Turn to John chapter ten and verse twenty-seven. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them to them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck their mouth of my hand. My father, which gave them me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hands. I and my father are one. I want to speak on this same verses we spoke on last week. Last week we were speaking on twelve things relative to the shepherd. We'll not go over them again, but those of you who are here will recall the twelve things we said characteristic of the Lord Jesus as the shepherd. We want to notice seven things that are characteristic of the sheep. You know, a sheep is a dumb animal. Makes you wonder why the Lord should select a sheep. Well, the reason he did is because it illustrates a human being. All we like sheep have gone astray. Now, I've known animals, cats and dogs that have been lost, and have come twenty-five miles home. How they got there, we never know, but I've heard of it in my life. They seem to have an instinct. I know pigeons, I used to have them myself, and they used to send them as far away as Chicago, four hundred and some miles, seventy-some miles, and they'd come home. Not all of them. They seem to have that instinct, but somehow the sheep doesn't. It doesn't have that instinct. It seems to wander further away from home. Strange, isn't it? Well, God is using this stupid animal to illustrate what man is. He's stupid. Well, you say, I don't like that. Well, you just have to accept that God says that I didn't. So here we have God likening man unto sheep. Mr. Linsdale, a preacher I know out of Wichita, Kansas. He labors a lot among the farmers. And he tells this little incident. He went out to a farm one day to see a farmer who was a Christian. He had a large flock of sheep. But he said he was going through the sheep. And now and again he'd grab one and throw it on its haunchers. And then he'd start clipping the wool away from its size. And he wanted to know why the farmer was doing this. Well, this doesn't have to do with all. But he said some sheep have a tendency to have wool. cover their eyes. I've seen some dogs that way. And he said, we clipped that wool away because he said they can't see where they're going. And he said, if a coyote or some animal was to come up, they wouldn't see it. They can't find the best pasture, so he said, we clipped the wool from their eyes. And some individuals have some wool over their eyes, sinners. They just can't see the seed. Now the Bible says, something similar to this. The god in this age, Satan, has blinded the minds of them that believe not the gospel, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them, and they should be saved. The devil has attacked. He has a way of blinding people, pulling the wool over their eyes. telling them they're good enough to go to heaven just as they join the church and do their best, they'll get there somehow, trying to pull the wool over people's eyes, telling them that just have a good time, leave that business of getting saved to a later day. You've got lots of time. He's pulling the wool over your eyes, and one could go on and mention a number of things that the devil uses to keep people from seeing God's salvation properly and clearly. And so man is likened unto a sheep. Those of us who are saved, we could say once we wanted, but we don't want anymore, for the Lord is my shepherd. Why should I want when the shepherd is my shepherd? He knows everything. He possesses everything. He can do everything. Why should I worry? The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not walk. And so once we wanted, and once we wandered, all of us who are saved this morning, remember the days when we wandered. That's what the sheep do. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. That too you've turned your way. And it says all we like sheep. every human being in some way or another until they find Christ who is the way, they've gone astray. Some one way and some another way, but they've gone every way except the right way to Christ. They've gone away. Yes, that's true of everyone before they're saved. They're wandering. Loss, helpless, and undone. He has come to seek and to say that which was lost. And we are helpless, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us. And so we're wanting. If you're not a Christian this morning, you're wanting. There's something you lack. You lack real peace. You lack real joy. You lack real security. There is something you lack. That's why a lot of people seem somewhat disconcerted regarding this life, disappointed. They don't know what they want. They've tried this, they've tried everything, practically, and they're not satisfied. And, friend, you never will be satisfied when you come to know practice. Now none but Christ can satisfy him another name for me. There's love, there's life, there's lasting joy. Lord Jesus found in need, and only in So once we wander, but when you claim Christ as your Savior, you don't wander anymore. A person who's wandering around lost, he doesn't know where he is. But when you have Christ, you do know where you are. You're on the narrow way that leadeth unto life. The Lord Jesus speaks of his sheep in three ways. He says, My sheep, hear my voice. My sheep, that's ownership. He's bought them. My sheep, we belong to him. There's no question about that. My sheep speaks of ownership, bought with precious blood. He says, I know them. He knows every one of them. He knows our state. He knows our ways. The foundation of God stand to the sure of the Lord knoweth them that are his. Many times I've been asked the question, do you think so-and-so is a Christian? I have to hesitate. A big question mark. Their life doesn't correspond to their testimony. But I know one