I want to read that chapter this
afternoon. I'm going to be focusing in on
one verse, which is verse 6. Well, let's go back to John chapter
10. You know, any time we look at
a portion in the Bible, there's several things we need to keep
in mind. And one of the first things is
who the speaker is. Who is the preacher in this portion
of Scripture in John chapter 10? The speaker, the preacher,
is our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, all of the Bible is the
Word of God, and so we need to take heed to the entirety of
this book. It is all the very truth of God. But let us especially take notice
when it's our Lord Jesus himself, the God-man, that eternal God
who came into this world to seek and save the lost, to lay down
his life that the sheep may live forever. We need to pay special,
special attention when the words come forth from the lips of that
glorious God-man the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the preacher. He's
the preacher. He's my favorite preacher. Because I know that everything
He had to say is absolutely the truth. Earthly preachers, and
I'm one of them, we can make mistakes. And sometimes we can
say something that we wish we could reel our words back in
because maybe we didn't say them quite as clearly as we ought
to have. Not the case with our Savior. Of Him it was said, never a man
spake as this man. One of His many names is, He
is the Word of God. When He speaks, that's God speaking. So here in John chapter 10, it's
our Lord Jesus who is speaking. He's the preacher. Well, then
another thing we need to keep in mind, who are the hearers? Who's in His congregation? Who's
in his audience? Now we're thankful for chapter
divisions and verse divisions in the Bible. But really it's
rather unfortunate here that there's a division between John
9 and John chapter 10. Because the speaker is still
the Lord Jesus, and it's only in the end of chapter 9 that
we learn the hearers to whom he was speaking. He was speaking
to the Pharisees. Now, the Pharisees were the most
religious, self-righteous group of people on the top side of
God's earth. These were people who believed
that they kept the law of God and therefore God accepted them.
So therefore they believed in salvation by works. Now we know
that's contrary to the Word of God because Romans chapter 3
says, "...by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified
in God's sight." God will not accept you, me, or anybody else
upon the basis of the things that we do. He won't accept you
on the basis of reading his Bible. That's a good thing to do, but
it's not the basis for acceptance with God. God's not going to
accept me, you, or anybody else upon the basis of, well, we bow
our heads and pray. Praying's a good thing, but that's
not the basis of acceptance with God. God only accepts and receives
sinners like you and me upon the basis of and the foundation
of the Lord Jesus Christ and His substitutionary atonement
at the cross. Make sure you understand, He
doesn't declare anybody righteous because of the things that we
do or say or think. We are fully declared to be righteous
in the eyes and sight of God solely upon the basis of the
person and the work, the doing and the dying and the rising
again of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the Pharisees didn't believe
that. They thought that if they were
good, obeyed the law of Moses, the Ten Commandments, lived by
the Ten Commandments, then God would receive them. Make sure
you understand, salvation is not in the Ten Commandments.
I love the law of God, but the law of God was given to show
us our guilt. No other reason. to show us our
guilt. People say, well, I wish our
country could live by the Ten Commandments. I wish that I could
live by the Ten Commandments. I wish my neighbor would live
by the Ten Commandments. The Word of God says that the
law of God was given for this reason, to shut our mouths and
pronounce us guilty before God. Because we can't keep the law
of God. There's only one man who ever
kept the law of God perfectly, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
But these Pharisees, they didn't consider themselves to be sinners. They were, in their own mind's
eye, the very cream of the crop of this world. Nobody as good
as they were. Nobody as faithful. Nobody is
righteous. Nobody pleasing to God but them. They didn't realize they were
sinners, and that's the problem. And you see, He is still speaking
to them here in John chapter 10. People who were self-righteous
People who tried to live by the law of God, they tithed of everything
they possessed, they fasted twice every week, they prayed multiple
times every day, thinking that upon that basis a holy God would
accept them. And what they failed to see was
that God only accepts anybody upon the basis, the foundation
of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and His atoning work upon the
cross of Calvary. When we speak of being accepted
by God, we've got to see that we're accepted upon the foundation,
the basis of the bloody sacrifice of the Son of God. He died that
God might be just and justify everybody who believes in Him.
