Let us turn once again to the
Word of God, and I want to read a short portion in the New Testament,
the Gospel according to John, and reading in chapter 10, and
the first nine verses. The Gospel according to John,
chapter 10, and reading the first nine verses. Verily, verily,
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.
For 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 put 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. His parables spake Jesus unto
them, but they understood not what things they were which he
spake unto them. Then said Jesus unto them again,
Verily, Verily I say to 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. We are told here in verse 6 that
when Christ spoke these words, they didn't understand this parable
by Jesus unto them, but they understood not what things they
were which he said unto them. Strictly speaking, this is not
a parable. We know that much of the ministry
of the Lord Jesus Christ was in the form of parables. He spoke unto the people in parables. But this is not the word that
is usually translated as parable. In fact, the word parable is
but a transliteration from the original. The word parabolos
in the Greek comes over into our English language as parable,
but this is a completely different word. In fact, it's the word
for allegory. These allegories take Jesus onto
them. We can think of a work like John
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress as an allegory. It's a representation
of the Christian life as the life of a pilgrim from the city
of destruction to the celestial city and I'm sure many of us
have read through that account, that remarkable book written
all those many years ago by John Bunyan and usually on the title
page of that book there is a scripture that Bunyan quotes and it's verse
from Hosea chapter 2 and verse 10, I have used similitudes,
an allegory, a similitude one and the same thing, and that's
what we really have here. It's a figure of speech that
the Lord Jesus Christ is employing. Now, in a sense, we see something
very similar with regards to the institution of the Lord's
Supper. When Christ takes the bread,
he says, this is my body. This cup is the New Testament
in my blood. We like to take that in a literal
sense. That's what the Roman Catholic does of course, and
the whole doctrine of the Mass is built around that teaching
of transubstantiation. They vainly imagine that the
priest is transliterating the wafer into the body and blood,
the soul and divinity of the Lord Jesus. So it has all the
appearance of a wafer still really. It is Christ and they elevate
the wafer and they worship the host as it were. And it is a
dangerous deceit, it's a blasphemous fable in the language of the
Church of England article we're not to understand the words of
the Lord Jesus Christ and in that literal sense when he says
concerning the bread this is my body or this cup is the New
Testament in my blood and so here when Christ begins to explain
to the people this allegory that he's been using and speaks of
himself clearly as that one who is the door of the sheep. Verse 10, And then said Jesus
unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door
of the sheep, not little. 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 a doubt, and find pasture. Well I want us to consider these
words of the Lord Jesus particularly in verse 9 for our text tonight. As we consider these words to
consider them under a threefold division first of all to consider
the one who is speaking where he sets himself forth as God,
we see something of his divinity, the deity of the shepherds. Then, in the second place, to
think of that door of salvation of which he is speaking, and
then thirdly, the pasture that he provides for his sheep. First of all, the deity of the
shepherd, the one speaking, He begins here in verse 9 by simply
saying, I am. He is the great I am. He is God. Remember that name
that God declared to Moses at the burning bush? Back in Exodus
chapter 3 when he inquires who it is that he is to tell the
children of Israel that sent him to be the great deliverer.
I am that I am. And the Lord Jesus Christ, of
course, is the full and the final revelation of the Great I Am. No man has seen God at any time,
we are told here in chapter 2. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared it. The only begotten Son, the Eternal
Son, the Son of the Father in truth and in love. The one who
said that God was his father and the Jews understood that
he was making himself equal with God. He is the image of the invisible
God. He is the great I AM. And how
he takes up those words repeatedly here in this Gospel, the I AM
passages. Later He speaks of himself as
the Good Shepherd. Verse 11, I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. Verse 14, I am the Good Shepherd
and know my sheep and have known of mine. In all these I am statements
then, he is revealing to us something more of the glories that belong
unto God. It's a revelation of God. He's
telling us something further with regards to Jehovah. But we're thinking in particular
tonight of him as that one who is here speaking as the shepherd
of the sheep. The fulfilment of those words
that we read just now in that 34th chapter of Ezekiel. Here is God's promise, remember.