thing the Lord knows. The foundation of God stands assured the Lord knows them that are his. He knows every one. And he says the third thing, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. That means security. These are the three things the good shepherd does. I hope that you know something by experience of what these things refer to. What are some of the marks or characteristics of this sheep? First thing they come to them. They come to him. The shepherd calleth his sheep, and he comes to the shepherd. He's calling you. You're a lost sheep. You're a wandering sheep. You don't know where you're going. And the Lord is trying to get your attention. He's calling you by the gospel, and he wants you to come. And when you is a poor, lost, helpless, wandering, stupid sinner, come to Christ. Then you'll be saved, and only then. Not a case of trying to work your way to heaven, or pay your way to heaven, or pray your way to heaven. Just come to Christ, and He will save you, and give you everlasting life. She says, I know them, and we know him. The sheep come to him, and they know the shepherd. That's how Psalm sharks out, the Lord is my shepherd. My shepherd. He is mine, and I am his, forever and forever. How wonderful to know that. That Christ is mine, and I am his. He is my shepherd, and I am his sheep. Now, the Bible gives you authority to say that. I wonder if you this morning can say he is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. I told this a number of years ago. I wasn't going to tell it again, but it just popped into my mind. Years ago, I was working in Winston-Salem, having meetings. I was living with Mrs. Griffin, rented a room there. Mrs. Griffin came in one day and she said, Brother Wilson, would you mind visiting an old lady next door, Mrs. Johnson? He says she's blind. I've been blind for forty years. And he said, she said, this morning when a window's clear, she said, she asked me a question. She said, who is that that goes down your driveway, the driveway between the two homes? Who is that? She said, every night when he goes down to get his car, he's whistling at him. And then when he puts his car in and comes out, she said, he's whistling at him then. She said, you know, I've got to the point, now I can't go to sleep till I hear that second hymn. And she said, I enjoy it. There she's blind in the dark. And she asked me today if you'd go in and visit us. I said, I'd be glad to. So I went in the next day, told her who I was, and then she told me how she enjoyed whistling, my whistling, the hymns. And after a little chat with her, I said, would you like me to read something from the Bible? She said, I would. Do you have a favorite passage? Yes, she said. The twenty-third sound. So when I read it through, when I finished, I said, you know, Mrs. Johnson, there are people who know this Psalm by heart. They can recite it. They don't know the first two words by experience. She said, what do you mean? She said, I've been knowing that all my life. But I said, do you know the first two words by experience the Lord? The Lord is my shepherd. She said, what do you mean by that? I said, do you really know Christ as your personal Savior? Has there been a time in your life when you as a lost sinner accepted Christ as your personal Savior, and you could say he's mine? This past week I'm in the hospital to see Darlene Sinskis. Well, we all go to a couple to come out here. They were going to adopt a child for several years, and decided to move from the river out here where they were flooded almost every year. They thought we won't adopt a child. I bring it out here. Too dangerous. So they moved across to... And to their surprise, they were going to have a child of their own. I went in to see them. An eight-pound baby girl. Well, I said, Tom, and Sally, and you wanted to adopt a child, didn't you? Yeah, we did. We... and some selected foster you might adopt. But I said, if you had, it wouldn't have been your child. But you can look at this little girl and say, She's mine. She's mine. She's part of me. And I'm part of her. I said, isn't that God's salvation? You can look at that little baby and say, she's mine. And friend, when you know Christ, you can say he's mine. He is mine. He's part of me. Christ didn't be the hope of glory. I'm part of him. I'm in Christ. That's what the Bible says. Do you know this morning by experience that Christ is mine? You can't adopt Christianity. You've got to be born into it. And Christ comes into your heart. And so I said to Mrs. Johnson, David the Gospel, And after a while, tears ran down from her sightless eyes. She said, I've been a member of the church for forty years, and I didn't know Jesus Christ was mine till this moment. And I took her funeral a couple of years later. Yes, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not walk. How nice to say he's mine. And they hear his voice. My sheep hear my voice, calling them by name. He mentioned this last week. This past we got a reading about a preacher who was moved to a certain place to take over a pastorate right near a big iron foundry. And so he heard that one of his members, at least around the church register, worked in that foundry and he went and he asked for this man. The girl says, we don't name our employees by their name. We just give them a number. They have a number. The Lord's people don't just have a number. They have a name. Did you think of calling your children one, two, ten, twelve? No, the Lord calls your children by a name. He knows them. He knows their name. Isn't it nice? And as knowing his name, he knows our name, and we know him, we hear his voice. We love him. The fourth thing. We love him because he first loved us. Before I was saved, I'd brought up in a Christian home. I knew the gospel from the time I