John 10 this morning, please. John 10, verse 1, the Lord Jesus
Christ speaking, 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. Now, the implication here is
not unclear. He said this to the same ones
that he spoke to in chapter 9 at the end of the chapter there.
But look at verse 41 of chapter 9. Jesus said unto them, If you
were blind, you should have no sin. If you acknowledge your
blindness, your utter dependence upon God for any revelation,
for any truth, then you'd be given it. You'd be given sight. You'd be in Christ. You'd be saved and you'd have
no sin. Christ would have borne. You
would know that Christ had borne your sin. But now you say, we
see. We know God. We don't need this
man to teach us. And therefore, your sin remaineth.
So you see who he's talking to here. He just got through telling
them, your sin remaineth. You are in your sins. And now
he says, he that entereth not by the door, if you come another
way where the sheep are, you're a thief and a robber. Now, this is all of us by nature
until the Lord Jesus Christ reveals himself as the way to God, the
door, the access, the only access. There is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved until he reveals
himself as such. We all try to get there another
way, don't we? We don't want to go to hell.
We want to have the favor of God. We want God to bless us.
We're going to get there, but we're not going to get there
His way. We're going to get there by our good outweighing our bad
or some nonsense, some other pipe dream like that. So we're
all coming another way. And really there is just one
other way, isn't there? You're either going to have to
please God in yourself by your deeds, or you're going to have
to please Him in Christ. There are just two ways. But
all of us, we come another way, don't we? Just like Cain did.
He came another way. God revealed the way of acceptance
with Himself by blood sacrifice, and He came another way. He tried
to get in another way. And we all do and shall. Until
we see the One who said, I am the way. Now the sheepfold is
where the sheep live. Don't think of this as a location.
We'll talk about that more later. He deliberately annihilates the
idea of this being a location or some kind of a belonging other
than in the person of Christ Himself. But the sheep is where
the sheep are. If you come to the sheep, if
you come where they live, where they are, and you approach them,
and you don't come by the door, You're a threat to the sheep.
That's what he's saying here. The thief doesn't come to take
the sheep because he loves them and wants to care for them. He
comes to eat them for his own satisfaction, you see. He comes
to feed himself, not the sheep. We have that in Ezekiel 34.1.
Let me read it to you for the sake of time. Ezekiel 34.1. The word of the Lord came unto
me, Ezekiel said, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the
shepherds of Israel. prophesy and say unto them, Thus
saith the Lord God unto the shepherds, Woe be to the shepherds of Israel
that do feed themselves. Should not the shepherds feed
the flocks? You eat the fat and you clothe
you with the wool. You kill them that are fed."
My supplying this by me. They are
fed. His sheep will be fed, but not
by you, he's saying. They're not fed. You kill them
that are fed. and you wear their wool, but you feed not the flock. The diseased have you not strengthened,
neither have you healed that which was sick, neither have
you bound up that which was broken, neither have you brought again
that which was driven away, neither have you sought that which was
lost. But with force and with cruelty have you ruled them."
That's the one that comes another way. He comes not to take care
of the sheep, but to take care of himself. We're surrounded
by them, my friends. Pharisees didn't die when the
word Pharisee ceased to be used. They're still among us. We still are, in our hearts,
Pharisees. The other way that impostors
lead the sheep, or by which they approach the sheep and thereafter
lead them, is by the way of legal bondage. That is the other way. That way is declared clearly
in the Word of God to be death. They come by legal bondage, they
approach the sheep with the message of legal bondage, and they lead
them down that path. The Lord is saying, if a man
comes where the sheep are, and he does not come by Christ, through
Christ, bearing the message of Christ, by the way of Christ,
He's up to no good. And that's exactly what Paul
said in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. They're up to no good. Listen
to it. 2 Corinthians 11, 13, for such
are false apostles. Deceitful workers. They're deceitful. They come saying God and heaven
and Christ, but they're not preaching the God of the Bible, the Christ
of Scripture. It's another one. And no marvel,
for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. They
act like shepherds. He called them shepherds there
in Ezekiel, didn't he? But they're not God's shepherds.
