keener2

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE GOOD SHEPHERD AND HIS SHEEP

by Forrest Keener

In the 10th chapter of the Gospel of John, verses 1-11, the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking, says: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers. This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them. 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. 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."

As we look at these verses, I want to choose for the text, the last verse that I read to you, verse 11. "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." Now, we have here a repeated use of a particular metaphor. Most of you who have been here any length of time, understand what a metaphor is. You know what a parable is. The Lord frequently used parables and metaphors. Metaphors are used throughout the Bible. A parable is a story that is told, to people who are familiar with the principles of it, which illustrates a doctrine or a truth. A metaphor is an individual item or an object, it may be an animal, it may be a tree. For instance, the Lord Jesus Christ said, "I am the vine." You know that He is not a vine literally, but He was using the vine as an object to explain or to illustrate, and that is what is called a metaphor.

As far as we know the Lord never owned any sheep. We do not know that He did, or that He did not. But there is no indication that He did. Nevertheless, He uses the word shepherd here, and it is used to illustrate a relationship that He has with his sheep. Metaphors in the Bible, and illustrations or parables in the Bible, always utilize something with which the people were familiar. I am the vine. The Lord lived, and the people around Him lived, in a part of the world where a major part of their food was the fruit of the vine, the grape vine. They knew about it. They understood how it grew. They knew the things that had to be done to it. They knew the things that were done with dead limbs that bear no fruit, that were ready to break off and die. They knew what the husbandman or the farmer did in pruning the vine. So this made a good and understandable illustration. The same thing is true with the sheep. Today we, in this part of the country, would not know much about sheep. How many of you know of some place within this area where there is a shepherd who leads hundreds of sheep? I am talking about right in this local area. Most of us do not know much about that. It is not a common thing in this part of the country. This is not sheep country. There are parts of the world that are sheep country, and you can go into those places and see multitudes of sheep. In the country where our Lord lived, the sheep were everywhere and the people readily understood this metaphor. If I were to say to you who live in Lawton, Oklahoma, `It felt like the explosion of an artillery shell' you would know what I am talking about, because you experience those explosions here in Lawton, every week. Your windows shake and sometimes break. I have had visitors say, `What was that?' I have to think for a minute, `a shell just went off out there.' We do not even think about it, we are so used to it. It is familiar to us. And this is what the parables and the metaphors were like. Now the Lord, in this parable, contrasts the conduct of an hireling, as opposed to the owner of the sheep. A hireling would say: "Hey, I am not fighting that bear for those sheep. They are not my sheep. I am getting a dollar and a quarter a day for this and it is not worth it." But David said that he was keeping his fathers sheep, and he went out and he accosted a bear, he confronted a lion, because he was the shepherd of the sheep. And the Lord takes this metaphor and brings it home to us and shows the difference. He indicates that He is (now listen) the owner of the sheep. "He came unto his own," John 1:11. In John 6:37, the Lord Jesus Christ says "All the Father giveth me, shall come unto me." I do not want to expound that at this point. But I just want to show you what He says. The Father has given them unto me. If the Father has given them unto Him, to whom do they belong? They belong to Him. So He shows Himself here to be the good shepherd. He refers to us in John 10:27 as "My sheep." And He promises no loss of them in John 6:39. One of the greatest passages in all of the Bible to this poor sinner is John 6:39. In verse 38 He said: "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." Do you know what is going to happen to me? He is going to raise me up at the last day. How do you know? Because the Father has given me to Him. How do I know the Father gave me to Him? Because I came unto Him. And He said all the Father giveth me, shall come unto me. That is an equation, you see. I am so thankful for those wonderful parallels the Lord gives us. He plainly says, My Father gave them to me.

Today, I want us to see the relationship between the shepherd and His sheep. Now, I have spoken from this passage many times, there is so much in it, in which to rejoice! But today, I want us to particularly focus, not necessarily just upon the shepherd, nor upon the sheep, but I want us to focus upon the relationship between the shepherd and the sheep. The first thing that we need to settle is:

I. THE BIBLICAL USAGE OF THIS METAPHOR SHEEP

For years, as I studied the Bible, I thought that the metaphor of a sheep was talking about a saved person, a Christian. What do sheep typify? I would have answered "Christians, of course!" Well, they do, but is that all they typify? No, it is not. For He says: " And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring." They have not yet been brought, but they are now My sheep. Now, you say, `wait a minute, that is strange because they are not yet Christians, and yet He says they are my sheep.' He uses this illustration, the parable of the three. Within the parable of the three, is the parable of the ninety and nine. And He uses the lost sheep, but this sheep is one who has gone astray. He is one that is lost. And if you look at the end of it, in the application, you say, Well wait a minute. That is talking about a saved person. Then, argue some, it must mean that this saved person, this sheep fell from grace and went astray. It does not mean anything like that at all. The term sheep is not referring exclusively to the person who is saved, but to God's elect. Those who have been saved and those who shall be saved. All of them fall into the biblical use of this metaphor. We need to understand that. Notice John 10:16: "And other sheep have I, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." They have not yet heard His voice. They have not yet been brought, they are not yet saved. Nevertheless, they are, present-tense, His sheep. Now, let us go a little farther in that thought and look at verse 3. "To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out." This is the work of God in calling, when He speaks to the dead, darkened heart, and when He gives to that heart repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, and He calleth them out. One song writer wrote it this way: "He Lead Me Out." That is the name of the song. And he tells how that He lead him out of the darkness of doubt, and placed his feet up there on the solid rock, and here he says, he calleth them out. Even in Old Testament times, this relationship of the shepherd and his sheep was frequently used. The other day, I looked this up on my computer, noticing the various places where it is used, And over, and over, and over again, just in the book of Psalm, this term is used. I want to show you just two of them, to show you the nature of that usage. And there are dozens of them in the book of Psalms alone. "For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand." You see even David is using this metaphorical relationship. He says, Today if you will hear His voice. In other words, it goes with that very thing, with the people of His pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Listen to Psalm 100:3: "Know ye that the lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves;..." What a marvelous revelation! It was not evolution that made us. It was not an accident. It was not happenstance. Some years ago, I saw this silly commercial, and I believe it was Coca Cola. It had this beautiful picture of the Grand Canyon, and at that point, it said whether by chance, and then a beautiful building, a skyscraper, and at that point it said, or whether by design. Think about that. These people are suggesting that the Grand Canyon was built by chance and that the building was built by design. I mean if you had a turkey that was that dumb you ought to kill him and not eat him. Ridiculous! God is our maker. We did not make ourselves. But notice what he goes on to say in this passage. "Know ye that the lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture." It is a wonderful relationship, His people and His sheep. And Oh, if we knew more, and I do not know too much about sheep, but I have read enough to know that if we understood more perfectly the relationship of the shepherd and his sheep. You know, if you have had a pet dog, or a pet cat, that liked to lay around on you, and lean on you, sheep are very much that way with the shepherd. They become attached to the shepherd, and he does not just own them, but they like to be near him. When they are fed and when they are finished they will gather around him. I was thinking yesterday. I read a letter on the E-mail about someone who had accused another pastor of feeding his sheep. A terrible crime! You have been feeding my sheep. I thought to myself, and I think I shall jot it down if I can remember it, a well fed sheep will not quickly feed at a stranger's hand, but hungry sheep will eat anything. Do you hear what I am saying to you? And I want to tell you something: When a pastor, when a shepherd finds that one of his sheep if feeding at the wrong trough, he ought to say, God help me to start putting the right thing in mine. Do you follow what I am talking about? Now listen to me folks. We have a wonderful relationship here. Notice something else about this. In the John 10:26, he says: "But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep,..." Think about that sometime. "Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep." He did not say, you are not my sheep because you did not believe, but you did not believe because you are not my sheep. That is what I was talking about, about the relationship of the elect, a moment ago, and not just the saved. Those that are going to become His, they hear his voice and they follow him, but those who are not, will not believe. They doubt that. The illustration of the lost sheep is of an unsaved man, not a backslider, but an unsaved man who is brought to the Lord Jesus Christ, just as is the lost coin and the prodigal son. Oh, listen when I did not love Him, He bought me, He paid for me with His own blood. And when I did not know Him, when I did not seek Him, when I did not want Him, He found me and drew me to Himself. Wonderful relationship of the shepherd and his sheep. I want to tell you something, I would never have found Him. I would never have searched for Him. Oh, if and when we do, indeed, seek Him, and sometimes we do, but if we seek Him, it is because He has put in our heart the desire to know Him. If we drink of the water of life, it is because He has made us thirsty. It is as Lydia of old whose heart the Lord opened, that she listened, that she paid attention to the things that were spoken of Paul.