In verse 23, I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall
feed them, even my servant David. Isn't the Lord Jesus Christ the
true David? What does David mean? It means
the beloved. And he is that one who is beloved
of the Father. Even my servant David, he said. he shall feed them, and he shall
be their shepherd, and I, the Lord, will be their God, and
my servant David, a prince among them. I, the Lord, have spoken
it." And what God speaks there in Ezekiel 34 in the way of prophecy
is being fulfilled, is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is that one then who comes as the final revealer, the final
revelation of God, the great I AM. Remember what he says to
the Jews previously here in chapter 8, if you believe not that I
AM He, ye shall perish in your sins, he says. There at verse
24. But you will observe, as I said
on a previous occasion, that that little pronoun, he, is in
italics. In other words, it's been introduced
by the translators. It's not a rendering of any word
that's there in the original. It's interpolated to bring out
the sense. Literally, though, he is saying,
if you believe not that I am, ye shall perish in your sins. He goes on at the end to say
unto them, verily, verily, before Abraham was, I am the great boat
of the Jews, they were the children of Abraham. But before Abraham
was, says the Lord Jesus Christ, I am, he is Abraham's God. And even when we see him about
to be crucified through weakness, as Paul says, writing to the
Corinthians, he was crucified through weakness even as he comes
to die and they would arrest him there in the garden. Remember
the words that we have at the beginning of chapter 18, when
he declares himself three times to be IR. I am he it says here in the authorised
version but on those three occasions here in those opening verses
of chapter 18 the pronoun is in italics he literally says
I am and they fall back on their reports they cannot touch him
they have no power over him he is the one who has power and
authority to lay down his life And he has power to take it again.
No man can take his life from him. He is that one then who
is the great God. He is Jehovah. I, evil and I
am the Lord, he says. And beside me there is no Saviour. And there in John's Gospel we
see the Lord time and again as he ministers, as he speaks and
preaches, he prefixes his teaching with the double verily. Here
at the beginning of this chapter, verily, verily I say unto you,
And then again in verse 7, then said Jesus unto them again, verily,
verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the ship. Now, these words, verily, verily,
you might today render the words, truly, truly, that's what he's
saying, but in the original, in the Greek, It is the word
Amen. Amen. Amen. What does Amen mean? It means
so be it. Verily, truly. But Christ of
course is that great Amen. The Amen, the faithful and true
witness, is the way spoken of in Revelation chapter 3 and verse
14. He is the great Amen. He is that great prophet, that
great teacher who has come from God. And now he speaks as one
who has authority and not as the scribes and the pharisees. And here he speaks with authority
concerning himself. And we see him in our text as
that one who is the revelation of the great God. I am, he says. I am the door. By me. If any man enter in, he shall
be saved. And so in the second place, consider
Christ here revealing himself as that door of salvation. He is the only way of salvation. He is the only saviour of sinners. It is quite wrong to speak of
comparative religion. There is no religion to be compared
with that that is the true religion, that that comes from God, which
we have here in the fullness of the revelation that we find
in the Old and the New Testaments. There is no such thing as comparative
religion. We can speak of non-Christian religions, but all other religions
are false religions. The gods even of the Jew is not
the true God because the true God has revealed himself as Father,
Son and Holy Ghost and so the God that the Orthodox
Jew worships is not the God who is the creator
and sustainer of all things this book is the only revelation
that God has given of himself. In written form this is the full
and final revelation. God in his last days has spoken
unto us by his Son. This is how Paul addresses himself
to those Hebrew Christians in his epistle to the Hebrews. He
makes it plain that this is the final revelation in Christ, the
image of the invisible God. He is the only one who is able
to save sinners. I am the wise, the truth and
the life, he says. No man cometh unto the Father
but by mercy. And when the apostles of Christ
began their ministry, how they asserted his exclusive claims. What do we find Peter and Paul
saying in their preaching, neither is there salvation in any other
they say. There is none other name on the
heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved. This is the
message of the apostolic gospel. The exclusive claims of the Lord
Jesus. There is one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. and so he himself
declares it here he is the Lord and he says by me if any man
enter in he shall decide of all the promises that he gives, all
the words that he speaks they are Amen and they are true words
all the promises of God in him are Yah and Amen to the glory
of God by us and what are we to do? we are to venture The
Hymn writer says, venture on him, venture wholly, let no other
trust intrude, none but Jesus, none but Jesus can do helpless
sinners good. He is the only one, you see,
who can do good to sinners. He is the only Saviour of sinners. Look at verse 11 again, I am
the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd give us His
life for the sheep. He is the Good Shepherd. We read
of those false shepherds that God is reproving back in Ezekiel
chapter 34. As here at the beginning of this
chapter as the Lord teaches these things, He speaks again of false
shepherds. Those who climb up some other
vines, that they might steal the sheep, that they might make
profit for themselves, they are not interested in the sheep.
