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Our shepherd is the Lord, the living Lord who died with all his fullness can afford. We are supplied. He richly feeds our souls with blessings from above and leaves us where the river rolls of endless love.
Our share.
Ten with verse 7 be a good place to begin.
Verse 7.
Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers. But the sheep did not hear them. I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
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The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.
I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.
I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep, but he that is in hireling, and not the shepherd whose own the sheep are not. See if the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep, and flee us, and the wolf catches them and scattereth the sheep.
The hireling fleeteth because he is in hireling and careth not for the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine.
As the Father knoweth me, Even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.
And other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received in my father.
There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings, and many of them said, He hath a devil and is mad, Why hear ye him?
Others said, These are not the words of him that hath the devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?
And it was in Jerusalem, the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.
And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch.
Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long does thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.
Jesus answered them, I told you, and he believed not. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me.
But ye believe not, because ye are 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 them out of my father's hand.
I and my father are one.
Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my Father, For which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, and because that thou being a man, makest thyself God.
Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law? I said, Ye are gods, if he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken. Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, thou blasphemous, 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.
So ye believe not me, believe the works that ye may know, and believe that the Father is in me, and I in him.
Therefore they sought again to take him, but he escaped out of their hand, and went away again beyond Jordan, into the place where John at first baptized. There he abode, and many resorted unto him, and said John did no miracle. But all things that John spake of this man were true, and many believed on him there.
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Pointed out that he's the door out of the fold. As we have pointed out, the fold was that legal enclosure where goes from Israel were, but there were those who were his sheep, and he leads them out. If anybody before the Lord Jesus would have attempted such a thing, that would have been awful.
But because of who he was.
He had the right to lead them out, but he does not only lead them out, he becomes the door for them.
Into Christian blessing. It's wonderful that that is what he wants to lead all of us into, to come to the enjoyment of what is available for us in Christianity.
Which is so far superior.
What those under Judaism had there were those who were his sheep, but he leads them out, and he leads them out, as already was pointed out after.
He had died and gone to the cross and it took him a while before they were really delivered from that Jewish system.
But hopefully he will be able to deliver us from anything that is borrowed from Judaism, and there is so much of that in the Christian profession that we need to be delivered from. But that is the negative side of things. The positive side is to enter into that which he has won for us, for which he has become the door into Christian blessings.
Interesting to notice that between verses 14 and 15.
Brother Darby and I think Brother Kelly both put a comma. They are not a period.
And they would read then.
I am the Good Shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine as the Father knoweth me. Even so, I know the Father, the lady on my life for the sheep. It's those Christian blessings that were brought into He's opening up a whole sphere that is the heart of the Father toward the Son.
I know my sheep and am known of mine as the Father knoweth me.
Opening out that and it comes after we read in verse.
Ten. They might have life, and might have it more abundantly.
That's what belongs to us today.
In our chapter, you bring up in Kansas with knowledge.
In connection with love, much the same thought as in the 15th chapter. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love, and down in the 12Th verse. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
And so we have the connection between.
The Father and the Son and the disciples, in case with knowledge in our chapter and in case with love in the 15th chapter.
And like to mention this, that if you added up the number of verses in the 10th through the 17th chapter and divided it by the number of verses that either have the word know or love, you come with it with four. Which means on an on average from the 10th through the 17th, every fourth verse on average has either something about not knowing or loving marvelous.
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And it's, as you said, that which we have as the result of life in Christ. We have knowledge. You say, oh, I don't know as much as I should. That's not the point. It's what we have because of a new nature. Well, I really don't love like I should. That's not the point. We should but. And so the Lord puts those two words together in connection with his dealing with Peter.
Knowledge and love, and we're not going to take that up now, but as you go through it, you see that when finally the Lord uses the words that he had used, it breaks Peter down South in summary. And there may be other words, belief, but at least those two on average we find for every fourth verse there is something of knowledge and something of love in what we find once.
We're LED out of Judaism in principle and we have eternal life.
In Christ we're brought into knowledge and divine love.
In verse seven we have the door of deliverance from Judaism. As has been pointed out, the door out of the full.
He says I am the door. And I think that's a very important thing to get a hold of that really the way in which a person will be delivered from Judaism is that they get a hold of the glory of the person, of the Son of God himself. And the more they're taken up with him and his beauty, his greatness, his glory and so on, and then see he that he is entirely outside of that system altogether, that will lead to their deliverance.
The eighth verse brings out how that there have been ones that have come and have sought to.
Lead ones out, but they have been false messiahs and false leaders, false prophets. And I think you have an allusion to that at least an example of that in Acts chapter 5 where you you read a Thudius and another that rose up and tried to lead ones out of the fold, but it was not of God and it didn't work. But now the Lord has come and this is the first time in scripture where we actually get him leading his people out of Judaism for anyone to leave Judaism before this.
Would have been a mistake, it would not have been the will of God, but now that Christ is leading ones out.
