When this forlornly shimmering
town Lies silent in the graves Then in a noble sweet leader's
song I'll sing my power to say That's good. Good hymn, good singing. That last line, I believe, is
on the tombstone of a famous preacher at Charles Spurgeon's
tomb. I think it may be. All right,
let's read for our scripture reading, John chapter 10, and then we'll ask the Lord to bless preaching
of his word, and then we'll get right into it. John 10, we'll
read 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. 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 the 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 they 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, and by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved,
and shall go in and out, and find pasture." Let's ask the
Lord to bless His Word. Our Lord and our God, we come
to you again. The only way that you have instructed sinners to come through
Jesus Christ, by faith in Him, through His blood, through His
intercession. We call upon you, O our God,
for all things through Christ. our Mediator, our Substitute,
our Redeemer, our Lamb, our Sacrifice, the Lamb of God. We come through
Him asking that you would send your
Holy Spirit to open these things to our understanding. We are
like these people who He did not understand what the Lord
said until he revealed himself to them. So open our understanding
that we might see Christ in all of this. Reveal him in us, not
just to us, but in us by faith. Create faith where there is none.
Strengthen faith which you have already given. will give us of
our sins, O Lord. And we ask your blessings upon
this time together, both for us and all those who gather in
that great name. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. The Lord did not write the word
of God to try to impress the high and mighty, lofty and learned. But he wrote these things. These things are written to the
meek and lowly, that the common people would
hear him and hear him gladly. That's how our Lord preached.
He preached very simply, or that is, in simple stories using one-
and two-syllable words. He preached in parables or stories,
one- and two-syllable words. And amazingly, the wise and the
prudent didn't understand it. They did not understand, but
babes and nobodies did. And he used figures, he used
symbols, he used common, ordinary things as pictures of himself. In describing himself, he would
use common, ordinary things. He would not take rare and unusual
or uncommon things like some exotic flower or something like
that. No, he'd use plain things like
bread. Everybody uses bread. He'd talk
about water. I'm the bread of life. I'm the
water of life. And here he says I'm the door.
A door. What is more common than a door? Well, yet, like bread, like water,
what is more essential and necessary? than a door common. Now, I believe
the Lord uses things like this bread, water, door, light. I believe the Lord uses these
things that we might always think on him when we use these things. You hear that? I believe the
Lord uses these things so that we might think on him when we
use these things. You see, a door Is there something
we use? Always. I bet you took it for
granted, didn't you? You came in a door, didn't you? You will go out a door. When
you get in your car, you'll open a door. When you get out of your
car, you'll open a door. When you go home to go in your
house, you'll go in a door. When you go into your bathroom,
You go in a door. When you come out of your bedroom,
when you go into your bedroom, when you get up in the morning,
you go through a door. When you go to work, you go in a door.
You're a door, door everywhere. Doors confront us everywhere.
That we should see that Christ is all and in all. In all things,
he has the preeminence. Even doors. The simplest of things
that we should think on him. I believe that's one reason he
uses these things. And we should every time we.
I can really say this, I never fail to think about Christ the
bread when I sit down and take a loaf of bread. And the water. But like so many things. All
right, if you're taking notes, I have four points to this message.
Four points. We're going to look at Christ
the door. Number one, Christ entered the door. Number two,
Christ is the door. Number three, who may go through
the door. Number four, and what they'll
find when they enter the door. All right, number one, Christ
entered the door. Look at verses one and two. Did
this confuse you? I must confess it did me when
I first read it. Verses one and two Christ said
verily verily I say unto you he that entereth not by the door
into the sheepfold but climeth up some other way. The same is
a thief and a robber but he that entereth in by the door is the
shepherd of the sheep. Now he's not talking about a
preacher. Now you could you could say that
a man is an under shepherd who preaches Christ. The man who
Only the man who preaches Christ is the true under shepherd of
God. Only the man who himself comes by faith in Christ and
preaches Christ is the under shepherd. But he said this is
the shepherd. This is not a preacher. This
is Christ himself. He is the shepherd. What does
it mean that he went in the door? I thought he said he was a door.
