You turn in your Bibles, please, to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. We're gonna start there. And that's the basic passage of scripture for this evening. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your Holy Spirit who leads us and guides us into all truth. We pray that you would help us to learn the things that he has for us this evening. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. I read a book by a fellow named Philip Keller, and the name of the book is Psalms 23. The gentleman had been a shepherd in the Middle East for a number of years, and he is a Christian. And he has in his book an illustration, he said, all of the shepherds can take their sheep to the watering hole at the same time. So there can be like 10 flocks of sheep there while they are all watered. And when the shepherd is ready to leave, He gives a command to his sheep and he walks away down the trail. And all of his sheep follow him. None of the rest of the sheep of none of the rest of the shepherds follow the wrong shepherd. And you know, that's the way it is with the Lord Jesus Christ. God calls us sheep. Now, none of us are really sheep, okay? We're people, and we all understand that. And Jesus is a shepherd, but he is also God. And Jesus was talking to his disciples in chapter 10, and we're just gonna look at this one aspect, the voice of the shepherd. Sometimes people say, how do you know that you're really a Christian? How do you know that you're really saved? And here's a really short question that demands a really short answer. And the answer is either yes or no. Do you hear the shepherd's voice? Do you hear the shepherd's voice? And if you do, you're one of his sheep. one of the children of God. If you don't hear his voice, you're not one of his sheep. And that's what we're gonna look at this evening. John chapter 10 in verse three, to him the porter, that's the gatekeeper. There's a gatekeeper for the fold of the sheep, and he has called in this verse a porter, openeth, and the sheep, notice the phrase, hear his voice. Notice the passage of scripture does not say maybe the sheep will hear his voice. Sometimes the sheep hear his voice. It doesn't say sometimes. They get confused when they hear the shepherd's voice, and they're not sure where it's coming from. That's not what it says. It says, the sheep hear his voice. And he calleth his own sheep by name, and he leadeth them out. So when the good shepherd calls, and Jesus calls himself in this chapter, the good shepherd, when he calls, we as his sheep, as his children, we hear his voice. We know what he's saying. We know where the voice is coming from. We know where his leadership is going to lead us. because we love him and trust him. And when he put forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him." Notice again the phrase, for they know his voice. Did anybody ever call you on the phone and right away you know their voice, right? Sometimes you don't know their voice. Sometimes when people call and they say, this is Faith Baptist Church, and Mel's like, on my file, I have a whole bunch of faith Baptist churches. Or they might even say, this is Grace Baptist Church. And I'm like, I've got a whole bunch of those on my file too. Suppose Pastor Hockey calls me. He doesn't have to say, this is Pastor Hockey, and he doesn't have to say Grace Baptist Church. You know why? Because I know his voice. Right? You have a lot of friends that you know their voice. They don't have to call and whenever, The phone is answered. They don't have to tell you who they are because you recognize their voice. We are supposed to recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd. And when we are his children, we know that voice. Notice it says, the sheep follow him for they know his voice. The same as you know the voice of your friends who call you on the phone. Of course, we don't call on the phone now, we just text. But they know your voice when you're talking. If my brother calls me, I know his voice. If my sister calls me, she doesn't say, this is Lorraine, Mel, your sister. She doesn't have to do that, okay? And same thing for you. And the same thing should be true for us when the good shepherd's voice is speaking to us, we should know his voice. My sheep hear my voice. See that? Again, you know, Jesus was wearing this thing out, wasn't it? My sheep hear my voice. And I know them, and they follow me. It's not just enough to hear the voice, but we need to be following the instructions that come from the voice. Because they're instruction from God. They're instructions from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd. And we, as his children, as his sheep, because we know his voice, we follow those instructions. Suppose a stranger calls God's sheep, and strangers are calling for God's sheep to lead them astray, to lead them into destruction. It says a stranger, will they not follow? Philip Keller, who wrote the book, A Good Shepherd, said, He had never had, in all his time of working sheep, somebody else's sheep follow his sheep. It never happened. So here we have a kind of person called a stranger. When the sheep hear the voice of the stranger, do they follow the stranger or do they flee from the stranger? The Bible says, but will flee from him. Why? Because they know not the voice of strangers. You get telemarketing calls on the phone, right? How many of you never get telemarketing? Hold on. Okay. Do you know that person's voice? No, you don't know who they are. You say, who are you? What are you trying to sell? What do you want me to buy? What do you want me to do? You know, you're asking all kinds of questions because you don't recognize the voice. The Bible says there are strangers calling to God's sheep. And the strangers want God's sheep to follow them. But the Bible says God's