I trust we’ve established that John was writing this epistle to Christians. Thus far, I have called those recipients: “Christians,” “Sons of God,” “Disciples” and “believers.” Let me throw another familiar Bible term into the mix: “God’s sheep.” Psalm 100:3: “Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” John 10:25: “Jesus answered (the Jews), I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” We can justly say that God’s people are the sheep of His pasture. And “the Lord is our shepherd. He leads us in paths of righteousness for His names’ sake.”
One of the many problems that sheep have is their propensity for stupidity (no offense). Peter reminded us: “For ye were as sheep going ASTRAY.” It is easy for sheep to go astray. So Peter might have added, “and you CONTINUE to go astray and get to get lost.” The word the apostle in I Peter 2:25 spoke of “going astray,” but here in I John 1 it is “deceive ourselves.” Sheep, even God’s sheep, are in constant danger of being deceived and deceiving themselves. And these things encourage me to bring this subject up and to issue a brief warning.
To do this I will expand upon one of the Lord’s illustrations. In Matthew 18 the Good Shepherd is described as having a flock of a hundred sheep – a “herd” of sheep. But one of them went “astray,” using the same key word in this study. “How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray.” That stupid sheep deceived itself and wandered off.
What are some of the ingredients to self-deception
When it came to that sheep how did it go astray? How did it deceive itself? In no particular order, it rejected and deceived itself about what all the other sheep were saying and doing. Ninety-nine sheep were content to drink at the still water and dine on the grass beside the slow stream. They followed the shepherd to the feast He had chosen for them, and after dessert they lay down to chew on the cud with one another. They didn’t mind being herd animals. They enjoyed the fellowship of other sheep, in the light of their fellowship with the Shepherd. They didn’t murmur for the leeks and garlics. They weren’t looking for something new in the theology world. They weren’t looking for a new voice. They were satisfied with the sounds of their Master’s harp and flute; they didn’t yearn for bagpipes.
Ah, but there was one sheep who couldn’t agree with his fellow believers. He had to have a new Bible, a new hymnal, a new philosophy. Maybe he was dissatisfied residing in a flock of only a hundred; he wanted a herd of a thousand. He deceived himself into thinking that what he and the others had wasn’t good enough. He wanted to taste fruit of the forbidden tree. Perhaps the sheep in the Lord’s illustration went astray because he deceived himself about his brethren. But the fellowship is not usually better on the other side of the road, or on the other side of the stream, or of the theological divide.
A second reason he strayed was that he was deceived contrary to his own conscience. As I said, sheep are herd animals, God has created in them a desire to run with others of their own kind. There is safety even in sheep numbers, and they like to follow the leader. I have read that they have “sheep buddies;” special friends among the flock. And, when one animal is separated from the herd, it tends have stress-related physical problems. Yes, a sheep may follow its nose to the point of being slightly outside the flock, but then it is its nature to return. By its nature, a sheep doesn’t want to continue moving away from the flock or the shepherd. If it doesn’t have a problem in leaving the flock, it may not be a sheep at all. John tells us in 2:19: Some people “went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. It is not to say that sheep can’t get lost or wander off. I’m only saying that its against its nature.
Let’s say that a sheep has been tempted to eat his neighbor’s grass, when he has plenty of his own. His heart tells him to nibble on his own patch, but that other patch looks so green and luscious. He has to buck against his conscience in order to bully his neighbor away from what is rightfully his. The wandering sheep must work contrary to what his own heart is telling him. He knows, “The shepherd doesn’t want His sheep doing this.” His heart remind him, my Shepherd said: “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived.” He also said, “Be not deceived; evil communications corrupt good manners.” The sheep’s heart says, “Continuing on this path may take me right out the flock and into the wilderness.” But he stubbornly tells his heart, “I know what I’m doing. Leave me alone.”
