Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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If you're able, please remain standing. And let's turn to John, Chapter
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Ten. And here, here God's
Word From The Gospel of John. We
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come today to the middle of the
Gospel. I'm thankful for all that has
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come before it and for that which
is ahead to John Ten, verses twenty
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two through thirty. At that time
the Feast of dedication took place at Jerusalem.
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It was winter and Jesus was walking
in the Temple and the colonnade of
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Solomon. So the Jews gathered around
him and said to him, I'm having
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trouble training my page. Okay that, the Jews gathered around him and said
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to him, how long will you
keep us in suspense if you are the
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Christ Tallus? Plainly, Jesus answered
them. I told you, and you
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do not believe. The works that
I do in my father's name bear witness
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about me, but you do not
believe because you are not among my sheep.
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My sheep here my voice, and
I know them and they follow me.
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I give them eternal life and they
will never perish and no one will
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snatch them out of my hand.
My father, who has given them to
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me, is greater than all and
no one is able to snatch them out
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of the father's hand. I and
the father are one. He may be
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seated again in the gospel of John, this Great Evangelist, this Gospel Preacher
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of the Servant of the Lord,
reveals to us, by the power of
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the spirit of God, who Jesus
is. He records Jesus's words here so
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that we would hear his voice,
so that we would know him, so
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that we would follow him, so
that we would have eternal life. Jesus
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tells us to pay attention to his
works. Jesus tells us who he is,
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that he is distinguished from the father
and yet one with the father.
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The great doctrine of the Trinity is
expressed in part here, or minder,
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that the father and the son are
two persons and yet one in essence.
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This second person of the Trinity,
who is taken on the form of man,
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who has clothed himself with human flesh, is cold because it's winter time.
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He is in the colonnade of Solomon, a part of the temple with
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big thick walls where people would probably
gather, and at least at this time,
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we're gathering the celebration of the celebration
of the temple. I'm John tells
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us that it was the feast of
dedication, what is popularly called Hanakah,
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Jesus and Jerusalem. It's wintertime,
it's cold, Jesus is walking around in
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one of the warmer parts of the
temple and they are there to celebrate the
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temple. They are to celebrate this
moment of rededication, of consecration, to
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remember how, one hundred and sixty
eight BC, antiochus epiphanies defiled the temple,
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destroyed the altar and in fact set
up set up an altar to Zeus
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inside the temple of the Living God. And it would be a few years
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later when Judas maccabeus and his brothers
would deliver God's people out from under this
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idolatry and would restore the temple,
would consecrate it again to the Lord on
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a new altar, with a burnt
offering given to the one true God.
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This is what they were celebrating,
this moment in which the temple was re
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claimed for God, consecrated for God. Taken out from this pagant observance,
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it was a festival about renewal and
celebration, and so the people on during
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this festival on this day. They
want to know. Are you the Messiah?
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Are You the Christ? Are You
the new and Greater Judas maccabeus that
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was promised for a long, long
time, that would rescue us and lead
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us out from under the hands of
the Romans and the whole world to establish
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the great dividic kingdom again and forever? We want to know, they say,
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how long will you keep us in
suspense? Tell US plainly. Well,
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Jesus most certainly is the Christ.
He is most certainly the messiah.
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He is the son of David,
the great and promised son of man who
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would's promised and Daniel, who would
come and establish his rule over all kingdoms.
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But he is also not what they
think when they think Christ. He
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is greater than Judas macabeus, but
he is also qualitatively different. He is
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of a whole another order. He
is God himself. And that's why Jesus
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refuses to answer them directly. It's
not because he's keeping in them in suspense,
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as they say he is, or
as they accuse him of doing.
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It's because their minds are still fixed
on the things that are below and not
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on the revelation that is from above, and besides, this is and Jesus
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says to them. I already told
you, and you do not believe.
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If we're honest with ourselves, we
will admit that sometimes we ask questions of
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God not because we want to know
the answer, but because we think that
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if we keep asking questions, we're
off the hook. As long as we're
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asking questions, as long as we're
curious and inquisitive and trying that somehow we
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don't have to actually decide, that, as long as we're figuring it out,
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no one can blame us for not
believing him, no one can blame
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us for not following him. Not
so Jesus, as he says here,
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he knows our hearts, or as
he demonstrates here. He knows our hearts,
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he knows our ways. He knows
the difference between someone who has faith
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and is truly searching, who says, Lord, I believe, but help
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my unbelief, and the person who
uses questions for as excuses and misdirection.