They are only concerned for themselves. These are the false shepherds.
But the Lord Jesus, you see, is that one who is the good shepherd. Or mark that adjective. He is the good shepherd. and
how do we know he is the good shepherd? the good shepherd he
says give us his life for the sheep he loves them and he loves
them unto death chapter 13 we are told how he loves his disciples
even to the end before the feast of the Passover
when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart
out of the world unto the Father, having loved his own which were
in the world, he loved them unto the end. And what was the end?
It was the death of the cross. He would die in their room and
in their stead. The great sin atoning sacrifice. He knew no sin. He was the holy,
harmless, sinless One without any kind of original sin. All
that holy thing that was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb
of the Virgin Mary, that holy thing is human nature. That human body, that human soul
joined to the eternal Son of God That human nature you see
was sinless in his conception. We read in Job who can bring
the clean thing out of an unclean. We are all descended from Adam
and Eve and sin has come down to generations. We are all born
dead in trespasses and in sins. This is what David confesses
in Psalm 139. He was conceived in sin. But the Lord Jesus Christ, you
see, is free from original sin by the miracle of the virgin
birth. This is the great mystery of
Godliness. This is God manifest in the flesh. And as He was sinless
in birth, so He is sinless throughout His life. He knew no sinning.
And yet, He who knew no sin is made sin for His people. that they might be made the righteousness
of God in him. What does he do? He dies in their
place. He bears in his own person all
that their sins deserve to suffer of the wrath of God. He is the
propitiation for our sins, says John. But not for our sins only,
but for the sins of the whole world, that is the Gentile world.
Gentile sinners are to be saved as well as Jewish sinners. This
Gospel is to go out to the ends of the earth here in His love.
Not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son
to be a propitiation for our sins. And He does this so willingly. He comes to execute that work
that He has undertaken in the Eternal Covenant with the Father
He comes not to do his own will, he comes to do the will of him
who has sent him and to finish his work he must always be about
the business that his father has given him to do and he knows
ultimately that that must lead to his death upon the cross and
there he dies a voluntary death. Look at what he says here at
verse 17. Therefore doth my father love me. because I lay down my
life that I might take it again. No man take it from me, but I
lay it down of myself. I have power or authority to
lay it down and I have power to take it again. This commandment
have I received and my father, this was the command that he
undertook to obey in the eternal covenants as the servant of God
and he will obey, he will execute that work that the Father has
given him to do as I've said when they come to arrest him
in chapter 18 they cannot come near him, they cannot touch him,
they fall back from him he willingly, voluntarily puts himself into
their hands, he gives himself as the great sacrifice for the
sins of His people. Oh, He is the only way of salvation. He is the only Saviour. I am
the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved. All the shalls and the wills
and the certainty of these things. In verse 10 He says, I am come
that they might have life and that they might have each more
abundant. He used it like antidote to sin.
What does sin bring? Sin only brings death and the
curse. This was made plain to Adam in
the garden, was it not? When he was told the consequence
of disobedience. In the day that Eretz Israel
shall surely die, God said. And he did. He died. Spiritually. As soon as he was disobedient,
and the consequence is the curse. Man is cursed because of his
disobedience, because of his sin. This is what sin brings
in its way. But what does the Lord Jesus
Christ give? It's the Antidote, you see. Does sin bring death? Christ gives life. Does sin bring
an awful curse upon men? Christ comes to bless men. I
am come that they might have life and that they might have
it more abundantly. Oh, there is salvation here.
He is the door of salvation. But this salvation also means
that there is safety for them. they are saved and they are saved
I am the door by me if any man enter in he shall be saved and
shall go in and out he goes in and he goes out now he is going
out he is not to be understood in terms of any possibility of
a fall from grace not to think that you can be in Christ today
and out of Christ tomorrow That is an impossibility. That is
a plain contradiction of his own teaching. What does he give? He gives life, and he gives life
that is more abundant, he gives eternal life. Look at what he
goes on to say at verse 28, I give unto them eternal life, and they
shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all. No man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand. They have eternal life. If life
is eternal, it can never be destroyed. Otherwise it's not eternal life.
