I want to open your bibles to John chapter 10, the big chapter of the gospel of John. The reading will begin with verse 1, here's a word of God, truly, truly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs up by some other way, that man is a thief and a robber, but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens, the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them and the sheep follow him, so they know his voice, the strangers, they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. This state here Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So Jesus again said to them, truly, truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep, all who ever came before he are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not heed them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The sheep comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd leads down his life for the sheep. He who is a hirling and not a shepherd, his own, the sheep are not sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flee and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He fleees because he is a hirling and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. As the father knows me and I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep but you are not of this fold, I must bring them also and they will heed my voice. All there should be one flock and one shepherd. For this reason the father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. This charge I have received from my father. Although it is again a division among the Jews because of these words, many of them said he has a demon and he is male. So I listened to him. These are not the things of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? It was the feast of the dedication at Jerusalem. It was in weather and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, how long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ tell us plainly. Jesus answered, I told you and you do not believe. But the words that I do in my father's name they bear witness to me. You do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they shall never perish and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand. I and my father are one. The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Well, this is a beautiful narrative and a potent one and one that stirred up a great deal of opposition and Jesus found friends and enemies because of this message. A few days ago I had the privilege of speaking out at Westminster High School and Junior High School and I chose that day to speak on what I believe to be. Probably the best known single passage of Scripture in all the Bible. I believe it really is true that if we had some sort of a pull over all the world, it would be proven that the one single passage in the Bible, that is known of or part of it known by more people than any other one passage, it would be the 23rd Psalm, that great shepherd's Psalm. Now, we call it a shepherd's Psalm and really it's a sheep's Psalm. For in the 23rd Psalm, we have an unusual thing. We have a talking sheep and he's talking about a shepherd. That's the beauty of it. Very good is the sheep and he's talking about his shepherd. Not only everybody in your head is good. Suppose you're good, who's lived with you for quite a while. Could writers say something about you? Would you be pleased to hear that? I don't think the shepherd was very pleased that he heard his sheep raising. In the 23rd Psalm, sing for the first time that song. A great tribute to the shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall never want. He looks to me. He needs me. He needs me. And do they get so taken up with it that by the middle of the Psalm, he just sings and now he's talking to the shepherd. He's not reporting anymore. He sings, you, he's talking to the shepherd. Now then tonight we're coming to a passage that isn't nearly as well known. But it's every bit as wonderful. Where is the passage where the shepherd now talks about his sheep and his relationship to his sheep? Not so we haven't drawn to him. Now I think it's sad to think the notes the audience that heard this beautiful, beautiful passage where Jesus interprets himself who he is and who his people are. So beautiful. Who is listening when he said this? Who is he talking to? Well, he was talking to one Christian. Now as far as we know there was only one Christian person. He was a man who had been blind and that very day Jesus had taken his physical blindness away from him and would visit him a second time and took his spiritual blindness away from him and the man had just professed faith in Jesus and in the chest in the night chapter in verse 38. He says, Lord, I believe and he worshiped him. But also standing there, some of the Pharisees near him heard this, they heard Jesus talking. And so Jesus turned his feet and what he said now, he said to a man who had just been converted. And you convert his standing there and for the first time he's hearing a message from his angel. He's just embracing, he's just recognized who he is, just receiving, just worshiping him. But also standing there are some plenty hearted rebellious, unbelievable Pharisees who were religious leaders. And then Jesus tells a beautiful story. Partly it was a comfort that poor man who had just come to Jesus and now was made rich. Partly it was to help that poor blind man just see who he was and what had just happened to him what was going to happen to him for the rest of his life which was going to last for him. And also it was to set the record straight before people who were presumptious, before Christ. And so he says truly, truly, I say unto you and he goes into that passage, the key verse that he has, I am the good shepherd. That's what we're looking at now. Here's the things I wanted to note. First of all, Jesus Christ and verses 1 and 2 sets forth the truth that he is the real shepherd now because he is the one who comes in the prescribed way to listen to what he said. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs up by some other way that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. Jesus said you can tell who's the shepherd. If you see somebody at the sheepfold climbing over the wall, you know that's no shepherd. That's a thief for sure. But if you see a man go up and get different sets of doors because he's recognized by the great keeper. He has the credentials. Then you can say to yourself ah, that's the shepherd. Now Jesus says I walk in with the credentials. I am the only one who comes in about the door. What is the prescribed way for the Savior to come? What is Jesus talking about there? Why I think it comes up in Luke. You know when Jesus was baptized, right after he was baptized, it says Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee. And then shortly thereafter he moved on to Nazareth and when he came to Nazareth, he's hometown. He was going to preach his first sermon in his hometown now that he entered into his public ministry. And so he went into the synagogue and he took the Bible and he opened it up to the Prophet Isaiah and he read to them from the Prophet Isaiah a great prophecy and then verse 20 says this. And he closed the book and he gave it back to the attendant and he sat down and the eyes of all of a synagogue were fixed on him and he began to say to them today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Jesus started his ministry in a sense by giving the Old Testament prophecies of the coming of the Son of God the Savior of men. And then he said, I'm the one who fulfilled it. Now then he told us the very last thing he did was the same thing. In Luke 24, just as the book comes to a close, as the Jesus was written from the dead and it gathered his disciples back around him. Verse 44, then he said to them, these are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you. That everything written about me and the Lord Moses and the Prophet can the Son must be fulfilled. Then he opened their man to understand the scriptures and said to them, this it was written that Christ should suffer that on the third day he should rise to the dead and that the penicent for goodness' sense should be placed in his name to all nations. You see what he was doing with this. Jesus was saying, I am the Savior of the world because I'm the one who fulfilled all the prophecies that God made of a coming Savior and God has made many of them. Beginning with Genesis 3.50, side God done it. Well, let's say your daughter is going to go visit her uncle. Let's say she's a young lady making 1920 years old. Her uncle's never seen her. So, she's going to get off of a certain plane. You're writing and telling what plane she's coming in on. You're going to tell him it's a deal to plane topic. You're going to tell him that she's going to arrive on a certain flight on a certain day. You're telling her now, look, I mean, she's going to have on a certain kind of coat. She's about so tall she's about to hear about the certain color. As a matter of fact, here's a photograph you can look at that was made of her that can give you something to be about it. So, the uncle gets it and he's got the prescription there. He knows what's playing to me. He knows when it's coming in. He's out there, the plane lands. He knows that's a right plane. So, it's one of those people. The people begin to stream off and they're a number of young ladies. He knows it's one of those young ladies. But he sees the young lady get off and he says, there's your about that tall. That's about to arrive. He's about to hear about the thing. He's ready to step up and say, old lady. And then he sees that the... No, that's not exact. That's not the right. There's something that's not exactly the same as the description. So, he waits a little longer. After a little bit finally, he's able to match with one young lady coming off everything that he's got there. Then he steps up and calls her by name. She says, uncle. And that's the purpose of the whole letter that was written to him. So, it was the given description that he could use the measure. So, he's identified that right person out of many persons as the one he was to meet. Now God has done this regarding his son of God. And if you read the book of Acts, you will find that that was the apologetic of the early church. Those early Christians, the way they witnessed the Christ was this. They said, look, God has declared that someone was coming. And look what was written. Look at him. And how everything there is fulfilled. So, Jesus uses this to say himself forth. He makes another statement. He says that he is a good shepherd who calls his own to him. And so, if you look at verse 3, to him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep here, his boy, and he calls his own sheep by name, and he leaves them out. Jesus is using a figure here of a town, a city fold. In those city folds, the walls were sometimes made of ten