was well as long as I can remember. My mother poured the gospel into my ear and heart right from the time I was a little fellow. I knew it. But at the age of nineteen, I got saved. My own father led me to the Lord. I feared the Lord. I reverenced him. I respected the Lord Jesus and the Bible. But I didn't love him. I feared him that I wasn't saved. But the night I accepted Christ on May the third, nineteen twenty-five, at quarter past nine on the Sunday evening, When I accepted Christ as my Savior for the first time in my life, I loved them. I didn't love them before. I didn't have the capacity to. For the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit is love. And not till the Spirit of God comes into your heart can you say you really love him. We love him because he first loved us. And you don't love Christ until you know him, as you say. Then you'll love him. He's worthy of your love. And they trust him. Sheep, whether she danger approaching, or they hear the howl of a animal. They look to the shepherd. He's the only one that can deliver him. And friends, we trust him. in life's troubles and trials and testing is the only one we can trust, truly trust. Don't put all your faith and confidence in the arm of men, but in him. Yes, she's the one. And she trusts us. Christians are to trust them from day to day. And they follow him. Do we? He's given us the path in his word. Do we really follow them? You know, there are two marks of a sheep that sets it aside from that of other animals, like a pig. In the Old Testament, God says that the clean animal is to chew the cud and to divide the roots. Well, the Christian is washed in the blood of Christ, and you have his chewing the cud feeding on the Word of God and the divided group. There you have a separate walk. But the Lord also, this is another one of our faculty, the ear. He wants our ear, and he wants our feet. Yeah, he says, My sheep hear my voice. They follow me. There's our feet. And so he wants us to be sheep who hear his voice from day to day as we read the Scriptures, and we follow him. And don't tell me that the Lord led you into that saloon. He didn't do any such thing, because he's not going in there. We follow him, and he'll only lead you in the right path. He leaded me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. And it says a stranger will they not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers. A lot of people are following strangers. not the good shepherds. Now, I mentioned some of the names. They're strangers, and beware of them. I could mention Joseph Smith, who started the Mormon Church. No true born-again Christian will follow that stranger. If you're born again, you can't fall for that stuff. A Mary Baker Eddy. No born-again Christian will follow that. She's a stranger to grace than to God. Armstrongism. No. No born-again Christian will swallow that. They know not the voice of a stranger. She could also go on to Rutherfordism. Judge Rutherford, born back further past the Russell, who started Jehovah's Witnesses. I don't see how a born-again Christian could follow that stranger. They know not the voice of a stranger. If you follow the Lord, you're going to get caught up in these modern cults like the Korean moon. A lot of people are, but I don't think a true child of God will. If he's reading the Bible and saying in touch with the Lord, he'll not follow these strangers. Who do we follow? A man who believes in the complete inerrancy of the Word of God, the Bible is inspired of God. I believe it all. Man's total depravity. Man cannot save himself. He's got to be born again by the Spirit of God. The virgin birth. That's another thing a true follower of Christ will believe. Also his blood atonement, regeneration by the Holy Spirit. And his resurrection, his bodily resurrection. And his coming again. Heaven and heaven. These strangers don't believe these things. But this is what the true shepherd believes, and the sheep hear his voice and mouth. They believe these things. The last thing about the sheep, the seventh, they look for him. They look for him. Unto them that look for him, shall he appear without sin unto salvation. The Thessalonians were wonderful Christians, wonderful sheep, they turn to God from idle to serve the living and the true God and to wait for His Son from heaven. That's a good characteristic of a sheep that's following the Lord. He's waiting for the shepherd's return. I think when we spoke on the Twenty-third Psalm many, many years ago, we pointed out this, that when a shepherd has a flock of sheep, and he's had them for years. If that shepherd dies, take all the sheep to the slaughterhouse, they'll never follow another shepherd. Their shepherd's gone. They'll no longer follow another. If Jesus Christ died and never rose, God's people might as well go to the slaughterhouse as far as spiritual things are concerned. but our shepherd lives. He's at God's right hand, and so he ever lives, and because he lives, we live also, and because he lives, we're waiting for him to come back. He, as the good shepherd, lay down his life for the sheep, he as the great shepherd is at God's right hand, and as the chief shepherd, he's coming. And here's a wonderful characteristic of a true Christian, looking for the coming again. of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here are these seven marks and characteristics of a true sheep. You know, this passage we read is the strongest passage in the Bible guaranteeing absolute security for the child of God. I give unto my sheep eternal like they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My father which gave them is greater than all, and no one is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. I and my father are one. Isn't that remarkable? It's like a seven-strand