20 to 330. Okay, John chapter 10, verses 22 through 30. And it was at Jerusalem, the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews round about him and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believe not. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out 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 hand. I and my Father are one." The message that I'm going to preach today is on the subject, Safe in the Father's Hand. We hear a lot of religious people that talk about the Lord. And there are some songs and things that are not just as exactly as scriptural as they should be. One of those songs is a song that I have sung for years when I was young in school and things, Hold to the Father's Unchangeable Hand. Now that's a song that people love. Many Baptists sing it. And in many ways it has a lot of good thoughts in it. But there's one thing that's wrong about that song. If it's up to you and me to hold to our father's hand, how many times in our lifetime would we have let loose? We get weak, we get discouraged, We get disheartened. Things happen that we don't understand. We always know that no matter what happens, that even if we don't understand it, we know that our Heavenly Father knows. But we're weak. All of us, not just some preachers as well as others. We're all weak. We get discouraged. And sometimes we get disheartened, and how many times do we forget to pray when we should be praying more? And as Brother Steve was talking about a little while ago, and someone said to me one time years ago, they said, how many times do Christian people lie? And I said, what do you mean by that? He said, well, how many times did you yourself. Tell somebody you would pray for them and then you forgot. Never prayed for them. How many times have we done that? We said we'd pray for someone and then we don't. And so, and it may not be intentional, but it's true. We promise somebody we'll pray for them and then we don't do it. That's one of the reasons why many times when someone asks me to pray for them, I will right then have prayer with them just to be sure that I don't forget at another time. We're human. We have our difficulties and our problems. And so we fail in a lot of ways. So if it left up to us to hold to the Father's hand, too many times in our life we would let loose. But the point is, and what the Bible teaches us, is that we are held in His hand. He never lets loose. He never fails. We do and would. But He never does. So therefore we can say with all assurance we are safe in the Father's hand. He said, I give unto them eternal life, verse 28, I give unto them eternal life, they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my Father's hand. And he repeats it again in verse 9, no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I heard a man years ago preach on this verse, and he said, now, he said, the thing of it is that I want to say to you, and this was before I was fully learned a lot of the doctrines that we believe and stand for, and he said, he said, now, he said, the Father would never let loose, but how many times do we let loose of Him? Well, in a sense, I understand what he means. But in another sense, he's teaching something that isn't true. We would let loose. We would fail too many times in our life. How many times in our life have we not prayed and asked God's help in something? We've gone ahead and tried ourselves to try to work it out and figure it out and all of that without praying and asking God to give us guidance. But we, too many times, would let loose of the Father's hand. And that's the thing that we see here in this passage. It says, My Father, verse 29, which gave them Me is greater than all. No man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand. Someone said, nobody can take us out of His hand, but how many times do we fall out of His hand? We don't. We would, except for the fact that He holds us. We don't hold Him. That's the blessing. We can look at our life. I've been saved for sixty-six years. Longer than that. I've been preaching sixty-five years. I've been saved for a long, long time. There's been a lot of times in my life when I haven't been what I ought to be. I've failed in many ways. But through it all, I can see how God took care of me even when I had not been what I should have been, even when I failed in ways that I shouldn't have fallen. So I want you to notice this passage, and this should give us the greatest joy and comfort in our hearts than anything. We look back and think about when the Lord saved us. And I remember, I don't remember a lot of things in my childhood, but I do remember that day. And I've told it many times. I'm not going to repeat it again, except for the fact that when the time came for me to, you know, our invitations sometimes are wrong. We ask someone to come up and get saved. Actually, the invitation should be, if the Lord has saved you, come confessing Him. Not to get saved, but to announce and to confess that the Lord has saved you. He saves through His Word. And the Spirit of God opens our dead heart so we can understand. And that's when the day that we're saved is not that we suddenly decided to grab onto God's hand. gets a hold of us. His Word holds on to us. And during the time after we're saved, there are times when we're not like we ought to be and we fail a little bit, sometimes a little lot. But He never lets loose of us. So we don't hold to God's unchanging hand. God's unchanging hand holds to us. And that's the thing that we need to keep in mind and what he's saying here is, no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. And someone said one time, well, no man can, but we can. And I said, well, that doesn't make sense to me. I'm a man too. And no man, I can't pluck me out of my father's hand either, even when I fail. He chases me, but I fail. And that's the thing, that's what we need to realize today in the message. This passage was written to his sheep. Notice that Jesus was talking and Jesus said to them, I told ye and ye believed not the works that I do to my father's name. Do in my father's name they bear witness to me, but ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep as I said unto you He says my sheep Hear my voice And I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man any man Me you or anybody else in the world Can pluck me out of my father's hand And you can say the same thing. Neither shall any man pluck them out 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 hand. If I could take me out of my father's hand, that would mean I was greater than he. I'm not God. He's God. He's the greatest one. And we're safe in the Father's hand. We go through some difficult times in our life. We go through some times when we're not as strong as we ought to be. But we're safe. This passage of scripture tells us, he's saying this to his sheep. You see, unbelievers are not sheep. In verse 26, he says, Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. Unbelievers are not sheep. We at times were not believers, but we did not know that before the foundation of the world was, God had already written our names in the book of life. I've heard preachers say, and I used to go to Armenian Baptist churches and churches that were not Baptist and all that when I was young. And I've heard preachers say, when someone would say, well, God wrote your name in the book of life today. No, he didn't. No, he didn't. If you were saved, your name was written in the book of life before the foundation world. The time might be when you're seven or eight years old, or even maybe younger in some cases, might be not until you're 80. But whatever the time was, it was all determined and purposed by God. And we unbelievers are not sheep. They are goats as Matthew says in Matthew chapter 25 and verses 31 through 33. Matthew 25, 31 through 33, Jesus said here, when the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the holy evil with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Believers are his sheep, and they will be set on the right hand of God. There are lost sheep who are yet to be saved. As Luke says in the book of Luke 15, Luke 15 verses 5 and 6, and Jesus is speaking here and Luke is recording it. And when he hath found it, he laith it on his shoulder. Well, let's begin with verse four. What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he laith it on his shoulder, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. You see, there are lost sheep, not goats. There are lost sheep. And every one of God's sheep, before he comes for his people, in the last days, I've always said, I believe, that when the last one of God's sheep has been saved, That's when the Lord will come and take us to be with him. I don't know that. That's just been my personal thoughts. But I've always thought that when the last of his sheep are saved, wherever it is in the world, that's when he takes us to be with him. We certainly know it won't be before then. And I have my doubts that it would be much longer after then. I have a feeling that when the last one is saved, the last one of his sheep, the Spirit of God enters into him and he's saved. That's when he takes us to be with him. But in the meantime, While we're here, I've been saved for a long time, probably longer than any of you have. You all can remember, and I'm sure I forget a lot of things that happened to me when I was a boy, but that's one thing I've never forgotten, the day I was saved. Preacher preached a message, and I've heard messages like that many times before, but that day, when they gave an invitation, I didn't get up to get saved, I got up because I was saved, and I came to announce. That's why an invitation is given for people to announce the first time, because that's the beginning of when you begin to tell people in this world, you're saved by the grace of God. The first act of announcing to the world, I've been saved. That's why I say you don't come up to get saved, you're saved hearing the word of God. You come up to announce. You may not know that, and they may not understand all that, until you learn, but you come to announce that you are saved. Here in Luke 15, as I told you in verses 5 and 6, it says, And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulder, rejoicing. When he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. He didn't go looking for goats. He went looking for a lost sheep. So when you were saved, you were already written in the book of life. God had written your name in the book of life before he even created this world. Now think about that. I think about my growing up before I was saved. The things that, now I was a good boy, but the things that, and maybe I shouldn't have said that in the pulpit, the things that I did, humanly speaking, I could have easily been killed. But I wasn't. You see, God knew me when I was born. And he watched over me. I didn't know it. And how many times as a child of God we don't think about that fact. How many things have happened to you and I after we've been saved that, how could that be? I think about the times when I was in Korea. I've told many of my stories, but the one thing I think about probably more than any. When I was out on patrol, there was, I think, nine of us out on patrol. We were ambushed. Everybody in the patrol was shot or killed but me. And I was the leader. I was the one leading them. And I was not shot, I was not hit, I was not killed. I could have been wounded and still been saved. Some were. But I wasn't even hit. And as I have thought about that now through the years, why wasn't I? We were all in a patrol together. We were ambushed and everybody in the patrol was hit or killed but me. Why? I didn't have any armored vest on. I always kid everybody and say that's because I was short. Bullets all went over my head, but that's not true. I just say that. But why? Because I was in God's hand. Taken care of by God. Look at your life. Think about your life. Think about all the times From the time you were a child till today, how many times have we been in situations or been places where we could have been killed or hurt in some way or another? But we wasn't. Why? Because we are safe in the Father's hands. Safe in the Father's hands. 