Expounds on Jesus' declaration in John 10:10, contrasting the thief's destructive intent with Christ's purpose to provide abundant life. It explores the multifaceted role of Christ as the Good, Great, and Sheep Shepherd, emphasizing His intimate knowledge of and care for His flock, whether they are metaphorically 'black sheep' gone astray or 'white sheep' who are respectable but lost. The message highlights that Christ's sacrifice and ongoing intercessory ministry at God's right hand are the foundation for this abundant life, which is characterized by abundant grace, joy, and an abundant entrance into His everlasting kingdom. Ultimately, the sermon calls listeners to recognize Christ as their personal Shepherd and to actively seek His mercy, which is freely offered to all who ask.
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So we turn now to John chapter ten and verse ten. The thief cometh not but to steal and to kill and to destroy. Now Sridhar was sitting in bed reading this one verse. The thief cometh not but but to steal and to kill and to destroy. I know the notice of Sridhar. Luke here. Now this is the work of the devil and all that he comes for to steal the peace. This certainly can apply to Satan and his servants and their emissaries.
The peace come of not but for to steal, kill, and destroy. That's the work of the devil. But here is the Lord Jesus the peace of him. I have come that they might have life that they might have it more abundantly. He's talking about his peace, his peace. It only stops your thinking about the shepherd, and such a vast subject that one can read time and time again in the Old Testament about the shepherd, especially a psalm for me, please. You have the palaces of the shepherd, good, great, and peace.
These things present are found in the New Testament. Christ is a good shepherd. He gives his life to the sheep. He is a great shepherd. He's caring for his sheep. And he's a sheep shepherd because he's coming. He will be sheep. Then you have the knowledge of the shepherd. That is his knowledge of the sheep. He knows his sheep. They are his. He hurts the soul. And so he knows exactly his possessor. He knows every sheep he has, every one. Now people were speaking, I think, the week before about the black sheep.
But remember this, there are white sheep. And when I say black sheep, I mean those who sweep all black feet, they've gone astray, who often hear the words, see or see was a black feet of a family. They were the wicked ones. But there are white feet that are lost. So it makes no difference whether you're a black feet, one who's gone terribly astray, or a white feet, you're sane, and you're respectable, you're honest, you're lost. And that's the story. I mean, I mentioned one time putting into a service station in Burlington. I was having meetings with a young fellow tonight on a Saturday night.
And I said, well, how long have you been here? I looked into a new hand. That's a service station where I got my gas. Well, he said, before we had gone to college, and like someone else said one night this week, I said it was what, the Wednesday night, we went to college and ended up at a gas station. So this caller was had a gas station, and I said, now I'm having meetings in town. I'd be glad to see you this song there. Tell me. Well, he said, well, I'm a Methodist. Oh, you're a Methodist. Well, that shouldn't keep us in common. We have all kinds of people in town. I said, there are two kinds of Methodists. He said, oh, where are they?
I said, save Methodist and lost Methodist. Which are you? I said, you're no saved message. The one who'd been born again, lost in the West. Well, he said, I guess I'm a lost messenger. Couldn't do much good, brother. Now, you may be a right sheep, but lost. If you're not born again, you may be clean, respectable, and honest, a good husband, or a good wife. You do the best you can. You try to help others. A right sheep, it lost. How sad that is. For the Lord knoweth then that are his. The foundation of God standeth to the Lord knoweth then that are his.
And if you are not his, he knows it. And if you know it for better. Eastern Shepherd is very observant. He watches his sheep. Everyone. And if these people sheep, and is wandering away from the flock, from the cross in the corner of the field, he knows right away that seat is six. Six, six. And when the Lord sees one of his seats, staying away from meetings and not observing attending the meetings, he says that seat is six.
Six! The Bible tells us that forsakes not the ascending of yourselves together as a mountain of honey, but exhorting one another much more their children to see the day of this. When a child of God absents himself or bursts out away from the Lord's teaching and they come together, they shift. Unless, of course, they're sick and parted, they can't. But I don't know any deeper people who should be more happy than they're together. Whether I get anything or whether I don't, when I come to the chapel, I love to be with the Lord's people. There's no better society on earth.