They're the devil's shepherds. Therefore, it is no great thing
if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness."
They're not going to come, you know, like in the cartoons, the
thief has the black and white stripes on, you know, and the
little mask, and he's coming in there. They're not going to
come like that. You're going to say, that's a thief. He's going to come wearing the
robe of a shepherd. with a staff, you know. So nobody
suspects him. And then he's going to grab the
sheep and run when he can. Whose end shall be according
to their works. They're up to no good. They're deceitful. False. Well, what's the no good that
they're up to? Well, I propose to you that it was the no good
of the bondage of the law. Let's see what Paul said in Galatians
3 verse 1. Turn to this one with me, please.
Galatians 3.1, Oh foolish Galatians. That's kind of rude, isn't it? We're all fools by nature, my
friends. It's time we accept that and
realize that and bow to that. We're fools. We're not wise.
O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?" Somebody's cast
a spell on you here. Somebody's deceived you that
you should not obey the truth. "...before whose eyes Jesus Christ
hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you." You're
not ignorant up here. You're not ignorant because you
haven't heard the truth. It's been evidently set forth
to you. This only what I learn of you,
verse two, received you the spirit by the works of the law or by
the hearing of faith. Are you God's? Do you have the
spirit? Do you have life in Christ because
you did something or because you heard something and God gave
you faith? God mixed faith with your hearing
of it. Are you so foolish? Having begun
in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? You've
been bewitched. You've been deceived. How did
they deceive you? Well, it has something to do
with the law, doesn't it? Isn't that what he said? Did
you receive God's blessing by the works of the law? That's
what they'll tell you. If you'll live the Christian
life, God will bless you. That's the old covenant. You
do this and I'll bless you. We've already broken that one.
The jury's not still out on that, my friends. That's a failure.
If you have acceptance with God by anything you do, you are a
proven failure and an affront to God, and you trample underfoot
His precious blood that was shed specifically because you cannot
do what you're supposed to do. Are you made perfect by the flesh? Did God reveal Himself to you
in spite of the fact and save you in spite of your law breaking?
And now you're going to be sustained in grace and go on to prosper
in the grace of God by your law keeping? Somebody's deceived
you. And that's how they did it. By
saying, if you'll just do this, God will do that. No, I'll tell
you the truth is just the opposite of that, my friends. If God will
do this, you'll do that. If God will do something for
you, you will follow suit. You will obey Him. You will bow
to Him. But God's going to have to do
something for you. Not you doing something for God. That's deception. And He said, if you come to the
sheep with that, you're a thief. and you come there not to bless
the sheep, you'll say, oh, I desire the blessing of God on you, but
you've come there to murder the sheep. Chapter 4, verse 9. Listen, the same context in Galatians
here. Chapter 4, verse 9. But now after
that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, God has revealed
Himself to you. How turn ye again to the weak
and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage."
You see, that's what the law is. It's bondage, legal bondage. Acceptance with God by the works
of the law is the message of bondage. It's a cruel taskmaster,
pictured by the Egyptians when they held captive God's people
and whipped them and beat them and said, do, do, do. That's
what the law does. Do this, don't do that, with
no mercy and no hope. Why would you want to go back
to that, Paul said? Why? When God has freely justified
you in Christ. When by the precious blood of
Christ, God has made you just and perfect in His sight. Not
guilty, no consequences for your sin. Why would you go back to
the cruel taskmaster and say, I'd like to be a slave again?
when Christ hath set you free. Oh, it's not very pretty, is
it? It's not very smart. That's our old nature coming
out. And that's the message of this world. The so-called gospel
message of this world is if you'll just do something for God, He'll
do something for you. Alright, but look at verse 2
of our text. But he that entereth in by the
door, is the shepherd of the sheep.
