Other Sheep I Have

 

Other Sheep I Have

John 10:16

And other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also must I bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

            Here our Lord declares: (1.) He has other sheep, (2.) The other sheep are not of the Jewish fold, (3.) He must bring His other sheep, (4.) His other sheep shall hear His voice (5.) There shall be but one fold, (6.) There shall be but one Shepherd.

(1.)  “And other sheep I have” Our Lord Jesus declares that He has other sheep. In scripture, things that have been kept secret in God are called mysteries, and this is one of those mysteries, “that the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:” (Ephesians 3:6) Mysteries must be revealed by God, and God reveals them to whom He will; “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given” (Matthew 13:11, see Matthew 13:10-17). Here our Lord stated a fact, that is, that He had at that time other sheep. We learn that the Gentiles are the other sheep, (Ephesians 3:6) and many other scriptures reveal that truth. The Gentiles had at that time not yet been grafted in to the common wealth of Israel, but were still considered aliens, foreigners, strangers, having no hope, and with out God in the world (Ephesians 2: 11, 12). But in the secret counsel of God, and “according to His eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:” (Ephesians 3:11), Christ Jesus had a people from among the Gentiles that were truly His, (because they had been chosen in Christ and given Him of His Father before the foundation of the world, (Ephesians 1:4, 5; John 17:2; II Tim. 1:9; Acts 13:48; John 6:37, 39). The sheep were Christ’s, He said I have other sheep, He came to this world to redeem His own sheep, both Jew and Gentile according to the will of the Father “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). The italicized for all here, is added by the translators, and has the force of once only, and never to be repeated.      

(2.)  The other sheep are not of the Jewish fold, they are Christ’s by the gift of His Father from among the Gentiles. These with those of the Jewish fold were lost in the fall of Adam, their common natural ancestor, who was the representative and federal head of the race of natural men. As Adam is the head and representative of the natural race of men so Christ is the Head and representative of the spiritual race of men. Christ Jesus is the Surety and Mediator for that group of persons who were given Him of the Father from everlasting to whom spiritual life will be given according to the will of the Father. These other sheep were lost in the fall, but they were Christ’s sheep though lost sheep. They were Christ’s sheep because they were given to Christ of the Father from everlasting and, they were set apart (sanctified) in Christ when elected in Christ because the Father had loved them Jeremiah 31:3). In the fifteenth chapter of Luke our Lord sets forth His concern in lost things, lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son, in each case the owner never gave up ownership, but reclaimed that which was His own. So it is with the lost sheep of Christ, for He said, “And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day” (John 6:39).

(3.)  Them also must I bring; Christ’s other sheep, though lost sheep must be found and brought to a state of glory. The Apostle Paul writes “But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (II Thessalonians 2:13, 14). The Apostle Peter writes “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through, the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who hath called us to glory and virtue:” (II Peter 1:2, 3). The price of our redemption, justification, sanctification, and knowledge of God is the most high. We having fallen in Adam, are guilty of offending our God. Adam’s sin is imputed to all his children, for all his posterity was in him when he sinned against God. Though we did not personally eat of the forbidden fruit, yet being in Adam when he did eat, his sin is imputed to all his children. So that according to Divine Justice we are all guilty before God. And not only that but we are made partakers of Adam’s fallen nature, and therefore are sinners by birth, habit, and nature. In order to bring His lost sheep to final glory our Lord Jesus had to make reparation to the honor of the August Majesty of God, He had to satisfy Devine justice by offering Himself in the room and stead of His own sheep. Christ Jesus had to endure the curse of the law of God on behalf of His sheep and in their stead, to propitiate God, to reconcile God, to may peace for His sheep, and to bring them to God. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4) The sheep of Christ had sinned and therefore must die, but before the world was formed Christ Jesus had agreed to be surety for all those the Father had given Him, therefore to pay the infinite debt of His sheep Christ must stand in their place before God as the guilty one, though He had no transgression of His own, yet by imputation the sin of all His sheep were laid on Him, (Isaiah 53:6) and He must pay. And He must pay personally, by bloody sweat, tears, terrors of God and His law, the billows of God’s wrath sweeping over Him, by enduring our penalty of hell, (Psalm 18:45, 5) in His own person. Thus did Christ Jesus pay the debt of His sheep, by the death of the cross, the most horrible death, and thus did Christ appease God for transgression of His lost sheep. Christ Jesus “made peace through the blood of His cross” (Colossians 1:20) for His own sheep.