Well, he is and he did. He went in the door. Listen,
see if I can make good on that. God is spirit. This is what Christ
said. God is spirit. We're flesh. Flesh and blood cannot go to
God. Right? There's a vast gulf fixed
between us. There's a barrier. Flesh is the
barrier. Right? We can't see God. We can't
get to God. There's a barrier. There's something
that bars the way. God is spirit. We are flesh. But God can become flesh. Do you see? So Christ entered
this door of humanity. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body. In a body. came into this realm
of humanity or this realm of flesh. Do you follow me? We can't
enter into the spirit where we're flesh. But the spirit was made
flesh. He entered into a body, didn't
he? He entered into a body. This
was the door. He entered in the door. A body
has self-prepared me. And he went into it. He assumed
a body. He entered in this door. Also,
Christ entered the door of God's holy law. He said here, if any
man professes to be a Christ or Messiah, false Christ. Look
at verse 8 down there. All that ever came before me
are thieves and robbers. That's what he said in verse
1. man who comes any other way than by the door is a thief and
a robber. There have been many professed
Messiahs. There have been many professed
Redeemers, Mohammed, many of them, Buddha. But they didn't
come the prescribed way of God Almighty. That is the law, the
perfect holy law of God. It had to be kept perfectly. And Christ Christ entered that
way. He confronted the law face to
face. He agreed to go through, to go
through all of the law's demands, and he kept that law perfectly. No man had ever done that before,
nor will any man ever do that sin. And Christ said in the last
days there will be false Christs. Well, if that man can, well,
no, I won't believe him either. Started to say, if he can keep
the law perfectly, I'd believe him. But no, I wouldn't. Christ
has already come. But it's impossible. It's impossible. Christ entered that door. Now,
also, Christ entered the door or the veil. He entered the veil
of the Holy of Holies for us as our great high priest. He
entered in, the Scripture says, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. So does that maybe clear up what
it meant by Christ going through the door himself. He that went
in the door, he that entered the door, the door of humanity,
the door of the law, the door of the veil of the temple, is
the shepherd of the sheep. He came this way. He came this
way of body. All right? Flesh and blood. All
right? Christ is the door. Look at verse 7 and verse 9. Christ says this, He said, Barely,
barely, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. Verse nine, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. I am
the door. Christ is the door. Now, under
this, I have two points. Two points. Let's look at what
doors are used for. And number two, what kind of
door Christ is. All right, you builder and builder
knows that there are many types of doors, aren't there? Pre-hung doors, flush doors,
six-panel doors, on and on the list goes, don't they? Well,
we're going to look at what kind of door Christ is and uses of
a door. Number one, what are the uses
of a door? What do you use a door for? Principally, primarily. What is the door useful. What's
the principle use of a door. What do you need a door for.
To go in. Right. That's the principle use
of a door access to a building. Right. Access. To enter in. To something. Well Christ talked
about the sheepfold didn't it. And we we saw that how that that's
the kingdom of God. Now that's heaven itself. Now
that's Christ himself. He is the kingdom of God. And
of God are we in Christ. We go through Christ, but when
we go through Christ, we are in Christ. This is a mystery,
but it's so, isn't it? He's the sheepfold. He's the
door. He's the kingdom. He's the way to go into the kingdom.
He is access to the Father. By Him we have access to the
Father. A door, like I said, is principally
used to enter a building. Without a door, nobody can get
into a place, can they? Very simple. If there were no
door on this building, you couldn't get in, provided the windows
were high enough and all that. But we'll not talk about all
that. But if there were no door, you
couldn't get in this building, could you? Huh? And especially
if there's only one door, there's only one way you get into the
building. Christ said, I am the door. He said, no man cometh
unto the Father but by me. There's only one way to get to
God. There's only one way to get to
this holy God. It's not by us doing anything.