Christ is the Good Shepherd. He is called the Great Shepherd. And He speaks through His under-shepherds
now. When one of His true under-shepherds
come to you, it's the Shepherd coming. Didn't we just see that? As though God did beseech you
by us, be ye reconciled. Didn't we see that Wednesday
night? We stand in Christ's stead and say, Be ye reconciled to
God? That's what he's saying. I stand here before you, a man,
a vile failure in myself, but I stand here in Christ's stead.
If somebody comes preaching Christ, the shepherd is there. And you'll
hear the voice of the shepherd. If all you hear is my voice this
morning, that won't do you any good. But he said, the sheep
hear my voice. When the gospel is preached,
the voice of the shepherd is heard. And we know His voice,
don't we? We know His voice as His sheep.
So I'm in the sheepfold. I've come to the sheepfold this
morning. Did I come by the door? Did I come by Christ? Have I
approached you any other way but by the door? Have I come
preaching any other truth, any other gospel than righteousness
and forgiveness and peace with God only? in, by, through, and
because of the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did for sinners on
that cross. That's the door, my friends. And so when somebody
comes in by the door, you can say, that's the shepherd. That's
the shepherd speaking. And we stand in his stead, speaking. He's the shepherd. And we are
his under-shepherds, those who are his witnesses. When we come
by the door, The under-shepherd comes by the authority of, and
with the voice of the shepherd. Look at verse 3. To him the porter
openeth, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own
sheep by name, and leadeth them out. Now who's the porter? Well,
whoever this is decides who gets in to speak to the sheep. And
who doesn't? That's Christ. It's as in all
of the Scripture. Christ is the door. Christ is
the shepherd. Christ is the porter. Christ
is all, my friends. He decides who gets in to the
sheepfold and who doesn't. If the shepherd comes, then the
porter opens. And if we come in the name of
the shepherd, in his stead, speaking the words of the shepherd, then
we represent the shepherd. And the porter opens. Otherwise, we're trying to dig
under the fence if you come preaching anything else. But Christ and
His righteousness and sin offering alone. Christ is all of these
things. We see that revealed here clearly.
He's the door. He's the access. The only access. He's the shepherd. David said,
the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Because He's
my shepherd, I'll be provided for. I will never lack anything.
And He's the porter. No one gets in where the sheep
are without the porter opening to Him. As in all of Christ's
teaching. Hadn't He been teaching that
all through the book of John? He's all things. To the believer,
He's the bread. He said, I'm that bread that
came down from heaven. If any man eat, he'll never hunger
again. I'm the light of the world. I'm the water of life. If any
man drink, He'll never be thirsty anymore. He'll be satisfied fully
and only by the Lord Jesus Christ. And this parable is the same.
Christ is all. We enter by the door, we're led
and provided for by the shepherd, and we're protected from impostors
by the porter. It's clear who these characters
are. Now look carefully at the next phrase. It's repeated in
the following verse. Look at the next phrase there
in verse 2. He calleth His own sheep. That's verse 3. I'm sorry, we
looked at verse 3. To Him the porter openeth, and
the sheep hear His voice, and He calleth His own sheep by name. And then in the next verse, in
verse 4, we're also called His own sheep. Who are these ones that says
that He calls His own in this text? It reminds me of what our
brother taught this morning, doesn't it? You His own. He read
in 1 Peter 2.9, You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
and holy nation, a peculiar people. You may be peculiar in a lot
of ways, but that word right there means His purchased possession,
His own purchased possession. That's what he's saying here.