The door is open, but the way of it is to be taken up with His person. That's why in Hebrews 1313 it says, Let us therefore go unto Him outside the camp, not outside the camp to Him, but it puts the person 1St. And I think that that is what really should be the attraction, to lead one out, the person of Christ himself.
Judaism itself was a system that foreshadowed.
The glories of the Lord Jesus. So we knowing that it does that, we go back and read the Old Testament with quite a bit of profit.
That way knowing that God had in mind his own beloved Son.
But when the reality came, why hold on to the shadows?
That is what is addressed in the Epistle to the Hebrews as apostasy.
And the person leaves the glorious reality that we have in the Lord Jesus and goes back to forms.
Of religion. That's the principle of apostasy, and it's a serious thing.
But.
That is what is happening in some cases around us today. People have left the true knowledge of God and have gone back to systems of things.
Apostasy is a reality in our world. No real believer can ever become an apostate. But a person who makes a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus? Perhaps we think they're real.
But they aren't in heart. They turn back.
And become a prostate to go back to the forms.
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Of religion. And that's where Judaism is wrong.
Dead wrong when it takes the place of the glorious Person of our Lord Jesus. Lord, help us brethren, to focus on God's beloved Son there on the Mount of Transfiguration.
And Peter suggested putting Moses and Elijah on the same level as the Lord Jesus.
A cloud immediately covers those two servants of God.
Mighty servants of God, useful servants of God. And a voice comes out of the cloud and says, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, Hear ye him. Oh, how important to understand the preeminence of the person of the Lord Jesus.
Like you say, to be occupied with him completely delivers you from those systems of things.
Apostasy.
To allow to add something to that is really giving up. To go back to Judaism was also connected with giving up Christian truth. Now we don't have the apostasy that is coming, according to Tessam, Second Thessalonians 2.
The day of the Lord cannot come before.
That apostasy takes place. That is the total giving up of Christianity. But the spirit of apostasy is already at work today. Whenever Christians have professed something and give it up, that's the spirit of apostasy. Have we not witnessed that among us, beloved brethren, that they were brethren that were teaching?
Truth as to the one body and the ground of gathering, and they gave it up. That's the spirit of the pastor, See, We dare not call them apostate, but it is to giving up the spirit of apostasy. That's very solemn.
Hold fast that with thou hast that says in revelation, how important love and Saints of God. You cannot hold fast what you don't have, dear young people, so you better get a hold of it.
First of all, and then ask the Lord by His grace to cling to it. Keep it and don't give it up by the truth. You know, salvation is free. We don't have to buy salvation, but buying the truth. There is a cost connected with it. Don't give it up by the truth and sell it. Not for whatever advantage you might have in when you do give it up, but how wonderful.
Here too, in this chapter, the Lord speaks of thieves and robbers.
And already it was pointed out, there were those who came before the Lord came. They were thieves and robbers. And if I may be allowed to make a difference between a thief and a robber, the Lord explains later on, they come to steal and to kill and to destroy the thieves.
You know, they're really trying to trying to draw their sheep after themselves.
But the robbers want to rob the sheep of what is available for them. Dear Saints, there are robbers around. They might not necessarily go so far as to try to kill you, spiritually speaking, but they want to rob you of what the Lord has for you. Just be careful. But what a difference.
The Good Shepherd doesn't come like a thief to kill. He comes that they might have life, and may I render it or give it away? Darby renders it to give it abundantly. The rendering in the King James suggests that the Old Testament Saints had abundant life and we just have it more abundantly. That's not accurate.
We have it in Christianity, we have abundant life. Sure, they had life, but they didn't have the certainty that we possess as Christians. Neither can that be spoken of. What they had as eternal life. We find that developed also in this chapter because.
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Eternal life is more than a life that never ends, and in the King James.
Unfortunately, many times it says everlasting life. I believe Mr. Darby consistently renders it eternal.
Because it is more a quality of life and there is a relationship connected with it that could not be enjoyed before the Lord Jesus came.
I am referring to John 17 verse 3. This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent. So before he was come and made known the Father. That's the one he is addressing in John 17. You cannot really speak of Saints possessing eternal life.
They were not in that relationship, in the enjoyment of that relationship, but they had life. But we have it abundantly more than what we really need. And we knowingly we enjoy what we possess. You know, that's why you don't have the certainty in the Old Testament that the Saints enjoyed what we know, that we could never perish. And all that is developed later on.
In this chapter I have come that they might have life and that they might have it abundantly. And how could he give that life? He had to lay down his life for the sheep. That's how we could become His sheep only because He would lay down his life to be, to make us His, so that we be His forever.
Abundant life is really eternal life and.
Like you say, it's in John 17, three it says this is life eternal. They might know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ who now is sin. There's no wonderful brethren, that we can say we have the knowledge of the true God. You look around the world and see the concepts people have.
Of who God is even in our country today with the new age movement strong, the ideas that people have of who God is is sad, extremely sad. Go over to India and I understand they have in Hinduism approximately 300 million gods. You can choose what kind of God you like, one of their greatest.
