Jesus at the Sheepfold Door as a Thief Climbsby sanjalberts
10:5John 10:5
And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.
Christ's true followers know His winning voice, recognize Him as their Shepherd, follow where He leads, and will not follow a stranger but flee from him because they do not know strangers' voices and do not belong to them. He stands as the true Shepherd and door of the fold in contrast to unworthy shepherds and false leaders who enter another way, use authority without feeding the flock, and drive away those He is drawing. Safety and eternal life in His hand are given on the condition of being led entirely by Him and following no stranger, which is the only election set forth in God's Word. Telling His voice from a stranger's requires diligent, thoughtful, prayerful study of the Scriptures like the Bereans, comparing Scripture with Scripture with willingness to receive truth even when it crosses human ideas, under watchfulness and prayer. The stranger's voice is the voice of Satan, heard in false teachers, false prophets and deceptive messages claiming divine authority for self-exaltation, encouraging skepticism, doubt and questioning of God's plain word. Hearts filled with envy, selfish pride and earthly things, or separated from Him by walking in their own ways and neglecting light, become confused and blinded so they cannot distinguish the true Shepherd from the stranger and are in danger of mistaking the stranger for the Shepherd.
Shepherd Picture and Setting
John 10:5 belongs to Jesus' picture of His relation to believers as a shepherd to his flock, in which believers are helpless and dependent like sheep and the shepherd image is linked with Christ. Christ is presented there as the true Shepherd and the door of the fold, in contrast with Israel's leaders as unworthy shepherds who drove from the fold one whom Christ was drawing to Himself. Those Pharisees are false leaders who entered the fold another way, while Christ's sheep do not follow strangers because they do not recognize their voice. The scribes and Pharisees sat in Moses' seat yet acted like thieves and robbers when they used authority without feeding the flock, so position did not make their guidance true.
After the fall Christ saw fallen people as His sheep in pitiable condition, wandering, ready to perish and exposed to sure destruction. He left the honors and glory of His Father's house to become their shepherd to save them. With a winning voice He calls them to His fold as a safe and sure retreat from robbers, a shelter from scorching heat and a protection from chilling blasts. He continually cares for their good, strengthens the weak, nourishes the suffering, gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them in His bosom, and goes before His sheep. As the good Shepherd He gives His life for the sheep, in contrast to the hireling who does not own the sheep, cares not for them, and flees when the wolf comes.
The parable shows the relation in which Christ stands to the human family as a missionary whose work is to heal. His fold is to be guarded and cared for and its straying sheep are to be sought and saved rather than left to perish. Following Him through self-denial and sacrifice is pictured as a lost sheep returning to the fold through the door and not by another way. Like an eastern shepherd He leads without whip or dog and makes a distinct sound when a sheep strays that every sheep understands, so all press close together and follow Him. His own sheep follow Him because they know His voice, and they will not follow a stranger but will flee from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.
The shepherd and sheep is one of the everyday images and facts of life and experience familiar to His hearers by which Christ taught immortal truth. It shows His openness to the influences of nature and His delight in gathering spiritual teaching from daily surroundings. He drew material with something to interest every mind and appeal to every heart, so that the daily task is brightened and uplifted by constant reminders of the spiritual and unseen. Seeing such familiar things later brought His lessons back to His hearers' minds.
Sheep Know and Flee
Christ's sheep love Him, know His winning voice, and recognize Him as the true Shepherd, and they follow Him wherever He goes. They will not follow a stranger but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers and do not belong to him. His winning call leads His wandering sheep to the safety and care of His fold, where in His care they are protected and guided while they reject those who are not their shepherd. To know His voice in this way is to distinguish the false from the genuine and not to be misled by false prophets coming with heresies, and the church's failure so to distinguish shows being easily led astray and not having learned to recognize the Shepherd's voice, so that those so misled need to humble themselves before God, sincerely repent, and review that chapter of their experience.
Safety is found in being led entirely by the heavenly Shepherd. His sheep in His care are protected and guided as they refuse strangers. The promise of eternal life in Christ's hand is made on conditions, the condition being to follow no stranger but to know and understand the voice of Christ, and this conditional following is the only election brought to view in God's Word.
