Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is presented as the door to salvation and the center of the flock, contrasting with the old Jewish fold which was characterized by a wall. The sermon highlights Jesus' credentials as the shepherd, including his genealogy and virgin birth, and explains how he calls his sheep by name and leads them out of the old system. The core lesson is that believers, both Jewish and Gentile, are called to be one flock under one shepherd, emphasizing Jesus' voluntary sacrifice and the eternal security he provides. The message concludes by underscoring that the flock is defined by its center, Christ himself, and the believer's security rests in the combined power of the Father and the Son.
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Shall we read together, please, in John's Gospel, Chapter Ten. The Gospel by John, Chapter Ten. And we'll read from the beginning. Verily Verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same as a thief unto robber. But he that enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. And when he put forth his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
And the stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of the stranger. 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 the might of life, and that the might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is in Harling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeeth the wolf coming, and leaveeth the sheep, and fleeeth, and the wolf catches them and scatters the sheep. The harling flees, because he is in harling, and cares not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine. As the father knows me, even so know I the father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.
and all the sheep I have which are not of this foal. Them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one flock, not foal, different word entirely. There shall be one flock, and one shepherd. Therefore doth 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. There was a division, therefore, again among the Jews for these sayings, and many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad.
Why hear ye him? Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind? And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winters. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews round about him and said unto him, How long dost thou makeest a doubt, if thou be the Christ? Tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and you believe not. The works that I do in my father's name, they bear witness of me. But you believe not, because you are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice.
and I know them, and they follow me. And 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. I and my Father are one. Again, may God add his blessing to the reading of his own precious word. We have been looking in these morning sessions at some of the great pictures and symbols and prints of the Church of God and the Bible. We have already been considering the building, the temple, the house, a term that occurs many times in the New Testament scriptures, the house of God.
is the place where God dwells. This is a wonderful, wonderful picture of the Church of God the Day, that is the building. This was the concept that the Lord himself gave to the disciples when he mentioned the word church for the first time. On this rock, I will build future. I will build my church. Yesterday morning, we were looking at the body. And again, this is a tremendous picture of the Church of God. Nine times in the Epistle of the Ephesian, and it's only used by the Apostle Paul himself, of the body Christ is ahead. On every saint that loves his name is a member of that body.
And there are four good epistles that deal with the body of Christ and there are some tremendous teaching connected with it. Yesterday morning, and speaking about it, all we could do was touch the high spot. Now this morning for a little while I want to speak about the flock, as we find it in the passage that we have read together. Some people say that the church is not on the gospel according to John at all. Well, certainly the word church is not there, but I think in the lovely picture that we get in John chapter ten concerning the shepherd and his sheep and the flock, I think they get a lovely picture in symbol of the church. And this is what we want to try to point out this morning.
There are three parables in the passage that we've read together. And the first one is the parable of the foe. The second one is the parable of the flock. And the third one is the parable of the family of the family of God. And there are some lovely, lovely things here connected with each one of these parables. I don't think we can separate John chapter nine and John chapter ten. As a matter of fact here, we get the climax of the Gospel. It is the great key passage in the Gospel according to John. And we find a tremendous change. The change is from the fold to the flock. And I think that that is the key to the interpretation of these two chapters.
Now, it's based on the sixth great sign that our Lord gave. Those who study the Gospel according to John, I don't think I need to tell you that John chooses seven great signs. He doesn't use the word miracle. The other evangelists do. We find, for instance, in the Gospel according to Matthew, miracles and wonders. And in chapters eight and nine of the Gospel according to Matthew, there are ten of these miracles brought together in four different categories. But John doesn't use the word miracle at all. The word that he uses is a sign. On each one of the seven signs that he gives us are some teaching connected with it.
We get the sign, and then we get the teaching based on it. Now the sign we get here in chapter nine is the healing of a blind man. A man who has had congenital blindness. And by the way, he's the only case in the Gospels where we find a man who was born blind. And the Lord deliberately chose this individual for to show his mighty power. You remember in John chapter nine, we find that our Lord in his teaching in the temple. If you remember, he finds this man, and he takes the initiative. And there's an argument among the disciples whether this man had sinned or his parents that he was born blind.