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Of course, God is not mocked, God is not fooled. People around
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us might say, might let us
off the hook and give us a little
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more time, but God knows our
hearts, he knows the difference between a
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real seeking question and one that is
simply a stall tactic. God is not
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fooled, God is not mocked,
Jesus says to them. I don't need
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to tell you. I already told
you, and you have chosen not to
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believe. You do not believe because
you are not among my sheep. Instead
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of asking questions that we know the
answer to already, we ought to believe
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what God has said. We ought
to believe what God has done. The
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works that I do in my father's
name, Jesus says, bear witness about
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me. You do not believe because
you are not among my sheep. And
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when we think about Jesus is works, this should be as plain as day.
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He has caused a lame man to
walk. He is healed a man
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who was blind from birth. He
has a spoken into people's lives with the
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things that he should not be able
to know. He has spoken with authority.
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He is said things that no one
has ever said. He was born
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in a miraculous way, born of
a virgin. Over and over and again
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throughout Jesus life, and we're just
speaking about some of the things that are
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mentioned in John and we can think
of many others. This one who has
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come as the son of God,
is this lied into the world, is
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and has and will continue to demonstrate
exactly who he is, that he does
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the works of his father, that
he does the works of God, he
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does them on the Sabbath, because
he is Lord of the Sabbath, because
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through him we have rest and healing
and life and forgiveness and reconciliation. That's
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what Jesus is about. That's what
Jesus has testified to outside of Jerusalem and
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inside of Jerusalem, privately and publicly. So who are the true sheep of
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Jesus? Is the real question of
this passage, not the one they present.
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Are You the Christ? Of course
he's the Christ. That's been demonstrated
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with much, much proof. At
this point the question is, are you
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the true sheep? Not? Is
He the True Messiah? That's what Jesus
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wants them to think about. It's
what Jesus wants us to think about as
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we understand who he is. He's
told us in this passage in John Ten,
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earlier in this chapter, he's told
us that he is the gate through
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which the shepherds come in and come
out and lead the sheep. True Shepherds,
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that no one goes, no one
goes in and out of the flock
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of Christ except through him. He's
told us that he is the Good Shepherd
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over all the flock, watching and
guarding, protecting, giving them everything that
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they need. And now we come
to a question about the church. Who
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are the true sheep? And other
words, is it those who stand near
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him and ask questions? Is it
those who are associated with him and his
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people and hang around and and are
are tangentially connected to him? Is that
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those who belong to the biological family
of Jesus? It's none of these.
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None of these are the true sheep
of Jesus. Who are the true sheep
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of Jesus? Well, he tells
us in four things. He tells us
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the true the true sheep, are
those that hear his voice. He tells
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us that the true sheep are those
who know him personally. He tells us
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that the true sheep are those who
follow Jesus and he tells us that the
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true sheep are those who receive eternal
life, everlasting protection and safety in his
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and the father's hand. Let's consider
each of those briefly. First, the
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true sheep are those who hear his
voice. As I mentioned last time from
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this passage, it's the nature of
sheep to know their shepherd. It reminds
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me of the way children, I'm
in a in a performance, will get
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up on stage, maybe with all
their other classmates or other people they're performing
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with, and when they look out, they look out on the crowd and
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they look for a familiar face.
They look for the face of their parents.
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They want to recognize them and they'll
look and look and look and they'll
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have that look on their face like
this, maybe I have smile, and
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then when they see their mom and
dad, they they smile and they're happy
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and they recognize they it's like the
sheep that hears the voice. There's immediate
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recognition, there's an immediate change in
the heart. You can see all of
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these people there, but when the
child sees their parent and they see them
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they are sitting in this audience,
this great crowd of people, they know
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that everything's okay. It's maybe hard
to imagine so many people don't recognize Jesus.
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Why is that when he's right in
front of them? Here he is
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and Solomon's colonnade, speaking to them, talking to them, revealing things to
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them and they don't hear his voice, though he's speaking. They don't see
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him for who he is. They
don't recognize him as the Christ. Tell
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us, are you the Christ?
Of course he's the Christ. Doesn't need
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to tell you, he's already told
you. Why? Why are they so
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blind? The answer is is that
it takes God to unstop their ears,
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to uncover their eyes. They are
like blind people. That's why we have
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this miracle of the blind man.
It takes the work of God, this
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miraculous miracle, that's the same thing, this amazing miracle, this gracious miracle,
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to to cause them to see.
Second Corinthians Four for says of people
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like this. In their case,
the God of this world has blinded the
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minds of the unbelievers to keep them
from seeing the light of the Gospel,
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of the Glory of Christ. That's
what Satan does, the one that this
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world worships, the one that this
world bows down to to and and and
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serves, the one that the one
in that they are a true children of.
