Parable of Sheep and Goats

Well, thank you, Cleo, and again good afternoon to all of you. Over the last several Sabbaths, I've covered the parables that Jesus spoke in Matthew 25.

And as all of us realize, whenever you read chapter 24, which is the Olivet prophecy, Christ was talking about what's going to lead up to the end of the age.

What are we going to be seeing? We're going to be seeing false prophets. We're going to be seeing wars and rumors of wars. We're going to be seeing famines and pestilences. And then he talks about the lawlessness growing to the point where people lose the love for one another that they actually should have. And of course, we don't want to fall into that category. That section in Matthew 24 does directly talk to us. It talks about how much we need to have a love, a caring, and a concern for one another. And as you read through the remainder of Matthew 24, you see that Jesus concludes with the coming of the Son of Man, things that are going to happen, leading up to the coming of the Son of Man. And then he gives a couple of warnings about being faithful, remaining faithful, being watchful. And in Matthew 25, as we've covered, we went over the parable of the ten virgins. We talked about them as being the sleepy ten virgins because eventually all of them kind of slumbered. They kind of declined in their alertness, but at least some of them were being fueled, being fueled by the Spirit of God. And of course, all of us, it's an admonition to tell us that we each and every one need to be close to God. We need to be appreciative of the Holy Spirit. We've actually covered that here this past Pentecost. We talked about how wonderful the blessing is, that God has seen fit to give us a gift called the Holy Spirit. That enables us to relate to God. It enables us to relate to the Father and the Son in a unique way, because again, as was mentioned in our opening prayer, God loves us. He loves us far more than we might ever imagine, and He wants us to return that love. So in Matthew 25, we covered the parable about the virgins that is about being watchful, being alert, but it's also about being prepared. Being prepared by being close to God. And then Christ went ahead and went through a parable of the talents.

Now, as we discussed again, I think last week or a couple of weeks ago, that parable deals with productivity. It deals with dealing with and using the gifts that God has given us.

The special abilities, the talents that we are able to offer to God in service to our Creator.

And so Jesus went through those two parables about being prepared and about being productive.

And then He went through what we will go through today in Matthew 28, or excuse me, Matthew 25, beginning in verse 31. Now, I know several commentaries at least point out that this seems to be a parable, and I don't know exactly what description you might give this parable, but I think you could easily say that we could say that this would be the parable of the sheep and the goats. And I know while I was traveling up here and as I said, Max was with me today.

He said, are you going to give the same sermon that you gave up in Fulton this morning? I told him, no, up there I gave the parable of the sheep and the goats. Here, I'm going to give the parable of the goats and the sheep. Take your pick. I guess either one could be applicable. But I want us to look at Matthew 25, beginning in verse 31. It says, and I think you have to say that this is a parable, because there is a great deal of meaning that we want to extract from this parable. And you can't say that it's just directly a sequence from what he was talking about earlier, because we all know that later on in Revelation, we see that Christ's return is really only the beginning of a period of judgment, not only upon the church, as we will hopefully rise to be with him in the air and be changed as a part of the kingdom of God, but then a period of judgment will last throughout the millennium, throughout the period beyond that, until God's judgment is complete. And of course, this is mentioned here as we're going to be reading in verse 31. He says, when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the holy angels are with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory, and all the nations will be gathered before him. And he will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And he will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. And then, in verse 34, the king will say to those on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom. Inherit the kingdom that is prepared for you from the foundation of the world. See, God has been preparing not just for our day today, and not just for you and me to become aware of our need for a relationship with God. He's been preparing the kingdom. He's been preparing the time when Jesus would intervene in world affairs much. Like we mentioned earlier about the Ark. You know, the Ark was God's work 4,500 years ago. It occurred over a hundred year period of time. It involved one preacher of righteousness. It involved a lot of people misunderstanding what God was doing, but it involved a universal flood. And God rescuing some out of that flood. See, here in the end of the age, and as we approach the time when inheriting the kingdom can occur, that preparation, preparing for that in our lives and preparing for many, many millennia prior to us, has been going on with the father and the son. So the king says to those on the right hand, for I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.

I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me and I was in prison and you came to me. And in verse 37, the righteous would answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink?

When did we see that? When did we see you, stranger, and take you in or naked and clothed you? When did we see you sicker in prison and come to you? Well, in verse 40, and a major key to an understanding of what this parable is about, the king will answer and say, assuredly, I say to you, in as much as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me. See, that is a significant portion of understanding that we need to have that can help us gain insight into this discussion.