That seems a rather ridiculous argument. Whether the man had sinned himself that he was born blind, could he have sinned so that he was born blind? Well, that is utterly ridiculous. Whether it was his parents or he himself that had sinned that he was born blind. You know, one of the pathetic things about modern life is this, that sometimes the sin of a father existed on the child. I don't need to tell you that some of these terrible social diseases that are spreading like wildfire around this country, it has not only an effect on the person themselves, but unfortunately sometimes it has an effect of subsequent generations.
That is one of the terrible, terrible things in the modern life. As we see it today. But in any case, there was this rather ridiculous argument, whether it was the man himself or his parents that sinned that he was born blind. And the Lord Jesus said, Oh, no, he says that the glory of God may be manifest in him. And then he sat on the ground, and he made clay of the spittle. He anointed his eyes with the clay, and he said, Go and watch. And the man he went and he obeyed, and he washed in the pool of Siloam, and he came back to see him, seeing. Now when he came back, there were four circles that investigated what the Lord had done.
First of all, we read it by the neighbors. They were very much interested. And then after that, we find the parents. And then after that, we find the Jews. The Sanhedrin, the representatives of the Sanhedrin, they have something to say about it too. And then he asked the man himself, they said, what do you say about it? This one that has opened your eyes, well, he said, whether he's a sinner or not, I don't know. They were saying that he was a sinner. Whether he is or not, he said, I don't know. There's one thing that I do know. And nobody will ever take that away from me, for I was blind. Now I have my sight.
And then he said, will you also be his disciple? He immediately started to testify. Will you be his disciple? Well, they said, you're his disciple. We are Moses' disciples. And then when he started to testify to them, we read that they cast them out. Now, the word that's used there is they threw him out. It's a very strong word. It means that he was excommunicated from the synagogue. He was expelled. from the synagogue, they threw him up. And of course the Lord, when they heard that he had been excommunicated by the synagogue, then he made it his business to find him.
And he said, Does God believe in the Son of God? He said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? He said, Here it is that speaketh with me. And we read, I believe, and believe that he worshipped him. What a lovely story this is. It was the sixth sign that the Lord had performed and read as a result of that this man is excommunicated officially from the synagogue. Now this is a connection with John chapter ten. I still think we can separate the two chapters because the teaching concerning the fold and the flock and the family that we get in John chapter ten, I think it's based on what happened to the blind man in John chapter nine.
Now, sometimes a person, when they get saved, they don't have very much difficulty separating from their own life. Many years ago in Portugal, I was there studying the Portuguese language over fifty years ago. And there was a dear man got saved at that time in Lisbon. His name was Señor Pinto Coelho. And by the way, that means Mr. Chicken Rabbit. Peter Coelho, Mr. Chicken Rabbit. He was rather a small man, but very outgoing. He was a member of the Mason. And of course, he thought that all that he needed to do when he had found the Lord and he had been full of joy and peace, and the Lord had forgiven his sins, he said, all that I need to do is to go to the fraternity and tell them what has happened to me and they'll all believe in the Lord Jesus just as I have.
Well, the next meeting of the messians, he went along, and he stood up among them, and he told them what had happened to him. You know what they did with him? They threw him out. He had no difficulty at all separating from them. They excommunicated him. They didn't want to hear what the Lord had done for him. And that's what happened to the blind man. And John chapter ten, I think, is a commentary on John chapter nine. Now there are three parables here, and this is just for a few minutes this morning I want to look at. I think that it's most important to get the very, very plain teaching that we get in the three parables, the foes and the flocks, and then the family.