And so he's very absurd. And when he sees one sheep alone, it's true. But he really washes his sheep very carefully. And I want to say this. The Lord's meadowed sheep. He washes his sheep night and day. A little girl about four years of age, that's when they had lamps, so it seemed like. Mother put it to bed and threw out the light. The little girl, the girl, she looked out the window and she saw the moon. And the little girl was a little afraid of the darkness, and so the mother seen alone was a little girl.
So the little girl said, Mommy, Is the moon God's light? Now Mary said, yes. If God's light, then God's light should always shine. Isn't it good? He says, will God blow out his light and go to sleep? And Mother said, no. God never goes to sleep. So the child says, as long as God's awake, I'm not afraid. What do we do to the mother? As long as God's awakening, I'm not afraid. And the Bible says, He that keeps the Israel neither slumbers nor slither.
It is wonderful to know that our shepherds are dirt of night and day. That's the truth of other shepherds. We have to sleep, but not our shepherds. He gave us his life for the sheep. He did not tell us. But he gave this life to his sheep. Isn't that the most? Now the earthly shepherd, he is a human being. He sent his natural life to an animal. No, that wouldn't work. But in just case, our heavenly shepherd speaking about his heavenly sheep, he gave his life to them.
They are partakers of the divine nature. Isn't that remarkable? He gave himself for his feet on the cross, and then after when he gets saved, he will give life to them. They have the light of the shepherd. He that has the sun has light. And he also gave himself for his feet in his servant ministry at God's right hand. to give yourself the constant intercession for his people. He ever lived to make intercession for his own. I thank God for that.
At God's right hand, there's a man when I wake up in the morning who begins his intercessory work. He's praying for his people. He made simple sessions for us. Remember what he said to Peter? Peter, the devil hath desired to have the union a fifty-year speech, but I had prayed to thee that thy faith came. That's the intercessory prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ, the shepherd for his feet. He says, I prayed to thee, Satan hath desired to have the union a fifty-year speech.
You know, God's people are weak. And sometimes the devil gets the thing to his crib. Now he can work that crib as long and as fast as he likes. But I'll tell you one thing, the heat's going to come out. He can't destroy the heat. It may come out a lot cleaner. So the devil oftentimes gets the thing to his crib, but they'll come out a lot cleaner. They'll set that pest and pile from the Lord. Yes, she will proceed for a while. Also, he says, God's right hand, as we advocate with the Father.
If any man sins, he's referring to his own, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he's the one that he can test our sins in his face and injects the forgiveness of strangers from all unrighteousness. He's talking about this. So he's living for us that God's right hand is our intercessor, our advocate, and our high priest. Whenever we come to worship, he's the one that accepts our worship and our praise. To all our prayers and praises, he adds his sweet perfume, and love the friendship with angels that hold his feet and feet in our worship.
The Lord Jesus Christ associates him in church. If a person tries to worship and tells the Lord all that I am and how good I am and what I do and what I don't do, the Lord don't associate himself or identify himself with that kind of a prayer. For this you and your prayer give thanks to God for what he did when he gained his son. Give thanks to your son for what he did upon the cross. Thank God for saving you, keeping you, watching over you, looking after you. Ah, the Lord Jesus says, I associate myself with us.
I identify myself with us. I agree with us. And to that prayer that paid in the spirit and spiritually, the Lord Jesus will add his own kindness and the merit of his work upon the cross. Simply ask. ever had spoken on to my knowledge before, although many years ago we did pick up the Twenty-Third Psalm. But I thought of a new angle of the Twenty-Third Psalm. You know David who wrote the Twenty-Third Psalm, the Lord is my shepherd and so on. We often look at it as David thinking of his entire life from beginning till death.
But I believe that David could look at one single day where he would pass through the experiences of the country's very fast. He starts off in the morning, sometimes a shepherd takes his flock, he may be away a week or two, finally passes, and wherever they stop and in the east there's a big pole there, and four or five shepherds may put their flock in that pole until the morning, and then move on, but I think of David and possibly he's on the last day of hope. That should be hope.
