John chapter 10. We have the shepherd and his
sheep in this chapter. I woke up early this morning
thinking about verse 16. Other sheep I have which are
not of this foe, them also I must bring. And my thought this morning
was bringing in the sheep. But as I sat down in the study
and I read the whole chapter, which is what I usually do, and
I read the chapter before it, because the chapter before it
is the reason for the parable that our Lord gives in the beginning
of verse 10. So tonight and either next Thursday
we'll finish the rest of it or look at the rest of it, or I
may bring the rest of it Sunday, Lord willing. Depends on the
leadership I get out of it. Now, our Lord speaks of three
doors in these first nine, ten verses. In verse 1, He speaks
of the door of the sheepfold. Verse 7, he speaks of the door
of the sheep. He said, I am the door of the
sheep. And then in verse 9, it's the
door of salvation. He said, I'm the door by me of
any man, any man. Now he's reaching out to the
Gentiles. He's reaching out to the whole
world. And he speaks of these doors. I titled this Three Doors,
One Shepherd. Three Doors, One Shepherd. Now,
in that part of the country, especially at that time, there
was in the city, and I imagine every city had this, there was
a sheepfold. And it was protected. It had
high walls. I forget, John Gill said it was
like 10 feet or something. It was tall, high walls, and
it had this one gate. And at this one gate, there's
a porter who stands there, and he keeps watch over the sheep.
Now, this porter represents God the Father. And what a comfort
it is to know that God the Father has watched over us from all
eternity. He guards us. He guards the gate. And when the shepherds would
bring their flock, they would put them into that fold. And
at nighttime, the gate would be shut, the porter would watch
over it, make sure no thieves would break in and try to steal
the sheep. And while the shepherds went
and off, they would find them a place to sleep. Then they'd
come back early the next morning, and they would go into that sheepfold,
and they would call their sheep by name. Isn't it amazing what
God has put in nature so that we can understand spiritual truth
That just jumped out at me. These sheep, they know the voice
of the shepherd. And the shepherd names his sheep.
I was reading today where the shepherd names every one of his
sheep. Just like, you know, in my family,
there's nine people in my family. We all have a name. When my mother
or father says one of the names, you know, we know who it is.
And when the shepherd would come in and he would name, call his
sheep by name, they would just divide themselves out from the
rest of them and they would come to the shepherd. Then the shepherd
would take and turn around and he would go to the pasture where
he was gonna feed them that day and they would follow him. He'd
just take off walking in, those sheep, they followed him. As our Lord said, my sheep follow
me. I'm so glad for the simplicity
that our Lord used. I mean, here is the wisdom of
God. Here is infinite knowledge, infinite
wisdom, and yet He speaks in such simple terms that you and
I can grasp. The Pharisees, most of the time,
they couldn't grasp it. They didn't know what He was
talking about. But you do. I do. I thank God I can hear. I can
hear the voice of the shepherd here in these verses. Can you
hear his voice in these verses? The Pharisees heard him speak
these words standing in front of them, and they didn't know
what he was talking about. And he was talking about them being
the thieves and the robbers, and they didn't get it. When you're dead, you're dead,
aren't you? Dead people don't get anything. And they were spiritually
dead, and he was talking to them about the sheep and the shepherd,
and he was using such simple terms, and they didn't even get
it. Salvation is by revelation. God has to reveal the truth to
you. And when he reveals the truth
to you, the gospel to you, you see it. Just like this blind
man in chapter 9. This man was blind. He said,
I don't know who this was, but the one thing I do know, whereas
I was blind, now I see. Then later the Lord came back,
and after he got excommunicated, the Lord came back and made himself
known to this man. But this is the premises on which
he's teaching this lesson. He's talking to these Pharisees,
but the lesson is for me and you. The blessing is for me and
you. This is something to go home
with tonight. This is something to feed on.
God is our shepherd. We are protected by Him. And
we are His sheep. And we've always been His sheep.
You never read in the Scriptures where the Lord turns goats into
sheep. He never turns goats into sheep.
It's always My sheep. The Father gave Me the sheep.
