John chapter 10. The title of
the message is Christ, the only door. The only door. Our Lord begins, or He continues
His conversation. We begin our text in chapter
10, verse 1. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth
up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. But he
that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
Our Lord's continuing to speak to the Pharisees here. And He's
showing us that these religious men, they're very religious,
but they're false prophets. They're thieves and they're robbers.
Now, thieves, that's someone who uses stealth to take what
doesn't belong to them. They use stealth so you can't
see what they're doing. You can't tell what they're up
to. And robbers, that's someone who uses violence to take what
doesn't belong to them. Now that's what a false prophet
is. They're deceptive. So you can't see what they're
really doing. They're using sleight of hand like a magician. You
can't see what they're really up to. And they take by force
what doesn't belong to them. They steal eternal life from
men by not showing them Christ, by not pointing them to Christ.
They make an attempt. to rob God of His glory by going
about to establish their own righteousness instead of submitting
themselves to the righteousness of God through faith in Christ.
In our last chapter, the Lord said, I come to judge. He came
to divide His sheep from these men. And in our text, there are
three doors, and every one of these doors is Christ. There
are three different doors, but they're all Christ. In verse
1, we have the door of the sheepfold. In verse 7, there's the door
of the sheep. In verse 9, there's the door of salvation. And we'll
look at each of these doors and see how all three of these doors
are Christ. Now, first, there's the door
of the sheepfold. Now, a sheepfold is a big holding pen. That's
what it is. It usually had high walls, 8
to 10 feet high. It would go all the way around,
and it had one door. There's only one way into that
sheepfold. It's through the door. And the shepherds would go out
with their sheep all day in the field. The sheep would be grazing
and they'd drink at the brook and things. It'd be nighttime,
they'd bring their sheep back into town. And all the different
shepherds, there could be ten or twelve of them, they'd all
bring their sheep to the sheepfold. Put them in the sheepfold. They'd
go through that one door and the porter would close the door
and keep the sheep in there safe all night long. The shepherd,
he'd go get them a meal and maybe take a bath or, you know, sleep
in a bed in a hotel or whatever. He'd go back to get his sheep.
And in the morning, the shepherd, he just goes right up to the
door of the sheepfold. He doesn't have to sneak around.
He belongs there. He's the shepherd. He's got sheep
in there. He belongs there. He's not stealing something.
He's not trying to take something that belonged to him. He's just
going to get the sheep that belonged to him. Take them out to pasture. And the porter knew the shepherds.
He knew every one of them. So, when the shepherd would come,
the porter would open the door to him. But now if you're not
a shepherd, none of those sheep in there belong to you. If you're
not a shepherd, the porter's not going to open that door to
you. He knows you don't own anything in that sheepfold. And he's not
going to let you in there take what doesn't belong to you. So
if you're going to take a sheep, and you're not a shepherd, you're
a thief. You're a robber. And you're going
to have to get into that sheepfold some other way, other than the
door. You're going to have to climb
the wall. You're never going to see a shepherd climbing the
wall. You don't need to. The only fellow climbing the
wall is a thief and a robber. Now, there's a lot of speculation
about the sheepfold, what the sheepfold represents. And I asked
Janet this this week. She said, well, yeah, when you
first hear this sheepfold, you think of the fold, the place
where God's sheep are. That's what we automatically
think. I don't believe that's the case. I believe this sheepfold
represents the world. It's not the fold of just God's
elect, because there's all kinds of sheep in there. There could
be 10 or 12 shepherds dragging their sheep there. Not all of
them belong to the good shepherd. They belong to different shepherds.
It's just a conglomeration of sheep. They're not all the Lord's
sheep. Sounds like the world to me, doesn't it to you? All
kinds of people in the world, but not all of them belong to
Christ. Not all of them are Christ's sheep. The Lord told the Pharisees,
you don't belong to me. You don't hear my voice because
you're not of my sheep. You're not my people. So the
sheepfold, it can't represent God's church, because they can't
represent being in Christ, because in that sheepfold, there's nothing
to eat. The sheep, you know, they mill
around in there. It's just a bare dirt floor. Any grass that was
in there has been eaten or trampled a long time ago. There's no grass
in there. There's no water in there. And the shepherd isn't
there all the time. The shepherd, he comes and goes
from this place. And I got good backup on this.