And the Pharisees didn't believe in Him. They hated Him. In John chapter 9, our Lord heals
a man who had been blind since birth. And here's the way he
did it. He spit on the ground and then
bent down and took some right there where he spit and made
mud and rubbed it on his eyes. Said, now you go and wash in
such and such a pool. And he did and he came forth
seeing. He'd been blind since birth. And people said, isn't
that so-and-so who's been blind? You know, he was blind as a kid.
We was in school together. He was blind. I've seen him. I grew up with him. He was blind. He's blind from birth. He's a
blind baby. But now he sees. Well, how come
this man sees? And they asked him, he said,
well, a man spit on the ground, made a little mud, rubbed my
eyes, told me to go wash in the pool. And I did, and I came forth
to see him. They said, well, who did that?
He said, well, and where is he? Well, he said, I don't know where
he is, but his name's Jesus. And word got back to these Pharisees
who the man said had healed him. And they tried to get him to
change his message. But he wasn't going to change
his message. He said, that's the one who healed me. And they said, if you don't take
back what you said, we're going to kick you out of our church. It was called excommunication.
He said, well, I can't take it back because that's what happened.
You asked me what happened? I told you what happened. I can't
fabricate a story. I can't make up anything. They
said, you're out of here. You're dead to us. Your family's
dead to us. And our Lord, He had some very
stern words at the end of chapter 9. He said, you know, you Pharisees,
if you is in bad shape, you'd seek some help, but you think
you're all right. No help's going to be given to
you. And he just then continues speaking to them in John chapter
10. And one of the amazing things
about this whole thing is they wouldn't listen to him before,
and in John chapter 10, guess what? They didn't change their
tune. They didn't say, well, we'll
start listening to you now. They didn't want to listen to
him then. He who had words of mercy for sinners, he who had
words of grace for the fallen, He who said, I freely forgive
people of all their sins, various ones that came to him. He never
said anything about forgiveness for these Pharisees. Because
in their minds and hearts, they didn't need forgiveness. We're
not sinners. In fact, they said that on one
occasion. We'd be not sinners. The implication was, but you
are. Because you were born out of
wedlock. Yeah, but he was born of a virgin. So this makes up the body of
hearers. Religious people. Think of the
most religious people in the world you can think of right
now. Whoever that be. That's like the Pharisees. They're
right there. They're the cream of the crop.
The only thing is they were spoiled. It was spoiled cream. They thought
they were it. Finest people on topside of God's
green earth. Our Lord never had a word of
mercy for them. They fussed about Him. They fussed
about His disciples. And you know what our Lord Jesus
Christ said to His disciples? Leave them alone. Don't preach
to them. Don't talk to them. Don't witness
to them. They're a bunch of goody-two-shoes
people. They think that they're the ideal
religious people on this earth. Our Lord said, leave them alone.
Leave them alone. They were filled with ritualism
and ceremonialism. That's his congregation. That'd
be a tough crowd to preach to, I'll tell you. You folks are
easy to preach to. I will tell you this, there have
been a few occasions where I've preached to some Pharisees. They're
not very receptive, I'll tell you. I was preaching one time
and a guy is sitting right over here, rode around about where
you're sitting. And he said, he just stood up,
he said, I don't have to sit here and listen to this. Up the
aisle and out the door he went. I don't have to sit here and
listen to this. No, you don't. No, you don't. And he came back
in. And Nancy thought he was coming
back in with a gun. I'm glad he didn't. But I wasn't
going to change my message for him. You know, our Lord even asked
these folks one time. He said, does this offend you?
Does what I say offend you? And I would ask you, does this
offend you that you're sinners? We're all sinners. Hey, come
on down. We're all fallen creatures. The
Bible says there's none good, no, not even one. Not even one. We've all gone
astray, everyone to his own way. We will go any way in religion
except the way of grace and the way of Christ only. We'll go
the way of ritualism, burn candles, sit in front of somebody wearing
a funny-looking robe and a hat, Let somebody sprinkle some water
on us? Well, people will do anything
except come to Jesus Christ as a lost sinner who needs the grace
of God. That's these people. How'd you
like to have that for a Sunday school class? I don't believe
I'd want that. But our Lord Jesus waded right
into the enemy's territory, and he spoke the truth. So the
speaker is our Savior. The hearers are the Pharisees,
the self-righteous bunch. Well, what does he speak about?
