The Lord Jesus, the good shepherd, has "other sheep" not of the current fold of Israel, but from the nations, whom He must also bring to hear His voice, resulting in one flock under one shepherd. This universal vision of salvation is illustrated by Jesus' compassion for the multitudes scattered and helpless like sheep without a shepherd, and by His prayer in John 17 for believers to be sent into the world to spread the gospel. The sermon emphasizes that Jesus willingly laid down His life on the cross for all lost sheep, and His resurrected command to His disciples is to go and disciple all nations, a commission that continues today. The ultimate goal is to reconcile all people to God through the gospel, revealing the hidden mystery of God's plan for Gentiles and Jews to be fellow heirs in one body, the church, thereby displaying God's manifold wisdom to heavenly powers.
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Evening by evening, said that I was from Niyankundi. We take it for granted that you know in what continent Niyankundi is and in what country it is in. And the fact that he hasn't mentioned the country would indicate that you're all familiar with the fact that Niyankundi is in Africa and in the country of Zaire, which is the former Belgian Congo. And we're going to have the opportunity tomorrow of showing you some of the work out there in pictorial fashion. I'd like to read, first of all, from the tenth chapter of John's Gospel. John chapter ten.
Finding here a recurring thought that has been in the mind of the Lord Jesus as he approaches the cross. John ten. This, of course, is a wonderful chapter about the good shepherd who gave his life for the sheep. Verse ten. 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. Fourteen. I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and have known of mine. As the father knoweth me, even so know I the father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.
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. The Lord Jesus, the good shepherd, that laid down his life for lost sheep, And now particularly the verse I omitted, verse sixteen. Other sheep I have that 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.
If you go to Westminster Abbey in England, in London, you'll see the black slab which covers the grave of David Livingston. And there on that slab is this verse. Other sheep I have that 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. Now that word fold might better be translated, can better be translated flock. I might leave it in the first part, because I believe this is referring, first of all, to Israel. Other sheep I have that are not of this fold, not of the fold of Israel, bound about. by all the laws and ordinances of Judaism.
Other sheep. He's speaking of the nations. Other sheep I have that are not of this fold. Them also I must bring. And they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. Not brought into a fold bound about by rules, but gathered around the shepherd, the good shepherd who gave his life for the sheep. The Lord in verse sixteen is speaking about the nations. Yes, he sent out his disciples to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But now he has a wider view as he's speaking of the lost of the world, the nations.
Other sheep I have were not of this fold. Them also I must bring. The first is the basis. I have. It's a fourfold imperative, as Samuel Zwimmer called it. A fourfold imperative. I have the basis. I must the motive. They shall, the promise. And there shall be one flock. Again, the goal. Other sheep. Oh, how the Lord loves the sheep. The lost sheep of the house of Israel. And the lost sheep of the nations. And he gave his life, voluntarily laid down his life.
He had power to lay it down. He had power to take it again. This commandment he had received from his father, and he laid down his life for lost sheep. And if you've never come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, you can't say the Lord is my shepherd, then you're lost. But he's seeking you too. Might you hear his voice and come to know him as your Savior, as your Shepherd. Them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice. How are people going to hear the voice of the Lord Jesus in these days? I think I've already repeated it a couple of times from Second Corinthians chapter five, where we read concerning the obligation that is ours as believers to announce the glad tidings.
He's committed unto us the word of reconciliation, that we should, in Christ's stead, beseech men to be reconciled to God. And so in the energy of the Holy Spirit of God, we go forth and we announce the good tidings of the shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep. Oh, how he loves the lost sheep. Now Matthew chapter nine. I know we often read these verses. in missionary meetings, but perhaps we could think particularly of the fact that the Lord has great compassion on the lost sheep, for He gave His life to redeem them. Chapter nine of Matthew at verse thirty-six, when He saw the multitudes, that is the mass of the people.
He was moved with compassion on them, moved with compassion on them. Because they were faint, harassed, helpless. and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. And he's the good shepherd who gave his life for the sheep. Some years ago, I was asked by evangelical literature overseas in Wheaton to make a survey of the Middle East to determine the names, to list the names, and determine the character of all Christian literature being printed in the Arabic language. And so I had the privilege of going in difficult times because there were troubles and there was war in the Algerian area, of going to those countries and searching out all that was being done in Arabic at that time.