They were never called goats. There's sheep, and there He is. Now He says here in verse 1,
and we have here the door of the sheepfold. He says, "...verily,
verily, and it is truly, truly, I say unto you, he that entereth
not by the door into the sheepfold," there's one door, there's one
gate, "...and he that does not enter by that door, but he climbs
up some other way," The same is a thief and a robber. He climbs
up over the wall trying to get around the porter. He's a thief
and a robber. The true shepherd comes through
the door. He comes the right way. He comes the appointed way. Right
there's the door. That's the appointed way into
the sheepfold. The Lord is speaking here to
these Pharisees, and He's calling them thieves and robbers. And
it's just going right over their head. He's calling them thieves
and robbers. They were not sent of God, they
were not true shepherds, they were wolves. They were wolves,
that's what they were. They entered not by the door
or the proper way designed by God. What's that? It's the way of blood. It's the
way of righteousness. It's the way of the covenant
of grace. They didn't enter that way. They entered in by works
and ceremony. That's how they tried to enter
in and rob the sheep. It's what they did. They sought
to rob Christ of His glory and rob the sheep of their comfort.
That's what false shepherds do. They fleece the sheep. It's what
false shepherds do. Turn over to Ezekiel 34. In Ezekiel 34, listen, And the
word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy
against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say unto them, Thus
saith the Lord God unto the shepherds, Woe be to the shepherds of Israel
that do feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed
the flocks? You eat the fat, and you clothe
you with the wool. You kill them that are fed, but
you feed not the flock. The disease have you not strengthened?
Neither have you healed that which was sick? Neither have
you bound up that which was broken? Neither have you brought again
that which was driven away? Neither have you sought that
which was lost? That's a lazy bunch of shepherds,
isn't it? How do you heal the diseased?
How do you bring back the sick and bind up the broken? I tell
you how you do it. With the gospel. You do it with
the gospel. You don't do it by sitting down
and counseling. You do it by the preaching of
the gospel. Preaching Christ and Him crucified. Preaching
Christ in all His offices. In all that He has represented
in the Scriptures. He says here in verse 5, and
they, well, let me finish verse 4, But with force and with cruelty
have you ruled them? And they were scattered because
there is no shepherd. And they became meat to all the
beasts of the field when they were scattered. My sheep wandered
through all the mountains and upon every high hill. Yea, my
flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none
did search or seek. after them. They took care of
themselves. And the Lord is saying here,
He said that, He that enters not by the door
into the sheepfold, but he comes some other way. You see, God
appointed the way. He appointed the way, which is
Christ, to enter the door. They entered into the sheepfold
and redeemed the sheep. He entered in the proper way.
He entered in the way God appointed. But these Pharisees, they were
the ones who were climbing over the wall. They were going by
works and ceremonies. But he that entereth in by the
door is the shepherd of the sheep. He didn't sneak in. He entered
in by the door. Christ came. He came through
the proper door. He came according to the Scriptures. Listen. Turn over to 1 Corinthians
15. Listen to this. Here's the proper
door. "...Moreover, brethren, Verse
1, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached
unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand,
by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I
preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For I
delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He entered the proper way according
to the Scriptures. He was anointed and appointed
of the Father to be the shepherd. He did everything required by
the Father. He kept the law perfectly. He's
the only one who has the credentials. He's the only one who has the
anointing and the appointing by the Father. He's the only
one. He's the only one who can enter the sheepfold and save
the sheep. The sheep are His and that fold,
they're His. And He says, listen here, in
verse 3, "...to Him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear His voice." And he calleth his own sheep
by name, and he leadeth them out. The porter here represents
God the Father. He put his seal of approval upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, This is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. He set his seal
upon Him, and he opened to Him. He's the only one who can deliver
the sheep. He's the only one who can redeem
the sheep. He's the only one who can save the sheep. He's
the only one who can truly feed the sheep. He leadeth me beside
still waters. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. Who does this? The Lord. The
Lord is my shepherd. He's the one. And to Him, God
the Father opens the gate to the sheep because they're His.
They're His. They're given to Him. And the
sheep hear His voice. You know, over the years, I know
people who have sat and heard the same gospel that I have heard. And I've watched them go away
uninterested and never come back. And I came back. Why do I keep
coming back? Why do you keep coming back?
