MY SHEEP ... FOLLOW ME
[p. 150] MY SHEEP ... FOLLOW ME
I have sought on previous occasions to set forth the different ways in which souls are hindered from embracing a full gospel.
First, by remaining satisfied with knowing relief only, like the nine lepers (Luke 17), instead of coming to Himself, as one of them did, who, when he was relieved, turned back, and fell down at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks, and with a loud voice glorified God.
Secondly, from not having learnt the terrible nature of the distance between God and themselves. This must be learnt, and a deep, solemn moment it is when the soul is brought to see that the only way out of death is by appropriating the death of Christ. Many are like the large company at Pi-hahiroth; they are clear of judgment but have not, walked through the Red Sea. Then, thirdly though they know Christ as having died, yet they do not know Christ risen. The simple answer to faith in Christ risen is that you receive the Spirit.
The next step is to follow the Lord: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me”. Many are truly converted who do not follow Him, for if they followed Him, they would come to Himself outside of everything here.
The Lord had come into the Jewish fold, but instead of remaining there He leads His sheep out of it. The fold sets forth the religious ordinances in the world (what we sometimes call ‘system’). This detains many, and what they have to learn is to follow the Lord. When we believe His grace we follow Him, and he that follows Him does not walk in darkness, but has the light of life.
[p. 151] In John 9 we get a man who has received light, and he keeps up to it; he insists on what he knows, and therefore he advances. He has not to do with what would be called wicked people, but with the best of society, and each in turn question and refuse him. First his neighbours, then the Pharisees (the religious man); then his parents, who were afraid to own him; then the nation, the Jews; and in the long run he is cast out; but he goes on following up the light he has received, and as he does so he is advancing towards Christ. When cast out, he was in the solitude of light; but he was not long there, for Jesus found him, and said to him, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” (John 9: 35). “And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him” (verse 38).
Now he has come to the Person outside of all that is revered and respected among men, outside of everything.
John 10 explains the position which this man has. Christendom assumes that room is made in the Jewish fold for christians; no, “he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out”. The man who had been blind and who had received sight is led out, and here in John 10 we get his true position, and the position of everyone who follows Christ. Many truly converted souls have not come out. Why? Because they have not followed the Lord. If they followed Him nothing would satisfy them but to find Him. What a moment of exquisite delight when Jesus found him! I ask every converted soul here, would you like to reach Him? If you would, you must follow Him, outside all of man, outside all religious impediments. We get it illustrated in the two disciples, who left John and followed Jesus; John 1: 37.
Have you followed Him outside of everything and come to Himself? He says, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture”. There was no pasture in [p. 152] the Jewish fold. The oriental fold was for protection - just four walls built in a square.
I would press on you the blessedness of following Himself. See the touching language He uses: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me”. Levi (Mark 2) is an example of this. He left the receipt of custom; he broke away from that which held and hindered him, in order to follow Christ.
Will you follow the One to whom you owe so much, or are you stopping short, content with having found merely relief? A faithful dog even will allow nothing to hinder him from following his master. How little our hearts are set on following Him! When you do follow Him, what a moment it is when you come to Himself! - the good Shepherd, who knows His sheep, and is known of them, as the Father knows Him, and He knows the Father (see verses 14, 15).
Let me draw your heart for a moment to think of what He - the good Shepherd - has done. He has come from God, and has gone down under the judgment, and has borne it for you. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”, John 15: 13. I ask you, Have you come to Himself? Have you come to the risen One? If you have, you have received the Holy Spirit, and a bond is established between Him and you, and then as a result of this, there is the most wonderful intimacy that can be imagined between you and Him; as He says, “I ... know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father”.
May the Lord show your hearts what a real thing it is to have a personal acquaintance with Himself. It is not merely as with Jonathan and David, who made a covenant together, but He knows me and I know Him. This is the wonderful blessing that the heart finds in having a personal intimacy with a glorified Saviour.
Let me press on you, do not be satisfied with having received light, but follow up the light, and it will [p. 153] bring you to Himself, and an intimacy will thus be established between you and Him. Do you know Himself, and are you in the same kind of intimacy with Him, as that which subsists between the Father and the Son?
If you have not come to this, you have not come to the fulness of grace. If you come to Himself, you receive the Holy Spirit, as He says, “the water that I shall give him”, and this is the power to lead you into a personal enjoyment of Himself, that nothing can surpass. You then know, not only that He has done a work for you, but you know His heart, and His “love is better than wine”, so that you can say, “Draw me, we will run after thee”, Song of Songs 1:2,4. It is only the heart that knows Him that is satisfied. The crown of the gospel is to be acquainted with the Son of God. How souls are hindered and baffled by the power of the enemy from entering into the fulness of grace! Mark, the light that reached you first, came from the glory; but how few who have received the light have come to Him. If you are not brought to Him, you know nothing of what He speaks of in John 13: 8 “part with me”. The Lord when going away to the Father, washes His disciples’ feet, as much as to say, I shall take care that no shade of reserve shall come in between you and me.
We are brought out of all that would have been attractive to us naturally, and are brought into the sphere where He Himself is, and the crown of all my blessing is, that He is acquainted with me and I am acquainted with Him.
May the Lord lead our hearts not only to see the perfection of His grace, but to pray more, that we may not only have light, but that we may know the Person from whom the light comes.