the other team, he said. It wasn't happening.
Well, they said, Mr. Derby, we understand that you wouldn't go to war and fight for your country to Darby says I believe in fair play. So what do you mean? Well, he says, you give me a gun and send me out into the battle and I meet an unsaved man on the battlefield and I kill him and he kills me. He says I send him to hell and he sends me to heaven. He says I can tell that that is a fair place.
They only have no more to say about that. And then they said, lastly, said Mr. Derby, we believe that if you don't get those people you're with organized, they're going to eventually break up and go to pieces. His reply then was that if the if the if love for Christ, the power of the Spirit of God ceases to hold them together, the sooner they break up and go to pieces, the better for them.
The preachers went off and left the old man in his quiet meditation.
Well, there's quite a fault there, isn't that you can get an organization, maybe of all Christians.
Get it well organized and get all kinds of gospel activities connected with it. But.
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In time, why the organization can go on and flourish. After all the Christians are gone and just unsaved people are in the organization. That's the way an organization works. That's right. I was going to say that the difficulty with that kind of thing and organization is that it's not a body.
It's not a body. There's quite a difference between a body and an organization. The body has power of function within itself, but not an organization.
If perhaps our body isn't functioning like it ought, to, we say, well, we'll get a machine and set up alongside of it to keep it going.
Well, that's just an admission that the power of function within the body has failed.
There is power function within the body. It has a head, it has its members, and when it's in living touch with the head, it functions. And so the body of Christ, when all the members are in communication with the head, they function and they don't need a machine set up alongside to keep them going.
Find the work of the Lord Jesus does here. He does in complete dependence on the Father in this 17th verse. Therefore does my Father love me because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taking it from me, but I lay it down in myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
Now what he did, he did in answer to the will of his father. And so we have here a man in perfection, the man in perfection even unto death. It wasn't a thing that he shrunk from in fulfilling the will of his father, but at the same time there was perfect love on his part, and he had come to take and bring his own sheep into blessing.
But at the same time he was doing the perfect will of the Father, carrying out the full councils of God that were known before the foundation of the world.
The only one and the power to lay down in his life. Sometimes we hear this expression in connection with young servicemen who were killed on the battlefield. They laid down their life for their country, but that's not true. Their lives were taken from them. But this blessed One had the car to lay it down and he had power to take it again. So I believe that the wrong expression they laid down their lives to the country their lives were taken from.
But this Blessed One laid it down. It's true that.
It was.
His own act. But it's true that it was the power of the spirit, and it's true that.
It was the.
Father's commandment, He did everything in the power of the Spirit, not in his own power, but He did it in obedience. And I'm thinking now this last part, the resurrection especially that He was raised by the glory of the Father. I believe it says in another Scripture, but also in the power of the Spirit. And here we have.
That I might take it again.
In his own power, but in defenders.
After John, pardon somebody.
In the 19th of John.
The 31St When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished, and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. I believe the correct rendering of that is He dismissed his spirit.
There you get the same thought that you're speaking about.
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Laying down his life of divine act and that is in keeping with the whole character.
Gospel John that presents the blessed Lord to us as a divine person.
So that's the way he is introduced in the first chapter. Nothing about his birth.
In the Gospel of John, you go right back into eternity. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was gone. That's the character of the whole Gospel of John.
A divine person come from God in this world, and his whole life is characterized by what is freshly divine. And that's why you have, I believe, no Gethsemane and Gospel of John and you don't find the Lord.
Needing someone to bear his cross as he goes.
To Calgary.
We find the Lord.
Out of the word divinely superior to the.
Weakness that we see.
In the other gospels.
So the Spirit of God has been pleased through John to give that special character of the Lord's life and death. And if we think of the whole current offering, we see it.
Brought before us.
In connection with the death of Christ in the Gospel of John. For you have nothing there about the forsaking of God that goes with the thin offering. But in the truth what is brought before in the burnt offering is what went up.
As a sweet saver to Jehovah.
So are we trying and looking at the death of Christ?
But it was what was especially for the eye of God which his heart found unspeakable delight in. See His Son so obedient to His will as to endure all that suffering that He passed through.
Accomplishing His will, Glorifying him.
For that is the character of the Gospel of John, and it's lovely to see how many places as we go through this gospel.
That special cure of his life and death comes before us.
Remember one time picking up?
Magazine from Harvard College Theological School.
And just to show, there will.
Terrible ignorance and of the most learned of men, they said that the very fact that the only place that you find.
The resurrection of Lazarus being in Justin John's gospel proved that it wasn't true because the most wonderful miracle the Lord ever performed would surely be mentioned in the other gospels. Therefore it couldn't be accredited. Well, just shows how.