rule. We are Christ's sheep. He will care for his own, and he will not let the devil give us. That's a good strand. The sheep follow Christ, and they will reach heaven, because that's where he's gone. He, the forerunner, hath for us entered. He is the forerunner of the flock. He is the first sheep. Christ the first sheep. Afterwards they there are Christ that is coming. That wonderful harvest of ripened grain. The first sheep. Ah, yes, there he is at God's right hand. He said to the Father, a big harvest just like me are coming. And when the Lord returns they will be caught up to meet him in the air. And the very fact that the Lord Jesus, the good shepherd, is in heaven, is a guarantee that every one of his sheep will be there. He said concerning Judas, he says, None of them is lost, save the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. He went to his own place, and his own place was hanged. None of God's sheep will perish. Christ says so. A lot of empty professors will perish, goats will perish, but not sheep. Another thing, he gives his sheep eternal life, and anything that is eternal, never ends. I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Eternal life is given to them. I give unto them eternal life. They do nothing to get it, except Christ, except Christ. And if they accept Christ as their savior, they cannot lose him once they've received him. That's what he says. I give unto my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish. How are you going to get around it? The Lord Jesus says that you'll never perish. And if any man tells me that you will perish, you're making Jesus Christ a liar. But he says you never will. And I prefer to take his word for it, just right here in black and white. And he also says, Nothing can pluck them out of my hand. The devil may annoy a Christian, try and trip them up, for there's one thing the devil can't do, and that is take me out of the hand of Jesus Christ. In fact, I'm part of his hand. I'm part of his body. The Bible says that. how secure. And then he goes on to say, further, nothing can pluck them out of my father's hand. You're not going to get out of my hand, and you're not going to get out of my father's hand. My father's greater than I. You'll have to find a force, a power in this world that's greater than God's in order to be lost. And you can't find a power or a force greater than God's. How safe a born-again Christian is. Your life is hid with Christ in God. You read that in Colossians, three, three, or three, four, I think it is. Your life is hid with Christ in God. Your money is in the bank. Yes, it's in the vault, and the vault is in the bank. I am in Christ. and Christ is in heaven. That's how secure I am. Your life is hid with Christ in God, and whatever God hides, I'll challenge the devil to find him. Your life is hid with Christ in God. Friend, you're safe if you've been born again. Now, that's what your Bible says. I think of There was a strange and sad thing happening. Talking about sheep, here was a black sheep. A young man, by the name of George Thiefing, left Scotland. A little town called Pife in Scotland. And he came to Canada. He had been a drunk over there. And he had a lovely family, godly family. But he left for Canada, hoping he could start life anew. Short life over again. Over again. But sad to say, he got in with the wrong crowd. The result was he wasted all his substance, like the prodigal, in riotous living. He just took his fling again to get in with this crowd, and he drank this aroused, and finally, one cool morning, his body was picked up at the roadside. Some life was in him, but he'd gone too far, and he died. When news reached the little town, where he came from, there was a lot of grief in that family. But his youngest sister, Elizabeth Cecilia, his youngest sister was just about to celebrate her twenty-first birthday when the news came of her brother's death. She took it... harder than all the rest. She loved him, although he was, the black sheep of the family. But the good news and bad letters came. Some were saying he was a good boy, he was a kind boy, and others were telling the black side. And through it all, she somehow had the conviction that before her brother breathed this blast, he trusted the Savior. She had no real evidence for it. But hope is the last thing that dies in a human dress. And she just hoped that her girl, in fact, she almost came out and said, he is in heaven. Such was her conviction and her unpulsed increase. Whether God encouraged it or not, I don't know. But she fashioned her conviction in the writing of a poem. in order to comfort her whole heart, she wrote this poem. She locked it in her desk, and in eighteen sixty-nine of forty-three years of age she died. Five years later, that poem was discovered. How it was discovered, I do not know, but it was discovered, and it was printed in the corner of the newspaper, one of the Glasgow newspapers. And as it happened, Moody and Sanky, and that's just like Billy Graham and Deb Shea today, Moody was the great evangelist, and Sanky was his great soloist and organist. They were leaving Glasgow. They had meetings. They were going to Edinburgh. And Sanky bought the paper at the station that morning in Glasgow. And as he was reading the paper, his eye caught, this poem. And he clipped it out, and he put it in his scrapbook, a little scrapbook he took. With him. Well, he got started in their campaign in Edinburgh. And dear Moody preached about the good shepherd, who giveth his life for the sheep. Heavenly God was there that morning when Moody preached. And after he got through, he turned to Horatius Bolus, a great preacher who says, Brother Bona, will you say a few words? And Brother Bona did. And then Moody turned to Sancti. He said, have you got a hymn