Forms of God is the cow that wanders through the streets in their cities, and you're not supposed to molest it because that's a form of God.
Sad you, you laugh at it, but we have the knowledge of the true God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to know Him is life eternal. It is life in abundance.
It is what Timothy is told by Paul and First Timothy.
Chapter 6, that which is really light. It's translated in the Darby translation. You want to know what really is to live?
Yet to know God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is life in abundance. Like you said, it's eternal life, but it's not so much the thought of the duration of it. Sure, it never ends, but the thought is life in abundance, quality life. That's the thought of eternal life through the power of the Spirit of God, yes.
Is it not possible, brethren, to have that abundant life, possess eternal life, and not be in the enjoyment of it?
I think we had our brother mentioned to us a few choices that we can make in this life that would cause us to be out of the enjoyment of it.
Choices that we make. The Lord Jesus Christ, as Brother Bruce mentioned, is spoken of here, personified as the door. It is not a door, but He is the door. We came into this room through a door in the back of the room.
We entered into this place of enjoyment and there are many doors that you can enter into the paths of entertainment, the paths of opportunity, the paths of Business Today and higher education. Some of those things, there's nothing wrong with them, but as to the choices we make, it certainly will steal the joy as an enemy is so busy depending on what door we go through. He's so busy to rob us of the joy.
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Of our eternal life, our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is enough. Our brother was just telling me at the table a little while ago, the dinner at the lunch table, he said that.
His son wrote him a letter.
And told him that he was so in love with the blessed Lord Jesus Christ, the blessing of his love. He trusted that he would never take it, allow it to disappear from his life. But the enemy came first of all and stole from this young man very much. In fact, he made some bad choices in his life. He ended up in a difficult situation.
And he suffered much because of it, but he took it from the Lord. And we were singing in that little hymn. Our souls he doth restore. And it's wonderful that we have a shepherd, the Good Shepherd, that does not want to give his life for the sheep, but he restores his sheep. He restored this young man such that he is now living in the good of that abundant life.
And it's, it's a choice that choices that we make will rob us of that joy of eternal life. We can never have eternal life taken away from us. He can never, never rob us of that. But the joy of it, the good of it, the blessing of it. And by the power of the Spirit, I think our brother Stan mentioned, there is a love that is available to us that he can pour into these vessels of ours as we sit at his feet. And it is not limited to the older brethren, young people.
It's available to young folks of all ages as you sit at His feet as we had before us, He will pour in a love by the power of the Holy Spirit that you cannot find in this world that is not available to you in this life. And it's a love that passes all understanding and I.
I never realized that when I was a young man, but it is true. And if you realize that when you're young.
It will save you from a lot of pitfalls in this life.
You can rise above.
Unpleasant circumstances if you're in the enjoyment of that abundant life. I think of the apostle Paul, who is in prison in the third of Philippians. His testimony is so beautiful, he says. I count it.
Let me read it. Chapter 3. Philippians.
And verse seven, what things were gained to me? Those I counted.
Loss for Christ, yeah, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things in due count them, but dumb that I may win Christ.
Pretty unpleasant circumstances he where he was in.
But if you had to choose between the Apostle Paul and the 30th of Philippians.
And putting in contrast Solomon.
All his wealth and all his wisdom, the book of Ecclesiastes, and he comes to the conclusion at the end.
All is vanity and vexation of spirit. Which one is enjoying abundant life? The one on the throne with everything he could ever wish.
Or the one who lost everything in this world and was in the Roman prison? Which one you answered?
He could say he wished that they would be all like him except these bonds. You know, he was the only freeman.
And eternal life, Christ himself is the eternal life. That's what we find in first John. And if we have him, we have eternal life in possessing Him. He that has the Son has life. So young believers, if you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you have eternal life in having him.
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And but there is such a thing as living in the enjoyment of it. That's why the verse that you.
To enter into what really life is, to come to enjoy that life and the devil would want to introduce things into our life that hinder us from enjoying it. All this garbage that is being offered in the world system nowadays. You know, if you involve yourself in debt, don't be surprised if you don't have the joy that.
Is available for us and enjoying that life, but we do have it. And like I remember Brother Gordon said, the life that we now have is the same life that we will have for all eternity. There's not going to be any improvement or change in that life. But what will be different is there's nothing to hinder it anymore, you know, and, but we have the same life, the same nature.
That we will have for all eternity. We have it already. So the grace of God can help us to lay aside what hinders the enjoyment of that life, and to live in the enjoyment of that which the new nature enjoys. So starve the flesh.
Feed that Newman, feed on that which strengthens the new nature.
That's the secret. And you don't have to be an older brother before you can come into the enjoyment of that. You can come into that as a young person, but you read the scriptures prayerfully. Ask the Lord in humility, Lord, I can't understand this. Please help me understand it. Will He not do that? And if you still have some questions, go to somebody that can help you understand it. And if their brother doesn't have an answer?
