Christ's Constant Which Comforts - part 2

25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. 26 “But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. 27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will 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 the Father’s hand.

(NASB95) 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. 26 “But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. 27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will 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 the Father’s hand.

We have been making our way through John’s 10th chapter on the Good Shepherd.

We have been making our way through John’s 10th chapter on the Good Shepherd.

We have outlined the 2nd part of the chapter along these lines:

The Cultural Context vv.22-23

The Cultural Context vv.22-23

The Crooked Con-Job v.24

The Confounding Counter vv.25-27

The Constant which Comforts vv.28-30

From v.25 onwards our Lord clarifies the wonderful truth he’s been discussing for months since the Feast of Tabernacles/Shelters.

What truth?

That those who are true believers —His believing, following sheep— need never fear being finally lost.

“I give eternal life to them,” Jesus declares, “and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

Nowhere in Scripture is there a stronger affirmation of the absolute eternal security of all true Christians. Jesus plainly taught that the security of the believer in salvation does not depend on human effort, but is grounded in the gracious, sovereign election, promise, and power of God. [John F. MacArthur Comm] PRAY

PRAY

By 7:00 p.m. on October 20, 1968, only a few thousand spectators remained in the Olympic stadium in Mexico City.

It was almost dark; the last of the marathon runners had run or walked across the finish line.

But, these spectators waited …until they heard the wail of sirens from police cars.

As their eyes turned toward the stadium gate, a lone runner, wearing the colors of Tanzania, staggered into the stadium.

His name was John Stephen Akhwari, and he was the last of the seventy-four competitors.

With a deep cut on his knee and a dislocated joint that was caused by a fall earlier in the race, he hobbled the final lap around the track.

The spectators rose and applauded as though he were the winner of the race.

Afterward, someone asked him why he had kept running.

His now famous reply was

“My country did not send me 7,000 miles away to start the race.

They sent me seven thousand miles to finish it.”

The Bible often compares the Christian life to running a race.

The apostle Paul spoke of it on several occasions.

Toward the end of his life, Paul wrote, in

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

And earlier on, to the believers at Corinth, this same Paul posed this similar sounding challenge:

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.” ()

It’s not always easy to finish a race.

But really finishing is what matters.

Not how you may have stumbled and struggled along the way.

In this passage Jesus highlights His work to save His sheep and keep them saved!

We need to study Him as the unique workman of salvation.

Have you have ever watched a workman do rough construction work ..and seen a carpenter do something called “clinching a nail”?

It illustrates what our Lord was saying as He was both comforting His true disciples and correcting His critics, here in John 10.

Since He’d been a carpenter, Himself, Jesus Himself may very well have done this same thing!

Sometimes in rough carpentry a workman will drive a long nail through a thinner board or boards so that the nail’s point sticks way out of the back.

Then with a blow of his hammer he will bend the point of the nail over sideways, embedding it in the wood. This is called clinching the nail.

It can be used to make a joint just a bit more firm since the nail cannot work itself out from this position.

Two “Nails” and Two “Hands”

In a sense this is what Jesus did in speaking the way He did in verses 25 to 29.

He was so interested in getting this doctrine about His work to stick in his disciples’ minds and confront His critics who did not believe in His real work that Jesus not only drove in one nail, He drove in two, and then He clinched them both!

Let me explain what I mean by speaking in this way:

First, Jesus taught that those who are genuinely His own have been given eternal life.

This alone makes the truth firm; for eternal life is a kind of life that by definition can never be lost or cut short. If it could be lost after a few years or even after many years, it would not be eternal.

Nevertheless, Jesus knew that there would be many who would find this difficult to accept and who would attempt to explain it away by saying perhaps that eternal life is only a certain quality of life rather than also being a life of everlasting duration and strength.

Lest they succeed in doing that, He went on to drive the nail over sideways, thereby clinching it into the wood. HOW? By adding: “They shall never perish,” He said.

“I give them eternal life”—that’s the nail.

“They shall never perish”—that’s the clinch by which the doctrine is reinforced and made fast.

And you know, one nail, however well nailed & clinched, does not always make a complete joint.

So Jesus went on to drive home a second nail and then also clinch that 2nd nail.

His second nail is found in the phrase “no one will snatch them out of my hand.” The clincher is this—“My Father who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.” It is hard to see how anyone can be safer or any doctrine clearer than that…

Notice the crucial matter of the power and authority and love of these hands in this case.

First, Jesus says that we are secure in His hand.

We can imagine ourselves as a coin around which his fingers have folded.

That’s a secure position for any object, but especially for us, considering whose hand it is that holds us.

But then, lest we think that this security is not enough, Jesus adds that the hand of God the Father is over His hand so that we are enclosed in two sets of hands.

We are therefore doubly secure.