And what does he say? The Lord is my God. I shall not walk. He's cared for me on this journey. He's met my need, and he'll still need it. He makes it me to lie down in dream pastures and leave it me beside the waters of quietness. Here you have food and refreshment. And on a morning sky, a dacharya. He takes out his feet, he leaves them to a dream pastures and beside the waters of Christ. What is getting me a moon?
So there is a moon inside false. a new and very far. She is the daughter of my kid. The shepherd in the East, he has that period in the middle of the day when he begins to look around and punish it with a thief. He knows the thief, he calls them by the name. Undoubtedly, he packs them on the head. He observes to see if he's any grubbed anywhere, they might distract the scorns or embitterment. our off-time slaves that hide, slaves that hide in the factory. It's a time of fellowship the noon day halt. When the church and the streets seem to get together, how the things like that.
But in the afternoon, Father, who leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, for his name is Joseph, the Romer of Home. when you have the evening shadows. As the sun is going down, casting the shadows over of the mountains, over the valley, and he knows in that valley there are caves, there are dens, there are wild beasts, hide. They need to come out when the darkness settles to get a seat, or robbers may hide their elsewhere. He says, oh, I walk through the valley of the Saviour's door. Your deafening was all around for my ears.
I was the only one. For thou art this way, thy rod, and thy staff, they comfort me. Thy rod, that for defense. Thy staff, that for my defendants. Thy lean upon it. The word of God, the Spirit of God, to the Christian, when they pass through the valley of shadow. And then the Son sets home for me. Thou prepareest a table before me in the presence of my enemy. Ah, yes, even when he gets me home, that I am in need, trying to get place to defeat.
Ah, yes, how wonderful. Thou prepareest a table before me, a kind of keeper, the evening me. Thou prepareest a table before me in the presence of my enemy. My cup runneth over. I haven't lost defeat. Throughout all these days, and there's been days, I haven't lost. This is my cup running over. Here's a song we used to sing a little chorus. I don't know we don't sing about. And it's like this. My cup run us over. My cup run us over. My cup full and running over.
Since the Lord came to me, I'm as happy as can be. My cup is full and running over. Turn your cup running over with joy. Turn your cup running over with joy. It is easy to pray. And to sing all the days when your cup is running over with joy. When your cup is so empty and dry and you think you could sit down and cry. If the Lord He would please just get down on your knees till you're up, down over to you.
Isn't that nice to be able to say that in the latter part of your life? And David could say that when he looked over at his feet. I haven't lost one. We're all faced in the middle. But every day's reflection is bedtime. And so David says, through the gibbons and mercies, the colony, all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the heart of the Lord forever. And so that beautiful psalm can fit into a day's activity of the evening of the Easter night.
This psalm begins and it ends with the day of the Lord. The Lord is my shepherd, verse one. First it, the house of the Lord, whatever. The Lord is at the beginning. The Lord is at the end. Isn't that wonderful? He says the Lord is my shepherd. Isn't it nice to say he's mine? I think I mentioned a few years ago about this boy who went to school. Then he got to school while a bunch of other boys were around, and he pulled out a knife. And he passed it around.
He knew it was going to attack the India's eyes of some of the other boys. So one looked at it, and by he said, that's a good knife. Then another one looked at it and said, that's a lovely knife. Another one said, that's a huge one night. Another one said, That's an expensive night. Another one says, my, that's an easy night. Another one? That's an unusual night. Another boy says, I wish that night a month. They got back to the owner. The boy said, I'm glad, and I appreciate all you fellows have said about this night.
But he says, I'm the only one here that can say it's nine months. It's minor. It's wrong to me. Please say that about the Lord Jesus Christ. Please, Micah. People can compliment the Lord Jesus and say wonderful things about the Lord Jesus. And I've heard a lot in my life compliments about the Lord Jesus. I understand people. Some say, well, he was a good man. Christ was an honest man. He was a sinless man. He was a humble man. He was a loving man.