Of course, in verse 41, then he could say to those on the left, in the left hand, depart from me, you accursed into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

For he says, I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty. You gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not take me in naked and you did not clothe me sick in prison or in prison and you did not visit me. And then they're going to answer him, well, Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and we didn't minister to you?

So again, there's almost an appeal. Well, we don't think we ever really had a chance to do that. I don't remember ever seeing you at all. But of course, he answered him, well, assuredly, I say to you in verse 45, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, to one of the least of these, my brethren, as he had mentioned earlier, you did not do it to me. And so these go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Now, in some ways, you could say that you can read through that parable and seem somewhat simple to figure it out. And yet, there may be more there than we might commonly think of. I want to cover several areas that couldn't be discussed about this parable. I want to cover that in the sermon today. Some of them are quite obvious and others may not be as obvious, but they do have to do with us. They have to do with how we are toward one another. It has to do how we are toward other people. And so the first area that I want to mention, whenever you read through this parable, again, it seems somewhat straightforward.

It seems a little bit, you know, almost just so clear, you know, how come anyone couldn't understand?

Well, certainly the timing, as I mentioned earlier, when exactly is God going to be judging and determining whether someone has eternal life or whether they have chosen not to accept His gift?

Well, that's going to occur over a period of time. That's not going to happen in one moment.

That's going to occur as we understand from other sections of the Bible. It's going to occur over a period of time. But, of course, you know, we want to apply to us today. So, first of all, I think I'm going to, I'm just going to mention the contrasts that are clearly apparent. There's clearly a contrast between those who are placed on the right hand and those who are placed on the left. Now, this is not a political discussion today. I'm not talking about right and left, as far as you often hear on television, people talking about political positions right and left.

You know, both of them, as we know, are filled with error. But see, whenever you see the designation right hand and left, you know, it's just showing a separation, but it's showing that on the right hand, and this is where the Bible also shows that Jesus is at the right hand of God. It also mentions in other times when the right hand is a favored hand. And where, and so I'm sorry to all of you who are left-handed, but some of you surely are. I don't know how many, oh, Eric, I knew we'd have one that was left-handed, at least if nobody else wants to volunteer.

Okay, Matt, we'll have to talk to you about that.

Now, I remember, I actually can say, I'm not going to say that I'm ambidextrous because I'm not, but I do one significant thing with my left hand that I wouldn't, you wouldn't normally do, think, because I'm right-handed in almost every way. But I remember when I was about 10 years old, watching my cousin eat with his left hand. I thought, boy, that looks cool. And so I started eating with my left hand when I was about 10 years old, and I have been successful ever since.

And I will also say I can eat with my right hand, too. You know, I just, I don't know why, I just began to do that, and that's about the only thing I do, you know, left-handed. But of course, what this is talking about is the favor that God would give, and he's describing it as a right hand.

In a sense, it's kind of a position of honor or a position of respect.

So right and left hand is clearly a contrast. As I mentioned, the sheep and the goats. That's another contrast. It's clear from this description that there are righteous and there are unrighteous.

And it's clear that those who are in one category inherit the kingdom, and the others are eternally destroyed. They're choosing eternal death. So let's go back to verse 35.

I want to just cover a few of these things to begin with here. In verse 35, what the king in this case told those who were to inherit the kingdom, in verse 35, what enabled them? What allowed them to fit in a good category? The category you'd want to fit into.

Of those two categories, that's the category you would want to fit into. Well, in verse 35, he says, I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty. You gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me.

Now, do all of those sound like impossible things to do?

No. Those are all very simple, very everyday things that we can do and that we can do out of concern for others. See, that's what it's pointing out. These are very, very simple and easy things to do and in essence, it's what every one of us want and need. We all like and want something to eat, something to drink. We need clothing. We need to be welcomed or sheltered.

We need, if we're sick, we need to be encouraged and uplifted. If we're imprisoned, if we're enslaved by some type of a difficulty, we'd like to be released from that.

And so I'll just point out to you that part of what is being stated here are very simple things, everyday things. I will just point out to you, and this is just by way of example, here a few weeks ago, some of you were still here in the building. We had a man stop by and came in and this was after church. Some of you had gone, probably half of you were still here, but he started milling around through all the people here who were left and I think he must have talked to several of you and probably eventually got back to the kitchen and eventually, after seeing several of you, they brought him to me. They said, this is a person you want to see.

