John Message #33 “Know Him & Trust Him” Ed Miller, November 6, 2024
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Listen to the the audio above while following along in the transcript below which is also available for download at www.bibletudyministriesinc.com
We aren’t here for political reasons but let me give a principle. Everything God does or allows is redemptive. It’s for His purposes to bring salvation. Whatever way it went with your leanings (in the election), you are allowed, and in fact, you are commanded to praise the Lord because He’s sovereign, but according to Proverbs 24:17&18 we are not allowed to gloat. We can rejoice because God is going to use this redemptively, but Proverbs 24:17&18 says, “Rejoice not when your enemy falls, less the Lord be displeased with you.
Before we go to prayer, let me share Ezekiel 1:1, “The heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.” Acts 7:56, this is Stephen, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” We want God to open the heavens, so we can see the glory of God, and according to Stephen’s testimony, when we see Jesus, we see the glory of God. So, we want the Lord to open the heavens for us.
As we go to prayer today, I’m not only going to ask for the Lord to illumine our hearts, but there’s a special request that’s been given to me. A man named Chuck is in very serious condition and we need to pray because the children need to make a life or death decision concerning life support, and that’s a very difficult decision. So, we’re just going to commit that to the Lord, as well.
Heavenly Father, we thank You that You’ve gathered us here again, that we might behold You. We ask for an open heaven. Lord, we want to be like Ezekiel and like Stephen, under the open heavens and looking up and beholding the Son of Man, exalted and standing at the right hand of the Lord. Lord, we also bring this request before You concerning Chuck, and we ask that you be with his two sons, especially, as they, in the will of God, make a decision whether to have life support or not. We just ask You, Lord, to overrule and give direction. We thank You that we can trust You for this. Now, we commit our session unto You in the matchless name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Welcome again to our gathering. It’s no secret why we gather together. The Lord has invited us to come and know Him through His word, and we’ve accepted that invitation, and that’s why we’re here, to see the Lord in the Bible, and I’ve often reminded you of the fact that in God’s revelation of Himself to man, He’s made Jesus, He’s made Christ central in the Godhead. Every dealing I have with the Lord is through Jesus, and every dealing God has with me is through Jesus. What is true of me is true of you, as well, and every Christian. This is true in time and this is true through all eternity. We’re going to know God in the person of our Lord Jesus. So, we’ve come again to behold Him.
I want to review a little bit of where we are. We’re in chapter 10 of the gospel of John. In our first meditation on that chapter, we focused on the purpose of the Holy Spirit giving us that chapter, and that was to expose the false shepherds. That’s why we have the chapter. John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal, to kill and destroy. I come that they might life and have it abundantly. I’m the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” In that first lesson, we also discovered verse 16, “I have other sheep which are not of this fold; I must bring them, also; they will hear My voice, and they’ll become one flock and one shepherd.” In the introduction lesson, we focused on one flock and one shepherd, and because there is only one shepherd, and that’s the Lord, we need to be careful when we view a Christian servant as a shepherd. God uses that expression; He’s called us to manifest His life. He lives in my heart as the shepherd and He lives in your heart as the shepherd. When we have a ministry to His people, it’s not that we are shepherding them, but it’s that we’re allowing the Lord who lives in us to be the shepherd and to shepherd them. John 10:8, “All who came before Me are thieves and the robbers, and the sheep did not hear him.” If we try to be shepherds, and not let let Jesus be the shepherd, we damage the sheep; we do harm to the sheep. So, it’s so important, in this exchanged life, to let the shepherd live through us.
Last week we had a slightly different approach to chapter 10. Although the Holy Spirit gave the chapter, addressing it to false teachers, it’s also about us, it’s about sheep. It’s not addressed to us, but it is certainly for us. By contrasting the false shepherd with the true shepherd, this chapter tells us an awful lot about the true shepherd, and we don’t want to ignore that and say, “Well, that chapter is just to expose false teachers.” No, no. It’s to teach us about the true shepherd. John 10:4&5 we began last session identifying the sheep in this passage, “When He puts forth His own, he goes ahead of them. The sheep follow Him because they know His voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from Him because they do not know the voice of the stranger.”
