515
T h e
K i n g ’. s
B u s i n e s s
November 1929
ing some souls to Jesus Christ, but you got off the track. You followed Jesus Christ afar off and now there is no testimony in your life. My dear friend, do you know how to get back into fellowship with the Shepherd? “I f we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” “H ear M y V oice ” What does Jesus Christ mean when He says, “My sheep hear my voice”? The Bible is the Word of God. It is the voice of God. When I was a boy I used to sit at my mother’s knee as she would read from God’s Word to me. Perhaps it was that passage in Isaiah, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LO RD : Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” After she had read that passage she would say to m e: “My boy, that is not your mother speaking to you; that is God speaking to you. Then she would read again. Perhaps it would be John 3:16: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” She would repeat what she had said before: “That is not my word; that is God’s Word. Do you hear God speak to you, my boy?” And I heard the voice of the Lord. I have been listening to that voice through all the years. Every time I open-my Bible, every time I think of a statement in the Bible, It is God speaking to me. When I pray I speak to God; when I read the Bible, God speaks to me. Our Lord said: “A stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice o f strangers.” There are many voices that are meant to call a Christian away from fellowship with his Lord. The voice of carnal pleasure, the call of the world and the flesh, the call of false teachers to forsake the faith “once for all delivered to the saints”; but the real sheep of Jesus Christ love the Bible; they believe that it is the very Word of the living God, that it is an infallible rule of faith and conduct; and they do not turn aside for the false voices that surround them. In a ministry of forty years I have seen a great many sick sheep, but I have never seen a sick sheep that was living within the sound of the voice of the Good Shepherd. “ I K now T p k ik ” He had already said: “/ dm"known o f mine.” A sheep of Jesus Christ knows his Shepherd and his Shepherd knows him. “He calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.” I am so glad that my Good Shepherd knows my name. I am so glad that when I get out of fellowship with Him He misses me. He knows me. He has a brand on me. And blessed be God, I know Him! There is mutual fellowship. “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” “T hey F ollow M e ” A Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ. Often have I heard young people discuss popular amusements. I have had them say to me: “Do you rail out against dancing and card playing and picture shows and the like?” And they always have a pleased look when I say: “No. I do not rail out against popular amusements.” How happy some people are if they can get the preacher to endorse some of their suspected meannesses! I say: “If the Lord Jesus Christ leads you to a dance, go. You have no right not to go. It is your duty to go. If the Lord Jesus Christ leads you to a place where they gamble for a cut-glass
“My God shall supply all your need according to his riches of grace in glory by Christ Jesus.” “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” “Not [a sparrow] shall fall on the ground without your Fa ther,” and “ye are o f more value than many sparrows.” I am glad I am a sheep of Jesus Christ. A sheep is a peculiar animal. It seems to be easy for a sheep to get out of fellowship with the shepherd, and when it does it gets into all sorts of difficulties. I was brought up on an Iowa farm. My father had sheep, hogs, cattle, and horses. We used to have a slough in the back part of our farm and in one place in the slough there was what we called “the hog wallow.” I have stood out in the pasture field when I was a boy and seen the hogs after a dashing Iowa rain had washed them clean, and I ’ve said: “Now, hog, you stay clean.” But no, that is not the nature of a hog. When the sun would come out the hogs would make a bee-line for “the hog wallow” and as they rolled over in the filth and mud they seemed to enjoy themselves. “The hog wallow” was headquarters for the hogs. The sheep did not make a bee-line for that “hog wallow.” But I have seen-some of my father’s sheep walk too close to the hog wallow and slip in. However, I never saw a sheep happy in the “hog wallow.” I have seen some of God’s dear sheep walk too close to temptation and slip into the hog wallow of sin, but I have never seen a Christian, a sheep of Jesus Christ, happy in a hog wallow. I have never seen a Christian with a happy life while living in unconfessed sin. David, who ought to have been at the head of his army, one afternoon walked too close to the “hog wallow” and slipped in. During that year of living in unconfessed sin David did not have for one moment the joy of salva tion. He said: “Restore unto me the joy o f thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.” He had not lost his salvation, but he had lost the joy of salvation, and when he lost the joy of salvation he lost his testimony. You cannot live in an unconfessed sin and have the joy of the Lord, and you cannot live without the joy of the Lord and wield an influence for Jesus Christ. When a sheep gets into a “hog wallow” it looks so much like a hog that the hogs do not know the difference! When David confessed his sin God took him out of the “hog wallow” and he sang: “He took me from a fearful pit And from the miry clay. Upon a rock He set my feet, Establishing my way. He put a new song in my mouth, My God to magnify. Many shall see it and shall fear And on the Lord rely.” The good Shepherd goes after and restores the wan dering sheep. The story in the fifteenth chapter of Luke about the man who had a hundred sheep is not a story of ninety-nine sheep and one goat. It is a story about a hundred sheep one of which wandered away from fellow ship with the shepherd. He went out in the mountains wild and bare, away from the tender Shepherd’s care. But the shepherd went after the sheep and brought him back to the fold. He always does. Some child of God may read these lines who has wandered far away from God. You used to serve. Once you were in the Sunday school and you were interested. Once perhaps you were doing Christian work; perhaps the Lord used you in lead
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