Jesus is risen as the living Saviour, the living Good Shepherd and Head of the Church, known by His people who recognize His voice and will not follow a stranger. His voice is heard guarding His people against rebellion and saving them from rebellion and apostasy, and listening to His voice keeps them from being left in darkness in the work given them to do. When things become entangled and hard to adjust, knowing His voice keeps them from losing heart and courage and faith and from talking doubts and unbelief and spreading discouragement as a deadly malady, and as long as hope and trust stay in God there is no fall. In this way His people are to reject voices that foster doubt, discouragement, rebellion, and apostasy, and to hold faith in Jesus through difficult circumstances by trusting His guidance instead.
Listening to His voice opens the heart to the perfection and fullness of the atoning work, filling the whole heart with love and thanksgiving to be shared with others. The image of Christ as a personal Saviour is engraved on the heart and reflected in character and practical daily life. The Holy Spirit promised to all who ask stays beside everyone who searches the Scriptures to present Jesus Christ.
When Christ's sheep turn away from a stranger's voice they rejoice in Christ's life. The disciples' confidence in and trust in Christ kept them from listening to their accusers' insinuations that tried to plant doubt and unbelief among His followers.
Learning the Shepherd's Voice
God's voice is learned in three ways that guide and fit for guiding others: in His word the Holy Scriptures, in His providential workings, and through the appeals of His Holy Spirit making impressions upon the heart that are wrought out in character and daily actions, and when in doubt on any subject the Scriptures must be consulted first. Learning to know that voice from the voice of a false shepherd means learning to distinguish it from the voice of Satan disguised as the voice of God. Remaining close to God keeps judgment clear, since following personal desires and an unsanctified heart confuses the senses so eternal things are not discerned and Satan's voice can be disguised as God's.
Distinguishing the true Shepherd's voice from a stranger's requires diligent, thoughtful, prayerful study of Scripture. It requires investigating the Word with the spirit of the noble Bereans in comparing Scripture with Scripture, with willingness to see the evidences of truth even when that truth is not in harmony with human ideas. It requires watchfulness, prayer, and personal study of Scripture under Christ's influence, for the Holy Spirit leads in a steady, abiding way rather than through passing excitement.
The voice is recognized by those who have given themselves wholly to the Lord to be molded and fashioned according to His purpose as a vessel unto honor, who remain pliable in His hands and follow wherever He leads while cooperating with Him by working out their own salvation with fear and trembling. Only personal acquaintance with Jesus Christ enables this discernment, and nominal profession of truth without that living experience leaves people to be overcome in widespread apostasy. Those with Jesus formed within as the hope of glory have evidence in their own heart that they have the truth, so that even the illiterate as well as the educated can bear the testimony, I know in whom I have believed, and cannot be moved from their knowledge of the truth by the most subtle reasoning and assaults of Satan, having no doubt or fear that they are in error even when unable in argument to show wherein an adversary is wrong.
Telling His voice from a stranger's requires a sound, solid experience in what constitutes the pillars of faith, a well-grounded foundation that storm and tempest cannot move, more study of the Bible and more perfect understanding of it, and growth in the graces of Christian character. It requires a Christian experience and a healthful, sound mind, and this discernment is especially needed by a leader working in a church composed of strange elements. Lack of experience in knowing the voice of the Good Shepherd leaves a person in doubt and peril, so everyone ought to be able to distinguish His voice.
His appointed workers have learned His voice and obey His Word without mixing it with their own temperaments, ideas, or preferences, and young people are to learn to recognize and follow that voice. Men in responsible positions must recognize the voice of the true Shepherd and follow Him rather than a stranger. Managers who stay in living connection with God can discern Christ's voice from Satan's influence and will not follow those who spread distrust, fault-finding, and complaints.
Christ's followers must rely on Jesus individually rather than give unquestioning confidence to human organizations or leaders who do not know His voice, and they can seek their duty in the Bible and in the living Saviour. They are to look to God for wisdom and counsel rather than treat human leaders' judgment as their guide or follow the voice of people who presume to rule over them. God's flock must depend on God rather than on people who could lead them into strange pastures.