sheep don't follow strangers. They don't know the voice of the stranger. It doesn't sound like the voice of the good shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ at all. So they're not gonna go there. He said, that's a strange voice. That's a strange place to follow. That's wrong. There's something gotta be wrong here. Cause it's not the voice of my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. The Bible says, all that came before me are thieves and robbers. There are thieves and robbers trying to get God's sheep. trying to get the attention of God's people. The thieves and robbers want people to listen to them. Now, it's real easy to figure out what a thief and robber wants to do, right? Suppose a thief called you up at your house or place of residence and said, hello, I'm the local neighborhood thief, and I would like to come to your place and rob your place. And you say, well, come right ahead. I'm glad to let you in. No. You know what you do? You load the gun and wait for him to walk away. And you nail him right quick. You know why? You know what he's up to, don't you? He's a thief. He's a robber. He wants to take everything you've got out of your house. He wants to clean the place out. Notice again, it says, the sheep do not hear the voice of thieves and robbers. It amazes me today sometimes when I see God's people entertaining thieves and robbers, inviting them quote unquote in, giving them a hearing, saying, well, I'll think about that. And no, we don't think about that. The sheep do not hear thieves and robbers. We have three kinds of people talked about so far. We have strangers. thieves, and robbers, who also have voices that are calling to God's sheep. But the Bible clearly, very clearly says that God's sheep don't listen to these kind of people, okay? They're off, because as soon as we hear them, because we know the voice of the Good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, the voice of the stranger, the thieves, and the robbers are like, whoa, no way, they're wrong. I'm going to get hurt if I go there. The thief cometh not but for to steal, to kill, and destroy. That's what these strangers, thieves, and robbers do in your life. They're not coming to help you out. Now they may tell you that they've come to help you out, okay? You know, like help you out of your money, help you out of your position in life, help you out of your usefulness to God, I'm gonna help you out. No, they come to steal, to kill and destroy. Jesus said, the good shepherd, I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. Need to get a hold of that last verse. God's will for you as his sheep is that you have an abundant life. Now, anytime life gets really miserable, you need to back up to the fact that God wants you to have an abundant life. You know, I was thinking through the scripture the other day, and here's Paul and Silas beat up in jail, locked in the stocks, Having a pity party, right? No pity party. They were singing praises to God. The disciples were beaten because they were told, you're not allowed to preach in the name of Jesus around here. You're trying to bring his blood upon us. You're not allowed to do that. And they beat them up and turned them loose. And you know what? They said they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. They were not having a pity party because they had an abundant life. Jesus said, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And sometimes the devil dumps stuff on us that Jesus never intended us to carry. God wants you to have an abundant life because he loves you. He is your good shepherd. The Bible says the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. That's what Jesus did when he died on the cross and pastor talked to us about that this morning. That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. It blows my mind sometimes when I realize what's going on today in quote-unquote religious circles. And I'm like, why aren't we listening to the voice of the shepherd? Why are we listening to the voice of strangers, thieves and robbers, these people that come about with all kind of strange and weird doctrine, by the slight of man, that slight hand. Have you ever seen a magician work? I was in Monona Lake, Indiana, and they have a Christian magicians conference there back in the dark ages when the dinosaurs roamed the earth. And what some of those people did were just amazing. And I went up and talked to them afterwards, and they said, well, you just didn't see what I did. This one guy had a cage, and he would reach his hand up, and he would catch a live dove just and he stuck it in the cage. And he reached his hand up and caught another live dove and stuck it in the cage. And he reached his hand up and bought another stive dove and he had three doves in the cage. And he's talking about the Holy Spirit. And he covered the cage with a cloth and he picked the cage up, threw the whole cage up in the air. He caught the cloth as it came back down. There were no birds in the air. There was no cage in the air. There was just a cloth. And I said, how did you do that? You know what he said? Sleight of hand. There are people that make things appear magical, but it's sleight of hand. There are people that make things seem right that the good shepherd says are not right. It's sleight of hand and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. Notice these people are not leading into truth, they're leading into error. That's deception. They have ways to make things appear to be different than they are. You remember Joseph's brothers saw him coming across the field because he was supposed to check on them for dad. They didn't like him at all because he was a tattletale and a blabbermouth. And they saw him coming and they said, why don't we kill this good for nothing brother