The Final Rejection

Well take your Bible this morning turn to John chapter 10. John chapter 10 we're going to be in verses 22 through 31. John chapter 10. Now if you have been studying ahead in John, many of you do. I trust that you do. I encourage you to do that. There's nothing wrong with that. As a matter of fact it will help you already have your mind and your heart on the verses that we're going to look at and anticipate. But if you've been studying ahead you will see that the remainder of chapter 10, our verses this morning and on to verse 42, they are full of these verses a familiar theme. And that theme is rejection. Rejection.

The Jewish leadership are continuing to reject Jesus just as they have all throughout this book. And we have seen this rejection in almost every chapter of the book of John in our study so far. I went back and I made a list. I will speak these to you and I want to show you something. Now we see rejection in chapter 1 verses 10 through 11. We see it in chapter 3. In verses 32. Don't see it as much in chapter 2. We see it in chapter 4 verses 1 through 3. We see rejection in chapter 5, 16 through 18. We see it in chapter 6 in that great three day event. Jesus feeding the 5000 verses 41 through 43 and verse 66.

And then we see this rejection get thicker. We see it in chapter 7 verse 1 verse 20, 26 through 27 excuse me. And on in many places in chapter 7 we see it again in chapter 8. We see it in chapter 9 after Jesus heals the man that was born blind. And then we see it, we saw it last week in chapter 10 verse 20. What am I showing you? Rejection rejection rejection by the religious leadership. And that rejection throughout the book has been escalating. But I want you to see that this will be their final rejection. Now I have a question. Do these Jewish leaders not have more contact with Jesus? If you know the book you know that they do.

Do they ultimately, do they not ultimately, listen, have more contact with Jesus? They do. They do through the cross. What do we see in the cross? We see that the Jewish leadership or the ones with the cooperation with Rome, they were both guilty. What do they do? They protect Christ and they take Christ to the cross. So we know that they do have interaction with Jesus. But in the remainder of chapter 10 we see the end of Jesus presenting himself publicly to the Jewish leadership. So this is their last rejection before Jesus transitions into his ministry.

Chapter 10, we will see Jesus leave the public arena and go to his own people as he is making a preparation, making preparations to go to the cross. So what am I wanting you to see? This escalating rejection of the Jewish leadership of Christ. This is the final rejection in Jesus' public ministry to them. Of course, this rejection has been long, it's been continuous and it should not surprise us. The reason I say it shouldn't surprise us is the Old Testament told us that this would happen. I'll give you one example. Many Old Testament passages speak to this truth, but I'm just going to read one. Psalm 22 verses 6 through 8.

Notice what the psalmist says. Really this is the heart of Jesus. But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. Does that not echo what we've seen in John? Scorned by mankind and despised by people. All who see me mock me. They make mouths at me. They wag their heads. He trusts in the Lord. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him for he delights in him. Of course, that's speaking of the cross. But ultimately, that psalm there, those writings, speak of the rejection of the Jews, rejecting Christ. Now with all of that said, that help us understand the passages that are before us, give us the title of the message.

This is the final rejection of Jesus. Now truthfully, I wrestled over that title because I did not want to communicate the rejection incorrectly. We know that they continue to reject Christ, but this is the last public declaration of Jesus dealing with them. So we see the final rejection of Jesus. I'm going to go ahead and read the verses and then I'm going to make some more introductory comments from these verses before we dive into the truths. You see the main truths that we're going to explore on the screen. You see the Jewish confrontation. Verse 24, we see Jesus continued claim. Let me go ahead and read the verses, verses 22 through 31.

At that time, the feast of the dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico or porch of Solomon. The Jews therefore gathered around him and were saying to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense?" If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, "I told you and you do not believe the works that I do in my Father's name. These bear witness of me, but you do not believe because you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.