Oh, fairly deplorable ignorance of man when he hasn't.
Laid hold of of the the mind of God. How beautiful and striking it is that the that the resurrection of Lazarus.
Was vastly reserved for the one who was presenting the blessed Lord in his divine character. That's of all a miracle, the most marvelous, a man who had laid in the grave for for four of these until his sister said. By this time he stated the Lord speaking to him with the voice of the Son of God, seeing Lazarus come forth.
And laying down of his life, the thought carries itself back from the cross to the 18th chapter where we find that Jesus goes forth. He's seen him in that dignity of his person as the Son of God in command of the whole thing all the way through. And we even are told that he bears his own cross in John's. Our brother's been pointing out that the Lord is in command of the whole situation.
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And He also says that if you seek Thee, if you seek me, let these go their way. He gives command concerning His disciples. It's a marvelous thing to trace this in John and to see the glory of His person as He carries out this work in obedience to the Father, yet in all the dignity of His person. The full power of that voice, it cries out it's finished. And then he dismisses his spirit.
He doesn't let past one precious thought in connection with these verses we've been commenting on, he says.
In the 17th verse, therefore does my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
The Lord has possibly gained through all he passed through.
And he now has a love and enjoyment with a father that he did not possess until he went into death.
All the father has.
Found a special, precious, wonderful delight of His Son because of his going to that cross in obedience to his will, and when we think the moment of the agony of soul that he passed through and Gethsemane.
Oh, how it must obtain the father's heart as he there says. If it be possible, father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from it. Can you think of any father with his son facing an awful hour ordeal and he could just buy one word sparing from this terrible?
Trial that he's going through, withholding that.
Act that would set him free. Can we imagine a father? Can we think of ourselves in that position?
Think of God the Father hearing his Son imploring you, and then.
Withholding.
The request from him letting him go on to the cross, While we know, beloved, that that unspoken word is the reason that you and I are here with with joy filling our hearts, That unspoken word that the Father never spoke.
Oh, there's another side to it.
They love that it has created in the Father's heart, a love that He now possesses and will possess through all eternity.
He offers himself as a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savior.
God, I believe we have that in Ephesians, but.
That's the way that the believer is accepted on the basis of that offering, however.
No human will ever know.
What happened in those three hours of darkness that we know this, That it was then that the vilest sins?
It belonged to us. We're all fully paid for when the Lord Jesus.
Bore our sins, and under the wrath of a holy God, paid the debt that we owe.
The fact that we will never know and never be able to fathom what the Lord Jesus endures for us is, I believe, a very, very wonderful thought and the fact of his going into death and giving himself without spots of God.
Healing up his life, dismissing his spirit, is in itself a marvelous thought. And yet there is also the other side of it, is there not? That isn't gone.
Man responsible and guilty, even as Peter said he killed the Prince of Life. And I wondered if we get an illustration of that font in Solomon's building of the temple. The brass that was used in the building of that temple is mentioned four times over as being without weight past finding out. It could not be found out, the scripture says.
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And that's most remarkable because there are so many details given in connection with the temple.
But that price which I believe would speak of the righteous judgments of God against sin, was born by the Lord Jesus, and there was no measuring of it. It could not be measured. But it does say, in that same connection, the very weight of the nails was recorded and written down. That's a remarkable contrast. The weight of a brass could not be found out, and that fact is mentioned four times.
But the weight of a nail is recorded. In other words, the Lord Jesus offered himself.
As a spotless victim to God, the Lord Jesus went down into death, and for that which cannot be measured nor fathom, but.
God has kept a record of that which man eats upon him, the nails, or to me that's significant. God has a record of it, and man is going to give an account to God of his sad guilt in having crucified the Lord Jesus.
That's the thing, offering the Lord Jesus Christ.
Did not bring any savior to God.
God forsook him when he was hanging on the cross, and he cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Well, God is God is holy, and he could not look upon his Son while he was bearing that sin.
In his body, there on the tree. But that surely doesn't mean that God his Father had ceased to love him. Isn't that what we get here? Wouldn't this be warrant to say that the Father still loved? He still loved him, even though as a sin offering he must?
Forsaken.
This God, that perception, and with.
This thought that our brother hey has been bringing out.
It's nice to see when we think of righteousness that was mentioned in Ezra the 8th chapter.
And the 27th verse.
The fine copper already the brass was precious as the gold.
That is, it's the it's God's righteousness in judgment.
It's God's right and it's his own character that is in view whether He goes out in sovereign grace or whether he goes out in judgment. It must be so it's according to his own character. And in a coming day on the earth we see His glory connected, and not only with the restoration of Israel in blessing, but also His glory connected with judgment.