Now notice the first parable, the first paragraph in the chapter, we read that when the Lord told them this parable, they didn't understand what he was talking about. And there's an awful lot of people today In reading the parable, they do not understand the teaching behind it. But I think that it is most important to notice the seven different steps in this first parable. Now notice what it says. Verla, I say unto you, He that enters not by the door into the sheep's hole, but climbeth up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. But he that enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep, to him the porter opened, and the sheep hear his voice.
and he call it his own sheep by name, and notice he leaves them out. Now what does this all mean? Well, just to put it in a nutshell, the fold here is the old Jewish economy. Just in a nutshell, it's what we find in the Old Testament scriptures concerning Judaism. Now, the Jews in the Old Testament were super-saggregationalists. They were characterized by war. it was the fall. You know, when you look at the Old Testament scriptures, the Jews had a wall around that fall. We read that the stranger that draws nigh shall be put to death.
On the whole Jewish economy, on the Old Testament scriptures, it's characterized by a fall. On the fold, it's characterized by a circumference. On anyone who attempted to go inside that fold, There were certain obligations, there were certain requirements for them to do it. God had called his people out of the land of Egypt, and he had named them his witnesses here below. But instead of being witnesses, they turned into a super-endrawn community, turned it to rise by a wall, and it would have nothing to do with anybody else.
That is the fall. Now the Lord Jesus, when he was born in this world, he came through the door of the sheepfold, and he presented his credentials. You know, when you look at the Old Testament scriptures, there were certain things that are said about the Messiah. I think there's about three hundred different predictions in the Old Testament scriptures concerning the shepherd, concerning the Messiah. When he was to come, about three hundred different predictions concerning him. And read that the Lord Jesus, the shepherd of the sheep, when he came to the door of the sheepfold, he presented his credentials, and the porter, he opened the door, and he conducted them inside the fold.
Now, personally, I believe that the porter at the door of the sheepfold was John the Baptist. I think that you get a mention prophetically in Isaiah chapter forty. We find there the ministry of John the Baptist was to introduce the Messiah. the shepherd of the sheep. He was to introduce them to the sheep for all. Now, when we look at the Gospel, we find that when our Lord was born, that there were certain credentials that he had. We're presented to us on the very first few pages of the New Testament. In the Gospel according to Matthew, there are seven credentials of the shepherd. Now, time wouldn't suffice here this morning to go into this in detail.
But you remember the very first page of the New Testament we get a genealogy. And that genealogy is the genealogy of the shepherd. It's the first credential. And a man who hasn't a genealogy had no right whatever to come to the door of the sheepfold and be accepted as a shepherd. But he had that genealogy. Sometime we have spoken about genealogies over in Africa. I never used to think that they were important at all. But when we were learning the Sangu language, used to go to little villages in Sudan, when there was a law case being tried, a law case was going on.
The judge would be there, the prosecutor, the witnesses for the defense and the prosecution and all the rest of it. They were all there. And I used to sit on the side with a notebook and a pencil and words that I had never heard before, I would make a note of them. It was a very, very good way to increase your vocabulary. But one thing I noticed, among these primitive people in Africa, nobody was allowed to open their mouth unless they were able to give their genealogy. And the judge, he would start, and he would lift his hand. And he said, my father was so-and-so, his father so-and-so, his father so-and-so, his father so-and-so, his father so-and-so, his father so-and-so, his father so-and-so, his father so-and-so, ten members of a genealogy.
And then he would start on his toes, all sitting in their bare feet. He would put out one foot, pointing with his chin, his father saw and so up would come the big toe, and his father saw and so. He would go over all his toes, and then he would start on his fingers again, and he would go right back to the progenitor of the tribe. It was always a woman. These tribes in Africa, their matriarchy... They always start with a woman. On the head of the tribe, the progenitors of the tribe, was a woman called Kathputi Kambumba. And when he arrived at that, he said, now there is my genealogy. They have a mediumatic phrase for it. It means to tie the belt.
Kujichi Gamilla, it means to tie the belt. It's to tell your genealogy. And after he has told his genealogy, he claps his hand. There now, he said, that's my genealogy. And then all the different members that were taking part in the law case, they would tell their genealogy. And a man who wasn't able to tell his genealogy how to keep his mouth shut, he was a slave. And then they would look at me and they would say, are you able to jichigamia? Can you tie the belt? Can you tell your genealogy? And I would lift my hand and I would say, my father was so-and-so and his father was so-and-so and his father was so-and-so. But when I came to my forefinger, I just wasn't too sure. I said, you know, with us, it's not important at all.
