The more uncertainty that we experience; the more danger that we experience, the more we as human beings have a tendency to want security. Human beings desire something that is safe and secure. And God knows about this human desire. He is the only One who can fulfill this desire we have for security. Notice what Jesus says about security.
"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone 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." John 10:27. Simple language, but profound thought.
We do not understand it but God's hand upholds the universe. You go out at night-by the way, if you put enough clothes on-Winter is one of the best times of the year to study the stars. I learned, when I was living in North Dakota, that you could see the stars on cold winter nights better than any other time. I do not know exactly why that is true. Maybe it is because there is less moisture in the atmosphere on those real cold nights.
I remember going up to a house with a man who was in his eighties at that time, and I want to be with this man in heaven. He was a dear man by the name of Brother Andrews, and he lived in a town called Walhalla, North Dakota, about two or three miles from the Canadian border. He lived in that area almost all of his life.
And I have gone into his house, out on his back porch; (his back porch was like a second story) and I have gone out on his back porch in the winter, and I have never seen the sky like this. It looked like the stars were so close that you could just touch them, and the sky was full of stars. And you could see those stars.
And those stars are whirling around. In fact, we are all going at tremendous speeds, thousands of miles per hour, our whole solar system. Our whole solar system is traveling. The sun and all the planets with it, are traveling through space. And that is just one little speck.
Back about 1985, my family and I went to the planetarium near Oklahoma City. We were looking up and they were showing us different pictures of the heavens. And they said, if you could get far enough away from it, this is what the Milky Way would look like. And as we looked up there we saw this great big nebula, counterclockwise, going around like that. Then he took his red light pointer and he said, Now our solar system is about right over here at this point. And we felt so small when we were looking at something like that.
And God's hand holds those things in place. Hebrews says that He upholds all things by the Word of His power. Isaiah says, because He is great in power, not one fails. And here, Jesus is talking about the hand that upholds the worlds, the galaxies, or the island universes as we call them.
By the way, how many galaxies, how many of these island universes are there of which our solar system is just a little speck in the milky way? The Milky Way is just one of these island universes. Andromeda is another one. Andromeda is about eight-hundred and fifty-thousand light years away. And so at night, in North Dakota I have seen Andromeda.
You can only see it on a very clear night, because it is a faint star. You can just barely see it with your naked eye. With a telescope it is just a huge nebula, just another thing that goes around and around and around, with nobody knows how many billions of stars in it. And some of those stars, of course, have planets going around them.
And how many of these galaxies, these island universes are there? We do not know. Every time we get a bigger telescope, we discover a whole bunch more that we did not know about before. So we do not know how many there are. And the hand that holds all of that in place, holds us. Jesus said, My sheep are in My hand and they are in My Father's hand and My Father is greater than all and nobody can snatch them out of My hand and nobody can snatch them out of My Father's hand.
Is that not wonderful? If you are one of His sheep, He says, You are in My hand. Now it looks like the devil is going to snatch everything. Does it not look like that sometimes? It looks like the devil is going to snatch everything out of His hand and destroy it. That is the way it looked to the disciples.
Do you remember one night they were out there in the boat on the Sea of Galilee and it got so stormy they thought they were sunk. Jesus was watching from the shore out there. And Jesus and His Father had it in mind for those men in that boat to take the gospel of His grace to the world and to write the New Testament. So their work was not over yet, and although it looked like the devil was going to destroy them, he was not, because God had other plans. And if you surrender your life to the Lord, the devil cannot defeat the plans that God has for your life.
But if you are in His hand, God takes all the sheep that are in His hand and He gathers them together and He puts them into a safe place, called a sheepfold. Look at the first part of John 10. Jesus says, "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the Shepherd of the sheep. To Him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear His voice; and He calls His own sheep by name."
By the way, you are not a number to God, you have a name. He calls the sheep by name and then He leads them out. And it says, "And when He brings out His own sheep, He goes before them; and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers."
He takes His sheep and He puts them in a fold. Then He calls them by name and He leads them out. What is the fold? What is the sheepfold? Well, the sheepfold is the church. Let me read that to you. This is from Testimonies, vol. 6, 261. It says, "The church is very precious in His sight. It is the case which contains His jewels, the fold which encloses His flock, and He longs to see it without spot or blemish or any such thing."
So the fold is the church. The sheepfold is the church. Who are the sheep? Well, the sheep are the members of the church. The sheep are the members of the church. They are the ones whom Jesus puts in the fold. But Jesus says there is something not very nice going on. He says that there are some people in the fold who are not sheep. There are some people in the fold, Jesus says, who are not sheep.