It's by Christ doing it all. And faith in Christ, all faith
in Christ says is Christ must do it all or I'm not going to
enter. Right. That's all faith said. Faith simply says Christ is my
only hope of salvation. Christ is my only way to get
to God. God's holy. I'm a sinner. I can't
come to God, but Christ can take me. That's what faith said. Only one way to get to God by
Christ. And you don't climb to great
heights. He said there, if any man climbeth
up some other way, men try to scale Mount Sinai, don't they? They try to climb up to great
heights of piety and so forth you can't do it. You can't do
it. Not by trying to go through a
loophole or a window. In the law you can't do it. You've
got to go through the door. You've got to come back right.
No man cometh under the father but by me. A door is used primarily for
entrance or access, and number two, a door is used for egress. What's that, Rick? He took a
contractor's test, and he knows what that is. Egress. I didn't
know until we were building this building here. And the building
inspector came over and said, you've got to have an egress.
I said, what? You've got to have an egress.
A way out. It's what he's trying to say.
Access egrates. You've got to have a way out.
A door is also used to get out of a place, isn't it? Christ
is the way out of bondage, sorrow, and night. Christ is the door
of the prison house, which we've been shut up in. And he says
to all guilty, only the guilty. He says the door is wide open.
Come on out. You're going free. Scott's free. Christ is the door of the prison
house, wide open for the guilty. Thirdly, a door is used for access,
egress, and security. Protection. Right? A door shuts
you in. You've got to have a door or
anything and everything will get at you. Right? anything or everything you get
to you, you know, often in. This is a wonderful problem over
in eastern countries. Now, our Lord is talking about
sheep and sheepfolds over in eastern countries. They would
have I told you about the sheepfold, be a either a stone enclosure
or maybe even a wooden fence or a temporary picket fence area
where the shepherd would herd in his sheep for Rest and safety
from the storm or whatever and often times they did not have
a door to that. She told but the shepherd himself
would be the door. He would lie down in the opening. So therefore, if anything was
going to get to the sheep, they had to get by him. Christ said, no man is going
to pluck them out of my father's hand. They won't get to them. Nothing will get to them. Nothing
will pass by him. And nothing will get out. We can't sleepwalk out of the
place. will not go out, either, if he's the door. Christ is the
door, and nothing will harm us. Nothing will harm us, and no
one will leave if he's the door. All right? What kind of door
is Christ? Those are uses of the door. What kind of door is
Christ? Look at the text again. Look
at verse 7. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
I am a door. What kind of door is it? The
door, the only door. And no matter what anybody says,
I'm telling you, no matter what anybody says, I don't care if
he's somebody. I don't care if he's the most
well-known, highly respected evangelist in America and the
world today. Paul said it, though an angel
from heaven would say it. that there's some other way.
And though a devil dressed like an angel named Graham said it,
that he respects other ways to God. There ain't no other way.
Christ said, I'm the way. The way. One way. What kind of
door is it? His own door. That's simple,
isn't it? A door is a simple thing, and
one door, everybody in here can understand that, don't they?
If this building had one door, how are you going to get in?
That door. That's it. You're not going to
get in except by that one door. Right? A child can understand
that. The wise and prudent refuse it.
Boy, babes, they like it that way. They love it that way. There's
only one way to God, and that's through Christ in him. What kind
of door is it? Well I'll not have you turn but
over in Matthew seven he said straight is the gate and narrow
is the way. The gate being a door. Now you come to God straight
and narrow that's how Christ is. That's the door Christ is.
I saw some fool's bumper sticker Henry and he said I'm straight,
but I'm not narrow. Now, you may think that's cute
and clever. Well, we better get this straight, that the way is narrow, and we
better be just as narrow as the way. We better be just as narrow
as Christ is in saying that there's one way. We come to God, now straight
and narrow, we come to God by faith in Christ when we come
meek and lowly. Somebody said the door is low.
So you're going to have to get down to go in. You can't walk in all high and
mighty and puffed and lifted up with your head hanging high.