feet high, quite a large fold. A number of flocks of sheep would sometimes be in there. Many different shepherds would have their flocks in one fold. And so, when a shepherd would come, he would give that call that was recognized and known by his own sheep. And his sheep knew his voice. And they knew the names that he called them. And as he spoke to them and called their names, the sheep would rise up above the other sheep. The other sheep paid no attention because they didn't belong to him. They knew that. That wasn't the one they found. The other sheep paid no attention to that particular call. They heard his voice, but they didn't hear their name and his voice. And so they didn't come. And the sheep would make their way out. This really happened. This is the way they used to do. The shepherd would give his call. His own sheep would lift their heads up. This was their shepherd. They knew that voice. They would begin to make their way through the other sheep to it. And then it says, He would lead them out. And when he had brought them out, He would lead them on the pasture. That's Jesus' picture of how he sees sinners. He says, He knows his own by name. Now, how come that? You ever think about that? What we're in, this shepherd also is the Lamb of God. And their names were all written in his book, the Lamb's Book of Life, before the foundation of the world. He'd known their names for a long time. And I call them. And they hear him and let him out this shepherd. They come to him and he leads them out. And he takes them out in the green pasture. So that the sheep began to say like David, the Lord Jesus is my shepherd. He leads me and makes me to lie down in green pasture. That's the picture that's been given to him. And then he goes on. In verse 7 and verse 8, He declared to himself to be the one who receives and secures forever his sheep. So Jesus said again unto them, truly, truly, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. And now, down in verse 9, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. He seems to change the figure, but he really doesn't hear. Now, he says that he's a shepherd, but here he says that he's a door. But it's exactly the same thing, because a door that he's talking about really wants a shepherd. Now, he's calling our attention to another kind of fold. When a sheep led his sheep out on that city fold, from among all the other sheep that followed other religions and other people and other ideologies. When that shepherd, who is the true shepherd, God's son called his sheep out, he leads them out. And he placed them out into the pasture land. They'll be out maybe for days, maybe for weeks. He'll be folding them now out in the fields for a forge where all out in the fields for shepherd's deeds. And they didn't have any door in them except in Oakland. And so at night, when the sheep would call his sheep back out of the pasture into the fold, in the darkness of hour, he would stand there, one of we got a picture of that in the Old Testament in one place. The shepherd would say to that opening, he'd hold his hands about sheep back half. And so he'd sheeped one under, he could count them in the dark. And he'd use just how many heads. And if he missed one, he knew there was one to find. And when they were all in, they used to be sheep. He received everyone to keep. Every sheep that came that way was sheeped. He hit a land one off. Any sheep that came along and stopped to come in, he'd ever used to get out of here. He never did it. Every sheep that came by, with the sheep, came the way. And then he put his pallet down in the door and he spent the eye there, and he was the reason he did it. He bit it because the sheep were still sheep. And they had a wandering nature. He did it to protect them from themselves. These were his sheep, and he knew those little sheep had wandering hearts. And one of them would get nervous during the night and wander out and get lost or get captured by beast. And so he just, because of the weakness of their own nature, he set himself to keep his sheep so they would never be lost. And he also did it to keep the beast from the outside and coming in, so he was the door. He secured his sheep and get the men against their own nature sometimes. And it gets a while beast to wait on them. Therefore Jesus says a little further on. Look, my sheep, my voice and I know them and they follow me verse 27 and I would give unto them eternal life and they shall never carry no one and in the Greek it isn't no one. It just no one. And it isn't a masculine. I guess you could put one in there. But the application almost says, no power can snatch them out of my hand. No can take them out of my hand. Or not of my father's hand who has given them to. That security isn't it. And that's the kind of security that my sheep is. The shepherd keeps the sheep. That's why we call it shepherd. We say shepherd keeps sheep. They say he does. He keeps the sheep. Our great Savior keeps that. We persevere. We go from conversion to heaven without ever deviating into a lost condition because our Savior has assumed the responsibility of keeping his sheep. In spite of their still oftentimes wayward nature. And the temptations of the world and the evil beast of death that would like to snatch our souls from the Savior. What a shepherd we've got. What a Savior. And then it goes on to say that he gives his life for the sheep. Verse 11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Now I'm talking out