He was a royal man. He was this. He was righteous. He was holy, ardent, undefined, selfish and sinful. He was a glorious man, a wonderful man, a master, man. Let's not go so far to say he should call together a lovely one. the fairest of ten pithy to my soul. In his life, he will endure as Christ is a living. In his death, bread and chins are as it goes. As he defends a thief, the emperor of foes, the king of peace, the saying of his children, he must fight in the beginning of it.
these are things people can say about the Lord Jesus Christ. And I appreciate all they say about my Lord. And all the compliments they send I can say this morning by the grace of God. He's mine. Christ doesn't want your compliments. He wants you and your compliments. What an insult. that you don't accept them. That's the point. You can say all kinds of nice things about the Lord Jesus Christ, that if you don't accept them, that means nothing.
You ain't nothing. My saying is so nice, so wonderful, and yet you won't let them into your heart. How wonderful this day is mine, all mine, all the time. They're the feet. They're the ones who are going to heaven. You say this morning, he's mine. Paul, he may, if you say it is I, sitting in through our text, I announce in the place that the abundant life, be buried in our text, I found that we might have life, that we might have it, more abundant life. What do you just think between life and abundance?
You get life when you're saved. But after you're saved what? Oh, you get abundant life. There's an abundance. You don't exhaust the life of God in Christ when you get saved. There's an abundance that lasts all over your life. These are the rivers you take off. The rivers of living water. Yes. When you're saved, you're born again. After you're saved, you're gone. You need that abundant life to go. Drink and life day after day, day after day.
A drink of pure refreshing water may satisfy a thirsty family for the moment. But what about the future? The hot day. He needs some water to show what the red is. And after you get saved, then, it may be a good height. But you need that abundant life. Then Moses broke that rock in the water across the house. He followed them through the wilderness. Then the Lord said, He intends to teach and give you that sustaining life of joy today.
That's what the Bible says. Unto him he was able to keep you from falling, and present you haughtily for the presence of his glory in a human voice. In the night, you may something like that upon the night. Over-intimidly we read these words, we have life and immortality in the gospel. He has given unto us life, life right now, the moment you're born again. and immortality, that's when your light Christ, where he's the only one now who has immortality. Burning in the light that no man can approach unto, that's the abundant light.
So you have light now, abundant light for the rest of your life. You can draw on from day to day the challenges. And then the abundant light, whatever, you're like him. How grand God shall reach the name. Then abundant grace. Romans five, seventeen, day which is seed, abundance of grace shall gain in life by life. Here you have abundant grace. What does this mean? It simply means this. God not only gives grace and saves you by grace, but then his grace and pray today for months and months and years and years.
They should put on the foot the very powers of which they were overcome. There were things that overcome us, and rightly so, and overpower us before we were saved as the God that showed on the churches of Macedonia, how that in a great pile of affliction and abundance of joy, and their deep poverty, they abounded unto the riches of their liberality. You have two remarkable connections there. You have deep poverty and their riches. You have afflictions and joy. So you get there, if you see, you get there, if you assume, but accompanying that to bounce it up is a joy.
Paul and Silas were in the prison. and he wrote the book of Philippians, I think, there. And about nineteen or twenty times in that epistle of Philippians, he mentions joy or synonym. He never mentions sin once in the book of Philippians. It's joy, joy, joyful, rejoicing. For how could he rejoice that night is about midnight, when that Roman man, a Roman officer, in charge of this day. He beat me in silence, and those beatings were offered.
Their garments were put back on, drenched with blood, badly beaten. And yet Paul and Silas slayed and slayed them to dry. They had affliction, but they had adorned to challenge us for overbalance benefits. Isn't that abundant joy? Abundant life, you might say, that's the purple joy. And abundant grace is the healthy plant that grows in that place. Abundant joy is the radiant blue, and fragrances are flat, all become closed.