Isaiah I'm thinking of the 60th chapter and the 63rd chapter.
Glory of grace and the glory of judgment.
It's it's God's righteousness that's in view. He wants the Sinner to be saved, but he must judge sin.
Drop down out of the 26th 1St. But she believed not, because you are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.
We find that the Lord went from the length and breadth of Palestine, and all that were sheep in that land heard the shepherd's voice, and those who did not give his voice were looked at as an irrecoverable class.
So he says the reason they didn't hear his voice, because they were not of his sheep. And then he goes on.
For there was a division there among the Jews.
Or things the Lord had said, but now he goes on well farther instructions as to the sheep.
He says my sheep hear my voice. That's the 27th verse and I know them and they follow me.
01:00:03
Did you ever notice that?
From his side we get our side and then we turn to his side of the subject.
Notice he says my feet. That's what he says.
His thoughts about his own. My feet. And then there's our side. We hear the shepherd's voice, and then he says.
And I know them, that's his size, then our side, and they follow me, and then his side. And I give unto them eternal life. They shall never perish.
Now, as a positive fact that everyone who.
Accepted the Lord, who has heard the shepherd's voice.
Is a follower of the Good Shepherd. Alas, we don't follow him as we should. We don't follow him with the nearness that.
Keeps us from mistakes and failures, but there's no question.
That everyone in this world who is a true believer.
And the Lord Jesus Christ is a follower of the Good Shepherd.
We may be like Peter, following the Lord apart, yet still he was following the Lord, wasn't he?
And as we know, following the Lord afar off.
Brought him into the place among the enemies of Christ, where he denied the Lord, but still he followed the Lord.
Oh, it's been said that we can tell where people are going by the road that they take.
See someone that's going to Des Moines and you see the, you know that they're going in that direction. If it's Interstate 80, you'll see them turn W, don't you? It may have some tire trouble, they may have some engine trouble before they get to their destination, but the direction they're taking shows.
Where they're where they're going.
So everyone that has from his heart accepted Christ as his Savior received him as Lord.
Has started out with Heaven as his destiny.
All the time failures and the sad mistakes along the way.
That should exercise neither true.
Word of God is stressed here. It's a question of believing and how important that is all the way through John in a special way, the believing that's brought out so so remarkably all the way through here. It's it's simple faith and.
The.
Jewish.
Sin.
Was particularly unbelief. I believe we haven't pointed out in Hebrews unbelief. It is simply not believing. But on the other hand, how simple for a soul to just take God at His word and have eternal life, and that's what we have taught.
Now one different distinction here too is that my sheep hear my voice, and I know them. Again, in the 14th verse, I am the Good Shepherd, and know my sheep. In the 7th chapter of Matthew he says, Then shall I profess unto them, I never knew you. Oh, what a solemn statement that is. The Lord looks down from this company.
And he knew lights. To recognize those whom he says I know there, I know them. To be numbered among His sheep by His matchless grace is a wonderful thing. And yet to think of those concerning whom he must say in a coming day, I never knew.
And cancel or carry around, I could say in thy name we cast out devils, and did many wonderful works.
01:05:06
Showing our empty profession how far it can go in connection with accomplishing the work of God. Just think of men who have had done those wonderful mirror like Judas, perhaps even raised the dead. And yet he wasn't saved.
So that is a most solemn warning. And it's an answer to those would say, well, those people were saved once, but.
They they backsled and lost their salvation, so that cannot be because the Lord says I never knew them going that they never had really to do with him as a Savior had never from their heart.
Who they trusted in him.
All our warnings those are as how lethal those are in a large company, but there might be someone who has made a profession might be even breaking bread. And yet as never from his heart really accepted. Christ has never seen himself before God as a lost Sinner.
Some 15 years ago in Los Angeles, this subject was taken up.
The 10th of June, perhaps over 15 years ago and.
A young couple were invited, who were Mormons, to the meetings.
Now they came to just the 11 day's reading. They were unsaved.
And I got a letter from them from Utah afterwards. They were visiting there. And about all he said in the letter was we've heard the shepherd's voice. And I went to visit them afterwards. And I believe they were truly saved, possibly through that one day's readings on the 10th chapter of John's gospel. And you know, if there's one in this room today who's unsafe.
Why don't you hear the Shepherd's voice? Eternal life is the result.
During the Shepherd's voice. And it isn't that you're prohibited from hearing it, it isn't that you can't hear it, because it's unto all, but it's only upon all them that believe.
That it's my old chief that hear my voice.