The idea was to lead toward having a magazine in the Arabic language. Well, I'm very happy to say now that this has been realized and there is a very excellent Christian magazine in the Arabic language that's serving the Middle East. Mine was simply a report to turn for others to study. But on that occasion, I was traveling in Morocco with a missionary who was working there in Morocco, and we went to Fez. And this was a great day of celebration in Fez. And this young missionary and I were standing on a commentary looking over a great valley where there were tens of thousands of Arabs in there.
in their kanzus, their long robes. And there were several, quite a number in fact, perhaps ten or twelve, Arabs on horses galloping across the field and shooting their muskets as they went. A most picturesque scene. And I was getting my camera out to take a picture. And this young missionary standing beside me, lady's hand on my shoulder, not to stop me, but just to take my attention. He said, you know, Bill, he said, in all of these tens of thousands of people, didn't know how many would be there, but they were waiting for King Hassan of Morocco to come, and it was a celebration, and they were waiting for him. This young missionary put his hand on my shoulder, and he said, Bill, in all that mass of people there, I doubt if there's one amongst the Lord Jesus Christ.
I don't know if his figures were right at all, doubtless there were at least secret believers amongst them. But in those Arabic countries, Sometimes it's only secret believers because they don't live long otherwise. And so I put away my camera and I looked at them with compassion in my heart because they are lost sheep without a savior. The Lord looked at them on that day and he saw them as sheep that were helpless, harassed and helpless, scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. And when he looks at those Arab people there in Morocco, he sees them just the same way today as he did in years ago.
During the last war, I was a chaplain in the Middle East for a time, a little over a year. I was serving with the Belgian Congo troops up there. They called it La Frosse Publique. It was a sort of an army of the Belgian colony of the Congo. And I was there as a chaplain, and it was rather unusual. I was wearing a Belgian's Belgian uniform and I was an officer as a chaplain in the army. And it was a tremendous opportunity I had to serve the Lord among the troops. There were some six thousand, seven thousand troops from Zaire, Africans, who were there in the Middle East and in Egypt first.
I was in Egypt first and then in Palestine. And it was a great opportunity to testify to them of the Lord Jesus. The joy of seeing many saved and had the privilege of baptizing some in the canal and some in the Red Sea and some in the Mediterranean and eighteen in the River Jordan while I was there. A wonderful opportunity. We were stationed for a time at Gaza in the hospital there attached to the British General Hospital because our command was under the British High Command. And I was there with the Belgian officers and and then all the men. There were no African officers. They were all Belgians, either commissioned officers or non-commissioned officers.
And one day in the mess, one of the non-commissioned Belgian officers said, I've got to go to Haifa today. Would anyone like to go? Well, I had my own staff car and a chauffeur, an African corporal, who was a chauffeur, but I said, I'd be glad to go. I had a little errand to do in Haifa. So I went to this man. and he was driving a Humber ambulance and we were riding along the road, the coastal road, going up to Haifa. And as we were riding along, this man was speaking about how he hated the Arabs and the Arabs were there, such lazy people, and he was saying all sorts of things of that kind. And as we were driving along, along came an Arab with a flock of sheep.
And as he saw the sheep approaching the road, He stepped on the gas and as the sheep came into the road, well into the middle of the road, he plowed into that flock of sheep. I will never forget the screams and the bleeding. And as I looked back in agony of soul to see the blood in all direction and the animals scattered and thrown right and left on the road there to Haifa. And we went on, the man cursing the Arabs, and my heart soared. But I think of that as perhaps an illustration of this verse. The Lord Jesus saw the multitudes and had compassion on them.
He saw them as sheep without a shepherd, and he's the good shepherd. And he sees them today as sheep without a shepherd. He saw the multitude. He was moved with compassion on them. Oh, that we might not be indifferent to the need of the mass, of the world mass, the much greater population in the world and when the Lord Jesus was here, and yet they're all souls going to a lost eternity, lost sheep, and the Savior has died for them. This is in the mind of the Lord Jesus as he approached the cross. And I think of another verse, and that's in the seventeenth of John, you know, where the real Lord's prayer when he was speaking to his father.