You're going to have to get down on your knees. Yeah, you're going
to have to bow down and cross through this door. Also, it's narrow. You can't
get in with your clothes on. You're going to have to strip
naked to get in this door. Everybody that's going to get
in the glory is going to have to strip naked to get in there. And I'm not talking about these
clothes. I'm talking about our righteousness. Do you understand
that? That word, how often is that
word used here? Huh? Our righteousnesses. Isaiah said in Isaiah 64, 6,
all our righteousnesses, that's our religion, that's our works,
that's our best deeds. He said they're filthy rags,
like blind Barnabas sitting over on the wayside, had that old
blanket. If he clutched his security blanket, if you will, and when
Christ called him, he cast that garment away from him. Don't
need that. Better not bring it. To go through
this door of faith to Christ, you better cast away all your
works, all your filthy rags, all your religion, all your baptisms,
all your confessions, all your decisions, all of these things.
You can't go through this door with a big basket of works. It won't fit. Nor anything on
you to recommend. Look what I've done. I got my
Sunday school pins. Look at this. Look at me. Don't
I look stripped, naked, and come through. Naked center. Poor, miserable, naked, and blind. But I tell you what though, once
you get through, you get a brand new robe. You don't go, you don't
come out the other side naked. You get clothed. with a pristine white robe of
Christ's righteousness, without sin, without spot, without blemish,
straight and narrow. What kind of door is Christ? Well, he's a blood-covered door,
that's what he is. What was on the door of all the
children of Israel in Egypt? What was on the doorpost, the
lintel and the doorpost? Blood. And Christ is a bloody door.
We come through this bloody door. We come by his blood as the payment
for our sins. Only through the blood. Only
through the blood. He's a living door. He's a living
door. Do you remember when they first
came out with electronic doors? Do you remember that? They still,
every now and then, Shock me, Henry, don't they?
They ought to you. You're really old. You remember
when, you know, people barely had doors, hanging on shoes,
so leather shoes. But you come up to a door every
now and then, you step, it flies open. Do you remember when they
first came out? Flies open. And you walk through
and it shuts. And what if some old fella, back
from the old ages, came today and he walked up, and one of
those things did that? Well, he'd think, it's alive.
It opens of its own accord. And it shuts of its own accord.
Well, that's Christ. We don't open this door. We don't open the way to God.
We don't make a way to God. Christ is the way, and he opens
the way himself. There's no knob on this door
that we turn. Oh, no. I don't care what these
silly saints say, that Christ is knocking at the door and the
knob's on the inside. There's none on the outside.
He can't get in. Fully on that, we'll see in a little while just
whether or not he can get in or not. What the Lord opens,
no man can shut. With the Lord shuts, no man can
open. He's the living door. He must open the way for us. He must make himself the way
for us. And I don't have time, but if
you want to jump this down, over in Exodus 26, verse 36, the door of the tabernacle was
not a wooden door. It was not a brass door. It was a linen door. Now, many of us saw what linen
is. Anybody know what linen is? It's
flax. It's a common old ordinary plant
that's been cut down and dried out and beaten to a pulp. It's flax that's taken and absolutely
thrashed on a spike, a cone, a spike cone. Have you seen that? a thrashing, combing, thrashing,
combing, thrashing, combing, till it comes out that soft,
beautiful flack, and it's woven into a fine garment, linen garment,
or cloth, or whatever. And it says that cloth that hangeth
is a hanging door, not a hinged door, but a hanging door. It
hangs from heaven itself. Christ was hung. He said, If
I be lifted up, I'll draw all men through it. to me through
the door Christ was hung and he is blue purple and scarlet
of linen and fine embroidered needlework. Study that for yourself
beautiful picture of Christ the door. All right this third point
here Christ entered the door Christ is the door thirdly who
may enter the door or who may come to Christ look at verse
nine again. Christ said, By I am the door, by me if any man entereth,
he shall be saved. And he only uses the word man
to mean mankind. He's not saying only a man, not
a woman. Oh no, in Christ there's no male
or female, old or young. By me, if any man enter." He
says here, any. Character is not an issue. He
doesn't say if any good man will enter. On the contrary, that's the only
thing that'll exclude you. That's the only thing that'll
keep you from coming through this door. You can't come in.