appropriate to the message? Sancti lifted his heart immediately to God and pulled out the little scrapbook he had. And he set that poem in front of him. And he never knew the truth. He composed it as he went along, and he sang that beautiful hymn. You'll find it in many of our hymnals. Any major hymnal has it in. And here is a poem, a song, with the very same tune that Sankey sang it. Ah, yes, it found its way not only into hymnals, but into the hearts of many black sheep and got them to Christ. What was that poem that broken-hearted young girl wrote about her brother? Here it is. There were ninety and nine that Satan lay in the shelter of the foes, but one was out on the hills away, far off from the gates of gold, away on the mountains, wild and bare, away from the shepherds' tender care, away from the shepherd's tender care. Lord, thou hast here thy ninety and nine, a vein of enough for thee. But the shepherd may answer, This of mine has wandered away from thee. And although the road be rough and strong, I go to the desert and find my sheep. But none of the ransomed ever knew how deep when the waters caught, How dark was the night that the Lord found the pastor who had he found that sheep that was lost. Out of the desert he heard his cry, sick and helpless and ready to die. Sick and helpless and ready to die. Lord, whence are those blood drops all the way that mark out the mountain's track they were shed for one who had gone astray, ere the shepherd could bring them back. Lord, quench our thy hands so red and torn. They are pierced tonight by many a thorn. They are pierced tonight by many a thorn. Hot, all through the mountains, thunder-ribbon, and up from the rocky steep there arose a glad cry to the gates of heaven. Rejoice! I have found my ship. The angels echoed around the throne. Rejoice, for the Lord brings back his own. Rejoice, for the Lord brings back his own. That hymn is the outcome of that sad and tragic experience of a black sheep, a young man who went astray, and a devoted sister. who in the grief of her heart she wrote those words and sank he put the two. Maybe there's a lost sheep here this morning, a black lost sheep. You've wandered far away from God. Will you say, now I'm coming home? Towers of sin I long have trodden. Now I'm coming home. The good shepherd is seeking you He laid down His light for you. He shed His blood for you. And He wants to save you. And He's calling it. Gently, humbly, tenderly, lovingly. He's calling it. Poor wandering sheep. I wonder if this hymn and the language of it will find an echo in your heart to a good shepherd who loves you. He wants the Savior. And you have been wandering and straying all these years. Your life's a blank, up to now. If you were to come to Christ and accept Him as your Savior and become one of His Seek, your life would begin this morning. Begin for God. The past forgot. The present begun. A new creature in Christ Jesus. To be able to look up this morning and say, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not walk. I'll not want in time. I'll not want in death. I'll not want in eternity. Because The Lord is my shepherd. When you accept him this morning, will you trust him? Will you say he's mine? All mine? Always mine? He will be. He can't deny himself. He'll never lie. If he saves you this morning, you'll be saved for eternity. The Bible said it. I believe it. When I got saved, as I mentioned a while ago, I knew that night, peace came into my heart. I had the consciousness of sins forgiven. I've never doubted my salvation from thens and up. No, I haven't been perfect. I know I've pleased my Lord. I know I've said things, thought things I wished I hadn't, not to a major proportion. But we have thought sometimes we shouldn't have any thought of foolishness and sin. But I want to say this. When he saved me, I knew then I was sick forever. And I had no doubt about it, sir. I'm his. and he is mine, forever and forever. That glorious bond between the shepherd and the sheep. We'll do this morning, thought Christ. You know the goats mingle with the sheep. And there are congregations today, some big, some small, and the goats are mingling with the sheep. The goats are the professors. Those who profess to be a Christian but whose lives are mine. Will you become a true child of God? Will you open your heart? Will you receive Christ? Will you receive him now and save from your heart? He's mine. The Lord is my son. Oh, come wandering sheep. Black sheep may be, but come. Come now. Accept Christ. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus, we commend to thy presence. We ask thy blessing on thy holy word. We thank thee for the story we have to tell. The most glorious story this side of heaven. Oh, we thank thee for the gospel. And we do pray that someone here this morning who has been wandering, stray, lost, who we pray. one or more will come to the Savior today. What rejoicing there will be in heaven for there is joy in the presence of the angel of God over one sinner of repentance. For the ninety-nine that receive not repentance. Oh God, be happy to bless thy word here in our Savior's precious name. Amen. How we sing Three-seven-three. Three-seven-three is very familiar, but you know it. And if you believe it as you sing it, you shall be saved. Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me. That thou didst me come to thee, the shepherd is calling. And if you from your heart say, O Lamb of God, I come. I come, he won't turn you down. If he turns you down to be the first one he's turned down in nineteen hundred years, he says, I no wise will cast out him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise under no circumstance cast you down, or turn you away. I'll receive you. Proven this morning, and he'll save you then. Shall we stand?