I'm gonna ask you to take your
Bibles and turn with me to the book of John, chapter 10. John, chapter 10. While you're
turning there, I'd like to say, Lord willing, I plan to preach
out of Proverbs 29. Next service, verse 24. And as
I was studying Proverbs 29, 24, My mind kept coming back to John
10. I'd come back to John 10. I'd
go back to Proverbs 29 and I'd come back to John 10. So I want
us to look this morning at John 10. This is one thing that I
hopefully have learned over a few years. When the Lord brings a
passage of scripture to your heart, there's a reason. Go there, go there. Chapter nine, and I won't read
the chapter for the sake of time, but I'll tell you what happened.
There was a man that was born blind and the Lord came and he
saw that man and the man didn't Didn't seek the Lord. He didn't
do anything. He was blind. And the Lord saw him, spit on
the ground, made some spittle, put it on the man's eyes, and
told him, he said, you go wash in the pool of Siloam. And he
did. And he came seeing. Now this man had been blind all
of his life. And obviously that caused quite
a stir. He was a blind man. Everybody
had always known him as being blind. Well, the Pharisees heard
about it. And the Lord had healed this
man on the Sabbath day. And they took offense to that. And the Lord rebuked them. I'll pick up in chapter nine,
verse 39. I'll read 39, 40, and 41. Then
Lord willing, we'll go on to chapter 10. After they questioned
this man time and time again, how did he do this? How did he
do this? Well, the man said, I don't know. He just, he spit
on the ground. He put some spittle on my eyes
and he told me to go wash and I saw. He asked his mom and daddy
about it. He said, look, you ask him. Pharisees were offended, verse
39, and the Lord said to them, and Jesus said for judgment,
I'm coming to this world, that they which see not might see,
and that they which see might be made blind. Now these Pharisees
understood what he was saying. They tried to put him on the
carpet, reprimand him for healing on the Sabbath day. And they
knew that he was talking about them. And they said in verse
40, and some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these
words and said unto him, are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, if you
were blind, or if you knew, that you were born blind, spiritually
blind. If you knew that, if by the grace
of God you were made to see that you were blind, you should have
no sin. But now you say, we see, therefore
your sin remaineth. Now, the Lord has exposed them
for their pride and arrogance. And he told
them, he said, because you say, you see. Because you say, you
see, and you, by the works of the law, according to you, is
how man or woman is reconciled before God. Because you say that
you see, by keeping the law, that you're made right before
God. You're blind. You're blind. and your sin remains. They resented
that. And I'm telling you that we might
understand something here. The glorious message of the gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace. Salvation totally by the grace
of God without any, without any works of righteousness on a man's
part. is resented by this world. Man
by nature hates that. You try to take away a man's
works from him. You try to take away what man
thinks he's done in order to be reconciled to God. What you're
telling him is you're lost. If you're trusting in your works,
it's not by works of righteousness, which we've done, but according
to his mercy, his mercy, his mercy. Well, the Lord is gonna
set forth a truth, a truth. And I wanna read the first 10
verses of John 10. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, climbeth
up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the
door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth, and
the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name,
and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his
own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for
they know his voice. And a stranger will they not
follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of
strangers. This parable spake Jesus unto
them, but they understood not what things were which he spake
unto them. Then said Jesus unto them again,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All
that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the
sheep did not hear them. I am the door. By me, if any
man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find
pasture. The thief cometh not but for
to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have
life and that they might have it more abundantly. Now, our Lord is setting forth
a well-known practice, a well-known procedure that by which he's
going to prove that salvation is by the grace of God. I want
you to hold your Bible right here. Turn to Ephesians 2.8.
Here's a passage of scripture that I would dare say most all
of us just quoted, but I want you to look at it. Ephesians
2.8. Ephesians 2, 8, for by grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For by grace, the will, the purpose,
and the grace of God creed before the foundation of the world.
Salvation of God's elect. Almighty God before the foundation
of the world. Chosen people. His grace provided the lamb,
the sacrificial lamb for the ransom His people, chosen in
Christ before the foundation of the world, not yet born, never
created, God, before God ever created anything, had a people. He chose them. They're His. They're
His elect. They're His bride, the bride
of Christ. But they're gonna fall in Adam.
