“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” (John 10:1-5 NASB1995)
Who are these thieves and robbers and strangers Jesus spoke
of here? Some of them are pastors of “churches,” and teachers of the
Scriptures, and “Christian” book authors, and evangelists, and many who profess
faith in Jesus Christ with their lips but whose hearts are far from God and who
are teaching a false gospel of human flesh and not of God. They are within the
gatherings of the church, the body of Christ, but they did not enter by way of
the cross of Christ, by death to sin, and by walks of obedience to God.
For they are teaching a very diluted and altered gospel
message intended to tickle itching ears and to not offend sinful flesh. They
are teaching that all we have to do is to “pray a prayer to receive Christ” or
to acknowledge that Jesus Christ was our sin offering for us on that cross, and
that he rose from the dead, and now we are saved for eternity and heaven is our
eternal destiny. And not only do they not mention the necessity of death to sin
and obedience to God, but they say that no works are required of us by God.
But that is a lie of Satan who wants all people believing
the lie so that they will join him in hell on the false promise of eternity in
heaven with Christ/God. Generation upon generation, the people of this world
have been fed this “cheap grace” gospel of human flesh, promising so many
people that heaven is their eternal destiny based on a profession of faith in
Jesus Christ or a mere acknowledgement of what they have been told he did for
us on that cross, but with no repentance and obedience required.
So, if we are Jesus’ true sheep (his true followers), we
will not listen to these voices which are saying that all we have to do is to pray
a prayer to receive Christ and now we are good to go to heaven, no works
required by God. But we will listen to the true Shepherd of the Sheep, Jesus
Christ, who is also the door into a genuine faith relationship with him and to salvation
from sin and to eternal life with God. And we will listen to the teachings of
the New Testament apostles who taught the gospel of Christ in truth.
For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny
self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if
we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity.
But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience
to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with
God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew
7:21-23).
By God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own
doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to
walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as
slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s commands. We are no
longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires.
For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is
what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with
God (see Romans 6:1-23).
And we learn in 1 John 1-3 that if we claim that we have
fellowship with God, but yet we walk in the darkness (sin), we are liars. And
if we claim that we know God, but we do not obey his commandments, in practice,
we are liars. For it is not the one who claims he is “in Christ” who is “in
Christ,” but it is the one who has denied self, died with Christ to sin, and
who is now walking in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, and no longer
in sin, who has the hope and the promise of eternal life with God in heaven.
So, don’t believe the lies. All of us are going to have to
stand before God one day and he is going to judge us, not by what we profess
with our lips, but by our deeds, by what we do. All those who have given lip
service to God only, but who continued in deliberate and habitual sin, and not
in walks of obedience to God, they will not inherit eternal life with God. All
those who, by faith in Christ, died to sin, and are walking in obedience to the
Lord, in practice, will have salvation from sin and eternal life with God.
[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John
6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1
Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32;
Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 12:1-2;
1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]
My Sheep
Based off John 10:1-30 NIV
An Original Work / June 24, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
My sheep hear me.
They know me.
They listen to my
voice and obey.
I call them and lead
them.
They know my voice,
so they follow me.
They will never
follow strangers.
They will run away
from them.
The voice of a
stranger they know not;
They do not follow
him.
So, I tell you the
truth that
I am the gate, so
you enter in.
Whoever does enter
Will find
forgiveness and will be saved.
Nonetheless whoever
enters
Not by the gate;
other way,
He is the thief and
a robber.
Listen not, the
sheep to him.
Oh, I am the Good
Shepherd,
Who laid his own
life down for the sheep.
I know them. They
know me.
They will live with
me eternally.
The thief only comes
to steal and
Kill and to destroy
the church.
I have come to give
you life that
You may have it to
the full…
They know my voice,
so they follow me.
By Some Other Way
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