Everybody Would you turn to John chapter
10 John chapter 10 Verse 8 John chapter 10 The Lord says All that ever came
before me are thieves and robbers. But the sheep did not hear them."
I've entitled this message, All That Ever Came Before Me. Now, this is John chapter 10,
that famous chapter of the shepherd and his sheep. The Lord identifies
himself in this chapter as the good shepherd that giveth his
life for the sheep. He's called by the writer to
the Hebrews, that great shepherd of the sheep. And he's called
by Peter, the chief shepherd, the shepherd of which David said,
the Lord is my shepherd. What a blessed thing to be able
to say that the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. And we read here of the sheep,
I think it's so Interesting that the Lord uses a sheep to describe
a believer, not a lion, not a. Eagle. The sheep. Dumb. Defenseless, they don't have
claws, they don't have fangs. Easy game. Dirty. They can become so dirty when
they fall over, they can't get back up unless the shepherd comes
and puts them back on their feet. So easy to go astray for a sheep,
and when he goes astray, he can't find his way back. That is the
animal the Lord uses to describe his people, the shepherd and
his sheep. Now, this Chapter actually begins
in verse 39 of chapter nine. This is a continuation of what's
being said. So let's look in verse 39. And Jesus said, for judgment
I am come into this world. Now that ought to get our attention.
What is this judgment? for which he says he has come
into this world. Well, he tells us what his twofold
judgment is. For judgment, I am coming to
this world that they would see not, might see. Somebody who cannot see one single
reason in themselves as to why God would show them favor. That
person, Christ said, I've come to give sight to. And then he
says, and that they which see, I see why God would save me. I did this. I stopped doing that. I changed. I can see why God
would save me. Christ said, I've come to make
that person blind. Now that's the twofold judgment
of the Lord. And some of the Pharisees which
were with him heard these words and said unto him, are we blind
also? Jesus said unto them, if you were blind, you should have no sin. Chris Cunningham has made a statement
on numerous occasions that I love so much. Don't tell me what the
Bible means. Tell me what it says. What's it say here? What's it
say? If you were blind, you should
have no sin. Now, I want you to think of the
power of that statement. If you truly cannot see in yourself
one reason why God would favor you, you have no sin. It's what the
Lord says. But now you say, we see. Therefore, your sin remaineth. What a horrible thing to think
of that, my sin remaining and me carrying my sin into judgment
day and being rewarded for my sin. Now he's speaking to the
same people when he says in verse one of chapter 10, this is the
continuation of that speech. Verily, verily. I say unto you. Now, one of the things I love
about the Lord's speech, not one time did he ever say, thus
saith the Lord. I say unto you, speaking as God, he that entereth not by the door
into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same as
a thief and a robber. He's a thief attempting to rob
God of his glory. He's a robber seeking to rob
you of the only ground of assurance there is. But he that entereth
in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. Now, when he said
this, I have no doubt that these people understood that he's referring
to himself as the shepherd of which David said, the Lord's
my shepherd. They knew what he was saying.
And they thought about it like they thought about everything
else the Lord said. Who does he think he is, making a claim
like that? He's the shepherd of Israel?
Who does he think he is? He knows. I am that I am. Now, in every village in Palestine
where the Lord walked for 33 years, there were sheep pens
or sheep folds. They were enclosed areas. They
didn't have grass in them. That's where the shepherds would
bring their sheep in at night. And they would have walls around
them. And at night, after they'd been feeding all day, they'd
bring the sheep back into these sheep pens or sheep folds. And
there the sheep would be until the shepherd came and they would
get mixed up. It'd be a bunch of different flocks, maybe 10,
12 different flocks, all in that sheep pen, all mixed together.
Now in the morning, the shepherd would come and he would call
his own sheep by name. And they recognized his voice.
That's what is special about a sheep. They know the voice
of the shepherd. And they heard the voice of the shepherd. And
they went out of that sheep pen following that shepherd, who
they knew as their shepherd. You know, I've even read where
men tried to dress exactly like the shepherd and look just like
the shepherd. But when they called, the sheep wouldn't respond. They
only respond to one voice. their shepherd's voice. The other
sheep, they wait till their shepherd gets there, but the sheep hear
the shepherd's voice, and they follow him into this place of
pasture. Now, who are these sheep? We read of the shepherd. Who
are these sheep? Well, on Judgment Day, we read
where the great judge will separate the nations as a shepherd divides
his sheep from the goats. The sheep are the elect. The sheep are those the father
gave to his son. They're his sheep. He calls them
my sheep. The shepherd whose own the sheep
are his own. They're the ones Christ died
for. Look in verse 15, As the Father knoweth me, even so know
I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. The sheep
are the ones that Christ Jesus died for. They're the ones He
calls. Verse 3, To Him the porter openeth,
the sheep hear His voice, and He calleth His own sheep by name,
and leadeth them out. The sheep are those who believe.