Walter Gruber said the same thing. He brought this very passage
up when we were down there in Mexico. And Walter says he's
seen sheepfolds in Mexico. Now the ones there, they're not
like the ones that we read about in Scripture. You know, kind
of nice, big walls. He said they're just little old
pens with little wooden fences around them. You know, they're
not real safe with these high brick walls like we read about
here in Scripture. And Walter says they're just,
they're not nice places. They're dirty. They're filthy.
There's no grass. It's just a muddy pen, a holding
pen for these sheep. Now, the sheep are safe from
robbers there, but the sheep don't want to stay there. There's
nothing for them to eat there. There's no place for them to
find rest there. The shepherd's not there. The
shepherd doesn't live there. The sheep don't want to stay
in that sheep pen. There's no food. There's no green
pastures. The sheep are anxious to leave that place. as soon
as the shepherd shows up. It's just like our nursery up
there. It's not a muddy place. I mean, it's clean. We make it
nice a place we can up there for them, right? For the babies.
But all that is up there is a glorified holding pen. That's all it is. I mean, you know, and they're
babies. They go up there. They stay there. They're safe
up there. But they don't want to stay there. Mama's not there. The second they hear Mama come
up them steps, they're ready to go. Because mama's not there. They want to go with their mama.
Well, that's what God's sheep are doing in this world. Now,
before we know the Lord, we think, boy, this is life. You know,
we're living our life. We're building our future, aren't
we? But really what we're doing is we're waiting for the moment
when the Good Shepherd comes in and calls us by name and takes
us out, takes us to the green pastures, takes us to be with
Him, takes us to those still deep waters. When He calls us
out of that pen into Himself. And there's only one way out
of this earth. There's only one way out of our self. There's
only one way out of the death and misery and sin that is this
world. And that way is Christ. I love the way our Lord teaches
here. He always preached in simple terms with simple words that
everybody can understand. Everybody in this room knows
what a door is. Everybody. Hey, Lila. Lila. You know what a door is? You
know what one is? Can you point to a door? Could you? There's a door. You
know how to use it? You do. Every person in this
room knows what a door is. You know how to use it? Turn
the handle. In Lila's case, you push that
handle. It'll go right through it. You know how to do it. You
know what happens when you push the handle, don't you? The door
opens and you go out. And when you go out, you're not
here anymore, are you? You're out there. Isn't that simple? Everybody here knows what that
means. It's so simple. Why don't we unbelieve? Why do
we say we don't understand? This is what our Lord's teaching.
There's a barrier that's been put up between us and God. We
can't get out of it. We can't climb over it. We can't
tumble under it. We can't dig through it. The
sin is a barrier that separated us from God. But God, in His
mercy, has provided a door. He's provided a way back to the
Father. And that door is the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the moment you enter into
Christ, you leave the world of sin. Now, people say, well, I
don't know how to enter Christ. Yeah, you do. It's as simple
as walking through that door. You know how to come to Christ.
Our problem is that we won't. But the moment you enter into
Christ, you leave the world of sin and you enter into Christ.
The moment you enter into Christ, you leave the power of sin. You
leave the condemnation of sin and you enter into Christ. The
moment you enter into Christ, you leave all the works and weariness
of this world and you enter into rest in Christ. The moment you
enter into Christ, you leave darkness and you enter into light. The moment You enter into Christ,
you leave unbelief, and you enter into faith. You leave sin and
you enter into righteousness. You leave death and you enter
into life. You've been translated, transferred
through this door from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom
of God's dear Son. Through Christ the door. Isn't
that so simple? Christ is the door of the sheepfold. Now here, the shepherd comes
into the door, doesn't he? Christ came into this world.