If we feel insecure, we should be reminded that when we are held in this manner, the Father and Son metaphorically speaking still have other hands free to defend us!

I wish that all Christians might enter into an assurance of this security.

“They will never perish,” says Jesus.

If you are a believer in Jesus, relying desperately upon Him, then Believe this truth too. Believe it!

Believe it, too, when He tells us that no one will ever pluck us out of those hands.

“But,” says someone, “it may be true, but to teach it is dangerous. If people believe that nothing can ever snatch them from Christ’s hand, then surely they will feel free to sin. If I thought so, I would sin.”

Oh would you? If THAT is so, then I feel sorry for you. I doubt that you know the Lord’s salvation, for that knowledge of the love and grace of God is what, more than anything else, keeps a true believer from thinking lightly of sinning.

Now someone else might argue:

“Even if there is a possibility of these truths encouraging sin, would it not be better not to preach them? Would it not be better to tell Christians that they might be overcome by sin and so perish?”

No, it would not! Moreover, how could I teach what I do not believe?

Shall I slander God with falsehoods?

Let me put this in terms that you will surely understand.

Shall I come to your household and tell your children—little Mary, just two years old, or Michael, just six—that if they disobey you, they will then cease to be your children, and, that you will throw them out into the streets?

If I were to say that, you would be angry with me, and rightly so.

Rather, you would want me to say, “Children, do you not know that your father loves you, that he will never stop loving you? Therefore, do not disappoint him. Therefore, love him and do & respect what he says.”

Do you understand that illustration? If you do, then do not impute lesser motives or lesser love to God.

Believe these truths in Jn 10, and allow them to become a great incentive to godly conduct in your life.

Moreover, do not be afraid to have them preached, and do not fear to share them with other believers.

Let’s reverence Jesus & His words in our reading, particularly what He says about the hands.

Jesus said that we are secure in being held in His hand and in the hand of the Father.

What do we know about these hands?

We recognize, of course, that to talk in this way is to use the language of analogy.

But these truths are not less true because they are expressed using a symbol;

and in the case of the Lord Jesus Christ the reference to the hands is not just poetic.

Jesus’ hands were real hands. So, what do we know about Jesus’ hands?

And what do we know about the hands of the Father?

Well, the hands of the Father are creative hands, for one thing.

These are the hands that made the world, that formed man from the earth’s dust.

The Book of Genesis says: “The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being” ().

In biblical thought many other truths are closely tied up with this teaching of creation.

First, God knows us. He knows us because he made us.

So nothing that is within us ever surprises him.

That’s what David had in mind when he said, “For he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust” ().

We do not need to fear that something in us will suddenly rise up to startle God and cause him to change his attitude toward us.

Purposeful Hands Second, the fact that we have been made by God means that we have been made for a purpose and that it behooves us to realize that purpose.

To realize God’s purpose is to find fulfillment and joy, not to find misery.

To realize God’s purpose is to find fulfillment and joy, not to find misery. Moreover, it is not for us to question the purpose any more than a pot should question the shape it has been given by the potter. This image is used by the apostle Paul in Romans in order to justify the ways of God in his dealings with Israel.

It’s foolish for us to question God’s design purpose for us — any more than a pot should question the shape it’s being given by it’s potter.

This image is used by Paul in Romans to justify the ways of God in his dealings with His people.

The fact that we’ve been made by God means that we should acknowledge that and worship Him thankfully.

One of the Psalms says: “Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, For He is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care” ().

So the hands of the Father are creative hands… …but they are also, 3rdly, loving hands.

That is, they are hands that continue to care for and provide for that which they have made.

My favourite picture of this is found in Hosea.

It is of God, as the perfect father, caring for Israel, pictured as a child who is just learning to walk.

The child could also represent ourselves in our spiritual infancy.

God says, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.… It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love.… How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel?” (, , ).

God says that he has been as a father to us, teaching us to walk.

His hands have held us up while we were learning and have caught us when we were about to fall down.

More than this, He tells us that this is proof of His love and that He will not give up on those who are His true children.

Sympathetic Hands

Finally, we need to see something that is not so pleasant to contemplate. God’s hands are creative hands. They are caring hands. But they can also, so says the Scripture, become angry hands. They are hands by which judgment can be administered and by which it will be administered to all whose sin is not covered by the blood of Christ and who are therefore not among the company of God’s people. John the Baptist spoke of this, saying that when Christ came it would be with fan in hand and that he would thoroughly purge his floor (). John was thinking of the way by which, in Mediterranean lands, wheat was separated from the chaff. Usually this was done by tossing the two into the air so that the wind could blow the lighter chaff away. If the wind did not blow, the winnowing would have to be postponed. However, in Christ’s day, says John, Christ will provide his own wind; he will use his fan to separate the righteous from those who will not have him as Savior.