Look in verse 26 of this chapter, but you believe not because you're
not of my sheep. As I said to you, sheep believe.
He says, the reason you don't believe is because you're not
of my sheep. My sheep believe. Every single
one of them do. Don't you want to be a sheep?
I want to be a sheep. I want to be somebody who believes.
Look in verse 27, my sheep, hear my voice, I know them, and they
follow me." Now, here's the mark of a sheep. They follow the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, let's hold up for just a
second on this thing of following Christ. What's it mean to follow
Christ? Most preachers, when they present
following Christ, they present walking in His steps and imitating
Him. Now, would anybody deny that
it's important? I want to walk in his steps,
don't you? I want to imitate him. But that's not the way you
follow. When you follow, you don't look
at your feet to look how well you're doing. You don't look
at your life. You don't look to the side to
somebody else's life to see how well they're doing, see how you're
comparing with them. You don't look behind you to
see something that would give you evidence that you're a sheep.
Well, this happened, that happened. No, you don't look behind you.
You look straight ahead and keep your eye on the shepherd. You don't look anywhere else.
You look only to Christ. The moment you look anywhere
else, you lose him. The only way to follow somebody,
if you're in a crowd, I remember the first time I went to Mexico,
Walter Groover took us downtown. and downtown Merida. He was not a real nurturing man.
You're pretty much on your own. If you don't follow him, you're
going to get lost. I remember we tried to keep our
eyes on him, and finally we lost him. What are we going to do? He came back after us after a
while. What's wrong with those idiots? He found us. The only
way you could follow Him is by not looking anywhere else, but
just watching Him. And that is the way sheep follow. It's looking unto Jesus. Looking away from everything
else and looking to Him only. Not looking to your experience,
not looking to your works, not looking to your intentions, not
looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Sheep follow Him. Now, a lot of people try to make
this thing of following Christ, how well you do it. Well, if
you're thinking that way, you're not following Him. You're following
yourself. You follow Him by not looking at your feet, not looking
at your walk, not looking at somebody else's walk. You look
to Him only. That's what sheep do. They follow
the shepherd. Now, the Lord says in 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 is
a thief and a robber. Christ is the way. Christ is the way any other way is another
way the lord said i am the way he
didn't say i'll show you the way he didn't say i'll lead you
along the way he said i am the way so much so that if you're
on the way you're at the desired destination because if he's there
you're there too because you're in him I love the way the Lord
said in John chapter 14 verse 6, I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. When he comes to the Father,
that's when I come to the Father, because I'm in him. I come by
him. And that's the way I am brought
into the Father's presence, being in him the way. As he is in his father's presence,
all in him are in his father's presence. Somebody climbs up some other
way, the same as a thief and a robber, but he that enter then
by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. Christ is both the
shepherd and the door. He says on in verse seven and
verse nine, I'm the door of the sheep. And I am the door. Not
only is he the shepherd, he's the door. Remember, he's all
things. He's all God requires of me. He looks at Jesus Christ
for in every sense of the way. Now, he says in verse 3, To him
the border openeth, only to him. And the sheep hear his voice. And he calleth his own sheep
by name, and leadeth them out. Now this is what is known as
the effectual call. I've never heard my name audibly.
You haven't either. But I've heard his voice in the
preaching of the gospel. And when I know that my name
is sinner, that's my name I hear. You can only hear the gospel
as a sinner. You can't hear the gospel as a good person. You can only
truly hear the gospel for profit to your soul as a sinner. And that's who you respond to.
That's who the message is to. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save who? Sinners. Not good people. Sinners, of whom I am the chief. To him the porter openeth, the
sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name,
and he leads them out. Zacchaeus, make haste, come down. Today I must abide at thy house. You know, that means he's there
for good. Lazarus, come forth, he that
was dead. came forth, Matthew, follow me. Matthew rose, forsook all and
followed the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, this is the invincible,
irresistible call. You can't say no to that. You
can't. It comes with the power of God.
