“I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.” (John 10:11-15 NASB1995)
A shepherd, in this context, is not speaking of someone who
looks after literal physical sheep, and the sheep being spoken of here are not
literal physical sheep like you would find at a farm or at a zoo. For this is
speaking on a spiritual level of our shepherd, Jesus Christ, who cares for and
who looks after his sheep, i.e. those who have trusted in him to be Lord and
Savior of their lives, who have died with Christ to sin, and who have been
raised with Christ to live no longer as slaves to sin, but as slaves to God.
Now Jesus Christ, the second person of our triune God –
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – left his throne in heaven, came to earth, was
born as a baby to a human mother, a virgin, but was conceived of the Holy
Spirit and not of man. So he was not born with a sin nature as we are, and he
never once sinned. He was perfectly sinless in all that we was and did and
said. And while he lived on the earth he ministered to both the physical and
the spiritual needs of the people, teaching repentance and obedience to God.
And because he spoke the truth that many did not want to
hear, his own people, even some of his own family, and the rulers in the temple
and in the synagogues, and all who followed after them, they hated him, and
they wanted him dead. So some of them plotted and had carried out his death on
a cross. But in his death, he put our sins to death with him so that, by faith
in him, we will now die to sin and live to God and to his righteousness in
walks of obedience to his commands, in surrender to the will of God.
So, all those who, by faith in Jesus, have died with Christ
to sin, and who are now walking (in conduct, in practice) in obedience to his
commands, are his sheep. And all those who profess faith in Jesus Christ with
their lips, but who have continued to make sin their practice, and not
obedience to our Lord and to his commands, they are not his sheep. For faith in
Jesus is shown, not by lip service, but by what we do in love response to
Christ in following him in walks of obedience to his commands in living holy
lives, pleasing to God.
Sadly, that is not “the gospel” that is being so popularized
today in the USA, and perhaps in other nations, as well. What is so largely
being accepted as the gospel of salvation today is that all we have to do is to
pray a prayer to “receive Christ,” or to confess him as the Lord and to believe
in his bodily resurrection, or to merely acknowledge his physical death and
resurrection, and now that means we are saved for eternity, and heaven is now
our eternal destiny, regardless of how we live or how we treat God after that.
But it is these “hired hands” (many pastors) who are the
ones who are spreading these lies, convincing so many people that heaven is
their destiny, when in truth that is a bold-faced lie from hell. They are the
ones deserting the people and leaving them to the wolves when they convince
them to believe the lies and to reject the truth, and to follow a gospel of the
flesh and not the gospel that Jesus gave his life up for on that cross. But we
need to follow the gospel that Jesus, our shepherd, taught his sheep.
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).
For 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).
So, don’t follow the “hired hands” who are feeding you lies,
who are handing you over to the wolves to devour you. Follow the Good Shepherd,
Jesus Christ, and follow His teachings, taught in their appropriate context.
For many lies stem from Scriptures taught out of context which are being made
to teach what they do not teach if taught in the correct context. So don’t rely
on humans to tell you the truth. Study the Scriptures in their context, know
the truth, live the truth, die to sin, and obey God with your lives.
[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.
The Good Shepherd vs The Hired Hands
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