John's seventeen, I'll just quote from John, verse fourteen, as he prays to his Father. This is a holy passage indeed. I have given them thy word. Verse seventeen, thy word is truth. Then verse eighteen, as thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I sent them into the world in anticipation of those going forth into the world with the gospel. The Lord's preoccupation is with worldwide evangelism even before the cross. This is on his heart. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I sent them into the world.
Verse twenty one, that the world may believe, but the world may believe. And the Lord Jesus went to the cross. And I believe that while he was there on the cross, he was thinking of those lost sheep. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. There was the Lord Jesus suffering on Calvary's cross, but he endured the suffering, looking forward to the joy that was set before him, the joy of bringing many sons into glory, the joy of sheep redeemed with his own precious blood, his life blood, shed on the cross of Calvary and I believe on the cross the Lord was thinking of us thinking of the lost sheep of the world knowing that only through his sacrificial death the good shepherd laying down his life for the sheep could they be redeemed and saved and brought into eternal life and fellowship with him and then after the cross oh our hearts are stirred when we think of this
When the Lord and resurrection appears to the disciples in the upper room, you remember, and I'm quoting now from John chapter twenty. As he came in verse nineteen, he came the same day at evening, that is, the day of resurrection. The Lord Jesus, his day of resurrection that evening. Yes, he had met the disciples on the road going down to Emmaus and he had taught them and they had recognized him when he broke the bread of the evening meal there before them. Doubtlessly recognized the pierced hands and the scales that were on their eyes fell from them and they recognized them and they came back quickly to Jerusalem. And then there in that upper room the Lord appeared through the closed doors.
He appeared and stood in their midst and said unto them, Notice what the Lord is saying. Notice what is in his mind. Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and he sighed. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus unto them again, peace be unto you. As my Father has sent me, even so sent I you. This is the message. the risen Savior brings the first message he brings to his own in resurrection. As the Father has sent me into the world, even so send I you." And there's a hymn that could fit in at this point I realize the wonder of it.
And of course if we're reading in Luke twenty four where we have a very similar passage, it's the same time that wonderful Luke twenty four, we love to read of that experience as the Lord was with his disciples there in the room. And this is what he says. Thus it is written, Luke twenty-four, forty-six. And thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. This is the message of the resurrected Christ preached in all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And then, of course, The resurrected Lord in Matthew twenty-eight gives the great commission, as we call it, the last verses of the twenty-eighth chapter of Matthew.
Jesus came and said to them, All authority is given unto me in heaven and earth. Therefore go and teach all nations. Now that word teach might better be translated, disciple all nations, because this is the preaching of the gospel. This in first priority is the Great Commission. Preach the gospel. As we have in the last chapter of Mark, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. This is the Lord's message as He was in resurrection standing with His people. And this Commission in the last chapter of Matthew is not only for those of that day, but is valid today.
It is that which is perennial. It is generation after generation a reiterated message sending us forth with the gospel to the world. Go ye therefore and disciple all nations. And the second point, there are three points in the Great Commission. The first is evangelism, preaching the gospel. The second, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. When the believer testifies to his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and identifies himself in a public way by water baptism, as he is there before the witnesses shown to be one who has trusted the Lord Jesus as Savior, a believer being baptized.
This is the Scripture plan for all believers to be baptized and only believers to be baptized. And here it is. Baptizing them. Those who have come to know the Lord Jesus, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And the third, the third is the follow-up. And this can go on for years. Why did I stay out there for fifty years in Zaire? In continuing always in the preaching of the Gospel. I haven't baptized one myself for many, many years. I baptized hundreds and hundreds of them, sometimes over a hundred and one-time years ago. But now the African Christians are there. They do all those things. I don't baptize them at all. There are many who are just delighted, and regularly at Niyankundi there, we have the thirties and the sixties and the seventies who are baptized.