He came into the sheepfold as a man. He came in in perfect
obedience. He came in in perfect righteousness. He came in as the shepherd coming
to save his sheep from their sins and gather his sheep to
himself and his people. They enter into that door. He
comes into it and they go out through it. They leave sin and
self-righteousness and enter in to him. When do they do that? The very first moment he affectionately
calls them in power. Look at verse 3. Now to him the
porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice. He calleth his
own sheep by name, and he leadeth them out. Now who's this porter? There's a lot of speculation
about this parable, different things this could mean. Some
of the men say that this porter is the father. It very well could
be. The father knows the son, doesn't
he? Just like the porter knows the shepherds, the father knows
his son. The father knows the sheep that belong to Christ.
The father gave them to his son. He knows which sheep belong to
Christ. Christ gave payment for the sins of his sheep to the
father. The father knows which sheep belong to the son. And
he opens the door to the son. The porter could be the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit, he knows the sheep too. He knows which
sheep belong to Christ. And the Holy Spirit always opens
the door to truth, never to error, to truth. So either way, the
porter's God, isn't it? God the Father, God the Holy
Spirit, they're one. The porter's God. And the porter opens the
door and Christ comes in and calls his sheep, calls them by
name. He calls his sheep in the power
of his word, in the power of the gospel, the power of God
the Holy Spirit. He calls his sheep. Now this
is not a general call. There is such a thing as a general
call to the gospel. Everybody hears, hearing the
gospel preached this morning. Somebody's going to hear. Somebody's
going to hear with the ear of faith. Somebody's going to be
blessed. Somebody's going to see Christ. Somebody's going
to come to Him. Somebody's going to follow Him.
That's the internal, effectual call of the gospel. And every
one of God's sheep hear that call. He calls His sheep by name. I mean individually, on purpose,
by name He calls His sheep. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world as a man. And He came to work out a righteousness
for a specific people. He came to die, to suffer and
die and shed His blood for the sins of a specific people. He
knows them. He knew their name before they
had a name. He knew their name before they were born. He knew
their name before the world was created. He's always known them,
and he came to die for their sins. You got that? I mean, this is
not something you knew. You've heard this before. I want
you to think how precious this is. He calls his sheep by name. As our Lord walked this earth,
just a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. He did that for you. He had your name on His heart. I'm doing this for you. Every
stripe they laid to His back. He did that for you. On purpose. Roy, your name is on His heart.
Those nails that drove into His hands and His feet. Father, forgive
them. He made that prayer for you.
They know not what they do. And then he comes and he calls
his sheep by name. He suffered for those sheep on
purpose, by name, those exact people. Is he going to let one
of them perish? Not on your life. Matthew, follow
me. Peter, James, John, follow me. I'll make you fishers of me.
Lazarus, Come out of that grave. Come out. That kid's come down
from the grave. It's no accident. And they follow. Every time they follow. The sheep
hear His voice. They've been born again. They've
been given the ears to hear in the new birth. Those ears work.
The ears Adam gave you. They're deaf. But in the new
birth, you've been given the ears to hear. Now, you're not
born again because you enter into Christ. Because you enter
into the door. You enter into the door because you have been
born again. You hear because you've already been born again.
Now, the shepherd comes in, he calls. Bunch of sheep don't react. They lay there or stand there.
Whatever it is they're doing, they don't act like they heard
anything because they didn't. But his sheep, they hear his
voice. Oh, it's a sweet voice. It's
the voice they've been waiting for, just like those babies up
there waiting to hear mama come up. They're waiting on a specific
person, specific voice. Those sheep, they're waiting
for a specific voice. It's a sweet voice, and they're
excited about it. They follow Him. Look at 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1. We looked at this on a Wednesday
night a couple weeks ago. Every one of God's people are
followers. They follow Christ. 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 5. For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost,
and much assurance. For you know what manner of men
we were among you for your sake, and you became followers of us
and of the Lord." God's sheep, they hear His voice and they
follow Him, every one of them. Our Lord said, all that the Father
giveth Me, they'll come to Me. They'll hear, they'll follow
me. Christ's sheep are going to be separated from this world,
and they're going to be separated through this door of the sheepfold.