And the Lord, by the grace of God, provided a lamb, the blessed
lamb who was slain When? Before the foundation of the
world. God saw it. And in time, God's Lamb was to
be born. He had to die without the shedding
of blood. There is no remission. He had
to come into this world, made flesh to live for God's elect. Why? going to have to establish
righteousness before God that will be accepted by God, but
it's going to have to be righteousness that is earned by a man. A man is going to have to please
God. Almighty God has provided the Lamb, thereby the righteousness
of God provided by God's Lamb, the man, Christ Jesus, be imputed
to everyone that Almighty God is gonna call out of darkness
and save and grant faith. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb,
John 10, 15, came into this world and he died for the elect. He died for the elect. Some of
you say, well, I thought he died for everybody. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. That's what he said. I lay down
my life for the sheep. Husbands, love your wife as Christ
loved the church and gave himself for it. He died for God's elect. And in his death, having borne
all of the sins of all of his people in his own body, don't
even try to even grasp hold of it. There's no way we're going to
enter into the depth of that statement. He bore every infraction,
every infraction. I don't even know all that I've
done. I have no idea. There's been so much pride since
I stepped into this pulpit right now, Mitch, to send a million
worlds to hell. Pride. Arrogance. You say, well, I don't think
I'm that bad. I'm that bad. Oh, wretched man
that I am. He borne the debt of all of his
people, and he died bearing their sins and put an end to sin's
condemning power over God's sheep. And thereby, he's made peace
before God for him. In his final word at Calvary,
what did he say? It is finished, it's finished,
it's finished. God finished the work, done. What's left to do? What does finished mean? What's
left to do? Nothing. What's he gonna do? Oh, in time, I'll tell you what
he's gonna do. He's gonna call them out of darkness. And he's
going to put them under the sound of the gospel of God's free grace.
Free grace. Free and sovereign grace. And the Spirit of God, according
to God's Word, when He pleased God, that's what Paul said, when
He pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, called
me by His grace to reveal Christ in me. It's a revelation of salvation. Salvation is revealed. It's revealed. I'm not going
to walk down an aisle and put the final dot on it. I'm not going to get in a baptismal
pool and okay, now I've finished. No, he said, it's finished. Here's what God does. He gets
his people under the sound of the gospel and he tells them
about it. I'm going to tell you about it.
I'm going to tell you what I've done for you. Now my friends,
that's grace, that's grace. He leaves nothing whatsoever
for that sinner to do. Well, according to our Lord's
good pleasure, he's going to give this parable. And I'll try to be quick on this. All the preparation right up
to this, I've just about established everything that I'm gonna say,
but I'm gonna say it too. According to our Lord's good
pleasure, he spoke, and he said, verily, verily, verse one, chapter
10, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold,
but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. Now, our Lord is gonna speak
about a sheepfold right here. Now, I've made some, pretty intensive
effort to try to make sure I look up these words to where I can
prove, I can back up what I'm saying right here. This sheepfold. This sheepfold, according to
Strong's, Vines, Blue Letter Bible, I've tried to look it
up. This particular word right here,
it's, The number that's been given to it by Mr. Strong, if
you're interested, G833. What it means is a yard, a yard,
a court, just an open court. He said, he that entereth not
by the door into the sheepfold. This sheepfold that is being
entered into. Now, in the Old Testament, what
they had back then, a big open court. Every town had one, and
it was just a big open court, and everybody, all these shepherds,
they'd have them out there in the pastures, and they'd feed
them all day, and at night, they're gonna have to put them somewhere,
keep them from danger. And they'd bring them into this
open court, this yard. It was a yard. And that's what
that word means. It means the yard, the court,
open court, open to the air, just open. And they all bring
their sheep, all sheep. They look alike, you know. They're
just sheep. They all look like sheep. And
they're all in this sheepfold, this yard. And so they bring
all this sheep in here, and there's a person, there's a man, somebody
that's there, and he's one that oversees it. Kind of watch it. He's the one that they're going
to entrust the keeping of their sheep to this porter. But he said, he that entereth
not by the door into the sheepfold, climbeth in some other way. He's
a thief and a robber, but he that entereth in by the door
is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth, and
the sheep hear his voice. He calleth his own sheep by name,
and he leadeth them out. Now this sheepfold, naturally
speaking, it was just a big court, and they're all in there. Everybody's
sheep's in there, they're all in there. They're all mixed up,
they're all in there. And this porter, this porter,
his responsibility was to make sure that whenever the sheep
were deposited, when they were taken out, he was responsible
to make sure that everything was done correctly. That the
right shepherd went with the right sheep, and he'd have to,
you know, and it was one place that you could get into that
sheepfold. The door. What's a door for? Get in, go out. Anybody wants
to come over my house, y'all can come on over if you want
to, but I'm gonna tell you something. If you try to climb in through
a back window in my house, it's gonna throw up a red flag on
me. Something is going on. The door is where you legitimately
enter or leave a place. So here's, here's, here's what
the Spirit of God is going to set forth. The Lord's going to
teach us a parable here and teach us some spiritually speaking,
spiritually speaking, what is this sheepfold? What is spiritually
speaking the sheepfold? Well, knowing that the Lord himself
referred it as to something that he enters into and leads his
sheep out of, It can't be the church. Because
the Lord's not gonna lead his sheep out of the church. I can
tell you that right now. The sheep are gathered into it. But the scripture sets forth,
it says in verse four, when he put forth his own sheep, he goeth
before them and the sheep follow him. They know his voice and
the stranger they're not gonna follow, he will flee from him.