And I give them eternal life and I give eternal life to them 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 the Father's hand. I and the Father are one." The Jews, they took up stones again to stone him. Now we will pause there for the sake of time. This will be a part one and a part two because next week we will continue with this final rejection. Now before we get into the message and what I mean by the message, the main truths that we are going to explore, we need to see that we have a new setting right here.

Look at verses 22 through 23. At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem and it was winter and Jesus was walking there in the temple in the portico of Solomon. We see that this is a new setting and these verses give us some specifics. The previous events had taken place at or just after the Feast of the Tabernacles. If you know your Jewish calendar that would have been in the month of October. Verse 22 says that these events before us, they took place at the Feast of the Dedication which was in December. So this tells us that there was a two month interval in between here.

What I mean by in between here, in between verses 19 and 20 and those events and verses 22. So that was a two month interval here. Now this is something for our information that might help you. What is this Feast of the Dedication? I try to take the time and explain these feasts to you because I want you to have a good basic understanding of what these feasts are. The Feast of the Dedication was a celebration that remembered the time of Judas Maccabees. He took the temple from Anticus Epiphanes who was a Syrian. If you know your history, you'll be familiar with those names.

In a zealous effort to spread Greek culture, Anticus, he had overrun Jerusalem and he had taken control of the temple. He had polluted the temple and in 170 BC, he sacrificed a pig on the altar which was the desecration of the altar and he set up pagan altars in its place and he also put a statue of Zeus there in the temple. This was an awful time for the Jews. Anticus savagely persecuted the Jews. He would not allow the Jews to own or to read the Old Testament scriptures. As a matter of fact, history tells us that he forced them to burn their Old Testament scrolls and he also required them to sacrifice to his pagan gods.

The Jews finally rose up in revolt and they were led by a pious priest named Matthias and his sons. After a three year bloody war, the Jews were able to take back Jerusalem under the leadership of Judas Maccabees. That was Matthias' son. They cleansed and they rededicated the temple and they established the feast of the dedication to remember this great event. So what is the significance? They are remembering the rededication of the temple to the one true living God. Now again with this new setting, he was at the portico of Solomon. This was a large covered portico.

In our language we would use the word torch and there would have been great crowds there. They would have been Jews and Gentiles alike. So Jesus was speaking again at the temple with a large crowd and that feast of dedication is really the backdrop there. So let's look at these two main truths that I want to dive into. I want us to look at the Jewish confrontation first. Look at verse 24. The Jews therefore gathered around him in this crowd and they were saying to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense?

If you are the Christ, tell us plainly, tell us plainly that you are the Christ." Now like we've seen many times, the Jewish leadership began to confront Jesus, they began to challenge Jesus on what he had been teaching and claiming. This is nothing new to us because of what we've learned. I want to make three observations out of this verse. Three observations out of this verse. First, notice their approach. The Jews therefore gathered around him. You might not notice that language but I want you to see some specifics out of that language.

The New American, the English Standard it reads, "Gathered." The King James reads, "Round about him." Now the original word here means to surround or to encircle. I'll give you a word picture that will help you here. It's very accurate. Those of us, maybe we've seen those old westerns on television, those old western movies. We have that image in our mind as a group of savage Indians would maybe circle a wagon train and they would circle them. They would encircle them. They would surround them, meaning to bring harm to them. That is exactly the picture that we have here. They were circling. They were encircling Jesus.

They were closing in on Jesus. It's important for us to see their approach. Notice their question. Notice their question. How long will you keep us in suspense? Notice that question. In this question I want to make two observations. First the nature of their question. This question can be interpreted from the original amine that they were in suspense or they were annoyed. Some Bible translators kind of go back and forth. Some think it was suspense. Some think that he was communicating. They were communicating that they were annoyed. Now no matter the nature of the question, their intentions were to attack him. So we know that.