The sheep in chapter 10 are a special group of people. They’re Christians, of course, but I just call them “remnant sheep”. The sheep here hear His voice; they know Him and they’re in union with the shepherd, “My sheep follow Me.” He’s describing the sheep that are in union with the shepherd. Now, there is no doubt that He must have other sheep because we’ve gone astray, and there’s others that are not following the shepherd, but He’s addressing these sheep who get it and who are in union with the Lord, and they’re living contrary to their natural inclination, “All we like sheep have gone astray.” That’s true in Isaiah and in other places in the Bible but not in John 10. In John 10, the sheep He talks about are not dumb, stupid sheep doing dumb things and following someone over a cliff. He’s not describing them. So, we’re approaching this chapter as God gave it, not to show us that we are sheep and look how dumb we are and praise God for such a shepherd. No, no. We’re not looking at how dumb the sheep are. This chapter tells us how wonderful the shepherd is, and so we’ve been studying it in that connection.
I suggested that we study John 10 in terms of John’s stated purpose for giving us the whole gospel, and now we’re back to John 20:31, “These have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing that you may have life in His name.” The whole book of John is given so that we would know the Lord, so that we would trust the Lord, and so that we would enjoy the Lord. That’s why we have the gospel of John. So, the way we’re looking at John 10, does John 10 say anything about the good shepherd that helps me know Him better? Then does John 10 say anything about the good shepherd that helps me trust Him more? And then, does John 10 say anything about the good shepherd that would enable me to delight in Him and enjoy Him and live that abundant life?
One more little piece of review, and then we’ll pick it up. We began to answer the first question, “Is there anything in this chapter that tells me about the good shepherd that enables me to know Him more fully, and more intimately?” Last week we began to illustrate that God has given us a picture and the reality is always greater than the picture. When it’s the Lord, it’s infinitely greater than the picture. In the reality, we looked at the relationship with the Oriental shepherd and the sheep, and we looked at how the shepherd owns the sheep, and we also looked at the great descriptions of the hairs of our head are numbered, and we looked at the stars in the sky, and the grains of sand on the earth, and He knows us all by name. He’s got each one of us intimately related to Him. The reality, all of that is a picture: the hair, the sand, the stars, the universe.
Here is the reality, John 10:14&15. Don’t ask me to explain this verse; I’ll proclaim it, but I can’t explain it. “I’m the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father, I lay down My life for the sheep.” If you ask me how much I know the Lord, I would say, “I’m getting there, and maybe not that much,” but if I read the Bible, I know Jesus as much as Jesus knows the Father, and the Father knows Jesus. That’s too big for anything but faith. You know the Lord as much as Jesus knows the Father, and the Father knows Jesus. Like I said, I can’t explain that, but I’m not going to stop believing it. Whatever it’s going to mean, I know I’m going to be knowing Him forever as ages roll on ages in eternity, I’m going to keep on knowing the Lord. But that’s the reality.
We also showed, and I’m not going to go into the verses again, that He owns in John 10:4, 10:11,10:12, and so on. When we closed our meditation, we were on John 10:4&5, “He puts forth His own and He goes ahead of them, and His sheep follow Him because they know His voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, and will flee from Him, and they do not know the voice of strangers.” We were pondering the discernment that the Holy Spirit has given Christians to know the difference, “That’s His voice; that’s the voice of a stranger.” These sheep hear His voice. They know His voice, and they don’t listen to the voice of a shepherd. I closed by reminding my heart and yours the reason why. 1 John 2:27, “As for you, the anointing which you’ve received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you, as His anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie, just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.” When you are one of those sheep in union with Him and following Him and know His wants, then the Holy Spirit, when somebody says something that is not His voice, it’s straw in your mouth. And when someone says something, you say, “I don’t know why, that’s just not right.” You don’t have to explain it. You just have to know it’s His voice.