Now they look like sheep, but they are not sheep. Notice what He says in verse 1, "He who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." So there are people who have not gone through the door, but have climbed into the fold. Who are these people? Well, they are the wolves in sheep's clothing.
Jesus talks about them over in Matthew. Do you know what a wolf in sheep's clothing is? It is a wolf that looks like a sheep. Notice in Matthew 7:15, Jesus says, "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?"
So Jesus says, Watch out. There are people who have climbed into the sheepfold and they are wearing sheep's clothing, but they are not sheep. They are thieves and robbers. Have you ever had a thief or a robber in your house? By the way, was the thief or the robber a member of your family? Well, no, they were in your house, but they were not a member of your family.
Now the problem with this is, and this is really tricky, because these people claim to be members of the family and they have on sheep's clothing. They claim to be members of the family. They claim to be part of the church, but they are thieves and robbers. They are not members of the family. They are in the fold but they are not the sheep.
Notice what Jesus said of the Jews. The Jews were in this category. Look at John 10:24-26. It says, "Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, 'How long do you keep us in doubt? 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, they bear witness of Me. But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you.'"
So, there are wolves in sheep's clothing and they are in the church. Their names are on the church books. They are really not part of the family, but their names are on the church books and they claim to be sheep. They wear sheep's clothing. Let me read to you a statement about these people who are in the church, but who are not really part of the church.
"Christ presents the false union with Himself in contrast with the true. Those who have not a living connection with Christ may to outward appearance be in fellowship with Him. Their names may be enrolled on the church books, but they are not members of His body. They do not bear fruit to the glory of God." The Review and Herald, September 18, 1900.
Now that is a very interesting statement, because she says their names may be on the church books. So they claim to be church members, but she says they are not members of His body. They are not part of it. Now the church is the body of Christ. You are not really part of the church unless you are part of the body of Christ. These are people who claim to be part of the body of Christ, their names are on the church books, but they are not really part of His body.
They are wolves in sheep's clothing, and because they are wolves in sheep's clothing, there is more than one voice. There are many, many voices today among those who profess to be the true church. And, of course, there are many, many organizations and groups today professing to be the true church. The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Maryland, and those in their organization, claim that they are the true church.
There are also independent Seventh-day Adventist churches all over the world, and they claim that they are part of the true church, but they are not in the same organization. And then there is the Reform Seventh-day Adventist Church and they say, We are the true church. We are the fold with the sheep in it. And then there is the Seventh-day Church of God, and they claim to be the true church. They say, We are the sheepfold.
And then there are the other churches. Now in the Seventh-day Adventist Church they say, and they have said for over 100 years, that the papacy, or the Roman Catholic Church is the great Babylonian system, mystical Babylon described in Revelation 14, 17 and 18, in the last days. But the papacy does not claim that. They say, We are the true church. We are the sheepfold. So there are many voices.
And they say, Come with us. We are the fold. If you are one of God's sheep, if you belong to Christ, get into this fold and you will be safe. How are you going to tell the difference? How are you going to tell the difference between all the different voices? As I have tried to think this through in my mind, I said, Now, how would you tell the difference between a sheep and a wolf in sheep's clothing?
And I said to myself, Well, one of the main differences between a wolf and a sheep is that a wolf bites. I have never had a sheep that bites. But a wolf bites. They have sheep's clothing on, but they bite. Now Jesus had something to say about this, something very, very pointed. Look at John 16:1-3.
"These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think [the Greek says, "Whoever kills you will glory"] that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me."
Jesus said, The time is coming when those who profess that they are the true people of God, are going to kill the people who really are the true people of God. Did that happen? Did any of Christ's followers get killed by the Jews? James did, one of the people He was talking to right here, James, just a few years after that. Stephen did, and many others did. We do not know most of their names.
But Jesus said, These people who are doing this, are they My sheep? They bite. They will persecute you, they will cast you out of the synagogue in fact, the time will come that they will glory that they are giving service, and they can kill you. And Jesus said, the reason they will do that is because actually, they do not know the Father and they do not know Me.
They claim to be the sheep of God, yet they are acting like wolves. Sheep do not bite. If it bites, it is not a sheep; it is a wolf in sheep's clothing. The wolf is not actually a member of Christ's body. With sheep's clothing on he claims to be, he makes a profession, but these people do not know the Lord; they do not know the Lord. Do you know the Lord? Are you one of His sheep?
Do you know, friend, if we know the Lord, and if we are part of His sheep, one of His sheep, we will not go around trying to destroy the people who are trying to destroy us. We will not do it. That is the devil's business. The people who do that are the children of the devil; they are not the children of the Lord. They are not part of the body of Christ. They claim to be, but they are not really. They are wolves in sheep's clothing.