Maybe that will even help him to look things up and he will benefit from the very question that you have by looking into it. It's a wonderful thing that we can live in the enjoyment of what we possess and hopefully come into a fuller enjoyment of it.
In the beautiful, the simplicity of this verse 9 brethren, I think it's so wonderful. I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved. This is a door that every single person must enter, not the door out of Judaism. It's the door into salvation and it's he himself that you must deal with. You cannot avoid Jesus.
You must.
Meet with Him. If you do not accept Him as your Savior, you will meet Him as your Judge one way or the other. Every human being that has ever lived on planet earth will meet up with Jesus sooner or later. Absolutely unavoidable. But here He says I am the door, not some complicated doctrine that you've got to figure out and understand.
No. A person, a real living person. He himself is the door. Nothing quite as simple as that. What do you do at a door? You go in.
And as they say to the people when I'm preaching the gospel, there's windows in a house, there's a chimney in the house. You can technically get down that maybe into the house, but there's the door that is put there to get in. That's the proper way. And you want salvation. Jesus said I am the door. That beautiful simplicity of it that now lead us into what the meaning of the rest of the verse is. Go right ahead, Brett, I asked you.
Still waiting?
Let's not have an impasse.
I've enjoyed it, but beginning with verse nine, you have the great distinctive blessings that belong to those who enter at the door. And as you have said, it's the door of salvation or the door into Christian blessing and privilege. And they are as follows. In verse nine you have salvation being saved, and then a little further on it says they shall go in and out there you have Christian liberty.
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And then thirdly, it says they shall find pasture that would bring before a sustenance.
Food for the soul. And then in verse 10 we have eternal life, the abundant life.
And then in verse 14 and 15 we have the intimacy of communion with the Father and the Son. Then in verse 16, where it says there shall be one flock, there you have unity. And then down in verses 28 and 29, where he says they shall never perish, and neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand from my Father that gave him is greater than all, and no man shall be able to pluck them from.
Or out of my father's hand. There you have security.
Salvation, Christian liberty, sustenance, eternal life, intimacy of communion, unity, and eternal security.
These are things that were not known in the fold. It required that they would come out and to enter at the door of salvation that these things may be known. These are our distinctive blessings that belong to Christianity.
You need to revel in it and enjoy it, know it, walk in it.
It's interesting to connect a few of these thoughts with.
Ephesians where it says.
First of all, I'm thinking of referring to the ceiling of the Spirit.
Simple thought to.
Chapter one and verse 13 you were sealed with the Holy Spirit will not seal doubts.
He doesn't come to seal doubts, but to seal certainty.
And that's what the Old Testament, as we've heard, didn't have.
I say that if Abraham had had the indwelling of the Spirit of God, he would still be frustrated.
He would be wanting to say ABBA father, but he couldn't.
Because by that one spirit we have access.
To the Father.
I was thinking of this in Ephesians chapter 3.
Verse 14.
Well, this 'cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would give you, grant you. This is a gift from God, a gift from the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the riches of His glory. He reaches into the fullest extent of His own glory to give us this.
To be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with All Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge.
That you may be, you might be filled with all the fullness of God.
Inside the believer.
This is the work done completely inside of a person who has come through that door.
Entering into eternal life. And he's doing a work in the believer today. And I've connected that with where it says in the Old Testament, the glory of the Lord shall fill the earth as the waters cover the sea. Oh, but what about the believers today when the riches of his glory will be displayed and set forth in you and me?
Oh, there's a day coming in the millennial scene when the glory of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. But nothing like this. Nothing like this, where the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ reaches into the riches of his own glory and puts into you and me something that ends with being filled with all the fullness of God.
You think the apostle Paul?
Was moved by the Spirit of God to write this prayer, while certainly he was.
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Spirit of God.
Giving this prayer.
Certainty.
Certainty, certainly there's there. I remember Bill Frost some years back spoke on these two prayers of the apostle Paul in Ephesians 1 and Ephesians 3, and I put it to memory. I enjoyed it so much, he says.
In the first chapter you have the inheritance pointed clearly out that the Saints would lay hold of that, but in the third chapter.
That they might come into the enjoyment of the inheritance. I like that. And you know, it's wonderful to intelligently enter into the truth of God, but to really come to enjoy it, that's what He desires, you know, and that gives us strength to go on.
Even in the midst of difficulties, because we are in the enjoyment of that with the grace of God.
Has brought us into and hopefully that will be the case with us, that we come into a fuller enjoyment. Of course you cannot enjoy anything that you don't understand but.
Hopefully there's more than just an intelligently entering into things, but we enjoy it and then.
The love of God which passes knowledge.
It is the inheritance that is not the same as when he says.
And to know the love of God, there are these two things that we hopefully live in the enjoyment of. But he and two beloved brethren, we have to mention.
The hireling and the.
Wool.
Because.
We hopefully.
Are aware when the wolf comes.
And the Lord Jesus, the Good Shepherd would not flee, because the sheep are his.
