Let me get our worship service at hymn number 127. Hallelujah for the saints. Man of solace, what a name for the son of God who came. Ruin sinners to reclaim, hallelujah, what a Savior! Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in thy place come in peace. with his blood what a savior helpless we Oh, Lord, don't run, can you read? Alleluia! What a Savior! Lifted up was He to die in His place. Hallelujah! What a Savior!

When He comes, our glorious King, In number 17, cometh the fount of every blessing. Teach me, son, when on your Son you Sun-right flame He turns above, Raise the mount I feast upon it, Mount of Thy revealing love. Jesus saw me One day from the fold of God Lead to rescue, lead from danger Interpose His precious love Oh, to grace how great a debtor Daily I'm constrained to be Let thy goodness I feel it. Turn in your Bibles to John chapter 10. Go read verses 7 through 9.

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.

Let us pray. Our Father, we are thankful for your Word, which is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. the entrance of which gives understanding to the sinful. We know your word is the gospel and is the power of God and the salvation of everyone who believes, the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, for it is written that just shall live by faith. We thank you, Father, that you have in your great providential mercy and grace sent your son into this world to die in a room instead of sinners, to redeem your elect from their sin, to buy them off the slave market, and make them to sit among princes in palaces.

We thank you, Father. We praise you for mercy and grace that is sufficient for all our needs. As you're exceeding and abundant, give us more than we could ever think or ask. Help us, Lord, to be appreciative people, grateful and thankful, with hearts full of praise.

Father, we pray for those who are sick and those who are going through trials. We pray for the special prayer of Tina. Also for Steve, he says he's going to Duton to get his kidney looked at. Sissy West's family, and we'd be pleased to give them some kind of peace in her death. And help us, Lord, tonight to think on the things of Christ, to consider him who's altogether loved and the chiefest among 10,

000. He who sits at thy right hand, having purged our sins and is glorified for it. Our Savior, our King, our Master, our Father, our Great Counselor, our Mighty God. Help us to worship tonight, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.

After the Lord has told these Pharisees that they are blind because they say they see, and proves the fact by setting forth a parable to them, which we looked at last week, a spiritual truth that they could not understand, proving that though they say they see, they could not.

Now he exercises the theology of reduction by declaring that he is the door of the sheep. Now the parable was about the sheep and the shepherd, and the porter opening the door and the Lord Jesus Christ. They didn't understand it. But the language that he's speaking, they have some sense and understanding of. His statement is not made in a vacuum.

The term, the she, is a term that's used throughout the scriptures by the Lord God concerning his people. It's familiar and personal to the Jews and especially to the Pharisees because they esteem themselves as the shepherds of the sheep. They esteem themselves as pastors of the flock. The sheep of the flock was a common description appointed to Israel.

David said, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not walk. He also said in Psalm 100, we are the sheep of the Lord's pasture. for the Lord to declare that the flock was His and He was the door of the flock was an insult to the Pharisee because they did not believe the Lord Jesus Christ nor did they believe in Him.

He had declared who He was from the beginning of this book. Beginning, John declared it to be the Word who was God and was in the beginning with God. The same was the One who created all things. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's made clear and then from Chapter 2 all the way through to this point, He's told men who He is. He set forth who He is. He said, I'm the Son of God. I'm very God. I do the works of God. God sent me.

All these things He said over and over again. He said it to the same kind of people over and over again, the Pharisees. And they didn't believe Him. Of course, we know, according to the Word of God, they couldn't. No man can come to the Father. Christ said the Father would just let Christ draw them. We know that's the case. No man comes to Christ unless the Father teaches him. But all who are taught of the Father comes to the Lord Jesus Christ.

They did not believe His words. They did not believe the works that he did, even though they saw it with their own eyes. In fact, their whole goal in knowing the Lord Jesus Christ was to put him to death for healing people on the Sabbath day. In his parable, he has described them as thieves and robbers. But since they did not understand, they did not apply this description to themselves.

He said, he called him thieves and robbers back in chapter, back in this chapter, in verse two. He says, but he that entereth in by the door is a shepherd. Excuse me, verse one. 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, that's what he called them.