You know why you keep coming back? Because you hear the voice
of the Shepherd calling you. You look forward to coming here
on Thursday night. You look forward to coming here
on Sunday because you hear the voice of the Shepherd calling
you. You recognize His voice. Now
there are many voices out there, but there's only one voice that
the sheep hear. There's only one that the sheep
hear. When God saves them, there's only one voice that they hear,
and they don't want to hear anybody else's. You know, people think it's strange
that we don't visit other places or any of these other places
around. It's a different voice. It's
a different voice speaking in these other places. The voice that the sheep hear
is the gospel of Christ and Him crucified. That's the voice you
hear. The voice of redemption. The voice of the gospel of God's
glory. That's what you hear. And He
calleth His own sheep by name. How personal is that? Really,
think about it. He didn't just say, He didn't just make a noise and
those sheep fought. He calls them by name. He took
the time to name them. He took the care to give you
your name. God gave me my name before mom
and dad gave me my name. You know, they're sitting around
probably saying, what do you want to call him? Well, I don't
know, what do you think? And they're like, well, I think,
let's call him Jonathan. And we'll call him Daryl after
dad. You know, Jonathan Daryl. I like that name. Yeah, it sounds
good. Well, God called me that. God named me. He gave me my name. And the greatest
name that I've got is son of God. Now are ye the sons of God. He calls them by name. He knows
every one of them by name, long before they knew His name. Long before they knew His name,
He knew their name. Just think of that. The Lord
knew your name. It was a precious name to Him. It's a precious
name to Him. That's why precious in the sight
of the Lord is the death of His saints, because they're His. And that name is precious to
Him. That soul that name belongs to
is precious to Him. He died for it. He redeemed it. And He leads them out. He leadeth.
You know, that leadeth there has a meaning of continual. You
and I don't realize this as much as we should. But He leads us
every day, and we don't realize it. We don't detect it. Most
of the time, we're just going about doing this, doing that,
busy and driving here and there. But the Lord's leading His sheep.
The Shepherd's leading you every day, all day. He leadeth His sheep. He leadeth them out. In the case of this blind man,
He led him out of Judaism. Peter, all the apostles, He led
them out of Judaism. He leadeth them out. And whatever
situation we were in, whether it be religious or whatever mess
we were in, He leadeth us out. And you know, He's still leading
us out. He's still leading us out. He leads his sheep out that he
might lead them in. And he's gonna lead us all the
way to glory. We are a led people. We're not
driven people. You drive goats. You drive goats,
the shepherd leads the sheep. He leads us. And listen, when
He puts forth His own sheep, when He takes them out to pasture,
when He takes them out of that protection of the sheep cot,
when He takes them out of there, and He's going out there into
the wilderness, and going out there where the wolves are, and
He's going out there where all the trouble is, and you know,
you're not living in an evil world, don't we? We live in an
evil, evil world. It's a world of darkness. It's
a world, it's a satanic world we live in. I'm telling you the
truth. We live in a satanic world. It's a wonder, well, it's only
by the power of God that it all works together like it does,
in order for Him to bring His sheep home. And then when it's
over with, then it's over with. When He putteth forth His sheep,
He goes before them. There's no place you and I will
ever go that He's not already there. He's already there. You know, we may go take our
sickbed. He's already there. We may go
into a state of confusion. He's already there. You know,
as you get older, I can see this in my parents. and get so confused
so easy, but He doesn't. He's already there. Wherever
He leads us, wherever He puts us forth, He's already there. It's under control. And when
He calls His sheep out from where they are, He goes before them,
it says, not behind them, not afar off, but He's right there
in front of them. Salvation is not looking back
2,000 years ago. Salvation is looking to Jesus
Christ crucified now. He's before me. Paul said, I
pressed toward the mark, forgetting those things which are behind,
reaching forth unto those things which are before. He's before
us. People look back at a time, they
say, I can remember a time I was saved. I remember the one who saved
me. This do in remembrance of me. It's remembrance of a person,
not a time, not necessarily an event, although there was an
event. But it's looking to Jesus Christ
now. And when you get up in the morning,
it'll be a new day. It'll be a day that no one's
ever used. And it'll be looking to Christ in the morning. It'll
be looking to Christ all day long. He goes before them. He leads
them. He leads the way. He sets the
example. And we are to always be mindful
of our Shepherd, because He's always mindful of us. I believe
as David said, Thy thoughts to us cannot be reckoned up in order. And they know His voice. You
know, right now you hear my voice, but the sheep hear also another
voice. They hear His voice through my
voice. They hear His voice through His Word. They hear His voice through His
Word. They know the gospel of grace when they hear it. Don't
you? Does not your heart leap within
you? The two messages that Paul brought,
my heart just leaped within me. And it's because we know and
understand and hear the voice of the shepherd. Our shepherd's
speaking to us, and it rejoices the heart. If it doesn't rejoice
your heart, you got heart problems. You got real heart problems. They know His voice. His voice
is the sweetest voice they know. It's the sweetest voice you could
ever hear. Come unto me, all you that labor and heavy laden.
I'll give you rest. Isn't that sweet? Isn't that a kind voice? And stranger, listen, and a stranger
will they not follow. That's pretty emphatic, isn't
it? I remember, I don't know why,
I can see why when you get older you remember the things back
there. You can't remember what you did when you came in the
door, but you can remember things way back there in the past. And
when I heard Henry, I was trying to stay where I was at at first.