Well, they said, with us, it is. It's very important. A man who's not able to tell his genealogy as a slave, and therefore he keeps his mouth shut in the law court. You know that the man on the glory has a genealogy. The shepherd of the sheep. He's the son of David. He's the son of Abraham. And of the gospel according to Matthew, he's traced back to the two great leaders of the Jewish nation, David and Abraham. And of the gospel according to Luke, traced right back to Adam. You know, he has a genealogy. On these two genealogy is the first credential of the shepherd. Now a second one that's mentioned in Matthew and also in the Gospel according to Luke is a virgin birth.
And that is very important. He must be virgin born. According to Isaiah chapter seven, he must be born of a virgin. Some don't think that that's important, but really it is. I think it was Sir Robert Anderson he said this. He said the whole of Christianity that either stands or falls was the last sentence in the last verse in Matthew chapter one. If you look at that chapter, you'll see what he's talking about. Sir Robert Anderson was a lawyer. He was the head of the Criminal Investigation Department in Scotland Yard for many, many years. He also was a theologian, and that is what he said.
The whole of Christianity, it either stands or falls. with the last sentence and the last verse in Matthew chapter one. And there, of course, it mentions the fact that Mary was a virgin when her child was born, the virgin birth. And then there's the fulfillment of Scripture, a third credential in the Gospel according to Matthew, and again and again in Matthew's Gospel that the Scripture might be fulfilled, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And our blessed Lord... All those great passages, the Messianic passages in the Old Testament scripture were perfectly fulfilled in him when he was born in Bethlehem.
Now, I'm not going to develop this, but I think that this is what we find in this parable at the beginning of the fall. Read that the shepherd of the sheep, instead of climbing up some other way, these thieves and robbers, instead of coming to the door and presenting their credentials. They climbed up some other way. And you know the good shepherd, he always comes down. Paul, we do thank God for his humility. But at the same time, we thank God that he had all the credentials of the shepherd. The good shepherd, he comes to the door, and he presents his credentials, and the porter opens to him. And when he goes inside the fold, he called his own sheep by name.
And notice what he did. He led the march. That is what he did. He called his own sheep by name, and he led them up. Now the Gospel according to John, on the other Gospels, it shows what he did at the end of the sheep's wall. In the first chapter of John we find five names that he called. The first one was Andrew. He said, Andrew, he called him by name. And then there was Simon Peter. He gave him a new name. After that there was Philip. He called him. And then there was Nathaniel. And then in John chapter three, we read about Nicodemus. And then as you go through the Gospels, one after the other, he called his own sheep by name.
You know, that's what he has done with us. You know, he knows every one of us here this morning. He knows your name and we can look back to a time. Just like Matthew, he was sitting at the receipt of custom. And the Lord Jesus passed by and he knew that he was one of the sheep. He said, Matthew, Matthew, he called his own sheep by name. He said, Follow me. And he rose up and he left off and he followed him. And all again and again in the Gospels we find it. Zacchaeus, little man up a tree. And when he came to Jericho, he found him up a tree and underneath the tree he says, Zacchaeus, come down. He called his own sheep by name, and he came down and worried that he received him joyfully.
Now, it doesn't mean what the good shepherd does when he comes into the fold. He called his own sheep by name, and what did he do? He let them out. Out of what? Out of the fold. He took them out of the fold. And then the next thing is he put forth his own sheep. Now, there's some are red hearts, and some others are put out. You know, the some were a little bit reluctant to leave the fall. I think that Simon Peter was a man like that. Later, when God gave him a work to do, and he was the great apostle to the circumcision on the day of Pentatech, you know, he always had those ideas in his mind of the super-segregation of it.