Hindrances to Discernment
Failing to cherish, obey and walk in the light weakens the power to tell the Shepherd's voice from deceptive voices, bringing darkness and a numbed conscience. Rejecting reproof closes the heart and shuts the way to divine counsel, leaving the person exposed to Satan's flattering deceptions. Neglect of light left one man able to discern the True Shepherd's voice only part of the time, while his wife by rejecting reproof shut herself off from counsel and was left open to those deceptions.
Hearts filled with envy, evil-surmising and selfish pride cannot distinguish between the voice of the true Shepherd and the voice of a stranger, and they strengthen one another in resistance to truth. Inability to distinguish the two is blindness worked by the enemy, even upon men connected with God's institutions. Those in that blindness wrap their souls in garments of unbelief and walk in the sparks of their own kindling, with an iron spirit lacking the sympathy and love and tenderness of Christ, an unfeeling heartlessness satanic in character that boldly, defiantly and perseveringly resists the Spirit of God.
When things of an earthly nature interpose between the soul and heaven, the character of God is not rightly conceived and His matchless love is not perceived, so faith and love die out of the heart, minds become confused, spiritual things cannot be discerned, and the voice of the true Shepherd cannot be distinguished from that of a stranger. If the soul separates from Him by walking in its own ways, doing its own will and following an unsanctified heart, the senses become confused so that eternal things are not discerned and Satan's voice can be disguised as God's. Keeping far from Jesus, being far from God, keeping the truth at a distance and shutting off communion with God leaves a person unable to discern that voice and in danger of mistaking a stranger's voice for the Shepherd's. The stranger offers temptations flattering to the natural heart, and one not firmly united with God and the truth who is led astray by him often draws others along. Safety lies in keeping the Lord's way rather than one's own and in remaining close to God, and those in this condition need to study the message God has given lest they be swept away by the enemy's overwhelming delusions.
Those who heed other voices until they lose this discernment turn from Christ and follow another leader, ignoring warnings and instruction until they rely on human wisdom, imagination, effort and inventions. Listening to a stranger instead of God leads away from Christ, perverts the heart and leaves without strength to bear appointed duties, so there is return only in rejecting false principles and coming back to Christ.
Lack of experience in knowing the voice of the Good Shepherd leaves a person in doubt and peril, and everyone ought to be able to distinguish His voice. Being easily led astray proves failure to distinguish the Shepherd's voice from a stranger's voice, as shown when the church was misled by false teachers and false prophets coming with heresies. Those so misled need to humble themselves before God, sincerely repent and review that chapter of their experience.
Rejecting Strange Voices
The verse warns that Christ's sheep recognize and reject false teachers whose teachings oppose the truth, rather than being drawn away from the true Shepherd. They must take care what they hear and believe, distinguishing the false from the genuine and refusing to be misled by false prophets coming with heresies. Being easily led astray proves failure to distinguish the Shepherd's voice from a stranger's voice, and those so misled need to humble themselves before God, sincerely repent, and review that chapter of their experience.
The voice of a stranger is the voice of Satan rather than the voice of God. It includes a deceptive human message claiming divine ordination and the Holy Spirit for self-exaltation. Those who do not know the voice of God because they have been unwilling to receive His true testimonies will listen to that stranger and receive supposed truth. God's people, on trial for eternal life, must contradict such claims, accept no delusive sentiments, hold the true wheat against the chaff, and be saved from Satan's snares.
Following the voice of strangers means listening to Satan as a living, active agent who encourages skepticism, nourishes every word of doubt, insinuates faith-weakening suggestions while men sleep in indifference, confuses the perception of truth, and in every way strives to turn souls from the narrow path to heaven. It means refusing the plain, authoritative Thus saith the Lord for winding sophistry of errors, questioning God's Word and requirements, cheapening character, lessening faith in the inspiration of the Bible, and criticizing and cutting and culling the words of the living God. It means drawing other souls into the same darkness to shipwreck happiness and ruin hope of heaven, which men do because they love darkness. Every grain of unbelief sown blossoms and bears fruit in increased infidelity.
When trials come to God's institutions, with pressure and required sacrifice and a prospect of less prosperity and comfort, Satan insinuates that hard times, ruin, and trouble lie ahead, and receiving those insinuations brings unbelief and blindness of soul. Those who listen to the stranger rather than to God dishonor God, cannot be used to His name's glory, loosen their hold on Christ, lean on a broken reed, and lose much. God sends such trials to prove who will stand faithful under severe temptation. For those who have failed there is but one way of escape, to learn to fear self, to reject false principles and wrong theories, and to take Christ's yoke and learn of Him who is meek and lowly in heart.