And I was, I thought, I mean, I was so excited that I had,
that I mean, I was excited. I heard the gospel, I understood
it. And then they tried to shut me down. I'm not gonna go into
it, but they tried to shut me down. They had a revival, so
to speak. Now we do these quotations. They
had a revival. And the guy stood in the pulpit
and he said, I understand we have a Calvinist in our midst.
I was sitting right there on the front row. Henry told me, I went back and
talked to Henry about that situation. Henry said, John, he said, you'll
have to leave there. Because it's extremely rare that
God saves a false gospel being preached down the road there.
He may have some sheep there, but that false gospel is never
going to change. It's going to go right on as a false gospel.
But he may pull a sheep out here and a sheep out there, just like
he did me and did you. And I had to leave there because
a stranger, I couldn't stomach it no more. I mean, I absolutely
couldn't. They couldn't stand me and I couldn't stand them.
So the feeling was mutual. But a stranger will they not
follow? But will flee..." Listen, that's a good word. They will
flee. They run from Him. They run from... What do we teach
our young kids? Don't follow strangers. Don't
follow strangers. We teach that to other kids when
they're very young. Don't follow strangers. Well, God's teaching
that to His children. Don't follow strangers. But He
says here, "...and strangers will they not follow?" You're
not going to come up here, or someone's not going to come here
and say, well, that was a great message, I believe that, and
then go down there to the next place and say, well, that was
a great message. You can't do it. You can't follow
a false gospel. You can't follow a false prophet.
Because He says, "...they will not follow, but will flee from
Him, for they know not the voice of a stranger." They say, that's
not the voice of my Father. That's not the voice of my Father.
That's a different voice. After the Spirit of God does
a work of grace in the soul, that person does not follow strangers
anymore. They follow the gospel. They
follow the God wherever it is. They find it because the Lord
leads them. He leads them to it. He leads
them out. He knows where the green pastures
are. If the gospel is not being preached
where a person is and they believe it, I mean they believe it, pack
your bags and leave. Pack it and move. Family and
all. Family and all. He that loves
mother, father, sister, brother more than me is not worthy of
me. The sheep do not want any other
gospel preached than Christ crucified, than the sovereign grace of God
to them in Jesus Christ and Christ alone. They don't want anything
preached but Christ crucified, Christ our righteousness, Christ
our all and in all. That's the message. We flee from
those who preach a strange gospel, another gospel. I don't even want to go. I don't
want to hear them. I don't want to hear them. You know, it's
like this. I heard it long enough, you know,
years ago. I heard enough of that. I understand
the gospel. I don't need to go hear this
person or that person if they're preaching a lie. I don't need
to hear a lie. I don't need to fill my head with that. I don't
need to deal with that. Give me Christ. Give me Christ. And this parable spake Jesus
unto them, in verse 6, But they understood not what things they
were, which he spake unto them." Could it be any more simple?
Could he have put it any more simple? These are the most educated
men in Israel, highly, highly educated, and they didn't understand
what he was saying, and yet you and I do. We ought to walk out here with
a snap in our step. We understand who God is, who
Jesus Christ is, and who we are in our need of Christ. He spake this to the Pharisees.
He spoke it to them in simple terms, and they just couldn't
get it. Then said Jesus unto them again. Now here's the door
of the sheep. This is the door of the sheep. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
I am the door of the sheep." Back in verse 1, Christ spoke
of the door as being the divinely appointed way for the shepherd
to enter the sheepfold. That was for Him. Now He's talking
to us, the sheep. He's talking to us. He's saying
here that, I am the door of the sheep. I am the door by which
they enter into the presence of God. By me, if any man enter
in. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. I am the door of the sheep to
righteousness, to forgiveness, to justification, To sanctification,
to wisdom, redemption, I'm the door of the sheep. I'm the way. He's the way from
here to the presence of the Father. We have access through Jesus
Christ into the Holy of Holies. We have access. He's the door, listen, He's the
true door into the church. Not the ordinances. You know,
being baptized doesn't put me in the church. Being in Christ
puts me in the church. He's the door into the church.
And all, he says here, all that ever came before me are thieves
and robbers. But the sheep didn't hear them.
The sheep didn't follow after them. He doesn't have some sheep
that got off track and are out there following false prophet. He said, no, the sheep didn't
hear them. He said these false prophets,
when they came along, the sheep turned away from them. And all
they are, he says, thieves and robbers, is hirelings. Hirelings,
hirelings, hirelings, hirelings. World's full of them. Sheep didn't
follow them though. It's not possible. Now listen,
it's not possible for any of God's elect to follow a false
prophet or a false gospel unto final damnation. That's not possible. Yes, every one of us followed
a false one. unless you were saved under the
gospel. But many of you, I think, were under Arminianism, just
like me. But we're not going to follow a false gospel, a false
prophet unto final damnation. He said that's not going to happen.
