Let's open our Bibles this evening to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. My text tonight is going to be verse 9, but let's read the first 10 verses.

John chapter 10. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same 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. 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. 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. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.

As I said, my test tonight is 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.

We recognize that this is one of many texts in the Gospel of John where the Lord Jesus Christ, by saying I am, declared his deity, declared that he is God. Every Jew at that time, when they heard the Lord say, I am, they knew exactly who he confessed to be. The God Jehovah who called Moses at the burning bush. And when Moses asked his name, what he should tell the people there in Egypt, you tell them, I am. that I am.

They recognize this immediately. And later in this chapter, you will see the Jews, that is the religious leaders, the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Herodians, they tell him, we're not against you because of the works that you have done, but for the words that you have spoken. In other words, healing people, raising a person who was lame and giving him strength to walk, no one could find fault with that except they did because they did it on the Sabbath day. Or feeding 5,000 hungry people, men and their wives and children as well.

But it wasn't those miracles. that caused these people to hate him, but it was rather that he confessed to be who he is. We worship the Lord Jesus Christ, and if he's not God, then we're guilty of idolatry. But you and I know tonight that he is God. He is God Almighty. I am.

And he uses a very common word. I think the smallest child, if I were to go over here, the smallest child over in the nursery or in the class over there, they would all, if I were to ask them, what is a door? What is a door? Probably every one of them could answer that question. People know what a door is. They know what a door serves for. But when he says, I am the door, he didn't say, I am a door. He said, I am the door, just like later in chapter 14 when he said, I am the way, the truth, the life, and no man comes unto the Father but by me.

His words shall go in and out. I am the door, by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved. We know that when the angel told Joseph, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. That was a purpose, the reason that Christ came into this world. It was to save his people. If you're one of his people, he came to save you. He came here on purpose. He left heaven's glory to save you, to save me. from our sins. We couldn't save ourselves. No one else could save us.

We sang that hymn, The Cleansing Wave, just a few minutes ago, and I thought about that verse in Revelation chapter one, where the Lord Jesus confessed that he washed us in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God. Yes, he is the door, and as he said, if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out. And that term, go in and out, it reminds us that believing is not just a one-time thing.

And I'm just convinced that so many people, and especially Baptist churches, Armenian Baptist churches, they are sure that they're on their way to heaven. Because one day, after the preacher preached and gave a very sob story, moved their hearts, maybe they were children, maybe they were adults, but they walked down an aisle, shook a preacher's hand, prayed a prayer, And now they say they believed, but believing is not a one-time event.

Going in and out, we are continually, as the Apostle Peter wrote, to whom coming, that's present tense. And the Apostle Paul, looking unto him, present tense, the author and finisher of our faith. Yes, we go out. We go out of that self, that self-righteousness. We're continually going out of it, aren't we? I mean, that old pride will rise up in our hearts before we know it, and we're continually going out. of trusting in ourselves, whatever it might be, and continually going in, going through the door, going to the door, the Lord Jesus Christ.

But tonight, I read this passage this past week, and what really stood out to me, and I thought, well, I'm gonna speak from that, the Lord willing Wednesday, pasture. Pasture. You see that? I'm the door, by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. Find pasture. If we enter in, if we come to Christ, we find pasture.

Now in the 23rd Psalm, it's referred to as the Shepherd Psalm. We all know the first part of it, at least. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. Now the green pastures there refers to the Word of God. This is a pasture. That's what a person finds when he is saved, he finds the word of God. That's one of the marks of a child of God. When a person has truly been born of the spirit of God, first of all, Christ becomes precious to that person, but also his word, his word, his written word. The living word is revealed in the written word. We find pasture.