II. THE IDENTIFYING MARKS AND ACTS OF HIS SHEEP

I must come to second thought, and that is the identifying marks and acts of His sheep. We live in a day and time of getting professions. There are have preachers, I am sorry to say, who run to and fro, up and down the land, trying to get people to do any and everything in the world, to get professions of faith in Christ. I can remember some years ago, I read an article, in which someone was ridiculing the Methodist for the means of their soliciting. It was in a certain city, and they were going out soliciting people to become members of their church. And the way they were doing it, was talking with them, and if they had been baptized at any time by anybody, under any circumstance, they simply had them to fill out a card. And by the filling out of the card, they became members of that church. It was sort of a new way of doing it, in that particular area, but they, supposedly, became members of the church. I have news for you, folks. I am sorry to say that there are some Baptists, who are just as guilty of stupidity and foolishness as that. They go out and give people a sales pitch that they call the Gospel. Now, it is not the Gospel. But they get them to pray a prayer, and they tell them they are saved. Well, in most cases, they are not saved. There are some marks of His sheep. There are some ways that we can know if we are His sheep. His sheep are people, now listen, who are called in a special way. It is the life-giving work of the Spirit. Can you say, today, I know that He called me to Himself? If He has not called you to Himself, it does not make any difference what you have called, or what you have said, or what you have given away, or what you have accepted, or what you have committed, if He has not called you, you are not His. "He calleth His sheep."

In First Corinthians 1:23-24: the Scripture tells us something of that. Paul says: "But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." Why is it that a man hears and comes, when another man hears and says, why that is foolishness, it is a stumblingblock, I do not like it. Why does the one say, Oh, how precious it is to my soul. What makes the difference? Calling makes the difference! "But to them that are called," that is what makes the difference. He called them as scripture says. He calls His sheep. First Peter 2:9 says: "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light." Why do those sheep come out of the darkness into the marvellous light? Because the Shepherd calls them. And some do not come, none of His sheep do not come, but a lot of people do not come to Christ. They do not want any part of it. They do not believe. "Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep." But the sheep hear that voice and they come. Aren't you glad that you can look back and you can say: Oh, my soul knows, my heart and soul know of that time when He called me, when He spoke to my heart, when He brought me out of the darkness. And with every bit of my heart I came. This is a work done in our hearts, whereby we hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Think of our Lord's words "Lazarus, come forth." But Lazarus was dead, and dead men do not hear. Dead men cannot hear. Dead men cannot obey, but Lazarus did obey. He did hear, he did obey. Why did he hear? Why did he obey? Because of that glorious work in the heart done by the Lord Jesus Christ. This symbolizes what the Bible refers to as the new birth, where He infuses life into that dead heart. He causes His sheep to hear, and causes His sheep to readily and eagerly say from the depths of their soul: I will arise and go to Jesus. He does that work in us. It is a relationship with the Shepherd and His sheep. Why was I made to hear, while so many sat in deafness and darkness? I was His sheep! The Father gave me to Him. Why should He? I need not ask that question, and I cannot answer it. And you need not ask it, for you cannot answer it. And you do not need to. It is not any of my business, and it is not any of your business. Do not try to judge God, or correct God, you just look and say: If the Bible teaches it, I had better settle for it. I will tell you something, folks. Once my soul learned to settle for it, I found that just settling for it was not enough. But I was forced in the depths of my soul to rise up and praise God in a way that I had never known before. I knew that my salvation was of the Lord, all of it. I knew that He took hold, and He spoke to my dead heart, and He opened my dead heart, and He opened my deaf ears, and He opened my blinded eyes. He did it all. Praise God, my Shepherd called me. I was not better than those around me, who went on out into damnation.