It is of the same judgment that the author of Hebrews writes, saying, “The Lord will judge his people,” and then adding by way of stern warning, “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” ().

There is a progression at this point. The hands of God are hands that have created. The hands of God are hands that have loved and cared. But man in general has despised the creation and turned from God’s love. There is therefore nothing ahead for such men but God’s righteous anger and judgment. This thought so possessed Jonathan Edwards that he preached often upon it. In fact, his best known sermon is on precisely this theme. It is “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” a title taken from the text that I have just mentioned. The text of the message is —“in due time their foot will slip.” The point of the sermon is that nothing withholds a man who will not have Christ from God’s judgment except God’s sovereign will, by which for a time he withholds punishment.

I am told that such truths cannot be preached today, that such teaching will drive listeners away. That may be. At any rate, I am sure that at least one of three things will happen. Either these truths will drive the people away, or the people will drive the minister away, or there will be a great awakening, as there was under Edwards’s preaching.

Some say, “Where is revival today?”

I say, “Where are the faithful teachers of God’s Word?” I say, “Let the angry God be proclaimed, as well as the God of love, and men’s hearts will be stirred to repentance. They have been before. Do it, and many will flee out of a true sense of need to the Savior.”

The Hands of Jesus

Look at the hands of Jesus the unique co-equal Son of God.

What do we know about these hands?

Well, first, they are the hands of a workman; they are rough hands.

These hands know labour; they understand toil. He is not remote, this Jesus.

r; they understand toil. He is not remote, this Jesus.

He understands us and feels with us in our infirmities.

Moreover, I see this truth and then turn to a text like and find an even greater truth there.

We are told: “I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”

Jesus tells us that he has gone to prepare a home for us.

Our future is completely and firmly in His hands...

Well, then, I will not worry about the condition of that home or even whether it is going to be finished by the date of occupancy, for the greatest carpenter that ever lived is going to build it for me. In the same way, I do not worry about the condition of my resurrection body. For Paul tells us that if our earthly body “were destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven not built by human hands” ().

The hands of Jesus are also outstretched hands.

I see the outstretched hands of Jesus everywhere in the New Testament.

They are outstretched in healing, for example.

I see him reaching out to touch and heal the leper when no one else would touch him ().

I see him reach out to heal Peter’s mother-in-law when she lay sick of a fever ().

I see him reach out to restore life to the young daughter of the ruler, recorded in (vv. 18–26).

I see him reach out to heal Peter’s mother-in-law when she lay sick of a fever (). I see him reach out to restore life to the young daughter of the ruler, recorded in (vv. 18–26). He touched the son of the widow of Nain to restore his life (). His outstretched hands restored sight to the man who had been born blind ().

He touched the son of the widow of Nain to restore his life ().

His outstretched hands restored sight to the man who had been born blind ().

Christ’s hands also are outstretched to save such as are floundering.

I love the story of Peter walking on the water toward Christ.

The disciples were in the boat on the Sea of Galilee when they saw Jesus.

He was walking toward them on the water.

When Peter saw it he concluded rightly that if Jesus could do it, then by the power of Jesus he could too!

So he said, “Lord, can I come?” When Jesus agreed, Peter started out.

But soon he took his eyes from Jesus, looked at the water instead, and began to sink.

“Lord, save me,” he cried.

Immediately, we are told, “Jesus reached out his hand and caught him” ().

Are you sinking into the waves? That seems to be a picture of being lost …of losing salvation.

But then we see the outstretched, saving hands of the Lord Jesus.

Peter’s faith faltered, but Jesus did not fail to save Peter…and keep Him truly saved.

These hands are stretched out also in blessing.

We see the Lord blessing the children, even when the disciples in a fit of self-importance wished to keep them away ().

We find the same thing at the end of Luke’s Gospel, in the last picture we have of the Lord Jesus while on earth—“When he had led them out to Bethany he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven” ().

The last and most N.B. thing to see is this: The hands of Jesus are also wounded hands.

The hands of Jesus are also wounded hands.

The imprint of the nails of the crucifixion is in these hands, and it is for us that they were wounded.

God told us that they would be. It is prophesied in , in which the crucifixion of the Lord is presented: “A band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet” (v. 16).

Isaiah wrote: “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” ().

foretold that this would be a sign by which the true prophet, the Messiah, would be recognized.

It is by this that we must truly recognize Him. Thomas sets the bar for the minimal level of saving faith. Remember Thomas stubbornly resisting, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it” ().

A week later Jesus appeared again, Thomas being present, and offered to fulfill the conditions of Thomas’ fearful resistance

Is that sight not clear enough for you also?

Are Jesus’ wounded hands not evidence enough for you of his love?

God says that his action in Christ is perfectly clear...

