John 10

An ordinary lawyer will have his fee, and sometimes a bribe too; but Christ is not mercenary: How many causes does he plead every day in Heaven, and will take nothing. As Christ laid down his life freely (John 10:15, 18), so he intercedes freely. 2. Feelingly; He is sensible of…

1. God has asserted it (1 John 3:9): His Seed remains in him (1 John 2:27): The anointing you have received of him abides in you. 2. As God has asserted it, so he has promised it: The Truth of God, the most brilliant Pearl of his Crown, is laid a pawn in the promise (John 10:28)…

What can make us love God more than the fixedness of his love to us? He is not only the author of grace, but finisher; his love is perpetuated and carried on to our salvation (John 10:27). My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

Oh! in this be wise as serpents, stop your ear to the charming of false teachers. God has given his people this wisdom to stop their ears to heretics: John 10:5: a stranger will they not follow, but flee from him. 3. The serpent has a chief care to defend his head; a blow there…

And so he shall be a head without a body, but be assured a believer's union with Christ cannot be broken, and so long he cannot be hindered of the kingdom (John 17:12). What was said of Christ's natural body is as true of his mystical body (John 10:39): A bone of him shall not b…

So that it was nothing but pure love for Christ to lay out his blood to redeem such as he could not expect to be really bettered by. 5. That Christ should die so willingly (John 10:17). I lay down my life.

It is said, not only Christ was with God before the beginning, but he was God (John 1:1), and (1 Timothy 3:16), God manifest in the flesh. The title of Lord so often given to Christ in the New Testament does answer to the title of Jehovah in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 6:5; M…

In a word, all that is written in law or gospel, tends to this, that we should be doers of God's will, Your Will be done. 3. By doing the will of God we evidence sincerity; as Christ said in another sense, (John 10:25) The works which I do, bear witness of me: So it is not all o…

Jesus says to them, verily, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. John 10:30. I and my Father are one. John 17:3. And now O Father glorifie you me with your own self, with the glory which I had with you before the world was.

So was it plainly (John 8:56, 57, 58, 59): Says he, Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad; then said the Jews to him, you are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, verily I say to you, before Abraham was I am: th…

Q. Who gave Christ a commission or calling to the office of a Mediator? A. As no man can lawfully intrude himself into any office without a lawful calling, no more did Christ intrude himself into the office of a Mediator, but was lawfully called and authorized thereunto by the F…

Q. Do you mean then that a true believer can never totally nor finally fall away, but shall persevere in grace to the end? A. Yes, I mean so indeed; this perseverance of believers in the state of grace being plainly and plenteously taught in the holy Scriptures (1 Peter 1:5; Luk…

Q. Who then were redeemed by Christ? A. He gave himself for none others but only for his Church (Ephesians 5:25; Acts 20:28; John 10:15; 11:52). Q. What is meant by the Church in the holy Scriptures?

Although the faithful do fall away, so much as is in them, yet God remains a father in Christ; and they also as touching right to eternal life, remain sons. John 10:28: They shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. Here some do say that the sheep cannot b…

He is Antichrist (an enemy and an adversary to Jesus the Christ) that denies the Father and the Son. For he that denies the Son's authority, to be the eternal King and Prophet of the Church of the New Testament, to the end of the world, according to the royal commission he recei…

He is that Antichrist (namely an enemy and adversary to Jesus the Christ) that denieth the Father and the Son. He that denieth the Son's Authority, to be the eternal King, and his Commission to be in force (Matthew 28:18, 19, 20; Mark 15:15, 16), and to be the eternal Prophet; a…

[〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], Ostentare: V. L. that is, to make show of, ostendere, to show forth, to manifest. Praestare, Eras. to act, to perform; so the word is sometimes used (John 10:32), [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], many good things have I showed you: that is, wrought and p…

(3) He had full power and authority over his own body, his whole human nature, to dispose of it in any way, and into any condition, to the glory of God. No man, says he, takes my life from me, I lay it down of myself, I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it agai…

Predestination is the rule of effectual vocation, all and only they are so called by the Word, who are predestinate. So speaks our Savior also, I have other sheep which are not of this fold, them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice (John 10:16). He had some sheep in t…

Thirdly, they are distinct in their actions or operations; which though they go together inseparably in the work of redemption: yet they must in no wise be confounded but distinguished as the natures themselves are. Christ says of himself, I have power to lay down my life, and I…

What is required in particular, that any of them may be meet to be joined to such a Church, we shall afterwards enquire. 7. It is generally said, that out of the Church there is no salvation; and the truth hereof is testified to in the Scriptures (Acts 2:47; 1 Peter 3:20, 21; Ma…

If God say, Sinners, you should subsume and reply, I am chief. I remember it is said (John 10:3), Christ calls his sheep by name, and leads them forth: How does Christ call them by name? By speaking expressly to their case, as if he did strike them upon the shoulders, and say, H…

Not they that are subjected to the former, but to this latter have been accounted possessed persons. The Jews of old had such an opinion concerning mad men (John 10:20). Consider also (Matthew 17:14–18) with (Luke 9:39).