But they're safe, you see, because they're in the hand of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But not only in the hand of Christ,
they're in the Father's hand. There is a double security. They
are all together safe. No possibility of them ever being
lost. Going out then is not to be thought
of here in terms of going out of Christ and being lost. No,
they are in Him. They are in Him eternally in
the covenant. They are in Him. when they come
to experience the blessing of salvation, when they come to
trust in Him, once in Him, in Him forever, thus the eternal
covenant stands. What then does this mean? They go in and they go out, in
and out. Calvin makes a very simple observation,
he says it intends all the usual activities of life. It intends
all the usual activities of life. And doesn't the Lord do that?
He preserves His people. He preserves them as they go
out, as they come in. Isn't that the promise that we
find in the Psalms? Some refer to Psalm 121 as the
Traveller's Psalm. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord
shall preserve thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in from this time forth and even for evermore. Can we not rest assured in this,
friends, that there is a sense in which we are all eternal?
until I work for the Lord is done here upon the earth and
so wherever we go as we travel about and there is danger around
us all the time and yet we know that we are kept, we are preserved
in the hand of God we are kept safe going out, coming in there
is safety you see safety for the people of God and this is what we have to understand
in the very language that the Lord is employing here in the
text. He is the door. He himself is
the door. Now the practice with those Eastern
shepherds, of course, when they folded their sheep, there wasn't
a door to the sheepfold, there was simply an entrance. And what
the shepherd would do would be to make himself the door in a
very literal sense. He would be there at that opening
into the folds. At the birth of the Lord Jesus,
remember, there were shepherds. And what were they doing? They
were keeping watch over their flock. Why not? They were doing
that very thing. They were the door. There on
hand to ensure that the sheep were kept safe. David certainly
knew something of this. He was a shepherd boy. And remember,
when he comes to fight the great champion of the Philistines,
the giants, Goliath, he had to persuade King Saul that he can
go out against such a man as that in the 17th chapter of the first book of Samuel.
We have the record of that remarkable deliverance that David was able
to accomplish for the armies of Israel. This is how we assure
King Saul that he is fit for the task. Verse 34, David said
unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came
a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock, and I went
out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth.
And when he rose against me, I caught him by his beard, and
smote him, and slew him. Thy servant slew both the lion
and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of
them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. And David is a wonderful type,
is he not, of the Lord Jesus Christ, how Christ delivers His
people. That promise that God gives there
in Ezekiel 34, Behold I, even I, he says. All the emphatic
language that is employed in the Scriptures. That introductory
word, Behold, we are to consider this, we are to fix our eye on
this. And then the repetition of the singular personal pronoun,
I, even I, he says. will both search my sheep and
seek them. God seeks out his sheep, God
saves his sheep. He has not only purposed their
salvation from eternity in the covenant, he has not only come
and purchased that salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Good
Shepherd, who gives his life for the sheep, But God seeks
a man, searches a man, brings them to himself, that gracious
work of the Holy Spirit. And as they are brought to faith,
as they come to trust in Christ, so their faith might be but a
weak faith. And often times they have to
come and they have to cry to God that He would increase their
faith. Or yet they are so secure. Why? Because He has said it,
I will never leave them. Nor forsake thee. The promise
that we have back in Joshua 1 and verse 5, and remember Paul repeats
it. There in Hebrews 13, I will never leave thee, nor
forsake thee. The language there is so strong
it's almost impossible to bring out the strength of the negative.