It is always good to know exactly where you are going and what you are talking about. Jesus said, They will cast you out of the synagogue, the time will come they will kill you. There is a progression. First you cast them out of the synagogue, and if that does not work, then you take them to court and you sue them and you put them in prison. And if that does not work, then eventually you kill them. That is the way it goes.
You can read about that in Signs of the Times, May 26, 1890. Concerning the Protestants and the Romanists, Mrs. White says, first of all, they denounced them. They put them out of their church. That did not work. Then they shackled them with chains and put them in prison. And when that did not stop them, they said, Well, the only way we can stop this is to kill them. So they killed them.
Jesus said that the people who do those things do not know the Father and they do not know Me. God's method is to proclaim to your enemies the gospel. If they will listen to that, it will solve their problem. If they will not listen to that, then you will have to leave it with the Lord.
But the devil's method is to destroy the person who does not agree with you. The heretic. And when you do that, as Jesus said to the Jews in John 8:44, you have proven that you are not a child of God, you are not one of His sheep, you are a child of the devil. You are not part of the true church; you are part of the devil's synagogue. You are a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Ellen White says that those who sue their brethren are written down in heaven as an unbeliever. She also said that God will not hear their prayers. And yet, I find many Adventists today think that God is going to finish His work through people who do not know Him.
Notice this text that we just read, John 16:1-3. If you sue your brethren, you are persecuting them. Do you know the Lord? Do you know the Father? Or the Son? No, you do not. You do not know Him. You are written down as an unbeliever in heaven and God says, I will not hear your prayers. Are they part of the true church? No.
Concerning the true church, Ellen White says that God not only hears their prayers, she says that Omnipotence cannot turn away their plea for the least of His children. God hears the prayers of the true church. He cannot resist their plea.
So we are living in a time when there is great confusion, and many people believe that God is going to finish His work through an organization that is not even a part of the true church. Now, they claim to be part of the true church, but remember, friends, there are many organizations that claim that. But a claim will not settle it. We need to have the character to back it up.
People who are doing this sort of thing and organizations that are doing this sort of thing are not part of God's true church. They are part of the synagogue of Satan. God is not going to finish His work through the synagogue of Satan. He is not going to finish His work through people who are trying to persecute their brethren. In fact, He says He will not even hear their prayers. He will write their names down as unbelievers.
We are living in this confusing period of time when there are many, many voices and people saying, The fold is here! Get over here! Somebody else says, The fold is here! Get over here! So there are many voices today. Jesus said in John 10, My sheep hear My voice and they follow Me. I know them. They know Me and they will not listen to the voice of a stranger.
Can you distinguish the true Shepherd's voice from all the other voices, so that you are not led out of the fold?
I want to go over a few points in distinguishing the true Shepherd's voice from all other voices:
1. The true Shepherd will not condone law breaking or any iniquity. Look at a couple of texts on that. Matthew 5:17. Jesus is speaking during the Sermon on the Mount. "Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill." Jesus said, Do not think that I came to destroy the law. Do not think that.
He went on to say, if you read the next verses, that if you are going to go to the kingdom of heaven, your righteousness is going to have to exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees. The Scribes and Pharisees said, We keep the whole law and it looked like they did keep the whole law, outwardly. Jesus said, You appear outwardly righteous to men but inside you are full of lawlessness and injustice.
Look at Luke 16:17. "And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away then for one tittle of the law to fail." A tittle is just part, the curved part of a certain letter in the Hebrew alphabet. It is part of a letter; it is not a whole letter, just a part of a letter. And Jesus said, It would be easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for part of a letter of the law to fail.
There are many voices today and people are being told, just do the best you can and keep your sins confessed. My friends, that is not the gospel that Jesus taught. Jesus promised to give His followers power to change. He told the woman taken in adultery, "Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin"-how much? Did He say go and do the best you can? He did not say, Go and do the best you can. He said "Go and sin no more."
And if you accept that command, that word to her was the beginning of a new life, a life of purity. You and I, we can have a new life. We can have a life of purity and holiness. He can give it to us by His grace, if we cooperate. So the first distinguishing point is that the true Shepherd will not condone law breaking or any iniquity. All of that is another voice coming from a different place.
2. The true Shepherd will tell us to separate from all evil. We can read it from the words of the apostle Paul. We will read if right from the words of Jesus. Look at Matthew 15:14. Jesus said, "Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch." Jesus said, Let them alone. Keep separate from those who are preaching and teaching evil. The blind leaders of the blind. Jesus said, Let them alone. Keep separate from them.