And so after talking to him a little bit, I realized, well, you know, this man is asking for help. He's asking for food, he's asking for money, he's asking for, you know, anything I could even try to give him. And I will say, you know, it was hard, it's hard to know exactly what to do. It's hard to know exactly how can you help someone and especially, you know, I don't carry money hardly. I mean, I have very little money I have on me almost at any time and he didn't take a credit card. You know, it was a matter that he was really needing help.

And actually, some of you came up, boxed up whatever, you know, stuff we had remaining from our refreshments that day and gave them to him, which is fabulous. Because, you know, I know, seeing later, he was happy to have that. And yet I did, Charlie, who was here that day, he went with me and we went over and I got some money and gave it to him and told him, I'm sorry, that he's in that, you know, it looked very dire. I mean, he was not only hungry, he was having difficulty getting anything clean. His truck was not running too well. He had a bunch of stuff in the truck that he said he was trying to pedal somewhere. And, you know, I knew it didn't look like he was trying to scam me or anyone else. It looked like he truly had a genuine need.

And certainly, we don't want to be insensitive to that. Now, could you be ripped off with someone, you know, offering looking like that or trying to get, you know, and really having enough? That's possible. And I tried to be somewhat cautious about doing what I did, but it was, that's exactly what this is describing. You know, somebody's coming to you and needing help, and certainly you can go many places around and be able to provide that help. But I think what you find here, whenever you read verse 40, where Jesus said, just as you did it, or he said, the king said, just as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, members of my family, then you've done it to me. Now, you could say, in a sense, other people are our neighbors.

Other people don't just live right next to us, next house to us. Everyone ultimately is a neighbor as far as around the world. And yet, specifically, you know, this is talking directly about brethren.

It's talking directly about the cohesion, the camaraderie, the love and respect and willingness to help and to serve one another. See, we all, we have an opportunity this evening to get together and share a meal and be able to learn more about each other. We all have a spiritual family, and that family needs to be nurtured, needs to be loved, needs to be cared for. I forgot I didn't mention in the announcements Karen Frazier, she and Dale aren't here today because of one of her relatives. 96-year-old uncle, I believe, had died and they have the funeral here this afternoon.

But see, we can pray for one another and we can help one another as we have need, and certainly this is clearly telling us we have a responsibility to one another in that way. In Galatians 6, you see a statement that I think would be applicable to what we find in Jesus' description with this parable. In Galatians chapter 6, he says in verse 9, So let us not grow weary, let us not grow weary in well-doing, or in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time if we don't give up. Now that's clearly talking about us continuing. Once we know what we're to do, then we need to continue to do that. We need to continue to have love and care and concern and go out of our way to help when we have opportunity to do so.

So don't be we grow weary in doing what is right. So then verse 10, whenever you have opportunity, let us work for the good of all. And so that again could be applicable to what we're describing in Matthew 25. Let us work for the good of all and especially for those of the household of faith, especially those who are spiritual family. And congregationally, we can say that here locally, that we have a desire or need to be growing together in love, to be helping as we can one another. Let's go back to Matthew 25 again. I want to point out another. Matthew 25, in this case, verse 37. Whenever the king pointed this out to those who had done the right thing, they said in verse 37, the righteous answered, Lord, well, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or in need? When did that ever happen?

See, what's obvious about that response? And I'll read you the other response in just a little bit.

What's obvious in that response is that it was not being done in order to be noticed.

It wasn't being done to be recognized or even to be rewarded. It was being done because it's the right thing to do. It is being done out of a pure motivation of love.

And whenever, you know, we go back to the earlier parts of Matthew, we quoted the Beatitudes earlier today in the sermonette. In Matthew 5, verse 8, one of the other Beatitudes say, blessed are those who are pure in heart, for they shall see God.

See, that's clearly the motivation that you see revealed here of the righteous who are rewarded with inheriting the kingdom. And so doing things, because not only it's the right thing to do, but doing it not to be recognized or noticed. It doesn't hurt if we are, but if that's not the motivation, that's not the purpose. Even in Matthew 6, you see Jesus, after he spoke the Beatitudes in Matthew 5. In Matthew 6, he says in verse 1, beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them. For then you have no reward from your Father in heaven, whoever you are. So in verse 2, so whenever you give alms, whenever you contribute, in this case, to the temple, whenever you give alms, don't sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogue and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly, I tell you, they've received their reward. But when you give alms, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms are essentially done in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. See, that's the description that Jesus gives, and I think that's what you see reflected in this grouping that are said to be the righteous who are inheriting the kingdom.