My sheep hear my voice. You hear his voice when you hear
the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit. I think of What
Paul said to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 1, for knowing,
brethren, beloved, your election of God. How you know, Paul? For
our gospel came not to you in word only, but also in power
and the Holy Ghost and much assurance. You're sure that this is the
message of the gospel. You're sure this is the truth.
Actually, he's not talking about assurance of personal salvation.
This is God. This is the gospel. This is who
he is. Calleth his own sheep by name. Verse four. And when he putteth forth his
own sheep, don't you love the way they're called his own sheep?
I want to be one of them. Somebody he would call his own
sheep. And when he putteth 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. You know, only sheep hear the
gospel. They'll not hear the voice of a stranger. They flee
from the voice of a stranger. They know the gospel. And they
know what's not the gospel. And somebody says, well, how
do you know? If you're a sheep, you know.
See, if you're a sheep, you know. You know the shepherd's voice
if you're a sheep. Somebody says, well, I'm not sure. You're not
a sheep then. Sheep know the voice of the gospel. And we're
going to see more about what that is as we go on reading.
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. We're clueless. We don't have
any idea what he means by all this. Then said Jesus unto them, verse
seven, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the
sheep. Now he is that straight gate
and narrow way. That's the door he's speaking
of. This door is so narrow that if you have anything other than
him, you can't get through. If you hold on to something else,
you're not getting through. The only way you can get through
this door is if all you have is him. But this door so wide
that the chief, the very chief of sinners can walk through this
door. He's a narrow door and he's a wide door, but he's the
door of the sheep. And we're going to come back
to that in a moment from verse nine. But look what he says in
verse eight, all that ever came before me
are thieves and robbers." Does that mean Abraham and Moses
and Isaiah and Jeremiah and David are thieves and robbers because
they came before the Lord? Well, you know that that is not
what he is saying. If there is something you must
do first before he can do something for you, that's a thief and that's
a robber. If there's something that you
must do first before he can do something for you, that's a thief. That's a robber. Revelation 13.8 says Christ is
the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Before there was
a sinner, there was a Savior. What can come before the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world? Nothing. When I was a young man, there
was a preacher by the name of Jerry Falwell. Perhaps some of
you all remember him. Jerry Falwell. He was the head
of the moral majority, some kind of Baptist preacher. He claimed
to be a preacher. He wasn't a gospel preacher. He was more of a political, I don't know what he was, but
he was some political, but what he did though, I remember if
you would send him a check, he would send you a lapel pin called
Jesus first. And you could show everybody
that you put Jesus first. If you can do that, He's not
first, you are. Before me or you were ever around,
He was the first and He was the last. He was the beginning. He was the end. He is the Alpha and He is the
Omega. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ, He's
first in creation, isn't He? He created the universe. He's
first. Nothing before Him. He's the
eternal Son of God. He's first in providence. Whatever
it is, He caused it. Whatever it is, He is the first
cause of it. Somebody says, are you saying
that He's the author of evil? I'm saying He's the first cause
of everything. That's exactly what I'm saying. Well, what about
Him? Don't ask questions like that. He brings good out of evil. There wouldn't be any evil if
He didn't determine it and will it, and He's in control of everything.
And it's not His permissive will, it's His will. Whatever happens
is His will. He is the first cause. What about the secondary causes?
Well, he's the cause of that, too. What about the tertiary
causes? He's the cause of that, too. He's the cause of all things
in profit. What you just read in Isaiah
chapter 46. You know, nobody came before him in election.
God didn't look at you and then put you in a son. No, you were
chosen in him. You were viewed in Him. There's
never a time when you've been independent of Him. Nothing came
before Him. Christ be my first elect, He
said. Then chose us and in Him our
living head, according as He hath chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world. Christ is first in redemption
to this extent. I've already quoted this scripture.
He's the Lamb having been slain from the foundation of the world. in whom we have redemption through
His blood. Christ is first in forgiveness. You know what that means? That
means you didn't do something, then you were forgiven. Well,
I asked Him to forgive me, then He forgave me. No. Salvation
begins with the full, free, complete forgiveness of sins by what He
accomplished. Nothing I do before that. You
know when I was forgiven? Well, first of all, I was forgiven
in the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. But I was forgiven
when He said, Father, forgive them. I wasn't even born yet.
Everybody He prayed for was forgiven. Nothing comes before Christ. Nothing came before Him in forgiveness.