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He blinds them so that they cannot
see. And that's why I is
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Christians is the true sheep of God. We praise God, not just that,
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we follow him, not just that
we know him, but that we
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even recognized him in the first place, as Paul goes on to say in
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that passage, for God who said
let light shine out of darkness, has
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shown in our hearts to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of
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God in the face of Jesus Christ. How do we know God? How
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do we know the glory of God? How do we recognize the face of
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Jesus Christ? Because, in the
same way in which he spoke light into
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the world, he has spoken so
that there is light in our hearts.
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We give praise to God, for
God who said let light shine out of
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darkness, has shown in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of
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the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. We are God's sheep,
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because he has unstopped our ears,
because he has opened our eyes,
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because he has called us to himself
and and allowed us to hear we get
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to know God, of course,
by listening to that voice, after hearing
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it, the true sheep. John
says, are Jesus says, know Jesus
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in a personal way. We get
to know Jesus. How do we get
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to know him? By listening to
him, just like when a man and
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a woman want to get to know
each other, what do they do?
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They talk, they spend time to
each other or with each other, and
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they they listen. They spend time
listening and they do it again and again
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and again and over time they they
get to know each other. It's the
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same with us and our Lord.
We get to know Jesus by hearing his
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voice and listening to him again and
again and again, and the more we
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hear his voice, the easier it
is to recognize his voice, to get
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closer to him, the easier it
is. Not to be fooled. Have
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you ever had that experience of maybe
being in a grocery store or someplace in
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somebody calling your name and you turn
around and you realize they're talking to the
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other person with the same name?
Going back to using another kid example,
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you might guess why, but using
another kid example. Perhaps you've had some
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of you had the experience of watching
children on a playground and somebody says dad,
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you look over like not my kid, Dad, I'm a kid and
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it you know that happens in number
of times. You spend a few minutes
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there and you begin to to kind
of recognize. Okay, that's the voice
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of that kid and that's the voice
of my kid. Right. You Begin,
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the more you pay attention, the
more you distinguish, the more you
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listen, the more you get to
know. The first time, in the
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early stages of our relationships or in
certain context, it might be difficult to
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distinguish between one voice and another.
But the more we get to know Jesus,
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the more we listen to him,
the closer we come to him,
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and this is so important. Jesus
gave his life to us so that we
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might know him, so that we
might live in him, and it was
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Jesus with who gave his life.
Generic spirituality did not give its life for
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you, not some great prophet or
a really good teacher or a good way
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of living or the next best seller. It was Jesus. Jesus alone gave
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his life, laid down his life
for his sheep. Jesus alone hung on
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the cross, and so it's Jesus
alone that we want to hear. You,
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if you are married, it's not
good enough for you to simply hear
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a spouse's words to you. You
want your spouse's words. If you are
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a child, let's say you are
someone who's lost a parent, a parent
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who's died. If I came to
you and I said, well, here's
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the words of another father, it's
that's worthless to me. I want to
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hear my dad, I want to
hear my mom. It's the same with
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Jesus. We don't need some other
great teacher, we don't need another moral
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person, we don't need generic spirituality. We need Jesus and Jesus alone.
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And it's Jesus that we hear,
it's Jesus that we know, and and
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he knows us. That's why the
scriptures say we don't just notice his voice
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and hear his word. Jesus says
his true disciples are those who abide in
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his word. There's an ongoing,
active, living sense. That's why we
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come and worship every Sunday. That's
why we want to hear his word over
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and over again. It's why we
spend time during the week reading the scriptures,
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praying. I'm seeking to hear him
and know him because we don't want
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to just because we want, because
we want to know him well. That
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leads to number three. The true
sheep don't just hear Jesus and know Jesus.
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They of course, also follow Jesus. Jesus is true sheep follow him.
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When, if we go back to
the children on the playground, analogy,
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let's say they are there for a
birthday party. In there roll running
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around, mixed with a bunch of
other kids from the neighborhood and parents says
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it's time to eat, we're going
to open presence. WHO COMES OUT?
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Hopefully not all the kids on the
playground, just your kids, right,
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and the kids. They do that
because they recognize, they know the voice
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of their parent and they follow them. The same is true for the sheep
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of the Lord. When Jesus calls
his sheep, his true sheep follow him.
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They follow him and they come and
they sit at his table and they
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eat together with him. The one
who says he's a Christian and walks around
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with his Bible and talks about Jesus
things, but doesn't actually follow the Lord
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is not a true sheep of Jesus. We know, of course, of
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another Judas who was following Jesus around, who was talking about Jesus, who
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was doing Jesus things, who was
connected very closely, very intimately, with
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other followers of Jesus, and yet
who was not a true sheep of Jesus
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who ultimately betrayed Jesus and then took
his own life. The person who simply
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connects himself tangentially with the Lord,
who simply stands by the Lord and not
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in the Lord, who doesn't actually
follow the Lord with his heart, to
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do what he says, believe what
is told. James says that person's religious
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is worth or religion is worthless.
