In the 10th chapter of John, John the
10th chapter, the 11th verse and the 17th
and 18th, where our Lord Jesus says, I
am the good shepherd.
The good shepherd giveth his life for the
sheep.
The good shepherd giveth his life for the
sheep.
Verses 17 and 18, Therefore does 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 of my Father.
Let us pray.
Dear Lord Jesus, thou art the good shepherd.
In ancient days thou didst lead Israel and
Joseph like a flock.
And thou art the same unchanged Lord.
And thou art leading them that trust in
thee.
We pray that tonight I will add at
least one sheep to thy flock, who is
lost now but will be found.
O Lord Jesus, encourage us on the hard,
heavy, rough way.
Make the clouds to roll back and the
skies be a little brighter.
Our hope a little sharper.
Our faith a little brighter.
Help us tonight.
Bless these friends who have come out here
this cold winter night.
And we'll now listen while thy word is
being expounded.
O Lord, thou hast said, preach the word.
We pray thou grant that we might rightly
and worthily expound thy truth.
This is in Christ's name.
Now, here in these verses we have wonderful,
lofty truth.
Truth that is beautiful and inspiring.
But we also have profound difficulties for the
intellect.
But I do not apologize, nor do I
admit that there is any problem for faith.
There is none.
I remember the little stanza by Faber when
he says, How thou canst love me as
thou dost, and be the God thou art.
Is darkness to the intellect, but sunshine to
the heart.
What is darkness to the intellect may be
sunshine to the heart.
The effort to simplify and explain all the
profundities of the Christian faith are ill-timed
and ill-considered.
There will always be that which is blindness
and darkness to the mind, but joy and
sunshine to the soul.
Now, the difficulty lies in verse 17.
Therefore doth my Father love me, because I
lay down my life.
But I might take it again.
Now, there is the difficulty.
That God's love for the Son arose and
arises from his willingness to lay down his
life for his sheep.
Because you remember that our Lord Jesus also
said in praying to his Father, Thou lovest
me before the foundation of the world.
Back before time was, the Father loved his
Son.
Then, therefore doth the Father love me, because
I lay down my life for my sheep.
Now, there lies the difficulty.
You might simply pass that over, but if
you'll do a little bit of thinking, and
certainly if ever there was a time when
God's people ought to think, now is the
time.
If ever there was a time when we
ought to consider deeply the things pertaining to
our faith, now is the time.
If we think deeply, we say, well, how
could it be that if the teachings of
the Christian faith are right, how could it
be that God loved his Son only because
he was willing to die on a cross
and rise again?
Well, it's darkness, or rather it's twilight to
the intellect, but I do not think that
it's beyond our explaining.
You see, my friends, the Christian faith teaches,
because the Bible teaches, the two natures of
Christ.
Christ is not two persons, but the two
natures of Christ.
This is taught in Christian theology.
It has been taught down the years in
Christian theology that Jesus has the divine and
the human nature.
Let me read to you from the ancient
creed.
You that are of the Dutch extraction and
know something about the Dutch Reformed Church, the
Dutch Reformed hymnal, you will find this somewhere
in the back of your Dutch Reformed hymnal,
and you'll find it also in the Bible.
It says this in a long explanation of
the mystery of the Trinity.
It says this, furthermore, it is necessary to
everlasting salvation that we also believe rightly in
the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, remember, this dates back to the fourth
century and is called the Athanasian Creed.
This is part of it.
For the right faith is that we believe
and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, is God and man, God
of the substance of his Father, begotten before
all worlds, man of the substance of his
Mother, born into the world, perfect God and
perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human
flesh subsisting, equal to the Father as touching
his Godhead, inferior to the Father as touching
his manhood, who, although he is God and
man, yet is he not two but one
Christ, one not by the conversion of the
Godhead into flesh, but by the taking of
the manhood into God, one altogether, not by
the confusion of substance, but by the unity
of persons.
For as the reasonable soul and flesh is
one man, so God and man is one
Christ.
Now, that is the teaching of the Church.
Down the centuries she has believed that Jesus
Christ was born or begotten of the Father
before all worlds, but born of the substance
of his Mother into the world, being perfect
God and perfect man, equal to the Father
as touching his Godhead, inferior to the Father
as touching his manhood.