And the last year of which I have any statistics in the Niyankundi area, just in the area around Niyankundi, where there are sixty-four local churches, there were two thousand six hundred and twenty-four believers baptized. This is an important part of our ministry. And in one year, that number of people were baptized professing their faith in a public way. And the villagers come in, and members of the tribe come in, and see them being baptized. But then in the teaching is to teach them on and on the things that have to do with the Lord Jesus Christ, His Word. And then He promised, Lo, I am with you, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and Lo, I am with you, even to the end of the day.
of the age, with you always, and to the end of the age. Well, the age hasn't ended yet. It's still the day of grace. It's still the dispensation of God's grace and salvation, and this is valid for us today. And there in the mission field, we've proven the truth of it, as the Lord Jesus has been with us day by day through all the years. And then there's one more instance, of course, in resurrection, where the Lord spoke in the same way. Just before His ascension, what did He say? In the first chapter of Acts, what do we have? Just before the Lord ascends to heaven, you might say the last words on earth. This is what he said, Acts one eight. Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
It thrills my heart to realize that our Lord Jesus Christ was preoccupied. Is that the right word? His mind was full of the thought, not to the exclusion of other precious things such as his obedience to his father, such as his heeding his father's word. His delight was through the will of his father and to finish his work. His meat was to do his work. It was his food to the Lord Jesus, delighting in fellowshiping with his father. But to think of it as considering the lost sheep of the world and reiterating over and over again the commission that is ours of today to going to all the world, beginning at our Jerusalem's, if you like, wherever we are from that point on out as the Lord sends us even to distant parts of the world.
And so in addition to the gospel and the baptizing of believers, there is a teaching ministry. And some of us have felt it's good to stay on with the people until you can see that there is a maturity amongst the believers and that the assemblies are firm in the truth of God's Word and taught in the Scriptures and to give them the Word of God in a form of the language that they could understand and clearly give to others. I'd like to read in the sixteenth chapter of Romans, the passage that has been precious to me in this connection. that in the preaching of the gospel there's also a ministry in teaching them to observe the things which the Lord has commanded.
And this very definitely has to do with that secret which God kept hidden throughout many, many ages. And then God has revealed that secret in the time of Paul and the Apostles. And this is the secret that we who go to the nations with the gospel, preaching the gospel, communicate to them as well. God's secret now revealed. Read with me, Romans, sixteen, twenty-five. Now to him that is of power to establish you, first of all, according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, and then secondly, according to the revelation of the secret, like that better, because I think that's really the meaning here, which was kept secret since the world began.
But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandments of the everlasting God made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. Does it thrill your heart when we're out there preaching the word or ministering the word of God? We are serving the everlasting God by the commandment of the everlasting God being made known to all nations. And that includes Zaire, that includes other lands. And as our sister gave to me a note which I want to repeat tomorrow, how in England these days they're realizing that one of the needy mission fields of the world is England. There it is.
And it's our command, commandment of the everlasting God, to make known to all nations for the obedience of faith. Because the alternative is, to those who know not the Lord and do not, are not in obedience to the gospel, you know what happens. The second epistle to the Thessalonians at verse first chapter in verse seven. To you who are troubled, rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.
It's a matter of life and death, spiritual life and death. For those who know not Christ, and he's committed unto us the word of reconciliation, that we should in Christ's stead beseech men to be reconciled to God. And so here we have it in the Romans, we have the preaching of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the telling of the revelation of the mystery. God is letting us know the secret that was hidden from before the foundation of the world. God in his purpose had a wonderful plan. Ephesians chapter three. Ephesians chapter three. We can't go deeply into these things.
We can suggest them. I hope that we'll follow in the reading at home and consider more this subject. Ephesians three at verse three. How that by revelation he made known to me the mystery or the secret, as I wrote before in a few words, by which when you read you may understand my knowledge of the mystery of Christ. which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This is the secret. Here it is. That the Gentiles, the nations, should be fellow heirs and of the same body. In chapter two we had that he might reconcile both Jew and Gentile to God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.
And here it is. That the nations should be fellow heirs. and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel. And we tell this to the people. When they know the Lord Jesus as Savior, we tell about that wonderful oneness that we are, oneness that we've been brought in by the action of the Holy Spirit of God, brought into the one body of Christ, united to him our head. But the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel. And then he's rejoicing, verse eight, unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles, the nations, the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the secret which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church, by the church.
the secret, the one body, the church, universal, and the segments, if you like, of the universal church, the local churches worldwide, that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church, the manifold wisdom of God. And when the angels look down, As I noticed not so long ago at Nyan Kundi, I counted there were twelve different tribes represented there. And years ago, they would have been in each other's throats, killing each other in tribal warfare. And there they were, gathered together, enjoying the Lord's supper together with the presence of the Lord, gathered around himself.