They are doing the right thing. They are loving one another. They are providing, as they have opportunity, on a wider scale, perhaps at times. Many of us are scattered. You know, we're not close to each other just physically, geographically, and we may have opportunity to help in our own community, but we certainly need to have that love and care for one another right here in our spiritual family. The last thing I'll mention here in Matthew 25 again was what Jesus said about, you know, whenever the righteous ask the king, well, you know, when did we ever do that? He says in verse 40, truly, I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you have done it to me. See, now that statement is in some ways a far-reaching statement.

It is a matter of doing what we do, serving as we serve, loving as God wants us to love, but doing that for a right reason and doing that out of a desire to serve Jesus Christ.

It's not for self-promotion. It's not for any other reward. It is because I owe it to Jesus Christ. See, every one of us owe our entire lives to Jesus Christ. He's the one who's bought and paid for us. He's the one who is the Savior and Redeemer. He's the one, you know, that should be the motivation for everything we do. And that's really what he's pointing out in this parable. You know, that if we have a desire to please Him, then our thoughts of serving others is going to be motivated by our desire to show respect and to show love toward God and toward our Savior who has bought us with the blood of the Lamb. He's the one who has made that possible.

And so, you know, as we first of all look at this, you know, there are direct applications, and we can read through it, and yet it is important for us to be aware of other things that are also taught. The second thing that we might mention—or let me back up—in connection with that last point I was making about, you know, doing what we do out of out of love and service toward Jesus Christ. In 1 John chapter 4, I meant to go over this as well in connection with that, because in 1 John 4, John is needing to write a lot about how it is that we should show love toward God. And at that point, in the latter part of the first century, the church was under fire, and they had a lot of misinformation going around. He was trying to correct that. He was trying to direct them back to, you know, love for God and not only obeying the commands of God, we see in chapter 5, but here in chapter 4, in verse—he's actually describing in chapter 4 God being love. And in verse 19, it says, we love because he first loved us. We have even a capacity to love, a capacity to honor him with our lives because he first loved us, even before the world created. He had a plan that was going to be extended to us, and we're the recipients of that plan.

In verse 20, those who say that I love God, and yet hate their brethren, their brothers and sisters, are liars. Those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this, that those who love God must love their brothers and sisters as well. And so I think that ties in with what I was saying earlier about how it is, you know, that the people who were righteous in this parable were giving, and they were extending that service to Jesus Christ. That was their motivation.

And then, of course, they were reaching out to others and out of love. So the second thing I was going to mention is that you clearly have a physical application here, and we don't want to minimize that. We don't want to overlook it. It is a physical and direct physical application of concerned care provided to others, whether it's food, drink, clothing, welcoming, sick and prison, visiting. Those are all things that God would expect us to feel a responsibility to do. But the second thing is, and I know we've often described this as we've read this parable in the past, there's clearly a spiritual application to this description, because as the work of God, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, proclaiming a message that Jesus brought to the earth, acknowledging that we yearn for the day that Jesus would return to the earth, the work of God providing the gospel to the world is proclaiming the bread of life.

We are proclaiming the need for all to have living water. We are learning, and there are many verses. We've even read something earlier here in the sermonette. We should be clothed with Jesus Christ. We should be clothed with compassion and humility and mercy and love, as we were reading there in Colossians 3, close to where we covered in the sermonette.

We also teach that there not only is healing available, physical healing, but there is spiritual healing available, because this whole world needs to be healed. This whole world needs to have a healing, and clearly, you know, there is a resolution to those who are held captive, held captive by this world under Satan's sway. Now, this is actually in Luke chapter 4. This is what Jesus said he came to alleviate. Now, he didn't directly say, of course, during his lifetime there were many different incidents of directly, easily, quickly, providing immediate healing, and in a sense, relief, and release to those who were encumbered by spirit problems.

That's what Jesus was able to offer. But here, in Luke chapter 4, verse 16, Luke 4, verse 16, when he came to Nazareth, where he'd been brought up, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom, he stood up to read. And that's one of the verses that we often would look to, to see, well, what did Jesus do?

Well, customarily, he was observing the Sabbath. He was in the synagogue. He was, in this case, teaching. And the scroll of verse 17 that he had been given was of Isaiah, in Isaiah 61, for all of us today. And he found a place where it says, in verse 18, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives.