That's the way we're separated from this world, is through the
door. And when we go forth, Christ leads. He leads His sheep. He doesn't put the sheep around
Him to protect Him from wolves. He leads them, and He goes out
to protect them. Look at verse 4 in our text.
And when He put forth His own sheep, He goeth before them. and the sheep follow him, for
they know his voice. He goes before them to protect
them. If there's danger out there,
he's going to meet it first. He's going to protect the sheep.
He goes before them to provide for them. He's going to lead
them to the place where they can have something to eat, where
they can have something to drink. He goes before them to be their
example. You follow his way. You follow
his steps. And that's such comfort to me.
Every step a child of God takes, Every step, He's already taken
it. He's gone before. You're going
to go through a time of sorrow? He's been there first. The amount
of sorrow is acquainted with grief. You're going to go through
a time of pain? He's been there first. You think
of the pain He suffered, the pain for the sins of His people.
He's been there first. You're going to go through a
time of persecution and ridicule? He's been there first. They hate
our Lord so much they killed him. He's been there first. There's
a day coming we're going to go through death, the experience
of the death of this body. And I know there's a certain
amount of fear, and fear's not the right word for a believer,
but of the unknown. You don't know what's going to
happen. But you know what takes that fear away? Cecil Shepard's
been there first. He went there first. He died
first. He took the sting of death away
so his people will never die eternally. We will lay these
bodies down, but only for this reason, so we can be conformed
to his image. And we will be conformed to his
image because he died first. He went to the grave. You're
going to put this body, one day you're going to watch it be put
in the casket. You're going to watch him lower the casket down into the ground.
And this body is going to be in the grave. That's all right. He's been there first. He went
into the grave, but He came out. One of the writers said, He made
even the grave a pleasant place to wait, because He's been there
first. And He came out. One day, these bodies will be
resurrected, because our Lord went there first. He's the first
Prince. And He cleared the way for many
more, a number that can't be numbered, to follow Him. Now,
you know who will follow Him to all those places? His sheep. They follow Him. But look over
a few pages of John 13. There is one place the shepherd
will go. His sheep will never go. One
place. He suffered separation from the
Father so we don't have to. He suffered the penalty of the
law so his sheep don't have to. John 13, verse 36. Simon Peter
said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Where are you going?
Jesus answered him. Whether I go, thou canst not
follow me now. You can't go with me now, Peter.
I'm going to go there alone so that afterwards thou shalt follow
me afterwards. But you can't go where I'm going
now. You don't want to go where I'm going now. You can't survive
where I'm going now, but I'm going for you so that afterwards
you can follow me. Christ goes before his sheep.
He goes before his sheep in election. Christ is the first to elect.
We're all electing him. Christ goes before his sheep
in the glory. He's gone before us to repair
a place for us so we can follow him there. Christ goes before
his sheep when he goes before his father in intercession for
his people. And Christ goes before his sheep
in judgment. He's already been judged for
our sins, for the sins of his people, so that in the day of
judgment, when our name is called, he's going to stand up and say,
Father, I'm here. He goes before. Now look at verse
5. They'll follow Christ and a stranger
will they not follow? But they'll flee from Him, for
they know not the voice of strangers. Now, when I was in New Jersey,
I made a new friend, Inderjeet. Inderjeet's from Ghana. And he
told me when he lived in Ghana, he owned sheep. He was a shepherd. He said, just like the Bible
says, those sheep knew my voice. Those sheep loved me. They follow
me. Do they just look at me? Oh,
you can see love in the sheep. They follow me. And they wouldn't
follow a stranger. But now he says sheep are defenseless.
He said they're just so dumb. They just sit there and a thief
can just pick them up and take them away. He said they must
have a shepherd to protect them because they're just defenseless.
They really are dumb. And he said, now I watch my sheep.
He said, my son would get out of school for the day. He said,
I put him in charge of my sheep so I could do other things. He
said, my son liked to drink a Coke Cola. He'd go get him a cold
Coke and a bad man would come steal my sheep. You've got to
be watching them at all times. Every believer here can see yourself
in that, can't you? Oh, you love the shepherd. Don't
you love him? You follow him? We're defenseless. We're completely defenseless.