Now, we'll explain that as we go along,
because that says it for us.
You know, part of learning is not getting
new information, but having somebody that's smarter than
you say things for you that you wish
you had said.
That's part of learning, brethren.
It isn't that you get new information so
much as you get it said for you
so you can get right hold of it,
so it fits into your head and into
your heart.
And this says for me what I never
could have thought of if I lived to
be 118 years old.
I never could have said it.
But now that somebody smarter than I am
said it for me, and I realize that
it's scriptural and fits the word of God
to a T, I can quote it and
say, now, I wish I had said that.
That is.
Now, the two natures of Christ, that's where
we find the explanation here.
That he was a man and that he
is man is not hard to prove.
He was born as other men are born.
That is, he was born of a woman.
He was baby-sized when he came into
the world.
I don't know how much he weighed.
I don't know how much Jewish babies weigh,
but I suppose they weigh average, maybe eight,
nine, six, eight, nine pounds, boys a little
more than girls.
But I guess maybe say that this man,
Jesus, they weighed eight pounds.
Let's say he weighed eight pounds, nine pounds.
When he was born of a Jewish mother
into the world.
And as soon as he was born, he
began to eat and cry and groan.
And he drank, of course, his mother's milk.
And when he got older, he drank the
milk that they provided him and ate food.
And he worked in his supposed father's shop.
And he slept, and they had to wake
him in the morning.
Imagine, come and pull him out of bed,
as they do little boys.
For he was a boy among boys, remember
it always.
He was a man.
And sin accepted, he lived like other men.
Sin accepted.
And the weaknesses contingent upon sin, he had
none of them.
But he was a man.
And I'm sure that Mary, his mother, had
to come lots of times and wake him
twice.
I never knew a boy to get up
the first time.
The boy that gets up the first time
he's waked, unless it's Christmas morning, never was
born.
And so, never, never.
Nobody, no boy ever gets up.
And I don't think any girl when they're
first waked.
I mention this not to, not to keep
him, our conception of Christ, but to humanize
him.
And to show you that this Jesus was
born a baby and cried like a baby
and ate like a baby.
And was looked after like a baby and
grew like a little boy.
And ate and drank and worked and slept
and finally died.
He was a man.
And he called himself the Son of Man.
He loved that title.
He was the only person that ever called
himself that.
I do not think that, if I think
I'm right, that anybody in the New Testament
ever called Jesus the Son of Man.
But he called himself the Son of Man.
Just as Abraham never said, God is the
God of Abraham.
But God said, I am the God of
Abraham.
And Jacob, surely Jacob never would have said,
God is the God of Jacob.
But God said, I am the God of
Jacob.
So nobody ever said, thou art the Son
of Man.
But Jesus said, I am the Son of
Man.
And talked about himself as the Son of
Man.
And Pilate, when the great old judge there,
or king, when he saw him standing before
him the day before the crucifixion, or the
morning of the crucifixion, he said, ex homo,
behold a man.
Look, there's a man.
He was struck with the manhood of the
man called Jesus.
Now, this is
also shown in the scripture.
Therefore, when he said before Abraham, and
he said, he that hath sinned, quite
surely did sin.
Yet the things that he said put him
in the midst
of a good sin.
And my voice, and sooner
took God as a rude
cat, talked to people who eat their women
and beads.
He so rudely took the
people like himself.
But this quiet, peaceful, peace-loving man makes
others like himself.
And the manhood died, and
the peace died, and the healing of the
liars, and
the mean man died, and the evil woman
died, and as it was called
the age of the graving of
his godhead.
Oh, but you don't have to, therefore
does my father.
If the father had loved, if he had
been with the father, he
spoke to his father, he
spoke to himself, and spoke.
Let's give you some examples here to illustrate
what I have in mind.
His teenagers are here, he spoke sometimes of
his godhead, and sometimes of his non-human
and unborn godhead.
When he said, all men, he spoke of
his godhood.
Nothing of himself, he spoke of his godhood.
So there is a darkness of it, but
I think there's a little light.
A man wrote me a five-page letter,
and accused me, among other things, of being
too metaphysical.
He hadn't preached once, so I didn't like
it, but he accused me of being metaphysical.