He has sent me to provide recovery of sight to the blind, and to let the oppressed go free, be freed from their captivity, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. So he rolled up that scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. Everyone was obviously looking at him. You know, they were puzzled, in a sense, over what was he saying. And he said, in verse 21 today, this scripture is fulfilled in your ears, in your hearing. That's why I'm here. The gospel of the kingdom of God that I proclaim is a message of spiritual healing. So, as I said, there's a physical application that we should be aware of and not overlook, but also understand the spiritual application that involves our proclaiming the solution, proclaiming the kingdom of God.

The last thing I want to mention is just what I mentioned earlier about the name or the title of this sermon could be the parable of the sheep and the goats. I want to go through, I don't know how many of you have had experience with sheep or experience with goats? Surely some of you have. How many of you have raised or been around sheep? We've got several of you. Okay, how many of you also goats? Some of the same and some of the others. Now, what I'm going to tell you about sheep and goats may not directly be your experience, but it's my experience.

And it's not only my experience, but it's something that you can read quite a bit about. Whenever you think about the differences in the way sheep and the way goats respond, the different, you know, they're somewhat the same size. They look kind of similar, and yet, you know, they're quite different as far as the way they're made up. And certainly, they're proclivities are quite different.

First of all, you find, and it, well, I'll just tell you, I don't have a lot of experience with sheep. I grew up on a small farm in Oklahoma, and we mostly had cattle and some hogs and later had to get rid of all those. But cattle and alfalfa and wheat and, you know, then some delightful things that Dad decided to grow because he needed something for us to do. He planted some peanuts that we never got through with, even though he dug them all up and put them out of the house.

And every day we came home from school, we were picking peanuts off the vine. I talked to my brother about that whenever I saw him here last month or as he remembered that went on for months. I thought it was years. But nonetheless, and Dad also had a field, he had a large field, an 82-acre field down in pretty much a bottom that was pretty good for almost anything you'd want to grow, whether it was wheat or alfalfa.

But he also had a section there that he planted in gar. Now, I don't know how many of you know what gar is. I'm not really sure that I do. It's some kind of a bean or of, you know, ultimately if you get the somewhat like soybean, I think it would look like. But Dad had this good idea that these three boys of his would love to chop the weeds out of that gar.

And so we spent, again, it probably was days, I thought it was weeks or months, chopping. And, you know, it looks kind of like Johnson Grass, and Johnson Grass grows there. It's hard to know, and so we may have killed more gar than we, you know, actually solved as far as weeding. But anyway, to get to the sheep. The only sheep that I remember having on our farm was I had an uncle who lived up in Enid, Oklahoma, and or a great uncle I'm not remembering exactly, but they had sheep on their farm, and they had a couple of little twin lambs that he gave to us, gave to me, I think.

And so we had them back there at the house, and we had them for quite a long time. Those were the only two sheep that I remember being around at all. But of course at the time they were little, they were small lambs, and so we had built a pin about the, you know, the size of maybe one of the seeding sections here. And we could keep them, we had a little wooden fence type thing that Dad had made, and even had some wheels on one end where you could kind of pick it up on that end and pull the wheels and move it from place to place in the yard. That was Dad's idea of fertilizing the yard.

But I remember those little lambs, you know, they were cute, and they were fun to be around, and maybe we could play with them. And mostly they were just pets, and they were really easy to take care of, and they, you know, they're always nice to go out and see. And we were, you know, they were tiny when we got them, and then bigger and bigger, and I'm sure we ultimately, I don't know whether we ate them or what. But nonetheless, it was fun to have those little lambs around. And they were, in a sense, somewhat soothing. You know, you could hear their little bleeding as far as whenever they make a noise, and they, you know, they got along, it seemed quite well. And so I'll point out to you as far as the contrast between sheep and then goats. Because I don't remember having goats, although, you know, I know some of you have had goats. I remember a goat being there on our farm. I don't remember what the name of that goat would have been, probably Billy. But what do you think, Mr. Fightley? Does that sound like a goat to you?

Anyway, I remember a goat there. I don't remember a name. I don't even remember a name that we had for the sheep, you know. That would have been better if I could remember. But this goat was, you know, he was just kind of always getting into everything. And he was climbing on everything.

The thing is, I don't remember why we had a goat, but it also could have been that it was the neighbor's goat that was just in our pasture more of the time than he was at the neighbor's.

