Listen to this Class: 07142013John10.26-29DonRuhl

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Our Security in Christ 

John 10.26–29

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • July 14, In the year of our Lord, 2013

 

  1. The Meaning of John 10.26–29 
    1. Read it to find out what it means.
    2. Try to keep from saying what it does not mean.

      26 “But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 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 (John 10.26–29).

      1. What did Jesus mean in verse 26?
      2. What does it take to be one of the sheep of Jesus?
  2. Notice the Emphasis

    26 “But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 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” (John 10.27–29).
  3. Salvation and Spiritual Security 
    1. Possibility of falling is not the topic.
    2. Our salvation and spiritual security are the topics.
    3. His sheep:
      1. Keep on hearing
      2. Keep on following
    4. Therefore, He keeps on knowing them.
    5. With those conditions in place,
      1. Satan and no man or anything can overpower Jesus or the Father and
      2. snatch His sheep out of His hand.
        1. According to verse 29, why can no one snatch His sheep from Him?
        2. How does that affect you?
          1. If we overemphasize the possibility of falling away,
          2. we will miss this comforting truth.
    6. Compare the following:

      4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1Jo 5.4, 5).

      31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:

      “For Your sake we are killed all day long;
      We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

      37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8.31–39).

      24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (John 5.24).

      51 “Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death” (John 8.51).

      1. This is the point of Hebrews 11 and the Book of Revelation.
      2. Let us seek to know what these passages mean, not what they do not mean.

        “Jesus did not make these statements for us to know what they do not mean” (Troy Cummings, Comments and Questions on John 10.26–29).

        1. If Jesus did not say these things for us to know what they do not mean,
        2. why then did He make them?
    7. Consider First John 1.5–10,

      5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us (1Jo 1.5–10).

      1. John warned of sin, but
      2. joyfully told us how to keep on being cleansed of our sin.
        1. The child of God sins, but
        2. if he or she keeps on walking in the light,
          1. that child of God experience cleansing.
          2. Yet, we fear that every sin takes us out of His cleansing blood.
            1. Think of walking in His steps, but
            2. we occasionally step outside to them.
              1. Are we no longer following Him when we misstep or trip?
              2. No, we have not gone astray or gone our own way, but
                1. we continue with Him in our feebleness and
                2. His blood continues to cleanse us.
      3. James 1 reveals where the problem occurs,

        14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death (Jam 1.14, 15).

      4. However, our missteps along the way do not fit this passage.
  4. Obedient Hearing 
    1. Did Jesus in John 10, mean hearing alone?
    2. James 1 should answer that question,

      17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. 18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. 19 So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; 20 for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does (Jam 1.17–25).

    3. We can know that we know Jesus and have inward peace and confidence,

      3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him (1Jo 2.3, 4).