Thirdly, in this Temple, beside the Holy of Holies, were three Courts; the Court of the Priests, the Court of the people, commonly called Atrium Israelis; and without both these Atrium Gentium, the Court of the Heathen, so called, because the Heathen, as also many of those who w…

And though we do not read expressly, that either God or any prophet did require this feast of Purim, yet forasmuch as it stands approved in Scripture, there is no doubt but it was done by warrant from God. The feast of dedication (John 10:22, 23) has also been objected from the…

I read (Luke 4:28, 29) that Christ was in a great tumult cast out of the city of Nazareth — but this I hope no man will call excommunication. The blind man (John 9:34) was indeed excommunicated out of the synagogue, but we nowhere read that he was thereafter found in the Temple:…

That which secures His decree and makes it infrustratably to take effect, is, that He has effectual means to bring about His decree. Second, if we consider the covenant of redemption, between Jehovah and the Mediator, we will find that upon the one side the Mediator particularly…

For 1. We are to expound this universal with respect to God's purpose and Covenant, the contrivance of the Elect's Redemption, and to the death of Christ, the execution of it, and so these words our, us, we, all are, and must be restricted to these, and in them we are to find ou…

He will not suffer his disciples to draw a sword in his defense (Matthew 26), but when Peter drew his sword, he bade him put it up again, for he could have commanded more than twelve legions of angels; but it behooves him now to suffer — he came for another end than to oppose hi…

He answers, it is true that he was cut off out of the land of the living, but for no offence in himself, but for the transgression of God's elect was he stricken, or as the word is, The stroke was upon him; Indeed this (as we conceive) is given as a reason of his exaltation. Bec…

And therefore, by my people here is not meant, 1. All the world, or all that ever lived and had a being. We find not anywhere in Scripture that these are called my people, or God's people, but whenever my people is spoken of, it is used to mark boundaries between his people and…

There are several things implied here concerning the efficacy of the price of Christ's death, and concerning the extent of it, as it's laid down as a price for the sins of the Elect, which I shall first passingly touch upon, and then come to these doctrines that are more directl…

What is rendered death here in our translation, is deaths in the plural number in the Hebrew; to show the greatness and terribleness of the death which he underwent, and the sore spiritual as well as bodily exercise that he was put to, at, and in, his death, so that it was a com…

And will, or can, folks expect that for which they have no promise? The Scripture is plain and peremptory in this, as namely (Acts 4:12), there is no other name under heaven whereby a sinner can be saved, but by the name of Jesus; he is the door (John 10), the way, the truth, an…

And 4. All this was according to God's prescription and appointment, in the covenant of redemption. This commandment, says he (John 10:18), have I received of my Father, to wit, that I should lay down my life for my sheep. And most emphatically he says (John 14:13): as my Father…

Such a high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners: a priest, who is the Son, and is set over the house, as the heir; and though the human nature was the sacrifice, yet (as was said before) not as abstracted from the divine nature, the person b…

(1 Timothy 1:15) This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation; and what is it? That Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners: and that (John 10:10) I came that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. There are two things that we wou…

If we could rightly discern His sufferings, and the benefits that we have by them, it would say, that there is good reason, that He should have a kindly meeting, who has done, and suffered so much to obtain these to us. 4. Consider the cheerful way of His suffering, and of His l…

And it cannot be but these many shall be justified, because He did bear their sins, as to the punishment, and curse due to them; and whoever sins are borne by Christ, these are, and shall be justified. And therefore He must be victorious, and have a glorious triumph and out-gate…

Thirdly, from the connection, because He has poured out His soul to death, observe: that our Lord Jesus His willing condescending to die, is most acceptable to the Father; therefore He says, I will give him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,…

If the Lord's will that Christ should die be nothing, but his mere decree, it could not oblige us in the like case to be willing, as John says, to lay down our life for the brothers. Indeed (John 10:18), Christ has a commandment of God, and the revealed will of God, to die for u…

4. It is but little drawing possibly that will do the business, some gentle blast or air of golden words, some moral suasion, some breathings and spiration of fine reasonings, from men or angel, can do much. No, but it is not so, no less (says Christ) can draw a sinner to me tha…

It cannot be denied, but that the Gospel both charges or awes us to believe in Christ, and to bring forth good fruits, worthy of Christ, except we would be hewn down, and cast into the fire; and also that Grace works Faith, and to will, and to do; and so voluntary obedience and…

Christ told down a definite and certain ransom, as a told sum of money, every penny reckoned and laid, and he knew who was his own, and whom, and how many, by the head and name, he bought; there is no hazard that one come in, in the lieu and room of another. John 10:14: I am the…

Romans 8:3: 'God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh.' Mark that phrase 'for sin' — [reconstructed: the Greek word] there is put for 'on account of,' as in John 10:33 'not for a good work' — that is, not because of a good work or…

What holy confidence may this breed in us? He is at God's right hand, and we are in his hands (John 10:28), and all his enemies are under his feet, who then can pull us out? (Revelation 1:18) says Christ, I have the keys of hell and death.

Christ's Father will not displease him, nor go against him in anything. Now that you may see a reason of this, and have all cavils and exceptions taken away, that may arise against this; and how that there is an impossibility that it should be otherwise: know, that this Father a…

And this lies now still upon him now he is in heaven, as much as ever: for his will also is (says he, verses 39-40) that I should raise them up at the last day, so as it must needs continue the same till then. And compare with this John 10, from verse 15 to 18, where having disc…

Meaning principally that the prophecies, and figures, and types which prefigured his death were all now accomplished. 2. His voluntary submission which he should accomplish, notes his active and voluntary concurrence; it is an active word not passive, not to be fulfilled upon hi…

Likeness is another loadstone of [reconstructed: affection] (Hebrews 1:3). He is the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, such as the Father is so is Christ. 2. As Mediator, so God loves him on the account of his obedience (John 10:17). Therefore does my…