Aren't you thankful for Christ our shepherd? He watches over.
He never leaves his sheep, never takes his eye off of him for
a moment. In this last chapter, what precipitated this conversation
right here, that former blind man, he wouldn't follow those
Pharisees. He would not hear them. He'd
been given a new nature that wouldn't hear him. He'd been
given eyes to see. He wouldn't hear him. Now, he
didn't know the right doctrine in every stance, did he? Every
question that somebody could ask him, he might not know the
exact right doctrine. But he knew those Pharisees were
not of God. He knew they were false prophets.
He couldn't find any rest in what they were preaching. He
couldn't find any comfort. He couldn't find any assurance
in what they were preaching. So he wasn't going to follow
them. Now, he couldn't tell you how he knew that, but he knew
it and he wouldn't follow them. He wasn't going to be with them.
He wouldn't hear them. He was going to keep looking.
until he found the shepherd. Good thing the shepherd found
him. The shepherd came to him and found him. Well, verse 6,
this parable spake Jesus unto them, but they understood not
what things they were which he spake unto them. They understood
exactly what he was saying. They didn't understand the spiritual
meaning of what our Lord was teaching. So he's going to explain. Aren't you thankful? He's going
to explain. And here's the second door that we see. Then said Jesus
unto them again, verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door
of the sheep. Christ is the door of the sheep. He's the door every one of the
sheep enter. Christ is the way to the Father. Everyone who enters into Christ
enters into acceptance with the Father, because we're accepted
in Christ. He's the only way back to the
Father. And the moment we enter Christ, we're saved. We're made righteous, we're made
holy, we're made just like Christ through union with Him the moment
we enter into Him. Now, the Lord said, I'm the door. He didn't say He's a long, dark
tunnel, did He? He said, I'm the door. You know, if you're
going to have to go through a long, dark tunnel, you know, go towards
the light. That kind of sounds kind of scary, just like going
to Dengas. Everybody been to Dengas? You got to go through
that tunnel. Nowadays, it's not scary. Used to be, it was scary.
Had a great big pit on either side. You know, you've got to
stay in that little narrow, you'd run off and have to have a tow
truck. Now they've filled it up. All the challenges have gone
out of it. But still, it's a long tunnel. That's not salvation. That's not Christ. He's the door. You're not crawling through this
long, dark tunnel, you know, making this long journey, long,
difficult journey. Coming to Christ is easy, simple. He's the door, the sheet. One
step and you're through it. Just one step. I've told you
this before. This is the thing about coming
to Christ. The moment you start, you're already there. That's
how near He is to His people. Coming to Christ's not difficult.
You don't have to climb over the wall and jump down the other
side. If I had to climb up a ten foot
wall and jump, if there was a day, that would have been nothing.
I think about it long and hard before I did that now. That sounds
kind of difficult to me. You know, there's no climbing
the wall. Just walk through the door. It's
so simple, so easy. But now listen. I'm the door. But you got to go through the
door. You can't stand there admiring the door. There's a lot to admire
about Christ. But these folks who admire him
as a man, oh, he's a good man. He was a prophet. What would
Jesus do? Let's follow his example. Now, they missed it. You can't
admire the door. You've got to go through it.
You can't admire the materials that the door is made of. When
I was up there in New Jersey, Clay took me to this place, I
think it was a place where John Mox preached. These enormous
doors, I mean, great big old thick, And you know, we stood
admiring that door for a while. I mean, it's something. But you've
got to go through. You've got to go through the
door. You can't just admire the righteousness of Christ, the
holiness of Christ, the fact that He's God in man. You've
got to go through. You can't admire the materials.
You've got to go through. You can't admire how long the
door has been hanging there. Either lambslain from the foundation
of the earth. Boy, that's a long time. You
can't admire how long the door's been standing there or hanging
there. You've got to enter in. Enter in by faith. And every
one of God's sheep are going to go through the door. You will
remain in this room forever unless you go through the door. You're
going to remain in your sin. You're going to remain in yourself.