I’m not saying if you are looking to Christ that you are infallible, that you’ll never be deceived. I’m not saying that because there is a lot of Christ you have yet to know. What I am saying is that while you are looking to Christ you are safe. While I’m looking to Christ, I’m safe, and I’ll be protected from the strangers.
I want to pick up this morning with that same verse. What does it mean that the sheep know His voice. What is the voice of the shepherd, and they will not listen to the voice of strangers? What is that voice? Once again, John 10:4&5, there are two voices; there’s the voice of the shepherd and then there is the voice of the stranger. Let me clear up a misconception first of all before we get into this. When we hear the word “voice” we automatically as students of the word of God want to know what He is saying, what is that voice teaching us. In John 10 there’s a strange connection here, because there’s a figure of speech. You’ve got thirty verses in this figure of speech, and there are different kinds of sheep here. They aren’t the wandering sheep. When it talks about the voice, it’s not what you would think. So, some people jump out of the context of John 10, the way God uses the word “voice” in chapter 10. I want to jump out of the context and where do you jump to? Well, you jump to doctrine, and you jump to teaching. So, the question is, “What is the Lord saying? If I know His voice, I better know what He’s saying.” Once again, verse 6, “This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them.” We’re talking about a picture, and we need to understand the picture. Just because He said “voice” don’t throw the picture aside. We need the picture to understand what He’s saying. There’s a reality that is infinitely greater than the picture, but we can’t depart from the picture.
Here is what I mean by departing from the figure. As soon as we read that the shepherd has a voice and he speaks, we begin to look for the message, “We’ve got to have our spiritual ear tuned so we know what God is saying and what’s His message and what’s He telling us to do and what’s He telling us to avoid.” I’m sure you’ve heard people ask, “What’s God trying to teach me through this experience? I broke my ankle. What is the Lord’s message? What is His voice? Why did He allow this in my life? What’s He saying?”
Before we continue, let me just say this; I don’t know what you’re going through, but God is not trying to teach you anything. There’s no lesson and there’s no message in the experiences that you have. He wants you to know Him, and not learn a lesson. He wants you to know who He is and recognize His voice. He’s not training you; He’s conforming you to the image of Himself. It’s a common saying among the people of God when they talk about His voice, and maybe you’ve said it or heard it, “The Lord told me. God spoke to me. The Lord, I heard Him speak to me. I got a word from Jesus. I heard His voice.” What did He say? “Well, He told me to go,” or, “He told me to stay,” or, “He told me to write,” or, “He told me visit,” or, “He told me to cook,” or, “He told me to join,” or, “He told me to give some money to somebody,” or, “He told me to rebuke a Christian, and that was a tough one,” or, “He told me to encourage,” or, “He told me to preach.” You hear that all the time, the voice of the Lord. When we think of voice, we think of communication, and communication we think of a message. A voice, “What is He saying?” When you inquire of His voice, we’re looking for what did He say. Now, there are many answers. Where did you hear His voice? Some say, “Well, from the Bible.” Some say, “Well, I heard Him in my heart.” Some say, “I had a thought, and I knew that thought wasn’t mine. It was an intuition; I just had this intuitive jab of the Holy Spirit to go here and do this or do that thing.” Some would say that it was an audible voice, a still, small voice. What is the voice of the Lord?
I think you all know the difference between something that is objective and something that’s subjective. When you study something objectively, you study the facts. That’s apart from your experience, apart from your interpretation, and apart from your feelings. Some are in this room, like me, not quite as old, maybe, but old enough to remember “Dragnet”, Sergeant Joe Friday, “Just the facts, M’am, just the facts; all we want is the facts.” It’s not what you think about the facts, and it’s not how you feel about the facts; it’s just the bare facts. “It’s red. It weighs so much. That’s what happened.” Just the facts; that’s objective.