That's who he was talking about when he gave this parable. But they didn't see it and they didn't understand because they believed that they were going to get to heaven and be found and accepted before God Almighty based on the kind of person they were, the good works that they did, the merit that they achieved in this world, and they believed that. And he says you're a bunch of thieves and you're a bunch of robbers.

And in these verses he sets the record straight and they will know exactly and precisely what they do not believe and who they do not believe. He's going to set this forth. So after this conversation, which goes on all the way to verse 30 in this particular chapter, he's going to set forth in no uncertain terms who he is, and they're going to know who they don't believe.

Old Scott Richards used to say, this is what I want to accomplish when I preach the gospel. If you don't believe what I'm saying, when you walk out that door, at least you'll know what you don't believe. You'll be aware of what you're refusing. You'll be aware of what you're rejecting. And our Lord is going to set it forth without question. He gave a parable, but he doesn't understand.

Now he declares, I am the door of the sheep. I am the door. He sets the record plain. He declared that he is truly, he says, verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep, in verse seven. Now this term is synonymous with shepherd, the door, but carries with it some deeper significance.

If these men did not believe him, then it indicates that they are not of God's flock, because he's I am the door, and he's already called them thieves and robbers. He's already called them, he said, I'm the shepherd of the sheep, he's already told them that. So if they don't believe him, That puts them in a position that they're not believers.

This is no small distinction. It is an indictment of the entirety of their religion. And that's what Judaism is. A Jew is not a race. The Jews were Arabians. They were Arabians. God separated through a man named Abraham and his sons. and he took them to Sinai and gave them the law and years, about a hundred years later they began to call themselves Jews. But Judaism is a religion. It's a religion and that's what these fellas have, these Pharisees. Unbeknownst to them it will be the revelation of the establishment of a new covenant. Now they know about this new covenant.

It's spoken of often in the Old Testament and remember when our Lord is speaking here the only book they have is Genesis through Malachi. New Testament, the Gospels have not been written. The Gospels won't be written until about 100 A.D. The first epistle written by Paul was written about 52 A.D. So none of the New Testament has been written, but they have the Old Testament. So when he talks about sheep, they know what he's talking about. They know the Lord says His flock is His sheep, and they believe that they are the sheep of God, and they were naturally, but not spiritually.

They have the Old Book. They did, and in that old book, Jeremiah 31 especially says, I'm gonna give them a new covenant. a new covenant where everyone will be saved in that new covenant, under that new covenant. Everyone who's in that covenant will be saved. And they're not going to walk around saying, know God. They're all going to know God through the leaps of the grace.

And He said, I forgive their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. That is tied in in the New Testament in Hebrews chapter 10. When Paul writes to the Hebrews about the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that He perfected forever them that are sanctified. And he did such a tremendously wonderful, perfect job that he perfected them that the Lord will remember their sins no more. That's a direct quote from Jeremiah 31. Hebrews 10, that's a great deal from Jeremiah 31. So he's talking about a new covenant. They knew about the new covenant, but they don't know that's what he's talking about here. He's talking about something completely new. This new covenant's been promised through the Old Testament.

As I said, that's the only scripture they had available at this time. But they believed, since the day of the Maccabean Wars, that the Pharisees owned the rights to this book. They were the ones who could interpret, they could tell people what it meant, and it wasn't in the hands of the people. It was in the hands of three groups of people, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes. These are the three main units.

These had the book. And they told people what the book meant. The book wasn't in the hands of the people, because it took a scribe to write it down. Back yonder, for a person to own a book meant he was a rich man. And he had one book. You read some books like the Arabian Nights and things like these are big books.

And they're full of metaphor and full of things. And the reason they were expensive, because a person had to write them by hand and hand it to somebody. And when it's a big book like that, it's full of language so you can read it a hundred times and never get the full meaning of it. There's always something new to see. That was the design of the way the books were written.