You're going to remain in condemnation forever unless you go through
Christ, the door of the sheep. And every one of God's sheep
are going to enter that door. Now God's provided the door.
Christ is sure salvation. He never fails. He's provided
the door. Why do we try to dig tunnels?
Why do we try to knock holes in the wall and build new doors?
God's already provided the door. If you're going to go into the
study, there's the door right there. Why try to knock a hole
in the window? Why try to knock a hole in the
wall and come in? If you do that, you're just going to make a mess.
Why try to dig it? This has got a concrete floor.
Why do you want to jackhammer the floor up to dig a tunnel
to go through? Why don't you just go through
the door? Any other way is just going to
cause a mess. And that's what false religion does. Look at
verse 8. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but
the sheep did not hear them. Now thieves and robbers, they're
deceptive. They're not honest about what
they're doing. They're not honest about their motives. They're
not honest about what they're trying to build. Just like I saw a movie
one time. These fellows were going to break
into the bank. And what they did was they made it look like
they were a construction crew. They put up a big fence. They
got a disguise, you know, look like a construction crew. And
they went down in and they tunneled up into the vault of the bank
and stole everything they had. They're deceptive. Oh, they're
working. They look like they're doing
an honest day's work, but they're deceptive about what they're
doing. They're causing destruction.
They're causing damage. Eternal damage. Worse yet than
most thieves, they're causing eternal damage. Their goal is
themselves. So they've got no qualms about
killing the sheep. They're just using the sheep
to fill their belly and pad their wallet. They've got no qualms
about doing anything to the sheep. And the sheep are defenseless.
How frightening is it to think that a false prophet would come
and lead us astray and kill us because we're defenseless? Well,
here's the comfort to God's sheep. God's sheep aren't defenseless.
We've got the shepherd to protect us. The sheep hear the voice
of the shepherd. The sheep will follow the shepherd.
They're not going to believe these fellows. They're not going
to be led astray and put to death by these guys. God's sheep know
this. Christ is the door of the sheep.
He's the only door of salvation. And that's our third door. Verse
9, Christ is the door of salvation. I am the door. By me, if any
man enter in, he shall be saved. And he'll go in and out and find
pasture. Now Christ is the door of salvation
because Christ is salvation. The salvation of God's sheep
was accomplished by Christ alone. When he had by himself purged
our sin, he sat down. Because the work's finished.
It wasn't like, well, I did my part, now I've got to wait on
my people to ratify it or finish a work. No. He sat down. The work's finished. His sheep
will hear his voice and come to him because he's paid the
price. Christ is the door of salvation because Christ did
everything that was necessary to save His sheep from their
sins. He came as a man, was perfectly obedient to God's law, produced
a perfect righteousness that He gave to His people. He suffered
the full penalty of the broken law. Justice is satisfied. Everything justice demanded,
He suffered. And then He died. So His people
will never die. Salvation is accomplished. Christ
did a whole lot more than provide everything that's necessary for
salvation. He is salvation. Christ did a whole lot more than
provide a way of salvation. He is the way. He is salvation. You and I aren't the door. We
can't make our own way. We can't knock a hole in the
wall and make our own way. We can't earn our own righteousness.
Christ is the door of salvation. He's our righteousness. He's
our salvation. And we enter into salvation by
him. Now, there's just one door. There's just one door, not many
doors, one door. You ask Lila, she could pick
out a door. She could have picked out a bunch of different doors.
There's a bunch of doors in this room. There's just one door of
salvation. And we're not taking many different
routes to get to the same place. If you want to go to study, you
could go through that door or you could go out that door there
and Or you could go out here and go through the vestibule.