of ours? And they said, and then Reuben said, no, no, that's too nice for him. Why don't we throw him into the pit and let him starve to death? Now that's not what Reuben had in mind, but Reuben went off to take care of the cattle and the rest of the boys were sitting around and they saw the Ishmaelites come across the mountain and they said, guess what? We could make some money out of him. We can sell him." So they pulled him up out of the pit, got enough money to go to McDonald's and have a Big Mac, and they were rid of him. Never have to look at him again. But they had to explain something to Dad, because Joseph who? Where? Did we see him? No, we didn't see him. And so they killed a kid, baby goat. and dipped Joseph's coat in the blood and took it to dad. Now, they didn't really tell him a lie. They said, we found this out in the field. Do you know whose it is? How about that? That was good, right? Did they tell him a lie? No, they deceived. With cunning craftiness, they deceived. But one day they found out that Joseph was over all the land of Egypt and it was time for repentance and confession. But there were false prophets among them as there shall be false teachers among you. So if we're listening to the voice of the shepherd, are we gonna listen to the voice of the false teachers? No, they're strangers, thieves and robbers. We've got lots of those today, false teachers. They've tweaked the scripture. You know, I don't like that little part there, so I think I'm going to fix that. I'm going to change it. I'm going to interpret it different. I'm going to make it say something else. Who shall bring in damnable heresies, even the lie of the Lord that brought them, and bring upon themselves Swift destruction. Notice what they want to get you to believe. Damnable heresies. In other words, heresies that damn people. Did you ever notice that when some kind of reprobate dies who hated God, who despised God, who cursed God, when he dies, guess where he is? Heaven or hell? He's in heaven. Everybody that dies goes to heaven. No, they don't. They don't. People that hate God, despise God, despise his word, do not like to hear his voice at all. The reason it says damnable heresies is because it's heresies that send people to eternal damnation. That's exactly what the verse says. And people who listen to those false prophets and teachers are not listening to the voice of the good shepherd. They're listening to deceivers. For there are many deceivers who are entering into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. People say, well, I believe in the historic Jesus. Do you believe Jesus Christ, God's son, had come in the flesh? Some people say, well, I'm not even sure Adam was real. I've had some people tell me some places, well, I'm not even sure David was real. I got news for you, they're real. Jesus Christ was as real as you are, as real as I am, except he was God. These people do not confess that Jesus Christ is a come in the flesh. The Bible says, this is a deceiver. thieves, robbers, strangers. And they through covetousness, notice that word, that is these people who want to deceive you are the covetous people. Shall they make faint words, false words, fake words, make merchandise of you. You see that phrase that I've highlighted? Make merchandise of you. That means they wanna get all the money off of you that they can get. You say, wow, let me see how much money I can fleece out of this person, you know. And they're going to do everything they can to get everything they can because they're just in it to see what they can get out of people. There are some churches that are that way. Just see how much I can get out of people. Some people have called it fleecing the sheep, but that's the idea. Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. In other words, they're headed for a really, really bad place. I marvel, Paul said, that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. As you read through Galatians, You see, Paul is dealing with people who had thrown extra things in to the gospel of Jesus Christ. They threw some things out because they were fixing it. And Paul says, it just amazes me that you're God's sheep. You're supposed to listen to the voice of the shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, and you move off to another gospel. It's like, where are your brains? Wake up. You realize what's happening here. God's sheep don't get moved away to another gospel. There is only one gospel. It's very clearly defined in the word of God. And we can all read English. And we have an English Bible. and is not complicated. We don't go for another gospel because that's another voice of a stranger, a thief, a robber, a person who wants to make merchandise of us. We don't go there because it's not the voice of the good shepherd. Why do so many people who call themselves Christians listen to the voice of strangers, thieves, and robbers? People say, yeah, I'm a child of God. But who are you listening to? Are you listening to the good shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, and his word? Are you listening to strangers, thieves, robbers, deceivers, false prophets, all these other kind of people that want to get your attention, that want to take advantage of you, that want to destroy you, destroy your soul? Why do so many people who claim to be Christians not hear the voice of the shepherd? See, I read that in the Bible, and I heard Pastor preach that. And as he preached it, I looked at the book, and that's exactly what it says. And the Holy Spirit confirmed that to my heart. And that's exactly what it says, but I'm not listening to that. Are you a child of God? Are you one of his sheep? But you don't hear the shepherd's voice? Why not? But you believe not. because you're not of my sheep. Did you ever look through the gospels