And when you think about that word, green pastures, sheep lying down there, a sheep is an animal like a cow that chews its cud. Now, the fact that the sheep is lying down tells me that it's full. And when you see cows lying down out in the field under the shade tree or something in the afternoon, they've already grazed. They're full. Now they're sitting down, and I've read, now I'm not an authority on this of course, but that sheep, they don't have more than one stomach. I've heard that before. They have one stomach, this is what I've recently read, but it has four compartments. It has four compartments, and as they're chewing their cud, They're regurgitating that food and chewing it again, and it's being processed until it gets to that fourth compartment, and then the nutrients are taken out of it for the sheep's welfare and good.

we find pasture in coming to the scriptures. Now I'm sure that I was thinking about a sheep or sheep out there in the pasture. I'm sure there may be some pastures that all of the grass, it's all of the same kind. They say it's Bermuda. There's not a sprig of grass in that pasture that's not Bermuda grass. That'd be an exception, I believe. I mean, when they're nibbling along, eating, they're taking all into their body. There's variety. That's my point. There's variety. And when we Find this pasture when we enter into Christ, we have this pasture and there's variety here. How much? I couldn't begin to tell you. Could you lads? I mean, there's so much in the word of God.

But I want to mention tonight to us three truths, three truths that we should digest, we should eat in this pasture. First, and this is foremost, and this is always the most important, the truth of Christ, the truth of Christ. Here's the truth in this pasture, the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ, upon which we must feed. When you think about that, there's so much about him to feed upon. I would begin with his person, wouldn't you? On the fact that he is, first of all, God. Feed on that, feed on that, that he is eternal, God, that he is God who created all things. Without him was not anything made that was made in heaven's life. We think about his deity. You know, if he's not God, he couldn't save you. He couldn't save you. He couldn't save a flea if he's not God, but he is.

And so we think about, we feed upon that part of he's one person. I know I've emphasized this many times and I'm going to keep doing it if God gives me breath. He's one person, but he has two natures and these natures are not mixed either. He's fully God and he's fully man, but he's one person. In Luke chapter two, when We read about the Lord Jesus Christ as a young child after being in the temple at 12 years of age and talking with the leaders there and the teachers. The scripture says he went back to his home and was subject to Mary and to Joseph, and he grew in stature and wisdom. grows in statue, a boy, you know, grows up, but growing in wisdom, what does that tell us about him? It tells him he had a human soul. His spirit as an eternal God, I mean, it doesn't increase. He is God, but as a man.

And when we think of him as a man, that gives us comfort in knowing that our high priest, he who is there at the Father's right hand right now, interceding, our abogado, our advocate rather, he's there right now, and he can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. Why? Because he was a man. He knew what it was to be hungry, knew what it was to be weary, knew what it was to be thirsty. These things, these sinless things that are common to man, he experienced them all.

And yes, he was tempted even of Satan. We know that, that's recorded in the gospels. Yes, we think about, we feed upon him and then we feed upon his character. The Apostle Paul said, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ. Well, what was his mind? What was his mind? If we're to have that mind of Christ, what was his mind? Where are we going to find that out? Where are we going to learn that here in the pastures, in the grain pastures, as we read through the four gospels, the narratives here?

We learn about Christ, we learn about compassion. How many times in the Gospels do we read that the Lord Jesus Christ, unasked for, had compassion, had compassion. That's part of, let this mind be in you. Now we should be a compassionate people. And of course, his love, his meekness, He said, I'm meek and lowly in heart. And we see these things in the pastor here.

We learn about him and we must feed not only upon his person and his character, but upon his work, the work, which he said his father gave him to do.