Those who do not know the Shepherd hear His voice as the voice of a stranger, which was true of the scribes and Pharisees hearing God speaking through His Son. Separated from God by national pride, self-exaltation, self-confidence, self-sufficiency and self-righteousness, with decreasing dependence on God, they looked for a temporal prince to exalt Israel, and though professing to expound Scripture and prophecy they misinterpreted and misapplied it and cast shadow instead of light. Therefore every difference from Christ brought resistance and denunciation, accusation of working by Beelzebub, fury at mention of light to the Gentiles, refusal to be taught by a carpenter's son, resolve to keep the people from Him, and determination to put Him to death. Likewise Israel's leaders rejected Christ though He came with God's authority bearing His character, fulfilling His word and seeking God's glory, because His spiritual teaching required self-denial and challenged their ideas and traditions, while pride made them receptive to false teachers who claimed authority for themselves and affirmed their cherished beliefs.
Spiritual blindness can make a church lose the sound of the true Shepherd's voice and follow a stranger instead who leads it away from Christ's fold. This had happened to the church at Battle Creek, which had lost that sound and was following a stranger. The church at Adelaide had likewise been misled into apostasy because its members could not distinguish His voice. The brethren who rejected the light given to the church were listening to a stranger rather than to the true Shepherd, connected with blindness and refusal to repent and welcome Christ, and the church's failure to distinguish false teachers from the genuine shows it has been easily led astray and has not learned to recognize the Shepherd's voice.
God's servants can speak with the Chief Shepherd's voice when they bring warnings against deception, but jealousy and stubbornness can lead a person to mistake that voice for a stranger's and reject the warning, and shepherds of the flock especially must recognize it. At Minneapolis the message delivered through God's humble messenger was the true Shepherd's voice, while the hostile spirit controlling some ministers was not the Spirit of Christ, and those spiritually blinded failed to recognize the difference. Those who had recognized the Shepherd's voice would have received the light about Christ's righteousness rather than resisting it and creating division. Distinguishing the Shepherd's voice means receiving the light of truth with an open heart.
The verse is applied to resisting voices that foster doubt, discouragement, rebellion, and apostasy, and to holding faith in Jesus through difficult circumstances, for His voice guards His people against rebellion and apostasy. Christ's sheep recognize His leading and reject counsel that would take them into false paths, while self-confidence and refusal to heed experienced counsel can leave leaders unable to distinguish truth from error. Managers who stay in living connection with God can discern Christ's voice from Satan's influence and will not follow those who spread distrust, fault-finding, and complaints. The same resistance shown by the Jewish leaders, who though claiming to be expositors of prophecy failed the test through hearts filled with envy, evil-surmising, and selfish pride, is shown today by those who stubbornly refuse the cautions and reproofs the Lord sends, and those who reject the word of God for tradition will not be able to stand amid the perils of the last days.
When a preacher has the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and his lips are touched with a live coal from off the altar, the truth poured forth is the True Shepherd's voice. It is recognized at once as inspired truth never heard before, so that believers and even unbelievers discern it and are drawn to come and listen eagerly, attentively, and spellbound. The strangers are men listening to a false message instead of recognizing the light and work of God among His people, whose failure keeps them from joining that work.
Those who know the Lord's voice will not follow a stranger but will flee and turn away from him. God's true people must not listen to or follow the stranger, yet those who reject God's true testimonies may instead listen to a false teacher and accept deceptive claims as truth. Accepting fanatic impressions and feelings shows one has not learned the true Shepherd's voice and is vulnerable to being led astray. To treat the Lord's voice as strange and refuse His counsel is rebellion giving evidence of sin's deceitfulness.
The General Conference has become a strange voice and is no longer the voice of God, God does not speak through it, and the work being done there is a strange work, so its claim to be heeded as the voice of God is to be refused. The image is also applied to Dr. Maxson's apparently friendly approach to the Rural Health Retreat while secretly trying to take its trained workers for a new institution, from whom Christ's sheep flee because they do not recognize his voice.