Maybe we ought to read a text or two from the apostle Paul. Look what Paul said about it in II Corinthians 6:14-18. Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols. For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: 'I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.' Therefore 'come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.'"
And then look what Paul says about the last days in II Timothy 3:5. He is talking about the perilous times that will come in the last days. And he says, concerning these people in the last days, "Having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!"
He said, There will be people in the last days who will have a form of godliness. They will say, We are the church, we are the fold, come in here. They have the profession, they have the form, but they deny the power.
What does it mean to deny the power of godliness? The power of godliness, friends, is the power that Jesus promises to give you, the ability to live a new life; to give you the ability to overcome even your besetting sins. That is the power of godliness. Paul says the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. The gospel is the power of God. The power, as he explains in Romans 6 and 8, the power to live a new life.
But in the last days there will be people who will have a form of godliness but they will deny the power. The true Shepherd tells us to separate from the evil. Separate from false teachers and false teaching. I will read a statement to you from The Review and Herald, January 10, 1893. "Thank God, it is not too late for Christians to sever themselves from all unholy connections, and come fully unto the side of Christ. But while the church is to separate itself from evil-doers, to come out from among them, and be separate, and touch not the unclean, the Lord would not have His people judge and condemn others." We are not to be judging and condemning, but we are to be separate from evil.
So, (1) The true Shepherd will not condone law breaking or any iniquity; (2) The true Shepherd will tell us to separate from evil and not be part of it; (3) The true Shepherd tells His sheep that they are to disfellowship those who are living in open sin. The devil wants all the wolves in sheep's clothing to stay in the church.
Now we cannot read the heart. We are not to attempt to read the heart. A tare is a person who apparently is keeping all the commandments, apparently is true blue. But there is something in the heart that is wrong and we cannot take the tares out of the church. Only the Lord can do that. By the way, the Lord is doing that right now. The Lord does that, we do not do that.
But, if a person goes into open sin, the tare has gone to seed and when the tare has gone to seed, there is open sin and that person is to be disfellowshipped from the church. The wolf that has manifested himself, even though he is wearing sheep's clothing, he has manifested himself as a wolf, he is to be taken out of the church. He is not to be left in. You can read it in Christ's Object Lessons, 71-73.
Notice what Ellen White says about this, "When there are cases in the church which need to be dealt with decidedly, let the rule of the Bible be carried out. If the influence of erring members has an influence that corrupts others, they should be disfellowshipped; and heaven will ratify the action." Review and Herald, January 3, 1893.
So if there is open sin, the true Shepherd says, disfellowship the one who is living in open sin and who refuses to repent.
3. The true Shepherd's voice will never tell His sheep to bite, or to persecute, other sheep. That is not the true Shepherd's voice. That is another voice. The people who are involved in persecuting others with whom they do not agree, are listening to another voice, it is not the true Shepherd's voice. That is not the work that God has called His sheep to do.
4. What if the wolves in sheep's clothing take over the fold? What do you do then? By the way, that has happened several times. Did the wolves in sheep's clothing, the blind leaders of the blind, did they take over the fold in Jesus' day? Yes, they did. That is why Jesus said, Let them alone. That was not the only time.
Look in Acts 20:28-30. "Therefore take heed to yourselves [He is talking to the bishops in the Ephesus Church] and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves."
Notice, wolves in sheep's clothing are going to come into the fold. Where are they going to come? They are going to arise among the clergy, among the bishops. He is talking to bishops. He says, From among yourselves men will rise up speaking perverse things and they will draw away disciples after themselves. They will say, The fold is over here, follow me! Did that happen? Yes, that happened.
Millions of people followed into a different fold. Peter talks about it, too. Look at II Peter 2:1, This whole chapter is about this subject, about the doom of the false teachers, the depravity of the false teachers, the deceptions of the false teachers and the destructive doctrines that these false teachers will teach.
It says, "But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed." So, has it happened? Have wolves in sheep's clothing ever taken over the fold?
Well, it has happened many, many times. What do you do when that happens? Well, you do the same thing the church has always done. If you are listening to the voice of the true Shepherd-remember what the voice of the true Shepherd says. (1) You will never follow anybody to go into lawlessness, breaking God's law. That is contrary to the voice of the true Shepherd. (2) The true Shepherd always says the same thing. He will always tell you to separate from evil. Evil is breaking God's law. All unrighteousness is sin, sin is the breaking of God's law 1 John 3:4. (3) And you must disfellowship the wolves in sheep's clothing when they manifest who they are and go into open sin.
But if they have taken over the fold, then you have to get out of there. Just like God's people have had to do over and over again.