I don't know whether it's all that metaphysical
or not, but I know that it has
gotten into our handbooks, and we have sung
it, and the sinful people who don't know
what the word metaphysical means, old ladies, old
bearded men, as well as fine young people,
have risen up, or
a Montgomery, or a Washington, so we have
here the good shepherd.
So when you read in the Bible, humble
and lowly, and you just claim any credit,
or any power, or any wisdom, or any
goodness, no, he's talking about his man, the
faithful lady, he's speaking about his godhood.
Though he be both god and man, let
it be not true that God could be
man, but he might take God by his
right hand, and man by his left hand,
and equate them one with another, and introduce
the wandering sheep to their heavenly father, and
he said here, the good shepherd giveth his
life for his sheep.
No man taketh it from me, he was
not a martyr.
Let not me think at all that he
sent a picture of Jesus as a good
man, who went too far.
A good man, that was so extreme, and
so zealous, that they finally clued him, and
he became a martyr to a noble idea.
He said no man taketh it from me,
nor all the armies of Rome should have
done it.
In the old testament we read in Elijah,
repeated over and over, he
said if I wanted to do it so,
a region of angels would come to my
help now.
He should have come to my help, because
he could say before Abraham was I, a
Stephen that would kill, a James that could
kill with the sword, but Jesus they could
not accept.
He said about the martyr, I am not
to begin with Stephen and not with Jesus,
he said that martyr first, whose eagle eyes
could not see them, not Jesus.
No martyr lays his life down with Jesus,
but he said I lay it down with
myself, he was a sacrifice, not a martyr.
John the Baptist said behold the land of
God, and the land that is dear to
the heart of every Jew, dear to the
heart of every Jew's family, from the days
of Moses in the Passover, the Passover land,
and I still get in some Jewish churches
they still do the dish back there.
He said behold the land, well he said
about again, he was a sacrifice
not a martyr.
Now it was by the covenant between the
father and the son, I have power to
lay my life down or to take it
again.
This commandment have I received of my father,
there was the covenant, and before he came
from the heart of the father, the cook
shall take place, that he might die for
his peace.
Now the shepherd has three officers.
The good shepherd John 10-11 we talked
about dies for his peace, and the great
shepherd in Hebrews 13 lives for his peace,
and the chief shepherd in 1 Peter 5
comes for his peace.
Notice that Hebrew passage, a very wonderful passage.
It says, now the God of peace that
brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus,
that great shepherd of the peace, through the
blood of the everlasting covenant, makes you perfect
in every good work to do his will.
Working in you that which is well pleasing
in his sight, through Jesus Christ to whom
the glory forever and ever, Jesus is called
the great shepherd of the peace.
What is he as a great shepherd doing?
As a great shepherd he is at the
right hand of the father, caring for his
sheep.
Take off thy guilty fear as the bleeding
sacrifice, and in thy behalf appear as Christ
Jesus.
That great shepherd is a good, faithful, loyal
shepherd.
He voluntarily laid down his life for
you whether you knew it or not.
He laid down his life for you whether
you ever knew anything about it or not.
He did it.
He put you everlastingly in debt, great shepherd,
by laying down his life for you.
You turn against him and smite the very
sheep that was want dead on a cross
for you still true.
The shepherd laid down his life for his
sheep, the good, faithful shepherd.
Now the great shepherd above all man's hate,
and above death, and above sickness, and above
time, and above faith, and at the right
hand of the almighty God, he sits and
advocates above the Savior by the throne of
love.
Into his bosom, like the high priest of
the ancient temple, he carries the name of
his people, my poor little name so little
known in this
great church, the great shepherd.
The shepherd of Israel and the shepherd of
his sheep.
So he's there, the great shepherd, but that's
not all.
Peter 5 says, Seize the flock of God
which is among you.
You see he had this in mind.
Peter had heard this tense chapter of John
spoken by Jesus himself, and so he said,
Seize the flock of God which is among
you.
Take me oversight thereof, till he loses it,
but of already mine.
Neither did the Lord over God have his
dominion sampled to the flock, and when the
chief shepherd shall appear, as the good shepherd
he dies for his sheep, as the great
shepherd he lives for his sheep, and as
the chief shepherd he comes for his sheep.
But brethren, the next major event in the
history of the world will not be the
dropping of a cobalt bomb on Moscow or
New York.
It will not be the defeat or the
victory of Russia.