They know not the voice of the stranger. The Lord is talking
about taking his sheep out of something. All of us, all of us came from
the loins of Adam. And we all owe a debt to the
law of God that we cannot pay. We all owe a debt. And so here's
this sheepfold. You want to know what this sheepfold
is? Spiritually speaking, right here. This world. We're in this world. Because
the Lord is going to lead his people out of something in this
world. We're all born, just like everybody
else, in a fallen state. Hold your place and turn to Ephesians
2. Ephesians chapter two. Ephesians two, one to three. Now let me tell you where all
of us are. You talking about the elect of God too? I'm talking
about all of us. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past. In the lust of the flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. So here's the Lord, he's
gonna teach you something. Here's a sheepfold. All the sheep,
all different kinds of sheep are in there. But the Lord is
gonna teach something about him coming in to this sheepfold. And he's going to call his sheep
out of it. There's gonna be a calling out. So here we are. Having come from
the loins of Adam, having owed the debt to the law that none
of us could pay, our only hope of deliverance is this. God Almighty is going to have
to enter into this sheepfold the same way that everybody else
entered this sheepfold. How did you get here? You were
born here. You were born into this world.
What is he gonna do? To deliver us out of this bondage,
now we're in this world, but God's people's gonna be delivered
out of something in this world. That's what I'm gonna show you
in just a minute. Man sinned against God. Man sinned against
God. And guess who's gonna have to
obey God? Who's gonna have to obey God in order that anybody
has any hope, who's gonna have to do it? Man. Man disobeyed God. Man is going
to have to obey God. Man is going to have to be obedient
to the law of God. And that obedience earned by
a man is going to have to be charged to the objects, the vessels
of God's mercy for them to have any hope whatsoever. That's the
establishment of the door. How is God going to be just and
justify his people? Galatians 4. Galatians chapter 4. Now you
listen. The Lord said, while you're turning
to Galatians 4, the Lord said, verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold. He that entereth
not by the door into the sheepfold. God's gonna have to order and
establish the door to get in here. We all came into this world,
we're all dead and trespassers. The Lord God himself is gonna
establish a door into this place, and it's gonna be a door that
Christ himself is going to establish. How was the door established
for God Almighty to come in here and justly rescue his people?
The Lord Jesus Christ said, I am the door. What did he do? Galatians
4. Galatians 4, verses 1 to 5, now
I say that the heir, as long as he's a child, differeth nothing
from the servant, though he be lord of all, but is under the
tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements
of the world, but when the fullness of the time was come, God sent
forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption
of sons. What is God gonna have to do
in order to rescue his people that's in this sheepfold right
here? What's he gonna have to do? He gonna have to come into
this world. How's he gonna do it? He was
made of a woman, made under the law. to redeem them that were
under the law. Back in John 10, verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold,
but climbeth up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber.