Or let’s say he is reading the Word of the Shepherd and runs across some simple sheep words – ovine language. He is reading Romans 13: “Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet…” The only way he can leave the truth of that statement is to listen to others while denying his heart. Or maybe it is I John 1: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.” Or “if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” John warns the sheep in 2:26: “These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.” “Seduce you” is the same word “deceive” and “lead astray.” There are always goats, wolves or other dirty sheep ready to help lead our consciences astray. I John 3:7: “Little children, let no man deceive you.” A sheep may become lost by rejecting the flock and by rejecting his conscience, accepting bad advice…
But the worst of all his problems and temptations is the deliberate rejection of the Shepherd and His leadership. How did that sheep get out there in the wilderness? He let his love for the Shepherd slip, loving something else more – perhaps his own faulty intelligence. He set his affection on something other than that which is above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. He went astray because he chose to leave the presence of the Shepherd. He might make one excuse or another, but it was his choice, and he is responsible for it. He became a lost sheep, a sheep stray, because he deceived himself about the flock; he deceived himself about his own heart, but worst of all, he deceived himself about his shepherd.
There is one of the major problems of self-deception.
Picture a horizontal line running through the heart which indicates total honesty, before deception creeps in. But here is another line running on top of that other line, which depicts our perception of ourselves. Sometimes that second line goes falls below the truth, deceiving that heart in a negative way. But far too often it is running above the perfect standard. There are exceptions, but don’t we more often think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, rather than more lowly? Paul sees this and warns us in Romans 12: “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” There are some who often picture themselves as beneath the line of reality, but more live on the top side.
As John reminds us, some sheep think they have no sin. They think too highly of themselves. Others are things they have not sinned, whereby, “we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Some sheep picture themselves as more righteous and holy than they really are. Other sheep are smarter than their neighbors and even smarter than the shepherd. But then, “Why am I out here in the wilderness being stalked by wolves? Because I thought I knew where I was going.” And why does it seem that the Shepherd is angry with me? Why is my life out here in the “far country” going so poorly? Galatians 6:7: “Be not deceived whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap.”
John says, “Go not astray.” James means the same things when he says, “Do not err, my beloved brethren.” As we’ve seen Peter and Paul warn of the same thing: “be not deceived,” “do not err,” “go not astray.”
But then what does the Shepherd do after His sheep has strayed?
You can be sure that He knows His sheep, because He has told us so in John 10. If you like, He counts them as they come into the sheepfold every Wednesday night and Sunday morning. He knows them by name – a hundred different names; a ten thousand different names. And on this occasion, one of them has gone astray. He doesn’t say, “Well, easy come easy go. I’ll go and buy another sheep.” He doesn’t say, “Well, it is his own fault, because I told him and told him.”
No, He turns to the sheep that safely lay in the shelter of the fold, and says, “I go to find my lost sheep.” He doesn’t have to say,”Pray for me,” or “Pray for Shaun the sheep.” But hopefully that is what the rest of the flock is doing. They should care about the one of their own number who has gone astray. They shouldn’t just write him off. “Oh, he’s moved to Egypt.” “He’s been sent to jail.” In a sense, the should be praying that their Shepherd will find this lost flock-mate. And out into the wilderness goes the Shepherd, calling the sheep’s name. “Shaun, Shaun.” He calls and searches; He searches and calls, “seeking that which is gone astray,” – the one who has deceived himself. And you know what? He will find it, because in fact, He knows exactly where that silly sheep has gone.
Have you ever seen illustrations of Jesus carrying a cute, little cuddly lamb on His shoulders? What an inaccurate picture. First, Matthew 18 doesn’t say a word about a “lamb;” it is a “sheep.” An adult sheep weighs between a hundred and three hundred pounds. And the only nice, clean sheep is found in a county fair or a pen after been sheered. The average sheep is disgustingly filthy. This sheep, whom the Lord is bringing home, may be dirty, having been places where no ordinary shepherd would ever go. But our Shepherd doesn’t care, what His sheep has been through or our filthy he has become. If that sheep is humbly bleating out the Saviour’s name, he will be restored. I Peter 2:25: “For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.”
Conclusion:
Paraphrasing John, “If we say that we have not strayed we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” If we look down our noses at sheep more dirty than we are, we deceive ourselves about our own contamination. If we think that we are beyond straying at some point in the future, we deceive ourselves.
Praise God for a faithful Shepherd. He is faithful and just to forgive us our straying and self-deceiving. Praise God for a flock in which to hide, fellowship with and help to protect.
Fear self-deception. Flee from it as you would a wolf.