And he defends the sheep, but the hireling fleeth.
Now none of us.
Can really put himself in the exact position as the Lord Jesus, but there are under shepherds.
And I thankfully look back upon times when they were shepherds that took in the breach and did not run and defended the sheep. They were under shepherds, faithful under shepherds, just like the Good Shepherd. They couldn't necessarily lay down their life, but they defended the sheep against the wolf who would scatter.
The flock? Haven't we witnessed gathering of the flock well.
The hurling flea. Hopefully we won't manifest that characteristic that we defend the sheep just like David.
That shepherd, you know when the lion and the wall came.
Or the lion and the bear.
He defended the sheep, he destroyed them because they were his sheep. And so hopefully we will be shepherds that do not fear the difficulties that might come upon us personally in connection with the conflict of duels that will try to mislead.
The sheep, you know, there are these kind of wolves around, like it says in Acts chapter 22, things I mentioned there on the outside, both will enter, not sparing the flock, but from among yourselves. When men arise, each teaching perverse things, they were leading astray, drawing them after themselves. Well, hopefully.
Those of us who seek to serve the Lord and God's people.
Will not be characterized by death, but by what characterized perfectly to Lord Jesus the Good Shepherd.
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I suppose in one way while.
Of course, it's obvious that none of us, as you say, Brother Heinz, as desiring to.
The under shepherds if you will, those that would seek to help one another, we certainly can't at all in the sense the Lord Jesus laid down his life for the sheep. But there is a sense that a shepherding work requires laying our life down, doesn't it? We are going to have to give up. There's going to be a cost to us, whosoever shall lose his life for my sake. So if you and I are going to trouble ourselves in seeking to care.
And guide and help those that are precious to Christ as flock. There is a sense in which we will lay down our lives and.
That's a worthy goal, if I can say it that way, for the sake of that which is so precious to the heart of Christ His own.
His sheep to give up those things that we might rather find and enjoy and achieve and attain in this life. What a precious thing if we lay those down for the good of the flock. And what he will be able to prove up then in the coming day. What about in case with what you say?
Very clearly in first Peter 5 and verse four. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory, because invariably the shepherd is misunderstood.
Quite possibly.
Misunderstood. He doesn't get credit. And so the special crown is a crown of glory. And you know, it's a mercy really, that whoever is a shepherd doesn't get a crown of glory now because it's going to be such an enhanced crown that he should be thankful that his brethren don't bestow too much upon him. If it is misunderstanding, it's following in the Lord's footsteps and in a chapter or two before that.
Peter had said because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.
A crown of glory, to think of it, of the anticipation in any sense of getting any crown from the blessed Lord that looks down and He sees so little really that conforms to His image. And yet he, he gives us credit in that day for what's of Himself.
If any of us, beloved brethren, get some little sense in our soul.
Of the infinite preciousness to the heart of Christ, that one of his sheep or one of his lambs is, if we can get even the slightest sense of that in our soul.
There will be not too much that we can spend for that which cost him so much that he loves so much and I think if we can.
Seek to look at one another, the lambs and the sheep of Christ.
In the way that the Lord Jesus does, in the measure that we are able.
It will give us all of the, may I say, motivation needed.
Seek to help and to shepherd and to care for one another how much He paid for you.
And for me.
These this is my commandment. I think this has been quoted before.
That she loved one another as I have loved you. What a standard.
Should we not put a dock and connect with what you said earlier? Lay down our life for our brethren? Isn't that a statement from Scripture? You know, could you die for a better 'cause than to lay down your life for your brethren first? John 316, Yes.
There's John 316. Then there's one John 316.
And sometimes we forget about that. I often think that divine love or agape love.
Is love that loves with all cost to itself.
God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.
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Now what have we given brethren to show we love those sheep that he gave his life to save?
It's easy to say I love you.
But they're just words.
True love is shown by the sacrifice we make.
Let's turn just not to read it at length, but just for a couple of verses that bear on what you've been sharing to Jeremiah 23. Don't want to get off the subject of our chapter, but just to point this out, just that we might be exercised. It's a very solemn and sobering and in a way very sad account to read through Jeremiah 23.
Just read the 1St 2 verses. Woe beyond to the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pastor, saith the Lord. Now this verse therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people. He have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not visited them.
May the Lord help us to see one another in a measure of the preciousness and value that Christ does. We not be like these. They'll be willing, willing to spend and be spent. The apostle Paul said I would gladly spend and be spent for you, though he wasn't doing it because he was going to get something, as you say. One of the brothers talked about not getting something here. I guess, brother Stan, that was you about the crown fossil. Paul said I would gladly spend and be spent for you to the Corinthians.
Though the more abundantly I love, the less I be loved, he knew that as he would spend and pay the cost of seeking to be a help and a blessing to those dear Corinthians, his children, by the faith that the more he did that, the less they would love him. But that didn't stop him.