The Lord Jesus Christ said, I came into this world to redeem them
that were under the law. Now that's the only true and
just way according to God's word. that any would have any hope
of getting into this world, redeeming those that God has everlastingly
loved, and calling them out of darkness. This thing's not gonna
be done in a closet. God is just. He's right. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
if you try to set forth, you Pharisees he's talking to, if
you try to climb in any other way, He came into this world
as the Redeemer. He came into this world as the
Savior of sinners. He came into the world with a
purpose. He said, you try to come in any other way except
the way that I came. You're a thief. You're a robber. You're a liar. You're a liar. He's rebuking them here. He was
made of a woman. He was made just like His sheep
were made. Every one of us was born. Every
one of us got a mama. He came forth made of a woman,
made under the law, obligated himself to the fulfillment of
every jot and tittle of God's law on behalf of his elect. He said, I am the door. I am
the door. He's the door. He made the door.
He is the door. I am the door. That's what he
said. I am the door. I'm not a door. He's the door. He that entereth in verse two
by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. Then he said in verse
three to him, the porter openeth and the sheep hear his voice
and he calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. I'm always intimidated. whenever
somebody like Nancy or Joanna, these teachers, because I'm not,
I wasn't very good in English. I don't know how to diagram sentences.
I never did learn that. I just wasn't very good at that.
Now maybe y'all are, but I'm not very good. But I do know something, I can
look up something. Verse three says, to him the
porter openeth, semicolon. Somebody said, well that's not
that important. Love it, don't take anything
that God has preserved in his word to be insignificant. To
him the porter openeth, semicolon, and the sheep hear his voice.
I found out that a semicolon is that which connects two truths. Is that right, Nancy? Is that
true? Good, good. It connects two truths and gives
one thought. To him, Christ is the door. How did he get in here? How did
he get into this world legitimately? How is he into this world legitimately
to be the Redeemer and Savior of his people? He's the door. To get into this world, as God
Almighty, He had to be made flesh. He had to be made of a woman,
just like us. Made under the law, just like
us. That's how He gets in. He's in here, as the door. And there's a porter. There's
a porter coming into this sheepfold. And this porter is none other
in God's spirit, none other. This porter is one, according
to the Lord Jesus Christ, who openeth, who openeth, semicolon,
and the sheep hear his voice. I looked the word openeth up.
Here's what it means. To grant something, ask for,
or to give access to the blessings of God's kingdom. To him, to him, to the door,
the porter, openeth, and the sheep hear his voice. This blessed
porter, the Spirit of God, he is the one who guides and speaks
and opens the understanding of God's elect in regenerating power
and grace, revealing Christ to them, granting faith to them,
giving them a new heart, new ears to hear, a voice that they
recognize the voice of the shepherd. Turn with me to John 16. John
chapter 16. Here's the Lord Jesus. He's the
shepherd. He's coming into this sheepfold. There's all kinds
of sheep in there. They're all in there. But found
within this menagerie of stuff in this world, God's got a people. God's got a people. And he's
coming to this world legitimately. as the door, he's the door. He
came into this world and he's gonna come after his sheep. What's
that porter gonna do? That porter is gonna open. He
openeth, he openeth. He opens the understanding of
God's people in regenerating grace. He comes to them in power
and removes a heart of stone and gives them a heart of flesh
and new ears to hear and a new heart to believe and new eyes
to see. They hear. He openeth. And what
happens? And the sheep hear His voice.
The sheep hear the voice of the shepherd. John 16, verses 13
to 15. How be it when He, the Spirit
of truth, has come? He will guide you into all truth.
For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear,
that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come. He shall
glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine and shall show it unto
you. All things that the Father hath are Mine, therefore said
I, that He shall take of Mine and shall show it unto you. Do
you realize what happens Here's the great shepherd of the sheep
who's coming to this world. Legitimate. Made himself with
no reputation, humbled himself before God, obeyed God's law,
established righteousness, bore the guilt of all of his people
in his own body, put him away. And when it pleases him, the
Spirit of God, the porter, he openeth. When Almighty God opened
anybody's eyes. When he opens anybody's eyes,
you know what they do? They hear. They hear. They hear. They see. They see. And now with their
understanding opened, the shepherd calls his sheep by name. He leads
them out of the darkness of sin and unbelief. This is what we're
being led out of. We're in a sheepfold. We're still
in this world. We're not being led out of the
church. We're in a sheepfold. But we're in a world right now.