You know, a little while afterwards, when the Lord wanted him to go down to Caesarea and preach the gospel, to a man there called Cornelius, one who was outside the fold. Simon Peter, he didn't want to go. I think he was a little bit afraid of what those other Jews in Jerusalem would say about it, afraid of what they were going to say. And you know, some of us, and we're just the same, we're awful afraid of what people will say about it. I think it's far, far more important what the Lord thinks of us, and to try to get our orders from him. But in any case, Simon Peter, he was rather reluctant to leave the fall. And the Lord actually had a work of miracle.
And when he was done in Jaffa, he had to see a vision three times of the sheep led down from heaven. And when God spoke to him, not to call anything common or unclean, then he went down to Caesarea. and he preached the gospel, just as he had done the Pentecost in the house of the Gentiles, and there was a great wave of blessing took place at that time. Some are led out, others are put out. That is, they're reluctant to go. But the work of the shepherd is he leads them out. Now I think that this is a parable of the fall, and I just want to leave it there.
You notice that there are two frames in the fall. First is the shepherd, and the other is the porter. And then we read about the thief, we read about the robber, and we read about the stranger. You know, the stranger has a voice, too, but the sheep, the sheep, they didn't understand. They didn't follow the voice of the stranger. They didn't know his voice. I understand a man who's a real shepherd and with the flock day after day that they actually know his voice. And somebody that would come along that the sheep didn't know they wouldn't follow him. I've heard stories of sometimes a shepherd putting on, at least a stranger, putting on the garments of a shepherd and going to a flock and calling the sheep.
And the sheep didn't pay any attention to them at all. Because they didn't understand the voice. And you know, every true believer they know the voice of the good shepherd. There's that intuition that the Lord has given to every one of us. And that voice that we heard at the beginning, when he called us by name and he let us out. You know, we know that voice. The voice of the good shepherd. And every time we hear it, it rejoices our heart. I think when we come to a meeting, what we long to hear is the voice of the shepherd. the voice of the good shepherd. And we know that voice. And certainly when we hear it, we recognize it. And then we seek to obey the voice of the shepherd.
So here is the first parable. It's the shepherd coming to the fold, that is the old Jewish sheepfold. The old Jewish economy, and the record in the Gospels is, our Lord, he calls his own sheep by name, he leads them out, and others he put forth his sheep, and then when he puts them forth, he goes before them. I have a friend in Cape Town. His name is Charlie Brinkman, brought up on a Christian home. And during the World War II, he was in the South African Army. He was with the desert forces up in North Africa. And after that campaign was over, he had some leave.
And he thought he would like to go over to Israel and visit some of the places that they had heard of when he was a boy. He had a friend who was an Arab. And this Arab was leading him Iran. They came to Bethlehem. And when they got to Bethlehem, they saw a man with a flock of sheep. And this man had a stick in his hand, and he was driving the sheep in front of him. And Charlie, he said to the Arab, he said, watch this. He said, I always read that the shepherd in Israel, when he was in care of a flock, that he always led the flock. And he knew each member of the flock, and they followed him.
Well, the Arab said, that is perfectly true. Well, he said, what is this? He said, the first thing that I see, he said, when I come to Bethlehem as a flock of sheep and a man with a stick in his hand driving the sheep in front of him just as a dude back home. And the Arab, he smiled. He said, my dear brother, he said, he is not the shepherd. That man's the butcher. He's the butcher. He's taking them off to the slaughterhouse. But he said, if you wait for a little while, he said, I'll show you a real shepherd. And he says, just as they did in the days of David, and the days of our Lord, he says, they do exactly the same today. They know every sheep, and the sheep know the voice of the shepherd, and they follow him.
The voice of the stranger will they not follow. Now, the comment that John makes about the parable of the fold, it said, This parable spoke Jesus unto them, but they understood not what things they were, which he spoke unto them. They didn't understand the teaching behind the parable. And you know, there's an awful lot of people today, they don't understand it either. There's a very lovely hymn in our language, and I would, with the very last one, to try to criticize the lovely hymnology that we have. But we talk about the sheep being brought to the fold. Now that is not New Testament teaching. The sheep were not brought to the fold.