Christ's true followers know His winning voice, recognize Him as their Shepherd, follow where He leads, and will not follow a stranger but flee from him because they do not know strangers' voices and do not belong to them. He stands as the true Shepherd and door of the fold in contrast to unworthy shepherds and false leaders who enter another way, use authority without feeding the flock, and drive away those He is drawing. Safety and eternal life in His hand are given on the condition of being led entirely by Him and following no stranger, which is the only election set forth in God's Word. Telling His voice from a stranger's requires diligent, thoughtful, prayerful study of the Scriptures like the Bereans, comparing Scripture with Scripture with willingness to receive truth even when it crosses human ideas, under watchfulness and prayer. The stranger's voice is the voice of Satan, heard in false teachers, false prophets and deceptive messages claiming divine authority for self-exaltation, encouraging skepticism, doubt and questioning of God's plain word. Hearts filled with envy, selfish pride and earthly things, or separated from Him by walking in their own ways and neglecting light, become confused and blinded so they cannot distinguish the true Shepherd from the stranger and are in danger of mistaking the stranger for the Shepherd.
Shepherd Picture and Setting
John 10:5 belongs to Jesus' picture of His relation to believers as a shepherd to his flock, in which believers are helpless and dependent like sheep and the shepherd image is linked with Christ. Christ is presented there as the true Shepherd and the door of the fold, in contrast with Israel's leaders as unworthy shepherds who drove from the fold one whom Christ was drawing to Himself. Those Pharisees are false leaders who entered the fold another way, while Christ's sheep do not follow strangers because they do not recognize their voice. The scribes and Pharisees sat in Moses' seat yet acted like thieves and robbers when they used authority without feeding the flock, so position did not make their guidance true.
After the fall Christ saw fallen people as His sheep in pitiable condition, wandering, ready to perish and exposed to sure destruction. He left the honors and glory of His Father's house to become their shepherd to save them. With a winning voice He calls them to His fold as a safe and sure retreat from robbers, a shelter from scorching heat and a protection from chilling blasts. He continually cares for their good, strengthens the weak, nourishes the suffering, gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them in His bosom, and goes before His sheep. As the good Shepherd He gives His life for the sheep, in contrast to the hireling who does not own the sheep, cares not for them, and flees when the wolf comes.
The parable shows the relation in which Christ stands to the human family as a missionary whose work is to heal. His fold is to be guarded and cared for and its straying sheep are to be sought and saved rather than left to perish. Following Him through self-denial and sacrifice is pictured as a lost sheep returning to the fold through the door and not by another way. Like an eastern shepherd He leads without whip or dog and makes a distinct sound when a sheep strays that every sheep understands, so all press close together and follow Him. His own sheep follow Him because they know His voice, and they will not follow a stranger but will flee from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.
The shepherd and sheep is one of the everyday images and facts of life and experience familiar to His hearers by which Christ taught immortal truth. It shows His openness to the influences of nature and His delight in gathering spiritual teaching from daily surroundings. He drew material with something to interest every mind and appeal to every heart, so that the daily task is brightened and uplifted by constant reminders of the spiritual and unseen. Seeing such familiar things later brought His lessons back to His hearers' minds.
Sheep Know and Flee
Christ's sheep love Him, know His winning voice, and recognize Him as the true Shepherd, and they follow Him wherever He goes. They will not follow a stranger but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers and do not belong to him. His winning call leads His wandering sheep to the safety and care of His fold, where in His care they are protected and guided while they reject those who are not their shepherd. To know His voice in this way is to distinguish the false from the genuine and not to be misled by false prophets coming with heresies, and the church's failure so to distinguish shows being easily led astray and not having learned to recognize the Shepherd's voice, so that those so misled need to humble themselves before God, sincerely repent, and review that chapter of their experience.
Safety is found in being led entirely by the heavenly Shepherd. His sheep in His care are protected and guided as they refuse strangers. The promise of eternal life in Christ's hand is made on conditions, the condition being to follow no stranger but to know and understand the voice of Christ, and this conditional following is the only election brought to view in God's Word.