They had to do it in Jesus' time. They had to do it in the time of the apostles. They had to do it over and over again in the dark ages. They have had to do it over and over again in the times of the Reformation. Why? Because they were listening to the voice of the true Shepherd. If you are listening to the voice of the true Shepherd, you are not going to be engaging in law breaking.
You are not going to follow a multitude to do evil; you are going to separate from all evil. You are not going to condone sin in your church, in your fellowship. Oh, somebody says, they have cast you out so you are not part of the fold. Well, now this is a pretty severe charge. Am I not part of the fold? Am I not in His hand? Did somebody succeed? I have given my life to Christ; did somebody succeed in getting me out of His hand?
No, you are not out of the fold, not out of His hand. As Jesus said, My sheep, nobody can snatch them out of My hand. Nobody can take them out of My fold. This story in John 10 has a context. This story about the sheepfold and people climbing over the wall and getting in, those who are wolves in sheep's clothing, and people who actually know the shepherd's voice, this story has a context. And do you know what the context of the story is? The context of the story is found in John 9. And the story in chapter 9 is the story of the man who was born blind. Jesus healed this man who was born blind and gave him his sight on the Sabbath day. You know the story. We will not read the story, but what happened to that man because he testified to the power of Christ to heal him? Do you remember what happened?
He was thrown out. They said, We are casting you out of the fold. You are gone. We are the fold and you are outside. Today, we would say, You are disfellowshipped. They said, You were altogether born in sin. What they meant by that was that, according to their theology, since he was born blind, that meant that either he or his parents had been terrible sinners. That was their theology.
And because he had been born blind, they said, You were altogether born in sin. We were not born in sin. Do you teach us? So it says that they cast him out. They had cast him out of the fold, poor man. Now was he lost? I want to read to you what Ellen White says about this story. This is in Signs of the Times, December 4, 1893. She says, "And in no gentle manner they cast him out of the synagogue. The sheep was cast out of the fold for being a living witness to the power of Christ."
That is what they thought: We will get you out of here. We will get you out of the fold. You will be out of the church. Ellen White goes on to say, "Many have been cast out of the church [that is, what people think is the church] whose names are registered upon the Book of Life." Ibid. If your name is on the Book of Life, you are part of the fold and you are in the church, you have given yourself to the Lord.
Then she says, "Wolves in sheep's clothing were ready to cast out of the fold and devour one who was entitled to the Lord's pasture; but Jesus, the true Shepherd, sought him, and gave him a place within the fold." Ibid. Do you not like that?
By the way, have you thought that through? Did Jesus go back to Caiaphas and make arrangements so this man could get his name on the book? Caiaphas was not in the habit of listening to Jesus' orders, if you have read your Bible here. So that is not what happened.
But Jesus did not need to go to Caiaphas, because He was the head of the church. The Bible, in Ephesians 1, is very specific that He is the head of the church. Do you think He is still the head of the church? Oh, this is so wonderful! Listen, this is just one person. And Jesus had the authority.
Remember, Jesus said to him, Do you believe in the Son of God? And the man who was born blind was looking at the One who had healed him. He recognized the voice and He said to Jesus, Well, Lord, who is He so that I can believe on Him. And Jesus said, You have both seen Him and He is the one talking to you. And the man fell down and worshipped Jesus right there.
Jesus gave him a place in the fold. My friend, Jesus wants to give you a place in the fold. You do not need to worry, no human being, no group of human beings can take you out of His hand. Jesus said, Nobody can snatch one of My sheep out of My hand. They cannot snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one. You cannot take them away.
Jesus wants to give you a place in the fold. Do you want a place in His fold? Do you want to be secure? Do you want to say what that blind man said, Lord, I believe You. Then he worshipped Him and acknowledged Jesus as his Lord and Saviour?
Do you want to do that? Jesus will give you a place in the fold. You do not need to worry. The papacy cannot take you out. The General Conference cannot take you out. No Conference Church or Committee or anybody can take you out. If Jesus gives you a place in the fold, nobody can take you out.
People can vote to shove you out and you may look like you are all alone, but you are still in the fold. You are still in the fold! Jesus will give you a place in the fold and nobody can snatch you out of His hand. You will be eternally secure as long as you are willing to obey His law, to follow Him and to do His will. Nobody can take you out.
If you are willing to separate yourself from iniquity, lawlessness, and evil, and obey and follow the Lord, He will put you in His hand. And nobody will be able to take you out of His hand. Do you want to be in that place of security? Let us pray that we will have this experience. We need security today and the Lord wants to give it to you and He wants you to know that you have it. |