The sheep are his sheep, his own sheep. In John 17, how many
times did he say, those that the Father hath given me, they're
mine, they're mine, they're mine. Have you ever had a possession
that was so valuable to you that you just kept saying, mine, mine,
when I was a little child, you know, that's mine. You can't
play with that, that's mine. You can't have it. The problem
with me then was your stuff was mine too. But this is His own. That speaks of how precious we
are to Him. But that's precious to me too,
to know that. How gracious He is. He's not
ashamed to say that one's mine. The Scripture said He's not ashamed
to call us brethren. My brothers have made me ashamed
at times. There have been times in this
world, on this earth, that I wouldn't have wanted you to know they
were my brother. We're infinitely worse than that, than anything
anybody's ever done to me. Oh, my goodness. He has every
reason to be ashamed of us. But he's not. They're mine. They're mine. They're stupid
sheep, but they're my sheep. They don't have enough sense
to come in out of the rain. That's okay. I'll bring them
in when it's raining. The thief would come in and deceive
them, and then they wouldn't know any difference. They'd be
deceived if I let them go for five seconds. They'd follow the
wrong person, but I'm not going to let it happen. The porter's
not opening to them, you see. Not going to let it happen. What a beautiful, beautiful phrase
this is. His own sheep. A peculiar people. Chosen, holy, and called of God. Who is He speaking about? Is
this the entire human race? Is everybody a sheep? When the
Lord speaks of His own, does He speak of the human race as
being His own? No, look at verse 26. He specifically
in the context says to these ones that he begins speaking
to here at the first of the chapter, you believe not because you are
not of my sheep. You're not my sheep. As I said
unto you, my sheep hear my voice. And when they did not hear his
voice, it revealed that they were not sheep. And that's what
he said here. He called them on it. So he's not speaking of everybody.
I mentioned John 17. Listen to the language of John
17 in verse 9. The Lord Jesus Christ is praying
for His people. This is our great high priest.
Paul said in Hebrews, we have such a high priest. We have a
better high priest than Aaron who represented Christ, who foreshadowed
Christ. And he said this in John 17.
This is his great high priestly prayer for his people. And he
said, I pray for them, those which you've given me. He's identified
them in the context. I pray not for the world. When he says I pray for my own,
I pray for those you've given me, he's not talking about the
human race. When he says God so loved the
world, it's not talking about the human race. When I say I
love my garden and I cherish my garden, I'm not talking about
the weeds. I'm talking about the stuff I
planted. I don't pray for the world, I
pray for them. Who? My own sheep. I pray for them which Thou hast
given me, for they are Thine. And all mine are Thine, and Thine
are mine. Oh, you can't miss that, can
you? If they're God's, then they're Christ's. If they're Christ's,
then they're God's. And we are His. And he said,
I'm glorified in them. Far from being ashamed of us,
He readily owns us as His and prizes us. And he said, I'm glorified
in them. When people look at them, it
won't bring shame to me, it will bring glory to me because they'll
see the effect of my grace. They'll see what happens when
God loves a sinner and does something for him. And I'll be glorified. So who are the sheep? Well, they
belong to Christ. That's what makes a sheep where
He is. They are His purchased possession.
How did He purchase them? How much did it cost? Acts 20,
28, Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock,
over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed
the church of God which He hath purchased, which He hath made
His own." How did He do it? He purchased them with His own
blood. There is nothing, period, that even approaches
the value of the precious blood of Christ. You were not redeemed
with corruptible things, such as silver and gold. No amount
of that could even come close. But with the precious blood of
Christ, as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot, the
blood of God bought you. And now Christ says, You're mine.
You're mine. You think He'll have what He
bought? You think He'll possess what He bought? He said, I will
come again and receive you unto Myself. Alright now, what comfort for
the sheep. What glorious comfort. This is exactly what Christ said
in our context. Paul said, He hath purchased
the church with His own blood. Look at verse 11 of John 10.
That's what He said here. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good
Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep. That's why He's able
to say, They're My sheep because He gave Himself for us. He bought the right to do what
He will with His own. And He said, I gave My life for
the sheep. And we'll see in verse 10 why
He did that. To what end. And then look at
verse 15. He said, As My Father knoweth
Me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down My life for the
sheep. The sheep are the ones who Christ
died for. That defines us, my friends.
