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Sermon Notes of Rev.Dr.I.J.W.Oakley (12-9-1999 Guisborough Evangelical Church)
Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He is the beautiful shepherd. He has perfect knowledge of His sheep. He died for His sheep voluntarily. Now we come to three important gifts which the shepherd bestows on His sheep because He died for them.
I have come that they might
have life, and they might have it to the full (John 10:10). I give them
eternal life (John 10:28). This is equivalent to being saved. By me, if
anyone enters in, he will be saved (John 10:9). The presupposition is that
if we need life and can be given life, we have not got it at the moment. And if
we are without life, we are dead. We may be very alive physically with all our
faculties and physical powers. We may be awake mentally with razor sharp mind.
But spiritually, we are dead. Where spiritual things are concerned – God, His
truth, His voice, His word, His will, and His worship – they mean nothing to
us, they are not real to us, and we are dead to them.
Now Christ’s coming, His
death, work in souls, and our response bring life to us. God is real to us, His
voice is real, we are concerned to please Him and life for Him, and the things
we once dismissed as nonsense are now very precious to us. The change is because
we are alive. Raised from spiritual death to life. God’s life has entered the
soul. “Eternal life” means more than just life that goes on and on; it is a
new quality of life – God’s life. His
nature is imparted to us. We are a new creation in Christ.
This is an absolutely essential
part of being a Christian. Not church going, or talking or debating religion, or
keeping a moral code. But being alive to God, born again. Eternal life is a
present possession. It is not something that starts when we breathe our last. He
who has the Son has life (1 John 5:12). But there is a deeper and fuller
manifestation after death. The best has yet to be when we are in His nearer
presence, in the many mansions He has prepared for us. And it is all a gift from
Christ to the believer. We either accept it as a gift, however humbling that may
be, or not have it at all.
Note there are degrees of life.
We can have life, or abundant life, or life to the full. We can see that with
physical life – someone may be scarcely breathing, only a flicker of life,
while others abound with energy and vigour. The man lying unconscious on the
hospital bed, and the athlete tearing down the track to do the four-minute mile
– both have life, but what a difference in quality.
So it is with Christians. Some
are alive – just – though you might wonder at times. They are weakly, barely
able to stand on their spiritual legs. Need to be spoon-fed, and certainly
incapable of helping others. Spiritual invalids. Others have fullness of life.
Full of zeal and enthusiasm. They speak of God with conviction. We
can witness their arduous service and powerful action. C.f. the apostles
before and after Pentecost; The boldness and vigour of Peter after He was filled
with the Spirit, compared with the Peter who denied Christ three times.
Spurgeon put it this way:
“There is a point of grace as much above ordinary Christians as the ordinary
Christian is above the world.” Wesley spoke from long experience when he said,
“I think that whoever finds redemption in Jesus has a choice of walking on a
higher or a lower path.”
Many Christians need a deeper
spiritual life to touch them – they have silent tongues, idle hands,
frostbitten pockets, neglected Bibles and feeble prayer life. Their house is on
fire – but only in one corner. Union without communion. Life without health.
Service without enthusiasm. Peace with God but not peace of God. Warfare but not
winning. The problem is their life is limited and restricted and feeble. Do they
need to roll up their sleeves and try harder? No, what they need is more life.
Where from? They got life from Christ in the first place, and a deeper and
richer measure can come from the same place.
Whether or not we have abundant life depends on this - we have Christ, but does Christ have us? We possess Him, but are we possessed by Him? Where are we spiritually? All comes back to our relationship with the Lord.
They shall never perish; no
one can snatch them from my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater
than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand (John 10:28,29).
This is life which is utterly secure. We are in Christ’s hands and in God the
Father’s hands – double security. Weak as sheep are, we will never perish or
be lost. We will not miss heaven. Life which lasts up to and beyond death is
eternally safe.
This does not mean we are saved
from suffering, sorrow or trouble. But in our darkest hour, the everlasting arms
are still beneath. Be clear about this great and glorious truth. Once saved,
always saved. If truly in Christ, can never be lost. If we fail to grasp this we
will lose a lot of comfort and support in our Christian lives. The doctrine of
the perseverance of the saints is a wonderful part of the “good news” of the
Gospel.