(4.)  And they shall hear my voice, Christ’s lost sheep shall hear His voice. With spiritual life comes the hearing ear, otherwise the natural ear is dead to the things of the Spirit of God (Ephesians 2:1; I Corinthians 2:14). “He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God” (John 8:47) “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” (John 10:26-28). He that hears God’s words is one that is given life in Christ through grace, by grace he is enabled to hear and believe the words of God, and is made willing in the day of God’s power toward him, and therefore is willing to seek the Lord because of life that is given him. Men seek the Lord because God has saved them, men believe God because God has saved them, every spiritual act requires spiritual life as its prerequisite. Persons who are given life through grace are made able and willing to repent of their sins and former religious idolatry, and they are made able to believe the gospel, otherwise the dead can do nothing. As our Lord said “for without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5).

(5.)  And there shall be one fold, The Lord Jesus has but one church, one spouse, and one body, all of these are names given to the elect company of saints. Christ’s church is called by many names, the Apostle Paul writes “But ye are come to the mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel” (Hebrews 12:22-24). “There is one body, (the church of God) and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Ephesians 4:4-6). And this is because “by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit” (I Corinthians 12:13). Christ Jesus has broken down the middle wall of partition (the Law of Moses) between the Jew and the Gentiles; observe the words of the Apostle Paul: “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the common wealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man so making peace; and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body on the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: and came and preached peace to you which were far off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Ephesians 2: 12-18). 

(6.)  There shall be but one shepherd, That is the Lord Jesus Christ, “I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him:” (Psalm 89:20) King David was the Old Testament type of God’s King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus is the antitypical King David, and it is He whom God has made both Lord and Christ, (Acts 2: 36) it is written of our Lord Jesus Christ “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion” (Psalm 2:6). This God did at the ascension and cession of Jesus Christ at the right hand of God, where all power and right to rule is put in His hand by God, and where He sits in perfect ease as the anointed Prophet, Priest, and King, reigning over all persons, places, and things. It is Jesus Christ who as God the creator has the right to rule, and it is Jesus Christ who as God-Man Mediator having finished the work that the Father gave Him to do has earned the right to rule, it is Jesus Christ that is seated at the right hand of power in the heavens who is directing all things to their appointed end. God in His essential essence; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost has put all power in the hand of His King Jesus Christ, who at this hour, by His providential administration, directs the events of this universe, to bring to pass the purpose of God which was pitched upon by infinite wisdom in eternity past. It is Jesus Christ who must reign until He has destroyed all the enemies of God and His people, the last enemy to be destroyed is death, (I Corinthians 15:26). In this age of grace, which proceeds the kingdom of glory for the people of God. Jesus Christ has destroyed the works of the devil, (I John 3:8) and in His kingdom has abolished death, (II Timothy 1:10). For through His death and resurrection, Jesus Christ has broken the power of death and the grave, (I Corinthians 15: 54-56; Hosea 13:14) and of Satan who is said to have the power of death, (Hebrews 2:14) which He exercised when he deceived the woman and brought mankind under death through sin in the fall of Adam, who was the legal, federal, covenant, and natural head of the race of natural men. The sin of Adam brought his seed into sin, the curse, and death. The perfect obedience of Jesus Christ to the law of God, on the behalf of His people; and His perfect obedience to the will of His Father in His sufferings, blood shedding and death, in the room and stead of His people, have brought all His people into perfect righteousness, (Jeremiah 23:6; 33:16) absolute non-imputation of sin, (II Corinthians 5: 19; Romans 4:8) perfect holiness in Jesus Christ, (I Corinthians 1:30) and unquestionable acceptance in Christ (Ephesians 1:6) “For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. (Hebrews 10:14). Therefore let the children of God rest, in the finished work of the Jesus Christ, and wait the for certain return of the King of Glory.

       A.J.Ison