and notice how often the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees and Sadducees were like following Jesus around all over the place? I mean, anytime he was someplace doing something, some of those religious kind of people were there. Did you ever notice that? And I thought to myself a couple of times, you know, why are those people there? They hated him. They didn't like what he taught. They didn't like what he said. They thought he was the enemy of God. And he was God. He was not the enemy of God. They didn't believe. They were not his sheep. They didn't want to be a sheep. They wanted to kill the Good Shepherd, and they did. That's why they didn't hear his voice. They heard his voice the same as you hear my voice, but it didn't make any difference in their lives. They didn't follow the Good Shepherd. They didn't follow his voice. As the Father knoweth me, and even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. That's love, right? Pastor mentioned that this morning, so I'm not gonna mention it a whole lot. How much did Jesus love you? He stretched out his arms, and died on the cross, and suffered your hell, and your punishment, and gave you his grace, and you stand in his righteousness. Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial. Notice the phrase, they knew not the Lord. Eli was the priest, his sons were assistant priests. They were supposed to lead the people to God. but they're called the sons of Belial. Now that means, can be translated a lot of different ways. It means they were worthless. They were worthless serving the priest office. They were vile in their conduct and behavior. And the reason they were is because the Bible says they did not know the Lord. You know, there's a lot of people who claim to be religious, like the chief priests, scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees in Jesus' day, and people in our day who claim to be religious, and they really don't know God. They don't know who He is. They're not children or sheep of His. They didn't know the Lord. And God spoke to Samuel and said, Samuel, I'm going to kill him. And he did. How be it when he, the spirit of truth, is come, speaking about the Holy Spirit, he will guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. When you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and became one of his sheep, he gave you the person of the Holy Spirit, who is a permanent indwelling person inside of you, He is called in this passage of Scripture, the Spirit of Truth. That means anything that's gonna come in, any voice, strange voice, voice of thieves, robbers, false prophets, when it comes in, the Holy Spirit says, strange voice. There's not a literal voice that tells you that, but in your mind, the Holy Spirit speaks through your mind, another verse in just a moment, and tells you that the voice is a strange voice, the voice is a destructive voice. We're not going to go there. For He, that is the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, does not speak of Himself. But he shall speak what he shall hear. He hears the voice of the shepherd and speaks that truth. And he, the Holy Spirit, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. When we listen to the voice of a good shepherd, then we have true freedom. Not freedom to sin. Not freedom to fulfill the lust of our flesh. but the freedom to have the abundant life under the care of the good shepherd. And the truth shall make you free. How do I hear that voice? And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying, this is the way, walk ye in it when you turn to the right hand or when you turn to the left. Here's how we hear the voice of the shepherd. Number one, you must become a student of the Word of God. You need to attend good church, like Grace Baptist Church, East Flat Rock, North Carolina, and hear good preaching and good teaching so that you know the Word of God. It's not an exercise in just memory work, okay? It may be memory work, but the end result is not to have memory work. The end result is to have the Word of God in your heart, and in your life, and in your mind, so that when the Holy Spirit needs to speak to you, the words of the Good Shepherd, so that you can hear His voice, the verse will pop up in your mind that you need. That's what should happen if you're listening to the voice of the Good Shepherd. Suppose I decided that I would like to kill someone, okay? And I'm thinking, now let me see how I can do this. You know what the Holy Spirit does? He pulls up a verse. It says, thou shalt not kill. Suppose I decide we can get a lot of money for the church if we went downtown and robbed a bank. Yes, get a lot of money in a real fast hurry. And the Holy Spirit pops up the thing that says, thou shalt not steal. Suppose I would like someone else's wife rather than my own. Thou shalt not commit adultery. If any of you lack wisdom, let them ask of God. And when we're asking of God about a particular situation that's not as easy as those we just described, the Good Shepherd will speak with the voice of the Holy Spirit and pull up the Word of God that we need. And whatever that comes up, We follow that voice because that means freedom in the abundant life. It says, this is the way, walking in it. In other words, the good shepherds say, we're following this path. I'm going down in front of you. You follow me. This is where we're going. Come on, let's go. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye. There's verses in the scripture that says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, that means we're looking unto Jesus. We were working in Church Grace Baptist Church, Wilmington, North Carolina, way back in the 70s, wherever that is, I don't know. And the music director was leading the music. And his daughter was misbehaving back there. And I watched her misbehaving back there while he's trying to lead the music for congregational singing. And I watched him catch her eye. And he moved her five rows up so she sat by herself. And I thought, that's really neat. He didn't stop leading music. He didn't stop the service. Call her down. He just caught her eye and moved her to where he knew she would behave herself. And he continued on. I talked to him after the service. I said, that's neat. How did you know you were going to do that? He said, we've had some discussions. The problem we have sometimes in getting guidance is we're not looking for Jesus. We look everywhere else. And I have no problem looking to people for counsel. I do that all the time. But I also talk to God all the time about that. I look to Him. I say, God, what do you want me to do? And sometimes He leads me to people. And sometimes a person's name pops into my brain. And it's like the Holy Spirit says, go talk to this person. So I go talk to the person. But I'm really looking to Jesus in his eyes to get the direction that I need. But the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. Notice again the phrase, and he shall bring all things to your remembrance. That is how the Holy Spirit speaks to you. He speaks to you through your memory, your memory of the Word of God that you've heard, the messages that you have heard, the Sunday school lessons you have heard, your own personal devotions. That's where we get teaching from the Good Shepherd. That's how we hear the Good Shepherd's voice through the person of the Holy Spirit. And every person who is one of God's sheep, God's children, has that Holy Spirit within them, as we've already said. So what is the voice of the shepherd? You already knew this, didn't you? So did I. It's not complicated, it's not new, but it's where it is. There's no other place that's as pure as the Word of God. There's no other place where there's so much wisdom as the Word of God. You know, sometimes we think we're really smart. But if I'm to compare my intelligence with God's intelligence, I'm in trouble. You know, mine comes out minus 10 million and God's comes out plus 10 million. You know, that's the way it is. But when we think we know better than God, we're telling God, I'm more intelligent than you are. I know what would bring me abundant life better than you do. And I'll show you by living my life my way and rejecting the life that you have for me that I might have abundant life and freedom. And down the road, we find out that we're wrong. The story of the prodigal son, summarized, okay? Man had two sons. One son said one day to his dad, I need my inheritance like right now, because I'm sick and tired of living at home with you. You won't let me have any fun. There's no joy here. There's nothing to do here, except work with those dumb sheep and those dumb cows, and I'm done with it. I don't want any more of it. And his dad probably protested about that particular idea and told him it wasn't a good idea. That's not the way we do things. I love you, son. I want you to stay here. I want you to learn to submit to the authority here. And the son said, Dad, just give me the money. I'm out of here. So finally, the dad handed him the money. He headed off down the road. He looking for the best bar he could find and the best bunch of prostitutes he could find and what he went through money like a flash. One day he woke up in the pig pen eating slop with the hogs. You know young people sometimes, young people who've heard the truth end up eating slop with the hogs in the pig pen of the world. He said to himself, here I am in a pig pen, eating slop with the hogs. I'm going to go back to Dad. I'm going to go back. And Dad received him and loved him. You know why he rejected the word God? And he ended up in a mess because he didn't listen to the voice of the shepherd. The voice of the shepherd works in conjunction with the word of God and the Holy Spirit of God. They never, ever, ever disagree. They're always in agreement every single time. And when you've gotten that verse, and the Holy Spirit confirms that verse, and it's plain and clear in Scripture, and it's not out of context, then you're hearing the voice of the shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. You're one of his sheep. And as his sheep, he wants you to have an abundant life. He wants you to experience true freedom in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what they always work for. That doesn't mean that you may not have some rough times. You may. But the abundant life never goes away. The joy of the Lord never goes away unless, like David, you sin and you didn't listen to the voice of the shepherd. Then the joy goes away. But if you walk in obedience to the voice of the good shepherd and you follow him, then God's abundant life that he designed for you will be yours and you'll be forever glad. The question one more time, do you hear the voice of the shepherd? Do you obey the voice? Or are you listening to the voice of thieves and robbers and false prophets and deceivers and sleight of hand people that would like to make merchandise of you and hurt you? Listen to the voice of the shepherd, for he loves you. He knows what is best for you. And he is more concerned about what is best for you than you are. because he loves you more than you could possibly love yourself. Shall we pray? Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for the fact that he is the good shepherd. We thank you that he loved us so much that he laid down his life for the sheep. We thank thee that as his sheep, his children, we can trust the guidance of his voice. as he leads us in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. We pray that you would help us to always be obedient to that voice. We pray in Jesus' precious name.