Subjective, on the other hand, is what I think about that or how I feel about that or how that affects my life, how I’m influenced by that. How does objective and subjective relate to the voice of the shepherd? Does God speak objectively? The answer is yes in the Bible when the Holy Spirit is interpreting it. That’s objective. Does God speak subjectively? Yes. When? It’s whenever He’s not speaking through the Bible. He speaks subjectively. He speaks objectively and subjectively. When He speaks subjectively, He can’t contradict what He said objectively. So, everything He says out here has to agree here. What is the subjective? What does God speak? Well, He speaks through nature, sometimes, creation, and through circumstances. Does God speak through circumstances? Sometimes. Does He speak through people? Sometimes. Does He speak only to Christians or to unsaved people? Sometimes. He speaks subjectively a lot.
Some people say that He not only speaks subjectively, but directly to me. He’s not using nature, He’s not using circumstances, He’s not using people; it’s just me and Him, and sometimes, “He touches me, and sometimes I feel that touch, and sometimes the hair on my head stands on end and the hair on my body stands up, and sometimes I can’t control my language, and sometimes I can’t control my balance, and sometimes I can’t control my voice,” and so on. God is moving, and God is speaking, they say. So, the question is when God speaks subjectively, is it His voice? You need to know His voice because everything subjective can be abused. Well, everything can be abused, but it can be abused and often is. Satan will certainly try to make you think something is the voice of God when it’s not the voice of God. So, we’re going to spend a couple of minutes looking at God’s subjective voice, and then we’re coming back to how do I know that it’s Him. The more subjective it is, the more dangerous it is, and that’s why God gave us a whole chapter, Jeremiah 23, on the most dangerous, subjective things that God ever said. So, we’re going to look at that.
Does God speak through creation? Psalm 19:1, “The heavens are telling,” that sounds like speaking, “the glory of God. Their expanse is declaring the work of His hand. Day unto day pours forth speech, night to night reveals knowledge.” That’s a voice. Many in creation, they go out in creation and they don’t see the glory of God. They don’t hear His voice in creation. Job 37:11-13, this is a very interesting passage, “With moisture He loads the thick cloud; He disperses the cloud of His lightning, and it changes direction, turning around by His guidance, that it may do whatever He commands it on the face of the inhabited earth, whether for correction or for His world or for loving kindness, He causes it to happen.”
He gives reasons why He does certain things, so objectively we’re in a museum. We see the birds, the stars, the insects and we see His creation. Psalm 29, seven times in that psalm we read the expression “the voice”, “the voice of the Lord,” “the voice of the Lord,” “the voice of the Lord.” In this case, it’s the “voice in the storm”, and in circumstances. That’s Psalm 29. Does He speak through sickness, does He speak through the job that you are doing, does He speak to the student in his studies? If you have an accident, is God saying anything? When He closes the door, when He opens the door, when He gives a provision, when He withholds a provision, when you face a temptation, all things work together for good to those that love the Lord.
Talk about circumstances, Psalm 46, G. Cambell Morgan called that the noisiest psalm in the Bible, and the reason is because in that psalm, the earth is changing and the mountains are falling into the sea, and the waters are raging, and the mountains are quaking, and the nations are in an uproar, and kingdoms are tottering. In verse 7 it’s called “His voice”. Everything is going crazy; that’s His voice. Then He tells you in that same chapter in verse 10, “Cease striving and know that I’m God. Be still, be at rest.” When it says to be still, sometimes we just think, “Ah, rest,” but be still also means, “Don’t complain. Be still means to shut up. Don’t complain, don’t argue, don’t try to figure it out, don’t be bitter.” God has a voice in creation and in circumstances. When He speaks in the storm, there is still a river that makes glad the city of our God.