I happen to believe that they were annoyed. I believe they were mad. They were encircling him and they were questioning him because they were annoyed. The second observation about this question is that they demanded plain talk because they failed to understand what he was already, what he had already been doing and what he had already been saying. This was because they were blind and they could not understand who Jesus was or what he did. So notice their question. Maybe they were in suspense but at the root of it I believe they were annoyed because they wanted to attack him.

So they're encircling him and they're questioning him and then notice their interaction. Their interaction. What did he say? How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. This word plainly is used in all of the translations and this word plainly, it means plainly or openly. They were wanting a plain open confession so as to arrest him and attack him. They wanted him to incriminate himself by bold language. They were not seeking to worship him as the man who had been born blind in chapter 9 did. So we see their intention. So what do we see here just in this one verse? The Jews, they're circling the wagon.

They've got guns loaded. They've got guns cocked. They are circling the wagon and that is how they are confronting Jesus. These Jews were asking but they were also revealing. Let me show you what I mean. They were revealing that they don't understand what Jesus has been doing or saying. Their ignorance here reveals who they are. And listen, it was vague to them. Jesus teaching and Jesus miracles were vague so they were revealing their condition and they are asking. They are asking to try to trap Jesus. They want him to openly and plainly admit that he was the Messiah, not so that they could worship but so that they could attack.

So we see this confrontation. You know it's interesting. Anytime we see those who are honestly, when I say honestly motivated, their hearts are true and they are drawn to Christ, he will openly confess but he will not do that with these Jews because he knows their intentions and he understands their confrontation. Now an application, I want us to realize and understand, I really want you to hold on to this. In the world, those who are outside of Christ, the world in this world system and the people of the world, they do not like Jesus and they reject Jesus.

Now in our country, in our culture, in our day, we enjoy peace and we enjoy freedom but mark it down, the world hates Jesus. I think it was about a year ago, brother Keith and I were talking about this culture that we live in, how our country is changing, our American culture is changing and I believe brother Keith coined this term. If he got it from somewhere else, he can correct me later but he was making observation about our culture and how it's changing and he went on to say that we as Christians are losing home field advantage. There was a day in which we, there was a day that our country was more of a Christian culture.

Everyone might not have been converted, that's not what I'm saying but we had a very Christian culture, we called it a Judeo-Christian culture and our culture was a lot more friendly to the Bible and the church and the word of God and the work of God. As a matter of fact, lost people and lost institutions would even respect the work of the church but that day is fading fast. We are losing home field advantage. I'll give you an example that some of you might remember, some of you who know modern church history, you know about what God did through those Christian missionaries who died there in Ecuador in the 1950s.

The famous Jim Elliot and his friends were killed in 1956 and if you study that event, that was in a time when we as Christians had home field advantage and when those missionaries went missing, they're in that hostile area, all of America's attention was riveted. Why? Because they wanted our boys safe. They wanted our missionaries safe. As a matter of fact, Life magazine ran a full page, multi-page story on what took place when those missionaries were killed in May in 1957 and that kind of attention would not be given today because we are losing home field advantage.

And what I want you to say is we have been living in peace and security but mark it down, don't be lulled to sleep. The world hates Jesus and when we go out and proclaim Christ, do not be surprised when they confront us with hatred. We take the message of Jesus as the one and only way, the one true way. We will be confronted with antagonism, rejection and maybe even attack and there are Christians around the world that as soon as they open their mouths as Jesus being the one true way, they automatically risk their lives. It's nothing new. Peace is always taking place.

And this Jewish confrontation really should sober us and make us realize that we should not get our feelings hurt when people reject us and we should not be surprised when Christians lose their lives because of the message of the gospel. It happened to Jesus and it will happen to us. Let's move on to the second main truth. I want us to notice that Jesus continued his continued claim. His continued claim. We'll cover more verses with this point. I want to read them. They are very familiar to us because this is a lot of the same language that we saw previously in chapter 10. Jesus answered them. Remember they're questioning, confronting.