Thank God we had the Word of the Shepherd on that. And then
verse 9, we come to the door of salvation. And this door is
opened wide. It's opened wide. You know, our
Lord said, I am the light, I am the bread, I am the good shepherd,
which he says later on in this chapter. Here he says, I am the
door by me, by me, by my power, by my grace, by me. If any man enter in, he shall
be saved. Coming to Christ. Look to Christ. You shall be saved. That's a
promise. Isn't it amazing that I can stand here with the Word
of God and I can say, look to the Lord Jesus Christ and you
shall be saved forever. You shall be saved from your
sins. And people get up totally uninterested and walk right out.
Isn't that amazing? That's how dead we are by nature. I'm the door, by me if any man
enter in, he shall be saved, and he shall go in and out and
find pasture." He goes in and out, he's free. Whom the Son sets free, he's
free indeed. There is no free people on this
earth except the Lord's people. We are free from the law. We
are free from the power of Satan. We've gone through Romans. We
are free from that old sin nature. It doesn't reign over us no more
as a king. We're free. We are truly a free
people in the Lord. Our Lord is here now. He opens
the door wide open and He says, and you know He'd been mainly
speaking there to the Jews. Now He's speaking to the Gentiles,
if any man. Well, what about me? Well, if you're any man, any
man, that's any man or any woman, but any man, if he comes to me,
if he comes to me, if he looks to me for salvation, he shall
be saved. Lord, I come. Lord, I come. He shall be saved. If there's
anything that I want more, and I believe I can say this honestly,
I know the heart is deceitful, that is the old natural heart
is deceitful and desperately wicked and who can know it. But
the one thing that I pray, the one thing I want, I want to be
saved. I want to be saved from my sins.
I want to die in the faith. And I want to follow the Lord
Jesus Christ until that time comes. I want to do that. Any man or any woman who desires
life, who desires forgiveness, who desires salvation, come to
Christ. He said, you shall be saved.
And you shall go in and out. That's perfect freedom in Christ.
And you shall find pasture. Listen, and find pasture. You'll find something. You'll
find real spiritual nourishment. That's what you'll find. If you
really truly come to Christ, you'll find real spiritual nourishment.
I'm the bread of life. I'm the water of life. You and
I find in Him all that we need. Don't we? We find in Christ all
that we need. The believer will find in Jesus
Christ everything that he or she needs to stand before God
the Father, and everything that he or she needs to go through
this life. You know, the Lord provides us
our needs. He didn't provide our wants. That's, you know,
that's, that's, that's never ending. He provides our needs. Spiritual being the most important. And he said, but the thief now,
and I'm gonna close with this and I'll pick it up from here
the next time. But the thief, he comes for only
one reason. It's not fellowship. He don't
come for fellowship. He doesn't come because he likes
you. He comes not but for to steal and to kill. He comes to
steal your comfort. He comes to steal your faith.
He comes to steal away the glory of Christ and to kill you and
destroy. That's all he comes for, destroy.
Is there anything that makes you more angry than a thief?
You know, you go out and you work and you pay and you buy
something and you put it up and then you go somewhere and come
back and somebody broke it and stole it. That just makes you
so mad. But the thief, his only purpose
for existence is to steal, kill, and destroy. That's his only
purpose for existence. Christ said, I am come that they
might have life. I didn't come to destroy. I didn't
come to steal from you. I didn't come to steal or destroy. You know, one time the disciples
were so mad at some people, they said, Lord, would you have us
to call down fire from heaven and burn them people up? Aren't
you glad we can't do that? Aren't you? We'd burn so many
people up. We would. We'd burn up everybody. Cross
us today and you're going to get toast. We would. That's who we are. It amazes
me, the older I get, it amazes me of the patience of God. What
He puts up with. The long suffering of God. Christ
said, I have come that they might have life and that they might
have it more abundantly, that they might have it in its fullness. Not just after it's over with
here, but you have it now. that you have it now, that you
can have life more abundantly now, that you can get up in the
morning and not walk around in fear, not walk around in dread,
not walk around like, woe is me, but to walk around with abundance
of life. We're gonna live. We're not gonna
die. We're gonna bury some bodies
in here, but we're about to live. And we're going to enjoy the
real fullness of it when this is over. Well, that's what I woke up this
morning thinking about. All right.