His love and his heart was such for Christ that he said you can treat me that way if you want to. You can love me less if you want to. I'm going to go right on loving you and seeking to be a blessing to you. It really comes home when you see the way the Lord Jesus restored Peter the 21St of John. He had boasted above all the rest that he would never deny him even if all the rest do Lord, I, I won't.
And he denied him three times.
Brethren, sometimes I feel that to be able to understand.
Souls that get astray. Sometimes the Lord allows us to fail, and then perhaps we can have a little more sense of grace with those that have gone astray. Have we never failed, brethren?
We have all of us who can stand up and say I've always been straight. None of us can do that. But it's a sense of that grace in our soul that restores us. Then he says to Peter.
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me three times over?
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? And he says.
Yeah, Lord, thou knowest I love thee, says feed my.
Lambs feed my sheep. So like you say, Doug, it's not a matter. Are you going to get some response or some remuneration from loving the people of God and ministering to them? It's not a matter of getting anything from them. It's a matter the Lord Jesus says, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you realize how much I paid for these sheep, these wafer, wayward, willful creatures that go astray?
Paid my lamb's.
Deed, my sheep, O brethren, what a challenge to our hearts. Do you and I love the Lord Jesus?
Here's one way we can show how much we love him by going after those that have gone astray.
Have we perhaps, Bob, been guilty in not helping those that went astray and maybe they went astray because we didn't give them the help that we could have given to them?
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I believe that is something that should exercise us. If we would have been faithful, maybe some could have been prevented from going astray. But that verse in Psalm 23, thou restore us my soul. It's a wonderful verse. I don't know if you heard me explain to you the way it is rendered in German. In German it doesn't go quite as far as in English.
That says a quicken. That means refreshing my soul. I believe that is even included because as we go on in the service of the Lord, maybe sometimes we become weary and He needs to refresh us.
That German translation doesn't go far enough because it certainly includes when we go astray. But even do we not sometimes.
It varied in the way, hopefully not off the way, but really in the way and He refreshes us and but how often do we need His restoring grace? We all do that at one time or another, do we not? Because He paid so much for us that He will not let us go on.
Indefinitely, you know he will seek to bring us back.
Into happy communion with himself and with those of like precious faith, he restores my soul. I believe that that is necessary before a person can be restored publicly. You know Peter, you mentioned him.
You know, when did he have this meeting with the Lord Jesus? According to Luke 24, before he met the rest of the disciples, according to first Corinthians 15, He's given us the first witness. That's when the Lord restored him. But then it was necessary that he was restored publicly, and that is in John chapter 21, and he restores him publicly. Loveth thou me? We do well to remember that, you know, if the soul is not restored to the Lord personally.
He cannot be restored publicly, but He is the one that really restores our soul. Yes, He might use one of his own to reach the conscience of one that leads to repentance, but really, that is him. It brings about the restoration of the soul, bringing us back in happy communion with Himself.
Because when that is lost, our happiness is gone, the joy of salvation is gone. But the Lord Jesus wants us to go on in the enjoyment of what He has won for us and enjoyment of himself. That's the greatest joy that we have, isn't it? Him? He's the greatest object and the greatest joy. Thou art my portion. The Son is already says.
Where we have a greater portion than him. Isn't it wonderful to see how the Lord Jesus worked with Peter and prepared his heart and taught him how to shepherd the sheep where he could then exhort him to do so. And I think of what Job said who teach him. Like him, he learned through exercise. He learned through seeing something of what he was himself and.
The Lord Jesus worked in his heart to bring him to where he could speak and where he could look with this at the sheep through the eyes of Christ. And I thought of that, beloved brethren, as we're sitting here and we see each other to think of one another, look at one another through the eyes of the Lord Jesus. I gave, I gave my life for thee, thy brother for whom Christ died. If we would look at one another and realize that every heir of each head, everything that each of us go through and I suppose.
If we would hear the story that each one would tell in this room, we'd find that there's been reason for many tears, there's need for encouragement, there's need to .1 another to Christ. But what was it that most significantly taught Peter how to shepherd the sheep? It was by being near the shepherd, near the Lord Jesus himself. How we need that.
01:05:07
Thinking of Peter a beloved brethren, the pathway of Peter is so instructive to our hearts because we can relate to it, especially when it comes to his failure. But it was a gradual departure which may not begin have begun when he was following the Lord afar off. It began way back in Luke Chapter 9 when he.
They were reasoning among them, who would be the greatest? I think that's Luke Chapter 9. You can check it out. But then as time passed by and this accumulation of pride began to grow among the disciples and the apostles, there was a strife among them in Luke chapter 22. Who would be the greatest? It was no doubt a very.
Real.
Striving among themselves persistence. And so Peter steps out on the platform. And he said, Though all forsake thee, Lord, I will never forsake thee.
And he said, I'm ready to go to prison and to death with the self-confidence marked the man. And then of course he was sleeping in the garden. He was boasting and sleeping and following afar off. And then he denied the Lord. So it led to a path of sorrow. And he wept bitterly. And then of course he was restored in conscience, as has already been suggested with the Lord in that private meeting. But in this last section here of John chapter 21.