And by the grace of God, we've been led out of something. We've
been led out of the bondage of sin and unbelief. We've been
given light. Look what he said. When he put
it forth, his own sheep, When he put it forth, by power is
what he's saying. When he put it forth, his own
sheep, he goeth before them and the sheep follow him. They know
his voice. What are God's sheep doing right
now? David said in Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. He leads
me beside the still waters. He keeps me, teaches me. Lo, I'll walk through the valley
of this shadow of death right here. I'm not gonna fear any
evil. You're with me. That's what he's doing. Now,
their understanding has been opened. He calls them by name. Oh, I love that. He calls his,
verse three, he calls his own sheep by name. I've never actually heard with
this ear the Lord call my name, but in my heart, I have. Somebody said, well, I don't
understand that. Well, the Lord says it's so. He calls
his own sheep. John 10, 27, we're in this same
book. 27 of John 10, my sheep hear
my voice. I know them, they follow me.
Let me ask you this. As we've been looking at these
verses right here, Have you heard the voice of the master? Is this
the master speaking here? Does this give honor to him,
glory to him? Does it give any glory to us?
No, no. That's him speaking. That's the spirit of God speaking.
Verse five, a stranger they will not follow, but will flee from
him, for they know not, they don't recognize the voice of
strangers. You have somebody stand up tell
me. And the Lord's done all he could
possibly do. He's pretty well exhausted all
of his, his, uh, you know, his abilities and he's, he died to
make it possible. And now all you got, I'm thinking
that's not my Lord speaking. No, sir. That's not the voice
of the master. That's not God talking. God don't
talk like that. He doeth as he will in the army
of heaven and among the inhabitants earth, and nobody, nobody stops
him. Nobody stays his hand. Nobody. This is God. This parable spake
Jesus unto them, but they understood not what things for which he
spake unto them. Then said Jesus unto them again,
verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. If there's any way, if there's
going to be any way that there's going to be any calling out of
darkness, if there's going to be any possible way that any
fallen creatures of Adam is going to be called out of the darkness
and bondage of unbelief, it's going to have to be him who is
the door. Lord, you're gonna have to come here and do something
for me that I can't do for myself. Verily, verily, verse seven.
I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came
before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
I am the door by me. If any man shall enter in, he
shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture, the
thief cometh not, but for to steal and to kill and to destroy,
I'm come that they might have life, they might have it more
abundantly. You know, the only thing that
a sheep can do is follow. The Lord said, verse nine, I'm
the door. By me, if any man enter in, enter
into the enjoyment of life in Christ, enter into the fullness
of God's revelation, salvation by the grace of God. If any man
enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in, into that life and
out of the bondage of darkness and unbelief. And we're going
to find a pasture. Brethren, we're in a world that
has all kinds of people in it. But found in the midst of this
world, into this sheepfold, in this yard, in this open court,
God's got a people. And this is how he's gonna call
them out of darkness. Having come into this world,
satisfied God's law, everything that was required, everything
that was required. They gotta have their sin debt
paid. He said, I laid down my life for sheep. I died for them.
I paid their debt. Well, do they owe anything? Well,
Romans 8.1 says there's no condemnation. There is now no condemnation.
There is now. What Brother Scott used to say,
what does now mean? Now. That's what it means now. Now
means now. There is now no condemnation to them which be in Christ Jesus.
There's none. So there's no condemnation. Well,
what about that righteousness? He earned a righteousness. He
lived before God and the Father spoke from heaven and said, that's
my beloved son. This is my beloved son whom I will believe. You
hear him. You hear him. He said, I'm the door. Okay,
I'm the door. I'm the door. He came in legitimately
and he calls his people out. How does he do it? How does he
do it? The porter. The porter. The porter openeth.
And you know what they do? They hear, they hear the voice
of the shepherd. And the shepherd calls them out of the darkness
of sin and unbelief. As long as we're in this world,
we're gonna be in this sheep, we're still in this sheepfold
right here, I get it. But I'm gonna tell you something,
God's done something for his people. He's given them life
in Christ. And they hear his voice and he
leads them, he's leading them right now. And they follow him
right now. And one of these days he's gonna
take us out of this sheepfold He gonna take us to glory. But
as long as we're here in this world, He gonna lead us and guide
us and direct us for His glory and our good. Amen. All right.