So that's it. If you are in a grid of abundant light, abundant drink, and abundant joy, now I say to you, others who feel there's something just a little different about this feeling here. There's got to be. If I don't have it, then I'd like to have it. Like the boy who ended up, if the boy were the wife, I'd like to have it. In that case, he couldn't. That's all one of us did it. In this case, he couldn't. And when that boy was at night, you see that back he said, I got it as a gift.
That made it all the more precious. He wouldn't pay for it. And when salvation is a gift, you don't have to pay for it. God will give it to you. And that too, it is abundant joy. And then the abundant entrance. It's an amazing verse. And I want to read it in second Peter one, ten, eleven. Brethren, give diligence to make your calling an election sure. But if ye do these things ye shall never fall. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly and to the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
An abundant answer. Isn't that wonderful? An abundant answer. You know you have God's part in the subject of the lesson, if you want to read it over in the first chapter, Paul first to Christian, Paul Peter, verse two, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification, the separation, power of the Spirit, unto obedience and strengthening of the blood of Christ. It's God's mind that every man accepts that provision and believes a divine revelation. But here we have more insight of our subject of election to say here, give diligence to make your calling and the lesson pure.
You've got a responsibility in this matter. God's not going to say, well, I just told you that with your life and do whatever your life is going to help you in the one or the next. Paul's telling, Peter's telling me, you better be sure of this and bring it to us. What? To set the sight, to gain the cause of the gospel. You then should trust the faith of Paul and election of God. I regret you, Jesus Christ. A wonderful then, he said.
We have an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom. A abundant entrance. Yes, every Christian has an entrance. Every fallen again Christian is going to enter into the kingdom of God. But that's a different thing than having an abundant entrance. into the kingdom of God. Big difference. If you're born again, you're a citizen of that city. The Bible says that. You're a citizen of that city. You're a citizen of that city. But that's a different thing from an abundant entrance.
It's not a bare entrance into the kingdom of God. It's a keeping entrance into the kingdom of God. After your failure lives for Christ. And there are going to be those racing and lining the streets of gold that she has felt and on a hand in their fillets of dusting the lilies around the streets. And here you are welcome when you come into glory. I have an abundant answer. An abundant answer comes with the presence of God. Are these the great witnesses you have in Hebrews chapter twelve after he gives up lips in manning him in his face in chapter eleven? and ends up with the great crowd of witnesses.
These are the ones who are going to give you an abundant entrance into the ever-lost kingdom. And if God defeats them in abundant entrance and drops an entrance, here's an ordinary man who goes out to stay for a vacation for a long two weeks to come back. We'll have a brief holiday, but then compare... That, if a man sees a hero, maybe an athlete, or a soldier. He's run victories and battles abroad. Nine come home. Oh, what a wife. How's the right to receive? The mayor is there to give him the keys in the city.
The man who just went away, our vacation had come and came back here for a little better. He soon forgot. Three hundred pounds. Where he left you? Probably, probably. But I'll tell you when that soldier comes home, there's a big shell built. She's gone, Captain. She's left an abominent. Then what kind of an empty city is you ever going to go? When you die? Will it be an abominent city for the everlasting? Has your life been such you've lived for shame? You've known something of this abundant life, this abundant faith, this abundant joy, this abundant interest into the kingdom of God.
Then we'd like to say more about Psalm twenty-three and four. Psalm twenty-three is the shepherd giving his life to the sheep. Psalm twenty-four opens Lift up your head where you hasten to be lifted up, you are the lasting glory and the glory for shepherds, shepherds, and angels. So it is welcome home. And certainly the angels welcome them home. And they will welcome home. So they will make for him the run out. I want to close with the last verse of Psalm for me to read. fully goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord's Son of God.
In nineteen eighteen, in the Bolsheviks ruled in Russia, she remained behind. Two of them were. The third one He made a plea for mercy. He had seven pilgrims and his wife. And he pledged with this same official for most of his three wars, seven pilgrims and his wife. The official sent notice to the headquarter, asking for information, spreading the faith, this man pleading for mercy.