But they believed that this book was their property. So from Genesis to Malachi, if you want to know what something meant, the Pharisees wanted to tell you what it meant. And usually they used it against you. The Lord proved that in Matthew chapter 23. Here they are. They own this book. And here's this Nazarene. He's telling them that they are not the sheep of God's pasture. You're a bunch of thieves and robbers. The phrase, all who came before me, in verse 8, does not refer to a universal application.

Many who came before him, such as Moses and the prophets and the fathers and John the Baptist, were all true believers. Our Lord speaks of the false teachers and false prophets who came in His name. came in the Lord's name, but did not feed the sheep. They sheared the sheep, and they took from the sheep, and the sheep, and they blackmailed the sheep, but they didn't help the sheep. Our Lord speaks of the false prophets and the pastors. That's mentioned a great deal in Jeremiah and Isaiah. They, and the Lord often said, I did not send them. I did not send them to my people.

Thieves and robbers refer to the pharisees and the Sadducees and the Essenes who are described in Matthew chapter 23 and verse 14 as thieves. There are more called hypocrites, called snakes and vipers. In Matthew 23, verse 14, he says, what do you scribes and Pharisees?

Hypocrites. That's a Greek word. A hypocrite was a stage actor who acted one way with his face, and then he had another face attached to the back of his head, and he'd turn around and play another character. That's where we get the concept of being two-faced. It was a hypocrite.

For you devour widows' houses. You rob widows' houses. For a pretense, they do it making long prayer, therefore you shall receive a greater damnation. This was what he said of them. So they were thieves. And they were robbers. What is obvious is that the Lord has designated these to whom he speaks as not being in the Lord's plot.

Now that meant something to them because they believed they were. They believed that Psalm 23 applied to them. They believed that Psalm 100 applied to them. They believed that every time the word flock was mentioned in Scripture in the Old Testament, it applied to them. Because they were the elect nation. Rather, they were thieves and robbers. They were merchandisers of men's souls.

By the last time, by the last phrase of verse 8, he further dismisses these Pharisees as not being part of God's flock. He says this in the last part of verse 8. He said, all that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. Did not hear them. You don't hear me, what he's saying. Sheep did not hear the thieves. You don't hear me, the door of the shepherds or the door of the sheepfold. So he's saying to these Pharisees, who claimed natural election, and they were chosen a nation. But it was a natural election, a carnal election.

It was a temporal election. Now, in that elect group, there was natural election. There were elect, those elected under salvation. We have examples of them throughout Scripture, all of the, in the coming of the Messiah, the coming of Moses. prophets and all these, these were spiritually elect people. They were elected unto salvation. These fellows were elected to show something. The election of Israel was to show if you study the attitude and heart of Israel throughout the Old Testament, you'll find that they absolutely continually rebelled against God. Why did God elect this kind of people?

Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all the prophets wrote about their idolatry. They erected idols, Baal, and Baal Peor, and Ashtaroth, and Dagon. They put them on the street corners. They even put Dagon in the temple of the Lord. To go along with their regular worship, they worshiped him also. The prophets wrote about it. This is what was going on.

Why would the Lord elect that kind of people? To show the kind of people He elects unto salvation. He does not elect good people. He does not elect righteous people. He does not elect kind people. He elects the worst of humanity. He has chosen to save the absolute off-scouring of the universe. That's why He chose this kind of nation. naturally to show that the spiritual election is the same kind of people. God dealt religiously with no other nation on earth than this nation. God didn't send his word or his prophets to Egypt or to Samaria. He didn't send them there. God didn't have his tabernacle and his temple erected in Egypt or in Samaria or in Africa. None of those places, that tabernacle was one place.

And inside that tabernacle, there was a cubicle that was 15 by 15 feet. And that cubicle was the Ark of the Covenant. And once a year, one man, just one man once a year, met with God on one day a year in that little 15 by 15 cubicle. And the rest of the world, lay in darkness. The rest of the world, 15 by 15. The world's a pretty big place. Pretty big place. The tabernacle proper would fit inside this room easily. 15 by 15, that's not where I'm at.

