In the year 1842, a young Scottish lad by the name of George Clephane, stepped ashore in Canada to try and begin a new life!

Although George was only in his early twenties he had a real problem with drink. Sadly, the change of country did not help George with his drink problem.

He fell into the kind of company that did not in any way encourage him other than to drink more. He only got deeper and deeper into the kind of life he had been living. Soon all his money was gone and George was living rough.

One very cold frosty morning George was found by the police patrol lying along the roadside.

And because George was left exposed to the elements of the night he died. He was buried in the town of Fergus Ontario.

The news of his death stirred the hearts of all that knew him in his old home in Fife, Scotland. Most of all, the heart of his youngest sister Elizabeth Cecilia was broken. She had been born in Edinburgh, and the news of her brother's death arrived just before she was about to celebrate her twenty first birthday. No matter what she had heard about him since leaving for Canada, she never ceased to love her black sheep brother and never wavered in her belief that God loved him too.

The thought burned itself into her mind that somehow in his dying hours; her brother had come to the Lord Jesus and been saved.

That conviction shaped itself into immortal words. She penned the words that they might comfort her own soul. "There were ninety and nine that safely lay in the shelter of the fold!" She locked the poem away in her desk and there it lay unread for many a year. She died in 1869, her poem still unpublished. It was not the only one she had written, but that poem, somehow found its way into a Glasgow newspaper in the year 1874.

It was just at that time Mr. Moody and Mr. Sankey were in Glasgow holding meetings. They were just finishing meetings in Glasgow and were making their way to Edinburgh. At the station Mr. Sankey bought a newspaper, as he glanced through it his eye caught this amazing poem written by Elizabeth Clephane. He cut the poem out and placed it in his musical scrapbook. At the noon meeting on the second day in Edinburgh the subject Mr. Moody selected for his sermon was "The Good Shepherd". When Mr. Moody had finished his sermon he invited Dr. Bonar to say a few words. At the conclusion of Dr. Bonar’s message Mr. Moody asked Mr. Sankey if he had an appropriate message to sing on the subject with which to close the service. Mr. Sankey, lifted his heart to God in prayer for help, placed the little newspaper slip on the organ, and began to sing the poem note by note to the tune it is still sung to today.

That hymn touched the heart of the Scottish audience, and Mr. Moody was greatly moved. And so that hymn, born under such strange circumstances, was launched upon the world. It has found its way into many hymnals, into many countries in the world, and into many languages. It has been a ministering angel to many a lost soul, leading them back to God.

1. The Parable reminds Us Of The Great Danger Of The Sheep! Lost!

You see all through the years of the Lord’s ministry here on earth there were those of legalistic mind who failed to understand his interest in the lost!

They professed to be among the righteous. They were punctilious about obeying the commandments of the law, and indeed many more which had been added by tradition.

So many had been added that the Lord Jesus himself said, "ye have made the commandments of God of none effect by your tradition."

They trusted in their own righteousness but did not realise how far short they came. But you see the Lord Jesus was always interested in the lost. Why?

Because we are like sheep, in some measure at least, that have wandered away from the fold and have become lost, some knowing it and some not, but none can find a way back. Isaiah 53 v 6. reminds us.

Humankind, like sheep have wandered away from God and become lost!

And the Lord Jesus wants us to realise the danger of a lost condition, there are snares out there, there is sin out there, there is Satan out there, like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour! Also disguised as an Angel of Light that he may lead people into eternal darkness!

If we go back to Genesis Ch. 3 v 1 -6 we discover: -

The serpent comes when Eve has wandered a little way from the fold with doubt, denial and delusion! And what happened?

The serpent still seeks to delude us into thinking we know better than God does! Think about it dear friend and ask God to bring His light to shine into your understanding. We all have wandered from the fold; His light will guide us back.

Instead of having us wander out of the fold he has divine compassion to bring us into the family! We see that in Luke ch.7. A woman who washed his feet with tears! A woman who wiped his feet with hair!

She was tired of her sin! Tired of being out of the fold! Having listened to the preaching of the Lord Jesus she turned to Jesus and believing on His name she was received into the family of God and her sins were forgiven! Suddenly she finds herself, not now out of the fold but amazingly in the family. I say amazingly because this is a wonderful change, it's an eternal change, it’s a change that fits this dear woman for eternity and heaven, and dear folks, that’s not pie in the sky by and by, that can happen in the nasty now and now.

In the Bible we read of a little man who was tired of being out of the fold!

He wanted to see Jesus so he climbed a sycamore tree!

He was willing to seek Jesus, repent of all his sin and put right all wrong as far as it was within his power to do so. What I have unjustly taken I will restore, he said to Jesus. He wanted to be brought into the family!

We see a man who had wandered so far from the fold it was almost too far. He was hanging on a cross, preparing to breathe his last.

But oh my, how he longed to be a part of the family of God! As he gazed on this man on the centre cross he could see beyond the bruises and the spittle and realise there was something special about this man called Jesus, so he called upon Jesus to save him. That morning this dying thief was in his sins, outside the fold. In the afternoon he was saved and had become part of the family of God. By evening time he was with Christ for all eternity.

He seeks diligently! He wants to correct.

"There is a way that seems right"

"Come now let us reason together."

Eph. 1 v 6 "To the praise of the glory of his grace, through which he hath made us accepted in the beloved."

You get God's love John 17 v 27. 1 John 3 v 1.

You get God's Holy Spirit 1 Cor. 3 v 16.

You get a new heart and a new nature Ezek. 36 v 26.

You get repentance and godly sorrow Acts 5 v 31.

You get power to love Christ 1 John 4 v 19.

You get power to pray in Jesus name. John 15 v 7.

You get power to do good works. James 1 v 17.

You get the precious promises of the Bible 2 Cor. 1 v 20.

You get everlasting life John 6 v 47. John 14 v 2-3.

Let the man or woman who is afraid to repent consider well our passage of scripture tonight. There is nothing on God’s part to justify those fears. An open door is set before you; a free pardon awaits you. If you confess your sin he is faithful and just to forgive you your sin. 1 John 1 v 9. Cast aside your shame and believe. While the world is laughing the angels are rejoicing. The very change that sinners call foolishness is a change, which fills heaven with joy.

The ominous headlines of a newspaper some time ago said, "Samoa jetliner crash kills 95 of 101 abroad!"

The story went on to tell how the jet was coming into land, just 1,000 yards short of the runway it suddenly went down and burst into flames.

Aeronautically speaking, 1,000 yards is an almost infinitesimal distance. Yet missing the runway by this short distance cost the lives of many and brought deep sorrow and irretrievable loss to their loved ones. The Bible says, "for all have sinned, and come short (missed the mark) of the glory of God"

Email Pastor Kenneth Humphries


Return to Pastor Humphries' Sermon Index Page