So that could very likely have been the case. And I was being told this morning by someone who had goats, said, yeah, hard to corral them. You know, they're always getting in, jumping on stuff. You don't want them on, climbing up in the barn, everything, you know, creating havoc. So I guess we could say, and what I want to make is his first point. And this is applicable to us as a congregation, because sheep tend to thrive when they are in a flock. They're more of a gregarious type animal, in contrast to what I would describe as far as goats as being somewhat curious, quite a bit independent, and far more difficult to manage. Now, I mention that just because you know, if we're going to be the sheep in God's pasture, if we're going to be the sheep that God is working with and helping, well, then we're going to be drawing close together. We're going to be caring for one another, even as his parable is talking about having sensitive care for one another. I want us to take a look in Romans chapter 15. And this is there, there would be many places you might go to try to use an illustration of how the church was instructed to have care for one another, and how even as we are as a local congregation, we want to grow together. We want to grow in love for one another. And here in chapter 15, you see Paul writing to the congregation that was in Rome. And it appears that he had wanted to come to Rome.

He had been in numerous others, as we covered in last year or whenever it was. We went over Paul's travels. But Paul wrote numerous letters after starting many congregations in Turkey and in Greece and in the cities that would be there, Corinth, Thessalonica, Philippi, Ephesus, Galatia. Those were all, you know, those Asian minor churches. But where was Rome? You know, Rome was off in Italy. Rome was where Paul eventually would go. But whenever he wrote this book, you know, he was yet to come to see the church there in Rome. And you see in chapter 15, he's kind of concluding here in the last couple of chapters of Romans. And in chapter 15, he says in verse 5, May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another in accordance with Jesus Christ, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, a very eloquent statement of how it is that we should be united, how we should be nurturing toward one another. And he goes on in verse 7 to say, Welcome or receive or accept one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. So he was giving instruction about how he wanted the church to be like a flock of sheep, to be together, to be in unison, and to have a closeness. Now, listen to the way he talks about coming to see them. Verse 22, this is the reason that I have so often been hindered from coming to you. Chapter 15, verse 22.

But now, with no further place for me in these regions, I desire, as I have for many years, to come to you when I am going to Spain. And so Paul was writing this. He was telling them, I'm hoping to come. I want to stop by Rome. I want to see you. And then I want to be able to go on and head towards Spain. So he says, you know, with no further place for me in these regions, I desire, as I have for many years, to come to you when I go to Spain, for I do hope to see you on my journey. And I hope to be sent on by you. He wanted to not only to be received, but then to be sent on and encouraged and in a sense supported by them helping the gospel, spreading of the gospel that he would do. He says, I hope to see you on my journey and to be sent on by you once I have enjoyed your company for a little while. See, that's what we should do. We should enjoy the company of the spiritual family that God has placed us to be a part of. We should enjoy that.

That's what Paul was saying about the people in Rome. He hadn't even met them, but he knew what church members were supposed to be like, and he knew what other congregations were like.

And down in verse 30, he says, I appeal to you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit to join me in earnest prayer to God on my behalf, that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea.

He actually said, I've got to go back to Judea. I've got to take the things that had been put together, the help, the physical help that had been put together and sent to go back to Jerusalem and to the surrounding Middle Eastern area and help the saints there in Jerusalem. But Paul says, I ask you to pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my ministry in Judea or in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints so that by God's will I may come to you with joy, and that I may be refreshed in your company. See, how is it that Paul describes the way that the church, as far as a spiritual family, should be closely knit together? I think you would find that the description that you have of sheep and in a sense kind of benefiting from being in a flock, and in some ways often even being protected by, you know, being in a grouping. That is truly a benefit. Another thing, you know, that we can see it, we're going to go over to John chapter 10, because you have a parable that Jesus spoke about the Good Shepherd, about how He is the Good Shepherd for the sheep, about how He is the door for any sheep even to get into the sheep pole, and how that once they're in the sheep pole, then He's the Good Shepherd who is to care, and who does care so much for the sheep. But you find the sheep develop a bond of loyalty to their shepherd. And here in John 10, you see Jesus talking about this. He mentions this in the parable, and then realizing that they didn't fully understand what He was talking about. He went ahead to explain it in greater depth. Here in chapter 11, or excuse me, chapter 10, verse 11, I'm the Good Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

In verse 14, he says, I am the Good Shepherd, and I know my own. I know my sheep, and my own own. No. Me. See, that's why each of us should be here, because we relate to Jesus Christ. We relate to His involvement in our lives, His having been drawn by the Father to Jesus Christ, and then to be a part of a body that is loyal to that Good Shepherd. And he says in verse 15, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, I lay down my life for the sheep.