What does our Lord preach about? Well, he preached about his own
person, There are several times down through here where he uses
this expression, I am. I am. And that comes right out of the
Old Testament when Moses was commissioned by the Lord to lead
Israel out of Egyptian bondage. And he says, well, when the people
asked me, hey, who sent you to lead us and preach to us? The
Lord said, tell them this, I am that I am, has sent me. The eternal God, that's who Christ
is saying he was. Remember here, as I read a little
while ago here in chapter 10, he said, I am the door. He said,
I am the good shepherd. In the next chapter, he will
tell Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. I am, I am, I am. Who is Jesus of Nazareth? He's
God in the flesh, that's who he is. He's nothing less than God. And
at the same time, he's fully a man born of a virgin, clothed
as dead. with human flesh like we've got,
capable of getting hungry, weary, thirsty, a real man, capable
of suffering, capable of dying, dying on a
cross. Why was that necessary? because
the wages of sin is death. Somebody's gonna die for sins
now. Either the substitute or the
sinner. But there's gonna be death for
your sin. Mark that down. And we're all sinners. He speaks about his person. He
said, I am, I'm God. They hated that. That's one of the reasons they
nailed him to a cross. Said, you're just a man. You're
just a man. And you make out like you're
God. Bless his name, he is God. Because only God can forgive
sins. Only the God-man could answer
all the demands of Jehovah himself. He is the eternal God. He did
not divorce His deity from Himself when He came into this world.
He's still God. When He died on the cross, He
was still God. So I don't understand how God
hanging on a cross could die. You don't have to understand
it. Believe it by the grace of God. That man died on the middle cross,
bloodied, bruised, battered, bloody spittle running down his
face. His back had been beaten so it
looked like furrows in a field that had been plowed. That bloody
man on the middle cross, he is God Almighty. There he is. And one of the thieves having
been quickened by the Spirit of God, said to his buddy, he
said, why do you revile him? You and me, we get what we deserve. You know the life we've lived. We get injustice, but this man
hath done nothing amiss. And he said, Lord, remember me. He saw that the man on the middle
cross is the Lord of glory. You see that? Remember me when you come into
your kingdom. I believe you're the king. You're
going to have a kingdom. And I only ask one thing of you. Remember me. And in my heart, I say, Lord,
remember me. If you just remember me, I'm just a poor sinner trying
to tell people who you are. But I know this is not the basis
for my acceptance. You are! You're the Lord of glory. You
died that God might be a just God, a holy God, and could show
mercy to sinners without the least bit of compromise to his
justice. Remember this old sinner, Lord.
A lot of times I don't remember you, and I'm ashamed of that. A lot of times my mind's not
on you. But if you'd just remember me, that'd be good enough for me.
That's what the thief said, Lord, remember me. You see, the Savior here speaks
about his person. I'm the door, by me if any man
enter in, he shall be saved and go in and out and find pasture.
I am the door, the door to what? The door to heaven? The door
to salvation? The door to righteousness? The
door to forgiveness? He said, I'm the door. The church
is not the door. The pope is not the door. The
priest is not the door. The preacher is not the door.
Christ is a door. He's a door. And I'll tell you
what, there's no other way of entrance either. And anybody that says you can
come to God, you can come to heaven, you can come to salvation
some other way, they're a liar. There is an exclusive way. That's why the Savior used this
expression again in John chapter 14. He said, I am the way. One way. I am the truth, one truth. I am the life, one life. And he said this, no man cometh
unto the Father but by me. Baptism is not the way. Baptism
is important. It's confession of faith that
you believe Christ. That's not the way. Taking communion,
that's not the way. Walking the aisle, which only
way I want you to walk the aisle is if you're parked out here
and it's easier for you to go downhill than it is uphill. That's
the only way I want anybody to walk the aisle. That's not the
way. I hate that altar call. Because
I've talked to more people through the years who say, well, I remember
when I walked the aisle in that little white wooden church building. I know I'm saved. I walked the
aisle. Walking the aisle, let me tell
you something. It not only won't do you good,
it'll probably do you harm, because it'll give you a false hope.