You're too good. Not many churches like that are
there. People come and somebody bar them, stop on the door and
say, you can't come in, you're too good. We're looking for sinners
here. And the harlots and publicans
come and say, yep, you're the ones, come on in. But it's so. But character's not the issue,
though. It's not a good man. In fact, The vilest greatest
sinner who ever lived may enter into this door. He did. She did. There was a thief and
a murderer hanging on a cross. I'm talking about a thief and
a murderer. A man who broke into somebody's
house, killed them, and stole everything they had. and a murderer
hanging on a cross in his dying hour. Now he had never done one
good work all his life, never had he said one good word to
anybody all his life. He was a rotten, wretched, vile
fellow. And in his dying hour, with his
dying breath, by the grace and mercy of God, he looked and said,
Lord, remember me. When you come in your kingdom,
what Christ say? You're going in today. That's
not fair. He hasn't done anything. That's
right. You don't do anything to go in
the door. Christ did it all. The only thing we do is do the
sinning. We do all the sinning and he does all the sinning.
He said today you'll be with me in paradise. Think about this.
I just rejoiced in thinking about this. When Christ hung on that
cross, now he'd been away from glory, from heaven for thirty-three
years. He'd been away for thirty-three
years. And he hung on that cross and
he died. And then he entered into heaven after thirty-three
years. bringing a friend with him. Who was it? Well, it was a notable
dignitary. It was some high feller. Who
is it? Why, it's a thief and a murderer. That's just like him in the jug.
That's just like him. He's not sharing the glory of
that feller. Oh, he's not going to say, look what he did. He
didn't do anything. This is the vilest fellow who
ever lived. So the first one to go and walk
in the glory with Christ is the vilest fellow who ever lived.
He's not sharing his glory with this fellow. This fellow is his
glory. That is his glory. He's bringing
him in. Now, he changed him the minute
he walked through that door. Christ brought him into glory.
He was changed in a moment, a twinkling of an eye, and nobody recognized
him. They didn't recognize him. He looked like Christ. Oh, what a change, though. You
think about that. Isn't that wonderful? The first
person he brought in, he brought him in personally, was that old
thief. That's just like him, isn't it? Who may enter into the door?
Character is not an issue. What about difficulty? Is it
difficult to enter into this door, to come to Christ by faith? Is it hard? Well, you'd think
it is for some people. A lot of people that stand by
and they seem to admire the door. They say, I believe that's the
door. Yes, that's the door. I'm not going to get in. in unless
I go through the door and I believe that but yet they don't go in. Why? Well say they say I don't
know how to come to Christ. Fooey on that. That's a bunch of fooey. Joseph
come here. Walk through that door. OK? Now come back in. All right,
go on out. Go on out. Come on back in. Go on out. Come back in. Is that hard? Was that hard? Go sit down. Thank you. A child can go through a door. They say, I don't know how to
come to Christ. Fully on that, Christ said, you will not come
to me. It's a problem. Don't want to give up this. Don't
want to give up that. I'm not ready to go through the
door. That's the problem. Don't tell me you don't know
how to come to Christ. You don't want to come to Christ. And when you get good and ready
and need Christ bad enough, you go through the door. Right? It ain't hard to go through
the door. It ain't hard to come to Christ.
You just say, here I am. All right, what will we find
when we go through this door? Look at what we find in verse
9. He says, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved. We're going to see, someday,
we're going to see what we've been saved from. The children of Israel, I love
the picture of the children of Israel when they crossed the
Red Sea and the Red Sea had closed up on their pursuers, on the
Egyptians, Pharaoh's army, and they were on the other side of
Jordan, safe from their pursuers. But yet, you know, they saw those
dead bodies float up on the shore. They saw all their pursuers the
horses and the chariots and the dead bodies of these these men
but they were dead. You know before they were scared
to death. But now they're dead and they
couldn't get to them and they saw. We're safe. And someday we're going to see
that we're not going to have any remembrance of things that
are past but. This month, we're going to see
how that we've been saved from our sin. We're going to see hell. We're going to see the damned.