What does he say? I told you and you do not believe the works that I do in my Father's name. He's bear witness of me. But you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And I give eternal life to them and they shall not 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 will be able to snatch them out of my Father's hand or out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one. In verse 31 the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Why? Because that's exactly what he was claiming.

So here in these verses we really see a continued claim. Now why do I use that word continued? Jesus all throughout the gospel has been making claims to deity. That's why we have that in the title of the series. Christ the Son of God. He is continuing to claim deity. And I like this because it also fits with what Jesus says. Go right back to the beginning of verse 25. Jesus answered to them, "I told you." Why does he say I told you? He has been saying this all along. Jesus had made these claims all along. He made these claims in chapter 5 verse 17, chapter 8 verse 12, verse 24, verse 58. And so his claim to deity is just a pattern.

It's the same old thing. Now here in these verses I want to make several observations. Four main observations. Now be patient in your note taking because under these observations I'm going to give you a lot of truth. If you have trouble keeping up I can give you the notes because I want you to get all that you want to get. There are lots of truth here. There's lots of truth I want us to see. First I want you to see that Jesus identifies their unbelief. He identifies their unbelief. This is 25 and 26. Jesus answered, "I told you and you do not believe." Verse 26, "But you do not believe." Two times he says that they do not believe.

Now notice this unbelief. I want you to notice two things. This identifying their unbelief. Notice they do not believe the works of Jesus. Verse 25, "I told you and you do not believe the works that I do." Here Jesus is saying that all the miracles he had performed were assigned to who he was. His signs coupled with his teaching was enough for them to see who Jesus was.

MacArthur says of these verses, and I quote, "The Lord's twice repeated declaration you do not believe indicates that the problem was not due to any ambiguity in the revelation of truth, but rather to their spiritual blindness." You see, Jesus is saying that they do not believe the works. Everything he has done, everything he has said, pointed to that. As a matter of fact, MacArthur goes on to say, "From the perspective of human responsibility, the hostile Jews did not believe because they had deliberately rejected the truth." So what do we see in these words, in this verse? They exercise their responsibility.

They do not believe the works of Jesus, the words of Jesus that point to who he was. Go back to verse 25. Jesus answered, he said, "I told you, you do not believe the works that I do in my Father's name. These bear witness of me." They choose not to believe. Also notice, they do not believe because they are not his sheep. Verse 26, "But you do not believe because you are not of my sheep." That's a very important verse here, and we need to see it. This had been the point of the story, or the parable there earlier in chapter 10, the parable of the Good Shepherd.

Truthfully, they were the children of the devil, and in their behavior and in their spiritual condition, we see that they prove that they were not his sheep, because they are the antithesis of the sheep. Do we not see that? They do not believe because they are not his sheep. MacArthur goes on to speak about this verse, and he now says this, "From the standpoint of divine sovereignty, they did not believe because they were not of the Lord's sheep, which were given to him by the Father." So what do we see? They did not believe because they were not of the sheepfold. So you see the two extremes here?

Previously in verse 25, Jesus says, "You do not believe because you choose to reject." And now he's saying, "You do not believe because you are not in the sheepfold." Now what do we see? We see a paradox. We see a seeming contradiction, and this is much bigger than our comprehension here. We need to understand it, and there is a danger here when we come across these paradoxical statements. And the error that we can fall into is drifting to one side at the expense of the other. So we must understand what's taught in verse 25 and in verse 26, and we must accept them even if we cannot rectify them or fully explain them. We proclaim them.

And so what is Jesus saying? He identifies their unbelief. He says, "You choose not to believe, and also you are not in the sheepfold." Jesus is emphasizing their responsibility and the sovereign work of God here. And I want you to see there is a mystery here. There's a mystery. We are finite, and the Lord is infinite, and we cannot understand fully the mysteries of the Word of God. And sometimes the Bible in our understanding does not harmonize these realities. And so what do we do? We explain them as best as we know how, and then we stop and we say, "This is a mystery.