with the young people at Westminster. I wanted to have something about this that I want to bring to your attention. Jesus goes a little further down. If you look in verse 11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a harrowing and not a shepherd whose own are the sheep or not sees the wolf coming and he leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. What he's saying there is a harrowed man can't be counted on to make the maximum sacrifice free sheep. But the shepherd is different. Now, nearly two times we know a risked his life free sheep. If we've been living back in those days, someone has said, and gone out to look at that flock to sheep that belonged to David and Jesse, we would have been blessed to see the fine condition of those sheep. They have a shepherd who carefully saw that they got good grip. Probably a flock so big that some hired me and had the helping though. And while the shepherd was along, a few others would be helping keep the flock. He could walk up to one of the hard men looking a flock of sheep without everything. What's the value of that flock of sheep? The hard men would probably take his sandal and smooth the place out, and the same place take his staff and begin to figure out what he said looked. We got 300 sheep out there. Much and less worth about so much a pound right now. Figure that out. Let's see, where is the worth about so much? And then he figured out and said, there's worth about so many shepherds. Well, you said it's pretty, pretty expensive. Wow. Then you go over to the shepherd. That's David. The others are the hard men. You say, that's a good looking flock of sheep to get out there. He looks out on me and says, they sure are. But you say, well, what's the value of those sheep? Well, he wouldn't take his staff and figure out the cost of mutton and the cost of wool. He probably soon is back and show you as far as you see that. I want to tell you where I got it. So see what sheep right there? That was a little lamb with what I'm about to tell you. And that's the lamb I'm talking about. I was taking them across the ticket one time through a wilderness to some pasture land over there and the bear jumped out and grabbed that one. That little sheep out there was a lamb. Grab that thing there right there. You can sort of see where it was, a wound on the side of it. So that's the one right there. You grab that one, he's a little lamb. And he said, I grabbed the bear. Not many people do that with him. You wouldn't do that to save a cow. Or a sheep or a dog with you. But he did it for lamb. And the mile says he fought that bear and killed him. He was just a 17-18-year-old boy when I had it. And then he showed another scar. Look at this one. He said, I got that one. A lion jumped out and grabbed one of my lambs. There he is. I found it. So he doesn't see his ears. You can kill it. But he got damaged on it. That's the one right there. When he grabbed that one, and he said, that's a pamper. Grabbing, and he said, when the pamper grabbed me, I grabbed the pamper. And David did that. He fought a mountain lion and killed him. But kicking it out of there, inside a pamper. Man, the pamper and man, the bear did not get clawed up pretty badly. And so we know David must have gotten clawed up and must have had those scars, matter of fact. On both occasions, it could have been very much like this. Let the hard men do surely ran. I'll tell you. The residents don't indicate that any hard man helped him. I mean, he had to fight that bear by himself. He didn't have any hard men around or giving him in hand. No doubt they fled. But then they came back to find the bear dead and David down to the side of him about half dead. Clawed up, lady. And undoubtedly they said to him, feel just crazy, that's all. You are just plain crazy. Don't you know your work up a thousand times more than that poor little lamb? What's the matter with you? Jesus said tired men run when their sheep are attacked because they don't really care for the sheep. They don't know what value it is. David knew he was worse more than that sheep. So what David would have said to you, if he was asking about the value he said, be scarish to you how valuable they are. And I think that's the reason David called God a shepherd. I think David knew that that God up there that he believed in. Love him and would back for him. And he wrote the prophecy in Psalm 22 of the coming list of how to describe the crucifixion. Now Jesus says on that shepherd to David wrote a package. And I care for my sheep. Little wonder John tells us as he was leading his sheep. And to that last supper it said, that loving his own, he loved them to the end. And he gave himself for him. And when he gave himself back to them, because he said, not only will I lay my life down, but I'll take it up again. Let me tell you about David. Suppose David had gotten killed. Suppose when David grabbed that bear now, the bear only had one lamb. And suppose a little lamb had been eternally used when the bear grabbed the bear. And suppose David and that bear had fallen. And after the fight was over, instead of David walking off and the bear lying there dead, suppose the bear had walked off, and David had lied there, was lying there dead. So what happened to the sheep? They had been scattered. They had just wandered really many. They had been caught by the bear and other creatures. They were then squandered. And in a short while, there wouldn't have been any flock at all. The