Nothing comes before Him in justification. You know what that means? That
means every believer Eternally justified now as far as my experience
goes not till I believe the gospel You don't have any right to even
suspect that God has favor toward you if you do not believe the
gospel but Everything we have is given in sin cross Jesus before
the world began what second Timothy 1 9 he saved us He called us
what came first the saving of the calling the saving he saved
us and And He called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Now,
God said, I'll by no means clear the guilty. Did He say that?
Exodus 34, I'll by no means clear the guilty. That means God's
people have always been viewed in the beloved, accepted in the
beloved. Christ is first in the remission
of sins. I mean, in reconciliation. If
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of his son, much more being reconciled, we should be saved by his life. He's first in life. You know
the reason you have a spiritual life? He gave it to you. That's
why you have it. He gave it to you. Why do you
believe? He gave you faith. Why do you
have repentance? He granted you repentance. Why
do you persevere? Because He causes you to. Nothing
comes before Him. Anything that comes before Him
is nothing more than a thief and a robber seeking to rob God
of the glory and salvation and seeking to rob you of the one
ground of acceptance before God, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Listen. We'll be in heaven because he
said in my father's house are many mansions. If it were not
so, I would have told you. I go and prepare a place for
you. That's why you'll be there. Nothing
comes before him. And that's what the sheep hear.
Sheep hear this. Anything that comes before Christ,
the sheep will not hear. They will flee, as that being
the voice of a stranger, the distinctive mark of a sheep is
that they hear. Verse 8, 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, the one before
Christ. The thief cometh not, but for
to steal and to kill and to destroy. I'm come that they might have
life. Oh, the life of being born of
God. having spiritual life, knowing
God, knowing His Son, how infinitely above that is to anything in
this material world we live in, to know the Lord Jesus Christ.
He said, this is eternal life, that they might know Thee, the
only true God in Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. Now understand, The reason nothing comes before
him is because he really is all in salvation. I am the door. I love the simplicity of that.
We know what a door is for. A door lets you in. A door lets
you out. A door keeps you in. A door keeps
you out. I am the door. Now, one of the things I love
about the gospel, and there's so much we love about the gospel,
but don't you love in Revelation 22, verse 17, where he says,
the spirit and the bride say, come. Come on in. Doesn't say make yourself better.
Doesn't say prepare yourself. Doesn't seem like he can go and
do something. No, come! Right now! Come in! Christ is
the door of entrance into the very presence of the Father,
finding full acceptance. He's an open door. He's an open
door. This is for anybody who needs
him. Would that be you? This is for anybody who needs
him. Now, you know, we say, well, the only fitness he requires
is to feel your need of him. What if you don't feel your need
the way you ought to? It's better to have a need than
to feel a need. I might not feel my needs the way I want to, but
I always have a need. Oh, how I need him. I need the
precious Jesus for I'm full of sin. My soul is dark and guilty. My heart is dead within. I need
the precious fountain where I can always flee. The blood of Christ,
most precious, the sinners perfectly. The doors open for all who need. But this door is a closed, the
Lord is a closed door to anybody who brings their works. If you
come because of something you've done, because of something you
think you are. He's a shut door to you and he won't open up. But he's also a closed door to
keep his people in so they can't get out. I love it when Noah
and his family entered the ark. The scripture says the Lord shut
them in. He shut the door. And is there
any way of describing how secure those people were in the ark? How secure is somebody in Christ?
And he's an open door of liberty and freedom. They go in and out
and find pasture. Christ, the door of the sheep. I am the door by me. Now, don't think that that's
a tack on by me. if any man enter." He doesn't
say, if any man enter, he says, by me, if any man enter. When
I enter, that's when he enters. What about where the writer of
the Hebrews says, by him, let us offer the sacrifice of praise
to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips
giving thanks to his name. He doesn't say, let's offer the
sacrifice of praise to God continually. He says, by him. Let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually. I wouldn't want
my praise to come before Him apart from the Lord Jesus Christ,
would you? Just by Him. By Him. By me! If any man enter
the door, he shall be saved. He shall be. There's no question about it.
And he shall go in and out and find pasture. That's the liberty. The thief cometh not but for
to steal and to kill and destroy. I'm come that they might have
life and that they might have it more abundantly. And here's why I'm that good
shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. I want to be one of these sheep
that he gives his life for. And what is the evidence you're
a sheep? You believe. You believe that Jesus Christ
is God the Son. You believe that what he does,
has done, is all that's needed to make you accepted before God.
Sheep, believe. Remember when he said, you believe
not because you're not of my sheep. Sheep, believe. May God enable every one of us
to believe the gospel.