We will not drift to one side or the other, but we accept it." But notice He is identifying their unbelief. Second, notice Jesus reveals the activity of the sheep. Verse 27, "My sheep, this is the antithesis of the Jewish leaders. They hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." Now, we've seen this same language. We've seen it earlier. Verses 3 through 5 and verse 16, earlier, they are in the parable. Jesus has already taught this, and He is repeating this, expressing and showing us the activity of the sheep. Notice some things about the activity. Notice His sheep hear His voice.

Verse 27, "My sheep, they hear My voice." One of the resources I use is a resource called Vincent's Word Studies, and it explains the original meaning of this. And basically, the original can read this, "The sheep, those that are Mine." What is He saying? "The sheep, the ones that are in the fold," Jesus is saying, "Those that are Mine," what? "They hear Me." Those are His sheep, and they hear His voice. This is the opposite of the Jewish leaders. Also notice His sheep follow Him.

Go back to verse 27, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Him." So going back to that original language, "The sheep, those that are Mine, they follow Me," is what Jesus is saying. So not only do they hear His call, but they follow Him after and in that call. Now I want to go back to the middle of the verse, and I want you to see that He, Jesus, knows His sheep. You'll notice I went around that middle portion. "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." All the translations that we study read the same here. Notice what Jesus has says here. He does not say, "The sheep know Me." He does not say that.

But that He, Jesus, knows the sheep. The emphasis here is that Jesus knows His sheep because of this. They hear Him, and they follow Him. You see it? It's not that the sheep know the shepherd. They do. But the emphasis here is that Jesus knows the sheep, and because He knows the sheep, the sheep do certain things. They hear His voice, and they follow Him. Another important fact about this word "know" here is that it is in the present tense, which denotes a continual knowledge, and that denotes a continual activity of the sheep. Jesus knows them continuously, and they follow Him, and they hear His voice continuously.

I'll mention Albert Barnes, the Bible commentator. This is a very good verse, a very good explanation of this verse. He talks about Christians, and listen to this. Talking about Christians, He says, "They imitate Him. They go where His Spirit and His Providence lead them. They yield themselves to His guidance, and they seek to be led by Him. When Jesus was upon earth, many of His disciples followed or attended Him from place to place. Kids, Christians are called His followers." You see? That's the activity of the sheep. So what do we see? Jesus identifies the religious leadership's unbelief.

Jesus reveals the activity of the sheep, and then third, Jesus explains what the sheep are given. Jesus explains what the sheep are given. Look at verse 28, "And I," Jesus is saying, "And I, I give them eternal life, I give them eternal life to them, and they shall not perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. And my Father, who is giving them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand." What do we see? Jesus is explaining what the sheep are given, two things. Notice Jesus gives them eternal life. That's what we see in verse 28.

Jesus at earlier stated that He gives His sheep not just life, but abundant life in chapter 10, verse 10. And that what He said, "I give my sheep life and abundant life." Now He states that He gives His sheep eternal life. Now there are two promises here in this verse. I'm going to go back and read it. "Now I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand." Notice these promises. "They shall never perish," meaning they shall never be destroyed or punished in hell.

Also the other promise is, "No one shall snatch them out of his hand." Here this refers to any power that might want to snatch them and destroy him. This word "snatches" means "rob" or "steal" or "taken away." This is not because of the sheep's hold or knowledge of the shepherd, but the hold of the shepherd onto the sheep. So this tells us that the sheep are in His hand, and He gives them eternal life. Also, notice the Father gives them eternal life. Verse 29, "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." Here we see that the sheep were given to Jesus by the Father.

This same truth was taught in chapter 6, verse 44. Notice what John said. We've studied the verse. "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him." And what is Jesus saying in verse 29? Jesus is saying, "My Father has given the sheep to Me." This phrase, "greater than all," means that He the Father is more powerful than all. Notice this. He is more powerful than man. He's more powerful than man's powers. He is more powerful than the demons and the demonic powers. And He is even more powerful than the devil himself. This is a work of the Father.