We're going to see them cast in and say, Amen. Not going to
see the terrors of it or have any mourning or anything like
that, but some way, in some way, we're going to see the consequences
of sin. And we're going to see, I should
have been there, but I'm not. I've been saved. Glory to God. Thank you, God, for saving me,
for putting me through the door. Thank you. He says here, you
go in and out. Look at that. You be saved, you
go in and out and find pasture. In and out and find pasture. Now, in Eastern country, and
I'm going to wind this up. Over in eastern country, you
may have seen pictures of some of these old places, but they
don't have, per se, doors like we have, wooden doors and all. They have a gate, which is the
main entrance into an entire compound or estate. Vast landowners,
anyway, would have walled compounds. And for protection, because the
climate is very arid, very hot. They don't have doors and windows.
Why? They don't have central air. They don't want the door
shut at night, nor the windows shut at night, do they? They
don't have air conditioning, and they don't have Hunter fans.
Right? If you're rich enough, you'd
have some woman fanning you, or your wife a concubine. Ours
wouldn't go for that, would they? But they didn't have doors and
windows. They didn't have doors. They
needed to have them open. It's hot. It's humid. They had to
get a breeze going through there. Well, their only door, as it
were, or gate, was the main entrance into that entire estate, a compact. And it was an outside thing on
the wall itself. Usually, what direction do you
reckon it usually faced? East. Eastern gate. Well, the gate was the only entrance
which allowed entrance or barred entrance. It was one gate. It
was one gate. So that you could go, once you
went in the gate, once you came through the gate, you could go
either in the house or you could go out in the garden. Once you
was in the gate, you could go anywhere you want. You, out. Go in the house, and enjoy everything
in the house, all the treasures and all the sights and the wonders
and the comforts of the home, lie down on the bed or whatever,
it's yours. Once you're in the gate, you're wanted, you're welcome.
Go on in the house, our house is yours. Doors wide open, go
on in the gate. Go on in the house, you can go
in the house, or you can go out in the garden, and you can lounge
around the garden, and you can walk up and smell the roses,
the roses of Sharon, or you can look at the Or you could lie by a stream.
If he's rich enough, he'll have a river running through him,
a river of water. Or the best thing of all would
be to go out in his nice green pasture and lie down and look
up at the stars, like old David must have done so many times. is the door into the kingdom
of God's glory. And he says, if any man enter,
he'll be saved and he'll go in and out and find pasture. Into the door of the church house
and see all the treasures, the unsearchable riches that are
prized. Into the prayer house, into the Holy of Holies itself,
with communion with God. Go out into the garden and enjoy
the sights and sounds that are Christ in the garden. The green
pastures of his Word open up by faith in Christ. Ah, boy, and I want to show you
something in closing, all right? John chapter 20. Everybody has
a Bible term. If you want a blessing term. John chapter 20. Yea, Christ
is the door. Christ is the door. I said, he's
a certain kind of door. What kind of door is he? He's
the sovereign door. He's the sovereign door, as I
quoted. What God opens, no man can shut. What God shuts, no man can open.
He's the sovereign door. Look at this in John 20. Then the same day at evening,
being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where
the disciples were assembled for fear, Christ came in, stood
in the midst. He'd come through the door. Well,
they didn't open the door for him. He doesn't need a door. He is the door. Isn't that significant? Look at verse, he says it once,
yet twice, verse 26. After eight days again his disciples
were there, Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the door being
shut. They didn't open the door, they
didn't let him in. He didn't knock either. Why?
He's the door. He is the door. And let me say this. The door of God's mercy is wide
open today. Maybe not tomorrow. And Christ
tells the simple parable of when once the master of the house
has risen and shut the door. There's no going in. door wide open. If you need Christ,
you better come to Him today. Christ is the door. All right.
Let's stand, and I'll dismiss this in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, thank You
for making Christ the way, truth and the light, the door. Thank
You, O Lord, that there is the door. that we may enter into
heaven itself, come to God by Christ. Thank you. Lord, now, by your sovereign
mercy and grace, cause us to enter into that door by faith.
Cause someone who's not yet come to Christ to come today before
it's everlastingly too late. We pray for Christ's honor and
glory. Amen. Okay. you