We come now to the New Testament. The first subject we would draw attention to is our Lord's teaching, in which His people are likened to sheep, and Himself as the Good Shepherd. (John io: 1-16, 26-3o.) Even the Old Testament likened Israel to Jehovah's sheep: " And ye My flock, the flock of My pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord GOD." (Ezek. 34:3131And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God. (Ezekiel 34:31).) But here we get a foreshadowing, faint though it necessarily be, of Christ and the Church. It awaited the great Day of Pentecost before that truth could be known in all its fullness.
In John 10, Judaism is likened to a fold, where sheep were kept in by walls, that is by rules and regulations. Our Lord entered the fold in order to lead His Jewish sheep OUT, and called them to follow Him. Those, who followed, got what the fold could never furnish, characterized, as it was, by the law, the ministry of types and shadows, by sacrifices of the blood of bulls and goats, which could never take away sin. In contrast they found in Christ the Door, not the door to return to the fold from which they were called OUT, but the Door into spiritual blessings such as the fold could never furnish-salvation, liberty, food, life abundant. These blessings could only come to them through the Good Shepherd' giving His life for the sheep, laying it down in an atoning, vicarious, sacrificial death.
There would be opposition from Satan, as there always is when God works. The thief, the hireling and the wolf would do their deadly work.
The thief is seen in the rationalist and ritualist against whom Col. 2 warns the saints. Can we not see his work to-day in the efforts of the. Modernist and Higher Critic, undermining the inspiration of the Scripture, denying the virgin birth of our Lord, refusing to believe the miracles that He wrought, denying in extreme cases the very bodily resurrection of our Lord? Is it not seen in the obscuring of the simplicity and purity of Christian doctrine, smothering it under the weight of ornate and superstitious ritualism, perverting and setting aside the very truth of God.
The hireling fleeth when he seeth the wolf coming. When a man professedly takes the position of being a pastor of the flock of God for mere gain or social privileges, and these things are presently imperiled by persecution, he flees from his post, showing that he at best is only a hireling. The hireling cares for the fleece of the sheep, and not for the sheep themselves, a condition of things alas! largely seen in Christendom to-day.
The wolf scatters the sheep. Here we have open persecution. " Throw the Christians to the lions " was the cry heard again and again in the crowded Colosseum at Rome. Think of the persecution of the Waldensians, the burning of Cranmer, and Ridley and Latimer and many another, the horrible secrets of the Inquisition, and persecution in lesser degrees as well, and we see the wolf at work.
" OTHER SHEEP... NOT OF THIS FOLD "
Then we get " other sheep not of this fold," referring to the going out of the gospel of the grace of God to the Gentiles far and wide. Would this not cover the Apostle Paul's lifelong ministry, and of many others of God's servants?
" 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 fold [literally one flock], and one Shepherd." (John 10: 16.)
Is this not exemplified in the closing verses of that great gospel Epistle to the assembly at Rome? That Epistle unfolds the full meaning of the cross of Christ, both as meeting the penalty of the sins of the believer, and also as judging and setting aside sin in the flesh, our sinful nature. The last three verses of this Epistle in a very remarkable way link Paul's gospel with the unfolding of the mystery, kept secret since the world began. The Epistle to the Romans thus links on very directly with the great church epistles of Ephesians and Colossians. We read: “Now to Him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: to God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen." The preaching of the gospel and the ministry of the truth as to Christ and the church are here seen as supplementary and complementary one to the other.