These are two, listen, of the greatest verses which prove the eternal security of the believer. If you ever want to know where the Bible teaches that we are secure eternally after conversion, it is right here. Again, I want to refer you to something that Albert Barnes says. He gives a list describing what is taking place for the sheep right here in these verses. This is good. Notice Barnes' list. And I abbreviated it and I altered it, but yet I kept the meaning of what he said the same. This is the list. First he says that Christians are given by God the Father to Christ.

So he says that Jesus gives to them eternal life or procures by His death and intercession and imparts to them by His Spirit. Listen, that religion which shall result in eternal life. Then he goes on to say that both the Father and the Son are pledged to keep them so that they shall never fall away and perish. It would be impossible for any language to teach more explicitly that the saints will persevere. And then he says lastly, that there is no power in man or devils to defeat the purpose of the Redeemer to save His people. We also see our safety if we are truly, humbly, cordially, and daily committed ourselves to God the Savior.

So what do we see? The wonderful eternal security in Christ and in the Father. And this is what the sheep are given. Then the fourth main truth, Jesus claims to be one with the Father. Verse 30, very small verse, "And I and the Father are one." Now there's something very interesting here concerning this word "one." All the translations that we study use this word. In the original construction, it is a neuter. It is in the form of a neuter. And what that means is it's not masculine or feminine. And John wrote it that way on purpose.

Because in its construction, this tells us that they, being the Father and the Son, were not one person, but one in nature, one in essence, and one in substance. This tells us that their unity in keeping the sheep is strengthened or made possible because of their unity of nature. You see? Christ is one with the Father. We see the beauty of the Godhead. We have God the Father, and we have God the Son, and we see that they are one in essence, and nature, and in substance. And what do we see here? Jesus takes a long way around. Jesus puts the plow very deep in the ground. Jesus gives a very long explanation to assert His deity.

What is He doing here? He's the true Messiah. Only deity in the flesh, only God in the flesh could do what is being taught here. And you might not realize it. You might think that these verses are just truths for us, but remember His audience. He is expressly claiming one with the Father and claiming deity. And He takes the long way around to do that because what do we see starting in verse 25? He teaches so much to get to the pinnacle to say, "I am deity. I am one with the Father," claiming to be the Messiah. Now an application for you, for me. I want us to see that in Christ's claim, we see the eternal security of the Messiah.

Of the believer. How? He is God. We see that Christ is one with the Father. And we see that our salvation does not depend on man. Christians do not fall away. Christians do not fall from grace. They are not perfect. They stumble into sin. But they do not fall away. And Christians never can and never will lose their salvation. Now I know this because the Scriptures teach it. I've believed this for years. I was taught this as an early Christian. But along my journey and in preaching the gospel and declaring the truth, salvation that only saves, I have been accused of teaching that one can lose their salvation. Let me explain that.

We live in a culture of easy believe-ism. We live in a culture where there is a heavy emphasis on the decision to accept Christ. See what you don't realize is there are a lot of people, they believe in what some call decisional regeneration. They might not know it. Let me explain what that phrase means. A lot of people in the life of our churches believe that if you've made a decision for Christ, you are saved, you've been regenerated. That's called decisional regeneration. And that's not true. You can decide all day long. You can pray and receive Jesus all day long, but you will never be converted unless the Father draws you to Christ.

Isn't that what we've learned? You cannot have Christ unless God the Father doesn't work first in you. And as I have preached that gospel and cut against the grain of decisional regeneration and called people to truly be born again, those who are lost and don't understand conversion are saying, "Wait a minute, they were already saved before and you're saying they need to be saved again." No, I was saying they've never been converted. They've got cultural Christianity. They've made a decision. They've tried. And they might have been honestly motivated. But they've been led astray, a cheap gospel, cheap grace. But what do we see?