Now, I'm not going through the discussion of all of what he says here, because there's a lot more here. But see, this, I think, supports what, you know, we could say about the sheep developing a bond of loyalty with, you know, their shepherd. If we back up to verse 3, the doorkeeper opens a gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He says he is the door. He is the one who brings us into the Church of God. And he says the gatekeeper opens the gate, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and he leads them out. And see, he knows each and every one of us by name. He wants us to respond to him in that same type of knowing. And says in verse 4, when he is brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice. They know that it is Jesus Christ who has brought us into the Church of God, and it is Jesus Christ that we're expected to follow the rest of our lives. And in verse 5, they will not follow a stranger. They'll run from him, because they don't know the voice of the stranger.

See, that is talking about a connectedness to Jesus Christ, and a loyalty to the good shepherd that is extraordinary. Another thing that I could say about sheep, and this is something that in a sense you just get a... I see this as I drive around, and if I see a flock of sheep, you often see sheep either grazing in the pasture, or they're kind of huddled up in the corner, maybe waiting to be fed, or seemingly be feeling protected in that type of connection.

And I know I see that. I saw that up there in mid-Missouri several weeks ago. I was driving through and came upon this little town, and of course the road goes right through the town. There's not much town there. There's a church building, and there's several houses. Not a very big town at all, but on both sides of that little town, there was a pretty good-sized flock of sheep on the east and on the west. And those groupings of sheep just seemed so in place. They seemed so calm.

They seemed so at peace. They were so content. See, what is it about sheep that allows them to have a connection with the shepherd where they feel secure, where they feel at peace and have a certain contentment? You know, that's what David describes in Psalm 23. Psalm 23, one of the probably more well-known psalms among people who read the Bible at all. Psalm 23, verse 1, David is, as a shepherd, he knows very much about how he related to his sheep and how he as a sheep related to Jesus Christ.

He starts off in verse 1, and it says, the Lord is my shepherd. So he was referring to himself as a sheep, and I know that my shepherd, my good shepherd, is the Lord. The Lord is my shepherd.

I am fully content. I have need of nothing. You know, too many times we may not feel that way, but we ought to. We need to think about how it is that sheep benefit from a peace and contentment being a part of the flock, that the shepherd is watching over. And, of course, you go on in that, in those verses, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. Those are imagery that, you know, is done by a shepherd for the sheep, where they're able to eat and feed in a generous way, and they're able to actually drink, where, you know, they won't, you know, you try to run them down to a roaring river, they're not going to drink at all, because it scares them. You know, they're afraid, but a, you know, a gentle stream or a very, even a still stream will be where they can drink.

He goes on, you know, that they lead them in the paths of righteousness. That is describing, and I think you would have to agree, that's describing a contentment, a peace, a feeling of being full, a feeling of being secure.

And this is actually what we read in Philippians 4. Philippians 4 was written by Paul, and again, many of you would recognize Philippians 4 verse 13 as a memory verse. Philippians 4 verse 13 says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That's, you know, that is, if you have not memorized it, then you should, because it's a very important concept to always keep in mind. But what I want to show you is here in Ephesians, or excuse me, Philippians 4, what led up to Paul saying that in verse 13 is that he was talking about being a sheep in the flock of God, having a secure connection with the shepherd Jesus Christ. See, that's really what he was saying. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. He wasn't just making that as a statement. He was saying that in connection with being content. Verse 10, he says, I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned for me, but you had no opportunity to show it. He was talking to the church in Philippi and telling them, well, I appreciate you providing, helping me, encouraging me. You've always wanted to do that, and you haven't had opportunity to do it. But he goes ahead to say, not that I'm referring to being in need, for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. He said, I'm fully content.

Now, in many other places, he described an unbelievable amount of chaos and trouble and suffering and struggle and trials in his life. But here he says, I appreciate you trying to help me and being willing to help me, and you've always wanted to help me. And I'm not even saying this because I need, because I don't. I'm content. As he will go on to describe, I know what it is to have nothing. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances, I have learned the secret of being well fed and of being going, and of going hungry, of having plenty, and of being in need. He says, I've learned the secret. I know how it is to be content. I know how it is to feel secure because I can do all things through the one who strengthens me, the one who watches over me when everything is horrible, and the one who watches over me when everything is wonderful. That's the context of why he stated verse 13, is that I am fully content.

