I’d like to share some verses and observations on the sovereignty of God, as presented in the Bible in relation to the parable of the sheep and the goats, although you won’t find the word sovereignty in many bible versions. It’s a truth that is foundational to all that’s revealed in God’s word.
In Colossians 2, Paul tells of the importance of having the knowledge of the truth, which is inclusive of the verity of God’s sovereignty. God’s Word, which is Truth, guards against persuasive arguments that attempt to rob the Saints of the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.
For I want you to understand how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea,
Colossians 2:1-4
and for all those who have not seen my face in the flesh,
so that their hearts may be encouraged,
having been held together in love,
even unto all the wealth of the full assurance of understanding,
unto the full knowledge of God’s mystery,
that is, Christ Himself,
in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument.
Paul spoke of his struggle on our behalf, he said “for all those who have not seen my face in the flesh“, and he charged Timothy to entrust the truth to faithful men, and to continue preaching, being strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, he said:
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.
2 Timothy 4:1-4
So with this encouragement in mind, I’d like to share some scripture and observations on some of Jesus’s teaching which had been delivered through parables containing metaphor. But just before that, I’ll read this short relevant verse of Luke 19:10
For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.
But who are the lost?
We’re told the answer in Matthew 25:31- 46:
“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.
And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.
“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom, which has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
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 invited Me in;
naked, and you clothed Me;
I was sick, and you visited Me;
I was in prison, and you came to Me.’
Then the righteous will answer Him, saying,
‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You,
or thirsty, and give You something to drink?
And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in,
or naked, and clothe You?
And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’
And the King will answer and say to them,
‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;
Matthew 25: 31-46
for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat;
I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink;
I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in;
naked, and you did not clothe Me;
sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’
Then they themselves also will answer, saying,
‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’
Then He will answer them, saying,
‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these,
you did not do it to Me.’
And these will go away into eternal punishment,
but the righteous into eternal life.”
If both sheep and goats were “the lost”, then Jesus would have failed to save many of those He came for. Because He said all that the Father gives me will come to Me. But He hasn’t failed; God can’t fail: we’re told in 2 Timothy 2:13 “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.“, and Hebrews 10:23 “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”, then in Numbers 23:19, we’re told “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not establish it?
So Jesus hasn’t, and won’t fail in doing what He said He will do.
In the verses from Matthew 25:31, we see two types of persons, then there’s another passage which metaphorically tells of the dichotomy, or distinction of two types, which is also from Matthew, but from the earlier chapter 13, in verses 24-30, where we’re told:
Jesus put another parable before them, saying:
Matthew 13:24-30
“The kingdom of heaven is like a man sowing good seeds in his field.
But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.
When the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well.
And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him,
‘Sir, did you not sow good seeds in your field? Why the does it have weeds?’
And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’
And the servants said to him, ‘So do you want us to go and gather the weeds?’
But he replied ‘No lest in gathering the weeds you uproot the wheat along with them.
Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the harvesters,
“First gather the weeds and bind them into bundles to be burned, then gather the wheat into my barn”
God often used metaphorical language to deliver His teaching, but although metaphor conveys instruction, just as “a picture paints a thousand words”, it’s not necessarily all encompassing of a truth, neither is it necessarily restricting of a truth, or necessarily the rule of application of the metaphorical object, to every other use of the object, within the larger scope of scripture. For example birds are occasionally used in scripture, to represent evil spirits, such as in Ecclesiastes 10:20,
Furthermore, in your bedchamber do not curse a king, and in your sleeping rooms do not curse a rich man,
for a bird of the sky will bring the sound and the winged creature will tell the matter.
But one particular bird has been used on some occasions to represent the Spirit of God, such as when Jesus was baptised. So there are times when we need to consider other scriptures, to discern what is being conveyed by the metaphor in each particular context, and at times, to look for concurring, complimentary, or more plainly delivered examples of what has been metaphorically represented. This way of confirming metaphor can be done when reading Revelation 1, where the metaphors of verses 14 & 16, are explained in verse 20, where we’re told: “As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.“.
So, to consider Matthew 25:
It describes a distinction between sheep and goats;
It’s common knowledge that goats can’t become sheep and sheep can’t become goats, so we know that neither is born as the other. What is born with the genes of a sheep, will always be a sheep, and likewise with goats. But we do know that metaphorically you can have a wolf in sheep’s clothing. So we need to read God’s Word personally, to be sure of whether we’re being influenced by another sheep, or by a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Jude spoke about these “wolves” in verses 12 & 13:
These are they who are hidden rocks in your love-feasts when they feast with you, shepherds that without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved for ever.
Jude 1:12-13
Hidden rocks are the nemesis of sailors, causing ship wrecks and distress. Similarly in the congregation of the Church, these persons work covertly to selfishly serve their own ends, while the saints are serving selflessly.
Wild waves can serve to corrupt the charted course of mariners, likewise, the sons of the devil want to draw the saint from the narrow way that leads to life.