True Christians, when they are born again, they are in the hand of Jesus, in the hand of the Father, and they have been provided eternal life and nothing can snatch them away. And look, if we stand up and we make the proper claims about Christ, if we stand up and not just proclaim Christ as deity, but we proclaim the true gospel and what conversion truly is, we will be received exactly like Jesus was. They will not understand. They will not comprehend, and they will reject unless God the Father first works in them.

So don't be discouraged when lost humanity rejects and accuses and does not accept your claims because when Jesus claimed what he claimed in these verses, what do we see? They picked up stones to stone him. Now as we move away from these verses, what do we see? We know the whole story. This is their final rejection. It's the last time Jesus openly proclaims to them. All through John, what has he been doing? He's claiming, teaching, demonstrating his deity right in front of their eyes, rejection after rejection after rejection all along. This is their final rejection.

This is the last time Jesus confronts them publicly, teaching and demonstrating who he truly was and explaining eternal life. It's sad, but it's true. But through their rejection, we who are his sheep receive great comfort, great edification that we are his sheep. And hearing his voice, we follow him. And listen, as born-again Christians, as the Spirit resides in you, as I've been preaching and teaching through these verses, your heart has been warmed, your heart has been drawn, you have affirmed those truths and the Spirit has affirmed those truths in you and you have been comforted and you are reassured of your security in his voice.

And look, you are encouraged and you are comforted that you are his sheep and you hear his voice and you follow him. And you see that we have eternal life that has been given by Christ and we shall never, we shall never, we shall never perish and we cannot be snatched away by anyone or anything. We are not only in Christ's hands, but we are in the Father's hands as well. But wonderful security and not just eternal security, but security for the here and now. I tell you where this makes application for me is I read stories about what great missionaries did in the past.

I read stories about the Apostle Paul and those first century Christians as they spread the gospel into the lost world and they risked their life, many missionaries, many of the early church fathers died for the gospel. What do I see? They had their security and understanding that they were in the hand of Jesus and in the hand of the Father and nothing can touch their life unless it first came by an all-powerful, all-sovereign, all-loving God. So if sickness struck them down, if death visited their door, they knew that it came by the hand of God.

Wonderful comfort, wonderful encouragement, wonderful edification, not just for eternal life, but for the life here and now. Whatever is waiting around the bend in my life and in my family, my God knows and I am in His hand. But you know, this either comforts you, which I've been speaking about, or it convicts you. Because listen, as your pastor, some of you are not in the sheepfold. You are outside of the sheepfold. You do not know His voice. You do not follow Him. And just like last week, I warn you not to be a simple observer.

Observing Christ, making the proper theological declarations, reforming our lives, adjusting our lives to biblical truth, getting involved in the church, and even sacrificing greatly for the kingdom does not mean that you are converted. The great C.H. Spurgeon said, "It is a fearful thing to know just how far a man can go in religion and still not be converted." So do not take comfort in your outside externals. Do not take comfort in your accurate observations about Christ. Because listen, if you are His sheep, you are in the fold. You know His voice. You follow Him, and you look back at a loving Heavenly Father that did that work.

So there's a twofold work in this message. So work of comforting. And there's a work of convicting. And I want to say to you, you might not realize it, but if you are not converted, you are much like the Jews, rejecting, rejecting, rejecting. But I believe that a loving Heavenly Father is drawing some in our midst. I believe that the loving Heavenly Father is drawing individuals even within the sound of my voice. He is drawing them to that appointed day when He will reveal Himself just like He did to that blind man, when He will open up their eyes and they will be enabled to receive and believe. And that's why we pray. And that's why we love.

And that's why we hope. And that's why we preach. And that's why we trust in this Jesus that we see in these verses. The final rejection is going to swing differently after Chapter 10. This is great comfort for us and hopefully great conviction for some of you. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank You for the truths that are taught here.