Do you Know the Shepherd's Voice?

Tom:

We are continuing with the Gospel of John and Dave there is so much here, and we are going to start chapter ten today, but we would encourage our listeners to if they haven’t read the Bible—we’ve said this over and over again, but it bears repeating.It’s important to repeat it, that if they haven’t read the Bible, this is the place to start—the Gospel of John.And become Bereans.Search the Scriptures, learn to question, have a healthy, not skepticism, well skepticism a little bit, but not cynicism certainly.But if people are interested in truth Dave, if they really want to know God, they are going to have to read his Word.Or else all they are left with is not just their opinion, or somebody else’s opinion, but this doctor that we quoted in our earlier segment.But you want to know God’s Word?That’s how you get to know him.Starting with John:10:1Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
See All..., “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth 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 openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.”Dave, this is speaking figuratively here of the metaphor of using the sheep and the shepherd.It really says a lot, doesn’t it?

Dave:

Yes, and it is a practice that the Lord uses throughout.He uses physical things to teach spiritual lessons.And the tragedy is that people then focus on the physical.We just talked about transubstantiation for example.And the Catholics says we take Jesus literally when he says except you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you, but you take him figuratively.Well the fact is you take Christ figuratively when it should be taken figuratively.And every time he spoke to the multitude he spoke in parables it says.So when he says to the woman at the well, and he’s even doing it to the woman at the well.He says, “You drink of this woman you’ll thirst again, you drink of the water that I give you, you will never thirst.”Well he’s not talking about H2O; he’s not talking about holy water, he’s talking about spiritual water of life.So in John 7 as we saw a few weeks or months ago, he says if any man thirsts let him come unto me and drink.Well what does he mean?Does he mean physical thirst?No, he doesn’t mean that.Is he going to give us physical water?That’s not what he’s talking about.And then it says, “Out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.”What is that?When Jesus says I am the bread of life, does he mean he’s a loaf of bread?When he says I am the door in this chapter as he will a few verses later, when he says he’s the shepherd and he calls us sheep does he literally mean we are baaa—sheep and he literally is our shepherd?Obviously not. He’s teaching us a very important spiritual truth and I don’t want to hammer away on it, but going back to when Jesus says, “Except you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you,” he’s speaking spiritually and in the Old Testament the priests had to eat the sacrifice.He’s saying you must believe.In fact, he goes on to say that eating and drinking is a symbol of believing and he says, “You must believe that I am a real flesh and blood man.That I as God, the eternal Son of God became a man, a real man.I didn’t cease to be God.I’ll never cease to be man.I am the one and only God-man.You must believe this, you must believe on me to have eternal life.”

Tom:

Dave, let me go back to you mentioned Roman Catholicism transubstantiation.You are speaking about that right now, the differences between taking something literally that was meant to be taken figuratively.And that can be a huge mistake as we’re pointing out here.But I think about St. Augustine. As a former Roman Catholic, my esteem for him was just incredible.He was a doctor of the church.Yet he didn’t believe in transubstantiation.I can quote him that he said that when you come upon something (I’m paraphrasing here) that you know it’s evil and in this particular case, eating somebody’s flesh, I mean that’s cannibalism.You can’t get around it.When you know something is obviously evil, you cannot take it literally, you must take it figuratively.Yet the church didn’t do that.Some years later transubstantiation, they just brushed by this doctrine of the church and came up with this dogma.

Dave:

Yes, because this was the great distinctive they had that made them the true church.One of the distinctives, as you know and that Mass is the heart of Catholicism and their priests could turn this wafer into the body and blood of the Lord.This was a miracle.Well now Jesus is giving us spiritual truth by a physical example, the shepherd, and his sheep.Sheep are very foolish.Sheep easily go astray.Isaiah 53 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray.”

Tom:

And many led astray.Verse one.I think it relates to what we were talking about with regard to denomination in our earlier segment.Here we have somebody coming in, not doing it God’s way.Having another idea, another way of going about something and in effect they are a thief and a robber because they’re robbing the person of truth, of God’s truth, God’s way.

Dave:

So he’s presenting his followers as sheep; he’s presenting himself as the shepherd.He says there are false shepherds and they climb up another way. He’s going to say in this chapter that he is the door of the sheep, but those who climb up some other way are thieves, robbers, hirelings.They are trying to take advantage of the sheep.They are trying to take the sheep as their own to follow them, instead of they themselves following the Lord.Paul puts it very clearly to us.He says, “Be ye followers of me, even as I am of Christ.”So we only follow, whether it’s Paul or whoever it is, we follow human beings to the extent that they follow Christ and that they are teaching us the true Word of God.Well he says the sheep hear his voice.Tom, that’s a telling expression.As I travel around the world, so many people don’t seem to recognize the voice of the Shepherd.Why do they go off into so many strange doctrines?Why do they follow men instead of the Lord and his Word?They don’t hear his voice and that troubles me.Because Jesus said, the sheep here his voice.“He calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out.”

Tom:

Now Dave, do we take that literally or do we take it figuratively?“Hear his voice….”Is he talking about hear his truth, recognize his truth, understand what he says?How far can we go with that?

Dave:

He’s not telling us that we are supposed to hear an audible voice from God.Otherwise why would he give us his Word?We go to his Word for direction.In some circles they’re always getting a new word from God, new prophecy.I’ve had so many people come up to me and say, “Let me tell you want the Lord has just told me about you.”Or “Let me give you a word from the Lord.”Wait a minute; I’ve got a word from the Lord.I’ve got the Bible.I haven’t even begun to understand the Bible yet, but it would—

Tom:

Dave, there are guys who have a word from the Lord for everybody, every time.

Dave:

I remember a gentleman named Dick Mills back there.

Tom:

Right, that’s who I was—

Dave:

It was almost like a fortune teller.He had a ready word for everybody.He could just tell you what God’s will was for you.No, we don’t follow men.We follow his Word, but as a pastor or a preacher speaks, I know the Shepherd’s voice.If he is not giving me what the Bible says, I recognize this is not the Shepherd’s voice.If I know the Lord, I know his voice, I know his truth, I know his Word and I follow him.And we don’t follow strangers.We don’t follow someone who comes up with some new doctrine.This is why we call this search the scriptures daily.This is why we call our ministry The Berean Call.The Bereans searched the scriptures to see whether what Paul said was true.Now it didn’t say they were getting a message from God in audible words or some sign, or symbol, or some feeling within themselves.Very dangerous, people out there, whoever’s listening.Don’t go by your feelings, you go by the Word of God.So the Bereans searched the scriptures, that’s where we hear the voice of the Shepherd.

Tom:

Dave, it’s just so important and it’s what we want to encourage our listeners.You’re new to the—maybe a brand new Christian.Certainly there are great teachers out there and people who can guide you in a certain direction.But I like what Tozer said.He said he wanted to be nothing more than a signpost.You don’t sit at the foot of a signpost.Yes, you get some direction from them, but then you check the direction they’re pointing with your map which is God’s Word.This is how you learn to walk by faith.But it’s faith based on the content of THE faith which is found in the Word of God.

Dave:

Amen.