And say, if we are the type of sheep that God wants as a part of his flock, helping one another, loving one another, doing what it tells us in Matthew 25 that we are to do, caring for others, and certainly caring for one another, well then we're going to have a peace. We're going to have a contentment that you cannot contain. See, that's something to work for. That's something to desire.

And of course, unfortunately, there are many distractions in this world that try to keep us from having that type of contentment. But it's exactly what sheep benefit from. They enjoy being, in a sense, gregariously in a flock. They also have a close connection and loyalty to even the voice of the shepherd. And as I mentioned here, you know, they have a contentment, and you can sometimes see that in just a flock of sheep kind of gradually, you know, grazing along a hillside.

That is something to seek. Now, a couple of things that I'll say about the goats, and this again was something I had verified by several others who had seen them. There are two things that kind of stand out about a goat. Often, certainly in contrast to sheep, you're going to find that goats are stubborn. You always hear the description of the honorary bill of goat eating a tin can. Now, sheep normally graze close to the ground. They graze, you know, on tender plants.

But goats often will eat that grass. They'll eat bigger grass. They'll eat sticks. They'll eat leaves. They'll eat the fence. They'll eat almost anything that, you know, they can get close to.

And that's why you find them not only being independent, but also, you know, being somewhat armory. And I think you perhaps could put also describe, and several others have described to me, that goats are just simply stubborn. It's hard to get them to do what you want. Now, again, I don't have a lot of experience with it, but I know, you know, that stubbornness clearly is identified in the Bible as an attribute to repent of. That's what we find Samuel saying about Saul. Whenever Saul took things into his own hands, whenever he didn't wait and patiently wait for Samuel to come, and Saul defied God by making an offering. This is in 1 Samuel, I think, chapter 14-15.

But in 1 Samuel 15, verse 23, you see Saul's resistance to Samuel described as, you know, stubbornness and likening that to resistance or rebellion and witchcraft.

See, clearly a bad quality. And so even though, you know, you see, you know, that, you know, that goats might be viewed not entirely wrong in the Bible, they're certainly on the opposite end of the sheep that God wants us to be. The other thing is that unlike sheep, goats are always testing the boundaries. Whenever you put goats into a pen, and Mr. Parrish told me that he could very much verify that, you know, they go around the fence, they'd see where all the boundaries are, they see where the loopholes are, they see where they could get out, they see where the fence is pretty tight along here, but there's a ravine, and no, you can get under that. They are always testing the boundaries. And of course, you know, if we think about how that, you know, we have certain boundaries in our lives. God gives us his laws, he gives us his instruction. He tells us, you know, these are for your good. We repent of our sin, which is transgression of his holy and righteous and just laws. And he tells us, you know, to stay within those boundaries. So I guess we could ask, do we view boundaries like God's law?

Do we view that as a constraint, like a goat might? And I want to be constrained here. I want to be sure I can get away. I want to be sure I can get some of the grass on the other side.

Or do we view the boundaries of God's loving laws as protection?

See, that's the way that sheep are going to benefit from being a part of the flock that is nurtured by the Good Shepherd. So whenever we read the parables of Matthew 25, there are many things to learn. And yet all of it applies to us growing as God's divine children, growing to be his sheep and his pasture, because that's clearly the way that Israel was described in the Old Testament.

And the household of faith is described in the New Testament to be, you know, the sheep who listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd and not like the goats who are always trying to go beyond the bounds. Always trying to get outside of the bounds, always trying to be ornery and to be guest stubborn. See, that's something that all of us can think about. So Christ's parables, parables, we've covered all of Matthew 25, so we're going to have to go on to another chapter sometime. But Matthew 25 is a remarkable chapter. It's a remarkable admonition to us to be enlightened, to be uplifted, to be warned, to be instructed into how God wants us to live, how he wants us to relate to one another, how he is concerned about each one of us. And yet each one of us are, you know, to, we have a responsibility to, you know, to become a sheep instead of a goat.

And so as we study the parables about being prepared and the parables about being productive, this last one, you know, we could say about actively serving others and certainly within the framework of showing love for the members of the church, the brethren that Jesus so clearly identifies here. This is, this is what he is instructing us. So we can all ask ourselves, are we actively involved in service to one another? Are we actively involved in love for one another not to be noticed and not to be recognized but because it's the right thing to do?

And so we can ask ourselves that and we can consider the answers. And certainly maybe even a more important question that all of us should ask is, does God see us as a sheep or as a goat?