The foam that’s generated from these wild waves is like many vain words which obscure the clarity of the water, leaving an obscuring trail in their wake, their corrupt doctrines mix with the purity of the biblical principals in the saints thoughts, in an attempt to keep them from the freedom and selfless peace Christ died to provide for them; the corrupt foam hides the rocky dangers below and hides the beauty and bounty of God’s order, provision and beauty that is within the depths of His word and His ways.
The waterless clouds, like the deceiver, boast in their high elevation, the boast of the promise of rain to bring life, but they have nothing of substance in themselves, and they move around subject to every wind of men’s earthly popular doctrine, leaving the ground bellow them barren.
Then these false teachers are spoken of as autumn trees without fruit, they draw wealth and selfish satisfaction from God’s provisions delivered to His children, they’re not rooted in God’s Word, the good soil, so they are spiritually unproductive, they bare no fruits of the Spirit, and they provide no shade for the flock, they deliver spiritually barren words because they’re spiritually dead.
Like wandering stars, these people are in blind service to their evil master, they don’t knowingly submit to God’s created order, they have no desire to please Him, they go wherever, and do whatever, they want, and they’re only filling in time until the second death, when they are finally eternally consigned to the blackness of darkness. They are numbered among those called “sons of the evil one“. They were neither sheep or good shepherds.
But the doctrines of these persons, are mostly, only detrimental to those who are not making Christ their first priority, to those who are not studying the scriptures to see if what’s being taught is so, and to those who are harbouring sin; because sin makes the sinner blind to many spiritual truths, and robs the saint of discernment and peace of mind.
But when the Word of God dwells in you richly, you’re guarded against heresy and corrupted teaching, through Holy Spirit who guides and teaches. Remember, Holy Spirit was sent to guide us into knowledge of the truth, so ask heavenly Father in Jesus name, if you ask for a fish, He won’t give you a serpent.
Now to consider Matthew 13:
The metaphor here includes wheat and weeds; They both start off as seeds, they’re either wheat seeds, or weed seeds, weed seeds don’t grow to become wheat, and wheat seeds only grow into wheat, not weeds, wheat is always wheat, whether juvenile or fully matured, but essentially, it’s still always wheat and good for producing flour for food, but weeds are only good for goats to eat.
So in these passages in Matthew, we’re told of two metaphorical representations, which portray the same dynamic of persons who were born of a particular type, persons who never changed from one type to another, and they’ll be judged according to their respective types. And to be sure of this, the Matthew 13 parable was later delivered to the disciples in plain language, in verses 37-43, as follows:
He that sows the good seed is the Son of man;
Matthew 13:37-43
and the field is the world;
and the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom;
and the weeds are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy that sowed them is the devil:
and the harvest is the end of the world;
and the reapers are angels.
As therefore the weeds are gathered up and burned with fire; so shall it be in the end of the world.
The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire:
there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.
Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He that has ears, let him hear.
The sower is Jesus, He only sows good seed, good seed is always good seed; sons of the kingdom are son’s of the kingdom of their father God, from the time of their creation and eternally ever after. The son’s of the evil one are sown, among the congregation of the saints, by the devil, and will always be son’s of the evil one, he sends them in among the congregations of the sons of God, in attempt to corrupt the fellowship of the saints, they’re spoken of in 2 Timothy 3 “Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, disqualified in regard to the faith.“. In John 8, Jesus made a clear distinction between the children of God and the children of the devil:
They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.”
John 8:39-47
Jesus said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, you would do the deeds of Abraham. But now you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God. Abraham didn’t do this.
You are doing the deeds of your father.”
They said to Him, “We weren’t born of sexual immorality; we have one Father: God.”
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God,
for I have not even come of Myself, but He sent Me.
Why do you not understand what I am saying? It’s because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me.
Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?
He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.”
Jesus clearly stated the true difference of the sons of God, to the sons of the devil.
Eternal Salvation Security:
These passages include telling of the mystery of God’s sovereignty in eternal salvation, it’s wonderful to consider and discuss, and it’s the peace of mind in security of eternal salvation of the saints when we understand that we’ve been eternally sealed by Holy Spirit until the day of our redemption, so we shouldn’t grieve the Holy Spirit by speaking contrary to His eternal seal through the blood of Christ by the will of God the Father: as we’re told in Ephesians 4:30 “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption“.
So we’re told in Romans 9:
… Will the thing moulded say to the moulder, “Why did you make me like this”?
Romans 9:20-24
Or does not the potter have authority over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honourable use and another for dishonourable use?
And what if God, wanting to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath having been prepared for destruction, and in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory – even us,
whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles?
If it wasn’t for God’s sovereign intervention in choosing many, no person would ever be eternally saved, we would all be destined for Hell, because, before God’s mercy, every persons condition is: dead in sin, as we’re told of in Romans 3:9-12
… for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written,
There is none righteous, not even one;
There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become worthless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”
The doctrine of God’s sovereignty and security in eternal salvation, glorifies God in numerous aspects, including His mercy, forgiveness, patience, faithfulness, kindness, immutability, and trustworthiness, all through the saving obedience of Christ Jesus, as Isaiah 53:6 reveals:
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.