And the whole difference in John chapter ten is the difference between a fold and a flock. The fold is characterized by a wall. It was the old Jewish economy. But what our Lord did with the fold, he called his own sheep by name and he led them out. And the next parable here is the parable of the flock. Now I want to look at this just for a moment too. Then said, Jesus unto them again, verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. Now notice there's a difference here. In the first parable the door, the door of the sheep falls, but the door of the flock is the shepherd himself. He said, I am the door. Now there's a difference in the door here and what we get at the beginning in the first parable.
The door of the flock. is different from the door of the foal, and the door of the flock is Christ himself. I and the door, by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. Now this door, when a person comes to the Lord and they become a member of the flock, notice the two ideas that we get here is they go in and out and find pasture. First of all, there's the door of salvation, and then secondly, the door of service. First of all, we get witness, and then we get worship.
They go in and out and find pasture. I think that doctrinally what we get here is the Holy Priesthood and the Royal Priesthood. Oh, we go in to worship, but we go out to Sarah. Shall go in and out and find pasture. Now, looking at the second parable, there are four enemies of the flock here. And I want you to notice them very briefly. First of all, there's the thief, and then there's the robber, and then there's the harling, and fourthly, there is the wolf. You know, if you think of the people of God today, I think that these four individuals that the Lord mentions here, they have their representatives everywhere. Now, the thief is the underground man that works by stealth.
You know, the kind of men that are making money today are those that are making these locks to go on people's houses for security. I don't know what it is around here, but on the part of the country where we live, everybody is very, very much disturbed about the robbing and breaking in at night. The thief is the underground man that works in the dark. The robber, he's the bandit. He operates by violence. And I think that there is a difference between the two. And notice the thief and the robber, they come to write them to destroy and to steal. Our Lord, in speaking to the lawyers, in his day, you remember he said that they robbed the people of the key of knowledge.
You know, there are some great truths in the Word of God, but there are people that would want to rob us often. The thief and the robber. And then thirdly, the harling. I think it's Mr. Derby that calls him the man that works for wages. That is the man who's out for what he can get. He's not the shepherd. He's a mercenary, and he's out for what he can get. Again, when we look at the Christian world today, unfortunately, there's an awful lot of it based on money. Last year, I spent four months in India. And there was a dear servant of the Lord that I knew when I was young, buried over there today.
His name was Hanley Bird. And again and again I heard Mr. Bird say this. He said, a man's attitude to money is an asset test of his character. And anybody who serves God for what they can get out of, there's something seriously wrong. I don't know about your mail that you get today. But about fifty percent of the mail that we get is appeals for fun. I always feel sorry when the work of God has brought down to that level. You know, I don't think there's a more generous people on the face of the earth today than God's people. And whenever a need is known, you know, always, God's dear people, we do thank God for the devotion.
We don't need to make appeals for money. on the same dark, circulars all over the place, asking for this and not on the other thing. All we need to do, if there's a need, well, let it be now. And immediately you'll find a tremendous response from God's dear people. But for a servant of God, that this is ministry on finance, I think is a very big mistake. I think this is the mercenary. This is the harling. And notice when the wolf comes, he gets up and he runs away. He flees when the wolf comes along. Now, the final enemy of the flock here is the wolf. And the wolf, of course, the Apostle Paul, he describes him in Acts chapter twenty, as good address to the Ephesian elders.
He speaks about that day when the wolf will come, not sparing the flock. Some of the enemies are inside and other enemies are outside. The wolf, he comes to scatter and destroy. You know, the test of any man's ministry, does it draw God's people together and does it build them up or does it scatter and divide and destroy? Well, I think that this is a very acid test of the ministry of any man. The ministry of the Holy Spirit, it always brings people near to Christ. And it brings them near to one another. The ministry of love and affection among God's people, harmony and fellowship.