This is what God meant one time a year. That was the old covenant, however. The new covenant, he meets with men in them. Him who tabernacles among us, the Lord Jesus Christ, our great tabernacle. Here he's seeing some of these Pharisees. They're the elect nation. But the Lord said the elect did not believe the thieves and the robbers. Who are they? The Pharisees. The Pharisees, the elect, believed the door, the shepherd, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of the living God. And since the Pharisees did not believe him, what does he say? You're not part of the elect. Wait a minute, we are the elect. No, you're not the real elect, not the eternal elect. You're the temporal elect, those elected in time.

The final dismissal of those who don't believe on Christ is found in verse 10. He says, let's see, excuse me. I am the door. This is one of the great I am's of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am the door. By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved. And shall go in and out and find passage. Christ says he's the door. The door. The door. That's the only singular entrance into God's work. This disallows any other means of entrance than this one. Some have tried other means. The Pharisees did, so did the Sadducees and the Essenes.

Some of religion holds that the door of the flock is opened by their will. I remember one preacher saying, well, you believe in predestination? OK, I'll give you that. That door opens, and she goes on one side and says, whosoever will. And you open up the door, and the other side says, purpose for the foundation of the world. So you've got to cover both sides. When the Bible says, whosoever will, it means whosoever is willing. And I'll tell you this about your will. You will not do what you will not do. You will not will to do what you will not do. You will not want to do what you will not do. And no man by nature wants to come to God. The natural man is enmity against God, is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Others believe that their merit and their works of righteousness is the doer. But the doer, the only doer, is a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2.18 says, singular access into the presence of Almighty God. He says that men and women enter the door by Him. In John 14, he says, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. They that come by me, he says.

Men balk at this singularity. They don't like it. They don't like it. They say, it's too narrow. I'm so glad it's narrow. It's just one thing. Yes. Can you be confused about it? If it's just one thing? No. You can disbelieve it. You can hate it or you can love it. You can bow to it or you can perish without it. But you can't be confused about it because it's just one thing. How sweet and precious is our Lord to make this so plain and so simple. The Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ.

Remember, Jay Wimberly said he was on a plane one time with a woman, and she found out he was a preacher. People ask me what I do. I don't tell them what I do. I usually say, I tell you, I'm going to ruin your day. They don't like preachers that much anyway. But Jay Wimberly, somehow they found out that he was a preacher.

She says, here's what I believe about heaven. I believe it has a whole lot of doors. It has a door for the Muslims, a door for the Hindu, a door for the Christians. case is, that many doors, somebody would fall down. And that's the truth. Somebody would fall down. Men balk at that singularity. Billy Rayl, you know, the monarch of Montreux? In an interview with Robert Shuler of the Crystal Palace days, he said, when Robert Shuler said, you believe there's only one way?

Bill Graham says, well, I believe if a person seeks the Lord in the light, he knows the Islam or Hindu, I believe he'd be all right, I believe he'd go to heaven. Yet he says he believes in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ says, I'm the door, the door, the way, the truth, the light.

No man comes to me, the Father, but by me. This is a singular thing. Men balk at that. But the beauty of the gospel is that it's used to a single thing. This is deduction theology. Not talking about any of the theological terms that men use. Just one way. One truth. One life of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the door of the sheep. No one can be confused if there's just one thing. If any man enters by the door, here's what will happen to him. He will be saved. He will be saved and he will go in and out and find pasture. This declares not only that Christ is the entrance to the fold, the shepherd is the protector of the fold.

Being a door to the sheepfold was not like the door you see back there. The door of the sheepfold was the shepherd himself. He would gather the sheep at night and out in the field of the flock and put them in an area where they couldn't, they had to go out in one narrow area and he'd lay down right there. The sheep would never cross over him and jump over him, because he's the door. And if anybody came toward those sheep, they had to come through him to get to them.

That's why David said, the Lord is my shepherd. He said, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Those are weapons. Nothing is going to come to me because the shepherds ride in staff. He keeps the sheep. If anyone or anything tries to get to the plot, they must come through Him. When Satan approached, or when the Lord approached Satan about Job and said that Job was a good man in love with the Lord and eschewed evil, Satan said, well it's no wonder. You've given him everything and you've fixed him in. You put a fence around it and nobody can get to it. There's a fence around you. When Solomon talked about his bride, he says, my daughter is a garden enclosed.