Jesus is risen as the living Saviour, the living Good Shepherd and Head of the Church, known by His people who recognize His voice and will not follow a stranger. His voice is heard guarding His people against rebellion and saving them from rebellion and apostasy, and listening to His voice keeps them from being left in darkness in the work given them to do. When things become entangled and hard to adjust, knowing His voice keeps them from losing heart and courage and faith and from talking doubts and unbelief and spreading discouragement as a deadly malady, and as long as hope and trust stay in God there is no fall. In this way His people are to reject voices that foster doubt, discouragement, rebellion, and apostasy, and to hold faith in Jesus through difficult circumstances by trusting His guidance instead.
Listening to His voice opens the heart to the perfection and fullness of the atoning work, filling the whole heart with love and thanksgiving to be shared with others. The image of Christ as a personal Saviour is engraved on the heart and reflected in character and practical daily life. The Holy Spirit promised to all who ask stays beside everyone who searches the Scriptures to present Jesus Christ.
When Christ's sheep turn away from a stranger's voice they rejoice in Christ's life. The disciples' confidence in and trust in Christ kept them from listening to their accusers' insinuations that tried to plant doubt and unbelief among His followers.
Learning the Shepherd's Voice
God's voice is learned in three ways that guide and fit for guiding others: in His word the Holy Scriptures, in His providential workings, and through the appeals of His Holy Spirit making impressions upon the heart that are wrought out in character and daily actions, and when in doubt on any subject the Scriptures must be consulted first. Learning to know that voice from the voice of a false shepherd means learning to distinguish it from the voice of Satan disguised as the voice of God. Remaining close to God keeps judgment clear, since following personal desires and an unsanctified heart confuses the senses so eternal things are not discerned and Satan's voice can be disguised as God's.
Distinguishing the true Shepherd's voice from a stranger's requires diligent, thoughtful, prayerful study of Scripture. It requires investigating the Word with the spirit of the noble Bereans in comparing Scripture with Scripture, with willingness to see the evidences of truth even when that truth is not in harmony with human ideas. It requires watchfulness, prayer, and personal study of Scripture under Christ's influence, for the Holy Spirit leads in a steady, abiding way rather than through passing excitement.
The voice is recognized by those who have given themselves wholly to the Lord to be molded and fashioned according to His purpose as a vessel unto honor, who remain pliable in His hands and follow wherever He leads while cooperating with Him by working out their own salvation with fear and trembling. Only personal acquaintance with Jesus Christ enables this discernment, and nominal profession of truth without that living experience leaves people to be overcome in widespread apostasy. Those with Jesus formed within as the hope of glory have evidence in their own heart that they have the truth, so that even the illiterate as well as the educated can bear the testimony, I know in whom I have believed, and cannot be moved from their knowledge of the truth by the most subtle reasoning and assaults of Satan, having no doubt or fear that they are in error even when unable in argument to show wherein an adversary is wrong.
Telling His voice from a stranger's requires a sound, solid experience in what constitutes the pillars of faith, a well-grounded foundation that storm and tempest cannot move, more study of the Bible and more perfect understanding of it, and growth in the graces of Christian character. It requires a Christian experience and a healthful, sound mind, and this discernment is especially needed by a leader working in a church composed of strange elements. Lack of experience in knowing the voice of the Good Shepherd leaves a person in doubt and peril, so everyone ought to be able to distinguish His voice.
His appointed workers have learned His voice and obey His Word without mixing it with their own temperaments, ideas, or preferences, and young people are to learn to recognize and follow that voice. Men in responsible positions must recognize the voice of the true Shepherd and follow Him rather than a stranger. Managers who stay in living connection with God can discern Christ's voice from Satan's influence and will not follow those who spread distrust, fault-finding, and complaints.
Christ's followers must rely on Jesus individually rather than give unquestioning confidence to human organizations or leaders who do not know His voice, and they can seek their duty in the Bible and in the living Saviour. They are to look to God for wisdom and counsel rather than treat human leaders' judgment as their guide or follow the voice of people who presume to rule over them. God's flock must depend on God rather than on people who could lead them into strange pastures.