“Once
in Christ, in Him forever,
So
the eternal covenant stands”
This applies to possessors and not to professors. Not
nominal, but true believers. They may slip and slide, trip and fall, have
occasion to be ashamed of themselves. Peter denied Christ, but that was not the
end. It was a departure, but it was made good in the end. If faith and
experience is genuine, when we are backslidden we will be utterly miserable till
we return. May feel doubts and hesitations, may fall on the deck, but never fall
overboard. May lose communion with the Lord, but never lose the union. He is
able to keep as well as to save. If this were not true, the Gospel loses one of
its brightest jewels. Life in Christ is indestructible. Of course we are
responsible to watch and pray and be warned. This is all part of God’s
machinery to ensure our safety.
God does not want us to hang on
the edge of a precipice, in suspense until the day we die. He does not want us
to fear that the blessings we have in Christ may yet fall from our grasp and be
lost. Perseverance is the doctrine which gives the believer heart to face an
unknown future. He who has begun a good work in you will carry it on to
completion till the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6). Fenced in and
guarded by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Not depending on our hold of Him,
but on His hold of us. This gives us perfect peace in the ups and downs of life,
strong consolation in sickness, support in bereavement, and provides full
assurance.
So since we realize what God has
done, is doing and going to do for us, the more we ought to lay ourselves out
for Him. We need not halt between two opinions, afraid to begin lest we fall
away. In the face of innumerable difficulties, we draw courage from Christ’s
promise. He will see us through. He has grace and strength to carry us through
triumphantly. He will bring us safely to His Father’s house. In Christ we are
as safe as if actually in the harbour already.
We are joined to the everlasting
God by a tie which cannot be broken. We shall get there if we are truly His. He
will never cast us away. We will not be left to sink and come to shame. We
cannot be plucked away by Satan.
Put together these two gifts – eternal life and complete security. What better gifts could God give us? People make so much of this life – health, money, holidays, children, prosperity, and possessions. All these are important and have their place, but must be seen in the right perspective. How long do they last? 70 years or 80 at most. And then? Mere drop in the ocean compared with mighty ocean which is eternity. How mistaken to spend all that time and energy for what lasts for a few years, but to remain frozen and dead regarding things which last for eternity.
I have other sheep that are
not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also… and there shall be one flock
and one shepherd (John 10:16). Plainly a reference to the Gentiles. During
His ministry, Jesus concentrated on the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The
Gospel went to the Jews first. But eventually it reached all of mankind. This
was the Lord’s missionary purpose for the world. Usually think of it in terms
of making disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19).
But here Christ says He has
other sheep that have to be brought. And His instrument for doing that is His
people. You shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, all Judea, Samaria and to
the end of the earth (Acts 1:8). The head of the church uses members of the
body to reach out to the lost. The early church had missionary zeal. They spent
time gossiping the Gospel. It was Paul’s passion to preach the Gospel wherever
Christ was not known (Romans 15:20).
A.Maclaren’s missionary sermon, “A mighty voice ought even to be sounding in our ears ‘Other sheep I have’ and the answer of our hearts should be ‘Them also, O Lord, I will endeavour to bring’” His is the task to bring other sheep. We are the means which He uses.
“Christ has no hands but our hands
To
do His work today.
He
has no feet but our feet
To
lead men in His way.
He
has no tongue but our tongue
To
tell men how He died.
He
has no help but our help
To
bring them to His side.”
Think of where we work and live, our position in the family and among our acquaintances. In that situation, Christ has no hands, feet, tongue or help but ours.
Three gifts – life with abundance, security and service. Remember these three gifts. They cannot be bought, earned, merited or deserved. Gifts are the very opposite of payment. This is all very humbling. We like to feel God owes us something, for that suits our pride. We want a few feathers in our cap. But to take these three gifts we have to take up the style and status of beggars. This is the only condition in which we can receive the gifts from the Good Shepherd. Glory to God, and not to us. All we can earn is death – the wages of sin. Eternal life and all the rest is a gift.