Let me tell you something. You want to do business with
God? He's right there where you're seated more than He is down here
at this table. This is not an altar. Christ
is our altar. You come to Him. Come to Him. He talked about His person. And He talked about His work.
Look what He says here in chapter 10. Look at verse 11. He says, I am the good shepherd. There's that I am again. The
good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. That's his work. That's his work. He says in verse 15, As the Father
knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I laid down my life
for the sheep. He says in verse 18, No man taketh
it, that is my life, no man taketh my life from me. You think those fellows who nailed
him to a cross, you think they took his life? He gave them the energy, the
power, to take the hammer and nail the nails in. They couldn't
have done it. All He had to do was will that
they stop. And that stopped. But He wasn't going to put a
stop to it. Because they were appointed to nail Him to the
cross And there he was hoisted up to die between heaven and
earth. And when men had done their worst
to him, God took over. And God poured wrath into his
soul. Martin Luther said, the soul
of his suffering, the very heart of his suffering, was that God
poured his wrath into his soul. Why did he do that? Because he
bore the sins of many. And therefore he had to die.
That's his work. Why did he come? He came to die.
That's why he came. And having finished the work,
He gave up the ghost. Nobody took his life from him.
He says down here in verse 18, no man taketh it from him. Take life from him who is life? Take life from him who gives
life? And nobody gonna take his life
from him. He said, I lay it down of myself. That's what he said. Remember, he's the preacher.
He said, I have the power to lay it down. Oh, and watch this,
and I have the power to take it again. That's his resurrection. He died that God might be just
and justify the ungodly, and then he was raised again, having
put away the sins of everybody for whom he died. That's his work. Well, who'd
he do all this for? My sheep, he said. I do this
for my sheep. Well, is everybody his sheep?
No. No. Well, how do we know if we're
his sheep? Preacher, how can I know if I'm
one of his sheep? Well, that's a good question,
and I'm ready for the answer. You ready for the answer? Verse 27. I can tell you how
you can know you're one of His sheep. My sheep hear my voice. That's how you know. My sheep hear my voice. They
hear my gospel. They hear my truth. They hear
of me. They hear of my work. They hear
and they love the message and they love me. That's how you
know. He came for the sheep. That's who he died for. He laid down his life for the
sheep and he reveals himself to the sheep. And I'll tell you, here's my
concern for you. I want you to know the shepherd.
I don't know who the sheep are. I've never seen a sign on the
back of the Lord's people that says, I'm a sheep. So I don't
know. I don't know. But I'll tell you this. If you
are one of his sheep, he will find you. And you will, all of
a sudden, hear His voice, that is, the voice of His gospel. And you'll say, that's the truth.
That's the Word of God. He's preaching out of the Word
of God. This is the shepherd I need, the shepherd who saves
sinners and saves sinners eternally. Because it says down here, and
I'll give this to you and I'll quit. He says in verse 27, I'll
read all of it and keep reading the next two verses. He said,
my sheep hear my voice, they hear my gospel. And I know them,
I love them. I care about them. And they follow
me. And 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. And no man is able to pluck
them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. He calls
his sheep, he calls his sheep by name. He was walking near Jericho one
day, and this little short fellow. He wasn't big enough to play
basketball for UK or anybody else. He was just a little guy. And because he was so short,
he couldn't see. Somebody said, Jesus of Nazareth
is going to pass by on this road. He said, well, I can't see. And
then he saw a sycamore tree. Boy, up the tree he went. I put it this way, the Lord treed
him. And the Lord Jesus passed away
and the Lord got underneath that tree and he looked up and said,
Zacchaeus, remember he calleth his own sheep by name. He said, come down, right now. For today I must abide at thy
house. Why? Zacchaeus came down so fast
that bark peels off six more trees to this day. And the Savior said to the Pharisees
who murmured, they didn't like it. He said, this day is salvation
come to this man's house. Because the Son of Man's come
to seek and save that which is lost. Tell you what, if he calls
you, you'll know Because you won't be able to lay aside what
you've heard concerning our Lord Jesus and His work of redemption. You just won't be able to get
it out of your mind. Because if He puts His finger
in your heart, you can't get away from it, and you don't want
to get away from it. Lord, bring me to Christ. Bring me to Christ. Well, that's
all I got to say about that. Let's turn to number 50.