There was a hymn written 272 years ago; I remember it well!! The name of that hymn, I know a little German and I like German, but I really like this because the name is “Stille Mein Ville”, and you know it, perhaps, as “Be Still, My Soul”. Stille Mein Ville was written by Catherine Von Schlegel. Her real name was Catherine Amelia Dorothy Von Schlegel. It captures the truth of that psalm. Listen as I quote two verses: Be still, my soul, the Lord is on your side. Bear patiently the cross of grief and pain. Leave to your God to order and provide. In every change God faithful will remain. Be still, my soul, your best, your heavenly friend, through thorny ways leads to a joyful end. Be still, my soul, thy God doth undertake to guide the future as He has the past. Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake, and all now mysterious shall be bright at last. Be still, my soul, the waves and winds still know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.”
So, God has a voice, subjective, but He speaks in nature. Subjective, but He speaks in the storm, in circumstances. Does He speak through people? Sometimes; through teachers, through coaches, through counselors, through co-workers, through family, parents, neighbors, and sometimes it’s a sermon, and sometimes it’s a book, and sometimes it’s a tape, sometimes it’s a song that you sing, but He speaks. 1 Thessalonians 2:13, Paul made this comment, “For this reason we constantly thank God when you receive the word of God which you heard from us,” that’s through people, “you accepted it not as the word of men but for what it really is, the word of God which also performs it’s work in you who believe.” Once again, He’ll speak, but it can’t contradict His objective voice.
Some claim that God speaks more directly, “I had a dream. The Lord came to me in a dream. God gave me a vision. I actually heard His voice; it made me laugh.” I was one time in Plano, Illinois, and I was really enjoying the Lord, sitting there, and all of a sudden the guy next to me turned to me and opened his mouth wide and went, “Ahhhhhh!” He didn’t know I had a heart condition. I almost fell over. He was showing the authority of a lion, and the Holy Spirit came on him to show him that authority. Some people are laughing and some people are falling down. I was at a charismatic place a little bit over the top. I had to climb over bodies to get up to the pulpit in order to share the message I had. Sometimes the people say that the Lord did that, the Lord does that and I’ve heard some say, “I saw the Lord; He came into my room. Maybe it was an angel, an apparition. I saw an angel.” You hear, “I picked up a hitchhiker and he disappeared,” and you have all those things. “He touched me,” and so on.
At this time I am not challenging the validity of any of those experiences; His word in nature, His word in circumstances, His subjective word through people, but I’m trying to discern, and we need to go back to John 10, the voice. His sheep know the voice. What’s John 10 talking about? John 10:4&5, “The sheep follow Him and they know His voice. A stranger they will not follow. They will flee from him. They do not know the voice.” Let me remind you the figure of speech; it’s a shepherd and his sheep, and thirty verses of that figure of speech. The sheep, a figure of speech, know His voice. The sheep, a figure of speech, won’t follow the voice of strangers. What does it means that the sheep know His voice? Are the sheep asking questions? What is the shepherd trying to say through this experience. Do the sheep do that?
Take the 23rd Psalm, wow, here’s the sheep, the Lord is using His rod. “I wonder what He’s trying to teach me through the rod?” He used the crook, He used the staff. “I wonder what He’s trying to teach me through the staff? Why did He lead me to this pasture? Does He have a reason? What’s the purpose of that? Great day! I’m going through a dark valley; it’s dangerous and scary, a valley of the shadow of death. I wonder what the Lord is trying to teach me through this. What in the world is He putting me in this environment for? In the presence of my enemies? Come on, He can get a better environment that that!” Do the sheep ask why I broke my leg and why is He carrying me? That’s part of the shepherd/sheep thing. They’re not trying to become theologian. The sheep in this pasture don’t ask questions, “What is He saying?” The sheep just want to know who is speaking. That’s the voice in John 10; who is speaking? If you know who is speaking, you’ll figure out what He’s trying to say, but you’ve got to know who.