But the wolf, he scatters and destroys. So there are four enemies of the plot. But the great key verse here is verse sixteen. Now notice what he said. Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold. Them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and they shall be one flock. And again, let me repeat, it is an entirely different word here, although in our version it is translated fold. It's an entirely different word. Not the fold here, but the flock. There shall be one flock and one shepherd. Now this is a tremendous change. Instead of the walk, that characterizes the fold.
It's composed of a center. And that center is the person of the shepherd himself. Other sheep I have which are not of this fold. They don't belong to the Jewish fold. He's speaking here of the Gentile. It's the great mystery of the Church of God that we find in Ephesians chapter three. Here we find it metaphorically. We find it by illustration. Other sheep I have which are not of this fold. Them also I must bring, they shall hear my voice, and they shall go one flock and one shepherd. Oh, what a tremendous statement this is concerning the difference between the fold and the flock. Every time I've been in London, England, I love to go to Westminster Abbey.
I never would think of being in London without going there. Any of you who have ever had the opportunity of going to London, don't miss going to Westminster Abbey. And as you walk down the aisle, you'll see the great names of history on the one side and also on the other side. But right in the center of the aisle, there is a grave on the floor, right in the very center. And every time I go there, I take off my hat and I bow my head. It's the grave of David Livingstone, the man who gave his life. for the spread of the gospel in central Africa. Dear, dear servant of God, and around surrounding the grave, in written letters, letters of breath, around the grave on the floor are these words, Father sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring.
You know, I would like to make that the slogan of my life. Father sheep I have, which are not of this fold, They also I must pray. They shall hear my voice. And they shall go one flock and one shepherd. Beloved brethren and sisters this morning, it's not the foal, but it's the flock. It's not the circumference, but it is the center. The center is the good shepherd himself. Now there are certain things here connected with the shepherd. And again, I just want to mention them without going into detail, although they're most important. He speaks about his death four times. It is a voluntary death, and it is a substitutionary death.
He said, I lay down my life for the sheep. And then there's a tremendous statement. He said, no man takes my life from me, but he said, I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my father. Now this is the unique death of the shepherd. Pardonly, Adam, he was in no danger of dying until that moment when the great work of substitutionary atonement was accomplished upon Calvary's cross, and when it was, he himself, voluntarily and vicariously, he lived on his life himself upon the cross.
One of the modern versions... You can look it up for yourself. One of the modern versions today in Hebrews chapter five, and that tremendous passage that deals with Gethsemane, it said, Who in the days of his flesh, when he had, read there about him, pouring out his soul in strong crying and tears, unto him that would save him from death? And the word is introduced there from premature death. You know, that word is not there. That to me is most serious. Our Lord was in no danger of dying until the moment came after he had accomplished all that God had given him to do in that great work upon Calvary's cross.
He himself lived on his life. He released his spirit. He bowed his head. He said, it is finished. And he gave up the ghost. No danger at all of dying before the time. So this is the truth that we find here in John chapter ten, connected with the shepherd. He gives his life and life more abundant, and then at the end, in the third parable, connected with the family, it's occupied with eternal security. You know, one would love to go into more detail about these lovely things. There are many of God's dear people today who don't have the full assurance of eternal life. Well, my beloved friend this morning, I want you to listen to the words of our Lord himself in the third parable.
He speaks here about the earmark and the footmark of the sheep and how they follow him. I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Nether shall any man pluck them out of my hand. The Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one, one in nature and essence, two distinct persons, the Father and the Son, the pierced hand of the Savior, who died for us upon Calvary's cross, on the omnipotent hand of God the Father, on the believer today, the sheep, that has come in to contact with the good shepherd is linked to him.
They're held by this two-fold grip. The pierced hand of the good shepherd on the omnipotent hand of God the Father. He said, I and the Father are one. One in nature and essence, but two distinct persons. You know, the eternal security of the believers based on three things, and with this I want to flow. The first is the sovereignty of God the Father. I was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. I don't understand that, but my Bible tells me that, and I bow my head and thank God. The sovereignty of God the Father, the sacrifice of God the Son, upon Calvary Strauss.
He died for me, and I put my faith and trust in him.