Hindrances to Discernment
Failing to cherish, obey and walk in the light weakens the power to tell the Shepherd's voice from deceptive voices, bringing darkness and a numbed conscience. Rejecting reproof closes the heart and shuts the way to divine counsel, leaving the person exposed to Satan's flattering deceptions. Neglect of light left one man able to discern the True Shepherd's voice only part of the time, while his wife by rejecting reproof shut herself off from counsel and was left open to those deceptions.
Hearts filled with envy, evil-surmising and selfish pride cannot distinguish between the voice of the true Shepherd and the voice of a stranger, and they strengthen one another in resistance to truth. Inability to distinguish the two is blindness worked by the enemy, even upon men connected with God's institutions. Those in that blindness wrap their souls in garments of unbelief and walk in the sparks of their own kindling, with an iron spirit lacking the sympathy and love and tenderness of Christ, an unfeeling heartlessness satanic in character that boldly, defiantly and perseveringly resists the Spirit of God.
When things of an earthly nature interpose between the soul and heaven, the character of God is not rightly conceived and His matchless love is not perceived, so faith and love die out of the heart, minds become confused, spiritual things cannot be discerned, and the voice of the true Shepherd cannot be distinguished from that of a stranger. If the soul separates from Him by walking in its own ways, doing its own will and following an unsanctified heart, the senses become confused so that eternal things are not discerned and Satan's voice can be disguised as God's. Keeping far from Jesus, being far from God, keeping the truth at a distance and shutting off communion with God leaves a person unable to discern that voice and in danger of mistaking a stranger's voice for the Shepherd's. The stranger offers temptations flattering to the natural heart, and one not firmly united with God and the truth who is led astray by him often draws others along. Safety lies in keeping the Lord's way rather than one's own and in remaining close to God, and those in this condition need to study the message God has given lest they be swept away by the enemy's overwhelming delusions.
Those who heed other voices until they lose this discernment turn from Christ and follow another leader, ignoring warnings and instruction until they rely on human wisdom, imagination, effort and inventions. Listening to a stranger instead of God leads away from Christ, perverts the heart and leaves without strength to bear appointed duties, so there is return only in rejecting false principles and coming back to Christ.
Lack of experience in knowing the voice of the Good Shepherd leaves a person in doubt and peril, and everyone ought to be able to distinguish His voice. Being easily led astray proves failure to distinguish the Shepherd's voice from a stranger's voice, as shown when the church was misled by false teachers and false prophets coming with heresies. Those so misled need to humble themselves before God, sincerely repent and review that chapter of their experience.
Rejecting Strange Voices
The verse warns that Christ's sheep recognize and reject false teachers whose teachings oppose the truth, rather than being drawn away from the true Shepherd. They must take care what they hear and believe, distinguishing the false from the genuine and refusing to be misled by false prophets coming with heresies. Being easily led astray proves failure to distinguish the Shepherd's voice from a stranger's voice, and those so misled need to humble themselves before God, sincerely repent, and review that chapter of their experience.
The voice of a stranger is the voice of Satan rather than the voice of God. It includes a deceptive human message claiming divine ordination and the Holy Spirit for self-exaltation. Those who do not know the voice of God because they have been unwilling to receive His true testimonies will listen to that stranger and receive supposed truth. God's people, on trial for eternal life, must contradict such claims, accept no delusive sentiments, hold the true wheat against the chaff, and be saved from Satan's snares.
Following the voice of strangers means listening to Satan as a living, active agent who encourages skepticism, nourishes every word of doubt, insinuates faith-weakening suggestions while men sleep in indifference, confuses the perception of truth, and in every way strives to turn souls from the narrow path to heaven. It means refusing the plain, authoritative Thus saith the Lord for winding sophistry of errors, questioning God's Word and requirements, cheapening character, lessening faith in the inspiration of the Bible, and criticizing and cutting and culling the words of the living God. It means drawing other souls into the same darkness to shipwreck happiness and ruin hope of heaven, which men do because they love darkness. Every grain of unbelief sown blossoms and bears fruit in increased infidelity.
When trials come to God's institutions, with pressure and required sacrifice and a prospect of less prosperity and comfort, Satan insinuates that hard times, ruin, and trouble lie ahead, and receiving those insinuations brings unbelief and blindness of soul. Those who listen to the stranger rather than to God dishonor God, cannot be used to His name's glory, loosen their hold on Christ, lean on a broken reed, and lose much. God sends such trials to prove who will stand faithful under severe temptation. For those who have failed there is but one way of escape, to learn to fear self, to reject false principles and wrong theories, and to take Christ's yoke and learn of Him who is meek and lowly in heart.
