Jesus’ Sheep Hear His Voice

November 11, 2025

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.” (John 10:27-28 NASB95)

Jesus’ sheep hear His voice. This plain statement of Jesus has caused me to reflect on my own preaching and teaching, and I hope it will stir reflection in all among us who proclaim the word of God. What can we learn from Jesus’ words?

First, we should not be surprised or disappointed if some do not respond when we faithfully proclaim the words of Jesus. This very thing happened to Jesus Himself. He said to the Jews who would not accept Him, “But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep” (John 10:26). There will always be people in the world who simply do not care to hear or learn from God (John 6:45). They are not Jesus’ sheep; therefore, they do not respond to His voice.

Second, we should never modify or water down the words of Jesus in any way in order to bring more people in. There are many in the religious world who do just that. Many will try to make the words of Jesus more exciting, more entertaining, and more in line with modern-day thinking. The message may be softened in order to get more people in the pews. This is a very serious error that injures both the saved and the lost. It injures the saved, who are already a part of Jesus’ flock, because they want to hear the voice of Jesus in every sermon and in every class. They long to hear His voice!  They will follow His voice!  If we don’t let the flock hear the clear and powerful voice of the Great Shepherd, we are doing enormous harm to the church. But modifying the message does great harm to the lost, as well. There are people in the world who are searching for God, who want to hear the truth, and will respond very positively to the voice of Jesus (the blind man of John 9 is a perfect example of this). But if we do not give these people the clear, unadulterated words of Jesus, how will they become a part of his flock?  We might think that we’re doing a good thing by softening the message and making it more “entertaining,” but in the end, what have we done?  We’ve kept the seekers from hearing the voice of Jesus (to which they would have responded) and offered a watered-down gospel to those who will reject Jesus anyway. But if we preach Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2), if Christ’s word resonates from our pulpit and our classrooms, then we can really help both the saved and the lost.

Jesus’ sheep hear His voice. May it always be said of this church body that the word of Jesus is boldly and clearly proclaimed!

—Scott Colvin

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Posted by Scott Colvin

Submission to God’s Written Word

June 3, 2016

Dr. Harvey Floyd was my Greek teacher at Lipscomb as well as having him for many important Bible classes like Romans. I recently came across an interview of Floyd from the Gospel Advocate (October 1993). His words are still instructive though said over twenty years ago.

My greatest emphasis in life is to convince everyone of the complete authority of Scripture. If churches of Christ ever abandon submission to God’s written Word, we’ve lost everything.

Restoration only makes sense with an authoritative source. Without the guidance of Scripture, life becomes a sea without a shore.

Today’s religious leaders are far too interested in trendiness. They float from one fad to another without any clear emphasis or substance. Instead of the Bible, they fill their teaching with insight into “many things, of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings” very entertaining, perhaps, but not distinctively Christian.

In the past, you could accept that our brethren were inerrantists — that cannot be assumed today. We are moving into a vague religiosity instead of a passion for restoring New Testament Christianity. This is more dangerous than anything else.1

Rodney Stark gives a memorable illustration of the loss of confidence in the authority of Scripture in his book, The Triumph of Faith. After World War I, the majority of missionaries to Africa came from the United States. At that time, ninety percent of these American missionaries came from Congregationalists (today known as the United Church of Christ), the Presbyterians, the Methodists, and the Episcopalians. By 1935, they were only sending half of all American missionaries. By 1948, it dropped down to 25 percent, and today, the number is only 4 percent. Stark explains:

Why the decline? The liberal denominations stopped sending missionaries because they lost their faith in the validity of Christianity.2

If there is one thing Floyd taught me, it is that there are good, satisfying reasons for believing in God, the Bible, and the resurrection of Jesus. When questions are raised about our faith, you only need to search for answers, and they will be found. Making fun of faith is nothing new (“a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles”), but the wisdom of God is always stronger. It is a vital thing to learn submission to God’s written Word.

1Gregory Alan Tidwell, “An Interview with Dr. Harvey Floyd” Gospel Advocate (Oct. 1993):14. The quotation in Floyd’s interview is from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There.

2Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Faith, Kindle location 2260.

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Posted by Russell Holden

Willing to Do God’s Will

January 31, 2015

I could describe my life as one of faith seeking answers. I was blessed with a believing mother and grandparents. I was able to lead with faith. But I relate to the father of the demon possessed boy who was challenged by Jesus with these words: “If you can! All things are possible for one who believes” (Mark 9:23, ESV). The father gives a wonderful reply, “I believe; help my unbelief.”

Faith is like that. It is difficult for humans to have faith completely unmixed with doubt. We are given the encouragement that even faith as small as a mustard seed can do great things. Faith can grow!

Jesus says, “If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority” (John 7:17, ESV). Willingness to do God’s will is necessary. This kind of willingness can be instructed. It too can grow.

Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli provide an interesting analysis about psychological motives for unbelief in a footnote near the end of their Handbook of Christian Apologetics.

    The most powerful psychological motive for unbelief, as distinct from the most effective argument to undermine belief, is a different matter. The answer to that question is almost always moral rather than intellectual. That answer is addiction to sin and selfishness, usually in one or more of the following areas:
  1. Addiction to power in this world. How often have you heard about the value of detachment or otherworldliness lately? Yet all the saints extol this as indispensable.
  2. Addiction to lust, our society’s favorite pastime. A sex addict is hardly more capable of objectivity than a cocaine addict.
  3. Addiction to greed, the sin Christ spoke against the most frequently, and the one our consumerist society relies on for its very survival.
  4. Addiction to worldliness, that is, acceptance and popularity, not being distinctive, like the prophets or the martyrs.
  5. Addiction to freedom, defined as “doing your own thing,” “accepting yourself as you are,” “self-assertiveness,” “looking out for Number One”—in short, acting like a self-centered child and calling it the psychology of maturity.1

Unbelief is not just about intellectual problems. Moral issues can get in the way of coming to faith. My own observations in life would confirm Kreeft and Tacelli’s observations. Faith requires someone willing to do God’s will.

1Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics: Hundreds of Answers to Crucial Questions (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), 202–203.

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Posted by Russell Holden