flock would have disappeared. Come to an end. Do you know why they have flocked to sheep together here tonight? Our shepherd didn't do it. The wait a minute. Suppose the bear had killed it. And the sheep had begun to get nervous. But there he was dead. And the sheep had hardly known it. They were used to the shepherd's voice. He used to him giving him directions. And now they get really illiterate. And they'll begin to move around. And a few hours later, they begin to wander off. And then David gets up and calls the sheep. They come back. That's what happened. And a great shepherd was stricken down in the cross when he gave his life to purchase his people. And all the third day, he rose against him to death. But in those three days in between, I tell you, his sheep are really disconcerting. They didn't know what to make of it. They were like, sheep were not shepherd. Had been on the third day, the Lord Jesus came up and he called his poor scattered sheep and they came back around him. And we've been around him. I'm killed tonight. All around him. Everybody's ever been to the whole of the land. There's no need for something. I think he's ever been after you noticed this. You can still see it focused. The one aspect of the whole of the land that is just as it was in Jesus' day and Isaiah's day is the shepherd's situation. They still got chepherds all over the place. And they got flocks to sheep and flocks to goats all over the place. And most of the time, when you look out there and see a shepherd walking along with his flock to sheep, he's in the middle of them. They're all around him. He's right in the middle. You hardly ever see it where the shepherd is out, 10 or 15 feet in front of the sheep and they're all way back. Now he's leading them. But he's leading them from their mixet. And our Lord Jesus Christ is in the mixed beastly. We're seeing from the berries and habits. He's leading us a lot. Every place is a lot. One black he said. One shepherd. Our shepherd's heart is greed. Friends of our shepherd's heart is greed, though I think. He says it here. There should be one flock. That's why he's adding rows again. One flock. And I, you know how he feels. He's walking with the sheep and he hears them whispering, he looks around and there's a little flock of 25 left and getting off there on his back, organising a bed with flock. And another one will be organising a fifth-deckerian flock. Now they admit they belong to the same shepherd but they like things this way. And today after 2000 years, the great shepherd, he's got a one flock of sheep. But I wish our food up because he didn't. And I think it's a great, I don't think that's what he meant. I think that's what he meant. Not first to do when he said, I want one flock. One fold. One shepherd. Now friends, we need to strive to find our way to manifest before the face of our great shepherd and the sheep that don't belong to him. The fact that we're one flock, we need to pray for him. If God is pleased to send a great revival, and our belief is going to be pleased to do it before Jesus comes. If He's pleased to do it, if He comes from God, it's going to be one that will contribute to the purity and the unity because God never works with one without the other. We can serve it if we sometimes. We're on the right hand side. Well you can't work with it. You're putting it up towards the unity. You can't work the unity. You've got to work the purity. God never does that. When revival comes, God's hand is evident as He brings His people closer together to get the ones flocked. And then He says He uses life. He gives eternal life or full life to His flock. Listen to verse 10. The sheep comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. And that's what the sheep said to you, he may sleet all that out in green pastures. And then I like this. This doesn't sound like sheep language, but this is still the sheep talking. My cup ran at the over. Remember how David said that? Let me tell you something that some years ago that I had Dr. George Mann for Gutsky holding a meeting for me. And we were sitting at dinner one day. We told the story. I never heard him tell in public. He may have told it. I don't know. I just never heard him do it. But I didn't tell it to me. He was converted. That's a nice agnostic. A school teacher in Canada, but a man who couldn't read a write. God used him as an instrument. He just called him in a three-kinder United States to go on him for the education. He was in Texas, going to school, and he was passing a little Presbyterian church in Texas. While he was working, while he was going to school. And one day a lady in that little church came to him and told me, Mr. Gutsky, I have a net use. We'll be graduating from Harvard Law School this coming spring. And she said, I read him his mother died when he was just a little late. And so he's my net use. I've been a mother to him. And she said, I've tried to read him in the faith. And she said, he's gone off now to college. And now on to law school. He said he'd be graduating. And said, my heart's burden for him because I've seen in recent years that he has manifested no evidence of bleeding anything much. And she said, I'm just so concerned about him. And he's coming to spend two weeks with me right as he graduates from the law school. And I want you to promise me that you would spend an hour with him when he comes. Well, Dr. Gutsky said he agreed to do it, but he did it with misgivings. He didn't feel