That's why we're so particular and so jealous over the truth
of Christ's effectual, particular atonement of His people. He bought
somebody with that blood, my friends, and made them His own. And we're particular about that
and jealous over it because that's who we are. This is what identifies
us. We are His sheep bought by His
precious blood. If He didn't buy us with His
precious blood, then we're not His. So this is my hope. My faith has found a resting
place, not in device nor creed. I trust the ever-living One. His wounds for me shall plead. I need no other argument. I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died.
and that He died for me. That's my hope. I have no other
plea. I can't contend with God. If God enters into judgment with
me, I'm doomed. I have one plea. His wounds,
His blood, His death, He died for me when He died. And if you say He didn't, I've
got no hope. If you say, well, He died, but
you... You just damned me to hell right
there. My hope is that Christ bought me with his precious blood
and I have no other. And you will not take it away
from me because I have it right here written by the hand of God
himself. And I'm not letting go of it.
I'm not letting go of him as my effectual redeemer. He redeemed
me with his precious blood. He didn't take a shot at it.
My hope is built on nothing less, because everything else is something
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. Notice it says here, He
calls them by name. I like that. He knows us. He's always known us, my friends.
Even before we know Him, He knows us. In Psalm 139, the psalmist
said, O Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest
my down-sitting and my up-rising. Thou understandest my thought
afar off. He knows what you're thinking
now. He knows when you're down. He knows when you're in need.
He knows when you're hurt. Thou compassest my path and my
lying down. Satan said of Job, no wonder
He serves you. You've hedged Him about. That's
right, Satan. Thank God. Thank His holy name
that He has done so. He's compassed me about with
His blessings and mercy and protection and providence. And David said,
you're acquainted with all my ways. He knows us intimately
like nobody else ever can. For there is not a word in my
tongue but love, O Lord. Thou knowest it all together.
Even before you cry for help, He's already heard you and already provided everything
you need. Thou hast beset me behind and before and laid your
hand upon me." And then David said, Such knowledge
is too wonderful for me. I can't grasp it. It's high. I cannot attain unto it. Can
you imagine? Can you figure it out? Can you
possibly fathom the depths of that that God Almighty loves
me that much? That He never takes His hand
off of me for a second. He calls us by name. He knows
us. You remember when Nathanael came
to the Lord The Lord Jesus said, Behold, an Israelite in whom
is no guile. And Nathanael said, How do you
know me? Whence knowest thou me? And Jesus
answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, before
Philip ever came and said, Come see a man, come we found the
Christ. Before Philip ever said that
to you, and said, Come see, I already saw you. before that happened,
you see. When you were under the fig tree,
I saw you. He knows us by name. You remember when he came to
Zacchaeus in Luke chapter 19 and verse 2? It says that Zacchaeus
was the chief among the publicans and he was a rich man. He was a rich man and he sought
to see the Lord. Here's the language of Scripture,
he sought to see Jesus who he was. And could not for the press because
he was little of stature and he ran before and climbed up
into a sycamore tree to see. For he was to pass that way.
And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him and
said unto him, the first word he said to him was what? Zacchaeus. He calls us by name, my friends.
Zacchaeus sought to see Jesus who He was. Jesus already knew
who Zacchaeus was. And that's my testimony, my friends.
The Lord Jesus Christ sought me and found me. And because He did, I sought
Him. He called my name. And because
He did, I called on His name. We love Him because He first
loved us. 2 Timothy 2.19, the foundation
of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them
that are His. The seal of the foundation is
not my knowledge of Him, it is His knowledge of me. Verse 4, And when he putteth
forth his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow
him, for they know his voice. This is not coincidental language.
It bears out the language of Scripture for a reason. It says
he goes before them. He's the first begotten from
the dead. Well, wait a minute now. Abraham and Moses and all
them died before him. No, Christ is the firstborn from
the dead. Because His taking up His own
life and coming out of the grave is why we come out of the grave,
you see. We follow Him out of the grave
to glory and life everlasting. He's the firstborn. He goeth
before us. Listen to Hebrews 6.19, Which
hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast,
and which entereth into that within the veil. Wither, the
forerunner is for us entered. We're going within the veil. We're going where no man can
go in the Old Testament but the high priest. But now that our
spiritual true high priest has gone in, we're going in too.