An animal doesn’t try to reason things out. Even a dog knows his master’s voice, and a dog is going to bark at a stranger. It’s just knowing who, and not what. So, knowing the voice of the shepherd is asking who is speaking. It’s almost incidental about what He’s saying. That’s another study all its own, but for now, in this chapter, we’ve got to know who is speaking. A great illustration of that is Job 1:21, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job knew who. In Job 1 Satan challenged God, and said, “Put forth your hand, and touch all he has, and he’ll surely curse you to your face.” God said, “Alright, my hand.” Job 1:12, “The Lord said to Satan, ‘Behold, all he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand,” “It’s got to be my hand and not your hand.” I’m not going to read the chapter; I’ll just tell you about it. The Sabeans came and they stole Job’s livestock, 500 yoke of oxen, 5,000 donkeys, and they killed many of his servants. Whoever those Sabeans were, they were bad people. Then lightning came, and he lost 7,000 sheep when the lightning struck his sheep. Then the Chaldeans came in three different raids, and they stole 3,000 camels and killed a whole bunch of his servants. And then a tornado came and blew down a house and all ten of his children were killed in one swipe. This is all on the same day, by the way.
Job didn’t curse Satan and say, “Cursed be Satan; he took away.” He didn’t blame the Sabeans or the lightning or the Chaldeans or the tornado. He said, “The Lord gave, the Lord took away. I know His voice.” It was enough to know who. You know, it doesn’t matter, brothers and sisters in Christ, if we know it’s the hand of God, whether He’s giving or taking. That part doesn’t matter, as long as we know it’s His hand. That’s one of the great messages of the book of Job. In Job chapter 27:11, “I will instruct you in the power of God; what is with the almighty, I will not conceal.” In the margin of the American Standard we read a note for the word “power”, and it’s the word “hand”, “I will instruct you in the hand of the Lord.” That’s the whole book of Job, “The Lord gave, and the Lord took away. It’s his hand, and I don’t care if it was the Sabeans or the Chaldeans or lightning or a tornado or a storm. That doesn’t matter. Who? It’s the Lord. His hand gave, and His hand took away. And Job says right in the heart of the book, “Let me instruct you about the hand of the Lord.” Marvelous!
That’s the point of chapter 10 and the word “voice”; they know Him and they recognize His voice. The application to our life is quite simple. Some one came to me one time with a book, and the name of the book was “Jesus is Not God”. He just wanted me to find verses to refute everything in the book. Of course, I wouldn’t do that. I just said, “You’ve got a small view of the Lord. You seek the Lord.” He came back, and he knocked at the door, and he was in tears, and he said, “I just want you to know that Jesus is God.” The Lord taught him that, and not me, that Jesus is God, and then He smiled and he said, “I have an advantage over you because I came to know the Lord before He was God.” Well, we know better than that.
The whole point is who is speaking? Is it His voice? God has not called me to discern error; He’s called me to discern His voice. Like our sister shared what’s genuine with that money, that we need to know the truth; it’s His voice or it’s not. Who is speaking? Whether it’s in nature or in circumstances or through people or through me directly, who is speaking?
Now, God gives warning. Everything is subjective; we just need to know if it’s the Lord. “I’ve got this feeling in my heart.” If you are living in union with Him, you’ll know it’s the Lord, whether to make the call or make the visit or cook the meal; you’ll know, if you are walking in union with the Lord. But we need to know, and the strongest warnings come when God allows really subjective experiences, and I’m going to name four of them; dreams, visions, voices and imagination. God takes a whole chapter to warn about that because the enemy would want you to think that because it’s so real, “I had a dream, and God came to me in a dream,” there’s a difference between God coming to you in a dream and you dreaming that God came to you. That’s not the same thing. If you need to know this is the voice of the Lord. What I’m going to do is just read the warnings, and I won’t expound on them. They’re in Jeremiah 23:16, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesizing to you; they are leading you into futility; they speak of vision of their own imagination, not from the mouth of the Lord.” Verse 21, “I did not send these prophets, but they ran. I did not speak to them, but they prophesy. If they had stood in My counsel, they would have announced My words to My people.” Verse 25, “I have heard what the prophets have said who have prophesied falsely in My name saying, ‘I had a dream, I had a dream.’ How long; is there anything in the heart of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even these prophets of the deceptions of their own heart.” Verse 30, “Therefore, behold, I am against the prophet,” declares the Lord, “who steal My words from each other.” I used to think that was a verse against plagiarism, “…who steal My words from each other,” but in the context He’s saying, “Somebody says, ‘I heard this from the Lord,’ and then you go out and steal his vision; he had a vision and now it becomes your vision. Verse 31, “’I’m against the prophets,’ declares the Lord, ‘who use their tongues and declare, “The Lord declares.”’” Verse 32, “’I’m against those who prophesy…’” You get the idea; I’m not going to continue to read those. God gives strong warnings against subjective guidance, and the sheep need to ask, we as Christians need to ask, “Is it Him? Is it His voice?” You know Him; You know the voice of the shepherd. As we pointed out in our previous lesson, I’m protected from the voice of the stranger if I’m living in union with the Lord. I have His life; I have the indwelling Holy Spirit, and so when you are in all these subjective things and the Lord speaks to you, all you need to know is, is it Him?