like he could match his width very well with the graduate of Harvard Law School. He was still just studying. But he had the degree to do it, so he did. But he forgot about it. There's a month passed. One day he said, he got a telephone call. It was this woman. She said, Mr. Gutsky, you remember you promised to spend an hour with my net use? He said, you remember? She said, well, he's here. And he promised me that he'll spend an hour with you. Can you see him today? Well, he said, well, yes, I can. So she said he would be on over. So he said there, he said, good misgivings. See, he just, you know, he didn't know how you would handle a man that he figured was smarter and sharper than he was. As a little bit, there was a knockup to the door, and he went to the door and left to the young man. And he said, he invited you, man. He told him, he said, look, he said, now I know why you're here. And I don't think it's because you want to be in. I think you promised your end. Just to please her, that you'd spend an hour with me. Is that right? You know, man, say, well, tell the truth, that's right. But he said, I want to tell you that they want to reason out here when you get here. It's because I promised you that I'd spend an hour with you and I didn't want to do it here. Now, I said, let's make the best of it. Said, there's a chair, and there's a newspaper sit down and we'll put down our end. I've got some work to do here. He sat out. They both kind of laughed at, you know, that ridiculous situation. And he just fell into talking. Not about it really. But everything else. And very soon, they both did see that two people had probably never gotten together to remore different everything. They didn't agree on the same athletic sports policy thing. They just, you know, if one saw one thing one way, nothing saw the other. No argument, they weren't debating about anything, but they just came up against it. So he said it got amusing and they began to see if they could find something. They just began to look for something they saw like on. And one would suggest something than the other and it didn't work out. So they wouldn't find anything. Finally, Mr. Gutsky said to him, well, not I believe. I believe I believe something that you'll agree with. Well, a man said, what is it? Mr. Gutsky said, I believe that a full bucket has more in it than in any bucket. And a man said, I believe that. Mr. Gutsky said, my bucket is full. What about yours? Said the man look at him in a minute. Said Mr. Gutsky. My bucket is empty. So empty that I've considered seriously self-destruction. Mr. Gutsky had the opportunity of telling him what his bucket was full of and where it came from. My cup runeth over every Christian can say that. True friends, we have our ups and downs, but there's never, never a moment in our lives. When we can't have the privilege of bearing our declaration, that great shepherd who has helped me has still my cup with his part. My whole life is covered with his part through his blood. He's given me peace with God. I don't say, oh dear judge, I say, oh dear father. He's filled me with power. I'm not perfect, but I'm doing better than I used to do. I'm living for God now, not perfectly, but I'm living for him because he's given me power. I'm a purpose in my life now. And I have a place in his family. And I have a babble full of promises that encourage me and help me in my trials and life. And I have a place in heaven where I'm going to live in glory forever with him. Friends, that's a full cup. And this is what Christians say. This is what sheep who come in by him is the door handle. He'll sheep him. These are the blessed. How about your cup tonight? Can you say the Lord Jesus is still my cup? They just let it like this. Every day of my life. And forever I'll live in the house of the Lord. All these blessings God is going to watch over me and guide me and keep me and care for me in the shadows and in the brightness. All the days of my life. I'll never have a day that God, my shepherd, won't be with me. And then when my day is gone, I'm going to live in the house of the Lord forever. Eternal life. And so Jesus said, my sheep, you're my boy. And out here. And they hear me. And they follow me. Now friends, I want to talk about that here in his life. He calls his own by name. And friends, when I was converting. I didn't hear him say, Sam Patterson. Sam Patterson. I think this is how he calls his by name. He knows by name. And he knew Sam Patterson. But I've seen him call people. We got instances where Jesus called his sheep. Let me tell you one of them. I want you to see the shepherd calling his own. Calling his sheep. One day he stood up and he cried out. Come unto me, all you laborer, heavy laden. And I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. And you know out there there were some people who said, that's me. I'm good with my sheep. God, the rain in my life. That's my shepherd. And that's how they heard their name. And they came to that. Because their hearts had been burdened. That gave evidence to do they were. Jesus stood on the temple one day and cried out. It ain't even first. He had drank. And there were some people out there who said, I'm thirsty. I want forgiveness for my sins. I want the righteousness of God, the rain in my life. Instead of my miserable sins. That's the voice of the one who can get it. And so the thirsty heard their name. They came to the streets. The things that is the strange thing. All the