And their hearts were lifted up in praise and worship and adoration of the Lamb who was slain. The Lord Jesus, the good shepherd who gave himself for the flock. And certainly the angels looking down, or whatever these principalities and powers are, including angels doubtless, they're looking down and they're seeing all those who would have been killing each other before. But now they know the peace of God through the Lord Jesus Christ, and they're made together in one body. And the angels look down and they wonder at the manifold wisdom of God. And it's through the church that this is manifested. And so we teach things like this.
to the African believers out there. And notice verse eleven, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. We spoke about the everlasting God in chapter sixteen of Romans, and here it is again, the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. And the twenty-first verse of the last verse of the third chapter, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, the world without ends, Amen. Our Lord Jesus longs that we hear his voice as to us today to go to the uttermost parts of the world with the gospel.
Telling of himself, this is our message. He died, he rose again, he's coming. And he bids the sinner to come to him for salvation. And we tell him how to do that by simple faith, accepting him and his finished work. to no reconciliation with a holy God. And sins washed away. That barrier which separated between them and God, taken away. The Lord Jesus, who is both God and man, putting his hand on holy God and sinful man and reconciling them together, reconciling us to God, because our sins are taken away. And that barrier between us and God is gone. And we know fellowship.
because of his atoning work on our behalf on Calvary's cross. Pray that the Lord will send laborers into his harvest field. Can I read the rest of that passage in Matthew nine? When the Lord Jesus saw the sheep as shepherd having, when he saw the sheep as scattered abroad having no shepherd, then he changed the metaphor and he said, the harvest, now he's talking about the harvest field, but right there it is. The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.
And maybe he'll send you, or he'll send one from your family. You know, when my wife, Betty Partridge, heard the call of the Lord thirty-two years ago, when we were having meetings in Guelph, I was with Mr. Lockett in the Guelph Summer Bible School teaching missions. And she heard the call of God. And she was coming forth to go with my wife and I as we return to Zaire to continue, to Congo to return to the work there. She was a trained secretary and she was completing her work in the first classes they were having in Emmaus in Toronto. And her mother said when she told her, her mother said, over my dead body. And so Betty stayed and took care of her mother.
And when we came back on the first furlough, one of the first places I wanted to go was to talk to that mother and said, Mother, you're hindering the work of the Lord. This girl has been called to serve the Lord on the mission field. And you're saying no. And we met together. Earl Clark invited us to his home there in Rochester, and Betty was invited together. We hadn't had contact with her. When I saw, I said, Betty, one of the reasons we've come up here, first of all, before going elsewhere, was that I might speak to your mother about not withholding you for the work of the Lord out there in Zaire, or in Congo, as I said it in that time. And she said, oh, didn't you hear? The Lord took my mother to himself three weeks ago, and I'm ready to go back with you.
So when my wife and I went back after a year's furlough, Betty came along with us and she served with me out there, with us out there for twenty-five years since then. But oh the joy the mother lost when she said no, not while I'm here. You're not going to the mission field. She was in fellowship and in the family. She was a godly woman but the desire to have her daughter remain and to the fact that the daughter was supplying some of our needs as a widow, true, can see her point there as well. Oh that the Lord would to our hearts. Pray the Lord of the harvest to thrust laborers into his harvest field. And even if it takes one of our own family, or if we're younger workers, others perhaps who are older and even retired and able to give skills to help on the mission field, and you're ready to go yourself, then go.
You'll have a chance, even though you don't know the language very much at first at least, you'll have a chance to participate and drive cars and get people around who can. give the gospel to some of the village people who know not Christ. And you can pray, and you can give to help those who are on the field participate in their work. Get yourself a prayer handbook and read it every day and pray for those workers there. Let us all become involved in doing that which is in the mind of the Lord, that is in the mind of the Lord now, as he's anxiously waiting for us to go forward with the gospel. to all parts of the world. Let's pray. Our gracious God, we thank you for thy word as it comes to our hearts.
Words we've read many times and we've heard, and yet Lord, doubt us oftentimes. Take a word and make it fresh to our hearts. We pray that it may be so even this evening. We commit this word to thee for thy blessing, that thou wouldst work in our hearts and give us a greater involvement in the work of missions worldwide. The field is the world, from this point on out to the distant parts of the world. Receive our thanks and praise in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you.