I remember a boy that I went to school with, who was one of my very dearest friends. We were essentially inseparable in high school. He spent nights at my home, and I spent nights at his home while we were in high school. And before I got back out of the army, and I was only gone a little over a year, after the National Guard mobilized, things had changed and our paths parted. James was later shot and killed. Every indication of everything I knew about him, was that he probably went out into eternity not knowing the Lord. In fact, it seems that he was killed in some kind of a drug related crime. I understand that he was working in a convenience store, but I hear that he was involved in drugs even there. As I look at that, I wonder, why was I called and not him? Oh yes, I am sure he was genuinely invited, but God did something more in me. My basic direction was as ungodly as his. Why was I the Lord's sheep, and not him? Why did I come to the Lord? Because all the Father giveth me shall come unto me. I was given! Why? I cannot tell you why. I do not know why. But I praise God that I was, and that is all I can do. His sheep, not only hear, but they follow. "My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me," though never perfectly. Have you ever known a sheep who followed perfectly? Have you been a sheep who followed perfectly? Have you ever been perfect in your conduct? You have to answer and say, No, I know I am not. I know I have so much lacking. Then I ask, "will you also go away? Will you turn away from Jesus? Can you forget about Him? Can you turn your back on Him, and confess another as Savior and Lord?" And you say, Of course, not. Where could I go? He has the words of eternal life. There is no other place to go. Then you are His sheep. Following indicates, not only obedience but dependence, and trust. Bro. Matthew, I had outlined this portion of the message, before I talked to you the other day. You see, the thing you were talking about on Wednesday night is right there, dependence and trust in Him. The sheep depend upon the shepherd. They trust the shepherd. They listen to the shepherd. He constantly provides for them in every way. Listen to John 10:9 and 10 again. "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. 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." He does not starve His sheep. He takes care of them. He provides their needs, not always what they want, but always what they need.

III THE PROMISES AND ASSURANCES THAT HE GIVES TO HIS SHEEP

His sheep will have eternal life. What a statement! My sheep follow me, and I give unto them eternal life. Who else do you know that makes any such promise as that? I give unto them eternal life. Men will normally give anything they have for their life, but they cannot buy it. They will pay what they can to keep it, but they cannot keep it. They will buy insurance and hire bodyguards and build walls to protect it, but they cannot protect it. It is in the hand of God. He says I give unto them eternal life. Who would believe a claim like that? Who would believe a statement like that? "I give unto them eternal life." Oh friend, I hope you do. I hope you can. You say, Preacher, I just cannot believe that. I am so sorry. I am so sorry, if you cannot believe that. I pray that by the grace of God, some how and some day, you might believe that He gives unto His sheep eternal life. His sheep have absolute eternal security. Did you know that? "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." Some doubter says, "But they could jump out." Oh, is that right? Well, I have news for you. The Lord says, No, they cannot. John chapter 6, once again, that great passage: "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." Listen to my question. Do you think,... Do you believe, that the Lord Jesus Christ did the Father's will? Do you believe that He will accomplish the will of the heavenly Father? Then He said, "And this is the will of him that sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing,..." You say, Yes, but they can still get lost. No, No. "...but should raise it up again at the last day." If He does not raise us up to the glorification of the chosen of God in the last day, He has not done what the Father sent Him to do. He says that so plainly in John 6:39. You cannot avoid it if you believe your Bible. Even the steps of His sheep are ordained and assured. Did you know that? I do not know what my steps will be tomorrow or next week. I do not know if they will lead me to joy or sadness. I do not know if they will lead me to victory or injury. I do not know if they will lead me to life or death. I do not know, and I cannot know. But I know what I do know. He says in the 37th Psalm, and verse 23: "The steps of a good man..." And it is not talking about a man who is good by his own self-righteousness. It is talking about the Lord's ordained. "...are ordered..." This word is the same as ordained. "...by the lord: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall..." Listen to this: "...Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down? for the lord upholdeth him with his hand." My wife and I were in Penny's the other day. There was this lady walking through the store, and a little girl following her screaming and hollering. This mother needed to be a loving mother, and go back and spank her little bottom, and say, Now come up here and walk with me, and behave yourself. This little girl wanted something, wanted to go another way or something, but anyhow she was following along "afar off." The mother was just walking along, and I heard one of the clerks say, I would be afraid somebody would come along and grab her and run off with her. And I thought to myself, I am glad the Lord does not let me endanger my soul like that. The Lord upholdeth me with His hand. And I could imagine this mother conducting herself rightly. Here is this little girl who is rebelling, and crying, and she is kicking, and screaming, but nobody is going to grab her and run off with her, because mama has her by the hand. And even in her rebellion, mama is taking care of her. And the psalmist says the Lord does that for me. Though he fall... Yes, I will. Though he stumbles... Yes, I will. Yes, I have. Yes, I shall. But I will not be utterly cast down. I know that, for the Lord upholdeth me with His own hand. Do you hear what I am saying to you, Beloved? The Father has assigned the Lord Jesus Christ this responsibility of security. I want to quickly say something else. Did you know that, according to the Scripture, God moves all of providence in our favor? Again, it is not for what we want, but what will work together for our good. You may want money, and it might be the destruction of you, if you had it. You might want freedom that you do not have, and that freedom might be your destruction. But God knows what we need. I want you to listen to First Corinthians 10:13. "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." Now, I want you to hear these words: He will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able. Think about that. From where can temptations come? Oh, it can come from Satan. Can it not also come from your friends? Can it come from your family? Can it come from the society around you? Can it come from afflictions? In all of those things you must say Yes. But the Lord says, I will not allow you to be tempted above that which you are able. What does that mean? That means that the Lord must always be in charge of all of those things. He must govern over all of those things. He must control all of those things, to assure that we shall not be tempted above that which we are able. God moves the providence of the world for His sheep. I have to rush on to a final point.