indications of Jesus were to only some, not to everybody. He never did say, now look. And I'll give you peace. He said, come unto me, you who are burdened. And I'll give you peace. And take my yoke upon you. He didn't say, come unto me and drink. He said, you who are thirsty. And the strong word for thirsty is used there. I'll tell you folks. When you're kind of thirsty, a Coca-Cola will be. But when you're done, a thirsty won't water. And that's what Jesus does. When you want what I have to give. When you want forgiveness for your sins. When you want the righteousness of God to be in your life. Instead of your own sinful will and weight. When you want this. Come to me. And that's what he said in the night. It is a person in this building tonight. Who knows that you cannot stand God's judgment because your sins had you blocked from him. And you want forgiveness. And you really want God. That God's like the rain in you. You want to be a godly man. You want to be a woman of God and a man of God, a young person of God. You don't want to be like you are. Running your own life. Running your own life. Sending your own self to hell. You don't want to be like me. If in your heart you recognize that Jesus Christ is the one that God sent to your Savior, you come to him tonight. He is here to receive you and he will. If you are thirsty for that. You come to him. He is risen from the dead. The great shepherd of the sheep. Who died by the blood of the everlasting covenant is now risen from the dead and he stands in our midst. And Peter writing to believe that you have returned to the shepherds of your soul the old man tonight. God's grant that you will be seen to be his sheep. Not coming to him. Listen now before that shepherd tonight. You first and you hunger for forgiveness for your sins and the reign and rule of a great and good and gracious shepherd like Jesus over your life. And in your heart you believe that he really did die for your sins and that he's alive from the dead and you're ready to be squishy and you want to come under his hand into the kingdom. I'll tell you that door is open wide and no man can shed it. And I'm asking you now and his name to come in. Come in. Come to Christ right now. Call out to him. Call out to him to have mercy. To be your shepherd. There was never a sheep that wanted Jesus to be their shepherd. That really wasn't his sheep. Oh, make your calling an election short and night. Call upon him. This very night. Clean Jesus. He's a gracious shepherd. And he always hears the call of a sheep who wants it. He'll hear you tonight. And you can rise up from this service to go out to begin following him. From here to be taken to that final food in heaven which he'll do. So I'm going to be quiet while the person in here tonight, the people in here tonight who need to do it really come to Christ and trust him. And the repentance of their sins turn away from their self-reward amount of Jesus. Get their lives to be his. To accept his gift of forgiveness and his blessed yield, his reign, his reel over our lives, it will bring blessing and light and light. Call on him now while we wait on him. You certainly came to the wilderness when you came to this world and suffered at the hands of a simple man as you suffered. And you did it all because you cared for the sheep. A wayward wicked, foolish sheep. We thank you. Thank you for valuing us like that. Thank you for making us hear your voice. Thank you Lord Jesus. Probably if eating us when we turned our weak gratitude, not of hearts that really wanted you. And needed you. Turn to you in trust. Thank you Lord Jesus for saving us. Thank you that you never turned one down. Are the gifts of your Father. To you. Feel us. O blessed Savior. And grant that day by day we will feel the grip of your omnipotent hand as you keep us in secure us, and lead us, and shape us, discipline us. Bless us, support us, provide for us as you lead us on home. We praise you and pray in your name. Amen. Now closing prayer together please. Friends, him number. That is 500. I'd like for us to sing together. They first and the third standard as our prayer. Let's pray this to Jesus. Now friends listen. If sometime in the past you have come to Christ and He is your Savior. You're singing what's already happened. You're singing the disposition of your heart. It's tonight a boy or girl or a man or woman in this building. With your heart, with the heart you believe in the salvation. If in your heart you really came to Christ and yielded yourself to it. Then you're putting in words a wonderful prayer for your own heart tonight. Let's stand and sing. Stand as one in three. Remember that now. Let's sing them prayerfully. Let's sing them unto Jesus. Let's sing. The person who receives Christ in the secret of their heart of Savior and Lord openly confess Him. Yes. That is a biblical way of doing this.
If anybody here has received Christ into your heart as Lord and Savior, you're called upon by the Savior, not in order to be saved because you are. To identify yourself with Him and His people by baptism. And if somebody during this week has received Christ as your Savior, and you have not yet been baptized, I counseled you to talk to your pastor. The second way that we confess to Him is walking down the aisle. Not only in this kind of aisle. Jesus never thought of that. It was walking down the aisle of your daily life in your school, your home, your work. Even unto these people can walk down and all like this.