There are five negatives. We are told there in that verse,
Hebrews 13, 5, 5 negatives. And in a sense the poet brings
it out in the hymn. I'll never, no, never, no, never
forsake. They're safe, you see. Why? Because
Christ himself is the door to the sheep. And he will always
be on hand to ensure the safety of his sheep. They're kept. Or
we know that we cannot keep ourselves left to ourselves, where would
we be? I know personally this is the last place I'd be in the
world left to myself, I wouldn't be in a chapel, I wouldn't be
in a pulpit. Where would we be? If the Lord just left us to ourselves
and left us to our fallen nature, we'd have no interest in these
things. If God left us we'd still be dead in trespasses and in
sin. but he saves and those he saves he keeps and so their safety
and their security as well as their salvation are kept by the
power of God through faith unto salvation for the deity of the
Lord Jesus Christ the one who is speaking, the Good Shepherd,
the door of the sheep the door of salvation and then thirdly
tonight to consider something of the pasture that he provides
for his sheep. It says they go in and out and
find pasture. They go in and out and find pasture. John Duncan, Rabbi Duncan, that
great Scots minister of the 19th century said, we shall not find
much pasture except we go out as well as in. Strange statement in many respects. I suppose Rabbi Duncan was a
strange man, but he was a most godly man. An exercise of remarkable
ministry. And I would commend particularly
to him some of his addresses those given in the pulpit and
at the communion table. What does he mean when he says
we shall not find much pasture except we go out as well as in? How are we to understand such
a statement as this that we find in the text? They go in and out
and find pasture. What it has to do, does he not,
with that life? That paradoxical life which is
the Christian life. Remember Psalm 55, the ungodly,
we're told, because they have no changes, they fear not God. The Christian life is a life
of changes. There's goings out as well as
comings in. There's times of trial and trouble
as well as times of blessing and favour. We referred at the
outset to Bonyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Remember how in that
Christian is made to sing that little song, the Christian man
is never longer days, when one child is gone, another dot him
seeds. This is the way, you see, in
which the Lord deals with his people. They are not to be at
ease. Well, to them that are at ease
in Zion. We made some reference only last
Thursday at the prayer meeting to those words of the prophet
Jeremiah in chapter 48, where he is speaking against Moab,
one of Israel's ancient enemies. What does he say concerning Moab
there in chapter 48 verse 11? Moab hath been at ease from his
youth, and he hath settled on his lease, and hath not been
emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity. Therefore his taste remained
in him, and his scent is not changed. He knows nothing of
change. He's not been empty. He's never been in captivity.
His life has been an easy course. But the Christian life is not
an easy course. In the world, says Christ, he shall have tribulation.
But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. This is how
the Lord teaches his people. This is how the Lord feeds his
people, is it not? By bringing them often times
into the midst of trials. Besides coming in, besides on
occasions being indulged. And knowing that they are very
near to their God. God himself comes and makes himself
very real to them, reveals himself to them. Besides those experiences,
there are sometimes other experiences going out. The Christian loses
sight of his comforts. And yet that latter experience
is not without profit. When it's sanctified, you see,
not a sharpening of the appetite. The wise man tells us in the
book of Proverbs that the full soul loatheth the honeycomb. But, there's a but, but, to the
hungry soul, every bitter thing this would. Are we those who
really hunger after such a knowledge of God, we want to feel our real
need of Him, we want to know that this God is our God, even
if it means that we've got to be brought to the complete and
utter end of ourselves. We need God to come and teach
us, you see, and this is how God teaches, this is how God
feeds His people. In order to find pasture, in
order to find out that is real sustenance to their souls, there's
not only coming in, but there's going out. And really, as we see in the
23rd Psalm, that green pasture, or that bitter cup, it really
has a sweet taste. It is the Spirit of God, of course,
who must teach us these things, show us these things. He must
discover to us something of God's own dealings, God's comings and
goings. He must make us feel what it
is to be favoured and blessed with those gracious visitations,
so that we may read it along, that we might know more and more
of them. When the Lord in the mystery of his dealing sometimes
hides his face from us. Or we want those visits, more
frequent let thy visits be. Or let them longer last. I can
do nothing without thee. Make haste my God. Make haste
says Joseph. He says how do we feel? Do we
have such a longing and such a desire after God? Do we want
to know that this God is our God? We want to know that care
of him who is the good shepherd of the sheep. I am the good shepherd,
he says, I know my sheep and I know one of mine. Remember
how he goes on to speak of the sheep as they know his voice
and they follow him. And he gives on to them eternal
life and they shall never perish. or with those friends who know
that voice the voice of him who speaks here with all the authority
of God incarnate the great final revelation of the only living
and true God the only saviour of sinners I am the door by me
if any man enter in he shall be saved and shall go in and
out and find pasture. May the Lord bless his words
to us for his name's sake. Amen.