There are many different ways you could get. You could go out
this door, walk around, come in the front. I mean, there are
many different ways you could get there. Even more simple is to
go right there. Seems to me we're not all taking
different routes to get to the same place. We're not all worshiping
different gods or worshiping the same God in different ways,
the same God and calling different names, and we'll all end up in
heaven together. No, sir. We're not taking different routes
to get to the same place. There's one door. One way of
salvation is salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. The ark had
one door. The tabernacle had one door. The entrance into the holiest
had one door. The gate, it's still over here,
the gate around the tabernacle had one, or the fence around
there had one gate. There's one door. Now, that's
pretty simple. I mean, how, if you had to choose,
like, what's that? All that game show where you
choose a different door, door one, two. Let's make a deal.
It's not let's make a deal and choose which. That's complicated. I'll choose the one with the
goat behind it, not the car. There's one door. It's so simple. I love that. There's just one.
But men by nature will do anything but go through that one door.
Men by nature will do anything to obtain salvation other than
enter into Christ. Anything. But our Lord says we
enter, He said, by me, if any man enter in. We enter into salvation
by the power of Christ and by the will of Christ. It's by Him.
He is our salvation and we enter into it by Him. He's the one
that gives us the gift of faith. We enter salvation by the blood
of Christ, by the righteousness of Christ. And God's sheep will
enter into Christ willingly. He's not dragging His sheep.
He's leading them forth. They go willingly because He's
made them willing. Now, all this is done by Christ. Without Him, we can do nothing. In closing, let me give you this.
There's three things about this door of salvation I just love. The first is this. The door of
salvation is for sinners. Our Lord said if any man enter
in. He didn't say if any good man
enter in, or if any religious man enter in, or any man who's
got his doctrines straight, if he enters in. He didn't say if
anybody proves they love me enough. No, he said any man. Any man. It means any man, any
woman. Any boy, any girl. If they enter
into Christ, they'll be saved. Any man. Whether it's a white
man, a black man, a red man, a purple man, a pink man, a brown
man, any man. If you enter into Christ, you'll
be saved. Any man, whether he's a rich man or a poor man, whether
he's a wise man or an ignorant man, whether he's a religious
man or a heathen man, if we enter into Christ, we have salvation. Look at Acts chapter 15. Peter makes just such a great
statement here. Acts chapter 15, they're met
together to have this debate about the law and what we need
and what we should follow, you know, and should we keep the
law of Moses? And verse 6, Acts 15, and the apostles and elders
came together for to consider this matter. And when there had
been much disputing, Peter rose up. I can just see him sitting
over in the corner, listening to all these guys, you know,
wear themselves out. After they'd been much disputing, Peter rose
up and he said unto them, men and brethren, You know how that
a good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles, by
my mouth, should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And
God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them
the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us. And He put no difference
between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now, therefore,
why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples,
which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we
believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
shall be saved, even as they." You notice he didn't say, now
they're going to be saved same as us. Because if he says it that way,
it makes it sound like, you know, we're kind of better than them.
They'll be saved same. No. We're going to be saved same as them.
Any man. We're all the same. Any man. If we enter in, we have salvation. This is the door of salvation
is for sinners. Second, I love this. The door
of salvation is a sure door. I love a sure thing. If any man
enter in, he shall be saved. Not, well, if he enter in, he'll
be saved someday. No, he shall be saved right now. The moment he enters, he's saved. Sin will not be charged to him
because it's already been charged to Christ. He's born again. He has everlasting life. He doesn't
have to wait for it. He has everlasting life. There's no doubt about it. They
shall be saved. It's a sure door. And third,
I love this. The freedom that's in the door
of salvation. I read a lot about this phrase
here where the Lord says, let me get to it. If any man enter
in, he shall be saved. He shall go in and out and find
pasture. I read a lot about that. I know
this. This is not talking about going
in and out of Christ. We don't go in and out of him.