Isaiah 53:6 speaks of God’s children as sheep, but you may have noticed that they’d gone astray, they’re said to have turned to each ones own way. The text said “Each of us has turned to his own way;“, the phrase “each of“, is translated from the Hebrew word “kole”, which means: ALL, THE WHOLE, TOTALLY, not some of us, some of all kinds, or quite a few, it’s all of His sheep. But this observation about “all going astray”, isn’t addressed to all people, as in both sheep and goats, it’s addressed only to those metaphorically spoken of as being sheep, and just as sheep go astray, so also these ones have all gone astray. Goats haven’t gone astray, they never had the love of God in them, and they never will, because they’re not God’s children. We’re told in Ephesians that His Saints had been chosen, predestined for salvation, from before the foundation of the world:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love, by predestining us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He graciously bestowed on us in the Beloved.
Ephesians 1:3-6
So Saints have been chosen before the foundation of the world, to adoption as sons, if they hadn’t been adopted, they would have been numbered with, and of full character, appearance and “spiritual DNA” of the goats. But having been chosen and adopted, being termed as lambs, Saints have been born and have lived within a sphere of spiritual innocence, but still exercising self will against God’s will, disobeying parents and overseers: Then at some time, children mature, just as lambs become sheep, and like sheep, all have intentionally gone our own way, and at this point being morally accountable for our decision, so we’ve immediately became spiritually dead in our transgressions and sins, we’ve harboured darkness in our hearts, chosen darkness rather than light, and this has separated us from God. We may have continued to reject God’s call to repent of our will for hours, days, months, or years.
Going your own way, is itself a sin.
And this may still be happening today, it’s certainly happening around the globe. This act of going our own way, results in a debt, and with every moral debt, there’s guilt and there’s subsequent punishment due.
Without God’s intervention, none of us have the inclination to return to Him, we always think the grass is greener on the other side, our own pride is a great enemy, we think we know better; just like Eve, who saw the fruit as being a means to be elevated above what God had already made her to be, so she chose to disobey, and Adam did the same. And just as with them, essentially, our sin separates us from fellowship with God, and while we’re dead in our sin, we can’t bring ourselves to life, but when God grants us knowledge of our depravity, and His love, He enables repentance and new life.
So God draws us to Himself. He reveals our depravity, grants us faith to believe and the desire to repent, as recorded in Acts 11:19 where the believing Jews said:
“…Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.”
It seems that there are innumerable very personal ways that God causes His chosen one’s to repent, there are accounts of some seeing a light after asking God to reveal Himself if He’s real, or seeing what appeared to be Christ’s face on a cliff face with light shining specifically on it, or having dreams of, or feelings of being separated from God’s presence and realising the darkness within, having a prayer answered for God to personally confirm His presence… But whatever means God employs, the basic teaching of the Word makes it clear that we have to be born again to enter the kingdom of God, and we’re not born of blood, which means we can’t genetically receive salvation; we’re not born of the will of the flesh, so we can’t choose of our own will to make God forgive us, because He only grants forgiveness by His will, to those He’s given to Christ: Jesus said “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me,…” John 6:37, and in John 1:13, we’re told that we’re not born of the will of man, so no other person can pay or pray for anyone to be in God’s favour, we can only be saved by the will of God, by the blood of Christ Jesus.
But we can ask God to grant faith and repentance to others, and if they’re among His elect, He may move earlier in answer to our prayers; and we’re told to preach the gospel to all men, so that those who are elect will hear and be converted by Holy Spirit.
for “WHOEVER CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”
Romans 10:13-15
How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?
How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard?
And how will they hear without a preacher?
And how will they preach unless they are sent?
Just as it is written,
“HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO PROCLAIM GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!”
Jesus told a parable to explain the saving will and work of God the Father:
Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
Luke 15:3-7
The only One who can pay the debt, is One who is like us, but who is without sin, because only a sinless sacrifice can redeem sinners, an imperfect sacrifice is unacceptable.
Through His eternal amazing love for each of His sheep, God sent his only begotten Son to pay the penalty for the sins of His wayward children, and so Jesus was sent by God the Father to be the spotless lamb, He gave Himself as the sacrifice for His sheep.
Jesus said “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.“.
For you were like sheep, going astray,
1 Peter 2:25
but now you have turned back to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away;
1 Corinthians 5:17-21
behold, new things have come.
Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ
and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,
namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself,
not counting their transgressions against them,
and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
So then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as God is pleading through us.
We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf,
so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Dear heavenly Father, please equip each of us to make you our first and greatest priority, and to share the gospel of reconciliation, so that your sheep will return to the shepherd and overseer of their souls, and fill out many days in your service in peace, joy and the eternal hope that works for your praise, in Christ Jesus name, amen.
APO 3-Oct-2026