Remember, he said that in his prayer in John 17. Father, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. Well, what was that work? What was that work? How did he do it? Did he finish it? And was he successful? Well, you know he was. That work was to glorify God. You know, he's the second Adam, isn't he? He's the second man. Well, think about that. Some people say, how can you call him the second man when Adam was the first man? How many men lived before Christ came? And he's the last man, the last Adam. Well, there's been hundreds, thousands, millions of men born since Christ came into this world. But we know it refers to the fact there's two and only two representative men. Adam was the first representative man, and he represented all of his posterity. He represented you, he represented me in that covenant of works, and when he disobeyed God, he fell, and we and our representative, we too, fell. And we come into this world with a fallen nature. You understand that, don't you? You know that. Aren't you glad you know it? Aren't you glad God has taught you the truth about how he deals with all mankind and these two men? How he dealt with you and your father, Adam, and with you and your Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yes, once in the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. I thought, Sunday morning, as Lance was speaking about his father, and I'd read this in, I guess, one of the books that he wrote, when he gave that example, the first time that he heard or saw that, that verse of scripture, that Christ appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And he had to borrow a car, I believe he said, to go to town, tell somebody, find somebody he could tell. Did you know that Christ put away sin? You're not going to put it away. That's not what the gospel teaches us, that you've got to do this and do that and do the other and all by your efforts and all that Some group of men tell you to do that you're going to put away your sin. No! No. He appeared once in the end of the world, that is the end of that Jewish dispensation, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and he put it away. Now, sin cannot be in two places at the same time, can it? It can't. No. It was imputed to him and Peter tells us he bore the sins of his people in his own body on the tree. And when he said it was finished there on the cross, sin was put away. It was put away. The sin of all, feed on this. This is a pasture.

Well, let me move on to a second thing. The truth of God's sovereignty. Here is a truth in this pasture, and it is a truth upon which we must feed. The God of the Bible, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, he's not some wannabe God. You know this. He is God Almighty. In Psalm 135 and verse 6, the psalmist said, whatsoever the Lord pleased, whatever, whatever He pleased, that did He in heaven and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places. He worketh all things, Paul tells us in Ephesians, all things. You say, all? Yes, that's what it says, all things. He worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. You say, well, I can't understand as much about God. Some of you said under Jack Shank's ministry for many years, I think he used to say, do you think with this little peanut brain that we have that we're going to understand everything about God, how great God is? Yes. But we believe, don't we? Because that's what's revealed to us about him in the scripture.

The last few days I've been reading in the book of Daniel and I see God's sovereignty brought out so much here in the book of Daniel. The very fact that Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were in Babylon was because of God's sovereignty and he had raised up Nebuchadnezzar to defeat the nation of Judah, and eventually burn the temple and destroy Jerusalem, and take these men captive there.

But Nebuchadnezzar, listen, he confessed God's sovereignty in these words. After the Lord had sent him out in the field for one year to eat grass like an ox, when his mind was given back to him, listen to his words about God, the God of the Bible, about the God that you and I are going to meet one day. I mean, face to face, we're gonna stand before him. This is what Nebuchadnezzar was taught about God. He went to the school of hard knocks, didn't he? He really did.

You know, I was reading that Daniel, when he saw in that vision, He told Nebuchadnezzar, break off your sins. In other words, turn from your sins, Nebuchadnezzar. Maybe the Lord won't do this. Maybe you'll find mercy with him. And you know, for a year, this didn't happen. A year passed. And I thought, isn't that like all of us? God tells us we're convicted about something and we think we get away with it. He thought he'd got away with it, I guess.

And you know there's a scripture in Ecclesiastes which says because execution against an evil act is not executed speedily. In other words, when a person sins, Maybe blasphemes God, God could strike him dead right then, but he doesn't do it. But because God doesn't administer punishment immediately when a sin is committed against him, the hearts, the scripture said, the hearts of the sons of men fully set in them to do evil. And that was Nebuchadnezzar's case.

Daniel told him what God had told him in that dream and said, break off with your sins. But no, a year passes by, maybe he thought, well, maybe I'm gonna get away with this. But he hadn't changed. Is not this the great Babylon which I have built? And God sent him out there to eat grass like an ox for a year. And when he came back, he had learned in the school of hard knocks, all, he said, all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? He doesn't answer to his creatures.