But we find out from John's ministry that the babes hear his voice. All the sheep.
That's what characterizes all the sheep and over here in first John chapter 2.
Verse 18, he's addressing the little children, that is the babes in God's family, and he says in verse 20, ye have an unction from the Holy One and you know all things. That is they have discerned, they know the shepherd's voice.
And it's been proven out that newborn babes in Christ have met up with some of these people that belong to these cults.
I'm thinking of one now.
That had just been seen and one of these people that belonged to a certain cult came around with their literature and wanted this newborn babe in Christ to buy some of this literature. Well, there was a discussion, a conversation that took place and this one who just recently been saved said, I don't believe I want anything to do with it. It doesn't sound like the shepherd's voice.
I can't argue with you. I can't discuss the matter with you, but it doesn't sound like the shepherds voice and I don't want anything to do with it. Well, she was just a baby, but she was hearing the shepherds voice. She didn't have to know all the voices in the world to be able to discern. She knew the shepherds voice and she says it doesn't sound like the shepherd's voice.
I thought Spanish one is such the 1St.
Speaking about things to become a sheep here it says you believe not because you're not on my sheep.
01:10:06
I was just saying it was God-given faith isn't it?
There's water of them. That village we see again, that's the face of the body.
The the shape.
Of our chapter as found in the sheepfold in the beginning.
For those who had.
A new life already.
And it's because they had life, that they had faith, and they were attracted to him.
It might be said regarding verse 16.
He says.
I must bring.
Are you speaking about other sheep? I have and I must bring.
In other words, the thought is that he would gather them.
As it were to himself I must bring. And then it goes on to say, And there shall be.
One flock, which includes every Christian on earth.
They are all sheep. Every real Christian are sheep, and this one flock includes them all.
And one shepherd instead of having.
Two or three or many shepherds. We have one shepherd. You know, there's a system that claims that there is a vicar of Christ on earth and so on. Well, there is only one shepherd, and our hearts go out to Him and Him alone and no substitute.
Now in Chapter 11.
And verse in the verse 51 and I want to read verse 52.
Here Chaith is a high priest.
Something like Balaam?
Prophesying.
Truth, but himself a vessel not.
A true child of God.
So Caiaphas prophecies truth in the end of verse 51 That Jesus should die.
Now notice the object of his death for that nation, and not for that nation only, but that also.
He should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.
His death is in order to gather his own as one.
And in the 17th chapter we get that same general truth, that they might be one, one in nature, in communion and enjoyment.
With God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, as the manifestation of it, that's another question. Look at Acts chapter 2.
Probably verse one.
Two Acts, chapter 2, verse one. When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
In chapter 4.
We see there are one in heart and soul.
In verse 31 They were assembled.
Together.
And they were all filled with a Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit.
And they speak the word of God with boldness.
And a multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul.
And.
Well, there's 33 great power.
With the apostles and their and their testimony that day and great grace was upon them all. Now God is the one that is set up this gathering.
01:15:01
In the fourth of Acts, here it is the work of God, and it was perfect.
It was perfect.
Now.
The question of manifesting this oneness is another question altogether.
Today we're living when the instead of the manifestation of the wall being together, assembled together as one, as they were in the beginning and as it should be.
Why, How sad and great the failure in the ruin on every hand, nevertheless.
God's word has not changed.
And God is still gathering to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
By the Holy Spirit and a remark I love to pass on to the Saints made by Brother Fleck in a letter to me 40 years ago about.
I think it's a very valuable truth. I don't know where else to find it in all of our printed ministry. In this remark. It's very valuable if I am gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
By the Holy Spirit, I am gathered outside of all divisions.
The Scripture pattern remains the same. The Holy Spirit gathers to that one name and person as He always has done, but men have scattered by their well, their own wills working.
While later trying to tell us that there's more than one savior, we know there's only one savior, and they're trying to tell us that there's more than one center, but we know there's only one center, 1 Savior, 1 center of gathering.
I suppose that any student or part of Christian.
Couldn't see it in that First Corinthians 12 verse 13 which says.
By 1 Spirit are we all baptized into one body, and there is one body? Well, the Lord Jesus is the head, and the Holy Spirit would have every member of the body of Christ walk consistent with that truth.
That there is one bought in all, baptized into one body. Therefore there is no justification for the many many hardies and divisions and whatnot.
Spirit of the Lord.
210.
Oh blessed and wondrous word, what heavenly life, what power divine is that sweet word? For one thing that we can be assured of. We can be one spirit of the Lord even lower. I'm of such sad.
Break up testimony.
If we're gathered to His name, we can be in one spirit with the Lord in the midst of all the ruins.