...so much so that there is no excuse for a failure to believe and rest in the salvation he offers you.

In fact, he says that the way of salvation in Christ has been “made known” ().

The way of salvation has been made clear.

Today it is the hand of a gracious God who holds out the way of salvation to you.

If you reply that you will not reach out for it, He asks you to look at the hand itself; for it is a wounded hand, one bearing the print of the nail received by Jesus in dying for your salvation.

By trusting repentant faith you may put out your hand and touch that wounded but strong hand.

You may know that it is evidence, irrefutable evidence, of God’s great love for you.

That hand was struck for you. The one extending that hand died for you.

Allow him to enclose your hand in His, …and to enclose ...you, and to bring you into that great company of those who possess eternal life and who shall never perish.

”

Nowhere in Scripture is there a stronger affirmation of the absolute eternal security of all true Christians. Jesus plainly taught that the security of the believer in salvation does not depend on human effort, but is grounded in the gracious, sovereign election, promise, and power of God. [John F. MacArthur Comm]

Christ’s words reveal seven realities that bind every true Christian forever to God.

First, believers are His sheep, and it is the duty of the Good Shepherd to protect His flock. “This is the will of Him who sent Me,” Jesus said, “that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day” (6:39). To insist that a true Christian can somehow be lost is to deny the truth of that statement. It is also to defame the character of the Lord Jesus Christ—making Him out to be an incompetent shepherd, unable to hold on to those entrusted to Him by the Father.

Second, Christ’s sheep hear only His voice and follow only Him.

Since they will not listen to or follow a stranger (10:5), they could not possibly wander away from Him and be eternally lost.

Third, Christ’s sheep have eternal life.

To speak of eternal life ending is a contradiction in terms.

Fourth, Christ gives eternal life to His sheep.

Since they did nothing to earn it, they can do nothing to lose it.

Fifth, Christ promised that His sheep will never perish. Were even one to do so, it would make Him a liar.

Sixth, no one—not false shepherds (the thieves and robbers of v. 1), or false prophets (symbolized by the wolf of v. 12), nor even the Devil himself—is powerful enough to snatch Christ’s sheep out of His hand.

Finally, Christ’s sheep are held not only in His hand, but also in the hand of the Father, who is greater than all; and thus no one is able to snatch them out of His hand either. Infinitely secure, the believer’s “life is hidden with Christ in God” ().

[John F. MacArthur Comm]

[John F. MacArthur Comm on John’s Gospel]

Yes, it’s not always easy to finish a race.

Walking with Jesus: Daily Inspiration from the Gospel of John 37. Breakfast with Jesus

By 7:00 p.m. on October 20, 1968, only a few thousand spectators remained in the Olympic stadium in Mexico City.

It was almost dark; the last of the marathon runners had run or walked across the finish line.

But, these spectators waited …until they heard the wail of sirens from police cars.

As their eyes turned toward the stadium gate, a lone runner, wearing the colors of Tanzania, staggered into the stadium.

His name was John Stephen Akhwari, and he was the last of the seventy-four competitors.

With a deep cut on his knee and a dislocated joint that was caused by a fall earlier in the race, he hobbled the final lap around the track.

The spectators rose and applauded as though he were the winner of the race.

Afterward, someone asked him why he had kept running.

His now famous reply was

“My country did not send me 7,000 miles away to start the race.

They sent me seven thousand miles to finish it.”

The Bible often compares the Christian life to running a race.

The apostle Paul spoke of it on several occasions.

Toward the end of his life, Paul wrote, in

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

And earlier on, to the believers at Corinth, this same Paul posed this similar sounding challenge:

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.” ()

THE GOOD RACE

Yes, it’s not always easy to finish a race.

Really finishing is what matters.

Not how you may have stumbled and struggled along the way.

— And finishing your journey with Christ is what every genuine sheep WANTS. —

But any experienced runner will tell you that the best way to make it through a long run is to take it 1 part at a time relying on the fact that you are given the health & well-being to get through that particular part.

To think too much upon all the future demands of the whole race can feel overwhelming.

Perhaps you are worrying too much about all that might be asked of you in the future to remain faithful.

Perhaps you are going through a particularly difficult trying-time, a gruelling leg in your race.

If you’ve ever read from the Bible something so jarring that just didn’t seem to make any sense...

...or if you’re going through a time in your life when it seems as though God isn’t coming to visit you with His love, comfort or special presence...

...or if you are sorely tempted just to give up trying to follow Jesus closely, you know the issue that John’s gospel is addressing.

You might well wonder how you’ll ever hold on to your faith amidst all the complexities of your trials...

But be of good courage — not courage in your own powers — but courage in the power by which you will be finally upheld.

You are kept by the power of God… …not by your own hand.

You are kept by the power of God… …not by your own hand.