He's the forerunner. He goeth before us because He
goeth into the presence and favor and blessing of His Father That's
where we're going, my friends. We're joint heirs with Him, you
see. He goeth before us. Isn't that beautiful? Beautiful. Verse 5, "...and a stranger they
will not follow." They'll flee from Him. They know not the voice
of strangers. How long do you have to listen
to somebody lie before you recognize it? I'm talking about lying about
God. Now, you can pull the wool over my eyes about a lot of stuff
because I don't know any different, any better. But God has a Word,
my friends. And it's not difficult to understand.
It's just not. It's simple. Didn't we just read
that this truth has been evidently set before you? It's not unclear. So how go you back? How do you
turn your back, O foolish Galatians, on Christ when He has been clearly
set forth as the sinner's only hope? When He has been clearly
and evidently set forth as the righteousness of the saints when
he's been clearly and evidently set forth by his precious blood
as the only sin offering that God will accept. How turn you
away? To whom shall we go? And somebody
can sit there and lie about him, and you know how long they can
do that before I say that's a lie? We know his voice, and we know
when the voice that we hear is not his. We know. That's what
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2.14. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. And there are some reasons for
that. But, verse 15, he that is spiritual judgeth all things,
discerneth all things. He does receive the things of
the Spirit of God and understands them, discerns them. Why? Because God gave us a new heart,
a new mind, a new nature, and we hear His voice and believe. The flesh does it and never will,
never has and never will. But the Spirit, the Spirit, He
that is spiritual discerneth all things. In 1 John 2.20, John
said it this way, you have an unction from the Holy One. You've
been blessed by the Holy Spirit of God with His presence and
anointing and ye know all things. And that's why. Because we have
His Spirit, His blessing and unction from the Holy One, and
you know all things. Well, wait a minute, Chris, there's
a lot of things I don't know. You know everything worth knowing
if you know Christ. Everything worth knowing. If
you forget everything else, or are wrong about everything else,
it doesn't make any difference. You know Him. You know who God
is. You know what you are before God. You know your need of Him.
And you know how God meets that need. By the precious blood of
His Son. You know everything there is
to know that's worth knowing. By God, because you have an unction
from the Lord, because Christ has made you alive, because the
Holy Spirit has quickened you and revealed Christ to you, you
know all things. And he said in the following
verse, you know all things. And then he said, I have not
written unto you because you know not the truth, but because
you know it. You know all that. You know the
truth of God. And you know that no lie is of
the truth. When somebody tells a lie about
God, or about sin, or about spiritual things, you say, that's not of
the truth. You know that, John said. And
we do. We do. And it doesn't take long
to figure it out. Now, it's not my business on
this earth or at all, to single out the sheep and to identify
them, and to say, okay, here's the sheep over here, and these
are the goats over here. But I know this about sheep,
because Christ said it. They follow Christ. They follow
Christ. They know Christ, they follow
Christ, and they will not follow anybody else. I know this about
sheep. They'll be wherever His voice
is heard, because they hear His voice, they know His voice, and
they follow Him. Now you may find some goats,
and they may reveal themselves to be goats among the sheep,
but you will not find the sheep among the goats. On the authority
of what I just read to you from the word, from the lips of Christ,
they will not follow another. They will not. Not the ones that
have heard his voice. Now you may find some sheep over
there with the goats that don't know their sheep yet. But once
they hear the voice of the Master, you're not going to find Him
in the goat pasture. You're going to find Him where
the shepherd is preached. Alright, verse 6, This parable
spake Jesus unto them, but they understood not what things they
were which He spake unto them. And this identified them as goats,
didn't it? Because he just said, my sheep
know my voice and they follow. And these did not. And that's
what he said, you believe not because you are not my sheep. You've just proven it. By not
understanding, by instead of hearing and loving and thanking
God for the voice of the shepherd and following the voice of the
shepherd, they said, this man's an imposter. They call them a
blasphemer. And they rebel. They did not
believe. And so they're goats. And when I talk about sheep and
goats, I'm not making that up. That's from the Word of God.