I don’t apologize for taking that much time, because I think this is important, since many people rely more on the subjective voice of God than the objective voice of God. I had someone come to me, sadly, and say, “God told me to divorce my husband.” There are no scriptural grounds. See, that went against the objective word of God. In another case, “I know that person is a heathen and they don’t love the Lord.” “It’s going to be a missionary marriage; I’m going to marry that heathen because I’ll get a chance to lead them to the Lord.” Can you imagine that? I have also dealt with somebody who said, “God made me this way; this is my lifestyle. I’m a homosexual. That doesn’t contradict anything in the Bible.” God’s voice, “God’s talking to me. God told me.” You’ve got to know His voice, and it will never contradict His objective word. When you take a rugged stand against somebody that says something like that, and they say, “Well, you’re judging.” No, I’m not. God’s word is judging; I’m not judging. I’m just quoting God’s word.
I think the most dangerous is what I heard in Plano, Illinois. We were in a meeting, and all of a sudden everything went silent and a brother stood up and they said later that he had a gift of prophesy, and he said, “Thus says the Lord,” and then he began to quote that God was speaking directly to Him, dictating, and he was speaking that. If someone claims to hear a word of dictation, that’s not God moving in nature or through people, but God is saying this, “Thus says the Lord,” I’ll tell you, I’ll take a strong stand against that because I think it undermines the scripture. The Bible is not only inspired; it’s sufficient; it’s full and it’s done; it’s complete, and you don’t need anything else. Don’t open the door to the “Pearl of Great Price” or the “Book of Mormon” and all this other stuff. Every time God speaks, He inspires. He can’t speak an imperfect word; God can only speak a perfect word, and if He’s telling somebody something that’s not in this book, and it’s on the same level as this book, “Well, what God just told me is as inspired as Isaiah and as the gospel of John and as Romans, and as Revelation.” Don’t go there. God will not speak directly, audibly or in your heart a quote that is not, in other words that God is adding to the scripture, and He’s not going to do that. Hebrews 1:1&2, “After He spoke long ago to the Fathers and prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days He has spoken unto us in His Son.” So, all He has to say now is Jesus.
I just encourage you, wherever you are, just live in union with the shepherd and you’ll know His voice, and you will run from the voice of strangers. I’ll just quote again 1 John 2:20, “You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.” Okay, let’s go back to the big picture and I’ll just introduce this, and we’ll pick it up next week. The purpose of John is to reveal the Shepherd. How does the Shepherd help me know Him? How does the revelation of the Shepherd help me to trust Him? I’m encouraged to place my trust in the shepherd because He’s a provider in this chapter and a protector in this chapter, and since we’re close to the end now, I want to say a word about Him being a protector. John 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice and I know them. They follow Me. I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will 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 the Father are One.” Once again, John 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” Remember, He’s addressing this chapter to those sheep who are walking in union with Him.