1 Peter 2 and verse 25. For ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls. Ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls. God uses sheep as an example. We have a shepherd. Sheep has a shepherd. Now when a sheep strays off from the herd, or bunch, whatever they call them, he doesn't come back. The shepherd finds him and brings him back. Through the scriptures, all the way through the scriptures, God uses the sheep as an example. The sheep are guided by a shepherd. We are his sheep. Jesus is our shepherd. And he goes with us through our life. The Holy Spirit is in us and watches over us. God the Father knows where we're going and where we are. And how many times did the bullets whiz over my head or all around And they did many, many times. God protected me. He could have let me get wounded if that was part of my purpose in life. But in this case, I wasn't even wounded. Other times I've been hurt in different ways. But never, ever, even though I thought I could be killed. I could not have been killed. I cannot die. You cannot die until the day that God has purpose for you. That doesn't mean we're not supposed to take care of ourselves, but it means that we know, as I told my doctors years ago when I was having a lot of problems and I wrote all my doctors a letter, I told them, I said, now, I am safe. In my father's hand, I'm safe. I'm secure. When the time comes that I'm to leave this life and go to be with my father, you can't stop it. I'm not asking you to keep me alive when I'm supposed to die. I'm asking you to make me as safe and as comfortable as you can while I'm here in this life. I wrote that years ago to all my doctors. Told them. When the time comes, I said, my father has a time, and when that time comes, you won't be able to stop it. Until then, I ask you to keep me as comfortable as possible. But don't hold, don't worry and think I could have done this or couldn't have done that. I said, I can't die until my time. Just don't worry about those things. You see here in verse 25, he says, ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls. First Peter 25. We were sheep astray. I used to worry when I'd go out and hold a meeting, Now I think some people have many people that make professions, but my job isn't just to get people to make professions. My job is to preach to them about a savior. I can't save them. If I could, they could lose themselves, or they could get lost. They can't save themselves. If they could, they'd get lost. God the Father saves them through the message. He gives me the message. I preach it. I fail in the message many, many times in preaching it like it should have been preached. He never fails in using it in the way that it's supposed to be used. The message goes out and so I come back from a real-life meeting years ago and someone said to me, how many people did you get saved? And I started to say how many people have made a profession, and I stopped, and I thought, no, that's not right. I said, I didn't get any saved. I said, I hope I didn't get any. If I did, they'll be lost. I said, God the Father saved some people, and I thank God for it. But that's the thing that we need to keep in mind. those who die as unbelievers were not sheep. If they were sheep, the sheep of God, they would have been saved. So that's to keep us in mind that our job is to witness to them, not save them. And if they're not saved, the only thing we need to think about is I didn't do my job. I didn't witness to them like I should. But it's not our job to save them, just witness to them. Tell them about the Lord. Jesus is the door of the sheep in John chapter 10. John chapter 10, verses 1 through 15. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but inclimeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers. This parable spake Jesus unto them, but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them. Then said Jesus unto them, Again, verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. You see what he's saying? And the thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life, that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is unhearling and not the shepherd whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth me the sheep, and fleeth, and the wolf catches them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep." Who does he die for? The sheep, not the ghost. The sheep. Hebrews 13 and verse 20 says this. Hebrews 13 and verse 20. I'll get there in a minute. Now the God of peace that brought again from the Lord Jesus, now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant. He's the perfect shepherd, the shepherd of the sheep. The sheep. I'm going to have to finish this message this evening. I'm just halfway through. But think about the message. Think about it. And we'll study some more on it this evening. But the sheep, the message in the Bible is written to the sheep. Remember when you were saved, before you were saved? I said, you know, I told you it's been a long time, but I never will forget this. The day I was saved, suddenly the Bible had a totally different meaning. The Bible was just another book before then. The Bible is the book, the word of God. But when you read it and you're not saved, it doesn't mean anything to you. But think how much different it came to you after you were saved. How much it meant to you after you were saved. Mom always told me that I had to carry my Bible to church, which I did. And I opened it, but it wasn't until I was saved. And it began to take meaning. So when someone says, well, I don't understand what, what's the Bible. So why the Bible is so important to you? They don't, they don't understand it. If they're saved, there'll be a difference. The word of God, the sheep, Jesus. carries us. We'll study more about that this evening. We'll finish. No. Winston. I'm sorry. Greg's going to preach this evening. I was afraid I would not be able to handle two services for my first time out. So Greg agreed to preach this evening. And I told him I would be here if I'm able. But if I'm not, he will go ahead and preach. So I'll finish the message, Winston. Shall we stand to be dismissed?