Then, I said, Nebuchadnezzar confessed God's sovereignty. His grandson, Belshazzar, he experienced God's sovereignty when he saw that hand, remember? Just the hand writing on the wall, many, many tickle you, sharpen, I believe. And he didn't know what that meant. And they found Daniel, didn't they? And what did Daniel tell him? Man, you are weighed in the balances and found wanting. And that very night, even though Babylon, I mean, it was reputed to be a city that could not be captured. You know the story how they came in, the Persians, the Medes came in through the river. They actually diverted the course of the river. to come in under the walls, under the gates of that city. And he was killed that night. And then I thought, well, Darius, the king of the Medes, on the throne, he realized God's sovereignty when God sent his angel and shut those lions' mouths, remember? Daniel was in that. And the king, is your God able? He knew, Darius knew that the gods of wood, the gods of stone, and the gods that all of his countrymen worship, they couldn't deliver from lions, Is your God able? Yeah, he was, wasn't he? He was. Is your God able, you say, when you think about your life, maybe, maybe. Maybe. Guilt. Is your God able? Yeah, yeah. All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto you. with the one exception, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Yes, he's able. He's able.

This is what Darius said, the God of Daniel is the living God and steadfast forever and his kingdom, that which cannot be destroyed. God's kingdom cannot be destroyed in his dominion. shall be even unto the end.

Let me read you a couple of quotes here by some men that are very respected men, preachers of bygone days. Charles Spurgeon, and I quote, there's no attribute more comforting to his children than that of God's sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances and the most severe trials, they believe that sovereignty has ordained afflictions, that sovereignty overrules them, and that sovereignty will sanctify them all. On the other hand, there's no doctrine more hated by worldlings, no truth of which they have made such a football as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine of the sovereignty of God. Yes, a very comforting truth. Feed on this. This is in the pasture. Feed on this.

And then this other preacher, pastor, many years in, I believe, Madisonville, Kentucky. His name was C.D. Cole, and he defined God's sovereignty in these words. The sovereignty of God means that he does as he pleases, always as he pleases, and only as he pleases. God is in control of all things and people and is directing all things after his own will and to the praise of his own glory. He even makes the wrath of man to praise him. And the wrath of man that does not praise him, he does not allow. And then he quoted Psalm 76, 10. Surely the wrath of man shall praise you, the remainder of wrath shall you restrain.

And I've often thought about God's children. God's children that I've known who have suffered many for years and years and years. And yet they know and they're convinced, they believe that God is absolutely sovereign and that there's nothing impossible for him. And he could in a moment if they're suffering sickness, if they're suffering in any way, God could in a moment. change all of that, but he doesn't. He doesn't. What is he doing? Well, one thing, he's trying our faith. He's trying your faith. Because you know, you know he could heal you. You know he could change the circumstances, but he doesn't do it. That's the reason James said, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations Temptations there doesn't mean temptations of sin, it means afflictions and trials when they come upon you, knowing that temptation worketh patience, and patience maketh not ashamed. Yes, God's sovereignty. Feed on that. That's in this pasture.

Here's the last thing, the truth of eternal glory. Here is the truth in this pasture upon which we must feed. I think of the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 2 when he said, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him. Eternal glory. What all is involved in that eternal glory? Let me mention just these few things. There's much about it we don't know.

When Paul was caught up into third heaven, he heard unutterable words. In other words, he heard things that cannot obviously be put into human language. The glory of that place is so above and beyond anything we can imagine. But we do know, he said, to depart and to be with Christ. That's one thing we know about heaven.

To be with Christ, first of all, is far better. That's what he said in Philippians 121, to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Far better than what? Far better than anything we've ever known. Far better than anything in this world. Yes, it's far better.

To be with Christ will be to be like Him. 1 John chapter 3 and verse 2. It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall see Him, we shall be like Him. To be with Christ is to be satisfied. Psalm 17 and verse 15. To be with Christ is to be where there's fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16.

To be with Christ is to be where there's no sickness, no tears, no death. Remember these words as I close of our Lord. Father, he's speaking to his father praying, I will. He didn't ask. He didn't say, Father, I'm asking, no, Father, I will. Only he who is God could speak to God like that.

Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me. For thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. And you know, above that, the Lord had said that the Father loves you like he loves his son. Oh, my. Too good to be true, right? But it is true. It is true.

OK, let's sing the hymn.