IV. HOW CAN YOU KNOW IF YOU ARE HIS SHEEP

I mentioned, earlier, all the Father hath given him. If you are here this morning, and you do not know Him in the free pardon of sin, you might begin to say, Well, what if the Father has not given me to Him? Some other person may say, Well, I would like to think that He gave everybody to the Son. Well, you might like to think that there are two Santa's too. What you would like to think does not cut any ice, it does not amount to anything, it is not important. What God says is important. Here is what God says about it. He says, All the Father hath given me, shall come to me. And so, those that did not come, were not given. You say, How could I know if I am given? Do you want to come to Him? You are invited! If you truly come, you may know you were given. You do not have access to the records of God. You cannot climb up to heaven and open the book of life, search through it, and see if your name is written in it. You cannot do that. You do not have that right, you do not have that ability. It probably is not even written in a language you could understand, though I do not know. But I am saying this: He promises us some things. In Matthew 11:28, He says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." The implication is: you will not be turned away, you will be received. Come unto me, you will be received. In John 3:14 through 16, He says: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Do you want to know if you are one of His sheep? I ask, Can you trust Him? Do you believe in Him? Do you believe He is the sinner's only hope? Listen, it is all focused right here: Do you believe that He washed away your sins in His own blood, on the cross? If you can say, Oh, yes, I believe with all of my heart that He washed my sins away on the cross, I can say this to you: You are His sheep. All of these other things will work for you. Your first evidence is that you hear His voice, John 10:27. Oh, may you hear His voice this morning! I am not talking about through Forrest Keener's voice. Oh, the Lord does not speak in these rough, stumbling tones of poor vocabulary, and grammatical error, with which I speak. He speaks with precision and tenderness to the poor sinner's heart. Do you hear His voice? I hope and I pray before God, that you genuinely hear His voice. Do you have in your heart and soul a disposition to come? Do you want to come to Him? He says: Come on. Do you want to come? Whoever you are, what ever you have been, where ever you are, come on.

You might ask, what if I am not one of His elect, and I want to come? Oh quit arguing, and flee to Christ, you will not if you are not, just try it. Go ahead and come. I want to tell you something. You do not know anything about His election. What you do know about is your sin and your terrible need. Do you want to come to Him? You come! Not to me, not to the front of a building. Come to Christ! He commands you to come. By the desire in your heart to follow Him, you will be saying, yes, I have been going the wrong direction too long, I want to follow Him. Finally by the realization that there is no other hope you will indicate that He is calling you. Listen, if you will, to the words of His disciples, when He had taught truth, and some people who did not like it. In John 6:37, he says: "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me;..." And in verse 65, he says essentially the same thing as He says in verse 64. "... Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father." Then verse 66 says: "From that time many of his disciples went back,..." A lot of people do not like this. Now, these disciples were superficial followers. But when it came to the Sovereign grace of God, plus nothing, minus nothing, they hated it. "From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?" He did not ask, What did I say wrong, or I wonder if we could still get them to listen, or I am not going to say that any more, because it was apparently offensive. I am not going to say that anymore, If it is going to drive people away. He did not say that. He said, "Will you also go away?" Now, listen, listen, listen, "Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life." I pray to God this morning, that you will say, yea, that you would have to admit, that you could not say otherwise: Where else could I go? Only He has the words of eternal life. Who else could I turn to? Only He has the words of eternal life. My prayer is, this very minute,... The pleading of my soul is, this very minute, that your heart is persuaded to say: I will arise and go to Jesus. He will not refuse you. Let us stand with bowed heads.