Find half, then the crowd became tense, senseless broken down again by the reaching of the wife and children, an odd sympathetic cry from somebody in the crowd. Then the stone official wrote the psalmist, he said, we can't wait any longer, and that hatred stands for the gallows. for the gunning of the Savior's family? Any last worries? Yes, I want to say goodbye to my family. And a fifth of his wife, I'm seven children.
Just then, a man's hurry up, and a hand is a piece of paper to the official in charge of the education, that's the teacher. It was the acceptance of that man's plea. No matter. And as the official men, the telegram, all the people walked by the right hand and left in a timely embrace, no matter. People left their child that day, that throng, that key, and their prophet was there.
What a wonderful world. mercy is. Mercy. Mercy. Why isn't only one out of the three got mercy? Well, they see them. They didn't ask for it. Only one asked for mercy, and he got it. And the son of you here this morning, and the reason you're not saved, and you received mercy, because you haven't asked for it. Have you ever asked the temple before, God, God, be merciful to me, this sinner?
You ask for mercy, you get it. You don't ask, you did get it. You get that, didn't you? Really it's a lost beast, a lost sinner. We ask for mercy. God's mercy, this abundantness. Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days in my life. God is not only merciful to save a soul, he's merciful to that soul after his faith. Time and time again David has retired as God says, God have mercy on me.
Oh, how wonderful, Lord Jesus. We read this morning that Dr. Lord Jesus, As he says here, he is saying, the Lord is my shepherd. I don't have any doubt about it. I'll accept him. And he says, if I do accept him, I'll have everlasting life. I'll never perish. And I want mercy. I hate to die without mercy. And some people are going to die without mercy. I will speak to those who tried the right mercy. I will speak to those who tried in mercy.
I will try to lift them before the one on the cross. He tried that you might have mercy. That's what he does. That you might have mercy. You'll only see the work of Christ. You know Jesus did. The money sent. And you have mercy on no other God. We are God this morning for mercy. Just as that family rejoiced that day and the crowd broke into crying and sobbing and rejoicing, then that man's life was paved. And there's seven pages in the Bible.
He asked for mercy to God. So may you have it. Ask God for mercy. And you get it. every day. Our Father in heaven in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we commend to thy presence. We ask thy blessing on thy grave and thank thee for thy precious grave. How clear, how wonderful, how simple, how clear, granted common, to enter this chapel this morning last. Without mercy, believe it having found mercy, mercy, from God, because they've accepted Christ as Savior.
Before they've got to come and receive Christ, that will even matter. We have to come and see Jesus' name. Amen. So we soon pray that number three, five, four, From every soul by sin or past, there's mercy with the Lord. He will surely give you rest by trusting in his words. Only trust him. Only trust him. Only trust him now. He will save you. He will save you now. Stay far to us.
religion. God, as we know by sin, a present mercy will come on, and be of mercy be rest by what will in this world. Only God can all be Christ, only Christ him, only Christ him now. The reason we can have mercy in verse two, for Jesus said his precious blood, his blessings, his blessings to the soul, comes now and through the crimson blood.
Thank you. That's what is right of the story. Give out God for mercy this morning and somehow. A chain was taking place, but peace was in your heart. You come and tell us. He'll rejoice just like that crowd rejoiced that day when that one man fled for mercy and got it. And he got it from a pretty hard government and a hardened official. But this government's not hardened. God loves you. This official standing before you this morning is not hardened. I love you, and I want you to have mercy.
And I'm handing you a letter from headquarters. It's in a hamburger. Believe it. And you shall be saved. King Victor. Yes, Jesus Christ took the way that made it to end. He gave in him without delay, and he was for he played. All is right here, all is right, and we must be done.
We will pray for you, we will pray for you. We will pray for you. We will pray for you. And we'd like to pay you the ninety percent of those who are this morning have courage. Maybe ninety-five percent. We will help you in the rate of heaven. Now I want you to sing the last verse on the day. Come now. Come there and join this holy band, happy band. And on to the glory of God, the dwelling up to lift the land of God who is going to the most place. And we will come.