It is the most wonderful thing when we think of the heart of Christ, restoring someone publicly that had fallen as far as Peter had, and had brought bitter tears and sorrow to his own heart, to Peter's heart, and as well as to the Lord Himself as he looked upon Peter with wounded love.
But here in the last statement he makes to Peter in John 21, he said, Lovest thou me?
And Peter said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love thee. He could not get Peter to use the strongest word of love, which I believe is agape. Someone can correct me. He would not do that. He was a broken man first. He was a boasting man. Here he's a broken man. He could not get Peter to use that strong word of love because he had lost his self-confidence. Thus he was ready to be a servant of Christ.
And among the brethren that were with him here at this wonderful scene on the lake, the Sea of Galilee, he restores Peter amidst his brethren. So there was public restoration. Wonderful. We can relate to this, can we not? There's two verses that might be helpful in connection with what you've said, Dave, in Luke the 22nd chapter in verses 31 and 32.
I learned this from Norman Berry, that the prepositions that start with T are singular and the prepositions in the King James that start with Y are plural. So with that as a background, notice the 31St verse of Luke 22. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired all of you.
That he may sift all of you as wheat.
But I have prayed for thee that thy faith sail not.
That's really the point of those two verses. Satan has desired to have you, and that word for you is plural. He desired to have all of them, that he may sift all of you though you as an italics the second time. But I have prayed for thee that thy faith shall not, because he had made himself a special target sort of above and beyond the other disciples, and so the Lord had prayed for him especially.
But Satan desired to have all of them. But Peter made himself a special target, and the Lord is mercy and understanding told him that he was going to pray for him.
The Lord was really digging deep with Peter. As already was pointed out, He uses a copy. Peter uses the word love. I'm attached to thee. The last time the Lord asked him, He uses the word that Peter uses an answer. Are you attached to me?
That must have really cut deep. That was necessary for Peter.
You know the Lord was not unkind, but it was necessary.
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And if Peter would not have been restored in the midst of his disciples, the Lord had a place for Peter, a special place. Would they have accepted him in that position? You know, he was the apostle of the circumcision, you know, and what a prominent place he had. And it touches me very deeply when this man that is restored stands before that guilty nation and says.
Whom ye denied, they might have said, Peter, what did you do? But he was so completely restored that he could speak that way, you know. And whom ye denied, I think, beloved Saints of God sometimes.
We do not accept the restoring grace of God in others. Isn't that true? You know, we do not accept the restoring grace.
In others, I hope we learn from Peter that this man who so denied and so dishonored the Lord, is given such a place of responsibility. But what was the basis for his shepherding the sheep and even the lambs loved for the Lord Jesus?
Love for the Lord Jesus, beloved brethren, is the purpose for anything we do for Him. It ought to be.
You know, and it helps us all when we look at the restoration of Peter.
And do you question that that was his motive in his service?
Or that it became the motive in his service. It certainly was. I wonder, brethren, if the apostle Peter did not feel like he was an unprofitable servant, such after he denied the Lord, even though he had been restored in his conscience. Chapter 21 bears that out, because at the 1St of 21 he says, I go fishing.
Well, that's where we're introduced to Peter in Luke chapter 5 and the other gospels when he's fishing. Well, is he going back to his occupation that he had left when he followed the Lord Jesus Christ? Perhaps if he would have never had this experience in John 21, he would have never felt suited to go back into the ministry of being a servant or the one he had initially followed. And here we see that he is restored in his conscience because he's out on the boat fishing and John sees the Lord on the sea shore.
And Peter jumps in the water and swims to the Lord to get the Lord first. What a wonderful example of one who is restored in conscience. But the Lord had a greater restoration too, or a follow up to do, and that was a public restoration so that he would be useful in service again and not to be a lost dynamic in a certain sense, to go back to his occupation and just make money, make a living for his family and others. He had a greater work to do and the Lord saw to it that he was going to restore him so that he would be.
Encouraged to go on.
Dave, in that connection, give us the the blessing of John Mark Restoration in the book of Acts.
Well, you can help us on that, brother. There was a brother that was discouraged, no doubt in Acts 13, I believe it is when he went home from the work and there was tremendous opposition to the to the work of God and the testimony such that it probably was an appalling thing for him to see the power of the enemy expressed so expressed. Maybe he didn't feel capable or up to it, whatever the case may be, but we know that later the apostle Paul.
After some period of time, is it in Timothy, 2 Timothy he says bring Mark for he is profitable, or John Mark for he is profitable for the.
Or the ministry, and then the Lord Jesus Christ uses this beloved servant who had failed to write the Gospel of Mark to portray the Lord Jesus Christ as the servant, the perfect servant. You have more to say. No, all I'm going to ask is a question which is rhetorical. If we had today to deal with a brother like that, would we have used him?
As the Lord, as God used it, we'd say, brother, I'm sorry, I we accept what you've said, but your ministry is over.
