<p>10:27- see on Mt. 19:28.</p><p><i>My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me</i>- The Lord takes the initiative in speaking His word to men, but they must still respond in following; and this is how He 'knows' them, in the Hebraic sense of having a relationship. The &quot;voice&quot; they hear is His words, the essence of Him; not the Bible in its entirety, but &quot;My words&quot;. The Lord's references to &quot;My words&quot; in John must be understood as a reference to Him, the news about Him, His Spirit, the essence of Him as a person. Although His words were the words of God, for the word was God as explained in the prologue, that is not to say that &quot;My words&quot; refer to the Bible as a whole. That would be a confusion of category; rather like saying that Mercedes are cars; but not all cars are Mercedes.</p><p>The Hebrew word for &lsquo;hear&rsquo; is also translated &lsquo;obey&rsquo; (Gen. 22:18; Ex. 19:5; Dt. 30:8,20; Ps. 95:7). We can hear God&rsquo;s word and not obey it. But if we <i>really </i>hear it as we are intended to, we will obey it. If we truly believe God&rsquo;s word to be His voice personally speaking to us, then we will by the very fact of hearing, obey. The message itself, if heard properly and not just on a surface level, will compel action. We can <i>delight </i>to know God&rsquo;s laws and pray daily to Him, when at the same time we are forsaking Him and His laws; if we are truly obedient, <i>then</i> we will <i>delight</i> in God&rsquo;s law (Is. 58:2 cp. 14). We have a tendency to have a&nbsp;love of and delight in God&rsquo;s law only on the surface. John especially often uses &lsquo;hearing&rsquo; to mean &lsquo;believing&rsquo; (e.g. Jn. 10:4,26,27). And yet the Jews &lsquo;heard&rsquo; but didn&rsquo;t believe. We must, we really must ask ourselves: whether we merely hear, or hear and believe. For we can hear, but not really hear, if we lack the &ldquo;obedience of faith&rdquo;.</p><p>The Lord knows His sheep according to whether they follow Him, i.e. whether they take up His cross and follow Him. The question of cross carrying therefore reveals a man to his Lord for what he is. And it also reveals the Lord to His would be followers for who He really is. His words, that which is seen and heard in Him, is a call to follow Him to the cross.</p>