Those who do not know the Shepherd hear His voice as the voice of a stranger, which was true of the scribes and Pharisees hearing God speaking through His Son. Separated from God by national pride, self-exaltation, self-confidence, self-sufficiency and self-righteousness, with decreasing dependence on God, they looked for a temporal prince to exalt Israel, and though professing to expound Scripture and prophecy they misinterpreted and misapplied it and cast shadow instead of light. Therefore every difference from Christ brought resistance and denunciation, accusation of working by Beelzebub, fury at mention of light to the Gentiles, refusal to be taught by a carpenter's son, resolve to keep the people from Him, and determination to put Him to death. Likewise Israel's leaders rejected Christ though He came with God's authority bearing His character, fulfilling His word and seeking God's glory, because His spiritual teaching required self-denial and challenged their ideas and traditions, while pride made them receptive to false teachers who claimed authority for themselves and affirmed their cherished beliefs.
Spiritual blindness can make a church lose the sound of the true Shepherd's voice and follow a stranger instead who leads it away from Christ's fold. This had happened to the church at Battle Creek, which had lost that sound and was following a stranger. The church at Adelaide had likewise been misled into apostasy because its members could not distinguish His voice. The brethren who rejected the light given to the church were listening to a stranger rather than to the true Shepherd, connected with blindness and refusal to repent and welcome Christ, and the church's failure to distinguish false teachers from the genuine shows it has been easily led astray and has not learned to recognize the Shepherd's voice.
God's servants can speak with the Chief Shepherd's voice when they bring warnings against deception, but jealousy and stubbornness can lead a person to mistake that voice for a stranger's and reject the warning, and shepherds of the flock especially must recognize it. At Minneapolis the message delivered through God's humble messenger was the true Shepherd's voice, while the hostile spirit controlling some ministers was not the Spirit of Christ, and those spiritually blinded failed to recognize the difference. Those who had recognized the Shepherd's voice would have received the light about Christ's righteousness rather than resisting it and creating division. Distinguishing the Shepherd's voice means receiving the light of truth with an open heart.
The verse is applied to resisting voices that foster doubt, discouragement, rebellion, and apostasy, and to holding faith in Jesus through difficult circumstances, for His voice guards His people against rebellion and apostasy. Christ's sheep recognize His leading and reject counsel that would take them into false paths, while self-confidence and refusal to heed experienced counsel can leave leaders unable to distinguish truth from error. Managers who stay in living connection with God can discern Christ's voice from Satan's influence and will not follow those who spread distrust, fault-finding, and complaints. The same resistance shown by the Jewish leaders, who though claiming to be expositors of prophecy failed the test through hearts filled with envy, evil-surmising, and selfish pride, is shown today by those who stubbornly refuse the cautions and reproofs the Lord sends, and those who reject the word of God for tradition will not be able to stand amid the perils of the last days.
When a preacher has the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and his lips are touched with a live coal from off the altar, the truth poured forth is the True Shepherd's voice. It is recognized at once as inspired truth never heard before, so that believers and even unbelievers discern it and are drawn to come and listen eagerly, attentively, and spellbound. The strangers are men listening to a false message instead of recognizing the light and work of God among His people, whose failure keeps them from joining that work.
Those who know the Lord's voice will not follow a stranger but will flee and turn away from him. God's true people must not listen to or follow the stranger, yet those who reject God's true testimonies may instead listen to a false teacher and accept deceptive claims as truth. Accepting fanatic impressions and feelings shows one has not learned the true Shepherd's voice and is vulnerable to being led astray. To treat the Lord's voice as strange and refuse His counsel is rebellion giving evidence of sin's deceitfulness.
The General Conference has become a strange voice and is no longer the voice of God, God does not speak through it, and the work being done there is a strange work, so its claim to be heeded as the voice of God is to be refused. The image is also applied to Dr. Maxson's apparently friendly approach to the Rural Health Retreat while secretly trying to take its trained workers for a new institution, from whom Christ's sheep flee because they do not recognize his voice.