It's worthless. The true sheep follow the
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shepherd, because that's what true sheep
do. It's the nature of them.
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They look to their shepherd, they
follow him. And how many benefits there
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are to that? Listen to these
words again and palm twenty three. David
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says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes
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me lie down in Green Pastures,
he leads me beside still waters, he
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restores my soul, he leads me
in paths of righteousness for his own namesake,
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even though I walk through the Valley
of the shadow of death, I
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will fear no evil, for you
are with me, your Rod and your
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staff. They comfort me. That's
what it's like to follow Jesus. That's
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what it's like to know him,
to hear him and to follow him.
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Well. The last thing Jesus says
is that Jesus is sheep. The true
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sheep of Jesus Receive Eternal Life,
and you hear it already in David's words
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there, and these most comforting words, to all of the father's children,
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he says in Verse Twenty Eight,
I give them eternal life and they will
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never perish and no one will snatch
them out of my hand. Thinking about
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kids and parents again, sorry for
the same domain of descriptions, but anyway,
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perhaps you remember being a child and
trying to pry open an adult's hand
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that's holding some object, and you
thinking, you try, sword, you
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just stren't strong enough, there's nothing
you can do to open it right,
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just too strong, impossible, can't
take what is in the hand of this
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one. And here this is what
Jesus says of our father who is in
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heaven, of our Lord, Jesus
himself, our great shepherd. He says,
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I give them entire life, they
will never perish and no one will
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snatch them out of my hand.
The one who belongs to the Lord,
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the true sheep of the Lord,
are totally protected, one hundred percent.
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That's why David goes on to say, the Lord Prepares a table before me
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in front of my enemies. He
is that secure his enemies. All they
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can do is stand there and watch
as God celebrates and lays out this banquet
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for his servant. Totally safe.
I will walk through the Valley of shadow
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of death and I will fear no
evil. Why? Because God is with
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me and no one can and snatch
me out of his hand. When I
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say God, I mean Jesus,
because Jesus says that he and the father
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are one everything that we all the
glory and honor and power and praise that
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we attribute to God, the Father
Almighty, we also attribute to his son,
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because the father has eternally given everything
to the son. The as tight,
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I hate using that word because it's
so much more than that, but
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as tight as the union is between
the father and the sign, that's how
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tight God's hand is around us.
Paul will speak similarly, and in Romans,
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for he says nothing can separate us
from the love of God, not
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height nor depth, nothing, nothing
in all the world, nothing visible,
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nothing invisible. Jesus is over all
and you are safe. My father,
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who has given them to me,
is greater than all and no one is
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able to snatch them out of the
father's hand. I and the father are
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one. As we think about this, I'd like you to turn in your
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hymnals to page eight hundred and seventy
two. Eight hundred and seventy two.
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You turn there. I'll conclude,
before we read this together, by reminding
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you that what here is an evangelical
assurance, as one commentator puts it,
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a Gospel Comfort to those who belong
to Jesus. It is also a gospel
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warning to those who are hardening their
hearts, who are not listening, who
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are turning away. John says later
in John Fifteen six, if anyone does
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not abide in me, that's Jesus
speaking. If anyone does not abide in
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me, he is thrown away like
a branch. That and like a branch,
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and that wither, isn't it?
Brand and as branches are gathered,
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thrown into the fire and burned.
Don't be a stubborn sheep. Don't be
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separated from the Lord. When you
hear his voice, respond in faith,
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follow him, know him, have
the eternal life that he freely gives to
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you. He holds you in his
hand. And then, when you'll find
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yourself as one who has been rescued
by God in this way, who has
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been called by the spirit and by
the word of Christ into this new life
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to know the glory of God,
to know this perfect safety and eternal life
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that you have. You can say, as this question says, question one
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of the Heidelberg Catechism. You can
answer and I would encourage you to read
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with me. After I I'll state
the question, you read the answer with
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me. will end this way.
What is your only comfort in life and
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death? That I am not my
own but belong body and soul, in
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life and in death, to my
faithful savior, Jesus Christ. He has
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fully paid for all my sins with
his precious blood and has delivered me from
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the tyranny of the devil. He
also watches over me in such a way
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that not a hair can fall from
my head without the will of my father
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in heaven. In fact, all
things must work together for my salvation,
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because I belong to him. Christ, by his Holy Spirit, also assures
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me of eternal life and makes me
wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to
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live for him. Then let us
pray