When we read verses like we just read, we automatically think of the word “security”. When He says, “I give eternal life to them,” or, “They shall never perish,” or, “No one shall snatch them out of My hand,” and, “My Father is greater than all, and no one will snatch them out of My Father’s hand,” they not only think of security, but they think eternal security, and therefore, they jump out of the chapter and they say, “Let’s have a doctrine and we’ll call it ‘eternal security’.” The doctrine of eternal security never secured a flea; it just doesn’t. You are safe because the Lord secured you, and I’m safe because of the Lord. But as you know, in many circles this idea of eternal security, some say it is used as a proof text, “Once saved, always saved. I am secure because I accepted Jesus as my Savior. It doesn’t matter if I walk with the shepherd; once saved, always saved.”
Then there’s another group that says, “Wait a minute; that’s just greasy grace; that’s sloppy agape; or easy going believism. That’s just a fire insurance policy. Are you telling me that if you got saved at seven years old in Sunday school and then you live fifty years for the devil, that you’re going to end up in heaven?” Some actually take it to the limits. Even if you become a murderer or a terrorist, if you accepted Christ sometime in your life, you are going to heaven.
The question is, does this passage teach that? My suggestion is it does not. There are not two roads to heaven; there’s not a spiritual road that leads to heaven and a carnal road that leads to heaven. The carnal road does not lead to heaven. Now, this is addressed to those who are getting it right, and if you are a sheep following the Lord, if you are in union with Him, then He gives you great assurance; He gives you eternal life, and you’ll never perish, and all. It’s my understanding that if somebody is actually, truly, really saved, I think, you can call it eternal security, if they are genuinely saved, I think they are going to go to heaven. I don’t think they are going to lose their salvation. A possible explanation for those who wander off is 1 John 2:19, “They went out from us, but they were not really of us. If they had been of us, they would have remained with us. But they went out so that it would be shown that they are not all of us.” Did they lose it or did they never have it? That’s what that passage says. I’m not ruling out backsliding, by the way, because I know the shepherd well enough to be thankful for verse 3, “He restores my soul.” I was very far from the Lord after I became a Christian, and He restored my soul. Proverbs 24:16, “A righteous man falls seven times and rises again,” and that’s the difference between the ungodly and the godly; they are going to rise again.
I’m calling again to this emphasis in John 10, “For this reason,” because some have embraced a doctrine called “eternal security” and I can’t see a heart; can you see in somebody’s heart? You can’t, and if someone claims to be a Christian and is living in another direction, I can’t say, “You’re not saved. I can’t say that you’ve never been saved.” I can say this, and I won’t clear my throat, and I’ll say this with conviction, “You have not one syllable in the Bible of proof that you’re saved.” This verse is given to those who are walking with the shepherd, and if you’re not walking with the shepherd, there’s no evidence that you’re saved. I’m not going to say you are not saved; I can’t see your heart, but there’s no proof in the Bible that you’re saved, and you can’t quote any passage in the Bible. I’m trying to be careful with my words; I don’t want people to rest in false security, and I don’t want to discourage any Christian to cast away their confidence, but I want you to know this, if you are walking with the Lord, you can have a great assurance of eternal security, maximum security. If you’re not walking with the Lord, you better examine yourself whether you be in the faith. That’s what the Bible teaches us to do. You just have no evidence; you have no proof.
I’m not finished with discussing this idea of eternal security, and we’ll pick it up here next week, but I wanted to get that far. So, let’s pray together and then we’ll open it for discussion.
Heavenly Father, thank You so much that Your sheep know Your voice, and if we know it’s You, You are going to teach us what You are saying and where You are guiding. So, Lord, just help us to focus on just knowing that it’s You, and if You speak, whatever happens is okay, as long as we know it’s Your hand, as long as we know it’s Your voice. Will you work that in us, Lord, and deliver us, Lord, from false shepherds, false voices and false assurance. We thank You we can trust You to work this in us in Jesus’ name. Amen.