It's not like, well, we've been called to Christ, but we leave
him and go back to the law and then we come back to him. You
know, then we go try this. No, we're not. You're not going
in and out of Christ. This seems to be talking about
freedom, freedom. Free from the law. Now, why was
the law given? It was given to hem us in, wasn't
it? It was given to shut us up to Christ. The law had a lot
to say about where you couldn't go, what you couldn't do, and
how you couldn't do it. The law gave you no freedom,
just hems you in. Christ came to give freedom from
the law. And if you've entered into this
door of salvation, you've entered into Christ, brother, you're
free. Now, the law restricted where you could go, where you
couldn't go. In Christ, you're free. Go in and out and find
pasture. If you're a believer, I think
this is what this is saying, if you're a believer, you're
saved wherever you go. You're just as saved this Sunday
morning sitting in this church building as you will be tomorrow
out there on the job. You're driving down the road
in your car, you're just as saved as you are now. Y'all got children,
you're sitting at their basketball game one day this week and you're
thinking, when we get home, we got homework to do. Just to say,
when you've got all that hubbub and all that going on around
you, all that pressure on you, is you are right now. Scripture
says Enoch walked with God. Wasn't a tabernacle, wasn't a
temple, wasn't a church building, but Enoch still walked with God.
You walk with God wherever you go. You're free to rest in Christ
wherever you go. Now I grant you, it's more restful
right now. We've got the word, we don't
have any distractions. But you're free to rest in Christ
wherever you go. You ought to be actually resting
in Christ wherever you go. You're free to commune with Christ
wherever you go. Don't just think about him on
Sunday and Wednesday. Don't just pray to him on Sunday
and Wednesday. Don't just think on him and commune. Wherever
you go, you don't have to go to the priest. You don't have
to talk to God for you. You can. You can commune with
him any time you want. You don't have to go to the temple.
You don't have to come to this building. You can go anywhere you want
and commune with Christ. And you're safe in Christ. No
matter where your body goes, you're safe with Christ. Now,
you know good and well you ought not take your body certain places,
but wherever you go, you're safe. I kind of like to skydive someday.
Jan says, I can't do it. I contend I'd be just as safe
there as I am right here. But she says, no, you can't do
it. That thing might not open. And, you know, so all right.
You know, and the thing is that she's right. Places you know
you ought not to take your body. But wherever you go, you're safe
in Christ. The Lord feeds his sheep through
the preaching of the Word. And primarily that's public worship,
through the preaching of the Word. Public worship is so vitally
important. But you know what? You can read
your Bible at home too. You can read, you can study,
and you'll get fed there too. It won't replace the public worship
service. A man told me one time, he said,
if I had to choose and give up one, he said, I'd give up public
worship for I wouldn't my private study. Well, I wouldn't. Not
at all. This is where God said he's going
to meet with his people. Is there two or three here? He said it'd
be in the midst of us. Always important. But you can
read your Bible at home too. You can read and understand,
be blessed and fed. You can pray wherever you are.
You can think on these things and enjoy them wherever you are.
I mean, I hope you're getting a blessing from the message.
But yeah, you're free. Think on that Tuesday morning
if you want. You're free. Free from the law. Oh, happy
condition. That's the door of salvation.
It's for sinners. It's a sure door. And it's a
free door, free in Christ. All right, let's bow in prayer.
Our Heavenly Father, words cannot express how thankful
we are that you've provided your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to
be the door of the sheep, the door of the sheepfold, where
we leave this world, leave our sin and self and self-righteousness
and corruption and enter into Christ, enter into holiness and
righteousness and union with Christ. How thankful we are. This thing of salvation is not
left up to chance. But the gospel preached will
always accomplish the purpose that you sent it to accomplish.
And we're so thankful. There's not a chance one of your
sheep will not enter into this door. And we're thankful, Father,
for the sure door of salvation. How thankful this people, how
thankful we are that this door is for sinners. Sinners like
us. You came to save sinners. You
came, not to call the righteous, but sinners. How thankful we
are. And how thankful we are for the
freedom that we have in Christ. That we're free to worship. We're
free to come before the throne of the very God any time we want
and be accepted in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father,
we're thankful. We pray that you'd use this message,
Father, to bless your sheep, to instruct and to comfort and
to call your sheep out. Those that don't know you, would
you use this message, we beg of thee, call them out, call
them to Christ so we can rejoice together in Him. Use this message
for your glory. Use this to bring much glory
to your name, we pray. In the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, we pray and give thanks. Amen.