The Lord says it this way in this very book, in this very chapter of the book. He said, my sheep hear my voice, and I give them eternal life. No man is able to pluck them out of my hand. He says, my father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man's ever put them out of my father's hand. I am my father, what's that mean?

That's a double-fisted salvation, is what that means. A double-fisted salvation. Also, he is the access, means he has access. You have access in the flock. You have access by faith, you're saved. Justified by faith, Paul said, you have access. into the grace wherein you stand. We have access into the holy of holies.

It says in Ephesians chapter 3. In Hebrews chapter 10 it talks about through his flesh we have access. That's the veil of the temple is his flesh. Hebrews declares that the entrance is through his body. Through his body. He says of his church, his flesh, that they are flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone. They are one with Him. He's not only the shepherd of the door, He is Himself the flock. The flock. The flock is the church. Bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh.

And Paul makes an interesting statement over in Ephesians chapter 1 concerning the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. This mystical body called the church. He speaks of Christ in this manner in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 22. He said, God has put all things under his feet and gave unto him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body. The next phrase is just magnificent. This church, believers, those who became to save and did save, which is his body, the fullness of his that filleth all. He fills all. What's the fullness of Him? What fills Him up? His church, His bride, His beloved. All who enter Him shall be saved. That's why they named Him Jesus. Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins, it says in Matthew. These are also said to go in and out and find pastors. What does that mean? Well, first of all, all things are of Christ. All things are of God. We know that to be true.

That's why He can say of everything that ever happens in this universe, all things work together for good to them that love God and them that call according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be like His Son, who is the image of the firstborn of many brethren. Moreover, whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate They may also call Him justified and glorified.

But all things belong to Him. All things are for Him and by Him and through Him. It says in Romans chapter 11 and verse 36. And all things were made by Him. It says in Colossians chapter 1 and in John chapter 1 of this very book. This speaks of going in and out and find pasture. What does that mean?

It means God's people are free. God's people are free. They're free from the law. We're not governed by the law. We're governed by the love for the Lord Jesus Christ and His love for us. We're at liberty. Stand fast, Paul said to the Galatians church, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free and be not again under the yoke of bondage of the law. We're free. We're at liberty. And we're to use our liberty. He said nothing is unlawful for you. except what God has prescribed you, but nothing is unlawful for you. Now the church has covered up all kinds of things that you ain't supposed to do. But nothing is unlawful.

But not all things are expedient. That means not all things are beneficial. And not all things edify. That means that not all things help your brother. And so we use the wisdom that God has given us to discern that. Your brother has a difficulty with drinking. We're not going to his house and have a pop of beer.

That's just, we have liberty to, we could, but it wouldn't be expedient and it wouldn't be edifying to do that. But we're liberty, we're God's free people. It says that we're the Lord's free man. The Lord's free man, the gospel is set forth to set men free. That's what he says in Isaiah chapter 58. This is what the gospel does. It doesn't hold men down. It doesn't cause strife. It doesn't bring men into bondage. It takes the shackles off of them. It gives them food and clothing. It sends them on their way.

It says, do what you will if you love the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what I've said for years. You love Christ, I'm not worried about you. I'm not going to stand up here and tell you not to do this and not do that if you love Christ. Do what you will. Do what you will.

Wherever the child of God goes, He's in Christ. He's in Christ, and therein is His sustenance. That's that pasture. He's our food and our water, the bread of life and the water of life. He's what sustains us. And the Bible says of the Lord Jesus Christ, in Him we live. In Him we move, in Him we have our being. What's that mean? We have our being. In Him we are. We are. We exist in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Oh, would He fill my eyes with Jesus Christ? Fill my heart with Him? You know what I'd find out? I wouldn't change a thing. because he's running the gym. Father, bless us to understand and pray for us. In the name of the Father, God bless you. It's under the Lord's table, Father. Forgive me. I'm thinking of cheating the devil. You stay or just go? I'm going. I'm going.

I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going.