John Marks only began to think of what it means to see that there was a contention between Barnabas and Paul because of it. The serious matter, though, the same word is used in the English and there's a different word intended that at first we might say that John Mark was merely carried their bags. You might say that, but when Paul is using that word profitably for the ministry.
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That is a ministry that has to do with giving out the Word of God.
And so if there's restoration, I don't mean that there aren't circumstances to the contrary, but we can really say from that, that if God restores a soul, he wants them to have more of an appreciation of his place in Christ and in the purposes of God and usefulness than he did before.
I guess not, because I feel I've said it all, but I really just say Amen, that that's what God's purposes are for each one of us. There's a doctrine that says there's a blemish priest. Remember that. You might have all heard of that doctrine of the blemish priest. I don't like to think about it. I don't either. And Mr. Kelly said there is no such thing in Christianity. Now, there might be circumstances.
Where a person is in a relationship and in a position that hinders him to come into all Christian privileges, but there is no blemish priest in Christianity, I very strongly feel that that is not to be accepted amongst the gathered things.
Whatever there may be on that subject, we can certainly say that Peter was not blemished, John Mark was not blemished. And if we use the examples of Scripture and apply them to an individual case, we can say that Peter can was used in kings with the epistles in connection with the day of Pentecost. And so positively we know that a brother like Peter in the present day.
That can thus be used. And if there's a John mark that didn't understand the difference between Antioch, where Christianity was first known, and go back to Jerusalem, he's going to have to learn. And when he learns the difference between the old order and the new, he can, he can be, as it were, rewarded by the Lord to be profitable for the ministry. That's the positive side. And what I mean is about lame priest. There may be, and I have to admit something.
There are things in which I feel very incompetent, and so that's why I'm going to leave it alone just to accept that there was a Peter and there's a John Mark. And every time we read the Gospel of Mark, to think of that perfect servant that's being written about by inspiration concerning someone who caused such a contention between Barnabas and Saul and Paul. So there's the positive side. Restoration, usefulness, and we can take courage, can't we?
To sense in our souls too, that what it means, the grace of God, the position it has put us in. It seems, brethren, I trust I have learned it in some measure in my own soul, that through failure on our part in areas of our life, we have come to realize that we are nothing in ourselves. As long as Peter thought he was important and the disciples were wrestling.
For a position in the Kingdom.
Brethren, that spirit of things is going to hinder the work of the Lord.
And so God allowed Peter to fail.
So miserably the Lord allowed it. And then, after he had denied him the third time, the Lord Jesus and that wonderful grace turned and looked at Peter, and their eyes met for a brief moment. Peter turned. It was necessary that he learned who he was so that he could appreciate in fuller measure what the grace of God was. And if there isn't that sense, brethren?
In our souls, perhaps God will have to allow us to stumble or have a fall too.
It's not necessary to fall.
To learn by falling.
We can learn by reading the Word of God that so often there are things that are ingrained in our personalities and we.
01:20:04
Have to learn that way. And God in his wisdom allowed it in the case of Peters. So that it is, brethren, if there is anything, absolutely anything that will meet his approval at the judgment seat of Christ, we're going to have to admit at that day that it was the grace of God that produced it. Nothing, absolutely nothing that I'll be able to glory in in myself at that day of glory.
There's a story told of a very famous missionary to China go forth to China that a dream that he had was a real help to him. He dreamed that there was a woodpecker pecking away at a tree. And during that time there was a a storm that came up and a lightning bolt hit that tree and split it. And after he flustered around a bit, he came back and he says, oh, look what I did.
He split the tree well that his little pecking was so insignificant in connection with.
The force of that lightning that I'm afraid that we think sometimes that we have something to offer in strength and purpose for the ways of God.
That he might get the glory, How often the Lord will allow it, That the lung, one we might least expect, would be used. God will use that in him.
As scripture says that he might have their preeminence and so if we're looking to man.
Sooner or later we're going to be disappointed. And if we have confidence in ourselves, we have lessons to learn, don't we? And of course, this is a daily thing, how we need the Word of God daily to adjust our thinking and to correct us.
Might learn by a bad experience humility if you need a lesson in humility, but somebody has said.
Experience is a good teacher, but the pool learns by experience only. We don't have to learn by a humbling experience. We have many examples in the Word of God where people had to learn by humbling experiences.
That is not what we should look forward to, to learn in that way we can learn without going through humiliating experiences. But unfortunately, the way we are made-up, that is how many times.
The way the Lord has to use to teach us. Let this mind also be in you, which was in Christ Jesus. Here we have an example and I believe in this day in which we live.
Perhaps like never before, the enemy of our souls is attacking the mind.
Felling us with fear and other things, many other things that would trouble us and focus our attention away from him. But as we read that second chapter of Philippians, a well minded exercise our hearts is to see that perfect blessed One and then to read also ye have the mind of Christ. If we sing 172.
Will teach us more of Thy blessed ways.
Only Lamb of God 172.