It will not be common commercial supersonic satellites.
It will not be any of the scientific
wonders that will certainly develop within the next
few years.
The next major event in the history of
the world will be when the chief shepherd
appears to faithful people and takes his flock
out of a dingy, tin-clad world to
take them to be with him.
That's the next major event in the world.
Now I don't know when it'll happen.
Don't you dare to interpret what I say
as being that I teach that the Lord
will come tonight or tomorrow.
I don't know when he'll come.
That's close to the end.
It may not be as major as that
event when he does come.
If it's a thousand years or a hundred,
when he comes, it'll be an event second
only to his first coming.
When the chief shepherd appears, then he shall
crown those who have been faithful to him.
There's a motive in his sheep.
There's an objective.
There's something to drive at.
There's a reason for being a faithful.
I want to close now by asking.
He is the good shepherd, and he died
for you.
He is the great shepherd, and he is
pleading for his sheep.
He is the chief shepherd, and he's coming
for his sheep.
You women have found the good shepherd.
I heard the voice of Jesus say, come
unto me and rest.
Lay down thou weary one, lay down thy
heart.
I came to Jesus as I was weary,
worn, and sad.
I found in him a resting place, and
he has made me.
I heard the voice of Jesus say, I
am this dark world's light.
Come unto me, thy morn shall rise, and
all thy days be bright.
I came to Jesus, and I found in
him my star, my sun.
Many his light of life are washed with
traveling days of dance.
Have you heard his voice calling you home?
Have you come?
Will you come?
Will you come now?
The good shepherd who claims you by right
of life laid down.
He wanted your money, or wanted your vote.
I wouldn't, I wouldn't represent him.
I wouldn't make you a victim and a
blind follower.
I wouldn't represent him.
But he proved that he had nothing to
claim from you by giving you all he
had.
He poured out his life for you, wonderful
love.
And when the good shepherd gave his life
for his sheep, surely he wasn't out to
get anything from the sheep.
He doesn't want anything you have, he wants
your love.
Remember that the shepherd-sheep relationship is a
relationship of faith and love, not a relationship
of law, but of faith and love, and
loyalty and trust.
So you can right now, where you are,
turn your faith and love to the shepherd
of the sheep.
And right where you are, you can this
minute believe and put your trust in the
great good shepherd who died for you.
And from the right hand of the father,
he'll be your great shepherd.
And when he comes as a sheep shepherd,
he'll receive you and take you to himself.
Are you his sheep?
I think of myself as being a pretty
scrubby sheep.
Sheep come in with cockleburs in their wool,
and Spanish needles, and where they sleep under
a barbed wire fence, and bruises where they
carelessly batted up against a sharp rock.
But they're still sheep and they're still recognized
by the shepherd and they're still known by
him, and they still know his voice.
And that's what he meant when he had
David write, The Lord is my shepherd, I
shall not want him.
He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures, and leaves me beside the still waters,
and restoreth my soul.
What does that mean?
Restores my soul.
By his soul God bid out a plaque,
and the great shepherd restores his soul again.
And he knoweth my head with oil, and
only one person out of ten thousand knows
what it meant.
He knoweth my head with oil.
But the old Jewish shepherds used to call
their sheep in at the cool of the
day, when the night birds were beginning to
croak, and the dark shadows of the trees,
and the first stars were appearing.
And stood in the door and they passed
by him, and he grabbed each head and
pulled it up and looked down at the
face.
And if there were any scars, or rather
new faked wounds, or maybe had gotten bumps,
or some other old sheep had battled them,
or they had bumped into a rock, or
carefully poured this oil and rubbed it into
the sore.
And my head with oil.
My cup runneth over, and how many know
what that means?
The shepherd not only had his horn of
oil for the sheep that had a bruised
head, but he had a bit of water
there for the sheep that had been too
slow, or too stupid, or too stubborn.
When the Lord let them inside the pure
water, the sheep was too busy and didn't
get a drink.
And so when the shepherd looked at him,
he knoweth that he's thirsty, and so he
has some water for him.
Runneth over.
He gives him a cup of water, and
not a little stingy, grudging cup, but runs
it over.
And he gets all the water.
Well, all I want to know is, tonight
will be your supper.
If it isn't, this would be the night,
the very night.