Matthew 25, verse 31. Listen to it with me and I'll
be through. When the Son of Man shall come in His glory. This
is that day that we talked about recently. That great day that
is coming. When the Lord alone shall be
exalted. And all the holy angels are coming with Him. Then shall
he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be
gathered all nations. And he shall separate them one
from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on
his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the king
say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my father. Inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. There's a difference
between a sheep and a goat, isn't there? Radical difference. Opposites. And who made the difference? Did He say, you're not My sheep
because you believe not? Is it as they say down the road
here, up to you? God's done all He can do and
now it's up to you. And if you believe not, oh, then you won't
be a sheep. That's not what he said. That's
not what he said. He said, you don't believe because
you're not my sheep. The natural man, the goat, cannot
receive. Didn't he say in our context,
in John here, why do you not understand my words? Even because
you cannot believe. And that's just the truth of
it. And notice here that this door
in verse 7, look at it, verse 7 and 8, 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.
It's an interesting and instructive name he gives to himself here.
It's not just a door, it's the door. I am the door. But there's
another distinction. I am the door of the sheep. The
sheep have their own door. There is no other door. There's
no goat door. There's one door, the door, and
it's a sheep door, he said. It's the door of the sheep. And
we enter in by Him. What a sure salvation is ours. Not only is the only door a sheep
door, But he's already said, the sheep won't go in any other
door. They're going in that door. They will not follow an imposter. I love this verse, Matthew 24
and verse 21. For then shall be great tribulation,
such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, nor
ever shall be. And except those days should
be shortened, there should no flesh be saved. But for the elect's
sake, those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto
you, Lo, here is Christ, or there is Christ, don't believe it.
Don't believe it. They're using his name down there.
That's not him. For there shall arise false Christs
and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders,
insomuch that if it were possible, they should deceive the very
elect. We cannot be deceived, my friends.
The sheep are just going in that one door. They won't follow anybody
else, and they won't enter another way. It's the sheep door, and
that's where we go by His grace. We won't be deceived because
He will not allow it. Verse 9, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. All
right, I want you to notice one thing about this, and I'm through.
There's a lot more, and we'll see next time on this verse,
but I want you to see one thing now. I've been talking about
the sheep and the goats. Now, maybe you're sitting there
thinking, well, I'm a goat for sure. There's no use me trying
to get in. I want you to notice a couple
of words here in this verse. By me, if any man enter in. If any man enter in. Are you a man? And that's not exclusive of women.
That's mankind. That's man or woman. That's mortal.
That's human being. Your business is not to figure
out whether you're a sheep or a goat. Your business is to go
in by Christ. If you do, you're a sheep. You
can mark it down. You're a sheep. You're a sheep. It's a sheep door that any man
can go in there. Any man. And if he does, it reveals
that he's a sheep. If you enter, you're a sheep.
Don't go saying, I'm not a sheep so I can't enter. Enter. Come
to Christ. And you're a sheep if you did.
You're a sheep. We'll call you, you know, Joe
the Sheep from now on, if you come to Christ. Because that's
what you are. Hebrews 7.25, Wherefore He is
able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God
by Him. Any man, here's the distinction,
here's the important thing. by me, if any man enter in. Don't try to come another way.
Don't try to come to God another way. Don't come as a goat, thinking
like a goat, with the mindset of a goat, with the heart of
a goat, and try to get in the sheep door. You're not coming
in. You know what repentance means? It means a change of mind. He doesn't turn goats into sheep,
but God makes sheep. Did you know that? How do you
become a sheep? God makes sheep. He created all
the beasts of the earth, and spiritually speaking, He does
the same thing. Isn't that right? The old question,
what came first, the chicken or the egg? I can answer that.
The chicken did. God didn't create any eggs. He
created the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, right?
That's answered in the Word of God. And I'll tell you how sheep
came about, spiritually speaking. He made them. He made them. Hath not the potter authority
over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor
and another unto dishonor? But if you're sitting there wondering,
I wonder if Christ would let me in, I'd find out if I were
you. You come and enter in by Him,
and we'll call you brother sheep from this day forward. Amen.
Any man, any man. Let's bow in prayer.