A shepherd loves his sheep. He knows also that he must tend his sheep. It is the responsibility of the shepherd to train, provide for, and protect his sheep. He loves the fellowship of his sheep. Sheep come to know/recognize their shepherd’s voice. Sheep know their shepherd. They follow their shepherd. “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all: and no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.” (John 10:27-29)
Scripture gives us the nature of man without Christ. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way: and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:8) We are spiritually dead in turning our own way. We are living without Christ according to the flesh. “So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:6) But believing in Christ changes us spiritually so that we can walk with Him. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
“For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17)
Having come to Christ, we are immediately immersed into the nature of the new birth with the assets to be Christ-centered. “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (II Peter 1:2-4)
The nature of a new believer is recognizing his need for discipleship. He knows miraculously that his life in the world is over. A disciple of Christ knows Him and wants to follow Him. This is foundational. Our new nature in Christ has a longing to find a teacher to disciple him. If this is weak, there needs to be an immediate repentance. It is by His power that we will be able to be faithful. It is by His knowledge that we see clearly that the corruptions of the world must be abandoned. Shepherds are constantly reminding the sheep of this.
Paul rebukes the Corinthian believers for not heeding his instruction to put off their corruptions. “Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” (I Corinthians 6:9-11)
Likewise, Paul rebukes the Ephesian believers that they should no longer walk in an evil way. “This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:17-24)
I am reminded of one young lady wearing a sweatshirt with the phrase, “Total Abandonment to God”. She demonstrated her life. She was a disciple of Jesus Christ. Are you one of His sheep who have gone astray? Repent and get back to the local church asap. Your life depends on it.
Where the Grace blows, `